Classy Overallz and Angry Baby Bullz

Hey Hey Fanz,

This week has been pretty good! We got to get all dressed up in our fancy overallz to help the Ronquillo family paint their son's bedroom. It was super hot and humid but we got a good workout so we enjoyed ourselves.

We had a couple of lessons with Sister Stanton. For the second one, we taught about latter day prophets and watched President Monson's conference talk Love--The Essence of the Gospel. She got teary eyed and afterward said, "I can see why he's the prophet." It was pretty amazing. Here's my favorite part of the talk:

"Forgiveness should go hand in hand with love. In our families, as well as with our friends, there can be hurt feelings and disagreements. Again, it doesn’t really matter how small the issue was. It cannot and should not be left to canker, to fester, and ultimately to destroy. Blame keeps wounds open. Only forgiveness heals."

Food 4 thought. Go look the rest up.

We scheduled Rick's baptism for July 26th so hopefully that works out. He seems pretty legit. He has been trying to quit smoking and we are all rooting for him.

We had a good lesson with Sister Stanton's grandson, Theron. The first couple of lessons we had with him were rough, and it seemed to be that he was picking everything we said apart logically. This week we watched the restoration dvd with him. Afterwards we asked him if he thought it was possible that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. He said yes. He came to church with his grandparents on Sunday. It was awesome.

Anyways, the Irions go home TOMORROW, so we will be getting our new mission president, President Griffin. We will meet him next week on Friday at our zone meeting.  I will miss President Irion because he is one of the most hilarious humanz on earth but I'm sure President Griffin will be cool too.

We saw this scary looking baby bull he looked like a lil brat. We thought he was going to charge our car. So here's a picture of that hahaha. Sister Neil and I seriously are having a blast together. We are laughing all the time. I'm going to be so sad to see her go home a MONTH FROM TODAY. Oh dear bless her little heart.

Love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Andrea Merrell

PS

For anyone interested: The Irions will be speaking on July 13th, 11AM,
Meadows Ward, 5735 S. Fashion Blvd., Murray, UT 84107 (it is about 300 East).

 

Gone Fishin', Goat 4 Sales, & Spiritual Stuff

Hiiii guyzzz burgers and fries

This week was been pretty good! Sister Neil and I along with the Elders and our ward mission leader went fishing this morning! It was so fun and I didn't even freak out when I baited my own hook. HOLLA.

So I know you've all been on edge since last week wondering what the animal of this week would be... well it's a goat! It's name is Daisy and the Sharps are giving it away because they are moving to Louisiana. So if you want a goat, let me know! I'll put in a good word!

 We had a lesson with Travis and Katie, finally! They are a really cute couple, Katie is 20 and Travis is 24. They have a cute little boy named Jason. I love going over there not only because they are such nice people, but they are really good Christian;you can notice that right when you meet them. We didn't have too in depth of a lesson because we wanted to see where they were at, but DANG was the spirit strong. They were both really kind and complimentary to us. I feel really at home there. Travis said the prayer and it almost brought me to tears as he thanked God for our service and asked for blessings for us. It wasn't the standard "bless the missionaries and thanks blah blah" addition to a prayer. It was just sincere. I can't even explain it.  They really love and rely on the Lord. We are going back this week.

We had a lesson with Sister Stanton, but this time she invited her non-member grandson Tharin. He has a lot of questions so we weren't able to follow-up with Sister Stanton. We are going back this week and having a separate appointment with Tharin.

I also was able to give a training at district meeting.I trained on relying on the spirit. I based it on this great quote by President Monson:

"The sweetest experience I know in life is to feel a prompting and act upon it and later find out that it was the fulfillment of someone’s prayer or someone’s need. And I always want the Lord to know that if He needs an errand run, I will run that errand for Him."

 I know that I want the Lord to know that I am willing to do anything that he asks me. I want to be willing and I am trying my best every day to overcome the obstacles I face to help God answer prayers.

Love y'all. Keep being awesome!

Love,

Sister Merrell

Voicemailz and Tombstonez

Heyyyy guyzzz,

These week has been jam packed with success! We got a lot of new investigators and we are super excited! 

Sister Stanton came to church yesterday and we had a good lesson with her earlier in the week. She said that she has no problem with being baptized she just very attached to the people that go to her church. We are trying to help the relief society sisters involved so yesterday at ward council we were very adamant that she got visiting teachers assigned. She almost came to the relief society activity this week (retro women's night) but she ended up having a conflict. Dang right? It would have been great having her there. We are going to try and get her to come to relief society next Sunday (they normally leave after Sacrament meeting). Investigators concerns fall into two categories: social concerns and doctrinal concerns. The missionaries are great resources for helping them overcome doctrinal concerns but dealing with social concerns falls into the hands of the members. It is so important that we always try and look for the best in everyone that we meet and to try our best to see each other how God sees us. We are all His children. We all should want everyone to feel comfortable, loved, and cared about especially when they are coming together with us at church.

Anyways, preachy, sorry, let me tell you about the MAJOR HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK! We met with our investigator, Rick. We went over the restoration for what felt like the millionth time. We talked about the priesthood and then he randomly told us that he would pray about baptism without us even bringing it up. Okay well that's a little bit awesome. We left with a good feeling about Rick and went to our next appointment. After that we checked the phone and we had a voice mail. Rick said that he wants to be baptized... next Sunday! Bahahahahahahah! Awesome right? It won't be that soon though. But hey he has the desire so that's awesome! And he has already come to church once so HECK YEAHHHH!!! So hopefully all goes well with that!

Finding people to see on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons has been a little bit difficult for us. We were driving around this week and had tried 2389423897 people and none of them were home or wanted to talk to us. We kept driving passed this really cool historical cemetery so finally we decided that we were going to go walk around in there and leave plan of salvation pamphlets on some of the tombstones. Hahaha it was pretty cool. They had a section for the slaves and there were just a bunch of unmarked rocks for their tombstones. It was quite fascinating.

Well, that's it folks! Have a splendid week! Love y'all!

Sister Andrea Merrell

 

 

Cats and Dogs and Rooster Calls (minus the cats and dogs)

Hey y'all

This week has been 2 kewl 4 skewl. Sister Neil and I are having a blast out here doing the Lord's work in Bristol!

We had a lesson with a part member family, the Stantons. Sister Stanton is not a member and is Methodist. Brother Stanton is a funny little guy and he as previously a college professor. We taught the Plan of Salvation. It was pretty awesome. We read Alma 40:12- 

"And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow."

She said she felt peaceful when she read it. We know it was the spirit! She is so prepared it's amazing! We talked a lot about her baptism for her church and how great of an experience it was for her. We explained to her being baptized with the priesthood would only add to that experience and bring her closer to Jesus Christ. She agreed to pray about a baptismal date. WHOOPEEE!

We also had a great lesson with our investigator Don. Don has never had religion in his life before so it is a bit different teaching him without a Christian foundation. We talked about the importance of understanding the gospel with not just your head and mind but with your heart as well. He recognized that he had not asked God with his heart if the gospel was true.That's his assignment for this week, but we're eating dinner with him and some ward members tonight!

Yesterday, I picked up this rooster. I have a weird thing for picking up random animals because I think it's entertaining.

Also yesterday, I was asked to lead the music in sacrament meeting and so I went for it. It was a disaster! Hahahhahahahahah. Life long embarrassment but it's okay because Sister Neil and I have been laughing our heads off about it ever since.

Well that's about it. Bless your hearts folks!

I Belong in Bristol!!!

Hey y'all, coming at ya live from Bristol, Tennessee, but only Tennessee because we're on the Tennessee side of town right now!

From the moment I got here I have known that this is where I belong! My new companion is Sister Neil and she is 24 years old and from Nevada! She has been on her mission for 16 months so I will probably be with her until she dies. She is one of the most loving people I have ever met! She has helped me a lot! I LOVE HER!

So here's a little bit about Bristol. It is on the border of Tennessee and Virginia. The state line is state street that runs though the cutest part of town. There is a restaurant there called Burger Bar and they love Mormons! When we walk in they say, "Oh hey it's the Mormons!" There are also really cute shops and there are cool murals on some of the walls. Our church building is on the Virginia side of town; I told Sister Neil to tell me every time we are about to go into Virginia because to me it's still a big deal!

Right when I got here we went right to work! We have so many people to serve here and many people are open to our message because of their humble circumstances. It's heartbreaking to see, but it is great that we get the opportunity to serve them. Every Wednesday we get to serve dinner to homeless people at the Salvation Army. It is really fun because of all the crazy things they say to us when they come through the line. We also get the opportunity to pray with them because we bless the food before we serve it.

On Thursday we went to go visit someone with a member (I sat on a peeled banana in her car...ew) anyways that person wasn't home. So then we drove to someone else's house who wasn't home and then finally we drove to Teresa's trailer park. She was home and she let us in! She got baptized about 3 years ago and became less active soon after. Well she told us how she was really down for a lot of reasons. The member that we brought (Sister Davison) had gone through a similar experience and they were able to connect. They exchanged numbers and BAM a beautiful friendship was born. Teresa came to church on Sunday! AWESOME! I know that Heavenly Father put us in that situation that could seem frustrating to lead us to Teresa who needed to feel his love through us and Sister Davison.

Here's to new beginnings and doing the Lord's work!

LOVE YOU GUYZZZZ!!!

 

Sister Andrea Merrell