BAHHHHHHHH!!!!! translation: I am really excited right now!
Last night Jose Rubio was baptized. :) That was really special! He has been a tough cookie. He texted us and said he feels different and thanked us for working with him. When he received the Gift of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit prompted Hermano Santiago to promise him blessings, including a successful job and harmony in his family. Those were two of his biggest set backs in getting baptized, but he relief on prayer and the Holy Ghost to make the decision. We are excited for him and pleased with the faith that he has demonstrated.
Hector, our recent convert is doing better. He feels he doesnt need us to visit him anymore with the members so we are going to have our "last supper" and pass him off to the members. He taught the Gospel Principles class yesterday! Pedro is still struggling because he was offended by a member, so we taught him about forgiveness and charity. He doesnt like that someone judged him, but now he is judging the person that did the judging so he has become a judger instead of a judgee. :) The branch overall is doing good. We were pleased with their support of Jose and his baptism. I have seen a big change in attitude! They are more open to help us with missionary work; we still need to schedule better member presents. Our ride situation is fine. We are receiving help from investigators and members, and it is actually fun. We now sing hymns to whoever gives us rides. It is their incentive to do it.
We have set a baptismal goal of 4 this transfer. We believe that this is possible through obedience and faith. We need miracles! We feel that Gladis, Arut, Guadalupe and Maria have potential. We are teaching lots of other neat people too though. Gladis has made progress and really wants to get baptized. She is caught in a rock and a hard spot because Eder (her boyfriend) said he would get married once he learned enough about the church so he could also be baptized, but now says he wont. She is debating on separating, so we fasted with her to help her make inspired changes in her life to be able to be baptized. She is pretty sure her boss will let her have sundays off. Tonight we are teaching her about modern revelation and about our Prophet Thomas S Monson. That is the one doubt that she has in the baptismal interview questions is whether he is a true prophet. Arut and Guadalupe will be receiving a Priesthood blessing tonight to help them with their smoking addictions. They started the program to stop smoking and we want them to have an extra boost. They like what they are learning and want to be married, but are waiting for the arrival of their children from Mexico. :) Maria is a wonderful mother and woman. She has been around the block with the Jehovah Witness church as well as the Baptist. She feels confused and wants the truth. We explained that she can find the truth through prayer and the Holy Ghost. She will get there! We had a funny experience with her the other night. Her son, Miguel (that is autistic & 27, we love him) continued to take our water bottles and drink them really fast, trying to do it without us seeing. During the closing prayer, he took H Hepworth's gatorade because he noticed our eyes were closed. You probably needed to be there, but we have special experiences at her house often.
The Hermanas are doing great. Hermana Hepworth and I drove down to Iowa City to attend the transfer meeting. My first and last in the mission (we just implemented them). It was fun seeing all the missionaries and hearing where everyone was going. H Hancock (the greenie) is wonderful at Spanish! She will do just fine. We are working on breaking her in on contacts and door approaches. She gets nervous (its really cute) so I help her get involved with lessons. I can see that her confidence is rising and she is going to shine! She is very obedient about only speaking the language as well, which is always a struggle. Greenie busting Hermana Hepworth is also fun! She has all the logistics down of serving a mission, we are working on her talking more as well. Lots of practice! They are both great missionaries. We learned how to make tamales with our investigators. I plan on making them for my family and my volleyball team at ASU. They are the best!
Happy Halloween everyone. We are going to be with members on Halloween because we arent allowed to be out. We want to carve pumpkins. :)
We are doing well. We have a great district and area. Wahoo! Oh by the way congrats goes to Ivan and Nikki, two of my friends from the mission that are getting married! Ahh. Exciting! I am happy for you both.
loves and we will talk later,
Hermana Murphy
Monday, October 25, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Still in Des Moines!!
Meow,
News Flash: I am staying in Des Moines and will die here as a trainer! The Lord has blessed me with an opportunity to train a new Hermana and greenie bust Hermana Hepworth..we will be in a three-some. We are starting our new biking gang in Des Moines. J We will be driving to Iowa City to pick up my new girl. I am grateful for the opportunity to be here another transfer. This means I will have two areas my whole mission! Crazy. I love it though, because I have gotten to know the people very well in Sioux City and here. We went on the “going home” temple trip. It was lots of fun. Sister Guthrie was able to come, so I was happy about that. We had a huge group that came, about 15 missionaries! Church went well on Sunday. We helped out with Primary and the lesson was on the First Presidency of the Church. It was really cute helping the kids pronounce Uchtdorf over and over again.
