Goodbyes, Hellos, and a Testimony

Hello wonderful family and friends! I'm going to keep this one pretty short because I don't feel like sending a massive email this week. I will be online so if anyone wants to chat I will be available until 6pm Kansas time! 

This week was a little weird because we had transfers this week and Elder Watts was leaving so we had to say good bye to a lot of people. It was really nice, the University Branch had a little goodbye party for FHE and used it as a testimony meeting. It was really cool so see how much of an impact that Elder Watts had on the people here. We said goodbye to Gabriela, one of our recent converts and then said goodbye to John another one of our converts here. They were both so sad and I think John mentioned something about Elder Watts in all of the prayers we said together this week. He's a wonderful man there is no doubt about it. 

On Wednesday we said our official goodbyes and I stayed in Manhattan with Elder Miller while our we waited for our new companions to drive up. It was pretty boring I would have to say because Elder Miller was sick and we couldn't leave the apartment. At around 4pm Elder Anderson (My new companion) came and it was cool we went right to work. 

To start off the transfer we had a phone call with President McCuistion and lets just say we now have a strong desire to do a lot better. Its not like we were doing bad, but President McCuistion definitely stressed the importance of being a shining light and example to all the missionaries in our Zone. We are expected to be producing 3-4 times the amount that he has set as the expectation for the rest of the mission so we have been working like crazy these past few days. 

We had a really awesome Miracle already! One day we decided to try and visit an apartment complex that we had a few formers in. We had met a girl outside named Jaziah and asked her if we could come and share a message with her about Jesus Christ's restored gospel. She said that we could and then proceeded to refer us to her whole family that happened to live in the same complex. Through her we met Tray and Jaiann. They are a super sweet couple with a strong desire to raise their kids in a strong Christ centered environment. They let us in and we began teaching them the message of the Restoration using the pamphlet and they loved it so much. Tray was asking us so many heartfelt questions and while we were answering them Jaiann was reading ahead in the pamphlet and smiling the whole time. They both accepted the invitation to be baptized and were so thankful when we were leaving their home. 

I absolutely love being a missionary. The experiences that I have had on my mission are priceless and we get the opportunity to meet so many of Gods precious children. My testimony of this work grows each and every day and I feel so blessed to have a knowledge of my heavenly fathers plan for me. It is a sacred blessing to be a representative of Jesus Christ. He truly is my savior and my best friend. I am so excited for this Easter season. It is such and amazing opportunity to celebrate the Resurrection and remember the incredible gift of the Atonement. This morning I decided to study a little bit from the final days of the Saviors life before he was crucified. Everything that he did he did with love. I cant even imagine the amount of love that he has for the world. It pains my soul to think that he suffered for me and my mistakes because of his love for me. He truly is the PRINCE of PEACE. His life is a perfect example of that. He loved the very guards that whipped him and scourged him and mocked him and the Pharisees that spit in his face. He loved the man who nailed him to the cross. That is the kind of love, that as a disciple of him, I am called to represent. It can be hard when people slam the door in our faces. Its not easy, but that is the burden I have been called to bear. I love the scripture in Matthew 16:24,"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." How vivid is that imagery, that we will also take up our own crosses. That we are willing to follow the Savior of the World no matter the conditions. I love Jesus Christ. I will follow him. I will be his disciple. 

I would love to invite each of you to study the life of Jesus Christ. Especially with the Easter season so near. Also, General Conference will be this weekend! you can find it on LDS.org and it will be an amazing time to hear from a living prophet and his 12 Apostles. I am so excited to hear their counsel!! Anyways I love you all! 

If any of you feel like it, you can send me a package or a letter! USBs would be a real cool Easter gift. or a "Mission" brand belt those are nice.

My Address is 1419 Leavenworth Apt 2, Manhattan KS, 66502

We had an awesome lesson, and our investigator gave us all her cigarettes!!

Elder Murphy

Exchanges, Transfers, and a Baptism

Hello wonderful family, friends, fellow missionaries, and other random people that happen to see/read these letters! I have to say this was a very wonderful and busy week here in the promised land of Manhattan Kansas. No, there wasn't any crazy weather this week like there was in the last email, but it did get up to like 80 degrees so that was nice. Anyways I am grateful for each and every one of you and hope these emails dont bore you to death! 

