feliz navidad
Christmas decorations from home
zone comas
package received
Monday, December 30, 2013
December 30, 2013
hey everyone!! i hope you all had a great christmas. this christmas was so different than any christmas i have ever had but one that i will always remember. on the 24th we had a party with the whole mission and we played futbol, had a BBQ (with normal hamburgers!) and we got to watch monsters university (but in spanish haha). it was so fun to see the missionaries from my old zone and my friends from the ccm! and then that night the ward mission leader invited us over for dinner with him and his family. the 25th was a normal work day for us but we got to skype! it was so fun to see and talk to you guys even for only a short time!! it was just what i needed to to keep pushing forward here. overall it was a day to remember our savior and to give service.
this week we have seen some great progress with one of our investigators juvinal. he is super catholic and at first didnt really want to talk to us because he had his religion and his bible and didnt need anything else. but we kept visiting him and taught him about joseph smith and the book of mormon and ever since then he has been reading the book of mormon and he says he knows its true and that joseph smith was a prophet of god. he hasnt left his house in about 2 years because he had to have his leg amputated and cant walk but this sunday he left his house for the first time to go to church with us! it honestly was a miracle! he wants to be baptized and accepted a baptismal date of january 11th. i know that its not going to be easy for him because this is the time when satan is going to try to tempt him most but he is strong and i know that if he keeps reading and praying he will be able to overcome temptation.
new years is coming up and its time to start making resolutions. i want to work on remembering my blessings more and remembering to thank the lord everyday for them. i hope you all have a great week and a great new years! i love you all and will talk to you in 2014!
XOXOXO hermana murdock
December 23, 2013
hello family! how is everyone? how is everyone liking the winter and the snow? i cannot believe i am saying this but there is a tiny tiny tiny part of me that kind of misses the snow. it just doesnt really feel like christmas without it. but im loving the warm weather and the sun! it makes me so happy to go outside now that it has warmed up. during the day its super super hot and even at night now its pretty warm. and they say that this is nothing compared to what it is going to be. i feel bad for my companion who hates the sun and the heat.
this week we had some great things happen:
-on wednesday we got to go to the temple! it was so amazing and so beautiful! the six hermanas in my zone all went together and then went to pizza hut after. it was such a fun day and reminded me of how much i love the temple and how much i took it for granted when i lived to close. the temple is not in our mission boundaries (its in the lima east mission) and so we only get to go 3 times during our mission. (i am sending a few pictures of my companion and i in front of the temple).
-im reading the conference talks from the october 2011 general conference and along with the ones i told you about last week i also love the talk by jeffery r. holland called we are all enlisted. i have really loved rereading the conference talks from past conferences because i learn new things every time. i encourage everyone to start rereading them if you havent already. i promise you will be spiritually uplifted.
-this week we have been visiting a lot of the inactive members and have found out that something happened a few years ago where the bishop offended people and then other people got offended by someone else and i dont know exactly what happened but almost every inactive person we visited this week said that they wont go to church because there are people there that they dont want to see. we have been trying to help them see the importance of forgiveness and have been teaching about unity. one day in my personal study time i found this scripture in mosiah 18:21 "and he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and love one towards another." this scripture has kind of become our motto for this ward and we are working really hard to create unity and love here. thats what this ward really needs.
-we have a few investigators right now that i am really excited about. first we have willian, a single dad, who has been talking with different sets of missionaries for about a year and a half now. he is really interested in the church but has a really strong catholic background and has a hard time accepting some things (like how we dont pray to the virgin mary). but this week we watched the video the restauracion with him about joseph smiths first vision and he started crying during the movie and then he came to church yesterday!! he wants to be baptized but wont except a date...yet haha. next we have luis. he is the dad of an inactive member. we invited him to church a few days ago but we didnt know the address of the church so we said we would call him on sunday to tell him the address. so on sunday we called and couldnt get ahold of him. so we went to church and were sitting in relief society when someone came in and said that there was an old man outside looking for a gringa (white girl). and since i am the only gringa around they figured he was looking for me. he had found the church and had come all by himself!! we couldnt believe it we were so excited! and then we have efrian who is an old man who works all day making furniture in his little shop. at first he wouldnt really talk to us and would never smile but the other day we went to visit him in his wood shop and he started laughing (which is really rare for him) and we asked him why he was laughing and he said that he just gets really happy when we come to visit. ah it melted my heart!
