Week 56

Hello Family and friends.

This week was a wonderful one, Bro. Paulino's baptism was so filled with the spirit. I just felt the most indescribable amount of joy. This brother was so ready for his baptism, and waited a long 7 months for him to prepare himself and fully repent. He read the book of Mormon 3 times and half of the Doctrine and Covenants. This man just fully defined the qualifications of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. The Lord has blessed us greatly. It is difficult to explain the joy I feel but I know that that joy comes from the Spirit of Promise sealing and testifying that the ordinance was acceptable to our Father. 

It reminds me of the covenant we all make to always remember our Savior, to be His witness in all things and to follow His example of obedience to our Father in Heaven. I love the opportunity to partake of the sacrament and renew my personal promise to follow Jesus Christ every week. Seeing Bro. Paulino take this new covenant in such a sincere way made it so special.

God knows our hearts and our desires. We will not only be judged by our actions but also our desires. Watching this baptism made me evaluate my own dedication to my covenant and helped me see things I can do to improve.

Our Father in Heaven is very merciful. The arms of the Savior are open to us, we just have to let him in to our lives. I humbly testify to you that Jesus is the Christ and that he paid the price, no matter how far we feel we have gone, no matter how many mistakes we make- the road to true happiness, repentance and forgiveness is always available.

I am so grateful I am here in Paco Roman. The coming weeks will be the harvest of our labors here and I am so filled with gratitude to the Lord for his mercy and his spirit which has been poured out to these people.

Let's all lift up our light which is Christ and help those within our reach. Each soul is so precious to our Father. Let's be faithful to our covenant and be His witness.

I love you all, I miss you all but feel like I am near by when I read your letters thank you for them. I won't have a lot of time to reply anymore but please know I do read them and each one of them makes me smile and gives me strength. I am so blessed to have so many wonderful family members and friends. You are strong. 

Go and conquer,

--

ELDER MURDOCK

Week 55

Hey Family,

So this week was a super happy week. Honestly, I thought I was transferring but the Lord's ways are higher than our ways and no I am not transferring which is really happy! I feel peace and love from God in knowing that I am exactly where God needs me to be. He has work yet for me to do here. I am just at peace.

So the missionaries here have taught this man named Paulino for about 7 months now which is a really long time! I have really grown to love this man. He has struggled with cigarettes for a very long time, 45+ years but now he has changed.  He will be baptized this week and it makes me so happy to see his great change. He cried so hard after his interview. He was so happy and excited for his baptism. I think the biggest lesson i learned from him was patience. Conversion is not a cheap experience, sometimes it takes time for us to really become converted. I am excited to be here for others of our investigators baptism. This transfer will be a wonderful one I can feel it, God is so good. He blesses us immediately after we repent and come to him. He wants us to change and come unto us but is completely up to us if we will use the Atonement. Repentance is such a wonderful gift. 

I love you all! 

--

ELDER MURDOCK

Week 54

Hey family and friends. 

I had a great week this week and as I have said many times, I wouldn't want to be doing anything else.:)

This week was a great week for our investigators, and we met with and taught this really neat man named Rudy. I had talked to this man in months previous and opened my mouth to share the gospel with him. He was a bit reluctant because he said he had his own religion but he invited us in to teach him. Although he told us no promises that he would change his religion. As we started teaching him the spirit filled the room  and his heart began to become more open to the gospel. He accepted the invitation to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. Sadly for two months we lost contact with this man. I was a bit disappointed. But, this week after a bit of hesitation I felt prompted to return to him. When he came out of his house he was really happy to see us and welcomed us in to teach him. He felt the spirit testify to him of the truthfulness of our message and particularly the Book of Mormon. Before we had the chance to challenge him to be baptized he told us "Elders if this book is true, I want to be baptized because I have never felt so happy and at peace than I do right now."

My companion and I just looked at each other with amazement.. I looked brother Rudy in the eye and said: " Brother it is true, and you can know this truth for yourself." This brother has now committed to live the word of wisdom and came to church for the first time yesterday. I believe it was because of the power of the Book of Mormon in his conversion that changed his heart and allowed him to accept the truthfulness of the gospel. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I encourage all of you to read it, to renew your own testimony of its truthfulness. I know that as we use it in our families it will bring us closer to our Savior Jesus Christ. For any who may be reading this letter that has not yet sincerely read and prayed about the Book of Mormon, I plead with you to try the virtue of the word of God. It has power even greater than the sword or any other thing. I know that as you you read it, it will change your life in ways that are indescribable. I know that because I have been trying to study and live the words of the prophets in the Book of Mormon.

 I love you all! I am grateful for all you do and the great influence you have all had on me in my life.

I pray for you and know that you are in the Lord's hands!

Sorry I didn't have time to edit it because they have now cut our computer time from two hours to one hour.

I love you all. Until next week. 

--

ELDER MURDOCK

Week 53

Hey family and friends,

Well this week was good. We got a ton of rain and in the area where we are, and it is the start of the planting of rice which is interesting to see as I see miles of flooded fields as they plant the rice. It reminds me of my job everyday of planting the seeds of the gospel in the hearts of the people here. It is interesting how many receive the word in their hearts but then fail to nurture it and it withers away and dies. That is always sad to see happen, but over all the people here are so humble and willing to listen to us and very rarely show any disrespect to us. Unlike most areas of the world, we are very fortunate that people do not yell at us or slam doors in our faces. I can't recall once of anything like that happening to us. It is just not the nature of the people here. The only problem is it sometimes makes it hard to know who is genuinely interested and those that just want to be entertained by two Americans. 

We did have a crazy thing happen last night, someone broke into our house! They broke the dead bolt on our back door and stole my money for the month which was about $150 and our portable d.v.d player that the mission gave us to watch instructional videos. It was a bit of a shock! We had the "police" come but the thieves were long gone, I guess they jumped over the wall and then kicked our door open. We are safe and nothing was stolen that can't be replaced so it is all okay.

I actually feel the worst for those people who felt desperate enough to steal from us. I just feel bad at the misery that their consequences will bring to them. It really reminds me of what is really important and that as we seek the kingdom of God we will receive much more than anything we could buy here on earth.

Love you all! 

Light will prevail!

--

ELDER MURDOCK

A tasty lunch of crickets with soy sauce! 

                             Burning my shirt for my one year mark!

WEEK 52!!!

hEY fAMILY AND fRIENDS,

HuMP WeEk! 

Well it has been about a year now since I said good bye to all you. It has gone by fast over all and been one of the biggest blessing of my life. When I left Utah I thought I was making a big sacrifice, but know I see that it is not a sacrifice at all but a incredible privilege. 

I know that God lives, I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, I know that his Atonement is real and that we all have the hope to change, there is hope and it is through Him we can find that hope. He is the Anchor of our souls.

Our investigators are well. Rohelyo our deaf investigator is really progressing towards his baptism and it fills me with joy to see the light in his countenance. As we taught him about the sacrament and the Atonement you could see in his face that he felt the spirit, even though he can't understand anything at church he goes for the sacrament.(It makes me think of my commitment of taking the sacrament and truly having that renewal of the soul talked about in conference). He is a really a special man. We are also teaching a brother named Mark who is fighting hard against his addictions and several others that have a variety of challenges. 

The miracle of the Atonement is that no matter what our problems are,
as we turn to Him he can heal us. It is never to late, no matter how many chances we feel we have lost, He is there.

I love you all and LOVE all the testimonies and spiritual experiences you share with me in your emails. You lift me up.

mahal kita,

-- ELDER MURDOCK

Week 51!

Hey Everyone,

Well I just a second ago as I typed "week 51" it kind of hit me that I have lived here in the Philippines for just a little under a year! Man has time gone to fast. To say that this year has been an adventure would be a big understatement as I have learned so much, experienced the beautiful culture and people here and I have grown in my testimony and my dedication to serve our Lord and Savior. 

I have made an attempt to be overall very positive in my emails and I hope that I haven't given you the wrong idea that my mission has been easy, it has definitely been the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life, but man does all the hard stuff make it even more rewarding. Some of the experiences that I have tried to omit in my emails range from being chased by angry stray dogs nipping at our heels, falling off moving motorcycles, the never ending heat, being lied to several times a day, tough companions, Montezuma revenge and of course the cutting disappointment that comes when an investigator you have grown to love has decided to quite investigating the church.  The purpose of sharing all this is not for pity but to help you understand that all this stuff is part of the missionary experience and has made the sweetest parts of the work that much sweeter! I now have more fully some to understand that with out the bad we wouldn't really appreciate the good of life.

