Transfer finally....maybe??

Bueno,

Every week is a great week on the mission! We had our car this week, which was super lucky considering it was raining all week! The highlight of the week was church yesterday! We had 6 investigators come! Emerita and her husband FINALLY came to sacrament meeting. We have been teaching Emerita since Hermana Madsen was here with me. We went over before church in the morning and they followed us to church. We really have to "baby" some investigators, but its worth it to get them on the right path. I am sure that they enjoyed church...we will be seeing her this week and want to set a baptismal date. She is way ready to be baptized! She hasnt felt good at the Catholic or Jehovah Witness churches and loves reading the Book of Mormon. She will come around! Diana and Lorna came to church as well. They are the cutest little girls. The Elders had a baptism this week and they went to it and really want to get baptized. They have recognized the Spirit while reading the Book of Mormon and going to church, they explain it as happy and excited to learn! We have taught their mom once and hope to teach the parents again; they are super supportive. We are going to talk to them about baptism and see what they have to say. They became friends with Maria and Ariana (two recent converts also in primary). We are going to start teaching Orlando, a relative of Amanda. He is 10 and has come to church lots with Amanda and her familiy. We had a special meeting at church with the Bishop and all of Relief Society and Priesthood. Starting April 11, the classes in spanish will be available. I am so excited about this change because the spanish members will be able to learn in their native language and get much more out of church. they are very thankful for the change, Amanda was crying during the meeting. Bishop has worked really hard to make these changes happen. When I got here in August, I really wanted there to be more love expressed to the spanish members. I am thankful for the time I have spent here in Sioux city and the team I have been part of. Transfers are next week, so I might be leaving this area...we will see. Either way I have loved the time spent here and would love more time here..but its up to the Lord and the needs of His children.

The Baraza familiy is doing great! Brother Baraza looks good up on the stand in his new calling as 2nd counselor. He said he had to buy a suit! He will be a great leader in the ward and is one of the most humble members I know. The Briseno familiy is doing better. Ana has some really bad heart conditions but is improving. The Temple prep class should be starting soon in Spanish so that they can start preparing. This week Amanda and Celia are going to be taught how to use the new familysearch to do their family history. Celia has her temple recommend to do baptisms for the dead but doesnt know enough information about her family yet to do the work for them. I am so excited that our recent converts are thriving! They want to study and progress. It's amazing. Omar is trying so hard to gain a testimony of our living Prophet...he reads, prays, goes to church. We are telling him to be patient and continue to have faith. He hasnt completely learned how to recognize the feelings of the Spirt so we are wokring with him on that. He knew his decision to be baptized was right and felt great up until his baptism...then afterwards he feels overwhelmed with doubt. I told him questions are natural and he needs to continue to do what he is doing and he will grow. I know he will be a strong member and Heavenly Father will bless him. The Ochoa kids have been doing well...but now their father (Melissas ex husband) got released from jail so they are in hide out right now. I am scared for them and hope that they will be safe and he wont danger them. Please pray for the Ochoa family!

Investigator updates: We are taking a break from Delmar because he is not willing to pray about the Prophet Joseph Smith. That prayer is so important because it validates the truthfulness of our message of the Restored Church of Jesus Christ. Olivia dropped us, rather awkwardly...we knew she was home and she was pretending like she wasnt. That was sad because I really loved her and was seeing a difference in her....I hope she comes into contact with missionaries again and gains that testimony of God's love that she is missing. We found some really great new investigators this week. Heavenly Father is really blessing us here. The night Olivia dropped us, we knocked doors and found Gabby who asked, "Can I read the Book of Mormon?" We love when our investigators have the desire to act and learn! We will be going back to teach her this week.

This upcoming week is our last full week of the transfer! Crazy. I am looking forward to wednesday because Sister Evans from Vermillian area in South Dakota will come here and spend the day with me in Sioux City and Hermana McGuire will go spend the day with Sister Hoffein in Vermillian. Exhanges! President approved it and it is a great opportunity! I love Sister Evans, we decided we are soul mates. ha.

Well I love you all!

Hermana Murphy

Gold star!!

Hello my loves,

If Nanny were here with me, she would give me a gold star for only falling on the bikes once! Wahoo! I really like riding the bikes and told President I am open to being in areas without cars especially during the summer. Without cars we get a lot of members to come to appointments with us. I am very thankful for this area. We have 5 progressing invsetigators- Emerita, Mario, Rosemary, Diana and Norna. This week we are going to try to get Delmar, Carlos, Olivia and J.J., Rosa, and Luis to keep their commitments of reading the Book of Mormon and praying. Mario came to Sacrament meeting for the first time this Sunday! Diana and Norna came to an hour of primary and loved it. Here's the background of our progressing: Emerita has been taught by Hermana Madsen and me before; we dropped her for awhile. Hermana McGuire and I went back to visit her and she was willing to learn again and has been reading and praying. She knows that Joseph Smith was a Prophet and the BOM is true, she just struggles getting to church. We are trying to get a member to pick her up like we did with Mario...Mario said he felt good at church and wants to come again. We will see him two more times this week. We are focusing on the Priesthood and family with him. Rosemary is married to Willie...She has so much faith! We have taught her twice and she is so willing to learn and is receptive to the Holy Ghost so we have confidence she will receive her answer that the Church is true. Diana and Lorna are two girls 10 and 9 who we found tracting. We have taught them and their mom and they are so excited to learn. They bring their BOM to the bus stop and read it at school. :) They are the cutest. We hopet their mom will come with them to church Sunday and they can grow in the Gospel as a familiy unit. Celia and Amandas kids welcomed them with open arms in Primary.