-last night our stake had a christmas devotional with a youth choir and little primary kids acted out the nativity scene. it was a really spiritual devotional and then at the end all of us missionaries handed out books of mormon to all the investigators that were there. and we saw that luis and efrian had both come!! ah this is when i love being a missionary! (i will try to attach some pictures of my zone at the devotional)
so overall this has been a great week and i am super excited to talk to you guys on christmas!! we have our mission christmas party tomorrow and i am excited to get to see the missionaries in my old zone. i am glad that i have this opportunity to spend christmas as a missionary and really focus on christ and his birth. because that is what christmas is really about. i love you all and hope you have a great christmas!! until next week...
xoxoxo hermana murdock
¡FELIZ NAVIDAD!
December 16, 2013
HELLO family!!
christmas is coming up! i cant believe its already the middle of december! wow time is flying. the mission is going to have a big christmas party on the 24th which i am really excited about! it should be a grand time. and this wednesday my companion and i got permision to go to the temple!! we can go 3 times on our mission and we have decided to go this week. so after internet today we wont have p-day. it will be so great to go back to the lima temple. it is so so pretty! and this sunday the stake is going to have a christmas devotional and my zone made a goal for each companionship to have 11 investigators there. so that is our goal for this week.
we have had a few challenges this week. first we didnt have running water in our appt for about 4 days haha. that was interesting. couldnt flush the toilet, shower, wash our hands, nothing haha but thats life in peru. then we went to church and found that the ward is not very friendly. we dont have much support from them or from the bishop. but we are really trying to gain their confidence and we are praying really hard. but yesterday we were asked to speak in church and it was really great. i could feel the gift of tongues so strong. my companion said that i gave my talk without an american accent and that she could understand every word i said. it was a true testimony builder of the power of the gift of tongues in my life.
this week i have been reading the 2011 october conference talks because i found an english ensign!!! i was so excited! one of the latino elders had it for some reason and gave it to me. but 3 talks that i really really love and hope that you all will take a few minutes to read are
1- forget me not by dieter f uchtdorf
2-the opportunity of a lifetime by w. christopher waddell
3- love her mother by elaine s. dalton
you can just log on to lds.org and read them i think.
i love you all so much and hope that you all remember our savior this holiday season!! i know this church is true and know that everything we have is a gift from our heavenly father!
until next week...
xoxo hermana murdock
Friday, December 13, 2013
December 9, 2013
hello everyone!! i hope everything has been good for you all this week. i heard that it is super cold in salt lake! the weather here has been warming up and during the day it gets sooooo hot. but at night when the sun goes down it is still really cold. its just the beginning of summer here.
this week has been a lot of ups and downs for me. I got transfered to libertadores in the zone comas (about 2 hours away from my old area by bus). I was the only person in my zone to be transferred. it was a really sad day and there were definitely tears but change is good and change will help me to grow and learn. it was hard to say goodbye to the people in my zone and also the members in begonias. they are all so amazing!! hermana oleachea got a brand new north american to train in begonias and hermana hulse got a new latina hermana from ecuador in santa fe.
so my new area is in the zone comas and the ward is libertadores. there are 200 members in the ward but only about 75 or 80 active. its a really small ward but with some great members. one of the member families la familia ochoa called us the other night and said that they wanted to take us on a tour of the area and introduce us to some of the members. we were so thankful for them and their service and love! my companion and i are both new to this area and so we don't know anyone. It has been super hard for us this week because its basically like we are starting from scratch. But the lord is blessing us and we already have 3 investigators!!
so about my new companion. She is 23 years old and from Honduras. She has one transfer more than me in the mission and she was also trained by hermana Olaechea for the 6 weeks before I came to the mission. She is really cute and we get along great. she has a lot of fears though. a lot. But she has a really sweet spirit and a strong testimony and love of the gospel. I have had to grow a lot this week because I have had to kind of take the lead with talking to people and gaining the confidence of the members. I know that with time we will be able to have some great success here in libertadores.
this week we had the baptism of L and D!! my new zone leaders in libertadores gave me permission to go to the baptism so on Saturday morning we took the bus 2 hours away to my old area. the baptism was so amazing!! I realized that even though we were just baptizing 2 people it will actually be infinite. Because L and D will have families in the future and their kids will be able to grow up in the gospel. L has a really strong desire to serve a mission and so he will bring even more people into this gospel. It really is amazing!! I feel so grateful that I had the opportunity to teach them and get to know them.
Some people have been asking about my Spanish. it gets better every day but there are still some days when I really struggle. I can almost understand everything now but I still have a hard time saying what I want. but I know it will come. it just takes work and patience. and the gift of tongues is real!
