Monday, May 26, 2014

Dump out the coffee!

Kamusta Everybody!

 This past week has been good! We have seen a lot of good things happen in our area. 
One of the highlights of the week was a lesson that we had with Brother Romolo. His kids are all active and his wife is also a member but she hasn't been to church for a while. In the past he didn't want to listen to the missionaries but about a month ago he drank way to much and had to go to the hospital for a few days. That experience changed him and we have been teaching him for the past few weeks. On Friday we taught him the Word of Wisdom. He was ready to give up coffee and said he never wants to drink again. His wife wasn't so sure about coffee but after talking about it and with a little motivation from her kids she committed to stop. It was fun because after the lesson we took all of the coffee she had in the house and dumped it outside! 

 We also gave service this week painting a school before the school year begins again in June. I was surprised to find out that all of the school expenses, like paint, chalk, or new desks have to provided by the teacher. The school doesn't cover any of it. We painted some of the chairs and got to talk to a lot of the teachers there who were surprised to see two Americans working for them. 

 Other than that not much has gone on this week. On Tuesday we are going to be able to listen to Elder Christiansen of the 70 who is coming to visit the mission. 

 Have a great week!
  Kita Kits
    Elder Merrill

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Lance


Kamusta Everybody,
 This past week has been great! Lance’s baptism went really well.
 On Wednesday we had a surprise zone meeting with President Peterson. It was a really good meeting and he talked about building our faith and teaching members the why of missionary work. We are really trying to plan better and use members more, we need to not only work harder but much smarter. 
 Lances baptism was the best one I have ever been to. In the morning we got the font cleaned. There actually ended up being a bird’s nest behind the mirror because the window had been left open. But after we got that cleaned out things looked nice.  Then we were able to have one of the members who owns a van go with us to pick up investigators and Lance and his family for the service. So many came! We had 20+ people in the van. Many of the members also came and the talks were really good. Lance’s older sister, who is the only other member in his family, also bore her testimony and it was really powerful. Her mom and other siblings afterward also committed to be baptized in June. 
 Other than that not much else has happened this past week!
 I hope everyone is doing well. 
 Ingat

  Elder Merrill



Monday, May 5, 2014

Dirty Job

Kamusta everybody!

  This past week has been great. We had a really good MLC meeting and our investigators have made some really great progress! 
  On Tuesday we gave service to one of the members who needed us to clean out their gutters on the side of their house. It was incredibly gross. All the garbage and other nasty things had been piling up in for months. We shoveled it all out and found a bag of cement and some dirt, that came from a construction site down the road, that had been blocking it all off. So after a few of the ladies in the neighborhood got mad at the person who owned the constructional site we got it all cleaned up… it even ended up to be a great missionary opportunity because we got to talk to a few of the other neighbors who were surprised to see two white guys doing such a dirty job for them. 
 On Friday we had a really good mission leadership meeting. We are really trying to focus the mission on teaching by the Spirit. President Peterson shared some great incite that I feel applies to all of us "We don't really have to make that many mistakes in life because we have the Holy Ghost".
 Lance, one of our investigators, has been doing really well. He should be getting baptized on the 17th. On Sunday he got up and bore his testimony. He was really nervous to do so but I could tell he wanted to. After a little encouragement he got up and just said what he knew to be true. Two of our other investigators, Joy and Vilma, expressed some of their concerns and so we had a great experience fasting with them yesterday.
 Other than that not much new is going on. 

 Have a great week!
   Elder Merrill