October 30, 2017

hola!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUSTIN!!!! what i love about austin is that he always gives such good advice!!!! lololololol. hes always very mindful about what he emails me and i can tell he puts a lot of thought into it and really cares!!! and when we were at BYU together i think we got closer than we ever were before and it was so fun!! fun times eating in the cannon center and cougar eat.... goooood times. SBS!! hes also just a SW. 

this week was pretty good. we're still teaching david y samuel, and we extended an invitation for baptism and they were like "mmmm idk." haha. we're trying to figure out how to get them more EXCITED and WANT to learn more, so we need to start bringing young men to the lessons to help us out. but their mom really wants them to get baptized, so that helps. they came to church yesterday!  they have support from their fam. we just gotta help them now.

we also taught BIRIDIANA! she and her family are from Mexico and we found them just on the street. they're super nice and this week, we stopped by one day and gave us food, and then we went back the next day and taught them the restoration. they've talked to missionaries before and are catholic, but we have some super good converts in the ward that could help us with them. and the best surprise of the week - they came to our ward halloween party!!! "baile de la fantasia" hahaha. we went by to invite them earlier in the day and didn't expect them to come, but about half an hour after it started they walked in and it was soooo goooood! the ward was SUPER GREAT and everyone was talking to them and they had a good time. Yay!

There is another family that we are beginning to work with. There is a ward missionary in one of the English wards who has befriended them and is inviting them to ward activities and stuff. They went to a ward Halloween party AND a primary program on sunday!! She gave us this referral a couple weeks ago and we've gone to visit them, but we havent been able to teach them yet. Weve been working with her though. There is a grandma and grandpa, a mom and dad, and 2 daughters, about 12 and 9. Only the daughters speak English. We have an appointment with them tonight! Theyre the Rodriguez fam from Venezuela.

On Saturday, we went to go sing at an assisted care living home and one of the aids who works there said she would be willing to hear us! When we first went, she was like "no, I've already talked to missionaries before, I do not need to hear anything " but she was so touched by our singing she opened up and accepted an appointment! Then we went by on Sunday and taught her and she was super good and accepting. Her name is rose, and she's lived in Utah for her whole life so she's fluent in Spanish and English.

That was our week! I found a good scripture that I really like in d&c 64:33

33 Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.

Yeeeeeet! Just gotta Keep doing good things! Yay!

Love,

Hermana Murphy 

1) biridiana, juan (her brother) (her husbands name is also juan but he didn't come), biridianas mom (im not sure of her name oops), angie, and lindsey. we were not expecting them to come but they showed up and it was the best surprise EVER! (they might not look very happy to be there, but i promise. they had a great time. especially Lindsey, the girl in the indian costume, and Juan, the guy. they were dancing the whole time. it was sooooo funny.)

2. hermana bliss and i with angelina and lindsey!

3. just doing some service for a family in the ward. my broom was so short

4. LOOK AT THIS BABY. AHHHHH. 

5. #prsj

EAARRTHHHHQQQUUAAAKKEE- October 23, 2017

Well, probably the most exciting thing that happened this week was this earthquake drill we had on Friday. Hahaha  there's supposedly an earthquake coming here. 

We also had a new missionary training, for all the missionaries in their first transfer and the Puerto Rico missionaries. We practiced teaching the lessons and they told us a ton of information. 

We found a mom & daughter on Saturday night, Maria y Melany. Melany is about 12. We taught the restoration and they seemed super interested and said they would read 3 Nephi 11. Woo! It's always nice when people invite you inside, because it doesn't happen too often here. 

We're also still teaching David y samuel. I think they're definitely our most hopeful investigators. We taught about the Book of Mormon and samuel was like "I think I know about that, we learned about it in church on sunday" and he proceeded to tell us the whole story about the Book of Mormon perfectly, including the lost 116 pages. And he's only 10!

