See mormon.org/missionary-work to learn more about LDS missions.

Monday, September 26, 2016

A Semana


Well this week was pretty swell and pretty busy, the usual.

A 65 year old lady we're teaching kissed Elder Millaqueo one day hahahaha (kissing on the cheek is a normal way to greet here in Brazil, but not for us missionaries...) It was hilarious to see his terrified face and the sweet old lady pull him in and plant one on his cheek. Priceless. 

Last week we found an investigator knocking doors who is super awesome and prepared and she came to church last week and loved it. And she knows like, everybody. We've already taught more than 5 of her friends, and most of them are interested in learning more about the gospel! They were all gonna come to church yesterday, but unfortunately all of their children got sick on Saturday so nobody made it:( But we'll visit them this week!

We did another division, this week with Elder de Jesus and Elder Dantas. It was awesome. One of the best parts is that we get 2 times the work done! 

Being a missionary is the best. I love you all!

Elder Merrill

Igreja da Sé
With Elder Dantas and Elder de Jesus. Because little houses always make for good pictures.
I started teaching an English class! There were only 3 people this week, but it was fun. 
I taught them how to pray!

While I was waiting for the Zone Leaders to call me, I found out that on lds.org I can get maps of every mission in the world.. this is ours. The majority of the people live in a super tiny area.

Monday, September 19, 2016

A Vida

Querida Fam-

Wow, what a week! 

So when I get really tired, I talk in my sleep. Elder Millaqueo said that 3 nights last week, he woke up to me talking to him..... one time I even got up and drank his water in the fridge then laid back down like nothing had happened.... heh heh...

Our District Leader, Elder Botelho, is so awesome. He gave a training last week at our district meeting about being a consecrated missionary and that we need to leave on our personal altar of sacrifice all disobediences, fears, pride, negativity, sarcasm, and expend all of our energies to consecrate ourselves to the work. It was awesome and slapped me in the face that I really need to be soooooo much better than I am. It was good. We also did a division with him, and it was full of great learning opportunities.

We did a division with Elder Gardner and Elder Oliveira, which was a LOT better than the division we did 2 weeks earlier with Zona Guaratinguetá... previously we spent a ton of time just walking from one appointment falling through to the other. This time, we actually had some people to teach, and it was pretty productive, and not embarrasing (since they're supposed to use our area as a model for theirs)

We started training our "missionary family," which is a family that we'll teach how to be awesome member missionaries. Basically we'll give trainings similar to those we give to other missionaries, with PMG, practices, etc. It'll be great


On Saturday night I found out that Larissa (from Cohab Juscelino) is going to get married! She’s been dating a returned-missionary that she met at Institute, and they’ve marked a date in April of next year to be sealed in the temple! It took me an extra hour to fall asleep because I got so happy for her. It’s so amazing to see what the gospel has done for her. I thank Heavenly Father often that He gives me so many opportunities to witness His miracles. This work is amazing, and I can’t imagine not being a missionary to be a tiny part of it.

I love you all!

Elder Merrill


Mustache Monday.... with President
Thinking about what we want to do for fun.....
...aaaaand we're Mariachi
Division with Elder Botelho and Elder Cunha
Elder Millaqueo got really happy to finally have a BYU shirt
Division with Elder Gardner and Elder Oliveira!

Monday, September 12, 2016

Aqui na Mooca

Fam-

Another busy week!

The first few days were full of appointments falling through and nobody wanting to listen to us, but from Thursday on we saw some really cool miracles. Like a less active that stopped us on the street a few weeks ago that let us start teaching her daughter... the daughter didn't come to church yesterday, but the less active did!

On Wednesday we did an activity with all the missionaries in the zone and youth in the stake. We went to the monument marking the place where Brazil declared independence (it was also Brazil's independence day) to talk with people about family history and hand out FamilySearch pamphlets... it was really cool to see people open up when they talked about their families and to see the youth have experiences with sharing gospel principles.

On Saturday night there was a going-away party for a Sister who's leaving to serve her mission in Argentina. I thought about how it was right before I left on the mission, and realized how much I've learned and changed. I still am full of weaknesses, but a year and 2 months serving the Lord full-time has given me so many chances to be better and so many experiences I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. I know that the gospel is true and that it works. I've seen it change lives, and it's constantly changing mine. I hope that you all feel the same way. If not, ask the missionaries to share what they have, and they can help you feel what I feel. You'll never regret it.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Elder's Quorum activity on Saturday.... churrasco. Aw yeah.
So the secretaries have a new hobby.... crocheting hats!

Monday, September 5, 2016

Dead tired

 Wow, this week was super tiring!

We worked as much as we could in our area, but lots of things fell through, so we ended up walking and walking and walking and it seems a little difficult to get solid traction. But we did see progress. God blesses us with productivity in the little time we had. For example, on Friday we had leadership counsel and didn't leave the office until 6pm and were dead tired, but in the 2 remaining hours we had to work when we got to our area we had some of the best lessons we've taught to a less-active and to a group of recent-converts we're teaching the new-member lessons to, and there was a friend of a member that came too so refererral contacted and new investigator all in one short night.

Our ward is doing a "family home evening" for everyone every Wednesday night with the message in the form of a debate. We talked about Fasting in the last one and next week will be another principle... it was reallly good to help people understand better the doctrine.... it's funny how everyone always assumes the missionaries know everything, but we don't lol.

We did a division with Elder Beatty and Elder Moraes (a different one, not my former companion) from zona Guaratingetá and it was fun, however they did a lot of walking with us in our area too.... it was a little embarassing because we're suposed to have a "model area" from which to train them, but we did lots of contacts and I hope helped them at least a lil....

The leadership council was awesome. We gave training on long term planning and working with the members, which took a ton of time out of our week to plan with Sister Doyle and Rechetnicou, but it all turned out well. Then President explained a lot about how we are literally representatives of Jesus Christ, and how we can authoritatively invite people... it was super powerful. President is so cool.

I love being a missionary!

I love you all!

O distrito!

Elders Kebker and Hirst (the executive secretaries) eatin cookie dough the thug way.... with a knife.

The temple with Tati, a recent convert of Elder Millaqueo and Elder Barroso, but we got to go do baptisms with her! Super awesome.


Yay for temple pics!

We got to got back to Penha for a fireside with Presidente and Sister Silcox! It was super fun to see everyone again, even though it's only been 2 weeks.