Called to serve....

Well...

It´s come! This week I will be home. Tomorrow I will go to São Paulo. Wednesday I will go to the temple and then start my journey home.. It´s weird.. but good!

Well, This week we had an activity on friday. that took TONS of work. We made the relief society room look like an airplane. The bishopric room look like outer darkness and other areas look like kingdoms of glory. It was awesome. The members learned a lot about the plan of salvation. It just was really stressful because we didn´t have a lot of help and it  was a lot of work but we did it. There was a point that i just was doing work haha.

This week i´ve been sick. fun!! but oh well. I´m almost over it. I hope i get over it soon!!! :) 

Well, I´ll take a photo of me on a bike today and well I´m not sure what else to write to be honest.. It´s weird. I´ve been have really weird emotions. Yesterday I watched the training thingy. I was crying throughout that realizing that I won't be a missionary any more. Well, I was called to serve and now my time is up. I love you guys and i´m very excited to see you guys...

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill!

Well...one more....

Oi!

Family! what´s up??! HAPPY FATHER´S DAY!!! I´m so grateful to have the best dad ever!!! He´s soo awesome :) What a great dad :) Thanks for being it! 

I almost saved people from fire! Yeah! well, what happened. we were walking when we saw a fire coming from a house, it was the biggest fire I had ever seen in fire in my lifetime. (since i borned) and it was crazy. So I gave my bag to my companion and was ready to run into the building, but i noticed that someone in the building was getting the fire down with a hose and that the fire was going down really. So it was almost cool!!! haha. The fire came from a bbq grill.. man :P haha.

Hey!!! things are going great. We had a baptism (probably my last in my mission) this sunday. GUESSS WHAT?!?! do you guys remember elder Hedrick? My third companion. well he is here in brasil with his family and guess what?!!? he came and visited caraguá so i got to see him! It was the best ever. He´ll be here this next weekend! He´ll be returning home on the same day i´m going home! woot! He was probably one of my favorite companions (if not my favorite) I learned a lot from him and he inspired a lot of my mission. I love that guy. He´s doing well. And now his parents say that i got a second home :) haha. They live in South Jordan. It´s sweet.

I´m giving a talk this sunday now, and the next one too huh?! daora. so it´ll be sweet! one in portuguese and one in english. (speaking of, how much time will i have to talk??) This week we have conference with a 70. That´ll be cool, just weird thinking it´ll happen a week before i go home. Crazy go nuts!!!!

Hey, I have other white pants at home right? I´m trying to leave a lot of things here. I´ve bought all the souveiners except for one, that i´ll have to wait until I go to the temple next week to get. I´m super excited about  that because the last time i went was in february of 2012. so yeah. it´s been a while.

My last week we have a activity called flight 103 (haha funny cause we will get a "plane" so i´ll get 2 :P hahah) but in the activity the plane crashes. and then they go to the spirit world. And we learn about the plan of salvation. It´ll be sweet. Then i´ll get another flight, and survive! (hehe i´m kidding sorry mom :P)

Vietnamese?!?! Craziness!!!! congratz a ele! How much time does he have? not much huh? hey who are all the peeps in brasil now? curious and has skyler already come home?

Yeah, dad can´t be sore. Got to take me fishing in alaska :P hahah :)

Hey!!! So this is my last week! And I´ll do my best to leave a great memory here :) I love you guys and see you soon!!!!

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill!

Tired

Oi!

Well, this was a crazy hectic week! Tuesday and wednesday i was at Ilha Bela just doing divisons trying to help them out and fix some problems. I think things will go better now. It was great fun but i´m super tired. We have been doing a lot of more activties this week in our area and it´s been super good! :) We have been getting a lot of references and other things. I can ´t wait to just keep going and work hard until the end. We baptized a kid that calls himself Alex this week. And Porto Novo (a area in my zone) baptized 3! This is the best month yet in my zone. I´m happy to leave my zone well off. 

We had zone council that works a little differently now because there are special sister trainers for the sisters. Annoucement is that there are now 6 assistants! 2 that just travel. 2 that train Liders of district and 2 regular ones that help out pres. It´ll be cool but I won´t know hahaha. I´ll be gone. I´ve been feeling tranquil lately about going home. It´ll be weird. as heck. 

I just got a call from a family that i baptized! :D They are going to try and visit me this next week! :D :D :D :D: D: D:: :D ::D  :D: :D I´m super excited! :D woot! This week has been a week of us trying to fix some problems in the zone too. I think things will run a lot smoother now.

This week we plan on having 5 baptisms (in just my area) if all goes well! :) It´s weird to think that here in a little the people I will be taking to church I won´t be here to baptize..

Hey and what about hannah is she not coming down? Well, I just supposed that i would be talking on the 30th haha. I just want to know the topic to prepare :P haha. Craziness that Phil will be someone important soon.. haha just kidding :P hahaha.

Dad you´re a running machine! crazy go nuts! 

Well, it´s been harder and harder to write long letters when I just get anxious hahah. But Just know that I´m working the hardest I can, doing what I can to leave this area better than when I entered. I´m getting close to finishing D&C again and the new testament. I hope i will be able to do it... Lets go!!

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill! yes that´s me!! :D

one more down

Oi!

well fam! What´s going on? Thinks are going well. Zone is going better. We had three baptisms in the zone this week and Zeze was confirmed too. We did a lot of divisions this week and I will continue to do a lot. So for that, we were barely in our area. This week will happen my last zone council. That´ll be weird! It´s cool though. 3 more sundays. I´m going to be going to Ilha Bela and São Sebastião this week with divisions so that´s cool.

Hey, what should i get Valerie? I´m not sure... Give me some ideas. It was my companion´s birthday saturday and so i bought him a cake. It was a good cake too. We had a fast lunch on saturday with the branch. It was awesome! Super good food and we made some good visits with the branch. It was a good activity and we got some good referencias like this. 

I´m not sure yet about getting out of the security yet, but that would be cool. Dad what´s EQ? haha. And I´m excited to give my talk. (and to know my subject)

These are some excited times in the mission, we are making some evaulations to see what missionaries are going to stay in mission são paulo leste and which ones wont! President is wanting me to evaluate the work of some of the missionaries in my zone to see who will take my place as zone leader. Weird.. haha. It´ll be cool that when I get home one week will happen 4th of July!

My companion is way cool, he is helping me a lot stay foucsed these last couple of weeks :P haha. I'm learning so much from him too.

Well, things are going well. And I can´t wait to see you guys! did you guys say that the collins will 

come up on saturday? Because I think it might be easier if I just waited to see them until saturdaythen. But i´ll think about it :)

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill!

Baptism!

Oi!

Well, Zeze got baptized! :D:D:D:D:D It was probably one of the best baptisms that i have had on my mission yet. Serioulsy, it was just a great spirit there. I´m soooo happy that she was able to get baptized :) It was wonderful! :) We found the most golden family too on saturday ever! I know we will be able to get them to church and baptism them! ah I just want to baptize baptize baptise! yes :P agora, they remind me so much of an american little family too, maybe that´s why I love them hahah :P haha.

It sounds like you guys are still having fun without me ;) haha. I bet that new star trek was awesome :P gots to see it. Mom, this itinerary i have been buggin the secretarties about for a bout 3 weeks and I finally recieved it too :p haha. But yes,l I bummed that i have to wait an extra 5 hours waiting! haha craziness! Hey, what are you shirt sizes? But It´s all good , it´ll give me time to think :) also phil and jess shoe size?

I think mountain mikes is what i want for dinner the night i get home :P haha. thinking about american food makes me trunkie :P haha. 

I can´t believe shawn is going on his mission! That´s craziness! This week I´m going to take out money just to let you know. Just in case money :)

Well, I got to keep going for a couple more weeks then I´ll see ya! :)

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill!

Change!

Oi!

Well, I stayed in my area, obviously, haha and i have my new and last companion. HIs name is Elder Câmara, and he is exactly what i needed to help me endure to the end haha. He is a great missionary and very focused and it´ll be awesome. He´s kind of the oppoiste of my last companion that he´s really organized. So that´s good. We had really good sucess this week. We have 6 people that are possilbe to be baptized this week. One from last week fell through. But she is marked for this week now. So i´m pretty excited about that. If all goes well, we will bapitze her this week, a family of 4 and another lady. The other lady, Cíntia, is super interested in the church and it be great to teach her. I hope to contact another family we have but we still haven´t been able to do that. We are helping the zone out. This week was rough for them but we are planning on helping them out a bunch this week.

Hey, my reteiner (how do you spell) is getting old and gross. Is there any way that I can mark with bro bennion and get a new one? also, my card expires next month, so I think i will take some money this week just to make sure, so just make sure I got some money on my card , thanks pals :P hehe. 

So Adam is like offical now? that´s cool. 

Are the collins going to be here when i get home? I´m just wondering. 

Well, things are going well. I´m happy, working hard, and hopefully continue to baptize well. :) I love you guys and 5 more emails :P haha. But that´s for later :)

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill!

6 more weeks

Oi!

It was great to see you guys. What a wonderful time. And now chegou the final 6 weeks of my mission. And it's time to go hauling. It seems like the wedding has fallen. After calling you guys, we went and visited them, and it didn´t look good. But, we probably will be having another baptism this week. I hope so.

It was great to talk to you guys. Hey, funny thing I did a while back! I shaved my chest. It got all prickly. hehe. oh well , it was fun. I hope that I can terminate my mission on a strong point. I will do what I can so that can happen. I can´t believe that gavin is talking already. It´s craziness! WHOA!! Haha... Man.. well, I guess I´ll have to wait to meet the others hehe. :P well, after seeing you guys, I don´t have much to say, I´ll have experiences this week, and let you guys know how this next week will go! :) (ps. my companion is so ready to go home :P haha)

com amor,

Élder Grant Shaw Merrill!