Heilbronn: January 6, 2012

This is Andy wearing his "Hochzeitskrawatte" (Wedding tie), in recognition of Kimmie getting married!

**I messed up the posts! I posted Jan 14 then Jan 6, so don't forget to read the  post below this one!

Dearest Fam-bam,

So first off, I wanted to ask Mom, did I miss the Dear John? I don't think I've gotten a real letter from you in like a month or so. I mean, I know I'm not the perfect son, but I thought that was a little much. Once a week to nothing is a pretty big change... Mom, I actually don't want you to freak out that you forgot to write me, haha, I just wanted to guilt trip you a little bit. Merkleys (At least our branch) do that really well. Do you remember that time I guilt tripped Kimmie into buying an All Sports-Pass? The Ultimate Guilt Trip! Before I forget, I got a letter from the Whitworths last week, with a little letter from Tanner in there. It made me so happy! The first time I've heard from my best friend in 7 months! But yeah, so now my bulletin board has a picture from my second family, although it is missing Scott, and Erin's new husband, who I don't think I've ever met...

Anyway, the wedding sounded great! I'm so glad that it all worked out, especially with the last minute change of venue and everything. That's great that Grand was able to do the sealing too. I look forward to him being able to perform that same ordinance for me sometime in the future. And yes, I definitely remembered to wear my tie, and I even wore my whole suit during the day to look the part! I was telling everyone, my whole district (we had district meeting on that day), some random people on the street, and some investigators, that this was my 'Hochzeit Krawatte', which means (I hope...), wedding tie. It was a pretty good day too.

Wait, Rafe's mission is delayed? When was he supposed to go? I thought he was already gone! I had never heard a specific date, I think, just that he was going to Rome. I hope they get him out there quick, two to three weeks can feel like forever when you are waiting for a huge change like a mission.

So we found one new investigator this week. Her name is Nadine, and she is a little bit crazy... When we sat down to talk to her, she just said that she had just one question for us, and that it had been lying on her heart for a long time. And then she asked, 'Did the dinosaurs exist?', and Elder Buck and I just kind of looked at each other really confused... But yeah, that was an interesting appointment. We found her through the area book, and we have another appointment with her on Saturday. She has trouble believing that God can speak with his children, she says that he is silent, so we will be teaching the Restoration and try to show her that God is not silent, that he still speaks with his children.

Other than that we didn't find a lot of new investigators this week, we had quite a few appointments with people who didn't become new investigators, and we made out a few new appointments for next week, but in the ways of investigators, this week wasn't the best.

Sven couldn't come to church yesterday, because he had a cold, but we have another appointment with him on Thursday. I don't know if I had already mentioned it, but he does have an 11 year old daughter who also isn't baptized, but she comes regularly to Church too. He doesn't want her to baptized yet, because he says she doesn't really believe it yet. But we will try to talk to him more about that on Thursday.

This week we have been trying to work more with the less active members and with the Part Member families. We have made out a few more appointments and we hope to be able to meet with these people and help them on their way back.

That's so cool that Elisabeth will be coming to stay with you! Anna should work on her German and try to practice it a little bit with her. German is such a great language, I just love it.

Anyway, sorry that I don't have a ton of cool stories to tell you. Neat things do happen to me, I just forget to tell you all about them, haha. I'll try to write down in my planner the really awesome things that happen, and then next week I can tell you all about them.

Ok, I love you all!
Elder Andy Merkley

Here Andy is celebrating the New Year with Johann and some others!