Dear family,- March 24, 2014

As you will read, Austin's mission got to have a very special experience this week, as they had Elder Neal L. Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve visit their mission, along with Bishop Causse of the presiding bishopric and Elder Hallstrom of the First Quorum of the Seventy.  Quite unusual and amazing all at the same time.   ______________________________

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Hello Family! Im glad that the funeral went well. Please send Lanny and Barbara my love. They are such amazing examples of disciples of Christ. Thank you for your faith Uncle Lanny and Aunt Barbara. Also, tell Natalie hi! Im so glad to hear that she is doing well.

Oh family. Where do I begin. It's difficult to express how this week was, especially in light of the experiences you're having at home, with Lanny and Barbara and the Bollard's news. But maybe it can shed some additional light to that which you already have!

We had a slow, but actually powerful week up until Thursday, with visits and testifying to members. Then Thursday night we drove down to Quebec city, and then drove down to Montreal early Friday morning, to get to the temple. We got to attend a session at 12, with some friends. And I can't say enough about that trip. I had prayers answered in the House of the Lord that I have been praying for, some for a couple years now. The temple is amazing! The Spirit of God resides there, and it testified to me that the promises we make there are true. The promises made of eternal marriage and sealing are true, and extend after this life. Truly, as Julie said, families are forever, through the power of the Priesthood. 

  We then spent the night at the YSA branch's institute in Montreal (I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but I'm glad I've never served in a young single adults ward hah). I did get to see some friends that I met and taught in LaSalle and Laval, which was great. Even some former missionaries, like Sister Houde who lives and served here in our mission. What great people. (If I was just a little bit smater, I would have taken pictures.) Sorry mom. 

We stayed the night at the Patrick's home (the mission home), with our district. Thomas Patrick actually received his birthday on Friday, (AND it was Sister Patrick's birthday), and opened it while we were there. He's going to Tahiti! Haha wow. President Patrick's face was priceless. 

We then got a ride Saturday morning to the chapel with President Patrick, and he said we're going early so we might get some personal time with the General Authorities. But as we pulled up and walked in the chapel, we saw 150 other missionaries who had the exact same thought. 

  It was great to see Elder Hardy, Elder Lanning, Elder Pehrson, and Elder Kimzey, my remaining former companions, along with all the other 200 missionaries that were packed into the chapel. And then we had an amazing meeting. The problem is just where do I begin. I was convinced that they wouldn't let us shake their hands because of how many of us were there, but then they did. So we got to shake all of their hands, Elder Andersen, President Patrick, Elder Hallstrom, Bishop Caussé, and Elder Homes. Wow. 

  We were then instructed by Bishop Caussé, Elder Hallstrom, and Elder Andersen, along with their wives. I felt as those disciples 2000 years ago, who said 'Did not our heart burn within us...' as they spoke, and opened the scriptures? Wow. 

Levesque Caussé spoke about the why of service, and how the Atonement should be at the center of our lives and teaching. He said, if anyone asks me what missionaries do, I have a response that I like - 2 Nephi 25:26. It was fun having him teach us in his quick Parisian French. 

Elder Hallstrom taught from Doctrine and Covenants 43:8-9, how in the Church of Jesus Christ, we are to teach and to be edified through the meetings, and how its equally our responibility to do that. As well, we can have this be a turning point in our lives, if we 'bind ourselves' to live in holiness. Wow I loved that. 

Then Elder Andersen taught us for a good 30 minutes. I wish I could express to you all of the things that I learned, and that he taught me. The most important things I took from him were:

 - the Spirit that testified as he taught, that there are Apostles and prophets again on the earth! WOW!!!!!!!!!!! The Lord truly has called men to be His witnesses in our time, to testify of Him. 

 - Elder Andersen spoke to increase our Faith in Christ. He encouraged us to study the passages in the Book of Mormon that teach of the Atonement, and to study the New Testament, for the events and teachings of the Life of Christ. This needs to 'seek deep into your bones'. We need to understand Christ's grace, mercy, and merits. We need to testify of His Resurrection.

 - He mentioned briefly the culture here, which was comforting. He recognized that the Church grows differently here than in Brazil where he lived for years. But he said something that I am taking with me, 'There is not one person that you meet that you can't strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ'. 

  There truly are Apostles on the earth again. I can testify of that. I know that it's true. 

  We were then instructed during Stake Conference on Sunday by Elder Andersen again. Guess what! President Fourtina is NOT the new stake president!! PHEW!!!!! And the stake still has the same boundaries. Good thing. Thats the most important stuff. 

  Elder Andersen taught from Alma 32:41-43, in French. Great to see that he's kept his French all these years. He taught of the importance of Faith in Jesus Christ, diligence, and patience in our own personal progression. It was amazing. 

