Progress

Oi!

What´s up my peeps?!?!  This week was better. Some people that were to be baptized ended up not being baptized but there were some that were baptized. But another miracle did happen! This man that we had been teaching for sometime now, but recently he had been traveling, found us again and told us that he wants to be baptized! :) Yay! He had been going to chapel to chapel working for the church even. So he had a lot of contact with the church haha :) Taht´s great! So now, we will prepare him this week and get him ready for baptism! :D

Things are going well. We had a wedding on friday and then she´ll be baptized the saturday and confirmed sunday. woot woot! We got a lot of possibles in our zone this week. I´m pretty exctied! Here in a little bit this zone will be part of a new mission, but I´ll be home already! Whoa! Craziness to the max times 3!!!!!!!!!! For the past 3 transfers since I´ve been here in caragua we´ve had bikes, forgot to mention that. That´s been interesting... haha. We don´t ride them all the time, but if we are in a hurry or searching for people on sundays we use them. You should see me trying to ride a bike again :P haha. ... scary stuff man... I´m getting better.

We recieved a new washing machine! But! I think we burned it up, because it aint working. So still washing by hand. De boa. Just go! :)

So, probably 4:30 my time will work! I´ll make sure and let you know :) But sweet!!!!! That´s pretty exciting for Dallin! :) I bet he´s excited! It´ll be good for him. Is Jared happy with the new change? I bet a little sad a least. Dad! you keep making me want to go fishing more and more :P haha.

Alrighty, I`m heading out to clean up the house. :) See ya later!

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill!!

P.s (If there is work in the bardyard for me to do when i get home, I call dibbs :P haha)

G-man jr, to the rescue!

Oi!

Man, it´s super disappointing when you have a lot of hope for something and then it doesn´t happen. But oh well, we baptized a lady in our area this weekend so that was good.She is a super awesome lady too! She is Marisa. She´s a miracle. She´s someone who we found my first transfer here in Caraguá and then the other missionareis here in caragua´ ended up teaching her. But nothing happened with her, then one day she found me and my companion on the road and told us that she wanted to go to church. So we went to her house and talked to her. She has cancer and had read half the book of mormon and prayed recieved an answer and like that she accepted getting baptized and really wanted to and went to church and then this week too and got baptized. And now she will be a firm memeber of the churhc! Woot!

So we tried a different tactic this weeek. Soccer :) We got a good turn out with it took and we hope to get some more references with it :P

Carlos (a recent convert) Got the priesthood this sunday. boom headshot! it was awesome :) He´s doing super well too.

This week we found some new peeps including a family. They seem prettty sweet. And the missionareis 5 years ago married them. Just still not baptized, so let´s finalize it! yeash! woot woot! Let´s go!

We went to Ubatuba today! Man, I want to go swimming :P haha. It´s super beautiful there :P It´s 10. It was funny there cause we had a little lunch and we got followed by a bunch of animals. Goose were being folgado (have phil translate the word I can´t think of a word for it) It´s like they were up in our faces and trying to eat all of our food. There was geese there, turkey, chicken, and other stuff. haha sweet.

That´s got to be rough for Jared, but I know he´ll be able to deal with it okay. I feel for him though, I would not have liked to do that. I miss that kid! I loved the picture.

It´s still weird thinking that DAvid is in house. I´m trying my best to concentrate on this mission :) don´t worry I´m working my butt off :P Just it´s interesting when you have a companion going home in a couple of weeks, your best bud is already home and you are going home in the next transfer. Won´t lie it´s a hard thing to concentrate, but that´s what I need to do right now, Because I really want these last 2 months to be the best theycan be :) (Ps. I think about those nachos a lot :P ahhahaha.)

So techinally I do have a date, just cause I know when the next transfer will end but my ticket hasn´t been bought yet, it´ll be bought in the next little bit though. So I´ll get home home on a thursday june the 27th. I´m guessing I´ll be gettting home around noonish. For example, my companion lives in Chico, Cal, and he gets home at 12:29 on may 16 and chico is close to home, so I suspect a similar thing. (ps. I want natalies :P hahaha. but that´s still to far away to talk about haha

Hey dad, I´m definitely calling. My companion doesn´t need to call. He´ll call and two-three days later he´s home hahah :P haha.

I heard about the boston marathon taht´s super sad, man.

Well, my peeps and other peeps, I´m kind of hyper and need to prepare some mad deep douctirne training haha just kidding. Man, I love being a missionary and I really am looking forward to some progress here in a little.

amo vocês. Eu tenho mutio orgulho por ser representante de Cristo. Não tem um chamdo mais sagrado do que esse. vou ser um pro resto de minha vida. Descuple mãe, não vou voltar ;) kkkk. tô bricando. te amo mãe, você é mais querida pra mim e sempre serei o seu filho querido.

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill!

Come on!

Oi!

Well, our zone is still kind of stuck in a hole right now. We haven´t been having a lot of success lately and I´m trying to figure out what we could do differently to have more success. The last time it was like this for me was when I was in my second area. But in that case it was just my area and not the entire zone. But we will be able to get through it. We did find a miracle! In our area, we meet up with this woman that I had known a while back. Basically, we found her by visiting less active members and she was there and then we were going to visit her but we had to wait until after carnival but after carnival the other elders took the liberty and taught her. Well, they stopped visiting her because they never were able to find her in house and then she saw us on the sidewalk and told us she wanted to go to church. So we passed by her house and turns out she had said a prayer and received a response and read half the book of mormon and was wanting to get baptized! :) That´s the best ever! 

Luana´s parents marriage is marked for the beginning of next month! :) yay! it´s going to be so awesome :) 

I got to go, but I can´t believe DAVID´S HOME!!!!! THat´s crazy! ... man... really weird.. Tell me hi! probably alfready did haha... Hey I haven´t opened my garments yet but it looks like you just got those priests ones again? Could you get some souppy (how do you spell) neck ones too? Thanks :) It´s crazy that i have 2 and 1 half months left.... really strange, but let´s keep going until the end! :)

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill!!!!!!

ps. first picture you sent me, is that shaun or tom?

I Knew it!!

Oi!

What´s up family! Well, this month was pretty rough for us here in the zone. But we are trying to get better. This past week we weren´t really even in our area. My companion had to get his visa renewed and we also had zone council so we weren´t really in our area this week. Carlos is doing well. Confirmed and firme! He went to priesthood session with a suit. It was awesome :) He´s doing really well! We are waiting for the documents to make the marriage of luana´s parents! I think that´ll come very soon! I´m super excited for that. I believe that I will stay here in the area for the transfer, but who knows! I can´t believe David is going to be home this week! That´s craziness! man.. time really flies by!!

So did I tell you how there was a flood in our city a couple of weeks back? Yeah that was crazy and it made it really hard for people to go to church. It ruined some people´s houses. There was even boats on the roads! :P haha. Well, when we came back home on friday after the zone council. All my clothes on the line drying were on the ground because of a wind. Well, that wind was super strong and blew down huge trees and signs of markets. It was crazy. Also, when we got back, a truck totally busted up some telephone wires on our road. Well, it didn´t affect us, but it was crazy to see. Speaking of clothes, I´m not liking washing my clothes by hand anymore :P so much work hahha. I want a machine again, but it´s taking some while. Oh well. I got some washing this mornning and we cleaned the house pretty nicely.

Happy birthday to Jess, Hallie, me, grandpa, and Blake Muir! :) haha. Anyone else I missed out happy birthday too! :) I got the package thanks parents! You are awesome! It was super creative and tasty, thanks for the garments!! I also got your letter Jess! Thanks so much! It´s good to get letters! Woot!

So, I totatlly called it! I knew Presidente Moreira (Joaquim Moreira), my old President, was going to be 70! AHHH!!! Thanks so awesome :) Now, I  don´t know if it will be harder or not to visit him :P hahah. But that´s awesome. Also, temple in Rio! WOOT! That´s way dang cool. I´m excited for that and i´m never even been there. Even though I am pretty close to Rio right now. haha. I got to see a family that I knew in Jaraceí! It was way good to see them! They are very special to me and it was very good. It was a family that the daughter went to Walnut creek for 6 months. The mom and daughter are going to orlando later this year, I want to see if it´ll work out to visit them.

Because of conference, people from são sebastião came up to caraguátatuba to watch it. And I got to see a lot of people i knew even someone that I baptized. :) Super good to see them and how she was doing. She´s firem still :) YAY! I´m happy for that! Things are going well. I´m hoping to see some progress in our zone and area. I´ll felt pretty useless these past couple of weeks. But I know that the Lord has a purpose with everything. I´m excited to continue forward. I´ll trying to be a better leader, sometimes doesn´t feel like it, but I know I just need to do my best. I really want to terminate my mission on top, but I know I just need to be obeient and diligent with the work and all will be okay.

This conference was very especial and I learned a lot. I wish I had my notes with me to remember everything, but I forgot it. It was super good mesmo. I think it was my favortie. I learned a lot about hte Lord´s mercy and grace. and how the savior wants to forgive us. I learned as well a lot from Uthcdorf´s talk about the titles. That was very good.

But let´s keep pressing on! I love you all!

 

:)

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill!

hard month

Oi!

Well, looking back at this week, i´ve realized it was a pretty harsh week on the zone. We´ve got a look to improve on. And the month of april will definitely be better. It´s got to be. It´s my birthday month :P hahah. I liked that story about me! haha it was funny!

We found a possum in our house! :) That was fun haha. it touched my foot though as I was trying to take it out of the house. I can´t believe that David is going home so soon! Craziness! Sorry this is short... I´ve got little time today! I love you guys! I`ll have a nice big letter next week :) Pinky promise!

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill!