I'm Sick

Hey y'all. I'm sick so I really don't feel good enough to email this week. If I start feeling better I will send a big email. But other than that I send y'all the SICKest email ever next week. I hope you laughed at that joke.

Elder Murphy

Donuts, Chickens and a Miracle

 I touched a little on this last week about how I was getting a new companion, but now that its happened I thought I´d give you a little details. The night Elder Pankratz left I stayed with the Assistants to the President and then we woke up and had a meeting to go to. After the meeting we drove to this tiny little town in Kansas called Hutchison to meet Elder Watts. That was a fun experience because it was the first time I'd been out of Wichita while I'd been in Kansas. It was only like an hour away but still, pretty exciting. That took up a lot of the day and we didn't get to go shopping or do laundry which was a bummer. That's life i guess! 

We also saw a huge miracle this week! We were in between appointments and had to go to the bathroom pretty bathroom and stopped a t some random gas station. On our way out we saw a sign that said that their Donuts were 50% off. Being the hungry teenage guys we are we really wanted some donuts, but we only had a dollar. We walked up to the counter and asked the lady if we could both get a donut for a dollar (we we weren't sure about taxes). When she replied to us,"Well I gotta get rid of them today so why don't you just take one of those bags on top and fit as many donuts as you can in there." FOR A DOLLAR YALL. You could imagine the  look on our faces as we stuffed like 15 donuts into this bag. It was awesome 

 In attempt to find some new investigators, we came across a Part member Family, where the dad was not a member. We decided we should go over and met Andreas for the first time. He let us in and we started teaching him and it was going super well! He was really taking his time to answer questions and really just thinking about each question! Or at least we thought.... apparently he was falling asleep each time! Hahaha it was really funny. He still really loved the message and we are going to be working more with him. 

OK y'all i saved this one for last because this is the real miracle of the week. For the last 5 or 6 weeks we have been working with a girl named Vivian. She is so awesome. She had been coming to church and loving it and reading the Book of Mormon everyday since we met her. She has had so many amazing experiences as we been teaching her and her testimony is so strong, she bears her testimony just about every Sunday in the classes and half the branch thought that's she was a member! Hahaha. Anyways, last week her parents told us that she couldn't get baptized, and that she was catholic and would always be Catholic. They would let her come to church, but they said for sure that baptism was out of the picture. I of course was so bummed because of all of the progress she had made and how strong of a testimony she had. She told us that she would get baptized on her 18th birthday if she had to wait.     

Anyways, we went over this week to try to have on last talk with her parents on Saturday night. We sat down with her dad and we really just told him how ready Vivian was to be baptized. Right then the spirit just snapped and hit him really hard and he just gave her permission out of no where. So we pulled out the baptism form and had him sign it right there. The next day she took her Baptismal interview and flew through it no problem. Long story short she is getting baptized Saturday at 7pm!!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

 I also checked a box off on my bucket list this week! One of the Recent Converts in our area has chickens and he took one out and let us chase it which was so much fun. My inner Rocky was coming out. Pics to follow. 

On Friday we had interviews with President McCuistian which was super awesome. Normally it's like the only one on one time you have with him but I was at his house like 4 times last week and he came to our apartment too so we didn't talk to much in interviews. President is such an awesome man, very inspired and you can just feel the love of Christ when he talks. He is definitely someone I look up to a lot.  

Saturday we help a "Member Missionary Training Center" like and MTC for members where we taught them how they could do missionary work as a member. We taught them how they could invite people to activities and how they could give away a Book of Mormon! Overall I think it was really successful!!  8. Well im going to get running for now, but know I love you all and you're always in my prayers. It means so much when you reach out to me and share your weeks with me! Special shout out to the Young Women in my Ward at home! I got a bunch of letter from them recently and it was so much fun being able to read them! If any of you want to send me mail or a package these next few weeks send it to 7011 E 13th N, Wichita KS, 67206 because I'll be getting transferred soon. Don't know where but it's pretty sure that I'm leaving! Love ya!! 

Elder Murphy

Donut Miracle

Our weekly coordination meeting!

I Love me Some Wichita!!

Chickens! Pt1

The Chicken Chase!

Yes I washed my hands after!

Some other missionaries saw us while we were teaching this kid on the street hahaha

Meetings, A New Companion, And A Baptism

Family, Friends, Missionaries, and Random Strangers of the internet, this was an absolutely insane week. I honestly have no idea where to start. If my email this week is a little scatter brained, please forgive me because I don't really process information at this present moment because the world took a ginormous 180° turn and I'm still getting my bearings. I guess I can start off from the begging of the week and walk you through day by day.  @Monday: P-Day activities were all the normal. We woke up, I did some District Leader stuff, and then we cleaned our apartment. We did laundry and then took a nap. Around 12 we went to the store and bought groceries and what not. Then we went to the church and played basketball and emailed. Once P-Day ended we went on Exchanges with the assistants to the President because we killed it as a companionship last month and set a new KWM record for most baptisms in a month as a companionship. So that was a really cool opportunity to learn from them because they like the "Top Dogs" of the mission.   

Tuesday: We had a Tri-Zone Conference with the Wichita, Derby, and Bel Aire Zones. Wow was it amazing. They gave super good trainings and we had a Zone breakout session that honestly changed my life. The spirit was incredible and it was just so awesome. We learned a little more about Effective Planning, and then had trainings in our teaching skills. Asking Inspired Questions, Using chapter 10 of Preach My Gospel and just becoming better teachers overall. So because that took up most of the day we had pretty limited teaching time. Ironic right? Haha  

Wednesday: Was normal day, we had weekly Planning spent a ton of time in our apartment because of all the things we had to to plan for. So we eventually got out of the house around 3. And we went out and taught like normal. Wednesday was my only normal day of the week. And it wasn't even a normal day. But hey that's life. 

Thursday: Oh boy Thursday was a just a hoot of a day. We had our Zone/District meeting on Thursday because we had our Zone Conference on Tuesday (the day we normally have our District Meeting). Again the Office Elders couldn't make it so we had a tiny little meeting with us and the other Sisters in our district. I gave a training on helping the people we teach get over their trials of faith. Preach my Gospel relates this principle to an Iceberg, and how with an iceberg we can only see a small portion of it. And the rest is hidden under the water, often times being much larger than what appears in the surface. So sometimes when we are teaching people we only see that top portion of their "Spiritual Iceberg" and we need to see the big picture. The whole Iceberg. Over all it went pretty well.  

After that we had to go to the Military Base to get Elder Pankratz a refill on his medicine. But it turned out that the paper he thought was a prescription wasn't, so we literally ran around all day bouncing between doctors trying to get this medication for him that he's dependent on. Tender mercy of the lord, we got it.... by 7pm hahahahah. So we only got to see like 3 people that night. Loco am I right?

  

Friday: Friday a lot of things happened, a lot of things that I can't talk about but it was a very not normal day. Because of privacy I won't tell you. But just know that we did not go teaching that much again because of some more medical reasons that Elder Pankratz needed to get taken care of. But we ended the day strong and had a baptism!  Wahoo!!!! William Santillano got baptized! It was such a good way to end the day watching someone very near an dear to my heart enter the atoning waters of baptism and make that special covenant with the lord. But it was crazy getting it there. Because Kansas had this HUGE ice storm come through so we moved the time of the baptism last minute to avoid the storm and luckily everything worked out. 

  

Saturday: Was a pretty fun day. We met with President and Sister McCuistian in the morning and then after that finished our studies then went out and biked around to change things up and find new people to teach. It was rainy and cold and icy and a fun adventure of missionary work that I will never forget. Unfortunately it was my last day to serve with Elder Pankratz. Because of some of the previously stated medical concerns Elder Pankratz had to go home this week. So Saturday we went out and taught and testified with power. We said some goodbyes to some people and then came home and he got all packed up. 

Sunday: Sunday we finished packing his things, had our last companionship study, and then went to church. We bore our testimonies in Sacrament meeting and I felt the spirit so strong as Elder Pankratz shared the feelings of his heart with the Kellogg Branch. I shared my testimony of the Atonement and shared Mosiah 3:5-12, some of my favorite verses on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We took some pictures again after church and then headed off to President McCuistian's house to eat lunch and then say goodbye to Elder Pankratz. His flight left at 4:20pm.  From there I went with the Assistants to the President and we went out and taught the rest of the day. It was so much fun though we just went absolutely ham talking and teaching people. I think we talked to at least 50 people we literally ran from door to door and talked even to the people at the stoplights in the car next to us! There was not one person that we saw, that we didn't talk to and testify to. Even though we were seeing their people I was able to find 6 new people that I have return appointments for today. I found a new family of 4 and I am literally so excited to teach them.   

Anyways I get my new Companion today and he's an absolute BALLER missionary. He was an All-State basketball player in Utah and won the State Championship. And he's and All-Star missionary. We are going to baptize nations in these next 3 weeks together. Elder Watts and Elder Murphy are going to go so hard everyday that we will pass out from physical excursion at night I guarantee it.

Elder Murphy

Zone Conference 

William Santillano got Baptized!

Our investigators Vivian and Jocelyn 

Kellogg Branch Missionaries 

Our last day biking in the rain

Elder Watts, my new companion

Another Email from Elder Murphy

This week we lost the Harrison Park sisters, they got ET'd (Emergency Transfered) into another district in our zone. It was super sad but they love their new ward which is awesome. Our District meeting in result as a lot smaller, especially when the Office Elders couldn't come! We had to combine with Park Hill District and it was a lot of fun, and also a little hectic figuring out who would give trainings and what not. I ended up giving a cool training about Vision and how without it we would be lost as missionaries!  

