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

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

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 

Manny Paquiao

Kamusta Everybody,

   This past week has gone by really fast!  We’ve been making progress with our investigators and it has been great. One of them, Lance, should be getting baptized on the 17th. Two others, Joy and Vilma, have really began to understand repentance so hopefully they should be getting baptized by the end of May. 

   Most of our branch missionaries were at youth conference this past week so we didn’t really have anybody to work with at first, but then we found out that one of the members, Brother Ronnie, wife and kids have been gone on vacation and he is all alone at home all day after work. He is  an RM so he has been coming with us to lessons all week. He is super funny. He speaks great English and always has a witty saying. He also told us about how his dad died;  when his dad was in his 70’s he got really bad cataracts and couldn't read and then when he turned 80 he got  surgery and could see  again! He went home and was super excited to read the Book of Mormon again but then when he started to read he got so excited and happy that he had a heart attack and died... 

  This week we also went tracting and saw two tricycles fly by because one man was working on the power cables on his roof and got electrocuted and fell of the roof and cracked his head on the road. Then at the same time another guy close by was in a knife fight and got stabbed to death…all sorts of crazy things are happening in our area. 

 We also saw Manny Paquiao at a store and invited him to come to church! He even came!!! It was great. PICTURE ATTACHED! 

 I Hope everyone is mabuti and has a good week

  Kita Kits

    Elder Merrill

(Just kidding about Manny Paquiao..it was Brother Alfred who looks exactly like Manny and of course he came to church because he is already a member ;) 

Hot Holy Week

April 20

Kamusta Everybody!

 This week has been a little different because of Holy Week.  We’ve had a tough time teaching people because they were all at the beach so we only found one member at home to work with us and we could only find one investigator at home. We helped the investigator cook and wrap sweet peanuts( like peanut brittle) for a few hours and then taught them a good lesson. We also haven't slept very well this week because behind our house and down the street there is a huge church that has a giant speaker system and it has been playing really, really loud bible readings 24 hours a day. I don’t even think anyone understands what they are saying… they kinda sing the bible in Tagalog but it just sounds like loud noise. 

 I also had a really funny conversation with Elder Abekoon this past week. He is from Shri Lanka and we were talking about life before our missions. I was telling him about the jobs I’ve had before and he told us that before his mission he would hijack cars! He told me all about how they would first change the dashboard and then give it a new paint job in another town. We all looked a little shocked and he laughed saying "just kidding"". Then kinda quietly he said "but its true.." We have been laughing about that conversation all week. 

 We also found one great investigator named Lance. He is 15 and is really ready for the gospel! After the first lesson he read all of 1st Nephi. He’s has been coming to church every week and always has really good questions about what he is reading.

 Other than that not much exciting is going one. I hope everyone had a good Easter.

 Mahal Kita

   Elder Merrill

P.S. Here is a picture of the beach…Enjoy :) 

April 14

Kamusta Everybody,

 This past week has gone really well. We’ve had a lot of meetings but we were still able to do some good work in our area. My email is a day late because we had zone interviews yesterday so our P-Day was switched. 

 On Tuesday we went on exchanges with Batangas 1. Both of the elders there are famous in their area because they are super tall 6'3 and 6'7.  I worked with Elder Richards who is 6'7 and we had quite the day. We talked to one guy who spoke good English and seemed interested but then he said "actually I am a little drunk at the moment so you better just come back tomorrow and teach me and then he said to Elder Richards.. “I think you are taller than Kobe". We both got a laugh and were impressed by how well he could speak English, even while drunk.

 We also had a zone training meeting Wednesday but it was so hot in the chapel that people were having trouble focusing. So yesterday instead we decided to hold it in a different chapel with AC. It is amazing the difference the temperature makes on peoples attitudes! Yesterday they were all much more awake and participated really well. We have been discussing and working on helping people get to church.  It was sad also that it was the last meeting that we will have as a zone with President Peterson. He goes home in June and we are all anticipating trying to adjust to a new mission president. 

 Other than that not much is happening! I hope everyone has a great Easter. Here is a link to an amazing video about Easter. 

http://easter.mormon.org/?cid=HPTU041514694

  Kita Kits

    Elder Merrill 

Big Blow Dryer

Kamusta Everybody!

 This past week has gone really well! We have been finding a lot of success in our area and have a few people who should be ready for baptism in the coming weeks. 

 Two of our investigators Joy and Vilma have been really progressing. They have been reading and coming to church often. We have really been pushing with them praying with real sincerity and seeking to know the Book of Mormon is true. The only problem is that they are just really shy. They come to church every week but are afraid to come inside because they don’t want to talk to all the people.  They usually wait by the door then sit down after the hymn starts so we have been trying to find them some friends in the ward.

 On Friday we had out MLC conference and it was great. We learned a lot about how to talk to people on the street. Usually people say "hi we are missionaries from the ....." what we should say is "hello we are representatives of Jesus Christ”.

 One funny thing that has happened this past week is that we live really close to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses and so tons of them came up to our door. I offered to trade them a Book of Mormon for their pamphlet but they just walked away and decided that trying to speak to the American Representative of Christ wasn’t something they wanted to do. Hopefully they stop by again this week and I’ll try again!

 Other than that nothing exciting is going on here. It is just still super hot. We sleep with a fan blowing on us but considering that its 90 in our room every-night it’s essentially like sleeping with a huge blow dryer on you. 

  I hope everyone is doing well and has a mabuti lingo

   Kita Kits

     Elder Merrill