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!!!!

Happy Halloween

Well this was an interesting week... I got the tail end of terrible things to happen to our district and was super sick on Thursday and Friday. But I'll get to that later.

We had church tours set up everyday this week, and every single one of them fell through. It was pretty disappointing but it didn't get us down. We were able to help Antonio set up his baptismal program and his whole family is so excited.

We also went to visit a member we had never met before and realized that her apartment looked like a prison is was in a super sketchy neighborhood and when we got to her apartment it was about the size of a prison cell. We made a pact to not go back there unless we really have to. 

Then on Thursday we got super sick and I threw up over 20 times. We stayed in our apartment for over 28 hours and it was pretty miserable. I lost 10lbs and apparently elder Sperry and I are still pretty pale. Pray for us y'all. 

Anyways... 

Training has been going really well, I feel so comfortable in the streets teaching and preaching. When I first got here, as I'm sure just about all missionaries feel, I was pretty nervous and felt a little out of place. But now it feels so normal as if it's the only thing I've ever known. My Spanish is getting better each day and this week especially I focused on opening my mouth more.   

The gift of tongues is so very real and so very powerful and all it takes is trusting in the lord. It reminds me of when Peter was walking on the water towards the Savior. As he focused on him and not what was going on around him, he could do the impossible. He could walk on water. But then when Peter took his eyes off the Savior and looked at the storm surrounding him he began to sink. It's the same for the gift of tongues, as I focus on Christ the Spanish comes easy. But as soon as I think "wow I don't speak this language" or "I can't do this",  That's when the work gets harder. That's when I sink. We can do all things through Christ, even the impossible like walk on water, or teach in a foreign language. All we have to do is focus on him and he will support us, he will guide us, he will lead us in all things and that is so comforting to know.  

Elder Murphy

We found a little free library and put a LDM in it.

Pictures of the prison apartment

A member surprised Elder Sperry with a cake