Dear Alec and Sarah,- August 27, 2012

Hey! How's it going?? I just wanted to tell you guys that you're the best. That was one of the funniest moments I've ever had. "Excuse me, does everyone stay in here or do they split up into classes?" Haha, that was hilarious. Oh yeah, this is going to my mom and family, but it's obviously directed towards you cause I just don't have you email address. But that was awesome. I hope you had a good vacation in Quebec, and an even better sacrament meeting in Mont St-Hilaire. It was great to see you just for a few minutes. And sorry, but you literally surprised me so bad I forgot all the names of everyone around me when I was supposed to be introducing them, even Elder Osorio's name hah. Sorry!

 

We had a great week here. We've found a couple of new investigators the last couple of weeks, and so this week we got a chance to talk with them and share the first lesson. And it went really well! But I also got to experience the first time we 'dropped' an investigator because she wasn't interested. Her name is Benedicte, and she's the coolest. You can tell my mom, she reminds me SO MUCH of her hah. No joke. She loves Hinduism, and doesn't really have a religion, but if she did it would be that. She practices wizardry and sorcery, and works a lot with magicians and all that stuff. So that doesn't really remind me of my mom, but she's super nice! It's too bad she doesn't want to meet with us anymore, because I can't get a picture to show how simililar her and my mom are.

 

One thing that's pretty big here are the Jehovah's Witnesses. I mean, I've never been mistaken for a Jehovah's Witness as many times in my life. Literally anyone who says anything besides "I'm not interested" says "Tu es Temoigne Jehovah?" And we say no......... So that's pretty funny how that works out. I guess they're pretty aggressive up here, but it's all good because we're able to clarify who we are a lot of the time.

 

Small thing I've noticed. In French (or just in Quebec, I'm not sure) they say a machine or appliance is working by the verb 'marcher'. It's also the same verb to walk. So kind of like how we say something's running! Like the computer is running. So that was super interesting to learn. But it made me curious to how the Quebecois would tell that silly joke. So I assume it would go something like this:

-Hey! Is your refrigerator walking?

-Umm yeah, it's just right there.

-Well you better go catch it!

-No, I said it's right there, you can even see it. 

-Nevermind.

So! The Quebecois aren't very big on jokes I assume.

 

We have an investigator named Oscar, who's awesome. He's a single dad living with his three kids, and he's from Mexico. He has a bunch of questions, but he's been reading the Book of Mormon every night and tells us every time how he keeps applying verses to his own life, and it's really helping him build his faith. It's so awesome! So we watched teh Restoration DVD yesterday, and he liked it. And he said church is super important, so we invited him to come next week, and he said he probably will. So cool! And he's said all of this in Spanish, so I don't say much to him, but I'm super glad I at least can understand what he's saying. No hablo Espanol! Pero, yo comprendo uno pocito (haha I don't know how to spell that).

 

I've been trying my best to study as effectively and intensly (probably the wrong word) as I can to be able to tell people every day about the Gospel, and the blessing it will bring to their lives. So it's been great, even just this short little month has helped me so much. Can't wait for the next one.

 

But I love you guys. You're the greatest. Tell everyone I say hi, and tell my family they're the coolest. I wish I could tell them all the investigators and experiences I'm having, but there's just not enough time in the day, or in the 1 hour I have for emails. Gospel's true.

 

Love,

Elder Austin Murphy

 

1) Us!

2) Elder Brown! Sister Jeff's nephew! I got to meet him this week, sad that he's leaving this next transfer.

3) Haha poor Blacky. He's the dog of a less active member Sister Pion we go and visit every week. Her friends 'gave him a nice haircut'.

4) Murphy and Blacky can be best friends.

Recognizing his Servants- August 20, 2012

Okay, here we go. I'll try to get it all out.

Motherrrrrrrrr happy happy birthday mommy. You're the best. I hope Dallin gave you a huge hug and a kiss, as he always does but is too embarrassed to tell anyone else.

Speaking of Dally, that's so cool! I don't know where they are now, but I bet there's just driving talking about something super deep or actually not. And Bethany, haha that's what happens when you don't sleep for 4 days in a row.

And I cannot believe that Cole finally did a song with mom in Sacrament meeting. I mean, really? It took you that long? I'm pretty sure you could have done that 2 years ago.

Tell Scott and Kate is say congrats! And It might be awkward for Gma and Gpa Murphy to have 2 great-grand children named Austin, but with a different middle name or something they can work it out. 

