Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me

Another beautiful day here in the land of Snohomish. I guess I'll start off today by answering some of your questions, dear mother of mine. You asked how big is my zone: it has three districts and twenty missionaries now. You asked how my new third companion is? Elder Esplin. Well he only stayed for three hours with us and then got a call from President to go somewhere else. I'm pretty sad. We were way tight already. We still pretend like he's our companion. His chair is set up to our study table and we ask him questions and make fun of him just like he was right there. Tear drop. Sniffle. Also when anything goes wrong we blame it on Elder Esplin... it's a good time. "Ah our lesson canceled, dang you Elder Esplin!" You get the idea...

Tea time. Writing time.

We've been having a lot of problems in the zone. I'll give you one example. On Friday we got a call from one of our Elders who said we need to come over before he hurts his companion.. so we dropped what we were doing and only slightly sped to get there as fast as we could. We split them up and talked it out. That took most of the day. I think they'll be alright now. We set some goals with them on how they can communicate and get along. My prayers can only carry them so far... they need to put some effort into that relationship. I know how they feel.... Good times. I don't miss it but I did learn a lot.

That's a really small church. Off of a really big road.

I don't want to leave this area. The ward is too good. We're going to be doing more training with our WML on Sunday and to the Youth the next week on member missionary work. They're all for it. We're getting referrals like crazy... the only problem is they are all out of our zone but hey... it's a good start. Can't complain about that.

We're on an upward slope again. Good things are happening. People coming out of the shadows who want to meet with us. This new guy we met has the most anticipated potential. We talked with him yesterday for about an hour outside of his apartment. He told us that he never answers the door when we come around and that he felt really bad about it. He just couldn't do it. Today his kids were outside so we talked with them and asked if we could talk with his Dad. That's how we got him ha. Once we got talking he opened up like we've been friends for years. His family and marital problems. His past and hopes and goals for himself and his kids. We talked to him about the importance of families to our Heavenly Father. How this gospel changes people from the inside out and can bless him and his family. He was like, "We've got to start meeting... when can you come over?" So we have a pretty good week lined up ahead of us. I'm stoked.

I'm not afraid of snakes...

Success isn't coming how I imagined it. I'm not having baptisms right and left like I always thought I would... but I'm giving my heart. I don't know what more I can do but I'm always looking for more. Trying at least. Thanks Mom and Dad for your letters this week.. they were amazing. They always put a smile on my face.


Stay classy San Diego,
Elder Trent Jay Merrill