Crawfish Boils and Spanish

Howdy y'all! 
 I hope y'all have been doing good back home, enjoying the nice spring weather. It's pretty
wet here right now, but most of the week was awesome! Especially on
Tuesday, that was a good day. I went on my first exchange into
Spanish, me and Elder Hasson.  He just got here from the MTC a few
weeks ago. It was kinda funny sitting in on Spanish lessons, I had no
idea what was being said, but hey, we all felt the Spirit and two of
the Spanish Elders investigators now have a baptismal date set for the
28! I tried to pitch in a few phrases, like, Hola, come estas and
stuff, but hey, I've been called as an English missionary, so I was
just sorta along for the ride! But Elder Hasson did great, he's gonna
do fine out here. We also all got to go to a crawfish boil on Tuesday.
All the missionaries in the district were invited! I was so excited for it. It was my
first big boil since I've been out, and man was it good! A less active
in the ward named Brother Carol cooked them all up for us, real nice
and spicy, it was delicious! It reminded me of when dad would talk
about all the boils he had in Louisiana. Now I'll get to tell my kids
one day! Ha! Kinda funny, anyway, the rest of the week was good. I got
a new hat and Elder Ker got a new pair of work/cowboy boots because
his other service shoes gave up the ghost, he seriously just walked
right out of them! But I guess that's what happens to shoes at the end
of missions. We also had a lesson with Gustavo on Thursday. He's doing
good but didn't come to church! He works nights at the plants around
here, so he usually sleeps in. We might have to run over to his home
and drag him over here, he just needs to get baptized already! Ha ha,
anyway, I think he'll be fine, I'm just excited to be doing some good
work, and I hope all of you back home are doing good work too. Remember
the Lord loves you a whole lot, and is there to literally help you be
happy, so when you're feeling down, just think of him and how much he
loves you, and you'll start to feel joy in your heart, I promise!
Ok, I sure do love y'all! Have a great week,
Love,
Elder Murdock

Crawfish Boil

More Crawfish

Elder Ker and Elder Murdock

???

Hi mom! Sorry I've taken so long, it's been a busy day, anyway, here you go!

This week has been good. It was good to talk to y'all  yesterday. You all seemed to be doing good. I love y'all lots! 

This week me and Elder Ker gave a few blessings to people in the hospital right near here. It always feels good to be able to use the Priesthood to help others. It's been a real blessing in my life, that's for sure! We also got to meet a guy named Gustavo. He pulled us over into a parking lot while we were riding our bikes, and he asked us if we were from the "lsd, no, lds!" Church, and we told him yes we were! He asked us about what time church was and told us that he'd been thinking about getting back into it. We're not sure if he is a less active member or an investigator but hey, we still think it was a miracle! He gave us his number so we will follow up with him.

Sorry this was a short one. Today was a pretty busy day, but I love y'all a whole lot but I love the Lord more. I'm where he needs me to be, so I'm going to help him do his work! 

Love, 

Elder Murdock

True to the Faith

Investigators and Humidity

Hello everybody! I hope y'all are doing alright, things are still good
down here in Texas. I was a little sick still this week, along with
others in the district.  But hey, the work goes on!
So, while we haven't been able to meet many of our investigators
lately, either because they weren't home, or they dropped us (that was
mostly what happened) and we haven't had a solid investigator to go to
for a while, we've been praying for the Lord to send us SOMEONE to
teach, and you know? The Lord heard us! Of course He did! He knows all
that we need! This last week we received  a total of 8 new potential
investigators to try, and at least four of them sound like they will
go somewhere! It's amazing, I've got good feelings about this week,
starting off with a miracle like that!
So, on Saturday me and Elder Ker, along with the other elders went
back to a family in the ward's house.  We are helping them
fix their flooring. We took out their kitchen and hallway floor, and
 one of their bathtubs. It took all day, but the family was nice
enough to give us lunch AND dinner! It was so nice of them to do, we
were all very grateful.  It felt good working in that way again. It
reminded me of helping dad out all the time, especially when we went
to Home Depot and got a huge load of ply wood to move into their
house, I've had a lot of experience with that! Also, Dad, be thankful
that Utah isn't as humid as this place, we were sweating buckets the
whole time we were unloading the wood, it's nuts!
That's about it for me. A ward member took all the pictures of us
helping out, so I'll have to get them to y'all next week, I sure do
love y'all, have a great week!
Love,
Elder Murdock
True to the Faith

