The Mergenthaler Family

On May 22, Rick and I celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary. Our kids took care of each other while we spent the weekend in Sedona and Flagstaff. We expected a quiet getaway with peaceful hikes and sight seeing. Unfortunately, it was Memorial Day weekend after a two month quarantine and we were not the only people looking for a place to go. Sedona was packed. We went to hike Devil’s Bridge and found cars lining the road for a mile before and after the parking lot. We skipped that hike, which would have probably been more like standing in a long line at Disneyland and drove through Oak Creek Canyon to Flagstaff. The canyon was beautiful, but still packed with people. Slide Rock was closed because it was full to capacity and cars were parked along the road at every scenic point.  Fortunately, Flagstaff was much less overrun. We went to an excellent Mexican restaurant and found a nice evening hike called Fatman’s—perfect for the two of us who just gorged ourselves with sopapillas an...

Andrew turned 13. He wanted Bluetooth ear buds, a smart watch, and sugar cereal. It turned out that the smart watch and ear buds were garbage, so he returned them and got a guitar. He has been playing and playing and playing. He carries his guitar with him everywhere. His quarantine hair is turning in to 90’s Heart Throb hair. We love our newest teen.  Ricky turned 16. Social distancing is the perfect excuse not to go on a date. He’s excited about getting his drivers license. On his birthday he applied for a bunch of jobs. He landed an interview at Albertsons last week. After going to two different stores and being told they weren’t hiring and he didn’t have an interview there, he finally figured out his interview was at McDonald’s. Aside from being a half hour late, the interview went well and they hired him. He starts work next week. This is him driving me to the interview.  We love our happy, fun, energetic, guileless guy. 

Oh, those poor seniors! I have heard that phrase so many times in the past few months.  There are seniors in high school who were ripped away from their last prom, last athletic events, last day of school. And there are senior citizens all around us who are at risk for contracting a virus that could be a death sentence for them.  In both cases, people have strong and opposing opinions. First, high school seniors.  I have one.  Actually, she graduated way back in November 2019, but still. I have one. When she reads sad social media posts about all the things her peers were looking forward to and they now can't have, she is not much moved. Because, for her, it's a huge relief that these expectations--senior pictures, graduation celebrations, senior prom, blah, blah--magically disappeared. No longer does she have to explain that she is absolutely not interested in going to prom or that she could care less if she has professional pictures taken or she doesn’t want to g...

This is the last email we received from Emily way back in March 23. I got busy and forgot to add it to the blog. She arrived home three days later after an all-nighter in the Miami airport. Big news guys : I am coming home and will b e released upon my return because I've served for 17 months. I'm not exactly sure when I will get to the US because we haven't found any flights. We have been in quarantine since last Wednesday (hence my becoming suddenly active on Facebook since it's one of the only ways we can do missionary work now).    It's been a really emotional week. My heart feels broken, but I know that feeling will fade with time. What won't fade is my love for Suriname and Bonaire: the people I have met and come to love, the culture, the missionaries, my mission president and wife, all of it. I am beyond grateful to have had the opportunity to serve the Lord in theTrinidad Port of Spain mission. My gratitude has often brought me to tears these past couple...

Boredom creates space for creativity. At least, that's the idea that came to me about two months ago, long before COVID-19 forced our family into a boredom experiment. Some of our children were spending a lot of time on their devices. I worried the hours they spent passively partaking in entertainment through screens would limit their progress academically, socially, physically, and spiritually. I wanted to try a screen time lockdown for an hour or two each day, hoping that when they weren't being fed entertainment, they'd purposefully seek out good things to do. I like this scripture: "Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves.  And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward." (D&C 58:27-28) The word, "anxiously" stands out right away. Is anybody else feel...

Did you know that Easter Egg hunts are symbolic?   Easter is a religious holiday meant to celebrate the Savior’s Atonement and Resurrection. Much of what we do to celebrate helps us remember the Savior if we choose to learn about an focus on those symbols. We didn’t do an Easter egg hunt this year. Leaving candy in plastic eggs in the desert makes a big, melty mess. And even if we wanted to hide eggs in the backyard, we have a loyal golden retriever who would “find” every egg. Besides that, with rattlesnakes out and about, I don’t like the idea of my children looking under rocks or around the shady bases of trees for treasure. But the Easter bunny did hide their Easter baskets this year. Each child had a different experience finding their basket. As the kids went around the house searching for their baskets the story of the Resurrection came to mind: On the dawn of the Sabbath, Mary Magdalene and other women set out for the tomb where the body of Jesus had been laid....

I wanted family pictures of our family dressed in our Sunday best on Easter, but this is what I got: I know we will regret not taking our pictures, but I didn’t have the energy to fight for it considering how much I fight daily to get nine people together for prayer, scriptures, meals, chores, and school work. You know that scripture, “How oft have I gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings?” I’m wondering, why a hen? Because I am doing so much gathering that I have that hen beat out ten fold.  Here’s a different family picture from last week: Our family participated with two other families in a “Welcome Home Missionaries” parade at our church. We all wore Surinamese dresses or “pongi’s,” and waved at ward members as they drove by in their cars, waving welcome signs and shouting greetings. It was pretty cute. A family driving by was nice enough to send us a picture with Rick in it.  That’s the closest thing we have for a family pict...