Californian in Kansas: 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