Missing Persons, Priesthood Blessings, Blindness and Hope

Honestly I feel like a ton of things happened this week, so far it's been the longest of my mission. Everyday I felt as if Elder Sperry and I had some huge problem we had to fix or trail of faith we had to conquer.   

After the Harrison Park Elders left last week our district seemed to take a big hit. I feel as if that was the tipping point on a series of terrible events. Ok let's see.... first, the Harrison Park Sister had to take on the whole area themselves, and then they both got sick with strep throat. Then their investigators daughter went missing for 4 days, and they didn't know if she was kidnapped or ran away or what. She went on a walk with the dog and never came back. But after a powerful priesthood blessing that we gave her mom, she came back. Priesthood power is so real. She home safe and sound. THEN Hermana Williams (Sister Missionary in our branch) went blind in her right eye. Like she legitimately lost her vision in her right eye. Doctors don't know how it happened and they say that she could be blind for the rest of her life. She went from having perfect vision one day to waking up blind in her right eye. She can't drive anymore and we had to pick up a lot of their investigators and we barely had time to do anything. The doctors are testing for everything, including West Nile Virus, tumors, her spine, her nerves. CRAZY.   

That being said I feel like we had a very productive we and we made huge strides with the Arrombo/Alfaro family. We have been teaching 3 generations within the same family and they all love the message we share with them, we can tell that they love the spirit they feel when we come, and that they can notice a difference with what they feel. The grandmother Esperanza told us how she had been taking lessons from the missionaries years and years ago in Mexico, but they moved borre they were baptized. She explained how when she first met missionaries "it was like being home". It was so sweet as this tender old Mexican lady shared her testimony to us of the plan of salvation lesson we had just shared with her. She knew it was true. She felt gods love for her as we explained it, and she found great comfort in the fact that all will have a chance to accept the fullness of the gospel. She then explained how her mother in law was in the hospital and has never accepted Christ as her savior. She later passed away on Saturday, but they didn't seem sad. She told us," I know where she is. She's learning about her savior and she'll accept him I know it." 

We are also teaching her grandchildren; Antonio, Esperanza, and Esmeralda. They are all reading the Book of Mormon together every night and sometimes try to read ahead faster than each other. Super elect kids, with fantastic parent and ever grandparent support. Something that we don't find very often.  We also progressed a less active family back to church this week! They even signed up to feed us and we will be having family home evening for the second week in a row with them. We could tell how much they missed the gospel in their lives and how they really kindled that desire to come back to church each week.   

Overall it was a very crazy week. But the craziest weeks help me feel closest to the savior. When we have a 1000things to do, I know that he's right there beside me helping me. Because it felt like such a hard week I decided to study Elder Uchdorfs "The Infinite power of Hope" talk. I found a quote that really hit me with power:  

The adversary uses despair to bind hearts and minds in suffocating darkness. Despair drains from us all that is vibrant and joyful and leaves behind the empty remnants of what life was meant to be. Despair kills ambition, advances sickness, pollutes the soul, and deadens the heart. Despair can seem like a staircase that leads only and forever downward. 

Hope, on the other hand, is like the beam of sunlight rising up and above the horizon of our present circumstances. It pierces the darkness with a brilliant dawn. It encourages and inspires us to place our trust in the loving care of an eternal Heavenly Father, who has prepared a way for those who seek for eternal truth in a world of relativism, confusion, and of fear.  

Rely on the power of the atonement, rely on the power of hope. It's infinite. It's there. It will cast off your devils, it will help you fight your battles, it will lift you up when you're down. I invite you all to study how you can increase your hope though out this week. Email me with any cool miracles you see as a result! I love you all so much!! You rock!  

Elder Murphy

Zone Yoga

It was Elder Sperry's birthday on Sunday. His mom sent him this shirt and a new ipad case. I made him pancakes to celebrate.

Weekly Selfie

We played giant chess at a local park on P-day. I'm a big fan. 

PS I won. 

Soccer, sunsets, success and stuff

What's up family and friends! First off I just want to start by saying how much I love and miss you all!!  Thank you for all of your letters and updates you rock, please keep it up it makes my week hearing from you! This week really seemed to fly by. Elder Sperry found ourselves saying, "wait how is it already Sunday again?" And I think that's because we were so lost in the work. 

I heard once that oxen have an insane amount of stamina and drive, that's why pioneers used them to get across the plains, and that's why farmers used them to plow their fields. When an Ox really wants to get work done it puts its head down, its nose in the dirt and just hauls. They can go for hours like this without ever needing a break. Elder Sperry and I had that "Ox Mentality" this week. We just put our noses in the dirt, and went to work. As a result of our hard work we progressed a ton of investigators towards baptism. 

