20,000 Lessons for the Week

9/22/14 

Alright so this week Imma write so dang much that ya’ll gonna need a bookmark.

So to start out the week.  When I was younger I spat out of the car window as we were going.  It then came back to hit me in the face.

My pops then taught me ‘Don’t spit into the wind.’

This week as I was riding on my bike did I listen to that advice? No.

My companion is learning English.  This week we taught a lesson to a family where the kid was yelling and taking our stuff and when the parents tried saying something he just yelled at them. (I would have taken out moms yard stick)  Anyways when we left the house Elder Racchumi said in English "He is a devil..." haha I don’t know why I thought it was so funny. 

We continue having phantoms in our house.  This week we heard the phone going off to wake up in the morning.  So we got out, prayed, got ready to exercise and then we went out and started.  My companion and I felt way more tired that we should have been.  So my companion looked at the spare clock that he had and it said that it was 4 in the morning...

So we went back to bed:)

We got invited to a service to clean a park. We went to the spring party of the branch here.

And then we also went to a birthday party of the daughter of some investigadors.  While we were there they had food and drinks and all the stuff that you could possibly want... even a bounce house.

As I looked at the bounce house I was tempted to go in.  More tempted than the trix bunny is for some cereal. So when nobody was looking I snuck in and started jumping.

I thought to myself "Man its so bouncy that I bet that I can do a backflip in this..."

So I got a decent jump and I went for it... got 25%...got 50%...got milk? (stupid joke, yes. do I care? nope.) ...got 60%... and then I saw the ground get closer to me and with my knees I drilled face then causing my glasses to make a sliding motion up my face taking off the epidermis and spilling red platelets on my face and the whole tent.  I looked like a fool walking in trying to cover up my head.  but ya fue.

I actually have a pretty sweet picture of it. 

Dad, I know I won’t do it again.

Uncle Scot, I didn’t poke an eye out.

This same week the same family is super super generous and one of them, Marito, gave me a "Padre Nuestro" (the catholic Prayer thing) ring.  

There may be some of you who are asking why did I choose to title my card home this week like I did.  

These past couple of weeks my companion and I have been wanting to find some new people, but not just do it in the average way that everybody does it.  We started talking to some members and we found out that there is a news channel that gives a 10 minute slot to a pastor every week.

We went from side to side asking people how we could get on and nobody had a clear answer.  Even when we went to the channel 2 they told us that they didn’t know and that we had to talk to the head man first who is only there at 8 at night every night.

So finally Elder Racchumi and I found him and got the things cleared up so that we could go.  We gave them our number and then after that they told us that they would be calling us soon to tell us when we can go.

Literally the next day we got a call from another pastor (who tried bible bashing with us by saying "Hey don’t take this the wrong way but... everything that you teach is a lie..." oh man we had a good laugh about that.) And he told us that another pastor canceled and that we were on the stage in less than 1 day.

So Elder Racchumi and I started practicing for all the time that we possibly had.  We were practicing in the streets, in lunch, in dinner.  Everywhere, like those green eggs and ham.

   And then the moment came.  We nocked on the door to tell them that we were here to teach.  The man opened the door and told us that we can come in and help our pastor when he gets here... after explaining for 20 minutes we finally helped him realize that we don’t have a pastor and that it is us that are going to teach. (Ma real bad grammar... help a son out here...)

So we get in there shaking more than a cell phone on vibrate. And we started practicing for the big time.  

So a guy walks up to us and asks us "So... which one of you two is going to teach?"  

We told him both of us and he told us that there is only one. 

We thought that it was just another miscommunication but after trying to explain to him that we are like a fridge we have the fridge and the freezer but they come together he told us that still... we can only have one.

Like I explained earlier my companion is learning a bit of English so he looked at me and said "you..."

So I got up there and... I... got so nervous that I puked everywhere...

Psyche! No, I got up there and they showed a couple of things and then they told me where to look and then I taught about how the church came to be and that’s the way the cookie crumbled.

I was pretty satisfied with it after.  I was a little shaky but I gave a little prayer with Elder Racchumi and It turned out well.  We also counted it as 20,000 lessons for the week.

