Late December Back in '63

Oh, what a night... talkin' with the fam. All the memories and the love flooding back into my mind and heart. Thank you, my dear loved ones.


Well, as for missionary work, not too much happened this week. It just so happens that it was Christmas week... and it also just so happens that it a break from school at WWU which means... diddley to do for the Elders. But hey.... we somehow kept busy and had a good ole' time.


I'll give you a little update on our awesome investigator. We took him to a baptism that was going on in the zone the other day and he just adored it. He said he was visualizing himself being baptized throughout the ordeal and that was, of course, some sweet candy to our little ears. Then the next day (yesterday) we had a lesson with him before a fireside that a member told us to go to. We didn't really know what the fireside was about so we just invited him to come anyways. It was at the church so... couldn't be too bad. As we were walking in the member who was with us (Scott) told our investigator who was doing the fireside:"The Gardner Sisters." Elder Pymm and I had no idea who they were but apparently our investigator did because he just straight flipped. Ha he just kept hitting Scott and yelling, "Shut up! Shut up! You're kidding!" It was pretty dang hilarious if I do say so myself... which I do. So our investigator runs into the chapel and hugs those Gardner Sisters and we sat there and listened to some beautiful music and messages about Christ. It was quite spiritual... which I wasn't expecting. I took a lot away from that night, including a signed tie from the Gardner Sisters and pictures with them and all the missionaries. Don't make fun of us... they were pretty great.


I feel like I told you most of everything when we skyped... so if you have any questions feel free to shoot them my way. I sure love you!


While I walk,


Elder Trent Jay Merrill

I think these pics are pretty funny. Christmas Eve Slumber Party!

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Gardner Sisters and The Gang

An account of the ministry

And it came to pass in these days that there went up a man to the font of Lynnwood who was there baptized by one having authority given him from God. And Sean, being the one who was baptized by one having the authority given him from God (for no man taketh that authority unto himself unless he is called of God,) then entered into the covenant that shall last from all eternity to all eternity if he but heeds the counsel from the Father recorded in ancient and holy writ, "Yea, the words of my beloved are true and faithful, he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved." Now Sean, of Bothell, will henceforth hearken unto that counsel and be saved, I so do declare.

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Well I'm not too sure what that was all about but there was some serious truth going on in that pretentious and forced prose of a paragraph. Sean was in deed baptized. What more can I say.... The spirit testified to my mind and heart of the necessity of this ordinance under the proper priesthood authority. I felt the roots of my testimony growing deeper into every part of me. I am becoming a witness of the majesty and power of the Holy Ghost. I am nothing without it... sometimes worse.. and now Sean can have that same gift that changes people from the inside out.

If you're looking for a good story, stay tuned... because you might just find one here in a little bit. Friday the 13th seemed to live up to it's infamy this year. It started out like most good adventures do, with a little road trip down to Everett, Washington. We had a nice doctor's appointment for my friend's footsies (Sister P adds "ies" to the end of everything and it's catching on to my vocabulary: i.e. "how many toasties would you like this morning, my cute one?" Man... Life is too good.) That's not the story though. Hold on. While on our way back home movin' along and singin' our song we noticed that some colorful lights were dancing behind us. We followed our natural inclination which is to move over so the lights can move on past us to the true culprit... but the lights seemed to have another motive in mind. We meet the no-nonsense lady cop on the passenger side of the car where I then sat. She came and went leaving us with a verbal warning. So, counting our many blessings we drove our way to lunch and met up with Maria who was going home for the break later that day. We enjoyed some coco kenny's and off we went to find, teach and baptize. We get in the car and started to pull out of the parking lot. My companion looks left and right making sure no one is coming.... looks clear... blinker is on... turning... turning... BOOM! What's up Lexus! Didn't see you there... how you doin'. Smell ya later bumper. Good to know you licences plate. We'll catch you another time. Plowed that fancy side of a car. Mr. Lexus came out of his car and put his hand up to stop us because my comp was a little flustered and kept moving back and forth not quite sure what to do with himself. In my slight immaturity, I kept celebrating because it was my first car accident and it felt... oh so good. The cops started to pull up and the rain was sprinkling on my half smile of a face. While taking pictures of the damage I saw a certain cop emerge from the flashing lights. While ducking under the door slightly, my companion asked, "Is that the same cop!?" You betcha, sir. It was the same lady cop we met just an hour or so ago. She hadn't seen us yet and then made her way over to us... she stopped and yelled, "Are you serious, guys!?" And my comp just says, "It's been a bad day...." Hahha ah man... I love that stuff. So, I realize how heartless I sound.. but just keep in mind that no one got hurt. Just some [people's] pride. But I'm sure that will turn around soon enough too. Friday the 13th, ladies and gentleman. It's real. Go ahead and slap a doctrinal stamp on it.

Well just a couple other things happened this week that I'll fire off: President Bonham came out and taught and contacted with us. It was nice.

James is super golden and will be baptized here in the coming weeks. 18th of January is the date but it might be moved up.

We're getting back in contact with Kelly soon who is still the nicest person I've ever met.

My companion and I discovered that one of the Bishopric counselors is the man and we just want him to like us.

For scripture memorizing this week we're doing Luke 2 so we can have that sweet ole Christmas story in our minds all the time.

Sister P made a whole bunch of crazy yummy smelling cookies last night and I ate approximately... none. Seven months till sexy. Can't mess that up.

I met a girl who was on her way to bible study the other day and now she's almost read the whole book of Alma and has been texting us all about it. Just got to open your mouth and some good stuff can come out. Thank you, scriptural promises! You sure do come in handy.

I got your package parentals. I am just so garsh darn excited it makes me feel all giddy inside... that was soo sweet of you. Sister P put the gifts underneath the tree. Thank you so much! I love you!

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And I'm a mormon,

Elder Trent Jay Merrill

Rise Against the Storm

The elements were against us this week. Or at least they tried. I feel like this is the coldest I've ever felt... temperature wise: not the coldest I've endured. But sure feels like it is. So... I don't know what to make of that. Still we worked the same just with a little more layers and complaints. Neither are too out of the usual though.

Well, yesterday was quite the little experience. Maybe I'll share some things. Maybe not. Ok, I will....So... first, if you didn't already know, it was Sunday. Which means, if you didn''t already know, that we have church. We showed up and Elder Pymm was looking fresh so you know it was going to be a good day. Only one of our investiators came, Laura. So that's not the good part. One of our investigators was sick... I"ll tell you more later in the letter. Spoiler alert: still getting baptized on Saturday. Sorry to blow the anticipation!

While stalking the congregation for new faces we recognized two people who we didn't recognize. How confusing. We didn't get a chance to talk to them before the meeting so we waited for the perfect time to pounce. Like a lion on the prowl. We sat quietly across from them in the next class and thought through the possible approaches. I'm only slightly exaggerating this story. The time came when the amen was heard and everyone arose from their seats. They were the first to leave and as they passed us said something like, "have a good day.." So in a split-second decision I reached out my hand and said, "Well thank you, what do you have going on tonight?" It wasn't as creepy or choppy as it may seem. It just worked beautifully. You'll see... No they didn't have anything going on. So we invited them to cottage meeting. Which is everyone's favorite, am I right? Yep. I am... and then we talked to them for a good ten minutes and had some good ole laughs. It was the perfect start to a relationship: The man, raised a member and his non-member girl friendl. We all clicked right toff the bat. Especially Elder Pymm and the guy... they both wrestled and had a nice connection right there. So we figured out a time and a place to meet for the sweet road trip down to the mission home. Our beloved Ward Mission Leader took us down while I talked to him about his fantasy novels and Elder Pymm was entertaining the guests in the back seat. We couldn't hear each other too well. Cottage meeting went as expected. We showed up late but still got to hear two people share their conversion stories and President Bonham give the Christmas story as found throughout the Book of Mormon. Which was cool. The member started a good conversation with a guy after the meeting and apparently might be getting hooked up with a job at Boeing. So.. that's always a good thing. We road tripped our way back home to Bellingham and built some more of our friendship. I think the girlfriend is pretty interested. We (mostly Elder Pymm) talked to her about her beliefs and ours and all that kind of stuff. We're going to Ihop with them this Tuesday... I call that a win/win situation, folks.

We had Mission Leader Council and Zone Conference this week. So we didn't have too much time to proselyte. They're both far away and took up almost two full days for us. The semester for WWU is coming to a close this week and everyone is going home till the second week of January. What are we going to do with our time? That's a good question. I'll let you know once I experience that cruel reality of an abandoned college town.

