8/25/2014

My picture with Elder Godoy, of the Quorum of the 70! He visited our mission! He is from Brazil and is an incredible man!!

8/25/2014....Visit from Elder Godoy

8/25/2014
My week in review: This past week was SO incredible! Our investigators are doing SO well! We had a great turnout this past week at church, were able to teach and commit many of them, and also were able to witness a baptism in our Zone! Whoo!

Also, we were able to meet with Elder Carlos A. Godoy of the Quorum of the 70. It was mind-blowingly amazing. We were able to have an early morning meeting with him, including him, President and Sister Brinkerhoff and probably 15 missionaries or so. It was very personal and the spirit was strong. We discussed the work in the IPM, how we can do better and what we are going to do to get where we need to be. Elder Godoy is so funny! He is from Brazil too! After our meeting, I was able to speak a little Portuguese with him, explain my situation and receive some council from him. He is a great man. :) Also, in the evening we had a fireside with him! Also, Elder Rash, two other elders and myself were able to sing a 4 part version of "Brightly Beams our Father's Mercy." It was AMAZING! We also have a Zone Conference tomorrow and will be singing there as well. :)

Also, Elder Rash and I have been able to do a lot of thinking, discussing and pondering about how we can better help the zone. We have come up with some great ideas and are very much looking forward to meeting with them after Zone Conference and counseling together!

We were able to come together this past Friday as well and have a Zone Companionship Study. The study went wonderfully! AND THEN! Elder Rash and I were able to sing a song that we prepared. ;) It was a spin on Five for Fightings, "Superman." We changed the lyrics so as to apply it to a new missionaries journey through his mission. What his priorities were like when he started out and what he became when the end came. ;) It was HILARIOUS and SOOOOO fun!!!!

Mmm.... what else.... oh! It's been raining a lot! Also! Elder Rash and I were both able to go on exchanges this past week! It was an incredible experience. I learned that I need to do better at not being afraid but instead, moving forward in the direction that God wants me to. Also, I LOVE the missionaries in this Zone! They are all so amazing and have such great desires to move forward and make miracles of their missions.

We also were able to go out teaching with our mission president! He came to 2 of our appointments during the evening of Wednesday. It was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! The spirit that man brings is unreal. I love him so much! He was able to give us some great feedback as well and we are looking forward to more fully enhancing our teaching. :)

it was just SUCH a busy week and such an incredible week. :) Thank you all for your amazing support and for everything you are doing! Please keep sharing the Gospel and brightening other's lives! I Know that Heavenly Father smiles down when we take care of those around us. :) We are all His children. :) He loves us all and wants to see all of us again. If our joy will be great with one soul that we have helped, how great shall be our joy if we should bring many souls unto God! Love you all!!!! :)

8/18/2014...Farm animals and the rain!!!

 SPENCER AND NATANIEL!! 

SO! It POORED rain while we were walking down the hill. Even though I had my super fancy brazillian rain jacket on, it didn't keep the rain away. BUT what it did do is keep me somewhat dry but the rest of my pants got SOAKED

8/18/2014..Chicken, ducks and cooking shoes

Our week indeed was AMAZING and the success was PLENTIFUl. Every week feels so LONG! In the best possible way! When Monday rolls around, we look back at the past week and we feel like the memories are SO old because there are so many of them! Here are a few! ;)

1-We got to go do some awesome service for the family in the Highland Stake! We helped them lay a TON of sod! Also, I got to hold a chicken and a duck! Man... that was scary. BUT it was super cool! Haha! They also gave us cookies and lemonade! Also, Elder Rash hit me in the head with a football! So, there was this swing that I was on. I was spinning around and he threw a football from about 25 yards away, it hit the pole that was holding the swing up and bounced off and hit me in the head. Even though it was VERY impressive, I chased after him and jumped on his back. He is a lot bigger than me though so it didn't do much! Haha! Overall, it was a wonderful opportunity to get the blue jeans on and go to work!

2-We are having SO much success and wonderful things happening in our zone right now! The work is hastening here in Pocatello, that's for sure! August is going to be GREAT and September is going to be INCREDIBLE! We are working on increasing the personal and effective follow up we have with our Zone. Elder Rash has come up with TONS of amazing ideas that are helping to push the Zone forward and give them everything they need to grow and prosper in this portion of the Lord's vineyard! We are the ZONE OF CHANGE! We are dedicated to becoming someone different, someone closer to God, every single day. We are going to invite those around us to come closer to Christ and nothing is going to stop us!

