March 17, 2014

buenos días mi familia!!

HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY! they don't celebrate it here but my companion and i are celebrating.

 

thanks for all the emails this week it was so good to hear from you! this week we had such a good conference with elder Waddell from the quorum of the 70.  he talked about the reason we are on missions (in general) and the reasons we are in the mission peru lima norte.  there are very specific reasons and there are no mistakes when they are assigning mission calls.  its all part of a bigger plan.  he also talked about mountain tops (dad i was thinking so much about you when he was talking about this because im pretty sure you gave a talk on this one time too!).  he talked about nefi and how the temple for them was the mountain top.  and the lord told nefi to go up to the mountain to recieve instructions to start his journey.  he was told after that to go up to the mountain frequently to recieve more instruction.  he said that if we want instruction for our life journeys, we need to go to the temple. and often.  also we need to get our converts and members and less actives to the temple! there is no place more sacred and special than the temple.  

 

Elder Waddell's wife gave an awesome talk also on the importance of building a strong foundation.  she is such a sweet lady and love radiates from her.  she talked about the things that we can do to have a strong foundation so that when trials and temptations come we will be ready and prepared.  it doesnt mean that it will be easy but it means that we wont fall.  we can have a strong foundation or testimony by reading the scriptures, praying every day personally and as a family, and going to church every sunday.  also studying the teaching of the modern day profets and apostles in the ensign or general conference.  

and.... I GOT TO HAVE A PERSONAL INTERVIEW WITH ELDER WADDELL!! one hermana and 3 elders were chosen to have an interview with him and honestly it was the coolest thing ever.  the spirit was so strong and i could tell without a doubt that he is one of the lords servants.  i dont know how i got so lucky but i feel so grateful for the experience.  we talked a little about the mission and then i asked him about what he feels is the best way to study and to know the scriptures better.  and he told me that its a process and it takes time but the most important thing is dedication and desire.  we should always start our studying with a prayer and always study with a notebook on the side.  write down all thoughts, promptings, and feelings.  the spirit will give us different promptings based on that we need at that time in our life.  i probably will never in my life have another opportunity to have a one on one interview with a general authority again so i am so grateful for this opportunity i had!! 

Then on saturday we had our movie night with the ward.  we watched the movie The Testaments and it is such a great movie!! you all should watch it if you havent seen it.  so anyway we were really excited for this activity and were hoping that the members would bring friends or neighbors or less active members so that we could get some references.  but it didn't quite go a great as we planned.  our ward mission leader and his family were the only people that came from the entire ward.  oh and 2 of the youth.  we were so sad.  we did have one investigator show up late though.  we are praying so hard for more involvement from the ward.  all we can do is keep trying and keep praying.  

thanks for all the emails and support!! i can feel your love! have a great week and a great st. patricks day! i love you all!

xoxoxo hermana murdock

ps i would love to recieve letters!! my address is 

Hermana Morgan Murdock

Peru Lima North Mission

Ave. Carlos Izaquirre #124

Casille de Corrello 31-057

Independencia

Lima 28, PERU 

7 month in the mission

A good old fashioned north american treat

Rio river.  Finally something green!

pday swings

 

March 10, 2014

hello family!

how is everyone? it was great to read all of your emails this week.  thanks for all the love! 

 

this week was a little rough for hermana E and i.  we have been working so hard and have little to show for it.  our investigators are not progressing.  and this week we had a lot of doors shut in our faces haha but thats missionary life right?  we don't have any references from the members and without references its really hard to find people who want to learn and progress.  but we are working on it!  we planned a movie night in the church for this saturday and are hoping to be able to find some new investigators through this activity.  it should be a fun night and we are really hoping to get the ward excited about missionary work.  

 

yesterday i was asked to speak in church and i chose to talk about the book of mormon.  no matter how much people talk about the book of mormon there are always new things to learn.  i found a quote by president gordon b. hinckley that says something like it doesnt matter how many times you have read the book of mormon, if you will keep reading, you will be able to feel the spirit and love of god more abundantly in your life.  I KNOW THIS IS TRUE! i love the book of mormon.  and i can feel the spirit more in my life through reading it.  i encourage you all to read this amazing book!  some of our investigators say right of the bat when we start taking about the book of mormon that its not true.  and what we say to them is that you cannot say that this book is false if you haven't read it.  we invite everyone to follow the teachings of moroni and read the book, and ask heavenly father if it is true or not.  and then after you do that, if you don't recieve and answer, you can tell us that its not true.  but i promise you will recieve and answer!

 

i sent some pictures of last pday.  it was sooooo fun!! we drove like 2 hours away to a part of our mission that i did not even know existed.  there were open fields and trees and grass.  it was like a dream.  it has been so long since i have seen greenness.  and then we found a river! before we left the zone leaders told us that we were going to a river.  but no one believed them because the is no running water anywhere.  but sure enough there was a big river! we were all in heaven haha.  its crazy the things i took for granted before.  my new zone is great and we have so much fun together. 

 

well i dont have much else to report this week.  i will let you know how our movie night goes and if we were able to find any new investigators.  i love you all! 

 

xoxo hermana murdock 

March 3, 2014

hello hello family

well we had transfers and i am still in libertadores!! and im still with hermana E! we were both releaved (how do you spell this word?) to find out that we were staying.  but our zone changed sooooo much.  half of our zone had cambios.  hermana E and i are the only companionship that is still together in our zone.  some of my good friends left but im excited about the new missionaries that came into our zone COMAS (the zone that has the most fun but also the most success haha). 

right now we are working a lot with a new investigator family.  we contacted the mom, one day in the park and she gave us her address and said to come visit her.  so we went to her house and have started teaching her and her kids.  her husband works a lot and is never home so we havent met him yet but we are working on it! they are super poor and super humble and really willing to accept the gospel in their life.  the mom had problems with abuse when she was younger and she never felt loved and she decided that she was going to make sure that her kids knew that they were loved.  she has had a really hard life but has tried to make the best out of it and to learn from the experiences she has had.  

 

hmmmmmm im trying to think about what else to tell you.  not much has changed this week.  Y recieved the priesthood in church yesterday and passed the sacrament!  i was so proud haha.  he is going to be such a blessing to his family.  the ward has been great about reaching out to the new converts and this is key.  if we dont have support from the ward, its really hard for the new members to feel welcome and to want to come to church.  

 

well we are pushing along here in libertadores and are looking forward to this week.  we are hoping to get maria and her family to church this week, and to find some more people to teach.  

i love you all!!!!!! have a great week!

xoxo hermana murdock