Well, one more week down, and with it a transfer ends as well. Elder King left early this morning, and I am now with my new companion. Actually, also in my new sector. Sadly, they took me out of Dorsal 2. Another Elder will be opening and training. I´m now further north in the mission, having spent all of it up till now more south. I´m in a zone called Quilicura. The ward is Lo Campino, but just like Dorsal, there are 4 missionaries so I´m in Lo Campino 2. I´m with an Elder Webb from Arizona, who has a few transfers less than me. He´s a good Elder, and we should get along well. Quilicura is the rich community of Santiago, and supposedly our sector is the richest of Quilicura. It does have a kind of poor part, but most of it is really rich with a lot of really nice apartment buildings. That means it´ll be tough because the richer the people, the less receptive they are. I had heard before that Quilicura is tough and that the best way to work here is with the members. Kind of like the States I guess. But Elder Webb told me that we should have a baptism of a 9-year-old boy in two weeks and his father two weeks later. The mom is a member, recently becoming active again. Hopefully, we can have a lot of baptisms here. Even though Quilicura is though, when Elder King was here in another sector, he had the most success of his mission. So there is a lot of potential.

I was really sad to receive the news that I was leaving. I´ve come to love Dorsal; the members are great, and I love them all. Last night we spent some time with one of the families that we have really come to love and they us. It being my companion´s last day they had purchased a cake to send him off. Later in the night, after receiving the transfers, I called them to say what happened. I talked with Brother Canales, the dad, for a while, then he passed me to his wife. She started crying, which got me crying a little as well. Actually, I had a feeling that I was going to leave even though it was more likely that I would stay. All day yesterday as Elder King said goodbye to someone, they would then turn to me and say, "Oh, we´ll be seeing each other." Every single time it happened I got a knot in my stomach and thought "I hope so." Something inside told me that I would be leaving. Unfortunately, it was right. I really didn´t want to leave. But even so, I am way excited to be here, to know a new companion, new sector, members, etc.

One of the reason´s that I´m really sad is that I left behind a family of 4 that should get baptized in September. The family of Moises. He´s progressing very well, although we don´t know why he didn´t go to church yesterday. They suddenly had to leave somewhere Saturday, so they might not have returned in time. But Friday we met his mom, and she´s really receptive and very nice. She said she´s been wanting to meet us and listen some. She asked us to pass by Saturday because she has a lot of questions. But then they had to leave. But they’re a great family, and they all can be baptized. There´s the mom, dad, Moises, who is 16, and Marcelo, who will turn 8 September first. I´m sad I won´t be here when they get baptized. But the important thing is that they get baptized.

Speaking of baptism, Eliana got baptized yesterday!! It was a huge miracle. I already mentioned last week about what happened. Wednesday, two weeks ago, we taught her tithing, and Word of Wisdom, both of which she accepted. She had to stop drinking coffee, but we gave her a package of Ecco, which is like coffee made with grain, which is healthy so we can drink it. That Sunday she didn´t go to church. We didn´t hear from her till Thursday, when suddenly God put us in her path, and we ran into her in the street. She said to call us Friday to get together, but Friday she didn´t pick up the phone at all. Or Saturday either. So then our hope, which had picked up Thursday, was lost. But then she showed up to church yesterday!! During the Gospel Principles class we sat next to her, and she suddenly said "Well, I guess I´m not getting baptized today. I didn´t come last week and showed up late today." But we told her that she can, she just has to decide to. Elder King said, "Look, the font takes four hours to fill, Elder Mangels (another Elder in the ward, who was a DL) can do the interview, and we can have the baptism at 5:00. She decided that yes, she wanted to. So she and Elder Mangels did the interview in the bishop´s office, we started filling the font, and she was baptized!!! It really was an unexpected miracle.

More good news. Last week in a zone conference I was able to talk to Elder Nicholas, an old companion, who is also in my previous ward, Carrión. I took advantage to ask him about some converts. Unfortunately, many are inactive. But Tomás and Nicolás still go. And Nicolás recently received the Melchizedek Priesthood and is the 2nd counselor in the Elders Quorum. Yea!!

Well, that´s about all I have time for this week. Have a great week!

Elder Murdoch

Members in Dorsal 2


Members in Dorsal 2


Diego, Eliana's son


Eliana's baptism