Rollercoaster...

The mission is a rollercoaster... (= Just when you think you are handling everything just fine, God hands you another challenge.  This week was a lot better than last week for my companion, she seemed a lot better, a little happier although she still cries a lot, It´s just not  at crisis level. 

We´re teaching an Hermano whose name is Fransisco. He`s the dad of our bishop and he is so funny. He has problems drinking. But he wants to change his life and get baptized. He is hopefully going to get baptized at the end of this week. He almost went this whole past week without drinking! Before he drank every day. I wish you guys could meet him. He`s like a grandpa. And is so ready to change.

Love you guys so much!!

Hermana Merrill

PS  Please don`t worry about our safety. It's safe here, and we always have the protection from God.

Chinandega Craziness

Well this week was quite a week. My companions name is Hermana Wilkins. She's from Texas, she's really awesome, speaks Spanish so well, teaches from her heart and is really funny. She's also having a really hard time adjusting.

 First of all, it wasn't the best warm welcome because  we are re-opening up the area and I had no idea where we were going. There were elders there before so they couldn't show us around the area since we're not allowed to be in 2 and 2. So it was up to us to find all the recent converts, investigators and members. The other craziness that happened this week is that initially our area was La Florida 2, but when we got there and met our bishop he was really upset that they put us in that area because he thought it was more dangerous and there were less members. So he called our mission president and got permission for us to change areas. So we packed our bags and changed houses. Then some member took us around to get to know about 20 member's houses (ask me if I know their names and directions (= .... ) Hi this is... Hi this is... Hi this is... That was our first crazy day. 

Then the second day I had to go to a leaders meeting in Leon and we were supposed to leave our companions in our area, So, I left her with a member and I left for Leon. Turns out that while we were gone our bathroom flooded 2X and my comp just started crying, poor girl. She's cried almost everyday since she's got here. The next day we did divisions. That was actually a better day for her because she went to a different area with an awesome girl in our zone that actually knew her area and had cool investigators. She's also terrified of our area because all of the people we meet tell us that we shouldn't be here that it's dangerous. In general the people here in Nicaragua say that because they are a very cautious people, but I feel like even more here. We've started having members visit with us everywhere especially at night time so she feels safer, because she has panic attacks. She also misses her family soo much.

I just wish I could help her feel better. She really could bless the people here in Nicaragua so much, she has so much natural talent for this work.

It was kind of a stressful week but we also definitely saw lots of miracles. We were able to bring some really cool people to church including this guy whose name in Fransisco. He seemed really really stubborn at first, he's the husband of a member. All of the family had given up on him as far as him converting. But he went to church and accepted to be baptized!! miracles!!! 

Love you all!!

(Weird... today we saw the family of an Elder that's finishing the mission, they came and picked him up from his mission... It felt so weird to see him with his parents) It was cool though!

Hermana Merrill

Final Transfer...Chinandega here I come

This week we saw so many miracles!

First we had 4 baptisms!!! 

Oralis- She's so awesome and was so excited to get baptized! She got married Saturday night, and baptized Sunday after church along with the rest. Although, she did give us a scare that she wasn't going to show up because of an emergency that happened in the Morning.

Maria Louisa-  She's the sweetest little girl ever and was so excited to get baptized. This week her dad went to church as well and loved it! 

Yader and Jose!!!

Jose is our champion. From the beginning he said that he wanted to get baptized and that he wasn't going to go to the catholic church. But every time that we came Yader would say yes and then no. Depending on his mood. He's a clown. (= But in the end he decided to get baptized too!

AAANNNNDDDD........................

I have transfers... )=

I have absolutely loved my time with Hermana Morales. And I've absolutely loved LEON!

This is my last transfer. I'll be serving in Chinandega (a place of miracles, but even hotter than Leon). and I'll be training a newbie as well as continuing as a Sister Training leader for the girls in Chinandega. I'm a little nervous. I know that God will help me, but I haven't trained for so long and have been so long with sisters that have been such a strength for me that this will be an interesting adventure. From the name of the girl, I think she's from the states as well. CRAZY!!!

Love you all so much!

Hermana Merrill

Life's good. Miracles exist.

This week we saw a lot of miracles!

We found some really cool families 3 of which accepted to be baptized!