One useful thing I did get out of the training was that I need to be bolder. In this mission they don't count someone as a "New investigator" until they have been invited to baptism, to try to get us to invite on the first contact. SO that night, we were talking to a guy outside and we taught the restoration in like 5 minutes and I kept feeling like I should invite him to baptism! So I did. And he was kinda hesitant but then he was like "I guess if I find out these things are true" so woo! The answer wasn't that great, but it was the first time I've done that in the first time talking to someone and it turned out ok! So from this, I've learned I need to be bolder and always follow the spirit when it tells me to say something :-)

We're continuing in the 90 day book of Mormon challenge and I just finished 2 Nephi! I really liked 2 Nephi 25. And all of it.

That's it for this week! I'm staying in Layton for another 6 weeks, with hermana bliss. Wooo!

Loves!!!

Hermana murphy

Fun week with lots of exciting stuff!- October 16, 2017

hello!!! another email, another week in layton utah. this week has been gooood. we've been working, still, on finding! weve contacted in parking lots, which is surprisingly effective, knocked on doors, and went to a lot of future investigators houses. we try to ask anyone "do you know if any of your neighbors are hispanic?" good times. 

anyways, weve found a couple of good people to teach this week. we have two boys, samuel and david, 10 and 13, the stepsons of a member in the ward. we've taught them twice this week and they went to church yesterday!! we have another appointment with them this week. their mom isn't a member either, so we have to teach her too!!

we also have a couple we've been teaching. they're a young married couple with 2 kids. they were former investigators, and we knocked on their door and they were super nice and let us in! we've taught them twice as well, and are seeing them tonight. they're named andy and donna. 

we have others that we're seeing, but tbh i can't remember right now. but no investigators that are progressing too much. but we're working on it!

the hard part is finding people in their homes. like we make appointments, show up, and then they arent there :-) love it. but there are little miracles every day that we see.

the mission is doing a 90 day book of mormon challenge! its been super awesome. we're highlighting every reference to Christ and its been amazing to see that there is literally a reference on EVERY PAGE! it has really made it obvious that without Christ, we wouldn't really have anything. because he does everything. and i'm only in 2nd nephi! :0 so much more to read! everyone should do this, if you havent done it. its super cool.

this week, i also got to add some of the members and my investigators from San German on facebook! i've been chatting with Ramon, a recent convert, and he says that they're doing well. they don't have running water or electricity, but they said that they're doing fine. not everyone has accepted my requests, so im not sure if they're ignoring me or just because of the lack of electricity :---) and i can't find everyone i want to, but im still looking. Ramon said he went to church yesterday, so at least the ward and church building are good!! 

so yeeeeahhhh. that was this week! nothing too crazy. just spreading the word like butter. thanks for everyone's support and love! <3 luv u all

hermana murphy

this week wasn't too exciting, so i have like no pics. they're all so fun!!!!

1. THX NORTHWOOD WARD RS. SO NICE. MADE MY DAY/WEEK. LUV #northwood

2. special shoutout to dane who sent me this unicorn. so nice!!! haha. 

3. i know you cant read the sign but it says no religious groups. hehehe. jokes on them!!!!

Lit-on- October 9,2017

get it? its like layton, but LITon.

first of all HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALYSE!!!! IN 3 DAYS!! what i love about alyse: she always sends me PICTURES AND VIDEOS of dane graham and lucy!!! and she is the ONLY ONE who has sent me letters of any kind. haha. not calling anyone else out...... hehe. but really, i appreciate the letters and that she tells me about the little details in life. its so fun to read them! and alyse has always been really good at this, just keeping us all in the loop of whats going on in her life. shes a good example of a fun MOM and doing good things and keeping busy all the time. i love alyse!!! have a gooood one! 

this week, another week in layton utah. such an interesting place. haha. it was another week of finding. we have received some referrals, but finding is hard here. we do a lot of looking on the area book to look for former and potential investigators to go teach. its hard to find people in their homes too. because people are usually working. 

