Today's Letter

Hola! Hace muy frio! It is supposed to snow 10.5 inches tomorrow! AHH. Shoot me! Haha. I am glad that I have snow boots thanks to dad and a snow jacket thanks to mom. Under armor is much appreciated as well. Its going to be a long cold winter. But my first Christmas with snow! Thatll be cool. Ha literally. The good side of things is that we have a lot of investigators so we aren’t out tracting a ton (knocking door to door). We go straight from the car into houses…I hope we are lucky enough for that to continue!

This week was very eventful! First of all… The Pachecos are getting baptized!!! We taught them for awhile and were heart broken that they moved to Arizona. Tina called us and told us they are getting baptized January 2. I was so happy! When they left here, Tina and the kids wanted to get baptized but Raul wasn’t ready. I guess he has really clicked with the Elders in Arizona. Heavenly Father really knows what we need to be fully ready to accept the Gospel! He helped them be fully prepared after investigating for 6 years! Tina thanked us for all we did to help, she said she knew they were in Iowa for a reason…we helped them get back on the path to baptism and got her daughters feeling comfortable in the church. Bah! That’s the best feeling, knowing you have helped souls come unto Christ and be baptized. AHH! We had Zone conference in Des Moines, our ward Christmas party, Fast/Testimony meeting and the Christmas Devotional! Zone Conference was very inspirational, we talked a lot about focusing on what really matters at Christmas..not just the gifts and Santa. I am really excited about having the time to do that! It’ll be great. The talent show was absolutely epic. Our mission is so cool! All the missionaries have funny sense of humors. Our mission president does too. I really feel like this is the mission for me. Even though Des Moines Iowa is really random and speaking Spanish as well here is random…I am random. I really appreciate all the experiences I have had and how much of a family feel this mission is-With the missionaries as well as with the members and investigators. LOVE. I was in a Feliz Navidad dance with the other Spanish missionaries…classic and then in a stomp act with my Sioux City Zone. Stomp is when you make noise with a bunch of random things..but its all to a beat. I enjoyed that. Oh man..there were some good acts too. Elder Holman from my district at the MTC sang/played the piano…he is amazing! He is going to be on Broadway someday for sure. We have videos of all the acts and are compiling them on a cd, itll be sent to Jilly eventually. Our ward xmas party was a hoot. Omar, Angel, and Amanda came as far as investigators go. More Spanish members came. We all sat together. I love our little Spanish part of the ward. We are all like a family. Its great. Fast/testimony meeting was a neat experience as well. I bore my testimony all in Spanish (and I cried)! I shared how much I appreciate Heavenly Father’s love for me-I can feel the love of God in my family, especially my parent. Being away from home has really helped me see how much my family means to me. SOOO MUCH. In our families we can feel the closest love to Celestial love. This is why we have families-to be happy! The Christmas Devotional was beautiful! I love the First Presidency of the Church, and I know they are called of God. Christ is our Savior!

Next week…We are going to the Temple in Omaha because our ward mission leader, Ignacio is going for the first time! We are so excited to go! Hermana Madsen, two elders and I are going to support him along with some of the ward members! It’ll be amazing! Also next week on Tuesday Sonya and Bryan are getting married at our church and then are getting baptized along with their two daughters. We are so excited for them! They stopped smoking and are continuing to prepare for the commitments they will be making. They are so excited! Jenny and I are making the wedding invitation today so she can give them to her family. J Jenny is going home next week. She is so sad to be leaving but happy to see her family. She has been such a great trainer and companion. She is a great example of a hard worker and I hope to be like her someday. Hehe We will be staying in touch through letters.

We are continuing to do the Wednesday night class with the Spanish, and we are going to implement more ward activities to get our ward more unified. There is an invisible boundary between the English and Spanish..so as missionaries we are working with the Relief Society president to dissolve this boundary and have everyone love eachother (even though they cant all understand eachother.) Our investigators are still progressing…Angel’s mom is becoming more open to baptism because of his commitment, he has come to every activity! Amanda Gomez is going to get married so she can be baptized. Eddy knows it is true (BOM and Joseph Smith) and came to the Christmas Devotional. He loved it. He just needs to realize that an organized church is necessary and that he needs to be baptized under the priesthood authority. Omar has read over half the BOM-just need to feel more comfortable praying.

I love this work! I look forward to see what adventures are in store this week. Maybe Evelyn, Amanda’s daughter will help me with Spanish (she is 3). Haha Love you all! Talk to you later!

-Hermana Murphy

Caitlyn's First Baptism!!

November 30, 2009
Hi !!!!!!

Oh man! This week was way awesome! First and foremost I experienced my first baptism! Lauren and Alex (Melissa’s kids) were baptized November 28. They had so much support from the ward there! The whole Relief Society room was packed. Our ward has been really helping us out, we appreciate it so much. It’s the best feeling, having been working with investigators and seeing them grow in the Gospel and then be baptized! Lauren and Alex were so excited too! Up until it was performed, Alex would tell me all the time, “Hermana Murphy, Im so excited for Lauren and my baptism.” They are the cutest kids! We had kids in primary participate in the program. Joseph Lee gave the opening prayer and Ian gave the closing prayer. Meg gave the talk on baptism and Melissa, their mom gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. While the kids were changing from their wet clothes, we had the Restoration play in Spanish for the Spanish investigators we had there. Eddy. Angel and Amanda came to the baptism. We have a baptismal date set with Angel and the other two are really close so it was great that they were able to come and see what its like. They really enjoyed the experience. The Spirit was so strong the entire time. It was fabulous! I took some great pics too so I will be sending those to Jilly to put on my blog and Arly to put on facebook.

Thanksgiving was so much fun! We had 4 dinner total! So much food but full of love. We went to the Memmot’s, the Flory’s, the Kay’s (member families in our ward) then to the Gomez family (our investigator from Guetemala). All the food was way good. My favorite was Amanda’s because she had never made Thanksgiving before. We helped her find some traditional recipes like green bean casserole but she made 4 different styles of turkeys! I liked the spicy one that had chiles and hot sauce. That was a neat experience for my taste buds. J We invited our ward mission leader, Ignacio and our investigator Eddy to Amanda’s house. We are all like family. Its great! We also went to two nursing homes and sang hymns and gave people company. That was really nice. One of the members in our ward is the manager of one so she asked us to sing and help pass out food. The sister of another member, Sister Brown, loves for us to see Spanish hymns to her even though she doesn’t understand..so we did that and Elder Richards played the violin. I made a raspberry jello salad that Bompy had sent me the recipe of. I took it with me to all the houses. Everyone loved it! Amanda had me give her the recipe to make. She wants me to show her how to make it. She is the best. Probably my best friend here, other than Jenny ofcourse.

Now that thanksgiving is over we are listening to Christmas music! We have the new motab Christmas cd in our car right now. I think Jenny and I are going to make a xmas card too. Then next few weeks that Jenny has left (she goes home Dec 18) we are going to be SO busy! Zone conference is this Thursday in Des Moines. We are way excited for that because it includes 6 zones and we are having a pic slideshow and a talent show. My zone is putting together an act for the talent show; we will probably wing it. Somehow it will involved me hitting a volleyball. We will see. We are working with the Lovejoy family really intensely right now. Sonya is out of the rehab facility and is doing at home treatment. We are getting her involved with the addictive recovery meetings at the church every week. Also a member of our ward works at a free clinic for people without health insurance…so they will get a program going there too. Sonya and Bryan will be taken care of! We are also helping them plan their wedding; the Bishop is going to marry them at our church. We are having the Relief Society do the food. I never thought I would plan a wedding! Bryan, Sonya and their two daughters, Kianna and Brianna will be baptized Dec 15. We love them so much and have seen the changes in them since learning about the church. They have much more happiness! We have many other progressing investigators working towards baptism. Our Wednesday night Gospel Principles will help the Spanish in our ward a lot. Last Wednesday was our first one and we had a few less-actives and also a few investigators (Rosa, Omar and Angel). We will continue to be having the class every week and having a different Spanish member teach the class to get them involved. We also have our ward xmas party this Saturday! That will be a hoot.