Oralis- Her husband is a member that hasn't gone to church for a long time, but he said that he wanted to start going again. The first time when we taught Oralis she said she wanted to go to chuch, but absolutely not to get baptized. The second time we went with a member that shared her testimony with her and she accepted a baptismal date! (not sure if it was the member power, but either way it was cool) And the third time we visited her she said she had prayed to know if the church was true and she said she knew it was. That was a miracle and a half. We were outside of her house with her husband. It was really dark outside their house, but we were with a member. He said that she wasn't there, so we started giving a lesson to him. After about 10 minutes she came out of the house. She had been sleeping but said she had heard a voice that told her to get up and go outside her house. She obeyed and we were out there. That is when she told us of how she had recieved her answer. It was actully really funny.

She said, " I want to be honest with you guys, I'm going to stay in my church" (we all just stayed really silent... my comp and I thinking, what church? I didn't know she ever went to a different church) We didn't know what to say, so I asked her. "Are you still going to go to church with us this Sunday" (because she had said before that she would) and she said, "Didn't I tell you that I was going to go before? Yea I'm going to go to my church" and then Hermana Morales, "Did you pray and ask God like we invited you to do" (we were still a little unsure if she was talking about our church or a different one) "Yes, how did you think I found out that this Church is true?" She was already saying that this was HER church. (= The sad part about this story is that Saturday was a holiday in Nicaragua. Free buses to Managua to be at the event. She went, and so was sleeping Sunday morning. (as well as a lot of our investigators... Obstacles)

We're still teaching Yader and Jose, it's still quite crazy, but when the mom and the grandma are with us, it's usually a bit better (=

We're teaching a family of Maria's and their husbands. Maria and her daughter Maria went to Church this week and are excited to get baptized!

We had President interviews this week. It was really good. I love President Collado.

(Sad story of the week: remember how we got pedicures last week? Well the lady who did the foot of my comp pulled out a lot of skin from the sides of her big toenails. One of her toes got infected, and so she was in a lot of pain walking around... She wore sandals around all week and our walking pace was quite slow.)

Life's good. Miracles exist.

Lots of Love

Circus, Chinandega and Dust Storms

WOW There's another español(a) in the fam!!! cool!  (For those that don't know...Erika received her mission call this week and will be going to Malaga Spain)

Well I'm good. This week we found some really cool families to teach and right now we're teaching a family of less actives and their kids who aren't members. And, they went to church this week! The lessons are soooo crazy. Rebeka is the mom of Angie. She's a singer, really funny, and basically lets the kids do what they want. So when we teach it's like a circus. It doesn't help that across the street there's a real circus so the music is always playing. (= They've seen the circus and one of the kids, Yader, knows just how to act like a clown. Jose is the calmest, most well behaved child. He got the genes of his mom Iraida who keeps the house from catching fire. They are very smart and learn, but I always leave that house very tired. (=

This week I got to go to Chinandega. We're now doing divisions with some of the girls from Chinandega. Now I've been to every zone except Puerto Cabezas. Cool! (BTW, there is now an Hermana Norte in Puerto Cabezas-Hermana Pochop who came with me, she was so excited!)

This week there were dust storms all week long due to the wind and lack of rain and the farmers preparing the fields for the peanut harvesting. It was incredible. The skies were brown with dust and I couldn't keep my fingernails clean. And my feet, normally dirty from the dirt, were just plain filthy this week. 

So this is what we did for pday...Nicaraguan style pedicure (see Picture)

102 FAMILIES!

I thought I'd share some Miracles of the week.

Last week as a mission we baptized (in the month of June) 102 FAMILIES!!!

Our mission president and his wife even did there contribution as a family. (= I love them so much. Even with all that they do for us, and all their meetings they go to with missionaries and stake/branch Presidents, and take care of their young family, they took time to find, teach and baptize a family! 

Remember Roberto? We were teaching him with Hermana Tarax. He got sick and so was in Managua for a week, but told us he was going to come back for his baptism on the 28th but then we thought he left for good. I passed by his house this week just out of plain curiosity and he was there and ready to get baptized! This Saturday he got baptized. His eyes are injured and so he has a hard time reading, but even so he's read from 3rd Nephi 11-22. That's huge, especially for the people here who aren't accustomed to reading, but he loves it! I'll send you the pictures next week. (He always wears glasses because of his injured eyes)

Another Miracle: We have a recent convert whom I have never seen go to church and always looks so sad when we visit her. Sometimes we find her drinking when we stop by. But these last 2 Sundays she has gone to church! 

