Christmas, Skype Calls, and a Baptism

Guys I am so excited for Saturday you have no idea. On Saturday at 11, the entire Arambula family will be getting baptized! 6 members of Luis's family will be entering this sacred covenant. We have been teaching them for the past 3 weeks and just looking back at how much they've changed and grown together as a family is so amazing to me. This gospel truly does bless families. We have been talking a lot with President McCuistian about them and he is so excited, he is even going to come to the Baptism on Saturday so we are super excited for that as well. As missionaries it is always so exciting to teach a whole family, and it seems pretty rare to me when a family as big as the Arambulas progress and change this fast. Anyways keep them in your prayers!!  

Also, Sunday Luis got the Priesthood!! His whole family was able to be there and he can now baptize some of his family members! How cool is that! Just from his example of being baptized, his whole family will be getting baptized also and he can even help baptize them. The Arambula family is so amazing! 

Another cool thing that happened this week was that Ramon Burciaga got Baptized!!! My very first week in the mission, about 18 weeks ago his wife was baptized and he's been taught ever since then and it was so awesome being able to baptize him. We have a standing dinner appointment every Wednesday at their house so it was so much fun seeing how excited he was getting as he prepared to get baptized. The Hermanas did such an awesome job teaching him, his family is preparing to go to the temple in a year and be sealed! Yay for eternal families!

For those of you who don't know, every Christmas and every Mothers Day, we as missionaries get to Skype home to our families and talk with them. It was soooo awesome being able to talk with my family for the first time since JULY holy cow! So much has happened since then and I miss them all so much. I was even able to talk to my brother who is serving a mission in Mexico!  

I don't know if any of you remember, but in October our mission president did a big mission wide challenge to read the Book of Mormon at a rate of 9 pages a day (about the same rate it was translated into English). I am very happy to report that I accepted and completed that challenge and it was so cool! We started it on October 26 and finished it at 7am Christmas morning on a mission -wide conference call, where we read the last chapter together. It's something that I have decided to do for the rest of my life, read the Book of Mormon 9 pages a day. Think of how many times ill have read it when im all wrinkly and old! 

Hmmmm what else happened. Oh yeah! I know Im going to get asked a thousand times what i did for Christmas, so Ill just have a whole paragraph on it for all of ya. Because Christmas fell on a Sunday, we went to church, and then after there was another baptism, and I was asked to give a talk at. Then we went to our Mission Presidents house and hung out and ate food with his family and then I Skyped home to my Dad and got to talk to all my Family in Texas. After that we got together as a District and went Carling until about 8pm then we went home for the evening and I had to take care of some Leadership stuff. Over all awesome day, very busy, but very awesome.  

I want to close with a scripture that I really love from the Bible, its a prophecy of Christ's Birth:         Isaiah 9: 6  "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."    

Jesus is all of those things listed above. He is Wonderful, he is the Prince of Peace. He is our Savior. I invite you all to think in your hearts and ponder in your souls what the Savior means to you. He is always there for you. He is knocking at the door. Will you let him in? Or will you send him to the stables? Will you worship him in all your doings? Or just for an hour or two or three on Sunday? Will you take up your cross and follow him? Will you open your heart enough to feel of his everlasting love?     

At the end of a District meeting last week, I asked the missionaries in my District a question. I want to end my email with that same challenge/question.

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO CHANGE TO HAVE MORE FAITH IN THE SAVIOR?    

I invite each of you to think about that question and apply it to your life. Let me know how your relationship with the Savior increases this week! 

Elder Murphy

 Weekly Selfie from the the Ontiveros house!

Ramon got baptized!!!! 

Skype call home ft. Lottermoser & Nail Family!!

Skype call home ft all the brothers !

Opening Christmas presents was a blast

Skype call home ft the Murphy family!

Super pretty Kansas Sunrise this morning. Ft. The moon

Snow, Broken Cars, and More Trust In The Lord

On Tuesday we pulled a super funny prank on our Zone Leaders. Earlier this month they challenged us to a "Charity War" and we as a zone responded back. We got together on P-day and rehearsed a flash mob that we pulled off in  the middle of our Zone meeting. Im not going to go into all of the Details because it was very elaborate. But I will send pictures of our Zone leaders afterwards. I think we broke them. 