I feel bad. I want to be able to share everything with you, but my time's running up! This email doesn't really do this week justice. But I know that God lives. I know that Jesus Christ is His Son and that He prepared the way for us to return back to live with our Heavenly Father, as families, if we believe in Him enough to live like Him. Jesus Christ has restored all the tools necessary to help us do that through a prophet of God, and has called men, as He did 2000 years ago, to be apostles, to be witnesses of His life, mission and resurrection. I met one of them this week, and heard him speak, and I know that this is true. The Spirit teaches us truth, and He taught me that this week. 

I'll share with you the rest in a couple months. 

I love you all! Have faith in Jesus Christ, because He is the Son of God. 

Love

Elder Murphy

At the conference with Elder Pehrson... it was dumping snow.

Oh man oh man oh man.- March 17, 2014

DADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD HAPPYYYYYYYYYYYYYY BIRTHDAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Y TO YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh man, what a great Dad. I love my dad because of how awesome he is. He is the best Dad ever. He makes me want to be a dad. He makes me want to be happy, to work hard, and to follow his example. Dad, you help me do my best, in all that I do. And of course, he's nice and has a good sense of humor (right, siblings??). Hah sorry, I had to. Thanks for your letter(s) dad, , i took pictures of it and I'll read it later. You're the best!

And to answer some of your questions, comments - President Fourtina actually didn't make it up this weekend as planned..... He had a meeting with the rest of the High Council on Sunday that he couldn't miss. So before we could try to arrange something after we got the news, the members had already canceled the activity in desperation. Hah kind of funny, but very sad. We would have had some less active members and non members come (THEY TOLD US THEY WERE GOING TO BE THERE) but it was cancelled. Can't win them all I guess. 

And, there was another snow storm on Sunday, so we had an attendance of 10 at church. Brother Levesque told me yesterday that he has never seen a winter like this: a winter so long, so cold, and with so many storms on Sundays. Hah man alive.

And we actually have started a Family Home Evening, which is really great. Its great to involve some returning members along with the super active ones, to try to strenghten the relationships between them.

Its funny that Cole was sick this week... cause I was too! And Thursday was the toughest day for me as well. But we got by here. 

We actually had a zone activity in Quebec on Monday before our Zone Training Meeting on Tuesday, where Elder Connor McCook planned it so we could play volleyball haha. It was so fun. I need to get back in shape... but it was great. Just like old times (playing at the BYU volleyball camp). 

I love the members here. Holy cow. Yesterday we had dinner at the Lévesque family with Steeve and Julie, and man. Leaving there I was just so filled with LOVE for these people. So many hardships, but yet they stay strong and are committed to the Lord. What wonderful people. And the whole branch is just so wonderful. 

One example of our role here in Rimouski - we went to  Chantale Plourde's house this week, a member that was baptized actually when my friend Elder Pehrson was here last year. We taught about genealogy and temple work, and she was excited about it, but said she couldn't start because she had 2 membership numbers... so we had to go fix that on Sunday. We've been able to start doing genealogy with 4 or 5 members now, because they have never done it before, and its great. 

One experience I had with service this week... We tried to see Sister Yvette Lafortune this week, but it never worked out. She is doing well, but needs some encouragement and teaching to help her fortify her own testimony, to become independent. On Sunday morning (during the storm) I thought that we should go to her home to shovel the snow and de-ice her car to help her come. We went and with the two of us it took 10 minutes, and she came out at the end and said thanks. Then later, after church, she told us that if we hadn't come and surprised her (by hearing the scrapers on the car) she wouldn't have come to church yesterday. What a good feeling - just the little things that we can do can really help out our friends. 

I cannot express to you in words how I am excited for our special meeting on Saturday with Elder Andersen and Bishop Caussé, neither how worried about the changes that will happen the next day in the Stake. We will see. 

I love you ALL. GOODNESS, I LOVE YOU. Thanks for all that you do. Jesus Christ lives. He is our Brother, and has made possible for us a life with our Heavenly Father again. All we have to do is follow His voice, and live by His Gospel (His teachings and ordonnances). Keep it up, Ne lâchez pas. 

Have a great week. 

Elder Austin K Murphy

Follow the Spirit- March 10, 2014

Who knows why he was writing so much in French today.  I will include the translations.  (Dana)

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Salut ma belle famille! Ça va? Comment était la semaine?   (Hello my beautiful family! Okay? How was the week?)

Great. We had a zone activity today, so we have to do emails a little earlier to go down to Québec city. 

We had a great week in Rimouski! Guess what?? President and Sister Fourtina came up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Comme ça a fait du bien de les revoir!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow it was great. We got to meet with President Fourtina before church, and discuss the needs of members, and then had some great meetings. Oh they are wonderful. And so fourtina. 

It was funny too, because some of the suggestions that some of you had given me happened with his arrival. He immediately planned an activity for this Saturday, with a meal and then a presentation on finances (since the Branch's yearly goal is spiritual and financial independence). And we had visits at church! The Levesques son was here with his two sons, and then the Kikongi family from Sherbrooke came up! It was great. So thanks to that, we had an attendance of 21 at church. Holy cow, I don't know if the building can sustain that many people at one time (just kidding).