 

And mom I'll try to answer some of your questions - yes we have a car (a nice Subaru actually), I'm understanding a little bit more of French (just a little) and it's still not very good with the Quebecois - I can understand a few families from France in our ward, but holy cow, I cannot understand these real quebecois speaking people - but that's okay, I'm feeling healthy now thank you, the weather has been perfect these last couple days, not too hot and not cold at all, our apartment is great - it's the basement of some citizen of Beloeil. They're super nice, but now interested in the Church, but that's fine, I've only seen them once. And the members here are so awesome. They're very patient and love to help us out with anything. They're all very involved and wanting to help and talk with us. I love them. And I've been getting to know them, because there's only about 80 of them, so that makes it easy.

 

This week was great. So many things happened, I feel like I'm trying to think back about things that happened a year ago. We did a 'blitz' in the sisters area to help them out, which was just tracting for a number of hours for them. So that was fun. We had zone conference which was great, and a lot of pass bys this week.

 

I gave a talk yesterday! That was just great hah. Frere Fourtina called me the night before and asked me to do it so I said yes... and started preparing right away. I was pretty dang nervous, but I at least didn't say anything to make them laugh (out loud, I saw a lot of giggling) but it was fine. It was on service, and why we serve. So I hope someone understood something or other.

 

Our week has been great though. We found 4 new investigators, mostly from old potentials. One man who we talked to and gave a Book of Mormon has been reading it everyday, and he's been going to through a tough time right now, so when he told us about how he has felt comforted from reading it because of Nephi's afflictions, that just made us super happy. It's been amazing to see his growth and our other investigators as well, and even just their acceptance of our message. So we've got a lot of new projects right now, and trying to guide them as they're just starting off. It's so surprising to me how people open up to us so quickly, and are willing to share all these experiences, feelings, questions, and doubts with us, when we've only talked with them for 5 or so minutes. It's amazing. It's really helped me see how when we're obedient and pray for help, then people will see us as the missionaries that have been called by a prophet, and by God, to help them find their way back home. That's probably been the most frequent message I've felt this week. We can testify of how we will help them come closer to Christ and find peace through the Atonement, but before we say anything like that, they already sense something, and that's why they let us in and listen to us 19 and 20 year old boys. It's pretty amazing.

 

I love you all, and I wish I could write for longer, I'll try to manage my time better next week.

 

Love,

Elder Murphy

Mercy of Christ- August 13, 2012

Ah! It's so good to hear from you guys. I'm glad all is going well in I-town, SM and REXBURG (hehe).

    Mom, I can't believe you ate a fried Oreo? And that picture of Dallin eating that Klondike bar is awesome haha

    First, TELL ADAM WONG I SAY HOLY COW!!!!! That's so so so awesome. I'm so happy for him. There's so many missionaries going there in the MTC speaking mandarin, so tell him to get excited. 

   So, President Cannon has told everyone in the mission to do an activity that I think he said really affected Elder Holland on his mission. We got a blue cover copy of the Book of Mormon, and we're supposed to highlight any mention of Heavenly Father or Jesus Christ, to see for ourselves actually how much the book testifies of them. So I just started 2nd Nephi today, and sacre bleu, it's amazing. I really want to highlight other things as well when I'm reading it, but just looking at how many times Christ is mentioned is astounding. I've absolutely loved it, and I'm just getting started. So that's a good idea for anyone, especially Dallin B and Cole. It's really helped me out understanding more of the purpose of the Book of Mormon, and why Nephi write all these things onto the plates.  

    I think I've decided, my most favorite race now are the Nepalis. The majority of our investigators are from Nepal, and they don't speak english very well, some of them speak French, but they're the best. They're so humble and super eager to hear what we have to say about the gospel, even if they don't really want to keep commitments hah. So we're trying to work on that. But also, everytime we go and visit them, they always give us a drink of juice or soda or something, because they're just awesome. And someone should tell Church headquarters to translate the Book of Mormon into Nepali and get on over there, because they want it bad. Everyone of our investigators really wants to read it but they can't because we don't have it in Nepali. So, Mom please get on that for me.

    This week has definitely been frustrating with French. I thought it was odd that I wasn't immediately frustrated when I got out here, but it's all good now, because it's starting to catch up. But, I've been learning good lessons from it. First, prayer has been becoming more and more important to me every day. It would be meaningless to pray so often every day and not think anyone was listening, but beacuse we know our Heavenly Father listens and answers every prayer, that makes it so much more powerful and comforting. I've really been able to see my prayers being answered in small degrees here, which is really remarkable. Second, patience is a virtue. That's all I have to say about patience.

