Jambalaya and Fried Texas French Toast

Hey everybody! I hope y'all have had a great week!

This week was a good one, me and Elder Harmon had some fun looking for some old potential investigators and trying to get in with some less actives in the ward, we were actually supposed to have dinner with a few of them, but they cancelled on us. The good news is, we had a great time cooking up our own diners, and I finally learned how to make Jambalaya! I hope that makes you proud dad! It wasn't half bad either, if I do say so myself .

Today is also transfers, and holy cow, I'm staying here one more to finish training Elder Harmon. I was nervous there for a second, that I'd be moved out, but hey, no worries. That also means I'll be staying here in Atascocita for Christmas, which is awesome because I LOVE the ward here, sorry mom and dad, I might just stay here, it's like my new home ward, hahaha! But really, I am excited to be in the Kingwood stake for Christmas again, I was actually in this same stake last year and I heard about all the crazy cool light shows the people have in the neighborhoods in Humble and Atascocita. I was actually thinking last year that it would be cool to see that, and here I am! We also have the Christmas Nativity at the Kingwood stake center again, and all the Kingwood missionaries get to help out with it, again! It's gonna be great I love Christmas 

Anyway, on to the rest of the week!

This past Friday night was the ward camp out, and our ward mission leader asked us and the Huffman Elders to come up to give a fire side devotional, don't worry it was still in the ward boundaries and we didn't spend the night, but I was able to bring my viola out and play some camp songs. The members have known me long enough now that they've come up with a game called "stump Elder Murdock" where they can each call out one of their favorite hymns to see if I can play it or not. And, needless to say, I won! I love doing that, it's such a blessing to be able to play the Lords hymns for people. Thank you to all my teachers through the years and my mom and dad who made me practice so hard!

We got invited back the next morning for the ward camp breakfast, it was so good, if y'all haven't had deepfried Texas French toast covered in powdered sugar and syrup, then you just haven't been living your life to its full potential, it's amazing! I actually brought my viola back up again in the morning, and Elder Harmon brought his clogs, and we jammed out a little bit, he was clogging up a storm while I fiddled a little, it was fun :) 

That's about it for the week, I hope this next one will be good for all y'all! I sure do love y'all, but hey, I love my Savior even more. This is His work, so I'm going to give it my all for Him! 

Love, 

Elder Murdock

Name tag scuffed up from a bike crash- but "no worries mom! I'm all good."

Mission Temple Trip

Ward Camp Out

Service with Elder Harmon and Elder Hansen

Positive

Hello everyone! Sorry I'm taking a while today, we had a lot of emails to send today, but I'll try to make up with the short email with some good pictures, and I'll get right into the week now!

We had a rougher week this week, but it was still fun! A lot of our investigators were no where to be found, and one of them even dropped us, but don't worry y'all, we ended the week on a good note with a great lesson with a man named Josh, he's had a lot of LDS friends through his life, and has good potential in the church. I'm excited to see where He goes with it! 

Also, something fun this week, as me and Elder Harmon were biking in what we thought was the farthest south we could bike in our area, we found a sweet off road path that went farther down into a part we've never been able to tract in before, it was awesome! It was nice to bike on a dirt road for a change, instead of the usual pavement. We should find some good investigators down there too so woot woot! 

That's it for this week, I sure do love y'all but I love the Lord more, I'm going to keep doing His work with a smile, I hope y'all can do the same! 

Love, 

Elder Murdock 

Elder Murdock and Elder Harmon

Pelicans

Name Tag Picture

Happy Halloween Y'all!

Happy Halloween y'all! I hope all of you are enjoying the candy and costumes, just be smart and safe and look out for clowns (apparently there's a big clown scare down here, I'm not sure but it's kinda funny to me) anyway, here we go!

This week was a good one, we were able to do some service digging a French well for a member, and we helped move a members house into a shed, pretty good stuff.  Me and Elder Harmon are doing well too, he's an awesome missionary, I'm glad I'm with him, I'm supposed to be training him, but he's teaching me so much too! On Saturday we had exchanges with the Huffman Elders and I got to go back over into Huffman with my old Comp Elder Hansen! It was fun being back in the country for a bit, I miss it out there. After me and Elder Hansen talked with a member we went over to another members house so Elder Hansen could cook his and his dads famous award wining chili for the cook off, he got every kind of pepper in Walmart and threw it into this crazy chili, it was great! It even won the award for the spiciest chili, haha! All the missionaries, except Elder Hansen, were judges for the cook off along with brother McBride, who is a professional chef, it was fun tasting everyone's chilis, even though I have no idea how to judge food, I thought they all tasted good! 

I hope y'all have a great week, if any of you are going through a hard time, know that the Savior is here to help. Seek him more in your life, and I can promise that you will immediately see a difference in how happy you can be. Remember Elder Nelsons talk this last conference and strive to be joyful! I sure do love y'all, but I love the Lord even more than that, have a great Halloween y'all! 

Love,

Elder Murdock 

Elder Murdock and Elder Harmon cooking Omelets

Elder Murdock and Harmon at Five Guys

Elder Hansen's Chili

Another Week in Texas

Hey everyone! Sorry, I don't have too much time to email today, so I need to keep it short, I'll get right to it! 

