Week 50 - Splits

Friends and family, Aloha!

This week has been another week of hard work. My companion's getting sent to a new mission in Washington, so we've been split with the zone leaders this past week. It's been a really great experience because I got to work in a different area (which was a nice change) and learned a lot. I really got to see a different side of missionary work. Instead of the missionaries finding the people, it was mostly the members. They had splits set up with members almost every day, and their members were the ones that took the lead in inviting people they know to take the missionary discussions. It was really neat to see how successful the work is, and how much more work can get done, when the members really get involved. Because hearing the gospel, something important to you, means a lot more coming from a close friend than it does two weird kids dressed funny.

The highlight of the week was probably on Saturday. The area I was in had two baptisms, and our zone had four more. Our zone has been averaging about 4-5 baptisms every week this past transfer. We're leading the mission by far in just about everything. It's been really cool to see the transformation because when I first came to this zone it was dead. Almost nobody was baptizing and nobody wanted to be here. I was actually really mad when I found out that I was being transferred here to Waipahu. But as we've strived to seek out those people prepared for us, as well as getting the members more involved, our zone has transformed into one of the zones that everyone wants to come to because they know in Waipahu, we baptize.

We also got introduced to a new program in the church called JustServe. The church has set up a website where anybody in the community can post community service projects that they need help with and then different people and groups in the community come together to complete the projects. The focus isn't really proselyting, as much as it is just offering Christlike service. Missionaries will be doing service projects almost every day during the less-productive hours in the middle of the day. They said that they've already tried it out in a few places in California and it's been really successful. In the San Jose mission they don't even tract, but find most of their investigators while they are offering service in their community. So we're really excited, it sounds like a really good and effective program. We get to meet a lot of people, plus give the church good publicity and correct any misconceptions some people may have about our church.

Love you guys and thanks for all your support!

-Elder Merrill