Californian in Kansas: 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