Double Whammy Baptism and Schwaby's Birthday Bash

Hey y'all!!

This week was really good! Sister Schwab, my beloved friend who used to be in my district when I was in Oak Ridge came with me on exchange on her birthday! We had a great time celebrating her 21 years of life. We set an alarm for midnight so we could wake up and I sprayed silly string all over her and gave her a cupcake. We had an eventful day of missionary work too (don't you worry). We went and addressed some of Theron's concerned (earlier this week he had told us that he wasn't getting baptized on the 26th which was disappointing but we're still hopeful). We think we helped him overcome the things he was worried about but we aren't too sure. It was a good lesson though! We saw Don and we had a great lesson with him too. I was excited that she got to come to the salvation army to serve dinner. She loved it. It was a really good day.

Saturday came pretty quickly and Sister Stanton and Rick were baptized. Sister Stanton went first, she nearly drowned because her husband had no idea what he was doing. He put his hand on the back of her neck and his other hand to the square. It was so nerve racking and she was freaking out. Her face said it all. But she went under and she came back up and she was still alive AND she was cleansed of her sins. Double whammy. It all worked out. Rick's went more smoothly. The ward loves both of them so much and there was a great turn out! It was awesome.

Transfers are on Wednesday so I will be getting a new companion. Sister Neil is leaving! She is getting ready to go HOME and it's so weird. I was watching her pack earlier and it was the strangest thing of my life. I am kind of nervous to be the seasoned veteran of Bristol. I will probably get lost a million times but oh well. This retired cop who lives in our neighborhood gave me my own can of pepper spray so if I get in any sketchy situations I will be well prepared. It advises on the can, "ESCAPE IMMEDIATELY AND CALL POLICE. DO NOT TRY AND CAPTURE THE ATTACKER." So yeah I'll probably pray about that.

Anyways I love you all and I hope you're all having a great summer break. It's almost over! I'm glad because then when we drive by the lake in Piney Flats I won't have to close my eyes and pretend I don't see anyone boating hahahaha.

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Sister Andrea Kate Merrell

Baby Kate, The Last Samurai, and Maple Manor

HOLA AMIGOS. It's me!

This week we've just been working with our future recent converts! Rick came to dinner at an awesome member family's, the Tedricks, house. He really enjoyed it. Also the Tedricks named their new dog after me! Isn't she cute!? Her name is Kate! 

 

 

 

 

Rick has really felt like everything is getting in the way of him getting baptized. He has been fighting off temptations like a boss though! He hasn't had a cigarette in 2 weeks! WOW! That's a pun get it?? Like WOW and W.O.W.. (Word of Wisdom). It's funny because it's fun.

Sister Stanton is a sweetheart and has been ready for forever. She's amazing. Theron has overcome lots of obstacles that he has faced. He said he had prayed about the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, etc. and he just felt good about everything. He doesn't felt like he's had an overwhelming feeling but he does know he's going in the right direction and that's enough. He'll receive the overwhelming confirmation at his baptism.

We saw Don and he told us that he got emotional at the baptism for the little boy in our ward that he came to last week. What???? We told him that was the spirit testifying of truth. He told us he just got emotional because he does when he watches the movie the Last Samurai... Dangit he just needs to trust that God is trying to guide him with the spirit!

Hi. It's me and I live at maple manor (look at this place).

 

 It used to be this huge house/mansion that they made into an apartment complex. It's super old. SUPER OLD. And it's a lil bit nasty but that's okay because your apartment should be the hubs of hell on your mission anyways so you shouldn't spend much time there am I right or am I right???

I love your faces people! And your emails! And your letters! Thanks for being the best fan club ever! Keep CTRing and stuff! LOVE Y'ALL!!!!

Sister Andrea Kate Merrell

Investig8rs R Kewl

Hi it's me!

This week has been good... WE HAVE 3 SET FOR BAPTISM ON THE 26TH! WE ARE SO EXCITED!!! SHABOOYA SHABOOYA SHABOOYA!!

It seemed like every time that we met with Sister Stanton the reoccurring theme that she pulled from her reading assignments was humility. That was totally the spirit talking to her because we honestly would just give her the standard missionary reading assignments that we give to all of our investigators. When we went to meet with her this week she told us that the spirit has told her that this is the way that she needs to go. IT WAS SO AWESOME! She felt she got her answer when she was at church, she came to relief society for the first time and the lesson had a tangent about not caring what others think and focusing on caring what God thinks. She took this as her answer that she needs to not care about what the people at her church would think if she became Mormon. She's getting baptized on the 26th with Rick and Theron. That's a testimony builder for receiving revelation at church that's for sure!