We are finding more and more prepared souls and it has increased my faith in knowing that this work is real, I am blessed to be instrument in this work and a wonder for the salvation of many souls. I absolutely love the Filipinos. They are the most hospitable people and happily allow strangers into their house and to eat at their tables. They for the most part love Jesus Christ. They are humble and have good hearts. They have their weaknesses and flaws but they are the most sincere and real people I have ever known. I thank God everyday that I have been blessed to serve here in the Philippines, God loves his people here and is mindful of them.

 Rohelyo our deaf investigator is progressing to his baptism next month and it made me marvel at his faith to see him walk to church by himself even thought he doesn't really understand anything at church. He was there even though his brother who is a member didn't attend. I have been amazed at the ways the Lord has prepared so that we are able to communicate with him. It has definitely been a miracle.

Last Wednesday we had Elder Bowen of the Seventy visit our mission, he shared a insightful equation for miracles in our life.

Obedience+Works(faith)= MIRACLES! I know that is true. I have seen miracle in my mission and in my life. 

I know that as we are obedient, work and have faith,

God will be merciful to us and bless us more than we can receive it.

Love you all!

Go and conquer!

--

ELDER MURDOCK

Pictures: the surroundings I see everyday

Week 50

Hello Everybody,

I happy to write you all this morning and share the great things about being a missionary with all of you.

This week was great with my new companion, like I shared last week he is from Idaho and is the biggest goof ball which is probably really good for me to loosen me up a little bit. Anyway, we have a lot of fun and are working really hard. The Lord is really blessing us and we have seen a lot of new investigators this week as well as more help from our branch.

We had this lady randomly come up to us a few weeks ago and told us that she was going to church. We talked to her for a while and she said her name was Beth. At first we were not quite sure of her sincerity but we hoped that she would go to church and scheduled an appointment to teach her. To our surprised she not only came to church but she came an hour early and was there before we got there. After the meeting she asked us what she needed to do to become a member of this church, she said, "I just feel a peace of mind whenever I come here!" She has now been to church 3 times and is scheduled for baptism in July. Last week a less active member told us that sister Beth came to her house and invited this less active family to go to church with her. Man it is so true that God is preparing people to hear the gospel, for that I am humbled and ever grateful.

We are still teaching the deaf investigator that I mentioned a few weeks ago. He is progressing and it is amazing the way we are able to communicate with this man. I can feel his strong spirit and know that God loves him as much as he loves you and I. As we have approached the situation with faith that we would be able to communicate with him and teach him the gospel, it has been amazing how every time God has provided a way for us to teach him. Even though he cannot read, write, speak, and doesn't know American Sign language, we are by ways I do not fully understand able to communicate with him though pictures, made up signs and a family member who helps interpret.

I have learned something that is perhaps the way we have power to do things beyond our own power: God is merciful to us as we are humble, recognize our constant need for Him and his help and have complete faith and trust that he will bless us and guide us as we continue to do all we can do.

I am learning that as much as I have perfect love for these people and have pure intentions to help these people come unto Christ, my fears will disappear and I will be able to act and speak by authority from God. In any teaching position if we are more concerned about their needs and not what we are going to say we will be come instruments in the Lords hands. Our fear can turn to faith through our perfect love. I am learning and trying to apply the wonderful principle that perfect love casteth out fear. (Moroni 8)( 1 John 4)

As I have expressed many times in my letters, I love being a missionary! This is true, I wouldn't want to be any where else in the world doing anything else. I encourage anyone who is able to serve a mission, both couples and younger generations.

I love you all,

ELDER MURDOCK

PS. Our mission president, President Clark has asked us missionaries to ask if any senior couples are considering to serve a mission. If you know anybody our would like to serve here in the Philippines Angeles mission. ( the best mission ever :) ) then you can contact me and I will get you in contact with our mission president. thank you.