President and Sister Merritt - California San Diego Mission Blog

  On April 7, Good Friday, we kicked off an ongoing program to be held at the Mormon Battalion Historic Site in Old Town, San Diego. The program is named  Inspire, Music and Messages of Hope.   The Battalion has a smallish theater that seats about 60 people and once a month we present a program in collaboration with the missionaries there. Our first program on Good Friday focused on how Christ's power, coupled with our faith, can make us whole. The source of this teaching is the miraculous healing of the woman in Luke 8. In an act of faith this woman with a flow of blood reached out her hand to touch the hem of Christ's garment as he passed by and was immediately healed. Christ's words to her are so profound, "Daughter be of good comfort, thy faith hath made thee whole;  go in peace." Certainly, it was her faith in Christ's power and acting upon that faith that produced the desired miracle. But this miracle could not have been performed without Christ's po...

  The Lord continues to sustain us in our work here in San Diego.   We were graced with a visit from Elder James B. Slaughter of the Seventy at the end of February. He taught us an important concept, one that continues to resonate through the mission, about confidence. He explained that while we often think of self-confidence and self-doubt as being on opposite ends of the spectrum they actually share the same, self-centered, inwardly focused side of the spectrum. He continued and explained that opposite the self-centered side we find “Christ confidence” which is outwardly focused. He taught us that with that outward focus, Christ can work through us to bless others. One exhibits Christ confidence when they choose to follow Christ without fear of man. In the New Testament, Paul is a prime example of an individual who practiced Christ confidence and there are many examples of such contained in the Book of Mormon.  Our missionaries have many opportunities to show and practi...

Kansas City Chiefs sure ran with patience their race today, Superbowl Sunday! When he joined the church, in an effort to "observe the sabbath day and keep it holy," Norm gave up viewing the Superbowl on Sunday. A "sacrifice" that has been a symbol to him of the commitment he made with God at baptism. That has not kept him from watching highlights the next day, or recording it to enjoy later, but he has continued to abstain from watching on Sunday . It so happens a member of one of our congregations here in San Diego is Eric Weddle. Some of you may not know the story of Eric Weddle. He retired from the NFL in 2020 after a storied 14-year career (All American, All Pro, Pro Bowl, etc.). One Tuesday late in the 2021 season, he got a call from the defensive coordinator for the LA Rams. They were on course to have a run at the Superbowl but had just lost their two safeties to injuries. The question posed was “What kind of shape are you in? Could you give us 17 snaps this ...

It is amazing that, as I sit to begin writing this post, it is already Christmas Eve. The mission home is graced with the presence of my mother, my youngest sister, our second daughter Natalie and her family and, our eldest daughter Carissa, whose flight home was unfortunately delayed. (After numerous delays and cancelations over this terrible travel weekend, Carissa whose original travel plans had her home for Christmas, finally arrived home to the delight of her family on Monday morning - having spent Christmas Day traveling.) Having an age span of 86 to 2 years made for a magical Christmas! Not only was it nice having family in town for Christmas, but also we found Christmas in the mission field to be amazingly fulfilling and fast-paced. This last transfer has been a whirlwind of activity. Here is a bit about some of our busy-ness.  "And mine angels [shall be] round about you, to bear you up."  - (Doctrine & Covenants 84:88) "I'm going down . . . " those ...

 We are still experiencing mission firsts and imagine that will not come to an end until we have completed our mission. Although there is a six week cycle, very much driven by transfers of missionaries in and out of the mission, each six week cycle is different. Yesterday 21 missionaries departed for either home or to their originally assigned destination. On that same day we received 26 new missionaries, whom we will train tomorrow morning - no better way to spend a Thanksgiving Day!  Last month, with the bathrooms finally completed, we had a mission first when four elders spent a couple nights at the mission home to facilitate training. We took the opportunity to take these missionaries on a morning jog up to Mount Helix by way of the "secret" path. On our way back down the mountain, an acquaintance asked if these four companion runners were our children. I explained that they were some of the missionaries we work with. After chatting a bit, as I ran to catch up with Norm a...

We will open this post with a bit of humor. One of our office missionaries has this quote on her desk.  "Don't bother walking a mile in my shoes, that would be boring.                                Spend 30 seconds in my head, that'll freak you right out." We simply have to laugh and nod our heads - it seems particularly fitting to be applied to mission leaders! We love this work and this chapter and would have it no other way. Here is a little bit about some of the things that keep us busy here on the mission. Each week we have two zoom devotionals with all our missionaries. The Zone Leaders rotate the responsibility of leading the Devotional and sharing messages and President and I always have something to add at the end. Recently we focused on the Christlike attribute of charity - one element of this being patience. After all "charity suffereth long . . . and is not easily provoked."    ...

  In the middle of August we said goodbye to our airbnb, doormat and all, and are now living in the mission home. We have bits and pieces of our home life sprinkled about the furnished home such that we feel very comfortable and at home here. I (Armenay) saw a plaque in a store, pictured below, that reflects our sentiment, it reads:  HAPPINESS SERVED DAILY While I do feel the sentiment is true, I believe our scripture above makes it ring truer . . . Placing our trust in the Lord does bring happiness. This is something our missionaries are learning daily and we are grateful. Since our last post, Norm has recovered from Covid and celebrated a birthday. We actually moved into the mission home on his birthday, it took us a few days to rid ourselves of all the boxes and we still have some places in need of a thorough sorting and second level organizing. We are allowing ourselves to be patient with that process as our days are so filled with tasks that need attention.  To date ...