TRIO TIME

Hey y'all!

Okay! So... we have had such a successful week and crazy. For y’all who don't know, because of a ton of emergency transfers, I am now in a trio with Sister Hosman and Stauffer. We are taking over both the Monroe and Loganville areas so as you can imagine... Super busy. We have both apartments, so just depending on what we are doing that night and where we are, we stay in the apartment closest. Basically we just have a suitcase with us at all times in the trunk of the car with extra clothes and a toothbrush. We also have an air mattress that travels around our area with us wherever we go. It's very exciting! Lol.

We have started serving at FISH (faith in serving humanity). Sally is the lady in charge. Her and her friend worked as lunch ladies in an elementary school and realized how many of these kids' lunches were payed for by the government. Their families didn't have any money to provide food for them. Sally wondered what these kids would eat during the summer so she started FISH for kids. Volunteers gather together and donate money to make hundreds and hundreds of sandwiches and sack lunches for these kids every day during the summer. Then they would load up some cars and drive all over Monroe and Loganville. We would drive slowly and honk our horn over and over again and ALL these kids would come out and run to the car to get their lunch. It's so cute to see how happy these kids are to get their lunches (:

Jarree is one of our wonderful investigators we have been working with. She is a wife of a inactive member and she has great faith in Jesus Christ. When we first started working with her she wasn’t reading scriptures, praying or going to church despite her strong testimony of the Savior. But she had that desire to come closer to him. Saturday we had a lesson with her.. She told us she has been reading the scriptures and praying a lot now. Her faith in Jesus Christ has increased and she wanted that for her family too, especially her inactive husband. The spirit was so strong as we talked about the importance of baptism by proper priesthood authority and gave her the calendar to pick a date to be baptized. She chose August 13th and at the end of the lesson we had asked her to pray about the date she had chosen. When she asked Heavenly Father if it was right, the room was silent for a while and then we could hear sniffles. She started crying as the spirit testified to her that it was the right thing to do. Sunday morning her AND her inactive husband came to church, participated, met a lot of people and could feel the spirit. At the end of the three hours Jarree's husband excitedly tells us "I've had the best day! I'm ready for a calling! Where's my home teaching list? I need to be more involved!" He then became a little more serious and said "I wanted to thank you Sisters, if it weren’t for you, we both wouldn't be here today." Jarree, too, was so happy and told us they would definitely be back the next week! The Spirit has definitely pricked both of their hearts and gave them a taste of something they had both been missing for a long time. They now have a goal to be sealed in the temple a year after Jarree is baptized and want their two kids to learn about the church as well. It reminded me of a verse in 1 Nephi 8:12 "And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit." The gospel is definitely something that brings us joy and I'm happy Jarree and her husband is able to have that in their lives.

Other than that we have stayed super busy with lessons and helping our investigator Tommy prepare for baptism this week. We had 9 investigators at church and all of them are growing closer and closer to the next step (: love y'all!!

Love, Sister Merritt

Happy Fourth

Hey y'all! Happy Fourth!!

So craziness happening here in the GANM. Tons of emergency transfers happening because a Ward is now becoming a part of the Atlanta Mission.. So the mission is a lil disorganized right now. Lol. I will be in a Trio with the Monroe sisters starting Thursday, which I’m excited for because I love them.  :)

We had zone meeting this week which was amazing as usual..

Zone meeting we really learned about our power and authority as missionaries and were supposed to come prepared to role play a powerful 10 minute lesson to be given, containing the following:

-        One or more elements of “How to Begin Teaching”;

-        A brief version of the Restoration;

-        Reading aloud from the Book of Mormon with the person;

-        A baptismal invitation;

-        Getting the investigator to offer a prayer asking if the message is true;

-        An invitation to return tomorrow for 15 minutes.

-        Invitations to read and pray prior to the return appointment tomorrow.

So Wednesday we decided to take these things that we learned and practice them. We had a lesson with an investigator, but she was not home. We decided we were in the area for a reason and we needed to find who was ready for us. We stopped by a members house who lived across the street, shared a short message and asked if they would pray that while we are in the area we would find that person who was waiting for us. They gave us a couple of neighbors we could try and we started knocking. Either nobody was home or people did NOT want to listen to what we had to say. We were a little discouraged and started walking back to the car, but felt impressed to go to one more home. We knocked on the door and could hear little kids running around. A lady looks out the small window in the door and tells us she's not dressed. "We have an important message for you," was all we said. She looks frustrated but leaves for a short minute to put clothes on and open the door. "Can I help you?" "We are representatives of Jesus Christ. He has a message He would like us to share with you that will bless you and your family. May we come in and share it with you?" Her heart completely softens! She allows us right in and sits down to listen and tells her two kids to be quiet and listen too! We offer an opening prayer and teach of the Book of Mormon. The spirit is so thick you could cut it with a butter knife! She takes a copy of the Book of Mormon we give to her and tells us how excited she is to read it. We

invite her to be baptized and to meet with us the next day and she accepted both (: and at the end she offered the prayer thanking Heavenly Father He has sent us to her and asking if The Book of Mormon was true.