Church was great yesterday because all the lessons were based around the family. During on of the talks given in sacrament, I cried because I love my family so much!!I felt the Spirit strongly testify that I am where I need to be right now. I am growing in ways I couldnt have without serving a mission. I I am so thankful to have my family's support. This love I feel for them is what Heavenly Father feels for us. This is why He gave us families, to feel that Godly love and to work together as a family to be the best we can together. I am excited to have my own family someday and have my family centered on the teachings of Jesus Christ. J haha Don’t worry mom, it wont be for awhile. It’s exciting to think about though!!

I love this area so much and my companion. We are going to work really hard to get all we want done before she leaves…then ofcourse I will continue to work hard after she leaves..But we have an intense few weeks. Wish us luck! We love doing the Lord’s work and are blessed for it everyday. I love you all very much!

-Hermana Murphy

thanksgiving letter.

November 23,2009
Hola!

Wow. This week has been way awesome! We are loving our investigators and our members! We set 3 baptismal dates this week. Angel Hernandez is working towards getting baptized by December 15. We are still working on teaching his mom-we plan on bringing a member with us, Hermana Baraza. It’s a tough situation because the mom is Catholic…she said she would give Angel a ride to our church on Sunday but she took him to the Catholic church. We are going to arrange rides for him in advance so he can come. We also found a person to fellowship Angel, his name is Zach. We are working on getting fellowshippers for all of our progressing investigators. The ward has really been helping more. We are glad! The other baptismal dates we set are with Jose Manuel and Liz. Jose Manuel has been learning for a month or so and is feeling more peace in his life since reading the Book of Mormon. He is excited to work towards baptism on December 12. To help Liz prepare for January 16, we are going to teach her why she needs to be baptized with authority and answer all her questions. She has been investigating for 5 years and we recently checked up on her. She has been reading the BOM and knows its true, she is just nervous for baptism. We hope to lead her down the path and help her feel confident in her decision to be baptized.

Church was great yesterday. Amanda Gomez finally came! I love her and her family so much! She really wants to get baptized, but she needs to get married first. They plan on getting married in December. Her boyfriend also wants to get baptized so we are going to work on teaching him and setting dates with them for January. We are spending some of Thanksgiving with Amanda and her family. We had a fun Saturday night teaching Amanda and then her kids sang us some church songs. They are the cutest! Omar was able to come to church. That was great to see him there again. He really likes learning and has lots of deep questions, showing he really wants to understand. We are having Nefi fellowship him. We are helping him and his brother, Guadalupe stop smoking. The church has a program so we are helping them follow that program. Eddy loved church! Ignacio has been a great fellowshipper to him, coming to appointments and sitting with him at church. We will be teaching him this week. Lauren and Alex Ochoa came to church and are excited about their baptism this Saturday! Lots of the ward is helping out with treats are coming to support. Jenny and I are so excited! My first baptism on the mission! We are having investigators come too, so that they can see what it is all about. The Lovejoy family is doing well, we taught them twice this week. Its amazing to see how the Gospel really is blessing their family. Everything has improved for them and they are so excited to get baptized as a family in December!

To help our Spanish investigators, members and less actives, we are teaching a weekly Gospel Principles class. We are very excited about it! Each week a new member is going to teach the lesson. It should be a great way to get the Spanish more involved and excited about church. We spent some time with the Brisenos, a Spanish family here. We learned how to make Tamales! Way authentic too.

Other things…last pday was so fun! A group of missionaries went bowling. I like to bowl! It was funny because we were bowling next to an intense group of like pro-bowlers and I went at the same time as this huge muscle guy wearing bowling gloves and I got a strike out and he didn’t. That was awkward. The Elders thought he was going to take me out. Haha. We also got to go rock climbing! We got it approved with President…its so much fun. I did 7 climbs (more than all the Elders)…guess my morning work-outs have been paying off. I totally want to rock climb more when I get home. This pday we are going to practice a talent show routine with some of the Elders. I always wanted to be in a talent show in elementary school, but I was too nervous. This is my time to shine! At our Christmas Zone Conference we are driving to Des Moines…lots of missionaries will be there and we are having a talent show. Im excited to see what everyone does. Itll be good.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We will be going to 5 Thanksgiving dinners! Four on Thursday and one on Saturday. Wahoo! I love all of you and appreciate all of you. Miss you! I am loving the mission and feel blessed to be here serving the Lord. Have a great week!

