December 30, 2013

Before I post her email from today, I'll report that the family was all together (with google hangout) when Jenni called.  She looked great!  She was her happy self.  She and her companion sang us "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas"  They changed some of the words to make it more missionary appropriate :)  "...the mistletoe, hung where you can see.  Nobody waits for me, but that's the way it ought to be." They added some fun harmony in there too.  It was fun to hear them sing together since music has been a big part of Jenni's mission so far. She sounded happy to be a missionary and we're so grateful for modern technology that not only lets us hear her voice, but see her lovely face!

Now, for her email:

Dear Family!

Christmas is gone already, I can't even believe it.  Not much to catch you up on, because we got to talk on Wednesday!  We had a great Christmas day with the family of my Branch Mission Leader.  It was so fun watching their little kids get so excited.  I can't believe that December is come and gone! It is definitely crazy!

The day after Christmas, we went to visit Sapphire, but she was just leaving town so we rescheduled. She is the girl that has a baptismal date. Walking back to the car, Sister Bunderson heard someone playing a keyboard, so we investigated! Cause she loves piano. A few backyards away, 2 men were out jammin Gospel with a little keyboard.  We joined them :)  Not only was it very fun, but we got to teach and invite them to church.  

On Saturday, we went out to a Branch activity on the very border of our area.  We drove through miles and miles of dirt roads. Finally we drove up to their house; a huge, beautiful white southern palace! We learned a new phrase 'as southern as possible' ASAP.  When we are on a road marked 60 mph and the car in front of us is going 15, we call that ASAP. 

We've been having nightly snowball WARS. Sister Bunderson's cousin sent us some yarn balls that we use as snowballs. Our apartment is huge and built like a perfect snowball fight arena, especially in the dark. Ya'll know that I can't see in the dark and so Sister Bunderson whuped my trash! It was very fun! I can't just blame the dark... I am just bad at snowball fights.

So something that was interesting that we tried for food was eggs and rice. For breakfast, they eat fried eggs BARELY COOKED, put on rice and stirred together.  We were fed that a while back, and I'm pretty sure the eggs were rotten, so it was death.  They will also do this with grits.  I think it wouldn't be too bad, but I'd have to make it myself, I'm losing my trust with Southerner's ability to fully cook an egg.

They also mix rice with anything that needs to be stretched.  We had lasagna with rice.  Some lasagna, lots of rice, all stirred up.  It's not bad.

It was so fun to talk to all of you this week!!! I'm glad that we could get the whole family together! It made me so happy! :) I love you all and hope that you all had a great Christmas and have a happy new year!! 

Love

Sister Merrill

December 23, 2013

Hi family!! 

I cannot believe that it is already Christmas!!! It doesn't feel like it at all... BUT I am so excited to talk to ya'll!! So I don't have much to say but I do want a favor from each of you. Think about all that you are doing and be ready to tell me about it. I want to hear mostly about you guys instead of me talking all the time. haha. I will have a surprise for you though! Don't worry... it is nothing scary or something like dying my hair. It'll just be something fun. :) You'll just have to wait and see.

Well, everything is great here in Madison, FL. We are being fed really well by the branch. I promise that I have probably gained some weight, it's so bad! But we are very appreciative. Last night we went to a member's for dinner and I was having a laughing fit.... it was so bad but it was also hilarious. The family was laughing too and so it wasn't just me, luckily. Anyways, this week we had a half mission conference. It was good. We did a little program where there were songs and little narrations in between. Sister Bunderson played a beautiful song on the piano. It was Silent Night with Clair Delune mixed. She did awesome! She is so good on the piano. We sang Mary's Lullaby as well. It went pretty good. After the program we introduced all of the districts that were there and our district used the poem Twas the Night Before Christmas. Dave I thought of you reciting it while we were making it up :) The funny lines that we put in there were... 

"Elder Nelson was fighting for all to see,

MMA, UFC, HIJKLMNOP.....

