Elder Marriner Kaden Merrill: 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 a 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!