Last Monday while I was about to get off emails I got a call from someone in the Mays Pond ward, which is at the bottom of our mission. Her daughter is the girlfriend of our investigator. She is quite nice. Anyways... we talked for about a half an hour about what might be best for Him. His girl friend and her family are all members and very active. All of our investigators family are, obviously, not members and are not too supportive of the church. The semester is ending here before his baptismal date and all of his family and friends live down in Mays Pond. So after talking for a while, and with approval from President Bonham, we decided it'd be best if he was baptized there. So looks like we're taking another road trip down to dirty south this Saturday. The girlfriend's mother said when our investigator came to their house and told them he had a date set for the 14th the girls got all emotional and they were just so excited. It's been almost two years and finally he's decided to make the step to "act in faith." I love that he decided to do that.

I'm outta time, my friends. The computers didn't work too well today. I want to write to you about Joseph Smith. My topics of study and scripture memorization were all on him this week and it's been life changing. Or at least heart changing. Which seems the same sometimes.

Praise to the Man,

Elder Trent Jay Merrill

Cheers

Top class. Thanksgiving was a dream: Wearing all sorts of argyle sweaters, socks and too tight of jeans. Martinelli toasts and a whole bunch of laughs. It was the closest to home with a couple hundred miles apart. Maria, Kaitlyn and Howard (a legendary missionary who came to visit) were all there with us and Sister P. In the morning Elder Pymm and I went to play some Turkey Bowl Football with the ward. It was a good ole time. We pulled out the guitar and let Elder Pymm take us away into sweet memories. I tried and failed. Tends to be a pattern lately.

Lindsay and others have been asking about my new companion so here's some info on the beloved, Elder Pymm: He's from Idaho Falls (Mom he's a Bonneville Bee!) Wrestler, football player and a charmer. His birthday was on Thanksgiving so we had to have that "bro talk" till 2am. That's how you know it's a good companionship. Bro talk. I like the way we teach together too. We both like to be obedient and work hard. I've been pretty lucky to have companions like that for a lot of my mission. I'm missing out on a lot of life lessons to be learned though... catch 22?

I truly do not remember much about what went on this week. Our investigators were all out of town for thanksgiving break. No one was on campus or in their apartments. My knuckles finally got to hit the doors that its long since forgotten. I actually liked this week. It made me appreciate everything we usually have going on. We found a new investigator a little bit a go and he's preparing to be baptized for the 18th of January. So that was pretty cool. Another one is still on for the 14th of December. We also have one that is supposed to be baptized this weekend but.... he's kinda flakin' out. We got to see what's going on with him. It's been causing me a lot of stress. I hope you can shoot a couple prayers his way. He needs it.

Well, all in all, my mind is blank and distracted. I love you.


High Pinky and Low Tummy,

Elder Trent Jay Merrill

Apostles and Things

I'm not positive... but pretty positive... that I forgot to tell you something kind of important. The time has already passed though so now I'll just give you the good news. Also, I don't have much time today so it might be short. 

Drum roll..................................................Elder Bednar came to our mission this week! Elder Pymm and I were the only companionship that got to see him in three different meetings. We lucked out, right? Right. So there's two big pieces of info for you: One: Elder Pymm is my new companion and he's a beautiful soul and face. I've known him for his whole mission... we were already friends. It's sick. Two: Elder Bednar came to the WEM! (Washington Everett Mission AKA WEM AKA Where the Playas' Play AKA Can't Beat This)

Three talks we read to prepare: Converted unto the Lord, Ask in Faith, and Seek Learning by Faith. I tried to read each scripture reference and break everything down. It made some big ole differences from how I usually study a talk. I should probably learn from that and always do that? Yes. We drove down to Arlington (about an hour south of Bellingham) for the big day on Saturday. The whole mission was together. Elder Draper was conducting and I gave the opening prayer. When I got up on the stand I looked at Elder Bednar and he was just staring at me with his hand on his crossed over knee. Scared? No. Really? No... not really. I was scared. He didn't move that position the entire prayer Elder Draper said. What a boss. We were all expecting Elder Bednar to chastize and throw down on us. And I was stoked for it too... but it was sooo different. He was so happy, relaxed and just joked around with us. He opened it up for us to ask questions and then he'd ask us questions and we'd observe the pattern of learning by faith and through the spirit. At one point he asked, "If you had a question, and no one has asked it and it hasn't been brought up at all, did you still receive an answer to that question?" Almost everyone raised their hand. The holy ghost testifies of the truth we need when we are engaged, participating and acting. We are not objects but agents to act for ourselves. I really wish I had time to go off on all the principles I've been learning about that lately. It's huge. Study the talks that Elder Bednar requested us to read and you will know the subtle truths that will unlock your own personal revelation and guidance. I learned a lot at least... see what you think.

After the missionary meeting there was a special YSA fireside and we had investigators coming to it so we were allowed to stay. In between the two meetings I got some sushi with my good ole buddy, Elder Draper. It was great. Well... one of the rolls was a struggle to get down. I kind of cried as I chewed. I like sushi now though, did I tell you that? I love it actually. I think it's because I learned how to use chop sticks and now... everything is better. Anyways, Apostle: The fireside was the same format as ours. Not just a speech or talk but a pattern of learning and asking. I remember after Elder Bednar said a joke he said something like, "You guys don't know me very well. You probably think I'm really serious and stern because that's all you see in conference. Well, Duh! That's not the place to mess around!" Ha then he just laughed. I just wanted to be around him all day... and I kind of was.... so.....

The next day Elder Bednar came to Bellingham for a special stake conference. The YSA's were able to sit in the choir seats behind the pulpit so that was a good time. I wore my glasses and everything. Elder Bednar went up with out any notes or paper and directed all of his comments to non-members. He taught almost all of the missionary lessons. It was so clear and with so much power and authority. Beautiful. One of our investigators turned around and smiled and waved at us when he said it's directed to non-members ha how cute.

Oh man! I have just one more thing that's great news. First, the girl I met last week and our upcoming baptism are still doing good. Same with our other 4 investigators: and a lot of others. Now onto another investigator: this is the good news. We finally got a hold of him after about four weeks of no contact. We had two lessons set up at the same time so I split with our WML and Elder Pymm went with another member. I decided to teach Him about baptism, even though he's been taught and been going to church off and on for two years. His girl friend is a member in Lynnwood so that's how he got involved with the whole Mormon thing. We taught about baptism and then talked about faith. How we receive answers and what not. At first it wasn't going really anywhere, but for some reason I felt like I should bring up having a baptism date to prepare for. So I asked if he's ever had a baptismal date to work towards. He said no. So we talked about that and he was hesitant at first and so we kept talking about faith and I used the examples and principles that I learned in Elder Bednar's talks. Long story short: He's being baptized on the 14th of December. It was a great lesson. His girlfriend came up to me at the special YSA fireside and was so happy. Ada boy to our investigator, Way to commit. Way to act. That's how you do it.

Oh, yes, I was interviewed by that journalist guy. Twice actually. It's been good I'll definitely send you a copy of the report when he's done. Probably in a couple weeks he said. I tried to bear testimony to him in all of his questions but turns out he's an Atheist and just interested in my story of turning around to coming on a mission. So... eh. We'll see how that all goes.

Sunshine and wet feet,

Elder Trent Jay Merrill

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of not being transferred

The day has come and the decision is made: Elder Pectol, my dear sweet Elder Pectol, is leaving me. Where to, I do not know. But there is one thing I do know... and that is that I'm wearing a big fat polyester tie today... and also... I will miss my friend.

Well I guess I should go back a couple weeks to keep you updated on the life and struggles of Elder Merrill... That is my name. Someone told me that I should change my name yesterday. I don't understand the implications but I guess I do slur my speech when I say, "eldrmrll." I should work on that.

Now let me tell you about a girl. I think she's what we call "prepared to hear the good Word of God," but without so many words. Let me paint a picture of our first encounter. First, you should know that we split up when we contact so we can talk with more people and be less intimidating. We just make sure we stay within sight and sound of each other.