Paulina Juárez, made huge leaps and bounds towards her goal of being baptized on the 23rd of October. She was faced with unreal amounts of opposition and adversity this week, but she powerfully testified each time of the truthfulness of this message to those around her who tried to take her away from this truth. She brought her Book of Mormon to school and defended it when a classmate told her it was of the devil. She stood up to her moms friend who told her that "Mormon's aren't Christian", relying with, " Um actually their real name is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and it's the same church that Jesus started". It was so fun watching the excitement in her eyes as she really understood the importance of the Restoration and watching her grow on this journey.

We also got Antonio Alfaro, to come mutual and church this Sunday. He told us how much fun he had after and was really active in all of the lessons. His mom really wants to come to church too but she got scheduled to work on Sunday when it was supposed to be her day off. She's even started inviting her family to attend and as a result we have had awesome lessons with her parents. Her mom Esperanza is really interested in the Book of Mormon and fell in love with the Plan of Salvation. Pretty soon her whole family will be baptized and attending church together, I cannot wait.

We also had some pretty crazy changes in our zone, lots of people got switched around and missionaries got moved to different areas even though it wasn't transfer week and it was kinda hectic. The other group of Elders in our district got moved and their area got closed which was super sad. We would always give them rides to meetings and on P-Day we would email with them and go shopping. Now it's gonna be so lonely. 

Hmmm what else happened... oh yeah! On Saturday we played soccer with a bunch of investigators, members from our branch, and less actives and it was really successful. We had a ton of people come and their were even some semi-pro soccer players that came and played with us. I scored once so that was pretty cool. 

Over all, I love missionary work. There is nothing more exciting than helping others come to a knowledge of the truthfulness of this message. Elder Sperry and I found an awesome scripture in our companionship study this week that we really applied to our work and it had been a driving factor in our success. 

It's Moroni 8:16-17 and we recite it before we leave each day:

"Behold, I speak with boldness, having authority from God; and I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear. And I am filled with charity, which is everlasting love"

Love you tons!! Email me!

Elder Murphy

These aren't blind people glasses, I swear!

Last of the Harris Park Elders before their area got closed.

Weekly Selfie

Transfer down, donuts, and another baptism

Hey y'all!! How've you been?? I sure do miss you all! If you have a chance, you should email and let me know how you're doing! I love hearing from you all and no story or event is too boring so let me know what's up in your life! You can also email any questions you have about missionary work and I'd love to answer them!!

Anyways, I love being a missionary. It is the single best decision I've ever made and I love being here in Kansas. Each week I get to meet more and more of God's children and help them come closer to him. We worked hard and had one of our most successful weeks so far. As we have been working diligently, the lord had blessed us with more and more of his precious children.

This week, on Tuesday new missionaries came in from the Missionary Training Centers. That means I've been here in the mission field an entire transfer already!! (A transfer is a period of 6 weeks that missionaries are in their assigned area. The mission president can move people to different cities and change their companion according to the missions needs.) Transfers are a really exciting time in the mission field because you get to meet new missionaries that come from the MTC and from other areas of the mission. I got the opportunity to actually go out with the new missionaries that came from the MTC and got teach with them. It brought back a lot of memories from when I went out on my first day and I tried to make it as fun of an experience as I could. 

I was able to put all of the things that I've learned from Elder Sperry into practice with Elder Marchant(the new missionary I went out with). We had tons of success. Elder Marchant was very eager and excited to teach so that's what we did. 

The first street we tried was all Asian people so we quickly left and tried the next street over. We ended up finding a baptist family that wasn't interested, but really wanted us to bless their home for them. We did and then they gave a few referrals of where some Hispanic families lived. As we kept working we made our way to Ash street, where apparently all of Mexico has immigrated to . . . we were in heaven. I was surprised how much Spanish I was able to speak, and how comfortable I was talking with all of the people we met. I jokingly asked Elder Marchant how long he thought I'd been out in the mission field and laughed my tail off when he said, "7 months?". We ended up teaching 11 lessons, found 6 new investigators and 3 of them accepted Baptismal dates all in the span of about 2 hours. Unreal.

