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