I was sitting on a bench underneath a dimly lit light surrounded by close to perfect darkness. I tried catching peoples attention as they walked by but only a few would stop and take the time to acknowledge my existence. I still felt confident. I saw one shadow emerge from the psychology building and walked almost towards me... but not too close to me. I asked how she was doing and then exchanged our little small talk. We ended up sitting down together on the bench while I taught the restoration. She has had Mormon friends before but never understood the doctrine too well. She kept saying things like, "This is so interesting... I had no idea.... This would change everything... I feel like I've just been wandering lately and didn't know where to go or what to do..." While we were talking I just kept thinking about Katy for some reason (RC that I was able to teach in Everett that moved to Bellingham)... so I brought her up and told her story a little bit. I have no idea why... I never would do that normally. A couple days later we had a lesson and Katy came and then I saw why. They were perfect for each other. Katy knew exactly what she was feeling and thinking and could relate so well. This investigator came to church and Katy actually gave a talk about her conversion story... what are the odds. I talked with our investigator afterwords and she explained about how much Katy's talk impacted her and how well she related to her. It was beautiful thing. Katy is helping so many people here in the ward: Members, investigators, everyone. Even the bishopric counselor went off on how much her talk helped him as he conducted over the pulpit.

Last week for FHE we had an open mic. Which just so happened to be great. Elder Pectol played the guitar and I read some unoriginal/original yet poorly written poetry. It's the only kind I know how to do so.... I think I'm ok with it.

We got a call from a journalist student named Brendan. He wanted to interview us for his school paper. We were way down so we had an interview ha. He asked about our childhood and upbringing and all that kind of stuff. Nothing too serious. I liked it though. I'll send you the copy of his paper when it's finished.

This week I felt pretty confused about the Godhead for some reason. On the surface it all makes perfect sense... then I was digging a little deeper and deeper and then SNAP I lost my focus and couldn't comprehend it's intricacies or generalities. It all just didn't make sense. So I went to be a little frustrated and Elder Pectol and I decided to make up a dream instead of going to bed. So for a couple hours we just made up a phenomenally adventurous nonsensical dream. That's not the point of this paragraph...I just got distracted again. I can tell you about it sometime though... it was a good one. I woke up the next day still confused on some things and was just hoping that no one would bring up that argument that day. I just didn't' know how I would even respond. Well... it's not too unpredictable that it was indeed brought up in a lesson later that day. I was on an exchange with a visa waiter missionary and the investigator was pretty ready to just disprove everything we believe. Which I'm totally down with going to town with those people. (Bad example) It's cool though, cause with this guy it's like I'm talking to a friend. He respects me and I respect him. We just believe different things. So anyways, he started asking about the Godhead vs the trinity and I just hopped right into the battle zone that we like to call the bible bash. I went extremely hard on it with any and every argument and evidence against his belief and to support mine ha. I would definitely not advise that. It usually, like... definitely most of the time, doesn't work. But this time.... he backed down and said he had no idea. He would have to look it up. God helped me understand my questions about the Godhead.

We've been teaching our solid investigator a lot to help him prepare for his baptism that's coming up here pretty soon. The only hold up he might have is with the Word of Wisdom. So we taught that wondering how it would all go down. Well it just so happens that it went down smoother than a Jamba Juice smoothie while on your way to a BYU football game with your family. (Specific memory? feels like it) While we were teaching it he just went off on how true it was and how Joseph Smith must really be a prophet. Man... it was cool. At the end he bore his testimony to us and told us of his commitment to stick with this gospel for the rest of this life. I love him.

The Truth of it All

My mind has been quite preoccupied with all the thoughts and conversations I seem to have every day. I love this time in my mission where I can take all the knowledge that I've learned throughout life and have it be attacked and challenged every minute of the day. That's just being on a mission I guess... right now it just seems to be at a higher level because there are so many people at this university who are willing to talk about anything. My studies have never been so focused and fulfilling because I'm being questioned on all perspectives and avenues of my faith. How can I back it up without my own study, pondering and prayer. Well I can say that every time I have had a doubt or a question that I didn't know an answer to I have been directed to an answer in one way or another.

A couple days ago I was just sitting in the car thinking about an argument that someone brought up the other day. I didn't know how to respond at the time and then BOOM the answer came into my mind that made way too much sense. It's a little bit of deep doctrine so I don't want to go into right now ha. I'm just grateful that the spirit can testify of truth into my MIND and my HEART. It takes both for me and I feel like I can testify, now more than ever, that this church: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is what it claims to be. I sense the feeling of boldness coming into my fingertips right now....so go ahead and check out if you're not into it... but if you're down for the ride... it's comin' your way.

I feel like the church claims a lot of things but I have a couple that come to mind right now. "This is Lord's Kingdom once again established on the earth." Pretty bold right... It is! It's very bold to say that this is the one and only authorized church on the earth that has a modern day prophet who has the same power and authority as did Moses. We claim that we have modern day revelation and the windows of heaven are open to communicate with God after the "long night of apostasy" and now we are no longer "wondering from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, running to and fro to seeking the word of the Lord, and not able to find it" I have been blessed to come to the knowledge of the truth because I knew where to find it. That's it. I know where truth is.... finally. I know where it comes from: God. Man does not create truth but he can certainly explore it. Even if we discover evidences that may seem to contradict the foundational beliefs of this church I would say one of two things to the objection. One: The truth or logic is flawed. Two: The evidence or "truth" that have been found is incomplete and will someday coincide with the objective truth which is absolute and unchanging regardless of your perspective. A couple hundred years ago everyone knew that the earth was flat. Did that "truth" really make it true? Our receptiveness to the light and knowledge of God does not affect the reality of its existence. I testify that "This is the away; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God." That is truth. Your perspective does not affect it.

Let's look at the dear Book of Mormon for an example. This is one of the most attacked and examined book regarding it's origins and fruits of truth for the past couple hundred of years. If we are on the search to know if this book is true or not then we should probably first define truth. I realize that "truth" has been the great conversation throughout philosophical history... and is still being debated today... but I have heard a definition of truth that I really like and seems to apply: "It is true if it is what it claims to be." Simple enough. So let's look at the claims of the Book of Mormon. I believe it comes down to three main things (not in any particular order)

1: It is God's word (scripture)
2: It is another Testament of Jesus Christ
3: You will get closer to God by reading, pondering, praying and living by it's teachings.

Those are the claims. If I were on this pursuit of truth I would look to see of those claims would be fulfilled. I invite everyone to try for themselves to see this. Even if you've tried it before... It took me a long time to know too. I could go on for a while about why and how that is but I've already rambled way too much today.I want to testify that the Book of Mormon truly is the word of God, that it testifies of Christ, and that you will get closer to God by abiding by it's teachings.

Well I'll just step down from my soap box for a second. I wasn't planning on writing any of that. I did write in my journal every day ha. Thanks for the accountability.


Flesh and Blood,

Elder Trent Jay Merrill

The Assembled

On a scale one to ten... I've been really lame about keeping a record of the proceedings in my days. I hate that I just used that language to describe this dilemma. All my jokes are either semi-mission inappropriate or pure Mormon cheesiness (like that thing I did up there). I'm working on changing both of those real quick.


I'm sorry for not giving my heart into the letters lately. It's hard. Once I got out of the habit of writing in my journal for so long my desire to pick it back up has diminished. I feel like I did when I was on family vacations growing up. Lindsay, Mom and Kenna Koo would always want to stop and take pictures when I just wanted to have fun and enjoy the moment. I didn't want to have to take time to capture the images for the future or take time to ponder. I just lived. Now I feel the same way... which is bad. I think it's a sign of a couple things and I don't know why I'm still talking about this instead of writing about my week like I halfway intended to. Procrastination is why. Regardless, I think that my current mindset and habits show that 1. I'm having fun. (good) 2. I'm becoming more careless. (bad) 3. I'm not being responsible or sensitive to others feelings or the future. (bad bad) So... I apologize. I just need to mean it now and do something about it. I commit to writing in my journal every day this week to all of you! Ah why did I do that.................. ah man. Ok I'll do it. Maybe. No I will. Definitely. Possibly. Probably not. No. No way. I change my mind. I don't want to do it. Just kidding. I"ll do it. Maybe.


Let me start by telling you our poorly thought out philosophy that we're acting under right about now. Maybe it will give a little context and reason behind what I'll tell you about... maybe not.I don't know. Just so you know, I don't claim this to be the most well thought out, time proven, Apostolic witnessed plan. It's just an experiment. Basically, to put it eloquently, we're trying anything and everything to blow up this dang area. I'm trying all sorts of different conversation style (all guiding to the PMG lessons don't worry) and we're going to all sorts of places to meet the people that might be prepared to hear the Good Word. We're having a good ole time doing it too. It seems to be working too. We found nine new investigators the past couple days.


