Elder Marriner Kaden Merrill: Exciting things are happening here!

Hey guys! It was an exciting week in my new area. Elder Pickering is
super awesome - it's going to be a fun transfer.  Batesville is about the
size of Monticello but a lot older. I think it was the first official city in
Arkansas. I met a lot of the branch on Sunday. Most of the members
are over the age of 65 so there should be some pretty fun times ahead.

Tuesday was transfer day so not much happened. Wednesday we went
and visited a few members so I could start to get to know the area. I met
one of our top investigators on Saturday who is going to get baptized as
soon as he quits chewing so that is awesome. We also have another
investigator who is ready for baptism and should be in a couple weeks.
Exciting things are happening here!

Thursday we went and did service at Habitat for Humanity that was fun.
Then we went to the southern part of our area and visited a few of our
investigators. To be honest it is really nice to have a lot of people to teach.
Blessings of an English area. Then that night we had dinner with Brother
Trayler. That man is the most interesting man I have ever met. A book
needs to be written about his life. It was awesome.

Friday we had our weekly planning. It took awhile because Elder Pickering
taught me all about all of our current investigators and less active members
we will be working with.

Saturday we had a couple awesome lessons. We went to visit a less active
member with another member and got him to come to church Sunday. Yay!
That evening we had a lesson the the guy who has to give up chewing. We
were just brutally honest with him and I think it may have worked. He is really
tight with the missionaries so he totally understood. I really hope he can do it!
I know he can do it with the help of the Savior. We all can do anything with
the help of our Savior.

Sunday I got up and introduced myself to everyone in sacrament meeting.
I still talk really fast in front of people and speaking Spanish has not helped
with this at all. But I tried to speak slowly. After church we headed to the
musical tribute in Conway. The meeting was great because I was able to
see a few member friends from Monticello again.

Today was our district P-day. We just played games at the church all day.
I will try to send a district photo next week since I don’t have one yet. My
new district consists of Elder Pickering and I, Elder Patterson and Elder
Bleazard, Sister Gray, and Sister Gubler. Crazy thing is I totally hung out
with Sister Gubler one night before my mission. She is really good friends
with Nathan Duncan and we played night games together. It blew our minds
when we made all the connections. Such a small wonderful world!  Thanks
for all of your love, prayers and support. I love you guys!

Love Elder Merrill