September 1 - More time next week!!!!

Hey there everyone!!!

So we went to the temple this morning, and it was basically the best P-day ever! But that means I have no more time to do anything, let alone send off the full report of this amazing last week. I'll see if I can get permission to write you all tomorrow, and if not, I'll give you a report next week! I love you all!

But I do have to tell you that Crystal got baptized. And it was amazing. And now we're basically going to start teaching her whole family. :) :) :) :) MIRACLES HAPPEN!!!!!

Don't forget the most important things in life!

Love,
Sister Merkley
MBM Missionary

August 25 - This week's work and glory!

Hola from the tiny, rundown, overpopulated and simply wonderful town of Central Falls!

How's everyone doing? The clips and pieces of your lives I get to hear about and experience vicariously are so refreshing. Thanks for all the updates and love and support. I couldn't be doing any of this without you!

I'm really starting to fall in love with this area. So much. The longer I'm here, the more I come to understand how everyone has a story. And if you truly understand that story you can't help but love that person. I'm so blessed to be able to be a part of these incredible people's stories, however briefly or however small my role. :)

Let's see if I can briefly cover this entire last week. Wow, it feels like it has been an eternity. It's a little ridiculous how much can happen in a week.

We had a combined YM/YW activity this Tuesday with the parents involved so they could come to understand more about the youth program! It was fun, because we were in charge of the games. ;) Sister Godoy taught a super funny game. We also had our first tiff. It was a good thing, because we were able to talk it out, and now we're even closer and we know more about each other. :) She's so sweet. It's a little difficult to always have to focus to understand what your companion is saying, but I know how much more difficult it is for her. I'm really impressed with how good her English is. And she asks these fantastic questions I have no idea how to answer about why we say certain things and when specific words are used.

Wednesday was awesome. We had splits ALL DAY LONG! Jocelyn was free and her mom, Jacqueline, had an urge to come out with us! So we tackled all the appointments we had, and while Sister Godoy and one of these amazing members were at an appointment, I would be tracting/personal contacting/doing stop-bys with the other member, or vice versa. It made us bold, and miracles happened! I can't even tell you how awesome it was. We planted so many seeds and were filled with energy and on fire! Sister Godoy and Jacqueline knocked on a door and found Romana, a girl who was delighted to learn and soaked in the entire first lesson. I found two guys I had a lengthy discussion about the gospel with that are interested. We were able to get back in touch with a former investigator and help her remember her previous testimony. She is now investigating again. Not to mention the appointments we had already set. They were so great, too.

We were so impressed by the miracles of the day that the next day we decided to do splits again, but this time we took Jocelyn and Tori, and we took them to Woonsocket. (It's pronounced One-SOCK-et. I know. Weird.) Woonsocket is entirely inactive. But we had a successful day nonetheless! Especially since Tori (who is about to go on her mission to Peru) had her first shot at tracting. She got a feel for it. These girls are going to make wonderful sisters.

On Friday we had district meeting, and Sister Godoy and I were asked to do the training. Righty-ho. We were so tired. It worked out just fine, though. :) We talked about how to get our investigators involved with service, and how to help them share their testimony with others.

Skipping over some other stuff. . . Okay, here's a really cool event. Exchanges. My first-ever exchanges where I leave my own area! AHHHH!!!! Sister Hobbs was my companion for the day, and I got to be in Providence for 24 hours. I loved it. It was so cool! Sister Hobbs is a beautiful, classy ballroom dancer with an awesome testimony. We talked ballroom for most of the free time. It was great. She understands!!! The appointments that day were so. . . unique. The first one was frustrating. We both left really wound-up. This old man was so critical, crabby, and defensive. You'd think he came from a movie. I had to bite my tongue multiple times. We said a prayer to unwind. :) Goodness, sometimes it's really hard to know what Jesus would do.

The second appointment was such a neat learning experience. Yehui is their investigator from China. He never had the concept of God while growing up. Crazy. We met him at a member's home, and after lunch had a wonderful, deep discussion with him. He asks all the right questions. We could answer him, but the concept was so hard for him to grasp. My heart just went out for him. And his prayer was so genuine as he asked for Heavenly Father to testify to him that He's there and that peace exists in this world.

Last appointment! We went to a part-member family's home. It was chaos, but so much fun! There had to have been 15 people there, and we all met outside while we were waiting for the dad to finish smoking the perfect turkey. He's legit. He cuts the different kinds of woods in advance so he can smoke the turkey with the perfect blend of applewood/cherrywood or whatever. And there were three dogs, a cat, a duck, and a turtle in or around the house. SO CRAZY!

Anyway, I've written so much and there's so much else I want to do, so I'm going to sign off! Hope I didn't bore you! Have a wonderful week. Thanks for everything. Don't forget I'm praying for you, and how true and perfect this gospel is.

Love always,

Sister Merkley
MBM Missionary

P.S. We found a deaf girl who is interested. Now I REALLY have to practice my sign language.

August 18 - PVC, Temple trips, Jeopardy, baptismal dates and more!

Hello world!

It's a bright summer's day, and I have a week full of adventures to tell you all about! SO MANY THINGS HAPPENED! Pretty much all amazing things, too. :) It's great being on a mission for Jesus Christ. I highly recommend it.

First of all, that Portable Visitor's Center I've been telling you all about came to OUR WARD! Little Central Falls! And so we had a busy busy day preparing for it. :) We deep-cleaned the entire building (which is easier than it sounds, since it's so small) and set up all 8 displays around the church. It was so great to see Sister Bell and Sister Hurst again! They have done an amazing job with the PVC. We knew that Sister Hurst was going to be in the spotlight since so many members couldn't wait to see their old missionary, so they asked me to help out giving the tours and stationed the others at the beginning or end of the tour. Some of them were out street contacting, running up to cars stopped at the red light to get them to come in and everything. It was a lot of fun! Super cool to do it at our place, too, because it's such a high-traffic area. We're RIGHT on a busy street.

It was a pretty successful night! I was super nervous to be giving the tours and teaching so much about what we believe so quickly, but I did just fine. :) The videos helped out a lot. The tour groups weren't big, either, so I could really personalize it and connect with these people. One lady who wanted a tour was homeless, and when I took her to the Relief Society room and testified about being daughters of God and the unity and family the church brings, she started to cry because the Spirit was so strong. It was so neat. She is definitely going to become an investigator very soon. The Portable Visitor's Center is so inspired! Next time, we're really going to focus on the members bringing friends!

After that exhausting, eventful day, we woke up bright and early for. . . THE TEMPLE! Because Miss JOCELYN that you have all heard so much about went all the way through to get her endowments. :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) It was a very special day. So many missionaries came to witness it, because she's somehow knows everyone. ;) I don't know anyone who was as prepared for the temple as she was. I am so proud of her--I've really made another life-long friend.

We were tired when we got home from the temple, but missionaries are always tired, so we work on! It was such a blessing that we kept on running that day, because we had the opportunity to extend a baptismal date to six different people. That's right. Six. Four of them accepted!!!! It was so cool! Three of them were from the group of five girls we met and started teaching last week! The fourth is Lovely. She came to the Portable Visitor's Center and told US she wanted to be baptized. Say wha--????? I already knew it, though. :) She's going far. She's going on a mission and getting married in the temple, I just KNOW it! You would all love her. She's the best.

Wednesday Sister Godoy and I took a road trip. :P My poor, poor companion. We had to travel back to her old area for some crazy dental work. That literally took out most of our day. It was close to a 4-hour round trip. Thank goodness for medical miles, or we'd easily be done for the month.

Let's see. . . we played Jeopardy with Crystal to test her on her scripture study! She's awesome!!!!!! Wahoo! I have a strong feeling that I'm here to see her get baptized. She knows it's true. She's on fire. And she's going to take this step of faith. :) Also, my mom is amazing. She sent me a quad to give to her. Crystal was so so touched that someone would care about her that much to send her her own set of scriptures.

Quick shout out to Sister Shea. She's an amazing member who has had some of the most difficult physical trials I have ever heard of. She's a cancer survivor among other things. And because her health is so poor and she just recovered from the shingles, she lost her job. She's a strong woman who has taught me a lot. If you can keep her in your prayers I would so appreciate it.