So, on Saturday we woke up and looked out side and it was snowing! Not enough to be doing anything but we got all excited because snow is cool and what not. So we continued with our morning like normal, we did our studies, ate some food and went off for the day. Right around 1 or 2 the weather started changing and it started snowing super bad. It got to the point where we had to take our car back to our apartment and park it because we aren't allowed to be driving the Mission vehicles in that kind of weather. By 3 or 4 the roads and  sidewalks and everyone's yards were covered in a nice blanket of fresh snow. But hey we didn't care! ( it was -19° wind chill hahaha) We just kept working! We were calling members and investigators and trying to encourage everyone we could to come the Christmas party and not worry.     

So later that day we had our Branch Christmas Party, and I was pretty nervous that no one was going to show up because of the snow that had just come though. But we actually had a really amazing turn out. Elder Pankratz and I were constantly setting up tables the whole time because more and more families were rolling in! We had about 9 investigators there and it was super awesome. One of our members brought 2 friends from their work and they arre now going to be taking lessons with the Sister Missionaries in the English ward! It was super awesome to see everyone come together and celebrate the Birth of our Savior.  

Then on Sunday when we had to go to church, our car wouldn't start! The battery is all messed up and we had to leave the car at Firestone to get it fixed. So all day Sunday we went without a car. We had to get a ride to church, and then after church we walked everywhere in the snow and had a night fill of miracles! No car, no problem! 

This week we also meet Vivian, who is actually Antonios neighbor. She is a super sweet girl who wants nothing more than to strengthen her relationship with Christ. We have already seen huge changes in her and how much the Gospel has already blessed her life. On Sunday she wasn't able to come to church because her mom went super Catholic on her and told her she wasn't able to meet with us anymore. So last night we walked over to her house to have one last lesson and try to talk with her mom and had an incredibly powerful testimony meeting that completely changed her Moms attitude. Vivian bore the sweetest testimony I have ever heard and the spirit really softened her Mom's heart. We taught her the message of the Restoration and she will now be reading and praying about the Book of Mormon! 

Update on the Arambula family: they all came to church this week and came to the branch Christmas party on Saturday and Beatriz ( the mom ) even made tamales for it!! They are so excited to get baptized and loveeee the Book of Mormon! 

Overall it was a really amazing week, we faced a lot of opposition but we didn't let any of it face us, we put our trust in the Lord and he was there with us every step of the way. It's so amazing how much the Lord can do when we do put our trust in him. Ive seen over and over in my mission times when Satan has thrown opposition our way in attempt to divert the work of Salvation. As missionaries we teach our investigators a lot about this. We explain how the things we are teaching them are really good, and because it is so good, Satan does not want it. And he will do anything he can to distract them from their goal of strengthening their relationship with the savior. It's funny because we teach it a lot but we don't realize how true it is for us as missionaries too. Satan does not want us to be out there teaching. He hates it. And he will do anything he can to distract us. He will make us homesick, he will send cold weather and snow and break our cars. But all we have to do is focus on the good that this work brings and how important this work is and the Lord will always be there with us. I love being a missionary!

I love you all so much! Thank you for all the support and love you send my way! Keep emailing me, and I hope you all have a very Merry CHRISTmas! Remember the reason for the season! Spend time with your loved ones, and send me lots of pictures of your holidays!!  

Elder Murphy

Thanks for the awesome care package Lottermoser Family!!!

We have presents under the tree too don't worry! (Left: mine right: Elder Pankratz's)

Awesome tie from the Lottermoser Family!

I have decided I like the snow.

Tag picture!

Fun fact, when it's really cold, you can throw water off your balcony and it'll instantly freeze :)

Ugly Sweaters. Lip Sync Battles, and Eternal Families

So on P-Day last week we got together as a zone and had a lip syncing contest, where companionships could enter in and lip sync to a song and it was so much fun. I got to be the MC for it and ended up just jumping in randomly to people's songs when they need some extra back up dancers. I don't know really how to explain it, but I'll attach some screen shots from some of the videos and maybe you'll get the idea. 

On Tuesday we were able to have a really awesome Zone Conference where we got together and received trainings on how we can have better Goals, Plan better, and be more accountable for our work. It was super revelatory and after we read Luke Chapter 2 together as a Zone, each taking turns reading verse by verse. There is something just so immensely powerful about reading about the Saviors Birth. I personally felt the spirit so strong and just felt how much our Heavenly Father loves us. I would love to challenge you all to read that chapter with your families this week and really just talk about what it means to you personally that that Savior was born. Let's try to put CHRIST back in. CHRISTmas! 

On Wednesday we were able to have our district meeting, and I gave a training on how important it is for our Investigators to feel the spirit each and every day. Our spirits are just like our bodies, and they need to be fed. Unlike our bodies, our spirits don't tell us when they're hungry, but there is always an impact if we don't feed our spirits every single day. And when we are teaching people it is our job as missionaries to feed them spiritually, and follow Christ's commandment to "FEED" His sheep.     

We also got to have interviews with our awesome mission president on Wednesday! Interviews are super awesome and it's really like our only one on one time with President McCuistian. We get to ask him questions and get advice and he really helps us be better missionaries and we get to talk about 

Oh my goodness gracious ladies and gentlemen take a seat and buckle up because I have some awesome news to tell you, and you'll wanna be safely secured for this one. . . LUIS'S WHOLE FAMILY IS GOING TO GET BAPTIZED. ALL 6 BAPTISMAL AGED MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY. We are so so so excited for them and it is absolutely amazing to see how much the Gospel has opened up and blessed this family.      

When we first started teaching Luis we tried to teach set up a Family Home Evening with his family, just to get the family together and have a small lesson/ activity, and his mom shut it down so fast. She was like," No, I'm catholic we aren't doing that" and so it never happened. Anyways, after Luis got baptized she has jutted opened up like a fresh jar of peaches on a hot summer day and it's wonderful. She LOVES the Book of Mormon and even already has a favorite verse (2 Nephi 33:4) and she cannot wait for her family to be sealed together in the Temple in 1 year. Absolutely incredible  

One of our investigators gave us this super awesome drink this week called Atole. SO GOOD. We were drinking it and asking her how she makes it because it was so good and all she did was pull out some cookies. We super confused at first, but then she explained that the drunk is literally those cookies blended up with milk, with this sort of cinnamon flavored water and it's all heated up and it tastes like Christmas. AGAIN, SO GOOD. We got the ingredients to make it and now we can make it anytime in our apartment. Y'all should make this stuff it's heavenly I'm telling you. 

I just want to take this time to tell you all how much I love you and how much the lord loves each an every one of you. Before my mission I took that knowledge for granted, I knew that God loved me, but I didn't KNOW what that meant. For me it was never a very personal thing. And as I've been on my mission and I've been out here devoting myself 100% to the lord, I have seen just how much he does love me. It's become so real for me, I feel his love each and everyday in a way that I couldn't even begin to explain and it fills me with so much joy and happiness, especially in this Christmas season. It is such a special time to remember all that Jesus has done for us. He came to this Earth and he lived a perfect life. He suffered and felt all of our pains because he loves so much. He felt everything you have ever gone through and he is always there to help you through any trial. He is our Savior, he is our Brother, and he is my best friend. I challenge you all to strengthen your relationship with the Savior. What does he mean to you personally? How has he blessed your life? What can you do or change to be able to say that he is YOUR best friend? Look for these opportunities in your life and in your day to strengthen your relationship with him and I testify to you, as a servant and representative of him, that you will feel his love more fully in your life.      

I love you all! Email me! Send me letters! Send me packages with cool ties or something idk! Loveeee you!   

Elder Murphy

Screenshots from the Lip Sync Battles

I got 2nd place in the ugly sweater contest! 

Kellogg District!!

Weekly selfie ft. elder Davies and I

Service, Families, and a Baptism

Luis got baptized this Saturday!! It was so awesome finally seeing him get baptized and when he came out of the water he said he felt like he was glowing! He told us how he felt famous because all the people that came to his baptism, and how his baptismal program looked. I swear he stared at it for like 30 minutes straight just smiling. It filled my heart with so much joy it was awesome. His whole family came so we were able to give them a super awesome tour of the church and answer al of their questions. It was so cool because other missionaries brought the people they were teaching to the baptism and all of them loved it so much and can't wait to get baptized too!  