I love you all so much and hope that you have a great week in the snow! everyone go and visit temple square and see that lights for me. I am definitely going to miss that this year. but it will be exciting to see how people celebrate the holidays here in Peru!
I love you all!
XOXO hermana murdock
December 2, 2013
HELLO MI FAMILIA!!
Wow I can't believe that its already December! in one month it will be 2014!! AHHHHHHHH. today we have cambios and I have no idea what is going to happen. I hope I get to stay in begonias 2 because there are so many good things that need to happen here but I know that whatever happens will be for the best. there are 29 new missionaries coming tomorrow and 11 are hermanas. the mission is opening a few new areas and the work is progressing so much.
this Saturday we have the baptisms of L and D! I am so excited. They are so ready to be baptized! yesterday at church I saw D holding hands with another little girl walking to primary. it was so great to see that she already has a friend in the ward.
sorry that I don't have much else to report this week. we have been working really hard to find new investigators but as of right now we only have a few that are really consistent.
But we did have an earthquake this week!! it was crazy. it was really small but we were in metro last pday (metro is a big supermarket like walmart) and all the sudden everything started shaking and we were by the fruit and some of the fruit was falling onto the ground. I don't know why but I just started laughing. for some reason I thought it was hilarious. and people were screaming and running. it was a tiny little earthquake and wasn't even scary at all but for some reason the people here were so scared haha.
I hope that you all had a great week and that everyone is getting ready for Christmas. It's going to be different but so great to get to experience the holidays here in Peru!
I love you all!
xoxo hermana murdock
November 25, 2013
Happy thanksgiving this week! i cant believe its almost December. Time is going by so fast! with thanksgiving coming up i have been thinking a lot about things i am grateful for. they don't celebrate thanksgiving here so first of all i am thankful that in the US we have a day dedicated to being thankful and spending time with our families. and also eating really good food! i am so thankful for the opportunity i have right now to be in peru as a missionary. sometimes when i wake up and look out the window i still cant believe that i live in peru. its so great! i love the people and the culture. everything is sooooo different from the US but its their way of life and they dont know any different so they are happy. the people here are so friendly and welcoming. people are going to think that i am so wierd when i get home because i am going to want to hug and kiss everyone on the cheek haha because that is just the culture here. i am thankful for the leaders of the church that are reciving devine inspiration about missionary work and how we can be more effective in finding the children of god. im grateful for my health and that i have the strength to walk all day and do that things that are required of a missionary. i know that i am being blessed while i am here with health and strength because some of the things we do here i know that i wouldnt have been able to do at home. im thankful for such an amazing family that supports me in whatever i am doing. a lot of the missionaries here dont have supportive families and its really hard for them because their families are constantly telling them to come home because they dont understand the importance of missionary work. so i am so thankful that i have such a supportive family! im thankful for jesucristo and his sacrifice for nosotros. i know that through him and his sacrifice we will all be able to live with our heavely father and our families after this life.
so this thanksgiving i wont be able to have the usual thanksgiving feast but i have definitely been spiritually fed this past week. we had such an amazing week of training!! first on thursday we had a training with president erickson, hermana erickson, los asistentes and 3 other zones in the mission. this training was from 8 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon. it was so long but we learned so many great things about the obra de salvación (work of salvacion) and how we have new plans to work more with the wards to bring back the less active members and also new investigators. we are so much more effective if we can work hand in hand with the members and the ward!! right now we have so many missionaries out which is amazing but just think about in 2 years when all these missionaries go home and are able to help the ward and the missionaries at home. the work will increase soooo much and so fast! because the fill time missionaries will be working hand in hand with the members. this is the goal. i callenge everyone to find out who the missionaries are in your ward right now and ask them about their investigators. ask them if there is anything you can do to help. maybe offer to have a family home evening in your home with the missionaries and one of their investigators.
and saturday was the best day ever!! friday night we got a call from our zone leaders and they told us that we had to wake up at 5 in the morning the next day because we were going to take a bus to lima central to hear elder russel m nelson speak!!! we knew he was in peru but that he didnt have plans to speak to the missionaries so when we heard this we were so excited! it was the best meeting ever! i guess they were supposed to be in Venezuela but that there are problems in that country so their trip got delayed. so they asked one of the area 70 here in peru which mission they could speak to. and he said mission lima north needs to hear from you. so elder nelson, hermana nelson, elder rasband of the 70, and elder uceda and his wife of the 70 spoke to us! we also got to shake all of their hands. here are some highlights of the meeting:
-hermana nelson said "i have a 30 day challenge for all of you. for 30 days kneel and pray for the guidance of the holy ghost and then ask god one specific question that you want to find the answer to. it can be about anything. then get up and start reading your scriptures until you find the answer. i promise you that it wont take you very long to have the spirit testify to you the answer. then write it down because the next time you read that scripture it may not have the same effect."
