Praia? Sim :)

Well, I´ve been transfered! Where to? The beach :] São Sebastião! woot! It´s wonderful here. I live right next to an island that we go to sometimes to do divisions or interviews of the elderes there. Oh man, it´s sooooooo pretty so wonderful :) The area is super huge though. It´s the entire city and then some. So it´s definitely going to be different here. We have a couple that will be baptized this week! Woot! So I´m with Elder Olson now. This is his 2nd transfer in the field. So I´m what you would consider his "mom." haha. He´s super awesome. Sings really good and he has turrets. He´s super awesome. 

We´ll have the christmas conference this week. that´ll be super fun! I got a package! kind of.... I have to pay 140 reais to get it (70ish dollars). Hint: Don´t declare the value. But I ate the rolos, and m´ms already. Wow. haha :P Thanks! Thanks for the family info too! that was sweet! Exactly what I was wanting. Though I realized I know more people in my family than I thought :D Though... I don´t know how many people I know of Grant´s children. That was one thing I didn´t recongnize like anyone haha. 

But I´ve got to go. I´ll leave the talking for christmas :P

address: Europa, 130

city: São Sebastião

ps. this saturday i´ll be baptizing in the ocean :]

pps. (or pss?!?) the church is a manson (i´m in a branch too) and is on the beach :P

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill

Transfers!

Oi!

Well, it´s that week again! Transfers week! Tonight I´ll be knowing if I will go or stay. Either way I´ll be excited. Man, we have really been having a lot of success this past 3 months. Thinking back on it, it´s amazing to see how the Lord has blessed us. I think the hardest thing is to remember to keep going strong and remembering the little things. Pride is a very evil tool that Satan uses to try and justify why you should slack off in times of success. We can´t change our rythme. We must keep going strong and keeping the rules and really showing thanks to the Lord. Or we will just fall into the trap that happens so many times in the book or mormon. something that I´m grateful for with all this successs is that almost all the people that we have baptized here are firm! That´s what makes me truely happy :) Dulce and her family are afasted a little. But her son (Anderson) that was involved with drugs is now asking and wanting help so for sure, they are coming back to church. Other than that the rest of the people are firm.

Sadly, Nair (who was baptized last week) has gone back to cigarrettes. So we had to postpone the confirmation and continue to help her. I really hope she will give it her all so that she can be confirmed with the rest of her family and become a member of the church. Her and her family were really elects. Man, I love them so much :) It´s amazing how you grow a love for people so fast! You get to know someone and in 2 weeks they are your family. That´s what makes me not want to leave my areas. Because i have families in each of my areas. I receieved a letter from the family I baptized in jacareí the other day and that was one of the best things ever. I love them so much :)

This week we baptized the other member of Nair´s family that didn´t get baptized because she was afraid and Hirma. The story of Hirma is amazing. When we got here, she was the first baptism we marked! Why did it take so long then? Well, she was getting married on December 8th. So that´s why but her story doesn´t even start with us. It starts 4 years ago!!! She has been going to church for four years and now is getting baptized (because she had to get married). Not only that she wouldn´t miss a sunday. If she did, she called and made sure someone knew why. She´s been paying tithing almost these entire 4 years. It was a very emoctional baptism.

Bascially things are going very well. I read one of the e-mails that Phil sent me and it´s been the topic of my mind these past weeks. Remember the little things and that they are important too. I´ve been really trying to remember that. Because you can get into the life of a missionary and forget to do certain things. But we can´t forget. I decided that I want these last 7 months of my mission to be the absoulte best part of my mission! 

If I stay here I think I know where I would skype you guys. But since I won´t know until tonight lets wait and find out! :)

I will know if I recieved any packages tomorrow! :) and someone told me that there was an envolpe big waiting for me. should be from you guys then! :) woot!

don´t worry mom, I´m definitely Brasilian now ;) Or I like to imagine i am :P I do feel like I´m turning Gaucho (that bascially means the brasilians that live in David´s neighborhood! speaking I had a dream with him the other day) because of one of my room companions. He´s an awesome guy and I´m speaking more and more like him. Because in the south, it has it´s own culture and almost language :P it´s funny but awesome :) Tri awesome :P haha.

Mom, I´ll always be your G man! :P haha. And it´ll be great to see you on the 25th of this month! 

