A semana

I'm tired. 

We did quite a bit this week, but it was quite a bit of the usual, ya know. Walkin. Teachin. Preachin.

It was SUPER hot for a few days. Like, when we arrived home we peeled off our white shirts and had to sit in front of the fan just to avoid dying. It was rough.

Saw some great sucesses with some investigators. For example, we are struggling to help some people get married, but this week we were able to start teaching one of the husbands that was super uninterested beforehand, so we'll see what happens! 

We did another division this week with Elder Chalampuento and Elder Zamudio, so it was nice to have extra help in our area hahaha...... It's always good to be with different missionaries, because you always learn something different from each one.

Even though there a bajillion problems to resolve that fall on your shoulders, it never ceases to amaze that when we put our trust in the Lord, He makes a lot more out of us than we could on our own.

I love you all!

Elder Merrill

​São Paulo é lindo

Irmã Maria José makes the best bread ever.... Oh my goodness. It's so good!

Thank you Carlos and Mom for all the goodies! [Actually it was Mom via Nat and Brad]

Correria!

Querida Familia-

Wow, wow wow this week was nutso busy. And I got sooooo many phone calls. The transfer was on Tuesday, so Monday we spent getting stuff ready in the office and on Tuesday we were in the office the whole day to give training to the new missionaries and trainers, verify that everyone got to their new areas, then had to plan our training for the Leadership counsel. On Wednesday, we had our first zone meeting of the transfer (which we held in the chapel that is upstairs from the office. On Thursday morning we came to the office again to finish our training with the Sister Leaders (Sister Doyle and Sister Rocha), on Friday we had Leadership Counsel. And every Sunday we have to come to the office to get the numbers. So that comes out to about 3 days we actually were able to work in our area. And every single day but Saturday we had to go to the office.

But it was amazing to see that the Lord really helps us and knows our circumstances. We were able to teach more wonderful people and had some powerful experiences. We have some awesome investigators, some of whom need to get married but I'm sure it'll all work out. 

I tried talking English a few times.... one day I said the phrase "speshical musical number...." It's better to stick to Portuguese for the time being.

Yesterday at church, there was a lady visiting who knew where Wenatchee is! She lived in Olympia for 2 years. First Brazilian that I've talked to here who's been to Wenatchee... it made me happy :) 

At the Counsel, President and Sister gave awesome trainings. In President's, he talked about how every new missionary in their first interview says that they came on the mission to help other people, and that missionaries with problems have simply lost sight of that focus... if we're struggling, we need to think about our focus. Are we really trying to serve others? To serve the Lord? In Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord first refers to Joseph Smith as "my servant," later as "my friend," and lastly as "my son." All of us are first servants, then we can become friends of the Lord. But only after trials and dedicated perseverance does he grant us the honor of being one of His children. I hope that one day I'll be able to deserve that title, and I know that we can use His Atonement to get there. So if we haven't yet, let's start on that journey today.

Estou feliz, cansado, mas muito animado!

Love you all!

Elder Merrill

They're so small!

They made a statue of me!

Elder Mount next to Elder Millaqueo hahahaha

A member who went to General Conference in Salt Lake brought me back Twizzler

Esta semana

Querida fam-

This week was busy again!

Elder Santana and Elder Barroso stayed various nights this week to do going-home stuffs like go to the temple and do interviews, and they slept in our house since our house is close to the office and they both passed here in Mooca. It was fun to have them visiting us before leaving today. I'll miss 'em.

Elder Hirst went home too... The office just won't be the same without him here. :(

On Friday we were able to see Gustavo baptized by his dad! We wanted everyone in the family to be there, so the service didn't start until 9:15pm, but it was good. And don't worry, President came so we weren't being fubecas. :)

General Conference was stellar! I love the chance we have to hear from God's living prophet. I know this really is Christ's church. I hope you all were supremely uplifted by the talks and music like I was.

I love you all!

Elder Merrill

We found Ben and Jerry's! During the break between sessions of conference, we went to the store. It was kinda expensive, but Elder Hughes and I split the cost. Totes worth it.

And this is Elder Wengreen, Elder Hughes' son.

Mission accomplished

Our going away party for Elder Hirst

We made District shirts! (yes, our district is huge)

Seven is the number of perfection

​Elder Santana and Elder Barroso

Elder Millaqueo was callling the zone leaders while it was super sunny... so he took my sunglasses and se tornou swaggy

​Oh, Elder Hirst. I'll miss him so.

Gustavo was baptized by his dad, Marcelo!

Nobody takes fotos like missionaries when they get together in large groups

Meu filho!

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.

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!

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!

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.