-another thing she said was "i would normally never mention the name of a book in a talk but this book changed my life so i will tell you. The Infinite Attonement by tad callister. prayerfully read and study just one page a day. if you take a picture of yourself on the first day of reading and a picture the day you finish you will be able to see a change in yourself."
-elder nelson told us that right now in peru there are 100 stakes, 12 missions, 1 temple, and 2 more temples announced. he told us to write these numbers down so that when we are old and we are telling our grandkids about our mission in peru we wont even be able to believe that there were only 100 stakes and 12 missions and 1 temple. he said that in the next few years we are going to see some major changes in peru!!
this week has been great! its crazy that transfers are next week. i have no idea what is going to happen. there is a possiblility that i could be training which is really scary but i know that whatever happens will happen for a reason. a few scriptures that i really liked this week are
-alma 48 (especially verses 10-13 and 17) this part talks about moronies character. we all need to be like moroni!
-alma 56:44-48 i want to be couragous like the army of helaman
-3 nefi 11 when christs visits the americas
-ether 12 faith
-3 nefi 17:20-21 where christ blesses the little children
sorry this email was so long i just got a little carried away haha. i hope you all have an awesome thanksgiving. eat some turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy and stuffing and pumpkin pie for me!! and remember to think about all the things that you are grateful for! i love you all and love getting emails from all of you. i would also LOVE LOVE LOVE to recieve letters!! my address is:
hermana morgan murdock
peru lima north mission
ave carlos izaquirre #124
casilla de corrello 39-054
independencia
lima 28, PERU
and all you need is one of those circle international stamps from the post office. i would love to recieve peoples family christmas cards too!!!!
love you all!! until next week...
xoxo hermana murdock
November 18, 2013
FAMILIA!!
how is everyone?
so much has happened this week i don't even know where to start! we had 2 baptisms this week in santa fe! I will explain more about them in a minute. and we have been teaching tons of lessons and running around like chickens with our heads cut off because we are so busy and have so much to do (ps. I see chickens with their heads cut off every day because we live on the same street as an outside meat market ewwwwwww!!) ok so a few highlights of the week:
1.lunches with the members are a struggle for me because i love the members and i am so thankful for them and their service but they give us soooooo much food and we have to eat it all or they get offended. and they go into their kitchen and prepare your plate and then bring it out so you cant choose how much you want. but this week we had lunch with la familia gutierrez and the mom is a returned missionary. When we got there she had us come into the kitchen and choose what we wanted and how much we wanted and if we didn't want something she was totally fine with that. she said that because she served a mission she understands! we all wanted to cry because we were so grateful for the opportunity to choose how much we wanted and not have to be sick all day from so much food!!! it sounds silly but it really was a big blessing this week!
2. last week we were walking down the street and i saw a lady walking down the street with a little boy and so i decided to go talk to her. so i started talking to her and she was really friendly and we told her a little about the church and how her and her son can be together for eternity and not only in this life. we got her address and made another appointment. but we didn't think too much of it because pretty much everyone we talk to gives us their address. but we went and visited her this week and she was home with her ex husband and her baby. we found out that her ex husband wants to come back to the family but she doesn't know what she wants to do. we taught a lesson about families and how god blesses families and the dad started crying and explained to his ex wife how much he was sorry for the things that happened in the past but that he was here for her and their son even if she wouldn't let him come back to live with them. it was really great and the spirit was so strong! its amazing how the lord guides us to certain people.
3. 2 siblings, L is 17 and D is 11 and they are the kids of a menos activo familia. actually the parents are inactive and haven't been to church in almost 10 years. but the parents were on our list of menos activos so we went to visit them and they weren't home but their kids were there and so we had a lesson with them. we have been teaching them for about 3 weeks and yesterday we had a lesson with them and their dad. we talked about the holy ghost and how it is a guide for us to be able to make good decisions and also to feel the love of god. at the end of our lesson the dad bore his testimony and said how thankful he was that we were teaching his kids and how it make him start thinking about his baptism and those feelings he felt when the missionaries taught him all those years ago. he even showed us pictures of his baptism and is really excited for L and D to get baptized. when we asked him to sign the permission slips he said of course. why would i not want my kids to feel the way i did when i was baptized. This is a man that hasn't been to church in 10 years!! it was so amazing!
