Elder Merritt

We received a new Elder in Mission Bend West! Elder Merritt is awesome. He writes in elf (I'm not kidding). He learned the elf alphabet found at the end of the Lord of The Rings books. He is also learning Chinese-- not sure why but more power to him. He is one of those underestimated geniuses. He helped write a computer program for one of the office staff as well. Apparently they were very impressed.

Life is so great. Sometimes it seems complicated but it really is not. Find people to teach, then teach them. It really comes down to trusting that the spirit will tell you all things that ye should do.

I thoroughly enjoyed the packages sent. The soup was phenomenal. It won the hearts of all that dwell in our apartment.

Elder Pettyjohn is nearing the end of his mini-mission. He will decide what path he will take. His life will change starting today. Elder Nilson lived in his home ward back in Las Vegas. He is taking Elder Pettyjohn golfing today then Elder Pettyjohn will talk to his mother for four hours. It's too bad we couldn't take him golfing. I would teach him a thing or two about the hole-in-one.

The realization sunk in the other day. This mission is not about me. That knowledge relieves a lot of stress.

Last Friday I attended a meeting with the zone leaders. There was a projector put up with graphs of our "key-indicators"-- some of which were disturbingly low. As it came closer and closer for our time to present I was wondering what in the world we were going to say. Explaining graphs is not something I am particularly passionate about. Elder Carter and I stood up and explained the numbers. I could tell Elder Carter was really nervous. The whole time I was thinking about generic answers that could apply to all aspects of missionary work. Good times. President Ashton was a successful businessman in his former life and it shows!

Elder Merritt taught himself to play the piano so we are looking forward to a couple hours of playing the piano at the church today.

 

I love you, thank you for your prayers