Elder Marriner Kaden Merrill: The Lord was saving the best for last!

Hey guys! The past couple weeks have been so great. We have been
really busy teaching. I think we have taught a sit down lesson everyday.
It has been so awesome!  We also had dinner with a member here who
made us some amazing Mexican tacos. I have been missing Mexican
food so it was delicious!

Last Tuesday we went to Memphis for Zone Conference. Elder Perkins
of the Seventy came to visit. We had an awesome meeting. It was quite
different than many of our other meetings with General Authorities. He
taught us some great missionary skills I will be able to use my last two
weeks here AND after I return home. He also gave us some really good
returning home from our mission advice. He told us that it is a lot easier
to stay in spiritual condition than to get back into it. For some reason that
really hit home for me. It makes me sad when missionaries say that they
need to take a little break when they return home. Serving a mission has
made me super excited to serve in the church.

Wednesday was an awesome missionary day! We finished the lessons
with Kenny in preparation for his baptism Saturday. We also had a visit
with Jack.  That night we taught one of our best Book of Mormon classes
and I typed up baptismal program.

Thursday we began exchanges with the Zone leaders and had Kenny’s
baptismal interview. I served with Elder Murdock.  He was in Memphis
when I was there and it was fun to serve with him again.  We had a good
exchange in Batesville together. We ended up getting a Bible referral for
a homeless guy.  We met with him in the local park and had a 45 minute
lesson that went really well. We don’t really know what the policy is with
teaching homeless people and need to find out.

Friday we exchanged back and Elder Asay and I did our weekly planning.
We then went to visit Jack again. Jack called us a couple weeks ago and
said he wanted to meet with us. He has been through all the discussions
twice and read the Book of Mormon once. He didn’t get baptized before
because he found some anti stuff against the church. Our first lesson we
had with him he told us he wanted to get baptized for real this time so we
set a date for this Saturday. It has been really amazing to work with him.
We have taught him all the lessons and are having his baptismal interview
this week! We are super excited.

Saturday was definitely the highlight of our week thanks for Kenny baptism.
Everything went great. He has a sister that is a member who lives in Little
Rock at the moment but she is moving to Batesville in about a week. We
called and asked her to speak on baptism. She did a great job and she was
so excited to see her brother get baptized! I baptized him and it was a really
special experience for me. He is the first person on my mission that I have
taught every lesson to and then baptized. It really was a special day that I
will always remember. I still think it is funny that we had our very first lesson
at Hardees (the Carl’s junior of the south). From that moment on he just ate
everything we said up. He loved every minute of learning the gospel. It has
all just been a really awesome experience.

Sunday we confirmed Kenny. There was such an amazing spirit. He was so
excited to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. After church we had our monthly
potluck that was delicious.

Batesville has been a pretty special place for me and I will be sad to leave. I
have had more success here than in any other area of my mission. I guess
the Lord was saving the best for last! I definitely have a strong testimony
now of enduring to the end. Sometimes we might not be able to see it, but
there will always be a blessing waiting for us at the end of the tunnel.
I love you guys!  I’m excited to see you in a couple weeks!

Love Elder Merrill