Bonjour! hello family. How are you? Good. good to hear. I loved the
Dear Elders this week, thanks so much. I got bombarded with them last
night because they don't print the Dear Elders on Saturdays or Sundays,
but it was a good bombardment.
Alyse hah you're silly.
Bethanyyyyyyyy!!!!!! So glad to
hear about your last tournament. Sounds like you guys played well. I'm
glad you got to experience a little of what club volleyball feels like.
Like coming back from 24-18 and winning? Pretty cool. and then losing
the next two games? hah yeah, that's the worst. But hey! It's all good,
because you're still cute.
Cole, I'm glad to hear you're doing well. i keep worrying about
what you're going to be like when I come back, but at least nothings
changed so far.
Dad, sorry about not sending my letter until
today. I wrote it last week, but then forgot every single morning to
bring it with me to mail it. So you'll be getting it soon.
Mom, thanks for writing. I love your thoughts and such.
Umang,
how are you????? I heard you went over to my house this week. How was
it? And you borrowed the weights from Dallin. How's he looking? Swoll?
Dallin, thanks for you letters brotha. i loved what you said, when
you start to think about improving yourself, all these things start
popping out at you a little more. And while that might be annoying, it's
how we improve. I'm sure you're doing great. Start washing some
windows, whydontcha. Oh! And congrats on your gpa for this semester. I'm
glad that you're hard work was able to show through your grades like
that. Don't get cocky! And go play some beach vball for me
Camille, hi. It was weird for you to be so close! You should've
broken in and said hi. But that's okay, i can't have that distraction.
Brandon,
thanks for your letter! I was happy to hear from you. You can go ahead
and tell Camille to get back to work and stop hanging out so much, from
me.
Tommy, how goes Japan????????????
Well. This
week was fabulous. It really doesn't feel like a week since I got to
email you guys last time. oh well! But I wrote some things down in my
Daily Planner to remember to tell you guys. So sorry if this is random,
and maybe not all that meaningful.
My favorite meal here: The baja salad, and pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes. Yum!!!!!! and Marshmallow Mateys haha
Elder
Lynn G. Robbins spoke last Tuesday on recognizing the Spirit more. That
talk was awesome. It's really made me focus more on recognizing
promptings.
But I have a regret! On last....... Tuesday I dropped my scriptures
off at the Bookstore to get my name engraven (engraved?) on them, and
then had to wait TILL THURSDAY to get them back................ It was
the worst 1 1/2 days ever. I felt naked without my scriptures. And I
gave them both my english and my french hah so that was the dumbest
thing I could have done. Oh well! Won't do that again. And they say
'Elder Murphy' on them, to remind me what I'm doing every time I look at
them. i love it.
This week has been so great though. Our entire district
has been sick which is pretty lame, but besides that it's been amazing.
I think I'm grateful I've been sick for the last little while hah which
I would never have said before, but I feel like it's made me step back
and humble myself a little bit. So I'm really glad it's happened. Even
though I'm hoping it doesn't turn into pneumonia again. I asked Elder
Ferguson to slap my back to get some mucus broken up (Mom, remember
that?) but he said he would purr on me if he was the one who did it, so I
politely declined. I'll try to find someone else to do it.
Let me tell you a little bit about Elder Kunzler in my
district. He's amazing. I feel like there's three different types of
missionaries here - the ones that don't care if they are good
missionaries, the ones who want to be a good missionary, and then the
ones who become good missionaries. I feel like Elder Kunzler must have
written the book on how to be a great missionary. He's so awesome. His
testimony is always strong, and he's studied the scriptures and
continues to do so, so he doesn't only teach from what he thinks, he
teaches from the authority of the scriptures. Then it was great, this
week we were studying outside when some other elders about 10 feet away
were making fun of some Elders in their district, and so after a while
Elder Kunzler stepped up and said 'Elders could we stop talking like
that, I'm trying to read the scriptures.' The Elders didn't really take
that too well, and so Elder Ferguson had a few words for them, and then
they wanted to fight us haha. Good times! I was just thinking, why? It
was one of the strangest, but humorous experiences here. We just went
back into our room and studied. Don't worry mom.
Maybe the biggest lesson I've learned this week about
teaching is teaching to each investigators needs. We've had some badd
lessons here just because we wanted to teach them something, instead of
trying to explain to them something either they're worried about or
what's most important for them to hear right now. Each time we leave one
of those lessons we just feel like a load of trash. But! Good news, we
tried so so hard to teach a meaningful lesson yesterday, and while it
wasn't even close to being perfect, the Holy Ghost was with us, and
testified to Ben while we were teaching what he needed to hear, and it
was amazing. I never want to have a lesson without the Spirit ever
again.
But I testify that the Holy Ghost is the third member of the
Godhead, and that he is true as true can be. The feelings that he gives
are as real as I can explain, but it's just hard sometimes to notice
them. I know that he's there for us to testify to us that the Book of
Mormon is true, and that Joseph Smith was the prophet of this
dispensation, as the Introduction states he will. (The introduction is
awesome!)
Favorite scripture of the week: Alma 32:35 talking
about the experiences and feelings we get from the Holy Ghost - "O then,
is this not real?" Who can deny the feelings that so strongly come upon
us when we search the scriptures, and hunger to know the truth?
As the Introduction does, I invite all men and women to read the
Book of Mormon and to live it's teachings, and to pray and ask if it's
the word of God or not, and the Holy Ghost will testify of it's
truthfulness. This is all I know.
Till next time, I love you all.
Love, Elder Murphy
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