Megan's Letter 7/25/16

Okay so I promise we did other stuff this week, but all I could focus on was this: LINDSEY GOT BAPTIZED AND I GOT TO VISIT FLORENCE. Best day and biggest miracle of my mission so far. Not to mention Maddie visited me in T-Town on Wednesday, and I got to see her all day Friday as well. I love her

Sorry for so many pictures!

Maddie and I at Panera in Tuscaloosa. (:

BEST BEST DAY.
I can't tell y'all how much love I have for Lindsey.

Downtown Florence.

We visited Charlotte too of course. (:

I can't really put that day into words. It was a huge tender mercy that I was able to go back and watch one of my very best friends enter the waters of baptism! It's funny, I didn't realize how many lifelong friends I would meet in Alabama of all places. I think Florence will always have my heart.

In honor of Lindsey I want to share with y'all a verse that she brought to our attention when we were first teaching her. It has come to mean a lot to me!

Alma 37:44-45
"44 For behold, it is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land.  45 And now I say, is there not a type in this thing? For just as surely as this director did bring our fathers, by following its course, to the promised land, shall the words of Christ, if we follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise."

That's all for this week! Oh yeah except we did go fishing this morning. (No I didn't catch that fish. Yes I know I look terrified of it, I am.)

​Have a good week! I LOVE Y'ALL.

-Sister Merrill

Megan's Letter 7/18/16

Another busy week!

Okay I hope all y'all celebrated Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a. If not I'm really sorry, but we did and we had a BLAST. (:

Also, I rode my bike FOR THE FIRST TIME on my mission... I don't know how I got lucky enough to avoid it the first 7 months, but it wasn't so bad. (: I was on exchange with Sister Johnson!

 

 

Then I went on exchange with Sister Sheffield this week! She is so sweet, and she loves Mayday so we are best friends obviously.

 

 

 

The next morning we got to go to a wedding in Bessemer! I've been lucky enough to teach this cute family on exchange. I love them so much!

 

 

 

 

THEN after that we went to a District Meeting in Lorna, and then on a blitz with Sister Hidalgo!(:

 

 

​On Sunday we got to listen to President Archibald speak, who just returned from serving in Lima, Peru West as the Mission President! His talk was great. (: My favorite part was when he said: "The Lord works through very weak vessels."

There are so many times where I've felt inadequate for this work, but I know that the Lord can use me to work miracles. Doctrine and Covenants 1:23 says:

"That the fulness‍ of my gospel‍ might be proclaimed‍ by the weak‍ and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings‍ and rulers."

This is the one and only church that contains the fulness of the gospel people!! I feel so blessed to know it. Stay steadfast y'all and have an amazing week. (:

-Sister Merrill

P.S. We had a Sister sleep over with all the Sisters in the zone last night and spent tons of time with everyone today.

 

​

Megan's Letter 7/11/16

Hey y'all! This week has been very eventful. (:

First we had the opportunity to to see a lot of our Sisters this week!

We started off in Bessemer, where I got to hang out with Sister Kenyon for a few hours! We went and had an incredible first lesson with someone, where she told us she knows the Book of Mormon is true and wants to be baptized! I believe in miracles y'all.

 Next we drove over to Lorna, where I spent some time with Sister Benioni. She is THE BEST. Let me tell y'all about an incident we had. So we had just finished up an appointment and decided to stop at Walmart on the way home. We get out of the car and see this humongous COCKROACH on top of the car! And it kept running at us every time we tried to get our stuff out of the back seat! So we decided to just run inside and forget about it. Well guess what!? We came back out and it was STILL THERE. Sister Benioni grabbed a sign and tried to flick it off the car, but it slid into the hood! We were terrified the whole ride home that it was going to fly out of the AC or something.

The next day I went on an exchange with Sister Chavez! We had a blast as usual (: BUT OH MY GOSH IT WAS SO HOT.

 ​And I met the cutest little girl ever named Nikki (:

 ​Saturday Rick was baptized almost exactly a year after his wife! It was an incredible and spiritual meeting. They are so excited to go to the temple in a year. I couldn't be happier for them. (:

After the baptism we went to try and visit some potentials! I saw this lady sitting on her deck and felt prompted to talk to her. We yelled up to her and asked if we could come up and share a message! Her son let us in and we started to get to know her. Her name is Maggie, and as it turns out her brother just passed away a few days before. We had the opportunity to share with her the Plan of Salvation. She kept telling us how much hope that gives her. I thought that was fitting- the Plan of Hope. I'm so grateful for the knowledge we have, so that we can have hope for ourselves and for our loved ones who have passed on.
My favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon right now is Moroni 7! Verses 40-42 say:
"40 And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope?  41 And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.
 42 Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope."
I have gained a little bit of an obsession with hope in my studies, so I'm sorry if I talk about it too much. (: Have a great week y'all!

