Baytown

Hello everybody! Sorry about not emailing last week, transfers were pretty crazy.  So, I'll try to be quick about what's happened these last two weeks!  My last week with Elder Leftwich was really nice, we were able to teach a nice lady. She was awesome, which probably means she is going to get baptized, and I'm not even going to be there! Oh well, it's still all good! Leaving Elder Leftwich was pretty sad, but I'll still see him throughout the mish.  It sure was fun to serve with him though, he was just a hard worker, I learned a lot from him.  

Elder Hansen is great! He reminds me a lot of Wes, because he can make up songs and such.  He has been out for a year.  This area has some more sketchy areas. There are a lot of of signs and things in Spanish here.  It is a bike area.  Also, we went to Pasadena for Zone meeting, and we had to go over a huge bridge to get there, it was a little bit bigger than the one in Onalaska! So, here is how I got pepper sprayed:

The second morning that I was here, we were just kinda waking up, and Elder Hansen found in his closet a can of pepper spray given to him from one of his last companions, Elder Harington, the same guy who was my first district leader.  Anyway, he had never tried to spray it before, and the instructions say that you need to do that, so he decided to go out on the porch to try it out.  He just sprayed a little bit against the ground, and came back inside.  The problem was, pepper spray apparently spreads out through the air really quick, and we didn't know that.  So, for about an hour, our apartment was full of pepper spray smell, and pepper spray particles, that got up into our noses and eyes and stuff and was really irritating.  Me and Elder Hansen sat there coughing and laughing for a good while, I couldn't feel my nose! It was a really weird thing, and now I never want to be pepper sprayed for real, because if only that much hurt so much, I never want to know how a full on spray to the face would feel!  Just remember everyone, be nice to people, so you won't get pepper sprayed.  

Im still doing good out here! Send small letters to my new address and if I were y'all, I'd send bigger things to the mission home from now on. 

I sure do love y'all! Oh, I almost forgot, Elder Nelson is coming to the Texas Houston South mission on Saturday, but the conference includes all of the Houston missions, so I GET TO See Elder NELSON again!!!! I'm so excited, because I was able to hear him give a talk at the MTC, and since then I've loved him.  Anyway, if there's anyone in the other Houston missions that I know, I'll be able to see them maybe!

Love you, do good to others, 

Elder Murdock

True to the Faith

Awesome apartment in Onalaska!  Hard to say goodbye.

Elder Hansen

Onalaska District

Good-bye Onalaska, Hello Baytown

This is the email we received this week.  Only Mitch would send this with no worries! We are wondering how you get pepper sprayed "a little." Either you are pepper sprayed or you're not-right? Can't wait to hear the story! Gotta love Elder Murdock!!  Also, thank you to all the members in Onalaska and Livingston. He loved it there and y'all were so good to the missionaries!

Email from Elder Murdock:

I'll be quick, I'm in Baytown my comp is Elder Hansen and we got
pepper sprayed a little, I'll talk next week love you! Oh, and don't
worry about the pepper spray I'm fine!

True to the Faith

Storm

Hello everyone! I hope y'all have been keepin up well. I've just been out here serving the Lord. We were able to teach  a lot of people this week, sadly, none of them came to church, but we will keep trying! Man, these people just need to go to church! One really cool thing though, we are teaching a girl who sings really well. Herself and boyfriend are interested in the Gospel. It's been a long time coming for these two, but they are finally accepting our message! We were finally able to sit down and have a real lesson with them about the restoration, and they just accepted it, even the Word of Wisdom! They just knew that the Word of Wisdom comes from God, so that made it a little easier on us. The other people we're teaching are doing well, like I said, they just need to go to church, but other than that, they are all progressing well. Nothing else too big happened, we had a crazy big rain storm on Thursday, there was even some hail down in Houston, and tons of lightning. Me and Elder Leftwich drove over to the lake and watched it all for a little bit, it was awesome! 

I hope y'all have a great new week, I might get transferred by the end of it, I hope I don't, this ward and area is amazing, and so are the people we are teaching, but no matter what, I'll do what I'm asked!

Love y'all, stay safe,

Elder Murdock.

True to the Faith

Crazy Big Rainstorm

P Day

P Day

Elder Murdock's Dad Steve was in San Antonio this week!  So close, but oh so far!!  He was sitting in the Houston airport when that big storm was going on!  Crazy!  We love Texas!

Happy New Year

Hello everybody! I've been good this week, we didn't do much for New
Years except go to bed at ten thirty, we were both really tired, and
we had to be in our apartment by six, mission rules, so yeah, this
year came in pretty bland I'm sorry to say! We had a good president
interview training on Tuesday, and it was great to hear from the APs
and President and Sister Drake, it was a lot about Preach My Gospel,
which really is amazing and y'all should read it, especially you Wes,
read now before you come out!!! We have a couple new investigators, we
need to see them a few more times before we know anything definite,
but they are still there! My testimony has defiantly grown, I've felt
the spirit testify to me just a few days ago! It's awesome and I love
it.
I wish I could see some of that snow back home, the cold is no fun
without it, and it has been pretty cold, in the forties and thirties
even! Me and Elder Leftwich are still doing great and getting along well.
I'll send some pictures of an exchange we had on Wednesday.
 Sorry, I didn't have a huge story to tell this week, but it was
still a good one, trust me! Well, we do have something funny, we have
an invading army of ladybugs coming into our apartment, there have
been a few of them all along our ceiling and our bedroom wall, the
kill count is at about thirty eight, so don't worry, there haven't
been too many. But it is super sad killing them, I mean, they're just
little ladybugs! But, it  turns out they bite us in the middle of the
night, so they have to go. We were actually shooting darts at them at
lunch on our ceiling, but we could never hit them, oh well!
I love y'all, watch out for ladybugs, and Happy New Year!
Love,
Elder Murdock

True to the Faith