The Mergenthaler Family

Hello one hello all! It was another great week as a missionary in Suriname. Man, I love this. Sometimes I'm biking to the next appointment and I just can't stop smiling. This is true joy right here--it comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ! Some things that happened this week.... -They are taking my trainer away from me! Zuster Woolsey is going to Bonaire this next transfer. I'm really sad. I love Zuster Woolsey so much. It's gonna take me a while to forgive President for that one, but she's gonna do great things in Bonaire and I have 6 people to baptize here before I leave! -I got trapped in the bathroom at Zone Conference for an hour. There was no windows and the lock broke. I made friends with the random lizard in there and named it Pablo. I'm super grateful for the Elders and President Baird who finally just took the door off haha. Also glad I'm not claustrophobic. -I broke the garage door controller because I got a mix of sprinkles and water in it (don...

General letter: Ok, before I do anything, I'm attaching all the pictures and videos I've taken these past few weeks. Above is the video of the spider the size of my face. We named it Fernando the 2nd. Some things that happened this week.... -Our neighbor really likes to listen to this weird music that's a blend of Hindu, techno, and latin. It's actually the best. We're so close to him that when he plays it, you can hear it all over our house. It's loudest in the bathroom, so sometimes I just relish my time in there and dance my heart out.  -The elders called us and asked us what "soda" they should use to make banana bread...they were debating between Root Beer and Sprite....I told them soda actually means baking soda. I feel so blessed to tell people truths they've never heard before!  Also, if you don't have baking soda, apparently Sprite works ok? Debatable... -Zuster Woolsey broke our light doing a burpee. She's a violent exerciser. -Our...

I know I’m not the only one who wonders how we got to 2019 so quickly. Time flies! One late evening, after the kids were in bed and the dishes were done, I sat down to balance the checkbook. As I flipped to the last entry, I discovered I had not updated the balance for two months. Yikes!  Autopay could be blamed because I’m not forced to sit down with the checkbook to pay bills every couple of weeks, but the real culprit is the usual craziness that accompanies the holidays. You’d think online shopping saved me some time—it did, but no matter the conveniences technology brings, I still find myself struggling to keep up.  It’s true that I have adjusted my schedule to make time to go to the temple once a week. Being there once a week has been a huge blessing for me even though I wonder if I should dial it back to every other week. I often worry that 3 hours a week is too much, but other times I feel sure the sacrifice is worth it since we have a temple just 35 minutes from the ho...

I promise I will eventually put something on here about the rest of our family.  As usual, I have a lot of pictures to share and stories to tell, but I'm just not finding the time. In the meantime, you can enjoy reading Emily's last two emails.  They didn't come with pictures, so I'll do some spy work and see what I can find on the Vermeeren's blog.  I'm sorry about the typos and different fonts.  I have decided it's easiest for me to just copy these emails straight over rather than edit.  Emily has very limited computer time in a "cyber," so sometimes Happy reading: December 31 -    I'm not John Wayne, but you can see by the way I dress I like the ladies This week's subject came from one of the crazy car wash men that always cat call us. It made me laugh so hard. This week was a great week! Not so productive in terms of missionary work because no one wants to meet with you on the holidays, but we still filled our time contacti...

Hallo everyone! Doop=baptism in Dutch.  It was an awesome week which included.... -4 baptisms! It brought tears to my eyes as I watched them make sacred covenants with their Heavenly Father. It also reminded me of the covenants I have made in my life and how important they are to me. I'm so grateful for these righteous examples of faith to me! I'm so glad I have the opportunity to be a missionary and take a message that has greatly blessed my life to others.  -A crazy high man that confessed his love to me at our front gate and then peed on our wall. Did I sing really loudly in the shower just in case he came to kidnap us so Sister Woolsey would know? Absolutely. The funniest part is I didn't know he was hitting on me at the beginning because I don't know Dutch, so I was asking him questions about his life to see what he would love about the gospel. It's hilarious now that I look back on it. Fun times. (We are totally safe just so you know. Suriname is pretty sketch...