I'll tell you a couple stories. (Don't get your hopes up)


We talked to a guy who is a strong Christian and knows a lot about our church. When we talked to him he was carrying some basketball shoes so we said we should play ball sometime. We got his number and he ended up texting us later and invited us to a christian study group later that night. We were like...hey... why not. We're trying anything (within the rules, sweet Mother. Don't you be worryin' about me now) We ended up going to an event called 242 which is in reference to Acts 2:42. Apparently it's just a scripture they really like. Yeah... ha never mind.. So the guy who taught was very charismatic. He spoke like it was like a poetry slam or something. Whole lot of that false doctrine though. For some reason I was kind of surprised. It was basically like reading Alma 1 and he was Nehor. He's cool though cause at the end we met him and were just joking around and making friends with everyone. I didn't think it would be a good move to preach anything in that setting. I wouldn't have taken that well if I were in there shoes. We just primed the pump. The next day on campus we had some people come up to us from that little meeting. It was cool because then it became a good opportunity to share some good ole restored truths. Looky there.


We were walking around campus one night and were talking to each other about how we wish someone would invite us to CCF (Campus Christian Fellowship) because that's where a lot of our investigators go to church so we needed an "in" on that community. As we were walking along the yellow brick road (they have one of those on campus) one of our investigators walked by and invited us to go to CCF ha. It's a Friday night service. So we were like... yep... and off we went to the Christian service with hundreds of college kids. This service was way different than the 242. No false doctrine taught. None. It was beautiful actually... and they taught out of the same bible. I won't go off on what that implies because I'm too lazy right now. Just know that the Book of Mormon is necessary scripture. Man I love that book. It's a good one. I should memorize it someday. Probably won't though. Anyways, we ended up knowing like 20 or more people at this service so we didn't even really feel out of place other than the whole name tag thing. There's a girl who used to be taught by the missionaries about a year ago who was impressed that we came and wants to start meeting again. Good stuff.


A couple months ago I came here on an exchange and talked with a guy who said we should stop by sometime. So when I was transferred here we.. you know... stopped by. He lives with a bunch of interns for CCF. It's called "the home." It's a sick place.(Sick means awesome for the older generation that might not understand) They invited us back to have dinner with them all and so we had some good french toasties with them this week. We had a nice gospel conversation with them after. Cool experience. Not too much has come from that yet because they're pretty set in their ways but we made some good friendships.


Yesterday we stopped by a guy who the sisters talked to a while back. He invited us in and started talking about how much he's loved the Book of Mormon. He's just sat down and said, "I love how it says we need to ponder it in our hearts to find out from God if it's really true." We just smiled. We didn't even really have to teach. We just guided the knowledge he already had into the first lesson and he answered his own questions from it. He'll be baptized soon. He's a prepared soul. Good man.





P.S. Here are some Pictures with a description hopefully in the right order.

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I hope this picture makes you feel weird...

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That's just how we do things in the comp

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She makes me wear suits and take pictures sometimes

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Ladies and Gentleman, Sister P in the house!

Trip on the Road

There was a lot that happened this week. A lot of good things. A lot of painful things... but not too painful. Just momentary. I guess I'll start with transfer day. I woke up and could tell that it was going to be "one of those days."

We picked up the new missionaries from the airport and gave something of an "inspirational welcome...". The time came when we handed out the transfer slips to the zone leaders and then it was set. I was heading to Bellingham as a ZL. I had a new companion and area and that was my new duty and role in the mission. President was interviewing the new missionaries in his office and opened the door as I walked by to leave on my road trip. I said, "Well I'm about to leave, President." We hugged and shed a few tears until a new missionary walked in without knocking ha.

I went outside and sat on one of the new bikes in the parking lot and talked to Elder Draper about everything. I miss him. Sister Bonham came out and also shared a tearful goodbye.

It's like another world here in Bellingham. I walk into my new home, and Sister P., the nicest lady in the world greets us. Every morning we come back from the gym and she has a protein shake smoothie there waiting for us. My first night I told her I hadn't done my laundry because I didn't have a p-day the day before. So I put them in and I wake up and all my clothes are folded and she is sewing the holes in my clothes ha. She is an angel.

The day after transfers we had zone meeting. It was nice to teach zone meeting again. This zone is really young. I think we're going to push them. Really push them and help them feel loved and accountable. That's our goal. There is so much potential up here. I want to know how we can sustain progress. We have days that are the highest in the mission for the zone. Then it decreases another day. We're praying about how we can maintain consistency. As for our area, Elder Pectol and I just walk around campus all day and talk with people like they're friends and find new investigators left and right. It's the best. Before I left the office we made a district meeting outline and had everyone in the mission track their contacts during the day. A contact is defined by: teaching a principle to and leave an invitation to a non member. Elder Pectol and I had 51 one day outside of teaching appointments and everything else. It's been so nice to get out and work again. I feel really happy. A lot less stressed.

So we showed up at church yesterday and found out there was a non member there. So we go over and talk with him and he said he's taking institute, been to church before, and already had the lessons. Umm... so we just talked to him about his band and stuff ha. He'll be baptized soon.

Saturday morning we had like twenty minutes to spare before a meeting with our ward mission leader so we just went to the college and contacted for a bit. There were two girls who were going to breakfast that we started talking to and ended up meeting an hour later in the library. The day before there was a girl walking to class that I talked to and was able tot each her the first lesson and get a return appointment right there. Stuff like that happens all day here ha. It's crazy. Maybe it was just a good week. I don't know.

I was on a mini exchange with some other elders and we just went tracting around their area. My goal is to always find a new investigator on every exchange we go on. It can happen. Expect miracles and they happen. I've seen it. On like our fifth door a guy opens the door and gives a us a mean stank face. Ha so sassy. I asked him his name and he was like, "Pshh what's yo name son!?" We talked for a bit and he let us in. We talked for like 40 minutes and was able to teach him. It was a funny lesson. At one point he said, "Da**it, Merrill! You know you got black in you right!?" I was like, "You right. You right." Before we left we were talking about what he should wear to church and he was like, "Merrill, you know we brotha's got to look good a church!" He came to church yesterday.

Some day the clock will end and I won't get to do this any more. I want to enjoy these moments while they last. Workin hard. Playin hard. It's life up here in the B-ham. I miss you guys. I love you.

Breaking the wall,

Elder Trent Jay Merrill

On to the next one

I feel like I've learned a couple of things about where exhaustion comes from. This may seem like a list of complaints for the week... and maybe it is... but I enjoyed them all kind of.

Monday: P-day. At least on paper. We were in meetings most of the day to figure out the zone splits and apartment openings. More fun than Vegas. Later in the night I went with the Snohomish zone leaders to do a little thrashing of my nostalgia. Exchanges, playa. I want a better name for exchanges than exchanges.

Tuesday: Snohomish exchange... (or whatever name is better sounding than exchanges that I can't think of.) I felt nice to be back in my old area again. It was like taking a whiff of a familiar smell that you can't quite put your finger on. Except this time I could put my finger on it, because Snohomish smells like.... Sulfur. I haven't been back to work on an exchange since I've left. The zone leaders there are both pretty young and motivated. They are four packing with one visa waiter who is going to Brazil. We started off the day with a lesson with one of their potential investigators. The spirit was strong and she accepted the invitation to be baptized at the end.

We made a goal to talk with as many people as we could throughout the day. It's hard to be able to know how to make those contacts a non awkward situation. Because... it's an awkward situation. We ended up finding a lot of people who are prepared to accept Christ's gospel. When we had five minutes left before they were going to take me back to the office they stopped by a less active's house who I knew to say hi. I had a feeling that we shouldn't stop by but that we should try to see one more potential instead. So I asked if that would be ok and they were cool with it... I felt like a tool doing it but like... the spirit, man. Listen to the spirit. So we went to visit the potential but they weren't home. On the way out of the apartment complex there was a lady on the phone who waved and so we went over to talk to her. She was pretty nice and would talk to us about anything. She was on the phone with her mom and after we talked for a bit she said that we should come and teach her and her family at any time and her mom, who lives a couple hours away, asked if missionaries could come visit her too. They asked for a prayer and then we left. We had a whole day of people like that. Two of them are YSA's that me and my comp will start teaching.


