Happy 4th

So this week has been a bit of a blur honestly... so i am sorry that i don't really have much to talk about but lets see, umm so i guess i will testify first to you guys that Avocado smoothies are the BEST haha we actually had a really really good week again this week!!! So we have been still focusing on Less Actives. that won't be changing for awhile in this area.. But we actually had an attendance of 64 people at Church this week!!! Ya sounds low but that is actually really big for this ward.. Ya we are a ward. Shows you how much work we have to do in this area! 

One of our investigators came with us to the Sisters Baptism and she said that she is so so so excited to prepare for her Baptism on July 30th!!! and she is such  a solid Investigator and we have about 2 or 3 families that we are working with that we found yesterday so we'll see if they end up coming to Church this next Sunday!! but they seem to have a ton of potential and were super excited to have us come back to them!

We had another great week even though it was a blur... I guess that what just kind of happens when you are working working working haha.... But here is a picture of a rice field that is growing and all the mountains you see in the background ya that is all my area :) so fun to walk it. :p ummm also this is a super good drink that i had at an Indian restaurant here it is Lychee with Pinapple and Coconut super super good haha i was bored and needed some pictures... 

Obviously we all know what tomorrow is!!!! 4th of July technically it is today for me so we are gonna celebrate it as american as we can haha ;) gonna have a ghetto bbq and make burgers :) i will take pictures for you guys for next week! but should be fun and so that is what this is is me in my patriotic clothes for Pday :) Got the navy blue pants white shirt and red tie ;) gotta represent the US out here in the Philippines right?? :) but i am so jealous of all of you in America that get to celebrate it... Tons of memorize from last 4th of July that i have and will be thinking about a little bit to get me in the mood of the Holiday :p but I hope you all have fun tomorrow with your families and i will miss you all and have fun with the Fireworks and for the parade and for you going to the Carnival have fun as well because it is super fun so go have some fun family time :) OK??? HAPPY 4TH!!!! 

These are the tiniest freaking bananas that i have ever seen in my life and have ever eaten!!! they taste like a laughy taffy though. and they look cute haha :) so i decided to share the love with you guys of how little they are, This house is a house that we typically teach in, these are what almost every house out here look like. Bamboo with a straw roof!  

We get to meet our new Mission president this week actually so that should be pretty fun to meet him and get to know him so i will always let you all know how that goes next week :)  ummm i can't really think of anything else so that might be it for this email... but i love you all Palangga ko kamo, Nagmiss gid ko kamo!!!! Be safe, Keep smiling :)

Palangga,

Elder Merrill

Crazy Freaking week

Hey everyone, so this week has been a bit weird mainly cause my Companion had surgery on his foot... super gross... so i have been going on splits with the Zone leaders, But we went out yesterday or two days ago... So saturday but basta, We had the most amazing time out that day and had such an amazing successful day. We taught the first lesson to two people who are apart of a part member family, and right then and there we handed out a Baptismal date to them. I can easily say that our area is really starting to really pick up and miracles are starting to happen even more in our area, and on Friday we had 4 random people that came up to us when we were walking in this rice field that is down below, So freaking sketchy.... Bre you know how this feels to walk across a flooded rice field... maybe... but we had 4 people ask for Book of Mormons and want us to come visit them this week!!! so freaking awesome.

So i graduated from the 12 week program so i am finally a big boy Missionary now ;) haha but super happy about it now! went by super fast.... Also coolest thing to ever see is a thunderstorm over the ocean. Wow that's what the pictures are from.

Hope you all had a good fathers day and i love you all Have a goodnights sleep everyone and have a wonderful day i love you all so freaking much!!!! :)

Pagpalangga,

Elder Merrill

June 20th

Hey everyone, so this week has been a bit weird mainly cause my Companion had surgery on his foot... super gross... so i have been going on splits with the Zone leaders, But we went out yesterday or two days ago... So saturday but basta, We had the most amazing time out that day and had such an amazing successful day. We taught the first lesson to two people who are apart of a part member family, and right then and there we handed out a Baptismal date to them. I can easily say that our area is really starting to really pick up and miracles are starting to happen even more in our area, and on Friday we had 4 random people that came up to us when we were walking in this rice field that is down below, So freaking sketchy.... Bre you know how this feels to walk across a flooded rice field... maybe... but we had 4 people ask for Book of Mormons and want us to come visit them this week!!! so freaking awesome.

So i graduated from the 12 week program so i am finally a big boy Missionary now ;) haha but super happy about it now! went by super fast.... Also coolest thing to ever see is a thunderstorm over the ocean. Wow that's what the pictures are from.

