On January 27, 2011 Eric Merkley was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. An aggressive cancer that we hope and the doctors to this point seem confident that is contained to one spot on his leg. Prognosis is good. Treatments and recovery will be long and painful.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Fire Alarm


Today I received a letter from Eric and he had a fun story:
After Church we had a lesson with one of our investigators and we were about half way through the lesson when the fire alarm went off!!  Spirit Gone!

We had to get everyone out of the building and put our lesson on pause for a little bit.  We got everyone out of the church and about 5 fire trucks showed up and did an inspection on the building.  There was no fire, one of the fire alarms just decided to go off.  HA HA Satan thinks he is pretty good.  PSH!  Well he is not!  We finished our lesson in the parking lot and committed this mom and her daughter to a date to be baptized on the 23rd of March.  J Talk about baptism by fire!

In Eric’s email he said that he has enjoyed the letters he received from everyone, and to please keep them coming! 

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Sketchy Week

Eric's Email and letter was pretty short this week, it sounds like there was something that happened, but he can not tell me until he gets home... EEEKKK!  He said not to worry, because he was being watched over.  In his letter, he sent home a SD card, so we had a lot of fun  looking through the pictures.  Here are a few.
Right after our Thanksgiving dinner, we have decorated gingerbread houses,this year they had these cute rice krispie trains and I bought a kit for Eric, so he can participate this year... this is his effort!

This is Daryl's effort...

At least the girls took this project seriously!

From what I could tell, this was taken at a Meinh community gathering.  These dresses are amazing.  They also look very heavy.

Here Eric is putting his engineering mind to work against a little girl... I hope she won.
 
As I looked through his pictures, I had to laugh at his hair.. I think he is really missing Tonya and her magic she can do on his cal licks at the crown of his head.  He has to wear the "Missionary part" which does not work well with his cal licks or so it seems.

Monday, February 4, 2013

The nub buddy


I received a letter from Eric last week and wanted to share a story he wrote about:

We were on our way to the church and I saw that this guy’s car broke down in the church parking lot.  I felt prompted to go talk to him.  So as I walked up to him I noticed something special about him.  He was missing his right leg.  I jumped on the opportunity to talk “Nub” with him.  As I talked with him and we became friends,  I shared a small message with him and asked I could come by and share more.  He said he would love to talk with me more and gave me his phone number and address.  We have plans to go see him this week!  Miracle?  I think yes!

I did ask Eric how this guy lost his leg, and he was caught in a drive by shooting.

In his email this week, he told how the church has touched a ladies life with 4 kids and bore his testimony about his love for the atonement of Jesus Christ.  It was truly deep.  This mission has transformed Eric in ways that I don’t think he even realizes.

I have been working on a project and reading through some of the “Eric Stories” and was reflecting on how far he has come from 2 years ago.  We were both so scared and to be able to stand back and look at the many miracles that have taken place in his life and mine, is truly humbling.  We were changed and Eric was being prepared for an amazing work.  Now to see the “rest of the story” come to life for him as he is on his mission is very humbling for a mom.