We had the awesome opportunity to go on exchanges with the APs this week! So we drove down to Wichita Wednesday night and barely made it there. We had plenty of gas to drive there, but for some reason the gas just plummeted about 30 miles north of Wichita and we barely puttered into a gas station. Our gas gauge went from like 40 miles until empty to 0 miles until empty in about 45 seconds and we were freaking out trying to figure out why. The closest gas station was about 7 miles away and we were praying real hard that we would make it jajaja. but hey we made it just fine. 

I was on exchanges with Elder White and I feel like I learned so much! Its crazy how important the little things are in missionary work! We were literally running around talking to every person we saw it was so fun. We had awesome lessons with 2 different people from Ghana that are refugees. They had about 20 people living in a tiny apartment but they were so humble and willing to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. One man, Innocent, lit up like a Christmas tree when we showed him a video of Jesus Christ getting baptized. His jaw dropped and he exclaimed, "OOHH I WANT THAT". Jajaja it was so awesome. He has so much faith in Jesus and just wants to do what it right. We also had a really cool lesson with a man named Orlando. Orlando it such a sweet soul. He is a BIG dude, but has such a sweet spirit. He also is so excited to be baptized. We we teaching him about some of our beliefs and the whole time he was just like, "That makes so much sense." He already has a huge testimony of the Book of Mormon too! Cool cool guy. 

Earlier in the week I also had the opportunity to go on exchanges with one of the District Leaders here in Manhattan. Elder Ortmann and I stayed in our area and met so many awesome people. We had some really awesome contacts and learned alot from each other. The coolest contact we had was with this girl named Jessica. She was delivering something for work and we decided to stop and talk to her for a minute before she got a call for a new delivery. She is so elect and loved everything that we taught her, but right as we were about to invite her to be baptized she got a phone call for a new delivery she had to do... Satan is the worst ughh. We called her later this week and she was still really solid but then didn't show up to church for some reason. Hopefully we can get back in contact with her soon.

 By far the biggest miracle of the week was John Sawyer's baptism! He is so awesome and I still cannot believe how far he has come since we met him the first day. His baptism was so powerful and watching his face when he came out of the water was so awesome! One of the most powerful of my mission for sure. He is so converted and it is so awesome. He called us last night and asked us if we could come over and we got really nervous because he never does things like that, but it turns out he had been writing his testimony and he wants to share it next testimony meeting but he need help on how to end it. Jajaja he is such sweet man. 

Also if you remember from a couple weeks back, we had an Indian investigator, "Johnny". Well for the past 3 weeks he was in India working on this crazy research project becasue he is like the best in the world at whatever it is that he does and he just got back this week. We had such an awesome lesson with him about real intent and before we even explained to him what it was he said, "Right now I have told God that the moment I feel his spirit of peace of love or joy I will be baptized that week. I will not wait, so that is what I am working on right now." That is literally music to any missionaries ears. He is super well fellowshiped in the ward and he loved church so all we have to do now is help him recognize those spiritual prompting he is receiving.

Some other big news that happened today, is that Transfers came in and I will be staying another 6 weeks here in Manhattan! Elder Watts will be leaving though and I will be with Elder Anderson. It will be crazy because for the first time I will be with a companion that doesnt speak Spanish so hopefully I can keep up the language. We are teaching a few people that speak spanish and there are a lot of members that do too so I think i will be ok! Never the less I am so happy for Elder Watts and he is going to kill it as a ZL in Derby (my last zone) so I am pretty jealous of him. I have learned so much from him and its sad to see him go but Elder Anderson Im sure will teach me so much too! 

I would just like to end with a quick testimony that I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints truly is Christs church once again restored to the Earth. Not because anyone has told me it, but because God has. The Book of Mormon is a powerful witness of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and has been key in my conversion. The spirit that I feel when I read that book can only come from God. I know it is true and I will not deny it. I love this work in which I am engaged and I love my Savior. He lives, he loves us, and he is my best friend. I challenge each of you to work on your relation ship  with him so that you too can saw with confidence that he is your best friend. If he already is, continue to strengthen that relationship, it will only bring you more happiness and more peace. 

