Monday, September 28, 2015

"The Christian Satan Warned You About"

Hello everyone! It's so good hear from you again, and to hear about
all the exciting stuff going on back home!  To answer some of Mom's questions,  I can wear my boots on p days or when we do service, and I already wore them out doing service last week, we helped build a new walkway for our ward mission leader.  Also, one more thing about this week.  We have a baptism set for Oct. 17th with a man who had the discussions in Idaho where his sister lives.  We are doing some follow up lessons now.
We had dinner with a family in the ward last night. They are an awesome young married couple in the ward with three little kids and they invited a girl over who they helped change a tire on the side of the road a few days ago.  We taught her a lesson on faith and the Atonement, and she seems really receptive of it.  We're going to keep teaching her.  I'm excited to finally have some real investigators. It feels so good to do this work! 
I've got some crazy stories for y'all!
We went  to a dinner appointment at our bishops. 
On the way there we tracked down a street, and we didn't have
any luck. We did have one guy yell at us from his yard, he was talking
over the fence with his neighbor. We were just walking right then, so
he yelled "where's y'all's bicycles?!" We just told him we were
walking that day, and he sorta just laughed and turned back to his
neighbor. We kept going and didn't have any luck again down another
street, but we did find a little orange tree, so we plucked some off
and ate them on the way back to our bikes. Right when we were
finishing them up, we were passing that house where the crazy guy
yelled at us, and he yelled at us again! But this time it was nice, he
was wondering if we wanted some sodas. Me and elder Moe looked at each
other, turned back to him and said yeah! So we went over by the fence
in front of his house and he brought out some cokes for us.  We
asked him if he had ever talked to LDS missionaries before, and he
told us that he had not, but that he believed in our church anyway!
I'm not sure how he found out, but he told us all about how he knew
about the gold plates and Joseph Smith and the first vision, and he
looked at us and said, "you know what's crazy? I believe it!
Yahkakak!!!" So he invited us over for lunch the next day, he told us
he'd make pork chops, and that's where it really got crazy. We came
back the next day and sure enough, he had pork chops cookin on the
stove for us.  He came out to meet us without a shirt on and called us
Mr Murdock and Mr Moe, like how you say "moe" in English.
He had like eight chiwhawas running around with a great
big French bulldog leading them, drooling all over the place.  We had
pork chops and Mac and cheese with this guy  who had
tattoos all up his arms and chest.  The lunch really wasn't that bad,
but it was a little awkward when he got out a big jar of vodka and
poured a big old glass of it. He was pretty drunk through  this
whole meeting.  He told us more about himself.
He's defiantly a Dixie boy. He even taught his pet parakeet
to whistle Dixie, so I whistled Dixie to try and get the bird to, and
he couldn't believe that a Utah boy knew how to whistle Dixie. He
then talked about how he really wants to start changing his life (as
he was lighting a cigarette) and that he'd been watching glen beck.
Aperantly glen has been talking about love, and how the savior always
showed love in his actions, and he really liked that. He
told us that he really wanted to start showing love to others. He also
told us that he might just want to convert to the church! I think he
might have some word of wisdom stuff to work out though!
 He told us to come back the next day so we could talk with
him so we said sure! On the way out he gave me a biker patch that
reads "I'm the Christian satan warned you about" and I gave him a Book
of Mormon.   
 We went back the next day, but he wasn't home. It was all a really strange experience,
and I think we might just go back again sometime to see how he's
doing.
Anyway, I'll finish with a story about how Elder Moe had ants in his
bed a few nights ago.  We were about to go to bed when he saw all these
ants crawling all over the bed, so we had to spray them all off with
bug spray! We got them all killed, and he put his bed up on a bed
stand finally. He had just been sleeping on the box and mattress on
the floor, and that's why the ants went onto his bed and not mine,
because my bed was raised above the ground. It reminded me of dads
story of the bed bugs, so I said a prayer that the ants wouldn't
return, and they didn't!
I love you all, but Jesus loves you more! I love my boots and viola
and the salsa and everything, thanks again! I'm so excited for
conference, I love to hear what the Prophet and Apostles have to say!
Love, Elder Murdock
Elder Murdock!

P-Day at the Church.  Cooking Breakfast for lunch!

Monday, September 21, 2015

Music, Investigators, and Packages From Home- Onalaska, Texas

Hello Everyone!
It's been another good week here in Texas.  I can't believe how many greenies are here in our zone now.  I think that maybe only four or five companionships aren't training right now in my zone, and that's out of thirteen companionships!  It's crazy seeing all these new missionaries, and to think that was me just a few weeks ago.  It really doesn't even seem that long ago!  Time flies when you're working hard I guess.  It's good to hear that everyone is doing well back home.  I'm glad you've been seeing the blessings in your life.  I know I've been seeing a few! Like having my viola shipped out to me!!  Thank you so much for sending it with Candice.  It's pretty funny actually, our ward choir instructor, Sister Crocket is already thinking about having me play a little accompaniment with the choir soon.  She's been a music teacher pretty much her whole life, so she's really excited to have my viola here.  Where as I am just kinda nervous now.  But I think it should be alright!
Well, not too much happened with investigators this week, but it was still a pretty busy week.  We had a big zone meeting down in Kingwood on Tuesday to introduce all those new missionaries to each other.  That's how I actually got my viola.  I was going to pick up my boots and things that y'all sent me (and thank you for those too.  I love having them again!)  and I was so surprised to see it there.  The senior couples working there made me play something for them, along with the other missionaries that were there that day, it was weird playing it for all of them, especially after it's been so long.  But it felt good!
Anyway, enough about my viola.  On Monday we were actually able to go see this family we've been trying to teach.  Last time we went to their house they were taking off to Instacare to have their little baby daughter looked at.  So we came back on Monday to see how they were doing and maybe teach a lesson. We walked up to the door and the dad came out and told us that their daughter was ok, but the pediatrician said it might be contagious.  We asked if he would want us to bless her and he said sure.  So we told them a little about what the blessing is and we blessed her.  The little girl was so quiet throughout all of it.  She was even smiling at us during it!  It felt good to be able to help out like that.  After the blessing we talked more to the family.  We gave them a little bit of the first lesson,on the restoration and we also gave them some Book Of Mormons.  The mom actually was really happy to have us.  She told us that a few days before she met us she asked God for some help in her life.  It had been a while since she had done this.  So she and her little family are looking for a new church now and I think we've got just the one for them.  
I love my ward here.  It's an awesome ward!! The people here have real strong testimonies.  They like having the missionaries here, and they also like to have fun!
Well, that's a long email, but I'm just excited to share this with y'all!  I'm doing good here.  I love you all so much.  Keep doing good back home and know that God is always there for you, no matter what!
Love, Elder Murdock