As a result of his baptism, 4 of Luis'S siblings want to get baptized and so does his dad!! We are still working on his mom but she will come around soon I'm sure of it. On Sunday, his parents came to support him receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and we think that they really liked it, unfortunately their other son had a soccer game and they had to take off after the first hour so we didn't get to talk to them about it. We tried to go find the, at their house after church but they weren't there. We were able to have an awesome lesson about the restoration with Rogelio, Luis's younger brother. We had Adrian one of the young men with us and he was a really big help in helping Rogelio understand why it was important and he even taught him how to pray!! 

We had been working really hard with Luis's Grandmother this week, because she has a testimony if the Book of Mormon and knows that the church is true, but she was so attached to her other church that she would never commit to come. We finally sat down with her and asked her inspired questions for 15 minutes to find the root of her concern and we were let by the spiri to a talk that Elder Uchdorf gave in a conference address about Saul on the road to Damascus and how a lot of times we expect to have an experience like him, we expect to see an angel or see Jesus if we are going to change. But the lord doesn't work like that with us. We have to show our faith in him and trust in him to receive and recognize those answers that he is giving us to our prayers. We ended with the questions, "Where are you on your personal Road to Damascus? Are you waiting for a Saul type experience?" And she must have thought about it really hard because she came to church!  

As a companionship we really have been trying to find families to teach, so we went to knock a potential investigators door to find one to teach but they weren't there. I had remembered there was another Mexican family down the street so we walked down to their house and tried to meet them. When we knocked we met the dad, Ezekiel and he told us how he had 7 kids and wanted them to grow up with good values. We taught him the Restoration and he loved it and committed to read the Book of a Mormon and pray about a specific baptismal date. We came back another day and met his wife and shared with her that standards of the Church like the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. She lit up and was so happy that we could teach her kids about it and help them grow up to be good people in the world! Super awesome missionary experience! 

We also had the awesome opportunity to do service this week! The Relief Society president our branch was moving apartments within he complex and we got to help he move! It was super cool because this Christmas Season he church has. Campaign call #LIGHTtheWORLD where we try to be a light to other people and help other like Christ so perfectly showed us how when he walked the Earth. We were able to be a light to her and help her when she needed it! The super fun part was when the battery on our car died and we were kinda stuck there for a few hours haha. We asked a bunch of people if they had cables but apparently no one has them here in Kansas, Eventually we  found someone with some and they were kind enough to let us borrow them. I guess you could say they were a light for us!!

We also had a really cool Zone Training this week. Elder Call one of our Zone Leaders gave a super awesome training on how important our Desire are as missionaries and took it even one step further when he explained the importance of our own personal Dispositions. Disposition is something thats similar to our nature, it our inherent qualities of mind and nature. He ended his lesson with this question for us to think about "What if my dispositional will was to baptize?". Super deep. It got me thinking and what I took away from the meeting is that I need to be constantly changing my desires to be my disposition. I need to make the things that I WANT to do and make them things that I NEED to do. I need to make them my inherit nature to serve Christ at all times.

Over all it was an awesome week and we were able to see tons and tons of miracles. I love being in the lords service and I love being a missionary in the Kansas Wichita Mission. I love you all so much and I can't wait to hear about your weeks! 

Elder Murphy

DERBY Zone Picture!

The real DERBY Zone!

Weekly Selfie ft. Elder Davies 

Kellogg District!

I don't know what's happening here.

Luis Got Baptized!!

Zone Conference, Thanksgiving and Missionary Stuff

This week we had an awesome zone conference with Elder Wilford W. Andersen of the Seventy. We talked a lot about the Doctrine of Christ and how crucial it is for us to begin with the end in mind when teaching our investigators and envision them in the Temple. In his words "Gaze into the Eternities and stretch your vision for your investigators!". We also had a really cool musical number by a sister missionary in our mission - Sister Bybee (Noelle Bybee). She was on the TV show "The Voice" and she was contracted by the church to sing the youth theme song for the year "Press Forward" and another song called "Lift Your Eyes". Pretty cool!  