I'm good. Love you all lots!

Hermana Merrill

Terrific Week

So guess what?! My new companion is HERMANA MORALES!!!

We're comps AGAIN! I'm so excited. I loved bing her companion and I am so excited to be her comp again.

 

Hermana Tarax will be home this Thursday. She was so nervous lo leave. (=  Not sure exactly why, but according to the nurse nearly all the missionaries get nervous before they go home. Also she's a worrier. She hasn't had communication with her parents for her whole mission either and wasn't sure what she wanted to do when she got back.

 

Right now we're teaching a cool girl named Celeste, she's gone to church twice, but has only been able to stay for the first hour. We're also teaching her mom Vilma, but she hasn't gone to church yet. We have some lessons with members scheduled this week with her so that I hope that will help encourage her to come.

 

This week was really,  Terrific.

 

3 people I'll introduce to you:

 

Henry- when I was doing divisions this week with an Hermana, we contacted him and he accpted a baptismal date in the contact. He understands so well the doctrine we teach and is reading the book of Mormon and went to church this week. He will be baptized the 12 of July. He is 24ish.

Mileidi- She part of a familiy and is our Sunday miracle. Her and her husband were commited to going to church, but we hadn't found them in their house on Friday or Saturday, so we weren't very hopeful about them going to church. When we passed by their house on Sundayshe was sitting in her front room and she wasn't sure about the church thing, but she went with us! Hopefully the whole family can go with us this week. She is a really good person!

Alex- Alex just has style. (= He teaches music lessons in this tiny little room (where he sleeps as well), and has dredlocks but is the kindest guy ever. He accepted to be baptized and is reading the book of Mormon. He was going to go to church this week, but I'm not sure exactly what happened.

Other cool event that happened this week- we are teaching a family whose names are Donald and Migdalia. Donald is our little incredulous one, but is reading the Book of Mormon. We've been teaching them for a while but they haven't been able to come to church yet. This week we were hoping was going to be the week. We had invited them to a baptism on Saturday at 6 and they had said they would come. BUT... later in the week the baptism got moved to a different day. We had forgotten we had invited them to go to the baptism, so when we showed up to teach them at 6 on Saturday, they had gotten all ready to go to the baptism. We weren't sure exactly what to do, so we invited them to tour the church building. We had also invited our Stake President to teach them with us, and at that point they were in the church waiting for us to go with them to the appointment. In the end the Stake President showed them around the church building and then led them to his office and we had a really spiritual lesson where we talked about families that can be forever and they accepted a baptismal date, BUT in August because Donald is leaving for his work for 15 days... It was a lot of events that were crazy and unplanned, but in the end a miracle took place. Also, really cool Stake President who takes the time even though he works in Managua to teach a family of ours.

Love the mission, and you guys, and the Nicaraguenses and the Lord. A lot. (=

Hermana Merrill

Obediencia es el Precio

Fe es el Poder

El Espíritu es la Clave

Amor es el Motivo

Trabajo es el Secreto

Cristo es la Razón

Life is good

God blessed us a lot this week as far as finding cool new families goes. We're hoping that they can progress more this week. 

Next week is transfers and my companion goes home. I want to train my last 2 changes. I feel like that would be awesome. We'll see though what happens. About 1/2 of the mission goes home in the next 3 changes. So there will be a lot of new people and President says that a lot of the leaders will be training while the rest will stay.

 

Life's good here, I am now very use to the heat.  I think I'm going to die of the cold in Utah.

No te precupes. Ten FE. 

Hermana Merrill

Reflecting

June 9th letter:

This week I was going through a few letters from the beginning of my mission and reflecting on how well God know us. I know he cares about us and loves us and puts us with the right people and in the right places to help us grow exactly how he wants us to grow. I know he put me here in Nicaragua for such a specific purpose. I hope that I can and have been an instrument in His hands to help his children here in Nicaragua. But if I haven't done that, I know for sure he has made me who He needs me to be. I know I have been touched by Nicaragua, by my mission President and the responsibilities he has given me, by the missionaries here, by the people I have met. I hope I can find those He needs me to help and that I can have the love and faith to help them.