Love,
Hermana Murphy 

recent letter:)

November 18, 2009

Hola!

We are doing well here in Sioux City. We got our transfer call this morning and found out that we are staying one more transfer! Hermana Madsen goes home in 4 weeks! We aren’t sure what will happen when she goes home, I will probably be in a threesome until the new Hermana comes 2 weeks later. We will wait and see! We are so thankful to be in this area for more time because we absolutely love it here! We love the investigators, the members, and each other. haha But we feel blessed to stay. One of our zone leaders, Elder Phillips, got moved to be Assistant to the President of the mission. We are so happy for him!

This week has been a better week because we saw light at the end of the tunnel with some of our investigators. It started with the LoveJoy family! We were able to set a baptismal date with them for December 15- Sonya, Bryan, Kiana and Brianna. They are excited to work towards that date and continue learning. The Gospel has already blessed their life so much as they go through important changes. Rehab has really helped Sonya, she is glowing like she never has before! She has also been reading scriptures with her children nightly and praying more. She hadn’t prayed for a really long time, since her mother’s death. We are so excited for her as she continues to grow and progress. Bryan has also changed a lot; the kids are better taken care of. We have been teaching Bryan and the kids twice a week during visiting hours with the social worker. Next week, Bryan and Brianna are moving to Macy while Sonya and the kids stay at the Women and Children’s correction facility. Sonya and the kids are able to get released for Church, which is such a blessing! Bryan and Brianna will go to church in Macy and continue learning from Elders there until their baptism. Originally, Sonya requested that we teach her family and her because we are sisters-they are really connected to us. We are glad we are staying because when we told her we might be leaving, her heart dropped. We love them and are going to continue to show our love, support and encouragement. My mommy sent me some jackets and we were able to give them to the family! They loved them and really appreciated it. The Ochoa family is also doing well. Lauren and Alex so excited for their baptism on November 28! We are teaching them every week and getting them rides for activities. They have been very welcomed into the Primary class in the ward, they participated in the program last Sunday. We were so proud of them! I gave Alex a few thumbs up because he was so nervous to recite a scripture on the microphone! J We were happy to see Amanda Gomez and her family come to a Relief Society activity we held at the church. We gave them a tour of the church and the Spanish speaking members really welcomed them. The lesson was on food storage and family history. Amanda wants to do temple work for her mother who passed away without learning about Christ, so she was excited about family history. The family has yet to come to church but we know they want to-the kids will also be going to activities. We are going to her house for thanksgiving dinner Guatamala style. Im excited! Guadalupe and Omar are continuing to learn. They will have their baptismal interviews this Sunday. They didn’t feel ready for baptism yet but we are going to set a new date with them. We are working with them to stop smoking; they have cut back a lot. Victor wasn’t ready for his baptism, but he wants to keep learning and understand more clearly. I have faith that as we teach him he will feel more comfortable to make a commitment like baptism. The last progressing investigator I am going to update you on is Jose Manuel. He is the nephew of a less-active family that we are working with. He really loves learning and it all makes sense to him.

We want to start having a Spanish Bible and Book of Mormon study class once a week with investigators, members and less-actives. We think it would really help them get involved. We are also going to go by houses Saturday nights to remind people about church the next morning. Everyone says they will go, but it is hard since it is at 9 in the morning. In January our ward changes to 11:30 am. Thatll be sweet. We were able to do service at the O’Connor House in Nebraska this week. That was fun because it is an old-fashioned house that was owned by a rich family in the 1800s. I love antiques and family history! That was neat. The members of our ward have invited us over for dinner for every night of this month! Intense. We had a great dinner appointment with a Spanish member, Rose and her son, Nefi. Their family is made up of converts-Rosa gave her conversion story and made me cry. She is such a great woman. She talked a lot about how she feels the Spirit through hymns that we sing at church. I shared her an experience I had with music, before I was baptized Arly-lian sang “Lead Kindly Light” to me and I cried like a baby because I felt the Spirit so strongly. I knew what I was doing was the right choice. It is neat how music can connect with our Spirits.

I love all of you so much and hope all is well. All is well here in Iowa. Being a missionary is a great experience and I am learning so much every day. Talk to you next week!

Love,
Hermana Murphy

recent photos & a letter!!

