A Day...

Hey y'all.

We have had a week. You know, one of those weeks where you don't know what  to say about it so you just call it a week? Yeah, one of those. We have had SO much drama happen, all with a 63 year old man, we have found a ton of prepared people and it's just been crazy. But wonderful. How can a mission be anything but wonderful? (:

Let's rewind to the beginning of last month. We had been visiting this 63 year old less active man who we got to come back to church, yay! Also he confessed his deep attraction to me so we have been steering clear of his apartment and his phone calls. Since we have been ignoring his phone calls and voicemails (strict orders from President) he has become angry, threatening that he will "never talk to me again. EVER." (That actually is what we are wanting to happen). But just a ton, a TON of voicemails. SOOO The bishop has become involved and the mission president and through all this I was just scared I would be ETed. Well good news! I'm still in Athens. And he's stopped calling. Drama... Guess it doesn't end in High School.

We have found like a million new people to teach. Okay, maybe not a million. But we have found 11 new people. Same thing, right? And if I told you the miracle of finding them all it would literally take all day so here's like, the BIG one:

Thursday morning we were trying to do some 12 week and we had a bunch of videos to watch from the district. We started to watch them and then all of a sudden the dvd went back to the main menu. We pressed play again, and it did the same thing. This happened multiple times and Finally sister Foster is all "obviously we are meant to be out working!" So we put our shoes on and headed out the door. We tried stopping in on a few less actives we hadn't met yet but had no success. So we said a prayer asking for guidance on where we needed to be and pulled up our area book. We found a former investigator that supposedly didn't live too far and seemed promising. So I typed in the address into the GPS and off we went. Well, silly me, I typed the address in wrong. Sister Foster and I were a lil frustrated but.. "Sister, there's a reason we are here. Let's go find that reason!" There were 20 houses on that street and we decided we would try every one of em. We started down one side and every door was slammed in our face. Tough crowd. As we started down the other side we met Ty first who told us we caught him at the perfect time because usually he's not home. He said that he's always been interested in learning about Mormons. We started with the restoration and when we quoted the first vision he opened his eyes real wide and exclaimed that it gave him chills. We are meeting with him again later this week. As we were walking to the next house a man rode up on his bike to a home that never opened their door. We went over and started talking to Kenny. He told us he didn't go to a church right now but that he and his family which consisted of 13 grandkids would be interested in learning more because he's tried all these churches but never ours. Next house we tried, an older lady named Debbie came out and started talking with us. She's going through a lot and started crying when we told her the gospel of Jesus Christ will help her to find that peace she is looking for. We set up a return appointment for the next day. The next house had a less actives daughter who wasn't a member and who was rooming with a girl who didn't have a relationship with God at all. We bore testimony that God loves us and is aware of each of us and they both want to learn more.

When we went back for our return appointment with Debbie. She invited us in and also had everyone in the house come in and listen to us. You can tell they have been through a lot and they just need the gospel. They all start crying exclaiming that they know it's true and we set up another time for Monday. Well, Monday rolls around we went back to Debbie's and they never answered their door, so we decided we would finish tracting the street. The very last house we found Ron and Melanie who were outside discussing something when we walked up. Melanie told us that it's been a long rough day and anything we say to her will probably be a waste. So we start explaining the Book of Mormon anyway. Their hearts were completely softened and they listened telling us that God must have sent us to them at that time. They accepted a Book of Mormon and a return appointment and Melanie even asked us to talk to her brother sitting on the porch. We gave her brother a card to our website and when we told him what church we were from her tried giving the card back, shaking his head and looking horrified. Melanie told him to listen and give us a chance because she "might be Mormon someday!" Well he did give us a chance and he actually enjoyed talking to us. As we were leaving he told us to come back if ever we needed anything. It's just amazing to see how Heavenly Father knows exactly where we need to be at what time and how he leads us there through a series of events. We found all these people and it would've never happened if our dvd was working or if I typed in the right address.

I feel so blessed to be a part of the Lords army and to teach so many people who are ready for the restored gospel. I have an overwhelming love for every person here and so I can't imagine how much our Heavenly Father must love us. We have prayed, fasted, and worked harder than I ever have this week. It's exhausting. But I'm so grateful for it, and for the help and love of our Savior. I know He loves and is mindful of everyone of us. We definitely couldn't do this work without Him.

I love y'all! I think of you often.

Love, Sister Merritt