Week 18 in Durham: Getting Transferred

Well everyone, Durham has been great, but it's time to move to a new area. I am getting transferred to Apex. My area is full time bike. That'll be fun! Apex is where the temple is. It's actually in my area and I will be able to ride by it almost everyday! Elder Edman is also getting transferred out of Durham. He is going to Fayettville.  Our area is getting double transferred, again! The ward wasn't too happy about that one, but the new elders will have a baptism when they get here!

Last Monday we played a lot of basketball. We had some one-on-one games. I played against Elder Sprunt and Elder Edman. I beat Elder Sprunt, 21-18. Elder Edman beat me, 21-19. That night we went out and tracted. Usually, on Monday nights we don't find too much. We might find 1 new investigator, but we found 3 in 20 minutes!

On Tuesday, we were tracting and knocked into a guy who was going to Duke Divinity School. He was super nice and we talked to him for about 20  minutes. He asked us if we wanted some water. He gave us some cans of sparkling water. Now, I have no idea who thought sparkling water would be a good idea, because it was the worst thing I have ever tasted! If you haven't tried it, I suggest doing so for the experience. We got home that night and mixed it with some mango juice we had. We had a contest to see who could drink it the fastest. I won!

On Wednesday we had a zone conference with the 4 northern areas. Elder Hamula, form the Quorum of the Seventy came and talked to us. It was so solid! He talked to us for 4 hours about having faith, and how to help resolve their concerns using faith. Hr came up with a faith cycle. It was so cool! I made it in paint, so sorry for the crappy version. Basically, you start with a witness that something is true, either your own witness, or someone else's. Then, you have hope in that witness. That hope then leads to action. The action gives you the truth of it through the Holy Ghost. The Holy ghost then gives you more witness of truth. It continues over and over. The more it goes around, the hope grows to assurance, the assurance then becomes confidence, and confidence becomes certainty. He said whatever part of the cycle is missing, is where the investigator needs to grow. So, if they have hope, but no action, they can't receive the witness of the Holy Ghost. Hopefully, I explained that good enough.

Thursday was pretty slow, but I got the package from my family. It had some stuff to make balloon animals.  We spent so much time that night trying to make stuff, but they kept popping. We managed to make some things, but we had more balloons pop than work out!

On Saturday, we talked to Pam (our neighbor), and she is going through a really hard time right now. We gave her some scriptures to read. She went to the temple and read scriptures for 6 hours. She came back and told us that she has never been so certain that she needs to be baptized. She told us, " I've been meeting with the missionaries for 2 years, but it took you two elders to show me that I needed to be baptized." Hopefully she sticks with it since we're both leaving.

That's it for the week! Next week I'll be coming from Apex!

Love, Elder Merritt

PS My new Apex address:

3220 Broadstone Way
Apex, NC 27502

Week 17 in Durham: Someone's Getting Baptized

Hey everyone! This week was pretty great, but I''ll get to that in a minute!

On Wednesday and Thursday, we were on Exchanges. I was with Elder Sprunt in my area. We had an interesting event happen on Thursday morning. We were waiting until the exterminators got to our place to do a "mandatory sweep." We got a text that said, "call now." It was from an unknown number. After debating whether or not to call it, we decided to call them. The person answered the phone and said, " This is Sonny." But, I heard, "Diz it honey." I couldn't understand him, but Elder Sprunt knew what he said. I handed him the phone. What Elder Sprunt did was so funny! He pretended we were Papa John's Pizza! I was dumbfounded. I had no idea what was going on! Apparently Sonny (the guy who called) is on the "do Not Contact" list for the mission. We are not allowed to contact them at all. Yo would think they would tell you these things when you first come into the mission. 

Also in Wednesday, we had a lesson with Chris Earls. Let me tell you a little about Chris. He married his wife, Holly, who is a member of the church. He has been coming to church for 7 years straight. He didn't want to get baptized until he knew it was the thing he needed to do. He told us he had made the decision to get baptized on April 8th! He knew everything we taught him. We taught him all the lessons in 1 hour, and scheduled another lesson for Sunday to go over all the baptismal interview questions. It goes to show when you are  being obedient and working, you are blessed.

We has a lesson with Brice on Thursday. It was awesome! I love Bruce so much! He is the funniest guy I have I ever met! He said he was talking to his cousins about Mormons and she told him we don't drink coffee. HE thought she was crazy and lying. We told him it was true. He said, "i knew you guys were crazy, but not that crazy!" Then he just chuckled at his joke. We laughed too, and told him about the Word of Wisdom. It seems to be the most difficult thing for him to believe. He said he would pray about it.