4. we had 2 baptisms this week in santa fe! one was A who is 14 years old and the other was F who is 80 years old. i don't have much time but i want to explain as much as i can about F because he is one of the best people i have ever met! F is the dad of the bishop in santa fe and all of his family is members. he is also the husband of our pensionista in santa fe. when hermana hulse used to go over for breakfast every morning (with her companion that went home) F would always run out of the room because he hated the missionaries. the missionaries and his family have been trying to teach him for 15 years or so but he has always been against the church. and then one day about 3 months ago he had a brain tumor and he died on the operating table. He had a dream about his family in heaven and everyone was there except for him. the doctors were able to bring him back to life and when he recovered he was a totally different person. he said that he didn't die because he needed to accept the gospel first so that he could be with his family. so hermana hulse and her comp started teaching him. and now when we go over there for breakfast he is so friendly and loves to tell us stories. he is the coolest old man ever! he speaks spanish and quechua (a tribal language of peru) so he always calls us panai (hermana) and we call him waiki (hermano). I'm trying to think of what else to tell you about him but you just have to meet him to know how great he is. so on Saturday he was baptized and it was the best thing ever!! all of his family was there and they were all so happy for him. the three of us and all his grandkids sang a musical number and then some of his grandkids spoke and said why they love their grandpa and how happy they are that he was able to be baptized. it was the best baptism i have ever been to!! ah it was great.
So overall we have had a great week and this week should be great too. today for pday we are going to play volleyball as a zone in our new jerseys!
thanks for all the emails! keep them coming! also i would love love love to recieve letters! the letters usually always get here without problem. love you all and have a great week!!
xoxo hermana murdock
ps sorry for the terrible grammer and spelling. spanish is making my english horrible.
November 11, 2013
hola everyone!!
things have been crazy but great here in lima. working in 2 areas is HARD! but we are doing the best we can and we are seeing some great progress with our investigators! we have 2 baptisms next week in santa fe (they were people that hna hulse had been teaching before) so that should be exciting! and we have started teaching 5 new people in begonias that i am hoping will progress this next week.
this week we had lunch with the stake president. he told us that begonias is the biggest ward in the stake with 900 members!! wow. but the real question is how many are active? 200. 900 members with only 200 active. that is crazy. That's the problem here in Peru is that a lot of people want to get baptized but they dont realize that its a life long commitment (and for eternity too!) so we asked the bishop for a list of all the menos activos and each day we go try to find them. once we find someone we start from the beginning and teach them all the missionary lessons over again and stress the importance of the santa cena (sacrament) and perseverar hasta el fin (enduring to the end). we also try to find someone to be a hermanamiento (i think the translation is ward friendshipper? i dont know haha) but someone to pick them up for church and just be a friend. its a lot of work but we have seen some really great progress! imagine if all 900 members were active! there are not even words to describe how great that would be!
this sunday was the primary program in begonias and in santa fe! i guess it was also this week in salt lake? thats so cool that on the same day i was watching the kids here and listening to the same songs in spanish as you all were too but in english!
the weather here has been warming up and during the day the sun comes out and it feels so great! the mornings and nights are still pretty cold but within the next month it should get pretty hot. im excited! i dont think i have really explained much about my area so here goes. there is a TON of dirt. EVERYWHERE! there are real roads that are not dirt but they have pot holes everywhere so when we ride in the motos and buses it is like a crazy rollor coaster ride! there are not lanes so the people drive wherever they want even into oncoming traffic. its kinda like the game chicken. see who get scared enough to move first. but im used to it now and it doesnt even phase me haha. and i though driving in the US was scary...
to get from appointment to appointment we walk if its close enough, take a bus if they arent so packed that people are falling out the door (literally) or take a moto. our part of begonias is about the size of the olympus high boundaries and st fe is a little smaller.
a lot of the houses have tin roofs and concrete floors and walls. but there are also some really nice house (nice for peru standards) like the house of my pensionista and some of the other members in the ward. these houses actually have roofs.
its going to be really weird to come home and live in this giant house with carpet.
i love you all so much and am so greatful to be here in peru! have a great week!
xoxo hermana murdock
November 4, 2013
hola me familia!!
