Elder Murdoch's Chilean Adventures

2011-04-18T11:30:00.001-06:00

Well, today I am writing from San Felipe. Since it’s my last P-DAY, I have permission to visit. So we left early and took a bus here.

Last week was really awesome. We had a lot of success. It might help that we received reinforcements. That is to say that we are now in a trio with Elder Cespedes, from Argentina. He got here last Monday night, and will probably stay with Elder MacLennan when I leave. He`s awesome, and we`ve had a lot of success.

The biggest success, and what makes me really content, is that we have two baptisms ready for this Sunday. I`ll be going out with a bang! David and Gloria are more than ready and really excited. It`s amazing how fast Gloria has learned and really wants to get baptized. Her inactive son, Camilo, supports her and helps us a lot. He`ll go to church for her baptism this week.

David is also very excited. His mom has been worried about whether he`s ready or not, but last night she told us that she thinks he is. She said that she`s seen changes in him and that baptism will be good to help him keep changing. She`s almost as excited as he is.

We also found and started to work with several new investigators last week.

Last night we had an activity in the church. It was a tour and was great even though it didn’t turn out as we expected. Only a couple investigators showed up, so instead of rotating class rooms we all met in the chapel and a sister from Relief Society talked for ten minutes about the Plan of Salvation and the Elders Quorum President talked about the Restoration. Then we all went to the room where the baptismal font is and the Young Men taught about baptism. It was really great. Even though mainly members went, there were a lot; and it was a nice reminder for them. Also, David`s uncle--who has said that he would never step foot in our church--went, surprising all of us. He liked it and would like to learn more. This Sunday he will accompany David to his baptism.

We went a few hours early to the church to clean up a little and set up for the tour. At one point we left the hall and saw a young lady sitting on the bench in the foyer with her two children (four- and two-years-old). We went to talk to her, recognizing right away an opportunity to teach. She said she had passed by the church many times but never entered. When she passed yesterday and saw it open, she suddenly had a desire to enter. Interesting how the Holy Spirit works with people. She just entered and sat down without saying anything to anyone. Her name is Magalena, and we took advantage of having time to teach her. With help from the ward mission leader, we shared with her a lot about the church. She also stayed for the tour and loved it. She made several friends there, including the Primary President--which was a double bonus because they are both from Peru, and she has two kids of Primary age. She loved everything and wants to learn more. That will be a future baptism for my comps.

Friday I had my final visit to the temple. It was awesome! I learned more things, felt the spirit really strong, and had a wonderful experience. After the session, we did some sealings, being sons and witnesses. It was fun. I had missed the temple and made the goal to go once every two weeks while I`m at BYU-Idaho.

Well, this is my last email home as this is my last week. We`ll see how fast or slow this week goes. Regardless, I will be working hard to leave my comps with as many people to teach possible. Well, I can`t think of something witty to say at the end of my last email of the mission. Except for, th-th-th-th-th-that`s all folks!!!!!

Elder Murdoch

2011-04-04T11:12:00.001-06:00

Wow, what a great weekend. I absolutely loved General Conference. It was my favorite so far. I learned a lot, especially what I have to improve in my life. All the talks were great. I really felt impressed by President Monson and Elder Scott who talked about marriage. I have always thought that I don´t want to get married right away after. I´ve always said that I´ll wait, take my time, cause I want to be sure about it. Which is why Elder Scott hit me hard when he said that after the mission my number one priority should be temple marriage. Even more important than work or studies. I also loved the talk by Lynn G. Robins about "DO" and "BE." I will print that one out to study more.

I also enjoyed the choirs as I saw several people that I know in the BYU-Idaho choir, and Dallin Hatch in the Priesthood choir. My companion and I are really excited as they announced new temples in each of our homes: In Meridian, Idaho and Winnepeg, Canada. And the best was when they talked about Mary Murray Murdoch during Priesthood. He was talking about hope and mentioned the pioneers. Anytime anyone mentions pioneers, I think of my fourth-great grandmother. When he said "In 1851..." I recognized the date and my heart stopped until he said "Mary Murray Murdoch..." I threw both my fists in the air and yelled, "That´s my fourth-great grandmother!!!!" It was amazing!

Rodolfo went to Priesthood and enjoyed it. He is doing great. He´s working a little more to get his divorce papers finished. A problem here in Chile is that it takes so long to get divorced. He says that it should be done by September. SEPTEMBER!?!? I´ll be long gone by then!! I really hope it´s sooner than that.

Well, that´s all I have time for now. What a great conference. I testify that all who spoke in it are called and qualified of God and that the words they spoke are the words of God meant for each one of us in our individual lives.

Elder Murdoch

2011-03-28T22:34:00.002-06:00

Well, this week was a bit challenging. We are working really hard. I feel like I am doing well at finishing strong. We are using all the resources we have available to find new investigators. We are using the Area Book with potential investigators, former investigators, working with less-active and active members--but nothing. I know that we can find more, we just need to keep working and improving our faith. I hope to see some fruits soon.

Rodolfo is doing great. He has a strong testimony of the church. He has made several comments as to the truthfulness of the church. He knows it´s true. The challenge now is waiting. He has to wait for his divorce papers to finish and then he has to get married to his current partner. Then when that happens, BAM!! baptism. He´s ready.

Aside from him we aren´t teaching much. We have a few other investigators, but they´re not progressing and we may end up dropping most of them.

We are working well with the ward, though. Our ward mission leader is great, the best one I´ve had on my mission. Our coordination meetings with him are great. And yesterday we were invited to ward council, which went great as well. We are planning an activity, which we presented and everyone accepted. Sunday the 17th, we´re going to have a tour of the church. We will use three rooms, with rotations. The organizations will teach little messages. Young Men will teach baptism; the Priesthood-The Restoration; Young Women- Plan of Salvation. At the end everyone will meet in the chapel and we will teach the Atonement, with a clip from "Finding Faith in Christ." Then there will be refreshments(Relief Society) and we will set up a table with pamphlets and Books of Mormon to give out, and a notebook to take down names and directions of people who want us to visit them. Oh, and with an invitation to come to church the following Sunday, which will be my last. It should be a great activity. I won´t see the fruits, except those who go to church the next week, but it should help my companion and his next companion out a lot.

Speaking of my companion, he´s great. We get along really well. We joke around a lot and have a great time. He´s kind of rubbing off his Canadian on me though. I find myself saying "eh" a lot. They use it like we Americans use "huh," and I say it now too. They also pronounce words such as "bag" or "tag" as "beg" or "teg". I harass him a lot for that but also find myself talking like that. Yikes! I´m gonna to come home speaking Chilean and Canadian! AHHHH!!!! :)

Well, gotta go. Have a great week!

Elder Murdoch

2011-03-21T13:52:00.000-06:00

Wow, what a week. Where to start? Time goes by so fast. Faster every day. I only have five weeks left. After this one, four emails left to send. Crazy!! But I´m trying not to be trunky, rather finish strong and work to the last. My new sector is a great one. Not too big but not small either. There are few active families, but the few that we have are amazing. They help us a lot. It is a pretty small ward. We don´t even have a bishop, as the last one moved several months ago and hasn´t been replaced. But we hope to get one soon.

We have a lot of potential in our ward, but it does need a lot of help. I hope to be able to help all I can in the short amount of time I will be here. In my last ward, San Felipe, they were at an average of 70 in church when I arrived. They now are at an average of 90. I hope to do the same to Independencia.

The Sunday before I got here, they baptized a little girl, Maria Jesús. Yesterday she got confirmed and is way excited to keep coming to church. We are also teaching her dad, Rodolfo. He has all the lessons, has gone to church a lot, and has a testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. His problem is that he is separated and lives with another woman. He is in the process of getting divorced, which should be something quick but is taking longer than it should. After that he will get married to his current partner and get baptized. He´s really excited for it.

His father has also listened a lot, and the soon-to-be wife also has a little interest; but they both work on Sundays. Supposedly, they will stop soon and will then be able to attend church.

Last Sunday, before I got here, they had Stake Conference. Elder Corbridge talked, and it sounds like it was great. A family of three went, and we are trying to teach them more. This whole last week they were busy, but this Wednesday we will visit them. It´s a couple, Julio and Ivonne, with a son, Diego, 11. They loved the church and want to hear more. Time is the issue with them.

We are teaching a Peruvian, Edward, who wants to get baptized and has been to church a lot. The problem is that we can only teach him in the church, not his house, and only on Saturday night and Sunday after church, although he didn´t go to church yesterday. He also has trouble understanding everything. He´s a little slow. In August he´s returning to Peru to live, and I´m not sure if he´d be able to keep going to church there. It´s going to be a tough decision whether we should baptize him and hope he goes to church in Peru or if we should let the missionaries in Peru teach him. He can get baptized, though.

We have another investigator, Lila, who is about 60 and takes care of her father, 92. The other Elders had taught her, but then she went on vacation for a few weeks. They left her with a couple pamphlets to read, including Word of Wisdom. In those short weeks, she read over half the Book of Mormon. Now, over two months later, she´s in Helaman. She wants to get baptized but does have some doubts. We actually were able to help her with one the other day. She thought that we put too much emphasis on Joseph Smith, almost like a "Saint." We helped her understand that he was just a prophet of God, the same as Moses or Abraham. She understood better and was happier after that. She had read the pamphlet of Word of Wisdom and taught herself and understood it. She also understood that to get baptized, she has to stop smoking. It will be hard as she smokes a box of 20 a day. But she said she once did it for 6 months, then fell again. But now she knows it´s possible. She wants to, and we will be helping her with it.

With all these, and a couple of others, we have several potential baptisms for April, my last month. I hope to finish well and with lots of success.

My comp is great. Elder Maclennan is from Canada, so I always harass him about hockey and moose. Plus he always ends his sentences with "eh,” kind of like our "huh." He´s really fun, and we get along great. He´s a hard worker and should do well on his mission.

Well, that´s about it for this week. Hope the next ones go slower, but probably won´t. Have a great one!

Elder Murdoch

P.S. Please notice new address and mailing instructions on the right! :)

2011-03-14T13:42:00.000-06:00

Well, I´m now starting my last transfer and hoping to finish it out strong. Six more weeks, and they are crucial. Especially since I´m in a new sector. Much to my surprise, and quite an upset, they closed our sector. We knew Elder Hendricks was going to leave. He actually went to Dorsal 2, one of my old sectors. But we did not expect them to take me out, too. They didn´t even put more missionaries in. They closed it completely. I´m pretty upset about it. We were having a lot of success. In three weeks we found 15 new investigators. We were going to have a baptism either this Sunday or the next. We´re really bummed. But that´s how it is, and I´m in a good sector now anyway. I´m in Independencia, which is really close to Carrion, another sector I’ve been in. It´s a good sector, and my companion is great. He´s Elder MacLennan, from Canada. He´s a newbie, starting his third transfer--ready and willing to work. They had a baptism of a little girl yesterday . Her mom and dad are almost ready for baptism. The mom just needs to sign a paper to get divorced and then that´s it--baptism. We should have a lot of success this transfer. My last one.

Well, thanks to transfers I don´t have much to say. Saturday we had a fun day. We made breakfast for lunch for a family. They had an investigator over, and one of their daughters is inactive. Actually, I think I´ve talked about the investigator, Katalina, before. We, the missionaries, made scrambled eggs with chunks of sausage, hashbrowns, and French toast. It turned out great, and they loved it.

Patricia is doing great, although I hope that she still gets baptized. It will be hard for the missionaries there now to be able to take care of their sector and ours, but they are going to try. Last week we taught her a lot, including the Word of Wisdom. She understood well and even said that she´ll have to stop drinking tea. "But hey! Herbal tea is healthier anyway!" She´s great. She´ll be a great member.

Well, that´s about it for this week. We have a new directive on how to send mail, but I don’t have the details with me. I’ll give more information next week. Things will still get to me the old way for a couple of weeks, though.

Well, have a wonderful week!

Elder Murdoch

2011-03-07T09:59:00.002-07:00

Time is going by so fast!! Too fast! But we keep finding more people to teach and baptize so things are good. This last week was full of trials and tests but with them many opportunities to strengthen my faith, learn, and progress in many ways.

Like I said, we keep finding people and teaching others that we had. Patricia is doing great. She didn´t go to church yesterday, but today we´re going to pass by and see why. She´s learning a lot and last week accepted a baptismal date for March 20. She can do it but needs to go to church. We also met her son, Yerko, 22. He´s really nice, and we want to start teaching him as well.

Now for one of the trials we had. Last week I talked about Manuel, who knows a lot about the church (cool side note, he has Bob Marley hair) and his friend Ruben. We had a couple lessons with them, and I felt that Ruben has more of a true desire to learn. It´s true. Last night we dropped by and found Ruben alone. He said that they had some problems. Manuel was causing a lot of drama, and Ruben, as owner of the house, had to kick him out. But I think it´s better. He said that Manuel was making fun of us, saying that he knows more than us about the church. Sounds like he´s too proud and that he may not have progressed much.

We also found a great lady named Magdalena last night. Unfortunately, I don´t have time to talk about her, but I will next week.

Have a great week!

Elder Murdoch

La Moneda, Chile's "White House"

2011-02-28T09:25:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a week! One of the best of my mission! No kidding! We have had so many miracles, and I know that the Lord is blessing us a lot. For the third week in a row we did over 200 contacts, ending with 268 and 50 Permaneced visits. As we keep improving in these two key indicators, all our other numbers keep increasing as well. This last week we had a total of 10 lessons: 6 with members and 4 others; exactly what we had done the past three weeks of the transfer. We found six new investigators, and one went to church--the first investigator in church since our sector was opened. Let it be said that we have broken the curse of Putaendo!! We are now doing great!

We started something new this week. We have introduced some members to waffles, and they love them. They all ask to use our waffle maker, or better yet, for us to make them waffles. So we compromise. We set up a Family Home Evening saying that we will make waffles after--only if they bring an investigator. Sometimes they do the lesson, other times we do. It´s working. Last week we had a lesson with the Elders Quorum President and his family. His wife reactivated a few months ago, and the three daughters are inactive, although one is working on becoming active. He gave the lesson about the Beatitudes. They had brought a friend, Katalina who was really interested. We gave her a Book of Mormon, and she committed to read. We later found out that she loved the Family Home Evening. Tomorrow night we have another one with her and the member family. It will be great because if she starts going to church, the inactive daughters will have to go with her. So we will baptize and reactivate.

Last week I mentioned Jaime, a reference from the bishop. Well, the other day we kind of met him. Well, at least we tried; but he hid in his room. He apparently doesn´t want to listen; he just didn´t want to say no to the bishop. However, his daughters, Romina and Patricia and Patricia´s daughter, Akim, are really interested. Patricia went to church yesterday and she loved it as well as the baptism of the other Elders in the ward. Afterward, she committed to come to church next week and every Sunday. She has some great potential to progress well.

Now, to top all of this off, last night we had a miracle. And when I say miracle, I mean MIRACLE!! We had a Family Home Evening with a family that has both inactives and nonmembers. They called to tell us that they weren´t home, leaving us with nothing to do the rest of the night. On the other side of the street we noticed a couple of guys and a girl bringing some big heavy bags out of a house. So we went over and asked if we could help. The one, named Ruben, said "Yes you can. Do you have a book I can read?" So we gave him a Book of Mormon. Then we started to talk with them as we helped carry their stuff to the bus stop. The other guy, Manuel, knows a lot about the church. He started talking about the Doctrine and Covenants, the Liahona, angel Moroni, gold plates, teachings of the prophets, word of wisdom, etc. This guy knows a lot! But he´s not a member. YET. They actually asked, almost begged, us to visit them in their house. The problem is that they moved there last week and didn´t know how to tell us how to get there. So we offered to go with them, helping with the bags, to see how to get there. Let me say that they live IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE! And it´s a really small, humble house. But they are really great. They have a lot of desires to learn more. The girl, Jacqueline, was asking a lot of great questions. They all love to read, so we left each with their own Book of Mormon, and we´re thinking of giving them all the pamphlets of the lessons so they can read and learn on their own. They also committed to come to church on Sunday. They really are wonderful, and will make great progress.

The Lord is blessing us a lot, and we hope to keep working hard and have lots of success these next two (my last two) months. I´m really excited.

Elder Murdoch

2011-02-21T17:00:00.000-07:00

San Felipe Area

Huge Spider we found in our house! Don't worry, we killed it!

2011-02-21T16:49:00.003-07:00

Exploring!

Elders Squire and Murdoch - Zone Climbing Activity

2011-02-21T16:48:00.001-07:00

Well, this last week, aside from once again going fast, was rather uneventful. We´re still working hard to find more investigators. We did receive a couple of great references this past week. One came from the Zone Leaders, who talked to a man named Carlos that said we could pass by. He´s really great. He lives in what´s called a pieza. I´ll do my best to explain. You enter the door from the street and find yourself in a long hallway/courtyard. On both sides are several doorways, each leading into a small house which basically consists of a small living room and a smaller bedroom. They share 2-3 bathrooms and a kitchen. Not the most comfortable situation, but better than nothing. Anyway, the good thing is that there are at least 20 other people there with whom we could share in the future. We just got to know Carlos and left him a pamphlet of the Restoration. We are going to return on Friday.

We also received a reference from the bishop. He was waiting for a bus and struck a conversation with a man. They talked about the church and the man, named Jaime, asked if someone from the church could visit his family. Of course we can!! The bishop sent us there. The problem is that he, like many Chileans, works a lot. Plus he´s been in Santiago a few days visiting a sick brother. So we haven´t met him, but we have talked with his wife and two daughters. They are all nice and really receptive. We hope that he gets back soon so that we can teach them all. There are at least six people in the house, possibly one or two more. That would be great! And they don´t live far from the church, so it wouldn´t be as hard to go.

So this last week they had some special transfers in our zone. There was an Elder, Elder Boyce, who had returned home a couple months ago for personal reasons. (side note: he´s from Malad) He returned last week, and they put him in our zone, replacing an Elder who went to another zone. That Elder who got changed was DL of the four sister missionaries so the leadership got changed as well. Elder Driscoll, the fourth missionary in our house and our ex-DL, is now DL of Elder Boyce and his companion. Meanwhile, I am DL of the sisters. Yea! I love being district leader of the sisters. They are way awesome. They work really hard and cook really well! :)

Well, I think that´s it for this week. Not a lot happened. But at least nothing bad happened. This next week should be better. We are starting to find people. Things are getting better.
Have a great week!!

Elder Murdoch

2011-02-14T19:07:00.000-07:00

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!
Wow, this last week went by really fast. But it was a good one. Not much happened, but we´re getting better. We haven´t had a lot of lessons, and we´re still searching for more investigators. But we´re working a lot with inactives. Actually, remember Permaneced, the program that the Chile Area came out with? It´s for working with inactive members. We have key indicators for it, and one is “Visits Made.” The "standard" is 10, with some sectors getting 4-5 and others making 12-15. Two weeks ago our whole zone, 12 sectors, did 119. This last week we did 51. We have also done a lot of contacts. The "standard" is 140, 20 every companionship every day. Recently, contacts have been dropping and companionships are doing 40-70. We did 200. We´ve had very few lessons, and have almost no investigators, but the only two indicators that we can control are Permaneced visits and contacts. We hope that with what we´ve done we can find more people to teach and eventually baptize.

One thing we´ve started doing to get so many contacts is sing on the bus. We have to take a bus for half an hour to get to our sector and again going home at night. So we take advantage and sing a few hymns. Some people listen, others don’t. Then we give the interested ones pass-along cards and do contacts. There´s a family that has been on the bus four times when we sing. One time the dad was on; the other times just the mom and the little son, David. They always enjoy it when we sing, and last night I talked with her to see if we could pass by some day. She said that she doesn’t have much time, just weekends. So I invited her to church. She seemed interested, and we´ll see if she comes.

Last week we got a reference from the Zone Leaders. It´s kind of an interesting situation. They were at a member´s house who had a friend, Rosa, visiting. She was interested, so they taught the Restoration. She accepted a baptismal date for March 6. They called and passed us the reference. We found the street she lives on, but they didn´t give us a number; just hints on how to arrive. We couldn´t find the house, and no one in the neighborhood knows her. So we have to wait for more information to be able to visit. Until then we have an investigator with a baptismal date that we don´t even know. :)

Today we had a zone activity, where we went to some hills in the middle of nowhere and climbed around in some rocks and had a picnic. It was really fun. I loved climbing the rocks and all. Next week I will send pictures of it. It was awesome!

So the weather here is really wacky now. Summer is ending, but it´s still really hot. This last week we had a couple of cooler days, and it even rained a couple of days. That is not normal for Chile. It is good, though, as they are in a water crisis. Besides the rain, there were a couple of small earthquakes as well. One day there was a 6.8 in Concepción where the big one last year was. It was smaller here, but they still scare me. My companion wants to have another one as he was not here for the last one and thinks it would be cool. As for me, one is enough. I´m not hoping for any more. It´s so crazy how fast time goes. In two weeks from yesterday we will complete one year since the earthquake. Wow!!

Well, that´s about it for now. We got home late from the zone activity, so there´s not much time. Have a great week!!

Elder Murdoch

2011-02-07T21:22:00.003-07:00

Wow, this last week was a really interesting one--full of hornets, new houses, and a new zone with 5 missionaries from Idaho. REPRESENT!!!

Yeah, I guess I´d better explain about the hornets comment. Well, before that, let me describe our old house. We have had several problems with it--leaky bathroom, pealing paper on the shower wall, and ants are just a few of them. Hornets were the straw that broke the camel’s back. Last Tuesday, we had finished planning and were chilling in the living room, where we had moved the beds due the heat in the bedrooms. (We moved studies to the bedrooms.) Suddenly Elder Hendricks started screaming bloody murder because something bit him and it hurt. We realized it was a black hornet and killed it. Then another, and another, two more, four more. AHHHH!! Where were they coming from?!?! We realized that they were coming from a hole in the light fixture. I had the fly swatter, and Elder Hendricks grabbed the can of Raid. We killed about 20 of them, then they started coming out of the kitchen and the garage. Elder Hendricks plastered the light fixture with Raid, then we ran into the bedrooms where they weren´t so we were safe. The funny part is that Elders Driscoll and Dalton didn´t realize it was so serious at first. Elder Dalton was watching and eating popcorn, and Elder Driscoll was talking on the phone and laughing. Then they finally got scared and joined us in the back room. Now, in our house, the kitchen leads to the garage, which has been extended. There is a window, painted white, between the garage and our room. We could hear the hornets hitting the window and see their shadows. It seriously was like a horror movie. Imagine several dozen of those biting you! You could get sent to the hospital! We didn´t dare leave the room because they were in the garage, kitchen, and living room. We called the office, and the zone leaders decided that we had to get out of there. While deciding what to do, Elder Hendricks put on a sweater, long pants, hood, etc., for protection and ran out with his camera in one hand and the Raid in the other. I followed, carefully, also filming. He got out to the garage, didn´t see anything, then confusedly turned back to the kitchen and yelled. I followed. They were all dead, laying on the ground. Same with the ones in the garage. There were easily a thousand or maybe more. We figure that when Elder Hendricks sprayed the Raid they all got mad and left, then it affected their systems and they died. We called a member who took us to the house of some other elders where we slept that night. The next day we went back and found a couple of nests in the garage with another good bunch of hornets. But even though the nests were inside, the hornets were outside and didn´t bug us. We rested a little, then showered and left to work. Later in the day, the hornets were gone. But finally, after so many problems with that house, the office gave us permission to find a new one. Luckily, we found one right away where a member family used to live. Saturday we moved in, with help from a couple members, and we are now living there. It is a very nice house--better than the last one--and we´re really excited about it.

That was basically our week. Not much else happened. Thursday in division, Elder Hendricks and Elder Driscoll found a golden contact. A few appointments fell through, and they felt that they should go to a park close by. They talked to a woman named Noelia, who later told them that she never has time to go to the park but did that day. She has 6 kids, 5 older than 8 years, with 6 more family members next door. She is searching for peace and comfort in her life. She was really interested and almost begged to listen to us. Sadly, she wasn´t there when we passed; but we´re going to go back tomorrow and every day after until we find her. She has great potential to progress well, and that´s 12 possible baptisms.

That´s about all for this week. Got to go. Time´s up. Have a great week!

Elder Murdoch

A lot of dead hornets! (And a mom who is chagrined about the condition of the kitchen. Ewwww!)

2 hornets' nests

2011-01-31T11:15:00.002-07:00

Wow! One more transfer over with. Where does all that time go? It really doesn’t seem like that much time has passed since I arrived here in San Felipe. And now I only have two transfers more before I finish. How crazy!! Fortunately nothing happened with transfers. We had heard rumors of them closing our sector, which would make no sense. But they didn´t. I´m still here with Elder Hendricks. One of the other Elders in our house, Elder Weaver, finished the mission and will be flying out tonight. The mission secretary, Elder Driscoll, will move in. He´s awesome and we should have a good time.

This week was another great one. We had several trials and many blessings. Cynthia, whom I talked about last week, has been reading the Book of Mormon; but we haven´t been able to visit much, and she didn´t go to church yesterday. She still has a lot of potential to progress.

Luisa did go to church again yesterday. We visited her Thursday, and she was really happy. She said her health has been better and this last week she´s been more excited about things. She said (without us asking), "This Sunday I´m going to church even if I have to walk." And she went!

We also had several other inactives at church. Some went last week, but there was one new one: Aran Tapia. He´s been a member for like 20 years, since he was 16. He was even ward mission leader several years ago. Then for some reason we don´t know he went inactive, although his wife and daughter are active. A couple of weeks ago, Bishop was in an interview with Brother Aran and invited us in. He asked us to sing "Lead, Kindly Light" then we listened to them. It was great, and he really wants to be active again. Well, his daughter, Dorothy, helped with that. She turned eight in December and has been really anxious to be baptized. They decided to do it yesterday. Since her dad couldn´t baptize her, she wanted an Elder to do it, and they picked Elder Hendricks. Probably because he and Aran are so alike. They both love country music, cars, and suspenders. Elder Hendricks said that he’s found his Chilean counterpart. LOL. Brother Aran went to church and the baptism went great. They´re a great family and will hopefully be sealed soon.

My visa expired some time ago, so last week I had to renew it. Thursday we left at about 7:00 pm to travel almost 2 hours to Santiago, staying with the office Elders. We got to bed about 1:00 am, although I hardly slept. We were three Elders on two mattresses, and I had no blanket. We woke up at 5:30 to be at the office at 6:00, leaving shortly after to do all the “goose chase” process of renewing my visa. It wasn´t as bad as the last time I did it but was still a little stressful. But I did get to eat at Burger King, which turned right into a bunch of fat I had to work off. All in all it was a good experience. I had missed Santiago but decided that I definitely like the country better.

Well, that´s all for this week. As time goes faster, I learn more and more. I wish I could keep learning and progressing so much, but have time pass slower. Oh well.
Have a great week!

Elder Murdoch

San Felipe Elders

A little street-side store called "Kiosko Obama." He´s even here in Chile!!! Actually, he´ll be here for real in March.

Baptism of Javier (taught by other elders in the ward)

2011-01-24T12:25:00.003-07:00

My Current Area

It's Hot Here!

A Happy Missionary!

2011-01-24T11:59:00.002-07:00

Christmas with the Stake President's and Smith Families

A Tractor--Reminded me of Home

Hey, this horse sings in English!

Elders Corbridge and Murdoch

2011-01-24T11:41:00.002-07:00

Wow, what a great week!! Unfortunately it went by way too fast. My weeks here are few now, and each one passes faster than the last. The good thing is that we are having more success and doing a lot of great things. We´ve been a little worried that they might close our sector for a couple reasons. It´s been open for four months now after being closed for four years. The first few months Elder Hendricks and his trainer had a hard time having success, and it was the same my first weeks here. But suddenly, BOOM! we exploded and now we are having a lot more success. But one problem, which I think I´ve mentioned, is that we don´t live in our sector. We have to take a bus like 10 minutes to get to the limit, and 20 more to get to the center, where we usually work more. We easily spend 2 hours and $3 each day traveling. Tuesday during interviews with President May, Elder Hendricks mentioned this to him. He told us to look for a house in our sector, whatever we can find. That same day we found one. A nice house, plenty of space, good neighbors, and cheap. We called the office to tell them, and they called President. He called us the next day to tell us no. He decided not to have us rent it, because this next week is transfers and he said a lot of sectors will be closing. So to be safe, they don´t want to rent a new house, then stop because the sector was closed. That scared me a lot. But we´ve been having a lot more success, and we hope that he will see that and not close our sector. I would be really sad.

Now about this success that I keep saying we´ve had--we are teaching several people, a lot inactives. Yesterday morning we traveled to our sector then returned to church(a big sacrifice), bringing with us three inactives. Three more, the Vera family, who I mentioned went last week, showed up later. And two more unexpectedly arrived. The dad is Elder´s Quorum President, and the mom recently re-activated. And two of the three inactive daughters went! In total we had eight inactives in church. 8 out of 87 attendance. Not bad. It was great!

The other day we were walking around in our sector with nothing to do and decided to contact a few people. We saw a woman named Gina outside of her house trimming the bushes and decided to offer to help. She said, "Really? Okay." but then kept doing it herself. We started talking with her, and she didn´t show much interest. It seemed like she wanted to blow us off, see if we´d give up and go. But we didn´t. Her little daughter, Pamela, was out there and told us that her dad died. We later learned from the bishop, who knows her, that he hung himself. She´s a little bitter about that and maybe other things that we don´t know. At one point we asked her how she feels about her relationship with God. She answered, "He´s not my friend." At the beginning I wanted to leave when I saw that she had no interest, but when she said that I had a desire to help her change it. I felt impressed to talk about how we pass through trials and tribulations in our lives but that is the time that we most need to get closer to God, not farther away. (It sounds better in Spanish.) We need to have trials to learn and progress. I also felt impressed to give her a pamphlet of The Plan of Salvation. I promised her that it would help her with her questions. She responded, "With my doubts?" We said, “yes.” Tonight we are going to visit her and try to help her out.

We actually visited her last night but she wasn´t there, so we decided to knock a few doors in her street. The first door we knocked they let us in. Wow! The mom, Ogla, answered the door and invited us in. We met her daughters, Cynthia, 22, and Valentina, 13. Her husband wasn´t home, and the older son was in his room. We shared about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. They had a lot of good questions. Ogla has a couple of doubts and some interesting beliefs, but for the most part their beliefs are similar to ours. They don´t go to a church and mentioned how they don´t like the other ones. We actually hadn´t been in the house for five minutes and Cynthia asked us if we could explain our beliefs. She is really well educated and had a lot of good questions. She asked us questions like "What are your church meetings like?" "How is your baptism?" And when we talked about prophets she asked, "Is there a prophet today? Who is he?" Truthfully, I think that she and Valentina will progress better than the mom. We also hope to meet the dad and brother too. A family of five!! Ejalé!! (that means something like "hooray!)

Also, yesterday we found a couple more inactives. (That´s almost a daily occurrence.) We went to visit someone we met the other day, but they didn´t come to the door. As we waited a young woman of about 22 was walking toward us. She suddenly waved and we were like, wait, was that at us? There was no one else in the street, so it had to have been us. She got closer and said, "Hey, are you the Mormon missionaries? My mom´s a member of your church but doesn´t go." They lived right next door, so we visited them. Turns out that she (Andrea) and her mom are members but don´t go. One problem could be because her mom, Carol, is blind. She doesn´t see at all, but she´s learned to manage even so and gets along fine. We got to know them and set up an appointment for Thursday. They want to go to church, so we´ll try to help them with that.

Well, that´s about all that happened this week. Oh, and a couple of mornings of “hooping it up” at the church. I`ve luckily still got my stuff and tear it up every time. Except this morning I only played so-so. But I’ve still got it. And we keep playing a lot of soccer, so I´m getting better at that, too.
Have a great week!

Elder Murdoch

2011-01-17T08:27:00.003-07:00

This week was great. We were able to do a lot of great things. One day went to the house of a member in our ward, who lives in a nearby city, and did some service. They had recently purchased the house with a shed out back that was in really bad shape. So we took it down. It was a lot of fun taking down the roof, then the rafters, taking out nails from boards, etc. We ended up getting pretty dirt, but it was a blast.

We keep doing all we can with the inactive members. Yesterday morning we went to pick up a 19-year-old to take him to church, but he was asleep and didn´t come. He, his brother, and his mother are all members, but he´s the only one that listens. Next week he´s going to go even if we have to wake him up; he said it´s okay. We visited later in the day and met his grandma, I think, who also is a member. She went inactive like 3 years ago and started going to another church but didn´t like it. She wants to go to church and said that she´ll go this week with him.

The highlight of it all was church yesterday. The Vera family, an inactive family that I talked about last week, showed up at church! It was great. The members greeted them and they felt really welcomed. They felt great and want to keep coming.

We also visited Isabel, whom we hadn´t seen in over a week. We taught her and Valentin, her grandson, the Restoration. They are pretty illiterate. It seems like she doesn´t have much education, and he´s only 9 years old. So it was interesting to teach them. They didn´t understand a lot. Valentin understood more, and we left them with the pamphlet to read so they can hopefully better understand. We also changed their baptismal date, which originally was yesterday, to February 6. We hope they can go to church and progress.

Well, that´s all I have time for. Last week was great and this week has lots of potential as well. I also have been learning a lot. I have what I call a "Meditation Journal" where I write thoughts and revelations that I receive. It´s been great, and I´m learning a lot. But the most important, and possibly hardest, part of it is applying what you learn. It doesn´t do any good learning if one doesn´t apply. Actually, the other day I was studying the word "Understand" in the guide to the scriptures, and it said that to understand is "To gain a knowledge of or to perceive the meaning of some truth, including its application to life." What really called my attention was where it says "including its application to life." So in order to understand what we are learning or studying, we must apply it in our lives. Understanding requires application. And as we apply, we gain experience. Also, under “Wisdom” it says "A person gains wisdom through experience and study and by following God’s counsel." So as we study then apply what we learn, thus gaining experience, we better understand and are more able to follow God´s counsel.

Elder Murdoch

I liked this picture since I have holes in my shoes!

After service in San Felipe

New Year's Dinner

New Year's Dinner

2011-01-10T16:10:00.001-07:00

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

2011-01-03T09:26:00.003-07:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! Hope it´s a great one!!
Wow, last week went by really fast. Seems like a couple days ago was Christmas and now we´re in January. It was also a fast year. We´re already in 2011!! Is that crazy or what!?!?

Last week was a tough one. We have several problems with our sector. There haven´t been missionaries here for five years. My companion is on his 3rd transfer now, and he and his trainer opened the sector. And to explain better, our sector isn´t in the small city of San Felipe. Rather, it consists of a smaller town called Putaendo and smaller surrounding villages. It´s usually a good 20-30 minutes between villages by bus. It´s very spread out. Our sector borders Argentina on the north and Viña del Mar, a big tourist city, on the west. Our sector is one of the biggest in the mission and is the farthest north. My comp, having opened this huge sector, is still getting to know it, and I know even less than he. Also, being five years since there were missionaries, we do not have a house here. We are living in a house with two other Elders in our ward and have to take a bus 30 minutes to the limit of our sector. All this together means a number of things. 1)We can do few things in one day due to traveling so much. 2)We have to be sure that Plan A is going to be home. Plan B can´t be knocking doors cause it´s like one house every 1/2 mile. 3)We waste a lot of money taking buses every day. Just to name a few. But we are getting to know the sector and learning about how to work in it, mostly with members and a lot of inactives, so things should improve.

Having said that, we do have a few investigators. Last week I mentioned Isabel and her grandson, Valentin. They live in really poor circumstances. Actually, they don´t even have a bathroom. Our first visit there, when I asked to use the bathroom, she took me out back to the outhouse! The first time in over two years that I´ve used an outhouse!! I never thought I´d see one on my mission. They were going to go to church yesterday but didn´t make it. Today we´re going to visit them and see why. They want to get baptized. Actually, when we extended a baptismal date, Isabel accepted excitedly. Then Valentin said, "Me too! I want to get baptized too!" Now we have to help them gain a testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.

We are also teaching man named Juan, who I guess is in his 50´s. He and his "señora" (wife) aren´t married, which means he can´t get baptized. But he wants to. The other day we did a practice baptismal interview with him and he answered all the questions well. I felt that he is ready. When we asked if he believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet he said "Oh, I have no doubt of that. I know he was." Wow. The problem is that with the holidays it´s been hard for them to get a date to get married. But today they went and should be able to get one. Hopefully this week, but the next at the latest. And he should be able to be baptized in January.

Good news! I´ve been losing weight! A couple weeks ago I was at 198 lbs. Thanks to Christmas and New Years I´ve climbed to 205. But I´ve maintained that for a good week, and now am going to buckle down, or "put in the batteries" as they say in Chile and do a lot of exercises. We are also playing a lot more soccer and basketball now and that, together with walking and hopefully bikes soon and lots of fruit, should help. I hope to return in four months at 190, maybe less. Which would be quite the achievement, for when I left the MTC I was 215.

Well, that´s all for this week. Happy New Years and hope it´s a good one!

Elder Murdoch

2010-12-27T12:36:00.001-07:00

Well, we had a wonderful Christmas and are now ending the year. Wow, 2010 went by really fast! Christmas was great. Thursday night we went to the mission home with a few other zones and had a dinner and show. The part that was most fun, aside from the mashed potatoes and turkey, was that they sent us to the subway station to sing for about half an hour. A lot of people stopped to listen and a few people recorded with their cell phones. It was fun. Also, I got to see a lot of missionaries that I haven´t seen for a while. And I had my picture taken with both assistants because one was my comp in the MTC and the other was my DL in Dorsal 2.

Friday we went to the Stake President´s house from 5:00 until 12:00. There´s a family from Utah, the Smith family, that are visiting them. So there were a lot of people in the house. It was way fun. Weird speaking in English, but oh well. For dinner we had twice baked potatoes, turkey, salad, and for dessert a type of melon with vanilla ice cream and grapes and sugar cookies. It was really good. Then the stake president took the kids to a park to see Santa while we put presents under the tree and in stockings, etc. Then we recorded as they walked in. It was a lot of fun. We also got a couple of presents: chocolate and socks--the first time I´m happy to get socks for Christmas. :) It was great.

My sector is great. Like I said last week, it´s a lot of country. Even more so than Grace. It´s great, but it´s really hot. One day last week it was 105 degrees, and we walked a lot. We carry around big water bottles, and I easily drink 4-5 liters every day. And everyone gives us fruit. There are a lot of orchards here: peach, apricot, orange, plums, etc. Needless to say, with so much fruit, water, and walking, I´m going to come home in good shape. I´ve already been losing weight. I´m down to 198 now, and I hope to get home at 190 or less.

Last week we found some new investigators--a woman named Isabel and her grandson, Valentin. They accepted a baptismal date for January 16th. They and another grandson, Benjamin, were going to go to church yesterday but didn´t. Tonight we´re going to see what happened. One problem in this sector for investigators is that to go to church they have to travel by bus, and it can cost a bit. It´s a sacrifice, but we have to help them do it.

Well, that´s all I have time for this week. It was a great one and hopefully it keeps up. I love my sector and my companion is great. Next week I´ll send pictures. Talk to you next week!

Elder Murdoch

2010-12-20T18:49:00.000-07:00

Well, one more transfer done. Three more to go. This one passed really fast, and I´m afraid that the next three will as well. The good thing is that I´m sure that the next three will be great. Last night we got the transfer call. I was positive that both my companion and I were going to stay so I was surprised, sad, and upset when I got transferred. I´m bummed that I´ll miss the baptism of Carolina and her family, although I´ll count them as my converts. I also will not be able to spend Christmas with the family we had planned. But we will probably be with the Stake President, who lives in our ward and has an American family staying with him for a few weeks. So it will still be fun.

I am now in a zone called Los Andes (not to be confused with the mountain range, although it´s not too far away) in the ward San Felipe. The good part is that it´s all country, just like Idaho. I feel like I´ve already returned home. I love it here. Next week I´ll send a lot of pictures. My companion, Elder Hendricks, is from Boise, Idaho, and actually has family members in Malad. He´s great. He’s starting his third transfer so, once again, I´m with someone relatively new. It´ll be a great experience helping him learn, and I´m sure I´ll learn a lot from him.

Elder Hendricks tells me that we have one investigator, and she´s turning a little flakey. So we know have a great opportunity to show our faith and find more souls to teach and save. I´m really excited for this transfer.

Last week we went to the temple, and it was a great experience. I felt the Spirit really strong and left with a boost, a kind of Spiritual adrenaline, ready to work hard for the next four months. This week we´ll have an activity in the mission home, and the always long-anticipated call home. Oh, and Christmas.

Well, due to traveling 2 hours in a bus to the middle of nowhere, this email is not only late but short. I have no more time. So I will just end by wishing all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New year.

Elder Murdoch

2010-12-13T11:59:00.001-07:00

Wow, last week went by really slow. Finally a slow week. The problem is that it was a tough one. We keep having trials, but as we teach, it is to help us grow. Last week we talked with Carolina and Luis a lot about trials, and after helping them so much, I have realized that I now need to apply the same lessons in my life.

Carolina and Luis are okay. They both went to church yesterday--her fourth time and his first, although he did wear a suit and tie. Looked good. She is slowly dropping tea and last week said that she doesn´t really feel the urgency to drink tea that she did before.
She has mentioned that she feels that she has some changes yet to make in her life. We told her that this is a life-long process. We always have changes to make in our life, whether we have several months or several decades in the church. We told her that she doesn´t need to be perfect before baptism, cause that will never happen. She is going to pray and meditate to see if she feels ready for this next Sunday. Luis, as well, committed to pray to know if the church is true and if Joseph Smith was a prophet. I believe that he will be baptized in January. Carolina has already received an answer and actually bore her testimony to us a couple of weeks ago. It was really great. They are a wonderful family. and we´ve learned a lot while teaching them.

This last week we had a zone training with President May. It was wonderful, and I learned a lot. But the best part wasn´t the training. Before it started, I had the opportunity to talk with one of the Elders who arrived at Dorsal 2, my last sector, as I left to come here. It was great talking with him about the sector, the members, and best of all, my converts. The sad part is that Patricio, 19, doesn´t go to church and now smokes and has a tattoo. That made me sad. But the good part is that my other converts there are active in the church. Eliana, who was the miracle we had right before transfers, is preparing to go to the temple for a tour and keeps progressing. That is wonderful!

Also, last night we went to visit a family and, much to our surprise, there were already two Elders there. One of them, Elder Boyce from Malad, Idaho, is finishing the mission and was visiting them. He has been is Carrion, another of my old sectors, and it was great talking to him about my converts there. Sadly again, there is a couple who aren’t going to church. But those that do go are really active. And I saw one this morning. We are downtown, which is actually close to Carrion. (I always hope to see someone that I know.) We were in a bus and I saw Nicolás outside in the street. I knocked on the window but he didn´t hear. By the time we got off the bus and started after him he was gone and I couldn´t find him. Rats! It would have been cool to talk to him, but it was at least nice to see him, especially knowing that he´s active in the church. He continues his studies in law, wanting to be a judge. Awesome!

Well, those are the highlights of the week. The weather has been really weird recently. We´re still not in the heart of summer, but getting close, so it should be really hot. I remember that last year at this time it was. But strangely enough it isn´t. It is pretty warm in the afternoon; but in the evening it cools down a lot, and at night and in the morning it´s really cold (considering that it´s summer). Really weird, but I´m not complaining.

Elder Murdoch

2010-12-06T09:50:00.000-07:00

Well, this week was pretty tough. We have almost no one to teach, so we´re looking for more. But it´s been hard to find. We´re trying to work more with the members, and I´m sure that this will work out better than knocking doors.

Having said that, Carolina is doing great. She still isn´t sure when she wants to be baptized. But yesterday I asked her how she feels about baptism, and we realized that really her problem is the Word of Wisdom. She drinks a lot of tea, and it´s hard for her to stop. But she said that she´s already drinking less and starting to use herbal tea. That was her big problem, and if she can drop tea, she´ll be baptized soon. Hopefully this Sunday, but if not, maybe the 19. Nicolas as well wants to get baptized. And it gets better. Her husband, Luis, wasn´t living in the house for a while. He actually had left with another woman. But she left him and is now with another man, and Luis is trying to repent and return to the house. Well, really, he already has returned. The problem is that it´s hard for Carolina to forgive him for what he did. But they´re working on it and we´re helping them, and things are getting better there. He has shared a little with us, and we hope to help him get baptized as well. There really is a grand miracle waiting for that family.

Yesterday we had stake conference, and President and Sister May where there and both gave a talk. It was a great conference. The best happened at the end. A brother from Carrion, my other sector, who now is bishop, was there with his family. And they recognized me! It was great to talk with him for a little while. Sounds like the ward there is doing great as well.

I´ve had some great experiences as DL. I´ve been doing several baptismal interviews for the zone leaders and the sisters in my district. And I´ve learned a lot from the people that I interview. It´s been great seeing how they can change and develop a strong testimony. Saturday I interviewed a man who got baptized yesterday who before was addicted to cocaine and beer and smoked 40 cigarettes a day. And he dropped all of that and did a complete 180 in his life. We went to the baptism, and afterwards he gave his testimony. It was great, and the Spirit was there strong. It was a great experience.

Well, not having many investigators, I don´t have too much to say this week. Hope this week is better than the last one.

Have a great one!

Elder Murdoch

2010-11-29T19:31:00.001-07:00

Wow, we´re already half way through the transfer. It´s been a pretty rough one, but things are going a little better. Carolina is doing well. We´ve had a lot of good experiences with her, and we know she´s received an answer about Joseph Smith. And she wants to get baptized. Nicolás, 10, also wants to get baptized and is helping a lot with his excitement. They have the goal for this next Sunday, and I think they´ll do it.

The problem is that after them we have no one else. But we have talked with a lot of good people and now just need to pass for them. Yesterday we had what´s called a sector attack. 4 companionships of missionaries came to our sector, and we gave them maps that I had prepared with the names and directions of some people to visit for two hours. No one could enter a house to teach but talked with other people and gave us several great referrals. So this week we´ll be passing for them to see if they´ll listen.

We also are working a lot with the members, which is really the best way. In our sector knocking doors doesn´t do much. But the members help us a lot, and we´re planning some activities with them. We hope to be able to find a lot more people and have more success.

Well, not much has happened so there´s not much to say. Hoping to have more to say next week. Have a great one!

Elder Murdoch

2010-11-22T16:22:00.001-07:00

Well, this week was better than the last. And faster. I am now almost down to five months left and trying to work hard for all of it. Last week I got a big boost of energy to finish big. Thursday we had a zone conference with Elder Corbridge of the 70, who is in the Chile Area Presidency. It was obvious that he had no prepared talk. It was all based on our questions, comments, and the Spirit. But it was the best conference of my mission. He talked a lot about the importance of the Holy Ghost, which is the greatest thing that a man can have in this life. He said that the greatest trial in this life is when one does not have the Holy Ghost in his life, which happens when we sin. But thanks to Jesus Christ and his Atonement, we can be clean of our sins through faith, repentance, and baptism by immersion by someone who has the authority. This authority was lost after the death of Christ and his apostles but restored through a modern prophet. That´s a basic lesson outline that he gave us, and I´m excited to use it. I learned a lot from him, took a lot of notes, and it gave me one last boost of Spiritual energy to hopefully last through the rest of the mission.

And it only gets better. He was on what´s called a "Mission Tour" where he talks in several missions. As part of the tour during the conference, he picks several missionaries to interview afterwards. He picked, along with a few sisters, me and my companion. It made me nervous because the assistant, Elder Andelin (who was my comp in the MTC), came up to me afterward and said that President wanted to talk to me. I thought it was because we got there late, having gotten lost. But he didn´t even talk with me; just sent me to Elder Corbridge. He said there was no purpose of the interview, just to get to know me and talk for a few minutes. We talked a little about my plans after the mission and he gave a lot of advice. Afterwards he talked with my companion. Elder Corbridge, several years ago, was the mission president here in Santiago North, and it just so happens that my comp´s brother served under him. So my comp asked for a picture with Elder Corbridge, who was okay with that. Elder Corbridge then asked to take one with me. Just the two of us. Having arrived late to the conference we missed the big group picture with him, but that doesn´t even matter because we both got a personal picture with him. It was great.

Carolina is doing well. We´ve had some real great lessons with her and I´m sure that she feels that this is the true church. She wants to get baptized, but the other day mentioned that she´s afraid that there are some things she´ll have to change. I think she has heard of the Word of Wisdom before because she mentioned wanting to know "What I can and can´t eat." So what we did is we pulled out the six pamphlets of the lessons we teach before baptism. We showed her all and said "Look, you already have these 3, you just need these others." We gave her those three pamphlets and explained that we will be teaching her all of that before the baptism. Tonight we are going to teach the Word of Wisdom. We have seen coffee at her house before, so we bought some Ecco, which is a coffee here in Chile made of wheat, that is healthy and approved by the church. I don´t think she´ll have a problem with it. She should get baptized this next Sunday, along with Nicolás, who is 10. Felipe, 18, isn´t home as much and it´s harder to teach him. He also didn´t come to church yesterday. So we´ll end up baptizing him in December.

Time for the funny story. Well, not way funny for me, but a typical mission story. We were walking down the street the other day, my companion to my left, and on his left a car. Suddenly he started running, and I had no idea why. Then I first heard, and later saw the big German Shepard coming out from under the car. So I took off like a bullet. I ran for a while then looked behind to see where he was. He was inches from my back leg, so I pulled off my backpack and swung it at him. I´m sure that if I had looked back two seconds later or had not taken off my backpack, he would have gotten me. I got him just in time. Then he went after my comp, afraid of my backpack, getting between us. But my comp was too fast, so he came back to me. I squeezed between two cars and kept running. He finally decided that we weren´t going to bug him and let us go. But we kept running till we were sure he wasn´t following. My heart was racing and I had a huge adrenalin rush. It was quite the experience. One I wouldn´t want to relive but one that will be fun to tell in years to come.

Well, I´m out of time for now. This last week was a good one, and this next one shows hopes of being even better.

Elder Murdoch

2010-11-15T14:40:00.000-07:00

This week was a good one. Passed really fast. Elder Ibarrola is great. We´ve had a couple of difficulties, but we keep working hard. Eduardo was confirmed yesterday. We´ve talked with him about the priesthood and hope he can receive it soon.

Gustavo is also interested in receiving the priesthood. They want to present (bless) their one-year-old son, and he would like to do it. Might need a little more time, but it would be great if he could.

Carolina is doing great. She and her sons traveled this weekend so they didn´t make it to church yesterday. But last week we went to the house of the Ramirez family and watched The Restoration with them. The spirit was really strong during it. Afterwards we read Galatians 5:22, which talks about the fruits of the Spirit. We asked her which of these fruits she felt during the movie and she responded, "All of them." She feels that this is true. Nicolás, who is 10, has shown a lot of interest and is excited to be baptized. He´s going to show an example for all of them. They are a great family. The sad part is that the dad left them. Yesterday he was there alone and we talked a lot with him. He had heard the message before and we talked a lot about the spirit and how he can know the truth. The Spirit was really strong and I know he felt something. We´ll see if anything happens with him.

We´re a little low on investigators right now. Working hard and trying to find more. We´re working a lot with the members and that should help a lot.

Well, that´s it for this week. It´s been a great experience being DL. I´m learning a lot from the sisters in my district. They´re really great. I love it.

Have a great week!
Elder Murdoch

2010-11-08T14:49:00.001-07:00

Wow, that transfer just went flying by. But it was a good one. Tough, but good. And it ended with a great reward. Yesterday Eduardo was baptized!! Elder Webb did it, his last day in the sector. It was a great baptismal service. It´s been hard with him, but he finally did it. He stopped smoking and is really trying to change his life. He already has changed a lot, and I´m grateful to have stayed here this transfer to watch him continue.

Talking about transfers, I am now with my new companion. Elder Webb went to San Pablo, a zone where I have been before. He is training, opening the sector, and DL. I knew he was going to be training. Actually, the other day I even guessed that he was going to San Pablo. I called it!! I´m now with Elder Ibarrola. He´s from Paraguay and today starts his 4th transfer. More or less new, so I´ll be teaching him a lot; although he had a great trainer, so I´m sure he already knows a lot. I´m also District Leader over a companionship of sister missionaries. It´ll be a good transfer.

A couple months ago we had a training meeting with President May and the Assistants. (Side note: one assistant, Elder Andelin, was my companion in the MTC. Sweet!) They introduced us to a new activity that we are now doing with the families in the ward. It is based out of Jacob 5 about the olive grove (the longest chapter in the scriptures) and appropriately named The Lord´s Vineyard (La Viña del Señor). It is split into two lessons, one where we share a scripture about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and offer service. The next lesson we share a scripture about missionary work and a few select verses from Jacob 5. We then give them a special paper we have that has a place for the family name and a bunch of boxes, like an Excel page. We then have them write the names of all the people they know--neighbors, friends, relatives etc., regardless of if they´ve heard the missionaries or not. And really focusing that these are not referrals for us. Yet. After they get a list made, we invite them to pray as a family and pick one person with whom they, not us, can work. They can invite them to the church, FHE, give them a Book of Mormon, etc. and continue doing activities until they think that the family is ready to receive the missionaries. Then comes the cavalry. It works, too. I love it.

We did the Viña,(Vineyard) with an active family in the ward several weeks ago. I actually talked about them a couple weeks back, the Ramirez Family. I mentioned how they took a family with them to church. That family came from The Lord´s Vineyard. The mom is Carolina, with 3 sons--Felipe, 18, Nicolás, 10, and Andrés, 6. (Andrés is Spanish for Andrew, and it´s funny because he reminds me a lot of Andrew Simonson, just smaller.) They loved the church, and we´ve shared with them a couple times. Carolina and Felipe have a baptismal date for November 28. They have been reading a little in the Book of Mormon and progressing well. We are really excited to continue teaching them.

This last week I received a letter from a convert, Nicolás. He´s doing great--studying and working, (he studies laws) and always really busy. But he says that he always ends the day reading in the Book of Mormon. He has the Melchezidek Priesthood and is a counselor in the Quorum of Elders. His letter made me cry for joy, as he is staying really active in the church and progressing more and more. It made me real happy to hear from him.

Well, time´s up for this week. It was a great week and things should keep getting better from here.

Elder Murdoch

2010-11-02T11:00:00.001-06:00

Well, another week has ended and the last one of the transfer is now starting. This past week was really difficult. I don´t know why, but we passed through a lot of trials ranging from sickness to investigators not showing up to church to no one being home. It´s been tough, but we keep working and trying to keep up the faith and doing what we can with what we have.

A really big trial happened with Yasmina and Cielo, the referrals from a member. Cielo, 15, is niece of Yasmina, and they both are really interested and want to keep learning and get baptized. But we´ve had some problems with Marley, Yasmina´s mom. Last Sunday we visited them in the evening, and Marley had a friend over. Her name, or what she told us, is Maria Elena; and she´s Catholic. She told us that her dad´s Mormon even though she doesn´t know him. He served a mission and on the mission got her mom pregnant then left. She then said, "I think you guys do have a good time doing your thing, having kids, and leaving them." Another day Yasmina told us that that was a lie. Maria´s dad is not an RM, not even Mormon. During the whole lesson she was in the back with Marley. I knew they were talking bad about us, as they would look at us with not nice faces, laugh, etc. Neither one of us felt the spirit during the whole lesson, which was basically disastrous. The next day we visited Yasmina, but there wasn´t a man there so we couldn´t enter. We just talked at the door. She actually started crying and said she felt really bad for what had happened the night before. Thanks to the Catholic woman, Marley doesn´t want anything to do with the church and doesn´t want us to visit anymore. But Yasmina and Cielo do really bad. We´re trying to see if we can go with them to a member´s house, but it´s tough. Sister Retamal, the psychologist, was going to talk to Marley but hasn´t been able to yet. We talked with Yasmina a couple days later in the street and she said she´s tired of living with her mom, who doesn’t support her nor will she help with Yasmina´s little baby. Yasmina wants to find another house. That will make it easier for us to pass. Well, long story, but it´s been pretty rough on us and her. We´re praying lot to be able to visit her more.

But now let´s look on the bright side of things. This next Sunday, Eduardo will finally be baptized!!! He hasn´t smoked since Friday, and also took out his earrings. Yesterday we reviewed the questions for the baptismal interview, and he did well. He feels ready, and we feel that he is ready.

This morning, before starting P-Day we visited another referral from Sister Retamal who actually lives in the same apartment building as us. His name is Oscar, and he´s been having a hard time. A little more than a month ago his wife left him and took their 2-year old daughter with. He´s been having a tough time with it. He now lives alone, and this morning told us that he´s been feeling really alone and recently it´s hard to even get up in the morning. Unfortunately, we didn´t have much time; but we gave him a Book of Mormon with a couple paragraphs marked in the Introduction and also part of Alma 32, which compares faith to a seed. We promised him that this book can help him a lot in his life to be able to receive the comfort and the guidance he needs. He gave the closing prayer, kneeling, and it was touching. He thanked God for "these two people that are here to help me in my life" and the Spirit was really strong. We´re going to go by again tomorrow night. I´m really excited to be able to help him.

Well, that´s about it for this week, as time´s running out. Next week we have transfer´s and it´s really likely that my comp will leave. He was 4 transfers here, 6 months. The mission will receive 22 missionaries, but none leave so there will be a lot of opening sectors and trainers. Some think I will be one. We´ll have to see.

Elder Murdoch

2010-10-25T10:28:00.000-06:00

Well, now that I´m not going to therapy almost every day the time is starting to fly again. Maybe I should go back. Well, maybe not. I am glad to be done. Friday we went to the doctor who sent me to therapy for a check-up, and he said that my elbow is doing great and I don´t have to go back now. Actually, he really was surprised. He said that it got better a lot faster than normal. I know that there was a lot of heavenly help and prayers behind my fast recovery.

This last week was a good one and a difficult one. We found some great people. Sister Retamal, the psychologist, gave us a couple more referrals that we were able to contact. One, Alexi, is really humble and willing to learn. The other, Oscar, lives really close to us and lives alone. His wife left him a little more than a month ago and took the 2-year old daughter with her. He wants to change his life to be able to get them back. We haven´t shared much with the two men, but they both showed a lot of interest and we hope to help them with their problems.

Once again no one that we have been teaching went to church. But a family brought their neighbors with them. This family, Ramirez, is really great. They´re active in the church; he is in the Presidency of Elders Quorum. Their daughter, Constanza, is going to BYU to learn English next year. They have invited a family that lives in front of them to church and FHE a lot, but they´ve never been able to come. Yesterday they did. The mother is named Carolina, and she has 3 sons--Felipe, 18, Tomás, 10, and the third I don´t know the name. The sad part is that just last week the husband left them. The good part is that they loved the church and want to learn more. Tomorrow we´re going to visit them. Hopefully we can help them.

Eduardo is doing, well, okay. He didn´t go to church yesterday or last week because he slept through, even though the rest of the family went. But he is slowly stopping smoking. This past week we found an empty cigarette box on the ground (pretty common here) and filled it with homemade cigarettes, which is really a rolled up piece of paper with a scripture written on it. It´s been helping him. He has a new baptismal date for November 7. Two weeks. We´re praying a lot for him to be able to do it.

We have a few other people that we are teaching. We are preparing for November and should have a lot of success. And a lot of heat. Things are warming up here as we are entering summer, and I am really missing the coldness and the snow of Idaho. But next year I´ll be up there, so I just have to wait for now and deal with the heat.

Well, have a great week!

Elder Murdoch

2010-10-18T10:13:00.002-06:00

What a strange week I just had. It seemed really long but passed really fast as well. Things are going great, but we are also having plenty of difficulties. For example, yesterday we had 8 investigators committed to go to church. Zero arrived. Not one. But it´s a good opportunity to see what we can do better this week to help them come next Sunday.

We are finding a lot of great people to teach. A couple weeks ago we passed for an inactive member and met her father-in-law, who is starting to live with her. We´ve taught a lot, and he accepts it all. He´s Catholic, but just because his parents were; and he easily understands that his baptism wasn´t valid. He has a baptismal date for November 7.

Paolo, the kid whose parents are inactive is doing great. They didn´t go to church yesterday but felt bad about it. His mom wants to go slowly, which is understandable. But she does want to be active in the church and baptize her son. That´s a great family.

Macarena was going to get baptized yesterday but hasn´t been progressing much, and it didn´t happen. She says she doesn´t feel ready. We´ve told her that the reason is because she´s not praying or reading the Book of Mormon. She didn´t even go to church yesterday. Tonight we´re going to go by and have a "frank lesson" and drop her. Sad.

Last week I talked about Sister Retamal, the psychologist who gave us a referral of a Peruvian family. They´re doing okay. Marley, the grandma, hasn´t been home a lot. But her daughter, Yasmina, and Yasmina´s niece, Cielo, have a baptismal date for November 14. And if they can make it, Yasmina´s 8-year-old daughter, Briza, will follow her.

Sister Retamal gave us another referral named Cristina. (Sister Retamal knows a ton of people and always gives us great referrals) She went with us to talk to Cristina, and it was a great lesson. Cristina has had a lot of problems. She was physically abused by her husband who then left her. Six of her seven children aren´t living with her--we still don´t understand the whole situation. And she´s also really sick. Sister Retamal told her that she needs to change her life and needs to start now, and we´re here to help. She accepted it as well as the invitation to go to church. But when Sister Retamal went to pick her up she was sick and couldn´t go. Well, we can´t do too much about her health, aside from a blessing; but we´re going to help her a lot with her spiritual problems.

Eduardo is still having some problems. He really does want to get baptized, but he has to change and doesn’t want to. We´ve done basically all we can. It´s all in his hands now.

Well, time up. That´s all for this week. As a last thing I want to share something I talked about with my mom. The mission starts out as a sacrifice both for the family and the missionary. But Elder King, my last companion who finished the mission, taught me something about that that I love. I don´t remember word for word, but basically he said that when a sacrifice helps someone in their life, it no longer is a sacrifice, but rather a blessing. That is roughly translated. I like it better in Spanish, but it is true. The mission starts out as a sacrifice, but as I help more and more people to change their lives, it becomes a blessing for them, me, and my family.

Have a great week!

Elder Murdoch

2010-10-11T14:36:00.001-06:00

Well, this week was actually kind of slow. It seemed a lot longer. I guess that´s a good thing, right? Not really, because I think the reason it was so long was because of the elbow therapy every morning. But my elbow is feeling a little better, so this week should finish it up.

Things are going great here. Eduardo didn´t get baptized yesterday, but he will, don´t worry. He really wants to get baptized, but he´s not quite ready yet. He still has to stop smoking. Also, here in Chile there´s a type of music called Reggaeton, and the way to dance to it is not appropriate. And he likes to do it. Yesterday he told us that he thinks that it´s to do with this age (he´s 15) and that with time he´ll get bored with it. We read in Joshua 24:15 where it says to choose today whom ye will serve, and also Matthew 6:24 that says "No man can serve two masters..." We explained that he has to choose, and only he can do it. He has the power to change, and time won´t affect that. Time really has little to do with it. If he wants he can change tomorrow or in five years. I shared with him the example of writing in my journal saying that I´m busy, but later my activities will end and I´ll have more time to do it. Then the time passes, I have time, and I still don´t do it. The scripture in Joshua says "Choose ye THIS DAY.." He thought for a while and said that we´re right. So he´s hopefully going to work a little harder to make the necessary changes in his life. He really right now is in a tough situation. We´ve taught him everything, and he knows so much that if he doesn´t change, he´ll be condemned according to John 3:5. But if he does get baptized and continues with the same life, condemned. We´re doing all we can to help him realize this and change. He does want to get baptized, but it will probably be in November.

There is a Sister in the ward who works in a health center as a psychologist and thus knows a lot of people. The other day we visited her and she gave us a ton of referrals. Four of them are a family from Peru. They are really humble, as are the majority of the Peruvians here. The family consists of the grandma, Marley, her daughter, Yasmina, her daughter, Cielo (15), and Yasmina´s niece Briza (8). (Cielo is Spanish for heaven, or sky, and Briza is breeze. Pretty cool.) They are really great. They´re Catholics but, because of tradition--like most of Chile, they are really willing to learn and accept everything we teach. Yasmina has prayed about Joseph Smith and received an answer and believes he was a prophet, but she fears that she lacks the faith to follow the answer. We left her a scripture in the Book of Mormon to help with that. They’re a great family, and they can be baptized. Maybe on the 31st or in November.

We had another miracle yesterday. A little more than a month ago we were knocking an apartment building and talked with a woman named Patricia. She was really interested and told us to come back another day. But then she was never home and after several times of passing by and not finding her, we stopped going. Yesterday, about a month later, she showed up to church with her husband, Renzo, and son, Paolo. Turns out she and Renzo are inactive members, and Paolo isn´t baptized yet. We visited them after church and talked about baptism. Paolo wants to get baptized, and his parents also want him to. That right there is great, because if they didn´t, it would be harder. But they will be there to help him. He´s a great kid and will be baptized the 31st.

Last night we visited Gustavo and the family and they told us a great story that happened to them. Like I´ve said, he works in a mine. He´s not actually in the mine, rather drives trucks to different parts. BIG trucks. The other week they were short of trucks, so some workers got vacations and others, including Gustavo, would keep working, going home at night and back to work the next day. Which is different because he´s usually up there every day for a week, then home for a week. Then one day the boss came to him and said, "You´re going to be in the truck with me." A couple days later the boss invited Gustavo and the family over for dinner. When they got there they had a present for Gustavo´s son, Jeremias, (who got baptized a couple months ago) even though it was his second time even seeing the boss. It was a new computer, a really nice one that has the computer and monitor combined in one. Wow! Then more happened. Gustavo used to sing in a heavy metal band that later ended. In April, they did a gig that he never got paid for. Last week they paid him. They´re suddenly receiving so many blessings. And the best part: they give the credit to Gustavo´s baptism. They have a lot of faith and are great.

Well, that´s it for this week.

Elder Murdoch

2010-10-04T14:40:00.003-06:00

Well, this was quite the week. It was great and not so great. It was a little tougher to work. I guess I´ll start with the face. As of last summer, I´ve been getting sunburned. Even when I put on sunscreen. But a couple weeks ago it suddenly started peeling, like real bad. I was given special permission to wear a hat, which is pretty sweet, but that helps more to prevent, not heal. So Thursday we went to a dermatologist. I had put on some lotion that Mom sent with me. We think that I had an allergic reaction to something in the lotion. So the dermatologist gave me another cream, and one more that she said started in the states and recently arrived here(called Eucerin, or Aquaphor), and one for my hands cause the knuckles are cracked, and a special sunscreen, and some pills. Wow. I´m now longer putting cream on my face than I am in the shower. But I´m already a lot better. The problem with that was that we had almost no time to work Thursday, being at the doctor all day. And Conference also cut into working time as well. So, basically, we didn´t have the best week number-wise. But it was still okay.

Also, the other day they finally, after more than 3 weeks, called me to go do therapy on my elbow. We went in this morning, which took a lot of time and travel. They did some stuff with me and said to come back tomorrow. Actually, I have 9 visits more, so I´ll be down there a lot. But it should hopefully help me, and hopefully that will be the end of my doctor trips. After having swine flu, pneumonia, fractured elbow, and peely face, I hope to pass the last 6-ish months of my mission without health problems.

We did get to see General Conference. I loved it. There were many great talks. As I said last October and again in April and will probably say next April, this was the best General Conference of my life. I loved the talk about pride by President Uchtdorf in Priesthood Meeting. It´s something I have to work on, so it helped me a lot. Also, Elder Kevin R. Duncan, who was sustained as 70 in April, was the mission president here in Chile Santiago North before President May. It was a great Conference, and I´m already excited for the next one. I can´t wait until the Liahona comes out to be able to read the talks and study them a little more.

Eduardo is doing great. His baptism should be this Sunday. His step-father has been a little worried, thinking that he just wants to be baptized because Noelia, his sister, did it, or because his parents are members, etc. So we promised him that we will really check up on Eduardo´s testimony. But we have seen many changes in Eduardo, and we feel that he is ready. He understands why baptism is important, and wants to do it. He has said that he knows this is the only church he wants to follow. Also, the other day he told us he´s received an answer about Joseph Smith. He said, "You guys said that an answer comes like something in your chest, right? Well, then I got it." When we asked him to explain more, he said, "The other night I was praying and my chest filled." It´s especially amazing because it´s been hard to get him to pray. But he´s now doing it, and it really helps. He is ready for Sunday.

Macarena should also get baptized the 17th. She has a few doubts but is progressing well. Also, her younger sister, Francisca, has shown interest. One day when we passed last week she was there and listened. She accepted baptism and has a date for the 31st. We couldn´t teach too much for lack of time, but she understood what we did teach; and we left her with a Book of Mormon and the promise to read and pray. Tonight we´ll go by and see how it went.

Well, that´s about all for now. We keep being blessed with more people. As those we have get baptized, we find more. I know that this is the work of the Lord, and His hand is always present in it.

Elder Murdoch

Noelia's Baptism

Gustavo's Baptism

Top of Cerro (hill) Renca

2010-09-27T12:32:00.001-06:00

Well, the transfer ended wonderfully, with Gustavo´s baptism Saturday and his and Noelia´s confirmation Sunday. Gustavo is really excited to continue in the church and should receive the priesthood in a couple weeks. He will be a great leader in the church. After the baptism and he had changed clothes and returned, his wife (who was inactive for 15 years and now is active) gave her testimony and made me cry a little. They have a baby of like 10 months, Zacharías, and she said to Gustavo, "I hope that you are able to baptize him." They are a wonderful family, and I´m grateful to have been able to teach them.

Noelia is also doing great. She got confirmed like I said and is learning a lot in Primary. She turns 12 in a week, so in January she´ll be in Young Women. Eduardo is progressing slow but steady. He´s slowly stopping smoking and the other day took out his earrings.
He showed up to church without them, but when we passed a few hours later he had put them back in. Slow and steady, little by little he´s getting there. He will be baptized in October.

We´ve started teaching a former investigator, Macarena. (Heeeyyyy, Macarena!!) Two years ago she listened to the missionaries in the house of her cousin. The cousin´s dad is bishop of their ward. Macarena told us that during that time her biggest dream was to get baptized. She even accompanied the missionaries! She basically was a dry member. (That´s what we say when someone is basically a member, they just haven´t been baptized.) The problem was that she lives here and was listening somewhere else. So the missionaries told her that she had to get baptized here not there. She then stopped going to church and the fire went out. The other day we visited her with an RM. She showed a lot of interest in baptism, and we asked her what would stop her from getting baptized. The only thing she has a problem with is going to church. If she can conquer that, the rest she´s okay with. We´ve worked a lot with that, and yesterday she went!! The fire is slowly building back up. She should also get baptized in October.

Well, I´m out of time, so I guess that´s all for this week. Things are going great here. In a sector that didn´t baptize in almost a year we´re having a ton of success. Really, it´s all just the faith and attitude of the missionaries. Like Elder Costa told us in a devotional, if we think we can baptize, we can. If not, we won´t. Any sector, any missionary can baptize.

Elder Murdoch

2010-09-21T23:08:00.000-06:00

Well, we´re now on the last week of the transfer. I don´t know where all the time went, but it´s gone. But we don´t think anything will happen with transfers. We´ll both probably stay here. This week was a great one, ending with Noelia´s baptism Sunday. It was a great experience. Everyone got emotional, even her aunt who is Catholic. The aunt actually now wants to come to church every week. Maybe we can teach her some. This family really has changed. We´ve been able to help them a lot. The younger, Antonia, will turn 8 in January and will be baptized. She´s really excited for it. Also, the dad, Ivan, is working with the oldest brother, Yahir, 19, to help him get the Priesthood and prepare for a mission. It really has been a blessing for them and us to see the changes happening.

Noelia´s other brother, Eduardo, 15, is having some difficulties. He wants to get baptized, but he has to stop smoking, and the Law of Chastity will be a problem for him. But he´s progressing well and will hopefully get baptized in October. We also had some problems with Noelia´s friend, Kati, 9. Her mom is an inactive and doesn´t want to go to church. She also thinks that Kati is too young to get baptized. She said that if Kati wants she can, but she doesn’t think she should. We´re going to pass tonight with the bishop so she can know him and maybe he can help her.

We had a miracle with Gustavo last week. He´s been having doubts, and we´ve been working a lot to help him. Last Monday we had not planned to visit him, having only 3 hours to work after P-Day. Half an hour before leaving, I felt really strongly that we needed to visit him. So we decided to go. Elder Webb brought his Preach My Gospel manual, and we read a quote about conversion. It says "When the Spirit touches the heart, hearts are changed." That really touched him (pun intended) as well as some other scriptures we shared. After a long pause he asked, "When do you have baptisms?" We said any day depending on the person but usually Sundays. He said, "I think I could do it the 26th... I don´t see why not to do it." Luckily his wife wasn´t there. He said that he wants it to be a secret for her. If she would have been there or if we would have passed the next day, he wouldn´t have said anything. Only the Lord could have inspired us to pass Monday night cause we had no idea that she wasn´t there or that he would say that.

Yesterday we found some great people. Mauricio is about 23 and accepted a baptismal date for October 24. We also found a family of five with three sons of 18, 15, and 9. They are great and can get baptized in October. Should be a pretty successful month.

Last week was Chile´s Independence Day. We went to the ward party at the church. It was really fun. We watched some people dance Cueca (the national dance of Chile) and ate a lot of food. It was great.

Well, I´m out of time, so I´ll finish more next week.
Have a great week!

Elder Murdoch

2010-09-13T15:54:00.001-06:00

Wow, the weeks keep getting shorter and shorter. I know I say that every week, but it still feels like I only said it a couple days ago, and I´ll probably say it in a couple more. Time is passing way fast, too fast for me. But you know what they say: Time brings change. I feel that I have changed a lot, physically and spiritually. My testimony has never been so tried and tested, nor so strengthened. This really is an edifying experience, for me and those that I teach.

This week was a little tough. Let me back up a couple months and remind you about my elbow that I fractured. The past few weeks it has been hurting, and I can´t do pushups, lift heavy things, etc. So I talked with the doctor, and Thursday we went in to see what´s up. He had me take another X-Ray, and then comparing it with the one from 21/2 months ago said that the fracture, instead of getting better, is a little bit bigger. So he´s going to have me do therapy, which will probably be 10 visits he said. I´m still waiting for them to call me and say when to go. It´s a long trip there, actually out of the mission limits, so I´m really not wanting to do it. But I´m going to try and do everything they tell me so that I can get better and not have to go anymore. And so I can get back to doing pushups again.

Being at the doctor Thursday, we got home at 7:00 and had 3 hours to work. Short day. Plus we wasted a lot of time and money traveling. The good thing that came out of the trip was that I was able to eat Subway. Subway restaurants are few here, so I took advantage to grab a foot-long Italian BMT with cheddar, toasted, with lettuce, tomato, olives, mayo and mustard, on Italian herbs and cheese. Just like always. Mmmmmm!!! It was really good.

Saturday was another adventure. It was the 11th of September, anniversary of the World Trade Centers. Also anniversary of some revolution that took place here in Chile many years ago. As part of tradition, there are always demonstrations and violence. People do stuff like throw chains at light posts to cut the power, start bonfires in the street, walk around with guns, etc. In some parts not much happens, but in other parts it can be pretty dangerous. So President May told us to go to the house at 8 instead of 10, or earlier if necessary. We, fortunately, live in a new apartment complex, with a gate, wall, and guardhouse, so it´s pretty safe. But right in front there are block buildings, about 27, in a place called La Pucará, which is really dangerous. We ended up going home at 7.
Nothing happened to us, but we did hear gunshots and the next morning there were remnants of bonfires in a couple of streets. Pretty exciting.

This next Saturday is the 18th, which is Chile´s Independence Day, this year being the Bicentennial. Thursday, we´ll go to a ward activity in the church. The best part is the food. They have a lot of traditional foods here that are really good, so we´ll be eating a lot.
Well, not too much hopefully. :)

Talking about food, last week we were finally able to fix our stove, which didn´t have a tube to hook up to the propane. We bought one and a brother who lives close helped us attach it. So now I´m actually eating breakfast. For the past 7-8 months breakfast has been either cereal or nothing. Maybe an apple. Now I´ve been making fried eggs and toast, French toast, omelets, etc. I can finally eat a real breakfast. Plus last night I discovered the blender we have and made an orange-banana smoothie and this morning made one of strawberry-banana. Yummy.

Noelia is doing great. She´s way excited for her baptism this next Sunday. Her friend, Kati, should also get baptized; we just need to get permission from her parents and teach her a few more lessons. Noelia´s brother, Eduardo, will be a little tougher. He also wants to get baptized and has a date for the 26th. But he´s, well, gone a little out of the path. He has a couple of earrings and tattoos and is really rebellious. We´ve taught him the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. He smokes but has already decided that he wants to quit, so we´ll be able to help him with that. But he goes to a lot of parties, some with dirty dancing, so he said the Law of Chastity will be hard. Yesterday, he mentioned how in the Gospel Principles class there are a lot of older people and asked if there´s someone his age(15). We said yes, there are a lot of teenagers his age, and he said "Yeah, I saw quite a bit of girls there." Lol. We said yep, there are a lot of young men, young women, and you can find a lot of friends there. He was pretty excited about that, and we´re hoping that he can find a lot of friends in the church that can help him, even without realizing, to live the Law of Chastity. Maybe he can trade his old partying friends for new friends in the church. That would be a big help.

Gustavo is okay. He still wants more time, but he´s starting to realize the importance of baptism. Last night we talked a little about it and he said "It´s like getting cleaned even though I shower every day. Haha. But it´s more of cleaning your spirit." So he´s understanding a little more that it´s something he needs to do. We´re praying and fasting a lot, and I think he´ll be able to get baptized the 26th.

Not to startle or anything, but the other day we heard some interesting news. Supposedly there are a lot of volcanoes in Chile, and several are active. One is becoming more and more active, and if it were to go off, it would cover all of Santiago. They´re studying it to see what´s going to happen, but as of now nothing much seems to be going on.

The weather´s getting warmer here. Yesterday and Friday it rained quite a bit and was kind of cold. But, aside from that, it´s getting real warm. We´ve started working in short-sleeved shirts without coats, and even then it´s warm. With an occasional breeze it feels really good, but the bad news is that in a month or two it´ll be really hot, and I´ll be wishing for winter. I guess that´s just the way it is. Freezing in winter and wanting summer, and sweating in summer while wishing for winter. Never happy. Why can´t there be just an intermediate?

Well, that´s it for this week. Now to start another short, fast week of work. Have a great one!

Elder Murdoch

2010-09-06T19:51:00.001-06:00

Man, the time passes way too fast! I just barely got here and now the transfer´s half over! The good news is that it´s been a great time. I love it here and have really been enjoying the time. Yesterday Jeremias got confirmed. He´s really excited, and his mom´s happy too.
His dad, Gustavo, is doing okay too. He´s had some problems. Last week I mentioned that he was having a problem with the Word of Wisdom, not thinking that it´s too bad to drink a tiny bit of wine or beer every once in a while. The other day we passed and he hadn´t been reading in the Book of Mormon, so we read with him. He was on 1 Nephi 9, a short chapter when Nephi´s saying "I´m making two records with the plates, one for this reason, blah blah etc." At the very end he says "Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates for a wise purpose in him, which purpose I know not. But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men; for behold, he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words. And thus it is. Amen." We explained that at times we don´t understand all things but the Lord does, and He knows why we have certain commandments. If we trust in him and have the faith to obey, we will receive the blessings and maybe even understand why, but not till "after the trial of our faith." That helped him a lot and he committed to drop 100% beer, wine, cigarettes, etc.

Noelia´s doing great too. This last week we finished teaching all the lessons. Now we just have to wait till the 19th. We were going to do it yesterday, but her mom wants us to wait. So it´ll be the 19th, along with her friend, Kati. We´ve also been talking with Noelia´s brother, Eduardo. He has a lot of problems in his life. Actually the whole family´s had problems. But we´ve already seen a lot of changes for the better. He´s a great teenager; he just needs more love in his life. He also is preparing for the 19th.

With Gustavo, Kati, Noelia and Eduardo, we have 4 sure baptisms this month. But we set the goal of 5, meaning we lack one. We have people that could do it, but they would have to go to church every week starting this next Sunday to meet the requirement of three times in the church. I´ve been kind of worried about it all, but I still have the faith that we can do it because we set the goal with fasting and prayer and it is what we felt. Last night I was praying and poured out my spirit to God, telling him that I know we can do it but not without him; we really need his help to do it. I felt a calming and felt a voice, that one we all know so well, say "Don´t worry. Patience, I´m working on it." I know where it came from and that He will help us reach our goal of 5 baptisms this month.

Well, that´s all for this week. My faith and testimony are really growing, and it´s been great to feel it. When I arrived at the MTC and later here in Chile, I had just a basic testimony. Now, after 16 months, I still have just a basic testimony. But it´s stronger and firmer than when I got here. It´s really been an edifying experience.
Have a great week!

Elder Murdoch

2010-08-30T10:47:00.003-06:00

Wow, this last week was the fastest one of my mission. I remember having the last P-Day, then two days later it was Friday, and the next morning I woke up and it's Monday! Time's passing way to fast.

Yesterday Jeremias was baptized. It was a great baptismal service. It ran smooth, with a song from the Primary, testimonies from the Primary, a short clip from "Finding Faith in Christ" and the Spirit.
It was the best service of my mission. Also Jeremias' dad, Gustavo, who has a baptismal date for the 12th, was there and he loved it.
Jeremias is really happy.

Gustavo is also progressing okay. One problem is that he works/rests for 7 days. Every Thursday he leaves or arrives here. So we have to take advantage of the little time we have. Last night he told us that he really wants to get baptized, of that there is no doubt. But he wants more time. He said he has a couple doubts, one of which has to do with the Word of Wisdom. He doesn't think it's bad to have just a small cup of wine or beer every once in a while. He said "I'm not a drug addict, or a drunk. I hardly drink at all. But I don't think it's bad to drink just a little every once in a while." So we're trying to help him with that. But he'll get baptized in September.

Noelia is progressing really fast. She would be baptized this next Sunday, but her mom thinks it's a little soon so she wants us to do it the 19th, the original date. That's okay with us. Yesterday she went to church, along with her mom and dad, who are both inactive. It was really great. Her friend, Kati, who also will be baptized the 19th, are progressing really well. And they both are excited to get baptized.

Well, that's all for this week. I hope time can slow down. We have so much to do and so little time to do it in. I'm really having a great week.

Elder Murdoch

Elders Webb and Murdoch with Jeremias and family

Elder Webb, Jeremias, Elder Murdoch

2010-08-23T11:12:00.003-06:00

Oh, man! I could never even hope to be able to explain how excited I am to be here where I am. Words could never be enough to describe my feelings. This week was probably the best one of my mission. I love it here. We have a great sector and ward with lots of potential. It´s the exact opposite of what I´ve heard. Because the people in this community are so rich (I always feel like I´m in the States) it has a reputation of being really hard. But I don´t believe it at all. Last week we had more success than any week in my last sector, which supposedly the people there were more receptive. Actually, in the sector I´m in now there hasn´t been a baptism for a year. But we´re going to end that starting this next Sunday.

This might be my last sector. But also it will probably be my most successful. We have a lot of great people we are teaching. We actually will have a baptism this next Sunday and every week in September with a goal of 5 baptisms in that month. This morning, after much prayer, I set a personal goal of 5 baptisms every month for the rest of my mission. With 8 months left that will be 40 baptisms, not counting the one this next week as it is still August. It´s a lot, but it´s possible; and I´ll be praying and fasting a lot to be able to achieve it.

As I mentioned, this Sunday we will have a baptism. His name is Jeremias and he´s 11 years old. His mom was an inactive member, but she´s now returning to the church. Jeremias is really excited for his baptism. His dad, Gustavo, is also preparing to be baptized the 12th of September, three weeks from yesterday. Gustavo works a lot, being gone Thursday to Thursday then home till the next Thursday, etc. So he can only make it to church every other week, otherwise he´d get baptized this week as well. But he´s still progressing well.

Last night we went to visit Jeremias, and when we got there they had a surprise visitor. Carolina is 22, and Marcela, mom of Jeremias, had purposely invited her over knowing we´d show up soon after. They supposedly were talking about something else and somehow got on the topic of religion. Marcela taught a little about the Book of Mormon, the Restoration, I don´t know what else. Several days earlier, I had accidently left a little General Conference Ensign fold-out that has the pictures of the 1st Presidency, the Twelve, and the Seventy. Jeremias brought it over to her and said "I present you to the prophet." hahaha, yeah! Shortly after that we got there and met her. She says she has a lot of questions and doubts about our religion. She has a friend in the university who´s a member and he gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. We watched "The Restoration" with her and invited her to read the Introduction of the Book of Mormon and pray to know that it´s true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. We´ll be calling this week to maybe visit her one day.

Last Monday we decided to knock some doors and, following the Spirit, picked a random apartment building. At the first door we knocked, a 19-year-old named Yahir (It´s said like jay-ear) answered and let us in. Turns out he and his mom are inactive members. He has an 11-year-old sister, Noelia, who isn´t a member. Yet. She has a baptismal date for the 19th of September. Actually, we´ve been sharing a lot with them, and yesterday the Mom, Susanna, and Noelia, as well as a friend, Kati, 9, went to church. The little girls loved it, and Kati now has a baptismal date for the 19th of September, as well as Noelia. Yesterday after church we asked Noelia how she feels for the 19th. She said, "Impatient." We asked her what she means by that and she responded, "I want to get baptized now." Wow. So we´ll probably change her date to the 5th. Tonight we´re going to pass by for Kati to meet her parents and get their permission to teach and baptize her. And maybe teach them if they want.

Saturday we went to the chapel next to the temple and had a devotional. It was the whole mission of Santiago North and Santiago East. The speaker was Elder Costa of the Seventy. Elder Amado of the Seventy, also President of the Chile Area Presidency, was also there and he spoke a little as well as the wives. It was a great devotional and really pumped me up a lot.

Well, that´s all for now. This will be a great time here in Quilicura. Something kind of funny--My Zone Leader, Elder Christensen, was in my district in the MTC, and was Zone Leader there also. The other ZL, Elder Carrasco from Peru, also arrived here in Chile with us. So the three of us have the same time. Pretty cool.

Well, have a great week!

Elder Murdoch

Quilicura is a rich area

Our apartment building in Quilicura

2010-08-16T14:59:00.002-06:00

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

2010-08-09T12:08:00.001-06:00

Well, another week gone. Today starts the last week of the transfer.

Moises is doing great. We visited him a few times last week. He has a baptismal date for August 29. Thursday we left him the homework of reading 1 Nephi 8, about Lehi´s vision of the tree of life. Friday when we returned, he explained the whole chapter to us. He is really smart and understands everything. He even understood right away that his baptism in the Catholic church wasn´t valid and he needs a new one. We took him to an activity in the church Friday. Unfortunately, they got behind schedule, and we had to leave before it even started in order to be in the house in time. He left with us so didn´t get to see it either. But he wasn´t at all upset. He loved it even so. He loved the church building, having thought that it was going to be really small. And a lot of people greeted him, and he found a couple friends. Unfortunately, when he woke up yesterday he felt sick, so he wasn´t able to go to church, even though he really wanted. But he will get baptized soon. He´s great. For only 16, he´s really smart and spiritual. Probably more spiritual than any other 16-year-old I have ever met, including myself.

Thursday we had a Zone Conference with President May. We talked a lot about a new plan that the church mission department came out with. For the next few weeks we´ll be having several training meetings where we will be learning a lot about the new plan. There will be several changes. One of these will be that interviews with President will be every three months instead of every six weeks. Plus Zone Conferences will also be every three months. Supposedly this new way of doing things will give President more time to work with the missionaries and train us better. It should help the mission a lot.

Well, I had a couple more strange food experiences this week. The first one was a cheese that someone gave us with bread. But this wasn´t just any kind of cheese. This was pighead cheese. That´s right. They take the fat off of the pig´s head, and somehow make a cheese with it. The taste is really weird, and it looks even worse. The other was in an activity that the Priesthood held on Saturday. They cleaned the church then afterward had a "mariscal", and ate "mariscos." Mariscos means shellfish. All sorts of shells with meat inside, crab claws, and other weird stuff. We were supposed to eat with the bishop´s wife, but when we got there the bishop said she wasn´t there and he was supposed to take us to the church to eat. I had eaten mariscos before, and didn´t like them, so I didn´t want to. But we went and I suffered through it. Then the bishop´s wife called wondering where we were. She had left for a few minutes but then returned and was waiting for us. So afterward we went there to eat, which was a lot better.

Well, that´s about it for this week. Some pretty interesting experiences. Some fun, some not.
Have a great week all!

Elder Murdoch

Mariscos (shellfish) Some people love it but I hate it! And the Sanchezes. They are like my second family.

2010-08-02T14:41:00.002-06:00

Well, another long rough week. That makes 3 now. One problem is that my companion, being DL, had a leadership training meeting Thursday and Friday. And he went on his end of the mission temple trip with President. And Tuesday we had divisions. So I spent almost all of the week with another Elder, and most of that time in another sector. Thursday and Friday I was with Elder Deardon, who has one month here in Chile. He´s from Boston, where Dad served his mission. His wisdom teeth have been giving him problems, so they decided to yank ´em out. Friday morning we went to the dentist, who took out 2 of the 4. Afterwards the office drove us home, and we rested the rest of the day till our companions got back from the training. He´s a great Elder, and I feel sorry for him. This Friday he has to get the other 2 teeth yanked. Bummer.

Adela now has 3 months in the church. And she knows more than half the other members. She´s just eating up all the books. She´s finished the Book of Mormon, and is reading parts of the Bible, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and other church books like Our Heritage. Also, she got her hands on a book by Joseph Fielding Smith called Doctrines of Salvation. She´s crazy!

The other day we visited her, and she told us about a program she saw on the National Geographic channel about plural marriage. And you bet your bottom dollar that they talked a lot about us. And it was obviously all false. I don´t know where they pulled all of it out of, but it was kind of interesting. She told us 3 big things that are completely bogus. First, they said Emma found Joseph with another woman. And, supposedly Brigham Young said that atonement, or to receive the forgiveness of sins, means that one has to murder. WHAT?! And finally, they said that we (Mormons) practice arranged marriages, which really has nothing to do with plural marriage. Pretty interesting. Kind of frustrates me how they talk about all that stuff that they don´t even know. But it really just helps strengthen my testimony, because if this wasn´t the true church there wouldn´t be so many attacks against it. Fortunately, Adela already knows about polygamy and knew that it´s bogus, so it didn´t affect her any. But it´s still pretty stupid how they do stuff like that.

Eliana is doing a lot better. Wednesday we passed by to teach her. We talked about the priesthood and priesthood blessings. Then we gave her son, Diego--aka Diablito (little devil)--a health blessing and her a blessing of strength and guide. It was really great, and he was actually really quiet that night as well as the next visit Friday and in the church yesterday. It was as abrupt a change as night and day. She has a baptismal date for the 15th, Elder King´s last day here. She wants to do it, but still has a lot of doubts or maybe one big one that we haven´t been able to discover. We´re going to go tomorrow and try to see what we can do to help her.

Here in Chile there are a ton of Peruvians and many in the church. Of course, all Peruvians, in and out of the church, know each other. One member, Sister Dora, takes care of a 7-year-old kid after school until his older brother picks him up. The little boy is named Marcelo, and his old brother, who´s 16, is Moises(Moses). We had met both before but never could teach them. The other day Dora told us that Moises would like to meet us and know more about the religion (knowing that she is Mormon). We went by, and he is amazing! He has more faith than almost any other 16-year-old I´ve met here. He talked about how he always prays and talks with God. He said he sins a lot and feels bad so he repents and asks God for forgiveness; but the problem is that we always committ the same sin again. He has few friends in school as Chileans are really racist against Peruvians. Actually, they treat him pretty badly in school. He really needs the church. We´re going to take some other young men to his house to help him find friends. We also want to take him to an activity at the church this Friday. The church should be able to help him a lot. I´m excited to help him.

The other night we visited the seminary/Gospel Principles teacher, Sister Canales.(She is the sister of Sister Manriquez, Eliana´s friend, and lives in the apartment right next door) She and her husband served the mission in the South of Chile, in Osorno, and they´re great. While there, she talked about a family that lives in the apartment below them. They´ve been having some problems lately. He lost his work, and she´s going through depression. Also, they´ve had some weird experiences in the house. We´ve met them before, but they weren´t very interested and said if they wanted us to come they´d talk with the Canales family above. The wife´s name is Janet, and we visited her with Sister Canales. We ended up giving her a blessing and gave a blessing on the house. (Chileans are pretty suspicious, so we give a lot of dedicatory prayers.) It was a good experience. She started crying and said that she really needed it. I think it helped us gain their confidence a little. Sister Canales invited them to an activity this Friday and to church Sunday. Hopefully we can start teaching them.

Well, I finally pulled out the Rockport shoes this past week. My other shoes, the Eccos, are in bad shape. Actually, one has a huge whole at the end, and with the rainy weather here, my foot is always wet and cold at night. So I started wearing the Rockports, and my feet have been dry all week. Yes!!

Well, that´s it for this week. Things are pretty tough, but that just means that it can only get better from here.

Elder Murdoch

2010-07-26T11:38:00.001-06:00

Well, another rough week has passed, but the sun keeps shining further down the road. Last week wasn’t horrible, but not great either. The worst was that no investigators came to church yesterday, even though we had committed several. But we were able to find some more people during the week that should come this next Sunday.

We visited Margarita and Gonzalo a couple times. Saturday we went really deep into the importance of baptism, and Gonzalo accepted a baptismal date. Margarita was a little more hesitant, saying that she wants to do it but that when she feels ready she’ll tell us. I think she’ll do it; we just need to help her understand the importance of having a specific goal. Gonzalo actually was going to go to church yesterday; but when we passed by to pick him up, the gate to the apartment building was locked, his cell phone was off, and they didn’t come when we yelled. We’re going to have to do something different next week so that he goes.

Eliana returned last week. She had been in the South for about a week because her mother passed away. We taught the Plan of Salvation. But, as always, there was a big problem. Her son, Diego, is 7 and really rowdy. He always has a ton of energy. I think he has ADD or something. And the death of his grandma can’t be a great help either. Anyway, with all of those factors together, he was a big pain--making a lot of noise, arguing, not showing respect for us, his mom, or Sister Manriquez (Eliana´s friend). It was a tough lesson, and the Spirit was not there at all. She did tell us that she’s been reading in the Book of Mormon, so that at least is good. We might have to try to set it up to teach her somewhere else where Diego isn’t. We’ll have to see.

Several weeks ago we did a street contact with a woman named Patricia. We taught her a little, but then two weeks ago when we passed by she was busy and said the dreaded "I’ll call you." She was really great, but we kind of lost hope. Then Friday night she called and wanted us to come. We went yesterday, showed "The Restoration", and she accepted a baptismal date for August 29. She is really great. She also had read a little in the Book of Mormon. And she gave the closing prayer. The problem with her is going to be Word of Wisdom. She drinks coffee, and probably tea. Plus, she and her husband are both cooks, and yesterday had a bunch of food they had recently bought for an event they’re hosting, and there were several bottles of alcohol. We know it is to serve to the guests, but we’re also afraid that they might drink a little too. That’ll be the big test with her.

Patricio, who got baptized three weeks ago, finally got confirmed yesterday. He hadn’t made it to church for the past two weeks, but yesterday he came and got confirmed. The bishop did it, and it was really great. I hope he can keep learning and progressing.

We visited the Olave family the other day. (He’s the Brother who destroyed his knee playing soccer.) He’s getting better really fast. They said that the doctors are really surprised that he’s progressing so well. He just uses one crutch now, walking quite fast, and can take a few steps without the crutch. It is amazing how fast he’s improving. We all know that someone has a hand in it.

Well, they’re predicting another earthquake, this one in the North of Chile. They don’t know when or how big, but they say it’s coming. "They" are a couple of professionals, one from the US. I don’t know if I believe it. How can they predict this one but didn’t know anything about the last one till it happened? I guess we’ll see, but I don’t think so.

Well, that’s all for this week. We’re going to play soccer with the whole zone soon, so we have to go get ready.
Hasta luego.

Elder Murdoch

2010-07-20T08:27:00.002-06:00

Wow. What a week. Actually, not much happened. A lot of appointments fell through, so we did a lot of walking and a lot of playing by ear to see where to go next. We were able to find a couple of investigators that we had lost contact with, and we found a new one as well.

Friday we had an activity at the church, then afterwards a couple of appointments fell through. We found ourselves at 8:00 pm with 0 contacts. I haven´t said much about contacts up till now, but we´re supposed to do 20 contacts every day, 10 every missionary. There´s a promise from Elder Ballard that if we do it we´ll double our baptisms. So there we were 2 hours before returning to the house, and we didn´t have a single contact. So we started talking to people in the street and knocked a couple of apartment buildings. In one of them we found a lady, about 50-years-old, named Rosa. She let us in and we shared a little with her. A couple of years ago she listened to the sister missionaries and even went to church a few times! She accepted a baptismal date for August 15th. The problem with her will be that she smokes, so we´ll have to help her drop that. But she´s really great.

Venus has been out bright this past week. It´s been pretty cool to be able to see it, but now it´s dropping lower in the sky.

Well, the other day we had lunch with the same member who in the past has given us seaweed and octupus stomach. This time, though, there wasn´t anything like that, and lunch was really good. The dessert, on the other hand, was a bit different. It was something I´ve had before, but never so much. Also, it never is seen in the States as far as I know, but if prepared right (which it wasn´t on Friday) it´s pretty good. It´s called......Rice with milk. Yep, that is what the name says. A bowl of rice with milk poured in, sometimes with a tiny bit of sugar. It´s not too bad, just a little different.

Saturday morning, for the first time in three weeks, we went and played soccer. It was way fun. Having been out of commission for three weeks I didn´t do very well but not too bad either. I got three goals, and the best is that my arm didn´t hurt at all. Yeah!

Well, kinda short today. Not too much happened. Hopefully more happens this week so next Monday there is more.
¡Ciao!

Elder Murdoch

2010-07-12T12:25:00.000-06:00

Finally we had a week that went slow! Last week seemed to last a little longer. The bad part is that it was a rough week. A lot of real important lessons fell through. On top of that it’s been really cold, and Tuesday it rained, making it almost impossible to do anything except visit the members. We had very few lessons the whole week and didn’t get too much done.

Eliana wasn’t here this week. Her family lives in the South of Chile, and her mom has been really, really sick. Last week she got worse so Eliana went to visit her. Saturday night the mother passed away. We imagine that Eliana will be returning this week, so we’ll be able to teach her again. We’ll definitely teach her the Plan of Salvation. Hope we can help her. She is really interested and really wants to be baptized.

Patricio wasn’t at his house when we went to pick him up for church yesterday. We waited, but no one came out. So we went without him, and he didn’t get confirmed. During priesthood he showed up. He had gotten in a fight with his little brother (they live with an uncle) and spent the night outside of the house. We don’t know where. So he’ll have to wait till next Sunday to get confirmed. The bishop here, as is encouraged in his leadership manual, likes to "get to know" investigators before the baptism. I say "get to know" because he technically can’t interview them till they’re members. But he has to be with us during, so we visited with him and Patricio. It was great. The bishop encouraged him a lot to finish his studies, find work, get to know members, etc. I think it really helped Patricio realize that he will be loved in this ward. It was great.

A while back, Elder Rasmussen and I contacted a lady named Margarita and her 13-year old son, Gonzalo. Later, Elder King and I passed by once and soon after lost contact with her. The other night we found ourselves in the street, all of the appointments fallen through, with nothing to do. We started wandering, talking with people, trying to find someone to visit. We showed up right outside of the departments where she lives. I looked up and noticed the living room light out, and right then she showed up in the bedroom window. She saw us, waved, and asked if we wanted in. We had nothing to do, so we accepted. Turns out she had a question she wanted to ask us and was happy to see us again. We helped her with the question, teaching a lot about the Holy Ghost and how He can help us, "creating a hunger" as President May says, and then explained that the way to receive this Spirit and the blessings is through baptism. It was a great lesson. Tomorrow we will pass by again to teach more. We’re glad to have found her again.

My elbow is slowly improving. It feels a lot better, although is a little sore still, and I can’t use it with too much force. I can’t support myself against the wall, and pushups are out of the question. *sniff* But I’m without the sling right now, and it feels great. It should keep healing pretty well from here.

Well, the World Cup is now over. The final match was yesterday. It was kind of an upset. Germany was playing really well, as well as Holland, and everyone expected one of them to win, and Spain would be 3rd. But it ended up the other way. Germany was 3rd, Holland took 2nd, and Spain won the first place. I thought Spain would win, but wanted Holland. Although at the beginning I was rooting for USA and Chile. They both made it to the second round, but then got out. Well, there’s always 2014. Then I’ll be able to watch it.

Well, last week was a big trial, but this week will be better. We have several people to teach, and are way excited. It should be a good week.

Elder Murdoch

2010-07-05T12:06:00.001-06:00

Wow! We just finished up a very short and very busy week. A lot happened last week, the last one of the transfer. Including a lot of wasted money and time in traveling to the doctor, Elder Limburg; to a clinic to do X-Rays; back to Elder Limburg with the images; to the clinic to drop them off and later to pick up the report; back to Elder Limburg with the report; then to an expert on arms. He had me get another X-Ray then looked at it. The final note is that there is a fracture in my left elbow. Fortunately, it’s not broken or displaced, and the fracture is not too big. He gave me a sling and told me to take Ibuprofen and go back this Thursday. So, it’s not too serious. At times it starts hurting pretty bad, not just the elbow but also the forearm and wrist; but I take an Ibuprofen and that helps with the pain. I hope it gets better real soon. I hate being half crippled. Luckily, I can use my arm for some things but not all. The other day at lunch the sister gave us chicken, and she had to cut mine for me. How embarrassing!! I hate not being able to do everything on my own.

We are now starting a new transfer, the last one for Elder King. Nothing happened with us. Actually, the four of us in the ward all stayed here. Elder King is finishing the mission here. The next transfer will be really interesting to see if I stay here one transfer more or if they send me somewhere else and bring in two other missionaries.

Yesterday was a great 4th of July, even though I almost had forgot about it. Patricio was baptized. He was excited for it; it was something he really wanted to do. He’s really quiet and shy, but afterwards a lot of people welcomed him to the ward and made him feel really welcomed. They even invited him to a Family Home Evening, which I think he went to. It was a great baptismal service with a lot of people there to support him. We had asked an RM, recently off a mission one month, to baptize him. It was great!

Last week I talked about Eliana, friend of Sister Manriquez. She is amazing! A golden investigator. She went to church yesterday--the second time--and actually arrived alone, without Sister Manriquez. In a lesson last week, we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When we were talking about baptism she asked, "What does one have to do to be baptized? Like, what are the requirements?" It’s something that she really wants to do. Her problem is that feels that she lacks the faith to be able to do it. Since then, we’ve been studying a little more about faith, looking up scriptures, etc. to be able to help her. She definitely will get baptized in July, either the 18th or 25th. She’s really great. Oh, and we discovered that Diego, her son, is 7. He turns 8 in October.

The other two Elders in our ward gave us a great referral the other day. A recent convert in their sector has a friend in ours who went to the church with her. His name is Pedro (Peter), the same as his dad, and the mom is Ivonne. We passed by to visit Pedro Jr., but his mom came to the door. We did just a normal contact, and she rejected us. We walked away then decided to go back and ask for Pedro. That time the dad, Pedro Sr., came to the door and let us in right away. Turns out that when Elder King told her that we offer service, she understood that if she needs help she can go to the church to ask. (They live like one minute away from the church.) She is Baptist, but doesn’t go to church. The dad believes in God and Jesus but isn’t part of any church. Pedro Jr. is 16 and likes what he saw in our church. When we were talking about how the Gospel of Jesus Christ blesses families and listed blessings, they were astonished. They said that right before we showed up they were talking about how they’re not very united as a family and there’s too much contention. They said they hadn’t gathered as a family to pray and converse for a long time before we showed up. The spirit was really strong, and at the end of the lesson the dad said, "God sent you two here. I know it." They accepted everything we taught and committed to read in the Book of Mormon and pray about it and Joseph Smith. They are a great family. I’m sure Pedro Jr. will get baptized, probably Pedro Sr., and possibly Ivonne.

The other day I had another interesting lunch. The same sister who gave us seaweed a few weeks ago decided to be creative again. She brought us out a salad with lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, etc. and something white, hardish, and with mayo that Elder King took to be potatoes. But when we ate, it was more chewable than potatoes should be. We soon learned that it was "Jibia", a part of "Pulpo." Well, Jibia doesn’t have an English translation, but it is the stomach of Pulpo, which is octopus. Which is to say: I ATE OCTOPUS STOMACH!! Needless to say, I did not enjoy it too much. At least I ate all of it anyway. Elder King, when the Sister left the room, put his in a napkin and in his pocket. Later he threw it away. Hahaha!

The other day, when we were teaching Eliana, there was a small tremor. We were in an apartment building on the 3rd floor. I felt a little shaking and looked to the side to see if my comp was moving his leg, but he wasn’t. Then it got a little stronger. It was just a small one, but it lasted a good little while. Startled me a little, and Eliana jumped up and ran out the door. Fortunately, it stopped and everything was okay.

Well, I’m about out of time. The last week was a full one, and I hope to have more of those as this transfer progresses.

Ciao!

Elder Murdoch

Patricio Baptism

Almost Dead (?) Shoe

2010-06-28T11:08:00.002-06:00

Well, this past week was another fast one, full of experiences. I’m not too sure where to start. Well, maybe with the World Cup update. We’re in the part like the sweet sixteen in the March Madness. So now if you loose, ciao. The US got beat out by Ghana on Saturday, big bummer. Today Chile plays Brazil. Brazil is supposedly really good, so they’ll probably win. Not to mention that Chile will be missing several key players due to yellow cards in the last game. So things aren’t looking too good for them; but anything can happen. Sounds like Argentina’s playing really well, not surprisingly, and Germany the other day beat England 3-1. It’ll be interesting to see who comes out the winner.

Speaking of soccer, I have a couple stories about that this week. There’s a brother in the ward, Hermano Olave (for those who don’t speak Spanish, hermano is brother), who is a soccer fanatic. He watches and plays and is really, really good. He has a lot of stories of past experiences. But a few weeks ago he was playing and got hurt pretty bad. Another player slid into him, and he just jumped over. But then the guy reached up and pulled him down. When he landed he basically destroyed his knee. I think the bone was broken, ligaments, cartilage, everything, goodbye. It was pretty bad. They operated and put some metal in his knee. He’s really bad. We visited him the other night and he was in a lot of pain. Supposedly they had talked to someone else in the ward that was going to call us to go give him a blessing. So when we showed up they assumed that he had called us. I gave him the blessing, and afterward he climbed back into bed. He looked calm and said that the pain all went away. His wife was really surprised and said that he had been yelling like a woman in labor (she knows how it is, having three children) and that it was way bad and everyone was really worried. Then they realized that we had gotten there really quick after the other brother had called us. The thing was he never called us. We were in the street walking and suddenly decided to visit them. They were surprised but happy. It was a good experience.

That is interesting because now I am in a similar situation as Hermano Olave. Saturday we were playing soccer on a concrete court outside of a church. Another Elder had the ball in the goal area and I went up behind to kick it out to stop him from scoring. We crashed and I ended up on the ground. Lucky for him he didn’t fall. Unlucky for me, I landed directly on my elbow. It hurt pretty badly, but I just thought it was a stinger and the pain would go away. So I kept playing, favoring my left arm to not hurt it worse. The thing is the pain never went away. Actually, in the shower, and during studies it got worse. So we talked to the office and ended up going to the mission doctor, Elder Limburg. He sent me to a medical clinic to get X-Rays, for which we requested a copy. Then we returned to him so he could look at it. He isn’t sure exactly what it is. He thinks it’s a fracture in the bone in my elbow, but he couldn’t tell how big. And the clinic needs the copy we have in order to do a report. So we have to go up and wait for the report, hopefully tomorrow or possibly Wednesday or Thursday. Then we’ll be able to know if it’s something serious or not, if I need a cast or not. So for now I have an Ace bandage, a sling, ice, and Ibuprofen. It doesn’t hurt too badly anymore, but it still does give me problems if I move it wrong. I can’t bend my elbow, or straighten my arm too much, and also my hand is partly out of commission as well. Fortunately, I am able to type. Also fortunately, I didn’t have to play the piano in church yesterday. I missed it a little, but it was a nice little break from playing. So for a couple days I have had and will have a sling, which of course attracts a lot of attention and questions. I was going to count yesterday how many times I said "I fell down playing soccer" but I lost count pretty quick. It’s been an interesting experience. Another day before the elbow incident, I fell playing soccer and scraped up my leg pretty bad. It hurt for a day but then stopped. But it looks pretty cool. I’ll include a picture.

Well, enough soccer, time for the spiritual stuff. There’s a sister in the ward, Sister Manriquez, that we’ve been working with for awhile. A couple weeks ago she introduced us to a friend, Eliana. Sister Manriquez´s daughter and Eliana´s son are in the same class, and the son, Diego, stays with Sister Manriquez after school until his mom can pick him up after her work. We’re actually not sure if Diego is 7 or 8. We know he’s on the line. Hopefully 8. :) We’ve taught her a couple times. The problem is that they rent what’s called a pieza. Here in Chile a lot of times there are houses that rent out individual rooms, and the majority share one or two bathrooms and a kitchen. That’s how Eliana lives, and supposedly it’s a big mess and she feels shameful to invite other people to her house. So we have to teach her in the house of Sister Manriquez. But Eliana is really great. Golden. She basically has the same question that Joseph Smith had. She’s had contact with a lot of religions, and none of them caught her attention. But she doesn’t know which one is right or how to know. We shared the movie The Restoration with her as well as giving her a Book of Mormon, which she promised to read. The Spirit was really strong; she really enjoyed it. Yesterday she and Diego went to church, and they both loved it. She is a great investigator and should be able to get baptized in July.

Patricio, the 19-year-old we’ve been teaching, is progressing really great. This past week we talked about baptism, and he really wants to do it. He will probably be baptized this Sunday. He is really humble, really calm, which is strange for 19 year olds here in Chile. But he’s really great and is progressing well.

Adela keeps progressing in the church. She’s in the book of Helaman right now, almost at the end. It’s so crazy. It takes some people a year to read the Book of Mormon. This morning I finished, but I’ve been reading since last July. Well, granted I’ve been reading in Spanish. But she started in March! She’s read through Helaman in four months! She’s crazy!! Plus, how she does it is she reads a few chapters straight through then goes back and reads the same ones again, sometimes looking up footnotes in D&C, the Bible, etc. So basically she’s reading the Book of Mormon TWICE! She is really great.

Well, this last week was a tough one. A lot of appointments fell through, and we had a rough time most of the days. Not to mention my elbow, which made us loose a whole day of work Saturday. But this week is just starting, and we’re going to work hard and do everything we can to end this transfer on a good note. Crazy how this is the last week of the transfer. It seems like just last week Elder King got here. Wow.

Well, the days count up and the temperature goes down. It’s getting colder, and July gets even colder. We just have a little electric stove that throws fits every once in awhile, and warms up the room a little. Then we leave the house and realize that it’s warmer outside than inside. How does that work? We’re still looking for somewhere else to live but not having any luck. Just gotta keep looking.

Well, that’s all for now. Talk to you next week.

Elder Murdoch

Soccer Owie!!

2010-06-21T14:21:00.001-06:00

The weeks just keep going faster and faster. And this past one was full of soccer games, as we are in the middle of the world cup. I don’t know how many of you know what that is, but it’s pretty cool. Chile beat Honduras and Switzerland. Friday they play Spain, who is supposedly favored to win but lost to Switzerland. So it’s likely that Chile will advance to the next round. The US tied England and Slovenia. They have to beat Argelia on Wednesday to advance.

Also, this Thursday we’re going to have a mission activity. In Spanish World Cup is Copa Mundial. Thursday is the Copa Misional, or Mission Cup. We’ll play soccer zone against zone. It’ll be fun.

And speaking of soccer, last night we visited a family of inactives, and they asked to see pictures of our families. The dad, who is a big joker and really funny, said that my Dad looks like the President of the National Soccer Association of Chile. Kind of funny.

Well, we’re finding a lot of great people and have a lot of potential baptisms. We have put the goal of 10 baptisms before Elder King leaves August 16th. Definitely possible.

Patricio (Patrick) went to church again yesterday and this time stayed for the classes. He loved it. He’s been reading in the Book of Mormon, but he’s a slow reader, so he reads one chapter a day. Still, he’s really great and is progressing wonderfully. He should be baptized July 4. GO USA!!

Saturday night we visited a woman that we had contacted in the street several days before and set up an appointment. Her name is Patricia, and she is great. After the lesson she told us that when we got there the house was kind of messy and she was watching a movie and didn’t want to open the door. She wasn’t going to but something told her, "Hey. You invited them. Open the door." So as we were leaving she came and let us in. The lesson was really great. She believed everything we said. She understood well the importance of prophets, something that a lot of people here don’t catch. At the end she said that she felt really great and thinks it is something to do with our religion. Unfortunately, she is really busy being a chef as is her husband. So it’s hard to find them in the week, except maybe late at night. Next Sunday we’re going to pass by and teach her more and the husband as well as the 9-year-old daughter.

Well, I have to go. Got a lot to do and not too much time. But things here are going great and we should be having a lot of baptisms coming up.
¡Adios!

Elder Murdoch

2010-06-14T16:52:00.001-06:00

Man! It’s so crazy how fast the time passes! I´m almost done with month 14! It goes by way too fast. Gotta take advantage of everything.

The highlight of this past week was going to the temple on Thursday. I loved it! It had been 6 months since the last time. It gave us all a spiritual high. Hopefully we can mantain it. The temple President came and talked to us before and told us a couple of cool stories. One was about a woman and her daughter who walked into the temple in street clothes wanting to talk to the "director." The mom was an inactive member, but she said ex-member. The daughter had had a dream about living in a building, in the 3rd floor, even gave the room number. It was kinda like a hotel. She said that when she left the building she felt sad and unexcited. But then she saw another building, shiny white, with a messenger painted gold. When she told her inactive mom about it, the mom immediately recognized the Mormon temple, so they decided to go there. While talking to President Lyon, he said to her, "You are going to go on a mission. That building you saw was the MTC." Close to the temple is a church owned building. I don´t know what is on the other floors, but the 3rd, like in her dream, is the MTC. He left to go get a card for her. When he got back she said, "You were in my dream. I saw a tall man dressed in white giving me a card." They called President May right away to pass the referral. She got baptized and I imagine is preparing for the mission.

The other story he told us was of a couple who showed up also wanting to talk to him. The wife had her endownments, and they had come so he could get his and they could be sealed. The problem is that he´s deaf and dumb. She knows sign language, so they can talk. The cool part is that they were able to work it out so that he could read instead of listen. They fixed everything so that he could go through. Afterwards, they met again in the office to talk. President Lyon asked the man what was his favorite part of the temple. The man said, "Today my favorite scripture has been fulfilled." In 2 Nephi 27:29 it says, "And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness." That´s awesome.

Yesterday German and his sister Ingrid went to church! They´re inactives that we´ve been teaching. She is an RM and has been pretty stubborn about doing the things that she needs. But she went yesterday! Also, German’s girlfriend that lives in Viña del Mar. We also taught her Saturday night, and she loved it. She was way excited about the Book of Mormon that we gave her. We´ll see how that goes and if we can keep teaching her even though she lives in Viña.

We finally got permission to teach Solange. She really wants to learn and progress, but her husband doesn’t want her too. We’ve never been able to talk to him about it, but Friday he was there. He opened the door and wasn´t going to let us in, but then she came and let us in. He is really closed about our religion. He´s Baptist and doesn’t want anything to do with us. Actually, he started criticizing us because supposedly there was some problem with the Olympics in Salt Lake--some money confusion. He thought it was the Church’s fault because Salt Lake is our headquarters. We told him the church had nothing to do with that, but he didn´t believe us. Oh well. His problem. The good thing is that he gave us permission to teach Solange and the kids. He said, "I´m not interested (that´s obvious), but I´m not a dictator. The other people in this house have their rights if they want to listen." So tomorrow we have an appointment with Solange. Yeah!!

A couple weeks ago we started teaching a 40-ish-year-old, but he usually doesn’t have a lot of time. He lives with a nephew, Patricio, who also started listening. He´s 19, a senior, and says that in his school they stopped teaching religion (most schools do, since the main religion here is Catholic); and he wants to learn more. He accepted a baptismal date for July 4.Yesterday we picked him up and he went to church. He loved it and asked if we can pick him up next week, too. He is really humble and excited to keep learning.

Well, the world cup has started. It´s kind of ironic that it never mattered to me in the past and now that I am interested and want to watch, I can´t. Bummer! But we do hear a lot about the results. Sounds like the US tied 1-1 with England on Saturday. There have been several other ties, and a couple of teams have won, including Germany, Argentina, and a couple of teams in Africa. Chile plays against Honduras on Wednesday. Hopefully they’ll win!! :)

Well, that´s all this week. We keep finding some good people, and it keeps getting colder and colder. Fun!
¡Ciao!

Elder Murdoch

2010-06-07T14:14:00.001-06:00

Well last week, aside from being fast, was a good week. We’ve been working hard and have found some good people. We were able to help Jeagnelle and her daughter, Kirsti, accept a baptismal date for June 27. Unfortunately, the grandma, Leiry, had to leave during the lesson. And they couldn’t come to the church yesterday. Their problem is that they work a lot. But hopefully they can come to church this Sunday. They are a great family.

Saturday morning they had seminary right before our English Class. A young man brought a friend, Matias, and they also stayed for the English Class. Afterwards we left for lunch, but the other two Elders in the ward stayed and taught Matias and another friend that had come. She lives in their sector and Matias in ours. They both accepted a baptismal date for July 4, Independence Day. Well, ours not theirs. Matias went to the church yesterday and seems to have enjoyed it. We had lunch with the seminary teacher after and she said that he’s really enjoying that. Now we just have to get permission from his parents. Hopefully they’ll give it to us. Sometimes parents can be the biggest problem. But we’re praying that they’ll give him permission.

So, last week I talked a little about a problem with our bathroom. Fortunately, we were able to fix it. The toilet was clogged up is all. But we don’t know how it happened. But we bought a plunger and fixed it. It was quite the experience, and I’m glad it’s over. But even so, we are really hoping, praying and searching for a new place. The department that we found last week was rented out to someone else, so we’re "back to the old drawing board." In other words, still searching.

I recall in Carrión, my other sector, having eaten cow feet, chicken feet, and pig stomach. Well, this Saturday I found something else to add to the list. Something that I had heard about and hoped to not eat on the mission. And I made it a little past a year. But finally a member decided to give us a salad.....with......seaweed. Some people here like it and others no. I’ve heard it said that if you really know how to prepare the seaweed, it can be really yummy. But either that’s wrong, or the sister who made it didn’t know how because I didn’t really like it too much. The good thing was that it was in a salad with potatoes, tomatoes, broccoli, etc. so I could mix it up with something else. A lot of what I did was put it in my mouth and swallow right away. It was, well, interesting. The texture is really weird. Anyway, there’s another weird food to add to the list.

Well, we’re getting deeper into winter right now, and it’s getting colder and colder. Especially in the morning. We just have a little tiny electric heater that doesn’t do much. It’s even a small room and it never gets very warm. We have to leave the heater on for three years and seven months before it does much. And Juana, the wife of the owner of our house, has asked us to not have it on for too long as it eats energy and the bill goes up a lot. Man! I really hope we can find a better place really, really soon, or I am going to die!!!

Well, not much else is happening. We get to go to the temple this week. I don’t know why President decided to do it, but I’m not complaining. I’m way excited to get to go. It’s been six months since the last time. The temple should not be visited twice a year. Twice a month maybe. Granted that we’re missionaries and have other things to do. But I’d still like to go more often.

Well, that’s it for this week. We’re still working hard to find a new house and more people, as well as helping those we have to progress.

Hasta luego.

Elder Murdoch

2010-05-31T13:49:00.001-06:00

Well, this last week was a little rough. We ended up dropping Catalina. She wasn’t progressing really well but was going to go to church yesterday. But when we passed by Saturday for a quick visit they had left for the North of Chile for two weeks. Yup. ¡Ciao! Hopefully later she can understand more the importance of baptism and can take that step. But for now we’ve done our part, and at least she has the Book of Mormon with a little knowledge we left.

We visited Solange a couple times this week. She said that she and her husband got into a heated discussion, which never happens, about us coming to visit her. We’re not too sure if he just doesn’t want us in the house or if he’s against her listening to us at all. She wanted to keep listening to us and hide it. She said that sometimes he leaves for a week for work, so she could go to church and he wouldn’t have to know. We explained that we’re happy she wants to keep listening, but that we respect her husband and don’t want to create problems. She’s going to talk to him and try and get permission to keep listening. We also gave her some pictures of Jesus Christ (Baptism, Atonement, Resurrection, etc.), which she loved. We really want to be able to get to know her husband and try to gain his confidence. But we’re a little afraid to pass by when he isn’t there and then having him show up and get mad. So we asked Adela if she could pass by to get to know Solange and invite her to a lesson in the house of Adela. Also, it is more ideal to take investigators to a member’s house. We’re hoping that it works and that we can talk with Solange’s husband.

Adela really is helping us a lot. We also had shared a little with her neighbor, Erika. But her husband, who works outside of Santiago (and is Yugoslavian--cool), came home for a week. He’s Catholic, and while he’s there we can’t share with her. So Adela invited her to church (she ended up not going) and also to a lesson at her house. The lesson went great, and we can see that Erika really wants to progress. The rest of her family are Evangelists, so she has husband pulling on one side, parents on another, and not wanting either one but not wanting problems either. We’re praying a lot for her to be able to make the right choice.

Last night we were walking to visit someone and passed a couple of women in the street hauling huge heavy garbage bags of cloth. Obviously we offered our help and, to our astonishment, they accepted!! No one ever accepts our help, no matter how hard the task. So we carried the bags for them and on the way talked with them. It was a mother, Leiry, and her daughter Jeagnelle. Yep, weird name. It’s pronounced like Jack-Nellie, and she’s about 30ish. They make fleece coats for work but sometimes carry the materials to a friend who helps them cut and sew because their department room is really small. Afterwards we went to their apartment/workshop with them and met Jeagnelle´s kids. Kirsti is 8, a boy whose name I don’t remember, is 5, and Ethan is 3 1/2. They are a great family. We sang for them and talked for awhile. They were really excited about the English classes we’re giving, especially to help Kirsti. She talked with me a lot about music because we had told them I play the piano. She also likes to sing and wants to learn piano or violin. Jeagnelle has a way crazy story. Aside from living in like 6 different houses in the same community, her husband drinks A LOT, and sometimes would get home and throw around chairs, plates, and sometimes hit her, whether she said or did anything or not. One time in the street he waited at a corner with a knife to kill her. (Actually not too far from where we live) But an old man who owns a small store close by (He always greets us. He’s way nice.) and a couple other people stopped him and he’s in jail now. The really sad thing is that this affected Ethan a lot, and he says to his mom "I’m going to kill my dad. He tried to kill you, but I’ll kill him." They said once he said to the mom and grandma, "You two don’t worry about anything. When my dad gets out of jail I’ll take care of him." HE´S THREE YEARS OLD!! It’s really sad, but Jeagnelle is taking him to a psychologist. We’re also hoping that as we teach them the Gospel an find him friends that he can forget about all that. They really are a great family and I’m looking forward to continuing with them. The grandma, Leiry, is separated from her husband, who is a member. She also works with a member who is actually part of a family that Elder King knows from his last sector. What a small world. We’ll be praying a lot for Jeagnelle and her family.

The other day Adela told us about a department that is up for rent close to her. Today we passed by to take a look. They weren’t there, but an old lady who supposedly is helping them took our names and number and is going to talk to the people. We might be getting a new place to live soon!! This is really good. It’s really freezing in the mornings. Not to mention that the toilet stopped working. We don’t know if it’s plugged up or if there’s another problem. When we flush it fills with water, which then leaves. But only the water leaves. Nothing else. So we try to use the bathroom in a store, the church, etc. But needless to say sometimes at night we just have to go. Without going into too much detail, the bathroom really smells bad. We’re going to try to find a plunger and hope that can fix it. Yummy.

Yesterday for combined 3rd hour the bishop showed a movie called The Butterfly Circus. The main actor is a guy who, in the movie and real life, has no legs or arms. It was a great movie. And the guy also gives motivational talks and everything. It was really cool.

Well, I’m out of time for this week. It was a rough week like I said. But we’ve changed some things, organized a lot, and this next week we’re really going to work hard. We have several people that we are teaching, and should have a lot of baptisms in June and July.

Well, have a great week!!

Elder Murdoch

2010-05-24T14:58:00.004-06:00

San Pablo Zone - May 2010

Elder Rasmussen and I with Adela

Well, one more transfer done. I now am on my 9th, with 13 months in the mission. Crazy! It´s going by way too fast. Right now I´m with Elder King, from North Carolina. He has this transfer and half of the next, aka 2 months, till he finishes the mission. There´s a chance he might finish it with me. I really hope that we can have a lot of success so that he can finish on a good note. I heard that he is an athlete and big on sports, so we´ll probably be doing a lot of sports, which is okay with me. :)

Talking about sports, last Friday morning we played some basketball. Elder Nicholas, my second companion, and his companion Elder Jex, invited us and a couple other sectors to play in there church. Unfortunately, we boarded the wrong bus and got a little lost. We woke up at 5:30 but didn´t get to the church till 7:00. But we still got in some good playing time. We were tired the whole rest of the day, but it was worth it. It was really fun. Not my best game. I´ve really lost my talent. But I still enjoyed it.

Wednesday in Divisions with Elder Mendoza, we did a street contact with a member inactive. He was pretty excited to talk to us and we set up an appointment. He lives with his sister, who served her mission about 8 years ago. They´re both members since really young. He was preparing his papers for the mission but never went. But he´s only 22, so there´s still a chance. He seemed really excited to have us and interested in returning. He was going to come to church yesterday, but his girlfriend from Viña del Mar came so he couldn´t. But he still is really interested. His sister, Ingrid, unfortunately, doesn´t want anything. She straight out told us that she won´t read the Book of Mormon, pray, repent, or go to church. Seems like something pretty big happened, but we don´t know what. She said she wants to go slow for now. But German, the brother, should progress faster.

Last week we knocked the door of a woman named Solange. She seemed a little startled, but happy to see us, and invited us in. We didn´t have time before the next appointment, so we set up another time to pass by. We went by Saturday night. It was raining really hard, and she was really surprised when we showed up. She figured that no one would leave to preach the gospel in the rain, and was happy to see that we will. The lesson went great and the Spirit was really strong. Her 15 year old daughter, Javiera, also listened to us. When we were talking about the importance of prayer, she said "Oh yeah. I always pray. I talk with God, thank him for all that he gives me, and I close in the name of Jesus Christ." She later said, "I have a strong testimony that God answers prayers. He´s answered mine before, and I know that he is always listening." Well, I thought, we don´t have to focus too much on prayer. They both committed to read in the Book of Mormon-Moroni 10- and to pray. We´re going to pass tonight to see how it went. Her husband might present a problem. She said she doesn´t know if he´ll allow her and Javiera to keep listening to us or go to church. But we´ve been praying hard that he will let them. They should progress well.

Well, kind of short this week. Not much happened. We´re a little low on investigators, but working hard to find more. Thanks for all of your prayers.

Elder Murdoch

2010-05-17T11:35:00.002-06:00

Man, the weeks just go faster and faster!! This last week was full of experiences.
Wednesday we had division with the Zone Leaders. Elder Rasmussen stayed here in the sector with Elder Caro from Columbia. Actually, Elder Caro trained Elder Rasmussen, so they both enjoyed it. They found 3 new investigators. One was a ten-year-old boy who since then we´ve lost because his parents don´t want anything. (His mom and grandparents are members but don´t want to go to church.) The other two were actually referrals that we had received from an inactive member. They´re friends that live close to each other--two women about 40ish. Erika lives right next to Adela, our recent convert, and Maria Eugenia lives a couple minutes away. The problem is that we haven´t been able to find them since then. They´re never home when we come. Well, a couple times there have been lights on at Erika´s, but no one comes to the door. We´ll keep trying to contact them, but we might drop them this week.

Adela´s progressing well. We´ve talked to her about the mission (which she´s thinking about, hmmmmm) and patriarchal blessings. She hasn´t shown much interest in the latter. But she did go to the temple to walk around the gardens. Unfortunately, she didn´t understand how to get there. She knew it´s in the corner of Procuro and Pedro de Valdivia, but what we hadn´t explained is that it´s not right on the corner; you have to turn and walk for two minutes. So she arrived at the church office building there and was really disappointed. But we explained better how to get there and she´s going to go back. She also went to institute all on her own! The one she went to was for people who have been in the church longer, so she didn´t understand much; but she´s going to go with a member to a different institute that she´ll understand. That´ll be great.

Catalina is progressing a little. She´s been reading and praying, but she still hasn´t been able to go to church. And the other day when we taught the Word of Wisdom she said she has a "problem" with tea. This "problem" is that she likes the taste even though her mom said she hardly ever, almost never, drinks it. Today I´m going to buy her some herbal tea and see if she can change. She´s ten-years-old. She shouldn´t have a problem with the Word of Wisdom!!!

It´s been getting really, really cold here, especially in the mornings. We have a little plug-in electric stove, but it doesn´t do much. Our house is so horrible! But we may be finding another one soon. Yesterday we had lunch with a family that lives in an apartment building. Funny enough, all that floor are members--them, her sister next door, a man that we´re teaching that was baptized at 8 but then immediately went inactive. And the fourth door is another family of inactives that are moving. They supposedly are leaving this Saturday, and they want to rent out the apartment! Tonight we´re going to stop by and talk to them about renting it. We hope that they will be okay with it, since we´re missionaries and they´ll know that we´ll take care of it and they´ll receive their money on time each week. Pray for us to be able to get it.

Have I mentioned how I´m starting to hate dogs? They´re all over the place.There are more dogs in the street than in the houses here. All sorts of strays all over. Sometimes they bark as we pass, very seldom coming after us, and even then they keep their distance. We just have to show that we will defend ourselves. But the other day the unexpected happened. We showed up at lunch with a sister in the ward, and Elder Rasmussen had to borrow her hose to wipe some dog crap off his shoe (another dog problem). As he finished and we were entering the house, the member´s dog came over. Apparently she likes to play, but when dogs play they use their teeth. So we kind of danced into the house, trying to avoid her mouth making contact with our legs. But I missed a step and she got me. Fortunately it wasn´t a horrible bite. But there is a nice little whole in my pants and my leg. It´s already starting to heal up, but I wanted to boot that dog hard.

Yesterday in church I was saying hello to some members, making my way to the piano to play some interlude when he bishop came over and asked me if I could give a short talk about missionary work right after the sacrament. So I had to prepare it during announcements, ward business, and the sacrament. I couldn´t during the hymns because I was playing. It was really rushed, but I felt really good about how it turned out. Several members told me that it was great, including one that said my accent sounded Chilean. I talked some about D&C 4 and then about member missionary work with the quote from David O. McKay "Every member a missionary." Then I talked about a book that I read called "Already to Harvest" by an old mission president in which he reads from D&C 33:8-10 about "Open your mouths and they shall be filled." He talks about 2 questions one can do while talking with a nonmember. These are: 1) Do you like to read? and 2) If I gave you a book about the story of Christ´s visit to the Americas, would you read it? He said that this has been tested to be 85% efficient. It´s a great idea, and I´m hoping that the members will agree and put it to the test.

Well, I´m out of time for this week. This is the last week of the transfer, so we´ll see where I am next week.
Hasta Luego!

Elder Murdoch

2010-05-10T19:41:00.002-06:00

Well, another week has flown by. It´s amazing how fast the time goes. It seems like a month ago I got here to Chile and a couple days ago I completed a year. Now I lack a week to have 13 months. Crazy! But it´s been a great experience, and I keep learning more and more each day. Oh, and Adela got confirmed yesterday. Yeah!!! She´s great, and is really excited. We´ve taught everything, even the after baptism lessons already. She´s thought of going to the temple to get a tour around the gardens with a Sister missionary that works there. She´s going to progress quickly.

We had an interesting experience this past week. First off, our house is really horrible. We have no idea how sister missionaries used to live there. We live in a little shack above the garage. Below us is nothing, and the boards actually have little slits so we can see the light from below when it´s on. It had a balcony which they kinda boarded over with walls and a window. But it still has the slits between the little poles on the railing, so the cold air comes in really easily. It gets freezing, especially in the morning. But last Wednesday the owner, who lives in the house below--well, the house to the garage below--decided to fix our bathroom. He said that when we shower and get water on the floor (because the shower is small and the curtain´s horrible) it drips down into the garage. So he hired some guy to come in and fix it. Really all he did was put linoleum on the floor and wall with a bunch of strong rubber cement stuff. It looks a lot better now; but the rubber cement stuff he used smells really strong, and he was using a whole bucket. The smell got so strong that he almost passed out and had to leave halfway through the job.

Meanwhile, we´re out walking in the street, knocking doors, and Juana, the owner´s wife, calls us. She said that the smell was so strong the worker had to leave and she didn´t want us to sleep there cause she thought we´d die. Apparently it´s also really toxic. So we arranged to sleep with Elder King and Elder Mangels from Dorsal 1because they live close. (They´re the other Elders from our ward.) So we planned to go home about 9:30 to gather together stuff to go over there. But during one of our lessons with a recent convert it started to rain. Luckily he had two umbrellas that he let us use. So when we got to the house we threw some blankets and pillows in a suitcase and called Radiotaxi to send a taxi to pick us up at the corner. He told us someone would be there in 20 minutes. So 15 minutes later we showed up. We then waited about 15 minutes. When he didn´t show up we called again. They told us they´d send someone. After about 10 more minutes we got frustrated and decided to walk. So there we were, two gringos in our pj´s, walking down the street with a suitcase and umbrellas, drenched from the rain cause it was coming down HARD!! We arrived at the other Elders´ house about 15 minutes later, deciding we should have walked in the first place. But by the time we got there we were both drenched, despite rain coats and umbrellas. Then we opened the suitcase. My pillow, which was on top, was drenched, and the blankets were damp on the edges. It was pretty bad. Oh, and we had to sleep on the wood floor. Let´s just say that I did not sleep much that night. The next morning we showered at the house of a member, and also did our weekly planning there. The guy finished the bathroom during the day and we were fortunately able to sleep at home that night. It was quite an experience.

Friday we had a Zone Conference. It was really great, and I learned a lot from it. Afterwards they gave us injections to protect against N1H1, aka Swine Flu. I´ve already had it here, but I got the shot anyway just to make sure. You never know. While there I was able to see a lot of people that I´ve met on the mission, including a companion from the MTC. I also saw an Elder that is in my previous sector right now so I was able to talk to him. Sadly, I found out that most of my converts there are inactive. One visits somewhere else on weekends; another doesn´t go ever; another is inactive with her husband, who is a member and got active when she got baptized but now they´re both inactive; and the Elder doesn´t even know the other one. All the inactives are the females. The two men, Nicolas and Tomás are active. Tomás has the Aaronic Priesthood and has been blessing the sacrament. That´s good. But I´m really bummed that the others are inactive. I´m going to write to them and try to help them.

Well, that´s about it for this week. My mom sent me a message in today´s email that was really interesting. It talked about how mission preparation starts early. Every lesson in Primary, Sunday School, Seminary, etc. is preparing one for the mission. It is really true. And yet one arrives on the mission, completes a year, and keeps learning. It is an eternal proccess.

Ciao!

Elder Murdoch

2010-05-03T11:41:00.003-06:00

¡¡TUVIMOS UN BAUTISMO!!!! Translated: WE HAD A BAPTISM!!!! Adela got baptized yesterday. It was a great experience. When we visited her in the evening, she told us that she felt wonderful. She said that church took forever to end. She even didn´t pay too much attention in Relief Society cause she was so anxious for it to get over. The baptism was great. Elder Rasmussen baptized her. But there was one problem. The water heater stopped working while the font was filling. We don´t know why. So the water was freezing. She came out a popsicle, but it´ll just help her remember the baptism even more. The spirit was really strong and we could tell that she really was ready for it. She was excited, and now she´s even more excited for the confirmation next Sunday. Yeah!! She really is amazing.

During Sacrament Meeting yesterday there was a tremor. It was during fast and testimony meeting. At first it was small, hardly noticeable. The music director, a young woman about my age, was sitting on the stand next to one of the counselors in the bishopric. She looked at him, at me, and at someone in the audience, then started moving her hand up and down as if to say "The earth´s moving" and pointed at the ceiling fans which were wiggling. Then it got a little bigger. There was a lot of rustling and some whispers, but no one left. The brother giving his testimony just kept talking, and the bishop on the stand motioned for everyone to stay still. The ward mission leader also helped calm people down. Finally it stopped about when the brother finished his testimony. The next brother went up and said "Don´t worry, the tremor passed." The counselor also gave his testimony, saying that as he was reading the scriptures before the meeting, he had a feeling to open the side door that leads from the chapel to outside. It was an interesting experience. We later learned it was a 6.0--I forgot where--and a 3.0 in Santiago. Nothing compared to an 8.5. :)

Saturday we started teaching English classes. It started out small with just a few members and Adela. But it went well; they all already know a lot. We´re hoping to get more people, especially non-members, to find a way to find new investigators. The bishop has a teaching manual thing on the computer in the church that we will be using. For now we´re going to be printing off and giving out the lesson for the following week. The nice thing is that there are 4 missionaries in the ward, so we´re thinking of having two teach a beginner class and the other two teach an advanced class. It should be good.

The bad thing about Saturday was that it was a holiday, "Day of the Worker." Here in Chile they have a lot of nonsense holidays, including another one called "Kid´s Day" when they don´t work. I find it kind of ironic having "Day of the Worker" and they don´t work that day. I do have to give it to them, they do work hard down here. Which is probably why they take advantage of any opportunity to not work. But during these holidays everyone gets high and/or drunk. It was hard working in the evening cause everybody was partying. Including the 19-year-old brother of Katalina, the little girl we´re teaching. We passed by for her, and he came to the door plastered. The second he opened the door we immediately smelled Marijuana and beer. He was so wasted, he had to lean against the door and almost fell. We thought he was going to throw up on us. He was in there enough to tell us that his mom and sister are in the north of Chile for the week. He then invited us in, but we declined. Rats, we´ll have a hard time visiting Katalina. Oh well, next week.

Well, that was my week. Not a whole lot happened, but it was still a good week.
Enjoy this week!

Elder Murdoch

2010-04-26T16:09:00.002-06:00

Well, this was an interesting week. Thursday I completed one year in the mission. AHHHHHH!!!!!!! We bought a cake and last night we sang Happy One Year, burned ties, and ate some cake. It was fun, but the ties wouldn´t burn all the way even though they caused a lot of smoke. But here in Chile they don´t have that many fire alarms so we were okay.

Last Tuesday Elder Rasmussen got sick. He had bad diarrhea and threw up a lot, along with a lot of pain in his stomach. We ended up staying home the whole day. He slept, or at least tried, and I read the March and April Ensigns and some talks from the October Conference. I also cleaned a little and ate some. It was a really boring day. Wednesday he was a little better, and we left about 3, but then he kept having to stop to rest, and from 5-6 we went back to the house. After that he fully recovered and has been better since. It was quite the experience.

We´re a little low on investigators and are looking for more. Adela is progressing great. She went to church again yesterday and has been reading in the Book of Mormon (she´s in Jacob) and two Ensigns that we gave her from Conference last October and April. She also has been praying and has had her answer for awhile. She believes that Joseph Smith is a prophet and the Book of Mormon is true and that this is the true church. But she´s been having doubts. Every time we go, we see that she has a question. We always pray at least one out, but for awhile we´ve seen that there´s a big one that she won´t let out. Finally, the other day she did. She has an aunt that listened to missionaries before and mentioned to Adela that we don´t have contact with women. Here in Chile, the custom when greeting someone is to kiss them on the cheek. (not with men, they hug) Obviously, we as missionaries don´t do that. Adela had noticed that even before her aunt told her. She actually told us that she has had this doubt for awhile but didn´t want to tell us. She just wasn´t sure if it was something racist or about the church or what because she had also noticed that in the church the normal members do it, just the missionaries don´t. So we, relieved, explained to her why we don´t do it. We showed her the mission manual that has all our rules and explained everything. I was relieved that that was her big doubt.
She also has had doubts about getting baptized. But we committed her strongly to pray about being baptized. She later told us that the prayer went well. She is now very excited and ready to get baptized this Sunday!! Yeah!! We also took her to a FHE Saturday with another Sister that is an RM. We watched the Testaments and she liked it. She made really good friends with Katy, the sister. That helped us a lot.

Last Friday we had divisions, and Elder Rasmussen was here with our DL, Elder Mendoza from Honduras. They passed for someone that we have taught lesson one, the Restoration, and we haven´t seen for a couple weeks. The mom, Paola, lives with a boyfriend so can´t get baptized, but her 10 year-old-daughter, Katalina, accepted a baptismal date. She´s really interested, and we have the advantage that she hasn´t been baptized for any church. We´re going to work hard this week to take her to church and find her friends.

On divisions Friday I was with Elder Young. Guess where he´s from. Blackfoot, Idaho, Snake River High School!! And he knows Grace; he´s fished there before. It´s a small world!! And he went to BYU-Idaho and we have several friends in common. It was way fun to talk with him. We talked all day and into the night. And after praying, turning off the lights and getting in bed, we talked till pretty late in the night. It was awesome to be with someone who could relate to me so much and that has a ton of similar experiences. It´s awesome!

Wow, it is FREEZING COLD!!!! I am wearing my heavy coat right now and it´s still a bit chilly. The temperature drops even more in the night. I´ve been sleeping in thermals, socks, a hoodie, earmuffs, beany, and two blankets. Tonight I´m going to add a third blanket. But it doesn´t help. In the morning it´s always freezing. Our house is not the best, and it lets the cold in really easy. We´re searching for another one. Hopefully we can find a better one.

Well, that´s it for this week. One year done, and one more to go. I hope it can go slower than they say.

¡Hasta luego!

Elder Murdoch

(Note to friends who are reading from Maili: Please pray for them to find better housing soon. He hasn't felt good since he had the swine flu last year and is going into winter again. Thanks! Love you all!)

2010-04-19T13:43:00.002-06:00

Well, I´ll be completing one year this Thursday. Crazy!! I´ve heard two things about the one year mark: 1)that it goes even faster after that, which is not what I want; 2)that the teaching gets better and there´s more success, which I believe will happen as I have a good grip on the language and the lessons.

Right now we are a little short on investigators. Evelyn, a Peruvian that was really interested, is going to move. Interestingly enough to Carrión, where I was before. So I´ll be sending the referral to the missionaries there and hope they can find her.

Adela went to church yesterday!! And even more, the other Elders in our ward had a baptism Saturday and she went!! Yesterday after church they had another, and she actually asked if she could stay for it. She really liked the baptisms and the church. Yea!!!! We also have given her a couple of General Conference Ensigns with selected talks to read. She afterwards said that they answered some doubts that she had been too ashamed to ask us about. She asked why we didn´t give them to her earlier. She is now in Jacob. She reads a lot, now that she isn´t working. She´s progressing great and should be baptized May 2. Last Monday we took her to a FHE with the single adults in our ward (there are a lot), and she enjoyed it a lot.

Last week we found a 40ish-year-old man named Cristian. He was in some sort of accident that gave him a minor case of schizophrenia, but he understands more than we thought at first. His grandpa told him that he helped form a bank here in Chile. If he can find enough evidence he could claim the family bank or something. Cristian at first wanted to see if our church could help him to do this. We told him no; he has to do it on his own. His mom says it´s a lie, but he believes his Grandpa but doesn´t have any evidence. But he is still interested and listening to us. He is a possibility for May.

Saturday we had a great experience--the baptism that Adela went to. It was from Dorsal 1, the other Elders in the ward. Elder Romero unfortunately left with transfers and wasn´t here for the baptism. He was really sad. The man that got baptized is 24ish. His name is Florian, but people call him Flo. He´s French but has lived here in Chile for awhile. The amazing thing is that he was atheist, but then they started teaching him and he read the Book of Mormon and gained his testimony first of the book then everything else. He was living with his girlfriend who is a member, which means he couldn´t get baptized. He´d have to get married or live somewhere else. Then all of a sudden when the missionaries taught the Law of Chastity and were talking about that, they told them that they had been married for more than a month but no one knew. Wow! So he could get baptized. But he and his wife are leaving for France this week, so he got baptized Saturday and confirmed Sunday as well as ordained to the priesthood as a priest. It was a small baptism, with about 10 people. Before it started, when we were waiting for a member of the bishopric to show up, the lights went out, not just in the church, but in all of our sector. But the bishop came with all sorts of candles, so we started lighting candles and putting them around the room, by the font, and even a few floating in the font. In the middle of the talk that a sister gave, the power came back on. So there was light for the baptism. It was a great experience for everyone. Afterwards Flo was tearing up. I can just imagine, going from Atheist to getting baptized. The spirit was really strong. Elder King baptized him and confirmed him Sunday. It was really great.

Well, I´m out of time. This week will be a cold one, as we are in the middle of autumn. It´s starting to be chilly during the day (chilly in Chile hahaha) and freezing in the night and morning. Here comes winter!!!

Ciao!

Elder Murdoch

P.S. I'm including a couple of pictures. One of last week's really short haircut and one of Elder Rasmussen without his disguise! haha!

2010-04-19T13:40:00.000-06:00

2010-04-12T11:27:00.003-06:00

Well, another transfer done. Nothing happened with us. I´m still here in Dorsal 2 with Elder Rasmussen. But one thing is different. Dorsal is one ward, but there are two sectors, and usually those two sectors, Dorsal 1 and 2 are a district. But not this transfer. Now we´re with another sector. So in the church Sunday there will still be four of us, but the other two aren´t from our district. Different. My new District Leader is Elder Mendoza from Honduras. He was actually in my last zone with me, and we both left that one and came here at the same time. His companion, Elder Young, is from Blackfoot Idaho, so we should have some fun times together. Way to go, Idaho!

Couple interesting experiences about the week. Last Monday I got a haircut cause my hair was getting long. I sat in the chair and told the lady to cut it short. So she took the big shaving machine thing and buzzed my whole head. She didn´t even use the scissors at all. Not quite what I expected, but I actually like it. If I rub my head right it´s like a hedgehog or porcupine. And it is really short, so I shouldn´t need another cut for awhile. Although my hair does grow pretty fast.

So the other day we had to go to the other side of our sector. It´s a small sector but pretty long. Fortunately, we have what´s called the metro, the underground subway. As we went down the stairs to get in the train, the light above the door beeped and the mechanical voice said (roughly translated) "Be careful with the closing of the doors." Elder Rasmussen ran and jumped in, but I was a few feet behind and didn´t make it before the doors closed. So we kinda smiled at each other as the train started slowly then faster moving away. He was on his way and I had to wait for the next train. Normally nothing bad. But I´m a missionary. So I just stood there waiting for about 3 minutes till the next train came. It felt weird!! I was without a comp, just on my own. I wonder if it´s that bad after the mission too. It was an interesting experience, but I wouldn´t like to repeat it.

We´re a little low on investigators. We have a few but not many. And none will go to church. Last week we found a 20-year-old Peruvian, Evelyn. She accepted baptism and has been reading and praying. On the second visit we asked her how her reading of 3 Nephi 11 went, and she gave us an overview of the chapter. "Oh, Christ visits the people in the Americas after his resurrection, calls a prophet, gives him the authority to baptize and teaches them how." Wow. She also has been praying but hasn´t received an answer yet. She was going to go to church yesterday, but Saturday at midnight texted us saying she couldn´t. But this next Sunday yes.

Our other good investigator is Adela. She´s like 38 and progressing well. After a month of reading she is almost done with 2 Nephi. She reads every day and has been praying. She says that when she does she feels good. She has received her answer but doesn´t realize it. She doesn´t know that she knows. We´ve been telling her that her answer can possibly come in the church, but she hasn´t been able to go because of work. But last Thursday she quit work (she didn´t like what she was doing) so now she has more time. She actually committed to go yesterday but then her mom, who is really sick, invited her to go see a statue of the virgin mary which is about 2 hours away. She didn´t want to go, she really wanted to go to church. But her mom is really sick, and she felt that she needed to go. But we were pretty frank and told her that she had to go this Sunday. Tonight we´re going to have a family home evening with her and some other single adults in the ward. It should be good to help her find friends. After that all she needs is assistance in the church.

Well, I´m out of time and need to go. This transfer´s going to be a great one, I´m really excited.

¡Adios!

Elder Murdoch

2010-04-05T21:08:00.002-06:00

Well, another fast week gone. It was also a short one. Monday we didn´t work cause it was the anniversary of some sort of battle that took place in Chile and could have been dangerous. On top of that, we didn´t do anything Saturday, and worked for 3hours Sunday, because of the conference. So with fewer hours, it went even faster than normal.

Oh man, last week of the transfer is already here! I feel like just a week ago I was getting here and meeting the members. Now we have transfers next week. Probably Elder Rasmussen and I will stay together one more transfer. But ya never know. Anything can and has happened with transfers. Last week, 3 nights, I had dreams about leaving to go to another sector. That means nothing, but I could. Elder Rasmussen once had a dream about being together with a missionary and then the next transfer he was with that missionary. So ya never know what´ll happen.

But what better way to end the transfer than with that wonderful General Conference that we had. What a wonderful opportunity to be able to listen to the voice of the Lord through way of his prophet, apostles, and other leaders of the church. What a Spirit we felt throughout the weekend. (Also a slight tremor during the Sunday morning session, which I didn´t feel. I was too busy taking notes of President Uchtdorf. He spoke so powerfully...) Seems like the conference was directed mainly to the families, parents, youth, etc. I was able to take advantage of it in two ways: 1) Take notes and save them for in the future when I´m a husband and father, and 2) apply it to the mission, with me as the father and the investigators as children. That really helped open my eyes to a lot of things, and it should help me to be a better missionary.

I was really grateful to be able to go to an upstairs room in the stake center and listen to the conference in English. It was a great experience to listen to the First Presidency and every one of the 12 apostles as well as the other leaders of the church.

Last night, shortly after climbing in bed a little early, I was starting to drift off to sleep. Weirdly, the walls starting creaking and the glass in the window rattled. After hearing, I then felt the shaking and sat up sharply. Elder Rasmussen was in the bathroom brushing his teeth, and he finished up and came in the room. We kinda sat there, waiting for it to get bigger. Then it settled down and slowly stopped. It was probably a 6.7ish. Nothing much. :)

Elder Rasmussen, with his old companion, knocked a building and found an inactive member. Cristian, about 40ish, got baptized at 8 but shortly after went inactive. We´ve started teaching him, and it´s basically like an investigator. He didn´t know very much but was really excited to share with us. Every time we go he learns more and more, and he´s told us that he feels better ever since we first passed. What´s more, his wife and 9-year-old son aren´t members. So we´re also going to start sharing with them, and see if we can baptize them. Or that is, see if HE can baptize them.

Well, that´s it for this week. I´d like to invite all to read the conference ensign when it comes, and really study it and see what you all can learn. Because there is always something that someone can take out of something somewhere. (um, what?!) I know that in everything that the prophet and apostles say, anyone, if really sincerely searching, can find something to apply to better their life.

Talk to ya next week!

Elder Murdoch

2010-03-29T10:37:00.002-06:00

Man, each week goes faster than the last one! I have very little time to complete a year, and I understand that it goes even faster after that. Not good! But it has been a good time, and I´m learning a lot. The last week, although fast, was good. We found a lot of new people to teach and had a lot more lessons than the other week.
I don´t know if I´ve talked about some of these people before, so here´s an update-ish.

Adela is doing great. She´s been reading in the Book of Mormon from the beginning. The other day we passed, and she was sad because she had left her book at work and couldn´t read it. We gave her another one to borrow till she could get hers. She was way happy. The sad thing with her is that she couldn´t go to church yesterday. She really wanted to, but Saturday they called her to work Sunday. She was really sad, she said she really wanted to go. But Wednesday she´s going to quit her work, which she doesn´t even like anyway. So then we´ll have more time to teach her and help her progress. We´re going to take her to General Conference this week. That´ll be great for her.

We´ve been visiting an inactive, Daniela. She´s 26 and has a 2-year-old girl, but the "dad" (they´re not married) left. He visits for an hour every other day. She wants to return to the church. The other day her mom, who before didn´t want to listen to us but is nice, said that she´s never really understood the importance or story of the Book of Mormon. So we started teaching her. We´re hoping to be able to activate Daniela and baptize Margarita.

Friday we had a zone conference and a Family Home Evening with the ward, so we had about 2 hours to work. We knocked doors in a street and found an old man, Rolando. He is really sick and goes to the doctor every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. At first he was slow to understand us with big pauses between our questions and his answers. But Saturday was better and yesterday even better. He believes in God, but told us that he´s not really religious. He just wants to be finished with his sickness and die. But he has progressed quite a bit.

On Friday we had zone conference. It was really great. We learned a lot from President May and the assistants. The big letdown, like always, was the food. In these zone conferences, the food is usually good, but small. We´re always hungry after. This time it was worse. It was "aji de gallina," a Peruvian food. But Elder Rasmussen said that it was nothing like it. He´s half Peruvian, from his mom, and she´s cooked it before. It really wasn´t all that good. Yesterday we ate lunch with a Peruvian, and she made the same thing. It was a whole lot better. I loved it.

After the zone conference and a couple hours of working, we had the FHE with the ward. About 25-30 people showed up. We didn´t have investigators, but the other Elders did. We had a couple of inactives. It was a good FHE. The ward mission leader gave a lesson about Lehi´s dream, then we played a game and had refreshments. It was great. Daniela went and enjoyed it. She found a lot of friends, some she had known before and some new ones.

Something fun. There´s a family here, Fuentes, that we have lunch with every Tuesday and Wednesday. They all work, so she leaves food out for us and we warm it up. We have a pair of keys to the house to get in. Their 30-year-old son, Juan Carlos, is way funny. And he speaks great English. Why? Because he served in the states. Where? Ogden North. We were talking about it and he started listing off places like Preston, Soda Springs, they lived in Smithfield. He didn´t remember Grace, but that´s not too surprising, its been ten years. But still, that´s awesome that he served in the mission where I live.

There´s a recent convert here, a teenager named Italo, who took pictures of an asteroid last week. Some people from a TV channel that President Piñera (the President of Chile) owns came to talk to him. They offered him about $200. We told him he should ask more. How lucky!

Last Monday Elder Rasmussen and I bought paddles and balls for ping-pong. We have some keys to the church, and a couple days we went at 6 am to play. I´m not very good, but he taught me how to play and do some tricks. I´ve gotten much better, and it´s actually fun. I´m discovering all sorts of new sports here. Ping-Pong, soccer, what next?

Speaking of soccer and ping pong, we have a zone activity today to celebrate the zone goal for baptisms in March. We´re going to play soccer and ping pong. And then have a huge asado, aka barbeque, with tons of meat, and ice cream. Mmmmmm! I´m excited.

Last interesting experience. We visited a family last night. They´ve gone through a lot of problems but really have a lot of faith. At the end of the lesson they started telling us about dreams they´ve had. For example, the one son, a week before the first huge earthquake here, dreamed about the earthquake. He feels bad that he didn´t say anything and then all the people died. There´s not a whole ton he could have done, but he still feels bad. His dad had a dream several months before the attack of the twin towers. He said he didn´t know if it was something from God or not, so he prayed and asked (still in his sleep) and saw a bunch of smoke that formed into the face of God. Pretty interesting. Elder Rasmussen talked about a dream he had that his cousin died and his mom came in his room at 6 am to tell him. Then he woke up relieved it was a dream. A week later his mom came in a 6am to tell him his cousin died. He thought it was another dream, but this time it wasn´t. It made me think about dreams and how they sometimes have significance and sometimes not.

There was another earthquake last night at almost 5 am. I haven´t heard where or how big. But it felt pretty big for us. I was sure it was going to get bigger, and was almost ready to grab some slippers and a sweater (it´s freezing at night) and run outside. But fortunately it died down and we were able to go back to sleep.

Well, that´s all for this week. I´ve been having a lot of experience--good, bad, funny, sad, etc. I´m learning a lot and am really grateful for my time here in Chile.

¡Hasta luego!

Elder Murdoch

2010-03-22T13:08:00.003-06:00

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

2010-03-15T21:58:00.003-06:00

Well, the past week went by pretty fast and uneventful. Okay, that second one was a lie. We had more earthquakes/tremors. Thursday during studies there was a 7.2, and minutes later a 6.9. Small. It´s kinda funny how after living an 8.5, a 7.2 feels like nothing. Still I do get really nervous after every small shake. Everyone´s saying that there´s going to be another aftershock, bigger than the first earthquake, but farther north. But the other day I heard that the experts said that it´s wrong and there won´t be. I hope that´s right.

Also, maybe having to do with the earthquake, maybe not, there was a power outage last night. I don´t think it was all of Santiago but a big chunk, including where I am. It was about 8:30. We were going to do a few contacts in the street then go to a member´s house because she baked us brownies, which is her business. But then every single light in sight went out all at once. So we both pulled out the little pen lights we keep and went straight to the house. At about 10:20 the light came back. I still don´t know why it went out, but it was a pretty interesting experience.

Last week was a little difficult. We visited a lot of members to present me to them, but we didn´t have many lessons. I am learning a lot from Elder Rasmussen, but we both still have a lot more to learn. He´s still struggling with the language, but I struggle more with the teaching. There´s a reason we´re together. His last companion used to be assistant to the president when we got here. Elder Rasmussen told me that what president is doing with all of our group is trying to get it so that he can put us with the "bad" missionaries so that after being with us they can be better. Also, he´s hoping to make us leaders eventually. Hmmmmm. I´ve got a long way before I´d feel ready to be a leader. But that decision isn´t mine.

Elder Rasmussen is from Ogden, Utah. He also plays basketball (we´re probably gonna go next Monday) and is pretty funny. He got here on the same plane as me, so we have the same time. And seeing that we probably will be together the next transfer, we´ll complete a year together.

This ward is great. The bishop, young, is amazing and all the members are wonderful. The problem is that they have "groups," so we´re going to start doing Family Home Evening as a whole ward once a week, to get the ward more united, to reactivate, and, obvious, to baptize. We actually share the ward with two other missionaries--Elder King from California, on his 3rd transfer; and Elder Romero, who was in Carrión a little before me. Elder Romero, DL, is from Colombia and has the same time as Elder Rasmussen and I. He and Elder King had 3 baptisms yesterday. One was a 9-year-old whose family are active members. The other two were brothers. Their dad and two uncles (who make us think of The Godfather) are also members. One uncle is Elders Quorum President, and the dad is Young Men´s President. So they were easy baptisms for Elder Romero.

Funny thing. I think I´ve mentioned this before, but I don´t remember. I´m famous down here. There´s a TV program called Los Magnificos (The Magnificents). In USA it´s called A-Team. I´d never heard of it before the mission. But it has Mr. T. And there´s a character named Murdoch. He´s supposedly crazy and funny. Hmmmm. But everytime someone hears my name it´s like, "Oh! Murdoch! Like from Los magnificos!" Yup. Fun.

Well, I´m out of time. Got to go. Next week hopefully I´ll have more success to talk about.
Adios!

Elder Murdoch

2010-03-08T13:57:00.000-07:00

Well, another transfer, and another sector. This time transfers were really different. Both me and Elder Squire left and two more Elders came. Elder Squire went to Renca, really close to where I started. I am now in the zone San Pablo, sector Dorsal 2. My new companion is Elder Rasmussen, who actually got here on the same plane as me. He´s great and I´m excited to work with him. My district leader, Elder Romero, (from Columbia) from Dorsal 1, was in Carrión before. So today we talked some about some members, and I´m sure we´ll talk a lot more.

I´m really bummed to not be able to see the baptism of Tomás, but the Lord knows why I had to go. Tomás was actually going to get baptized last Sunday, but couldn´t because of the earthquake. So we rescheduled for Friday. But then another sector was going to have a baptism Sunday(yesterday) after Stake Conference, and the bishop said that would be better, since Friday at 6 it would be hard to find Priesthood holder to be there. But Tomás has family that couldn´t go Sunday. So we, after much discusion, rescheduled again. This time for this Saturday. But now I´m not there so I won´t get to see it. But I know that he will be baptized, and that´s what´s important.

About the Stake Conference: it was really great. Actually, Elder Richard G. Scott was going to come here and talk, and visit members, but because of the earthquake that got changed. Instead we watched a broadcast from the Conference Center. Bradley Foster of the 70, the General Primary President, Elder Bednar, and President Monson all talked. It was a special broadcast for all the stakes in Chile. They talked about the Atonement, serving others, and other topics. It was really great.

We have been still feeling a lot of tremors after the earthquake. Especially in the 9th floor. But things are settling down and we´re hoping everything should return to normal. I heard something about that the earthquake set the motion of the earth off, and now the days are 2 seconds shorter. I don´t know if it´s true, but it would be interesting.

Well, I gotta go, my comp´s waiting for me. So, talk to ya next week!

Elder Murdoch

PS. some pictures from a service we did in Vivaceta Tuesday. They had a back patio in which the wall fell down. It was a lot of adobe, as is the case with a lot of houses here. So we took out a lot of dirt and adobe. It was pretty fun. Plus, a couple houses that had some damage in our sector. But not too much fortunately.

2010-03-08T13:50:00.005-07:00

2010-03-01T10:48:00.004-07:00

Well, for those of you who haven´t heard yet, I just passed through the scariest and most interesting experience of my whole life. For a couple weeks I´ve woken up several times in the night, feeling a slight tremor. But never anything big, small and smooth, and they last like 10-15 seconds. And only I feel them, Elder Squire no. Friday night, however, was different. About 3:30 in the morning, 11:30 pm in Idaho, I woke up to a small tremor. I expected it to be like the others, small and short. But after the time when it should have stopped, it started getting bigger. I thought "I wonder if Elder Squire feels this one." I looked over and he had raised his head. We looked at each other and both asked "What´s up?" Then it started getting worse. Ended up being an earthquake which lasted almost 3 minutes. We weren´t sure what to do. The automatic answer is get under a table or in the doorway. But in a 13 story building, us living on the 9th floor, what would that help? So we just sat up in our beds and started praying. Elder Squire said one outloud, and was nice and calm. But I was praying inwardly, and not too calm. After an eternity of praying, shaking, and listening to all the sounds (the rumble, stuff falling, etc.) it all stopped. We sat there for a few seconds, then went to check on the damage. Surprisingly, nothing broke. The fridge moved several feet, the small stove fell of the table it was on, and a ton of papers and books fell of the tables. But that was it. We sang Master the Tempest is Raging, said a prayer, read the Emergency Plans of the Mission, talked to our DL, Elder Rosenlaf, and then went to bed. Elder Squire fell asleep right away. For me it was harder, but I was able to sleep some. About 8:00 we got light and water back, but the water is bad to drink, contaminated. Good thing we have big bottles of extra. We got instructions to stay in the house all day. Plus, due to the explosion of a plastics chemical plant in Quilicura, a nearby community, we had to keep the windows closed. We slept a little, wrote in the journal, and studied.

Vivacet, the sector next to us, with Elder Barney and Elder Valencia had to leave their house. The building, only 2 years old, is now in bad condition. They left right away, and later went back and snuck in to pack a fast backpack with important stuff. They then slept in the house of a member and later snuck in again to pack some quick suitcases. (Quickly, because at any moment a 6.9 aftershock was going to hit.) As they were getting out, the fire department and police arrived, saying that no one can ever enter the building again. Since then, it´s been seconds from falling. I imagine they´ll destroy it. They showed us pictures, and it is in horrible condition. So they´ve been sleeping with us.

Yesterday we just had Sacrament meeting. There were very few people. The bishop talked at the end and said that he´d spent some time calling and driving through the ward, and all the members are okay. We also have visited some people and everyone´s okay.

Obviously, thanks to the earthquake, we didn´t have transfers today. They´re going to wait a week. We also have to be in the house at 8:00 every night, instead of 10:00.

Here are some numbers I´ve heard: over 700 deaths; at the epicenter was 8.9, Concepcion 8.8, and here in Santiago 8.5; It was almost 1000 times bigger than Haiti, even with way fewer deaths. Here is why: 1) The ground in Chile is harder, more solid, and 2) Chile is more prepared, with some sort of law that the buildings have to be built ready for an earthquake. We also heard some about the tsunamis. Seems like nothing happened on Easter Island, and on Robison Crusoe there were 8 deaths and a few missing people. Heard about another island that I forgot the name that everything was wiped out. I´m not sure about that one. I also heard that they were taking people from Hawaii to Australia, and that the tsunami alert was for all of the pacific: South, Central and North America, Hawaii, Japan, China, etc. Maybe it´s died down and we haven´t heard. Also, I´ve heard that this is the 5th biggest earthquake in the world. Chile also has the record for the biggest, in Validvia in 1960. 9.8 I think.

Things are getting more or less back to normal now. We´re still a little unnerved, but getting used to the aftershocks. I think I have felt almost every single one, some getting about 6.0. In Concepcion there was a boat that got carried on a wave to the middle of a park. Next to Elder Barney´s building, there was another department building that had (emphasis on had) a swimming pool on the roof, which fell 3 floors. I personally was thinking during the quake "Is the building going to collapse downward, or tip over?" If it had tipped over, chances are it would have destroyed the big Catholic church next door. I was really scared, but things have calmed down now.

Well, I think I´m about out of stuff to talk about. Oh, except for that I SURVIVED AN 8.5 EARTHQUAKE!!!!

Wednesday night we received a call from the bishop. He was in his office in the church and a 19ish year old José Mendoza walked into the office and wanted us to visit him. We passed by Friday. Three years ago, in Peru, he was about to get baptized, but between his parents saying no and his work he couldn´t. But now he can and wants to. He quickly accepted a baptismal date and the invitation to the church. Actually, he lives in a little alley right in front and was gonna go anyway. He still has his Book of Mormon and was already praying to know the truth about Joseph Smith. He hasn´t received it yet and was feeling bad, but we explained that it takes time and faith and patience, but he will receive it. Unfortunately, he couldn´t come to church, because right after the earthquake he went to visit family members. So we´ll have to call him and set up an appointment. But he was really excited to see us.

Another problem from the earthquake is that Tomás didn´t get baptized yesterday. The bishop and we decided it would be better not too. But next Sunday is Stake Conference, so we can´t do it then. And Tomás doesn´t want to wait more. So we´re thinking of doing it Thursday afternoon. He´s way excited about it all. He already has the triple combination, the new bible, hymn book, and new Gospel Principles book. He´s ready and, like I said, way excited.

Yesterday, unsure of transfers, we stopped by to visit Nicolas and Natasha. After much waiting we had gotten them some gifts. We gave Nicolas the triple and a hymnbook, and Natasha some pictures of the life of Jesus Christ and a hymnbook. They were both way excited and happy to receive the gifts. It was kind of like a goodbye, but it looks like we´re both here for one more week.

Well, I´m out of things to say. So, until next week. Ciao!

Elder Murdoch

2010-02-27T22:20:00.002-07:00

Just a quick post from Maili. We received a short email from Scott this morning following the 8.8 earthquake that hit Chile. They are without power, but a kind bishop let him use his laptop to contact us and tell us that he is ok. A few things fell off desks in his apartment, but he is fine and will give us more information on Monday. We are so grateful for the safety of all the Chilean missionaries and invite you to join us in adding the people of Chile to prayers. Much love to all!

2010-02-22T12:33:00.002-07:00

Wow, where did that transfer go? I swear it just started last week and now it´s over next week. Wow. Well, this could be the last email I send from Carrion. Next week I could be in a new sector, here with a new comp, or here with Elder Squire. I wouldn´t mind leaving, but I also want to stay to see Brenda get baptized.

It´s really surprising that we´ve been here so long. I´m finishing 6 months and Elder Squire 7 1/2 here in Carrion. A couple months ago I wrote home about having a conference with Elder Amado of the 70, Chile Area President. We´ve heard that at one point during the week he was here he asked President May how long a missionary is in a sector. President May told him about 3-4 months, to which Elder Amado said it needs to be more. He said on his mission he had the most success in sectors that he was in for 9 months. So it wouldn´t be too surprising to see Elder Squire stay one more transfer. I really hope I can stay with him.

Last week I talked about giving a blessing to a 1 month old who had fallen from the carraige onto concrete. The family lives in a ward of which the Elders are in my zone. They have told us that after several tests, the doctors found nothing wrong with the baby, that she is in great health. What´s more, the husband, inactive, went to church, and the wife, Evangelist, is listening to the Elders. I see a grand miracle waiting for this family.

The other day we were working with Permaneced (Abide;Stay), to find inactive members. We entered one house and talked to a member...in English! We were searching for his mom, but she died like 14 years ago. He is Chilean, but at 20 years moved to the USA and has lived in California for 40 years. He´s visiting here for a couple of weeks. His brother, who does live here, is inactive, and the wife and kids aren´t members. So we´re going to be visiting them to activate him and baptize the rest of the family. It was fun talking to Jaime, the member from California. I was on divisions with Elder Brown, who is from California. The two of them had fun talking about Carlsbad (where I have a friend serving), Newport Beach, San Diego, etc. When the brother came we had to speak Spanish cause he doesn´t speak English, but Jaime sometimes slipped into English without realizing it. It was fun.

Sister Ruz, who´s husband, Francisco, died, has been a little low. She´s still going to church, but last Wednesday after lunch with her she told us that she´s been feeling that the Priesthood of the Church has let her down, not visiting much. Worse, she feels like we, the missionaries, have abandoned her. We felt really bad. Friday, with Elder Brown, we stopped by and sang "Abide With Me Tis Eventide" and said a prayer. She really appreciated it and has been doing better.

The other night we were knocking a little side street. It is right in front of an office of the Carabineros (police), so only the Carabineros live there. One house, number 13, I remembered knocking several months ago. The woman also remembered us, and invited us in. She is married, and has a son of 14 years, with a daughter on the way in May. We didn´t have much time to teach, so we did a prayer and left a pamphlet of the Restoration. When we returned Saturday, the husband was there too. Turns out he´s not really police (Carabinero), just a mechanic for them. Still pretty cool. He studied at Chile´s equivalent of Harvard, and is a really nice guy. They actually had a barbecue on and brought us both a huge steak! It was yummy! Unfortunately, after eating, we had to go so didn´t teach much. We passed again on Sunday, but the husband wasn´t there. We taught the Restoration and Book of Mormon to Teresa and José. It was really great, and they´re going to read the Book of Mormon. But when we talked about baptism they lost interest. José feels good about where he is now spiritually. Teresa told us that years ago she shared with sister missionaries and almost got baptized, but she has a fear of water so it never happened. But she also has some other doubts that she wouldn´t share with us. So we left our number and the invitation to the church. It was almost a cool experience in house number 13. (Note from Maili--Scott was born on Friday, the 13th so he considers 13 his lucky number.) :)

Tomás (Thomas) is doing great. They ended up never going on vacation so we´ve been able to teach more. He is really excited to get baptized this Sunday. His only problem is that he has health problems. His right leg/foot is smaller than the left, but he has special shoes so it doesn´t show. He also has had skizophrenia (I have no idea how to spell that) but has medication for that, and is still okay to be baptized. Because of this problem, he appears to be like 25, acts more like 14, but is actually 40. But he is wonderful and is really excited, not just to get baptized, but to be learning about the gospel. He loves it when we visit and really enjoys the classes in church. He always shares with us something new he learned that he didn´t know before. We´re really excited for him.

Nicolas blessed the sacrament yesterday! I was way overjoyed to see him do it. He´s really progressed in his two months in the church, and I can see him preparing for a mission. That would be way great.

Well, that´s about it for this week. I keep learning more and growing more. I recently have seen the importance of staying active in the church, and how a good visiting or home teacher can play an essential role in this.

Well, until next week!
Hasta Luego!

Elder Murdoch

2010-02-15T13:07:00.003-07:00

Wow that week went by super fast! February is already half over! Where is the time going? Several things happened this week.

Tuesday we got back from a zone class and were preparing to go to lunch and afterwards work when the office called us. There’s a children’s hospital right outside of our sector, and they needed us to go give a blessing to a baby who had fallen out of the baby carriage. We showed up quick and met up with the hospital worker, who is a member. She took us to the room where the baby and mom were. Turns out the husband is an RM but inactive, and wasn’t there. He felt guilty like the accident was his fault. She told us that he at times gets mad and yells at the other kids that are from her other marriage. She’s been hoping that having a kid of his own will help, and maybe this incident can too. It was a really spiritual experience. The missionaries are going to visit them. Hopefully they can reactivate him and baptize her. (She’s Evangelist)

Wednesday, after playing soccer at six in the morning, we went to a nursing home and painted a few rooms with about 10 other missionaries. It was a good experience to help out, and I got plenty of paint on my hands and arms, but that’s it.

Friday we had a zone conference with President May. We learned a lot, but there were two experiences that stick out more in my mind:

During the opening song I felt a shake, and realized that there was a mini earthquake. Several other missionaries felt it, including President, but Elder Squire didn’t.

I got to see Elder Nicholas!! He was my second companion, the first after my trainer, and it’s been since September that I last saw him. It was great to swap stories, inside jokes, etc.

Last week I wrote about a family that was having problems. They don’t have a whole ton of money, and had some doubts with tithing. The husband had an interview with bishop but felt that the bishop, trying to help, delivered the message wrong. Also, the mom was sick, and now the 13 year old daughter is as well. They were really down. But they are doing a lot better now. I shared a story with the husband about a time I tried helping someone I love, but ended up doing more harm with the way I delivered it. We talked about how sometimes people try to help but it comes out wrong, and the bishop wasn’t trying to harm him. He realized this and is going to talk to the bishop again. And they’re going to start tithing again and make up for the month they missed. They really are a strong, faithful family.

I don’t remember if I’ve talked about Jorge and Brenda before. They actually aren’t married even though they have a son of 18 months. They’re from Peru, so they have to wait for some documentation before getting married. He’s a member, and was actually a bishop in Peru. But something happened with his previous (sealed) marriage, and he also has to wait for a divorce, which we don’t know if she knows or not. But she is excited to get baptized and the marriage. The other day in a visit she gave the closing prayer. In it she asked that her baptism arrive quickly. She’s amazing, basically a member, just not baptized. Things are going well with them.

Thomas, whose sister, mother, and grandmother are members, is also progressing great. There were going to go on vacations last week but ended up not going. We didn’t know until he showed up to church yesterday. He’s really excited to get baptized. In our mission, 3 times in sacrament meeting is required before baptism. He greeted us and said, "This is the third time, when’s the baptism?" Today they leave for vacations, and will get back next Wednesday. Fortunately, he has all the lessons. So Thursday we’re going to review everything, and Friday or Saturday have the interview. Then the baptism the 28th.

Ana Lopez should be getting baptized this Sunday, 21, or the next, 28. It all depends on her. She has everything; she just needs to decide when. She told us in February for sure, so we should have it soon.

Well, I think that’s about it. It’s great down here, even though it’s really hot. Soon enough I’ll be freezing and everyone at home will be hot. Fortunately, we have juice and coca cola to cool us off a little. The problem is, almost all we drink here is Coke. There’s a joke among the missionaries that if we ask for water, they give us juice; if we ask for juice, they give us Coke. If we really want water, we have to ask for water from the tap, specifically. I really miss good ol’ A&W Root Beer. But oh well. After.

Well, that’s it for this week. Until next week: Happy Valentine’s Day!

Elder Murdoch

2010-02-08T10:18:00.002-07:00

Wow, that week went by fast! Time´s going by way too fast. I´m already at about 10 months in the mission! I wish time would slow down.

Well, we were going to have a baptism yesterday, but the investigator died. Literally. He was the husband of a member and, after years of not wanting to get baptized because of problems with tithing, he decided to get baptized. He was a heavy smoker, 20 a day, and for that he had cancer. He was getting worse every day, and we´re still not sure if he really wanted to get baptized or if it was more of "I´m gonna die, I´d better get baptized just to be sure." He had all the lessons, but not a testimony. We were working with that. Friday morning when we woke up, we had a voice message from the 2nd counselor in the bishopric that Francisco had passed away Thursday night. They had the funeral Friday night, and we passed by Saturday. The whole family is really sad, especially his wife. She is really faithful and strong, and came to church yesterday and gave her testimony. She´s the only member in the family. None of her daughters want to join the church, mainly because they smoke. She was excited that her husband was gonna get baptized, cause she´s felt lonely. We´re hoping that maybe now her daughters' hearts can open a little more.

Several weeks ago we got a notice that we owed the power bills for a ton of money. But the mission office pays the bills, so we talked to them. They got in contact with our department building's administration and solved everything. But someone didn´t hear about that, so they cut the power anyway. So we got home one night and had no power or light--nothing except water. It was an experience showering in the morning by flashlight. But the next day they turned in back on, so now everything´s okay.

About three months ago we found a woman who was really interested and accepted a baptismal date. (I don´t know if I´ve mentioned, but in our mission we´ve been directed to put them with a baptismal date in the first visit.) But afterward we couldn´t find her, so we dropped her. Later Elder Pititto and Elder Moore found her. She had read part of the Book of Mormon, believed that it´s true, and accepted baptism again. She also was going to go to church, but due to some miscommunication she wasn´t able to. They also had trouble finding her and dropped her. Last night we were there close and passed by and she was there! A third time accepted baptism, for March 7, her birthday, and wants to go to church Sunday. The Lord definitely wants her in the church. We´re going to work harder with her this time. Third time´s a charm!

The other day we did a contact in the street with a young woman who doesn´t live here but told us her sister would be interested. We passed by for the referal last night. Her sister´s name is Maria Jose (Mary Joseph?), and she does have interest. What´s more, Constanza, the girl we talked to in the street, her other brother, and the mom were also there. We started out with a prayer and were going to just set up another visit and leave. But then the mother, Ana, started telling us about a problem she´s been having with her bones. She has trouble walking but still has to work, and it´s hard for her. Elder Squire felt really impressed to talk about priesthood blessings. Usually we don´t offer because the whole point of blessings is the faith of the person who asks, but we both felt that it was better to offer, and she accepted. We gave her the blessing, and the Spirit filled the room. Afterward she told us of a dream she had. She was in a big shower, the kind that has glass doors instead of curtains, and was dressed all in white. Then there were some men dressed in white who put their hands on her head. When she left the shower she begain to fly/float off, like a dove. She´s certain it has to do with the blessing we gave her. Then we taught about the Restoration, and right after she told us that she´s a member! She got baptized about 30 years ago, and went inactive 3 years after. She still remembers the missionaries who taught her, and also that there wasn´t a temple here in Chile then. We talked some, and she´s gonna talk to the bishop this week and go to church next Sunday. The thing is, she doesn´t live in our sector, not even the zone. She´ll probably clear that all up with the bishop. We´re excited. I´m sure her son and daughter will get baptized in their ward, and Maria José here. It was a great lesson.

Well, gotta go. Hopefully this week passes a little slower! Hasta luego!

Elder Murdoch

2010-02-01T22:33:00.001-07:00

This will be pretty quick as I´m almost out of time. Plus there´s not much to say.

It keeps being a furnace down here. High 90´s every day. Even at night I doubt it drops below 70-80ish. But the work still continues.
Yesterday we had two baptisms. Carol, 14 years old, and Pamela, like 30, wife of a member. He wanted to baptize her, but has been less active, and even though he has made goals with the bishop, was not able to baptize her. But he´s still happy that she got baptized.

We are having lots of luck working with part member families. We´ve had lots of lessons with members this week, and are completing a lot of families-brothers, husbands, etc.

This week we did a contact in pure English. We knocked a door and a couple answered. He´s Chilean, but she´s from London, and they have lived in England for years. They have about 18 months in Chile, and she can´t speak Spanish at all, so we talked only in English. Believe it or not, it was really hard for both me and Elder Squire. We almost couldn´t do it.

Well, I think that´s about it. Told ya it´d be short. Hope ya´ll have a great week!

Elder Murdoch

2010-02-01T22:28:00.000-07:00

2010-01-25T10:29:00.001-07:00

What a week! It´s really hot down here! The other day we say 40 degrees Celcius. According to the converter on the cell phone that´s 104 Fahrenheit. Wow! That was the worst day. The rest it´s about 95-98ish. Pretty hot. But I think in a couple of weeks it should start cooling down. I hope.

We had a couple of fun adventures last week.The other day we were coming home at night and saw an Elder playing soccer in front of our departments. Without a companion, after time to enter the house. What!? Turns out he finished his mission last Monday and his parents came down and were visiting his sectors with him. His dad actually served in Central America, and with his rusty Spanish did a contact, which we are going to end up teaching.

Last Monday night we had a FHE with a family and ended up leaving late, so we took a taxi. In the taxi Elder Squire took out his wallet to dig out some coins to help pay. Later, the next day, he realized that his wallet was not in his pocket. He had dropped it on the seat in the taxi. It had his mission credit card, driver´s license, and carnet, as well as his temple recommend. We called the office to tell them about it. Then, walking to lunch, someone called us over to their car. It was the bishop of a ward right next to ours. He said the Stake President knew something about the wallet of an Elder named Aaron. That is Elder Squire´s middle name. So we called the stake president, and he gave us the name and number of the woman that called him. Elder Squire called and talked with her. She actually lived in the ward next door, so after lunch we joined up with the missionaries there, (actually Elder Barney) and went to her house. She did have his wallet. What had happened was the taxi driver found the wallet and gave it to her and said to find the owner or throw it away. She looked at his carnet ID and looked him up on Facebook and found a number. We think it was of the mission office, who then told her to call Stake President Masbernat, or the bishop, or someone. It was a pretty crazy adventure. We called it a referal from the Lord.

The bishop, along with a lot of the ward, has been on vacation this week so the counselors took over. Last Wednesday in coordination, Brother Cataldo told us that they might need a talk in sacrament. So I prepared one, obviously Sunday morning :) about repentance. And I ended up giving it. I felt pretty good about it. Not many people said much afterward, which is okay. But one woman did say that it was really great and I didn´t mess up the language at all.

We should have a couple of baptisms this Sunday. Carol, the 14 year old teen is really excited. She´s been reading the Book of Mormon, all the pamplets, everything. She´s praying, and has a testimony. She´s really excited for her baptism Sunday.

Pamela also is excited to get baptized. Her husband´s a member, and is helping us a lot. The problem is that she wants it to be private. Us, Victor, and whoever does the baptism. Plus someone from the bishopric will have to be there. So we might do it Saturday in the afternoon.

Well, that´s about it for this week.

Elder Murdoch

2010-01-18T10:13:00.000-07:00

Wow. The time is going by way too fast. I lack a little over two months to complete one year. It passes fast, and today marks the beginning of my 6th transfer here in Chile. And the 4th one with Elder Squire. Yep, we are still together here in Carrión. But now it´s back down to one sector instead of two. Elder Pititto finished his mission and tomorrow leaves for Argentina. Elder Moore went to San Pablo, another zone in the mission. I don´t think that happens much, someone leaving their first sector after one transfer. I feel bad for him because he and Elder Pititto had several good investigators. He was especially excited for Pamela, the wife of a member. She really wants to get baptized and is way excited. Actually, they tried putting the baptismal date for February 7, and she asked if they could do it Jan. 31 instead. She´s progressing great and excited for the baptism. I feel bad that Elder Moore won´t be here for it. It was a pretty interesting transfer. We just got like 10 investigators thrown at us. It´ll be different and difficult working with all of the ward limits instead of half. But it´ll be good too.

That´s the biggest news for this week. Not much else happened. The final round of presidential elections was yesterday. A month or so ago they had the first round and limited it down to two candidates. Yesterday they voted for these two. Piñera won, just so ya all know. The other guy, Frei, has already been president once. From what I´ve heard he made a bunch of promises and didn´t keep them so no one wanted him again. But it was actually a close vote. Piñera only had 51%. We´ll see what kind of changes he brings to the country.

Last week we had a great experience. We were knocking doors, and at one door Elder Squire said "We´re going to enter this door and teach." Sure enough, they let us in and we taught about baptism and the restoration. The woman isn´t married but lives with her boyfriend, ("convive" with her "pareja") so we can´t put her with a baptismal date. But there was another guy there that was interested. We taught him how to pray, and he gave the closing prayer. In the prayer, he asked to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and this message is true. After he said that he felt good and believes it was his answer. Wow! The problem is that he doesn´t live in our sector or even zone. We have to pass the reference, and hopefully he can get baptized eventually.
We set up an appointment to visit Jessica again with her "pareja," boyfriend. The thing is, he´s atheist. When he was younger, he went to a Catholic church, but just because his mom took him. He just believes in himself, nothing more. But he did have interest to know if there really is a God, if it will bring him happiness. We taught about God, bore testimony, and started into lesson 2, the Plan of Salvation. But then he asked us why there are so many churches in the world today, so we taught the Restoration. At the end he committed to pray, not only to see if God exists, but also to know if this message is true. We haven´t been able to pass since then, but we are going to go by and see how it went. It was an interesting lesson, and I know that the Spirit was definitely guiding me to be able to know what to say in order to help him.

We keep teaching the few investigators we have, and trying to find more. Yesterday we found out that Yesinia's mom came down from Peru, and the two of them left to live somewhere else. Bummer. But we´re still going to continue with Carol.

I think that´s about it for this week. Still suffering in the heat but enjoying the work. Missionary work really is ordained of God. In what other religion would a bunch of 19 year olds leave their family and their country to learn a new language and teach a message of Jesus Christ only to get doors slammed in their face and be ridiculed and laughed at? And yet, look at all the blessings that come as a result. More charity and love, patience, humility, faith, etc. (Christlike attributes, as found in Preach My Gospel chapter 6) I know that this is the only true church of Jesus Christ, and I´m proud to be a missionary to testify of this.

Elder Murdoch

2010-01-11T16:55:00.002-07:00

Well, this was kind of a slow long week. Not much happened, but I do have a lot of fun little stories to tell. Hopefully this next week can be a little better as it is the last one of the transfer.

Last week we ate with a Peruvian family, the same one with which we ate chicken feet a couple months ago. This time we ate "pata de vaca", cow feet. Yummy. Actually, it´s very similar to cow stomach, and Elder Pititto told me that´s what it was. Then that night we visited the family and they told us no, it was feet. Great!

We got our shower fixed! I think I forgot to mention it was broken. Awhile back I talked about getting an electric shower, so we didn´t have to dump hot water on our heads out of a bowl. About a week before the 2 other Elders got here, it broke. The shower part worked, the electric no. Only cold water would leave. I had some of the fastest showers in my life, because it was freezing! It made me think of swimming in a lake in the mountains, whose water comes strictly from melted snow. But last Monday the guy came and fixed it, so now we have hot water! Woo hoo!!

The other day we knocked a door and the guy that came out couldn´t understand me. Fortunately, it wasn´t that my Spanish was bad. Unfortunately, it was that he´s deaf. He brought out some paper and we "wrote the contact." Turns out he´s a Jehovah's Witness but has friends who are Mormons, and he wanted to talk to us. We shared with him a couple scriptures that prove that Jehovah is Jesus, not God. In Psalms it says that Jehovah will judge. Then in John it says the father won´t judge, the son will. Who´s the son? Jesus Christ. He gave us a thumbs up, went inside and came back with a woman and a magazine. She explained to us that they are from Viña del Mar, and are going to get married soon. They gave us the magazine, which is one from the JWs. They were really nice people.

Later that same day we did a contact with a Catholic woman in the street who said that Christ came here to Chile in 2002, when the Pope came. She said when he came everyone was happy and all was great. Then he left and everything went downhill. Interesting.

The other day in divisions with Elder Pititto we knocked on a door and a 92-year-old woman let us in and gave us juice. The thing is, she´s so old she forgets stuff. She asked where I´m from about 5 times. And then everytime I´d answer she´d say, "Yes, but THE United States? English or German?" She also several times mentioned how I have the face of a foreigner. 3-4 times she told us that her parents were born in Bethlehem, and she´s been there and in South Africa. At the very end, after the prayer, she "blessed" us in some Middle East language. It was quite an experience.

Wednesday an appointment failed, and we decided to knock a department building. These building have five floors, with four departments on every floor. We decided to start at the top and work our way down. The very first door we knocked, they let us in. We ended up teaching two teenage girls. Yesenia is 19, and Carol 14. They´re cousins and both from Peru but have been here several years. Yesenia was meeting with missionaries before, and almost got baptized, but her parents said no, not until she´s older. (Like now) They were both really excited to go to the church yesterday. Unfortunately, Saturday night Yesenia got sick and couldn´t come. But Carol came and loved it. They both are reading in the BOM and praying. They both have their answers about Joseph Smith and the BOM and are both excited for their baptism on the 31st. They also have friends in the church, but we´re hoping to find them more. We also really want to help them strenthen their testimony, so that they get baptized for that, not for the cute American Gringo Elders. ;)

I´m really grateful to be here on my mission where almost everyone is receptive. There is the occasional "No! Go back to your country!" (In Spanish and English) But for the most part even those who don´t want anything at least are nice. A lot of the people even invite us in and give us juice or pop, even if they´re not interested in the message. I heard a story of an Elder, I think someone Elder Squire knows, somewhere in Europe who after 9 months in the mission entered the first house to teach a lesson. I have 9 months in the mission and I couldn´t count how many houses I´ve entered. I´m glad I´m here.

Good news! Nicolas received the priesthood yesterday!!!!! It was a surprise for us. Thursday we knew he went in to talk to the bishop. Friday we visited Nicolas and he told us about it, that they talked about a lot of stuff. But he didn´t say anything about getting the priesthood! But they sustained him in sacrament meeting and then ordained him in opening excercises of priesthood. I started tearing up during the ordination. It was a happy experience for me. I really hope he serves a mission. He could be a killer missionary. (Figuratively or literally, he´s HUGE!!!)

Well, I think that´s about it this week. Next week I´ll possibly be with a new companion, maybe in a new sector. We´ll just have to wait and see. Ciao!

Elder Murdoch

2010-01-04T10:20:00.002-07:00

Well, this was a pretty boring week. Not a whole ton happened. Still recovering from the swine flu, but getting better, slowly.

Last Thursday, as a birthday present for Sister May, we had a sports morning. All of the zones got together in groups, two zones in one group, and played sports. They had ultimate frisbee, basketball, and the ones I played, football and soccer. It was way fun. We played for 3 hours, and I had forgotten sunscreen so I got pretty burned. But it was a great morning. While there an Elder Snider stopped me on the soccer field to find out where he recognized me from. Turns out we were in a Book of Mormon class together with Brother Gary Purse at BYU-Idaho. After we realized it, I actually recognized him too.

Saturday we had divisions, and I went with Elder Moore to his sector, Carrión 2. He´s just completing one month in Chile but speaks really good Spanish. In a contact we did, the guy came out and asked if we were Communist or from Obama. I told him we´re not Communist so he said we must be from Obama. I replied that he actually doesn´t know us let alone know that we´re here. He didn´t send us, God did. He didn´t buy it. He said "Are you Communists or from Obama?" Again I said neither. He then said "Well then, we´re bad here, cause I´m communist." So we ended the contact, and as we walked away he added "Why are you here anyway? Go back to your country." I told him that in one year and three months I will. But he wanted me to go back RIGHT NOW! It was pretty amusing.

Interesting side note for anyone who has seen the movie "Rain Man" with Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. Kim Peek, the man who inspired that movie, died a few days ago at the age of 58. The bishop´s wife gave us a news article that talked about it. It said that at the age of 6, he had memorized 8 volumes of encyclopedias. Pretty interesting.

We´re working with a man right now named Jose who is pretty interesting. He used to be with Jehovah´s Witnesses. He actually was a missionary and later a pastor for them. Then he realized that they really don´t follow Jesus much so he left. He since then has shared with the Community of Christ and now with us. He has the Bible that we use, the Book of Mormon, the New World Bible from JW, and Doctrine and Pacts, the JW version of Doctrine and Covenants. He already believes in Joseph Smith. Actually, when we showed up for the lesson last week he was on You Tube listening to "Praise to the Man" while watching a slide show with pictures of the First Vision. The problem is that he believes that all churches are right and all have lies. There isn´t one church that is the only right one. So we´ll have to help him out there. But he is really great and already believes in Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.

Aside from playing sports in the morning, we passed the 31st like any normal day. They did have fireworks at night in Cerro (Hill) Renca, which we can see perfectly from our window. They started at midnight and went for 15 minutes. But we got to bed at 11:30. I was out cold, and wanted to stay that way, but the fireworks woke all of us up so we watched them. They were pretty fun. Then the 1st was also a normal day, even though not for anyone else. There was almost no one in the streets, cars or people. And not many people were home, either. But we worked anyway. Interesting way to pass the new year.

Well, I think that´s about it for this week. Next week will be the last one of the transfer, so hopefully I´ll have something more to say. But until then......ciao!

Elder Murdoch

2009-12-28T11:10:00.000-07:00

2009-12-28T11:09:00.001-07:00

Well, not much happened since Thursday. Just Christmas, a baptism and two confirmations. But that´s about it. :)

Christmas was a great experience. The night of the 24th we worked from seven till nine. Then we went to the house of the bishop and chilled with his family. We ate some great food, then read the birth of Jesus from Mark instead of Lucas. Then the 4 missionaries sang some Christmas hymns for the family and we went home. The 25th we worked just like a normal day, but we did get to call the family. It was great to talk to my family even though it was short. The next time I call I´ll have more than a year, and next Christmas I´ll only have 4 months left. But better not to think of that.

Saturday Nicolas got baptized, because he thought he was going to be traveling Sunday and didn´t want to wait another week. It was a great baptism. A lot of members of the JAS (young single adults) to support him, and I´m sure he found several more friends. The ward mission leader, who usually does the program for baptisms, couldn´t go, and we didn´t know till 10 minutes before. So we made up a program and some last minute talks and I led the meeting. After the baptism, which Elder Squire did, Natasha and Nicolas both gave their testimonies, which were really strong. I started tearing up during Natasha´s and even more during Nicolas´s. Then we had a Sunday Surprise. Nicolas was able to come to church, so he got confirmed with Natasha. Again I had tears in my eyes, which was not great because I was at the piano in front, but oh well. I know that they both are going to be really strong members. Nicolas should hopefully receive the priesthood soon, and it would be great if he decided to serve a mission. We´ll have to see though. We´re now going to start sharing more with the rest of the family.

Well, I think that´s about it. So, until next week, Happy New Years!

Elder Murdoch

2009-12-25T00:25:00.001-07:00

2009-12-25T00:06:00.002-07:00

Well, after a week and a half there´s quite a bit to tell. Where to start?

Last week we had a zone conference, and Elder Amado spoke. Actually, it was more of zone training and he trained. Elder Amado is the President of the Area Presidency and in the 70. He is one of 7 Area Presidents in all the world. And I sat in the front row being taught by him for roughly 4 hours! It was great, I learned a lot. He is amazing. Also, me, Elder Squire, and two other Elders from my zone sang "Hark the Harold Angels Sing" in a quartet. It was a good experience.

Last Thursday I got to go to the temple for the first time since June. Too much time. It was a great experience, even in Spanish. Course, I did understand everything, and that was nice. I felt the Spirit way strong, and it was wonderful to be able to go. Also, while picking up clothes, I recognized one of the sisters helping out. After a few seconds of thinking I realized it was Sister Veas, from Renca 1, my last sector I was in. And she recognized me! It was nice to see her, but unfortunately we couldn´t talk much. She asked where I am now, and then how I am. Then I had to go and she had to help another Elder. But it was great to see her again.

Tuesday we had an activity with half of the mission in the mission home. We sat at tables outside in a huge yard (with a clear view of the locked up pool :)) and ate a huge dinner. Afterwards there was a program that Sister May put together, which included a lot of singing, some by my zone. It was fun and a good experience. It was especially good to see my "Daddy" (trainer), Elder Rigby. This is his last transfer, and he´ll be leaving in the middle of January. It might have been my last chance to see him, so I took advantage and got a good photo.

Well, I saved the best for last. We had a baptism Sunday! Natasha got baptized. And much to my surprise, when we asked her Friday who she wanted to baptize her, she asked me. I know it´s better to have members do the baptism, so there´s a better relationship. But I was glad she picked me. I was a little nervous, but not too bad. Although in the chapel it didn´t seem like there were a lot of people. But down in the font, when they opened the doors and I looked up, I could have sworn the audience had doubled. But it all ended up great. Her mom took time off from work to come, and will also come to the confirmation this Sunday. It was a good experience for them. Afterwards we did have an interesting experience. But before telling it, I have to explain something else. Here in Chile there´s a tradition of greeting people or at times just showing love or thanks. The males give a handshake, hug, and another handshake. With a woman greeting another woman or a man, they give a kiss on the cheek--which is against mission rules, probably in any mission. So after the baptism Natasha was hugging and kissing all her family and friends in the church. Then she got to me, who did the baptism, and almost wanted to do it. Then she caught herself and gave me a handshake. But immediately said "A little hug" and threw herself at me. It wasn´t a big embrace, but still pretty awkward for an Elder who´s been out awhile. Later the other Elders harassed me about it.

Nicolas, unfortunately, didn´t get baptized. He felt like he didn´t know anyone except us and the bishop (our fault) and wanted to wait a week. Monday he said the he felt better, more ready. He just wanted to see how a baptism is. But he might not be able to go to church this Sunday, so he´s gonna get baptized on Saturday. Yeah!

To close I wanted to share something from my personal study this week. In Alma 9:16-17, it talks about the Lamanites. Verse 16: "For there are many promises which are extended to the Lamanites; for it is because of the traditions of their fathers that caused them to remain in their state of ignorance; therefore, the Lord will be merciful unto them and prolong their existence in the land."
Verse 17: "And at some period of time they will be brought to believe in his word and to know of the incorrectness of the traditions of their fathers; and many of them will be saved, for the Lord will be merciful unto all who call on his name." As many of you might already know, the Lamanites are included in many of the South American countries--possibly Chile and for sure Peru, and there are a lot of Peruvians here. Right now I am a tool in the hands of the Lord to bring to pass this prophecy. When I read that scripture and realized this, it was really humbling.

Well, that´s about it for this week. ¡Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas!

Elder Murdoch

2009-12-14T17:33:00.001-07:00

Well, this was a pretty interesting week. It went pretty long for me, but it was a good one. Like I said last week, with cambios me and Elder Squire both stayed. But two more Elders arrived and are living with us. We split the sector in two and both companionships work in a different sector. They are good Elders. One, Elder Moore from Texas, is just getting here in Chile from the MTC. His trainer, Elder Pititto, is from Argentina, and this is his last transfer here. He´s really great. I´ve learned a lot from him, and he´s helped me a lot this past week. Funny side note. His last name, Pititto, is Italian, and in Argentina has no meaning. But here in Chile Pitito (spelled similar, but with one T instead of two) basically means a doobie. For those of you who don´t know what a doobie is, basically it´s a joint of marijuana. So he´s heard all the jokes about it. We told a few members before hand so they wouldn´t laugh when the met him. Sunday night, he told us how happy he was that the bishop didn´t even seem affected at all by his name. We didn´t tell him that we´d told the bishop already.

Their first night here they found a new investigator and put her with a baptismal date. Her name is Maria Teresa. The funny thing is that we found her a couple months ago. But she´s always busy and we could never find her, so after passing a few times we dropped her. Then they found her. She was going to go to church yesterday, but there was some miscommunication and she didn´t make it. But she´s gonna go this next week. It´ll be pretty interesting to see her there, as she has told Elder Pititto that she remembers us. Hmmmm :)

There´s a 16 year old boy in our ward who got baptized in another zone because that´s where his girlfriend lives. The bishop asked us to pass and invite him to our chapel and also said that his mom should have some interest in the church. So we passed for them. His mom is definitely prepared: she told us that she´s been wanting to hear our message for awhile, she´s been seeing the changes in her son´s life and wants the same. She accepted a baptismal date, and is going to progress great. He got confirmed yesterday, will get the priesthood this next Sunday, and then after that he´s going to start going to our ward with his mom. We´re really excited for her. Her date is January 10th, but it might get changed to the 3rd.

Nicolas and Natasha are on track to get baptized this Sunday. They are so great! I know that the Lord has definitely trusted us with two of his most prepared children. I´m glad I´ve had his help and haven´t messed things up. They had a hard time receiving their answer/testimony about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. So this week we did a fast with them. We taught them about fast and for one day did one, starting with a prayer given by Nicolas. The next day we passed by to end it, and they had received a testimony. They´ll be baptized this Sunday. I´m really excited for them.

Well, that´s about it for this week. I´m really excited for Christmas next week, especially the call. Oh, and P-Day will be next Thursday, the 24th, so there won´t be a blog entry on Monday.

Ciao!

Elder Murdoch

2009-12-08T07:22:00.002-07:00

Well, fourth transfer is now over. Last night we got the call telling us about the new tranfers. The problem is that Elder Barney likes to joke. A lot. He said that Elder Squire was leaving, and I was staying. My new comp would be a Chilean that was in my last zone. Then he called back and said that wasn´t the transfers, and asked if we wanted to know what they are. Then he said, "Do you wanna know the real joke?" Those were the transfers. Then he said just kidding and that he´d call when he got them. Then he called later with some other fake transfers, and then hung up. Then his comp called and said that they were frustrated and bored because the call wouldn´t come. Finally we received the real news. Both Elder Squire and I are staying again. This will be our third transfer together! Crazy! But there´s more: our sector, Carrión, is going to split. It will still be the same ward, but two sectors, Carrión 1 and Carrión 2. And there will be 4 missionaries in our apartment. It´s gonna be a little cramped, but it shouldn´t be too bad. One, Elder Pitito, is from Argentina. I´ve heard that he´s really good. We don´t know how long he´s been here, but he´ll be training so he must have some time. I´m looking forward to it. It will definitely help my Spanish, having a latino, plus we can help his with English which I enjoy doing. And we´ll be helping his "son" to learn. It does put a little more weight on my shoulder to be a good example for the greenie, but honestly I think it will be good for me. It should be a good experience for all of us.

Nicolas and Natasha are still doing great. They´ve been going to church, reading, and praying about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. They still haven´t received their answer or testimony, so we´ll have to work with that. They had their baptismal date for this Sunday, the 13th, but Chile has elections that day, so we can´t have baptisms. Which means we´ll have to baptize them the 20th, which I´m sure will happen. I´m glad I´ll get to be here for it. This week we´re gonna do a fast together with them; a fast to help them receive an answer. Then we´re gonna end it by having lunch with them. I´m really excited for them, and can´t wait till the 20th.

But we did almost lose Nicolas the other night. We were in the house planning for the next day, and the doorbell rang. We opened the door, and the pamplet of the Restoration was on the welcome mat, with a note. The hall was empty. It was a note from Nicolas that basically said "Don´t come by anymore. I talked to some people who told me a bunch of stuff about you guys. I don´t want any more. I don´t want to have a lot of wives! Satanists!" We were really confused because we´ve already explained polygamy to him and he understood and was good. Then I flipped over the pamphlet, and noticed that the back, which has reminders for the investigators, was blank. We always write stuff on the back:what they´re supposed to read, their baptismal goal, our name and number, etc. So I knew it couldn´t be Nicolas, it had to be a prank. But who knew about Nicolas, knew where we lived, and could easily get a pamplet? Besides a missionary? We went down to ask the guy in the guardhouse if someone came by and asked where we live. He said no, but two other missionaries had come by. (He´s actually a member from a different ward) But they hadn´t left. So we went around back looking, and sure enough, Elder Barney my DL, and his companion, were there. They had made it up on the way to our apartments. We were infuriated with them. But at least it was just a joke and not true. The next day we visited Nicolas, and he was just as great as ever. It was quite the experience. Now, looking back, it was kinda funny.

Maria, the woman who got baptized about 2 months ago, is doing good. We´re working with her son Felipe. We´ve tried with her husband, Mario, but he doesn´t want to stop smoking. We´re gonna baptize Felipe, and that should put more pressure on Mario, then being the only non-member in his family. Felipe, 9 years old, is coming along great. Actually, wonderful. Two months ago when we baptized Maria, he would always call us the bad Mormons. Now he really likes us. So much that after we left an appointment with them yesterday he came running after us and asked us why we have to leave. He had his head down and was about at the point of crying. Maria usually accompanies us a little ways out the door before leaving us, but yesterday she didn´t even leave the house. We know that she cried a bit. They´ll both be happy that we both stayed here. Also, Mario says hi to everyone.

The other day we were walking down the street and we passed a black man. He stopped us and, in English, asked if we speak English. We talked to him for a few minutes, in English and Spanish. He´s from Haiti, and has been here for awhile and said he has to practice English or he forgets. He´s pretty cool, and we took down his address and are gonna visit him when we get a chance.

Today I went to the doctor again. While there we stopped by the office of the Chile Santiago East Mission to drop off a referencia. While waiting, one Elder started talking to me. Turns of he´s from Idaho Falls and has heard of Grace before. Also, their mission president came in and also asked me where I´m from. He owns land in Bear Lake. Wow. It´s a small world. I come all the way down here to Chile and I still can´t get away from Grace. :)

Well, I think that´s about it. We´re a little low on investigators right now and knocking doors a lot, but we´ve been told that the whole mission is like that. Hopefully soon we can find more people. But until next week...ciao!

Elder Murdoch

2009-11-30T15:06:00.001-07:00

Well, another transfer is almost under my belt. Next week is transfers, and we´re pretty sure that one of us is going to leave. Chances are that it will be Elder Squire, cause he´s been here in Carrión for 3 transfers now, as I have 2. But there was an Elder here before who stayed for 5 or 6, so ya never know. I kinda have a feeling that I´ll be leaving, but again, it´s hard to tell. We´ll see what happens next week.

Last week I talked about a zone conference that we had and promised awesome quotes from President May. I lied. They´re actually from Sister May.

1)The Lord comforts the afflicted and afflicts the overly comfortable. 2)Our emotions tell us what we WANT to hear; the Holy Ghost tells us what we NEED to hear. 3)For non-believers, miracles are insufficient; for believers, miracles are unnecessary. 4)We´re part of a work that will never stop. Some great quotes there.

Natasha and Nicolas are still progressing great. The only problem is that their baptismal date is for December 13th. That´s the day that the Chileans vote for president. And we´ve been told that we can´t have baptisms that day. So they might have to wait. Technically they both could get baptized this Sunday, but only if they´re ready. I could see it happening, but we also don´t want to rush it too fast. It might not happen till the 20th. But they are going to church, reading, praying, etc. Saturday Natasha went to an activity with the Young Men/Women and from what we´ve heard from other teenagers that went, it seems like she had a fun time and has a few friends. That´s great. Nicolas is also making friends with the Young Single Adults. Now we just need a friend for Sylvia. She´s sixty-something but acts and looks younger. There are a couple sisters in the ward like that, so we´re gonna try taking them to visit with her. I think she really is more interested for Natasha than for herself, but she can still progress and be baptized.

We lost Jorge. Two weeks ago yesterday he went to church, but left right after Sacrament meeting and we couldn´t talk to him. The next day we called him to set up a visit, and he said he´d call us. He never did, so last Wednesday we passed for him. He told us he doesn´t want anything to do with religion anymore: not Mormon, Catholics, Evangelists, Jehovah´s Witnesses, nothing. All because of about $37 and some miscommunication. He´s been having a little trouble financially, and asked us several weeks ago if we could ask the bishop to loan him some money. He has to travel to work and buy food and medicine. Bishop said that if Jorge gave him a prescription he could buy the medicine. But Jorge told us that he didn´t have a prescription he could give. So we told him to talk to bishop. Last Wednesday he told us that the bishop closed himself off and didn´t help at all. Neither did the Lord answer any of Jorge´s prayers. So now he wants nothing more. That night we talked with the bishop, and he said Jorge never talked to him about borrowing money. Only the one time when he asked through us. A few days after we told him to talk to the bishop, bishop and his wife visited Jorge. Bishop told us that Jorge didn´t say anything about borrowing money. Didn´t even mention it. So Jorge´s mad at the bishop for not borrowing money that he didn´t ask for, except through the missionaries. He wanted to give us back his Book of Mormon, but we told him it´s his to keep. I guess we did all that we could but he´s just not ready. Hopefully someday some missionary can baptize him.

That´s about all. I´m still recuperating from having the swine flu 2 months ago. I´m getting better, but still far from well. It hasn´t helped the missionary work much. But last week in divisions I learned something from Elder Valencia. (Elder Valencia is from Ecuador, and was actually my DL´s companion my first transfer here.) He said that we´re not here to be comfortable. We´re actually here to be uncomfortable so that we can help others be more comfortable. Jesus was not comfortable on the cross. With that perspective in mind, I´ve been trying to focus less on me and more on my investigators. It´s helped a lot.

The food keeps treating me well. Maybe a little too well. I think I´m gaining back weight. I´ve started being more careful with my diet, but it is pretty hard. One tough part is the Coke. Coke is pretty fattening, and down here it´s like water. People always offer us Coke, or if not juice, but even the juice has a ton of sugar. Hopefully I can lose some of all this fat.

Well, that´s all for this week. Talk to ya all later!

Elder Murdoch

2009-11-23T13:48:00.000-07:00

Well, this week, like all the others, has been fast and slow. Interesting how time works.

Friday we had a zone conference. It was really great. We learned a lot from President and Sister May and the assistents. We learned about using the Book of Mormon to answer doubts, asking members for references, and lots of other stuff. President May said a lot of things that I loved. Unfortunately I can´t remember any right now, so I´ll send them next week. He also talked about a training that all the Chile mission presidents had last week with Elder Bednar. That would be pretty sweet. He told a story that Elder Bednar told them of a guy that had cancer. He was recently married, and didn´t want to die. A friend of his knew Elder Bednar, and asked him to talk to the friend with cancer. During the conversation, the man asked for a blessing. Elder Bednar felt inspired to ask, "Do you have the faith to not be healed?" Then he said that, applying this story (of which we don´t know the end) to missionary work, the question should not be, "Do you have the faith to baptize?" It should be "Do you have the faith to keep going faithful without baptisms?" It really made me stop and think, since in almost 6 months I´ve had one baptism, and I didn´t find her and someone else did the baptism. I´ve had so many almost baptisms. It´s something interesting to think about.

I think that I have mentioned in past emails that the people here in Chile are nice. It´s true. The people here are very hospitable and kind. However, I found this past week that there are exceptions. We knocked on one house, and I started doing the contact. She interrupted me, and said "No. I know you guys are Mormons. My church doesn´t allow me to participate with sects. Also, you´re Americans, and I don´t want anything to do with you." Regretably, I kinda lost the Spirit and said, "And what if we were Evangelists from Brazil?" It was an interesting contact. And another contact later, the guy opened the door and right away took a cigarette out of his mouth, shook it at us, and yelled, "I believe in this, nothing more. I don´t believe in your God or anything, only this." Pretty sad, but we also found it slightly entertaining.

Nicolas and Natasha are progressing really well. They both went to church, and later last night we had a family home evening with the Bishop´s family. It was really great. We taught the Word of Wisdom, and Nicolas basically said, "I don´t smoke or drink because it doesn´t interest me and doesn´t make sense." He likes sports and is a pretty big guy, and it was great to hear him say that. I´m really excited for them. Just to make sure it´s all straight (I´m not sure how well I explained last week) Nicolas is Natasha´s uncle. His mom is Sylvia, who talked to us in the street. Nicolas is 24, Natash 12, and Slyvia 60-ish. She isn´t progressing as well so we´ll have to work more with her. Nicolas could get baptized this Sunday, but it´ll probably be the 6 or 13 of December. Natasha will also be the 6 or 13. The last Sunday of transfers is the 6, so hopefully it happens then.

I´m slowly getting better from my 2 month long sickness. I went to the doctor this morning for the 7th time and he said I´m slowly getting better. He said I had been pretty bad, and he thinks that I did have the swine flu, but then got over it. Now my immune system is down a little, which is why I´ve been so slow at recuperating. But, slowly, I am getting better.

Well, I think that´s about it. Wishing everybody a happy Thanksgiving!!

Elder Murdoch

2009-11-16T15:08:00.002-07:00

Well, don´t have much time, so this will be short. It seems like every week I have less and less time. Hmmmmm.

This was a great week. Jorge called us on Tuesday, and we set up a visit for the same day. He´s been having some bad moments, but with a lot of prayer, and a couple visits from the bishop´s wife (she´s amazing) he´s overcome a lot. Right now his only problem is finances. He has to buy a lot of medicine (like me) and doesn´t have a lot of money. I think he will or has talked with the bishop about a loan. He said he still wants to be baptized and wants to be a member of this church. We´re hoping maybe this Sunday. The next at the latest.

Willi and Vanessa are still waiting for his citizenship to come. January´s a long ways away. It´s frustrating cause when we give the report every Sunday, we can´t count them as investigators in the church or as progressing because they´re not married. Even though they´re progressing better than most of the other investigators and a lot of members! We´ve been meeting up with them on a corner close to the house to go to church together. But yesterday we had to pass for some new investigators. We called to tell them and they were already getting dressed and ready for church. Wow!! We had a Family Home Evening with them last night with another family from Peru. We talked about Joseph Smith, watched The Restoration, and shared testimonies about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Willi and Vanessa had the strongest testimonies of us all! It was really great, especially since they have fellow Peruvians to be friends with in the ward.

About a week and a half ago, a woman talked to me and my DL, Elder Barney, in the street. Her name´s Sylvia, and she´s looking for a church for her 12-year-old granddaughter and wants to investigate ours. Last Tuesday we passed for her. The granddaughter wasn´t there, but we set her and her son, Nicolas, with a baptismal date. Sunday when we passed by to pick them up for church she was in a dress and him in a shirt and tie. They had read the pamphlet about the Restoration we left, and saw that we dress up when we go to church. They said "Is this all right?" I was like, "Um, of course it is. It´s perfect!" They´re really great. In the church they found friends pretty fast: Sylvia with the bishop´s wife (I told ya she´s amazing!) and Nicolas with the bishop´s daughter, who is in charge of the Young Single Adults in the ward. Later after church, we passed for them and taught her granddaughter, Natasha. When we were talking at the end about baptism, Sylvia said about Natasha, "She´s not baptized yet." Then, startling us as much as her grandmother, Natasha said "I want to get baptized." Um, yeah. No problem there. She has the same date as Sylvia and Nicolas (he´s her uncle), the 13 of December, but they could all progress and be baptized the 6th.

Just a few tidbits of experiences that I didn´t get to put in last week:
1)One night we were coming home at night and a couple drunks stopped us in the street. They were pretty wasted. As one learned a bit of English from Elder Squire, the other told me the the watch on my wrist was his and he wanted it. He threatened that he had a pistol, but it was obvious that 1)he didn´t and 2)he was too drunk to aim properly even if he did. I got pretty amused, and he got frustrated cause I wouldn´t give it to him. Finally they left and we went to the house.

2)Another night we were doing contacts, knocking doors in a street. At one door, the guy came to the door, a little drunk, and said "I´m not doing anything. I´m just drinking coffee. There´s no problem." Turns out he thought we were from the PDI-Policia Departamento de Investigaciones (Police Department of Investigations, basically the FBI)When he realized that we´re missionaries, he asked us to visit him another day. He said that he´s been praying, and that night he had said "Lord, save me" and right then we showed up. Pretty cool story. Unfortunately, when we passed by with a member, he was way drunk, so we didn´t enter. We´ll probably pass by another day and hope he´s sober.

Well, I think that´s all the big stuff. We´ve found quite a few new people. Now we just have to keep passing for them and help them progress more. The language is going great. I can mostly say anything I want and understand basically everything. The food´s still great except for the clams we ate for lunch yesterday. Not my favorite, but not too bad. It keeps getting warmer and warmer. I´m really gonna miss snow. Recently I´ve realized that I´m not gonna see snow for two more years from right now, the winter of 2011. Wow. I really hope I don´t go into withdrawal this Christmas. :)

Well, time to go. Hasta la proxima semana (Until the next week)....

Elder Murdoch

2009-11-09T10:27:00.001-07:00

Yeah, so I had my email all ready to go, and the power went out here in the internet place. So I lost it all and I´m almost out of time, so this will be fast.

Quick update on investigators
Jorge-has some personal issues to solve and needs some time to himself. Basically said not to come by untill he calls us.

Anibel-25 years old, I don´t think I´ve talked about him much. Stopped smoking. It took a couple weeks, but he finally did it. Now we have to work with the Law of Chastity. Fun.

The 4 generation family-Maria and Carlos, the great-grandmother/father said that they had realized that we´re not from their religion. They actually gave us back the books of mormon! But Camila, 15 years old, has some interest, and we´re gonna teach her in the house of a member close by.

Well, I have more to talk about, but I don´t have time. Sorry. Maybe next week. Ciao!

Elder Murdoch

2009-11-02T13:09:00.002-07:00

This was a pretty good week. Tough, but good. I´m still fighting sickness, and having trouble sleeping at night. But one night, while trying to sleep, we did have a slight earthquake. I don´t know if it was just a really tiny one, or if we felt the edges of one farther away, but I haven´t heard anything about it. My bed started shaking, and then the walls and windows rattled a little. It lasted about half a minute then stopped. Nothing big, but it was still a little nerve racking.

We finally got a shower that works this week! I haven´t even written anything about our old one. What happened is that we live in a big department building, with 13 floors (we´re on the 9th). We haven´t had hot water or a showerhead that works. So what we did is boil water on the stove, put it in a big bowl, transfer it to the shower, put some cold water to cool it down, then use a tupperware to scoop out water and dump it on us. Quite the adventure, but not very fun. But there´s a member in our ward recently becoming active again who works with electricity. This week he came by and installed an electric shower with a head that works. We paid him and will get reimbursed by the office. We finally have a shower that works!!

Halloween was interesting. Just for that one night, we weren´t the only people knocking doors. There were all sorts of devils, ghosts, witches, etc., who all had much more success in their search than we did. Some even came to our door after we had arrived and we scraped up some gum, mints, suckers, etc. to give them.

Last night we scheduled some time just to knock doors. We were a little behind in contacts, so instead of trying to enter to teach we just set appointments for another day. But one door we knocked said, "We´re all together, and that almost never happens." So we entered and taught the Restoration and Book of Mormon. We left two Books of Mormon with them and set 4 of them with a baptismal date. It´s a real great family with 4 generations. They consist of the oldest, Maria Mercedes, her daugher, Hedy and her husband Carlos, their daughter Jessica, and her daughter Camila. They´re really great, and I´m excited to continue teaching them.

Well, that´s about it. Plus I´m out of time. The other investigators are doing well. Jorge will be baptized the 15th if everything goes all right, as well as a 25-year-old, Anibel. Willi and Vanessa are still waiting for his carnet, but we did a kneeling prayer with them the other day asking for the Lord´s help; and they went today to check up on it. Tomorrow we´ll see how it went. That´s the only thing keeping them from being married and then baptized.

Well, until next week. Hasta luego!!

Elder Murdoch

2009-10-26T12:28:00.001-06:00

2009-10-26T12:11:00.003-06:00

Well, another transfer has come and gone. I´m now over 6 months in the mission, and on my 4th transfer. And this is gonna be an interesting one. My companion, Elder Squire left, and I´m with another 2nd transfer, Elder Murinez, from Colombia. And I´m District Leader. I´m not quite sure how to be DL, so it´ll definitely be an adventure for me. (Spoiler from Maili: He's kidding about this!)

Aside from that, this week was, well, another normal week. We found some more people one night. We were knocking doors and at one of them a man came out and said "Come in!" They were really nice, and we thought that they have to be less actives. We were searching around the living room for a picture of Jesus or a Book of Mormon or something. Then we saw the statue of the Virgin Saint Mary holding the baby Jesus. Turns out they´re Catholics but not really active, practicing, die-hard Catholics. We set the parents with a baptismal date. The grandma was in and out and the daughter, 10 years old, as well. We´re gonna work with them harder.

Yesterday we ate with the Stake President´s family (they´re in our ward, pretty sweet). He knows a lot of English, and his wife and kids quite a bit too. So for the closing prayer they asked me to do it in English. I have to say, that was the weirdest, most awkward prayer I´ve given in my life! Even worse than my first prayer in Spanish! I kept wanting to talk in Spanish, and even said a couple of words in Spanish and had to correct myself. And I really had to think hard about what I was saying. It was very different for me, and not something I want to do again soon.

I don´t think much else happened this week. Jorge is still progressing well. He has a good testimony of the church, Book of Mormon, etc. and wants to be baptized. He has no doubts about anything we´ve taught him. Which is a big change. He said that when we first visited, even though he had asked us to, he was closed. But then we taught him how to pray, and in the first prayer he did after we left he opened up more. Saturday, more or less 3 weeks after our first visit, he prayed in the lesson, the first time he´s prayed with us. It was a really great prayer, and we could tell that he´s praying from the heart. But his problem is that he doubts himself, and says he still has some personal changes to make. We just need patience and lots of prayer, and he should be baptized soon.

Willi and Vanessa are also progressing great. He´s from Peru, and is just waiting for his carnet to arrive so he can be legal. Then they can get married and baptized. I´m really excited for them. They have a 5 year old daughter, Camila, who is really cute. They´re going to be a great eternal family. And I should get to go to their sealing in the temple, one year after their baptism. It´ll be a great experience, especially for them.

Well, I think that´s about it from here. Oh, and one more thing: I lied. Nothing happened with transfers. I´m not DL. I´m still with Elder Squire. Nothing changed. Sorry, I had to do that, I couldn´t help it. I thought about waiting till next week to say something, but didn´t want to be that mean, nor confuse people. So we´re still here in Carrión, me and Elder Squire. And things are going great.

Well, until next week!!

Elder Murdoch

Iré, Haré, Seré
I will go, I will do, I will be.

2009-10-19T13:08:00.001-06:00

Well, this Thursday I will officially have 6 months, 1/4 of the mission, completed.(counting the MTC) I feel old. I can´t believe I´ve been here that long! Time needs to slow down more! But it´s been a good 6 months. I´m learning a lot, and growing a lot spiritually, mentally, and a little physically. (I´ve been a little bad at excercising and need to pick it up some more.)

This has been a very crazy and interesting week. One day we were working with Permanaced and looking for the house of a member. It was in a little alley that has like 6 different houses. There was a lady that told us not to say nothing, just keep walking, she doesn´t want our message of Jesus Christ. All we did was say Hola!! Then as we walked away she said "It´s difficult to converse with the Devil in this house." My comp didn´t hear, so I was like, "Um, Elder. I think she just called us the devil." Interesting.

Thursday I got to become legal. I had to wake up at 4, go to the mission office, then go on a treasure hunt. We got instructions that said go here, do this, do that, go there, etc. It took about 7 hours of walking, running (in the sun), take a number and wait, stuff like that. But after all the frustration, I am no longer a tourist: ¡Soy Chileno! I´m Chilean! I get my ID card in about 2 weeks, but basically I am now Chilean. Sweet!!

Jorge is progressing really, really well. I think I mentioned last week, he got his answer in church. As he took the Sacrament, he suddenly knew that this is the path he´s been searching for. He also had an interview with Bishop, who then invited him and us to FHE Monday night. During FHE, bishop explained about FHE, then we had a lesson by his daughter on conversion. During the lesson Jorge said "Me voy a bautizar." "I´m going to be baptized." We were like, what?! Can you say that again? It was awesome. Then I played the piano for awhile while they all talked and the bishop´s wife prepared a pizza. It was a great FHE. Jorge also went to church yesterday and felt the spirit even stronger. He feels like he has friends/family in the church. We´ve taught him Chastity, Word of Wisdom, and tithing, and he doesn´t have any problem with any of them. He was definitely prepared by the Lord, and is ready for baptism. Hopefully this Sunday, but at least the next one at the latest.

We have a couple that we´re teaching. They´re not married, but have talked about it. We´ve really been pushing them, lovingly, towards marriage, so that they can be baptized. Last night they said that they are going to do it. They´re from Peru, and he´s still waiting for his citizenship, the same thing I just got. But then they are going to get married. Last night they told us that they will never forget us because we´re the reason they´re getting married. They´ve talked about it, but never done anything till we came. I´m really excited for them.

Well, time to wrap it up. This is the last week of the transfer. Hopefully I can finish it well. Until next week!!

Elder Murdoch

2009-10-12T12:34:00.001-06:00

This week was another fast and interesting one. We did have a baptism yesterday. Yeah!!! My first one on the mission. Maria was really nervous, but ready, and it was a good baptism. Except there was some sort of time change (did you all have daylight savings?) and the time went forward an hour, but we didn´t know until an investigator called to ask why we hadn´t passed to pick them up at 9:45. We thought it was 8:45. Oops. But he went anyway. But we showed up late, and then after sacrament meeting we had to prepare the font, but there was still water from another baptism that someone else did, so we had to dump the water and fill it up again, with lukewarm water, find clothes for her, and prepare everything else. We didn´t make it to Gospel Principles or Priesthood, but did get everything ready for the baptism, which went really well. I´ll attach a foto.(Maili's Note: He forgot the photo)

Another good thing about the day was Jorge. He´s the investigator that talked to us in the store and asked us to pass. (Maili's note: I think pass means stop by.) He was in the church. He´s still been searching for the right path in his life, and on the way to church had some doubts. But he told us that right as he took the bread in the Sacrament, he felt his answer, and is ready to follow it. We have a little more to teach him, and he´ll probably be baptized in two weeks. Yes!!! I knew that all he needed was the church. Another cool incident with Jorge happened Thursday. He called us in the morning and said that he´s still waiting for his paycheck (he´s a professor of French) and doesn´t have any food. We called the bishop who said Jorge could go to the church at 8:00 pm to talk to him and work something out. But Jorge works at night and couldn´t. So we took him some random stuff, like hot dogs and bread and ketchup, juice, stuff like that. It was great to be able to serve an investigator. And tonight we have a Family Home Evening with him and the bishop´s family.

The other day we showed up at an appointment, and there were a couple little girls outside the next door neighbor. One asked us if we´re Mormons and then said her parents want us to pass by and teach them. We set an appointment, but they weren´t there, so we´ll have to pass later. But it was pretty cool.

Something cool I forgot to say last week: Sunday morning in conference the Motab sang a song "Sing Praise to Him." This is one of the songs that Elder Squire and I sang in Priesthood Conference last April. Pretty sweet.

Well, I have to go. Elder Squire has something with President, and we have to go. We´re already gonna be late. Everything´s going great here. The language keeps improving. The food´s great. Actually, we just had lunch and had a soup with chicken feet. It was good, but kinda weird. I had to bite off each toe one at a time and suck the meat off. It was weird to think "I have a chicken toe in my mouth." But it was good.

Well, that´s it for this week. Ciao!!

Elder Murdoch

2009-10-05T12:22:00.001-06:00

Well, another week under my belt. Actually, I had a little wake up moment the other day. We had divisions, and I was in another ward with my district leader, who has a year and a half. He asked me how much time I have including the MTC, and I realized that in about two and a half weeks I´ll have 6 months. Wow! Crazy! It doesn´t feel like I´ve been here for 6 months, and at the same time it seems like 6 years. But a quarter of my mission is already done. Wow.

Also, with my district leader in divisions, we contacted a 70! Woot! I was pretty excited. Except there´s a catch. He´s not actually from THE QUORUM OF THE 70. My DL explained to me: years ago when they called ward mission leaders, they got called to the office of 70, with that title. But they really were just ward mission leaders. Such is the case with this person. He was a mission leader, but was called to the title of 70. Still pretty cool.

We´re going through kind of a rough time with investigators. We´ve lost a lot of people this week. But we are hoping for 2 baptisms this Sunday. Fernando, who is 11 years old, should be ready. And Maria definitely. She had to stop smoking, but did it in a week. She is progressing great. Her husband Mario a little slower. Where she was smoking one cigarrete a day, he smokes 5, and at first didn´t think he can stop. But I shared 1 Nephi 3:7, and gave a strong testimony and promise that he can do it, he just needs the faith. Then he said "For you Elders, for Nephi, and for the Lord, I´ll make plans and goals, and stop smoking." It´s amazing the changes people can make when the Spirit is there. Mario will probably be baptized one Sunday more, the 18th.

We have a few other people we´re teaching, but they´re all mostly in the beginning stages, and have a long way to go. But they all have great potential, we just need to teach them, and with the Lord´s help, they can be baptized.

Now for the main part of my week: General Conference. We got to watch in English, fortunately, and it was great! I really needed it. When President Monson stood up Saturday morning, I got teary eyed and could have left happy right then. I testify without any doubt that he the prophet, seer, and revalator in our days, and that he is called by the Lord, as well as everyone else who spoke the past two days, and they all spoke the words of the Lord.

We were pretty excited to hear about the new temple in Conception, Chile. The members even more excited. It sounds like most of the temple attenders here are from that area, but it´s hard for them to come. A member told us that it´s easier and cheaper to go to the temple in another country than here in Santiago. But now they will have a temple down south in Conception. I´m sure they´re all pretty happy. I loved Elder Ballard´s talk in Priesthood, and Elder Holland´s Sunday afternoon. Wow! Elder Holland really put it all out on the line! Holy Cow!!! It was a great talk. Elder Bednar and Elder Uchtdorf gave amazing talks too. I´ve decided that this was the best Conference of my whole life. I learned a lot. It was also different, because I was listening and taking notes not just for myself like normal, but for my investigators, as well. I think that with Conference, when we love someone enough, and desire their salvation, we can learn more than if we just want to learn something for ourselves.

I heard that Elder Brice Anderson has an Elder in his district who is a cousin to Elder Barney here in Chile. Funny thing: Elder Barney is my District Leader right now. Wow, what a coincidence.

Well, here in Carrion the work keeps going. I´m learning a lot and growing a ton spiritually (although I think I´m still shrinking physically). I´ve never felt the Spirit and the Lord so near in my life. This definitely is the best time of my life so far. I only hope that I can make the best of it in inviting others to come unto Christ. This really is the Lord´s work, and can only be done when we involve him and do it his way, which is through the Spirit. It´s true what D&C 41:14 says, "If ye receive not the Spirit, ye shall not teach." The Spirit is essencial in the conversion of others, and in all aspects our daily lives. If we search for and live worthy to have the Holy Ghost, our lives will be better, and we will be able to better help other people come unto Christ.

Elder Murdoch

2009-10-02T21:30:00.003-06:00

Elders Nicholas and Murdoch on transfer day

Well, things are still pretty interesting here. Some things are looking up, and others down. But no matter what, the mission work still goes on.

Elder Squire has improved so much! He can talk a lot better, teach great, and everything is getting better. It´s been amazing watching him improve so much the past two weeks, realizing that not long ago I was doing the same thing. I know that the Lord is helping him a lot, and I´m grateful for the opportunity to see it happen.

Last Monday we were shopping, and a man came up to us and asked where is our chapel. We told him, and set up a visit to talk with him. When we went, he told us that he feels like he´s lacking on faith, and has been searching for the truth. Jorge has studied a little with Jehovah´s Witnesses, Evangelists, etc. but has never felt anything like he thinks has helped. Then when he saw us in the store he had to stop and talk to us. We´ve since taught him about the Restoration and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He told us that he´s been feeling small changes in his life for the better since we started teaching him. He´s really progressing great and I think that we can change his baptismal date to much sooner that the 25th of October.

One night we were visiting less actives, and while waiting for one door to open, a couple stopped us and asked if we could pass for their house when we had time and gave us their address. Turns out that their searching some family history, and heard something about our church buying an archive from the Catholics, and wanted to see what they need to do to use it. We took them to the church and the talked with the Bishop and found out what they needed. Hopefully they can find the information that they need. Oh, and we also set up an appointment to visit them. They also went to a FHE that the priests were doing, and the opening song was "Families Can Be Together Forever." It was perfect.

We´re teaching an 11 year old who has been ready to be baptized for a few weeks. The problem is that his parents keep saying "Wait one more week." We´re going to teach them and invite them to church, and hopefully they can gain interest and be baptized, or at the least allow Fernando to be baptized.

Well, that´s about it. Things here keep going. We´ve dropped a few investigators, but found a couple more. With a lot of help I´ve basically got the language down. I can more or less say what I can want, and I can understand most of the time. Things are improving, more or less, and I´m learning a whole lot. I´m way excited for Conference this week. We´re gonna have several investigators there, and we´re praying that they can receive the answers that they need there. I´m also excited for the chance to see and hear President Monson and the other leaders. I know that they are called of God and that we will be listening to the word of God.

Elder Murdoch

2009-09-21T16:03:00.002-06:00

Wow. This week was definitely a challenge. A lot of problems, prayers, tears, questioning why, growth, learning, etc. I still don´t understand why I´m here in Carrion, on my third transfer, with a companion on his second. I´m basically his second trainer, but I don´t know much more than he. I prayed a lot this week for help with this. It´s been difficult.

On a more happy note, his abilities to speak, do contacts(something that was difficult for him), and teach, have improved immensely in this past week. I know it wasn´t all my teaching, but mostly from the Lord, and I´m grateful for His help. Things are getting better.

On Friday the 18th we celebrated Chile´s Independence Day. Here they prepare for a week, and celebrate for 2-3 days. We went to the Bishop´s house Thursday and ate Empenadas, a Chilean food. Friday we had a barbecue, with hot dogs, sausage, beef, chicken, and potatoes. It was way great. And Thursday night there was a stake party in the stake center. We had permission from President May to go for two hours, with an investigator, but we still had to be in the house at 10, and couldn´t dance or play sports. It was pretty fun. We got to hear some good music and see some of the culture of Chile. I really enjoyed it.

The ward here is really great. The members are willing to help us; the recent converts are really faithful; everything´s great. I love the ward. And the bishop is really amazing. And his family´s great. They actually remind me a lot of the Brady´s, and Kylie and Lauren. I don´t know why, but that´s what I think everytime I see them. They´re really a great family. We had lunch with them yesterday, which was a fun adventure. We ate fish, clam, crab, and lobster. The interesting part was that it was the whole clam. We had to pull the shell open, scoop out the meat, and put the shell in a separate bowl. And the lobster claws, too, which was even harder. But it was pretty fun, even though it really didn´t taste to good, and my hands still smelled like fish all day even after washing like three times. It was a good dinner.

At lunch Saturday with the 2nd counselor in the bishopric, he asked what instruments I play. When I said I play piano, he asked me if I could play in church. So yesterday I played in Sacrament meeting and Priesthood and will probably be the ward pianist now.

We have 25 people with a baptismal date right now, which is a lot. More than I´ve seen in all my time in Renca 1. We´re probably gonna end up dropping some. There are a lot that I still don´t know, but also a few that I´m really excited about.
Fernando is about 11 years old, and really wants to be baptized. He´s received all the lessons. He actually was going to be baptized yesterday, but his parents wanted him to wait one more week. So we have to wait until this Sunday. Also, tomorrow we´re going to teach the rest of his family, and hopefully they can follow his example and join the church. Anibel is in his late teens, early 20´s, I´m not sure which. He´s a little shy and quiet, but a good person. He´s been reading the Book of Mormon and praying but still hasn´t received an answer to his prayer about baptism, so we have to help him with that. He was the investigator we took to the party Thursday, and met a few members of J.A.S. (Jovenes Adultos Solteros, or in English, YSA, Young Single Adults) and now has a few friends in the church, which is good.
Maria and Mario are a couple who have received a lot of lessons, and are preparing for their baptism. But they have to stop smoking and drinking coffee, which they said really won´t be too bad. They also were in church yesterday. I´m excited for them.

I learned a lot this week. I guess it´s true that we can learn from our trials. I´m still having a hard time and still learning a ton. But things are getting better and I know the Lord is with us. Romans 5:3, 4 says "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope." I know that this is true, that with tribulation we can acquire patience, and with this, experience and hope. I have gained a lot of these things this past week. I´m grateful for the opportunity to be here and for all the things I am learning. It´s definitely a great experience that will help me throughout all my life.

Elder Murdoch

2009-09-14T14:02:00.002-06:00

Well, one more transfer under my belt. That went fast! I´m now in a different sector and not sure how to feel. Elder Nicholas stayed in Renca 1 with another missionary. I´m now in a different sector named Carrión. My new companion, Elder Squire, is from Ohio. He went to BYU-Idaho at the same time as me. He´s really great, and I can already tell that he´s a hard worker and we´re gonna get a lot done. More than that, this is his second transfer. He has one less than me. Kinda hard to believe, huh? I´m a little overwhelmed but also excited to help him learn all the things that I´ve learned recently. The sector´s gonna be great from what I´ve heard. Right now we have twenty-something people with a baptismal date. I´ve heard from him and other missionaries that the sector is great, easy to set people with a date, just have to maintain them, and that the ward is wonderful. Hopefully I can have more success here than in Renca 1.

The language is going great, which will help me be able to help Elder Squire. I can talk really well, basically say what I want to most of the time. And I can understand well too. There are still people who talk way fast that I can´t understand everything. But the majority of people I can understand. I´ve definitely had a lot of help from the Lord.

This last Friday we had a small adventure. It was the 11th, which is an anniversary of some sort of riot in Chile. It sounds like every year on September 11, they cut the lights and have demonstrations. We had to return to the house at 7:00. We planned, ate, hung out, and at about 9:00 the lights and water went out. We went to bed at 10:00. Fortunately nothing dangerous happened and it´s all good now.

This coming Friday is September 18th. It´s basically like our July 4th. They have a big celebration in the church, with lots of food and entertainment. We can go for 2 hours if we bring investigators but can´t participate in dances or sports. I don´t know if we´ll go. We probably will. I´ve heard about some of the food, and I´m excited to try it out.

Yesterday we had Stake Conference. Our chapel is the stake center, so we just went there like normal. It was really great. There were some talks and testimonies from some members including Michael Gonzalaz, who was less active for about a year and a half and now is preparing for a mission with his brother Denny. Then we heard from Sister and President May and the stake president. It was really great. The stake choir was amazing, and the spirit was really strong the whole time.

Well, not much more to say. The language keeps improving; the food´s still great; I´ve lost a bit of weight; and the work keeps going. I´m really excited to work here in this new sector.

Elder Murdoch

2009-09-07T11:12:00.002-06:00

Go Cougars!!! Exciting!
The weeks keep going by too fast. We´re already in the last week of this transfer. I don´t know where I´ll be next Monday. I might stay here or go to a different sector. I guess we´ll see.

This week was interesting. I got my plaque back. I had lost in in the micro(bus) the first day of this transfer, 5 weeks ago. Turns out a teenager found it and this last week gave it to some missionaries in my zone. What are the chances!? I was gonna buy another. Glad I didn´t.

Thursday we left the pension, then had to go back in to get something we forgot. This second time, we left the keys on the desk without realizing it. I asked Elder Nicholas if he had the keys, because I didn´t. Neither did he. Uh-oh. We left to work, and called our district leader, who called the zone leaders, who called the office. Line of authority can be a pain sometimes. By the time we finished our day at 10:00, no one had called us about the keys. And the guardhouse of our apartments doesn´t have a master key or anything. So we went to the house of our District leader while waiting for the office to call. At 11:00 we decided not to wait anymore. We live on the second floor, and the back patio of the first floor has a roof. We borrowed a ladder from the guardhouse and Elder Nicholas climbed on the roof and then into a small hole into the kitchen, then opened the door. Quite the experience. Now we both have an extra key in our backpacks, aside from the main set of keys.

Friday we had divisions, and Elder Frost, our district leader, came here to Renca 1 to work with me. While walking down a street there was a house that had rock music playing. There was a dog outside--I think he was sick--bobbing his head in perfect timing with the music. Elder Frost looked at me and said, "Did I just see what I thought I did?" It was amusing.

Elder Nicholas has been teaching me to juggle, and I´ve been practicing. At first I used mandarines, but after ruining like six or seven we made balls of paper and tape. I´m getting better but still have a ways to go. Saturday when we played soccer it was raining a little, so the court was wet and slick. It´s a type of cement that´s normally slick anyway, so it was interesting. Everyone was sliding and falling a lot. Then it stopped raining and the court dried. Then it started again, then stopped again. There were small puddles, and I ran into one at one point. I was running down the court then stopped to go the other direction. Unfortunately my right foot was in a puddle and kept going the original direction. I twisted the ankle, and had to leave the game for awhile. Hours later in the day it was hurting bad, and I couldn´t walk without limping and even then it hurt. So we had to buy some ice and go back to the pension to ice my ankle. We couldn´t leave at all that day to work. I felt bad, because we had a couple of really important appointments. But yesterday we could leave, and today I feel a lot better, even though my ankle´s still a little sore. I can walk normal, and run a little. So it´s all good.

We´re still working with Bastian, trying to get permission from his mom to baptize him, but it´s hard to find her. We also have a couple other people we´re teaching. Not many, but they´re good. Prisila is a friend of a member and is really good. She wants to be baptized, and we´ve taught her a couple times. The problem is that she´s separated from her husband but not divorced and living with someone else. So she has to get divorced and then married. The good thing is that she wants to do it and is in the middle of the divorce right now. The bad thing is that here in Chile it can take a while to get divorced. We´re hoping that the Lord will bless her for her desire and help speed things up so that she can be baptized.

While working with Permanaced, we found a less active and his wife/girlfriend. They´re not married but living together. They have a similar problem like Prisila. Victor is a member, but Ginette isn´t. She´s a single mother since they´re not married. They´re looking for a new house, and she can receive help from the government, being a single mother. So they´re waiting for this, then to buy the house, then they´re gonna get married so she can be baptized, which she wants to be baptized. We had a lesson with them that we talked about how we have to show faith in the Lord and do our part, and he´ll help us with the things we need. We shared 1 Nephi 3:7, 3 Nephi 13:31-33, and Proverbs 3:5-6, all really good scriptures. Then we challenged them to pray and ask if they should get married before buying a house, and promised that God will help them find a house if they have faith. Hopefully they can have the faith necessary to trust the Lord more than the government.

This last week we had interviews with President May. It was really great. The interviews are in English, and I really struggled. I never thought I´d struggle with English, but I could hardly talk. I made it through the interview, but barely. But it was a great interview. One thing that President May said that really made me happy was he told me that he hasn´t lost any confidence in me. That´s good. It´s great to be able to talk with President May. He´s wonderful.

Well, I think that´s about it for this week. Things are improving slowly. Until next week!

Elder Murdoch

2009-08-31T23:47:00.000-06:00

2009-08-31T17:59:00.002-06:00

Time keeps passing really fast,and it´s hard to tell if that´s good or bad. But things are going really great here. Elder Nicholas is getting better, so we were able to leave more this week. We had more lessons and a little success. A lot better than the last two weeks.

We had a zone conference that was really great. It is always great to hear from President and Sister May. They´re great. We learned a lot about a new thing we´re starting with less actives. The Presidency of the area of Chile wrote a letter named Permanaced, or Abide/Stay. It talks about the Holy Ghost, the problem of Sin, the solution of the Atonement and Baptism, the apostasy and restauration, and then the importance of Endure to the End. We´re starting to use it with less-actives, and there´s also a way to use it with non-members. It´s really amazing. We´ve already had a couple lessons with it and it works to get less actives to church or to teach non-members. I´m really excited to use it more.

We´ve started playing soccer every Saturday at 6 am. Included are some pictures of my sweet new shoes. This Saturday we were walking to the bus stop to go to the church and a van and car of carabiñeros (police) stopped us and asked where we came from. We said we came from our apartments and are going to play futbol (soccer) in our chapel. They looked at us weird for a minute and then left.

As of right now we don´t have too many people that we´re teaching. We have one person with a baptismal date, but we can only teach him Saturday nights, and when we went this Saturday he was busy and asked if we can do it this next Saturday.

We also have Bastian. I talked about him weeks ago. He´s a friend of a member, and was really great. But then we lost contact with him because he´s always playing soccer, so we dropped him. Then we were talking with the seminary teacher and she told us that he´s always at seminary and that he told her he´s getting baptized soon. Except he can´t cause we haven´t taught him all the lessons. So we made contact again, and taught him the Word of Wisdom. Later we talked to him to see if he still wants to be baptized. He said yes, and he´s pretty sure that his parents will let him. We have to talk to them to make sure, but hopefully that shouldn´t be a problem. He came to church yesterday and liked it, and is going to keep coming. He´s progressing pretty well and should be able to be baptized in 3-4 weeks.

That´s about it, though. We´re still trying to find more people. Basically we´re resurrecting our sector, but it´s slow gaining more life. We did find a less-active and his ¨girlfriend.¨ She´s not a member. The problem with setting her with a date is that they´re not married, and we can´t even set people with a baptismal date if they´re not married. She actually wants to be baptized, though. She has a baby, so is a single mother. They´re searching for a new house, and there´s a thing here in Chile that single mothers get some sort of financial help buying a house. So they´re waiting to find a house, then they´ll get married, then she can be baptized. Kinda lame, but hopefully they can have some help from above.

The language is getting a lot better. I´m starting to talk a little faster. Still having trouble with some things, but it´s coming. And I can understand better a little more each day. Still have a load of trouble with that, but it´s coming too.

Well, I think that´s about it. In closing I have an invitation for you all. Pray for people you know who aren´t members. Friends, family, companions at work, etc. Pray for them that they can receive the gospel and the missionaries. Then try to be in tune with the Spirit so that He can tell you when to visit these persons and invite them to hear more. Don´t be afraid to share the gospel. Remember that Mormon tells us that ¨Perfect love casteth out all fear.¨ And no one can have perfect love more than Jesus. Enough that he suffered all that he did for us. If we feel this love that he has for us and have this love for other people, then we shouldn´t have any worries or troubles sharing the gospel with them. Because we love them we want them to be able to receive their salvation, and the only way is through baptism. I know that this is true, and that God wants us all to be able to live with Him in His kingdom forever. And He will do whatever possible to make this possible. This is His only true church and we have the power and authority of Him to help him with this work. We should all heed to the words of President David O. McKay-"Every member a missionary." If we do, we will be blessed. Read Doctrine and Covenants 18:10;15-16.

Elder Murdoch