Megan's letter Jan. 25, 2016

This week was so good! And busy. 

  

The Worldwide Missionary Broadcast was on Wednesday. It was so cool to be watching the same thing as all the other missionaries in the world! My favorite part was a discussion by Elder Bednar. He taught us how we can bring the gospel UNTO the hearts of our investigators, but only they can bring it INTO their hearts. He also talked about the Holy Ghost and how we have to be obedient and worthy if we want the spirit to work through us as missionaries. I know obedience is sooo important and that miracles happen here when we are following the ALL of the rules and staying worthy.

Interviews were on Thursday in Tupelo, Mississippi! I love President and Sister Hanks. He trained us on having a strong presence as missionaries and it's something I'm excited to work on.

We have been teaching this cute couple lately! They are so sweet and open to our message. We had an amazing lesson where we answered a lot of questions they have had their whole lives! They will be at church next week hopefully. At one of the lessons the wife shared with us a scripture from the Book of Mormon that helped her on a hard night.... SO COOL! Alma 37:45

We have also been seeing an investigator named Maurice a lot! We met him at the library. He is very humble and receptive. He is homeless but has a job and is just waiting for an apartment complex to accept his application! He came with us to a baptism in Russellville and he loved it. The spirit was so strong. We kept saying "Maurice this is exactly what your baptism will look like!" Haha I guess it worked because we set a baptismal date with him yesterday. He is going to be baptized on February 12th which is actually his birthday! Obviously we will have a birthday party for him afterwards (:

Also, the whole state shuts down at the sight of snow! So funny because it didn't even stick! They even have snow days for school if the forecast says it might snow hahaha. 

The work is going so great! I love my comp, I love Florence, I love the gospel. Life is good! I love y'all, have a good week!

-Sister Merrill

Megan's Letter 1/19/2016

First off... ROLL TIDE. I'm just sayin. National Championship 2016!! Alabama is pumped right now guys.

     We've been working with this girl named Alexus who we met while she was working at walmart! We started a conversation with her by complimenting her hair. She is so cute and sweet! We made an appointment with her and she told us she would teach us how to do that hair style.... well she definitely did... worst part was that we brought her to the relief society activity after and had to leave our hair in so we wouldn't offend her. Jaws dropped as we walked in!! So worth it. #doitfortheinvestigator

    We had another exchange in Corinth this week! It was a lot of fun and we stopped by some fun places on the way back. There is this bus that says "Jesus is the real life saver!" in front of a Pentecostal church so we just had to stop! 

     The regional stake broadcast was on Sunday! So so cool. We got to hear from Elder Rasband and Elder Hales. Elder Rasband spoke on the importance of temples and it made me wish I could go more often! Elder Hales spoke on families and it was very sweet. Our investigator Erik came. He was really sad when he saw that "Thomas" wasn't going to be speaking though. We are fixin to set a baptismal date with him sometime this week (: 

     I love you all so much! I know this gospel is true because it is changing me. I know that this is the way to true happiness in this life and in the life to come! Have a good week!

-Sister Merrill

Megan's Letter 1/11/2016

Week 5! 

This week has gone by SO fast!

     Can't believe how fast Pday came around. This week has kind of been a blur but it's also been really good! We have been meeting with Erik a few more times and he even came to church again yesterday. We feel like he is really progressing. He is so excited for the broadcast on Sunday! He is hoping that "Thomas" is going to speak but we told him he probably won't because of his health. 

     We also started teaching this girl named Baylee! She is 21 and she has a little two year old boy who is a little rascal. She also just got engaged, is trying to quit smoking, and has been wanting to be re-baptized! Golden investigator right!? We sure hope so. She took the restoration really well and has a strong belief in the Holy Ghost which has been helpful in us teaching her. I had a cool experience where I had this Book of Mormon with another missionaries testimony in it, and was supposed to wait till I was prompted to give it to someone. Well as I introduced the book to her, I didn't notice that was the one I was holding! I then got the feeling that it was right and I needed to give it to her. She was so honored that I would give her the one I had been saving for someone special. She cried, it was adorable. She wasn't able to make it to church but she is coming to a relief society activity tomorrow! She is so so nice but also very stubborn in some things she believes so we will see.

