Wow, that week went by super fast! The time is passing way too rapidly. But it was a good week. We found three new people to teach. I´m learning a ton from Elder Rasmussen, and he from me. We definitely have progressed a lot this week.

Like I mentioned last week, we´re going to be doing Family Home Evenings with the ward, families, etc. We had one last week with a less active. Denise is about 26, and has a cute 3-year-old daughter, Francisca. We had a FHE in the house of another Young Single Adult. We were 8 in total, and we talked about the Plan of Salvation with drawings on a mini white board. It was great. Then they invited Denise to a Relief Society breakfast Saturday. She went and loved it and went to church yesterday. It looks like she now has friends, which was her big problem.

Wednesday we found a 15-year-old kid, Pablo. He´s catholic but just by tradition. He understood everything and accepted a baptismal date. Unfortunately, when we passed by yesterday he wasn´t there. His mom had told him to be there at 5 cause we were going to come, but he hadn´t returned yet then. We´re going to pass this week.
Gloria is like 60 and lives with her husband and her sick mom. She´s catholic as well, but one of those that doesn´t go that often.

Monica is funny. She had talked with Elder Rasmussen before with his other comp, but they had never taught her, then they lost contact. But we found her Friday. She has a Great Dane that is huge! Well, skinny but really tall. His head comes up to my belly. When I was sitting down he walked over and we were eye to eye. It is easily the biggest dog I have seen in my life. She´s taking karate classes. She is only a white belt, the lowest. She thought that a prophet was anyone that talks about God. We explained the importance of the priesthood and she understood better. She's great.

Saturday we played soccer in the small court at a church in the zone. There were very few, but it was fun. When it was almost time to go we said "Next goal wins." That next goal was done by me. Another elder took it out of bounds. I was in the goal box, open, so he threw it in the air toward me. I head butted it and it went right past the goalie, Elder Rasmussen. We went wild. It was way fun.

Well, for yet another ward I am playing the piano in Sacrament Meeting. The only problem is that with this piano, the pedal doesn´t work. So if I play a note and let off, it stops, instead of holding. That makes it quite an adventure. But it´s still fun to get to play.

My mission is going way too fast. I lack one month today to complete a year in the mission. Yikes! But I have been learning a lot, and feel that I have been a useful tool in the hands of the Lord to help others learn as well even if they end up not getting baptized. I´ve heard that the success of a missionary really isn´t seen til 20 years after. For example, Elder Rasmussen told me a story about his aunt, on her mission in Peru I think. She didn´t have a lot of baptisms. But when, years later, she returned to visit a little boy she had baptised, he was the Stake President. In the church, he asked her to stand up, saying that she had taught him and led to his baptism. Then he asked everyone to stand up whose baptism in the church had something to do with him or his baptism. About 150 people stood up. It´s a great story that helped me to see that right now I really can´t see the affects of my mission. But in years to come I will.

Well, that´s it for this week. Have a wonderful week!

Elder Murdoch