Loved Conference!

Hola otra vez! Como estan?

April 5, 2010

I am in Des Moines and loving it. Hermana Reese and I are still getting all snuggled into our new apartment..its way better! This week was full of training. We had Zone Conference, which was awesome and then General Conference!! Our Zone Conference was focused on being an obedient and consecrated missionary. Hermana Reese and I are working on being as obedient as we can because thats how we will be blesses with the Spirit, and the Spirit is what converts our investigators! Ofcourse, we have faults and that is why we have Jesus Christ. Through Him we can overcome weaknesses and be the missionary Heavenly Father wants us to be! I know I wont be perfect, but I am trying to improve every day. :) We talked a lot at Zone Conference about following up on our investigators- basically making them the center of your life as a missionary. I may become a little obsessed but thats ok. :) But we are trying to call them everyday and help them to feel comfortable with the Church and doing their daily reading and praying. There are some things we are going to start implementing in this area, such as a "Our Heritage" class. We are going to start teaching a class about the history of the church, aimed at the less-actives, recent converts and investigators. In Sioux City that was a topic of interest but we were teaching the Gospel Principles class every week (that class is already provided here in Sunday school.) It'll be great! If you did not watch General Conference..you should! It was amazing. We learn so much from the leaders of our church. The talks will be available on lds.org to either listen to or watch. The big theme of the conference was Jesus Christ, families and mother/ daughter relationships. My family is the most important thing to me! I am so thankful for the church's focus on that unit. I want to study psychology and help struggling families...because the world is degrading the family unit! What each family really needs is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the guidance of the living Prophet of God. :)

Updates on the investigators: Cynthia is getting baptized on Saturday. She is very excited! We spent Easter afternoon with her and her family, we dyed easter eggs and did an easter egg hunt. It was fun! They had never dyed eggs before so it was a special experience. I do every year with Bompy and Nanny. :) We are having a baptismal service on April 24 and have set that date with Omar, Lindolfo and Christine. Omar has an amazing story. He has had a rough life, but through his faith in Christ has stepped into the light. He really wants to change for the better and continue to do whats right. We are working with him on some word of wisdom issues but we have faith he will stop drinking because he knows its the right thing to do. We are contacting him daily. He came to Saturday General Conference at The Juhls house (Bompy and Nanny's friends) with us Hermanas and our Zone Leaders. He loved conference and was able to hear the testimonies of members. The Juhls are the sweetest people and fed us a feast! I also got to say hi to Nanny and Bompy. Oh, how much I love them! I thanked the Juhls a million times for the special day. Anyways...Lindolfo is the sweetest old man! He and Christine are married-which is interesting because he only speaks spanish and she only speaks english..so I guess facial expressions work wonders for them? ha. They are both looking for the truth and felt the Spirit strongly at General Conference. We are working with Lindolfo to stop praying to Maria but to Heavenly Father instead and Christine to stop smoking. I have faith in each one of these investigators that through the Atonement of Christ and with the help of the Lord they will be prepared for their baptism on the 24th!

All is well here in Des Moines and we are going to work so hard to help our investigators progress and keep their commitments. We are their guides back to Heavenly Father, it's a wonderful calling!

Love you all,

Hermana Murphy