First Week

Oi!

Well what´s up my g-unit parents!?!?! hahaha...

It´s been weird this week. Being the zone leader. I have way more responsabilities now and I guide the meetings now too. But i´ve been loving it. It´s been really good. This week we had a baptism. :) Super good. :) We´ll have another one this week. We are working pretty well here. It´s been raining every day ever. Man, it´s ... fun :P hahah. We are having a good time though. Elder Santos is my companion. Our District/Zone meeting was good too. We have another area in our zone now and I hope that we can really help things go better.

We found a woman who is friends with a member that we will be teaching. She´s super awesome and loves the message we have. The craziest thing of it all is that she has cancer. I hope all goes with her.

A recent convert here is going to the temple this  saturday. Super exciting for her :)

So because the other elderes didn´t pay their bills... for 3 months... we haven´t had energy for a while. Whoa... Not sure when we will get it back :p hahah. Also, our washing machine is broken. FUN! hahah. But whateves só vai. :P We have a consel meeting this friday. That´ll be fun :) 

We had surpries interviews with President this saturday. Friday night at 11 he called us up saying that we would have interviews with him saturday at 11 in the morning. haha. So that was cool :) I learned a lot with him. He told me some interestings stories about some elderes in my zone. It was good. I learned a lot and I know how I can help them better.

Craziness about Johnny! haha. Well, it´s good that we don´t even have bikes then :P hahah. Though we´ve been trying to get some for our areas here in Litoral. Because the areas are huge. 

We had a bbq today. It was super good :] Loved it hahah. Can´t get any better! hehehe.

Thanks for the advice dad :) and I´d like to run in that marathon haha.

Well I´ve got to go.

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill

ps. I don´t know if this is sending corretly hope you get it!

I´ll be transfered!

Oi!

So this week was pretty good. We worked with Diogo and he was baptized on saturday and confirmed on sunday. It was awesome :) He´s an awesome kid and has wonderful faith already. We are working with his parents but not a whole lot of progress there. A daughter in law of a member went to church this past week. We have already taught her a couple of times but she hadn´t been progressing. Now that she´s gone to church I really hope she starts to progress more.

Yes I´m still with my american companion (kind of). His name is Elder Olson. I say kind of well because today will be my last day with him. Tomorrow is transfers and well President wrote me today saying I will be going to Caraguatatuba as a leader of zone. Caraguá is in the same zone. So I´ll be in the same zone and over my companion now. I really hope that I can do my best as a leader of zone. Probably I´ll be one until the end of my mission. Taking into the fact that I have 4 more transferes to do. There is be entering in way more missionaries than there will exit from the mission which means not a single area will be closed and  a lot opened. I´m super happy for that, that´ll be awesome :)

dad you reminded of something. The importance of home teaching. Soooo essencial! It´s hard to find an area here where it´s done, but it must be done. That makes part of how people stay strong in the church. people need that support. Especially because the missionaries cannot be there always. There needs to be an intergration and a support system for these people. If not, they will just fall away! Unforetunetly that has happened a lot in this area.

Well, carnival is coming up and I´m starting to tell. Every night has fireworks and this are slowly getting more rouwdly. I have a feeling being on the beach during carnival is going to hinder the mission work a little. Probably we will have to go to our homes more early. But I´m not sure I´ll guess we´ll see. I´ll be companions by the way with an elder Santos. He´s pretty cool :)

Hey dad, I made a goal. I want to go on a marathon about a year after my mission. Do you think I could do that? Or sooner? or longer?

Hey say hi to the Immenschuhs for me! :) I love them! They are an awesome family :) 

Seems like I´ll be going home to a bunch of new stuff huh? That´s cool! But I don´t think I´ll be going home :P I´ll just stay here doing this work forever :P

Cool thing! Almost forgot! My second companion came and visited me :D haha. elder Diniz! He lives in Brasilia and terminated his mission a year ago with me! Well, he was visiting some places here in the mission and passed by to say hi :) Love that guy. Really good to see him and reminded me of the family we baptized in my first area. I´m so glad that I have families that I´ve baptized in each of my areas. As far as I know, they are all active too :) :) Greatest happiness in my life. I truely love this people so much. Sônia, João Paulo, Augusto, Eliane, Evandro, Rafaela, Carlos, Isabel, Dulce and her kids, Nair and her family, and here Maria José and Antônio. They are all just wonderful and I´m thankful for the internet and technolgy that we have so I always can keep in contact! :) :) :) 

Well, I´ve got to go! I love you guys!

ps. I´ll still be on the beach in my new area, so it´s still paradise :P

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill!