That's all I'll say for now! I could keep typing, but this is long, and I promised myself I'd finally send home some pictures!!!

Love you all! The gospel is true. Remember who you are and what you stand for!

XOXOXOXOXOX

~Sister Merkley
MBM Missionary

August 11 - ". . . Embustera. . . Liar . . !"

Hola everyone!!!

It has been a fun week, to say the least!!! A fun week with beautiful, bright, sunny days!

There's a lot to say, but I'll start with a crazy story about a drunk woman. . . which will explain the subject line. . . Sister Godoy and I were out looking for a young women who hasn't been seen in awhile, when we saw THE most drunk person I have ever seen across the street. She was falling into the fence and muttering to herself. My companion is so compassionate, so of course we went to her to see if we could at least help her get home. We were worried she'd fall into the street. She thought we were angels. :) But when we realized her home was too far away to walk to easily, we borrowed her phone to find someone who knew her to pick her up. I got on the phone with someone from the assisted home where she lived, and I said, "I'm with Naudia, and she is extremely drunk and we're worried for her safety out on the streets. . ." Naudia, at this point, had fallen to the ground and was lying in the grass. She overheard me, and was promptly FURIOUS that I had called her drunk. She protested, "Embustera! . . . Liar!" (Embustera is liar in Spanish.) And she went off on a rant, half in English and half in Spanish about how we were NOT angels and how she needed God instead of us. . . She was quite put out. It wasn't funny in the least until after the experience. Needless to say, as soon as the assisted living center had sent an ambulance to pick her up and we knew she'd be okay, we were out of there. What a way to start off the week. :)

GOOD NEWS!!!!! We found FIVE new investigators!!!!! They are the greatest teenage girls--neighborhood friends that were super interested in what we had to say! We taught them a little bit, set up a return appointment. and came back and taught them the whole Restoration. Can't wait to teach them about the Plan of Salvation. They had so many questions about life that we can answer. :) It was a really neat experience! They are soooo sweet!!!!! Their names are Lilibeth, Teneri, Amjanet, Jelissa, and Pamela. Fun names, right? ;)

We had Zone Meeting this week! Jocelyn came with us! She is soooooo prepared for her mission. Her light and her testimony and her story are such an inspiration to me. Goodness, I thought I was DONE saying goodbye to friends leaving on their missions! My zone is awesome. We're making our very own "title of liberty" and putting it on t-shirts for P-days. :) Gotta love it!

Crystal is really progressing. I have HIGH hopes for her new baptismal date! Keep praying for her! She's been reading the Book of Mormon every single night! And she's been receiving personal revelation from it. What a miracle. :) WE LOVE HER. She's even going to be helping out with the Portable Visitor's Center coming to our ward tomorrow!!!!!!

Let's see. . . what else? We taught Gospel Doctrine class. And I might be teaching a deaf investigator.

Out of time! Gotta go! 

Love,
Sister Merkley
MBM Missionary

August 4 - La semana con mas Español en mi vida!

Favoritest Family and Friends!!!!!

I have survived the first few days as a leader in Central Falls (CF). It's been crazy, stressful and super fun! My new companion from Argentina is right here, and she is going to introduce her self! Here she goes...

Hola! How is it going over there? I am having a blast with Sister Merkley. I am from Argentina. I like Coca-Cola. I have a stuffed Pig in my bed! I miss the Spanish program, but I am learning a lot from the gringos. I love rice and meat, and i can say that my mission is the best thing that has ever happened in my life! Today i have been out for 14 months in my mission, and here in America I can't find shoes, because apparently you guys have big feet! But I am glad to get to say hi! And now I say bye! (All of this was said in her thick Spanish accent. Lol.)

I am also with Jocelyn, and she is going to say hi as well...

