The Mergenthaler Family

 January 30, 2023 Hey, what's up, you guys? It's Elder Mergenthaler back at it again! After last p-day I took a bus at 12:30 at night all the way to Bahía Blanca to do my paperwork to become legal in the system. I got there about 6:30 in the morning, which means I was on a bus all night, but let me tell you, those seats on the bus were so nice and comfy, so I got to sleep basically all the way except for like the last five minutes. Some missionaries picked me up but told me to keep my stuff with me because I wouldn't be staying at their house, but with another set of missionaries. So, I pretty much carried my stuff around while we started the paperwork, then we dropped stuff off at the missionaries' apartment and got to work. We worked and worked until our legs felt like they would fall off 😅 . After that, we kind of just chilled out, cooked onion rings, and went to bed. The next day wasn't nearly as hard. I went back to get my picture taken for my ID and took the ...

January 23, 2023 Hey everyone!! We're back at it again with the life of Elder Mergenthaler!   After p-day last week,  I was supposed to take a bus down to Bahía Blanca, but I got there at the wrong time, so I ended up doing missionary work with my district leader instead. As my new comp-for-the-day and I were heading back to my house, we talked to the taxi driver about the church. It turns out he's low-key interested in our church and in the USA, but, I mean, hey, you get what you get, hahaha. So when he drops us off, we get his Facebook and tell him we'll message him!! 😌 That same day we were able to contact a lady who we couldn't find for a while, and guess what--our miracle new* from last week-- that was his mom!!! Kind of weird, but also a miracle. After that, we went to dinner with this family and talked about life, the future, and everything in between, haha, but while I'm on this topic, I don't know if I've told you guys, but ever since I've been...

January 16, 2023 **Note from Ricky's Mom: Sometimes, you'll get Elder Mergenthaler's emails on days other than Mondays. That's because he's typing them on a tiny phone and sending them to me to check quickly for major spelling errors, add some pictures, and send them along through his gmail account. So when he says it's early, it really is! Sometimes I get his emails at 6:00 a.m., but I don't get them sent out to everybody else until a couple of days later. Thanks for reading and writing back to him. He loves your messages.   GOOD MORNING!! It's 7:15 here, so it's pretty early for some, but not for missionaries, you know. Literally, I'm not even kidding. This whole week was just jam-packed with miracles and spiritual experiences!   Let me start you off with where I left you last week. This Tuesday, I'm still down in the dumps because when we went out in the morning and no one wanted to talk to us, so that really put me off in a bad mood, but ...

 January 9, 2023 Hey, what's up ya'll? Kind of a rough week down here, but it ended up ok. This week starts out in my old area in Monolito 1!! Tuesday, me and Elder Curtis are walking in the street when we come across this guy. We stop to talk because, of course, that's what we do. Turns out, he's a menos activo ,which means a like a distant member so we're like, "Oh, dope! We would love to come by and talk to you." He goes, "Man, I just love cocaine, though, so, I mean." *shrug* We respond with "Ahh we can help with that! We have classes to help overcome addiction," and he goes "Man, I just really love cocaine, so I don't think I'll change. People have tried, but man I love crack, and I'm stuck in my ways. Also, I'm late and my store for crack is gonna close." That was it with that guy, hahaha. Maybe one day he'll be ready. After that crazy experience, we helped our friend get ready for his baptism on Satu...

January 2, 2023 Hey, what is going on, my peeps? Elder Mergenthaler here!!  To be honest, this week was kind of wack because I wasn't in my area for most of the week because of splits, but it was a full week  🙃 !!  I was able to be a part of a few miracles. The first happened on Tuesday. So I'm on splits with this guy who has the same time out on the mission as I do, so our Spanish together isn't that good, but.. that's OK! So we have lessons planned with this one guy, and before this, I'm thinking it's not going to go well, but we get into the lesson and me and my comp are able to give a full-on lesson and answer lots and lots of the guy's questions!! Also, another miracle that happened along with this one is that I was able to speak really well!! (Gift of tongues)  The second miracle that happened this week was while I was with a missionary from Rosario Argentina 🇦🇷 So, we look down at our area book and realize we have no lessons for the day wh...

December 26, 2022 What is up y'all!?! It's a day after Christmas!! This week went well, but at the same time, it sucked because we couldn't do as much missionary work as we would like because everyone was preparing for the hot 4th of July-like Christmas, but it's all good!!  This week we had divisions, which means that I went with another companion for a day and helped work in another area called Batan. I actually have divisions this coming week too, so we shall see where I go. But, anyway, back to Batan. We started in this really, really nice area and contacted around there, but we didn't have much success because everyone is rich and doesn't see any need for our message. Hey, what can you do? So we went to lunch in that same area with a person who says they 1. Know The Book of Mormon is true, and 2. Knows our church to be true, but she won't get baptized. To be honest, I don't know why, but she spoke English, soo that was nice. While we were eating, ...

 December 19, 2022 Hey what is up my beautiful people!!  So this week was kind of hectic but a good hectic because it means we had lots of work!! Also before I write any more of my email, ARGENTINA IS WORLD CUP CHAMPS!!! which basically means that I am a world cup champ, soo that's dope. On to more miracles for the week. So, after The World Cup, literally no one is on the street because they're all partying, which makes me low-key sad because I want to be partying too, but I'm not because I'm a missionary. Me and my comp got to thinking that we should just hit all of our points and go home because it wasn't worth roaming around. We crossed a street we weren't supposed to, and as we were walking on this street, a dude came up behind us and went, ``I love your country." We were like, "Ahh, thank you we love your country." Also, this dude speaks English. We get talking to him and HE HAS READ THE BOOK OF MORMON!! and he's like "It's a ver...