We were able to spend Thanksgiving like a P-Day and had the day off until 6pm (We weren't able to email though). It was great I was able to take some much needed naps in the morning and then we went over to the Martinez Family's house and they made us omelettes and the best crepes I'd ever had in my life. It was awesome. Then we went back home, changed into Missionary clothes and Brother Rains picked us up and we went to his house for an awesome thanksgiving meal. We had the normal thanksgiving food like turkey and stuffing and sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. I ate so much and it was all so good.  

As you can see this week was a little bit of a off week because of the holiday and zone conference we weren't able to get out and work as much as we had hoped. But the days we were able to work, gave it our all as a result of we made really big strides with Chris, one of our recent convert's uncles. He had been listening in on lessons for a couple days and not wanting to participate at all. One day he asked if he could speak with us alone and Anti-d us pretty hard. But instead of putting on defense mode and attacking back we just listened to his concerns and answered them with love. He is now committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it to know that it's true for himself. We saw a huge change in his attitude as we would come over to teach, and he truly does see us as representatives of Jesus Christ.  

A pretty funny thing that happened this week was when we had met this guy named  Abraham. He really loved our message and told us how he had made some mistakes in his past and how he had really wanted to change his life around. We testified to him about baptism and he was super excited and immediately accepted a day to get baptized. Anyways the next day we were in his neighborhood and we decided to go talk with him again and as we were walking up to his house we see him hiding in his car as hard as he can not to be seen. So we walked up and knocked on the window and asked why he was hiding. To which he replied," I was doing something I wasn't supposed to" as the smell of weed plumited out of his car. Long story short, he decided he doesn't want to change yet. But I guess that missionary work hahaha. 

Also!!! After a long wait, Antonio finally received the gift of the Holy Ghost and was confirmed un miembro de la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días! He had the biggest smile after and his cousin Luis was able to be there and told how much he couldn't wait to get baptized and get the gift of the Holy Ghost too!!  

Speaking of Luis, all of your prayers worked and he will be getting baptized this Saturday (December 3) at 11:00am!! We were worried it wasn't going to happen for a few days because his mom was really reluctant at first but after testified to her of the standards of the church, like the Word of Wisdom, and the Law of Chastity, she had a change of heart and even helped us plan his baptismal program!! She is getting more and more excited each day for him to get baptized and Elder Pankratz and I feel as if she will also open up to the gospel soon!  

To be inline with the spirit of Thanksgiving that passed this week I want to shared with you all how thankful I am for your support, for your love, for your emails, and all that each and everyone of you have done for me to help me get to where I am today. I am so thankful for my little sister Megan and for the awesome letter she sent to me this week and for the rest of my family all over the world wherever they maybe. But most importantly I am great full for the Savior. For Jesus Christ. For his love, protection, guidance, comfort, counsel and the sacrifice he made for me. I'm no where near perfect and I make mistakes everyday, but I am so grateful that I have the opportunity each and every day to repent and be forgiven. I have grown so close to my savior on my mission and I wouldn't and couldn't replace the relationship I have with him now, for anything in the whole world. I'm grateful for this gospel, and the light it brings into my life. And I am so ver grateful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary in the best mission in the whole wide world and serve the people of Kansas!   

I love you all so very much!! Keeps sending me emails! They make my day! I can email back until 6pm Kansas time so don't think that you've missed me because this email is already sent out!   

Elder Murphy

Zone Conference (Salina, Wichita, Derby, Bel Aire)

Elder Davies and I - Morning of Departure from MTC

Elder Davies and I reunited 

Luis, Antonio and Carlos

Weekly Selfie from Elder Pankratz and I #LIGHTtheWORLD #ILUMINAelMUNDO

Goodbyes, Fatherhood, and Responsibility

Elder Sperry and I had to say goodbye this week. It was super sad and kinda weird at first because I've seen him every day since I've been in Kansas. On our last couple of days we went to different members houses and he said goodbye and then we took pictures with them. I could really tell how much of an impact he had on them and everyone was sad that he was leaving. I learned soooo much from him, he trained me and taught me everything I know about being a missionary and I'm super grateful that we were able to serve together. He is going to chance people's lives in Garden City. 