     Oh something sad happened this week! So in this mission we do transfer meetings. Everyone who is getting transferred comes to Birmingham and we have this really cool and spiritual meeting. President Hanks usually speaks and trains, and we all find out who our new companions are and where we're headed! Well Elder Oaks from the quorum of the twelve apostles is on the Missionary board for the church and he very strongly dislikes transfer meetings, and has made a church wide rule that no missions can have transfer meetings from now on ): This is a bummer because I won't have as many opportunities to meet all the people in my mission, or see past companions. All of the missionaries here were pretty upset about it! Goes to show we don't always understand the decisions made in the church, but we can always have faith that our leaders are called of God and know what He wants for us! At our zone training the STLs and zone leaders brought a gravestone and set it up outside. It was way funny. One of the Elders stood up front and said: "We are gathered here today in memory of our dear friend Transfer meetings... who was killed by Elder Oaks.." We all died laughing.

     Anyway this week has been good and I'm looking forward to the meetings and lessons coming up this week! Also I've been reading that book called "The Continuous Atonement" by Brad Wilcox, the one Brandon sent me for Christmas. I love it so much. There is a poem in there that really stuck out to me! It says: 

"Time and time again He saves,

Forgiving my mistakes,

Seventy times seven times-

However long it takes"

-Steven Kapp Perry 

 

This is so real to me. The Savior has already paid the price for all of our sins. He is just waiting for us to take advantage of this incredible gift. I have been able to use this gift in my life and especially out here! I hope you will all turn to the Savior in good times and in bad.

Y'all have a good week, remember that I love you!

-Sister Merrill

Megan's Letter 1/4/2016 

Hey! Guys I hit my 1 month mark already.... it's going by way too fast!

I won't tell you too much about the beginning of the week because the first 3 days were spent quarantined in our apartment with strep throat. Yeah it put a huge dent in our goals for the week and it already wasn't looking like we would hit our numbers! Then we finally got to go out on Friday but the STLs wanted to do an exchange in our area that night! So we split up and afterward they told us we were doing a surprise mega exchange all of Saturday! So it wasn't looking good for our goals. But the mega exchange was cool because we were both in tripanionships for the day! Also super random but we were convinced our investigator Tina had.. passed on... for a couple days because we couldn't find her in the hospital or at her house! Turns out she is alive and well, she just got transferred to another hospital! Bad news is she isn't progressing so we have to drop her tonight ):

Yesterday was my favorite day of the mission so far (:

Our investigator Erik came to church!! We tracted into him my first Sunday here but we have only had the chance to give him one super short lesson. He had basically no prep for what church would be like! To top it all off it was fast Sunday... fast Sunday is sketchy her in Bama cause people say the WEIRDEST things hahaha. But most of the testimonies were normal for the most part which was a huge blessing! After the third hour we could tell Erik was way confused so we asked him if we could do a short lesson at the church before he went home! We taught him the restoration. My first time teaching it!!! Crazy huh? I think It went well though and he is really receptive. We talked to him about modern day prophets for a minute and he was so fascinated! He asked us "So does Thomas have a youtube channel?"

Hahahaha. He had a lot of hard questions too but he just loves how much we care about him enough to follow up. We are teaching him again on Wednesday (:

After church we went on splits with a couple of the young women! It went AMAZING. I have never felt so brave knocking doors before. We passed out seven BOMs and had eight bap invites in less than two hours! So many amazing people. I'm excited to follow up with them! Despite only working in our area two days this week, we ended up  hitting all of our numbers. This was just proof to me that when you work hard Heavenly Father helps you achieve your goals! I love it here so much and I think it's going by too fast. 

HAVE A BLESSED NEW YEAR!

Love you all (: