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

Miracles, Lake Charles

Hey y'all! I sure hope everyone's been doing well, I've been pretty good out here. 

This week was nice, On Sunday we saw a little miracle, it was right before church, and we went to try an investigator named Porsha who we hadn't seen in over a week, we were wondering if she still wanted a ride to church, so we went over to her house. Right when we pulled up she opened her door and was so happy to see us, she explained that she had just been praying to know what she needed to do in her life, then she looked up out her window and there we were getting out of our car! I really love when that happens. 

We had a pretty cool lesson yesterday with an older black lady named Effie and her young friend, Mason, he's white and 11. Effie was a bible referral, and when we knocked on her door, Mason answered, and came out and walked us over to the garage, he also explained that Effie was something like his great god-grandmother. Mason's parents are going through a divorce right now, so he spends a lot of time with Effie, doing lots of study and bible reading, those two are pals, and Mason is probably the brightest kid you'll ever meet, he plays just about all the instruments in band, and the baptist church he's been going to has him play piano for them. He evens knows that the King James Version is the way to go and completely rejects all other bibles. Right when we sat down in their garage, which is actually a really cool study room, they asked us what we got for them, so we gave them the Bible they ordered, and I kinda slyly set a Book of Mormon on the table too, then we said a prayer and started talking to them about the basics, about how we believe in God as our eternal Heavenly Father, etc., when Mason just said, "that's great, I know that, I want y'all to tell me about this here," and he puts his hand on the Book of Mormon, he couldn't take his eyes off it from the time I put it on the table. So we start out in the Bible in John 10 where it talks about his other lost sheep, then just go from there, reading scriptures from the Bible all about the Book of Mormon, the apostasy, the restoration, and this kid is just following all of it so well! He understands the apostasy better than just about anyone else we teach, he really liked Joseph Smith's story about his search for truth, and the story of where the Book of Mormon came from, he loved that! It all made sense to him that it was the native American's ancestors in the BOM, and the Israelites in the Bible, and that God sent prophets to both! It was a really fun lesson, teaching these two very attentive friends, on an old lady and the other a young boy, after the lesson, elder Kent and I just couldn't get over how awesome it was, we've got another lesson with them tomorrow, at the end of the one yesterday, I asked Mason what it would mean to him if he came to know this was true, and he just said simply, " it would mean that this was Jesus's church, and that I should join it, and so should everyone else!" Ah, I'm so excited for tomorrow, this kid is awesome! 

The rest of the week was good, I've been getting to the end of the Book of Mormon in my studies, and I've just read through Moroni 7 again, probably my favorite chapter of scripture, and so this weeks ponderize scripture is Moroni 7:13, read it live it love it! 

I sure do love y'all, but the Lord is who I love the most! I'm still happy to be out here serving him, I hope y'all have a great week wherever you are, 

Love, 

Elder Murdock,

True to the Faith

P Day at the Gulf

Shrimp Boats

Another Week in Lake Charles

Hey Everyone,

This last week I was asked to play a musical number in both the Lake Charles wards (Savior Redeemer of my Soul, one of my favorites, accompanied with a harp, so good!) and also to give a talk in sacrament meeting on The Atonement and missionary work, so I figure I'll share a little bit of what I found. 

The Atonement was the great sacrifice and burden that Christ endured and completed so that all of us would one day be able to return and live with Him and our Heavenly Father again.  He describes his pains in D&C section 19 as being so great that it caused, "even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit--and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink--".Without it, there really wouldn't be much of anything, all of creation would be pointless. As Elder Holland describes it, each of us would be in a never ending free fall. 

What I found interesting was that we can feel peace as we take upon ourselves the same burden that Christ took, at least in part. In Mathew 11:28 He says, "28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

That seems kinda crazy, doesn't it? To take up the same yoke and burden that Christ had sounds more stressful than peaceful! So how do we do it? 