I love you all and I know this is is the true church of God. I am saddened by those who chose to go away from it and those who choose not to listen. But God didn't send us here on earth to be condemned but to progress. Jesus Christ died for our sins and imperfections. That means we can move on and progress after we sin. I love this gospel. Living the gospel is a commitment for our whole lives. Find a friend. Teach them the joy in living the gospel. 

Love you all lots!

Hermana Merrill

Wedding Week

Monday June 2nd letter

I got to do divisiones with Hermana Rayond this week I know God put us in this mission together for a reason. She is such a true friend. And always motivates me to be better. Blessing from God!

I was jealous of Nate and Allie's wedding so we had a little wedding of our own... (= Mercedes and Isidro! They got married and he got baptized this week! They are so special! Lots of Mercedes' family came to the wedding and now we're teaching them as well. Pictures coming. Miracles happen in LEON! WE went to Leon this morning to renew the ID (cedula) of my companion so that she can leave the country, and now we're back in Leon and headed to Managua again tommorrow! (there's another leader's council) Lots of traveling (= 

It's supposed to be raining a lot right now, but it's not, just one time this week.

Love you all lots!

Hermana Merrill

May's Happenings

This week there were definitely miracles in Leon. We have been working with a sister named Ana and she got baptized this week!  

Ana- She is a single mom. Her little girl is 3 years old and this past week Ana lost her job because she had to take care of her sister's baby all week long and her boss doesn't let kids be at work. (she just left him with her). She didn't have money to even feed her girl. She was, earlier in her life, an alcoholic and just hung out on the street. But one day she made a promise with God that she wouldn't drink again and would start taking care of her girl. She started looking for a job, and mercifully she found one. Then we found her and God has really helped her life. She started going to church and then got baptized. We promised her that if she obeyed the commandments and trusted in God, followed-through with her baptism and always went to church, God would never let her girl go hungry. Right after her baptism the second counselor gave her work making tortillas, and another lady in the ward gave her clothes for her girl. We didn't even ask. The relief society president had visited her with us the week before and knew her circumstance, but didn't know that we had promised her that as missionaries. God is a very loving God, who works miracles when we show faith.

Rudy FINALLY got confirmed. (thanks to the support of the ward! I love our ward)

Two families came to church! One of them, Myra and Jaime are going to get baptized this following week (if we can somehow get the mom to come to Leon or Managua for the marriage- because Myra is 17 and her mom needs to sign because she's underage). So pray for a miracle! The mom lives quite far away!

I love you all! 

Hermana Merrill

Well this week was just crazy. We went to Managua and then for the next 4 days we did divisions. Two divisions 2 days in a row and then the Hermana Assistants came and did surprise divisions with us from Saturday until Sunday night. Crazy. (=

The mom of Maria couldn't come this week so Maria and Jaime couldn't get married and baptized, but she says she's coming this Thursday so cool!

This might be a short letter. Sorry, I really don't know what happened this week. I blinked and it was gone!

We went and took pictures on top of the cathedral today!  Hermana Raymond gave me the red glasses and Hermana Tarax the Headband (=
Thanks for all your birthday wishes!

Hermana Merrill

It was really good to see you all this week, I love you all lots! 

This week we had an event in all of Nicaragua put on be the stakes called la semana de las familias, or The family week. BUT... we found out about it on Thursday of this week. I knew that every stake in Nicaragua was going to do it, and I had been asking our bishop what we were going to do for it for 3ish weeks back, but he told me that the stake hadn't told him anything about it. So I thought we weren't going to do anything for it. The activities were supposed to start on Monday, but on Thursday they called an emergency meeting to plan for the rest of the week. (= 

So, we frantically started to help spread the word on Friday. The catch is that on Saturday we had a dinner planned with Hermana Isidro and Mercedes to help pay for their marriage the next week. Basically all the members had already bought tickets to the dinner. We decided just to move the time from 6 to 5, letting people eat and then go to the devotional at 7. Better attendance at the devotional. BUT the dinner didn't finish at 7 as everyone was still eating.  So for the dinner that I planned, the devotional got postponed... (= hahaha I hope the stake President and I are still friends.

Mercedes and Isidro are so cool. They're in love and so excited to get married, and him to get baptized. He reads the Book of Mormon between every visit AND goes every week to church!

Anyways besides that Miracles do happen every week and I love you family

Hermana Merrill

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Easter Message

I love the atonement of Christ. God expects us to be perfect, but we aren't. But Christ's example gives us hope that we can be, and His sacrifice is the reason that we can repent to one day become perfect. 

