The Only Constant...

Hey y'all! 

July 25th

So I thought I was safe. Like, I thought I would stay in the Monroe Ward until I went home. President even told me that I would. We received a text message from President telling us to call him sometime that night. Immediately our minds race trying to figure out what we did wrong or what could have happened. When we got in that night he told us the craziness. So I will no longer be in the Monroe Ward but I will whitewash train in Dacula and become and STL again. But not only that, but I won't leave on normal transfer day, but I will leave the morning before so I can go to the mission home and be a Sister AP for the day as I take care of the incoming sisters. Of course I'm excited, but also a little bit nervous. It's just so much change all at once. I'm truly going to miss Monroe. I love it here! 

Friday we all had to get up super early to go to the training meeting. There were 5 sisters there and 30 elders, so we felt a little out of place but it was so fun to see everyone. We learned a lot from President Bennion. He is such a wise man filled with so much love. I truly feel so grateful to have such an amazing mission President!

Right after the training meeting we drove an hour and a half to UGA. Our poor Sister Training Leader has been trying to go on exchange with us all transfer long and we have been rescheduling every single week because we have been so busy, or something has always come up where we needed to be in our area. So our STL got President's permission to have all three of us come up to campus and help out with a booth. Weeelllll we got there super late because of the meeting, but were there to help take down the booth and make the long 2 mile trek back to the institute building. As we were walking up the hill, the big, heavy whiteboard that we were rolling back decided to completely fall apart. So there we were, the hottest day of the week, 100% humidity, walking up a hill, carrying heavy boxes, sweat dripping from our faces and now we have a broken whiteboard that we can no longer roll, but must carry. It took us 10x longer to get to the institute building and the best part is the whiteboard had "Mormon.org" in big letters plastered across it... so we were portraying ourselves well to people driving by and seeing us struggle. It was definitely an adventure though, we had fun and just laughed the whole time. 

Saturday we had a baptism for a nine year old boy, Jeremiah. I absolutely love this kid. We have been working with him ever since I got to the area. His mother is a member and very very sick. He pretty much takes care of his dying mother who loves him so much. They have the most precious relationship I've ever seen. Jeremiah has wanted to be baptized for so long, but was waiting for his mother to get better. Last week Jeremiah's mom sat him down and told him that she isn't going to be getting better and he needed the strength and comfort that comes through being a member of the church and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. He was so excited. Everything went so smoothly and the Spirit was so very strong. We love him so very much! <3 I am so sad to be leaving him, but I know great things are in store. 

Change. There is truly no other thing that is constant in this world than change. But, of course, that's the way it's supposed to be. If there was no change in our lives we wouldn't be able to learn, we wouldn't improve and grow and become the person that our Heavenly Father knows and wants us to become. I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to see other people's lives change and become better, amidst all the difficulties of life. I know that through, and only through, our Savior Jesus Christ we are able to repent, be made completely clean and receive eternal joy. It doesn't make it any easier, but in the end, it will always be better as we trust in Him and follow His will for us.

Love y'all! 

Love, Sister Merritt