Canada Week 76: God meets us where we are!

Hello my friends and family!  Hopefully everyone found reasons to smile this week!  I have discovered that joy is often found in the simplest and smallest of things. :) 

Fun facts of the week:  It warmed up and thawed out our frozen zone - our freezer and refrigerator are LOADED with lasagna (9 to be exact) - we delivered some more heart attacks - we tried DQs red velvet blizzards with brownies that we actually got to eat there and not take home!  

Sister Crowe and I had a great week.  We had a few lessons and meetings get cancelled, but we were still part of so many good things!  We had some really awesome member lessons.  We have started sharing M. Russell Ballard's talk called, "Write Down a Date."  In this talk he challenges us to set a date to a find someone for the missionaries to teach.  We have been challenging our members with this and it has been really neat!  The spirit has been so powerful and I love it!  We also had some amazing lessons with the people we are teaching and even put a couple of them on date!  The first is a girl named Clerissa.  She has previously been taught and we recently contacted her and began teacher her again.  This has now led to us to setting a baptismal date for her the end of March!  The other is our friend Trish.  She is the cute lady in our building that we serve by walking her dogs each day.  We had a wonderful phone call with her this week and ended up setting a baptismal date for her too for the beginning of May!  It is so incredible and God is so good!  We are so happy our friends have chosen to become closer to their Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ!  

This past Thursday I had another interview to discuss My Plan and a few other things before I return home in a couple weeks.  I also attended my last Zone Conference.  The conference was amazing and I felt such a special spirit.  All of the missionaries going home had opportunity to bear their testimony.  It was a very tender moment for me.  I am so grateful for everything God has allowed me to go through and learn the past 18 months as a full-time missionary. 

As for my thoughts this week, I have found myself pondering about people and experiences placed on our paths.  Every minute of every day provides us with opportunities for emotions, attitude, and choices, and we can choose how each moment affects us.  We can choose to learn and grow or not.  It has always baffled me that God knows exactly what we need, how we need it, and when we need it - even if it takes us forever to come around to the same understanding.  How does He do it?  How does He keep track?  I don't have the answers, and this week we taught a lesson to an investigator who had similar questions.  During the lesson I felt prompted to share Mosiah 4:9 which says:  "Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend."  This scripture is such a good reminder for me. that ALL we have to do is believe.  There are so many things we don't understand, but we can trust in God's love, choose to have faith, and to take things one day at a time.  I am learning to truly live by the line, "Come what may and love it!"  I tend to be a planner and a worrier, but I am learning how to take things one day at a time when I need to.  I am grateful for a merciful God who has more patience than I seem to acknowledge.  He is more than willing to wait for us as long as we are still moving forward, still trusting in Him, and still desirous for righteous things.  There is also no timetable in which we have to achieve it.  He let's us go at our own pace, and He will meet us where we are and build us up. 

I am so grateful for God and His goodness.  I am grateful for the Book of Mormon that helps me recognize and understand God's love and mercy.  I testify that He truly is there.  He loves us so much that He sent His son, Jesus Christ, here to fulfill all that was necessary.  They have more love for us than we know, and they will always be there for us no matter what. 

I love and miss you all - but I'll see you soon!  Find a reason to smile this week because God loves YOU! 

Love, Sister Merrill 

I LOVE being a Missionary!

Sister Merrill & Sister Crowe

Zone Conference

Sister Exchanges

Hanging out at the church everyday

because the apartment lost Wi-Fi!

Lots of Lasagna! (9 to be exact)

Heart-Attack Fun

Spreading Love!

18 MONTHS!!!

Peace & Love

God is Good!

Canada Week 75: Totally and immensely loved!

Hello my wonderful friends and family!  I hope your week was full of good times and smiles.  Our week was one heck of an adventure full of laughs and good times!  Goodness gracious - I am so grateful for all the opportunities, experiences and smiles that are always abounding up here in the Great White Canadian North.  Happy (late) Valentines Day!  I hope you all felt some extra love! 

This past week felt a little long, but it was good.  Last Monday night we had a few members lessons.  Since it was P-day we didn't really get ready for the day, and then for one of our member lessons we ended up on a big movie screen video!  It was so funny and honestly made for quite the laugh.  At least we were mostly presentable.  :)  We also went on exchanges with some amazing sisters Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday and it was so fun to learn from them.  The sisters in this mission are so amazing, and I am beyond grateful to serve right alongside them.  Sadly I only took a couple pictures, but I am thankful for the memories.  We really enjoyed our weekly services this past weekend.  Our Saturday service at the bishop's storehouse was a madhouse!  There were so many orders to fill, and they weren't small orders.  There were people grabbing items left and right and others restocking as fast as they could.  It was a very eventful morning, but I LOVE any opportunity I have to serve.  We also had an exciting store contacting adventure at Wal-Mart.  We rolled up to this hotspot and began searching.  We found many lovely people - some nicer than others.  We were mistaken as nuns, and politely told "no" by a handful of people.  We found a guy who is actually married to a member, then a day later we found out they are in another ward.  They are both very nice and it was fun to meet them.  We also met a lady who hesitantly gave us her number.  She has yet to respond, but hopefully she will soon.  God is so good!  I will forever be grateful for all the adventures I have had of finding wonderful and loving - and not so loving - people here in Canada.  People are so fascinating and I LOVE getting to meet them and hear their stories! 