Colds and Flat Tires

Hello hello everyone! Don't worry I haven't been flushed out of Texas,
but man those storms were crazy! But it's ok, we were still doing good
down here. So, this week we haven't been able to do too much because
of all the rain. We went out and got back into contact with an
investigator we haven't been able to see for a while, but on the way
there Elder Ker popped a tire, which slowed us down even more, and
then I got sick on Saturday, but we just had some service that day
anyway, so that was ok. We moved some shelves for a family in the ward
to help them start out on redoing their floor, they've had a lot of
water damage on it, so we are going to help fix that this week. So
that's pretty much what's been going on around here, a member in the
ward gave me some stuff to help me stop being sick and I'm feeling
much better now!            
 Things are going along well with the district. We got two new sisters here now, and
two new Spanish elders instead of the Hermanas, and they seem pretty
cool. One of them is a greenie, and he's the first person I've met who
goes home in 2018! That just seems crazy to me! But I guess that's
what happens when you've been out for nine months (as of the 22, man
time flys!)
That's about it for the week, but I should leave y'all with a little
spiritual message:
God loves each one of us, and he wants us all to know and feel that.
The best way we can feel His love is through prayer, deep and
thorough. Then, once we do that, we need to go out and share his love
with others. That's another way we can feel Gods love, by serving and
loving others. But I just want all of you to know, that Heavenly
Father is there, and loves you. So long as you stay close to  Him, you
will never go wrong. Ok, I sure do love y'all! But hey, I love the
Lord more so I'm going to stay around here in Texas serving him. Hope
y'all have a good week!
Love,
Elder Murdock

True to the Faith

Houston Temple last Monday-Photo Credit Robert A. Boyd

 Elder Murdock and New District Leader Elder Harker

Storms and Testimony

Howdy y'all! This has been quite the week. Transfers were supposed to be today, but because of the big storm transfers were moved to Saturday. The next transfer should only be five weeks. I guess that just means we have even more time this transfer to go out and work, huh? :) I wish I had taken a video or some pictures of the storm to show y'all, but it's actually kinda let up. Oh well, there's bound to be more storms around here at some point!

I've thought a lot this week of why I'm out here and who I'm serving.Things that happened this week just helped me understand the love the Savior has for each person on this earth, and that I'm here to serve Him with all that I've got. It's what I've chosen to do, and it's what I'm going to do, so here we go! It's going to be great, I just know it. No matter what happens I'm going to trust the Lord to see me through it. I know if I do that, miracles will happen. I love you all, but I love the Lord more, and He loves y'all even more than that! I hope y'all keep that in mind because it's an important thing to know. Anyway, until next week, I hope I'll have more exciting stuff to tell you then!

Love, 

Elder Murdock

True to the faith. 

Baytown Bridge

Elder Murdock, Elder Ker at church with a ward member.

My friend who lives in Houston sent this picture to me to show how much flooding is going on in Houston.
They are safe. They live in the Houston mission.

Dental Hygiene

Hey everybody!
The week here in Texas has been a good one. We were able to do a lot
of service over in Pasadena for a charity group called Saving Smiles.
We helped kids learn about dental health, it felt a lot like back in
India, teaching those little kids how to stay clean. There's a big
difference between the two though, Pasadena is a big city and I taught in a little village in the Himalayas in India! 
It was nice seeing all those smiling little kids, they were really cute, only in
second grade. Me and Elder Ker got to grade papers and show them what
food is good and bad for their teeth, then we all watched a little
cartoon about a giraffe named Gina who took care of her teeth. It's
not quite what I was expecting to do as a missionary, but it was still
fun!
Not too much else has gone on, I've got more pictures this week than
words, but hey, a pictures worth a thousand of them!
Well. That's about it, I sure do love y'all! Have a good week,
Love,
Elder Murdock

True to the Faith

Service and General Conference

Hello Everyone! This week has been a good one. General Conference was really good, except I wasn't able to see the first two sessions on Saturday because we were in Dewyville for most of the day doing service for a family whose home got flooded in the past storms.  We were able to listen to some of it on the radio though. It reminded me of doing work back home listening to Conference, bailing hay and fixing water pipes. It was really nice to do the service for the family.  The flood had gotten up to about two feet in their house, so there was a lot to throw out. We ripped out most of their walls and all of their flooring. It was really humbling to see so many people's stuff sitting outside of their stripped down homes. It's like their entire lives are just sitting out on their front lawns for everyone to see. It made me feel very blessed to have had such a good life. I feel even more blessed to be able to help others in need. It's really something to come out and see so many members of our church dressed in the helping hands shirts, and so many other people helping out side by side. It really makes me glad to be a part of such an amazing organization.

So, conference was amazing! From what I got from yesterday and the priesthood session was:

1. Do temple work. As often as you can, go to the temple. When you can't go to the temple or aren't in the temple, think of the blessings we receive from the temple. Try continually to be worthy to go to the temple.  For me, I really need to focus on helping others get ready to make the important covenants in the temple. Pretty much, the temple is an extremely important place, and we should try to live our lives with a focus on the temple. 

2. We need to realize how important and how special the Priesthood is. We have in this church the only true and authoritative power that comes directly from God. We need to respect this trust that God has given us. It is a privilege to hold this power, so we need to live and behave in a way that we can all be blessed by it. If we don't, then we wont be any better off than someone that has never heard of it. Knowing this makes me want to become a better man of God, and it should cause all of you to feel the same (in your own respective genders :) ).  

Well, that's about it for this week, I'm going to do my best to keep testifying everyday that this is true. I sure do love y'all, have a good week!

Love, 

Elder Murdock

True to the faith

Service in the flooded area of Deweyville

Debris on the side of the road from flooded homes

More Service

Baytown District