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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