The Mergenthaler Family

Zuster Mergenthaler was in a serious car accident last night. She and her companion are not injured, but a man on a motorcycle was thrown off his bike and rushed to the hospital by ambulance. We aren't sure about the details except that Emily was driving and she is very worried for this man.When we talked this morning, she didn't know much about his injuries or prognosis except that he had feeling in his arms and legs and had been conscious. He was transferred to a hospital in Colombia for better care.  So, right now, things are not okay with Zuster Mergenthaler. As we talked with her this morning, as I pondered and prayed during sacrament meeting, and as I have talked with Rick about what we can do at this distance to comfort and help her, I have felt over and over that things will be okay even if they're not. This is not an unfamiliar feeling to me. This past year, Andrew struggled with some health challenges. The lymph nodes in his neck were very swollen and h...

Zuster Mergenthaler’s most recent email: Hey guys! Hope ya'll had a great week. I think the adjective for my week would be "heet". Some stuff..... --my wonderful companion threw a surprise birthday party for me with the members. wow, I wanted to cry! Zr. T and the Bonaire members are officially the best. We had arroz morro, danced to bachata, and played pool. And Vaquero gave me a teddy bear for my birthday present. Imagine this 60 year-old rough and tough Dominican man with a teddy bear in his hands. Sweetest thing ever, right? yes, yes it was. --played soccer with Richard and the youth. I was on exchanges with Zr. Meyer and dang she's good at soccer! All of Richard's friends were amazed haha. And Juni, our favorite burrito making boy came! He told me the Book of Mormon is "not his thing" which broke my heart a little, but it's ok just not his time yet. --it was Pablo's birthday on Friday, so I was making cake and the oven blew up in my face and...

From our missionary: This week was amaaaaaazing. Some stuff.... --Pablo got baptized!!!!!! Nuff said. I can't wait to take him to lessons with us and hear him bear his sweet testimony. He was so cute coming out of the water with Br. Statie on his left and Vaquero on his right holding him up. My favorite part was looking at him sit down after receiving the Holy Ghost. His eyes were really wide and he had this grin on his face. You just knew that guy was feeling the Spirit really strongly. --met Aquiles' cutie of a daughter. She looks and acts nothing like him! She's very quiet while he is very loud. It was fun to watch them interact though because you can see how much they love hanging out with each other.  --Zr. T almost punched some guy out when he yelled at us for a solid 15 minutes about how we'd make a better use of our time being women who party and drink than talking to people about God. I felt very uncomfortable. Man, I wish he understood how important this is! S...