Another Good, Wet Week in Texas

Hello Everybody.  I hope y'all have been doing well this past week. 
Ours was a little slower after the baptism, just trying to find more
people to teach, but it was still a good one. 
Oh yeah, also, transfers are happening today, and me and Elder Niemann
are still together! We are also getting some new Spanish Elders in our
district who'll be living in our apartment complex, so that should be
fun. It's looking like it'll be a good transfer, even though I'm
killing elder Niemann (don't worry, I won't actually kill him, it just
means I'll be his last companion).
We also helped a family, the Cranes, move out of the Humble ward on
Tuesday in a massive rain storm. Us, the Humble Elders and Sister
missionaries were the only ones helping them out. The Cranes actually
got baptized on Saturday right after Amanda. The Sisters taught them
all the lessons in like, two days! They were in a hurry because they
had to move to Utah a few days after their baptism, which is what we
were helping them do. They have three little kids who were all
adorable, the mom was from South Africa and called them all her
Angels, and they were!
Other than all that we had a rather plain week, but I got lots of
pictures for y'all, I hope that makes up for it! I hope y'all have a
fantastic week, I sure do love y'all but I love the Lord more, he's
done so much for me, it's so wonderful to be a part of his work.
Love,
Elder Murdock

Into the Storm

Elder Murdock and Elder Niemann

Good Week

Hello everybody! I hope y'all have been doing well and stuff, nothing
too exciting has happened here except...
WE GOT A BAPTISM FINALY!!!!  WOOHOO!! Yeah, really though, it's been a
great week down here. Thursday we got to go down to the temple as a
zone, the spirit was strong there and I even got to see some members
from Livingston that I haven't seen in a long time. I love being able
to go there, there's so much peace inside the Temple when the world
offers so much chaos. If you ever have a chance to go to a temple near
you, go as often as you can! It's a great blessing to have a place to
go to feel the Saviors presence so strongly.
So, we baptized Amanda on Saturday and confirmed her on Sunday! The
baptism went really well, Elder Niemann did the actual baptizing and
did it real smooth too, she only had to go down once. 

Anyway, I had the chance to confirm Amanda a member of the
church yesterday, it was the first time I've done it and it was
wonderful! The spirit defiantly helped me out with it though, it was
something I won't ever forget.
On Tuesday we had exchanges with the zone leaders and I got to spend
the day with my buddy Elder Asay! It was nice to talk to him and
reminisce on our time in the MTC, we also both served in Baytown so we
had a lot to talk about that place.  It's been raining here lately and

it's made me think of something kinda cool: Obedience is like a
personal umbrella against those storms of sin and sadness that tell
you you can't do it, or that it's too hard, that disobedience is
easier. When you open up the umbrella of obedience you're telling
yourself you can do hard things and that you are willing to keep doing
hard things, and the lord naturally and lovingly protects you for it.
I think I'll keep that umbrella up, it feels a whole lot better then
getting soaked in sadness!
I hope y'all keep your umbrellas open in those crazy storms of life,
stay dry out there! I sure do love y'all but I love the Good Lord
more, I know if you put Him first and foremost in your life things
will always just work out!
Love,
Elder Murdock

"I am never getting a pitbull."

Hello all you wonderful sons and daughters of God! I hope y'all have
been getting along well this week, I know I had a good one, mostly
because it was my birthday on Friday, and my Texas birthday on
Saturday! Woohoo! I've been on the earth for 20 years and Texas for 1.
Time sure does fly by! So, I got an email this morning from a friend
of mine, Äldste Groberg whose been on a mission to Sweden for a year
now, and in it he made a list of things he's learned in his year as a
missionary, and I hope he doesn't mind if I steal his idea and do the
same thing! So, here's a list of things I've learned here in the great
state of Texas:
-God is really there, he's truly my father, and loves me more than I
will ever be able to know
- He loves all y'all just as much
-He's asked me to serve Him with all my heart might mind and strength,
and I've really enjoyed myself doing so!
-the keys to missionary work are love, obedience, and confidence,
fearing no one.
-Texas is absolutely by far the BEST GOSH DARN STATE IN THE WHOLE GOSH
DARN UNION!
-It also just so happens to be the most prideful state in the whole Union!
-I've come to love the people of the south and their testimonies of the Savior
-Trailer parks are a gift from God and there's a lot of fun to be had
for missionaries that go Tracting there.
-The sealing power is real and is the only way families can be together forever
-It doesn't matter what it is, if you wrap it in bacon and BBQ it, it
will end up tasting good. Even better if you deep fry it.
-The apostasy was real, is still going on, and only the truths
restored by the prophet Joseph smith and the Atonement of Jesus can
save the world from it.
-The atonement of Christ is the most beautiful and transcendent
doctrine to be found in all of our revealed truths
-The bible is an amazing book
-It's also a really confusing book
-The only reason I believe the bible is true is because we have the
Book of Mormon to back it up.
-I'm never getting a pit bull
-I love people!
-just because it's been raining for a whole day straight, doesn't mean
it's going to get any cooler, just more humid.
-Texas is really a beautiful place...
-But it would be even better with mountains!
-missionary work is the best thing anyone can do!
-Contrary to popular belief,  the Texas Houston East Mission is the
greatest mission in the church #T.H.E.Missionofthechurch
The list can go on and on, but I think that may be enough for now!
Our investigators are doing well.  We have a baptism lined up for Saturday, and another person committed! Obedience and fasting have been key to all that is going on. I sure do
love y'all but I know that I love the Lord more, and I know that He
loves everyone most of all! I guess I'll see y'all in a year or so,
until then, hope y'all stay fair ta midlin!
Love
-Elder Murdock

