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

Crawfish

Hey y'all! I'm sitting in transfer meeting right now, it's been a
crazy day of driving and all, so this'll be a short email, I hope last
weeks makes up for it! I'm staying in Lake Charles, but Elder Crim is
leaving, we had a lot of fun together this last transfer, I hate to see
him go!

This week was pretty cool, on Tuesday I got to go to a big mission
leadership meeting, there's a lot of changes going on in the mission,
and all over the world too, I'll tell y'all about it next week, also,
elder Crim never had a chance to eat straight crawfish in his six
months in Louisiana, so we got some! That's all I got time for, I sure
do love y'all but I love the Lord more! Until next week!
Love,
Elder Murdock

True to the Faith

Lake Charles- Baptisms

Hello everyone! I know in my last emails I've said I've been having
some crazy weeks, but this week has been crazy y'all! It started out
with a great exchange with Elder Malm, who is an awesome missionary.
While on our exchange we taught  a man who has been
wanting to change his life around. He used to live the thug life until
he left the slammer and took to life on the streets, then he got to
know Brother Floor, a really good member in the Sulphur ward, who
meets in our same building, and he and his wife took him under their
wings. During the lesson, which was on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and
focused a lot on repentance, he cried a lot, and he usually cries
during our lessons, the spirit tends to do that to people, and at the
end of the lesson he expressed to Elder Malm and I how weird that is!
He told us, "I used to never cry! I cried when I got shot here
(pointing to his gut) and here (pointing to his shoulder) and when I
got stabbed here (pointing to his hand) and here (pointing to his
arm),  but sittin at home chillin with a couple a grown men? Na, I'd
never do that! Not until now, until I found y'all!" So yeah, that was
really cool to hear 😊

We also got to baptize this week! Which is also what made it crazy,
trying to set everything up just right for them, anyone who has served
a mission, you know what I'm talking about. The week of the baptism is
the week Satan really throws all he's got at them! It was crazy.  A lot of things were going on to try and stop the baptisms.
 Meanwhile... On Friday, Elder Dominguez and his companion are trying to get here for the baptism.
 I'll skip,ahead to Friday night, when the baptisms
took place. We got all the preparations ready for it, Rodarius,
William and Joyce were all able to make it, Alexis's salvation would
have to wait for another week. It's six thirty, and the service starts
at seven. The baptismal candidates have changed into their whites, we
got pictures with them, it's all great, 6:45, now rodarius and William
are in the gym with the friends they brought, playing basketball in
their white jumpsuits, still no Dominguez. Seven roles around, we ask
our ward mission leader to stall for time for Dominguez, so we start
at 7:05, opening hymn, I believe in Christ, perfect song for stalling
because it's really long. There's a nice talk on baptism, then we head
for the font at 7:25, still no Dom. Alright, this part is really cool,
Joyce went first, and I had the wonderful privilege of Baptizing her,
she loved it, when she came back up out of the water she exclaimed,
"oooh, that feels so good!" That's what it's all about people. Now
it's Williams turn, he and elder Crim step down into the font, I stay
off to the side at the top of the stairs to watch, and as Elder Crim
is finishing baptizing William, who steps through the bathroom door to
the font? None other than Elder Dominguez himself! He was already
dressed in his whites, he changed in the members car on the way over.
As Elder Crim was coming up he stairs, we all gave each other big
hugs, Elder dominguez stepped down into the font and baptized
Rodarius, and it was all wonderful. No one was expecting him to be
there, so it was a big surprise for all the ward members to see him
back, and we all had a great time.

So yeah, that happened.

To cap it all off, Saturday night Felicia texted us that she would
have to take William, who is eight, to the hospital Sunday because
he'd gotten tissue paper stuck in his ears, but not before she took
them to church to get the Holy Ghost! So they came the next day, along
with Joyce, and they all got confirmed and were sustained as the
newest members of the church and the ward, and elder Crim and I
collapsed in Exhausted  joy, feeling victorious over the forces of
evil.

Also, we had a missionary broadcast this week, I guess there's a lot
of stuff happening with the schedule, I'll tell y'all about it next
week.

This weeks ponderize scripture is 2Nephi 2:28, read it, live it love
it y'all. I sure do love y'all! But I love the Lord more, I'm going to
serve Him with all I've got for as long as he wants me to! Keep up the
good work wherever you are, and remember to have fun too!
Love,
Elder Murdock
 True to the Faith

Baptisms-Happy Day!