This week we had our zone conference, we got to hear instruction from President and Sister Drake, along with the Assistants and other leaders, they all taught a lot about faith, and how we need to use it and have in our missionary work. A lot of what I got out of it was that I am really needing to dedicate myself more to this work, just get all in! 

We also had stake conference yesterday and on Saturday, on Saturday we really tried to get people out to the evening adult session, we went to all the investigators we had and tell them where it was, and even set one up with a ride from members to take him, and still no one came to the evening session! Oh well, thus is mission life :) But he talks in conference were amazing, Elder Tillman of the 70 came to speak, and he just testified of the truthfulness of this gospel over and over again! He went from one point to the next, about the Book of Mormon, Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, and testified the heck out of each point of doctrine, it was powerful, and made me want to work hard for a testimony like that one day! 

I hope all of you out there are having a nice time being alive, we are all here to have joy after all! I hope y'all have a joyful week, 

With big old Texas love, 

Elder Murdock 

Election Sign in Texas

The Zone Leaders had sone extra suits.  Elder Murdock said they are a little big, but he could
save them for when he is a high priest!

Another Week In Texas

Hey Everyone! I hope that all y'all had a good week and that you were able to feel the love of the Savior in some way, and that you were able to share it with some one else, because that's what life is all about! 

This week for me and Elder Harmon was a blast, we started it out by knocking on doors, then we knocked on some more doors, then biked in the rain, and knocked on more doors! Elder Harmon thought it was a blast though, he's just way excited about this work, no matter what we are doing, which helps me keep the blues away too! On Friday things got a little more exciting though, we had our zone meeting over in the Kingwood Stake center, which went really well. One of the segments was by Brother Salmon, who is an institute teacher over here. He pretty much just opened up the scriptures in the Old Testament and blew all of our minds! He's a really good teacher, and it just got me pumped to go out and start teaching people out of the scriptures more, especially the Book of Mormon. We also had exchanges with Elder Hansen and Elder Souza on Thursday and Friday, Elder Harmon went out and had his first taste of the country in wacky ole' Huffman with Elder Souza palooza while I stayed in Atascocita with my good buddy Elder Hansen! It was a little strange biking around with him again, it felt like we were back in Baytown! But we had a blast, Elder Hansen is still one of my favorite people. 

Well, that's about it for this week, Elder Harmon and I are still looking for some peeps to baptize, oh, fun little tid bit, today marks the year anniversary of my first Baptism, Thomas "Skip" Alger! On a bit of a sadder note, I found out a while back that he had passed away a few months after he was baptized. But, now that a year has passed he can finally have his temple work done, so that is something to look forward to. I'm just grateful that I was able to be a help for him in his life and that I was able to get to know him. I hope each and every one of you strive to live the way the Savior has asked to, each day. I know that as you do, you will immediately feel peace flow into your life like a river. There is not one thing that He is not able to help, to heal, and to succor. He's been through it all and more, so just turn to Him! 

I sure do love y'all, but I know the Savior loves you even more, I know this is where He wants me and because of that I'll be doing my best to serve Him.

Love, 

Elder Murdock

True to the Faith

Greenie!

Hello everyone! I sure hope yall have been having a great couple of weeks. Sorry I wasn't able to send an email last week, the day was hectic, going to Kingwood for transfers, saying goodbye to Elder Niemann and other Missionaries that I knew, and getting a brand new greenie straight from Provo... yeah, last Monday was nuts! 

Some more big news, the mission split the Atascocita area in two, so now there are missionaries that serve out in Huffman, which means they stole our car and most of our investigators, too! But it's all good, I don't mind being back on my bike, me and Elder Harmon (the greenie) are having lots of fun biking all day. The new Missionaries that are serving in Huffman are Elder Souza and Elder Hansen, the same Elder Hansen that was my companion back in Baytown! he's the district leader now, and its been great to be serving around him again, he's just a great guy! 

A little back ground on the new guy, Elder Harmon: he's from West Jordan, Utah, is the second of a family of 5, he's been to Europe a few times for a folk dance group that he was a part of. He's an absolute ham! We are already getting along really well, he is just so excited to be here serving, and is ready to bear down and go to work. I can already tell that this is going to be a great couple of transfers!

As for whats been going on in the area, its a little wonky now that we have less people to focus on, but that just means we can give more attention to the investigators that we had in the Atascocita area. Its probably the smallest area I've had yet, but there are tons of people here, as well as some amazing members to help out, so it should be good!

That's about it for this week, sorry I wasn't able to give some thoughts on conference from two weeks ago, to keep it brief; it was amazing, I felt the spirit, and my favorite talks were Elder Bednar's and the one which told us to be "Ambitious for Christ". I know that as we stay ambitious for Christ, we will never go wrong. I love you all, I love this church, I know that Christ stands at the head of it, stay close to him y'all, He wont let you down!

Love, 

Elder Murdok

True to the Faith

Elder Harmon and Elder Murdock

Got caught in a rain storm!

Training a New Companion

Elder Murdock sent a short email today saying he will be training an Elder Harmon and staying in Atascocita.  He is excited for this adventure.  He will miss Elder Niemann and appreciated all he learned from him.  Life is good for Elder Murdock in Texas!

Last Picture with Elder Niemann before he goes home.

Elder Harmon