Happy New Year!

1/7/15 

Happy New Years!

It was a strange week this week.

To start off we got home from our time in Ezeiza from the Fiestas.  And I opened up the fridge and I realized that I had left 2 liters of milk opened up and now it was just curdled up and I had to dump it out.  I didn’t know where so I just went outside and dumped it all in the plants.  Nobody will ever know.

I started talking to a guy in the street and he looked at me, and answered my companion.  I asked something else and then he looked at me and then answered my companion again. For the next 25 minutes I tried squeezing in a word and he would only answer my companion.  

I had a DVD in my hand and I was joking around with some other missionaries saying "I’m gonna break it. I’m gonna break it." And then another Elder came out of nowhere and said “Can I break it?” And I thought he was joking so I said “Ya sure” and then he karate chopped it like he would break 5 planks of wood.  I looked in horror as I saw the DVD and then the face of the owner and then the DVD again thinking “Wait, what just happened?”

Since we only have 15 members here in Monte and 7 of them are on vacations, we didn’t have anybody to pass New Years with. So Silvana and Noel invited us to Ezeiza again so that we could pass it there.  So Elder Silva, Wilson, Monteza, and I went to Ezaza and passed the night making fire for the BBQ (asado), playing cards, singing, playing soccer, etc. And then we got home at night and watched the fireworks and I did the exact same thing that I did last year in the same spot—jump and do a 360 and almost fall.  First person of 2015 to jump in a circle and almost fall. I’m so cool.

We woke up the next day, played a little game with milk that I will explain later...in life.

I watched a cute little dog bite a chair, my fingers, my shoes, my laces, a rag, a cat, and everything that he saw while the owner was telling us about how playing cards are from the devil.

In the beginning it was a bit rough but little by little I realized that I had a lot to learn from my companion.  I know that God has put me with Elder Monteza for a reason.  We didn’t always get along perfectly but I did learn a lot from him—a lot that I needed to learn to be happier in the mission and in the future.  Like it says in Doctrine and Covenants 122:6-7 

6 If thou art accused with all manner of false accusations; if thine enemies fall upon thee; 

7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

God put me here for a reason. And for that I am grateful.

Love, Elder Merkley