I’m not sure but I think if you look for Canal 2 ATCCO San Clemente 17 de Septiembre tienen agrabado

The next day I felt like a celebrity.  They gave me time right in the middle of the nightly news, when everybody is watching so we had people honking and telling us "May God bless you!" all sorts of things like that. They repeated it and I saw it in the house of a member, Victor.  Kinda embarrasing but the honey badger don’t care. (Man I hope that somebody out there gets that joke...)

So this week we had changes.

My old crew in the zone all packed up and left.  And now we have a whole bunch of new people that I don’t know and I feel like a stranger in my own house.

To start out I went up and tried talking to a new sister who only had like 2 days.  

This is how the conversation went 

"Hey there where are you from?"

(She didn’t hear me and walked off...)

So then a good 3 hours later when we were in the bus I thought well... here goes round 2

"How were the first 2 days of the mission?"

(She didn’t hear me and started reading...)

So I then thought "Well.... lets just call it good."

So we were riding on another bus and I was trying to collect all of my stuff to get off.  I’m still convinced that the bus driver was waiting for me to try to step off cause as soon as I tried stepping out he shut the doors and I had to try to escape from the clenching grasps of the door like Hans Solo when he has to escape from that giant space worm’s mouth.

Anyways this week, just after going on TV I came across Alma 58:11.  I felt like God was talking to me.  Prayer helps me feel better when I’m nervous or scared.  It helps me know what I have to do even when I don’t want to.  God guides us if we are listening, and helps us if we are asking and looking.  

Oh... also for P-day my companion and I found that there is a maze close to our house (one of the biggest of South America) so we went with the district and got lost for a good 30ish minutes and had a race with the other missionaries.  We took 2nd.  

After that we dressed up like pirates.

I hope that you all have a great week.

Love,

Elder Merkley

    

Party with Dueno Diaz

9/15/14 

A couple of months back we talked to our dueno Antonio Diaz and we went to visit him at his house. He kinda reminds me of Dad in 30 years.  He was a doctor and is super super smart and knows a couple of languages and he reads the dictionary for fun kind of a guy.  He has a huge library and has all of the pens and watches that he has ever used in his whole life.  We gave him a Book of Mormon and signed it and he was super super happy  and we started talking and became friends:)

Another day we were getting ready for the day in the pension.

We then heard a nock on the door and when we answered it, it was our dueno (I dont know how to say it in English) Antonio Diaz.  He invited us to his best friends 80th birthday the next day.  We were super super stoked but when we asked when it started he told us at 9.

The only bad part is that we have to be in the pension at 9...

So anyways we made a couple of calls and loosened up some strings so that we could teach a late night lesson to some new friends. 
Finally the moment came....  He went to his house at 8 (compromising with him) with a fresh loaf of banana bread.
When we walked in there were 8 people (including ourselves) as we started introducing ourselves we found out that all of them were big shot doctors, dentists, orthodontists, and architects that designed whole cities in Argentina... and us... two 20 year old kids.
As we sat at the table, sweating from the pressure trying to remember which of the 3 forks I use to eat salad but then trying to tell them stories in my yankee spanish and waving my hands and arms in the air to distract them from table etiquette.
Anyways we ended up having a 4 course meal, looking at the animals that our dueno had hunted, taking pictures, telling stories, and even getting a decent lesson in.  Mission success.
Booya

Dang it!  now I understand why ma told me that she missed hearing from me last week... I thought that I sent this already... my bad.

Elder Merkley

Twenty People at Church!

9/8/14 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGS, TREV, AND SILVANA!!!!!!!!

Hey there everybody!

Well...

First. I went on intercambios with Elder Hanson in San Bernardo.  It was super sweet and the sweetest was that we finished off the day in the house of a panadero (bakery) reading.  He was a convert of like 4 days and he started reading the Book of Mormon.  When he would read he got so into it the he would shout or gasp, ‘Man I wish I could get that into a book.’

We also had the skies open up the faucet and pour out rain again to our knees.  My companion is so dang determined that we went wading through the water to get to our lesson.  I cast a line out and did some trolling while I was at it.

We went to a house and tried to be creative in our lesson and teach using a game.  When we taught it was super super good...

