SISTER EXCHANGES

Hello y'all!

This week has been crazy busy. Zone conference, a couple of exchanges, new ward mission leader, and we had set some extremely high goals so we have been working our hardest to accomplish them. Of course with the Lords help, we were able to.

First of all we had zone conference which is always fantastic. But instead of having it with just our zone, it was with the Athens zone AND the Sugar Hills zone, the two largest zones in the mission, so there was a ton of missionaries there. Our special guest was the car people from Salt Lake to update our TIWIs. If y'all don't know what TIWI is, you're lucky. It's basically this little device they put in your car to monitor your driving. We log in and out every time we drive, if we are speeding it will yell at you, if you turn too sharp it will yell at you, if you stop too quickly it will yell at you, AND if you have the TIWI in our car, it will yell at you if you go up a hill or simply start the car. Bless it's heart. Thank goodness for the new update...it's better. (:

Zone conference is always a joy though, I absolutely love learning about how I can improve and apply things into my life as a missionary. This months was all on remembering. Remembering what we have learned in past zone conferences and remembering who we are. Remembering to be prepared, be clean, & be busy. And remembering the Book of Mormon and to testify of it leading us closer to Jesus Christ.

Sister Robinson, my other half, and I then went on exchange to Greensboro. Thanks to the amazing Atlanta traffic we were able to get there at approximately 8:01pm to which we stopped in on a couple of their investigators, found 2 new investigators and went home for dinner. On our way inside we found a frog! So we caught it and Sister Robinson decided to put it on her head of course which was all fun until the frog leaped from her head and fell onto his back on the cold tile floor. #RIP #AllFrogsGoToHeaven

After our exciting exchange we met up with another set of sisters and I was able to go on another exchange with Sister Rosenberg. I absolutely adore her. She's fabulous. We are able to find 3 new investigators, ......  Needless to say, I'm tired and I was glad to be back with my companion sister Palmer.

We have been able to see many miracle here, too. As we have been stopping in on "unreceptive" less actives we have never met before many of them we have left in tears as they tell us we were sent there for a reason. All resulting in having a return appointment to teach their nonmember family members.

Anyways, that's about it for me this week. I hope y'alls week goes well and you see many miracles as well! Love y'all!

Love, Sister Merritt

THE HOLY GHOST

Hello!

I've learned a lot this week. That's what I love about the gospel, is that we are able to learn so much, yet we are never going to know everything. The opportunity to continue to learn and progress is so exciting! My studies have had a theme this week. "Be Clean."  Clean meaning different things. Spiritually, physically, environmentally. We need to be clean in all we do, say, act, and think because we never know who is watching us and what kind of impression we are leaving. There is a quote from President Hinckley that I just love! "You are His chosen servant; you have been [called] to something holy and wonderful. You cannot live in the world and partake of the ways of the world. You must be above all of that." And it's true!

We have the baptism of 9 year old Jeremiah this weekend! We are so excited for him, he has learned so much these past couple of weeks we have been working with him. His parents are both converts but have been inactive for a long time now, but have started to come back due to Jeremiah's example. Yesterday his best friend passed away in a car accident, we went to see him and because we had just taught him the Plan of Salvation Jeremiah knew his friend was okay and watching over him and he will see him again. It was so sweet to see him share his testimony with us. (:

Our teaching pool consists of 9 year old boys and old single men... There is no in between. But there's a couple pictures with my favorite 9 year olds below (:

My testimony of the guidance of the Holy Ghost increased this week as my companion and I were wondering where we needed to go. We made some solid plans the night before all on the other side of our area. We left in the morning but after about an hour of being in that area we receive a call that unexpectedly brought us back for a couple of hours. It would take a lot of miles to go all the way back to where we had planned to be but we didn't know what we would do in the area we were in either. My companion lovingly reminded me that as we pray and seek the Lords help, He will take us where we need to be. We said a prayer and both felt very strongly that we needed to be at the Less Actives home, where we had planned to be the night before, even though it would take several miles to get there again. We knocked on the door and Brother Reid's daughter (a nonmember) came out.. "Are y'all Mormon?" "Yes" "Come in!" As we go in, we meet brother Reid who is 80 years old and very deaf but so happy to see us. His daughter goes back into the kitchen and starts crying. We go over, put our arm around her and ask her what's wrong. She said that she has been praying for help to take care of her father and also for the knowledge of how to grow closer to Heavenly Father when we knocked on the door. She knows that God sent us at just the right time. I know that as we follow and rely

on the Holy Ghosts guidance, and have the humility to follow the promptings, we will be led to those who are prepared to receive the message or who may just be in need of us at that time.

I hope y'all learned lots this week too! I look forward to hearing from y'all.

Love, Sister Merritt

Exchange with Sister Hosman

HENRY

Hey'all.