Sunday we had church and met with Chris Earls again. We went over all the interview questions. He totally ready to be baptized! I probably won't be there for it since transfers are the week before. I don't know if I will ever find someone who is so ready to be baptized as much as Chris.

That's it for the week! talk to you next Monday!

Elder Merritt

Just thought I'd share some random pictures from the week:

the Mountain Dew minivan

Double rainbow over our apartment

Elder Edman fast asleep

Week 16 in Durham: Ol' Brucie and the Scapegoat

This week we had a lot of fun. Elder Edman and I had some great experiences!

Last Monday, after I emailed, we went to the UNC Basketball Museum. IT WAS AWESOME! That place was so cool! There are a bunch of cool things in there. The Michael Jordan thing had a really cool video, but I couldn't record it.

 After we got home that night, I decided to look up some things in the Bible Dictionary. I found this:

Scapegoat: the goat upon whose head the sins of the people were laid on the day of Atonement and that was afterwards sent into the wilderness (Lev 16:21-22).

I don't know why i found this so interesting, but I did. This is where the term "scapegoat" comes from.

On Tuesday, we had Zone training. We were trained as a zone. I got a picture of all in our zone.

Wednesday we met with our investigator, Bruce. Bruce is a retired history and debate teacher. We left him with a pamphlet about the restoration and a Book of Mormon when we first met him. We came back and he had read the whole pamphlet and tried to read the Book of Mormon- the print was too small for him. He had a lot of great questions, but when he went to research them, he came across some anti-Mormon stuff. We answered all of his questions, and even solved the anti stuff he found. We are going back next week to talk with him about The Plan of Salvation. 

On Thursday we were tracting ( I know, bug surprise!). We found William. William has a cousin who is a member of the church. He has always wanted to talk to the LDS missionaries. We taught him and his wife the full Restoration lesson. They really liked what we were talking about. We set a baptismal date with them for April 8th! hopefully we can help them get there. Later that night, we were walking down the street and there were a bunch of geese walking down the side of the road. Elder Edman warned me that geese will hiss when they feel threatened. And me being me, didn't believe him, so I walked over to one and I hissed at him. Oh boy! Do I regret that decision! After I hissed, it hissed back at me, which was terrifying by itself, then put its wings out and ran at me! I took of so fast with the goose right behind me! I don't think I have ever been so scared in my life! I now have a new fear of geese...

Saturday, we found a guy named Cedric. He is awesome! He is a high school teacher in Graphic and Game Design. While we were there I was able to talk about the computer stuff I did in high school, how I made a game and took my C++ Programming class. then i tied making a game and programming into the Restoration. It' awesome how I can take something he and I had in common and tie it into the Gospel. I seriously waited so long to do that! One of my favorite experiences so far!

The rest of the week we didn't have anything happen. Talk to you all next week!

Love, 

Elder Merritt

PS I'll leave you with a view of the horizon from the famous "Pickel" building.

Week 15 in Durham: O Thou of Little Faith, Wherefore Didst Thou Doubt?

Hey Everyone! This week has been pretty good!

We found 9 investigators this week! That's pretty good! There is one we are pretty excited about. his name is Derek. Derek recently came to Durham with his brother. His parents are members, but were less active for a while. He was never baptized, but was a week away from baptism when they moved. We asked him if he would want to work toward getting baptized, and he said, "Sure. Why not? I got nothing going on on Sundays." We laughed about it with him, and are going back there this week.

Another person we found is Bruce. Bruce is in his 60's and used to be a history and debate teacher. When we showed him the Book of Mormon, he seemed pretty interested, since it is the history book of the American Indians. He said he would start to read it, and would have questions about it when we see him again.

So in our area there is this tradition, apparently. It's called, "Hugging the Pickle." There is a large, skyscraper-like building in the middle of the trees. It looks really out of place. It's called The Pickle. We go to it and in the dead of night, and have to sneak by 4 security guards to get to the spot where we hug the wall of the Pickle. Haha...not really. We just walk right up to the wall before 9 and give the wall a hug. 

We went on exchange this week. I went to Chapel hill with Elder Bisbee-Dyke. We helped an old lady move lots of leaves. Then, we tracted. It started to pour rain- like Noah and the flood status rain! It was crazy! We were soaked and walking around. Elder Bisbee-Dyke suggested we say a prayer and ask to stop the rain. I agreed, but thought to myself that nothing was going to happen. He said the prayer and asked for the rain to just slow down. Not even to stop, but slow down. I really didn't even think that anything would happen, but after he closed the prayer, the rain changed to just a sprinkle. The story popped into my head where Peter tries to walk on water. he starts sinking, and Christ said, "O Thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" I felt really dumb at this moment. I am never going to doubt the power of prayer again! 

that's it for the week. I hope it wasn't too boring.

Love,

Elder Merritt