Hope you all had a good fathers day and i love you all Have a goodnights sleep everyone and have a wonderful day i love you all so freaking much!!!! :)

Pagpalangga,

Elder Merrill

June 13th

Wow, I can't believe that i am finally done with training next week! time flew by way fast out here! and no i am still not fluent at the language... Getting there though :) it's rough but it's coming! We get to go to Iloilo again to go to a trainers and traines meeting tomorrow and i will get to see everyone again so i am super excited about that :)

This week has been good we have been focusing on less actives still so we don't have a whole lot of Investigators but we are starting to see some real progression in our less actives right now :) I am super excited about it because they are starting to come back to church and they have been really helpful with showing us other less actives and all that like this last week i went to go see one of our less actives their name is Langaryan family and we found a less active that was there and she wanted us to do a FHE there at her house this week and told us she would show us where the other less actives in the ward live in here little area :) So freaking awesome!!! I was a little shocked when she told us that but i was super happy! It's still hard to work with less actives though they are the hardest people to work with sometimes but i love them all with all my heart and they are amazing still even though they can be super hard headed sometimes it's ok cause we still go see them and have been able to help resolve their concerns with why they stopped coming to church and even last Sunday we had 11 less actives come to Church! Best feeling ever and this Sunday we had an Investigator come to Church and she brought her 5 year old daughter super cute :) The mom's name is Melvie and her daughters name is Aquisha, or her nickname is AJ. But it was awesome cause her daughter told us when we saw them on Saturday that sorry elders that it's been a long time since we have seen you or come to Church and it was just so funny but so awesome when she told us that.

I ended up eating bbq chicken feet so that is something you all deserve to know ;) haha it wasn't that bad honestly just pure fat.. so not my favorite but makes you think and makes you thankful for the things that are made for you back in america especially for me. Cause of course i am very very picky. Still kind of am but it's going away so don't worry ;) but makes me appreciate things more but no the people here are amazing cooks so the things you eat that are weird actually don't taste to bad! I hope that everyone is doing well :) I miss you all and love you tons!!!!! Oh also it has been freaking pouring rain out here like crazy so ya it's safe to say rainy season is here! haha you will like some of my pictures :) I'll show you all how you shower when you don't have any water at the house out here in the Philippines ;) super super fun haha :) Palangga Ko Kamo!!!!! Nagmiss ko kamo

Pagpalangga,

Elder Merrill :)

June 13th

Wow, I can't believe that i am finally done with training next week! time flew by way fast out here! and no i am still not fluent at the language... Getting there though :) it's rough but it's coming! We get to go to Iloilo again to go to a trainers and traines meeting tomorrow and i will get to see everyone again so i am super excited about that :)

This week has been good we have been focusing on less actives still so we don't have a whole lot of Investigators but we are starting to see some real progression in our less actives right now :) I am super excited about it because they are starting to come back to church and they have been really helpful with showing us other less actives and all that like this last week i went to go see one of our less actives their name is Langaryan family and we found a less active that was there and she wanted us to do a FHE there at her house this week and told us she would show us where the other less actives in the ward live in here little area :) So freaking awesome!!! I was a little shocked when she told us that but i was super happy! It's still hard to work with less actives though they are the hardest people to work with sometimes but i love them all with all my heart and they are amazing still even though they can be super hard headed sometimes it's ok cause we still go see them and have been able to help resolve their concerns with why they stopped coming to church and even last Sunday we had 11 less actives come to Church! Best feeling ever and this Sunday we had an Investigator come to Church and she brought her 5 year old daughter super cute :) The mom's name is Melvie and her daughters name is Aquisha, or her nickname is AJ. But it was awesome cause her daughter told us when we saw them on Saturday that sorry elders that it's been a long time since we have seen you or come to Church and it was just so funny but so awesome when she told us that.

I ended up eating bbq chicken feet so that is something you all deserve to know ;) haha it wasn't that bad honestly just pure fat.. so not my favorite but makes you think and makes you thankful for the things that are made for you back in america especially for me. Cause of course i am very very picky. Still kind of am but it's going away so don't worry ;) but makes me appreciate things more but no the people here are amazing cooks so the things you eat that are weird actually don't taste to bad! I hope that everyone is doing well :) I miss you all and love you tons!!!!! Oh also it has been freaking pouring rain out here like crazy so ya it's safe to say rainy season is here! haha you will like some of my pictures :) I'll show you all how you shower when you don't have any water at the house out here in the Philippines ;) super super fun haha :) Palangga Ko Kamo!!!!! Nagmiss ko kamo

Pagpalangga,

Elder Merrill :)