The area is doing well. This Sunday Jose Rubio will be baptized. We are excited about that! We hope that his wife in Mexico is overreacting and doesn’t really want a divorce. Hermano Serrano who has a baptismal date for the 13th of November fell into his drinking again. We havent been able to see him because his wife says he has been drunk. This is really sad to us...but we have faith that he can stop the addiction and follow the word of wisdom. He was doing very well. We were able to do service for Gladis this week! We just love her so much. We had a very intense lesson with her and Eder the other night. We were explaining how God is a just and merciful God, and we can show that we love Him by following the commandments. We explained that our Savior has suffered for us, and we watched the Lamb of God. The Spirit was really strong...I cried as I bore my testimony of the love of God and Christ and the only way to show them we love them is by keeping the commandments and repenting/ changing. Probably the hardest thing on my mission is seeing the potential in families and children of God, but them not seeing the big picture. I want them to progress and accept it so badly, but if they are not willing to change or do what they need to they wont receive the blessings. We aren’t giving up on Gladis and Eder yet even though Eder is not ready to live the Law of Chastity. Gladis has expressed many times her desire to be married and baptized, but he is holding her back. We are going to continue to be patient with him, because he has progressed. This week he expressed to us that he recognized his faith after having a trial with his family. He is realizing how important it is to have God in his life, so we see light at the end of the tunnel. His mindset towards marriage is twisted because of the attitude of the world. We are attempting to help him see the benefits of marriage and the peace it will bring. Yeah, hard times will come but with the help of Christ they will be strengthened. Anyways..we finally started the Stop smoking program with Arut and Guadalupe, but then we went and checked up on them and they gave in to temptation. They hadnt bought the supplies yet for the program so he committed to restarting it. They want to be free of that addiction, because their children will be coming here from Mexico! They want to get married once their children are back (hopefully end of November) and if they feel prepared they want to be baptized. We see real potential with them and are showing them our support. The Lord has blessed us with lots of new investigators and we are excited to help them progress. Our favorites are Wendy, Maria & Miguel and Maria & Mony. Wendy is a Christian from El Salvador..married with really cute twin boys, excited to learn! Maria is an amazing Mexican mom that takes care of her autistic son (Miguel, 27) all the time. We just love their family. We hope that we can continue seeing them. While teaching Maria, Miguel kept screaming that he wanted all kinds of food, so Guthrie and I joked “that’s just like Hermana Murphy (I like to eat)” Then right after we said that he farted really loud. End of Story. Bahahaha Mony remembers being baptized in our church in Mexico. We are going to search for her records..her daughter Maria (16) is really nice and starting reading in the BOM. She is going to come and do service with us, since we do it once a week. She needs service hours for high school. Those are some of the fun people we met this week. Heavenly Father keeps putting great people in our path…
The branch is holding out strong. J The Gomez Family (our branch president and his family) are going to the Nauvoo Temple Saturday to be sealed for all time and eternity. Wahoo!
Those are most of the updates. I could type forever and ever. I will just tell you more once I am home. Don’t worry. I am focused on the work, Heavenly Father is helping me! I love the work so much. I only have one trunky thing to say, my ASU women’s volleyball team beat UCLA and USC! Go Sundevils!
Con Amor,
La Hermana Murphy
News Flash: I am staying in Des Moines and will die here as a trainer! The Lord has blessed me with an opportunity to train a new Hermana and greenie bust Hermana Hepworth..we will be in a three-some. We are starting our new biking gang in Des Moines. J We will be driving to Iowa City to pick up my new girl. I am grateful for the opportunity to be here another transfer. This means I will have two areas my whole mission! Crazy. I love it though, because I have gotten to know the people very well in Sioux City and here. We went on the “going home” temple trip. It was lots of fun. Sister Guthrie was able to come, so I was happy about that. We had a huge group that came, about 15 missionaries! Church went well on Sunday. We helped out with Primary and the lesson was on the First Presidency of the Church. It was really cute helping the kids pronounce Uchtdorf over and over again.