There is so much work in God's kingdom and he needs so many hands. We are Chirst's hands, he needs us to help His children who aren't in His fold yet.

Thank you so much for the package! I love it! you guys are so thoughtful!

Here in Leon it has been Semana Santa. aka the hottest week of the year. Everyone left for the beach or had one of those little plastic kid pools out in front of their house. In the center of town they make carpets of colored sand that fill up the whole street and then have processions with Statues of Christ and I don't know what else because that's not my area, but pretty crazy stuff!

Remember that Rudy that got baptized a few weeks ago? Well, he didn't come to church AGAIN, so he couldn't get confirmed. AGAIN. He had problems with his wife on Sunday morning and he didn't show up. 

This morning I learned about the power of prayer. We had had kind of a rough past 2 weeks because we haven't had a lot of success with bringing people to church. Lots of people have accepted to be baptized, but they can't be baptized if they don't go to church. (= I listened to a talk by Elder Bednar in the morning about some principles of prayer and and later talked to God. More than anything else prayer helps us gain a more excellent vision. Helps us see the good things, the hand of the Lord , the ways He has worked in our lives and the assurance that He still will. It also helps us repent, change, and be humble.

I love you guys so much! God works miracles in our lives! The process of Converting to Christ is a fight of every day. God loves you and I do too!

Hermana Merrill

Earthquake in Nicaragua

(There was a 7.1 earthquake in Nicaragua last week.  It was centered near the city Nagarote about 20 miles from where Heather is.  She had done transfers in that city the week prior so she refers to that)

Terremoto (big earthquake)-- Where I am located there hasn't been any damage from the earthquakes that I have seen but it sure has been crazy to feel. It's quite interesting, the earth literally is moving.  It's like sitting in theater seats that move in crazy directions. Nagarote is where Hermana Alan and Hermana Cole are right now. (Remember about the miracle divisions I spoke about down there last week)  That's where there was the most damage, lots of houses there fell. None of the missionaries were hurt, I know that God protects us. 

Mom's questions:

Are you drinking enough water???  I drink so much water. the change from Mataglapa to here has been big. In Matagalpa I drank so much less then I do here 

Are you getting sunburned? Sunburnt in Nicaragua is something that one just can't avoid, but I do use sunscreen.

Does someone cook your main meal of the day, like in your other areas? yes

Lots of heat and success plus a 4 foot companion

Well, I'm back to the heat. I never can drink enough water. And this week was awesome. God is so great that if you believe in Him and never give up hope He always gives you miracles.

My companion has a really high voice and is 4 foot even and the cutest missionary ever (=. We saw lots of miracles this week. Her name's Hermana Tarax.

This week I did divisions with Hermana Alan, She's a really awesome missionary from Costa Rica that has been out on her mission only about 3 months but is super pilas. She has so much faith. The day we were together in her area we found three really awesome new families that all said they would go to church and we put baptismal dates with 2 of them and baptismal dates with another family on top of that, one that they were already teaching. Miracles happen when you believe and put your trust in God.

In our area, we also saw a lot of miracles. Three families came and watched conference and a cool family to complete (the husband of a member) got baptized. His name is Rudy. ( I can't really take credit for that one as I came this week, but baptisms are always good.) The other cool thing is that this family is a family of less-actives (mother in law, wife, and sisters in laws of Rudy). They went to conference because right after was the baptism of Rudy. They came back just so excited about the church, and "did you hear this that such a speaker said" and " I love this that another speaker said" and ... It was cool. The 9 year old son of Rudy wants to get baptized now as well and Rudy wants to perform the ordinance in 2 weeks after he receives the Priesthood. Funny: Rudy had to get baptized 5 times. (because first his legs and then his head and then... didn't go all the way into the water)

One of the families that came to church stayed for 2 sessions and then for the baptism as well. We're hoping the family that watched Rudy's baptism didn't get scared because he got baptized so many times (especially because she's pregnant).

Did I already tell you it's hot here? (= My house is really big. My other one was a really small room. This one has 3 rooms!

Hermana Merrill

Spiritual Week and transferred to Leon

Mario got baptized this week! It was a really spiritual experience and he's so excited about this change in his life. His wife, Hermana Adriana, is our Amulek, such a great missionary.  Also the mom of a recent convert came to church this week and after she saw the baptism she said, "I want to be baptized, but maybe not today, but I would be ready as soon as next week." We tried to contain our sadness (=

Also the daughter of another less-active, the sister of Adriana, (aka the niece of Adriana) is going to get baptized next week.