Happy Birthday Elder Murdock!!

Exchanges in Humble

Inspired members=amazing lessons

I hope y'all are doing real well out there, things in Texas couldn't
be better, here's a low down on how the works been going on this part
of the vineyard this week:

It started out real good, me and Elder Niemann taught a great lesson
with an investigator named Shane. We brought a member with us that
moved into the ward like, two weeks ago to live with his family here,
he came from Virginia. His parents are divorced, his mom is still back
in Virginia and is less active. His dad and step mom just moved here
too with the rest of the family, and they are awesome! They're the
Richardson family, and the sons name is Adam. He'd been less active
for years living with his mom on the military base in Virginia (his
dad that just moved here was in the Army National Guard) and was even getting
ready to join the military (he's my age) But the first Sunday he was
here, something amazing happened! He woke up and told himself, "I'm
going to get ready for church." When he got done, he went around the
rest of the house and found that everyone else was asleep! So he
figured he would just go change back and get some more sleep, but
instead a voice told him to go and wake everyone up to go to church,
and he did! And the services for him were exactly what he needed, he
told us that it was like the spirit just kept putting people directly
in his path that he needed to hear. He walked into church that morning
unsure if any of it was even true, and walked out by the end of the
day wanting to talk to the bishop about serving a mission! The kid is a
stud, with a solid testimony, and was perfect for our lesson with
Shane. We also were able to teach the stop smoking lesson to Amanda
with the Swanks, they're an older couple who used to be the vehicle
coordinators when I first came out, they moved to Kingwood recently
and still go out with the missionaries to teach the stop smoking
lessons, and they are awesome too! Elder Swank used to smoke three and
a half packs a day, and Sister Swank used to smoke two and a half,
until the missionary's got a hold of them and helped them out. They were
taught the same stop smoking lesson that they teach out here 15 years
ago, and they haven't wanted a cigarette since. We taught her the lesson
on Wednesday, and she hasn't had a cigarette since then! She is
progressing smoothly, she even brought her two sons to
church yesterday, and they loved it! Her oldest is 16 and her younger
son is 11, and she also has a little 2 year old daughter that stayed
home. We were able to get the two sons a baptismal date for the 13,
the same day as their mom, amazing things are happening and it's all
the spirits fault!
That's about it for this week, I hope y'all keep the Lord first in
your life, I know that if you do, you'll never go wrong, I sure do
love y'all!
-Elder Murdock

Texas Bar B Que

P Day

Kingwood Zone Conference

Good Week in Atascocita

To start, my week in Atascocita has been a good one, no complaints. We
did have to trade off one of our investigators to the Spanish
missionaries, but she'll be in good hands with them. Some more good
news, we've got two people wanting to come and try the stop smoking
program, one of them is an investigator, t he other one is
a less active member.  It's a great thing that they
are willing to do this, I know it will help change their lives. Most of
the time this week was spent looking for people, who ended up not
being home. Those of you out on missions right now probably know what
I'm talking about! It's kinda crazy how slow time can go by during
these times, and how fast they can fly by the next!
All in all we had a good week here in Texas, I hope y'all have been
doing good and that you have a good week. I sure do love all
of you, but the Lord loves y'all more, keep your faith and trust in Him
and you'll never go wrong!
-Elder Murdock
True to the Faith 🇺🇸