This week we had a Family Home Evening with Amanda's family. It was nice because Carlos was able to come. Carlos is warming up to the idea of the BOM, and will pray about it and receive his answer! Amanda and her children are such great examples for him! We really want him to be baptized so they can be sealed in the Temple together some day. We had a strong lesson with Rosa last night with her inactive husband. I can see them all coming to church and growing together. We love their family so much and really want them to receive the blessings. We had a surprise in church yesterday...new counselors to the Bishop were called and one of them is Brother Barraza! We have been working intensely with him and his family since I got here to get them re-activated. Him becoming a counselor is like a baptism of an investigator! ALOT of changes are being made in our ward because we will start implementing RS and Priesthood classes in Spanish and eventually have a Sacrament in Spanish. I wouldnt mind sticking around one more transfer to help with all the changes..we will see what the Lord has in mind for me. We have transfers coming up the end of this month. My "daughter" Hermana McGuire will be officially not a greenie!

In our Tuesday night Spanish scripture study we are working on family history. I have so much to do for my family!! I am so thankful for the restoration of the Priesthood and the Temples so that we can do ordinances for our ancestors that didnt have the chance to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This week was a good one. We are working way hard to strengthen our recent convert families and find new investigators. We had a sweet experience while tracting. We knocked a door and Robin answered. She said she had been praying a lot lately and had a feeling Heavenly FAther would send missionaries. She was actually going to go to Walmart then decided to stay home because she felt impressed. Wow! We taught a first lesson and gave her to the Elders (she speaks English). That was a nice experience and I am reminded everyday of how involved Heavenly Father is in this work and how we are set apart to be His servants!

I love you all and hope you are all happy!

love,

Hermana Murphy

Good times on the bike!!

Hola!!!

This week was the first week we used our bikes...it went surprisingly well. We ride them during the day..then we get rides at night. We actually have received help from a lot of different members..Sister Sawyer is thebomb.com. She served her mission about 20 years ago and was spanish speaking. She helps us so much! On Tuesdays we go to lunch and go out and work with her. Melissa helps us out on Wednesdays because thats when we teach Delmar (her friend) and her kids, Alex and Lauren their recent convert lessons. Hermana Baraza, Hermana Florez and Amanda have helped as well. They all cook us meals and give us rides. I love the women here! For example, last night our dinner appointment cancelled and we had no where to go, we called Amanda and she made us tacos! She is so nice! :)

We have been working a lot with the Baraza family, helping them become more active. Hermana Baraza has been teaching our Tuesday night classes, Principios Del Evangelio. We eat at their house and teach them once a week and both parents have come out to appointments with us. Well, Saturday we got to go to the Omaha Temple with Hermana Baraza and Hermana Florez! That was a very special experience. Hermano Baraza is a convert, so he had his wife do the work for his mother. How neat! I was so excited to go to the temple with two of my favorite Latina women. The Spirit is so strong at the Temple, I wanted to stay there all day. I am so thankful for the restoration of the Priesthood through the Prophet, Joseph Smith, because we can do Holy Ordinances and make more promises with Heavenly Father in the Temple! My testimony of families have increased so much. We can be sealed to our families for time and all eternity. It's like a welding link because we can be connected to our ancestors and also our future generations. We are starting to have a Spanish Temple Prep class for the Briseno family and Hermana Teresa to prepare. Both less-active families have been progressing and we are working with them to come to church more consistently. We are also starting to have a family history class to teach the Spanish how to do geneology so they can get their recommends to the Temple to go and do baptisms for their relatives that passed away. :)

Our recent converts are doing great! It is nice having this extra time with them to make sure they are well taken care of in the ward. Amanda and her family are progressing nicely. Unfortunately, Carlos, her husband doesnt want to come to church because only one of the three hours are in spanish. We are excited for the Priesthood and Relief Society classes to start in Spanish at the beginning of April and then Sacrament in Spanish will follow. Our Relief Society President told me that Amanda and Celia will have new callings once all the switches are made. Im so excited for them! Celia and her family are also doing well. Maria is going to get her tonsils out, so we are going to visit her in the hospital. Ruben has made friends with the young mens and is doing well. Omar is such a great convert! He has been reading the scriptures and growing in knowledge like crazy. I gave him the book, Jesus the Christ, and he loves it. Great book by Elder James E Talmage. Check it out!

We have been struggling getting investigators to church! We have found a lot of new interests and have 3 progressing but they havent felt comfortable to make that commitment and come to church. We are going to try harder to get them to come to the Tuesday night class and we can give them a tour of the church so they wont feel intimidated.

We are going to keep working hard and rely on Heavenly Father to guide us to those that are prepared. I am working on having more faith and patience with our investigators. :) Also, love love love! In Relief Society yesterday the lesson was on the last General Conference talk by President Monson about service. Through service we express our love for our Heavenly Father by helping our Brothers and Sisters. I bore my testimony on full- time missionary work and how much of a privilege it is to be dedicated to the work and be a tool in God's hands. We strive to be obedient so that the Spirit can touch those we have contact with. A huge part of my conversion was the love that my sister missionaries had for me and I recognized it as God's love. So I am praying to have more charity!

love you all, have a great week!

Hermana Murphy

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