Elder Murphy

Tornados, Snow, and Zone Conference

This was a wonderful week full of Kansas weather! For the first time I understood the phrase, "If you don't like the weather, just wait 5 minutes". When we were driving to our dinner appointment on Monday, we got an Emergency Alert that a tornado was spotted in our area and we needed to get to shelter. That was lots of fun. I think a total of 8 touched down in the area, but they didn't cause any damage so that's good. Later on that day we got some crazy hail too!

The news must have spread around the ward we are serving in that Elder Watts and I are Spanish Missionaries, because we got fed Enchiladas for all of our meals this week except for 1 haha. But hey I'm not complaining! I was in heaven because I miss Mexican food so bad! The ward here feeds us really well which is nice, but its really awkward when they pull out these really nice fancy desserts that they have made for us. Elder Watts and I promised an investigator who is giving up Coffee and Smoking to be baptized that we would give up desserts and sugar so he doesn't feel like he is going through it alone. Usually we have the other Elders assigned to our ward there with us and they get to eat our portions so they are loving it! 

We also had Zone Conference this week (Combined with Salina Zone) and it was lots of fun. Elder Watts and I gave a training on how we can use the Pamphlets effectively in our missionary work. We related it to a complicated basketball play and had another missionary come up and try to run it just off of a hearing it only and they were so confused. Then we drew the play out on a white board and he was able to get it no problem. The pamphlets that we have been given as missionaries are the same way. We have these great tools to use and the visuals help those we are teaching understand an otherwise foreign concept. Overall i think it went pretty good, our role play was pretty bad because both Elder Watts and I were sick and couldn't really think straight but thats ok because we have the Atonement to rely on. 

Saturday was a crazy day here in Manhattan as well. The college students here have made up this tradition called "Fake Pattys" because the school usually has spring break during St. Patrick's day. They use it as a 24 hour drunk fest pretty much. The party starts at 5am and doesn't end until the next day. This of course made it very hard to teach people about Jesus Christ, as their only desires were to get drunk. We started studies at 8am and the apartment complex was already rattling from the parties that had begun. I've decided that college is dumb and I am so glad I'll be going to BYU. We stayed safe though dont worry! We only got asked where the good parties were at like 2 times.

Luckily that day it started to snow so much of the celebrations were tamed down and force to be inside so that was a big plus. We got a good little bit of snow which was pretty weird because we were wearing short sleeve shirts earlier in the week. But you know thats part of Kansas weather jaja. 

Miracle) When we first got to Manhattan we were told by the previous elders to go to a house in a small town called Ogden on the way up and to see if Stephanie was there. We knocked and this really angry man told us that she wasn't there and rudely slammed the door. We came back a couple days later and the exact same thing happened, but this time we asked if we could share a message with him and he let us in! Long story short his name is John and he is getting baptized this weekend! It is so crazy to think that he was the first person we talked to when we got here and he was so closed off but the spirit opened his heart and he is one of the most tender souls i have ever met! I love this work! 

I love you all! Big shout out to my big brother Michael! He finished his mission this week in Mexico and im so proud of him!! Hit him up ladies!! 

Elder Murphy

Meetings, more meetings, some pictures

This week my love for the Savior grew in ways hard to explain. I LOVE being a missionary, I LOVE serving the Lord, I LOVE my Savior Jesus Christ. Sometimes in life it seems as if the hardest trails, and the least productive weeks of Missionary work are the weeks you learn the most. When the Lord humbles you, where he coaches you, and where he teaches you how you can improve.

Honestly this could be one of the more boring emails I send on my mission. We had a jam packed crazy week full of awesome Zone Leader responsibilities. We didnt even start actually working until Friday and even that wasn't even a normal day but here are some pics from the week! Love you! Send me pics and emails throughout the week.

Elder Murphy

We had lunch here. It was good

March MLC in Wichita

Manhattan Zone! (Sister Bybee is a good singer, photographer? Eh not so much)

Squad at MLC, Elder Watts is really good at basketball that's why he holding one 

Our Branch Mission Leader, he served his mission in Fresno CA!! (Spanish Speaking)