Come into my office

We had a pretty sweet week. We have this one family that is so cool. If they get baptized my whole mission would be worth it just for them. They have been to church 4 times now and they came to second hour for the 1st time yesterday and really liked it. They said, "they have really been looking for a place where they can learn about Jesus Christ by someone who knows what they are talking about." But for a Hispanic family they have a way nice house. They order us take out every time we come over. They truly are homies!







Also, the Ramirez family that was baptized last week got their limited use temple recommends yesterday and we are going to go do baptisms for the dead here soon. We have some other cool investigators/less actives that we are working on.

My companion and I bike a ton now. Everyday is leg day for me. I try and convince all our investigators to meet us at the church. Sometimes it's pretty fun because we will schedule three or four appointments in a row at the church. So I just stay in my office at the church (The Relief Society room) and when we are done teaching one investigator the next one comes in. It's awesome and way more efficient.

Love Y'all
Elder Trev

Valentines from the Ramirez family

Sean and Allie

Pain in my buttocks!

We had an awesome family get baptized this week. They are the Ramirez Family. They are homies for sure. Their two kids love basketball and everyone in the family is always wearing Nike™ stuff. He was already a member. He was baptized when he was fourteen. But he is totally active now. There was a lot of blood, sweat and tears put into this family but they will be mighty in the church. 

Sunday we had their confirmations and I didn't know I was supposed to do it until we were standing up in front of everyone in sacrament meeting. Which wouldn't have been a big deal if it wasn't in Spanish. The bishop had to teach me how to do it in front of the congregation. But it worked out really well in the end. 

We have a pretty awesome teaching pool right now and we are working to have the same outcome with them as with the Ramirez family.

Sorry for the photo quality... Also the second photo is of the wedding of Jorge and Lupe Ramirez

"Porque este semana fue mi primera semana en una bicicleta, tengo
dolor en mis pompis"

Jorge and Lupe Ramirez

Ramirez Family Baptism 
Helping out a member

Missing the heck out of Eagle!

Man sometimes I just miss the heck out of Eagle. My dad sent me a picture of Scotty skiing in the sunshine and it killed me. I sent this response to my dad. "One of my favorite things ever is skiing at bogus when there are inversions. I would just wear my sunglasses and a flannel shirt. Then jam to the beach boys with the windows down once I got above the clouds. The sunshine would just
boost my moral. That's one of the best ways to spend the day."

Good news though! I just found out that I get to stay in the same area, with my same companion. We have been getting along so well. We even talk to each other the "Tu" form. So that's super awesome. I am so pumped that we get to keep all our investigators. The only downside is that we will be on bikes now... Sooo we are going to have to plan our routes out really well to get even close to the same amount of work done. But, the Lords work is definitely progressing here in Grand Prairie.

Satan really knows how to temp me. One of our ward members just bought a MasterCraft, he knows my love for water sports! He came up to me at a ward party and said "hey why don't you bring an investigator and we will take you out on the boat"?  I had to use every seed of faith I had ever planted to tell him that it's against the rules for missionaries to even get on boats.

Love and miss you all

Hermano Y Hermana Merrill

Sis ? and Sis Barntley

Baptism Numero Uno!

One of my companions got ET'd, so I am in a normal companionship now. It's hard to explain. Basically there was some mission drama. Obviously there was no problems with my companions, we'er all cool. It was just with other missionaries. We do exchanges a lot.

We have had so many meetings this week with like zones and stuff. I am really trying to be more organized. We have so many appointments, it gets way hectic especially in the evenings. I am getting more excited about missionary work and for the most part, it is becoming more fun.

The baptism this week was awesome. It started @ 4 and we still got an awesome turn out from the ward. Alli and Sean's dad came to the baptism, so hopefully we can start to work with him more too.

The Spanish family is getting baptized on the 20th or the 22nd of Feb. They are super solid and cool. We probably having like 20 plus people we are teaching. 3 families are really close to getting baptized, but they have to get married first. Anyways one of them for sure is getting married on the 20th of Feb. We are working on dates for the other two.

Also story of the week. This member got sooo mad at me on the phone! I called her because we had to cancel dinner. I was super nice and respectful, we had a really good reason to cancel. But she flipped out on me! It was a real pain but we had to readjust our whole day, with way important appointments to make her happy. This lady was not very nice! It was actually a white person, so it was just like roast. She really acted like a child though. Especially after I had explained myself. Not gonna lie, mom yelling at me did help me prepare for this (Not that I condone yelling at kids).

Love you guys. 

Allie

Elder Gay, Trev, Allie, Sean and Elder El-Bakri

Still Washing Cars

This was a pretty dang cool week, besides the homesickness. I am continuing to adjust to missionary life and just figuring out what I am good at and what I need to work on. My Spanish is coming along. My freaking huge companion broke my balance board.

One of the investigators in our Spanish ward owns a car lot. So for a service project this week we went and washed his cars. He and his family are investigating. It was fun to wash cars again. Lol





Anyway I have my first baptisms on Sunday. Its this family, that the mom was inactive and now she is active again. Her two kids Allie and Sean, are getting baptized too! We have so many lessons in our companionship that we end up going on splits a lot to cover all the lessons. So I have really taught these kids all by myself. Luckily they speak English! They are sooo smart and interested. They have like a million questions. I love them so much, especially the girl.




We have another family getting baptized too in like a couple weeks. They are from the Spanish Ward. They have three kids. I'll take a picture of them at the baptism. 




I made the applesauce cake today. We didn't have vinegar so I hope it turned out. We actually ended up using the cake for a sister missionary's birthday, good outcome.





At The Car Wash
Allie and Sean

El-Bakri Broke MY BALANCE BOARD!