BUT... I'm not going to be there. I´ll be in LEON. The hottest place in Nicaragua for the hottest time of the year. I'll be a Sister Training Leader with Hermana Tarax.

I'm really going to miss Matagalpa, the branch especially is super awesome here. All the members are so ready to help with anything.  The area I've served in here in Matagalpa is called Sor Maria, it's soo poor.  The people carry water to their houses in buckets (if they have money to buy it). But the faith of some of the people is incredible. When one of the recent converts doesn't have money for the bus (16 cents) he walks to church 30-60 minutes. It has  definitely been different than my other areas.  Also I really don't want to leave Hna Adraina.

Heather and her Companion Sister Morales

Heather's current and future companion
Sister Morales and Torax

But, Iré donde El Señor me mande. Allí me voy. (=

(I will go where the Lord sends me)

This week I had a really cool experience while we were on divisions. When I came to their area I realized they needed a lot of help. They really needed to find new investigators. So I proposed we fast for the day, so that we could have the help of the Lord in our efforts. Then we went to work and talked to everybody, absolutely everybody. At the end of the day we found and started teaching 2 new families and 10 people in total.  One of which was committed to go to church and the other that the wife had had a dream of the first vision a few days before. Our faith was built. God does do miracles, but we need to remember it is from Him that we receive them. When we put our trust in Him and then work to show Him our faith and dedication to His work, He gives us miracles. He will always work miracles because His people in Nicaragua (and in every part of the world) need them. He loves them. If we aren't seeing miracles it isn't because God isn't a God of Miracles, it is because we haven't exercised enough faith to receive them. 

Hermana Merrill

LOVE you all so much!

Is this just so Heather, or what?

Getting ready to zipline

Ziplining in Nicargua!

Heather, Sister Morales and Sosa

Baptisms

Here in Nicaragua, we often baptize on Sunday so that we can have the support of the members. We baptize right after the 3 hour block so that they just need to stay for a few more minutes and in that way the members also get to know the recent convert. But sometimes it is a little crazy because they have to wait another whole week to get confirmed. So Alan, the youth that got baptized last week came to church to be confirmed but, he didn't want to get confirmed in front of everyone  so we told him he could get confirmed in Priesthood class. But he didn't stay until priesthood class... So next week. He really is pilas and has changed a lot, just is a little penoso. 

Next week we are going to baptize a cool man named Mario. He is the husband of a less active member. She is so pilas now and her husband is so excited about his baptism. She teaches him so much between our visits. How to be "mormon". Whenever we come back she's always telling us funny stories about how he tells her that she can't be frustrated or upset because she has to be a good example to him of a mormon. He has stopped smoking and stopped drinking cafe. We teach him the lessons in English/Spanish. He's from the Philippines and speaks a little bit more English than Spanish. He's lived in Central America for 16 years but his spanish isn't that great. (Although it's getting better due to reading a chapter of the Book of Mormon in English and Spanish). Miracles do happen. We don't do them. God does. 

Also a lady named Marta is going to get baptized this week. She's really cool, but has really bad arthritis which makes it really hard to do anything. Coming to church is a sacrifice. Someone has to help her come everytime. She's really sweet though and wants to be baptized.

Mahal Kita. (filipino)

les Amo. 

I love you all.

Hermana Merrill

Cleaning the church after a baptism?

Cool for Cool

This week was cool for cool because it was stake conference, but a special stake conference. Elder Ballard,  Elder Oaks along with the general YW President and Elder Martino of the 70 spoke to all the stakes and districts of Central America. COOL! 

Elder Ballard gave a really awesome talk about the atonement. He talked about the need for both justice and mercy, and that how God would cease to exist if he gave mercy to his children and didn't worry about justice. He talked about the absolute need for a Savior. Our jew (Alejandro) who doesn't believe in Christ was there.  I feel like the concept that Alejandro doesn't understand is that we can't make up our wrongs no matter how well we act. He believes that we can, and that if we are obedient, God will be merciful. I don't know how to explain to him any better than Elder Ballard did about the need for an atonement. He goes to church almost every week though. 