Wednesday: The grind. We were in the office preparing for meetings that were the next day and then had teaching appointments to fill the time that we didn't have. We drove to the airport to drop off and Elder which took up a good three hours. The good thing is that Elder Draper gets in these "Adventure moods" where he just kind of wants to be chased by zombie's or something. So we both kind of got in that mood and it was way stormy and it perfect. There is a bathroom on the lower level of the airport by the baggage claim that is probably my all time favorite bathroom. So we made sure we hit that up. It's the little things that keep us going. While we were walking out to our truck there was a good jazz song playing and we it felt like we just robbed the place or something. Walking out with swag. It was nuts. I think we're just out of it. President came back from his interviews around 10pm and we stayed working on transfers till 2:00am then Elder Draper and I had to prep for our training the next day of MLC. I fell asleep around 4:30-5:00am. Woke up at 6:30 to do it again.

Thursday: Woke up early to set up for the all day MLC meeting. We instructed on "Teach when you find, find when you teach."-PMG I think it went pretty ok. Elder Draper and I were both pretty tired so we're not exactly sure how it went. The zone leaders in Everett texted us later that day and said, "Hey we tried what you trained us on today and met a guy on the street who became a new investigator and wants his family to be taught too." That's always good to hear. Preach My Gospel really knows what it's talking about. We just talked to the zone leaders about what it takes to get a new investigator. What it takes to have a lesson. Then what makes it difficult to have that happen while we're contacting people on the street. So we made a list of all the situations that make it hard to teach someone a lesson while contacting. Like they're walking away from you. In a large group of people etc. We discussed ideas of how we could still teach them and testify. We had them role play their hardest situations and we came up with good ways to help together. It was good. I didn't feel as tired as I did loopy. We didn't have to stay up that night as late to prep for the two meetings we had the next day. Love that. We just had a little prep for it and went to sleep a little after midnight.

Friday: Had two meetings. New missionary training and Trainer training. I took the zone leaders on a break out and went over their responsibilities and assignments and whatever else. Elder Draper took the district leaders. I think it went well they had good questions. For the trainers meeting later in the day we just went over their role and how to be effective in training (which I've never done so I just share experiences of being on the other end of training ha.) That night we went to pick up bikes and order some more in Snohomish for all the new sisters coming in tomorrow. Gray Friday.

Saturday: Conference. It was good to somewhat relax and be able to watch the men of God speaking to us. It was like Christmas. After one of the talks President Bonham texted me and said, "He was talking to you, Elder Merrill!" It was nice of him to think of me. I love that man. I wish I could have focused more on conference I felt pretty out of it. I still felt uplifted and had some good notes to take away. It seemed like this conference had a different feel than all the other ones I've seen. There was like this sense of urgency. Like... I don't know. It was very bold and pressing. I loved it. It just seemed different. I want to study it more to find out why it seemed that way to me.

Sunday: Conference... well kind of. We watched the first session at President's and ate some scones and joked around. We worked on transfers for a bit then missed the second half of conference while driving to the airport to drop off visa waiters. Then we split and drove all the way to the north of our mission in our own cars to pick up the missionaries that were going home the next day. We took them all to Presidents and then had dinner and testimony meeting. It was beautiful. These are like my best friend missionaries that are leaving. My heroes when I was first in the mission. My leaders. My brothers. It was a hard night. After the meeting we dropped them off at our apartment while we went back to the office to do numbers and look at transfers. We got back around around midnight and stayed up till after 2am talking with all our dear friends who we took to the airport early this morning.

Monday (today): Drove to the airport. Said good bye. Used my favorite bathroom again. Called out transfers to the mission. Tonight we'll be up pretty late prepping for tomorrow's transfers too. This is where men are made. The mission, folks. Changin' lives.

I feel like I'm almost ready to exhale for the first time in a long time... Maybe I'll miss being here in the office... I just don't know when. From my perspective right now all I want to do is get out and be a missionary again. Not that I haven't been... well... I dont' know. I've felt more like a business man the past four or five months. Which is ok but I'd rather save that for when I'm home. I'm going to the holy land to be a zone leader again... Belligham YSA. I'll cover the University ward where I found Katy a couple months ago. She's back in that ward and I can't wait. I think this is what they call a dream come true. The only bad part is that I feel really bad for Elder Draper. Poor guy. He's exhausted. President said he felt like I needed to be in Bellingham for the zone split. There's been a lot of problems up there. I don't really understand it all. He definitely has an unorthodox way of doing things with transfers... things that have never been done before. I trust him. Pray for my hero, Elder Draper: A.K.A Superman.

I think being here I've learned a lot of things. One: stress. It happens. I've dealt with it poorly and successfully. I think I like dealing with is successfully better. I feel like I could have done a lot more here to have fulfilled my assignment to it's highest potential. I also feel that way about being a zone leader and a district leader so I feel pretty grateful that I get to be a zone leader again to do it differently than I did before. I'm going to learn from my failures. I have plenty to choose from. I believe that it is ok to fail. I believe that it's ok because I've done a lot of it and sometimes learn some good things from it. I don't remember which talk it was but he talked something about that. President Uchtdorf? Probably... my brain is quite gone. Anyways, I love you and God. Always.

Elder Trent Jay Merrill

9793896442322719

Mediocrity seemed to take a trip in this neck of the woods.... I just don’t feel like we accomplished all that much. Maybe we did. I don’t really know. Complacency looked like it came along too. Weird. I even feel pretty motivated and hopeful right now… So maybe my internal and external forces are not aligned? Whatever that means…

On to the reality of things again… this week was one of those meeting weeks…. where we had meetings and stuff… you get the idea. We had leadership training with all of the sister, district, and zone leaders. I think it went pretty ok… I think I’d really like to be on the other side of training again someday. Where I can listen to new topics from my leaders and have my little mind blown. I do like instructing and making the trainings every week for the mission but… I miss being the designated learner sometimes. Call me lazy I guess...but don’t really do that because I might take it personally… just might be a little self-conscious today. JP (Just playin’ (translation for the more mature generation))
Looking ahead I see a lot to be done and several opportunities up for the grab. We’re collecting leadership recommendations from the zone leaders this week and will have a meeting with President this Friday. It’s one of my favorite meetings we have every transfer. We’ll discuss how to potentially split and realign zone boundaries, which will be a good time… and the new leadership for next transfer. We usually talk about every single missionary in the mission and hear President’s thoughts and share our impressions about them.
Oh so last night Sister Bonham invited us to go over for dinner with the family. They have their daughter in town and wanted to have a pre-thanksgiving feast since they can’t be together. So it was just me, my comp, Larken, Sister and President Bonham. It was just like a nice little family dinner ha. We laughed and told jokes and stories and then ate some turkey and pie and enjoyed each other’s company. It was like the best night ever. Then we just met with President about what’s going on in the mission and what rules we should consider changing. It was productive, trunky and wonderful. What a great night. I miss you, dear family of mine….
Drum roll please…. Katy was confirmed yesterday! She’s great. She moves to Bellingham this week to go back to college. Keep her in your prayers please.
Human or dancer,

(In case you don't know, the Killers are Trent's favorite band. "Human or dancer" is one of their songs. Also, the number on the subject line he says is some kind of code, but I can't crack it. Debbie)

Elder Trent Jay Merrill

P.S.The picture is of Katy at her baptism! (She just had her tonsils out a couple of days before she got baptized)

Silent Symphony

“Ahh hey what are you guys looking at?” I asked to two hippie looking people lying down on some grass.
“We’re trying to figure out to blow up the sun…” They responded as if I should have known…
“Nice, what have you come up with so far?” I asked, because I was actually pretty curious.
“Basically just cursing at God till it blows up..”
“How’s that working for you?”
“It’s not…”
“Yeah it usually doesn’t…”
Well they ended up being way cool and probably on meth but… hey… whatever. They took one of those Book of Mormons and said they’d read it because they don’t have a home.. or a phone… or a car…or food.
Don’t do drugs, kids.
Welcome to the day in the life of an exchange in Marysville. My day was full of Spanish conversations where I almost had the gift of interpretation of tongues and heavy eyelids. The last time I went on a full day Spanish exchange I just prayed my big ole heart out for the gift of tongues. It didn’t quite come. This time I kept praying for it and…………… wait for iiiit………….it still didn’t come. Or at least the way I was hoping it would. I feel like I could read their body language pretty clearly though. I could follow the tone of the conversations and the direction it was heading. I knew what scriptures were being read and what would be helpful for them. So… like…I didn’t start speaking Española or anything (well… I did… just gibberish to be funny. Classic joke) but I did have some help from God to understand the subtleties of communication. I liked that.
Well, if you were wondering… I did have a great Sunday. What a day. Our WWU investigator was baptized. She just had her tonsils removed on Thursday so she still felt pretty crummy, which isn’t… ideal. She was so nervous about having to re-do it if it didn’t go well the first time ha. The last three baptisms she went to of ours, the person baptizing had to redo it several times and she didn’t like that. Luckily it went well. I stepped on her toes so that they wouldn’t fly up ha. I felt so much love for her and this gospel at the same time. The adrenaline and power that comes from baptizing someone is phenomenal. The thunder was so loud outside that the lights were flickering and people were crying (just one). I think a lot of the people inside were calm and peaceful despite the torrential storm. The Lord’s house is the great protector of all forms of danger. I could feel the spiritual safety of the soul and the love of everyone around me. It’s amazing to think that just a couple months ago I first saw our investigator on a college campus, walking to class with a friend, having no idea what was going to happen her that day. A couple months later she has accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ and has changed everything about her life to become in line with God’s will. God is a God of miracles. Always has been… always will be. I always want to see His guiding hand in my life. It’s there if I let it be.