wow i have so much to tell you all and not much time! this week has been so great here in lima! i have some big news. Im in a trio now! one of the hermamas in my zone had to go home because she was really sick and so my companion and i moved into the appartment of hermana hulse. only until the next cambio which is on december 3rd. so we are working in 2 areas!! begonias and santa fe. its really challenging but its also really great. i have been able to see how much the lord helps us because there is no way we could work in two areas by ourselves. we had some great lessons this week and we have been able to see our investegaors progress so much!
this week i have noticed that my spanish has gotten a lot better! its still really hard but since we are working in 2 areas a lot of times we go on splits with members so that we can teach the people in begonias and santa fe at the same time. so i have been going out alone with members which means that i have to teach the entire lesson by myself so it has helped me a lot! on saturday i taught 6 lessons by myself which i would never have been able even a few weeks ago. i still dont understand everything but it gets better every day! its definitely the gift of tongues.
a few weeks ago we had cambios (i think its called transfers in english) and my zone was split! we created a new zone so we are the first missionaries to serve in canto chico!! its still my same area but just with a different name. we now only have 11 people in our zone. my zone is amazing!! i was really sad at first because we lost one of the zone leaders to the other area and he was so great but our zone leaders now are amazing. we have such a small zone so we are able to do some fun stuff together on p days. today we are going to take the bus 2 hours away to the mall and go to chilis for lunch!! ah im so excited! we ordered soccer jerseys with the name of our new zone on them so next week we are going to have a soccer tournament and a volleyball tournament. and then the next week we are going to watch church movies as a zone and make brownies in the house of one of the pensionistas. so the next few weeks should be pretty great!
last pday i went with a few other north americans to immigrations to try to get my visa. we had to go into the lima central mission because thats where the immigrations office is. i love lima central. some parts look like europe. its so weird. but it was fun because i was able to spend time with my friends from the ccm! elder wilson and elder young were there from my district in the ccm and elder escibedo was there also and hermana brigance.
well my zone is off to chilis (ya the same chilis as in the united states!!!!) so i have to go. thanks for all the love and prayers. i am so happy to be serving the lord here in peru and know that this is where i am supposed to be right now. i know that the lord loves all his children everywhere in the world and i love that i can share that message with the people here in peru! i know this gospel is true!!
i would love to hear from everyone so keep sending emails! and letters too!!!!!
i love you all!!
xoxo hermana murdock
October 28, 2013
hola mi familia!
this week we had 2 baptisms!! i have some cute pictures that i want to send you but guess what... my camara is broken! i dont know whats up but im hoping to get it fixed for next week to send you the pictures.
my companion and were a little stressed on saturday because one baptism was supposed to be at 3 pm in canto grande and then another was scheduled for 4pm in canto rey. those ward buildings are about 20 minutes away from eachother. and we knew that the first baptisms wouldnt actually start at 3 because everyone in peru is late for everything haha so we werent exactly sure what to do except pray that everything would work out. so sister M showed up around 3:25 and was so nervous but the baptism went great and she told us that she felt so clean and like a new person. she has a pretty rough past and made a lot of mistakes in her life and she felt a huge weight lifted off her shoulders. it was so great! and then we rushed to the other ward and got there late but because things are always late in peru they hadn't started yet! I is so cute and she was so excited and so nervous at the same time. her baptism was amazing and the spirit was so strong! I feel so blessed to have even played a little part in bringing these people unto christ!
i love this gospel and am excited to be here in peru serving the lord! i feel the presence of the lord in my life every day and i can see the hand of the lord in the lives of our investigators. i love you all so much and am so grateful for every one of you!!!
xoxo hermana murdock
October 21, 2013
familia!
this week has been great! we have transfers tomorrow and so today after our time on the computer we will find out who in our zone is staying and who is leaving. I'm pretty sure i will stay here with my companion in begonias for at least another 6 weeks but you never know. i really hope is stay because i love the members and the people here!
this week my companion had to go on visitas de trabajo because she is the sister trainer leader. so she has to go work with other sisters in our zone to see how they are progressing and to help them. so when she is working with a hermana, the companion comes to my area and works with me for 24 hours. i had 2 of those this week which was interesting because i got to see how other people do things but i missed my companion!
The 2 sisters are getting baptized on saturday!! i am so excited! i will send you pictures next week of their baptisms. they both have developed such strong testimonies of the gospel and especially of prayer.
we also had a training with elder uceda this week. he is the area 70 for peru. he talked a lot about working with members to bring back the less active members. so we have been meeting with a bunch of the ward leaders to try to get them involved. it has been great so far and i can only imagine what the ward will be like when all the less active members come back to the church!!
i feel so blessed to be here at this time in peru. its a lot of hard work but hard things make us grow. i love the gospel and i LOVE the people of peru with all my heart!!
much love!
xoxo hermana murdock
October 14, 2013
HOLA!!