So right now we are in Iloilo City which is a 4 hour bus ride from my area... Ya layot gid sia. It is very far haha but it's all good cause i was able to have a really awesome pday today and it still isn't over ;) First thing we did was go eat Mc Donalds cause that is what everyone wanted to eat cause we have nothing out in our area but it doesn't taste the same as in america... but it does the job for what we needed cause our area is in the middle of nowhere and very mountany but after that we got together with like 3 other Zones in the Mission and went and played a massive game of Ultimate frizby and wow have i missed playing that game.... But it was super crazy and fun so i mean what better way could you start off your Pday right??? ;) After that everyone started to show up out of nowhere and i ended meeting my batch so all the people from the Manila Mtc and what not was there and so they wanted to get a picture with me and the rest of us :) also i got to see my MTC companion again after 2 months of being in the mission and get to go stay at their house for Zone Conference tomorrow so i am super excited about that!!!! Also I got to see my Nanay again!!!! :) it was so funny when i saw her cause she got so freaking happy and just came up to me and was like "Anak I have missed you so much!!! i love you, i am so proud of you and make sure you are staying out of trouble" and then just started talking to me and all that and when she was about to go leave to go email she tells me Sige, makita kits! bless your Nanay! what that means is for the Nanay or Tatays here to be polite you take the hand and put it up to your forhead and they are blessed, Super funny to hear that from her though haha but this week has been good so far.

We finally got a ward mission leader and Elders quorme president in the ward and we had 11 Less Actives come to Church this week and We saved 1 of them :) i was so happy about that! but our Bishop has been doing some really amazing things with the ward already, This week he met with the less actives at Church and is making sure that home evening and home teaching is happening which is awesome and will help out so much in the ward! but we had a very good lesson after that with our less actives and they actually learned a ton from the lesson and from the talk that was showed from us by someone in the Quorm of the 70 but it was honestly one of the best lessons we have had with this family and i hope that it truly helps them and they start coming to Church again... But other than that there hasn't been a whole lot going down this week.. It has just been working with less actives in our ward and trying to help build the strength in the ward right now but it is going very well and i will let you all know more about it!!! 

I hope you all had a wonderful Sunday and have had a wonderful week :) I love you all so freaking much and miss you all!! Remember who you are. Have a good week this week and for you that are out of school now or graduated! I hope you all have a wonderful start of Summer!!!!! ;) i hope it is as hot there as it is here. hahaha ;) I love you all :) I miss you and have a good week and a wonderful start off into Summer!!! :)

Love,

Elder Merrill

June 6th

So right now we are in Iloilo City which is a 4 hour bus ride from my area... Ya layot gid sia. It is very far haha but it's all good cause i was able to have a really awesome pday today and it still isn't over ;) First thing we did was go eat Mc Donalds cause that is what everyone wanted to eat cause we have nothing out in our area but it doesn't taste the same as in america... but it does the job for what we needed cause our area is in the middle of nowhere and very mountany but after that we got together with like 3 other Zones in the Mission and went and played a massive game of Ultimate frizby and wow have i missed playing that game.... But it was super crazy and fun so i mean what better way could you start off your Pday right??? ;) After that everyone started to show up out of nowhere and i ended meeting my batch so all the people from the Manila Mtc and what not was there and so they wanted to get a picture with me and the rest of us :) also i got to see my MTC companion again after 2 months of being in the mission and get to go stay at their house for Zone Conference tomorrow so i am super excited about that!!!! Also I got to see my Nanay again!!!! :) it was so funny when i saw her cause she got so freaking happy and just came up to me and was like "Anak I have missed you so much!!! i love you, i am so proud of you and make sure you are staying out of trouble" and then just started talking to me and all that and when she was about to go leave to go email she tells me Sige, makita kits! bless your Nanay! what that means is for the Nanay or Tatays here to be polite you take the hand and put it up to your forhead and they are blessed, Super funny to hear that from her though haha but this week has been good so far.

We finally got a ward mission leader and Elders quorme president in the ward and we had 11 Less Actives come to Church this week and We saved 1 of them :) i was so happy about that! but our Bishop has been doing some really amazing things with the ward already, This week he met with the less actives at Church and is making sure that home evening and home teaching is happening which is awesome and will help out so much in the ward! but we had a very good lesson after that with our less actives and they actually learned a ton from the lesson and from the talk that was showed from us by someone in the Quorm of the 70 but it was honestly one of the best lessons we have had with this family and i hope that it truly helps them and they start coming to Church again... But other than that there hasn't been a whole lot going down this week.. It has just been working with less actives in our ward and trying to help build the strength in the ward right now but it is going very well and i will let you all know more about it!!! 