Fun training on Vision Wednesday we saw a super cool miracle. We were visiting a Less Active Part Member Family and were trying to figure out if William wanted to get baptized. He was super down and told us how he'd been waiting to for a long time. We also figured out that he met all the requirements to get baptized and invited him for this Saturday! He said yes, but we had to post pone it until the 14th because the branch was out of town at the temple.  

We also had an amazing miracle this week with making MBCs with the lord. We promised him that we would knock at least 5 doors and talk to 2 people before we got back in the car because we felt like we were supposed to be in that area for a reason. Well, after knocking 4 doors and talking to 2 people we had faith that the lord was going to bless us for our diligence. On the 5th door we found Ernesto Parga, an extremely humble Mexican man who wants nothing more than to strengthen his faith in christ. He accepted the Lords invitation to be baptized and loved church on Sunday!  

On Friday we had a Zone training and it was super awkward because we were late, we thought it started at 11 but it actually started at 10. Oops. We repented though so its all good. During the Training there was a game of Jeopardy on Preach My Gospel Chapter 10 and my District killed it. Heck yeah. Elder Evans then gave a super good training on setting powerful goals and Elder Bronson gave one on Conversion. Overall super good very powerful.  

Then on Saturday we gave a blessing to one of the Less Active members, and then decided to ride bikes for fun to try and find new Investigators. Well it worked because we met tons of amazing people that we are super excited to teach. It's so crazy that we just randomly go up to people and invite them to change their lives, and they say yes... Life as a missionary is the best.  Sunday was super awesome too! We had so many people at church! We had one of the fullest sacrament meetings that i have ever seen in the Branch! THREE less active families that we have been working with came to church this week and we had 5 investigators there also! So cool! 

Sorry this email sucks. I'm running out of time so I promise it'll be better next week. Love ya!  

Elder Murphy

This is funny. Laugh

Derby Zone and what not

This is James Rains, he's funny

I am American

Nature

A New Year, New Missionaries, and a lot of Baptisms

This was the best week of my mission. SEVEN amazing and precious souls entered the atoning waters of Baptism this week in Kellogg District. Six of them are incredibly near and dear to my heart as they made the first step towards becoming an eternal family. The Arambula-Rodriguez family has progressed so much and grown so much closer as a family over this past month as we taught them. It was so amazing when we first invited Beatriz, the mom to get baptized. We followed the spirit and taught about temples and eternal families in the first lesson with her. We used the temple to invite her to be baptized and truly began with the end in mind. We simply stated," Beatriz, we know that families can be together forever through ordinances we can make in the temple. And baptism is really only that first step on your journey to becoming an Eternal Family. Will you take that first step and be baptized?". Right then and there her whole attitude changed and she was 100% on board the rest of the way. Incredible. 

Like I mentioned earlier, there was another baptism in my district, Ethan Ging got baptized! He is a super energetic and full of life 12 year old boy. He is a pioneer for his family and it is super cool watching people change their lives. As a result of his baptism, 3 of his family members have been coming to church! Super cool miracle.  

We also got to take out a brand new batch of missionaries this week!! I took out Elder Wing from Utah! He is a fireball missionary with no fear an we went out and just found so many new investigators!! He got assigned to be out in Hugoton Kansas so I probably wont see him at all this transfer. I Taking out new missionaries is one of my favorite things to do because their energy is infectious! Plus you get to be their first view of the mission and of Kansas.  

Last P-Day the Primary from the Spanish branch got together and had a HUGE nerf war. Did y'all know that the nerf guns now a days are super fun? The kids came up with this fun game where they line up on one side of the gym and try to run to the other side with out getting hit.... I think we had more fun then they did hahaha. 

But one thing that was really cool this week, was that we didn't let the baptism of the Arambula-Rodriguez family distract us from the rest of our missionary week and had one of the most productive weeks of my mission. We were out teaching like crazy, inviting everyone to be baptized. As we continued to trust in the Lord, he continued to let blessing flow, and blessed us with tons of cool Miracles. Vivian was able to come to church on Sunday and she LOVED it! It was super cool when we all found out that her cousins are members of the branch, and she never knew! Perfect Fellowship!   Overall, Awesome week. I love my Savior. I love being a Missionary. I love Kansas 

Elder Murphy

Picture I forgot to send from President McCuistians house at Christmas!

New Missionaries

A teenager took this of us to put on their snap chat, i liked it because we look happy

Ethan got Baptized!

LOOK AT ALL THAT WHITE!!! I love this family!