ANYWAYS......IM A DAD!!! When missionaries train someone new the call them their children and they become new missionary's "dad" or "mom". So on our missions we have this "family tree" where you can say who your parents  are (Elder Sperry is my Dad) and grandparents (Elder Evans is my Grandpa(Elder Evans trained Elder Sperry)) and stuff like that. I dunno how else to explain it to y'all.... missionaries are weird.      

But anyways, my new companion is Elder Pankratz!! He's from Florida, he fearless and he's been around the world because his dad was in the military!When we first met each other we went right out to go teach people. We drove to an area and parked the car then started to knock some doors. And the first person that opened the door was super mean. He just went off about how wrong we are and how we are wasting our time and how we are a cult and just was super rude for no reason. I just stood there not thinking much of it because even Jesus Christ himself was rejected in his personal ministry. But about halfway through I realized that this was the very first house Elder Pankratz had ever knocked in Kansas. Poor guy was getting yelled at the very first time he ever tried to teach someone. When we left we had a pretty good talk about how not everyone will accept what we teach and how sometimes we just have to take getting yelled at for the lord to bless us with the person he has prepared for us. Anyways, so far our companionship has been a hoot. He isn't afraid to speak in lessons even if he knows he's gonna say something incorrect or say something really gringo in Spanish. And we are pretty much having to learn from each other how to speak Spanish. We are still trying to figure out each other's teaching styles and how we can teach with more unity but that will come with time :) 

Also, somehow I made it a whole week pretending to be a district leader and no body noticed. Hahaha just kidding. I had to give my first training as a district leader and I think it went really well. As a district we are going to be focusing on how we can be lovingly bold. Specifically with helping those we teach make and keep commitments. We are also going to be doing service as a district today to help build unity and get to know each other! I can't wait! 

Luis also made a lot of huge steps to his baptism next week. Each time we teach him I can see him getting more and more excited to make this sacred covenant with his Heavenly Father. Lots of prayers for him this week would be greatly appreciated! 

As a companionship we had been really struggling to find new investigators this week. Our entire teaching pool came from within one family and we really wanted to spread out our efforts and find more families to teach. We had been praying all week and doing everything we thought we could do to find these families, but nothing was happening. When we decided to pray over a map of our area and asked the lord where he wanted us to go, we felt prompted to go to a certain neighborhood close to Antonios house. Last night when we went there we stopped at every street corner and asked the lord to guide us which way we should go. After doing this a few times we finally felt like we had found the street the lord wanted us at and within 5 minutes we had found a Hispanic family that welcomed us in immediately. We powerfully testified to them about the Book of Mormon and about the restoration and the father of the house was practically begging for a copy so that he could read it. We have a return appointment Tuesday to teach his entire family of 6. What an incredibly powerful experience. 

My testimony has grown so much this week and my relationship with the savior has exponentially increased. I love my savior so much and can say without a doubt that he is my best friend. I need him for everything I do and wouldn't be able to do this work without him by my side. I've been asked quite a few times this week how I could leave my family for 2 years, put my entire life on hold, move to a random place, and teach people in a language I don't speak. Each time my answer is simple: I do this for him. For my Savior. For my redeemer. For the man that has felt every single feeling I have ever felt. Every heart ache, every sickness, every rejection, every sadness, every depressing thought, and every moment I've ever felt alone. Jesus Christ has felt that all of it and because he's felt that pain he can take it away from me. And through him I can be perfected. His sacrifice was infinite, and it caused him to bleed from every pore of his body. And I Marvell to know that he loved me enough to do that. Which drops of blood did I cause him to bleed? How much pain did I put him though? It's almost too hard to even think about. To give up 2 years of my life to serve him doesn't feel like enough when I think of all that he has given me. I love him. And I do this for him. And I testify to you of the power of our saviors atoning sacrifice. It is there for every single one of you. On a very personal and individual scale. He loves you more that you know. And I love being in his service. 

Keep emailing and telling me how y'all are doing! Send me lots of pictures of your thanksgivings! I wanna see those turkeys! 