Hi everyone on the other side! (Not dead people just in case you're wondering.) so we are currently at Dress Barn and I am to small for these clothes, so i am supporting Sister Godoy and adding to the clothes being too small. haha! I have 0 days on the mission, but will report to the MTC on September 10. I will be flying to utah the 9th and staying at Sister Merkley's Moms' house! Shout out to Sister Trifiletti! I Love You! A day like today a year ago... I was baptized. yeahhhh party! So we are celebrating today and we look sooo cute all matching with polka dot shirts and black skirts. it feels like the 3 musketeers! Let's see. I love cookies and to sing and dance and that's why me and Lia get along soo freaking well! I Love her!!! Well let me pass you to Lia. if i stay I'll talk to much haha but one last thing: I came from Puerto Rico. So I also talk Spanish so me and Sister Godoy talk Spanish and Lia is like wha??? Haha so me and Sister Godoy will teach her Spanish and Latin-ize her. Buahaha Love you all Adios!

Haha, can you see why I love them? I'm well taken care of here by my girls. Transfer meeting was crazy. I'm getting so sick of goodbyes. :( Sister Platt is off in Cambridge! And it's been pretty hectic trying to remember everything and run the area. Sister Godoy is a stellar missionary though, so she's made the transition a little easier.

CC is officially a member of the church! And we're working with lots of others. The tricky part is meeting with them.

I actually ran out of time already, plus I'm not sure what else to tell you... But at least you got to hear from two of my favorite people! The gospel is true! Share it with everyone!!!

Love always,
Sister Merkley
MBM Missionary

P.S. I'm surrounded by forigners! Everyone I work with is from out of the country, and they all jabber in different languages!!! Ahh!!!

July 28 - The only constant is change!

Well hi there!!!!

Just another week in the crazy life of an MBM Missionary! And yes, it's that time again. I have transfer news. I feel like I shouldn't have news. Things should just stay the same for once. But no. Elder Starley is going home, which I already knew. He knew the most about our area and the people. But I thought I'd have Sister Platt longer. . . NOPE! Sister Platt is being transferred up to Cambridge. AHHHHHH!!!!! That means that I will be leading the area. An area I've only been in for 6 weeks. Oh my goodness!!! That's scary! I don't feel like I know enough! And I have to drive. I hate New England driving. WAY worse than Utah; I don't know WHAT Utah drivers complain about.

This ALSO means I'll have a new companion, of course. Which is nuts. She'll be my 6th companion. I've only been on my mission for 4 1/2 months! Two trios will do that to you. My new companion is from Argentina and has never served in an English ward before!!! This should be an adventure. :) I can't wait! I'm also suuuuuper nervous. I don't feel quite ready. At least I'm not training. Sister Godoy has been out way longer than me. Just not here. :)

But I'll tell you some of the other happenings! First of all, Crystal! I love her. :) The poor girl wanted to come straight back and be baptized as soon as she left. But you know what? We made a game plan to help her feel confident and prepared by the time she gets baptized. She's been investigating for nearly 3 years. It's about time she takes the step she knows is right, and it's gonna happen! But first we're going to help her testimony grow even MORE, so she has no qualms or hesitations. And she'll be baptized before I leave this area!

We took Jocelyn, the awesome girl going on a mission, to a park and just read the Book of Mormon with her for a LONG time. And we talked and talked about amazing doctrine. She so gets it! I'm so happy for her and I admire her enthusiasm for the gospel!

I told the story of the Pre-Mortal existence to Maria's kids. Lol. It was so hard! 5 of them under 10! And they had so many questions! Which is great, but they could be random. :) I really love them though. We need to get their mom more involved so they can come to church. They have big hearts and wonderful desires to be close to God.

Alright, I had 2 AMAZING experiences with the spirit this week. Well, others did, and I was just lucky enough to be a witness. :) The first one was CC. She had the baptismal date for yesterday, and she needed an interview with someone in the mission presidency, so President Haight drove down to little Central Falls. :) For a background on CC, she has an auto-immune disease called Sarcoidosis. The top half of her lungs have completely shut down, she has a raspy voice, and the doctors said it's a miracle she's even breathing. This disease has also caused her bones to be brittle so they break far too easily, and she has sores on her body. :( She's black, 31, and bone thin. She has 3 kids. After her interview with President Haight, she asked him for a blessing. We were so privileged to be able to sit in on it. Short of my Patriarchal Blessing, I've never heard a blessing like that in my life. In the name of Jesus Christ, he commanded her body to be healed. She was promised that within the year, she would return to full health. He told her that Heavenly Father had a mission and plan for her that would require a strong, healthy body, and that she would get it. It was amazing. And that was only a sliver of it. There were many other incredible things she was promised, and the Spirit was so strong in the room. Some of them were deeply personal. But I know that CC will be honored for the work that she will complete in this life, and that her ancestors and posterity will be blessed forever because of her decision to be baptized. And she was baptized on Sunday. The very same day, we started teaching her teenage daughter, Lovely.

