Hello hello my beautiful, wonderful family and friends! I hope everyone is well!
My week was another up and down roller coaster ride. The beginning of the week was super good and then it slowly got slower with a few ups in between. All is well though because we need opposition in all things. How can we appreciate the good things if we don't have challenges that allow for us to think and truly trust God? Also, this week I hit one year as a missionary! 1 WHOLE YEAR! That is 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes and 31,536,000 seconds wearing Jesus Christ's name upon my chest! What an incredible thing! I could sit here and write about all of the amazing things that have happened, and tell you what a wonderful experience this has been, but that would only be half true. Serving a mission has truly been the biggest growing experience thus far in my lfe - it has also been the hardest year of my life. That is saying quite a bit because I went through a rough patch soon before I came on this wild adventure. This has also been the best year of my lfe. I have truly grown to know that Heavenly Father IS my loving Father in Heaven, and that I was created in His image. I have truly come to know who my Savior is for me on a deeper, more meaningful level and will cherish this forever! I KNOW Jesus Christ IS my Savior and Redeemer. I KNOW He DID suffer and die for me, and for each and every person on this earth. He IS my exemplar. I KNOW our prayers are HEARD and they are answered. I also know we have to do our part and put forth effort on our end to receive those answers, and to see the help we are given.
This week, we had the opportunity to attend Zone Conference. It was just the spiritual upliftment and nourishment my little soul needed. It was centered around conversion to Jesus Christ and the importance of that in our lives. We also learned about the idea of seeking, trusting and doing. We need to truly trust God in ALL things, and acknowledge Him in all ways, and be willing to act in accordance. It was really good! It was also wonderful to see our wonderful President Cowley and his wife and all of the other missionaries in our zone. After the conference my companion and I were able to stop by and visit with a family I was close with when I served in the city of Edmonton. It was a such a wonderful day.
Our week seemed to get progressively slower after Zone Conference. Most of our people we are teaching and members have been out of town before school starts, but we were still able to find some things to do. We were blessed to help with the community food drive for back-to-school. It was amazing to interact with so many people and witness first hand the wonderful, genuine kindness of others! I absolutly LOVED it! We also had some fun supper appointments and a couple good lessons. We were also able to read the Book of Mormon with a couple people. It never ceases to amaze me the different insights people have on certain verses and stories in the scriptures. I love to hear their testimonies and to see the power in other lives from the Book of Mormon. It is incredible!
This last thought flows perfectly into what I wanted to share from my personal studies this week! As a mission we have been doing what we call, "Book of Mormon Power Half an Hour." It has been so wonderful! Every day for 30 minutes we feast upon the words in the Book of Mormon. I have developed a deeper love for the Book of Mormon from doing this in just the past couple weeks. The words in this book were truly written with our day and the people of today in mind. The words are God are speaking to us today and morph into lessons we need to learn and answers we need from God. I know that the Book of Mormon will never get boring to read because it is constantly becoming what we need in our everyday lives. While the words are the same, the meaning changes according to our questions, desires, and concerns. How incredible is that? I love this! This past week as I read, I especially have loved the phrase Jesus says on multiple occasions, "Come Unto Me." One of my favorite songs we sang in the mission choir this past year was called, "Come To Me." Similar phrase - same meaning. Jesus Christ ALWAYS has His arms open to each of us. His love is beyond words, beyond comprehension, beyond understanding, yet can be felt so deeply. I urge everyone to truly build a relationship with their Savior. He knows you, just as your Father in Heaven knows you!
I love and miss everyone! I hope this week is amazing, and if not, I hope that you can find the strength from your Savior to smile anyway! :)
Love, Sister Merrill
ONE YEAR as Sister Merrill!
Zone Conference!
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