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
No comments:
Post a Comment