Hi Everyone!!

This week has been really crazy. The weather is bizarre because its sunny! I don’t mind it, but I guess its usually snowing by this time consistently. For cooking this week, I made Bompy’s spaghetti sauce last night and my first omelette this morning. I made Betty Crocker’s gluten-free yellow cake! It is way good. I feel made for the other gluten free brands that are not mainstream because Betty is going to crush them. Oh well. Not my problem. Coolest thing so far this week was while we were giving a referrel to a sister missionary in Ohio she said she felt prompted to ask us if we had anyone in our family who would want a Finding Faith in Christ DVD. I said sure! So I gave her addresses to family members of mine. The film is great; especially at this time of year. She has been calling me to update me on the responses of family members…mommy agreed to let missionaries come over to teach her the lessons. This is important to me because she will learn exactly what I am teaching in Spanish in Iowa! Pretty cool. I am excited for her. I hope the rest of you will accept the movie and maybe even missionaries! I know that they would bring a special spirit in your home. J

Arly-lian sent me a tape this week! I was able to listen to her voice. So nice! I am going to send a digital recorder back/forth with her. J She is my best friend.

I got to go to my first baptism as a missionary! Victor and Ochoa kids came. It was a special afternoon seeing Senite get baptized. She recently moved here from Africa. She has such a sweet Spirit. Seeing her cry after being immersed in the water really reminded me of my baptism and how special that day was for me. We are so lucky to be able to be baptized under the authority of God because the Priesthood was restored. J After seeing her baptism, it motivated to work even harder to get our investigators working towards. We have baptismal dates set with Victor, Guadalupe and Lauren Ochoa. Victor loved the baptism and he wants to continue preparing for his. He will be a great member and he wants to serve a mission!

I was able to give the Spiritual thought in our district meeting this Wednesday. I wanted to share it with all of you. My friend, Elder Burton who is serving in Colorado sent me some teaching activities and a poem. I shared it all with my district because I loved what he sent! First I will share the poem:

The Oak Tree by Johnny Ray Ryder Jr

A mighty wind blew night and day
It stole the oak tree’s leaves away
Then snapped its boughs and pulled its bark
Until the oak was tired and stark

But still the oak tree held its ground
While other trees fell all around
The weary wind gave up and spoke
How can you still be standing oak?

The oak tree said, I know that you
Can break each branch of mine in two
Carry every leaf away
Shake my limbs and make me sway

But I have roots stretched to the earth
Growing stronger since my birth
You’ll never touch them, for you see
They are the deepest part of me

Until today, I wasn’t sure
Of just how much I could endure
But now I’ve found, with thanks to you
I’m stronger than I ever knew

This poem makes me cry! I love the symbolism that is involved. First of all, it reminds me of my favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon, Alma 32, which discusses faith. Faith starts as a seed in our hearts and grows into a tree as we nourish our testimony. In a way when we develop faith and are baptized we are planted in the ground and continue to grow. As our knowledge of the truth gets stronger and we gain a deeper testimony our roots get deeper and we are able to endure more trials. This poem relates to me a lot. As a new convert and a missionary, my testimony is growing rapidly. Out on the mission field, we encounter lots of adversity and rejection as well. Some of it has discouraged me, but in the end, I have been made stronger through the trials I have endured. As my testimony gets deeper, I can handle more of the Opposition. In a talk given by Elder Holland at last General Conference, he stated that men’s hearts will fail them in these latter-days and they will fall away from the teaching of Jesus Christ. The opposition is getting stronger, but as we hold true to our testimonies of Christ, we will not be those trees that fall down but instead staying strong because we have deep roots! J The second thing I shared with the other missionaries was the Welding Link. As we teach our investigators we need to emphasize how important their role in their family is. For example, as a convert to the church I can do Temple work for my relatives that have passed away and also be an example for future generations. Converts=welding links. Every member of the church is an offspring of a welding link! At my baptism, I did not think about how my decision would impact so many people. At the meeting we also discussed a talk by Elder Holland on how salvation is not easy; it needs to require trial. Our mission is not going to be easy because as disciples and representatives of Christ we are going to feel rejection-to feel a tiny bit of the rejection Christ felt. The Atonement of Christ can carry us as missionaries. Christ suffered all rejection for us, He knows how we feel when we are disappointed or disheartened..

