#Change

Hey y'all,

Zone conference was awesome this week, it was focused on the Christlike attributes, which I LOVED because we usually talk about how we can better help others, but I liked the focus on how I can become a better missionary and person in general. It was a great zone conference, everyone was asked to prepare a four minute talk on a Christlike attribute of their choice and present it in front of the zone. Literally ALL the elders picked "love/charity"... We are thinking that they're all struggling with that. Haha. (: But I was able to learn a lot from everyone's short talks and testimonies. It was an eye opener for me to see that I have so much to work on. President Bennion than spoke on pride, using the Ezra Taft Benson talk "Beware of Pride" which, if you haven't read, please read! It's sooo great. Wow. Loved zone conference..even if it was 9 hours long.

This week, again, has been crazy busy. Lots of lessons and lots of new potentials. Let me tell you about our wonderful investigator, Herman. Herman is really quiet. He's had a hard life growing up, he has lived in a tent for 6 years and had long hair and a long beard. He doesn't really look at us when we talk to him but he feels he spirit and gains a lot from our lessons. He is coming to church every week now, trying to change his life around, cleaned himself up and is now on date to be baptized in November (: we are so excited for him. He's our favorite. We love to tell him we love him and see his expression on his face. Haha (:

Saturday we had the Georgia vs Missouri game so we helped the UGA Sisters make rice Krispy treats to pass out and work the booth. I love game days. <3 we were able to get really good contacts and I was able to be with Chelsea. I'm way too spoiled here. Haha!  The other night the UGA sisters came over and spent the night, it was probably a bad idea because we got absolutely no sleep! 

After having such a fun night we got a call from president this morning telling us that Sister Tuitea is getting emergency transferred and I'm getting another newbie. I'm so extremely sad that I won't be with Sister T anymore, but I'm excited to be with this new sister (: I know it's who I need to be with at this time. Missions are great, but if you don't like change, be prepared to have a lot of it and the most unexpected times. Anyways, I love and miss y'all. 

Thanks for all your love and support <3

Love, Sister Merritt

Sabbath Day and Miracles

Hey y'all!

This week has been extremely busy! We have had lesson on top of lesson on top of lesson. Which is fabulous, but also exhausting. Tuesday we had a zone meeting, centered all on the Sabbath day and how we can become better at teaching it. It's so true that when a person's Sabbath activities become just like any other day all aspects of their lives are negatively affected.  We made a commitment to teach a short Sabbath Day lesson at the end of every lesson we had. Sister Tuitea and I forgot to teach it sometimes..oops. But we got at least 22 lessons on the sabbath in there.

I went on exchange in Greensboro which is THE cutest little town. Picket fences around the cute little cottage style houses with huge porches and tons of open fields. It's like, total country. I don't know how you get more country. But when we were tracting a little lady opened the door and it looked like she was packing. We asked her where she was moving to and she said "the country." ...okay. What's more country than this? Haha but I loved it there. The people also spoke a different language I think.. Like I could not understand their southern accents at all. Sister Johns and I definitely had help from our Heavenly Father. The gift of interpretation of tongues is definitely real. Also, Sister Johns is a HUGE one direction fan. Yay to that, because we automatically bonded. (:

There is a lot of work to be done in Athens though. (: And I love it here. There are people ready to hear the gospel and here in the south, the work is definitely hastening. The other day we felt like we needed to visit a referral we had received. We parked a couple houses down for whatever reason and started walking. As we were walking to our referrals home we saw this man named Matthew just sitting on his porch so we go and talk to him. Turns out he has talked with missionaries before. We asked him if he was able to read from the Book of Mormon and he told us he didn't have a copy to read from. So, we did a short restoration lesson and gave him the Book of Mormon AND put him on date to be baptized. He was really excited and super elect.

We were also able to stop by a less active, but it turns out she moved. The lady who was there however, was super interested in the Book of Mormon and asked us to please call her and to stop by anytime. She just really really wanted to learn more. She said she had been praying for truth when we knocked on her door. Little miracles are happening all around us, and I'm so grateful to witness them first-hand (:

Anyway, I love y'all <3

Love, Sister Merritt

Chelsea took us out to eat the other night. Goodness am I glad that I was able to come to UGA with her.

Back to School

HEY YALL.

This week has been INSANELY busy. We had transfers! I am now in Athens (University of Georgia) with my wonderfully hilarious Samoan companion Sister Tuitea. Just in time for game season! Yes, the Bulldogs lost this weekend. Yes, everyone is grumpy. We don't talk about it. I will miss Shallowford tremendously, but I know I'm meant to be in Athens at this time. And I'm so excited to be here!

New address:

4315 Lexington Rd apt #6c

Brighton park apartments

Athens , GA 30605

As we were driving from the mission office to Athens Wednesday morning we start hearing these awful noises. So we decide to take the car to the shop Thursday morning to get it fixed. We find out that they'll have to order special parts for it so we have to leave our car there. Great. So now we are 30 minutes away from home and we don't have a car. So we start calling like, every member we can to give us a ride. Unfortunately every member works so it was hard. And since I just got to the area I didn't know who anybody was, I was just calling them. Haha so finally we got a ride home. But it's been kind of difficult finding rides for every appointment. And we can't walk or ride bikes because our area is GIANT, all busy roads with no shoulder and all our investigators live forever away. But it's been going okay so far (: hopefully our car will be fixed soon.

Saturday was conference. We went to the UGA institute building to watch it with our investigator Shirley, who is in her 70s, has one arm and a balding dog. But she's a sweetheart. She definitely didn't belong in the institute building with all the 20-30 year olds, but she still loved conference nonetheless. In between sessions we set up a booth outside in the pouring rain and handed out hot chocolate and contacted as people were walking to the big game. The YSA branch wanted hot chocolate too. They could only have some if they gave away a Mormon.org card. Pretty soon we had a bunch of the branch out trying to hand out cards. Lol. (: we were all able to get the YSA sisters a lot of potentials.

Conference was absolutely amazing. I loved loved loved the counsel we were able to receive from our wonderful leaders. We were watching Conference with a bunch of our sister recent converts. They all love Uchtdorf. When I asked them why, they said it was his accent. Haha. Oh dear. But I absolutely can't wait until I can read and go over them again. Maybe I'll "ponderize" some of em (; I hope y'all loved it as much as me.

Sunday night, we were walking over to a members apartment to use their wifi as we put our numbers into our iPads and we see this man sitting on the curb. We decided to talk to him. We sit down next to him and start talking. His name is Rafael and he tells us he's seen us around everywhere, but didn't know who we were. He isn't currently going to a church, but looking for the truth. We didn't have much time, because we were going over curfew. But we testified of how much our Heavenly Father loves and is aware of him. We showed him the 'Because of Him' video, after which he tells us he'd like us to come back and meet his wife and teach them more. It was a perfect end to the day. Even though we went over curfew, I think it was worth it.

Anyways. Athens is great. It's a college town and full of people willing to share their fried chicken. Pray for my weight, oh dear.

Love y'all <3

Love, Sister Merritt

My greenie Sister Holmgren- me- and my trainer Sister Barben. Love these sisters!