Elder Murdock In The Texas Houston East Mission: Side streets, Fasting and New Companions

Hello Everyone! It's been a great week, and I've got a lot to say this
time, so buckle up and enjoy!
To start, Elder Leftwich is an amazing guy, and a great missionary to
boot! I can tell already that we are going to have some fun, and do a
lot of good hard work this transfer. We had dinner
with the Poffs and the Sisters were invited as well, so it was nice to
see them too. By the way, that's my district now, the Sisters, Elder
Leftwich, and me! We're small, but I think we are all good
missionaries, so we will do good in this little Livingston district.
So, an amazing thing happened yesterday!
Yesterday, we had a few lessons planned, but they all fell through. We
were having a zone fast too, so we were really feeling kinda down (and
hungry) but we knew we had to do something, so we went out to go
tracting, without feeling too confident. We tried a place that I've
been wanting to go to for a while, but haven't been able to because of
miles, but I think it will work out now with this new district. We met
a few people, and even had some one ask us to come back, but it was
nothing too sure. So, we decided to go try another little area that
hasn't been tracked yet, and by this time it was getting a little
darker. I kinda had a little idea of where we should go, but I really
wasn't too sure. While we were driving there, I saw on our gps that
there was a little street to one side. Me and Elder Moe had never gone
down it because it was just so small, only two houses on it, and we
had always gone down the street into a bigger neighborhood. Well, as
we were driving past it this time, I just felt like we should try
these two houses, just to be sure. So I turned down that road, and we
got out and we're immediately welcomed by about four dogs, wagging
their tails and barking at us. I asked Elder Leftwich which house he
wanted to knock on first, and he said it didn't really matter (later
we found out that it does matter!) so I decided to try the first house
on the left, where a little old lady answered and told us, politely,
to come back another time. So, we walked over to the next house, who's
front porch had a bunch of puppy's scampering around it, all cute
like. We could see through the window a man working on some Christmas
lights and a tree, so we weren't too sure if he wanted us to talk to
him, but we knocked anyway. He answered the door and told us to try
back another time because he was busy, and had his family coming in
soon anyway. Right when he said that, a big truck pulled into his
driveway, and all these teenagers piled out and walked right into the
house, right passed us! Their mom was last to get into the house, and
as she passed us she said, "Hi Elders." Hi Elders!! She invited us to
come in, and her husband said it was fine , so we went in and shared
the Christmas video and talked a short while about the gospel with the
husband, , his wife, and one of their
daughters who is 14 and looking for a church with a
good youth program. Well, it turns out that the mom was in the Young
Women's program back when she was 12! She joined the church when she
was 12, and she's about fifty or so now, but she loved everything
about the church, and the youth programs we have, and has actually
been looking for a chapel here in Onalaska since they moved here eight
years ago. We told her it's actually in Livingston, and that we would
love for her and her family to come down some time. She said of
course, and pretty much told her daughter that she should study with the
Elders (us) and think about baptism! It was great! I love seeing these
little miracles out here, especially after we were having bad luck.
Fasting works I guess!
Well, that was a long story, but it really was awesome. After that, we
went out with Brother Crocket, a high priest in the ward, who is
probably the most loving man you will meet, unless you meet one of the
apostles, to administer the sacrament to a couple of people who
couldn't make it to church. That was great, it felt good to bless the
sacrament again, and talking with these people was just a great
spiritual thing to do. The first person we went to was a cancer
patient, and her husband who was there at the nursing
home with her. The second person was another cancer patient, at his
home, with his wife. They had a really sweet
dog who liked to be petted, and they also had a good spirit in their
home.
Well, we had a great week, and I hope y'all have a good one next week.
I'm so glad to hear your testimonies, and that y'all are doing so good
back home too. I'll try to send another email latter today if I can
for each of you, but if I can't, know that I love you, and y'all are
the bomb! Merry Christmas!
Love,
Elder Murdock

True to the Faith

Elder Murdock also sent pictures of the sewer backing up into their apartment. I didn't think y'all needed to see that! I am wondering why he thought I needed to see that. I told him sometimes it "stinks" being a missionary!!