The area is doing well. This Sunday Jose Rubio will be baptized. We are excited about that! We hope that his wife in Mexico is overreacting and doesn’t really want a divorce. Hermano Serrano who has a baptismal date for the 13th of November fell into his drinking again. We havent been able to see him because his wife says he has been drunk. This is really sad to us...but we have faith that he can stop the addiction and follow the word of wisdom. He was doing very well. We were able to do service for Gladis this week! We just love her so much. We had a very intense lesson with her and Eder the other night. We were explaining how God is a just and merciful God, and we can show that we love Him by following the commandments. We explained that our Savior has suffered for us, and we watched the Lamb of God. The Spirit was really strong...I cried as I bore my testimony of the love of God and Christ and the only way to show them we love them is by keeping the commandments and repenting/ changing. Probably the hardest thing on my mission is seeing the potential in families and children of God, but them not seeing the big picture. I want them to progress and accept it so badly, but if they are not willing to change or do what they need to they wont receive the blessings. We aren’t giving up on Gladis and Eder yet even though Eder is not ready to live the Law of Chastity. Gladis has expressed many times her desire to be married and baptized, but he is holding her back. We are going to continue to be patient with him, because he has progressed. This week he expressed to us that he recognized his faith after having a trial with his family. He is realizing how important it is to have God in his life, so we see light at the end of the tunnel. His mindset towards marriage is twisted because of the attitude of the world. We are attempting to help him see the benefits of marriage and the peace it will bring. Yeah, hard times will come but with the help of Christ they will be strengthened. Anyways..we finally started the Stop smoking program with Arut and Guadalupe, but then we went and checked up on them and they gave in to temptation. They hadnt bought the supplies yet for the program so he committed to restarting it. They want to be free of that addiction, because their children will be coming here from Mexico! They want to get married once their children are back (hopefully end of November) and if they feel prepared they want to be baptized. We see real potential with them and are showing them our support. The Lord has blessed us with lots of new investigators and we are excited to help them progress. Our favorites are Wendy, Maria & Miguel and Maria & Mony. Wendy is a Christian from El Salvador..married with really cute twin boys, excited to learn! Maria is an amazing Mexican mom that takes care of her autistic son (Miguel, 27) all the time. We just love their family. We hope that we can continue seeing them. While teaching Maria, Miguel kept screaming that he wanted all kinds of food, so Guthrie and I joked “that’s just like Hermana Murphy (I like to eat)” Then right after we said that he farted really loud. End of Story. Bahahaha Mony remembers being baptized in our church in Mexico. We are going to search for her records..her daughter Maria (16) is really nice and starting reading in the BOM. She is going to come and do service with us, since we do it once a week. She needs service hours for high school. Those are some of the fun people we met this week. Heavenly Father keeps putting great people in our path…
The branch is holding out strong. J The Gomez Family (our branch president and his family) are going to the Nauvoo Temple Saturday to be sealed for all time and eternity. Wahoo!
Those are most of the updates. I could type forever and ever. I will just tell you more once I am home. Don’t worry. I am focused on the work, Heavenly Father is helping me! I love the work so much. I only have one trunky thing to say, my ASU women’s volleyball team beat UCLA and USC! Go Sundevils!
Con Amor,
La Hermana Murphy
Monday, October 11, 2010
Bonjour!
Bonjour!
The Lord blessed us with lots of lessons this week! He sure is guiding us by the Spirit to find new investigators and work hard. We are getting used to riding the bikes and getting the help from the members and investigators with rides. It is nice to see the members more as well as having the investigators serve us (then they love us more). Church went well yesterday! Jose Rubio came for the first time to our branch, Hermano Serrano came with Hermana Amaya (LA) and Profresso came for the first time. We helped with primary and the lesson was on missionary work, those kids are the cutest! They are learning young to serve the Lord. I approve. We even had a coordination meeting with the members of the branch presidency; they are willing to help us out. The branch presidency thanked us for our service, and that was nice to hear that we are appreciated. :) We expressed the need for fellowshippers as well as taking care of the recent converts. They are praying to call a new ward mission leader. We also taught Jose at Hermana Amayas house last night! We are teaching others in the houses of the members this week. So things are improving in our branch, in regards to missionary work. I felt impressed to share my testimony yesterday during Sacrament meeting and expressed my gratitude towards the members and how their testimonies have touched the people we teach. I remember saying, "you all have strong testimonies and they bring light into the lives of the investigators." The Spirit was helping me. :) I hope the members feel our love for them. We are looking for ways to serve them. We painted the Ortegas house and are offering our services to everyone. It was my first time painting and now I want to paint when I have my own house. Yipee! This week we are helping the Amalcans (LA) that recently bought a trailor. We are going to help fix it up and make it their home. They really appreciate having their space and their home, they are a good example for me of gratitude and humility.
The investigators are doing great! Jose is on date for the 30th of October. Serrano is preparing for the 13th of November. He and Hermana Amaya need to get married! We are working on it. Eder has really made progress. Lots of less-actives have made it back to church and that brings a lot of joy in my heart. Oh, how cute. But really, they are recognizing their testimonies and are make in the fold.
I was able to participate in Zone Leader Council, which was fun! It was 4 sisters and the Zone leaders of the mission. We received training from President Jergensen, Sister Jergensen and the APS. I learned about how to be a PMG missionary and how serve the branch I am working with. We set goals for the Des Moines mission, and it is sad I wont be here next year! A lot of the missionaries were in town this week because of leadership training, so we all need exercise together. We played bball and vball...I beat Elder Marshall at horse. I want to let everyone know that. haha. I like teasing him about it. The vball was a little scary. I got to see lots of my friends from the mission, and I said goodbye to them. It is weird going home soon. We have the Temple trip tomorrow to Nauvoo and Hermana Guthrie gets to come with me. It will be a blast!
love you all, kisses and hugs!
Hermana Murphy
The Lord blessed us with lots of lessons this week! He sure is guiding us by the Spirit to find new investigators and work hard. We are getting used to riding the bikes and getting the help from the members and investigators with rides. It is nice to see the members more as well as having the investigators serve us (then they love us more). Church went well yesterday! Jose Rubio came for the first time to our branch, Hermano Serrano came with Hermana Amaya (LA) and Profresso came for the first time. We helped with primary and the lesson was on missionary work, those kids are the cutest! They are learning young to serve the Lord. I approve. We even had a coordination meeting with the members of the branch presidency; they are willing to help us out. The branch presidency thanked us for our service, and that was nice to hear that we are appreciated. :) We expressed the need for fellowshippers as well as taking care of the recent converts. They are praying to call a new ward mission leader. We also taught Jose at Hermana Amayas house last night! We are teaching others in the houses of the members this week. So things are improving in our branch, in regards to missionary work. I felt impressed to share my testimony yesterday during Sacrament meeting and expressed my gratitude towards the members and how their testimonies have touched the people we teach. I remember saying, "you all have strong testimonies and they bring light into the lives of the investigators." The Spirit was helping me. :) I hope the members feel our love for them. We are looking for ways to serve them. We painted the Ortegas house and are offering our services to everyone. It was my first time painting and now I want to paint when I have my own house. Yipee! This week we are helping the Amalcans (LA) that recently bought a trailor. We are going to help fix it up and make it their home. They really appreciate having their space and their home, they are a good example for me of gratitude and humility.
The investigators are doing great! Jose is on date for the 30th of October. Serrano is preparing for the 13th of November. He and Hermana Amaya need to get married! We are working on it. Eder has really made progress. Lots of less-actives have made it back to church and that brings a lot of joy in my heart. Oh, how cute. But really, they are recognizing their testimonies and are make in the fold.
I was able to participate in Zone Leader Council, which was fun! It was 4 sisters and the Zone leaders of the mission. We received training from President Jergensen, Sister Jergensen and the APS. I learned about how to be a PMG missionary and how serve the branch I am working with. We set goals for the Des Moines mission, and it is sad I wont be here next year! A lot of the missionaries were in town this week because of leadership training, so we all need exercise together. We played bball and vball...I beat Elder Marshall at horse. I want to let everyone know that. haha. I like teasing him about it. The vball was a little scary. I got to see lots of my friends from the mission, and I said goodbye to them. It is weird going home soon. We have the Temple trip tomorrow to Nauvoo and Hermana Guthrie gets to come with me. It will be a blast!
love you all, kisses and hugs!
