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!

Christmas, Skype Calls, and a Baptism

Guys I am so excited for Saturday you have no idea. On Saturday at 11, the entire Arambula family will be getting baptized! 6 members of Luis's family will be entering this sacred covenant. We have been teaching them for the past 3 weeks and just looking back at how much they've changed and grown together as a family is so amazing to me. This gospel truly does bless families. We have been talking a lot with President McCuistian about them and he is so excited, he is even going to come to the Baptism on Saturday so we are super excited for that as well. As missionaries it is always so exciting to teach a whole family, and it seems pretty rare to me when a family as big as the Arambulas progress and change this fast. Anyways keep them in your prayers!!  

Also, Sunday Luis got the Priesthood!! His whole family was able to be there and he can now baptize some of his family members! How cool is that! Just from his example of being baptized, his whole family will be getting baptized also and he can even help baptize them. The Arambula family is so amazing! 

Another cool thing that happened this week was that Ramon Burciaga got Baptized!!! My very first week in the mission, about 18 weeks ago his wife was baptized and he's been taught ever since then and it was so awesome being able to baptize him. We have a standing dinner appointment every Wednesday at their house so it was so much fun seeing how excited he was getting as he prepared to get baptized. The Hermanas did such an awesome job teaching him, his family is preparing to go to the temple in a year and be sealed! Yay for eternal families!

For those of you who don't know, every Christmas and every Mothers Day, we as missionaries get to Skype home to our families and talk with them. It was soooo awesome being able to talk with my family for the first time since JULY holy cow! So much has happened since then and I miss them all so much. I was even able to talk to my brother who is serving a mission in Mexico!  

I don't know if any of you remember, but in October our mission president did a big mission wide challenge to read the Book of Mormon at a rate of 9 pages a day (about the same rate it was translated into English). I am very happy to report that I accepted and completed that challenge and it was so cool! We started it on October 26 and finished it at 7am Christmas morning on a mission -wide conference call, where we read the last chapter together. It's something that I have decided to do for the rest of my life, read the Book of Mormon 9 pages a day. Think of how many times ill have read it when im all wrinkly and old! 

Hmmmm what else happened. Oh yeah! I know Im going to get asked a thousand times what i did for Christmas, so Ill just have a whole paragraph on it for all of ya. Because Christmas fell on a Sunday, we went to church, and then after there was another baptism, and I was asked to give a talk at. Then we went to our Mission Presidents house and hung out and ate food with his family and then I Skyped home to my Dad and got to talk to all my Family in Texas. After that we got together as a District and went Carling until about 8pm then we went home for the evening and I had to take care of some Leadership stuff. Over all awesome day, very busy, but very awesome.  

I want to close with a scripture that I really love from the Bible, its a prophecy of Christ's Birth:         Isaiah 9: 6  "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."    

Jesus is all of those things listed above. He is Wonderful, he is the Prince of Peace. He is our Savior. I invite you all to think in your hearts and ponder in your souls what the Savior means to you. He is always there for you. He is knocking at the door. Will you let him in? Or will you send him to the stables? Will you worship him in all your doings? Or just for an hour or two or three on Sunday? Will you take up your cross and follow him? Will you open your heart enough to feel of his everlasting love?     

At the end of a District meeting last week, I asked the missionaries in my District a question. I want to end my email with that same challenge/question.

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO CHANGE TO HAVE MORE FAITH IN THE SAVIOR?    

I invite each of you to think about that question and apply it to your life. Let me know how your relationship with the Savior increases this week! 

Elder Murphy

 Weekly Selfie from the the Ontiveros house!

Ramon got baptized!!!! 

Skype call home ft. Lottermoser & Nail Family!!

Skype call home ft all the brothers !

Opening Christmas presents was a blast

Skype call home ft the Murphy family!

