Californian in Kansas: 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