Then arose Elder Perkins upon his fine steed,

and roped those poor reindeer with gusto and speed." 

It was fun! Then we did a stocking exchange with everyone there. It was a fun little Christmas get together! 

Well I better go but I'm excited to talk to everyone on Christmas!!!! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

Love,

Sister Jenni Merrill

Ps... I'll send some pictures of our little Christmas tree and decorations next week :) I can't figure out this computer this week haha.

December 16, 2013

My dear family,

Hello!! Sorry this week is going to be short.... but This week has been pretty good. I don't remember half of what happened though. haha Sometimes that is what happens on a mission. All the weeks blur together. Well on Tuesday we had our last district meeting with our district and we went to Tallahassee for that. Afterwards we stayed to do a recording of a song that Sister Bunderson made for a mission video that they are putting together. She is way good!! So we pretty much were busy all day. On Wednesday the had a little Branch primary party that they had at the church. It was fun to be involved with the little party they had. On Thursday we had a RS dinner where we started eating at one of the members house for salad and then we went to another member's in a limo to eat lasagna. Afterward we went to the church for cheesecake and a white elephant gift exchange. It was very fun!! And we got Debbie to come which was a huge step for her. She is a less-active and her husband is taking the lessons. We are going there tonight for a little bday party for Sister Bunderson. Then Friday and Saturday we went around Madison with the new elders to show them around and show them different people that we are working with. I really don't have time so I'll just send a few pictures home! I sure love you guys!! Sorry this is all over the place and doesn't make sense :) I'm excited for Christmas!!

This is the branch Presidents daughter and Debbie with Sister Bunderson and I! :) At the RS dinner

This is the limo that we got to drive in!! It was fun :)

Well, I know that this gospel is the only true gospel! I love it with all my heart and am grateful to be able to share it with everyone! I love serving the Lord. It gives me so much joy! 

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Jenni Merrill

December 9, 2013

Dear Family,

My first transfer is pretty much up! I can't believe that time has gone by so fast! I feel like I have learned a lot and have grown so much in the last 6 weeks. I will be staying here in Madison, FL! I am excited! I love my companion and the area. :) The Elders in the area are being transferred out though so we will be having two new elders in Madison. I am excited! The last Elders weren't putting their all into the work and it got a little frustrating sometimes because we would have to pick up on their slack sometimes. We are excited for the new change!

Well I hear that it is very cold in all of the areas ya'll live in!! It feels so nice here. :) I am very grateful! I love not having to turn on the heater in our apartment. It's great. I don't think that Florida knows that it is December already! So how are ya'll doing?

I am doing great! I have had some neat experiences this week that I'd like to share. The first is that the Lord answers prays. We have been struggling to get members to come with us to our lessons and so we have been praying really hard for us to be able to start making that happen. Well on Tuesday we had a member in the branch take us out to dinner. Her name is Kim and she is a solid woman. She rides her bike from her house to the church every Sunday which takes about 45 -60 minutes! She is great. Well she met us in Madison (which again is about an hour to drive to from where she lives) to feed us. We offered to drive her home since we were going that way to see one of our investigators, Tammy. We asked, thinking that she would say no, if she would be willing to just make a stop with us and teach her. Kim was so willing and came with us. It ended up that they got along really well and became friends. So not only did the Lord provide us with a member to come to the lesson with us but he provided a member present lesson that had a purpose to it. It was such a neat experience to see that the Lord is watching out for us and hearing our prayers. He wants us to be successful. The lesson with Tammy was great! Especially because we had a member there to bear testimony as well. The second experience was last night. We had planned to go visit the Carters, a less-active couple. When we got to their house they weren't home and so we walked slowly to our car and just waited awhile for some weird reason and then as we decided to drive away very slowly they drove up! So we stopped and went into their house and started talking. Well then their friend, Darlene, showed up. They introduced us to her and we started talking about the church and she said that her son was starting to look into the Mormon church. (He is in a correctional facility) She said that he had been trying to get her to look into it for a while but that she was never really interested but that now she would like to learn more and see what we believe. We gave her a Book of Mormon and we got her phone number. Right as we were talking with her, her son called and so we got to talk to him for a bit and he brought up the Christmas Devotional that was going to be on and so Sister Carter turned the TV to the BYU channel. It was still only about 645 and so we watched a devotional that was on right then. It was Elder Holland and he was talking about Alma 32:21. It was a miracle because her son had just told her to look up that scripture and said that Elder Holland gave a talk on it on time. Little miracles like that happened at that house last night. Darlene had to leave before the devotional but we are going to call her this week and meet up with her.

