Racchumi from Peru

8/4/14 

Hey there everybody!

Well this week was super sweet.  I traveled for 6 hours to Buenos Aires, grabbed my new companion (fresh out of the MTC) in the mission president’s house, hopped on a bus again and traveled another 10 back to San Clemente. WELCOME TO THE MISSION!

But for real I have a new companion named Elder Racchumi from Peru.  He is ballin and he talks exactly like my trainer in the mission who is also from Peru.  Haha I took the exact same picture with him that my trainer and I took when I got here.  I even got the same people to pose in the background.  Ya it was pretty sweet.

After that I taught my first class of seminary, WOO! It actually turned out pretty good:)

In other news, this week when we walked out of a lesson I told my companion ‘good job’ and we were saying what we could improve on and then he said "companero can I tell you something?" 

I said yes and then he said look right there... you stepped on a frog when we were coming in"

I looked at the ground and there was a plastered frog on the ground... poor little guy....

Besides that my hijito is a freakin stud.  He teaches way good so it makes my job super easy and he says a lot of profound things that makes everybody drop their jaw.  Haha Im totally taking credit for teaching him everything that he knows.

This week we had the chance to talk to a daughter of a member who isn’t a member.  The mom and her have been fighting a lot about her and school and she has tried to run away a couple of times.  It reminded me a little bit of me.  

My companion and I talked to her and helped her find how to fix the problem.  Something so sweet that he said was "How was your life when you were 5?"

She answered “Perfect...I didn’t have any worries.”

He said "Because you trusted in your mom and knew that what she was doing was for the best.  We have to trust in the Lord and follow him like we followed our parents when we were younger and He will do what is best for us."

It’s so sweet how true that is.  When we trust in the lord He guides us for the best path, even when it is pretty sucky at the beginning. The more time I have out here the more I realize that it’s the truth.

I love you all and I hope that you have a great week.

Trust in the big man.

Love,

Elder Merkley

Mundo Marino

7/28/14 

Well... this week I didn’t really do too much.  We went traveling a lot and we had transfers...I'M GOING TO....

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STAY WHERE I’M AT!

But for real, I’m pretty dang happy.  We are making a lot of progress here and its nice to see the Big Man doing his work.  

Also my companion and I were talking to a member this week and she told us "Ya my husband works at Mundo Marino" we then proceeded to ask her if she could get us some.

On the next Monday we called them and asked if they had them.  They told us that later that day they would get them.

We called later and they told us that they couldn’t get them.  We looked at the schedule of Sea World and we found out that they are only open on Saturdays and Sundays after this week of vacation...

So we had to take a big decision... Go, or no go?

Take a looksee for yourself what we chose.

Also in other news.  We have an investigador named Daniela who has a husband who doesn’t let us come into the house but told us that if we want we can talk outside. So for the last couple of week we have been passing by and we go to their house and talk outside for about an hour.  Really my companion and I just sit and listen to her talk for an hour about what is going on and then we tell her.  "Alright, I think that you will like these scriptures" and then we head out.

In the beginning she told us that she didn’t even want to touch the Book of Mormon and that she didn’t even want to talk to us anymore, but then her son who is 6 started to cry and told her that we are the only adults that treat him well.

So she agreed to listen to us a little bit more.  She started to read a tiny tiny bit of the Book of Mormon.  And then the next time a little bit more.  And then a little bit more.

This last week she told us that she knows that we are representatives of God and that the Book of Mormon is true.  It is so interesting to me that even though we aren’t teaching her anything. I thought that it was so sweet that she found her answer just by looking.  James 1:5 says that very thing.

Have a good week.

Love,

Elder Merkley         

Sunday Night Stories

August 12, 2014

"Success is going from failure to failure without the loss of Enthusiasm"

Hahaha, that quote pretty much describes how I feel about Haltom. Sometimes I have lost enthusiasm though. 

So this week, we met this guy named Joaquin. He has some... interesting ideas about the Godhead. Hahaha, he was telling us that God and Jesus and the Spirit were the same (not that unusual or hard to teach the truth), until all of the sudden he agreed that God has a body. But not just 1, God apparently has 7 bodies. And can astral project himself into any of them, or if he wants he can just go around in spirit form. And every time the bible says the word "cielos" or "heaven" it is really talking about the 4th dimension. Needless to say, I learned a lot this week. Jk, he's really confused and he LOVES to talk, like a Texas talker on steroids laced with heroin. 