Hermana Murphy
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Bikes!!!
Hola :) :)
I love bike riding. Not so much the knats eating my legs alive or biking in the ghetto at night..but it feels great and we have gotten to know the city of Des Moines better. We have had to adjust planning so we can make it to everyone, so our numbers have gone down..but it is more authentic. I can contact pedestrians easier and I wear biking shorts under my skirt. I also like our new apartment! We swapped with the Elders, and good news, they havent been bit yet from the bed bugs.
This week was full of uplifting meetings. First of all, I went to my last Zone Conference of my mission! Wahh! It was really special and we received awesome training from the leaders of the mission. President taught us how the more fully invite the Spirit in our work and how to follow it in lessons. We are working on that in our companionship, so we can teach with more unity. It is hard at times because Guthrie doesnt understand whats going on in Spanish..so we are going to completely depend on the Holy Ghost to guide us. It will be exciting! The APS gave us a chapel tour, and we are going to start doing that this week. We basically teach the Restoration while touring the chapel, it was really neat. I gave my "going home" testimony and I cried like a baby. I LOVE my mission! I am SO grateful for the time I have had and still have (8 more weeks) to dedicate this service to the Lord. I have seen so many blessings and the lives of others change through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I shared the scripture Alma 19 :6 . This scripture means a lot to me because it symbolizes the conversion that takes place when we accept Christ in our lives. The darkness is replaced my light. "Now, this was what Ammon desired, for he knew that king Lamoni was under the power of God; he knew that the dark aveil of bunbelief was being cast away from his mind, and the clight which did light up his mind, which was the light of the glory of God, which was a marvelous light of his goodness—yea, this light had infused such joy into his soul, the cloud of darkness having been dispelled, and that the light of everlasting life was lit up in his soul, yea, he knew that this had dovercome his natural frame, and he was carried away in God" I love it and have experienced that in my personal conversion, as well as the conversion of our investigators/converts. Our District meetings have been very good as well. Our DL, Elder Marshall makes it worthwhile and entertaining. :) Tomorrow we have zone leader council, President asked Hermana McGuire and I to participate and represent the Hermanas in the mission. We gladly accepted and are excited for that tomorrow. More learning!
General Conference was so great! I love the words of the leaders of the church. So many of their talks touched me and strengthened my testimony. I am going to study their words of wisdom as men and women called of God. :) We already shared some of what we learned at Gladis's house last night, about family and following the commandments. You can all watch it and read the talks at lds.org. Do it! You will be inspired! I know that President Thomas S Monson is called of God!
Jose Rubio came to conference and we had a branch lunch in between the sessions, so he felt welcomed. That was nice. He said he didnt learn anything new at conference. We told him he needs to prayer before listening to it and we have confidence that he will receive personal revelation. He is trying to recognize the promptings of the Holy Ghost to know the BOM is true and so forth. Hermano Serrano is doing great. He came to conference and is progressing. Because of his faith, God blessed him with a job. That really opened his eyes and helped him see the blessings that come from keeping the Sabbath day Holy. Hermana Amaya and him are praying about the law of chastity. We invited them to live it, and she is hesitant to get married again (her husband past away). We had a breakthrough with Gladis and Eder last night. Eder is becoming so much more comfortable and open, due to the Spirit. They are praying about marriage and we feel it will happen. Sunny totally understands the Great Apostasy and the need of a restoration. It was really exciting. Luicia said she likes the BOM and wants time to get it and sink it in before talking about baptism. :) Israel is out of the picture because he moved back to Perry with his family. We are sad, and want him to continue learning so he can still be baptized. Pedro Martines (RC) finally got a car, so he doesnt have to walk 5 hours to work! Wahoo! Hector (RC) is doing okay. He has been avoiding church because he made a mistake. We are reminding him that the Atonement is real and he can get back on the right path.