That´s a crazy story dad! I hope he´s all good! but your story, I have to say, while reading I laughed :P I liked how you step it up too. it was dark, there were cars shining their lights in my eyes, I looked at my watch :P haha. It´s like me when I crashed the car: there was ice on the road, there was fog, it was a curve, I looked down for a split second. :P hahaha all to make us feel better ;) just kidding :P haha. But all in all I hope you´re good  because i´ll be running when I get home :P haha. I´ve tried to eat healthy on this mission but man it´s impossible. So let´s try it at home instead. But If I was transfered, that´s one thing I will certainly miss here, the food! The members here make the best food and never forget almoço! :P Ah soo good! :D

But anyways, I´ve got to go! I Love you guys! Until next week!

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill!

The water... stopped?

Oi!

Man, what a crazy week! I can´t believe some of the things that happened this week! I´ve got a story to tell!

So first off, this past week we´ve been working with a family of 6! It´s been an adventure with them. We´ve been helping this family for the past week trying to get ready for baptism and some of the members of the family were having some doubts. So we did everything we could to try and help them out and make sure that they were super ready for baptism. Then came saturday. But first these past 2 weeks people have come and robbed cords from the church that now we don´t have any energy! So there hasn´t been any energy in the church for a while. That´s been fun.. haha, but anyways, so we had the fear that there wouldn´t be any water for the baptism. Well, on saturday we started to fill up the font. And before it even got to the first step, the water stopped. Me and my companion freaked out. haha. We didn´t know what to do. So I started to pray and ask for help to know what to do. Well, it came into my head that I should get some buckets and start filling up the buckets to fill up the font. I started using the faucets to fill up the buckets and then the font. And it was working, but it was taking forever! Eventually it was 5:30 and we had to get to an appointment we had at 6. So we left and went to the appointment. We went back to the church at 7. And we opened the door to the font and low and behold, the font was completely filled! Wow... That was awesome. i really don´t know how but the Lord definitely placed his hand in helping us. In the end 5 out of 6 were baptised.

Man, it was definitely a week full of work. also, a bird pooped on me -_- haha. Whateves.. It sounds like you guys are having lots of fun with christmas time and all! man, it´s crazy that it´s almost 2013. Things are moving super fast! wow... But hey! Next week transfers are coming up! I have a feeling that I will be moved... But let´s wait and see! :)

I live in Mogi das cruzes

street name: Schwartzmann

if you are seeing one of our churches near by (ward: Bras Cubas) you are close! I hope that helps! Well, I´ve got to go once more, alright! Tchau!

com amor,
Élder Grant Shaw Merrill

Great Week!

This week was great! We didn´t end up having any baptisms but it was a very good week. We had our interviews this past week that was awesome! Also the elderes of my district baptized! :D Ah that makes me so happy! :) that´s probably the best thing that happened this week was them baptizing! Woot! We had an awesome expierence too! We were looking for a reference that we had been searching for for a while. But we never found him. We looked and looked many times for the house but never found it. Finally the member (who had also looked for it) found it. We ended up going there with the member. Well, I didn´t, because i had to do an interview but elder caetano and elder passos said that it went really well. Saturday came and we taught them again. And they went to church and they loved it. There are 6 people and man they are so awesome :) I love them so much already. I know that they will be baptized. I just hope they progress well this week.

This week wasn´t super good in the fact that we didn't plan super well. Because of our lack of planning we didn´t have as much success. But now we got this week to do. I´m super excited. We have another family to visit this week that we´ll be helping getting to church. That´s the key is looking for families and not just individuals. 

I got a letter from the family arruda that I bapitzed in Jacareí! Nossa! That was awesome :) Man I really miss them a lot. But I´m so glad that they are firm in the church! :) 

I remembered that thanksgiving was this past week because of the wonderful calander that you gave me :) And because of that calander I noticed that corinnes birthday is coming up! :) Cool!

I really need to send a letter to the Christensens. They really are an awesome family. I love them so much :) It was wonderful to get to know them well before the mission :) Man I´m coming up on the 1 year and 5 mark here soon O_o hahah crazy.

The other day I was actually thinking about my heritage and how blessed I am to have so many people in my family part of the church. It´s awesome :)

Dad before the mission I decided that the hobbit would be the first movie I would see when I get back, that thought hasn´t changed. But guess what else i´ve heard? Star Wars Episode 7 2015 :P haha That´s awesome. Don´t worry i´m focused ;) hahah. 

But anyways, sorry I wrote short the last couple of times, but I´ll get better now :) but I love you guys and love this gospel! I can´t express very well in writing my love for this gospel and for my family and friends :) Tchau!

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill!

Another One?

Oi!

So before I forget again! I met another one of phil´s companion´s the other day! Elder Santos, they were LZ´s together. Both of these companion´s of phil I have pictures in the book phil made for me haha. Legal. Things are going super well in my area! We baptized 4 people this past weekend! Yes! Things are going very well. The area is growing well and the members are helping out a lot.

My district is struggling a bit to have success and I´m trying my best to help them have more. They are great missionaries just getting stuck in their areas. Our zone is going well too.

Interviews will be this week :) Super excited! Congratz to Phil that´s awesome! Hey the other night I tried to naming all my aunts and uncles and cousins and stuff... I did well I think hahah... :P Christmas is coming!

Man, there was such more that happened this week, but I can´t remember. It sounds like you guys are doing well! got to go!

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill!

He lost!

Check out the photos page--Grant actually sent some photos--yeah!

Oi!

First! Super sad! Dang... Mitt lost! well.. I think i´ll stay here in Brasil for a while then :P hahah just kidding.

Well then! We had a baptism this week! :) Woot! We´re planning on having around 4 this week. I really hope all goes as planned. We got a proclamaction to the missionares for the members. We´ll be sharing it in the next sacrament meeting. It is a way that the members can become aware of our rules and their role within our work. Things are going well. Me and my companion studied about diligence this past week and this week we are really going to be doing everything we can to be more diligent! It´ll be great :) This past week went by super quick. But they always do :P haha. I can´t believe I have 5 more transfers or 8 more months and then I´m home. Thinking about Katie going home makes it seem even way more close! That´s crazy!

It´s crazy to hear who´s getting older and stuff. Man, sorry I really don´t have a whole lot of time this week, next week I´ll definitely have more time, but I´ll look for a razor here, and I´m having awesome expierences it´s hard to think about them all now. Awesome expierences lets continue! Woot! Yeah! Alright, sorry it´s short and whimpy but next week it´ll be man e-mail :P haha. I love you guys! :) And I think you guys are awesome :]  congratz! ;) Tchau! Como está tia Kauren?

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill!

Hard week!

Oi!

What´s up my family?!?! This week was good! We worked super hard. I stayed here in the same area as district leader still! Things are going super well here in our area! So many awesome and crazy expierences this week! It´s been crazy! First, we found an awesome family! So we were doing contacts one day and we did a contact with 2 young guys and marked a day when we could return and teach them and their family! We came back on that day and they weren´t there but their mom was. We talked with their mom and when we explained to her where the church was, she said, oh I thought we couldn´t enter in that church! and then said, I think God sent you guys so I could know this church! :) Best answer ever! :) :) Woot! That was awesome. We came back the other day taught them and there was 8 or so people there. Only 2 ended up going to church but the rest will next time. It was very awesome :)

At church, we were going through the first class and out of no where the president of relief society came up to us and told us that 3 women just turned up and were visiting the church. cool :) always like that! haha. So we asked them if they were visiting with someone and they said no that they were going to universal church when they saw this church and decided to enter! Sweet! They loved church and after church we went and taught them.  2 are twins and the other is a woman that lives in the same apartment area. We taught them the restauration and in the end I give them each a book of mormon and explain about it. Then one of the women says, I´ve read this entire book! Theres a nefi right? Nossa! it was crazy awesome! We found out that 2 of the women were already baptized in the church and now we are helping the third get baptized this saturday and reactivating the other 2 with their family. It was sweet! :) Kind of disappointing because we thought there was more to baptize but really cool how they had be inspired to enter the church and now are returning to church! 

Funny story! Remember that guy who wanted to kill me at church? Well, ever so often I will see him while we are walking. He seems to never remember me haha. So the other day, we went to visit some people that we did contacts with. The girl went to get her mom and we were talking with her sister. We ended up just talking with the two sisters and we had to leave pretty soon to get to our next appointment. But I wanted to invite them to church and everything. So I was inviting them and everything when all of the sudden my companion says, okay well you guys can go tomorrow if you want but we got to go. I thought he was just worried about getting to the next appointment on time. I continued to talk with them, while my companion stepped on my foot, pulled my shirt and finally we left. as we were leaving he said, man, did you not see?! The guy who wanted to kill you was in the house! haha :P So we found out where he lives :) Won´t be going back there :P hahah.

Hey I thought of something else that I could use! I need a new electric razor! Mine is done haha, I need a new one. 

Well, mom think how I feel :P 1 year and 4 months :P haha just kidding. I can´t believe Jonny is going on a mission! When did I get older? How was halloween? I saw a few things halloween related! So no package yet! But I did get letters! Brother minor (like always :)), David, and Hannah! so someone is working hahah. I really don´t know if there is a strike or not. 

Man the presidential election that I finally care about and I can´t vote! I´m so anxious, I want to know super bad the results already and I have to wait! ah! haha. It sounds like you guys are doing great! Me too! We have a new assitant here and we are starting some new programs with divisions and such. It´s great!  I love you guys!

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill