Locked Out

Hey!

So on Wednesday we drove up to Farragut and I picked up my cute new companion, Sister McDermott! She is from Morgan, UT and she is 19 years old. I am so excited to be her trainer, she reminds me a lot of myself at the beginning of my mission. She is shy but when she gets comfortable she is hilarious and is just really fun to talk to and be around. I love her. Anyways on our first day together we had a lesson with Juan (that was crazy) and then we had a lesson with Anna and Jessica. Anna and Jessica are 12 and 14 and have been coming to church for a while with their friend. We taught them the restoration and committed them to be baptized on January 10th! We are so excited! After that we headed back to the apartment and I realized I had left the keys inside... WE WERE LOCKED OUT! Hahahahaha so we called a locksmith. His name was Corey and he had met Mormons before and had a Book of Mormon in his van! Sister McDermott got his info like a boss, and we were able to refer him to the missionaries in his hood. So what if it cost 55 bucks to give him the gospel... eternal life is priceless and stuff. Hahaha. Whatever.

This week we had so many miraculous lessons it was so wonderful. My favorite was when we went and visited a Spanish speaking recent convert named Emilcar. She has every kind of struggle that you can think of from family to financial; she is raising 3 kids on her own. She greeted us at the door with a warm smile and we came in and begin to talk, she began to share her feelings told us she has too many problems to be happy. We read 2 Nephi 31:14-21 together and talked about enduring to the end with faith to be able to have peace during times of hardship. I felt the spirit so strongly in the most different way that I can't even describe. My heart was full of empathy and love for this woman. This lesson was completely in Spanish with no translator; although I couldn't understand every word spoken, my heart could understand the spirit that was there. We were able to communicate to her what Heavenly Father wanted her to hear. I am grateful for gifts of the spirit in times of need.

I was reading this yesterday, Alma 45:7 "Yea, I will keep the commandments with all of my heart." A lot of times throughout my life I have done things because I just want to do the right thing because I know it's right. But throughout my mission have been learning more and more that I want to do the right thing because of the love I have for my Heavenly father. I want to keep the commandments with all of my heart not all of my gut. When we do things out of love instead of a sense of duty we are able to learn the lessons that only love can teach us.

Oh guess what? We get to watch FROZEN at zone conference in 2 weeks. I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!! But seriously. And we're going to play dodge ball and do skits! Bahahahahah I'm so excited. I love you all. Today is a great day to be a missionary. And so is tomorrow and so is forever.

Love,

Sister Andrea Kate Merrell