Week 56 - August 28, 2015

From: Jordan Mark Merrill <merrill.j@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2016 8:24 PM
To: Lauri Merrill
Subject:

Sooooo where do I begin... gosh ha-ha. Well here in Masbate all I can say is I’ve had nothing but good experiences so far. I straight out love it. I’ll admit the travel was hard and I had a serious loss on my part. Somewhere along the way my big suitcase had a big tear in the bottom half. Luckily nothing fell out but that was before the 2-hour boat ride. So I found some help and got it tied up. I’m going to need to find a new suitcase before I leave here which is I don’t know when so ya, that sucks. But anyway as you know my last comp is now in his nice cold house chillin with his family and I also got the chance to start a new area. We got up in the morning around 5 and started our travels. We caught a jeepny to Legaspi where Elder Witehira had to get off. We were with the ZLs so they helped us but like all the sudden they stopped the jeepny and said bye Elder Merrill! Then they booted me out, I grabbed my stuff and they drove off. So I was the only one chillen in a huge busy city with all my stuff then I got some help and got into another jeepny headed to the port. From there I met up with some other missionaries getting assigned to Masbate also. We all waited for a couple hours until our boat came but then we found out we can catch a fast craft (like a faster boat basically) so we boarded and started our journey. :) The fast craft took 2 hours so I don’t even know how fast the slow one would have gone. But as we were going we were in the middle of the ocean and then the motor just stopped so all the sleeping people woke up and thought we were there but we weren’t then the waves started rocking us slowly until eventually we were rocking like crazy! I heard people start getting worried like “what the heck is going on, we’re gonna die” type of worry but then, thank the high heavens the motor started and we were saved. So we arrived in the port and freak, it was hot ha-ha, it’s a different climate here then it is in the main island like so far I have been thirsty 100% of my time here, even if I drink 9000 gallons of water, and also my hair is always frizzy like 24/7. It’s weird? But I met my comp, his name is Elder Mwarie. Before I met him all I’ve heard about him was good things, then I met him and its true he is like the freaking man!!! He’s from Kiribati, a small island that I have no clue where it is. He speaks very little English and very little Tagalog but he is sooooo dang funny ha-ha our Kabahay and him are really close so they just mess around with each other all day. He’s the man. I love him. But our work just started as usual, tracking, teaching, meeting new people. I’m assigned in Masbate 1st branch in the main city of Masbate and our attendance yesterday was 102 and they said that’s like super good so I’m happy. Lots of neat people here and all so eager for missionary work. A cool experience was with one family, so far my favorite family, we were teaching and kind of started over with the lessons and the main girl she used to be a preacher for some church and said she converted a lot of people then I told her about Thomas S Monson and she got super skeptical and kind of offended but then Elder Mwarie started testifying with what Tagalog he could and she totally changed her emotions from doubt to a small bit of belief. It was cool, later today were going biking with them:) But ya I feel like I could write hours of things I have seen here. Its sooo different from my small area in the forest to now a huge main city on an island. But I really do love it here, so far the members have been chill with us and we always have something to talk about cause Elder Witehira came from this area before he became comps with me. I feel like I’m missing so much to write about but maybe I’ll remember and include it in my next email:) Ya the church is true and I know that there is always a person ready to accept the gospel no matter where you are. Love you all and remember Magsisi kayo palagi;)

**Elder Merrill**

Perla slapped me hard