A scary story

Meet our friend, the centipede. I know he looks harmless...even a little cuddly, but that is not the case! A bite from a centipede has been described by one victim as "worse then childbirth!" Centipedes are pretty wicked roommates, and this one became ours. I couldn't sleep one night, so I got up and walked BAREFOOTED to the front room. I turned on a light that cast a dim beam in the room. From out of the corner of my eye, I saw a dark, swishing shadow on the rug in the hallway where I had just been. Pretty soon the "shadow" moved! When each of those legs are in movement, that centipede is double in size and it can cover a lot of ground very quickly!

Now, I want to stop this story for a minute and bear you my testimony that Heavenly Father does, indeed watch over us. I want to put this story on rewind to share a couple of small miracles that took place before I noticed the centipede.

Miracle #1 We got sent to a mission where Elder Merrell, of necessity, has to do the grocery shopping. Yes, you read that correctly. The Grinch of Grocery shopping has become the Grocery shopper for the Merrells. I don't like it one bit and he's not too crazy about it, either. But he has never once complained about it. Like every other challenge he has faced in his life, he has jumped in with both feet and met it. Which was important to this story. Because we needed a mop. And that is...

Miracle #2: We needed a mop. The one we had was worn out. Many senior couples might have decided to make do for 18 months and save their money for more important purchases. (The senior missionary writing this story is just such a missionary) That is way miracle #1 needed to happen. Because Elder Merrell was doing the shopping, the mop was purchased.

Miracle #3: The mop was not put away! Knowing Elder Merrell, won't you all agree that this was perhaps the greatest miracle of the story? He- doesn't- leave- things- out. EVER! But he left the mop right next to the doorway leading into the hallway. For over a day. Unheard of. Truly a miracle.

Miracle #4: I did not step on the centipede when I passed through the hallway into the frontroom. It was a tiny hallway. It was a large centipede. It was dark.

That brings us back to the fast moving centipede on the hallway that is heading for our bedroom. And the mop. Which was right next to the hallway, in the perfect spot for me to grab and try to squash that centipede.

Only it didn't squash. We've since been told that they don't squash...not even by stepping hard on them...which I was certainly not going to do in my barefooted condition. Which brings me to...

Miracle #5: I was able to stop the centipede! He was still wriggling around and scaring the living daylights out of me, but he was stopped until Mike heard my sceams and came to the rescue. He didn't know whether to come out of the bedroom because I was yelling "You can't go in there". Once the mop handle changed hands, I thought we were safe, but Mike couldn't kill it either! I was looking all over for the poison they told us to kill stuff with, but none of it was made up. I finally got a can of roach spray and began spraying it...which caused it to wriggle all the harder...I thought I had given it some sort of super powers and that we were dead for sure.

But Mike kept a hold on the mop and eventually the centipede died.

We put it in a jar. I don't look too happy, do I?

You can't tell me miracles don't happen anymore. Elder Merrell and I lived through one.

One more funny P.S. to this story. When Elder Merrell sent this story out via e-mail, he could not get the pictures to load, so he sent it without the pictures. He sent the pictures in a later post, titled "Deceased roommate" When our friends, the Thamerts checked their e-mail a few days later, the second e-mail came up, first...and they were pretty worried about which one of us had passed away!

As promised, and two days early, Elder Gage!

2 Months

2 Birthdays

2 Goodbyes

Too, Too Hard!

This is Elder Gage, with President Halleck.

Elder Gage celebrated his birthday here in Samoa. It was the second time I have been present for a missionary's birthday celebration.

If you look close, there are 21 candles on the cake!

On November 8th Elder Gage was released and went home.

That was exactly 2 months to the day from the time Elder Merrell and I arrived in Samoa.

Two months to become totally attached to one of Heavenly Father's finest.

Elder Miller, Elder Gage and Elder Chappell

A day or two before he left, I eavesdropped on a phone conversation. (We shared the same office, so it was pretty much impossible not to overhear phone converstions) He was talking to one of his investigators. He did a lot of listening, too.

That is how Elder Gage is. Not pushy, just interested. His personality reminds me a lot of Bishop Tolman. Those of you who knew Bishop Tolman will know what a huge compliment I have just paid Elder Gage. (For the rest of you...trust me...it was huge)

Good-bye, Elder Gage. Ou a iloa e moni le Tusi a Mamona!

(I did that without peeking! Pretty good, right?!)

"Good bye, Elder Tipa...Fa'afetai"

This is Elder Tipa. We shared our office with him and Elder Gage, the other Assistant to the President...until today. Today, Elder Tipa finished his mission and flew home to American Samoa. (The Mission Office is located in "Western Samoa" in case you are confused.)

A couple of weeks ag0, we celebrated his birthday with him.

It is hard to believe that we could become so attached to someone in just a few short weeks. But Elder Merrell and I did just that. We quickly grew to love his smile, his teasing and his ability to connect with everyone he met.


For the past few weeks, Elder Tipa and Elder Gage have been teaching a Samoan class to the senior missionaries. I am sure they must have been amazed at how we struggled with simple words and phrases, but they were always patient with us.

One night, Elder Tipa told us a story about some turkeys who spent the day learning to fly and then walked home, afterwards. He did not have to call us turkeys to make his point!

For me, the word I struggled with the most was "fa'afetai" the Samoan word for "thank-you" I simply could not remember it. One day, as I was using my notes to converse with him, he said to me, "Now Sister Merrell, You Know This!

On his last night at Samoa class, Elder Tipa testified that the gift of tongues was real. It was then that I realized that one of his greatest spiritual gifts was Elder Tipa's ability to believe in everyone.

We will miss you, Tipa.....Fa'afetai!

I think it is fitting to close with this video of Elder Tipa singing a song that his grandfather wrote. It will melt your heart.

Some random pictures from Samoa

I am not sure why, but I cannot get any more pictures to upload, so this will be a short post. I will try to add another post soon. For no, though... This is the Kelleys. We are just about to start a hike to the Robert Louis Stevenson memorial. It was very steep in places, but not too sllippery, even though it poured rain for part of the way. We love them. (The Kelleys) They are in their 70's and have the most delightful English accents! She is the nurse and takes good care of us all. We share a vehicle with them during the week and they are in the office right next to ours.

The kitchen in our apartment. You can see our stove in the corner. Things heat up very quickly, here. Water comes to a boil in a minute or two and the oven gets hot very fast as well. I will be spoiled when we return to St. George. Now microwaves are another thing!

Us, with some of our newest and dearest friends. l to r: The Eves from Huricane, the Kelleys, from Canada via England, President and Sister Haleck, from American Samoa, the Bells,from Smithfield, Afolua and her husband, from here on the island, and us. Look at all the men in their short-sleeved shirts! Dad was walking to the temple last week and commented how wierd it felt to have a long-sleeved shirt on! It nearly killed him to start wearing a short-sleeved shirt when we first left.

This is our view as we walk to the mission home each morning. That's the Samoa Apia temple.

We've decided that we are as close to the Garden of Eden as we've ever been! It really does look like this!