Week 64

Hello Family and Friends,

This week has been different than any week my whole mission, a day or two we had other missionaries at our house because of reports of a tsunami heading toward the other elders area and half of the week was spent at home because my companion Elder Aldridge has dengue fever, it was a struggle to get him even to sacrament meeting. It has been a week of little work and has really made me realize how much I love what I am doing! I love being out with the people and love teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I just love being a missionary and serving the Lord and serving others. The past few days have made me realize that not too far in the future my calling is going to change and I will be going home! That is something that I am trying to push out of my mind. 

Even through this hard experience of my companion being sick we have had so many small tender mercies or small non coincidences that have made things so much easier and smoother. Members buying us groceries and medicine, visiting our investigators for us and being good support. Investigators canceling appointments and going to church, bringing their friends that we could teach.

The great thing about doing the Lord's work is that he cares just as much for the instrument as he does for the work. He is teaching us great lessons of patience and trusting in him. I know that He cares and his hand is in all things!

I ask you all to pray for Elder Aldridge that he will heal quickly from this nasty disease.

I love you all so much,

Elder Murdock

Week 63

Hello Family and friends!

This week was a good one. I love hearing from all of you and enjoy reading all that is going on in your lives! Honestly I often forget about my life before my mission, but it is very refreshing to remember and treasure all the people I love back home in the states.

We are working so hard and have been blessed more than we deserve. It is hard to explain, but I know we are receiving help. My companion Elder Aldridge is really great.  He is so focused and obedient and a great missionary but because of his special circumstances he doesnt' speak any Tagalog.  However challenging, I find it amazing that when he teaches our unity is so great that even though he doesn't understand what I am saying when I teach in Tagalog, it is almost as he knows and continues right where I dropped off. I translate his words and also feel guided in the words I use and sometimes I don't fully comprehend what I am saying. I know that the spirit of the Lord is with us.

One great lesson I learned this week was about sustaining and supporting our leaders.

I will be the first to admit that sometimes I have an attitude. Sometimes I get critical with others and especially myself. One of my leaders in the mission that is my district leader made me frustrated this week about how he was treating my companion and I. It appeared to us like all he cared about was if our statistics in our work were high, we got the impression that he didn't care about us nor the people we were teaching.  During this time we taught a member who had been offended and didn't go to church because of something that a church leader did many years ago. As I sat listening to him I was surprised what came out of my mouth when I said these exact words of course in Tagalog :) : "I have a special assignment for you brother, tonight look in the mirror and say : I am not perfect, I make mistakes, I allow others to do the same."

I thought that was weird but didn't think much of it until that night, I got off the phone with my leader, I made some smart comment to my companion about how his actions were bothering me. After I was finish complaining my companion smiled and said those words once again to me. I am not perfect, I make mistakes, I allow others to do the same." I realized all at once the lesson was really for me. Whenever I feel hurt or angry at others actions, including my leaders I remember this powerful but simple learning experience.

Anyway I love you all so much, I pray for you. I feel your prayers and support and I thank you for your love,

yours always,

ELDER MURDOCK

Week 62

Hello Family and Friends,

I am very happy to have again another time to email and report my week to all of you. This week was honestly a challenge. I have learned so much patience and love and have felt a lot of help from Our Heavenly Father. He really is in the detail of our mortal experience on earth if we let him.

One thing that has been quite the challenge is helping my companion Elder Aldridge communicate with the people as he was before serving in India and is here because of the visa restrictions in that country and will return as soon as his visa goes through. It has been fun to hear all the interesting stories about the cool culture in India. I have received a lot of help from heaven with my Tagalog as I have been translating for him and teaching him Tagalog. I have grown in patience and love and have really grown close to him. He is a nice elder. 

The work here is going well. We are working with a beautiful family, the Martin family that I have mentioned in my past emails. They are so special and love and know that we are teaching them is true. They have felt the Holy Ghost touch their hearts and as we have taught them we have both been edified and rejoiced together. I just love this family. The more I am out here the more I realize that this work is not my work, not the work of men but the work of God that I have been SO privileged to be apart of. I know that I cannot truly convert anyone and that was a lesson that I learned by experience this week. I felt a bit weighted down with my new responsibility to teach and translate, I felt mistakenly like I was on my own, I forgot that I was called and set apart and that the Lord is with me always and started to depend on my own abilities, it was a bit startling to see as fear crept in and that I couldn't do it on my own and I became venerable and was less effective. It took me some time to realize what was happening that I was choosing fear rather than faith, but then as I looked to the Savior I found the strength beyond my own to complete the assignment ahead of me. I know that as we choose faith over fear, trust God and do without doubting what he has commanded no matter the sacrifice, He will always stand with us. That is his promise!

 "I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up. "

Fear comes from Satan, Love, peace and joy come from the Prince of Peace.

The Savior has not usually made his presence known to me in big dramatic ways, but I feel His sustaining power in my life, and because He lives I can live in His light! I love Jesus Christ. He is my best friend. I know that He loves each of us infinitely. He has felt our pains and carried our sorrows and will lift us up that we will not feel the burden of them on our backs. Opposition doesn't go a way but we receive strength to become more like our Savior through the hard and the good.

I love you all. I feel your support and prayers and ask you to pray for my companion that he may receive the gift to communicate to these people and also Peter and Rachel Martin our investigators.

 

Mahal ko kayo!

ELDER MURDOCK

Week 61

Hey Family

Loved your emails! So this week was transfer week and it was crazy! I was
almost certain we would stay but I was shocked Elder Quilicot
transferred and they put me with a new "trainee" who is a visa waiter
assigned in India. He is American and is from Missouri. His name is
Elder Aldridge and he is really nice, but doesn't speak a lick of
Tagalog so I get to translate. I have experienced the gift of tongues
and gift of translation of tongues and it has been amazing! We are
still receiving so much help and it makes me be filled with joy to see
the great work happening here.
I am learning about patience with my new companion. He is really nice
and I like him, it is just hard that he doesn't speak Tagalog. It has
been a lesson that I have been really happy to learn and know that is
part of the reason that we are together.
One thing I have noticed is how Filipino I actually have become. It is
funny. He told me I speak with an accent and sometimes he doesn't know
what I am saying. But it is fun. He is picking up the language and I
am teaching him as best I can.
Peter and Rachel are still progressing towards baptism on Sept. 26! I
am super excited for them. They invited their younger brother and
sister to church and we taught them as well.  They have a great
chance of choosing to be baptized as well!

I love it here! My mission is going too fast and it really kind of
scares me! I love this work. I challenge each of you to share you
light and find one friend or family member as a referral to give to the
missionaries! I know we can make a big difference in others lives. It
says in Preach my gospel "remember you can help someone the most by
sharing with them the restored gospel!"

Love you all! Mahal ko kayo!

enclosed are pictures of the ocean I promised

-- 
ELDER MURDOCK

Week 60

Hey family!

This week was pretty exciting so I am really excited to write to all of you!

Elder Quilicot and I have been working hard. My companion is really a hard worker and is really fun to be with. I have really been impressed also at his great teaching skills even though he is still really new in the mission. Elder Quilicot is from Bohol which is a part of the Philippines and is home to the worlds largest snake is what he says. He is really funny and we have a good time together. It has been fun as I have been able to teach him the things I have learned from experience and watch him improve everyday. He is naturally a great teacher who cares so much for the people. I am learning that a trainer's real job is to supervise and watch him and even let him struggle sometimes. Sometimes that is the best way we learn. I feel that is how Heavenly Father is with us often. Sometimes it feels like we are alone but really he is right there. We just have to trust that he won't let us fall.

So with the work, like I mentioned we have been working really hard and we have been blessed so much by our Heavenly Father. One of the big blessing we received was a family we met last Sunday. Brother and Sister Martin were so prepared to receive the gospel when we met them. It was amazing to see how well they received our message and how they hungered and thirsted after the truth. Brother Martin told us on Friday that he is so excited for his baptism and it has been really fun to see how they just radiate with light. They have a two year old boy and a 3 week old baby girl and they are just a wonderful family. After a day of rejection we opened our mouths and found this wonderful family and I have marveled and thanked the Lord for the great blessing he has poured upon us.

I know that even us missionaries are learning and growing and I feel even though I make mistakes, and am human that the Lord is happy with me. I feel his love and grace in my life. He doesn't demand perfection. He asks for willing disciples that will work with him in his vineyard. I know that even though we make mistakes we can repent and change and become what we are made to be and fulfill the measure of our creation. We are all a work in progress, and as we turn to him he will take the natural man out of us.

I love you all and pray for you. I hope that you always look to the light, our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Mahal ko kayo,

ELDER MURDOCK

        

Week 59

Hello Family!

Thank you for your emails and your support this week!

This week has been fun but difficult as Elder Quilicot and I have been working hard to be obedient and diligent as we have been finding the souls that the Lord has prepared to come into the fold of Christ. We truly have been blessed with great member support, many referrals and new investigators, man times we have members call us and ask if they can come work with us. It has been a great blessing and has really hastened the work here. We have started from the bottom to having a full day of teaching in just a week which has been a miracle in itself. The Lord has been directing us to those that would receive us and has given us a the words to say to bring the word of Christ unto their hearts. It has not been easy, but we have been working hard and have seen the fruits of our hard work and the mercy and blessing of the Lord.

So I have been thinking a lot about Paco Roman, because I loved the people there and still think of our investigators there daily. I got some good news though. Sister Ann will be baptized this week! And two others Jane and Noel that were super special to me came to church together as husband and wife. So it makes me happy that things are going well and that the work is moving along there as well.

Things are going well, opposition is a big part of the Plan of Salvation, we cannot become like our Father without it because through opposition we have growth.

I love you all so much! I am still one happy missionary!

Make it a great week!

ELDER MURDOCK

--Pictures next week of the ocean!

Baptism of Rogeliyo

Week 58

Hey Family and Friends!

Man this week was such an adventure! On Thursday we got a call from the assistants to the president, they told us that I would be unexpectedly be transferring to a different area and that I would finish training a elder. I was really surprised. I asked if I could go to the baptism of Rogelyo and they approved. I was able to attend his baptism and it was so wonderful! The spirit was super strong. I really grew to love him and others that we were teaching so it was super hard for me to leave but I know that for some reason I am needed here. I left to my new area right after the baptism, so it was a really great way to end my stay in Paco Roman. I will really miss the wonderful people there. It was really hard to say goodbye to Paulino and Ann and Rogelyo and my companion Elder McBride and others that I have gotten so close to. I know we will meet again someday.

My new area is Gabaldon and it is really close to the ocean, it is so beautiful! We also are surrounded by huge mountains. It is paradise! 

Going to church my new area was great, the branch is super strong, a lot of people work with us which is great. My companion is really great too, Elder Quilicot from Vasayas and Tagalog is his second language too and he doesn't speak English so it is fun. He has good desires and wants to do what is right. I am humbled that I was chosen to fulfill this assignment.

It will not be easy, but I know that when we humbly take any assignment given to us, we will not stand alone, our Savior will be with us and will take us by the hand and make us equal to the task! I know that I can do what the Lord needs me to do. I learned that lesson while teaching Rogelyo, if we have Faith, Hope and Charity we can do all that He asks of us!

I love you all so much! Even though I am far from you I feel your love and your prayers and know that soon we will all be together.
--

ELDER MURDOCK