Monday, November 28, 2016

Thanksgiving

Hello friends and family! I hope y'all had a good Thanksgiving, eating food, seeing family, eating food, remembering what you're grateful for, eating more food...anyway, sorry, we ate a lot of food down here, like, A LOT OF FOOD. It was awesome. We also had a good week teaching people, we went out to lunch with an investigator to a Cajun restaurant, and we had a little lesson in the middle of jazz music and while eating gumbo, it was neat! He's a great guy, he's doing pretty much all he can to study the gospel, he even said it was like he was making his own college course on it, he's taking it pretty seriously, which is good! 
Elder Harmon and I also did some fasting this week to try and know what the will of the lord was for our area, and we've seen some blessings come from it. We've been able to get revelation for our investigators, and also on the things we need to do in our companionship to keep the spirit strong, if any of you feel like you need to understand the will of the Lord, fast to know it, and pray about it as well, then wrote down those things he tells you, so they can be a visible goal to remind you of the things you need to do, it makes a difference!
Ok, I'll end with how Thanksgiving went for us: 
We had two diner appointments, the first one started at 3:00 and it was with some members named the Killians, who are really good at cooking food! They smoked a turkey for us, and made some great desert too, it all tasted good, and their kids were a blast to be with too. They're a funny bunch. Our second appointment was with the Tuhalangingi family, their Tongan, so that means there was TONS OF FOOD TO EAT. Like, just so much food, and it was all good. Most of the family all the kids were born here in the states, but their dad was from Tonga, their mom was from California, and they all reminded me of my trainer Moeakiola. I love Tongans, they know how to have a good time!  The funniest part of diner with them was when they asked me to do the Hakka for them! I was surprised when I was actually the only one that knew how to do it! But they all loved it, and we had a good laugh :) 
I hope y'all have a great week, remember to be grateful for all the blessings we get in our lives, and remember who they come from! I sure do love y'all, but I love the Lord a whole lot more, keep him the center of your life and you'll never go wrong, 
Love,
Elder Murdock 
True to the Faith 🇺🇸



Monday, November 21, 2016

Wonderful Week in Texas-Happy Thanksgiving

Howdy y'all! Haha, I love being a Texas missionary, I get to say howdy y'all, it's the best, I know y'all are jealous :) 
Anyway! Hey! I hope y'all have been having a great day, a great life, and all that, if you haven't been, cheer up! Life is great, the Savior is real, and peace will come. 

Actually, I've been studying a lot about peace this week and how we can find it, and how we can keep it. The people of King Benjamin were able to find peace in Mosiah 4:2-3, they found it after repenting, having faith in Christ that they can change. Once they gave their all to Him, peace came upon them. The way we can keep peace in our lives is if we keep the Lords commandments, simple as that. Also, when we strive to work our little hearts out for Christ, peace can be found there. 
 So, as far as missionary work goes, it wasn't the most exciting week, a lot of biking a talking to people, trying to find some good people to teach. We did find this one guy who is really cool! He's just got out of prison about 5 months ago, he's 49 and he's spent over 20 years in prison, but he's so humble and awesome! Every time we've stopped by to see him he says we cheered him up. We also got to teach a lesson to a baptist guy. We brought a member with us, and the two of them really did most of the talking, we stuck to the bible for that lesson. He wasn't wanting to hear anything outside of it. But it was alright! The member knew exactly how to teach out of the bible, something I've struggled with a bit, and he helped us out a ton. He even gave us a lesson on how to teach out of the bible after the lesson, he's a great guy, his family is awesome too! 

I hope y'all have a great Thanksgiving this week, remember to count your many blessings, one by one! I sure do love y'all, but I love the lord so much more. He is absolutely amazing, and I hope each of you are striving each and every day to get to know him and your Heavenly Father more. 
Lots of love! 
Elder Murdock 
True to the Faith


Planning with the Spanish Speaking Elders.

Monday, November 14, 2016

Jambalaya and Fried Texas French Toast

Hey everybody! I hope y'all have had a great week!
This week was a good one, me and Elder Harmon had some fun looking for some old potential investigators and trying to get in with some less actives in the ward, we were actually supposed to have dinner with a few of them, but they cancelled on us. The good news is, we had a great time cooking up our own diners, and I finally learned how to make Jambalaya! I hope that makes you proud dad! It wasn't half bad either, if I do say so myself .
Today is also transfers, and holy cow, I'm staying here one more to finish training Elder Harmon. I was nervous there for a second, that I'd be moved out, but hey, no worries. That also means I'll be staying here in Atascocita for Christmas, which is awesome because I LOVE the ward here, sorry mom and dad, I might just stay here, it's like my new home ward, hahaha! But really, I am excited to be in the Kingwood stake for Christmas again, I was actually in this same stake last year and I heard about all the crazy cool light shows the people have in the neighborhoods in Humble and Atascocita. I was actually thinking last year that it would be cool to see that, and here I am! We also have the Christmas Nativity at the Kingwood stake center again, and all the Kingwood missionaries get to help out with it, again! It's gonna be great I love Christmas 
Anyway, on to the rest of the week!
This past Friday night was the ward camp out, and our ward mission leader asked us and the Huffman Elders to come up to give a fire side devotional, don't worry it was still in the ward boundaries and we didn't spend the night, but I was able to bring my viola out and play some camp songs. The members have known me long enough now that they've come up with a game called "stump Elder Murdock" where they can each call out one of their favorite hymns to see if I can play it or not. And, needless to say, I won! I love doing that, it's such a blessing to be able to play the Lords hymns for people. Thank you to all my teachers through the years and my mom and dad who made me practice so hard!
We got invited back the next morning for the ward camp breakfast, it was so good, if y'all haven't had deepfried Texas French toast covered in powdered sugar and syrup, then you just haven't been living your life to its full potential, it's amazing! I actually brought my viola back up again in the morning, and Elder Harmon brought his clogs, and we jammed out a little bit, he was clogging up a storm while I fiddled a little, it was fun :) 
That's about it for the week, I hope this next one will be good for all y'all! I sure do love y'all, but hey, I love my Savior even more. This is His work, so I'm going to give it my all for Him! 
Love, 
Elder Murdock



Name tag scuffed up from a bike crash- but "no worries mom! I'm all good."


Mission Temple Trip

Ward Camp Out
Service with Elder Harmon and Elder Hansen





Monday, November 7, 2016

Positive

Hello everyone! Sorry I'm taking a while today, we had a lot of emails to send today, but I'll try to make up with the short email with some good pictures, and I'll get right into the week now!
We had a rougher week this week, but it was still fun! A lot of our investigators were no where to be found, and one of them even dropped us, but don't worry y'all, we ended the week on a good note with a great lesson with a man named Josh, he's had a lot of LDS friends through his life, and has good potential in the church. I'm excited to see where He goes with it! 
Also, something fun this week, as me and Elder Harmon were biking in what we thought was the farthest south we could bike in our area, we found a sweet off road path that went farther down into a part we've never been able to tract in before, it was awesome! It was nice to bike on a dirt road for a change, instead of the usual pavement. We should find some good investigators down there too so woot woot! 
That's it for this week, I sure do love y'all but I love the Lord more, I'm going to keep doing His work with a smile, I hope y'all can do the same! 
Love, 
Elder Murdock 

Elder Murdock and Elder Harmon


Pelicans

Name Tag Picture