The overall stress in the mission is at an all-time high. Everyone. Times are tough for the WEM but we’re about to bounce back and come up to our potential here pretty soon. We have a leadership training this week for all the zone, district and sister leaders. Comp and I have been thinking about what they need…. maybe something about how to be bold but not overbearing with people. Accountability. Something. We’ve trained a lot on finding techniques a couple months ago so we took a break because we figured everyone is tired of that. It’s weird to think most of the mission is new and hasn’t even heard our “recent” trainings. So we just need to do everything over again. Train and retrain… or so it’s said. I don’t know.
Alright here’s another tip for the day in addition to the whole “not doing drugs thing.” It involves studying the scriptures. Friday morning I came to studies with a question I’ve had for probably eight months. Now... I’m sure some or even most of you already knew this… I’m just a little behind the game. I’m going to try and explain my question and answer to you.
Ezekiel 37:16-17
“Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah (BIBLE), and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim (BOOK OF MORMON), and for all the house of Israel his companions: And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.”
I love that prophecy. It shows that we need more than just the Bible and we have the fullness of the gospel coming together from both testaments of Christ. Makes sense. Well here’s where my question comes in… In Alma 10:3 I found out that Lehi is actually a descendant of Manasseh, not Ephraim. So I was confused for like that past eight months about that. How is the prophecy referring to the Book of Mormon if the people in it (descendants of Lehi) are not from the tribe of Ephraim but from Manasseh? It must be talking about something else. The church must not be true! (not really my thoughts, but the exaggeration makes my point)… what’s the answer? Well, all during personal study I was looking up people’s genealogies trying to figure this out. Then in comp study Elder Draper and I started talking about it and still had no idea. Well we thought back to Lehi for a bit. Now Lehi commanded Nephi to go get some people before they left to the Promised Land. He said to get Ishmael. Why Ishmael? Well I never thought about it all… I just thought it was because he had some nice looking single daughters or something. But I was wrong… or at least in part because Ishmael is actually a descendant of Ephraim! It had to be him… or someone of that descent… which fulfills another prophecy in Genesis 48:14-16 which says:
"14 And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn.
15 And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day,
16 The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”
Whoa buddy… Ishmaels family (Ephraim) and Lehi’s (Manasseh) came together and “grew into a multitude in the midst of the earth.” Now combined that with Ezekiel 37 and you got yourself a multi layered fulfilled prophecy. I testify that Joseph Smith was a Prophet who translated true scripture by the power of God. The Holy Ghost has helped this make sense in my head and has touched my heart so that I could know that Joseph was a Prophet of God. I cannot deny it. I will not deny it. The Book of Mormon is a true account of the Prophets and people in Ancient America and has brought me closer to God than any other book as I've lived by it's teachings. It is God’s word. It is something that I have come to love.
Israel, Israel



Elder Trent Jay Merrill

Of things Big and Small

Ahhhghgh… (that was the noise you make when you wake up in the morning and stretch with all of your might) That’s how I feel all of the time… today. It’s kinda great. Anyways… what even happened this week..
Well I know one thing that happened, that wasn’t all that cool… my comp was sick all week. What a bum thing to do to my dear friend, Satan! Man… so that was nuts. We luckily only had one day that we had to bum it in the apartment. We got ready and were in pros (missionary clothing) the whole day… even though he was asleep on the couch for sixteen hours. We were ready in case he all of the sudden felt better. He didn’t. I read all of the ensign, Alma, and the Old Testament (not really on the last one though). I danced like a goob in front of the mirro,r to the beautiful sound of silence, for a good hour and a half. Boredom drives you to do some interesting things. I learned some cool moves though… I’ll have to show you later.
On to the more serious things of life, we had Mission Leader Council this week. It was a good one. We trained on using members effectively in teaching. Something we haven’t been very good at lately. So my comp and I did some training and then (big move) had members come in the meeting from our ward to help with the role plays. I don’t know if that’s been done before so we felt pretty good about it. We had everyone role play the first time without using the things we trained them on, like preparing the member and telling them the lesson plan and all that kind of stuff. They all kind of tanked when they did it that way… which is typically how we use members. We just ask them random questions and they don’t really know what we expect of them or what they should say. So then we had them role play again, but this time they were to tell the member what their role will be. Have them teach a small principle, testify of it, and even invite the investigators to do things. Like come to church. It’s a lot more effective that way. So… it was a good meeting. I conducted and had Sister Bonham’s laptop and took “minutes” which is basically a play by play of what was going on. Stenographer Merrill is what they call me. Or at least that’s what I call myself. Possible career avenue? Only time will tell…
Last night we had cottage meeting.  I didn’t get to hear the speakers because it was so packed and I was by the door greeting people so… I can’t really say if it was good or bad. From what I hear, it was fantastic. So… good for them. Also, we’re on day 36 of insanity… and our WWU investigator is still being baptized next Sunday after church. Good times.

I’ve had a lot of thoughts. One of them has been about motives and priorities. I have come to some form of a conclusion that our motives and priorities need to be centered on one thing, if we are to not feel inadequate in all other areas. I don’t think we can accomplish everything we need to. For example, let’s say Dad was torn between going to my baseball game as a kid and helping someone out in the ward when he was Bishop. Both of those options are good things.. But he still can’t accomplish both. So depending on where he views his priorities he might feel like a failure for choosing one over the other, no matter how it turned out. So that’s a problem. Or at least I think it could be. So what if his priority was to love God. That’s his number one priority. Well… then whatever he chooses, he succeeds. He doesn’t have to feel guilty. He fulfilled his purpose. And he can feel good about it and the next time he can serve God a different way and do another option. I just feel like if we center everything on Christ and serving Him, then everything else can fall into place. We don’t have to feel guilty for choosing one good thing over another. It almost makes sense in my head and I might have even shared something similar to this before. I just had it come into my mind. Maybe someone is having conflicting priorities out there. I do realize the theory is still in the abstract. I’m not sure how to bring it down to universal application. I’m working on it. I still do think it’s a true principle. God first (serving people, keeping those little commandments)… things fall into place. Anything else first (pleasure, fun, convenience.) … things tend to fall apart. I like to ask myself which of all of my options is putting God first… because sometimes it’s hard to tell. That appealing natural man tends to blind our vision. If I still have more than one option of “God firsts” then prioritize it in order of urgency and time restraint… but whatever it is you accomplish from those “God first” selections.. You can feel good and satisfied. I like feeling good.
Oh, thanks. I like you too.



Elder Trent Jay Merrill

Strawberry Fields Forever

I remember sitting in our back yard with the sun setting over the beautiful Wasatch Mountains, listening to the Beatles. Everything else seemed to be falling apart around me and I felt empty. Even though everything was "just fine..." I just wasn't. I had some things going for me but forgot any good inside of me. I felt nothing and wanted to be everything.

I don't claim to feel the same anymore and I thank God for that. I do sometimes feel that same superficial pursuit: To be something that I'm not. To be someone that I can't be. It's a journey that has no end because there is no destination. The race is long and in the end I'm the only one running along the path... trying to beat the imaginary winner that I can't catch. Serenity is the only victory. I think if there really was a “secret” to it all... that would be it.