Theron really respects Ryan, the member that we've been bringing over when we meet with him. Ryan recently returned from his mission and is great at explaining things exactly tailored to Theron's needs. Theron had a lot of freaky random questions at our lesson yesterday (he probably bumped into some anti literature) I honestly was just shocked and couldn't speak. Ryan went right to work addressing all of the concerns and did a great job. It was awesome. Theron said he's still working towards his baptism on the 26th so that's still happening! Phew what a relief!

Rick when out of town to go to the beach for the week so he was MIA. He got back on Saturday, we know because we drove passed his house and his car was there. We went to say hi and then we invited him to church. He told us he was tired from his trip but we were very persuasive. Guess what? He came! Yayyayaya! He is progressing beautifully towards his baptism date on the 26th!

I have a dictionary in the apartment because I love looking the definition of simple words that we use in Mormon culture. I was flipping through it and reading random definitions to Sister Neil before bed the other night and I flipped to the page that had the word "Savior". The 2nd definition said Jesus Christ. Hmmm this sounded perfect for Don who needs a logical explanation for everything. The dictionary even knows that Christ is our Savior. We showed him at our lesson that we had with him on Saturday. It was cool. It really made him think. He came to a baptism for a little boy in the ward that happened after church yesterday. He even brought brownies. After the baptism we told him that he's next... he said.. okay... It was a somewhat agreeable okay! He's going to be baptized and be a bishop someday, we just know it!

We met the new mission president on Friday, President Griffin! I LOVE HIM SO MUCH! My interview with him so amazing. You can really tell that he has the spirit with him and he is 100% in tune. I never thought I wouldn't love him as much as I love President Irion but hey, they are both really cool! President Griffin brought his 3 daughters with him. The youngest one is 8. They are all really cute and funny. The Griffins are the bomb.com/awesome.

I am completely out of time! I love y'all! Thanks for the love! Also today is my 5/6th birthday. In 2 month's I'll turn 21... again! Yeah I'm forever 21 like the store. So there's that!

Love,

Sister Andrea Kate Merrell

 

AND THE HOME OF THE BRAVE

Hey y'all!

Good news. I survived the 4th of July in Tennessee. If ya didn't know, hillbillies LOVE to make firework bombs and explode them in the hills. We heard them all night this week, especially when we were driving home on the 4th.

So have you been wondering how my missionary 4th of July went? Let me tell ya! We had a ward activity in the morning complete with a presentation on the history of America by Brother Stanton (Sister Stanton helped with most of that but shhh that's a secret). We played corn hole and ate hot dogs outside of the church. Our investigator, Don brought burritos for everyone and they were a hit! We then had district meeting. Then in the evening we went a member's house (the Youngblood family) and ate more hot dogs and did fireworks with another member family (the Filettis). It was so much fun! The Youngbloods live up in the hills so we kept hearing their neighbors explode things. There's also a brothel down the street... they told us it's called "Aunt Ruthie's"... I was laughing so hard but then someone corrected them and said it's called "Suga Mama". Hahahahhaaha sorry that's just some random info for ya!

This week has been blooming with success. Theron (Sister Stanton's grandson) came to the 4th of July activity. Everyone in the ward loves him. He also really enjoyed church on Sunday. After church we went over to teach him the Plan of Salvation. We brought Ryan a member who really hit it off with him at church; they're the same age and they went to high school together. Ryan helped so much with the teaching of the lesson. We were able to commit Theron to baptism on the 26th! The same day as Rick! Awesome huh!??

Met with Don on Saturday. I don't know if I've ever talked about him but he has no religious background. He struggles to comprehend that Jesus Christ could be our Savior. He doesn't recognize the spirit even when we point it out. BUT on Saturday we tried teaching him with a different approach. He always tells us how great he thinks the church is, how friendly the people are, how great the missionary program is, etc. We told him these are the fruits that he is recognizing from God and Jesus Christ's true church. If it's a good thing then why not join, right? We left him that to think about. He came to church yesterday and really enjoyed it. He hadn't been in the time that I've been in Bristol so we were really excited. We did some bird-dogging beforehand and made sure the members were extra friendly and inviting. It was splendid. We're starting to see some progress in him that hadn't been there for a while.

We get to meet our new mission president on Friday so I'll let y'all know how that goes. We're pumped!

Keep being awesome! I love y'all!!

Sister Andrea Kate Merrell

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