Alan, the pilas grandson of a recent convert, got baptized this week! 

He has had a rough childhood. His mom gave him up to be raised by his grandma when he was 5 and he's been into drugs and doesn't have the best of friends. He's really wants to change though and now wants to be a really good kid. He's 15. He wants to go on a mission. He also understands a lot about Christ, the bible, reads the BOM, and the restoration. One time I prayed for longer than he was used to, and ever since then he's tried to pray longer than us. So one time in his prayer he said, "thank thee that Christ established a church, that for a while it wasn't here, and that again it's here on earth and that I've found it."  It was cool. 

Anyways love you family!

Hermana Merrill

Promising Progress in Matagalpa

So this letter will be short because I don't have a lot of time this week due to the schedule moved and the hour earlier (refer to my last letter).

 We had a leaders council in Managua on Tuesday and a multi-zone conference on Wednesday. That left 3 days to work, one of which was when we were on divisiones. I learned a lot, and we worked real hard the other three days. On Sunday Jorge was confirmed, but Yesica didn't get baptized. She still is having a hard time receiving a testimony, but a big blessing for them is that Yesica and Oscar are living together again and have fixed some of their marriage problems. 

Something really cool is happening here in Matagalpa. There is a really good youth and YSA program with lots of youth here in Matagalpa, which you don't see everywhere. An inspired (pilas) hermana that works with the youth started a cool thing. The young single adults and some adults (lots that have gone on missions) are paired up with the young men and young women. The each have  one family of less actives, investigators or recent converts to visit once in the week and then Sunday in the morning they all leave to bring these families to church. The assistance at church has been really awesome!

2 weeks ago it was really really low (it's normally above 100)- 86

1 weeks ago - 120

this week- 143

This week we are going to do visits with one of them every day!

Hermana Merrill

LOVE YOU all lots!

Obedience Blessings

So this week was a little crazy. President Collado did a phone conference with our zone on Wednesday. He said our zone wasn't doing so hot and then challenged us to wake up an hour earlier every day and then gave us some goals to meet. When we meet the goals we will start going to bed at the normal time. Welcome to waking up at 5:30 (= . It was actually good, although making my eyes open at 5:30 was a challenge, an extra hour in the day was very useful! Although one hour doesn't sound like much, I felt like our days and weeks were a lot more productive. Also we found lots of new families to teach. I know this was revelation from our president because this work will always move forward, and this really motivated us and our zone. 

Yesica came to church again this week, and we're praying and hoping she can get baptized this week. She just isn't sure still. 

But anyways that was my week, love you all and suerte a la novia, casi casada!

Hermana Merrill

Baptism and Cool People

The biggest news of this week is a cool kid named Jorge got baptized! He's 26 and has a strong testimony of the church! He wants to go on a mission! He will be such a good missionary. He reminds me a little bit of a hippie because he just feels everything. He says things like, "I watched the house of Hermana Blanca (the members that gave us his reference) and it just has a good feeling coming from it."  He's really sensible to the Holy Ghost. He says things like, "people sometimes tell me things about the mormons, but when you guys talk to me and when I'm at the church and when I was at the temple (once he visited the grounds of the Costa Rica Temple) I just feel good."  He has a really good heart, I know he'll be a good missionary. Once I asked him (we were teaching about the Sabbath) how he would feel if things were opposite, God just gave us one day for ourselves and 6 for him to emphasize that 1 day for God is easy.  He said it would be just fine with him, he would give them all to God as God gave him everything.... 

Other cool people:

Yesica and Oscar

 They're a really cool couple that've gone to church once, but couldn't go this week because her 1 month old baby has had a cold and a fever all week this week. We gave him a blessing so I'm praying he gets better soon. He's a member, but she's not, but is so sweet. She's just a little nervous about getting baptized  because she was already baptized once. 

Alejandro and Carla

They are the people we rent from. They sell jeans from the states and also coffee. He says he's Jew and she's traditional Catholic (never attends but was baptized as a baby). They've gone to church 2 times but they always come and go when they want. One time they just came for the first hour, another time for the 2nd. Maybe next time we'll convince for all three. They're really smart and he knows English. She has a heart of gold and is always doing service for us. Funny story-- we visited them one day this week, the day after he went to an activity and we were just kind of chatting to them because at the time they were eating breakfast. During the conversation, Carla said you need to congratulate Alejandro because he says he wants to be Mormon. He proceeds to get mad at her saying that she couldn't say things for him that she needs to talk for herself. So she says ok then, I want to be Mormon too (=. 

