The Mergenthaler Family

When toilet paper and water bottles began disappearing from store shelves a month ago, I thought it was funny. I laughed at some of the jokes. I even bought a little extra for my own family because, you know, what if? But then school closures, event cancellations, and pleas for people to "just stay home" reached my social media feeds and I got nervous. I did some research. I prayed and pondered and thought hard about how I should react to the current situation as a mother, wife, daughter, neighbor, and disciple of Jesus Christ. The jokes weren't funny anymore because I recognized the fear and anxiety behind the behaviors. People were scared. And seeing empty store shelves made me a little scared too. So, we told our children we would be staying home--no friends, no play dates, no social interactions of any kind. And a couple of our children were not happy. When we told them we would not be going out they HAD to get out. Suddenly, they wanted to be out of the house more ...

From Emily on March 16. I disagree with her title but am trying not to worry too much.  I have never been to Suriname nor lived there. I'll trust her mission president's intuition and revelation for guiding the missionaries he has stewardship over. He is clearly more aware of the circumstances there than I am. Here's her email: Hey friends! Hoe gaat het? First of all, if you are worried about me/missionaries in my region, don't be. We are probably the safest out of everyone in the world right now. I live in a jungle that most of the world doesn't know about, so I'd say we are good. It was a good week. Kinda crazy, but much crazier everywhere else in the world. I'm praying for you guys! The Corona virus got to Suriname this week, but they immediately quarantined the dude (he was a Nederlander). School is out and stores are closing, but we got a good food storage going and the trusty guy at the banana stand on the corner isn't scared, so we'll defini...

No email from Emily on March 2, but here’s the one from the week before with lots of pics: Hey guys! here are some pictures. This week was great. We were really really bold....so by the end of the week, we had dropped half of our investigators. Br. Mateda isn't getting baptized anymore. We had a scary experience with that, but we are all good now. Suriname is whack sometimes I'll just tell ya that. We found 6 new investigators and a really cool less-active family that's been to the temple and makes really good Roti. A mom tried to sell me to her son for marriage (there's a better way to say that in English but I don't remember how to). Here's a couple cool experiences: We were heading out to do what we call "talk to everyone you see until you get to your destination" which is a fun game we like to play when we have some time before a lesson. So we were biking when we saw a lady smoking outside. We stopped to talk to her and learned she was a visitor fr...

I have a lot of Costco stories like the time a crazy guy followed me through the isles cursing me for causing the degradation of the planet through overpopulation, or when little Gavin disapproved of a sample so strongly he spit it out in the cart next to him (good thing I had baby wipes). This month, Ricky got to experience some of the joy of shopping with little children. Makayla had an appointment at Costco in the optical department. Unfortunately, this appointment also fell during Rodeo Break, which meant nobody else was in school and we had already spent two days doing chores and not going anywhere, so the kids were desperate to get out. Taking six kids to any appointment is hard, but in some places, the tiny, chairless rooms make it torture. Everything is big at Costco, except for the optical department. So I put Brooklyn and Gavin in a shopping cart and told Ricky and Andrew to walk around the store for a while. Sean stayed with me and Makayla and sat on my lap (he's t...

2 weeks of emails from Emily. Sadly, no pictures, but a lot of great stories.  February 10:  ALLLLLLRIGHTY people I am officially here in Kwatta--aka me and Zr. Hatch are now the Kwatta Kweens!!!! It's been an absolute blast. I have seriously loved every minute of it. I feel so good about ending my mission here. This is the best job. Some stuff that happened this week: Still in Rainville: --On Monday, we had a super good lesson with Tricia. We talked to her about baptism and asked her if we could choose a date. She expressed that she didn't really see a need for getting baptized again, but then we had a SUPER spiritual conversation about it all and she promised she'd pray and ask God if thats something she needs to do. I have no doubts she'll be making that step before I leave Suriname.  --When we were busy teaching a lesson, a man from Jamaica randomly passes by. We say hi to which he responds, "Ya'll pray for me. I don't think I can join when I have THIS ...

From Emily: GUYS! I'm moving areas *cries a thousand tears*. That's the super sad news for this week. My heart is a little broken, but I had a cool spiritual experience that helped me feel better, so get yourselves ready for some cheese.  I was just sitting on my bed listening to music and thinking on Saturday night before bed. Then a song came on by Lauren Daigle. The chorus says, "What have I done to deserve love like this." It was like my heart just burst and images of all the people I love here in Rainville flashed through my head. I truly feel that I don't deserve the relationships I have with these people--it's more wonderful than I can explain! I have been filled with more love than I ever thought possible. What have I done to deserve such love? I feel blessed beyond words for the time I got to spend here. The more I think about my experiences in Rainville, the more I want to give Heavenly Father a big hug haha. There's no question that I'm...

From Emily January 20: We asked our cool young friend tony what his bracelet means and the title of this email was his answer. It didnt look like the other voodoo stuff I have seen, so it caught us off guard. Voodoo is sketch people. Always remember to wear your protective bracelets. This week we...... -almost died because i was really sick but the elders brought this whack juice and it literally healed me. Cant explain how. Prayer works though because I told Heavenly Father we had too many lessons the next day and I couldnt afford to be sick and boom genezen. I was super grateful for that. -found a super cool girl named exantha. We actually gave her a Book of Mormon a few months back and went to follow up. We finally got a lesson. When we were asking her who god is for her, she goes "You know, I want to know who he is better. I dont really know right now." That touched me a ton because her humble answer of I dont know led to a super spiritual lesson. Humility is really the d...