December 29, 2014

hello my wonderful friends and family.

 

It was SO FUN to see you guys on christmas! everyone looks so great and it makes me so excited to be with you all again. I was great to be able to spend my second christmas in peru with the people i have grown to love.

it is crazy for me to believe that this will be the last email i will send to you as a missionary here in peru.  i am forever changed.  i have learned things that i could have never learned anywhere else.  i have come to know that christ is my savior and that he died for me.  i know that god loves us and that he has a perfect plan for every one of us.  i know that miracles exist.  i think the thing that has touched me the most is seeing peoples lives changed when they accept the gospel and repentance in their lives.  people really can change.  the gospel of jesus christ is amazing.  there are answers to any questions you could ever have. and there is hope for any situation.  There is forgiveness for any sin.  i have been able to see it first hand with the humble people of peru and i will never ever forget the experiences i have had here and the spirit i have felt as a missionary.  i cant wait to show you all my pictures and tell you about all the amazing people i have met here who now are part of my family and to share my experiences with you all.

thank you soooooooo much for writing every monday i have felt so much love in these last 18 months.  i could not have asked for a better family, I'm serious.  

its sad to leave but i know the work will continue here in chinchaysuyo.  hermana M and hermana G will do continue to do awesome things here i know.  we have 2 weddings and 6 baptisms planned for january!! the work never ends. and in these last 3 days i have left we are going to work like crazy!  

i love you all so much.  i love being a missionary.  i love peru.  i love this gospel with all my heart.  i am forever changed.  

nos vemos pronto!! 

xoxoxo hermana murdock 

ps- the picture is my cute companions and i on christmas eve watching the fireworks at 12am (peruvian tradition)

Christmas dog

pre-call to schedule Christmas Skype

watching fireworks with companions

wrapping presents

 

December 22, 2014

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!

 

we had cambios and... i will finish my mission in a trio with hermana M and HERMANA G!!! my childhood friend!  it is literally the best thing ever.  i have never had more fun in my whole life.  the 3 of us just laugh and joke around nonstop.  i am soooooo sad that i will have to leave them in just a short week and a half but i know that they will continue the work strong here in chinchaysuyo!

we are so excited for an investigator named J who will be baptized in january.  last night we had a great lesson with her about following the commandments and she is completely committed to living the gospel.  she is even sharing her testimony with her friends and giving us references!! 

also this week we had a family night with my FAVORITE family in peru.  la familia E.  the mom L has cancer for the 2nd time and she just had an operation to remove part of the tumor.  and she will start chemo again in january.  she is the strongest person i know.  honestly she has changed my life and i will always be grateful for her and her family.  even when things get tough if we have faith and a good attitude anything is possible.  miracles are possible.  they invited my companions and i to spend Christmas eve with them so i will send more pictures next week.  

and this week is CHRISTMAS! what a great time to remember Christ and everything that he did for us.  there are so many things that we can do to show our gratitude in this Christmas season.  giving service is one of the best ways to feel the spirit and to be happy.  i hope you all have a great Christmas.  i am so grateful to be here serving in peru and to get to spend Christmas with these amazing people. 

 

i love you all and will talk to you soon on skype!!! ahhhhh im so excited! 

ps the photo is of me with a peruvian dog.  they are the most hidious things i have ever seen in my life. haha

Peruvian dog

Trio

 

December 15, 2014

time is passing so quickly!!!!!!!! ahhhhhhhhh.  i feel like just yesterday i was writing you about going to the temple and now another week has passed!

 

this week was so amazing.  there are weeks on the mission where we are just going through the motions and there are weeks (like this week) where you really feel like you are making a difference in peoples lives.  where you can feel the spirit in every lesson and you cant help but smile all the time.  those weeks make this all worth it.  we didn't have anyone accept a baptismal date and we didn't really have very many investigators at church but i was just filled with the spirit.  i'll tell you about a few of the experiences we had this week....

