Another Week

Hey ho everyone! Elder Murdock the missionary here! This has been a
great week, I hope y'alls has been good too!
The highlight of this week was baptizing Georgette and her two kids,
George and Katelyn. They were being taught by the sisters before hey
left. At the time they were being taught, they were living in the same
complex as the missionaries, and Katelyn was living up with some
family in Shreveport, so she didn't sit in on the lessons with them.
Right around the time the sisters left, they moved further down to a
trailer in the country part of Lake Charles, so Katelyn could 
keep living with them, so Elder Kent and I were able to teach her and
the family the lessons again (never a bad thing).It's been wonderful
to see the Lord's hand in this work, and to see this great family come
into the church, I'm just glad I had the privilege of being here to
help them! At the beginning of the transfer we were having a hard time
getting a hold of them for lessons and things, but we really started
working hard with them when a young sister in the ward stepped in and fellowshiped them 
like crazy.
Stoney is the dad of the group, he's a great guy with a great testimony who's not quite
ready for baptism yet, but we'll get him there! He's also wrestled a
few gators in his day, he's great. All I know is, if it wasn't for the
Lords help, they probably wouldn't have been baptized this week, it's
been great!
Most of the week was taken up with getting them ready for baptism, but
we did have a nice break on Wednesday when we went to the temple as a
zone. It was so nice to go back into Houston, especially to do some
ordinances in the temple. There's a whole lot of spirit you can feel
in there, I tell you what! Really, if any of you feel like you need
revelation, or peace, focus more on attending the temple, or even just
going around and visiting the grounds, it's the Lords house, and His
spirit is there!
In my Book of Mormon reading, I just got to 3 Nephi, in chapter 11,
when Christ comes and visits the people here. In verses 10 and 11, he
shares the first and most important things he can to the people, that
he was Jesus Christ, and that he suffered the will of the Father in
all things. He did that by tanking upon himself all of our sins,
trials, bad times, everything! If that's the first and most important
things Christ could have done, then it's probably the most important
thing we can do too, to obey the will of the father in our lives, to
love others as Christ loves them, and help lift their burdens as well.
So, I'm making 3 Nephi 11:11 my ponderize scripture this week! Read it
live it love it!
I sure do love y'all, but I love the Lord even more than that! He can
help you through anything you need, so just trust Him!
Love,
Elder Murdock

True to the Faith

Another Week in the Boot

Yo yo yo how y'all doing?!? I hope it's been a  great week for y'all,
this ones been rather crazy but it ended on a good note, so here we
go, into he email!
On Tuesday elder Esplin came up into my area for an exchange, we had a
good time working and trying to find people, getting different things
set up, you know, the usual org of things missionaries do. Elder
Esplin is a great guy, we talked a lot about ranching again through
the day.

The rest of the week was good, we got some good work done, got back in
contact with Chris after a few weeks of not hearing much from
him. Nothing too crazy happened this week up until Saturday when we
had the chance to go back to Cleveland Texas for the baptism of one of
elder Kent's old investigators. Cleveland is back in the good
Kingwoood stake and was actually in my very first district in the
mission, so we were both really excited to go back. It was nice to see
some familiar faces, and I even got to play a little viola at the
baptism. The baptism itself was really nice, the man who got baptized
was happy to see elder Kent, same with the rest of his family. After
the baptism, we went out to eat at D and M diner, a BBQ place down the
street from the church that I hadn't been to in over a year, and it
was still good! After that we played some volley ball at the church
with the ward, then drove on out to Beaumont Texas to stay the night
with the elders there, because by the time we'd get back from one side
of the mission to lake chuck, it would have been about 11:30 at night.
The next morning a member in the Lake Charles ward came to pick us up.
His name is Pierre and he is a wonderful member who helps the
missionaries out a lot.  In church I had the privilege of conducting the music
in primary, and elder Kent was kind enough to take a rather goofy
picture of it that I hope y'all enjoy. The rest of the day was spent
doing good hard missionary work, we taught mason and Effie again, put
a family on date for baptism in the next couple of weeks,
and met a really nice lady named Michele and her three little kids. As
we read a few verses out of the Book of Mormon with her, she got
really excited and told us that she'd want to start reading that
night! I love it when that happens.