The next day, Elder Sperry and I found Carmen and her Family. They are an extremely friendly family that have phones AND cars (very rare among Mexican families in Kansas). We originally found Carmen at first, but then her son Antonio  and daughter Esperanza came back from school and we were able to meet them too. They are the most sincere family ever. They all really wanted to learn more and strengthen their faith in Christ and immediately accepted baptismal dates. Antonio even came to mutual that night and had a super fun time. As the week went on they even introduced us to their grandparents that live next door. They grandparents were just as nice, but not as eager to accept our message. They did however invite us back because they did want to learn more about it, so hopefully we can help progress all of the them.

On Saturday, we had another Baptism! Michel from a few weeks ago, got baptized and is now the newest member of the Kellogg branch! It was a big struggle to get people to come to his baptism though, we were running around like chickens with our heads chopped off to get members there. Finally out of some miracle, we had a good turn out, and Michel felt the love of the branch at his baptism. Missionary work rocks!!!

But hey, don't think that missionary work is all that easy, we faced a ton of rejection this week too. Sometimes we won't even say anything and people will yell at us and swear at us for just walking down the street. At times, it really does get hard. I'll be the first one to admit that it's not fun when a drunk man yells at you for an hour and you can't leave because you're afraid he'll get violent. It's not fun to have doors slammed in your face, or have things thrown at you while biking to your next appointment. But that doesn't mean I love it any less. When times like that come, I remind myself of all of the rejection that our Savior felt when he walked the earth. I think of the atonement, and how he suffered for every single person that would ever live. INCLUDING THOSE WHO NAILED HIM TO THE CROSS. He atoned for all. Every guard that spit in his face. Every drunk that yelled for him to be crucified. Every person that laughed at him as he carried his cross up the hill. He atoned for me, and he atoned for you. His love was perfect and his sacrifice was infinite, and it carries me in this work. I bear my testimony to you of his atoning sacrifice, and of his divinity. This is his work and everyday I feel so blessed to have his name over my heart. I know that he lives, he guides this church today, and I challenge each and every one of you to use the atonement more fully in your life. You will see miracles and change like never before. 

I love you all and hope you are doing well! Email me this week and I'll do my best to respond!!

Elder Murphy

We got krispy kreme this week and it was everything I remembered and so much more

Elder Gonzalez left this week for his actual mission in California, he was in our mission while he waited for some paperwork to come through.

Michel got baptized!!! Woohooo!!!!

Weekly Selfie with Elder Sperry

Corn, Puppies, Baptisms and more

I don't really remember what happened this week to be completely honest. Elder Sperry and I were walking to an investigators house this Sunday and kinda freaked out that the week was already over. 

This week we were going to an appointment with our new investigators Pedro and Karina. They are the sweetest people ever and are so full of love. Anyways, so we start walking down the street, and there is mariachi music playing and there is a bunch of people gathered around his house. Elder Sperry and I got super scared because everyone was drinking and we hadn't seen Pedro yet. When we found him he was just chilling on his porch with a Pepsi and he told us that they were making fun of him for not drinking, but he wanted to keep the word of wisdom so he just went to go do his own thing. We were talking for a while and then he offered us some Helotas (Mexican corn on the cob) that was a huge blessing because we hadn't eaten all day and it was like 8 at night. He then proceeded to take some corn and throw it into a fire and that's how he heated it up! It was super yummy and he gave us this super good queso fresco  that had just gotten there that day from Mexico. We were sitting there and I just turned to Elder Sperry and said, "Dude we're in Mexico right now" it was pretty awesome. 

The next day we went for our scheduled appointment but they weren't there, however there was the cutest puppy ever on their porch so that was a plus. Sometimes when your investigators cancel on you they leave puppies to play with.

Hmm what else. Oh yeah!! We had another baptism and I got to baptize Samantha. She's the sweetest little girl who just got here from Mexico 3 weeks ago. She loves to read and kinda reminds me of a Mexican version of my little sister Megan which was an extra tender mercy because it's Megan's 10th birthday on Friday (10/7) and I miss her so much! 

Also we had General Conference this weekend. I LOVE CONFERENCE!! I took so many notes and I've already been looking back at them. My favorite talks were by Elder Christofferson and by Elder Bednar I highly recommend everyone go back and listen/read them this week and tell me what you learned. 

Sorry that this letter was so short and that I don't have too many pictures this week. Just know I love you all and that I'm working so hard that I don't even know what day it is sometimes. I promise I'll do better next week!! 

Elder Murphy

Weekly selfie with Elder Sperry

The puppy we found on Pedro and Karina's porch.

Samantha and Elena's baptism (featuring Brother Rains)

KWM!!! Best mission in the world!