Yikes....Cow?!

hola!!

So I definately ate stomach, nerves and bone marrow from a cow last night at Amanda's house. That was a first! Hermana McGuire and I were looking at the soup like, whats in this? Amanda explained that the soup is very expensive when bought at restaurants...I ate it with a smile. I know what its like to be a true Spanish speaking missionary!

We had Zone Conference this week! It was really nice receiving training from President and Sister Talbot, the Assistants and the Zone Leaders...I was picked to give the talk on Diligence...D: dedicated, I: intense, L: love, I: Involved/Interested, G: gratitude, E: energetic, N: not distracted, C: consistent, E: effective...We need to be dedicated to the calling that we have received to be missionaries of Jesus Christ..Sacrifice lunch hours, personal time or whatever we need to in order to be intense!...Love our investigators so that they can feel God's love through us...Be involved in their life and interested in who they are...Show gratitude every day in our prayers, thanking Heavaenly Father for His help in the work, because we couldnt do this work without the guidance of the Holy Ghost, Have enerygy and excitement everday with a smile on our faces because we are part of a great work, remove all distractions from the work so that we can focus on what we are doing and our purpose as missionaries, consistently work hard everyday and be effective with planning and time! It was a fun talk to give and ofcourse I started crying while talking about my experience as an investigator with my missionaries. I could truly feel with love of God through them becayse of the Spirit they brought with them while teaching me. I also know I have been prepared my while life to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I testified to my fellow missionaries that there are people here in Iowa who have been prepared. :) We also sang a musical number, Hermana McGuire, the Zone leaders and me. It was the primary hymn, "Love is Spoken here." I really like that hymn! I want to have a home full of love and I want to have a family of unity.

We did service this week again at Floyd House. I love old people! I go on walks in the hallway with Don (he is blind). He is a fast walker and always has interesting things to say. This week we talked about how the world needs more love and needs to accept Jesus Christ. He brought that up and talked about how we are both believers of Jesus Christ..it was a good bonding experience. We played Wii bowling again with our "gals," Betty and Ruth. They get a kick out of that.

Omar received the Aaronic priesthood yesterday at church. He was really excited. We had a lesson afterwards about his responsibilties as a priesthood holder and how he can help bless others. Omar is progressing nicely and has taken his baptismal commitment seriously. We had some really cool experiences this week while tracting. We knocked on Yolanda's door, she is from Atlanta and lives here with her kids. She has had rough times lately and had prayed to God for help and we showed up. She started crying because she was so thankful to for the answer to her prayer. That was so neat! She loved our message and is going to read the Book of Mormon. We gave her name to the Elders and they are going togo back and teach her. I know that Heavenly Father is leading and guiding us everyday. We were able to teach some powerful lessons this week and we had over a 100 contacts! We are working hard on finding new people to teach and contacting as many as possible. We are responsable for so many souls here in Sioux City and South Sioux. We feel that Latinos are the majority so we have lots to get done! As far as progressing investigators go, Emerita, Mario, Delmar, Angel and J.J are all doing well and reading the scriptures. We are having a tough time getting them to go to church...we can do our best to express the importance of it but its up to them to make the decision! We pray they will come.

Things are going well...we are riding our bikes next week! Thatll be fun. Pray for sunshine! haha

Love you all,

Hermana Murphy

New Letter!!!

Hola mi familia y amigos!!!

The most exciting thing that went down this week was the confirmation of Omar! He received the Gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday. He is so happy! He has been a fantastic person to teach and I have seen so much growth in him through the Atonement of Jesus Christ! We also found out in our president's email:

"We are thrilled to announce that Brother & Sister Dirk & Laurie Jergensen, from San Diego, CA have been called as the new mission president and his wife for our mission. Please add them to your daily prayers. They will be a blessing to you and the work. In addition there will be changes to the makeup of our mission with the consolidation of the Peoria Illinois Mission, our mission and the St. Louis Mission. We have not received any details and so anything else would be just speculation. Please don't let this be a distraction, we will update you as we receive details." Lots of changes taking place for our mission! It's all very exciting. I will miss the Talbots so much; they are the most down to earth, humble servants of the Lord. Great examples for me! I look forward to meeting our new mission president and his wife this summer; especially since they are from California! Wahoo!

I actually ran into a sister missionary I knew from home; she is in my district now. She is the niece of my trainer, Dave Warner. Crazy! Our district now has two sets of sisters and then one set of Elders. We outnumber for once! The sisters are serving in Vermillian. We also are sharing a car with the Elders in Sioux City so every other week we wont have a car! So we are depending on rides from members but also will be borrowing the zone leaders' bikes! Thatll be fun in the freezing cold...but Im not going to lie the exercise part is thrilling. Some of our favorite missionaries, Elder Jones and Elder Webster got transferred...we will miss them but will see them sometime down the road again! Elder Casey Jones will be going to ASU after his mission in May. He will be one of my first friends there!

Hermana McGuire has been giving me singing lessons and teaching me how to read music. :) Thats a plus; she is really into music and plays the trumpet. We are doing a special musical number with the zone leaders on Thursday at Zone Conference; so I have been practicing. I dont want President Talbot to cry from my horrible singing!

Sounds like many exciting things are happening at home! My baby brother, Bobby, is here! Congrats Dad and Heidi. Allyson is getting married! Im so excited! I also found out that I get my number at ASU. #14! I will be rocking it. :) Good times.

Our families in the ward are doing great. We have been working way hard at finding new investigators! We tracted a bunch and found lots. I love Sioux City...so many Spanish speaking people, its great! I love the work and am looking forward to helping more of God's children come unto Christ! I love you all, have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Murphy

Letter!!

Hello World,

We are staying here in Sioux City for one more transfer..until the end of March. I am so happy because things are going well here for us and we want to help strengthen the Spanish converts and investigators! This week has been a real winner. Omar was baptized last night! It was so great…all our recent converts came to support him and the Spanish families in the ward. Hermana McGuire call them our “peeps” because there isn’t a lot of us Spanish speaking members in the ward but we are growing and getting stronger! Omar was very happy last night; he called us and said thank you. We are so excited for him! He is going to be a strong member. We are working on getting him fellowshippers because there aren’t single adults his age in the church. He is actually thinking about moving to Utah or Arizona. Haha.

We has fast/testimony meeting on Sunday. I bore my testimony in Spanish (wahoo!) and gave my thanks to Heavenly Father for letting me be a representative of Jesus Christ. I appreciate the opportunities I have every day to share the Plan of Salvation and how we can live with our families forever. I am thankful for the restoration of the Gospel and for Temple work! We have a great responsibility to share our testimonies and knowledge with those who haven’t received our message. How great is our calling!

I know that Heavenly Father is involved in this work and is touching the hearts of our investigators. We had some intense lessons this week; with Delmar and Carlos. Amanda straight up told her husband Carlos, we are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, not Joseph Smith. He has had doubts about whether or not we worship Joseph Smith. I think he gets it now. We only worship God and Jesus Christ! He will come around, he felt the Spirit strongly at his wife and kids baptism. Delmar is Melissa’s boyfriend (Melissa’s kids were baptized in November). Delmar is having trouble accepting the Book of Mormon and we had a 2 hour lesson yesterday with Brother Rillings. He is going to pray about the truthfulness of it. That is really all we can do to know that it really is scripture. That’s how I know, through the testimony of the Holy Ghost!

I love all of you, and I love life. I love our Heavenly Father, and all of His children. I look forward to bringing more souls unto Christ, only possible with the help of Heavenly Father and the guidance of the Holy Ghost. Love you.

-Hermana Murphy

Hello from Caitlyn!!!

Why hello!!!

Things are going well here in good old Iowa and Nebraska. We cross the state border probably 10 times a day. We are so blessed here! I love being a Spanish speaking missionary..even though they don’t always understand what we are saying they can feel the love of the Lord through our Spirit and smile! This week we contacted a lot of people and only one English speaking person accepted a Jesus Christ pass along card and about 50 Spanish speaking people accepted cards. Come on white people! J I love the Spanish culture and the love and warmth of the people. I can be myself and show all the love I want!

The Spanish part of the ward is really getting stronger. So strong we are going to start having sacrament, Relief Society and Priesthood classes in Spanish! We are so excited about this! Our members will be able to hear the word of God in their own native language rather than in English with missionaries translating to their best ability. We are so thankful for Heavenly Father’s hand in this work and try to show our gratitude everyday. We have been humbled and know we couldn’t do it without Him! Our recent converts are thriving. Amanda and Celia LOVE church and love to participate. I know their testimonies will continue to grow and grow. They are very happy…on Sunday Celia was smiling and I was like why are you smiling and she said Im happy! I thought that was cute. The Phillips family came to church, which made me so excited. I love them so much and Sonya said she really felt good at church. They haven’t been able to go since their baptism because of living conditions and being in Macy. They will be back next Sunday! Omar is nervous and excited for his baptism on February 9. He is finally letting the Atonement affect his life and forgive himself of his faults. We all have faults! Heavenly Father gives us weaknesses so that through Christ we can be made strong. Omar has been a great investigator and will make a strong member…he thinks deeply about life and knows that the baptismal commitment he is about to make is a huge promise to God as well as a step closer to living with God after this life. He is ready!

Other news: I got the flu this week! Lame! Amanda was so cute and worried… she bought me medicine at the store and a cute monkey stuffed animal that makes kiss noises! I am feeling better now! I also got two letters from Krisia! Her wedding photos are beautiful!! I put them on my wall in my room. All my girlfriends looked good and Krisia looked like an angel. Missionaries here thought we were sisters! Hehe Congrats Krisia and Kyle…hope you got my wedding card in the mail. So I now have a Koran..we have made friends with many Muslims here and exchanged a Book of Mormon for a Koran. Religion really does intrigue me. Hermana McGuire and I were excited when we made the trade.

Well I love everyone! We are working on making more baptismal dates this week and helping our investigators progress. Please pray that Heavenly Father will guide us to His children that are ready and willing to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ into their life!

Love
Hermana Murphy