So, I've got a friend in Australia named Elder Petersen right now, and
in his email today he sent a poem that pretty much sums up missionary
work, and I thought I'd share that with y'all today:

A mission is a strange experience. It's a trial and a test
A mission throws at you the worst, yet teaches you the best
They told me this would be the best period of my life
But I guess they didn't explain it all too clear
I came our looking for a bed of roses
I wasn't expecting all the thorns I've found out here
Since I've been out I've been so happy
I've never been so depressed
I've never felt so forsaken
I've never felt so blessed
I've never been so confused
My mind has never been so clear
I've never felt my Heavenly Father so distant
I've never felt him so near
I've been so discouraged
I've never been so full of hope
I feel like I can go on forever
I think I've come to the end of my rope
I've never had it so easy
I've never had it so tough
Things have never gone so smoothly
Things have never been so rough
I've never traveled through more valleys
I've never ascended so many peaks
I've never met so many neat people
I've never met so many freaks
I've never had so many ups
I've never had so many downs
I've never worn so many smiles
I've never worn so many frowns
I've never been so lonely
I've never had so many friends
Man I hope this is all over soon
Gosh I hope it never ends
(Jack L Brinkerhoff)

In my Book of Mormon reading this week, I got to Alma 29, which is one
of my favorite chapters, so I'm making Alma 29:9 my pinderize
scripture this week, read it live it love it!

I sure do love y'all! But I love the Lord even more, I try to be more
like him every day. Some days are rough, but as I've done my best to
do what he wants me to, ive been able to see more blessings than I
could have ever thought of!
Love,
Elder Murdock
True to the Faith

Elder Kent and Elder Murdock in Cleveland for the day

District

Bike Rides in Louisiana

Hey there everybody! I don't have much time this week, so I'll just
jump right in!
Yesterday we had a good number of people show up to church, Chris
an investigator we haven't been able to see since Elder Crim
left, came to church! It was good to see him again, he's getting his
life more in order, he's doing good. And, another lady who  wants her son to be baptized,
he turns eight in July. We stopped by her and her boyfriends house with Bishop
on Friday to talk about some of the things she'll need to do,
they fed Elder Kent and I crawfish! It was Elder Kent's first time, but
the sad thing is, I'm pretty sure they forgot to purge them, and the
thing with crawfish is, if you don't purge them, they'll purge you, as
we found out later that night...anyway, they sure tasted good though!
The rest of the week was a good one, we tried a few of our new
investigators, who weren't home, but it was ok, their neighbors were,
and they became investigators anyway! Haha, we'll just keep finding
them!
Lately I've been reading through The Book of Mormon, I've made it a
goal to read it at least once a month until I get back home. I've just
got through  Mosiah this week, and I loved reading about Abinadi
again, he's always been one of my favorite prophets, and Mosiah
15:11-17 are some of my favorite verses, so I'll be ponderizing that
whole little section this week, read it live it love it!
I sure do love y'all, but I love the Lord even more than that! Keep
trusting in him, He'll never fail!
Love,
Elder Murdock
True to the Faith

Mardi Gras 2017

Bonjour mis amis! I sure hope y'all have been doing good wherever you
are, it's been quite the crazy week for us out here in Louisiana, From
Friday of last week to Tuesday this week, the whole gosh darn state
was in party mode for Mardi Gras. To explain a bit of what Mardi Gras
is; pretty much, it's a bunch of drunk people wearing funny looking
costumes throwing beads at each other during non stop parades all day.
Yeah, that's about it, with lots of crazy music and good food too! It
was pretty rough trying to find people to teach that day, and the few
appointments that we had fell through, so we decided to go down town
to see what all the hullabaloo was about, mostly because that's where
everybody in town was anyway. We tried to talk to a few people, but no
one really took us too seriously, we did end up in a lot of people
snap chats though! We must have been quite the sight to see! The one
lesson we did teach went well, but by the end of it he told us he was
going down to the big parade that was supposed to end the whole day
off, and he asked us if we wanted to follow him down, so we ended up
back down at another parade anyway! We only stayed for thirty minutes
or so because we had a diner appointment, so we told him goodbye and
took off to the trailer park this member lives in. He'd made us some
good gumbo too, almost as good as my moms, but it was a nice way to
end a day full of Cajun culture, eating gumbo out of a Tupperware bowl
in an old trailer with a nice member of the church. Weird day, but
still good!

Elder Kent and I have been doing good too, we've been having fun
working with the members around here, finding new people to teach, and
working with some of the investigators the sisters left for us to
teach. We went over to an apartment complex Friday morning for a
return appointment with a family we'd found a couple days before, they
weren't home but we did find a nice young guy named Thomas sitting in
a wheel chair outside their building, it was probably the best timed
hint that's happened, if we hadn't come for that return appointment
we wouldn't have met him, taught him a little lesson, and given him a
Book of Mormon. We asked him if he would be baptized if he knew it was
all true, and he said of course he would! I'm excited to start
teaching him.

That's about it for me this week, I sure do love y'all, but I love the
Lord even more than that! I'm happy to be out here serving him, I
can't believe it's already been 85 weeks out here! The ponderize
scripture for this week is 2 Nephi 10:23, read it live it love it, and
remember to be cheery!
Love,
Elder Murdock
True to the Faith