Monday, June 27, 2016

Toads

Hi everybody! It's been a good week here in Texas, Elder Niemann and I
are having fun teaching others, and also finding others to teach. It's
been getting real hot the last couple of weeks, and the humidity is
crazy high as well, but the work must move forward anyway!
We had some funny experiences this week, we went over to a less active
families house for dinner on Thursday way out in the boonies, the dad
is the less active, he's from Louisiana and sure does sound like it!
He had served a mission in San Antonio back in 89 or so, but hasn't
been active since then. He'd always loved rodeo, and after his mission
he got caught up in it a lot. Anyway, he made us crawfish fettucini,
which was actually really good, but the funny part happened when his
15 year old son came out of his room holding something in his hands.
He had a big grin on his face and said, "guys, you'll never guess what
just crawled out of my dirty clothes pile!" Me and Elder Niemann just
kinda stared at him like, what? Then he opened up his hands and said,
"a toad!" And a little toad hopped right out of his hands onto the
kitchen floor! His family hardly even reacted to it like it was a
normal occurrence, but me and Elder Niemann couldn't stop laughing!
His uncle replied in a thick Cajun accent "now howed you get one of
them frogs in your dirty clothes?!" And the kid was all like, "it
ain't a frog, it's a toad!" Finally the mom had had enough and said,
"I don't care what it is, just get it outta my kitchen!" The mom's
from Alabama, by the way. But I swear, it was like we see on an
episode of Duck Dynasty or something!
The rest of this week has been good, we've been trying to get people
to progress towards baptism, we're having FHE with the nine year olds
family tonight, she should get baptized soon! The other investigator
is still doing good, he's just kinda going
through the motions right now. We are trying to find a way to help
him feel the Spirit more in his life right now. But I know that once
he does, he will be so happy! I know it because it's happened in my
life too!
I sure do love y'all, I hope all is well for anyone reading this. Keep
Christ in your life, and you will never lack for joy!
Love,
Elder Murdock
True to the Faith




Elder Niemann and Elder Murdock

Elder Murdock



Monday, June 20, 2016

"God Bless"

Howdy y'all from Houston Texas, yeeehhhaaaaw! I hope y'all have had a
good week, Happy Father's Day to all the fathers reading this, a lot
happened this week that was really good, so here we go!
On Tuesday we went to go see a less active member who has been getting
back into the church with a friends help in the ward, we had seen her
before just to drop off a Book of Mormon and a bible for her, but this
time we taught her a little lesson. In the middle of the lesson we ask
what her nine year old daughter, who was there, thought about all
this, and she straight up asked "when can I be baptized?" Which is
absolutely music to any missionaries ears, no matter who says it! So
we are going to set up a baptism for her, her mom is now coming to
church, things are looking good for them, and they are the Slay
family, if any of y'all were wondering.
Not too long after that, Elder Nieman and I were driving around
Huffman, which is part of our area, to another appointment, and we
were stopped at a red light. All of a sudden a scruffy looking guy on
a bicycle came riding up to the driver side window (I was driving) and
knocks on it! Right in the middle of the road! So me, being the
gullible guy I am, decide to role down the window a little, and he
starts to grumble out "Mormon missionaries!" By this time we both
noticed he was holding a beer can in one of his hands, but by then the
light turned green and I stammered out a God bless, and we got
ourselves out of there faster than a baptist in a street contact!
Elder Nieman thought it was a guy who had yelled at him and his
previous companion a few weeks before. But hey, come Sunday morning,
guess who came to church? The old scruffy drunk bicycle guy! Except
not so scruffy or drunk, but he still had rode his bike to church. It
turns out that he's been investigating the
church for over ten years now! He's a real funny guy, and he knows a
TON of church history and doctrine and stuff, and he loves it! He even
said his favorite president was Wilford Woodruff! When we asked him
why he didn't get baptized, his answer was D&C 89. He can't stop drinking
coffee and beer. But hey, I think we might just be able to help him
with that and get this guy baptized!
That's about it for this week, I'm doing good myself, just loving the
work. Me and Elder Nieman are getting along real well, the ward here
is great, there's a family called the Haley's that love us a bunch,
they're taking good care of us, so don't worry! I sure do love y'all.
Keep God first in your life and all else that comes after will be
blessed,
Love,
Elder Murdock
True to the Faith