So we're going to be inviting everyone to the activity. 

I love Jesus Christ. I love how he is our brother, and how he helps us out. I love how he brings us back to feel the love of our Heavenly Father. I love wearing his name on my suit (since we wear suit coats here in Rimouski). 

We got the impression to go visit Sister Lafortune on Saturday night, wanting to encourage her to come to church. And it was very important that we went that night, because she opened up and told us a lot (a lot). Just one of those things as we sit and stew over something someone did or didn't do, we can get all worked up, and then those feelings hold us back from doing what we want to do. I talked about the Book of Mormon, and how it was celui qui m'a aidé à acquérir un témoignage de Jésus-Christ, et de son Église rétablie. Grace à ce témoignage, je sais qu'il dirige son église sur terre, et que nous pouvons nous fier à lui et à notre Père Céleste, et nous pouvons recevoir de la force afin de continuer à grandir, malgré les empêchements qui se présentent devant nous  (one who helped me gain a testimony of Jesus Christ and His restored Church. Through this testimony, I know He runs His church on earth, and that we can trust Him and our Heavenly Father, and we can receive strength to continue to grow, despite the obstacles that come before us). It was great. It helped her enough to come to church yesterday, feel the Spirit, and get remotivated to do her best, and to work to get her Patriarchal Blessing, finish the Book of Mormon this month, etc. What a wonderful feeling to be in the Lord's service, even just to help in a small way. If we search for ways to serve others, and follow the Spirit (the impressions that we then receive) we will be guided to help those in need. 

It sure is a different responsibility that we have here, than in other units, since we spend so much time helping strenghtening the members here. But I love it. 

Lanny and Barbara, you are in my prayers. I love you, and I pray that you feel all of our love, and the love from our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. 

Love to all!

Elder Austin Murphy

(Hey Dad! Have a good last week of the 40s!)

Divine covenants make strong Christians- March 3, 2014

Hello la famille! How are you doing???????? Good, I'm glad.

Glad you had a great birthday, Cole. I still can't believe that you're so tall though... 

Mom! We had a great week here, including a Zone Training Meeting, where they actually showed us the Ma Famille pamphlet, and we got to start sharing it with members. It's great, because one of President Fourtina's goals he gave to the branch was to get 10 new names for which we can go to the temple and do the work for them. And no one's really been moving ever since he gave us that, so we're now going to help the members do the work! (Also, because our Genealogist specialist has gotten offended, and won't come to church anymore, or help anyone with genealogy. So we are now the new genealogists hah). It's absolutely wonderful though. I regret never doing too much before my mission, because now we are supposed to know how to do everything, but we're getting by. 

We had English Class this week! And for right now, we're only teaching one college student n from China, who's name is Tan. He's great! He wants to work on conversation skills and pronunciation, so we do just that. He's also midly interested in the Church (even though he knows next to nothing about Christianity), but I've been able to talk a little bit about it with him. We're going to see if we can invite him to take the lessons this week!

Hey guess what! We passed by Jean-Guy and Christiane's house, and they were there!! They let us in to talk just for a couple minutes, and they are doing well and happy. They decided to move (I think the day after we say them last ...) out to a village 20 minutes away from Rimouski, so they've been occupied with the moving. So they said to call later. So that's goodish news! I was at least very happy to see them and know that we still can teach them later. 

Attendance at church yesterday was 15, which was great, with a little addition from the Levesques son and his two sons who came down from Chicoutimi. We had some great meetings, and are happy to work again this week. President Fourtina is coming up this week, so we're excited for him! The Branch misses him and Sister Fourtina a lot. 

    We're having a 'special' stake conference on the 23rd of March, where a member of the quorum of the Twelve is coming! It's super exciting. But, I'm worried they're going to split the Stake. No one has said anything, but if they happen to do it (there are currently 15 units in the stake) we're hoping President Fourtina won't leave us. But I should stop speculating. 

  I love you all! I love covenants. Divine covenants make strong Christians. 

  Quick story: I thought about this last night, I don't think I told anyone before, because I don't know if I realized the importance of it in the moment. Senior year in high school, I was having a bad week, let's say, and I guess it was apparent when I came into and attended Seminary with Brother Bollard as my teacher. When it was finished, I got up to leave as usual, but Brother Bollard stopped me, and asked me to stay to talk. When everyone was gone, he asked what was the matter, and wanted to help. I explained a little bit, and he listened, and told me he was confident in me to do the right thing. It was really just a simple gesture, that helped me when I needed it. I'm grateful for that moment, along with others that have helped me out in times of need. So thanks Brother Bollard! You're the best. 

    It's an honor to be here, on the Lord's errand, to try to lift up the hands that hang down here in Rimouski. And thanks to examples that I have from friends and family, I can serve in order to lift others around me. 

I love you all! Have a great week. 

Elder Murphy

1. Elder Smith is great hah. Here we are!