SOOO... I moved... Again. Moving is stressful but now I live in Loganville in the nicest little apartment y'all have ever seen. And it's a lot better than my last which was in a red zone, near a mental hospital, and smelled like smoke... Until our downstairs neighbor was arrested Easter morning. Really safe. But my new address is:

333 meadows drive

Loganville, GA 30052

This week I went on Exchange with Sister Lang in the fort Yargo Ward. She is seriously darling. I love her to death and we had so much fun and witnessed so many tender mercies. We met 5 new investigators and helped the nonmember father of a member family cry because the spirit was so powerful in our plan of salvation lesson. One of the new investigators was a potentials roommate. She (Talaya) answered the door, said the potential wasn't there and was about to close the door when we said really fast "Well, do you want to learn about our church?" She opened it up and then said .."actually, yes. I would." We taught her about the restoration on her front porch and invited her to church right as the potential walked in. Talaya then turned to her and said "I think I'm going... Actually. I KNOW I'm going to the Mormon church Sunday, are you coming?" Solid! They both went to church yesterday and loved it. (:

We had a really cool miracle happen this week. We had a lot of referrals because the Monroe sisters referred everyone over to us who lived in the Loganville area. So We had a lot of Uncontacted referrals and were rebuked by sister Bennion. So we repented and sat down and called every single person we had in our area books and we were able to find great new investigators from doing so. One of which was Henry. Henry had been a Book of Mormon referral who came in a couple months ago. The sister gave him the Book of Mormon but we hadn't been able to get back in with him since. When we called him, he sounded very excited to talk to us, he told us he would like to meet so we set up a church tour for Saturday evening. The church tour went GREAT! The spirit was so strong especially as we sat in the chapel and talked about the sacrament. He said he had never felt as peaceful as he did at that moment. He even pulled out the stress test on his phone. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted a date and he even set a time!! The next day he came to church, telling us he would only stay for the first hour. After sacrament meeting, as he is exiting the chapel he runs into one of the members which so happens to be his neighbor. They talk and the question arises, "Are you Mormon??" To which Henry replied, "Not yet, but someday soon!" The Ward was great!! Every single person introduced themselves to Henry and pulled him into Sunday school AND priesthood with them. After church we asked him how he liked it. "I loved it! Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. You'll see me here next week." All yesterday we were recieving calls from the members asking if they could come with us to the next lesson with

Henry. The Ward is definitely on fire! They are so excited for missionary work and missionary experiences. (:

Anyways. We had a great week. Lots of miracles and lots of blessings from our Heavenly Father. I love this work more than anything. It has completely changed me. I still have a lot of changing to do, but I know that if I give everything to my Heavenly Father I will only grow into the person He wants me to be. I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to experience these miracles first hand.

I love and miss y'all lots.

Love, Sister Merritt

EVERYDAY IS MAGNIFICENT

Hello!

Okay, how good was general conference?? So good! I absolutely loved every single second and everything seemed to apply to my life and was definitely an answer to prayer. I loved W. Christopher Waddell's counsel to "Learn, Listen and Walk" to find the peace the gospel brings. President Uchtdorf's words of comfort telling us that our Heavenly Father can and will rebuild us and that we are worthy of rescue simply because we are loved by the Good Shepherd. Elder Holland's promise that "Everyday is going to be magnificent. Why? Because our Heavenly Father wants it to be." And of course the words of our dear Prophet that our choices determine our destiny. EVERYTHING WAS SO GOOD.

My week has been good. I went on exchange with Sister Nuusa this week which was so much fun. I learned a lot from her. She's the cutest. And we were able to see so many miracles. I learned a lot about body extending commitment invitations and how it shows our faith in the gospel and in the investigator/less active.

I got to see Trevor and Anna this weekend because Trevor's mom lives in this Ward! Anna had great news to tell me. So ever since I've been teaching her we have been asking her and asking her to pray about what we have been teaching and about the Book of Mormon but she has been so stubborn and hasn't. Well she told me that she indeed WAS praying about it but just didn't want to tell us. She told me that she finally got her answer. "I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet. And I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know everything that you've taught me is true." Ahhhh!!!! I was just bawling. I'm so happy for her.

We had a cool miracle happen this week. We were trying to contact a referral we have had for awhile. They didn't have a phone number, just an address. As we pull into the trailer park we realize that we are supposed to be looking for lot #1 but the trailers only had letters, not numbers. We see a woman outside and ask her if she knew the people we are trying to find, she didn't and neither did anyone else we talked to. We decided to just try the first trailer in the park. We knocked on the door and a man named Hank answered. He tried to help us with our referrals but he didn't know them either. So we started teaching him instead. His sister-in-law was just baptized into the Mormon church and he told us how he saw a change in her after she started meeting with the missionaries and how much happier she has become since she had been baptized. We taught and testified about the Book of Mormon and how it brings peace and joy to our lives, after which, he asked where he could get a copy of one. We gave him a copy, a reading assignment and made a return appointment. It was amazing to see how Heavenly Father leads us to the places where he has been preparing His children.

Anyways, I'm so grateful to be here at this time. I am so grateful for a living prophet to guide us in these days. I know he is truly the mouthpiece for our Heavenly Father here on earth.

I love y'all!!

Love, Sister Merritt