-Sister Merrill

Megan's Letter 7/5/16

 GOD BLESS THE SOUTH.

 

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July!(:

It was an amazing and HOT week here in Alabama, but that's nothing new!

I got to go on an exchange with cute Sister Dustin! Love her.

 On Friday we met President and Sister Sainsbury for the first time! They are such kind and loving people. Mission Leadership Council was yesterday! It was a blast to be with everyone on the 4th. After that we spent the day with other Sisters nearby and even contacted at a firework show! We had a lot of fun. (:

 Sorry for the short email today! I just want y'all to know that I LOVE the verse Ether 12:4. It says: "Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God."

I think this is amazing because faith has really been such an anchor in my life, and especially on my mission. I know that no matter what happens, I can always choose to be steadfast in Christ. Have a blessed week y'all (:

-Sister Merrill

Megan's Letter 6/27/16

"Haaave you met Ted?"

Y'all, this week there was a miracle! And his name is Ted. (:

After we got done emailing last Pday, Sister Moline and I decided to get some frozen yogurt. We were talking to the cashier about our mission trips when all the sudden this guy in the store shouted: "Wait y'all are Mormons!? Tell me about the spirit world!"

We assumed the typical bash, but he genuinely wanted to know! He said that he wanted to be baptized for his aunt so that she could be saved. We told him he would have to be baptized before he could be baptized for her, and he was all for it! He explained that he has been taught by the Elders in Montgomery, Alabama and that he had just lost contact with them! Since then we have had three lessons, he came to church yesterday, and he even took us out to eat one night. He is GOLDEN. Nothing short of a miracle.

 

 

​On Tuesday we had the opportunity to go to the temple, and say goodbye to President and Sister Hanks. I can't tell you how much of an impact they've had on me.

 

 

After that the week plummeted a bit and we lost 3 of our 5 progressing investigators... Two of which were Solomge and Rudlof, who I still love with all my heart!

 

That was a bummer! But I know the Lord is just making room for us to teach people who are really ready for the message we carry. (: I often find peace in one of my favorite verses! Alma 26: 27 says: "Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn‍ back, behold, the Lord comforted‍ us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience‍ thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success."

So we buckled up and started tracting! And you know what? We always find something funny when we tract.

I love this work and I love the gospel! I hope y'all have an amazing week.

And don't forget... ROLL TIDE. (:

 

 

-Sister Megan Merrill

Megan's Letter 6/20/16

Holy cow I can't believe I'm already on my 5th transfer!

I LOVE SISTER MOLINE. This girl is hilarious and so much fun! We have been working hard and laughing hard these last few days. She is from Plano, Texas (Home of the Dr. Pepper head quarters) and she is the youngest of 5 kids. I adore her, if you can't tell. (:

 

 

 

Sister Hintze is training, which makes me a GRANDMA.

 

In other news we had some fun tracting this week (:

IT IS GETTING SO HOT OUTSIDE.

Solomge and Rudolf came to church for the first time yesterday! Solomge absolutely loved it and made friends instantly. I'm not sure how Rudolf felt about it, but we will find out when we see them on Friday!

We have an amazing guy we are teaching named Rick who is on date for July 9th! His wife has been a member just under a year and has been such an amazing missionary to him. We have been teaching him a good minute and we are so excited to see him make this step!

​Hope everyone had an amazing Father's Day! Anyone that knows me well knows that my dad is my very best friend, and the best dad I could ask for. He was sporting an Alabama Tie at church on Sunday.  I LOVE HIM SO MUCH.

 

 

I love y'all and I hope you have the best week!

-Sister Merrill

 

Megan's Letter 6/13/16

This week was great! We had MLC on Tuesday and Zone Training on Friday! Sister Layton and I got to train on Patience- which is what Sister Hanks trained on at MLC. I loved it so much! Patience is HARD to gain, I am far from done working on it. (:

One of my favorite scriptures on patience is Alma 34:41, which says:

"But that ye have patience, and bear with those afflictions, with a firm hope that ye shall one day rest from all your afflictions."

In other news, the Elders gave us some cookies with an interesting twist. They found this guy tracting and decided they would like to scare the crap out of me.. It worked.

 

 

 

Yesterday we met an amazing girl named Jasmine! We went to go see this family we met at Wal-Mart, and then started knocking the neighboring doors. Next thing we know this adorable 18 year old girl with a huge smile on her face invited us in! At the end of the lesson, we asked if she had any questions. She said: "Just one: Where can I get one of those books!?" We started laughing and handed her the Book of Mormon. She was so touched that we would give it to her for free! I'm excited to see her again.

Transfer calls came on Saturday! I will be getting Sister Moline, who is actually a Spanish speaking missionary. I'm really excited to meet her, I hear she is a lot of fun. (: Also, Happy Birthday to my cute Mama today! I love her so so much. Well that's all for this week! I hope y'all have a good one and remember how much I love you!

-Sister Merrill