Monday, December 26, 2016

Christmas 2016

Hey y'all! I hope y'all have had a great Christmas, mine was pretty
good out here! It was close to 85 degrees on Christmas. It was really nice to talk to my family again! To my
family who is reading this, y'all are looking great and I love you so
much! Thanks for the love and support!
This week was good too. We went on exchanges with the zone leaders, I
went up to Lakehurst with my buddy Elder Biesinger, who I actually knew
back home! We had a good time up there and worked hard too, it was
fun! The rest of the week was good with Elder Harmon, we worked hard
to make it the best week yet, and it payed off! We finally got our
investigators progressing, and we also found a new investigator named
Marcus. He's the son of another one of our investigators who we
haven't been able to get in with for the longest time, but his son is
way interested! We taught him a little word of wisdom lesson, and
after it he stared at his cup of tea he had just made real thoughtful
like, then we all just stared at it, things got awkward, we said
goodbye...then we came back in Saturday and he was way happy to see
us, and didn't have his usual cup of tea this time either! The sad
thing about all this is, I'm leaving Atascocita! I have been here
since June, so it's probably time for me to leave, I've really grown
to love this place, and all the people here, but I know it's time to
go work somewhere else and make all new friends, wherever I need to
go!
I sure do love y'all, but I love the Lord more! I can't wait to see
where He'll have me go next, and who my new best friend will be! Merry
Christmas and Happy New Year,
Love,
Elder Murdock
True to the Faith

Elder Biesinger and Elder Murdock

Merry Christmas 2016
Kingwood Zone Christmas Breakfast at the mission home


Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Week Before Christmas

Hello everyone! Sorry I am emailing late and it will be super short! This day has been really crazy, we went out to Vidor (with President Drake's permission) for a special thingamajig, but it went really well, I'll have more time to talk about it next week! 
But real quick, this week was good, we were able to do a lot of service this week, and we also taught one of our investigators, Josh,  at the end of the lesson he gave me a great compliment, he said that I reminded him of Linus from Charlie Brown! He's a big Charlie Brown fan and he and his wife both think of Linus very highly as a wise and chipper person, and so I guess that's what he thought of me! I was really touched by that, it kinda made my day. 
I'm so very grateful for all of y'all, thanks for all the support y'all give me from back home, I sure do love y'all, but I love the Lord even more! I know this is where I need to be, 
Love, 
Elder Murdock 

I love the Joy in Elder Murdock's face in this picture!-Love from his Mom

Christmas Lights in Atascocita

Monday, December 12, 2016



Howdy y'all! 
Sorry, I don't have too much time today for a nice big email like I usually give, but I hope this is good enough for now, I'll just say that I'm still working hard down here, Elder Harmon and I are having fun and learning how to use faith as a power. We are still teaching Ryan, and he is progressing very well, we went to a child of record baptism this last Saturday for the daughter of a part member family in the ward and it went really well! The father's been investigating for a while now, his wife is a member of about two years now, and I think this baptism for his daughter was good for him to go to. Maybe this will start moving things forward a little more with him! The family had me play viola at the baptism, then later that night I had the chance to play it again at the ward Christmas party, then I played with two young men in our ward for Sacrament meeting yesterday, and I'll be playing it again tomorrow for the mission Christmas conference talent show, so I'm super happy to be using this talent! It's been a lot of fun playing music for others while I've been out here, I've especially enjoyed playing the hymns, there's a lot of power and testimony in them, I love it! 
Alright that's about all I've got time for, I hope y'all have a good week, I'll be thinking of more info to write for next week, I love you all. I love His church, I know it's true and that this mission is where the Lord needs me to be, Merry Christmas y'all! 
Love, 
Elder Murdock 
True to the Faith 🇺🇸







Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Getting Cold in Texas

Howdy everybody! I hope y'all have had a fantastic week. Ours sure was good, we had a lot of good things happen. We've really been striving to learn how to call down the powers of heaven to help us in our work, so we did a lot of fasting and praying to know what we needed to do. We did our best to get members out with us, there were a few days when we weren't able to find anyone available to come out with us, after all we could do, but hey, that's exactly when the Lord steps in to help out, right? Those days that we tried our hardest to get members out but couldn't, other members of the ward invited us in to teach them and their investigator friends and family, and we were able to exceed our member present goals for the week! Another miracle that happened this week was with one of our investigators, Ryan.  He's been very humbled and very prepared to hear our message, and we've loved teaching him these last few weeks. We stopped by to see him on Tuesday and he was working in his garage as usual. We noticed that he sick and stuffed up, but he just brushed it off like it was nothing. We taught him a lesson and said goodbye, and I went to get back on my bike as he was closing the garage door, but Elder Harmon stayed up by the door with a thoughtful look on his face. We had wanted to give Ryan a blessing for his chewing tobacco problem but we weren't able to because of time, but I could tell Elder Harmon was still dead set on giving him this blessing, especially after we found out he was sick. So I got off my bike and Elder Harmon knocked on the garage door so we could come back in and give him a blessing, which is exactly what happened. Ryan was more than happy to let us give him a blessing, Elder Harmon anointed and I sealed it. After the blessing Ryan sat in his chair for a bit, then took a deep breath through his nose and told us that that was the first time in two days that he'd been able to breath. He teared up a bit and thanked us and gave both of us a hug. We said goodbye, riding off with a greater love for Ryan and a greater thanks to our Heavenly Father for allowing us to be His servants. 

I testify that this work is true! The Lord wants all of us to do our best and serve Him, and give Him our all. I can tell y'all that as you strive to give all you've got to him, a change will come in you're
 Heart that will be sweet and pure. 

We also had the Kingwood Nativity this week, and that was awesome! It was the same one we worked at last year, so I kinda knew what was going on. It was so fun to be there again and feel that awesome Christmas spirit. I think the coolest part was one of the performances, he was a blind and handicapped man that played the piano so beautifully! I loved listening to him and other performers play Christmas music, I love this time of year, there's just something wonderful about it, I hope y'all can feel it too, and share it with others! 

I sure do love y'all, but I just love the Lord a whole lot more, so I'll be serving him with the best I have for as much time as I've got till he says I'm done, until then I'll be sending Texas sized love to y'all from here in Atascocita! 
Love,
Elder Murdock
Elder Murdock and Elder Harmon

KingWood Nativity


KingWood Nativity
Cool car and getting Cold in Texas