Well we love the work and look forward to this week. We will be teaching Arut and Guadalupe the stop smoking workshop, because they are dedicated to quit! I will let you know how it goes. :) Miss you and see you soon.
Love
La Hermana Murphy
We are working with lots of people and the work is good.
I love bike riding. Not so much the knats eating my legs alive or biking in the ghetto at night..but it feels great and we have gotten to know the city of Des Moines better. We have had to adjust planning so we can make it to everyone, so our numbers have gone down..but it is more authentic. I can contact pedestrians easier and I wear biking shorts under my skirt. I also like our new apartment! We swapped with the Elders, and good news, they havent been bit yet from the bed bugs.
This week was full of uplifting meetings. First of all, I went to my last Zone Conference of my mission! Wahh! It was really special and we received awesome training from the leaders of the mission. President taught us how the more fully invite the Spirit in our work and how to follow it in lessons. We are working on that in our companionship, so we can teach with more unity. It is hard at times because Guthrie doesnt understand whats going on in Spanish..so we are going to completely depend on the Holy Ghost to guide us. It will be exciting! The APS gave us a chapel tour, and we are going to start doing that this week. We basically teach the Restoration while touring the chapel, it was really neat. I gave my "going home" testimony and I cried like a baby. I LOVE my mission! I am SO grateful for the time I have had and still have (8 more weeks) to dedicate this service to the Lord. I have seen so many blessings and the lives of others change through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I shared the scripture Alma 19 :6 . This scripture means a lot to me because it symbolizes the conversion that takes place when we accept Christ in our lives. The darkness is replaced my light. "Now, this was what Ammon desired, for he knew that king Lamoni was under the power of God; he knew that the dark aveil of bunbelief was being cast away from his mind, and the clight which did light up his mind, which was the light of the glory of God, which was a marvelous light of his goodness—yea, this light had infused such joy into his soul, the cloud of darkness having been dispelled, and that the light of everlasting life was lit up in his soul, yea, he knew that this had dovercome his natural frame, and he was carried away in God" I love it and have experienced that in my personal conversion, as well as the conversion of our investigators/converts. Our District meetings have been very good as well. Our DL, Elder Marshall makes it worthwhile and entertaining. :) Tomorrow we have zone leader council, President asked Hermana McGuire and I to participate and represent the Hermanas in the mission. We gladly accepted and are excited for that tomorrow. More learning!
General Conference was so great! I love the words of the leaders of the church. So many of their talks touched me and strengthened my testimony. I am going to study their words of wisdom as men and women called of God. :) We already shared some of what we learned at Gladis's house last night, about family and following the commandments. You can all watch it and read the talks at lds.org. Do it! You will be inspired! I know that President Thomas S Monson is called of God!
Jose Rubio came to conference and we had a branch lunch in between the sessions, so he felt welcomed. That was nice. He said he didnt learn anything new at conference. We told him he needs to prayer before listening to it and we have confidence that he will receive personal revelation. He is trying to recognize the promptings of the Holy Ghost to know the BOM is true and so forth. Hermano Serrano is doing great. He came to conference and is progressing. Because of his faith, God blessed him with a job. That really opened his eyes and helped him see the blessings that come from keeping the Sabbath day Holy. Hermana Amaya and him are praying about the law of chastity. We invited them to live it, and she is hesitant to get married again (her husband past away). We had a breakthrough with Gladis and Eder last night. Eder is becoming so much more comfortable and open, due to the Spirit. They are praying about marriage and we feel it will happen. Sunny totally understands the Great Apostasy and the need of a restoration. It was really exciting. Luicia said she likes the BOM and wants time to get it and sink it in before talking about baptism. :) Israel is out of the picture because he moved back to Perry with his family. We are sad, and want him to continue learning so he can still be baptized. Pedro Martines (RC) finally got a car, so he doesnt have to walk 5 hours to work! Wahoo! Hector (RC) is doing okay. He has been avoiding church because he made a mistake. We are reminding him that the Atonement is real and he can get back on the right path.
Well we love the work and look forward to this week. We will be teaching Arut and Guadalupe the stop smoking workshop, because they are dedicated to quit! I will let you know how it goes. :) Miss you and see you soon.
Love
La Hermana Murphy
We are working with lots of people and the work is good.
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