Now back to the reality of things, I call this week the great and dreadful day of transfers. It all worked out. We did this thing where we planned out every possible scenario. Just to insure the most efficient and smooth transfer that we could orchestrate. There were eleven new areas that opened… which is the most that’s ever happened in the history of the mission. There were additional white washes and visa waiters to add to the mix… always keeping us on our tiring toes. We had 30 new missionaries, 20 of them are sisters. I feel like we on our way to earning an honorary degree in supply chain management from this. I feel very lucky to have Elder Draper… he’s one of those brilliant people you always hear about. Always learning from him. 

 
Chance was baptized last week. He received the priesthood yesterday and is more active than we are…. So… if you don’t get the chance to meet him here, you’ll see him in the celestial kingdom no doubt…

We’ve been meeting with our WWU investigator as much as we could between transfer prep and office whatever…. she’s been pretty good. One of our lessons we brought Chance and he bore a sweet and powerful testimony of the gospel and we just said, “Look, just ask God what he wants you to do.  Just ask God… and he’ll tell you.” So we set up a lesson for a couple days later and studiously prepared for any questions she might have or previous ones she’s asked. As soon as we had our opening prayer we just asked her, “So what did God tell you to do?” She said "be baptized… " All of your prayers and fasts for her have opened her mind and softened her heart to know what she needs to do. September 15th is the day that will go down in the books of heaven and on earth of the eternal covenant she will make. My heart is full.

Our lessons with another one of our investigators are hilarious and spiritual feasts. We taught him the plan of salvation and he said he just had the chills the whole time. He said it all makes sense and he’s been looking for this for years. In prison he studied all different kind of religions. He knows a lot from the Bible and other religions. A while ago we taught him the word of wisdom. Something that he’s struggled a lot with in the past. On our follow up lesson a week or so ago we just asked him how it’s all going. He said he quit everything. Just straight quit… and then shared all of the blessings that he’s seen from living that law.
Full of love and anxiety,


Elder Trent Jay Merrill

Of Men in Suits

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. 

Now it looks as though they’re here to stay. 

Oh, I believe in yesterday. 

Suddenly, I’m not half the man I used to be. 

There’s a shadow hanging over me. 

Oh, I believe, in yesterday.

A Beatles song has never rang so not true to me. Dang. I’m having to rethink my role models in life now. This is a crucial moment everyone. The Beatles are still up there… I don’t know if I can say #1 anymore though. Tough day.

We were teaching this man when I first got here for a while and then he went to jail for some past court stuff. Good news: he just got out of jail. Gooder news: he’s getting baptized this Friday. Goodest news: he’s getting baptized into the true church of Christ. What a good situation we’re all in.

E Drapes and I teach pretty well together. Best I’ve ever taught with. Most of our lessons we don’t have time to plan out but as soon as one of us starts the other knows where to go. We always have solid lessons. Mostly cause my comp is the best teacher in the mission, I just try to not get in his way. I’m a lucky man to be his comp and learn from him.

It’s the week before transfers. We’ve already had a lot of time in the office reviewing all of the missionaries and realigning districts and deciding which areas to split. My brain is tired. Every once in a while I do this thing where I say “I quit” and lay on the floor for a couple minutes and moan and stuff. It’s funny… I promise. But… I’m trying to cut back on it. It’s mostly a joke.

Zone conference week! I don’t think I fully knew what I’d train on last time I wrote so I’ll give you a little insight into my break out session, as we like to call it. So at one point in zone conference we each go into separate rooms (Sister Bonham, Elder Draper, and I) and we split up the zones into different districts and they rotate between our stations. Mine was in the chapel.

When the districts walk into my room I am standing on the box that kids uses for bearing their testimonies. They usually ask why I’m up there or make fun of me or whatever. I asked if anyone has ever wanted to soap box. Not many raised their hands because they were scared. So I described the rules of “the box,” as I’ve come to name it. I read this in a book somewhere. Everyone gets 1 min 30 sec on the box to preach to the crowd. You start with the first principle of the first lesson and go through the lessons. The next preacher will pick up right where the previous one left off. So you have to know the lessons extremely well. That’s one of the objectives I had of the exercise. There are so many new missionaries and I wanted them to understand the importance of knowing the lessons inside and out, backwards and forwards. After the exercise we talked about the observations we had. There were a lot of good insights. Something that every group said was that they were more willing to listen to a simple testimony than just someone preaching to them. I had a cool experience with this. This is what I focused on: Testimony.

One of the first groups (I had to do this nine times in total throughout the week) was stuck on prophets the whole activity. You see, one of the rules is that the crowd is allowed to heckle a little bit. So this group was bashing back and forth on the principle of prophets in the first lesson the whole time. Bashing, using scripture… the spirit was gone. It was kind of a train wreck and I was going to stop it and gear it in another direction but I thought they could learn something from it. The very last person went up with her companion and stopped answering the questions from the crowd and humbly bore her testimony of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith. She and her companion then sang the spirit of God. The spirit flooded the room. I had the chills. Kind of wanted to cry… then we ended. Stark contrast.

We often get caught up in preaching and not testifying. It’s good to be on the other side of the table and hear what we sound like when we teach. What’s effective and what’s not. Every group that did this observed that testimony was the most powerful way to get through to the people. We need to teach… and everything we teach needs to be backed with humble testimony. I learned a lot.
We gave talks in sacrament meeting yesterday. It was on tithing. Which is tight, because we’re not even keeping that commandment right now so my testimony is flamin’. It wasn’t too bad though… except I bombed the talk. The only good thing that came from it was that someone who is preparing for a mission said it was exactly what he needed to hear. He is going home to look at his bank statements to see how much he owes. Sacrifice. I shared my experience with first “trying out these commandment things I’ve heard so much about.” Turns out they work. I remember my first week or so of college I decided to look at my income for the year and pay tithing on it. It was a big chunk but the next week or so I got a call from the book store and was able to get a job there. I had enough money for that semester of college. Blessings. Pay tithing. I’m car sick.

Progress, or perish

Elder Trent Jay Merrill

Excitement and car sickness

Emotions finally flying in and out of me. Tears of joy and heartache. Excitement and car sickness. The rise. The fall… and not necessarily in that order. It was a good week. Not everything worked out.

Highlight number one: Back to the basics. I started doing this thing where I read my journal writings a year from the day. I’m learning a lot… about how hard it was for me to be out here. I appreciated the little things. I had to. I noticed that I was mostly concerned with relationships and overcoming my pain through connecting with God and others. I’ve lost touch of the little things, to some extent. I’d like to see the beauty of monotony again. Find joy within the mundane. I did it before. I just need to get in that stretching phase again. Life is too good sometimes. I love it. It’s hard and stressful but I’m in a good place. My comp is my best buddy… we’re always having fun. I knew we’d have fun together but… we just get it. Get each other. We get everything done quite easily because we’re on the same page. It’s a beautiful thing.
Not much happened this week… except a new investigator .. and cottage meeting, and our WWU investigator. I’ll go in the order that isn’t really in order.

New Investigator

We met him last Tuesday. We stopped by his house and a lady answered by opening an inch of the door and sticking her nose out to ask who we were. After a few awkward jokes to help loosen the tension she yelled to our investigator to come to the door. He invited us in and gave us some water as we sat and talked about things. Every other word he said was vulgarity and he seemed desperate to change. He talked about his “baby momma” who became Mormon and he’s never seen someone change so drastically. He didn’t understand. He is just out of prison and is trying to turn his life around. He said he’s willing to do anything to change. I believe him. We’ve had a couple lessons with him so far. They’ve been some of my favorite, most spiritual, lessons I’ve had on my mission. I’m learning a lot from him. Almost everything he says highlights a principle of truth that he just phrases it in a different way. He doesn’t swear around us anymore. We didn’t even bring it up he just stopped for some reason. He said he is actually happy in the morning. He has purpose to live. He’s never found that before he met with us. Our first lesson he said, “I’ve seen and talked to a lot of missionaries and never felt connected to them. It feels like I’ve known both of you forever. I can open up to you and tell you anything. I think God put you here to help me.” Or something along those lines… it was a good thing to hear. It will be hard for him… he has a lot to overcome. We set a baptismal date with him for the 29th of September… he doesn’t get off parole until then so it’s the earliest we could set. I love that guy.