yesterday we had lunch with a family that we have never been with before in the ward.  they just moved into our ward and signed up to give us lunch.  so we started talking to them and they told us about some really hard things that they have gone through in their life (he was into drugs, she got pregnant at 18, she grew up in the church and her family are all really active members so when she got pregnant they basically disowned her) and they were basically at the lowest point in their lives.  but they have decided to make things right and are working toward being sealed as a family in the temple.  the spirit was SO STRONG in the lunch.  we testified of the power of repentance and they testified of the power of prayer and tithing. J said that he got baptized 3 years ago because he knew its what D wanted him to do and he didn't really even have a testimony.  He was 19 so the bishop gave him the papers to fill out to go on a mission and he said that the mouse on his computer wasn't working so he used the packet of mission papers as a mouse pad haha.  But D started to go back to church and say her prayers every night and she would hide money to pay tithing and one sunday she got up and got ready for church with their little boy and they went to church.  and J said that something in him just clicked and he said what am i doing here alone.  i should be with my family at church.  so that's when they started doing the things as a family and he stopped drinking and they talked with the bishop and set goals and things like that.  and they pay their tithing every single month! he told us that they have received not only blessings but miracles from paying tithing.  as we were leaving we asked them if they would want to accompany us in a lesson that we were going to teach that night with 2 investigators who don't want to get married and they happily said yes.  so we met up with them later that night and they were so excited to help us and to share their testimonies.  the lesson turned out so great and the spirit was so strong.  my companion and i left and could not stop smiling.  it was probably one of the best days of my entire mission.  

sorry that was a long story and i have so much more i could say but honestly it was so great.  these last few months have really strengthened and confirmed my testimony of the power of repentance.  when we are living in sin we cannot be happy.  but repentance frees us.  i have seen it first hand in so many families here in peru and i know its true!!! there is always hope.  we just have to start and keep moving forward.  

also we had the chance to give service 2 times this week! the first time we went to fix some holes in the walls of a house and then the second time we went to paint the house.  i have made some really good friends in the zone so its always fun to get to spend time with them and joke around and give service all at the same time haha.  

I LOVE YOU!! talk to you next week!

 

December 8, 2014

I don't have much to report this week so this is going to be short but things are moving forward! this week hermana M and i were able to go to the lima temple!! it is so pretty and the spirit is so strong there! it was a long journey in 3 different buses standing the whole time but we made it in about 2 hours.  and it was so worth it! i sent a few pictures and the rest of the pictures i will show you when i get home.  

 

and last night in the stake center we were able to watch the first presidency Christmas devotional and we had 5 investigators come! so we are hoping that they were able to feel the spirit and that they have desires to learn more and to progress towards a baptismal date.  

this morning my companion and i went with the elders up in the cerro to play futbol (well, we cheered them on while they played haha) at 6am which was super fun.  i have made so many friends here and it is going to be so hard to say goodbye.  i have definitely made a family here in peru and memories that i will never forget.  

how are you all doing on your personal study of the book of mormon?? i started over again a few weeks ago and i just finished 1 nefi and everytime i read it i learn so many new things.  it truly is the word of god and i am so thankful for the guidance i receive from reading it every day. 

les amo mucho enserio!  estoy muy muy muy agradecida por cada uno de ustedes y por las cosas que me han enseñado.  me he dado cuenta de cuan bendecida soy a tener una familia tan especial como ustedes.  yo sé que este evangelio es verdadero y que las familias son eternas.  sigan adelante con fe y van a ver milagros en su vida.  nos vemos pronto!!

xoxo hermana murdock 

Lima Temple

 

December 1, 2014

hey! wow i cant believe that today is december 1st.  its begining to look a lot like christmas... (oh wait, not really haha).  its warming up here in lima and i love it.  its so nice to walk outsided and feel the sun!

 

well this week was great! here they dont celebrate thanksgiving.  but luckilly my companion and i got invited to 2 thanksgiving dinners!! the first was on monday with the zone which was SOOOOO good! literally the best thing i have eatin in a long long time.  us gringos and a few of the latinos made it all from scratch! we asked the married missionaries from idaho to help us so it all turned out super good! and then on thurdsay the bishop and his wife, my pensionista and her family, and another family in the ward invited us to celebrate thanksgiving with them.  but turns out that they invited us so that we could make the food for them haha.  im going to miss these people so much! 

 

this thanksgiving made me think a lot about how grateful i am. i have recieved so so so many blessings in my life and it would take forever to write them all.    

 

and on wednesday elder wilson, elder martinez, elder muñoz, elder neranjo, and my companion and i cleaned the church for service which was super boring at first because we had to clean a million dirty chairs but we decided to make it fun and had a water fight.  i ended up stepping on glass which went through my tennis shoe and into my foot and it was bleeding all over the place but we just cleaned it off and no harm done.  it stopped bleeding after awhile and at home i cleaned it really good and now i just have a huge deep hole in my foot haha.  but it doesnt hurt anymore so todo está bien.  

this week hermana M and i get to go to the temple which will be my last time before i finish my mission.  so i will send you pictures next week of the beautiful lima temple! 

and we also found a new investigator this week named A.  she came to church on sunday and had a lot of questions and seems really interested.  keep her in your prayers so that she can overcome a few addictions to progress and accept a baptismal date of december 27th! 