     One thing that really hit me this week was 1 Nephi 19:20. I've found this before, but it really hit me the other day when I read that verse. I absolutely love it. I love how Nephi recognizes the fact that he 'should have perished also' if the Lord had not 'been merciful.' I love that. It's like for all of us, it's not because of how great we were or how sincerely we repented, it's because of the mercy of God that we've been forgiven and are not left to 'perish' with our own Jerusalems (Along with that, I like 2 Nephi 2:3, because of the righteousness of who??). I love the imagery of Alma 5:33, that says 'the arms of mercy are extended towards them', and to all of us. Christ, beause he is merciful, is willing to take us back when we repent. That's the best. It keeps me going every day, and that's what gives me the excitement every morning to go out and tell people about our message. So that's why we repent every day, to be taken back into the arms of Christ, and be able to help others find their way back also. I just love the Atonement!

      Well I'm out of time. Thanks for writing, I love you guys. Keep up being silly and everything like that.

      From Quebec, a biento,

  Elder Austin Murphy 

 P.S's. Also, last week I wrote a few letters but couldn't send them out because I didn't have any Canada stamps yet. So I'll send them out today.

     Also, since all my mail goes to the mission home, i haven't received any yet. Sorry! So I'll be getting it in 2 days because we have Zone Conference. But yeah, I'm not going to be getting mail as frequently as the MTC, obviously. But hopefully it doesn't take too long for my letters to get there.

    Olympics: What? I can't believe it's over. I hope the volleyball teams did well, thanks for updating me a little bit on that.

Blessings- August 6, 2012

  Woot! Hello, everybody. It's been great the last few days, very exciting.

  I hope the family reunion was just awesome. Tommy, I feel you man. Sounds like everything's going well. I hope Bethany does NOT have a fun time with those boys, but I'm sure the girls at EFY will be nice. 

  Also, Mom thanks for writing. I'm so proud, you've been the most consistent one to write, which is no hint to anyone else, but just shows how great Mom is. 

  Well, first of all, I'm in Mont-St-Hilaire (I've seen it spelled many different ways). My companion is Elder Osorio, from Saint George, Utah, and is just awesome. Both of his parents are from Mexico, and he is the only member of the church in his family. He's a stud. He's super humble and works hard. So I've been very lucky to have him as my trainer. He said I'm the first missionary he's trained, so he's nervous. He's also the District Leader for our district, so he's got some of that extra stuff to worry about. But he doesn't complain. What a guy.

  But our area is pretty large, and covers an awkward shape of land. The cities we've been going to most frequently are Mont St Hilaire, and Saint-Hyacinthe. And there's quite a large area of land to the north that we haven't gone to yet. But seriously, I've been blessed so much with everything, my ward, area, trainer, apartment. It's so good. The ward is awesome here, Mom. Only about 80 or so members, but everyone is so nice, and speaks very slowly for me. Hah, and I bore my testimony in church, I'll have to tell you abou that later.  

  But!!!! The work is good! On Wednesday when I met Elder Osorio and we came to Mont St Hilaire, we immediately went and drove to a lesson with a less active member, Andres. He's a great guy from Mexico, who I'm very glad spoke French as well as Spanish. So that went well. And then, we did some knocking hah. It was really great, I think E. Osorio chose this part of town on purpose or something, because half the people we talked to violently shut the door, and the other half didn't want to hear anything we said. It was great.

  I've found that there's this universal problem up here in Quebec, that at any mention of the words 'God', 'Jesus', or 'religion' people cringe up their face and take 1 1/2 steps backwards. It's so bizarre, Literally every person outside of the small little ward here that has heard us use those words has had that same reaction. I know what I'm going to say if we get mugged or something. (Mom, don't worry, we won't).

  But, regardless, it's been great. We've taught a number of lessons since I arrived, some in French, most in French and Spanish, 1 in just spanish, and 2 or 3 in English. I'm super glad E. Osorio speaks spanish hah, because I just say stuff in French and have him translate it most of the time. But it really is quite a diverse people up here, and everyone knows at least 2 languages. It's awesome. I hope after I can speak French better I can pick up a couple of phrases or so in Spanish just to contribute in that way. (Don't tell Senorita Meanie, but I literally have lost all my Spanish. She would be so sad!)