1 Year!

Hello everybody! I hope y'all are having a good time on summer
vacation and everything, and in all Your other endeavors I hope all is
well!
This week has been real busy, but that's the way, uh-hu uh-hu, we like
it! We spent a lot of time helping people move in and out, most of
them we had never met before. One was a lady who the sisters have been
working with who needed to move into an apartment below her current
one, and another was a lady from League city  who was moving a 700
pound 19  century baby grand piano into a storage unit. There was only
me, Elder Niemann, an Elder from the ward, and the lady's thirty year
old son to help with that, so it was fun! And we helped move other
people into other places throughout the week, but hey, I think we're
getting a new dryer out of it, so woo-hoo! We have also been working
more with our investigators. Faith, a nine year old we've been
working with, is doing great, her parents are divorced, and her mom is
just starting to come back into the church. Faith's dad is not a
member, and usually has her on the weekends, so she hasn't been able
to come to church, until yesterday! They got things worked out to
where she could come, and it was her second time there, so we just
need to finish teaching her and she'll be all set for baptism! She's
very excited, and so are we. We've also had other lessons with Amanda
and Fransisca, both of whom are coming along really well. Since
Fransisca is more of a Spanish speaker, we brought a Spanish speaking
member and her RM son to the lesson with us on Saturday, they were a
huge help, especially Sister Denny, the member. She was able to
clarify a lot for Fransisca, who is gaining a big testimony of the
church, it is so cool! Amanda is doing real well too, she's making
lots of friends in the ward and is even trying to get her 16 year old
son Dylan involved. Her husband still doesn't want anything to do with
it, but he's at least agreeing to let her be baptized, he'll come
around eventually!
But that's pretty much what's been going down this week. Shout out to
the Motley Crew down in Lake Powell this week. Be safe and have fun
y'all! Sorry I can't be there with y'all, but I know this is where the
Lord needs me, and this is what he wants me to do. I'm not sure what
Rylee has said, but I'm pretty sure it's what he wants her to be doing
too! I sure do love y'all, but I love the Lord more, I've just about
been out for a year so we're on the down hill! Stay fresh and love
people,
Elder Murdock
True to the Faith

Elder Murdock, Elder Kerr, Elder Niemann

P Day

Crazy Week

Hello Hello everyone! I hope y'all have had a real nice week, because
mine was crazy! Just yesterday we were talking to a couple who were
outside griping over something. When we asked what the matter was the
young wife just looked over to her husband and said, "go ahead and
tell them why your day is so bad." He just shook his head, took a puff
on his cigarette, and said, "I lost $60 worth of weed today" and his
wife nodded and, and we told him you'd probably save a whole lot of
money if you didn't buy weed in the first place! Anyway, we had a nice
conversation with them, the guy was just a little upset about his
weed.
The real crazy happened on Thursday, during what we call Hour of Power.

 So, me and elder Niemann were out knocking
a trailer park (my favorite place to knock!) when we knocked a house
where a young lady answered the door. She was politely telling us to come
back another time when a loud voice from inside started calling out,
asking if we were Jehovah's Witnesses, we said no, we're Mormons, and
he said good! , Y''all come on in! 
It ended up being quite a scene with a few drunk people discussing religion. The only sober one in the room was the young lady who answered the door.  We have a return appointment with her.

Before it ended they starting talking politics, asking loudly "WHO ARE

YOU VOTING FOR!?! HILLARY OR TRUMP? COME ON, YOU TELL THE TRUTH,
HILLARY OR TRUMP?! DON'T YOU LIE TO ME!!" We just sorta sat there
like, uhh but we don't really talk about politics! It was a crazy place.

But here's where the real miracle happened: we left the
crazy drunk house and started walking back to our car, and as we were
opening the doors a little Hispanic lady peeked her head out of the
trailer door that was in front of our car, probably wondering who we
were, so we went up and talked to her, her name is Fransisca, and we
were able to get in and teach a lesson to her on Saturday, where we
committed her to baptism at the end of the month! She's a sweet lady,
we also had another investigator named Amanda come to church yesterday
for the first time, she cried through the whole sacrament meeting and
stayed for the rest of the three hours! She's awesome too, we were
able to commit her to baptism as well, so things are moving right
along here in Atascocita, God works in mysterious ways!
I love you all so much, keep God first in your life always, and you'll
never lack for nothing!
Love,
Elder Murdock

Elder Murdock

Elder Niemann