Also, Congratulations Nathan and Allie!

Hermana Merrill

Good News

SO news this week, good news.

Remember Ernesto (husband of Hna Claudia), Hector, and Melanie (daughter of Grisel) from Esteli? They all got baptized! 

In my area, our retention (recent converts) was a lot better this week. Also, Yesica and Oscar came to church this week! That was a miracle. They're a really cool family, he got baptized when he was 8, went to church 3 times and then stopped going. He's the son of a really cool member in our branch. They've been saying the'll go to church for 2 weeks now, but excuses have always come up. All this week they've been fighting, and she's been living at her mom's house. We fasted this week to have the power of God help them and the rest of our investigators, and I know God softened their hearts. We taught them about forgiveness and committed them both to church. When we passed by their houses on Sunday they were both ready for church. She at her mom's house and he at their house. They left Church together (= . 

So we do this cool activity with the recent converts on Sundays. It´s a contest. We've made houses out of paper and every 2 weeks we give them a 2 week calender. There's pictures of things they have to do every day. Mondays- Family Home evening T-Sat- read scriptures and pray as a family Sunday- church. Then we put stickers on the pictures if they did each activity. They have to do them as a family or it doesn't count. The family who fills it out the best gets a cake (we're getting poor (= but for a good cause). This week 2 of the families filled it out completely. That also means that EVERYONE in their family was at church. WOO! This week we made title's of liberty for each family and everyone put a family motto on them. 

Love you all so much!

Hermana Merrill

Family Religious Practices Chart

Title of Liberty - Family Motto

Hope

A really cool girl in the zone baptized for the first time in her mission! it was a really cool baptism. She has 6ish months in her mission. We had been working with her and her companion. It was a good experience. 

I learned something about hope this week. Hope is like the never-fail word. You can hope in things that aren't necessarily true. For example-- I hope the ice cream man will come down the street. But you can't usually say I have faith that the ice cream man will come down the street. 

To misplace your faith is something that can hurt, because if that ice cream truck doesn't come down the street, you've just put all your faith into that and now you're crushed. God says to not put your trust in the arm of the flesh. That's why you hope. For example : I hope an investigator will be in church, and I have faith that God will touch his heart and give him the desire to go (especially when we pray for that). 

On the other side, if we pray and ask God for a specific blessing and feel like it will come to pass we can have faith in that, it´s just usually we don't get confirmations to things like that if we're affecting someone else's agency. 

You can hope and hope and hope as much as you want. When you don't have the strength to have faith you can hope. The righteous can hope for a better day (Ether 12:4). So even when nothing goes right, you can hope it will get better, and God promises you it will. That was this week for me.

Hermana Merrill

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! 

Christ is the Vine

One time there was a story shared in conference about a plant that was growing so well and so tall but then the gardener cut it down. The gardener looked at that plant all little and hurt and thought it looked so sad. It seemed to be saying to him,  "Why did you cut me down?" I was growing so well. And the gardener says it is because he had something else in mind for that beautiful plant. When the plant grew back it grew back strong and with lots of fruit, much better than it was in the beginning. 

In Juan 15 it talks about how Christ is the vine and we are the branches. If we aren´t growing with the vine we are not of him. Sometimes we grow without the vine, we are growing faster then the strength of the vine and not producing fruit. So, God lovingly cuts us down so that we grow with the vine. As long as we are obedient, when he cuts us down we will grow back stronger, with the Strength of Christ. Sometimes I feel like God needs to cut me back a lot. 

I´m saying all this because as I was thinking and reading the scriptures today I was looking back at my life before the mission. I realize that there was a lot of pride in me and I think there still is (God isn´t done yet, this kid´s got a long way to go to be perfect!!! (=  ) Things I did or things that were important, just aren´t important anymore. When you have pride you can´t have faith because you have faith in your own self. I know that as soon as I can truly let go of myself, my pride and lean on the strength of the Lord, miracles will happen. Paul talks about this in Acts, I was reading that this morning.

This past week I feel like my whole body just wants to cry! I don´t know if it is Matagalpa or what, but... I feel old! (= 

Thanks for all you do for me family. I couldn´t do this without you guys!

Hermana Merrill

With lots and lots of LOVE