Elder Murphy

Familia Martínez 

Familia Chairez

Familia Ontiveros/Dorado/Sierra

Familia Alfaro

I got to meet the other ELDER MURPHY 

MIJO AND I 

Pedro and Ramiro my homies 

A Beautiful Kansas Sunset

Baptism, Transfers, and Food Galore

So, we got calls this weekend for transfers, and it turns out Elder Sperry will be leaving me and going to Garden City to be a Zone leader. I will be staying in Wichita, and the lord has called me to be not only a District Leader but I'll be training brand new missionary as well!!! I'm gonna have a baby! I'm so excited for this opportunity that the lord has trusted me with to train and to serve as a District Leader so so so soon in my mission. I feel a little overwhelmed but 1 Nephi 3:7 gives me so much courage. "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." I know that the lord will provide a way for me to accomplish the things which he has commanded of me. He will be my rock throughout these next 12 weeks and I can't wait.  

This week Antonio got baptized and it was one of the most power moments of my mission. Elder Sperry and I commented to each other how it was probably the most perfect baptism that has ever happened. Everything went exactly how it needed to. Antonio even brought 8 of his family members and we had a miracle moment with each one of them.      

Anyways, with every miracle, with every baptism especially, there is some sort of ridiculous trail of faith that the person or missionaries have to go through. It's Satan's last stand to try to deter us and keep us from making eternal covenants with our Heavenly Father. Antonio, and his family hadn't really had any and we were getting really nervous something terrible would happen. Turns out, Satan did try pretty hard to keep it from happening.... his grandpa fell of a ladder the day before, and their door broke and they couldn't get it replaced, and they couldn't leave the door because they didn't have a door so anyone could just walk right in... then We got a ride for Antonio to come to church and it fell through last second so we had to scramble to find a new one. But Antonio prevailed and he is now super baptized and it was one of the most spiritual moments I've had in Kansas.     

After his baptism, his aunt was mingling with some of the members, when she walked up to us and asked us, "So are all of these people members of your church? There is something so special about all of these people... What is it?" We then explained to her about the Holy Ghost and powerfully testified to her of the church and she is now incredibly excited to get baptized for herself on December 10th!!     

Esperanza is Antonios Grandma, and she is the most religious person in her family. She has really strong ties with her faith, but over the last few weeks has really grown in her desire to know that this is true, and she understands what it would mean if the church was true. She has always been very stubborn about coming to church, but after the baptism we got her to come to the chapel so we could explain some of the other ordinances of the church to her. In the chapel a rush of spiritual power hit her like a bus and she testified to us of how peaceful she felt and how much she felt the spirit. She cannot deny anymore that this is Christ's true church.      

Argelia is Antonio's cousin and she has really gotten interested this past week in the church. She is told us how when Antonio got baptized she felt really emotional and she couldn't explain it. We testified to her how that was the spirit telling her it was true and that she needed to take the steps necessary to partake of this for herself. She then decided that this was something she really wanted so that she could have a fresh start and is also preparing for the 10th     

Ramiro is Antonio's grandpa. He is the sweetest old Mexican man that you've ever met and he felt the spirit hit him harder than when he fell if the ladder this week. Long story short, he is also super excited to get baptized on the10th of December!! 

We also found out this week that members LOVE it if you can eat a lot of food. Somehow I brought up that I love to eat food, and all of the sudden we were getting tons of invites to eat at people's house so that they could see how much food I could eat. (Word traveled really fast that I can eat a lot) anyways... at one members house I ate 3 cheeseburgers and 13 tacos. At another's I ate 6 hot dogs and pasta. And at another I ate 30 chicken wings. It was a fantastic week if I do say so myself. 

Funny moment: So we went to go contact an investigator this week, and it was pretty late at night, probably about 8:30 so we were pretty sketched out already. We get up to his door it was open already so we knocked on the frame. Then all the sudden this big Mexican man walked around the corner with a giant knife and starts heading towards us. We must have looked terrified because he started laughing and saying that he was cooking in the kitchen and forgot to put it down. We had a pretty good laugh about it. 

Elder Murphy

Weekly selfie (After one of my eating fianzas)

Antonio got baptized!!!!