Notice the truck behind Elder Murdock! 

Monday, September 14, 2015

Fishing in Texas

Hello My Family!  
It's real good to hear from you.  I really like hearing how the SHS team is doing back home and I'm so glad we won!  I also knew about the BYU games.  The first one was playing when I ate out with the Blackburns, and some members told me about the last one yesterday. They are big Cougar fans.  So I guess things are real exciting back home!  And you know what's crazy??  As of today I am into my second transfer.  I can't believe that I've gone through one transfer already, time goes by so fast and it's been soooo good so far!  It's crazy that some of the missionaries in our area are getting transferred out.  We have one other missionary companionship here in the Livingston ward, Sister West and Sister Fernandez, and they really do feel like sisters to me.  Fernandez is only a transfer older than I am, but Sister West is getting transferred today.  It feels so weird that there is going to be a new missionary here now.  And apparently she is a greenie and will be trained by Sister Fernandez.  It's crazy that I'm not the greenest greenie anymore!
We brought some less active members to church with us.  We met them on Saturday while we were just walking and knocking and they were out painting their door. They are a mom and daughter.  The mom is in her eighties or so and has a cool testimony. She apparently held the world record for most names indexed for a while.  Her daughter is more nondenominational but has a real strong testimony of God and prays to him a lot.  Both came to Sacrament yesterday and it was Awesome!  We do have some lessons lined up for tomorrow with some investigators.  It feels good to finally be teaching.  The people seem like they would really do well with the Gospel.  I pray for them so much that they can open up their hearts to it.  Things have been great here.  I love the other missionaries in our district.  It feels like we are alll a big family.  That is a good feeling when you are out here on your own!  This place is awesome, the ward is great and the area around the lake is beautiful.  The temperature is finally starting to cool down.  I just feel so blessed!  Me and Elder Moeakiola went fishing this morning with Brother Land and his son. It was good to just go down by the lake and relax a bit.  Life here in Texas is awesome and there is really no where else I need to be right now, which is a good feeling.  I'm really excited for Rylee.  She gets to go out and experience it all too!  There's no better feeling that being a missionary!!
Ok, I love you all so much.  Until next Monday, I'll keep you all in my prayers. 
With Love, Elder Murdock

On a road heading to Lake Livingston

Elder Murdock and Elder Moeakiola

"Minionaries" that the Young Women gave to us

District Training

Monday, September 7, 2015

Service, Bubbles, and Friends From Home

Howdy Y'all!  
I really can't believe that another fast Sunday has come and gone. It's so exciting!  This week has been pretty good.  We got around to a lot of people, but we didn't get any return appointments!  Oh well, we placed a lot of Book of Mormons, so maybe they will figure it out later in life.  We did get one return, but she cancelled before we could come out, so dang.  
But, it was really nice to see the Blackburns on Saturday!  It made me think of our ward back home and all the fun times I had back there, and how all of them led up to me serving a mission.  It's amazing how that happens in life.  I love it!  It was so nice of them to drive up here and take me out to dinner.  Thanks Blakburns!
We were able to do a service project for a less active lady in the ward.  Her yard was in need of some help.  We, along with the sister missionaries mowed her lawn and cleaned it up a little.  I actually pruned a lot of her trees with a machete!  Sorry, we should've taken some pictures but we were working too hard to think of stuff like that!
Teaching lessons is good, I haven't been able to teach too many other than lesson 1, the Restoration, but I'm ready for when I need to teach more!
My exchange with Elder Strong went well.  He's a great missionary, and working with him made me so excited to go and do some work!
A funny thing happened this morning.  I think I put too much soap in the dishwasher.  I'll send a picture of what happened!
I met a lady in our ward who I think met Dad when she lived in Louisiana.  She's older and is named Sister Fox.  She had a different name in Louisiana.  I knew this would happen sometime, and I hope it keeps happening.  It's fun to hear "Elder Murdock, that sounds really familiar!"  Then they realize they might have known my dad from his mission!  This Gospel is awesome that way.  It affects people for generations and it helps them always.  I'm so glad I can be here for people and that I can help them for who knows how many years!  I love it, and I love my Savior so much.  He is my master and my friend.  I will do His wonderful work with all I've got, until I drop to the ground and can't move anymore and even then I will try and try to get back up with His help and keep going!  I love all of you, but not as much as the Savior loves you. His love never stops!  I hope you keep seeing blessings in your lives. It makes me happy to hear that you see them!  You're the best family ever.  I love you!
Love, Elder Murdock
The Blackburns lived in my home ward and moved to Houston 2 years ago. They took Elder Strong, who I was on splits with, and I out to dinner!

Too much dishwasher soap!! At least our floor is clean!

Elder Moe teaching a raccoon!

Selfie with Lake Livingston!