Elder Merrill's Mission: Milagres acontecem

Hey fam!

So this week was awesome! We were able to get lots done and I am absolutely pooped.

On Tuesday we spent the whole morning and afternoon planning our training and making the PowerPoint for the council with the Sister Leaders, which was super tiring but a great experience. I hate and love preppin for the councils because it is a ton of work but I end up learning a bunch more than those who receive the training. We talked about leadship as being a stewardship and the importance of ministering to other missionaries by elevating, inspiring and blessing them. I felt many things I need to be better at in my personal ministry. Every time the Lord gives us a calling, it's a chance to influence others for good, and we will surely be held accountable for how we handle the trust he gives us by how we bless those entrusted to our care.

Thursday was the day of service for everyone in the world (December 1st) and we had a great painting service project lined up, but on Wednesday the member called and said he'd already painted and that we didn't need to go anymore. -_- Good thing we had another project for Saturday morning which didn't fall through. Still counts, right?

Friday was the council and it was super good. It was amazing how our training went perfectly with Sister Silcox and President's, since he didn't give us a topic to talk about. We just prayed and went with what we felt was important for them to hear. I felt the spirit super strongly and was quite uplifted. But when we got home we collapsed and went to bed early. Drained.

On Saturday, our awesome bishop went to the cartório and was able to move the wedding date up for Cleide and Sérgio, so now bishop will perform the wedding on December 24, and Elder Vasconcelos is now able to be there! Woo!

This morning (yeah, p-day) we woke up early and went with Gustavo and Iris to the Bolivian consulate to get the documents they need to be married. I was going to escort them to make sure they didn't miss any important details, but right when we were entering behind the front desk the secretary dude yelled at me in spanish that it was "bolivians only!" Sorry. My bad. Chill bro. First time in my life in a Bolivian building, and got kicked out because I'm white. Anyways, they are so sweet and have such a strong desire to live the gospel, it was touching to see their gratitude for us helping start the process with them, and I was grateful everything went smoothly. Next week another document will be ready and then they'll have to go to the Federal Police to get another and then we'll be able to schedule their wedding at the cartorio and then it'll all be set... good thing our bishop is quite on top of things and knows people, so we'll see if we can resolve all of this within the month. I have faith it'll all work out.

I love you all!

Elder Merrill