The last district meeting of the transfer

Vision, A Trip to the ER, A Baptism and More

Last week our mission president gave everyone a challenge to read the whole Book of Mormon before Christmas. We we all given a nice hard cover copy of the a Book of Mormon and we are specifically looking for things that teach us about the redeeming power and the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We are reading at the rate of 9 pages a day (the same pace that Jospeh Smith Translated the Book of Mormon) and we will do a mission wide conference call on Christmas Day read the last chapter together. It is gonna be so awesome. 

This week we had Zone Conference which was hosted by our mission president. The main focus of the conference was all about how we can have better personal and companionship studies. For those of you who don't know much about missionary life, each day we have an hour of study on our own and then we study for an hour with our assigned companion. The purpose of the study is to help us learn how we can help our investigators strengthen their faith in Christ. It was awesome to see the different ways that we can help others by not focusing on ourselves. But in turn as we do that we get spiritually fed too.      

On Tuesday (after the conference) we had to go to the ER! But don't worry Mom and Dad it wasn't me this time, it was just my companion. Elder Sperry has an autoimmune disorder that affects his blood platelets after he gets a virus. It's pretty similar to Hemophilia, so if he starts to bleed, it won't stop. Anyways, at about 4am he was woken up with a terrible headache. Something that they warned him to look out for when he is affected by this post-viral state. (We had a virus last week). Anyways the mission nurse and us were worried that he could have a brain bleed, and if he did have one, it wouldn't stop because his blood platelets were so low. Long story short we had to head to the ER and have a CT Scan, and get his blood tested and he had to have an IV for a certain amount of time to get him nice and hydrated. Everything turned out to be ok but it was super fun nonetheless. 

We were also blessed with huge miracles this week. We have been working with a young man named Antonio who is preparing to be baptized this coming Sunday. He is so excited and he is already sharing the gospel with those around him. He even woke up on Saturday thinking it was Sunday and called into work telling them he couldn't go because he had to keep the sabbath day holy. After he realized it was Saturday he quickly called back and said he could go, but it was an awesome demonstration of faith and commitment to the lord. As a result of us teaching him, his mom came to a church tour this week and loved it. We also met his cousin Luis who wanted to grow his relationship with god and found comfort in the Book of Mormon. All 3 came to stake conference this weekend and are preparing to be baptized. The lord provides!!  

We also got to be the witnesses for Maya's baptism on Saturday! The whole family family came and we got to do a special missionary lesson to everyone that came about the Restoration of Christ's church. It went super well, and we are now teaching her non-member uncle and cousin!! They felt the spirit super strong and have a desire to learn more!

As a mission we are focusing on increasing our vision. Vision is something that is huge when it comes to progressing and stretching out potential as missionaries and as human beings in general. Vision is something that is essential for us to know where we are going and what the purpose of work is. Proverbs 29:18 says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish". And Doctrine and Covenants 58: 3-4 teaches us, "Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation. For after much tribulation come the blessings." As missionaries we are constantly aligning our will with God's will. He knows all, he has a perfect plan, and we can't always see with our natural eyes what he has in store for us. That is why having a vision for our investigators and our Areas and ourselves is so key. We have to do everything in accordance to our heavenly fathers will. 

I just want to say thank you for all your support, your love, your prayers and your emails. I miss and love you all soooooo much! I love hearing from you so keep emailing me and letting me know how your week was! I want to challenge you all to go out of your way to help someone in need this week. Help someone move something, help an old lady, give some food to a homeless man, I dunno! But look for an opportunity to serve. On my mission I've seen so many blessing from serving others. It's so incredible how healing it can be for our souls. As we turn outwards to others it heals us inwards. I know that sounds like a crazy concept, but it's true, and I testify to you that your days will be brighter, your weeks will be happier, and your soul will be more full. I'd love to hear from each of you how you served someone, and how it made you feel after. You all rock! Thanks for playing such a huge part in my life!

Elder Murphy

Weekly Selfie (I woke up with a sore throat and didn't want to get Elder Sperry sick)

Behind the scenes from Zone Conference

The Zone Conference after party was tons of fun

Derby Zone

The actual Derby Zone

Zone Training on Friday

I don't know what is happening in this picture

Maya got baptized!!!!