Megan's Letter 8/29/16

Okay I had to share this... This is a list of people we were calling the other day!!! Gotta love Southern names.

This is our good friend Andrew from the Northport ward! He is always hanging out with all the missionaries. Now he is headed to California on his own mission!

This is Addie! We have been visiting with her for a while now. She has a daughter who converted to the church years ago and now she wants to learn more about it so she can relate! She swears she is not interested in converting, but the way she studies the Book of Mormon suggests otherwise. (; We will see! Maybe we are just planting a seed with her.

This week I went on an exchange with Sister Mitchell in Bessemer! This cute little girl they are teaching named JaMaila put braids and beads in our hair.

Yesterday at church a miracle happened! We have been visiting with this adorable inactive lady named Cynthia for the longest time, and she finally came to church. This was the first time she had attended church since she she converted IN THE 80s!!!

Recently the words to the hymn "Abide with Me!" have been stuck in my head. I'm not really mad about it though because the lyrics are incredible. (: My favorite part is in the second verse when it says:

"Change and decay in all around I see;

O thou who changest not, abide with me!"

I have a testimony that no matter what changes in our lives, the Savior is consistent. I'm so grateful for the comfort that brings me.

Transfer calls are this Saturday so I'll let you know the news next week! I love y'all so much. Steadfast in Christ!

-Sister Merrill

P.S. We "mustache" you if you knew my 9 month mark is this week!?!?!?!?!?!

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Megan's Letter 8/22/16

This week was a blast! I was sick for a few days, but it turned out alright. (:

This weekend was very exciting! We did some service for this cute Hispanic family in the Lorna branch, and then we went to Cheesecake Factory with all the Sisters close by! We had so much fun. (:

Also, Sister Moline cut her thumb open!!!! Y'all, it was so gross. But hey thumbs up cause she hit her year mark!(:

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Lately I've been trying to be more focused on the importance of the sacrament. I have come to realize how much of a privilege it is to be able to renew our baptismal covenants each week! During the sacrament yesterday I was reading my scriptures and Alma 7:15 really stood out to me. It says:

"Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him this day by going into the waters of baptism."

Each week as we take the sacrament we lay aside our sins and covenant with our Heavenly Father that we are willing to take upon us the name of His son. In return we are promised that we will always have his spirit to be with us. I'm so grateful for my baptismal covenants and that I can be made clean each Sunday so long as I'm willing to repent. The blessings of the Atonement are endless.

I love y'all and I hope you have a great week!(:

-Sister Merrill

Megan's Letter 8/15/16

So Sister Moline and I both drink A LOT of milk... That's all I have to say about that!

This week we had a meal appointment with the Pates! Sister Pate is a convert. When she was baptized her mom gave her this suuuuper old Book of Mormon and explained to her it had been passed down through generations and told not to read. But it's cool cause now she has it! She felt as if it was confirmation that she was making the right choice.

 In other news we had Zone Conference this week! Sister Moline and I trained on using the Area Book and our Phones. It really opened my eyes up to how many potential people we can find just by looking through the area book and calling people we don't know on our phones! We have been using ours a lot more and I feel like we have had a lot of success so far. (:

 

 After that I went on exchanges with Sister Anderl! She is from Sandy, UT and went to Jordan High School!! Small world. (:

 Also, we made a cookie route yesterday! This is one of my favorite members, Sister Walters.

In other news there is an adorable little girl in the ward named Lydia! She loves the missionaries. She just turned 3 and requested we be at her birthday party. (:

 

 

I love the South and I'm grateful to be a missionary! I am gaining a huge testimony of the Savior and the role He plays in helping us through anything that comes our way. I love this gospel and I love y'all so much! Have a great week. (:

-Sister Merrill

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Megan's Letter 8/8/16

Y'all we had a BUSY week. My favorite kind. (:

MLC was on Tuesday! There were some great trainings and discussions. I also got to see all these friends from my first zone. (':

Ted's birthday was on Thursday!! We got him a Christian shirt (cause that's all he wears) and bought him some chick-fil-a! He was so happy. We love him more than I can put into words. Pray for him please! It is easy for him to get discouraged as he battles his addiction.

 Zone Training was on Friday! It was so great to be with everyone. My favorite topic we trained on was a talk called "What If Love Were Our Only Motive?" by Russell T. Osguthorpe. It's amazing to think about what the world would be like if everyone's motives were based off of pure, Christ-like love. A quote I love from the talk says:

 "The Savior’s life on earth was short, but He was always reaching out in love every step of the way. He helped so many while He was on His way to help someone else. He noticed what others needed, reached out to them, and helped them—sometimes in simple ways and other times in miraculous ways. Every miracle He performed, every word He spoke, He did out of love."

After Zone Training I went on exchanges with Sister Benioni! She is from Hawaii and she is basically the coolest person ever. She is in a Spanish Branch area so it was pretty interesting! I didn't understand much in any of the lessons but I loved everyone I met. (:

Yesterday Sister Moline and I ate dinner at a member's home and did a little lesson with the kids. (: They are such a cute family and they feed us a lot. GUYS feed the missionaries. Enough said.

Today I was tricked into a hike again. But it wasn't all bad! We had a lot of fun and hung out by a cool lake. (:

Recently my Mission President challenged me to memorize The Living Christ! It is an incredible document put out by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the year 2000. I'm so grateful to have a Mission President who was inspired enough to share this idea with me. Whenever things get hard I can always just recite it in my head and feel the spirit. Please go read it sometime this week and maybe even memorize it yourself! It is so special.

I love y'all and I'm so grateful for your support and prayers! Have a great week. (:

-Sister Merrill

Megan's Letter 8/1/16

Holy cow time flies! I'm happy to say I'm staying in Tuscaloosa another transfer with Sister Moline!(:

On Wednesday we decided to ride our bikes to the mall to save miles! Well the problem was that just as we left to head home, it started pouring rain. Alabama weather y'all!! It's crazy.

 This week we did a TON of service. 3 families in the ward needed help moving, and we got to help Ted work on a lot in his trailer park! We sure do love Ted. Hopefully he can quit smoking soon so we can set a baptismal date. (:

This week we focused on visiting less actives! It went really well up until yesterday when none of them showed up to church like they had promised. It's okay, we won't give up on them! It is so great to sit down and hear their conversion stories and testimonies. It has helped me realize that in order to show true faith we must act! It has also helped me notice that trials are sooo much easier to endure when we are living the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 Mosiah 2:41 says:

"And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it."

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We have a fun week coming up with MLC and Zone Training! I will let y'all know how that goes. (: Have a great week!

-Sister Merrill