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