Exchanges, Transfers, and A New Calling

So this week we went on lots of exchanges and it was pretty crazy because we didn't get to teach that much in our area. The first set of the exchanges that we went on was with our Zone Leaders. And I got to go with Elder Evans (My Mission Grandpa) and we had pretty much the most typical exchange that I could think of. We had like 7 set appointments with really solid and literally every single one of them fell through and we didn't see any of them. By the end of the night we gave up and trying to teach in their area and we went and taught some of my Investigators in Spanish hahaha. We even found like 3 new investigators for my companionship. Perks of a big area I guess. 

Then the next day we went on exchanges with the Assistants to the President, the tops dogs and leaders of the mission. It was cool because we got to teach in both areas. Because we cover all of Wichita, and so do they, we got to see both of our people. I went with Elder Gardner he is an awesome missionary who has been out on his mission for 24 months and goes home on Thursday. To be honest it was a lot like my exchange with Elder Evans because we couldn't find people to save our lives. The whole time we were driving between potentials and new investigators and former investigators contact that you could teach them but it is just impossible to find them. We also did some work for the mission and made new calendar for all the missionaries We made one in English and one in Spanish. I had to translate for it too so that was a lot of fun. 

Then because we got back late teaching we just stayed another night at their apartment so that was a lot of fun. After that we went to a zone training which was lots of fun because we got to learn this. I also gave a short training about using the book of Mormon teaching more effectively. A lot of my training was based off of what we learned during the worldwide broadcast, and also from MLC with brother Donaldson last week. Overall I think it went really good. I always like giving trainings because it's a great opportunity for me to be able to learn a lot more about what I'm training on. Lots of times we think that those receiving trainings are the ones that learn the most, but i love all of the studying and preparing that's goes into giving a training. 

I think Im gonna cut this email short and just get to the juicy new fun info because i cant think right now, so much is going on. Ok y'all ready? IM GETTING TRANSFERRED!!!! The lord has called me to serve in New York! Jk haha I’m going be serving in Manhattan Kansas! It's the home of Kansas State University and it'll be a huge adjustment because Ill be teaching 99% in English. I literally cried because I love Spanish so much. BUT WAIT THATS NOT ALL! IM GONNA BE A ZONE LEADER! 4 transfers in and I’m supposed to be in charge of a bunch of other missionaries. BUT WAIT THATS NOT ALL!! WE ARE WHITEWASHING IN!! (That means that my comp wont know the area because we will both be new.) BUT WAIT THATS NOT ALL!!! Elder Watts is my companion! We both have neither been Zone Leaders before so we will have to figure it out together. Im also the Senior Companion so that means I have to kind of take charge. It'll be a struggle at first but we will figure it out. I know that the lord will guide us and help us in this new path. I know that he will be there every step of the way. 

I Love you all! 

Email me through out the week because I have wifi in my new apartment so I can see them whenever! Ill email my new address new week!  

Elder Murphy

Derby Zone

All of my Recent Converts in Wichita. I love them all so much!!!

Delly! The coolest member in all of the world! 

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!

Service, Families, and a Baptism

Luis got baptized this Saturday!! It was so awesome finally seeing him get baptized and when he came out of the water he said he felt like he was glowing! He told us how he felt famous because all the people that came to his baptism, and how his baptismal program looked. I swear he stared at it for like 30 minutes straight just smiling. It filled my heart with so much joy it was awesome. His whole family came so we were able to give them a super awesome tour of the church and answer al of their questions. It was so cool because other missionaries brought the people they were teaching to the baptism and all of them loved it so much and can't wait to get baptized too!  

As a result of his baptism, 4 of Luis'S siblings want to get baptized and so does his dad!! We are still working on his mom but she will come around soon I'm sure of it. On Sunday, his parents came to support him receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and we think that they really liked it, unfortunately their other son had a soccer game and they had to take off after the first hour so we didn't get to talk to them about it. We tried to go find the, at their house after church but they weren't there. We were able to have an awesome lesson about the restoration with Rogelio, Luis's younger brother. We had Adrian one of the young men with us and he was a really big help in helping Rogelio understand why it was important and he even taught him how to pray!! 

We had been working really hard with Luis's Grandmother this week, because she has a testimony if the Book of Mormon and knows that the church is true, but she was so attached to her other church that she would never commit to come. We finally sat down with her and asked her inspired questions for 15 minutes to find the root of her concern and we were let by the spiri to a talk that Elder Uchdorf gave in a conference address about Saul on the road to Damascus and how a lot of times we expect to have an experience like him, we expect to see an angel or see Jesus if we are going to change. But the lord doesn't work like that with us. We have to show our faith in him and trust in him to receive and recognize those answers that he is giving us to our prayers. We ended with the questions, "Where are you on your personal Road to Damascus? Are you waiting for a Saul type experience?" And she must have thought about it really hard because she came to church!  

As a companionship we really have been trying to find families to teach, so we went to knock a potential investigators door to find one to teach but they weren't there. I had remembered there was another Mexican family down the street so we walked down to their house and tried to meet them. When we knocked we met the dad, Ezekiel and he told us how he had 7 kids and wanted them to grow up with good values. We taught him the Restoration and he loved it and committed to read the Book of a Mormon and pray about a specific baptismal date. We came back another day and met his wife and shared with her that standards of the Church like the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. She lit up and was so happy that we could teach her kids about it and help them grow up to be good people in the world! Super awesome missionary experience! 

We also had the awesome opportunity to do service this week! The Relief Society president our branch was moving apartments within he complex and we got to help he move! It was super cool because this Christmas Season he church has. Campaign call #LIGHTtheWORLD where we try to be a light to other people and help other like Christ so perfectly showed us how when he walked the Earth. We were able to be a light to her and help her when she needed it! The super fun part was when the battery on our car died and we were kinda stuck there for a few hours haha. We asked a bunch of people if they had cables but apparently no one has them here in Kansas, Eventually we  found someone with some and they were kind enough to let us borrow them. I guess you could say they were a light for us!!

We also had a really cool Zone Training this week. Elder Call one of our Zone Leaders gave a super awesome training on how important our Desire are as missionaries and took it even one step further when he explained the importance of our own personal Dispositions. Disposition is something thats similar to our nature, it our inherent qualities of mind and nature. He ended his lesson with this question for us to think about "What if my dispositional will was to baptize?". Super deep. It got me thinking and what I took away from the meeting is that I need to be constantly changing my desires to be my disposition. I need to make the things that I WANT to do and make them things that I NEED to do. I need to make them my inherit nature to serve Christ at all times.

Over all it was an awesome week and we were able to see tons and tons of miracles. I love being in the lords service and I love being a missionary in the Kansas Wichita Mission. I love you all so much and I can't wait to hear about your weeks! 

Elder Murphy

DERBY Zone Picture!

The real DERBY Zone!

Weekly Selfie ft. Elder Davies 

Kellogg District!

I don't know what's happening here.

Luis Got Baptized!!

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