"A Beautiful Week!"

Hey everyone!!!!!

WOW. My week was great! Can't believe it has already been a week! All the days tend to blur together into one as well, so I'll see if I can separate my couple of weeks in the field and give you some good information.

JACKSON! The Uganda guy with a baptismal date? He's AWESOME. We consistently meet with him at the library, and I can't tell you how cool our lessons are with him. I understand him better now. And he just GETS whatever we're telling him. He drinks it in. We were asking for his thoughts this last week, and he started bearing his testimony to US! It's not supposed to work like that. . . but NO COMPLAINTS. And I felt the spirit as he said something along these lines, "When I moved to America from Uganda, I depended so much on Christ. I was at 95%! And then as time went on, I started to backslide. 75%, 50%. . . But GOD KNEW I was backsliding, and so he sent me YOU! When you knocked on my door, looking for my mom for that media referral, you didn't know that I was at 40%, and that my mom wouldn't listen but I would! But GOD KNEW. And now, I'm on my way to 100%!" SOOOOO AMAZING, right??? Miracles happen!

Funny thing. . . Sister Slater hit her HUMP DAY (half-way mark) this last Thursday! And GUESS what her family sent her??? An entire package full of HALF things. Seriously. They sent halves of cookies, gummy worms, Resse's, party hats. . . And then each of them had written a letter to her, CUT IT IN HALF, and sent HALF of it in the package! HAHAHAHAHA so funny!!! I was dying as Sister Slater was practically hopping up and down with frustration that she couldn't read her letters. :D :D :D But don't worry, they sent her the other half later in the week. :D

OH! I have to tell you about this sweet lady named Mary! She loves Jesus. No, like LOVES Jesus. That's practically all she says. Her name is Mary I love Jesus! in our phone. Mary speaks Haitian Creole. She, too, is so hard to understand. The diversity of people here is NUTS! But she's happy to meet with us, because she thinks we're such good, GOOD people for teaching about Jesus. "You go around and talk of Jesus, and that is GOOD! You no se when Jesus come, and I no se when Jesus come, so everyone need to learn of Jesus NOW! I love Jesus!" Hahaha, it's so great. Everything we say we have to tie directly to Christ immediately for it to sink in, but that's okay, because everything DOES relate to Christ!

Wasn't Conference amazing? I loved it so much. It directly answered so many questions I had. Oh my goodness, questions come in floods on the mission, because you're digging so much farther into the gospel than you have before! There is SO MUCH TO LEARN! An infinite amount. You can never know enough about the gospel. I used to think the hour before bed was the quickest hour in the mission field, but that's not true. It's the personal study hour. There is SO MUCH TO LEARN. But anyway, Conference. Amazing. I loved Elder Holland, Sister Reeves, President Uchtdorf, Sister Stevens, Elder Bednar, Elder Christofferson. . . AHH SO MANY! AND did everyone catch the missionary focus with Elder Ballard??? Hard to miss, right? PLEASE take it to heart. There is nothing more important than missionary work, no matter if you're actually on a mission or not. Read The Power of Everyday Missionaries by Clayton Christensen, get a Preach My Gospel. If you take the time to study/apply them, they will change your life!

This week is going to be the BEST!!!! Can't wait to tell you about Sisters Conference (Sister Slater and I are singing for all the sisters in the mission!) and going to the BOSTON TEMPLE next Monday! Oh, and Jenny Oaks Baker is doing a concert here Saturday night! I'm so blessed!!!

Love you all so much! Write me if you get the chance! I sent the wrong zip code last time, so here's the real address:
16 Kings Way Apt. #202C
Waltham, MA 02451

Love,
Sister Merkley
MBM Missionary