Monday, June 13, 2016

New Investigators

Howdy everyone! This was a good week for Elder Murdock and Elder Niemann in Atascocita. Things here are looking good! 
This week started out good, we met a lady during hour of power on Tuesday, she told us she was a "bathed in the blood born again Christian." We were just walking by and she came out to talk to us a little, she was curious about what we believe in, but she ended up just talking about herself and a book she's reading right now. It turns out she used to be a gang banger of some sort, but now that she's saved she just writes Christian rap. We gave her a talk to read and we both went our separate ways, UNTIL ON SATURDAY NIGHT she started texting us like crazy with all these Mormon questions, just dumb stuff like polygamy and stuff, and she wouldn't stop, and by the way she was texting, we could tell she'd been drinking some fun juice. But it ended well, we just tried to be as polite as possible, and she ended up calling us her little Mormon brothers, I'm not sure what we're going to do with her, we'll just have to see :) 
Something really cool that happened this week though! There's a part member family in the ward, the husband is not a member but the wife's a convert of two years now, she is WAY excited about he church and is trying so hard to get her husband into it as well. They've been struggling a little bit recently, and the husband has never really had faith in God, and hasn't ever really had a good experience with church, but we went over to their house on Saturday for dinner, and by the end of the night the wife suggested that we all fast to help them as a family, and to help her husband see Gods love. So we fasted the whole rest of the night, and through Sunday as well. We went back over Sunday evening to break the fast with them, and when we asked the wife how it went, she told us that she didn't think it worked for him. They were at church, but her husband just didn't feel anything again. So Elder Niemann asked If her husband had ever taken the missionary lessons before, and it turns out he hadn't! He'd never let he missionaries teach him, but we ended up getting a return appointment with him this next week to start the lessons! And that is the unexpected answer we got from the fast! God really does listen to our prayers, and so long as we do our part, our Father in Heaven will bless us so much! I sure do love y'all, and I hope this next week will be a good one for ya! 
Love, 
Elder Murdock
PS Happy Birthday Weston! You're the best brother in the world! 

Basketball on PDay


Elder Murdock

Flooding from Lake Houston


Monday, June 6, 2016

New Area-Atascocita

Hello all you wonderful people! Things here in Texas have been great!
I'm in a new area called Atascocita, and it has been WET this last
week! I'm pretty sure it's rained everyday this week. If it was like
this in Utah the whole valley would be a lake right now. Legit. I'm
serving around a lake again, Lake Houston, and it's crazy! The water
from the lake was all the way up past these picnic tables on the
shore, it had gotten all up into the people's back yards, right up to
their homes, and it's only just recently gone down. But I love serving
around another lake. We go over a big bridge to get to most of our
appointments and it's beautiful! It reminds me a lot of my first area
in Onalaska.  My new companion is great too, he's actually one of my
first zone leaders, now he's serving as district leader here. It's
kinda funny, my area is right next to Kingwood, the place I spent a
week serving at the beginning of my mission, and also where the
mission office is. It's bringing back a lot of memories of when I was
a greenie! It's fun to see how far I've come though, and how far I've
got left to go. Also, this area is way richer than my last couple
areas, except for one little part of it called Huffman, that's more
country. We get a car here, too! Which is fine by me, I could use a
little break from biking, and my bike can too, my pedal fell off the
last week in Baytown, so I think that was a sign!  Anyway, I love this
new area, the ward is great, the people here all seem really nice, the
whole town is a flipping FOREST with houses between all the trees,
and the rain is so cool to watch. My companion is awesome too, his
name is Elder Nieman, (like knee-man) he's as tall as me, only has
three transfers left, and is a dang hard worker, we've done so much
this week, it's great! It's so cool how on a mission, you just get
dumped into this new place and immediately you've got a ton of new
friends, I love it! We are the only missionaries in the ward here, but
there are two other wards in the building, so we have three total
companionships in the district, it feels kinda like I'm back in Utah
with all these wards! That's about it for me this week, I'll try to
stay afloat with all this flooding, don't worry! I love you all, but I
know the Lord loves y'all more, so trust in him in all that you do and
you'll be fine!
Love,
Elder Murdock
True to the Faith

Elder Murdock and Elder Nieman were in a Memorial Day Parade

Didn't have any big bowls so they made some!

New Haircut





Thursday, June 2, 2016

Transfers

Hello friends, 
Goodbye Baytown!
Yup, I just got the call on Saturday, I'll be meeting my new companion
and going to my new area today starting at four o clock, it's pretty
crazy! I've no idea where I'm going or who I'll be with, but I do
know it's where the Lord wants me to go. I'll sure miss Elder Ker, he
was a riot to be around, along with the other Elders. Not to mention
all the awesome members I've gotten to know in the ward! Sadly I was
never able to find any new converts here, but hey, I've planted the
seeds all over so I guess someone else is supposed to harvest them!
Ok, I'll try and send a bigger email later, I'm about to be
transferred love y'all!
True to the Faith

Elder Murdock emailed this to us later on Monday evening:
Hello again! I'll make this quick, I'm now back in the 
Kingwood zone in a place called Atascocita. My new companion is my old zone leader Elder Niemann, I think we should be doing some really good work! I've got some more stories to tell, but I'm 

running out of time.  Love you all lots.
Elder Murdock
Elder Murdock and Elder Niemann