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.