busy, busy.

Hola!

This week has been super busy like it always is! We have lots of people to teach so we did splits a lot with members. The members in our branch are more willing to help out now, so that is great! Siste Bee even went out with me on exchanges, she likes helping us. :) We are doing the soccer activity again today, that we did last week. It really helped some of our investigators get involved and make friends with the members. That'll be fun!
As far as updates for investigators, we have had progression this week. Pedro Martinez, whose date is for July 13th will not be ready..he is fighting a word of wisdom isssue. We started the quit smoking program and he was doing super strong, until last night. His boss recently changed his work hours to Sundays, which made it impossible for him to come to church. So last night, he asked his boss for Sundays off and his boss fired him and said, now you can go to your church meetings. So he was really mad and smoked last night to calm himself down. We are going to get more members involved to help him out..fellowship him through this hard time. Hermana Ibarra was a huge help in a lesson we had, because she had to quit smoking and drinking coffee as well. Pedro received a blessing from the Elders and he has faith that through the help of Christ he will overcome this. We exlained to him today that this is a trial of his faith and the road to baptism will be tough, but he can do it. We are having members in the branch look for housing and job opportunities for him. (He really needs a job to support his family in El Salvador). As far as commitments, he has done all his reading and praying. He has been listening to the BOM on cd. He is the best guy ever! We will continue having daily contact and showing him the support he needs. The bright side of being fired is the fact he can come to church now. So we are going to pray about a new date for him.

Three investigators came to church Sunday. We committed Alejondro to baptism the first lesson we had with him. He agreed to it, but we havent made it solid yet..so we will confirm that date this week. We are thinking for the 27th of July. He really liked church and stayed for all three hours. We found him a fellowshipper to sit by him and attend classes with him, Jesus Huerta! He is way nice. Alejondro wants to start a new life and quit drinking and be good examples for his children who live in Mexico. :) Well, Jose Guzman is also amazing. We have taught him once, and he participated a lot in the classes at church. He has a solid christian background, and I feel will progress rapidly. He actually gave Alejondro a ride to church, so they are friends now. Elizabeth also came to church with her little brother. Sister Bee and I taught her and her mom this week. They were both very receptive and eager to learn. Her mom works on Sundays but agreed to having a member pick her kids up. Elizabeth is 11 and very mature for her age. She even came to the baptism we had in the branch Saturday night! She is a very special find. We need to for sure find solid rides for her and fellowshippers. We invited some of the young women to come to her lesson with us this week.

As for other investigators...Gladis is still progressing, doing her reading and praying...we had a strong lesson about the Sabbath day with Hermana Gomez. She brought the Spirit strong in that lesson and that gave Gladis the desire to attend church for herself but mainly for her children. We covered some of her doubts this week, comparing the doctrine of the Catholic church to the Mormon Church. For example, the restoration of the Gospel in comparison to a continued line of authority. She understands it very well, which means she understands the importance of it. Who has the authority? We emphasized how crucial it is for her to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon, because it it a fruit of the Prophet Joseph Smith. She said since learning with us, she has grown closer to Heavenly Father and feels the Spirit more in her life. The confusing part for her is she remembers feeling the Spirit at the Catholic Church..so she needs to gain her testimony of the BOM and that Joseph Smith was a prophet to see the difference. Ofcourse she is going to feel it there while learning about Christ and God! She is working on changing her work schedule and talking more about the church with her boyfriends. We hope he comes to the activity today!

We made more progress with Jenn this week. We talked about the Spirit and about how she is born with the light of Christ. She genuinely wants to do good, and that comes from Christ, not society. We are helping her recognize that she has felt the Spirit! She went on vacation this week, so she wasnt at church, we are hoping she will feel a difference. We asked her to pray/fast about baptism and she doesnt feel ready yet.

I love Hermana Huizar! We are pals. She is the wife of a convert and we eat at their house every week. She is totally open to learn and is doing great. We did a lesson on how the BOM and Bible work together and both testify of Christ. We read Esek 37:15-16 about the tribe of Judah and Ephraim. Also John 10:16 about how Christ was talking about his "other sheep" in the Americas and how she can read more about that in 3Nephi 11 (once ressurrected he visits the Americas). They are a great couple and want to strengthen their family and I know the Gospel will bless them!

We had the opportunity to teach Omar's family. That was special. We are going to try to teach them the lessons again because they dont feel that they were well prepared for baptism. Sad. :( We are going to try to get a hold of more less actives this week.

We found some sweet new people as well, that seem prepared to receive the Gospel. Missionary work is fun!
We are doing better in our companionship..learning from one another and growing. I am working on studying more basic doctrine to know how to explain it more clearly to the invsetigators. I am also trying to testify more! I love this work and am sad I will be leaving it in December. I look forward to the 3 transfers I have a head of me..with the new Hermanas coming out! Yippee!!

Love you all,
Hermana Murphy