Fourth of July we had a free cookies and lemonade booth set up in front of Kroger with the other sisters and had a photo booth set up for people to take pictures with which was super successful. We had around a hundred contacts, which is great! We are all just a lil sunburnt.. But that's okay. It was worth it. Hope y’alls Fourth was fabulous too!!

Love, Sister Merritt 

You never know

Hey y'all!

So it's amazing the people Heavenly Father places in your path who are ready to hear the gospel. Members like to take us out to dinner a lot, and for some reason they always choose Applebee's. The first time we went there, our waitress, Shania, was asking so many questions about our mission and what we believed. We have seen her every time we have gone since and this week she decided to call us and set up a time she could learn more. We had a fabulous lesson with Shania, the spirit was there and she was asking so many questions! She is so prepared!

We also have a shaved ice shack right next to our apartment, so we decided to go for our lunch hour one day. We met the owner, Angie, who is as cute as can be and wants to know more about our church. We set up another time for us to meet with her. Well last weekend we went back with our teamup's sister Jordan and Michaela. She started to talk with us outside until it started to get really stormy and started to rain. She put us in her storage shed with all her ice flavorings and food as she went into the shack to help some customers. Who knew she could be so busy when it's hailing and windy outside, but she was. We waited in that storage shed for 20 minutes until she came back and we had a really good lesson as we were all squished together. Lol but you never know where you will find people who are ready!!

I got a new companion this week! Straight from the MTC. Sister Held from Laguna Niguel, California and as sweet as can be! She is a hard worker and a water polo champion!  I'm excited to be with her and see the miracles that happen this transfer.

A tender mercy happened Sunday night. It was 8:45pm and we still needed one new investigator. We didn't know where we needed to be or how we could accomplish this goal. We said a prayer and my companion felt like we needed to see a recent convert who lived close by. I didn't see how that was going to help us find a new investigator but I didn't want to knock down the prompting she had received so we went. We said a prayer and as we got out of the car a potential investigator, Teresa, who lived right across the street came out of her house. We have been trying to get in with Teresa for so long, but have been unable to get in contact with her. She was excited to see us and set up a time when we could come and see her. New investigator! We then went up to our recent converts house and told her of the experience we just had with her neighbor. Her eyes lit up and asked if she could come to the lesson with us and proceeded to tell us more of her neighbors who potentially might be interested in the church! From this experience I learned how important it is that we trust the promptings that come to our companions! Because we did, we were able to accomplish our goal!

I hope y'all stay cool this summer. ☀️ and have a great week!!

Love, Sister Merritt

Hello

So this week we have been trying to clean up our area book because there are about fifty bajillion potential and former investigators and so we decided that the fastest way to see if any of these people are still interested in learning more or not is sending out a mass text that says the following:

"Hello! We are the missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We see that you have shown interest in the past in learning more about the church. If you are still interested please reply "YES" and we will call you to schedule an appointment. If you are no longer interested reply "STOP" and we will take you off our lists. If you do not reply, you will be added to a daily spiritual thought text! Thank you and have a blessed day!" 

It has been super effective! Tons of people have replied stop, which is totally fine because it clears out those who really aren't ready. But we have also gotten quite a few who wanted to learn more! A lot didn't reply (obviously they didn't think we were serious about a daily spiritual text) until we started sending them texts every day and THEN they replied and wanted to be taken off the list. Lol. Silly people. Missionaries are serious about these kind of things. 

Hope came to church again this week. She's so solid. I love her way too much! The members just absolutely love her and she just acts like she's a member already. She will be baptized soon, I'm sure! (: 

Oh, transfer news! Im staying in Loganville and training a cute new sister. Tell y'all about it next week (: LOVE YOU & HAVE A GOOD WEEK. 

Love, Sister Merritt 

He's Given Us HOPE!

Hey y'all.

This week has been full of ups and downs, kinda like the hills here in Georgia. But overall it was pretty amazing.

I went on exchange with Sister Lang this week and we were able to get in with so many of our investigators. We have an investigator named Lorri her daughter Emma who have been going through some tough things. Lorri's dad is actually a member and used to live in our Ward but recently was put in a hospital and Lorri and Emma moved in the house. We have been helping them clean it up, paint, and pack boxes to put in storage. They came to church once because they felt like they owed it to us for helping them. We went over this week though, told them we have an important message, sat down and taught the plan of salvation. They were so intrigued. As we were teaching the three kingdoms of glory we talked about how Heavenly Father will place us in the kingdom we feel most comfortable. Kind of like how if we went to a big fancy ball, where everyone is dressed up in gowns and fancy jewelry, we wouldn't feel comfortable if we were there in a tshirt and jeans. Afterwards Lorri turns to Emma and says "I don't know about you, but I'm putting on my prom dress and I'm going to the sun!!" Lol. We invited them to be baptized and they both accepted (:

When I first got to this area we had a potential investigator named Hope who allowed us to come in and teach her the restoration. She told us, though, that the only reason she was letting us in was because we had been trying to for so long and she felt bad for us. We dropped her afterwards, but still left her with a Book of Mormon. This week we truly felt prompted to go and visit her. She opened the door and told us it was a bad time, but still continued to tell us EVERYTHING that was going on in her life. We ended up staying for about an hour. We told her we were singing in church on Sunday and she told us she wanted to come hear! She came and just loved it, of course. How can you not love church? We went over to her house later that night and asked her if she had any questions. Nope, she said she understood everything and had nothing negative to say. She told us she has been looking for a church that quenched her thirst for a long time and she has finally found it. She pulled out the Book of Mormon we had given her a couple months earlier and she was a third of the way done! She had been reading everyday and has a solid testimony of the Book of Mormon. We invited her to be baptized right then and there and she hugged us as she said "Yes!"

Heavenly Father is blessing us so much! Everyday we are able to see His hand in our lives. He prepares His children and places us in their path or them in ours. The gospel truly does give us the happiness and peace that we need in our lives if we only are obedient to what our Heavenly Father wants us to do. God is good!

Love, Sister Merritt

Sister Quartet

My Checking Balance LOL

The Lord Will Provide

Hey y'all.

Busy week again.

So on Saturday sister Palmer and I were finishing up companion studies and reviewing our plans for the day one last time, and we got a text from someone we haven't actually been able to meet yet. We have called this person numerous times and set up appointments that fell through... But she asked if she could meet with us that day! She said that she was wanting to meet with us this Saturday, but then realized that she never set up a time! We were so excited and told her we could meet in about an hour. We weren't doing very well on our goal for lessons taught with members present for the week and so we texted everyone we could think of to have them come to this lesson with us, but everyone was busy. So we put our trust in Heavenly Father, knowing He will provide as we try our best and went to the lesson without a member. When we got there, there was another man in the house who introduced himself as Brother Dawkins. Now, who introduces themselves that way if they weren't a member?? It turns out that her husband is a less active member that hadn't had his records switch over to Monroe Ward yet, but he wants to come back to church and eventually be sealed to his wife for time and all eternity in the temple :) Heavenly Father provided a member for our lesson!  It was amazing to hear his testimony and inspirational to hear what his goals and desires were. She had a lot of questions, and brother Dawkins asks her "can we set up times we can have the missionaries have the discussions with you?” Perfect! Sister Dawkins accepted and wants to learn as much as she can because she "already feels it is true."  Heavenly Father is definitely preparing people for us! (:

We were able to go to the temple this week! It's such an amazing place and I wish I could go every day. I truly am grateful for the opportunity that we have to have so many temples throughout the world and the guidance and direction we are able to get from them. We also had interviews with President and Sister Bennion. I mentioned to Sister Bennion that us four sisters in the Monroe Ward are singing in sacrament meeting and needed an arrangement of a hymn. Apparently, this means I am musically talented and now have to sing in zone conference in front of a member of the 70 ..? Wish me luck because… I really can't sing.

Hope y'all are well and happy! Love you! (:

Love, Sister Merritt

Mother's Day

Hey y'all.

So this week has been literally amazing. I feel so lucky to be here at this time and to be finding those who are ready to receive the restored gospel.

Last Monday we went to visit a referral a member had given us, but they were not home. We tracted a couple of houses around and made our way back to the car, finding no one who was interested in listening to us. As we were walking back we were literally stopped by the Spirit. I don't know how exactly to explain it, but I had never felt the Spirit as strongly as I did at that moment before in my life. We needed to go to the house we were stopped in front of. It was getting dark and the house was tucked away in the woods, but we could see a small light on in the window. We walked up the driveway, past the "no trespassing" sign, and knocked on the door. Lisa answered. She looked absolutely shocked we were there. We introduced ourselves and the Book of Mormon. She took in everything we were saying. The spirit was strong and we were In tears by the end. We found out she's a single mom of 3 girls, 8, 10, & 16 years old. Her girls want to go to church so badly but because of Lisa's job, she was unable to go Sunday's. Last week she found a new job that gave her the weekends off. When we asked if we could come back and share more with her, she gave us a hug and told us any day and every day she wanted us back.

Wednesday evening we had another lesson with Lisa and her girls. We found out Lisa had read not only the assignment we had left her to read in the Book of Mormon, but much more. She had prayed and feels it's true. She told her friends about our church and how she feels about it, and when they gave her false information, she told them to stop making false accusations and take the missionary discussions themselves. We taught the restoration, and again were in tears by the time we were through with the lesson. Lisa and her girls are now preparing for baptism. It's amazing to be apart of this work and to literally be a vessel for the Lord. I know this is His work and He will do it His way, we just have to be humble enough to follow the promptings that are given to us. There are so many people who are prepared. And I know we received that referral for a reason, even though we didn't even get to see the referral, we needed to be in that area at exactly that time. Wowie wow. God is so good (:

I hope y'all had a good Mother's Day! I know I loved talking to my family! And I'm so grateful to my beautiful mother and her wonderful example to me. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her. 🌻 

Have the best week.

Love, Sister Merritt