Part of the answer I found is in D&C 19:23

First, we need to learn of Christ, and listen to his words. As we do this, we'll see that all Christ ever did was serve others, and love them. He never did anything for himself, ever. Second, he asks us to walk in the meekness of his Spirit. This means to do the things He would do, walk the paths he walked, and to do them humbly and meekly. To truly walk in the meekness of His spirit, we need to have the bond of charity, which is the pure love that Christ has for all of us, the greatest of all the gifts we can receive in this life. D&C 88:125 also defines the bond of charity as the bond of perfectness and peace. So there it is! The key to finding peace in taking upon ourselves christ's yoke is to have his pure love in our hearts, then go and do the things that he did. And what did He do? He preached the gospel, he healed the sick, raised the dead, served others, and sacrificed His will to do His fathers. 

In essence, He did missionary work! The same kind of work that each one of us who are members of the church have been asked to do. So, if you want to have more peace in your life, put on the bond of charity and then go out and help people! I like this quote that President Hinkley said in a talk he gave to BYU students, "If you are complaining about life, it is because you are thinking only of yourself. There was for many years a sign on the wall of a shoe repair shop I patronized. It read, “I complained because I had no shoes until I saw a man who had no feet.” The most effective medicine for the sickness of self-pity is to lose oneself in the service of others." 

I've definitely come to know, as I've served in my mission, that this is so true. If you want to feel better, just go help others! 

But those are a few of my thoughts, hope it's good!

Love, Elder Murdock

New Comp-Lake Charles

Hey everyone! Here's my email this week, hope y'all enjoy it!
So, last weeek was transfers and I had to say good bye to Elder Crim
after only six wonderful weeks with him, we had a lot of fun together
and worked hard to see success, I was happy to serve with him and I'll
definitely miss him!

But, on the bright side, I got a brand new shiny comp named Elder
Kent! I felt kinda bad though, because on Sunday I got a pretty bad
head cold at Stake conference and I wasn't able to shake it until
Tuesday night, so his first impression of me was pretty sad, I could
hardly think straight! He's from Logan Utah, but has also lived for a
long while in Iowa. He's a great guy, I'm excited to be serving with
him, he's a hard worker and already loves it out here in Louisiana
(but who wouldn't? This is the best place ever!)

In other news, the Lake Charles Sister's up and moved out last week,
so we're now the only missionaries in the ward! Which means we get to
take over all the sister's old investigators and their old area, so we
now have a whole lot more country to go and see! I'm excited for that,
and for all the new wonderful people we get to work with.

Ok, so, one strange thing that happened this week and one cool thing:
On Thursday we were walking around a ghetto apartment complex looking
for new investigators, like you do, and right when we got out of our
car, we looked over and saw this big black guy driving around on the
side walk in one of those little pink electric Barbie cars, like a
real straight up OG. We couldn't believe what we were seeing for a
little bit, until we took a closer look and saw a little girl sitting
in the "passenger seat", still, it was a pretty strange sight to see!

Another cool thing that happened, on Tuesday we were walking around
 where we found Joyce, again, looking for more new
investigators. We had found about four people who seemed pretty
interested before we got to the end of the street, and I couldn't see
anybody else outside walking around, and I had been feeling pretty
sick so I turned around to go back to the car when he asked me if I
wanted to keep going on to the next street. I thought, sure, why not?
So we kept going and right when we were turning the corner on the
street, this young black lady comes walking right up to us and asks us
"whatchyall doing?" So we tell her that we're missionaries, and she
got all excited and asked if we had any bibles she could have, and of
course we did! We gave her a bible and a Book of Mormon and told her a
little about it. While we were talking to her I got pretty dizzy (we
were also fasting that day along with the rest of the zone to see
miracles happen this transfer) so while we were teaching I was just
like, can we sit down on the curb? So we taught her the restoration
while sitting on the curb next to a ghetto playground in the projects,
pretty neat experience! Her names Porsha, she's 20, is married and has
two little chiruns and wants to learn more! I'm so glad my comp was
listening to the Spirit while I was feeling so crummy.

Well, I sure do love y'all, but I love the Lord even more! I'm out
here working hard to follow His will, I hope y'all are doing the same
wherever you may be! This weeks ponderize scripture is Alma 42:30-31,
read it, live it, love it!
Love,
Elder Murdock
True to the Faith

Elder Murdock and Elder Kent