We stayed and watched the devotional which was so good! I loved it. I felt the spirit very strongly. Thomas S. Monson is a prophet. I know that he is. I know that Christ was born and that he lived and died for us. I love my Savior and am grateful for his example. I love teaching people about Christ and being able to bring them closer to him. I have the best job right now, serving the Lord!

I hope you all have a great week! I have to go but I love you all!

Love,

Sister Jenni Merrill

December 2, 2013

Hey family!

It's December! And sometimes here in Madison, it sure doesn't feel like it. Some days it is freezing outside and other days it is the perfect weather and there is just a nice breeze outside. I love the weather here. How was every one's thanksgiving?! From what Mom and Dad told me it sounds like you guys had a ton of fun! I thought about you guys a lot and imagined what you guys would be doing. I heard you didn't really get to play football or ping-pong very much though because of Wilford and Ben.... I'm sure you still had a lot of fun though! 

Well this week was very busy but in a good, productive way and I loved it! It rained quite a bit this week and was super cold for a few days. On Tuesday we had a zone training meeting in Tallahassee, which is an hour away, and so we drove out there for that. That took up all of our morning and afterward we had to do our studies. So remember how I told you that we were going to teach Tiffany? Well we taught her on Tuesday night! It was so good. The spirit was very strong. We prepared and prayed a lot for this lesson and we felt really good about how it went. Because it was the first time that we were teaching her we did a lot of getting to know her and what she expecting out of us teaching her and what she wanted to learn. She has had a pretty rough life and she was raised baptist but she knows that that is not what is right so her and her husband are looking into different churches to see which one is right. We taught her the Restoration and we thought it helped her alot with her questions and concerns about religion. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she committed to reading part of it. At the end of the lesson we got her to offer the closing prayer. It was very powerful and very touching. I had the best feeling. I love teaching this gospel to people! It is so fun to see it change others lives. 

The rest of the week we did a lot of visiting people like usual and then on Friday we did an exchange with the sister trainers in our zone. So I stayed in Madison while Sister Bunderson went to Tallahassee. I learned a lot from doing the trade-off. I'm excited to put some of the things that I learned to use and see if it effects my work here in Madison. So I forgot that this week was Thanksgiving!! It was very different being away from home but it was still good. We ate a lot of different types of food though. We had this carrot soufflé, homemade Mac n' cheese, no rolls or bread, hardly any pies, twice baked potatoes, etc. We ate at a members home and they had family over that were in-active. So that was good. Then we just went and visited some more less-active and people who needed the visits. Sister Bunderson made some cheesecake and pecan pie so we brought a cheesecake to one of the members houses. By the way... the say pecan like this: p can. It is very different from back home in Mesa. I just laugh. 

So this weekend we had the opportunity to sing in a musical number in the Tallahassee stake christmas program but we played on the organ instead. It was very fun! We went there on Saturday to practice and then performed on Sunday. So we did a lot of traveling. It was fun though. I know a little more about playing the organ which is neat. During the program I was sitting next to this guy that was from the stake there. He kept looking at me and then would took his phone out and was doing something on it. Well after one of the songs he leans over and asked me where I was from. I said Arizona. He said, "Mesa?" Well he asked if I knew Wilford and I said that he was my brother! Come to find out that he was in Wilford's district in the MTC and then worked with him in the MTC just barely! So he had been texting Wilford during the meeting. It was fun to see someone that knew my family! I love when that happens! It is a small world! Mom said that she saw the picture so I hope you all got to see it! 