... until we started teaching and finished the game...  and then all of them just started getting up and leaving and then talking or turning on the tv. And then in the end of the lesson we just killed off 2 hours of time trying to explain something to a baby of 6 months who was the only one paying attention, gaping with his mouth wide open and drool coming out.  I think he felt the spirit.

In good news.  Our little house church had 20 PEOPLE THIS WEEK!!!!! WOOOO!!!!!!!!  After much time in the streets and clapping at doors and talking to the offended members, we got to 20 people.  It is sweet to see the Lord doing his work here.  Little by little I have seen some pretty big changes in the people. I was reading Alma 16:16 and I felt like it applied to this situation.  The Lord is preparing people and situations little by little.  So when the time comes they are ready to accept the word.  We just have to trust Him that the time is right and all will fall into place.

I love you all and I hope that things are well back at home.  Be safe and I will talk to you soon.

Love,

Elder Merkley

Elder Cook: Summer Update!

June

Good morning! I am staying in Round Rock another transfer! I am pretty stoked! At the end of this transfer i will be here for 7 and a half months! Its crazy! Things are still going well! This last week was a really slow week! So first of all the is our second time back in farmington this month! Ha the other two Elders truck was broken when they got it and they didnt realize it had a leak until we got back last week! So their truck was broken all of last week. it didnt move at all! Its really hard to get around here without a truck. Not many places you can go. But Elder Sorensen who is an Elder here got sick on Tuesday so they were in all day and then my comp got sick on Wednesday so we were in all day. And Friday we had our mission tour which was awesome! And the rest of our week we switched the truck with each other because we only had one working one while the vehicle coordinator was trying to figure out something to do. So we had really only Tuesday as a full day to go out and do missionary work! so it was a really slow week! But we had a really good turn out at Church on Sunday! So that was amazing! We had 4 investigators at church which we usually get about 1. But the mission tour was awesome! Elder Carlson gave a really good presentation and he talked about consecrated missionaries and how we could truly become converted! So that was really good! I learned a ton from that! Also something that was really cool was that when Elder Robinson was sick, we watched "Ephram's Rescue" which is a really good movie that was made by the same people that made "17 Miracles"! If you havent seen it, you guys should watch it! it was such a good movie and i learned a ton from that! So Billy is still doing great! He is trying to get rid of bad habits 1 step at a time. He gave up smoking cigarettes for good this last couple weeks. And now he is working on nor drinking anymore. He is doing well so far. We can tell that it is pretty hard for him but our ward has a softball night and that really helps him! he doesnt have any support from his family and he is trying so hard because he knows that the church brings true happiness! So that was really cool! Also ran into a new family that we are teaching and the father was baptized when he was like 11 and he doesnt remember anything about the church but he has been reading the Book of Mormon and is finding out that the church is true and so he brought his family to h this past Sunday and they loved it. they were participating a ton! But that was about our week! we get to go on a safari down Canyon De Chelly next week! usually you cant go down there. Some people do but i dont know how they do it. Ha but the guy that took us on a hike last week is going to take us down in the canyon and we get to drive down there. So that is really exciting! well thats about it! But love you all and have a great week! Oh and also i am with Elder Robinson still! Hopefully things will go well! i am sure they will!

Love,

Elder Cook 

 

July

Ya'at'ee' (Hello) Family!!!

So this last week was a crazy week! So much happened but at the same time not much happened! This last week i was saying goodbye to everyone! It was really hard to do! I am sad that i am leaving these people here! Ha i thought i was going to be here one more transfer. But this next place is going to be really hard for me! For a couple of reasons... So i am getting transferred to Page Arizona!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am going to die! Lake Powell is right there and i want to go swimming so bad! I am also going to be there like one of the best times to go there! I am way excited to be there but it will be hard with Lake Powell there. But also this last Friday i got a call from President Batt... He called me to be district leader there... yeah it is crazy! I was not expecting that. But it will be way fun! I am excited to be there and district leader is going to be a lot of work but it will be fun! So yeah that is what is happening! Elder Robinson is training here in Round Rock! i am so jealous! But it will be a good next couple of transfers! My companion is Elder Greenhalgh, he came out with me! So i am excited! he is pretty cool! So that is what is happening there with transfers. But to the better part of the week! We had a baptism! It was a good program and they were really excited. When we fill up the font, we have to fill it up over night because there is a lot of iron in the water so it turns brown if you leave it running to long. But we had to wake up at 2 in the morning and walk over to the church to check on it. It worked out a lot better then last baptism! But by the time it was close to the actual baptism, it started getting a little murky. But luckily it wasn't too bad! But that was really good! Then we had their confirmation yesterday and also yesterday was Ward Conference so it was a good day to do their confirmations! We had a ton of people at church though! It was a really good week to end on, that's for sure! We had 118 people at church! That is more then double the highest i have ever seen it! It was sweet! we had to open the overflow! But yeah, other then that i said goodbye to a lot of people and it was really hard! But i know that they are going to do great! I am looking forward to my new area though! In my zone, we are the only missionaries that go on the reservation so luckily i will still be on the rez! But yeah that was the week! Here are some pictures of the baptism on also the Keller family! The Keller family is awesome! I will try and send some more pictures that i got! It was good to see the pictures that you guys sent! thanks and i am sure you guys had a great week! But i love you all and have a great week!

Love,

Elder Cook 

 

August

Ya'at'eeh' a'binna! (good morning)

This last week was really crazy! So it started off really good! We went to the temple as i told you last week and the spirit was so strong that day! I was as close to home as i was to my area so that was pretty crazy! The temple was super awesome and i learned so much this time! When we had a 70 come a couple of months ago, he recommended that we go to the temple at least 5 times in the first week that we get back but i plan on going a lot more then that! I love going to the temple and yesterday we had to bear our testimonies in Sacrament meeting and i bore mine on temples! It was so great and we only get to go once a year on our missions and so that was my last time going as a missionary! That is pretty crazy to think. But i was able to get a lot of answers while i was in the temple and it was just so awesome! Also i saw Elder Quijano there! He is doing really well! If you dont remember who that is then that is my trainee that i had in Many Farms! But it was really good to see him! I have a couple of pictures that i am sending! One with Elder Greenhalgh and also the other with Elder Quijano at the temple! You should all keep going to the temple as much as you can! If i could i would go at least every week if not every day! Also something that was really cool is that the Stake President of Page wants us to be to know how to work family history so we can teach it to other people so we are probably going to be going to the church every Thursday and doing family history for an hour so i am way excited for that! They did a little presentation last week and it looked way fun to do! So i am excited!

On Tuesday we went to Farmington and went to a doctors appointment for my companion! He is doing great but he also may have the flu and also he has an infected toe and also he strained is back this morning when we were playing soccer for exercise this morning! Ha but he still keeps on going! Its awesome!  We are going on a hike today, well more like a Dam Tour. Ha so that is pretty cool! We are also going to try and go on a hike later today! But we will see! We still have a lot to get done! Oh and also this Saturday is transfer news.... This transfer went by way too fast!!!!!!! But it was a really good one and i am looking forward to what is going to happen! I am going on exchanges Wednesday with the Zone Leaders! So i am pretty excited! Then i am going on exchanges with the other Elders in the city on Thursday! So i am pretty excited! I also went on exchanges last Saturday to the other Elders area and that was super awesome! It is weird serving in the city with everything close to each other! I was on bikes again for that day! i miss the bikes! Ha but yeah we have another pretty busy week this week! I am looking forward to it! Oh and last we went to this pizza place where we get free pizza and they have gluten free pizza and it is super good! Also the missionary that i was with that day, Elder Jacobs, got a gluten free pizza too and he really liked it! Also i had sushi and shrimp for the first time! We had a member take us out to dinner to a sushi place and it was really good! Ha Elder Greenhalgh also got sick from the sushi because it was raw! But i woke up feeling great! So yeah things are going great!

So not too many teaching opportunities this last week with everything going on! But we still had a really successful week! We are working on building our trust with the members and we are teaching active member lessons on how to be an everyday missionary! It is based off the book "The Power of an Everyday Missionary" by Clayton M. Christenson! It is a really good book! you should all read it! It talks about easy ways to do missionary work in our everyday lives! Missionary work goes by so much better when the members are involved in the work! We can try to tract all day and work super hard all on our own but it isn't nearly as successful as the members helping us! They give us a lot of people to go see and we are working on getting them to come out teaching with us more! But pretty much everything is good! I am doing really well myself spiritually! And everything else! My studies are super good and there is so much i am learning! I am really learning to feast upon the words of Christ! It takes me a lot longer to read a chapter but i get so much more out of it! I have really seen the scriptures help me in my life and my testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it testifies of Jesus Christ is what keeps me going! I have learned a lot on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and there is still so much more that i am learning! The book " Jesus the Christ" is super good and i have learned so much! But anyway things are going great and i am still loving Page! The members are awesome here and the Bishop is awesome too! He is a great Bishop and we are getting to know him better and better! But anyway i love you all and have a great week!  

Love,

Elder Cook

September

This last week was a really great week! It was probably the best week i have had on my mission! I have felt the spirit so strongly this week and i was able to learn so much!!! Ha so where to start. Ha i probably wont be able to write about everything but i will write the best experiences! last week were able to go on splits for like 5 hours on Wednesday! Elder Thompson went with President Redhair, who is the second counselor to President Batt, and they had a good experience! I went with Joe Nelson from our ward and he is a really good member and we had a really good day where we both learned a lot! But Joe Nelson was originally going to go to a concert but he didnt so he had work off the whole day and came out with us from like 1 to 9 so it was really good! But while we were on splits we saw a couple of people and we were out in the middle of no where trying to find someone who needed us so we said a prayer and we went and tried a couple of people and were able to talk to a couple of people. But on our way back we were talking about the importance of prayer and how it is so easy to get distracted. But on the way back to meet with Elder Thompson, we stopped by at the Bishop of Kaibatos ward who is in our area and Brother Nelson got a blessing and it really helped him. But later that night we went to a less active members named Freddy Miller and we got in with him and the ward doesnt know why he doesnt come to church. He knows the church is true but he doesnt come. But we had a good lesson with him and then after, Brother Nelson said in all his years he has never seen Freddy that open to the gospel. So we are going back this week to go over how to give blessings and dedicate homes. That is what Brother Nelson feels that he needs. Brother Nelson is the 1st counselor in the Elder's quorum and so they are trying to re-activate all the priesthood men. So anyway it was a really good day! I felt so happy when we got back and it was just a really good day! While we were talking i learned how important it is to always pray and there is a lot of good scriptures that i have found but one of my favorite is D+C 6: 32-37. somewhere in there. But basically it says look unto Christ in every though, doubt not, fear not. but i learned how easy it is to get distracted from what is really important in life! So it stressed to me that always keeping a prayer in our heart is so important! But even as a missionary it is easy to get distracted from the important things. We are always doing missionary work so you wouldnt think it would be easy to get distracted but i get distracted on so many things and i learned that satan distracts us in so many ways that i didnt know. So what i have been doing is always saying a prayer in my mind to make sure i dont get distracted and that i stay focused on the straight and narrow path. And also that i will be able to recognize when satan is trying to distract me and i have been able to learn so many different ways he tries to distract us from what God wants us to do. Like this morning for studies we were preparing a lesson for tonight and we were reading this scripture that was good and we looked up a word in the dictionary to see what it meant and we both just got off topic trying to find the meaning of this word which later we didnt even use the scripture and didnt find the meaning to the word. But while we were looking in the dictionary, i had this thought come to my my mind that we were getting distracted and it turns out we did. so we got back on the right track. ha but it is just little things like that. So yeah its been going well! I now am a lot more focused on what really matters and my mind is so much more clear as to what we have to do and what is important and what is not as important! So yeah! But our member work is going well! We have showed that hastening of the work video to most members and are inviting every member to pray for missionary opportunities and on Sunday the members prayed for missionary opportunities for Sacrament meeting and also for the opening exercises for Priesthood. But we know this is truly the way the Lord wants things done and we have seen so many great things happen! It just reconfirms to us that this is what the Lord wants us to do! But with all good things, satan is going to try and fight against it but as we pray in faith we will be able to break the barriers that hold us back! So yeah! Ha it was just an awesome week! There was a lot of other good stuff but i dont have any time! Ha sorry! I learned so much though! I would invite you focus on the important things in life! It is hard but i know that as we pray that we will be able to focus on what really matters! ha love you all and have a great week! Sorry no pictures this week! Hopefully next week!

Love,
Elder Cook