Progressing!

Oi!

What´s up?!? Well things are great here! This week we will have a baptism for sure :) It´s pretty exciting. His name is Diogo. He´s 10 and is really wanting to be baptised and his dad already authorized it and everything and well His dad will be going to church next week. This week we will be helping a family getting to church to! I really hope they go! They have to! They missed it this week. But we´ll help them. 

This week we taught a drunk man, well the first time we met him he wasn´t drunk at all. But then we went to his house and he was out of there. His mom was there with him and his daughter. Well, that´s not even the cool part though, we were offered mango juice and as we started to drink it well we noticed is was fermented badly. hahah. :P

We were doing contacts one day and talking with these two women. We asked if we could pass by another day. It went like this: "Sim" "Não." Basically one said yes and the other said no at the same time! haha :P We eventually got them both to say yes. So yeah :P

Another time we were teaching, and my companion started to yawn a little and well the lady we were teaching thought that maybe he´s pressure was low. So she checked his pluse and gave him more salt to  eat. It was pretty funny. The whole time I was just cracking up :P haha. It was funny :P

It seems liek you guys are doing well! I love you guys! The picture of the car was awesome :P :P bye!

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill

No Title

Oi!

Hey peeps! the week past by quickly here! wow.. Time surely goes by fast! We´ve been trying to teach edson but he seems to never be in house. I´m not sure what we can do with him. He´s missed the past 3 weeks. These weeks have been hard because we have investigators but they aren´t progressing at all.. It´s hard to find those that will progress. Especially right now it´s been hard because there are soooooooooo many tourists here. SO many. For this city and the island. So we make contacts with a lot of forigenrs. But it´s going well I guess. 

Elder Olson and I both like to write music, with his perfect pitch we make an excelent team :P haha. It´s fun writing music again :)

The weather here has been weird. super super hot and then rains A LOT. haha. it´s weird... but cool! but it has been super hot and i hope I can take more of it :P hahah. just kidding. But things are going well. We´ll be starting a new reading the book of mormon program in the mission. it sounds pretty cool :) 

I really really want to see that movie! AH! Of course I know the musical! haha Who doesn´t :P haha. It looks very very good :) Lucky bums! haha.

It´s crazy to think that johnny and blake will be going on missions soon! that´s crazy awesome :P It´s a great thing a mission :) Biggest life changer ever. Really big eye opener and really has helped me soo much. It´s funny Elder Godoy Talked to us about our presidents and how we learn things from them and how they are actually very similar to what we learned from our parents and when we tell our parents they would say: "I´ve been telling you that you´re whole life!!!! And now that someone else says it, it enters in your head?!" hahaha. But It´s kind of true :P hahaha. The mission is the best thing ever and has really been helping my testimony grow immensly and changed me to be a better person in all aspects...

but got to go! Love :D

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill!

Well that was fun!

Oi!

Hey what´s up? It was super awesome to be able to speak to you all on christmas :) It was pretty cool. Sorry about skype qualities, I was using an ipad :P hahah. So things on the beach are going well. We´ve been having trouble getting our investigatores to church but this week we are going to be really looking for those that will progress. I love my companion he´s way awesome. Things are looking up here and I´m loving the members here as well.

This week was hard because of christmas and new year but once those get out of the way, things will progress a lot smoother! Tonight I probably won´t be sleeping because of all the fireworks. You guys will have to let me know what you guys did (will do :P) 

So I got flashed by another woman who decided to breast feed during the lesson. Man that happens a lot it seems haha. 

We are teaching this man, Edson, who is getting so close to baptism but he´s just still a little scared. I´m not sure exactly what he needs, but i´ll find out. Things are going well though.

Mom, I remember that story about the boat, it´s funny that it basically happened again :P hahaha. yeah :P I´m craving some Natalee that´s a good place. 

We´ve been working a lot more with recent converts here, but sadly no results. A LOT of recent converts don´t want to come back at all.. It´s pretty sad that there is a lot of that. But we are still working to find some more. There´s a lot of members here just not a lot active ones. 

Well, it seems like you guys are doing awesome! I love you guys!

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill