Wow, the transfer is already half over. It´s going by so fast! This last week was a little rough because Elder Hendricks had to go to Santiago to take out his Chilean identification card so he can be legal. We lost two days of work because he had to go to Santiago Thursday night, stay there and do all the work Friday, getting home just in time for a meeting with the ward mission leader. I´ll probably have to do the same thing this week or the next, so there will be two more days lost. Mine expired in October, and I had to do something to renew it. It´s not ready yet but will be soon. Great1

Last week was also tough because I was sick for several days. The Stake President here lives in our ward and is a doctor. President May has given permission for sick missionaries in our zone to see him so we went to see him. He didn´t tell me what my problem was, but he gave me some pills to take; and they helped. I´m feeling a lot better.

We´ve also been having some problems with the house--leaks in the sink, the shower and the toilet. We always have a swimming pool in the kitchen when we wash the dishes and one in the bathroom when we shower. There´s a member who works on stuff like that for his job, so he came over to fix it all. He actually was going to do it about 5 months ago, but the office said no. Then things got worse. There are new people in the office, and now that it´s more to fix and more money to pay, they said yes. So he came a couple days, and we had to be in the house while he worked on everything. That also took some time. And money, as we had to pay him. I paid $80 and hope the office will reimburse me soon.

Even though we haven’t had much time in our sector, we have been able to do some good things. We´ve been working with a lot of inactive members. We´re trying to get them to church, but they always have excuses. “Family came to visit,” “We don´t have money for the bus,” and, “We didn´t wake up in time” are a few of the many excuses we hear. But we are progressing with several of them and should be able to help them go to church. Last night the bishop accompanied us to a few inactives. We visited one family, the Vera Family. We taught them the Atonement of Jesus Christ by doing push-ups. It was really powerful, especially when I offered the father a candy and he said, “No, I don´t want to see him suffer.” And Elder Hendricks had to do pushups anyway. The father asked, “Why did he have to do it if I said no?” Good question. And when we answered, I think it hit them really strong. To explain it works, I would ask a family member if they wanted a certain blessing i.e. happiness, joy, remission of sins, eternal life, etc. or a little candy. Then, regardless of if they said yes or no, my comp would do pushups. Then we explained how Christ suffered for our sins so that we can have all of these blessings. At times we don´t apply the Atonement in our lives, making him to have suffered in vain. He still suffered whether we accept it or not. It´s really powerful, and we´re sure that the Family Vera will go to church next week.

We also found some new investigators. The ward mission leader from another ward gave us a referral, with whom Elder Hendricks and his trainer had visited but lost contact. We were able to find and teach her. Her name is Javiera. She´s 18 and recently graduated from high school. Her parents, Miriam and Edison, also listened to us. Well, her mom did; her dad showed up at the end. They both have a Book of Mormon, and have read parts of it but don´t remember much. We taught the importance of baptism and the Holy Ghost, and also the Restoration. The spirit was really strong, and I know they felt something. They committed to pray about it. I felt that Javiera might already have an answer. Her mom, Miriam, wants to believe, and I feel that she will pray; and if she does, she will definitely receive an answer. Their problem is that they have a hard time waking up in the morning, so it will be hard for them to go to church. We´ll have to see what we can do to help them.

This last week we got bikes for one day. A zone leader pulled a muscle in his back and can´t ride, so they let us borrow their bikes. We have only used them a little, but it´s still been cool. I like it! I hope that soon we can get our own bikes.

Well, this last week was a tough one and a good one. I´m learning a lot of things. I realized that I´ve been receiving a lot of personal revelations, but I haven´t been writing them down and then I forget. So now I carry around a special diary in my backpack to write any revelation I receive. I´ve been learning a lot and it´s a great experience. I love it!

Well, have a great week.

Elder Murdoch