Super pretty Kansas Sunrise this morning. Ft. The moon

Snow, Broken Cars, and More Trust In The Lord

On Tuesday we pulled a super funny prank on our Zone Leaders. Earlier this month they challenged us to a "Charity War" and we as a zone responded back. We got together on P-day and rehearsed a flash mob that we pulled off in  the middle of our Zone meeting. Im not going to go into all of the Details because it was very elaborate. But I will send pictures of our Zone leaders afterwards. I think we broke them. 

So, on Saturday we woke up and looked out side and it was snowing! Not enough to be doing anything but we got all excited because snow is cool and what not. So we continued with our morning like normal, we did our studies, ate some food and went off for the day. Right around 1 or 2 the weather started changing and it started snowing super bad. It got to the point where we had to take our car back to our apartment and park it because we aren't allowed to be driving the Mission vehicles in that kind of weather. By 3 or 4 the roads and  sidewalks and everyone's yards were covered in a nice blanket of fresh snow. But hey we didn't care! ( it was -19° wind chill hahaha) We just kept working! We were calling members and investigators and trying to encourage everyone we could to come the Christmas party and not worry.     

So later that day we had our Branch Christmas Party, and I was pretty nervous that no one was going to show up because of the snow that had just come though. But we actually had a really amazing turn out. Elder Pankratz and I were constantly setting up tables the whole time because more and more families were rolling in! We had about 9 investigators there and it was super awesome. One of our members brought 2 friends from their work and they arre now going to be taking lessons with the Sister Missionaries in the English ward! It was super awesome to see everyone come together and celebrate the Birth of our Savior.  

Then on Sunday when we had to go to church, our car wouldn't start! The battery is all messed up and we had to leave the car at Firestone to get it fixed. So all day Sunday we went without a car. We had to get a ride to church, and then after church we walked everywhere in the snow and had a night fill of miracles! No car, no problem! 

This week we also meet Vivian, who is actually Antonios neighbor. She is a super sweet girl who wants nothing more than to strengthen her relationship with Christ. We have already seen huge changes in her and how much the Gospel has already blessed her life. On Sunday she wasn't able to come to church because her mom went super Catholic on her and told her she wasn't able to meet with us anymore. So last night we walked over to her house to have one last lesson and try to talk with her mom and had an incredibly powerful testimony meeting that completely changed her Moms attitude. Vivian bore the sweetest testimony I have ever heard and the spirit really softened her Mom's heart. We taught her the message of the Restoration and she will now be reading and praying about the Book of Mormon! 

Update on the Arambula family: they all came to church this week and came to the branch Christmas party on Saturday and Beatriz ( the mom ) even made tamales for it!! They are so excited to get baptized and loveeee the Book of Mormon! 

Overall it was a really amazing week, we faced a lot of opposition but we didn't let any of it face us, we put our trust in the Lord and he was there with us every step of the way. It's so amazing how much the Lord can do when we do put our trust in him. Ive seen over and over in my mission times when Satan has thrown opposition our way in attempt to divert the work of Salvation. As missionaries we teach our investigators a lot about this. We explain how the things we are teaching them are really good, and because it is so good, Satan does not want it. And he will do anything he can to distract them from their goal of strengthening their relationship with the savior. It's funny because we teach it a lot but we don't realize how true it is for us as missionaries too. Satan does not want us to be out there teaching. He hates it. And he will do anything he can to distract us. He will make us homesick, he will send cold weather and snow and break our cars. But all we have to do is focus on the good that this work brings and how important this work is and the Lord will always be there with us. I love being a missionary!

I love you all so much! Thank you for all the support and love you send my way! Keep emailing me, and I hope you all have a very Merry CHRISTmas! Remember the reason for the season! Spend time with your loved ones, and send me lots of pictures of your holidays!!  

Elder Murphy

Thanks for the awesome care package Lottermoser Family!!!

We have presents under the tree too don't worry! (Left: mine right: Elder Pankratz's)

Awesome tie from the Lottermoser Family!

I have decided I like the snow.

Tag picture!

Fun fact, when it's really cold, you can throw water off your balcony and it'll instantly freeze :)