Monday, December 18, 2017

Merry Christmas Elder Merrill

Hey guys!  So this week was awesome...mostly.  Let’s begin with 
the good stuff.  Tuesday night I began an exchange with my old 
MTC companion Elder Barron.  It was awesome!  We had great 
time getting reacquainted and serving together.  We were able to 
really help out his area.  His companion is struggling a little bit so 
the area has also been struggling.  It was really fun to hang out 
with him again and talk about our different mission experiences 
we have had with some of the companions we have shared.  It 
was great.  I served with him until Wednesday night.  

Thursday was awesome. We went to North Little Rock for Zone 
Conference.  It was amazing to see everyone again and I always
learn a ton!   The conference focused on asking inspired questions 
in our missionary lessons in order to really be able to teach to the 
need of the investigator.  We participated in a really cool role play 
with some convert members there.  We asked them questions to 
find out their concerns they had before they got baptized.  It was a 
very cool experience.  This week we will have our Zone Conference 
Christmas party.  It will be a fun missionary get together to celebrate 
the season together.  They will also give us our Christmas packages 
sent to the mission home.  It should be awesome! 

Ok - now for the not so good stuff.  Remember the bike I got from the 
office?  Turns out it actually belonged to another missionary - so we 
gave it to him and he was really glad to have it back.  We called the 
office to see if they had any other bikes.  They didn't so I began riding
my old bike around.  Friday I was riding around when the unthinkable 
happened.  The derailleur - the thing that changes the gears snapped 
in half as we were riding down the sidewalk.  We took it to a bike shop 
up the road to have them look at it.  The guy there said it most likely 
was just old and worn and that it was not worth fixing.  I then started to 
talk to him about buying a bike to see if they had any good deals.  He 
told me they were having a bike drive and if I let him keep my broken 
bike for parts we would take the price down even more on a new bike.  
He told us he has seen a few Mormon missionaries in his shop before 
and that he thinks they are cool dudes.  He was really nice and he was 
happy to help me.  President Hansen likes his missionaries to bike as 
much as possible.  I have really enjoyed biking around on my mission.  
We can only use our car to go to church because it is so far away and 
we have very limited miles.  We ride our bikes everyday so a good bike
is a necessity.  Elder Anderson and his dad are pretty into bikes and he 
says that the bike we found was an awesome deal.   I know it would be 
cheaper at Walmart but I'm going to remember Reed's words - a bike 
should never be bought from Walmart unless you want a cardiovascular 
workout - haha.  So I am now the proud owner of a new awesome bike 
(after emailing his mother back and forth for a bit to figure out logistics).  
This bike is nice and will last me a long time.  Merry Christmas to me!  
When I return home I am planning on biking to school and maybe enjoy
some mountain biking.  I'll take really good care of it.  I have actually 
learned a ton of bike maintenance out here on my mission.  I have kind 
of become the bike guy which is great.  

Thank you so much for all your help today!  Elder Anderson and I are 
pretty pumped our parents are hanging out tonight.  This gospel is great!  
I love sharing it - especially during this season of our Saviors birth.  He 
really is the reason for the season - He is the reason for everything.  
I love you all!  Merry Christmas!

Love Elder Merrill
Merry Christmas Elder Merrill!
                                     
Elder Merrill's new bike - Trek Marlin

Zone Conference 

Elder Anderson and Elder Merrill 
having fun making Gingerbread Houses
Merry Christmas!!!


We had a fun evening with Elder Anderson's parents - 
Mark & Jennifer.  They just moved to Cache Valley from Colorado.  
We enjoyed getting to know each other and put together a package to send to our boys. 

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