Contacting

Eating cake after District meeting

Joyce's Baptism

Working Hard-Lake Charles

Hey everybody!
This week was pretty wild, a lot of it was spent trying to set up
baptisms for the end of the week and planing when the rest of the
district can have their baptismal interviews for their investigators,
which turned out to be a lot more trouble than we first thought! We
will be having a baptism on Friday though, our investigator Joyce is
getting baptized! And so are the kids of a family Elder Dominguez and
Elder Crim taught before I got here, their mom was baptized last
transfer, so now it's her kids turn! And it's been quite the adventure
trying to get them ready! The devil was working hard to try and keep
them from it for this next week, but Elder Crim and I decided to fast
and pray about when they could be baptized and right before our
lesson with them yesterday evening, we both agreed that the Lord wants
them baptized this week, now or never, get it done! So we went into
the lesson with that mindset, and it was actually the best lesson
we've had with them in a while! The kids were paying way more
attention than usual, and by the end of it they were really excited
about the baptism! So now it's our job to make sure they're ready by
Friday no matter what!
Joyce is also doing really well, in our last lesson we taught her she
told us about the first day we contacted her, here's the story:
Elder Crim and I were tracting in the ghetto, like we do, looking for
people to teach, when we saw her standing out in her pajamas by her
front door wearing a shower cap, so we decided to go up and start
sharing the gospel with her. On her side of the story, apparently, she
was wanting to just turn inside and brush us off without talking, but
something told her to stay out and talks to those nice boys, they have
something important to tell you! So she stayed and listened to us, and
even told us about her New Years resolution to quit smoking, which she
has been keeping for 23 days now! She is so prepared and I'm so
excited for her to be a member of Christ's church!
That's about it for this week, I sure do love y'all, but I love the
Lord more! I'm starting into my last six months out here (so weird!)
and so I've decided to start having a pondering scripture each week,
this weeks is D&C 88:125, read it live it love it y'all!
Love,
Elder Murdock
True to the Faith

Bayou in Lake Charles

Mardi Gras King Cake Shake- "Best Shake Ever!"

District Training

Hello everyone! I sure had a crazy week, I hope you've had a good one too! 

 Elder Crim and I took on a new mission challenge and decided to do the best that we could and leave the rest to the Lord.  As we've done this, we have seen miracle after miracle! Almost everyone we contacted this week was solid, and has wanted us to come back and teach them more. This has not really happened to me once on my mission, so I'm a bit overwhelmed, but in a good way! There's just tons of stuff to do, and there's really nothing wrong with that if you're a missionary, in fact, it's wonderful to be overwhelmed with things to do each day! I know that might sound crazy, but as Elder Crim and I have relied on theLord, we've been able to accomplish these things He has given us to do :) 

We also had a couple of exchanges this week, I went with Elder Esplin over to his area in Sulphur, Elder Malm, his comp, went and spent the day with Elder Crim in our area. I had a great time with Elder Esplin, he reminds me a whole lot of my cousin Howard. Elder Esplin's family owns a lot of property and cattle down in southern Utah and Arizona, so we talked a lot about horses and working cows, it only made us a little trunky ;) but he's a really good guy, we taught one of their investigators, Steven, who ended up getting baptized on Saturday, which was something else that happened that was really cool! I gave Steven his Interview on Wednesday, he's an interesting guy, he used to be in the army as an artillery man, so he connected a lot of the gospel with military terms, he really liked when I shared the story of Captain Moroni with him. 

We also had Elder Denton stick around the rest of the day on Friday to help us in an exchange in any way he could. The night before the Sulphur Elders stayed with us in our apartment to save on miles, and because the man who owns the house that they stay at died on Thursday, so there was a lot of the family over and they decided it was better to not be there for a night, so with Presidents permission we got to have three other elders in our apartment! Elder Denton, Malm and Esplin, so it was pretty fun :) 

One last thing! Elder Crim and I are teaching a wonderful lady named Joyce who lives in the ghetto, and is the sweetest old lady that you've ever met!... in the ghetto :) we had a lesson with her on Tuesday where we brought a recent convert over, who just so happens to be another old lady, Mary, who lives down the street from her, and they became friends real quick! It was funny, they both forgot to put in their teeth, so they were both a little shy and laughing and funny, it was pretty much adorable :) the best part is, Joyce came to church yesterday and plans on getting baptized on the 28! She is wonderful, I'm so glad I've been able to teach her! 

That's about it for this week, I hope each of you is relying on the Lord as you're going through any of your trials. He has told us to take up our crosses and to follow him, but the beautiful thing about this is, as we continue to follow him, he will make our burdens light, and our pathway bright, and he is there with us every step of the way. Trust in Him, with all that you've got, and hold on tight because he won't take you through the easy way to make you stronger! 

I sure do love y'all, but I love the Lord even more! I'm right where he needs me doing his work, I hope y'all can say the same wherever you are! 

Love, 

Elder Murdock

True to the Faith

Elder Murdock and Elder Esplin

District

Gators

Elder Crim and Elder Murdock at Lake Charles