The Mergenthaler Family

I’m behind on updates again. We’re too busy having fun—and being sick—and having fun. Following are three emails with pics from Zuster Mergenthaler. We are still loving our video chats. She’s a gem! April 8, 2019–We Have a Prophet Today—Listen to His Words! Hello wonderful people! This week was AMAZING because we got to hear from the prophet of the world, President Russel M. Nelson. He literally speaks the words of God. I felt the Spirit so strongly.  Some other stuff that happened..... --The COOLEST lesson with a new investigator, Gibi. He's like this hippie dude that lives in a shack on the island and he's the humblest person ever. At the end he goes, "I think you guys are sent from God because it's my time to come to Him. I know what you're saying is true because I can see it in your eyes." Can I get an ELECT? Wow. I am so excited to go back and teach him more. --Zr. DePalm told us about how she met her husband. She goes, "I saw him in the airport and ...

Here’s the most recent email from Zuster Mergenthaler: I realized I haven't written a lot about my companion, but I'm gonna take a brag moment because she's amazeballs. So far, I've only had awesome companions, no lie. Zr. McGuire is her name and being hilarious is her game. I write down quotes in my planner and half of them are her being a goof. We have a great time together. Anyways, this was an AWESOME week. Someone please send me some English adjectives for good because my English is going down the toilet. But yeah, great week. Some stuff that happened.... --played soccer with the youth. It was a blast! Luis kept whispering at me in Spanish and then I would yell what he just said and try to complete it. The frustrating thing is I understand Spanish but I forget my verb conjugation and sometimes speak it with Dutch grammar, so I struggle speaking it back. But we're workin on it. --Set a contact goal of 70. Got 60! People say this island is small, but we meet new ...

Zuster Mergenthaler was transferred to Bonaire a few weeks ago. This means video chats because the technology works there.  This also means a lot less pictures because there are no senior missionaries in her area.  In fact, 4 sister missionaries cover the island.  One companionship speaks Spanish and Papiamento and the other Dutch and English. We have enjoyed the video calls.  It's so good to see her face, laugh and joke, and hear stories she wouldn't normally share in emails. A couple of days after she arrived on the island, I got a Facebook message from somebody I did not know.  Turns out it was a tourist from Utah who saw the Sisters at the airport (preparing to go to zone conference in Curacao) and took their pictures to send to family.  It was pretty nice of him to think of these missionaries' families even if at first I thought I got a message from a weirdo.  Bonaire is a lot different than Suriname and she is learning a ton.  I'l...

Of course, I have updates about the rest of us and pictures to share, but I'm having such a hard time keeping up. It's so much easier to peruse the Vermeeren blog for pictures of Emily, copy, and paste.  Most of you have heard by now that missionaries now have permission to make phone calls home on their p-days. What a wonderful blessing for so many missionaries. Unfortunately, our missionary doesn't have access to technology to initiate a video or voice call. She has just over an hour at an internet cafe computer to read and reply to emails, compose an email to her immediate family and her mission president, and write a general email to other family and friends.  She calls the computers at the cafe "dinosaur computers." They don't have a camera for video chats and the speakers don't work for voice. For a few weeks, she has sent us texts through Google hangouts and it's fun to be able to communicate in real-time that way. She does the best she can ...