As for my thoughts this week, they are quite simple.  I had my exit interview (unexpectedly) with my Mission President this week.  It got me reminiscing about this mission adventure I have been on for the past 17 1/2 months.  I have countless memories of feeling God's love for me and for those around me.  This will be something that I will cherish forever.  I really just felt the goodness that God has in a lot of simple ways this past week.  We had the most AMAZING lesson with Trish, the lady in our building that we walk the dogs for.  She is INCREDIBLE and was so prepared!  As we taught her, I was so overcome with love for her.  She expressed her gratitude for our compassion and service for her, and for the genuine love and friendship we have shown her.  She calls us her angels.  She also thanked us for helping her reconnect with her Heavenly Father. She said that because of us she wants to establish a greater relationship with God and wants to be a better person.  I could not ask for anything more.  If this one moment is what I take with me I will forever feel indebted to my Heavenly Father for allowing me to catch a glimpse into how He sees His children, and for feeling a drop of the love He has for each and every single one of us.  I cannot say it enough - GOD LOVES YOU!  Please always remember that you are LOVED more than you will ever know!  You will forever and always be tremendously loved.  I want to express from the deepest part of my heart that I LOVE being a missionary, and that I am so grateful for the opportunities God has laid before me.  I am excited for these last few weeks and the adventures they hold. 

I know that my Heavenly Father is real and that He has a perfect plan for His children no matter how skewed it looks, or how hard it can be, or what trials are in our paths.  I know that our older brother and Savior, Jesus Christ, is truly there for each and every minuscule moment and feeling.  We can ALWAYS turn to them and always rely on and trust in them.  I know it's hard.  Life is tough.  There are dark times, but there is also good.  There is always light, and that light will ALWAYS overcome the darkness.  Let your Savior in.  Allow for God to work in your life and pray to have the eyes to see His goodness, the ears to hear His words, and the heart to feel His love. 

Love, Sister Merrill ♡

Interviews with President Cowley

Sister Merrill & Sister Crowe

Heart-attacking the Cowley's door

Virtual exchanges

Sister Smith and Sister Merrill

Valentine's Day Cookies!

Service at the Bishop's Storehouse

Jalepeno Popcorn!

I love you as much as this Sour Patch Cherry!

Canada Week 74: The seeds ALWAYS matter!

Hello my wonderful family and friends!  I hope everyone had a splendid week full of smiles and hope!  Fort Sask Canada has officially entered the frozen zone this past week so we are trying not to freeze!  We came close during a service this week but we were safe!  

This week we continued serving as instruments in God's hands.  We were not about to let the balmy -40 degree weather with frostbite warnings stop us!  We are still helping our cute neighbor lady by walking her dogs every day, and we also provided service to an elderly couply by shoveling their driveway when it was -30 degrees!  Don't worry - God kept the sun shining and kept us warm from the inside out.  He is too good sometimes!  These moments of service and memories of frozen eyelashes and nose hairs are something I will never forget!  (see attached pictures for the full effect of this experience)  We filled our tub up with hot water to keep us warm while we called people.  Fun note - I came across a GIANT sloth at Walmart and it made my heart happy!  Along with our feezing escapades we were so blessed with lessons upon lessons and meetings and service and walks.  A couple of our lessons were EXACTLY what my missionary heart needed!  The spirit was SO strong and I was overcome with joy!  It is truly an incredible experience to watch people put pieces together and recognize the good.  I love catching a glimpse of just how much our Father in Heaven loves them!  It is honestly the best feeling in the world!  One of the biggest blessings I have had as a missionary is to truly see others as Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ do.  I couldn't be more grateful for this gift and opportunity.  Each person is so beautiful and unique and it is incredible to see!

This week was full of little things coming to light that truly testified to me that God is in the details, and that we truly never know the lives we are touching.  My dad shared with me that a non-member he works with came across the video of me singing "I Believe in Christ" and playing the ukulele that I posted during Presiden't Nelson's gratitude week and he liked it.  I was so joyous and grateful to hear that.  Another thing is that I taught a lesson to someone I found through Facebook back in September.  He actually tried to teach us about his church and nothing really came from it back then.  He recently reached out and now wants to hear the lessons we teach and start reading the BOOK OF MORMON!  The seeds we plant truly will begin to grow within those who are ready when they are ready - even if they take years and years - the seeds ALWAYS matter!  The little efforts you put forth, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant they may seem, truly mean something!  You are always doing more than you think, and you are ALWAYS doing better than you think!  These wonderful moments on top of our already spirit-filled member lessons just filled my whole soul with so much love and happiness.  This week we felt that one of our member lessons didn't quite go how we had planned proved otherwise Sunday.  The father of that family bore his testimony on the lesson we shared with his family!  How incredible is that?!  We truly just never know what will come from things we do and things we may say.  I came across a video this week about my thoughts this week.  A lady shared a message about how every interaction we have can either strengthen or weaken someone.  I hope we choose to always be the one that strengthens - to be the reason someone believes God is good and that there is still good in the world.  That is the example our older brother Jesus Christ has set for us and one that we should follow.  

I am so grateful for this opportunity I have had to wear Jesus Christ's name upon my chest and represent Him each and everyday for the past almost 18 months.  He is perfect - I am imperfect - but He has qualified me to be the instrument He needs at this time and in this place.  I am grateful for the constant love and strength I receive from my Savior and my Heavenly Father.  They are my rocks and my best friends.  I testify that they love you more than you will ever know in this life.  Hang on to the things you know and feel are right.  I love and miss you all! ♡

Love, Sister Sydnee Merrill 

Frozen eyelashes!

this is what happens in -40 degrees

Sister Crowe & Sister Merrill

Sydnee still loves sloths! :)