3-We also got to perform our musical number! The whole event was a HUGE success. The spirit was strong and without a doubt, Jesus Christ is the Savior. :) Also, our # went well! We are also performing for Zone Conference. We are performing a 4 part arrangement of 'Brightly Beams our Father's Mercy" with a narrative that I get to read in the middle, D&C 18:10-16. It's going to be incredible!

4-Mmm... it rained a LOT this past week as well! We got very wet and we even tried putting our jackets and in Elder Rash's case, his shoes and in my case, my planner, into the oven! We put it on low and tried to dry them off! It kind of worked! Haha! It made them really warm but they were still pretty wet. ;)

5-Also, Elder Rash and myself wrote a song!!! It is about a missionaries journey through the mission. It is pretty darn awesome. ;) We are gonna play it for Zone Companionship Study sometime. ;)

6-We are going mini golfing today! Whoo!

7-Oh! We got to play basketball with 2 of our investigators and a bunch of priests from the wards that we cover. We are trying to turn it into a weekly thing! We have been seeing a lot of success come from it and it has been SO fun!

8-We set a baptismal date with one of our investigators! He is awesome! He has read the Book of Mormon 2 times, the D&C once and the bible who knows how many times! He is going to be baptized on Sept 13th! He is working on overcoming smoking right now! He can do it!!!

9-Also, we got to go to the hospital to give a woman a blessing! When we got there, she had already received one BUT it was still an amazing experience! We got to have a prayer with her and I've decided I LOVE hospitals. Man! It was so AWESOME in there! It just felt like such an incredible environment! The work of salvation is done there, in a sense that people are either moving forward to learn more about the gospel on the other side or they are hopefully having experiences that will eventually bring them closer to Christ in this life!! Neurosurgery here we come!!! ;)

Overall, it was an AMAZING week! Man.... and we've got another one coming! I love you all!

Keep doing good member missionary work! Invite someone to hear from the missionaries TODAY and THIS WEEK!

Elder Merkley

8/11/2014..Visit from home and Great Missionaires

 A visit from Shani Law..dropping off some goodies from home!!!

Working in the FIELD!!!

8/11/2014..Speaking Portuguese and great experiences!!

Cool experience #1- We were driving down the road and we noticed this homeless man who was sitting on some bleachers. We initially drove by him and then felt the need to turn around and go talk to him. Boy oh boy, I had no idea what we were getting into. ;) So, he spoke NO English. It was AWESOME! I decided that some Portuguese was needed! ;) So, I got to talk to him for about 5 min in Portuguese. We gave him our number, talked to him about what religion he is, found out he didn't have a home AND had a prayer with him. It was such an incredible experience. :)

Cool experience #2- We found this amazing boy named Jessie! He is 9, his parents are LA members and he wants to be baptized! We got to teach him the Restoration and take him on a Church Tour. He absolutely loved it AND he came to church! :)

Cool experience #3- We have been able to make some GREAT progress with an amazing family that we have started teaching. We got to talk about eternal marriage quite a bit yesterday and share a video about how families can be together forever with them. We also gave them videos about the Restoration and Jesus Christ. It was fantastic! :)

Cool Experience 4- We got to talk in 2 of our 3 wards that we went to this past Sunday! I spoke on overcoming fear and covenants. It went REALLY well and it was such a good experience!!!

Other than that, it's been very rainy, Elder Rash is SO AWESOME and life is just great!!!!

To everyone else, I love you as well! Be safe and share the Gospel with EVERYONE! :)

Elder Merkley

8/4/2014..Having fun on pday!!

8/4/2014...New Companion!!

We don't have a lot of time..... BUT! This past week was incredible! Elder Rash, my new companion, is INCREDIBLE! He is very obedient, a super hard worker, diligent and very patient as well! There's a lot I could learn from him! ;) Also, we found a new family to start teaching!  She is a LA member, he is a non member and their 11 year old son is baptized Episcipalian. They are so great! They're eager to go to church, read the Book of Mormon and we are going back Wednesday! Boom! Also, we had a meeting to go to in Idaho Falls, which was FANTASTIC! This mission is SO great and President Brinkerhoff i s INCREDIBLE! :) Also, we have a meeting with the whole Zone this coming Tuesday! It's gonna be fantastic to see everyone together! Overall, I promise I'm doing great. :) Life is fantastic, the weather has been nice and we have some great stuff going on. I love you so much! :) Have a fantastic day and week!!!!!! :)