Elder Marriner Kaden Merrill: Always an adventure!

Hey y’all, how is ya? This week was a good one. Monticello is awesome -
I absolutely love it here! It’s a pretty small town - only a couple thousand
people or so. We also hardly ever have wifi so definitely a change from
the big city of Memphis. We also attend a branch here and it is great.

Tuesday we rode bikes around all day. I was able to get to know my new
area pretty well. We were able to visit a couple people here. That night
we had dinner with the branch mission leader's family and also the sister
missionaries. They are a big hunting family with lots of guns. It was fun
to talk about hunting with them.

Wednesday was an adventure. We drove to Memphis for my follow-up
appointment with the orthopedic doctor I saw last week. The drive was
3 hours there and 3 hours home. My appointment took about an hour.
I had another X-ray and met with the doctor. He said everything looks
great with my wrist. He gave me the go ahead to just cut the cast off
myself in about a week. So we'll go to the store and get some wire
cutters or something to see if I can can get this thing off me. :)
I'll need to wear a brace for a couple more weeks after the cast comes
off and then it should be healed Good thing I'm kind of a pro at healing
broken bones. I guess that has been the positive in all of this. After my
appointment we went and got some dinner then drove home.

Thursday was just another normal day here in Monticello. It rained all
day but luckily not too hard because we were riding bikes that day. My
wrist isn't hurting anymore at all so I felt pretty good riding.  We were
able to visit a few people while we were out. It was nice to see more
white people on the streets instead of just all black people. I know that
sounds racist but it’s not. I have totally grown to love black people and
white people and Hispanic people - - I have learned to love all people
while serving here in the South. We are all children of God.

Friday we had our weekly planning session. We also discussed all the
people they have been teaching here in the area. After the morning in
our apartment we went out for awhile. We taught a lesson to a lady in
her front yard that went pretty well. We hope to go back next week.
Being in a small town after a big city has been a nice change. And my
new living space feels good.  It already feels like home. Also serving
with Elder Toomer feels like home.

My new address is:
732 Old Warren Road Apt. 6
Monticello, AR 71655

Saturday was definitely an adventure. We drove out to a little town called
Hermitage, Arkansas. It is about 30 minutes away and only has about 800
people. They goal for us as Spanish missionaries here is to go to Hermitage
once a week and eventually start a Spanish Branch. The members in this
town have had feelings and dreams and very positive promptings from the
Holy Ghost that there will one day be a Spanish Branch in Hermitage. It is
really cool. I feel so blessed to be able to be able to be a part of starting a
branch of the church in this area. Being in Hermitage for the first time was
a really amazing experience for me. While in the town I had a very strong
and very distinct feeling that this is where I need to be right now. I know that
there will be a Spanish Branch there one day. We weren't able to teach too
many people there that day but we were able visit a couple Hispanic families.
We had one really good lesson with an older lady. We also received a few
more Hispanic contacts. Our goal is to also make ourselves known in this little
town. We had a little trouble on our way home from Hermitage. We had pulled
off to the side of the road to look at directions.  We had barely been stopped for
a minute when a 19-year-old girl slammed into our back end going 55 miles an
hour. Luckily no one was hurt.  We actually barely even felt the impact. She
completely knocked out our back left tire, including the suspension and drive
shaft.  Basically the entire wheel well was empty. Luckily she wasn’t hurt either.
Please don't worry - we all are fine. Except now we don’t have a car anymore
and are sharing with the sisters. We rotate every other day.

Always an adventure!

Sunday was awesome. It was my first time being in an English branch. The
Branch President is a really cool guy. He has tons of land on his property and
a couple private fishing ponds. We are going fishing for a P-Day soon. I am
very excited about that.

I love serving with Elder Toomer! It really is so awesome. We all get along
great. Elder Toomer and I have always joked that we would be each others
last companion and then return home together. I am feeling so blessed and
excited that we are able to serve together now. Elder Padilla is also super
awesome. He is from Peru and still hardly knows any English. He is learning
more everyday and we are helping him. We have a really fun time together.
It is actually a nice change being in an English area and speaking English
more than Spanish. I do miss teaching in Spanish though. Luckily, in our
companionship we basically speak nothing but Spanish so that should help
keep up my language skills.

Elder Merrill - Elder Toomer - Elder Padilla

Thanks for the awesome emails, I always enjoy reading them. Today we’re
headed bowling so wish me luck left-handed. I hope y’all have an awesome
week! Love you all!

Love Elder Merrill