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My Arm Hair is Completely Singed Off

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 singed off part of my eyelashes (luckily I was wearing a little mascara, so it mostly just melted that), my left eyebrow, and my arm hair.....so I had to shave off the rest of the burned hair on my arms and fill in my eyebrow this week. I'm not kidding, but no one is getting pictures of this because I don't want to remember it ever again haha. But yes, I do look kind of hilarious. 
--we cleaned the church this week with the relief society sisters and discovered 2 mice nests. I now know how to beat a mouse to death with a broom/my foot thanks to sister Carti. We killed 10 mice in total hahaha. but it was really sad to kill all the baby mice because they were squealing and stuff.
--we found a SUPER cool young couple that's a referral for the sisters cuz the wife only speaks Spanish but I'm 99.9% positive they're the next Branch pres and wife.
--the area presidency visited and we got to hear the story of the church's first beginnings in the ABC Islands like 40 years ago. It's amazing to hear the testimonies of these people who were literally the first members of the church here. Made me teary! They are such an example of faith to me. It also gives me faith that our little branch in Bonaire can grow as we work diligently. 
--Pablo helped teach Aquiles this week and shared his testimony about the Book of Mormon. I LOVE THIS MAN. I'm thinking of just taking him in my suitcase and flying him to Suriname with me.

Spiritually, I was thinking a lot this week about eternity. I realized that the roles we fill as daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, mothers, and fathers on this Earth are eternal! (that's kind of a "no-duh" to members of the church, but it's also mind blowing if you think about it!) We are preparing ourselves to be eternal mothers and fathers here on Earth, to be parents of nations and creators of worlds. I think if we realized the full impact of eternity, our brains would explode just a bit. But sometimes you just have those moments where you realize this little speck of Earth life is incredibly short and incredibly important. And the work of the Lord is moving at great speeds to the second coming. Wowza! 

Well, Ik hoop dat jullie een geweldige week hebben. 
Liefs,
Zr. Mergenthaler

Bonni here—Emily sent a super cute Happy Birthday video of Gavin. It was the sweetest. All the missionaries on Bonaire sang to Gavin (that’s only two zusters and two hermanas, but it was lovely). It’s kinda long, so I haven’t figured out how to upload it. Wish you could see it. 

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