The good thing is, that I realized how much my knowledge and testimony have grown. Before, I might have questioned myself or something, but this time I was whippin' out scriptures right and left. I have the quickest draw this side of the Mississippi furr shurr. 

I went on exchanges with 2 missionaries that are getting trained, both of them in their area. Haha, it was pretty tiring. They want to do the best for sure, but they're just newbies and don't know what they're doing haha. They were both super stressed the whole day. They were all rigid, like a breadstick. I tried to give them the funk, but they wouldn't accept it. Haha, it was pretty fun, but it's been a tiring week.

Today, when I went to turn off the shower, the hot water wouldn't turn off. The tub filler upper faucet was just pounding water pure hard. I tried to play plumber, but the only tools I had were a bike multi tool and a crappy pedal wrench. I did pretty good at taking apart the whole tub, but I couldn't fix anything. So now our hot water is running until "later" when maintenance gets around to it. Oh well.

So when I was fixing the tub I moved my bike to get into the closet behind it, then when I came down 30 minutes later, my front tire was completely flat. There is no hole in the tube. I have no idea how all the air left. I studied patience as a Christlike attribute Sunday, and I suspect the Big Man upstairs is trying to help me. Thank you? 

Anywhey, next week are transfers. I have some good guesses of where I am going to go, but I'm not telling because I'm always wrong. 

I don't have any more pictures of me or from my camera, but one of the missionaries in my district let me borrow his usb to copy music, so here are some of him. 

Love, 

Cole

August 4, 2014

Tater Tots and Jedi's

Hi guys! 

This week was one of those weeks where pretty much everything was pure average. Nothing really out of the ordinary happened at all haha. 

We had Zone Conference and it was pretty cool. I learned a lot. President wants us to ask y'all for some cool family history stories, so if you could send me some fun ones? I thought of Uncle Alvin and the Bear haha, and for some reason the cremation of Sam McGee even though he's not in our family. The problem with family history and Latinos is 1. nobody really cares (I have tried to contact like 10 people and they strait up say "no" or "I don't really care" haha), and 2. there are not a ton of records so it is purty hard to do genealogy.

Anyway, just so you know, basketball went really well last week. I have gotten way better out here. Look out D-Man!

Love,

Cole

P.S. Thank you for the picture sender thingy!

Monday, July 28, 2014

Sunday Night Stories

Hi guys. Not a ton happened this week. It was really hot, and we tracted a lot. Like, a lot a lot. And the funny thing is, nobody was interested. You're right, it's not that funny. 

On Monday the church was closed so we couldn't play basketball, so my rhythm this whole week has been off. Look out everyone, 2 weeks of pent-up basketball rage is going to come down like hellfire in roughly 2 hours. 

We have zone conference this week, so I am pretty excited. It should be a good one. 

Noone came to church this week, but that's ok. Next week!

Sunday night story again- so after church on Sunday we got on the bikes and headed off to see some investigators. Roughly 30 seconds in, I realized my back tire was pretty flat and it made it hard to pedal, but I decided to wing it anyway. At 6:53 I realized I had to go the bathroom (numbah 2) because of some mexican foods we ate at dinner. I thought "oh, I'll just hold it till we go home so we don't waste time." So, we went and talked to some people and whatnot. Around 8:30, we decided to go contact one more person before calling it a night. I was trying to cut through a parking lot to save time, because at this point, every second counted, when I realized I had to jump a curb. I didn't want to slam my low back tire and pop it, so right before I jumped I hit my breaks. I immediately regretted that decision. I went heels over head, and bike over heels into a nice patch of dirt and rocks. Luckily, my neck broke my fall. Don't worry Dad, the bike is fine and in working order. Me too, by the way. I didn't even poop in my pants either. Phew. 

Anywhey, I thought y'all would enjoy that story. Have a good week! 

Love,

Cole

See Some Sweet Sunsets

6/30/14 

Hey there everybody!

Well this week was a guddun.  Real interesting but good at the same time.

First off I’m not sure what is going on but I am having some of the strangest dreams ever.

Second off for all of you out there who know what a hipster is. They are spreading.  I met my first full blood hipster here the other day.

I have got my Brazilian companion into the habit of saying, "Man."

We were invited to an 11 year olds birthday party. Lets just say that 11 year olds singing karaoke in English isn’t really my thing...

