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.