I hope you all had a wonderful Sunday and have had a wonderful week :) I love you all so freaking much and miss you all!! Remember who you are. Have a good week this week and for you that are out of school now or graduated! I hope you all have a wonderful start of Summer!!!!! ;) i hope it is as hot there as it is here. hahaha ;) I love you all :) I miss you and have a good week and a wonderful start off into Summer!!! :)

Love,

Elder Merrill

June 5th

so we are currently in the City of Iloilo for Zone Conference and they have a Mcdo here and yes it is pronounced different here.... but we had some actual real food for the first time in 2 months since i have started my training and also this is me and most of my batch that i came to the mission with :) and my Nanay! Super super weird to see everyone but was so good and fun!!! especially since i was able to talk to them in the language a lot more! :) and also that one picture i sent last week was from someone an investigator that drew that for us :) just fyi...

ahhh remember who you are. Wise wise words that i would always hear from my brother in-law and sister whenever they called me... But really always remember who you are because it is so important.

Ayos, lets get started :) so this week has been pretty good it's been an interesting week but so to start off the week it started off a bit rough and i was a little down this week and we had a less active who i was not happy with at all but we went to go see them and help them and the whole time the Nanay(mom) was just talking some serious smack to us and she was sitting there saying to me Oh you're gonna get dark like the natives here and you can't understand or speak Ilonggo or tagalog and you know i really really was just like So done with this nanay and wanted to say something to her but then i realized you know what, what is that gonna solve and i remember what i had studied in Person Study and it was about being more Christ Like and it is so important to be Christ like and to love everyone no matter how hard they may be or how rude they may be we still need to show them our love.

Second let's take a moment to talk about the pictures i had sent to you guys so bowling is something here in the Philippines where they take a bowl with coal on it and put some on their finger and wipe it across your face. But we made a game out of it so you have to like tie a knot in a tie and so you have two of them and one tie you tie once and the other you tie twice but if you get stuck with both you lose and each person you play with gets to wipe a finger with coal on it across your face and so we did that with this Less Active family and seriously it was so freaking fun. We got everyone in on it and we made them Muddie Buddies and funniest thing i wish i got a picture of it but they have a grandma there that is like in her 90's and one of the kids wiped it across her face cause she just sits there in the corner but the look on her face was priceless and she just like started to kind of chase the kid around this bamboo house but it was the funnies thing to see.

I wanna take the time really quick though to say how thankful i am for everything i have here and have seen and for all the people we have in our lives and we also got a new bishop finally :) but he is really good he is the youngest person to be bishop in the whole Philippines he is 28 but he is already doing really great things for us Missionaries and the ward already and it's been one day :) go him!!!!

Everyone always remember how important it is to keep promises or your word to people because it is something that i have realized this week that it is so important but i will talk more about it next time.

I love you all!!!!! :)

Pagpalangga,

Elder Merrill

May 22nd

So totally be jealous ;) haha just kidding but we had a way good time at FHE this week with our Less Active family and we made some amazing food at the house called BicolExpress

So this week has been kind of dull and boring a little bit mainly cause i have been sick this whole week with like a cold or something but it hasn't been good and it has been getting worse throughout the week and my body was aching everyday but i am finally getting over it i think.... But sorry this is a very short email everyone.... i will make sure to have plenty to tell you all next week though!

So we ended up making muddy buddies though this week with cookycrisp and some weird cereal that they have here but oh my goodness so freaking amazing though and made me think of making things back home but i can not wait to make some more tonight for FHE and share them with the people here in the Philippines they are gonna love them! Also i ended up trying Balut this week. That is probably what got me sick.... but if you want to know what it is i suggest you google it haha like seriously all of you google it and find out what it is :) it's so good. unless you don't like egg. or baby duck. or feathers. Not happy about it but i do have videos of me trying it haha they are pretty funny!!! 

Nothing has really changed about this week cause we haven't been able to really go out that much this week since i have been sick but still in the same area! language is still coming along slowly but surely haha and i am not the newest missionary in the mission now!!! and i don't know the least amount of Ilonggo!!!! ;) but i love you all so much and you all are so freaking amazing and i love hearing from you guys!! miss you tons! 

Have a very wonderful Sunday and good week everyone!!!! Palangga Ko Kamo!!!! :)

Love,

Elder Merrill

May 15th

So this is pictures of The group of skaters that i played skate against and taught :) this is one of our Investigators that we just set a Baptismal date for :) and the Baptism we had this week for the Sisters and Alright so Boba smoothies here are so much better! they put actual fruit chunks in the smoothie so this is Lychee with actual Lychee in it and they are amazing! ;)