The following morning, for the first time ever, CC's Aunt was able to go to the temple to be baptized. She had been in the Church for four years. And Saturday morning she took her mother and her sister's names to the temple and was baptized in their behalf in the house of the Lord. I can't even explain how strong the Spirit was. It was another mission-wide recent convert trip, and all of these people had pivotal, life-changing experiences. We are so blessed to have temples so close and the knowledge that we have!


There's always more things I could tell you, but this email is long enough! I love you all! Thanks for your testimonies, support and example. You keep me going every day, even when times are tough. Well, you and the Lord. ;)

Pray for this area!

Love,
Sister Merkley

MBM Missionary

July 21 - Another week, another adventure!

Hey there, all!!!!

Lots to tell you, as usual. :) Ready to hear lots more crazy stuff?

Let's start with my favorite!!!! Kevin LaBarge got baptized!!!! Wahoo! I am so grateful for the permission I got to go see it. And for the member who drove me over 2 hours round trip to get there. And for him and his testimony. :) :) It was on Thursday night, and it was so cool to see everything again! The building, the members, my old companions, everything! I just loved it so much. Apparently Kevin got scared and tried to cancel his baptism TWICE that day. The adversary hits hard. :P But he told me afterward that he went to pray about it and just knew he wouldn't ever come back to church if he didn't get baptized. And he wondered why he was so scared. He has a great testimony. So he came, to everyone's relief! :) :) It made me so happy to see him there. He'll make an amazing addition to the ward. he even cheered when he came up out of the water!

Zone Conference was the beginning of this week, and let me tell you, there was a spiritual outpouring. It was amazing! Poor President Packard gets little to no sleep every night and just had surgery on his meniscus, but he still was able to blow all of us away. Pretty sure everyone cried. :) The trainings were great, and he gave us such great motivation and resolve to be better!

We had the greatest lesson on the Restoration with an islander named Dwight. He's awesome. :D And the member we brought was so nervous. He's a convert, and he just looks like he'd always be so confident, but we had him shaking in his shoes when he came with us to teach! But he brought a different kind of spirit, and his simple testimony was so genuine. Dwight was glued to everything he said. It made everything so real. :)

Toward the end of the week ALL of our appointments were falling through. People here are flaky. They cancel. Or forget. Which is lame, when you've scheduled your day around them. But one night, when we were bitterly doing stop-bys of less-actives and Do Not Contacts (I think Sister Platt has a death wish. . . she's determined to visit all the DNCs) we got a call from a stellar member who randomly wanted to invite us over for burgers! So that was fun. :) Her husband is a recent convert and was able to pass the sacrament for the first time this Sunday!

Crystal. . . yeah, she's a story. She was so ready, then Satan threw everything he had at her. As in, when she invited her family to the baptism, they said, "Why are you joining a church that used to reject black people?" Oh, the misconceptions. :( And she hadn't heard anything about blacks/the priesthood, and she's black so she felt like she'd be betraying her people. So we all got together the night before her "baptism" and talked about it. The same member that drove me to Kevin's baptism came with us and was amazing. (Sister Frandsen). We talked about what happened and not knowing all the answers and faith and the adversary. It was a neat discussion, and we left with high hopes, but the next day she came to ward conference late, and she told us she wasn't ready to be baptized yet. She still wants to meet with us and she says she knows Joseph Smith was a prophet and she WANTS to be baptized. She just needs more time. Which is alright. The Elders had two investigators baptized Sunday. Super cool. :)

That's about all I have time for! But I love you all, as you very well know! There's nothing more important than sharing the gospel with everyone! I am so blessed to have this calling!!!!!

<3,
Sister Merkley
MBM Missionary