there are a couple areas where we do most of our work, since that seems to be where most of the Latinos live. but our area is super huge so we will have to spread out a little bit. 

 im coming back. everything is so different from puerto rico. but i heard yesterday that 10% of the island has light!!! wooo!!!!!! best news ive heard all week. 

one thing that we did this week - 

theres a guy in the ward (Ellison Park) who works at a catering company, and he says that they always have a TON  of leftover bread at the end of the day. so, he has started calling us and the other sisters in the ward to give us bread to give to investigators and such. since we dont really have investigators, we used it as a finding opportunity and went to former investigators houses and less actives to drop off the bread and show a video on the BREAD OF LIFE. hahaa. we made cards and put the scripture in John about the bread of life and hahah it was so artsy. so hipster. so wow. but we had a couple lessons and got some return appointments so that was good! woo!!!

other than that, we just are working on finding people all day. we have visited some less actives this week, but we need to do more of that. we found some good people, some families, and have appointments for this week. mostly everyone here has been taught by missionaries before, so we have to learn to be more creative and bold. 

i had my first sunday in the ward yesterday and it seems awesome. the bishop is super great and we had ward council (WHAT? WARD COUNCIL? we didnt have ward council ONCE in puerto rico hahaha). we also had a meeting with the stake presidency and some other peeps. i guess this is what its like to be in utah. to actually have meetings on sundays. 

today, for pday, we went on a hike in adams canyon! (i think thats the name..) and it was SO COLD. and SUCH A LONG HIKE. but the waterfall was super cool. 

love you all!

hermana murphy

1. all the PRSJ missionaries!

2. EL PAN DE VIDA

3. a dog named MURPHY

October 2, 2017

Well this week was definitely different than I'm used to. In every way possible. First of all. All the missionaries have TABLETS and SMARTPHONES. I'm currently writing this email using our phone. So weird. And we have CARS. It's also cold. Which is weird. 

This week has been interesting.

So you all know how I got here with basically nothing. No clothes or shoes or anything. Haha. Well, the people here have been SUPER NICE and have donated a ton of clothes and money to help out the Puerto Rico missionaries!! We have 3 sisters and 3 elders. One of the sisters is hermana Fawcett, who was in my ward at BYU!! And the 3 elders are all from the Dominican republic. 

My area is Layton, the ward is called Ellison Park. It's a Spanish ward and covers 3 stakes. But remember, Utah stakes. We go around all day looking for Hispanics. And half the people we talk to are already members. 

My companion is hermana bliss from enod Oklahoma. She's super awesome! She's been out for 8 months and this is her first transfer in this area. So we're whitewashing. We share the area with 2 elders (one is elder Martinez from the Puerto Rico group) and 2 other sisters (one is sister peterson from tha mish!) 

This week, as I said, was a lot of meetings. We have been going back and forth to the office to just get settled in and stuff. We also had the "quarterly sisters meeting" on Tuesday.

We found one el salvadorian family who we've taught twice. Other than that, we've just been trying to find. Hopefully We'll be able to teach more this week. 

It's weird being in the mission with technology. Like We were at a meeting and they said "Ok can everyone open up their scriptures to..." And everyone just pulled out their tablets. Hahaha. Sister Peterson and I were the only ones with real scriptures. 

Soooo yeeeah. Utah!!! It's still weird to be here. Haha. I'm just learning how it's going. 

Have A gr8 week everyone!!!

