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