This week has been a good week. my companion is feeling much better and so we are able to work like normal. we made a lot of progress this week with our investigators and i am happy to report that we have 3 people with bautismal dates!!
1- last night we went to visit a referal from the zone leaders. She is 22 and lives with her aunt who is a member. she was so prepared and ready to accept the gospel! she explained to us that her mom died a few years ago and this was a really hard time in her life and she is looking for something to bring her more joy and happiness in her life. she stared reading the book of mormon and felt a strong peace come over her! she is amazing. during the lesson i invited her to be baptized on the 26th of October and she accepted! she started crying and i know that this is exactly what she needs in her life right now. the spirit was so strong. this is what missionary work is really about.
2- last week the zone leaders gave us a reference of a girl in their area who is 17 and so they aren't allowed to teach her (mission rules). so they asked us to go visit her. she is really interested in the gospel because she has some friends who are returned missionaries. she has been to church a few times and is preparing to be baptized on the 26th also. she is so cute and I am so excited for her baptism!
3- The 17 year olds sister, who is 21 and accepted the baptismal date of the 26 but she didn't go to church this Sunday and has been slacking on her commitments. it makes me so sad when people don't keep their commitments because I can see the blessings the lord wants for them but they cant see it for themselves. but my companion and I have been praying for her and I have faith that the lord will help her.
So things are going good here in peru! we work really hard but we also try to have fun along the way. i have been trying really hard to not get too discouraged about the language because i know that i just need to have patience. there is a family in the ward that I absolutely love named the familia cordova. i think i may have mentioned them before. but last p day we went to visit them just to hang out and the mom cooked us pancakes with nutella! i about died of happiness haha we played with her little girls. One (7 years old) gave me a spanish test and i gave her an english test. she is learning english in school and loves it. this family really is so amazing. they explained to us that they know we are away from home but that they want us to feel like we are at home when we are with them. i love them!
i love you all and can feel your prayers every day!
xoxo hermana murdock
October 7, 2013
hola everyone! wow what a crazy week i have had. my companion and i had some excitement this week but i will explain about that in a minute. first, on tuesday my companion had a meeting all day because she is a sister leader for our zone and so i went on splits with some missionaries in independencia. it was a great experience because i was able to realize things that i wanted to improve about how my companion and i do things and also things that i like about how we do certain things. i realized that i am in a great area and i am so grateful for the members in my ward.
and then on wednesday my comanion woke up screaming and it ended up that her appendix bursted! it was crazy. i called the zone leaders and they came running to your house and we got a taxi and drove an hour to independencia to the sketchy hopsital there. we waited in the waiting room for like a half hour and then they took me and my companion back to the room but they wouldnt let the elders come. and my companion was in so much pain. so then we waited in the room for 4 or 5 hours with people coming in every once in awhile but not really doing anything. i had no idea what was going on haha. and then we were told that we needed to go to a different hospital because (i have no idea why) so we drove an hour to lima central to a really nice hospital and once we got there they said there wasnt any room for us and we had to go back to the first hospital!! can you believe how crazy the medical system is here in peru! so we went back to the first hospital and then the doctor came in and said that she needed to have surgery. she was really scared but the zone leader came in and said exactly what she needed to hear. he told here that if she trusts god then there is not reason to be scared. god will watch over her. so then they took her away and i waited for another 5 hours with the zone leaders (who both only speak spanish) in the waiting room. we had a great time though and i realized how grateful i am for the amazing leaders i have. elder garcia always knows exactly what to say to make the situation better and elder florian is constantly telling jokes that i dont understand because they are in spanish but just they way he tells it is hilarious. they difinitely made the day much better and i dont know what i would have done without them. and then president erickson and hermana erickson came and the zone leaders left and we waited another 2 hours or so for her to wake up. and then i slept in the hospital on this tiny couch with doctors coming in every hour haha. lots of excitement hahaha!! my companion was so brave and she is doing much better now. she cant really do much and just has to stay in our room for 2 weeks.