WWU investigator..... We decided to set up a “movie night” at our friend Enrique’s place and watch the Joseph Smith movie with her. So we did… and then had a very bold, hopefully loving, discussion after the movie. I told her that Joseph Smith is either a man of God, true prophet of the restoration, or a liar who made everything up and everything we stand for is false because of it. I bore my testimony of Joseph Smith and so did everyone else. We asked her what she now believed of Joseph Smith. She said he was a prophet. I asked if she believed the true church of Jesus Christ was restored through Joseph Smith and is the only true and full gospel on the earth. She said yes. And I asked again, what are you going to with that? She said she knows she needs to be baptized. Please keep her in your prayers. Everything is on the line.

Cottage meeting was last night. I don’t know if I’ve ever explained what that is. Maybe I have. I’ll just do a short version… So the whole mission invites their investigators to the mission president’s home on the second Sunday of every month. We move all of President’s furniture into the garage and set up 100 chairs on the main floor. There are 3 to 4 recent converts who bear their testimony and share their experience of becoming converted to this church. It’s one of my favorite meetings. The investigators really connect with the speakers and can feel understood and supported. Our WWU investigator came and had a great time. Elder Draper conducted. I sat by the door to greet everyone and directed them where to go.. then sat down on the floor behind the wall and fell somewhat asleep… but that last part was a secret.

Zone Conference is starting tomorrow. So we’ll be on tour all week. I still haven’t fully come up with my instruction but… it’ll be good. I think I’ll do some kind of soap box exercise and help with people’s fears and teaching ability. It’ll be intense. I’m starting to like meetings that we have to instruct in. We do a lot of instruction to the mission. I get nervous still but I’m getting better. I even still get nervous when teaching people 1 on 1 but… I love it. Maybe it’s not nervousness anymore as much as butterflies. The good kind.

Gallon a day,


Elder Trent Jay Merrill

Music of the Night

So my comp and I decided pick some black berries across the street while our investigator was being interviewed for his baptism. Adventure time. That’s what we call it. While we were picking the fruity deliciousness I heard a little voice across the small road that said, “Elder Merrill, can we pick some berries with you?”
“Come on up Peyton!” I said with a smile but then realized there were thorns that would cut her bare feet. “Actually I’ll just pick you some good ones. Your feet will get hurt if you come up here…”
“Ok, well… pick a lot for me,”
“Ok but I might eat them all first…”
“Come on Elder Miral… that’s not fair” as she likes to pronounce it.

We were done picking the small handful of black berries and made our way down the little hill. I held out my hand and divvied out the fruitful wages to the six years old and under club. While we were walking back to the church, the sun was just setting and Peyton looked up at me with a cute smile and said, “ahh, it can’t get better than walking with a missionary and eating black berries.” And that right there…. was my awakening. It put some things back in perspective for me. It hit me pretty hard. Our investigator was baptized the next day.

This week was full of teaching too many lessons for our investigator ha. We combined a couple lessons into each appointment to make his desired deadline of his Saturday baptism. We brought members over to the Petersen’s home, who live in the Snohomish ward that he’s known for years. Everyone loves him. He’s a nice, tall, non social butterfly, kind of guy. The kind that smiles at everything and probably doesn’t like being hugged. Maybe he just needs to be hugged. I don’t know. His baptism was short and sweet. The spirit was strong and didn’t skip a beat. The Petersen boy, Marsall, was dressed in white and performed the deed. It was nice. My comp and I (I like saying comp now because I still can’t get natural at calling Mike Elder Draper… but still haven’t messed that up even when we’re just kicking it together. so… good for me for doing that.) So… yeah anyways: Comp. Me. Piano. While the font was being filled we just fiddled around on the keyboard and created some beautiful music. I think it’ll go places. We decided for every baptism we have together we’ll write a new song and play it at the end while everyone is leaving.

Serenity is deliverance,


Elder Trent Jay Merrill

All These Things That I Have Done

There is quite a bit that happened this week. I don’t know how I’m going to explain it all. I guess it started with a call… like every good story does. I was talking to the Snohomish Elders (my last area) about what areas could be split. We have so many new missionaries coming in that we have to open at least ten new areas… but that’s another story though let me keep focused here. Elder Gasser brought up an investigator that they taught once who technically doesn’t live in their ward. He’s also a single adult age and wants to get baptized. So… yeah… that’s a bummer for them. But we started teaching this kid, and he’s going to be baptized this Saturday into our ward. So…. I’ll go ahead and stamp a miracle sticker on that one and move on to the next thing.
I got a call from my good friend Elder Bonsteel. He said he just got out of a lesson with someone who moved from Oklahoma and already had all of the lessons. He’s also YSA age and lives in our boundaries... so we need to start teaching him. He has a baptismal date for a couple weeks from now.
Our investigator from WWU might be baptized this week too. We’re still working that out… if not it will happen soon we’re just figuring out the small things now.
You know, it was a good week. We got to do this thing called proselyting…. which happens to be my favorite. We worked…. and found five new investigators this week. Four were at church. Just like… man… I don’t know why all these miracles are happening. Elder Draper and I were talking about it… why are all of these blessings happening to us right now? We talked about it for a good while and somewhat concluded that it’s just happening… it’s not us. It’s them and God… but we still have a part to play. We need to just help them on the journey. Now that they’ve been placed in our hands… we just can’t blow it. We have been trusted with a lot lately. I haven’t even mentioned the four other referrals from missionaries that already accepted a baptismal invitation. Maybe all this won’t turn out to anything… maybe we won’t be able to get a hold of them or something. Maybe all of them will hold strong and follow Christ. I don’t know. I just want to do my part.
Here’s a little story that we love. We went to Burger King because Elder Draper had hecka gift cards. Three of them… with different amounts on each card. We didn’t know how much was on each. But we had no money… just the gift cards. We’re broke. We’ve been eating cashews for breakfast because we haven’t had time or money to shop. We tend to have these fun meetings on P-days that take up our day. Anyways… three gift cards. No money. Pressure is on. The total amount came up $13.69 or something like that. First gift card paid like eight bucks. So she asked for the second. We handed her the next card. She swiped the card and said we still owed $.46… so we hand her the last gift card. Guess how much was on it… 46 cents. You’re dang right we had the exact amount on those gift cards. Not a penny more or less. What’s up miracle! What’s up….
It’s cool being here in the office because every day is different. You just never know what you’re going to do the next day till it hits you in the face. Like we went into the office one day and Elder Cahill, the driving coordinator, asked if we were busy that afternoon. We told him that we were and so he made a few calls and then said get in his car. So we drove down to Seattle to an old car dealership. We pull up to see two brand new Aston-Martins. Not really… they’re the new Ford Fusions… but they look like dang Aston-Martins. Elder Draper and I each got to drive them back to the mission office by ourselves. It was business classy. We pulled out revving the engine with our sunglasses on. Posers. Living the dream.
Well… I’ve had a lot of thoughts in my head this week. For some reason I thought a lot about Adam. I thought about the creation and failure and the beginning. Adam….transgressed. He didn’t do what he was supposed to do. He was cast out of God’s presence. He had a lot of consequences because of it. Tons. He used to be able to live forever with God. Now he has sickness and death and pain and sadness. And all that we kind of just say he fell.

So Adam fell… true… but he got right back up again.

He had everything going against him. It’s been done since the beginning of time. It’s done every day. I fall short. Well… I always will. That’s ok. I keep exhausting myself trying to win the race that I’m alone in. I’m not judged where I finish compared to someone else. But if I’m a little bit ahead of where I was yesterday, or last week or month or year… then I’m doing ok. I’m growing and improving.
I don’t even know if this analogy has fully sunk into my mind and heart… but I want it to. I want to stop comparing myself. I know that God doesn’t want me to do that. I wouldn’t want someone I love to feel negative about them. That’s from Satan. He loves tearing me down. He’s all about that. He’s pretty good at it too, but my Father in Heaven is pretty good at what He does too. He’s actually perfect at it. And he loves me perfectly. Right where I am… with all of my imperfections and struggles. He knows my heart. He’s using me to bless other people’s lives. I am so grateful that I can be in His hands to help someone come into them too. I love Him. I know that the scriptures are His words to mankind. They are proof that God speaks to man. He’s not an abstract ball of energy (something I heard again while street contacting this week) or some unknown shadow or mysterious breeze. He is our Father. Who speaks to us and has given us everything we need to understand His purpose for us. It’s simple. It’s hard. It’s really, really hard. It is for me at least. I don’t care though. Obedience is liberty. I can only say that from experience.

No white flag above my door,
Elder Trent Jay Merrill