Sorry about last week...

I had the majority of it typed out last week but then ran out of time, I am sorry! The week before wasn't very active, other than our baptism of Gustavo, that was awesome! Now let me tell you about this week :)

First off, what a crazy week! Bountiful lost in drill and Coach Wall is not the football coach anymore. Two things that I did not see coming. Sorry Annie :( as Mom was saying, there is always next year! All of your 3 siblings and Mom have lost in State, so welcome to the club :) But we all ended up winning (except for Mom), so you don't need to worry too much. You still have 3 years! As for Coach Wall, that is a sad moment. I have to say that of men that I have learned a lot from, he is right up there at the top with Dad, Coach Maxwell and a few others. Coach Wall helped me to be a good football player, but he taught me to be a better man. I have applied countless numbers of his teachings in my mission, many of which have been EXTREMELY helpful and have changed my life. I will always be very grateful for him. He is a legend. And let's not forget Coach Boog as well! Boog has also taught me a lot, and will forever be a great friend. Love you Boog and Coach Wall!

So, on Tuesday we had Leadership Council. The mission didn't have a great month, so we were all a little concerned about what we were gonna get from President, but we all came out alive and without the shedding of blood ;) just kidding, it was all great! President helped us to get animated and to keep working, and he raised the Standards of Excellence.... now we have to do 8 lessons, 5 Converts and Less Actives, 26 Contacts all in one day, and bring at least 7 investigators to church each week. President is getting everything he can out of the mission for his short time remaining! That is really difficult, but with work it can be accomplished. He and the APs also talked about how we need to use the scriptures to answer doubts, and it is totally true. Al fin y al cabo the investigators need to pray and challenge the Lord to get their questions answered, but we need to help them see the basic doctrine and to realize that these things are possible. So we need to have a good knowledge of the scriptures. It is very important! It was good to see some friends and give our Zone Presentation. Elder Kleiner and I. President liked it! Then we had the super long 5 hour trip back to Juigalpa. We got home at around 8:30!

Leadership Council

Elders Hartley, Merrill, Copeland, Hanson and Heileson

Elders Hanson, Heileson and Merrill

Elder Kleiner and Elder Merrill

Wednesday and Thursday were normal work days, getting everything ready for Zone Meeting on Friday. Zone Meeting was super dope. Elder Kleiner and I worked hard to get the Zone animated. That has been one of our issues here, is animo. We have missionaries that work, but sometimes aren't really all that animated to do it. So our goal was to get them going and find some incentive. I think we did a pretty good job, but we will see what happens :) oh yeah remember Elder Shephard that was in the MTC with me? He was called as the Branch President for a little branch in my Zone! First Elder that Pres has called as BP in his time. No one expected that, because he isn't really that type, but he had been a Zone Leader for long enough (became ZL with me), so he's happy with it! We animated the Zone a little then got to work :)

Let me tell you a little bit about Pureza, Carmen and Yustina. They are some of the progressing investigators we have had for a little bit, and all 3 were on date for this last weekend. I didn't really teach Pureza, the other Elders did, but got to work a lot with Yustina and Carmen. They live with our lunch appt Hermana Fatima (more on this family in a bit). Carmen is Fatima's step-mom and Yustina is her step-sister. Dope investigators! We actually hardly taught Carmen because Fatima (a convert of almost a year now) convinced her into getting baptized and took her to church and everything! Yustina was golden from day one. She actually moved her fecha up from the 20th to the 6th. Every teaching was easy, because we always had Fatima and her 12 year-old son Newman right there helping us out! They were so ready for this weekend. Pureza was baptized on Saturday. She is the sweetest lady in the world. Fatima and her daughter Luceila went to the temple last week and got back Saturday night, so we did the baptism for Yustina and Carmen on Sunday morning. Everything went perfect. One of my best baptisms, and I didn't do anything :) power of the members! I love this family so much. I was so happy to see Fatima and Luceila go do baptisms in Honduras. They came back super happy. Makes me miss the temple but super excited for them. That is about it!

Carmen, Yustina, Fatima and Newman

Pureza

Carmen and Yustina

Who is Annie's seminary teacher? Yes I do use Gary's band, it helps! Dang I had other answers and questions but completely forgot. Maybe next week! Pictures to come!

Love,

Elder Merrill

Go Jazz!

My good friend, Christopher