 

I LOVE YOU ALL!! have a great week! 

xoxo hermana murdock 

service with zone

Thanksgiving

service and water fight

 

November 24, 2014

HAPPY THANKSGIVING this week!!! i am so thankful for you all!! and I'm thankful to be here serving the lord in Peru.

 

on Monday we got to go to central de lima which was super fun.  we were having a grand old time laughing and talking with the elders on the bus when all the sudden my companion starts screaming.  turns out her hand was stuck in the bus door (its like an electric door that shuts automatically)! after like 5 seconds she finally was able to pull out her hand and we all just stood there in silence for a second in shock and when we realized that everything was ok and that she still had her had connected to her body we all just started laughing haha.  honestly it was a miracle.  she doesn't even have a bruise or anything! we really are so protected as missionaries.  

 

and on Wednesday we had a multizone conference and president gave a great training on repentance. and then it came time to do some practices (where all the companionships practice teaching a lesson with another companionship) so my companion and i stood up to go look for another companionship to practice with and again hna M and i were having a grand old time laughing and talking and we went to sit down and right as we were siting down one of the elders pulled the chair away that hna M was about to sit on but she was already in the motion of sitting down so she fell straight to the floor.  turns out the elder "didn't know she was going to sit there".  we had a good laugh about it haha. 

 

on Thursday i was sitting on the toilet (sorry maybe that's too much information) and i kept hearing weird noises coming from the shower curtain.  after the rat incident you can imagine that i was a little bit scared of what i might find hiding in our shower.  so anyway i moved away the curtain and there was the biggest cockroach i have ever seen in my life staring at me! it was literally like the size of the palm of my hand! and my companion and i were trying to come up with plans to kill it and how we would get rid of it and of course my compi was screaming haha so my pensionista that lives abajo called to see if everything was ok and luckilly her husband offered to come up and kill it.  problem solved.  you never know what surprises you will find in our baño.  

On Saturday we had the baptism of M & S! it was the best baptism i have ever been to! im serious! i know i always say that but this time i really am serious.  there was not a dry eye in the place.  they both shared their testimonies after and those are momentos that makes all this worth it.  living in a cuarto without a roof in the freezing cold, walking in the dirt all day, eating cuy and frogs and intestines, everything hard about the mission doesn't even matter when you hear the most heartfelt testimony of someone you have grown to love as Christ would love them.  ah its awesome.  

 

to end on a spiritual note last night as i was saying my prayers before bed i asked heavenly father to help me be in tune to the spirit to recognize peoples needs and to have the words to help them feel comforted and right as i finished my prayer my companion said something to me and i felt the strongest impression to ask her if everything was ok.  she started crying and told me about some things that she is going through from before her mission and i cant even remember what i told her but the perfect words just came out and we both started crying and i just realized how amazing Heavenly Father's plan is.  that he really does answer prayers.  and the scripture came into my head that says something like "mourn with those that mourn and comfort those that stand in need of comfort".  im so thankful that i was able to recognize the promptings of the spirit to be a comfort to my companion.  

 

I love you all and hope you have the best THANKSGIVING ever!! until next week...

xoxo hermana murdock 

ps- i would LOVE LOVE LOVE to recieve letters in the mail! 

hermana morgan murdock

peru lima north mission

ave. carlos izaquirre #124

casille de corrello 39-054

independencia

lima 28, peru 

November 17, 2014

hey everyone!

 

today for pday we get to go to central de lima again so i am super excited.  for this, we are here early today in internet.  pictures to come next week...

this week i found a liahona from general conference 2012 and found a conference talk that i love!  i read it in spanish so im not sure exactly what its called in english but in spanish its called "lamentos y resoluciones" by president dieter f. uchtdorf.  and it talks about a nurse who worked with people who were about to die.  and she always asked them what their biggest regret in life is.  and the answers were usually one of these three things:

1. i wish i would have spent more time with the people i love

2. i wish i would have lived up to my potential

3. i wish i would have let myself be happier

he says that we should decide now to spend more time with the people we love, remember who we can become, and let ourselves be happy so that we don't have regrets later.  we can set goals and enjoy the journey.  its not a race its a journey. we should enjoy the moment.  Anyway that is my little spiritual thought for the week. 

on saturday we will have M & S's baptism! i am so excited for them.  they are already basically part of the ward and the members love them.  last night we had a family night with them in the house of our ward mission leader and we watched the restauracion video and it was very spiritual.  she said that she knows without a doubt that its true.  she is truly converted. 

i love you and will talk to you next week!!