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!

Better Week

I know I have said this before, but truly, Grant will need to brush up on his English skills and/or typing skills when he gets home! Haha! Happy reading!

Oi!

Well, this week was way better! Things are going a lot better in our area and zone. Today, we went to the island and it was awesome :) Ah, I love living here. :) This week we had a zone conference with a 70, elder Cruz. It was awesome. He explained a lot about rules (something the mission needs to get better at as a whole) and about baptisms. Explaind about how our mission is one of the most baptizing missions but it´s been a while since a stake as split. The reason behind it is because there are not enough men being baptized and a lot of children. That was something I noticed a lot in the beginning of my mission. But my mission definitely has changed. And Heck I might have another mission in the end. Who knows! But I want to baptize every week but well today.

Because of the conference, I was able to visit the family that i bapitzed in Jacareí. That was the best ever! :) I love them so much :) I missed them so much and it was really good to see them. Althouhg I was not able to see the dad ,but that is okay :) Let´s keep going! 

This week we worked out butts off. It seemed we were leaving house super early and keep home super late too. It was good though. We did a division on tuesday and that was good. I stayed in my area, the day didn´t go exactly has planned and I got hooked into playing a song at the birthday of relife society thingy. That was fun. It was a fun song, I had to basically sight read and practiuce it on sunday, because i had no other time. But I did well, they liked it. Wendsday was the conference and thursday we helped with a moving. a less member was moving and we helped on thursday, and saturday. It was good. she has two granddaughters (twins) That went to church this week and are being prepared for baptism this week. We baptized a young man this week (Carlos) 16 years old. He´s super awesome and will be a great addition :) I ´m excited. We have tons of guys that we are teaching and just need a little ´push to baptis m:P haha. But we are working with them :) I hope that they will make the decision here in a little. :) Our group of teaching is big just they aren´t feeling ready for baptism. I know they are, but they don´t :P haha. Well, We will be teaching them this week and looking for more. I´m really enjoying the work right now. Gets my mind off of home ;) hahaha. Joking, but it´s weird, because my companion will go home in the next transfer and then it´s me O_o weird. Say hi to david for me :P hahaha.

Hey! When I get home I think I need to get some sort of shot thingy...for school because I´m here in brasil. I don´t know. Also! I comptetely forgot what I was going to say. But I ´ve go to go prepare for a meeting! Love the hekc out of you peeps! I want to go fishing! Tchau!

Luana´s parents will be marking their marriage this tuesday! :d yay! woot!

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill!

pepper? Good... but that´s not!

Oi!

Well, my fam bam! Things are going swell here in Caraguá! This week was not the best but we are getting better. In fact it wasn´t a good week at all. In our area or zone. I got pretty stressed out. but I´m all good now. We were going to baptize a rapaz (young man) this week, but he got sick and had to stay home. We will be working with him this week to help him get baptized. This past week we had only 1 person at church... in the zone... so it was pretty hard hahah. But A lot had to do with rain... yeah, rain made it really hard for people to go. Also we only had wednesday and half of thursday and saturday to work this week. Friday was counsel and tuesdays we do intense divisions where we leave our areas completely.

Well, this week I went to São Sebastião to do interviews. I had an interesting expíerence there... So I did the first interview, done and we started to leave and there was a pepper plant there. One of the elderes took the best and we split it. It was pretty hot but not horribly hot. But somehow I got some of it up my nose! Gah that was horrible. And it burned, but it soon stopped. Then... I went to do another interview and while I was doing the interview, I whiped my eyes and got pepper in my eyes. AHHH! That burned. I threw water on my face and my intire face burned like crazy. Well I continued the interview and it soon passed. Later, I went to the bathroom to go number 1 and well... I´ll leave the story there. But that was crazyness to the max. 

I got no more idea sadly. But this week will be awesome love you guys :)

Tchau!

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill!

This time I´ll remember

Grant sent lots of pictures today. I will try to get them posted!

Oi!

Alrighty,

This wasn´t as great of week. The work was a little slower. Although, we didn´t work super hard either. We needed to be a lot more diligent. So we will be trying this week. Zone council was cancelled this week so now this next week we will have zone council. Because of that and divisions we will be doing this week, tuesday and firday we will not be in our area. Giving us 3 days before sunday to get work done. It´s going to be hard and a busy week. Our zone was bad this week. I´m not sure what we need to do to get better, but i´m searching to know. 

In our branch we had a fireside where i gave the message about missionary work. It went really well. I talked about a lot of things and showed a video too. I talked about the great importance of members in the work and how they are essencial to the work. The members seem pretty excited now. :) They really enjoyed it and the food there :P haha. But something cool is that we are receiving dinners and not just lunches now. Because there are so many sisters that want to give food to us :D woot! hahah.

So much hotness in this city. and beautiful beaches :) haha... Good times. can´t swim though :P hahah. I definitely want to buy a house here :P it´d be sweet to the max X 3!!!!!! heheh... But with all this hotness there is a loooooooooooot of rain and thunderstorms but still hot. Oh well it´s Brasil!!! :)

The parents of luana are changing jjobs and it´s looking like they won´t work on sundays. I hope so :) They will get married this month and baptized to :) Well at least the mom but the dad we got to teach more and help him recieve a response to prayer and go to church. Man I don´t know how to speak english no more.

Hey new scriptures and going to be coming out. Que daora! Sweetness! Also, the last transfer of my mission, (if i´m still here) I could make part of a new mission. But who knows. I think that would be cool. How many people from our stake are on missions (or will be going) and how many of them are in brasil. I always tell people that I have friends all over brasil. It´s awesome. How´s jordan and Louie doing? It´s crazy how small this world is. Thinking about it. I´m living with someone from where louie is right now (João Pessoa), I´ve met missionaries that were companions of Phil and others that served with David, i´ve met missionaries that were part of Peter Williams Zone when he was a zone leader and david went to the ward where Elder B. Lima lives (an elder I lived with a coupple of months ago) and saw a photo of me. Awesome :) 

So now... Yes I realize I had a weird name for my last email. Well, I forgot to tell the story. I left the Lan house and realized, man, they´re going to think I´m weird, well... I am but more weird. It´s nothing super awesome but funny haha. It´s like this: We got home one day from a hard day of work and I opened up the door, in that moment I saw something on the neck of my companion but before I had time to say anything it was already in his mouth :P hahaha. And it was a nasty cockroach. hahahah. :P It was super funny. Then we went inside of our house and went to our room and we were talking and in portuguese said, Why is there a cat under my bed?!?! haha. And out ran a cat and starting messing up our area book and stuff. But we got it out :P oh it was good. It seems like I just get home, and i´m already dead wanting to just sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. I´m so tired all the time now. But it´s good :)

yesterday, I read a talk given at BYU one day by I forgot who about Grace. I think I´ll send it to you guys. It was a super good talk :) It was very good. I loved it :)

I´m getting tired of washing my clothes by hand. It´s really hard to get it  as clean. I´m excited to soon recieve a machine. I hope!!! Yeah I´ve known that David would be going home on my birthday :P We have the same transfers here.

Hey, I´ll help at work! Well, I´ll take whatever work when I get back. I would love to work at the ranch again, but I´ll take work :) But can´t even think about that, I got loooooooooooooots of time left :P hahah....

Dad, you´re like becoming muscle muscle man haha. :P I got to catch up.. hehe..

Well, I´ll leave it at that. I love you guys! I love my friends and miss them lots. I hope jared is well in Russia. And Keep going David, don´t get trunkie ;) hahaha

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill

Cockroach and then a cat!

Okay, a little preface...first I think Grant must have forgot to tell a story based on the subject of his e-mail...cockroach and then a cat! Also, this e-mail needs a lot of "clean up" but I just don't have the energy. I really have not been editing his e-mails for a long time...adds character...but this one seems to have a bit more grammer, spelling etc. errors! Oh well, gotta love Grant!

Oi!

Well family, it´s that emailing time again! Woot! Alright, this week was good. We didn´t have any baptisms in the zone this week but a lot of progression. I feel like i´m taking all that i´ve learned as a missionary and applying it into this area. We are progressing well. We are gaining well the members confidence! We gave out a little cadie to all the members on sunday with our number on it and a note. We are getting a lot of references now from the members I´m loving it! :P hehe. 

Here in Litoral, by june is going to be part of a new mission. Brasil São Paulo Santos. So if I`m here by the end of my mission I might make part of a new mission. Who knows! Craziness! haha. 

Luana´s grandpa (Odélio) was supposed to go to church this sunday. But didn´t go! AH! I want him to go so badly. We´ll figure out what he needs so that he can go. but her parents are getting married! :) That´s the best ever :) Ah,  I was so happy to hear that news!:) So we´ll be helping them getting married. Let´s do it :) 

Deovana is a girl we are teaching. She want´s to be baptized and everything but her dad is letting it happy. (he´s atheisit ) but let´s keep helping her.

Pablo is a one of the couple of newphews of our LMA that we are teaching. He is sooooooooooo close to being baptized. I´m sure he´ll be baptized this week i know it :)

Things are going well :) I`m happy to hear that things are going well for you guys too! :) My new companion is Elder Atkin. He´s 27 super tall and american. I already knew him, since like the beginning of my mission. He´ll be going in the next transfer. He´s an awesome elder and loves to fish :) Makes me want to fish more. So yeah, we might go fishing :] hehe. Well, peeps I´ss gotss toss goss :) Tchau!

love to all a goodnight..... hehe

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill!