Elder Merrill's Current Address

Elder Merrill's Current Address

Elder Nathaniel Merrill
Philippines Baguio Mission
PO Box 7 (po box for letters only)
Brgy: San Vicente East
Urdaneta City, Pangasinan 2428
Philippines

Monday, September 3, 2012

August 20st, 2012

     Did I say last week that I would not be playing the Piano in Lingayen 2 ward?  Well I spoke too soon.  Guess who played the piano yesterday.  I did.  The piano player was late or something, I don't really know, but the Bishop asked at about 8:59 if I knew how to play the piano, so I did.  I could also mention here that at 8:58 the Bishop asked me to give a talk in Sacrament meeting.  So with my added Piano task I had no time at all to prepare my talk.  I thought I gave a pretty good talk,   I didn't have scriptures in Tagalog with me at the pulpit so I would just open up my English scripture read it in English and then explain it in Tagalog.  I am very able to that it really wasn't even hard.  I just think back to my first talk where the entire talk was very scripted and I read it off of a paper.  It's something that I don't think about very often but every once and a while I just kind of step back and think, 'I don't have to try to speak Tagalog anymore, it just comes'.   I don't know if I ever mentioned it but I am reading the Book of Mormon in Tagalog right now.  The original goal was to finish it on my mission, but I am set right now to finish before the new year. 
      Yesterday we taught the Sison family.  They are very nice, they read the Book of Mormon, but they just don't come to church.  We taught a lesson about obedience and after the lesson Sister Sison said in one of the most determined ways I've heard that she was going to church next Sunday.  She said if she goes alone, or even if there is flooding to her waist she will be going to church on Sunday.  That's a very good thing, and it's something that we as missionaries love to hear.  (Also I would point out you will not likely ever be required to wade through waist deep water to go to church.)   This week we found 2 great less active families. One we found using the ward directory and just looking for names of members.  They are so nice.  They came upon problems when they were recently baptized and stopped going to church years ago, but they are really nice and don't have anything against the church or our teaching them.  The other family we found on the street when we were walking.  We started talking to this old lady and she said her son went on a mission.   We talked to her some more and found that she had 2 returned missionary sons and 8 other children, all of whom are members.  Then she invited us to come to her house to look at pictures of their family back when they used to go to church.  We didn't meet all of the family members at that time, but those who were home were very nice and very willing to listen to our message.  They have great potential and I can see high chances of their returning to church.   We don't have very many investigators here, mostly we are teaching less actives, but we have one investigator named Meryll.  That's my name too, well different spelling and it's their first name, but that doesn't really matter.    
         So random other story; I had a guy quote the pharisees to me.  He didn't mean to, he was actually just telling me why I was wrong.  What he didn't realize is that what I said mirrored something Jesus said and his response was the Pharisee response to Jesus.  He wasn't the focus of our lesson, he was just there, but the person who we were really teach caught the reference.  They noticed that his response was the pharisee response.  He was taken aback somewhat.   It is actually interesting how sometimes people will say things contrary to us, after we quote Bible scriptures or teach a principle clearly taught in the Bible.  I've had people tell me things like Moses was not a prophet, or Jesus did not establish a church or other truths found in the Bible.  
   Anyway, I still don't know everyone in this area but it is a good place.  It is way smaller than my other areas.  I think it is one of the smallest areas.  The city has three wards.  Most of the city going to ward 1, 29 barangays I think.  We have 5 barangays.  It's fun.
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Have a good week, keep your head up, and smile.
                              
                                             Elder Nathaniel J. Merrill

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