This week we were riding our bikes down a dirt road when behind us we heard something running at us.  We turned around and we saw 3 wild stallions tracking us down. We quickly got off the road and waited til they passed.  When they passed we started up again.  We crossed another road and then they came out of nowhere and started chasing us again.  Haha one of them started doing the bucking bronco thing.  We figured in this moment that it is probably best if we get far away from them.  Far far away.

Also this week we had our power go out for about an hour.

And then the next day it went out for the whole day...

...And the next day...

...And the next day...

... The good news is that we only couldn’t use our space heater... and our fridge, water heater, lights, phone, microwave, or shower.  I felt like I was camping. It actually was pretty dang fun going to sleep in the pitch black with my sleeping bag and having to kind of wing it like in the golden days.

So the lesson here.  If you like to hike and camp.  Just go on the mission. You get to hike around all day and talk to the other people on the path, eat oatmeal and see some sweet sunsets.  

I love you all.  I am happy to be here, looking to help somebody.  I know that the Big man sent me here for a reason, so I will just keep on hiking along looking for it.

Well, that’s all folks!

Love,

Your little friend,

Elder Merkley 

Love At First Sight

6/23/14

Hey there everybody!

Well, this week was a guddun.

I saw a girl trying to start up her moto this week and trying to be a good samaritan we went over to try and help her out.  I asked her if I could do it and she said thank you and yes. So I pointed at the starter thing and said "I kick down this one, right?"  And she said yes.  So I summed up all of the brute force that I could calling on he man and kicked down that starter pedal....with such force that I broke it off....

As I awkwardly came to the conclusion that I broke part of her motorcycle I realized that it still didn’t start up.  We met eye contact for a couple of seconds like a movie where they see love at first sight. We just have to replace "love at" with "you broke" and "first sight" with "my motorcycle” it was an uncomfortable situation for a little but after many apologies and offers to fix it she told me that it has fallen off before.  I’m not sure if she was saying the truth or just to get away before I broke something else.

This week we also had the opportunity to start up seminary here in San Clemente.  My companero and I are now officially the new San Clemente Seminary teachers, with a class of 4 kids haha I hope that I can handle it.  Any tips or strategy’s to get the little monsters out of the hallway in their seats would be greatly appreciated.

Also because we started up our seminary our Presidente of the Rama is friends with a 70 named Elder Crasnocelski (I have no clue how the heck to spell it...) So anyways he came to our church and talked to us and all of the kids.  It was dang sweet and he talked to us about 1 Nephi and caught us all up to where we need to be.  Man how lucky am I?  He told us that the next time maybe we can go on divisions.  Woo!

Other funny things that I saw this week:

A fly was bugging this guy on the bus and he tried swatting it a couple of times but he couldn’t get it. When it landed on the window carefully, quietly leveled his hand, like a cobra waiting to pounce on the little mouse… and then I realized that he had his cellphone in his hand.  He jabbed at the fly trying to stab it... but sadly he missed.

Well.  I love you guys.  I hope that everything is well.  I miss you but I know that the Lord needs me here right now.  

Be safe, keep working hard.

Love

Elder Merkley

A Quick Dip

6/10/14 

Dear everyone-
This week was a good one. I don’t really remember anything but I’ll give it a
shot. I got your package mom. Thanks a ton for everything. I ate the two
chocolate bars in like 3 seconds because they melt if you don’t.

During the week a little storm came in and by little storm I mean pretty crazy. Within
like 2 hours the streets were filled with water. We jumped into a member’s
house to wait it out but I got a call telling me that President wanted everyone
in their house. So we were making our way home pure soaked. We are in a lower
part of our area and I suddenly realized the water was up to my waist. (I’m
not kidding.) I decided I’d take a quick dip and doggy paddled for like 15
feet. My comp thought it was pretty funny. Way luckily (and I have no
clue how) my scriptures didn’t get wet and our phone still works. My bag
went completely under water while I was swimming (oops). I realized it was
kinda dangerous to be out in the storm so we took a turn up the street and
got the heck home. Other than that not too much crazy stuff happened.

On Sunday the sisters and us had a tag team baptism. It was pretty good. My
comp and I cleaned the font out and it was kinda crazy because we cleaned
it out real good and then filled it up with water. But little caterpillars
started climbing out of the drain and there was like 15 of them in the font
and out before the baptism. Luckily I whipped out a rake and raked them all
out.

Dan