Well I am going to put some pictures on another email but I love you all! Have a great week!! And happy December! :)

Love, 

Sister Jenni Merrill

The day I went into the MTC

This one is on the day of exchange and so it's Sister Harris and I and then a less-active member in the branch. Her name is Sister Ponce. She is the 89 year old. She is hilarious. The two kids are her grandkids:

This one is of Sister Bunderson and me after the concert last night:

November 25, 2013

Dear Family,

Can you believe that it's almost thanksgiving?! I sure can't! It'll be so weird to not be home for the holidays. I'm trying not to get home sick but I love Madison and the people here so I'll be okay but just know it is not the same here as it is there back home.

Well this week was better than last week! We still didn't get very many appointments but when we started this 40 day fast where we fasted for a day and thought of some things that we could stop doing or give up that would allow the spirit to be with us more. Then for 40 days we're going to continue to work on being perfect at not doing those things. We got the idea from an apostle who gave a talk on purification and had a story about that. I'm not quite sure who it was by though... It has already worked some miracles! We were in the library one day this week, the day we were fasting, waiting for someone to show up to an appointment and they didn't come but it ended up that another guy came by and he ended up wanting to know more about mormons and I gave him a Book of Mormon. It was my first one that I gave out. It was the best feeling EVER! It was cool to see how when we started focusing more on doing the Lord's work and putting aside our thoughts and feelings the Lord provided us with something to do. When we are obedient, the Lord blesses us! I loved being reminded of that and seeing it happen in my own life. This man's name is Richard. He set up an appointment with us the following day! We were excited but then he ended up not showing up. It was a little disappointing but we were able to get other things done and we looked for other ways that the Lord needed us. Also that same day, the Branch President's wife gave us a person that wanted us to come meet with her. We are going to teach her tomorrow. Her name is Tiffany and we are hoping that this goes well and she will start taking all of the lessons. 

This weekend we helped a member in the branch set up for her son's wedding reception. Her daughter in law, Terri, is a baptist. She helped us set up as well and it was good making friends with her so that hopefully we'll be able to get out to her house and eventually get her interested in the church. We'll see about that one though. It is hard to change some people's minds about going to a different church. Something funny is that for one of the platters that they put food on was a microwave plate! Ha ha! I was dying laughing. She said that it was very redneck but that it was the only thing she had left to use as a platter! :) I love Madison! It's so fun here. The people really are great! Then after church yesterday we had a thanksgiving lunch gathering. It was a fun little get together. There were a few non-members and some less actives that came and so it was nice to see them come. I mostly went around and talked with people. 

So on Sunday Sister Bunderson and I spoke and did some musical numbers in sacrament meeting. It was fun! Usually I get so nervous and can't do that kind of a thing but we sang and I even did a solo. I really enjoyed doing it and everyone said that they loved it! I'm sure there were more things that happened this week but I don't have much more time to remember and put them down. We do go visit a lot of less actives and it's fun to see their spirits be uplifted as we chat with them. We ate at a few of the members home's this week and that was good. I love the members in this branch! We are just trying to get them to go out on visits with us now. That seems to be the hardest part. We keep praying hard for it.

I hope that you all have a great week and Thanksgiving!! Have fun wherever you will be!! :) I love you all! Thanks for being such a great family! I love this gospel and am so grateful for it in my life. I'm grateful for the change I have to serve in Florida and share the gospel with them. I am so grateful for my Savior. He lives. I love him. Yesterday I talked about how we need to be more thankful to the Lord for everything thing that we have and for all the blessings that we receive. A lot of the time we just ask, ask, and ask things from the Lord. Maybe start to pray to Heavenly Father for more of the blessings that you notice and thank Heavenly Father for them. Again, I love you guys!

Love,

Sister Jenni Merrill