  Alas, I love it here. It's been interesting getting to actually see what missionary work is like (yes, I know I'm only on my first week, but still.) There's been a lot of tracting, and a lot of bearing testimony, with little 'success'. But that's just made it more interesting, and I've been thinking a lot about it, how the 'success' of a mission is measured at almost every moment. We try to fulfill our daily goals, and then our weekly goals, and our monthly goals, while much of the work, like tracting, has not brought in overwhelming amounts of success, one could say. But it reminded me of last week in the MTC we talked about success on a mission, and a few scriptures. First, Alma 29:4 tells us that God 'granteth unto men according to their desire'. Also, Alma 31:34 I really love. 'O Lord,w ilt thou grant unto us that we may have success in bringing them again unto thee in Christ'. That's definitely been the prayer that E. Osorio and I have been offering over the last week, and I love how we have to work so hard to help these people here, but yet it's God who grants unto us the success. It goes along with the fact that we are trying to find those who are searching for the truth, but yet we don't know where they are. Only God does. So, we have to carefully work with Him and ask what to do in all the things we do, and then do all we can when we know which direction to go. It's been great so far, and I'm excited to continue to work on this, because I've never really even wanted to rely on someone else before, but now all that we do has to rely on God. But, I'm sure glad it does, because I would be totally lost and confused if it didn't. Many prayers of mine have been answered in small ways and on the Lord's time already, when I'm willing to listen. It's so great.

  I had no idea how challenging it would be to be ready to bear testimony in every moment of the day to everyone, especially in French when I still feel awkward with it. But, I guess that's what I signed up for hah. But every time I do take the courage and talk to someone, it's never embarrassing or shocking or anything, but I'm still scared the next time. But! That's just because I need to work on it, and get over myself. So I'm excited for this journey, especially everyday when I would want to relax and just rest for a bit, but when we get up and work. It's so fun hah, really.

  The two scriptures I found that go along with this are D&C 24:12; 60:2. I feel like they go really well together. One, we've been commanded to 'open our mouths' the entire day, every day, and we're promised blessings and comfort and strength if we do. But, if we don't, because of the 'fear of man', then we're not following that commandment that God's given us, and that's not good. So I'm definitely grateful that He's been patient with me especially during my first week here, but I want to go out and make the goal to not hesitate and talk to everyone.

  One of the ways that helps me do it is when I think of a quote that was on a door in our hall at the MTC - Be the missionary your mom thinks you'll be. Hah, cheesy, but I think you wouldn't want me to be nervous or anything like that mom, so I'm trying.

  But it's truly been great. Teaching lessons and bearing my simple testimony has been my favorite part by far. I can feel the Spirit bear witness when I do, at least to me and hopefully to those we teach, and it makes it all worth it. That's been great, because I don't have to think or stop myself when I bear testimony of the message of the restored gospel, or of Jesus Christ, because I know it's true in my head, but also I feel the Spirit in my heart. So, it's true. We're just trying to find those people who want to hear it.

I love you guys, thanks for being there for me.

Love,

Elder Murphy

P.S. They explained to us that mailing packages here is fine, but there's a few things to note. Send all letters and packages to the mission home address, and they'll be given to me that way. (Mom, I don't have it right now, you can either put it on or say something, whatever) But also, if you send a package by anything other than USPO there will be a big price added on, and might even be sent back. So send it by the US Postal Office is what they said.

P.P.S. It is hotttttt here!

P.P.P.S. Sorry for blabbering on for so long, but I hope this was of some worth.

 Elder Osorio

Je suis ici!- July 31, 2012

Cher Famille,

  D'accord, nous venons de arriver. The flights were really good, we only got delayed in Detroit for 2 hours. And I got to pass the time talking with this French family now living in Montreal. Their youngest was a boy named Loris who's 10, and we talked for the whole time. I told him he was my first friend I made in Montreal, and he liked that. It was so sweet! I still had trouble even talking to him sometimes, but that's alright hah. It'll be good.

  Butttttttt then we got on our tiny plane, and flew to Montreal. It was awesome seeing the French/English signs everwhere again. It was just the craziest feeling. But after customs and such, we met up with the APs and President and Sister Cannon. They're pretty awesome! We just ate dinner and are about to have a short meeting. They said we're going to find out our area tomorrow, so I'm super excited about that.

  But oui, this place is awesome. It feels like home hah. It actually feels quite a bit like Denmark, but with more sun (I remember it being kind of cloudy in Denmark). But it looks like the greatest city in the world, until I get assigned somewhere else tomorrow.

  But all is well, all is well. All my bags are here, I only got 1 drop of blood on my tie from my nose bleed, and the humidity isn't so bad. Probably just because we arrived at 6pm or so, but oh well!

  It was great to talk to y'all today, even if it was really short. Can't wait till Christmas, but I also just can't wait for tomorrow to get to work. It's going to be crazzyyyyyyy.

  I was a little worried the other day, and so I read the beginning of Exodus 4. It's really great! Scriptures are true.

  Sorry, I need to get back to our meeting.

Loves,

Elder Austin K Murphy

P.S. Why does Dallin already look so much bigger?

P.P.S. Bethany.... hah I loved how you 'laughed' on the phone with me. So cute!