This week has been good and went by really fast. We have a lot of people to teach right now and we are literally just sprinting back and forth all day trying to make our appointments on time. We are super busy which is really fun and also really tiring. Somedays we don’t even have time for a normal dinner or full study. (Every morning we wake up and study personally for an hour, together with comp for an hour and then language for an hour) It’s been crazy but really sweet. The area is really exploding now that we have two sets of missionaries.
Someone asked a very interesting question--about my emails changing from "Why am I here..." to "This rocks" and I don’t really know the answer. I think it is a lot of things. I am more used to the work and more familiar with what I need to do. I am more comfortable in my surroundings. But, I think the main thing is that I just grew up a little (now, I’m not saying I’m to the adult level of "mature adult" but I think I upped a few notches from "snot nosed teenager"...) I have so many blessings (churchy john word, but nonetheless true) and I really feel like if I am honest with myself I have absolutely nothing to complain about. The work is hard, but it is so rewarding. I’m away from my family and friends, but they are happy and safe. I have great people around me. Good food. Good apartment. And so I think I am just realizing more and more all the great things that I never realized I had before. A mission is really good at bumping you up notches on the maturity scale.
This week we had a baptism of a man from Tanzania. He is very humble and jolly and great to be around. I have gained such a love for Africans on my mission. They are all so humble and so nice. They will treat you like a brother right when they meet you. And this man was no different. He used to be a rapper and told us that he has completely turned his life around. He told us that he has a new rap song called "I’m clean". Haha he is such an awesome guy. Me and Pearson gave talks at the baptism. His brother baptized him, and he is a bigger guy so they had to redo it a couple times... but in the end all went well.
There was a slight mishap before the baptism though. In the mission world, there is something called a "pocket puke". A missionaries pocket is very important to them. In it they hold pass out cards, vocab word book, and occasionally their planner. A pocket puke is when they lean over to far and all the stuff in their pocket pukes out and falls to the ground. It happens more often than you would think. So, at the baptism, we were filling the font. And my companion and I were trying to pick out the leaves that had somehow gotten into the water. And thats when I puked. Right into the water. Everything I had was just floating around in the baptismal font, with the baptism starting in no less than 20 minutes. What I had to end up doing is running around, taking my pants off and wading through the water to pick up my soggy stuff (luckily though, not my planner) It was absolutely drenched. I was really nervous that someone would walk in to see the missionaries, one with his pants off, wading and fishing around in the water trying to collect all the cards. But luckily, nobody came. Oh, the random funny stuff that could only happen while serving a mission.
I also bought a little flute (2 euros at a hand me down store). It looks like I’m creating my own band. But I don’t know how to play the lil flute, so mostly it just sits in my desk. Although every once in a while I will bust it out and play a little 3 note "Companionship study is starting song", it sounds exactly how you would imagine it.
We also tried to get me a bike this week. Another missionary who is leaving said he would give me his for 20 euros. The only problem though is that its a total junker. The other problem is that it came in pieces so as to fit in the car. We have tried all week to get it back together but its been rough. I dont think I will buy it, but I feel a little bad haha. "Hey, elder, you know that bike that is now in pieces and not able to be put back together? Ya, I dont think I really want it anymore. But thanks for bringing it over!" Im a dirtbag...
Thanks for all the letters and love. I so thankful for all of you. Be safe and have good weeks.
Love you all,
Elder Merk
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