Passau: June 24, 2013

Dearest Fam-bam,

Wow, thanks for not telling me what actually went down in this 'Missionary Work changing broadcast.' If you had thought about it, you would have realized that this broadcast happened at about midnight my time (props to Dad, he did mention that), so there was no way that I was able to see that. After a lot of looking around in lds.org, and trying to put the pieces together from your various emails, I was able to piece together that at some point we, as missionaries will be starting to use internet to do our missionary work. The APs in our mission did tell us to not start using these things until they get more information about it, so as for instant changes to my life, I would say that this will have none. I am frustrated though, because I feel like all these awesome changes to missionary work are coming, but that they will probably really hit my mission after I'm gone... I guess we're all playing for the same team though, and it will be cool to tell my kids that all these big changes happened while I was on a mission. Anywho, it does sound great that it's the GML's responsibility to fill in our time with productive things to do. Right now that is one of the biggest struggles that Elder Barker and I have, is just having good productive things to do.

Passau is a really pretty city and it totally has that old European feel that I had been missing in Heilbronn. The old city is super pretty with a ton of small alleyways, a lot of cobblestone (heads up, Mom), and a lot of cool restaurants where you could sit outside and do some people watching, which is always a ton of fun, especially in Europe. The countryside is also really nice, we drove around yesterday with a member, in order to take the sacrament to a few members and what I saw of the countryside was very green and beautiful. As for the weather though...this week was H-O-T, oh, and humid. Really, I heard that it was around 100 F at one point, and it was pretty miserable. The instant you stepped outside you were just hot. And to be honest, being inside wasn't much better either (Someday the Germans will get over the high energy costs and just install some AC in their houses). I hear their are nice things to see in the area, but we only have bus tickets for the city of Passau, and if we want to leave the city we have to pay, so we have been staying mostly in Passau. Especially since we don't even know the city that well either.

There were like 24 people in church yesterday! We had a lot more for various reasons. 1. The Sisters brought an investigator and a less active to church.  2. A random lady showed up, who I guess has just come a couple of times (the sisters have set up an appointment with her, so hopefully we'll see some success through that) and 3. The Sagmeister parents were there, which altogether put us over the normal amount.

This week we have done a good amount of service, and a ton of finding. That is about all that we have done this week. We still don't have any investigators, and still haven't taught a lesson together, but we found 10 potential investigators and have around 4 or 5 appointments set up for this next week, so we are hoping that after this week we may actually have a teaching pool, haha.

So I thought a little bit about what you can have those future missionaries do in order to prepare for their missions, and I had an idea. Maybe you could have them organize some sort of activity to which members can invite their friends, and to which they can invite their friends. I wish that I had some sort of experience with organizing those kind of things, so that on your mission you can bring some experiences with you, and maybe try to apply it in your own mission. I don't know, it was just a thought. I just thought it would be great if they could also experience the other kind of missionary work, working with members, planning events, those kind of things. For me I don't think it would have helped me a ton to go do finding before my mission because I learned how to do that pretty fast here in the field, but if I had had some expereince doing member work somehow, that would have been awesome.

Also, I did get a couple of letters this week. I got one from Sister Whitworth, one from Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Darrel, one from Brod and Kelsey, and one from the whole fam-bam, well, that is relative, because there were letters from three people, and one of them was just a template letter...

Yeah, it has been a good week, and I have learned a lot of things.

I don't know what else to write... I'm kind of bored with writing things right now, but I love you!

Love,

Elder Merkley

Passau: June 17, 2013

Dearest Fam-bam,

So, my new companion is Elder Barker, from Springville, Utah.  He is already 21, and is turning 22 in a couple of months.

Passau is really different. It is funny that you had aleady heard about it, Mom. And yeah, the flooding here was RIDICULOUS. The water was still a couple meters high when I got here, but most of it was done. I think in total the flooding was around 13 meters high. The whole old city was underwater, and tons of people lost everything, because it happened so fast and it was so unexpected. And yes, I have definitely had opportunities to serve because of it. Saturday I served around nine hours with some members of the ward, and other missionaries, and then today we went and served another four hours. So much water. And I have been super sore recently.

The branch is just as small as we had expected, on Sunday as church was starting, there were thirteen people in the room. Four of them were full-time missionaries.  The Sagmeisters are really cool. Our ward mission leader is a Sagmeister, and has been back from his mission for around 6 months or so. One of the Sagmeister boys, Johannes, already has his mission call, and will be reporting in a month to go to the Leeds (Is that how you spell that?), England Mission. His little brother already has his papers in too, and should then be leaving during summer at some point too. That is awesome for them, but will be a significant blow to the ward, as they lost 2 of their 14 active members. But the branch is super cool, a ton of them came to me after I had introduced myself and told me that I spoke German almost without an accent, which was really nice. I am the oldest missionary in our ward right now. One of the Sisters is a Golden right now, and the other one has been out for like 6 months, so maybe they just missed the accent by comparison...

As for working with less-actives... we don't even have a ward list yet.  We are literally starting from scratch. We have absolutely nothing to go on right now. When we got to the apartment, we found our new area book, which was awesome. It was a half-inch white folder. The tabs that organize it were there too, all nice and still in their package. And there was nothing inside. All we have done for the last few days is streeting! We have found 2 potential investigators so far, but to be honest, I am unsure what kind of potential they have. This is going to be super hard, just starting from nothing.

So we are essentially just sharing the area with the Sisters, who are both really cool. If we can't find a joint teach, which is super hard because of the small amount of members, then we can have the other companionship come with us. If we want to give people to them, then we can do that, but for the most part President Miles has said that when we find someone, we are often led to them for a reason, like we are supposed to be teaching this person. So we are not required to give up our female potentials to them. We'll see how we do it though, because we still need to sit down with the Sisters and the ward mission leader and decide how we can organize this.

Our apartment is really nice, it is known as the Passau Palace. I think the Sisters took the new one because it is nicer, but not neccessarily bigger. We have a really nice look over the Donau river (I forget, is that spelled different in English? the Danube), and it is a good size. It doesn't even really have that dirty missionary apartment feeling like the most do!

Oh my word, Bayerish is so difficult to understand! The first night as we were streeting, I asked like three people, can you please speak High German with me? I'm American. It was ridiculous. It has already gotten a lot better, but the first time I heard it, I just thought, that's not Schwäbisch! Which is the dialect they speak in Heilbronn. I haven't really seen any cultural differences yet, just been noticing the dialect differences right now, haha. And yeah, we are ridiculously close to Austria. Where we were serving today was less than 500 meters from the Austrian border. But I think that Austria isn't actually a part of our boundaries, so I don't think we'll be getting there, which is unfortunate. Who knows? Maybe I'll never make it out of Germany! (Austria is part of the Alpine mission -rgm)

And no, I can't use facebook right now. I meant more for after the mission that it will be nice to be able to keep contact with him and with other members of the Heilbronn ward, whom I am going to miss with my whole heart. I really loved that branch.

That's crazy that Kevin is already home from his mission! Wow, how the time flies, am I really the next one to come home? That is still so far away, it's kind of funny how big of a gap there is between the missionaries in our ward.

I really don't know what else to report. We don't have any appointments this week and we will be doing therefore a ton of finding. So pray for me that I will have the strength to talk to everybody.  I have been trying to help my comp talk to more people, and yesterday we set a goal that he would talk with 16 people, and he did it, it only took about four and a half hours. . I know that everybody has different strengths and weaknesses, and he definitely has strengths. For instance, he is a great cook, and really enjoys cooking food for us, which I really appreciate.

The Sisters in this area are great. I have been calling them like 15 times a day to ask them questions about the area, about how to do certain things, how to go certain places, and everything. They have been extremely helpful, and even made us dinner on the first night we got here, because we didn't have any food in the apartment. One of them was in my district for a couple of transfers back when I was district leader, and so it is fun to come and work in the same area with her now. 

Life is still good. I am happy, and am excited for what this next transfer will bring. I am stressed because of having to start this new program, but I think it will be good, just a ton of work is all it will take to get things moving. I don't know. Just pray for me that I will be able to really  love my companion, because I think that is going to play a huge role in how this next transfer goes.

Oh, but a cool story before I go. This morning, when we were going to serve, we were in a bit of a rush, and I had the feeling that I should put a Book of Mormon in my bag, just in case. We weren't going to go streeting or something, we were wearing normal clothes and everything, and I almost didn't, because I didn't want my bag to be too heavy, but then at the last second I did. Then while we were eating lunch we were talking to the guy we were serving, and he asked a few questions about our Church, and so then I went to my bag, took out the Book of Mormon, and gave it to him, explaining that I had brought it to him. It was really cool, and a super normal way of giving a Book of Mormon away, I was really happy with it, and I am super grateful that I listened to that feeling to put the book in my bag.

Well, I love you all. Keep being awesome, and yeah, the Church is true, and missions are good.

Love,

Elder Merkley

Transfer Calls!! (June 10, 2013)

Dear Family and Friends,

Andy's been transferred!  He'll tell you all about it in the letter below.  If you've been keeping up on the news, you might know that he's being sent to a place that is flooded!  I saw the address before I read his email and sort of gasped.  It's okay, all is well, but do remember to pray for him, please!  And he loves real letters (which cost $1.10 to mail).

Robin/Mom

Elder Andy Merkley

Kirche Jesu Christi HLT

Ettendoblestr 4a

94034 Passau

Germany

Dearest Fam-bam,

Mother: YES, I GOT YOUR LETTER. THANK YOU FOR SENDING IT.

As you can see from the title of this email, transfer calls came this week...and I'm staying a seventh transfer in Heilbronn!! No, just kidding, I got transferred. In order to preface my new assignment, I just want to ask a few questions: 1. Do you remember how I complained about how whitewashing was really hard? 2. Do you also remember about how I complained about training being really hard? 3. You know how I've only been in branches my whole mission so far? Those three things are all different aspects of my transfer call. President Miles called and asked me to go whitewash an area with a Golden. I still don't know what my new companion's name will be, I will probably find that out an hour or so before I actually see him. I will be going to Passau, which is in the Munich Zone, don't get too excited though, it's like a 2 or 3 hour train ride from Munich to Passau. Anywho, so I will be staying in Germany, but will be going to another province, Bayern, which means that I am going to have to learn a new dialect as well. The branch in Passau is between 10-15 members from what I have heard, with one family being the real core of the branch. There are sisters there right now, and we will be doubling up missionaries there, which will be fun. I guess they really want this branch to start growing. 

I can't even describe the feelings I had when I found out that is what I was going to do. I had thought of a few different options of things that could maybe happen, but training and whitewashing again never crossed my mind. Anywho, and last week, Germany was hit by a lot of floods, I have never seen the river here in Heilbronn so high. And I have heard everyone talking about Passau, I have heard different reports, but apparently the whole city is under water right now. I have heard that they haven't seen such bad flood water in about 500 years... So President Miles was also telling me that we will probably be doing a ton of service for the first few weeks... Apparently the new apartment that I will be moving into is right on the edge of a river, and from what I have heard the water came right up to the foundations, and President Miles said he thinks there is no damage to the apartment... It's gonna be fun, haha. But no, there were a lot of different feelings. I am really sad to leave this city and ward that I've grown to love, but at the same time, it feels right. After such a long time I never even considered that I would stay longer, so the fact that I was getting transferred wasn't unexpected, just what I'll be doing. I am really excited though to be able to go and start in a city new, and build up a new program there.

It is also really funny, because I know one of the Sisters that is in Passau right now, she was in this district for a couple transfers back when I was district leader. I saw her a few weeks ago when we had our Mission Tour with Elder Tiexiera. Anyway, she was explaining to me how they were going to give all their weird investigators to the new Elders, and how the Sisters are going to get the new apartment, and so on and so forth. I had never thought I was going to be the one to go there...

Yup, so that is the main thing that I wanted to tell you this week. Other than that this week has been pretty great, it has been rainy, but also pretty sunny, which has been awesome. Somehow we missed spring and jumped right into summer, haha. My allergies have been going crazy though, did I even have allergies in America? I don't think so, somehow when I came here last year I just started having allergies. Don't worry though, I'm taking medicine, and I think it's helping.

I'll just answer your questions in order to add some structure to this email:

1. Philipp is great, I saw him yesterday at Stake Conference, which was great. It was pretty hard to say bye to him and Becky, but they gave me their email, and told me to write them, so we'll definitely stay in contact.

2. It was super great to see Sven, and i have a phone number from him, so I should be able to call him and tell him bye. I'm going to miss that guy too, but he's got a facebook, so we should stay in contact too. Facebook is great for things like this.

3. Marcel and Nancy are really cool. They believe really strongly in Jesus Christ, and Marcel even sung us this song about Jesus, which, although it was a little uncomfortable for us, was really moving. They say that they like the Book of Mormon, and they could imagine that it could be true. They had done their reading too, which was really great.  Our appointment with Tobias fell out this week, so that stunk, but it was for a valid reason. I'll probably never see any of these people again though.

4. Yeah, the three mentioned above are actually progressing right now, which is great. With Tobias it will be a long road, but I can see that if he gets baptized that he will stay really strong and active. Getting him to church though will be difficult, because he hasn't gone in ten years or so. Marcel and Nancy have real potential I think. We want to get members there at the next lesson, and really try to get them a solid connection to the ward. I feel like I have worked really hard in this area, and have found a lot of good people. I could definitely see some of them getting baptized down the road. Even this week we found some really good potential investigators. We'll see where it all goes.

5. Elder Jerman is doing well, and I am quite sure that he is ready to take over this area. The last couple of weeks I've been making a conscious effort to step back, and make him do a lot more. He's been leading in our planning sessions, carrying the phone, and doing all these things, and I really feel that he is prepared to be getting a new companion and help him learn the area. Elder Jerman's new companion is from Finland! And what's crazy is that they were in the MTC together, and so they will be both in the third transfer... That will be fun for them, haha.

6. Funny that you mention General Authority visits, because we only had this stake conference thing yesterday because Elder Kearon was here. I think that he is a member of the seventy, or he is the area president or something. He was definitely British, and he definitely gave a super good talk. His wife too. They were both hilarious. I also love listening to the people translating, and thinking about how I would have translated it.  Also, on Tuesday we will be going to Munich, and will be having a missionary meeting with Elder Nelson, of the Quourm of the Twelve. So yeah, we do meet general authorities every now and again. It is kind of dumb about it being on this Tuesday though, because a ton of members wanted to set up appointments with me, and now this whole day is gone.

In the next three days though, we have five appointments with members who just want to say bye to me. Three to four of them are eating appointments (One of them may not happen because of the Munich thing, which will be essentially the whole day (we may have to leave our apartment at like 5 or so to get there on time, and then not get back till 8!)). The members were really sad that I was going. Some of them told me to say hi from them. I would love to come back to this branch on a Sunday, if you guys pick me up. That would be a ton of fun, to be able to see them all again. In total I have spent over eight months here in Heilbronn. Ridiculous, right?

I'll be honest, I forsee no problem in winning the trust or love of this new branch, I figure with so few people getting to know them will go pretty fast. I've also whitewashed before, so it that's nothing new for me. Also my natural charm and big cheeks help win over any heart.

Anywho, I don't know what else to write. This week was great. I talked to another like 15 people for a second time on the street. Not gonna lie, that is going to be nice. To talk to every singe person without the fear that I've already talked to them before. On Thursday then I will go to Passau, wish me luck and keep me in your prayers!

I love you all and pray for you too! Thanks for supporting me!

Love,

Elder Merkley

Heilbronn: June 3, 2013

Dearest Fam-bam,

I apologize for that letter last week, I know it was terrible, but I literally had about 20 minutes, and I wanted to read the emails I had gotten rather than write a long email... so sorry.

Anywho, this week was a lot of fun. We found three new investigators, which was pretty great. Elder Jerman and I have actually been finding a lot of investigators, but the for some reason, almost every single time the second appointment has fallen out, which has been super frustrating for us. 

So Marcel and Nancy. I actually know very little about them, Marcel was a former investigator, and we had planned to go by on them, and then it ended up happening on an exchange. So Elder Jerman and somebody else from our district actually found them.

Then we have Tobias, whom I am pretty excited about. He's about 30 years old, yes, he's German, and we had talked to him on the street last week, and made out an appointment with him later for this last Thursday. We had a pretty good intro lesson with him, and gave him the introduction and a few other things to read in the Book of Mormon. He's actually been meeting with the JWs for like 10 years, but has never been baptized. Then we met with him again on Sunday, and brought a member with us to that appointment. He had done the reading, but he explained how he thought that the whole Joseph Smith story sounded like 'Science Fiction' (He actually used those exact words. Even though we were speaking German. Denglish happens a lot in the German language.), and he was just having a hard time believing that. He hasn't been to church in about 10 years or so, but he is super religious, and really enjoys talking about God. We tried to help him understand that God has always called prophets, and that sending an angel is nothing out of the ordinary for God. It was a decent lesson, but I think it will be a long road with him. He already says that he has received an answer that it's not true, but we'll see what happens.

Yeah, so about transfers.. I would say that I am about 85% sure that I am going to get transferred. 6 transfers is already a ridiculously long time to stay in an area. I have never heard of seven in a row. So I think I'm gone, but I won't know until Friday morning. The waiting is killing me. I actually had this really random dream this week that I was transferred to Hawaii, to start some weird German program there... I have been having some crazy dreams recently.

Philipp is doing really well, he brought a tie to church yesterday, and he made me tie it for him, which I did happily. Also, Sven is still in his rehab program, but he came to church yesterday!! I don't know how he worked it out, but he came, and he brought his new girlfriend, and her two sons. It was really great to see him, and he stood up and bore his testimony during sacrament meeting. The ward members are really supportive of the both of them, which is really great.

Father, we are seeing SOOO many new missionaries coming in! They have been putting a second set of missionaries into a ton of areas to accommodate the new missionaries, and there have been a ton of people training. A normal group of new missionaries is probably about 7 or 8, and the last two have been around 30. They used to have the trainers come to Munich to have a dinner and stuff, but with these huge groups the goldens have just been meeting their trainers at their resepective Bahnhofs (Train stations).

Elder Jerman is doing great, just like always. We still have a really good relationship, we are both really enjoying this time together. The last few days I started explaining the Harry Potter story to him in great detail. I have only gotten to the Troll incident in the first book. I have been telling it in a crazy amount of detail. I'm lucky that we used to listen to those books so often, or I wouldn't be able to help him remedy his lack of knowledge in this area. I think I've had a good influence on him. It's been a lot of fun because I have the feeling that we have been learning a lot of stuff together. I don't have the feeling that I've really been teaching, rather that we are trying to do it together, which has been really good. I've also been making him do a lot more this last week or so, to try to prepare him for when I'm gone, because next transfer he'll probably be the person that will have to lead his comp around.

Finding ideas? Hmm, I would say that it is super nice, as a missionary at least, to have regular activities. In Germany it is kind of difficult, because the members live so far apart and only really see each other on Sundays, but it would be super nice so that you could get investigators to come to activities and get to know the ward in a more normal way. It's just a great way to get the members and investigators talking to each other. I can't really help you too much in this aspect of finding, Dad... The finding that I know pretty well is streeting or dooring. If you have questions about that I would be happy to help.

Wow, Kevin's coming back already? That's kind of crazy. Am I really the next person to come home? I still have a year though! That's ridiculous. How many missionaries do we have out from our ward right now?

Wait. And what's this new dog thing?! You can't drop a sentence, Oh yeah, nbd, but we have a new dog, and expect that to be enough. I expect an explanation, a picture, preferably with both this new dog and lil Gideon boy together so that I can see if they're a good fit for each other.

Also Mom, your letter was nothing to write home about either. I only had 20 minutes, and had to read 30 minutes of email and write you. You had a whole week, what's your excuse?

Anna's coming to Germany tomorrow?? What, that's so crazy! Wow wow wow, she's all finished with high school and what not. I can't believe that she will be going to BYU soon. Just ridiculous. I would really love some pictures of you guys too, I only get them very sporadically, but I love it every time I get them, so just keep that in mind. 

While I'm thinking about it, the next time you send me a package, could you maybe send me socks? All the ones I stole from Dad before I left are starting to get holes in the toes. Oh, Dad, did I tell you that I stole a bunch of socks from you? Because I did, I hope you forgive me. But those socks are kind of cruddy, they always slide all the way down to my ankles...

Love,

Elder Merkley

PS Also, I may have bought glasses today.  I had asked you if that was something I should wait to do, or how to go about doing that, and then you guys never answered me, so I went today, and they tested me, and said I could definitely use them, and one thing led to another... so if that's bad, you should probably write me a letter, because I will have to pay for the rest of it in like a week when I pick them up.

PPS CAN YOU GIVE ME AN UPDATE ON TANNER? OR MAYBE HIS EMAIL? Taste of your own medicine.

Heilbronn: May 27, 2013

Fam bam,

Ok, so I have like 2 minutes to write today. Brother Lichner, a member in our ward, wanted to do a trip with us today, before I get transferred. So we went around and visited a bunch of old things today, for the entire day. It was way great.

Transfers are coming up, but I won't know next week, but I should know the week after if and where and all that jazz. Even if I do get transferred I'll be in this area for over 8 months, which is a long time. Anywho, like I said, it's already time to be done, we're getting picked up in a minute, so I love you!!

I know you`re going to hate me for this email...but suck it up.

Love,

Elder Merkley

Heilbronn: May 20, 2013

Dearest Fam-bam,

Wow, it sounds like you guys had a pretty eventful week, from trips to the emergency room, to just plain old hard work. My week was not quite as eventful, but we did have a ton of fun.

I really am kind of confused why I had so much fun this week, we only had like three lessons, and we spent a ton of time on the street talking to people as we were walking

 to other places. But I guess I have just been getting better with my attitude recently. I have read a lot of other missionaries' emails, where they talk about how they can feel Heavenly Father helping them to become better, or just how He has been shaping him. This week I really can understand that feeling.

I feel like I have just been understanding more and more what it means to be a missionary. It's not a job, I am not forced to do anything, and I shouldn't do anything just for the appearance of it. This last week I have really just been understanding that having fun is an essential part of being a missionary. I mean, I'm only 20 years old, I can't expect myself to always be serious, or always be mature. I think that for this last year I have had super high expectations of myself, so high that I really never had a hope of being able to meet them. But now I have been understanding it better, and I have been having a lot more fun this last week, and I'm really excited to keep working on it and getting better at it. I can't really articulate that well what this change has really been meaning, or exactly what the change is, but just know, it is definitely a good thing.

We had some super cool experiences this week, too. I think one of the best days was on Saturday. I need to see if I can remember why it was so cool, I just remember that I wrote like 5 pages about it in my journal, so it was either really good, or it was really bad... It's actually really interesting, because I'm looking at my planner right now to help me to remember, and we didn't have any lessons, or any sort of real key indicator numbers on that day, and regardless it was super good.

Well, it started off nice, we went to a town... and wait, I need to give a little backstory here, recently Elder Jerman and I have been writing all of our potential investigators notes, and giving them a time when we would be coming back to visit them. We have been getting frustrated that we have had to go by a ton of times. Especially when they don't live in super convenient areas. Anywho, so we went by on this one guy who lives a 40 minute bus ride away. I had called and left him a message two or three days before, and had told him we would be coming by, anyway, the way there was a nice relaxing bus ride, he wasn't home...but we had a little bit of extra time, so we were doing some dooring and talking to the people on the streets, and we just talked to a cool kid, who turned out to be from New Zealand. We only found that out after the conversation, which we had entirely in German... He didn't have an accent that I could hear, and he didn't want to stop the conversation to interrupt and ask where we were from. Haha, it was just a cool conversation.

Also, this week, because I have been using a cool side bag, I also realized how great it is to give away these little lesson pamphlets that we have. I started doing it because the JWs always do it, and I think it's hilarious to look like the JWs. But anyway, I started doing that this week, and it is really great, it has just been a nice middle ground between a tiny card, and a Book of Mormon. There are some people who don't want a Book of Mormon but then you have had such a great conversation that it feels dumb to just give a little pass-a-long card. The pamphlets have been great, and I have had so much fun giving them out.

Back to Saturday, so that guy we wanted to visit wasn't home, but we made out an appointment with him, and since Philipp and Becky live in this same little town that he does, I really want to try to get them for a joint teach. Afterwards we went back to Heilbronn, and... actually I'll just leave that part out, it was pretty uneventful. But yeah, then we went to another little town and were stood up again... On the way back, I was looking at my watch, and we had wanted to visit somebody else who lives in a smaller part of the city, and I was pretty sure that we were going to miss our bus, because we were coming in a few minutes later than the bus should leave. I prayed and told Heavenly Father that if he slowed the bus down, we'd run for it. It was an interesting situation, because where we get out of the S-Bahn, you can't see where the buses go from, because it's like a 4-5 minute walk away, but when we got in we just showed our faith and took off running. Keep in mind the bus should have been gone for like 3 minutes already. So we run and run...and we get it, with about 10 seconds to spare. It was so cool. Then we were in the bus and I realized that I hadn't looked at the map to see what stop we needed to get off at (this whole taking bus thing can get complicated at times), and so I prayed again and just asked Heavenly Father to help me to know where to get off. At some point I just kind of decided to get off, not a huge feeling, we just kind of got off, anyway, and then I looked at the map, and was a little disappointed, because we were probably on the bus for about two stops too many. So we started walking back, and on the way we talked to this really cool woman, to whom we gave a Book of Mormon and set up an appointment. As we were talking to her, I totally had the feeling that we got off at the wrong place to talk to her. Afterwards we were walking, still talking to people, and we ended up getting invited into a Cordish Cultural Center, where this guy bought us soda, and then, while explaining the history and current situation of the Cordish people, took us to a Döner place, and bought us Döners...and then left us there to eat them. It was awesome. 

So we ate our Döner, scratch that, we ate half of our Döners because they were really big, and it was already after 8:00, and walked out of the restaraunt, and I realized that the guy had inadvertently took us right in the area of our apartment, so we only had like a 10 minute walk to get home. Just another nice surprise. And then on the way home we talked to another couple cool people, gave out a couple of pamphlets, and set up another appointment. So I wrote a ton about this one day...but it was just really great. A lot of fun.

Church was also super great, and Philipp got the Aaronic priesthood! It has been so cool to be able to be here for such a big part of this process, to see him get baptized, get the gift of the holy ghost, and the priesthood. Just awesome. Also, I still just really love the ward. I have such a good relationship with them.

Our next week looks really good. We were just counting, and we have about 7 or 8 appointments made out with nonembers, and only like 2 or so from those appointments are with people that are already investigators. Most of the appointments are really solid too, we even have phone numbers where we can confirm them and everything! We are really stoked for this next week.

I got a couple of letters this week. On Monday, I got two from you, Mom. Even though you sent them on different days, they both came on Monday. On that same day I got a letter from Sister Miller, which is really great. She is a very faithful writer. And that was it for us in the letter department. There have never been so few letters coming into our mailbox as now. Elder Jerman has received one letter from a friend (the whole time we've been together), and maybe once every one or two weeks a letter from his family. At this point, I'm not getting any letters from anyone but Mom... This whole change in the emailing policy has ruined our mail intake.

Elder Jerman is still doing well, his German is coming along really well. It is interesting to see how fast people can make progress, I have been impressed how fast he has learned, but I am, at the same time, excited for a companion where we can try to speak only German again, or somebody who can also help me with my German. It is exhausting to always be the one who has to understand the people. I want to be able to not understand again, haha.

Now, to answer Father's question. We have cards for more or less our entire area. So essentially everywhere that we need to travel during the normal course of missionary business we don't have to pay for. However, with District Meetings we have to order a ticket from the office. They have this one ticket that costs 26 euro, and you can travel all over Baden-Würtenburg with it. 

Ok, I spoil you, but I am also tired now, and I still have to write a ton of other people emails. Love you!

Love,

Elder Merkley

PS I'm going to get my eyes tested next week, I have been realizing that I may have trouble seeing things that are farther away. Nothing bad, but I wanted to get it checked. If I need glasses, is that something I should just take care of, or should I wait till I get home?

Heilbronn: May 13, 2013

Dear Fam-bam,

Well, I really enjoyed being able to talk to you yesterday! It was a ton of fun for me, and I am happy to report, did not cause any homesickness whatsoever. Only a little bit of wistful reminiscing, haha. But, it really reminded me how blessed I am to have such a great family. I was just realizing how great families are, how I can be myself with you, and you guys don`t judge me at all, which is something I have experienced a lot on my mission. Thanks for being great!

Anyway, just a warning, this email will not be very long, because I need to take a train in about 40 minutes to go to a zone pday. We only have one zone pday per transfer here, but it is a ton of fun. This is actually probably one of the only zones in the mission that does that so regularly, except for Switzerland, where they have these cards where they can travel in the entire Switzerland without paying. Anywho, but my email will definitely be a little shorter today.

We spent a day or so in Munich this week for a Mission Tour, which was a ton of fun. We were privileged to hear from both President and Sister Miles, and from Elder and Sister Texiera (Not positive if that's how it's spelled). Anywho, Elder Tiexera (from the first Quorum of the Seventy) told us that he felt inspired to promise us that if we do the things that President Miles wants, that we will hit our goal of baptizing 290 people in one calendar year. That's more than double what we baptized last year. The Spirit was there though, and it confirmed to my heart that it really is possible.

Other than that the biggest thing that I took from this conference was a lesson about obedience. Not that that was the message what was talked about, but just because afterwards I was examining my own attitude, and I realized that I have loss a lot of my obedient spirit. Not that I have become disobedient, but I have just been realizing that obedience is really an attitude, and that it all starts with the decision to be obedient. I think that I have just been getting closer to the line of justifying things recently, and therefore I have decided to start studying and working on obedience, which is something that I have never really focused on before. Pray that I will be able to develop that obedient spirit again!

Like I mentioned to Mom yesterday, Herbert Krause came to church today! Elder Buck and I had talked to him around Christmas time, and since then we have been meeting with him ever three weeks or so. We called him on Friday and invited him, and he said he would come, and he actually did! He also stayed for all three hours! It was really great, but he left pretty quick after the meetings, and so I'm not sure what his impression was. Although right after our small Sunday School class, he said that it really is true, that when people come together in Jesus Christ's name, the spirit is there. 

Other than that we found one new investigator this week, Davut. He is from Turkey, and I am unsure if he is Christian or Muslim, he wasn't really clear about it... I know that's weird not to know after he becomes an investigator, but I had asked him straight up about it, and then he gave this really convoluted answer that didn't really address the question at all. But yeah, we gave him the Book of Mormon in Turkish, and he said that he will have it finished by next Saturday... I'll be honest, I didn't really believe that, but we have an appointment on Thursday, so if he's already in the end of Alma by then, then we know that he's on track.

The weather here is still so-so. It's sitting at about 50 degrees right now, but after this week should then warm up again. If it gets under 60, then Elder Jerman wears his suit coat, and his winter coat, and his gloves. (Because it is 50 today, he is also wearing his scarf) It is one of the 

funniest things in the world, and I make fun of him for it all the time.

Other than that we had a ton of appointments that fell out this week, but it was still good, we found a good amount of people and are hoping to find a few new investigators next week. Pray for us! I can't really think of something else I want to write, but I love you!

Elder Merkley