so on thursday i had my first day solo!! i was so scared because i hardly understand spanish and cant speak much and have no idea how to get anywhere but i had a member with me and it turned out to be a really great learning experience! we went to a bunch of references houses and no one was home but then we went to visit another lady and she was there and let us come in and teach a lesson! this was my first solo lesson and i taught about faith and how we can demonstrate our faith. when i couldnt understand what the investigator said the member would answer the question. i felt like it went really well and the spirit was definitely there! and then saturday i went out again with a different member who is actually less active. so it was a really great experience for me to talk to her about the blessings of the gospel. she told me that after 8 years of not taking the sacrament she took it for the first time last sunday! i was so excited for her. and she told me that she has friends who she feels need the gospel but she doesnt know how to approach them about it so we did a little practice and she said that she was going to visit these friends this week and invite them to church! how amazing is that. we didnt end up teaching any lesson that night but i felt like my purpose that night was to spend time with this member and help her feel the importance of the gospel in her life. it was a really amazing experience. and it testified to me that the lord places us in certain situations and he will help us along the way. while i was talking to the member and she was explaining her story of why she became less active and about how she participated in the sacrament for the first time last sunday i was able to understand every word she was saying! it was the gift of tongues for sure!
and we had conference this weekend! everyone watched it at the stake center but because my companion couldnt leave we were allowed to watch it at the house of our pensionista on the internet. it was all in spanish so i couldnt really understand the words but i could definitely feel the spirit. i realized that i dont have to understand the words of the prophet to know that he is called of god. i also realized that i always took for granted that we are able to listen to the voices of the prophet and apostles. because here in peru they people watch it in spanish and it is the voice of the translater. but it was really great and im excited for april conference when i can understand more spanish.
overall things here in peru are going great. my spanish is improving every week and although it is still a very very big challenge for me i am working at it every day and slowly it is getting better. we are finding new investigators and working with less active members and the people here are so open and ready to her the gospel. there are some amazing members who live here and i am so thankful for them! i know that i am here for a reason! i love you all and am so thankful for each one of you!
lots of love!
xoxo hermana murdock
September 30, 2013
hola familia!! the computer i am on today is really really slow so i dont think i will be able to send pictures but i will try again next week. this week was better than last week. we have some new investigators and they actually came to church on sunday which is a big step in the right direction! we have been working with a less active family la familia c and they are so amazing. we have been teaching them about the blessings of the temple and they said they would pray to recieve about whether or not they should be sealed as a family (of course the answer will be yes). we also found a new investigator named l who is about 30 years old and has a 9 year old daughter a. she came to church yesterday and seemed to really like it so im really excited about that! the language is still a struggle. i feel like i can understand a little more every day but the other north americans here say that it takes about 4 months in the field to really feel like you can understand everything. they say the first 4 months are the hardest... so i will push forward. i felt my first earthquake this week. it was so so so tiny i barely even felt it but i guess the epicenter was in ariquipa and it was a 6.8 earthquake there. all we felt here was a little shaking but i could hardly feel it. they say that happens a lot here. the people of peru are amazing and i feel so blessed to get to know some of them. my struggles are nothing compared to theirs so if i just keep reminding myself that i will be able to be more focused on helping them and not worrying about myself. the area i am in is san juan de lurigancho but my area is called canto grande and my ward is begonias. i love the people in this area and im pretty sure that i will be here for at least my first 12 weeks in the field for training. and then after that i have no idea. the weather is gettng warmer every day but nights are cold. i wear my tights and my jacket and scarf and sweater and im fine. im excited for when it really warms up though. i am about 40 minutes away by bus from independencia which is where the mission home is. this week is general conference and i am sooo excited! i really really hope that i can watch it in english or else i will not be able to understand anything! haha. im excited to hear from president monson and listen to his inspired words. i love you all so much!
xoxo hermana murdock
Sunday, December 8, 2013
September 23, 2013
hello everyone! ah i love getting your emails! it makes me so happy every week and its just what i need to help me stay strong here. this week was better than last week and every day gets better. we found 3 new people to teach and they are so great and ready to hear the gospel. i wish i could contribute more in lessons but it will come. its really cold here in lima and i wish i had warmer clothes but its supposed to be warming up this month so im excited for that. i heard that in november they have tons of little mini earthquakes here. very small but still, that should be exciting! my companion is great and she has been teaching me a lot about patience and hard work. our area is a little bit difficult because there are only a few members and so we are pretty much starting from scratch trying to find people. we are the first missionaries assigned to this area and so when we find people to teach it is so great! we have about 6 investigators right now but only one of them has actually attended church. i will keep you updated on their progress. thanks for your prayers i can definitely feel them here! some scriptures that have helped me this week are d and c 90:24 and 1 nephi 3:7 I love you all and am so grateful for all of you! i love the people of peru and know that this is where i am supposed to be!
xoxo hermana murdock
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