Chad sent me notes from a Fireside he was able to watch with President Uchtdorf speaking. I shared the notes with a family that we had a dinner appointment with. The moral of the story is: Questions are good! Uchtdorf said, “ Is it all right to have questions about the church and its doctrine? Brothers and Sisters, we are a question-asking church! We know that questioning leads to truth. That’s how the church got its start! I don’t know how you can discover truth without asking questions. Often the knowledge Joseph Smith received extended far beyond the original question… [the Lord] can not only answer the questions we asked, but he can give us answers to the questions we should have asked. Inquiry is the birthplace of testimony..asking questions isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s a precursor of growth.” He said its logical to him that our finite intellects cant always comprehend the designs of God, if everything made sense to us, it would be evidence that it had all been made up by a mortal mind. So its normal and good and a sign of our desire to be like Him. “Always hold fast to the faith and the light you have already received…the words that you feel in your heart and mind and in your soul come from the Holy Ghost, and by the power of the Holy Ghost you can know the truth of all things.” I love his talk! On my mission, my testimony has taken leaps and bounds. I have had questions that have been so deep I have to sit back and think for a while. At first, I wondered if having questions were a bad thing. I have come to find that every time I search for answers to my questions in prayer or scripture study, Heavenly Father is right there with me leading me to the truth. I am so thankful for the promptings of the Holy Ghost and for my testimony which continues to grow deeper and deeper.

I gave a talk at Sacrament about Charity! I basically talked about how my testimony of charity has grown so much on my mission. I am constantly working on it everyday. We can strengthen our love for others through prayer, helping us to become better disciples of Jesus Christ. I encourage all of you to show charity towards your brothers and sisters, in turn demonstrating your love for God and Christ who have both proved their love through the Atonement. I shared a quote that I love by Elder Ballard entitled “The Sacrifice of the Father.” I love this quote because it describes how Heavenly Father sacrificed his son for our sins. When I have thought about the Atonement, I have understood Christ’s role but never Heavenly Father. They work hand in hand, giving us the gift of Eternal life.

The struggles of some of our investigators has really rocked our world. The Ochoa Family has had problems lately because Melissa’s husband is anti.(Melissa is a member) We are trying to help them as much as we can. Lauren and Alex Ochoa want to get baptized, and its hard for them when their dad is doing what he can to prevent it. Amanda Gomez is still learning and wants to prepare for baptism, but her husband also is against the church. People in Amanda’s life have been saying negative things about the church. We had a powerful lesson with her on prayer and how she can know the church is true through the Holy Ghost and the negative things she hears will not matter. The Lovejoy family is doing better. We got to see the girls during visiting hours. We will be teaching them twice a week and will see Sonya on Fridays at the correction facility. She is doing so good! She will be able to get released to go to church on Sunday! She has read the Book of Mormon and has been praying. Because of her trial with alcohol, she has really learned to lean on the Lord. We love her so much. We were able to teach the Hernandez family this week with the mom included, her attitude towards baptism is changing slowly and we are hoping to set a date with Bellin and Angel soon.

Well, I have to go do errands but I love all of you! Have a great week.

Hermana Murphy

yea....a letter from caitlyn!!!

Hola!

This week went by real fast as usual. It was a roller coaster of emotions this week. Was kind of a weird week because we taught lots of people and they all committed to coming to Stake Conference this week-end but none of them showed up. Jenny and I were really disappointed. We really felt like they would follow through. We get frustrated because we want to know what we can do better to help our investigators progress. We have been praying more for guidance from Heavenly Father to help us recognize who is prepared and who is not. We pray to know our invesetigators' doubts and questions so that we can help resolve them.

Our investigators are like our kids. We teach them, call them to remember their reading and to come to church, we make them baked goods, love them, encourage them, receive satisfaction when they progress...its heart breaking when they don't do the crucial things that will help them progress the most and receive a testimony. We want them to have the truth like we have the truth!! Reading, praying and going to church are the crucial steps to gaining a testimony and preparing for baptism. As an investigator, I grew the most by reading the Book of Mormon and praying to Heavenly Father about its truthfulness. I didnt just take the missionaries word and believe the lessons, it took effort on my part to study it out and desire to have the answer to my prayer on whether it was true or not. Its a different experience for people to learn about the Book of Mormon, because we have all grown up knowing that the Bible was true and heres this new book claiming to be written by Prophets living in Central America. What?! Its pretty amazing. The world claims so many different beliefs, its hard to know which are true and false. This is why reading and prayer are so crucial. Reading the words in the Book of Mormon can prove to anyone that the book wasnt written by a man of the world. It is full of scripture from Prophets of God. As I read the Book of Mormon for the first time, my relationship with Christ and God really became stronger. Because of this, I know it is a book written by Prophets of God. We have had people say the Book of Mormon was written by a crazy man trying to lead people astray. The thing is, how could a book that brings us closer to Jesus Christ and God, help us to feel the Holy Ghost more in our lives and fill our hearts with happiness be of a human being under the influence of unrighteous? It cant be so. We can all turn to the Lord for guidance and direction to what is true. We can receive answers to prayers through promptings of the Holy Ghost. Heavenly Father will not lead us astray if we sincerely desire His direction and His will. I know that prayer is real. I have experienced the power of prayer in my life since receiving the answer that the Book of Mormon is true and that I needed to be baptized. I crave for my investigators to pray with an open heart to receive their answer that the Church is true. As missionaries, we try to emphasize these key steps in conversion: reading the Book of Mormon and prayer. Another huge step is going to church, because it is there that the members can fill the Spirit strongly and learn the true doctrine that we believe. Its funny when people are against the church and start telling us their beliefs, but in reality their beliefs are in accordance with the church. People just dont take the time to study it out and read the teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith and come to church to see what the church really is!

But on the bright side! We set a baptismal date with Melissa's kids..we gave her nonmeber husband a Book of Mormon which is a huge thing because he has been anti. (Melissa is a member). We are planning on setting a date with Victor soon because he is really progressing. We had some amazing lessons with him this week; he wants to be a missionary! We have been teaching Amanda lots this week. I love her so much! She already has a strong testimony of the Gospel, we just have to keep teaching her to prepare for baptism. We had a great lesson with her this weeek and are going back tonight. We taught her with her sister and brother in law. Her brother in law has had major doubts, but we were able to resolves some of them. The thing is, none of the teachings of our church go against the teaching of Christ in the bible. We teach with the Bible as much as we teach with the Book of Mormon. Both testify of Christ and His teachings. For me personally, my testimony of the Church has increased by reading the Bible. I love the New Testament. Our church today is truly the restored church of Jesus Christ that He established!!!

A sad note, one of the families we have been teaching had some family troubles this week. We have been teaching the daughters, and have tried hard to also teach the mom, but she didnt feel up to learning yet. Well, it turns out she is an alchoholic and the kids are going to live with her cousin in macy until she gets situated at rehab. We went over there to counsel her and tell her that God loves her and she can get through any trial possible with the help of Jesus Christ. The girls are going to live with her in the womens and children correction facility. We can go and visit them and keep teaching them there. Its sad because the dad has no where to live because they cant afford their house. We are trying to find someone in the ward with extra space for him. We helped them out by sending food through the church to the kids living with the cousin in Macy. Its such a dif life here for people. I am thankful to be able to help out our investigators!

Other than that, Im doing well. Hermana Madsen and I are getting along nicely. We are getting used to eachothers personalities. We laugh a lot. She is very sarcastic. Im ok with it, I joke along too. We had stake conference this week-end. Our mission president and his wife spoke. It was so good! We were also able to see other missionaries from the mission, which is always fun. Friday we are going to the Nauvoo Temple with President Talbot, Sister Talbot the APs and other missionaries that are leaving. Before a missionary leaves the mission, he/she gets to go to the Temple with their companion. So since Jenny is leaving, I am joining her for the trip! I am so excited to go! It will be so beautiful! Halloween is also next week! We are planning a party with ward members, missionaries and investigators. Should be fun! Im going to make Halloween treats. Send me any cool recipes!!

Well, I love you and hope you are doing well! I miss you. But Im having a good time! Teaching others is really helping me with my communication skills and its a bit like counseling because we have to get to know the poeple and know their concerns and doubts. At times I feel like a psychologist. We are starting to do service at Hermana Florys work (a member in the ward) She is a social worker and we are going to go and help the Spanish people feel out their application correctly. Its amazing how many people are on programs such as food stamps! Getting a totally dif view of the world.

I am rooting for ASU while on my mission! :) The, AP Elder Thomas keeps me updated and my parents do too!! I will be a whole different athlete after my mission!

I love being a missionary and am thankful for this opportunity. I never expected it but I have been prepared for it throughout my life by Heavenly Father.

Love you all. You are in my prayers!
-Hermana Murphy

happy october!!

here is caitlyn's letter from yesterday...

Hola! esta semana fue muy rapido! my cooking updates first. haha I made mom's split pea soup! Heidi's ginger chicken and brocolli! Then also blueberry pancakes and chocolate chip brownies for my investigators. Twas fun! Cooking is rewarding! All the work for a yummy meal. If you know of any sweet recipes..send em my way por favor!

We had some good progress with investigators this week. We started teaching an inactive family, whose kids arent baptized. The kids came to church on Sunday and loved it! During Sacrament, two of the little girls held my hand. It was precious. :) We are teaching the family about twice a week. The father is anti-mormon but we have taught with him in the room and he lets his wife and kids go so his heart is softening up some. We had a great lesson with Rosa about the plan of salvation. She really enjoyed it and felt it was true. We are trying to help her develop a love for the Book of Mormon. Victor and Geudelupe have also made progress. Guedelupe was able to go back to high school and is finishing his high school degree and wants to go to the Air Force. Its great that he is turning his life around from drugs and alcohol to the Lord. He stopped smoking recently..that was good news! We got to watch the Restoration movie this week with Amanda and her kids. The kids really love us. One of the little girls, who is about 4 totally tooted on my leg while she was sitting by me watching movie. We just laughed. I thought it was funny. But Amanda really has the desire to learn and understand. She believes that God would send another Prophet in these latter-days and feels the Book of Mormon is scripture. We just have to help her to continue to progress and learn. We love all our investigators and feel so blessed to be in this area and be teaching the Spanish culture. I love it! I want to watch tv, movies, magazines, and do everything in spanish after my mission. I was thinking of going to a Spanish Ward in Arizona sometimes in Mesa when I go to ASU! Thatd be sweet!

Yesterday, Hna Madsen and I went to visit Sister Brown's (a member from our ward) sister in the nursing home. It was her birthday and she asked us to sing spanish hymns to her. that was interesting. Neither Hna Madsen or I am great at singing but we sang out hearts out for her. As we were singing, old people would peek their heads in and listen, it was cute. We are planning on going back on service day and going from room to room singing hymns. I think it would brighten their days. At conference, the speakers talked a lot about showing charity to those around you. They also focused on the elderly...helping them enjoy the present, rather than only remembering the past. We need to visit the lonely people around us more often! Show them that they are children of God and have their Eternal life to look forward to! :):)

So it totally snowed here again today. Its going to be a rough winter. I actually kind of like it. As long as my feet are warm and I have layers I am fine. I want one of those ski masks with the holes in the eyes. That might be scary for people while tracting..what do you think? But yeah my mom bought be a nice jacket and I am looking forward to that! I worked out in the sand (icy sand) with like 3 layers of everything. That was a first. Dont get snowy sand in socal.

Well...I love all of you and hope to hear from you soon! I want to testify that the Gospel is true. God restored Jesus Christ's church through the Prophet Joseph Smith after many years of Apostasy. He had a vision, just like Prophets in the Bible have had visions. He saw God and Jesus Christ and they directed him to restoring the church on the earth again. We have the Priesthood keys and the power of God in our Church. Jospeh Smith also translated the Book of Mormon with the power of God. No man could have written that book without Divine inspiration. I encourage all to read it and pray about its truthfulness..pray whether prophets really did live in Central America during the same time the Bible was being written and pray about where the Resurrected Christ visited "the other sheep" in the Americas.

I am blessed to be a missionary and serve the Lord. :) I enjoy the people I encounter every day, the time I have to study the Gospel and understand it at a deeper level. I pray for you. Please, pray for me!

Love Hermana Murphy!!!