<3

Hermana Murphy

1. Salt lake temple! Never expected to be back here...

2. We got into the Sunday afternoon session of conference :-) 

3. Also hermana bliss and I TWINNED at conference. Good times. The two girls with us are members in the ward.

Whaaat- September 25, 2017

well, this has been probably the strangest week of my life, with the widest range of emotions i have ever felt. i dont even know where to begin. 

tuesday morning, we recieved a text saying that we would be staying in the mission home for the hurricane, so to bring a bag with enough food and water for 3 days, clothes to do service in, and basically enough stuff to live with for 3 days. we left a couple hours later and got to the mission home, where 55 hermanas would be staying. the 110 elders stayed in the mission office. tuesday was a day to prepare for the hurricane. we did our studies and president and sister smart talked to us about the miracles we were going to see. and its true. we have seen a lot of miracles in the last week. on wednesday morning at about 3 AM, i woke up and the storm was already starting. it lasted all morning until about 1 pm. it was crazy. i have never experienced anything like it. im pretty sure the eye passed over our house. but we were safe in the house. a couple of the wooden boards nailed over the windows flew off, and the ROOF got destroyed so we got some leaks in the house, but we were all safe. we went outside once the storm passed and it was terrible. remember, we were staying in probably the nicest area of puerto rico, and the amount of destruction there was so sad. trees were all knocked over. literally full size palm trees were just ripped out of the ground. we spent thursday and friday outside doing service, just literally moving around trees so people could drive past. we spent a long time on thursday cleaning one family's backyard. it was completely wrecked when we got there. we worked for about 4 hours. when we started, we couldnt even walk because all their trees and branches and everything had fallen down. they kept saying how much of a blessing we were and how if we werent there, it would have taken them weeks to do it all. on friday, we cleaned out the parking lot and the inside of a catholic church, which had gotten flooded and, again, there were trees everywhere. its pretty amazing and inspiring what 55 hermanas can do. we did WORK. it felt so good to serve them all and see how happy and humbled everyone was when they saw what we were doing. this was an area where everyone is really well off, and missionaries are never allowed to proselyte in this neighborhood. but when they all saw what we were doing, they were all in tears and so thankful and were accepting book of mormons and wanting missionaries to come back and teach them. it was amazing. 

oh yeah. in the mission home, we were without water and power for 4 days. we were almost all sleeping on the floor. but it was so fun. we washed our hair with green pool water, ate out of cans and saltine crackers for the whole time. hahah. i am so glad we were all there and had this time to be together. i got to know so many of the hermanas. it was amazing. its such a blessing that president had the inspiration to have us all come, because if not, we would still be stranded in our areas.

on friday night, we got the news that we were being temporarily reassigned. that was probably the hardest news ive ever received. the next 48 hours were so hard. we all got news and where we would be going and that we would be leaving for the airport in 12 hours. i slept for about 30 minutes that night.  we were packing (the little things that we had) and just up talking all night about what was going on. it was a shock. we went to the airport the next day and only 36 hermanas got on the flight. we got to atlanta and thought we would be sleeping on the airport floor. we walked out to the baggage claim and cried (for the 234456098 time) when we saw that the georgia atlanta north mission president and wife and missionaries were there to welcome us. we were so thankful. we got our first shower all week and first warm dinner. we slept for about an hour that night before we got on the plane again the next morning.

then i arrived here in the utah ogden mission with hermana peterson. its been hard. i have grown to love puerto rico and the people so much in the short time ive been there. in my last email to president smart, i said that i didnt know it was possible to love the people so much, even if i couldnt understand everything they could say and even if i hadnt known them for so long. i dont know why this has happened. i dont know what has happened to my area or the people or my investigators. i wish we could stay and help them, but i know its too unsafe for us. all i want is to be back there, but i know its part of God's plan that i'm now here. this is definitely a humbling experience and a definite trial of faith but i'll learn a lot. i'll learn why i'm here and why this has happened. i wish i could say that i know now, but i really dont. but for now ill learn to love it here and the people of ogden utah! once its safe enough to go back to puerto rico, we'll be sent back. we dont know how long we'll be here. but president and sister smart said that the first presidency and the quorum of the 12 prayed and decided to evacuate us. and they decided our reassignments. this wasn't the place on my calling, but this is where i need to be. 

thanks everyone for your prayers. please also keep the people of puerto rico in your prayers. they need so much help.

i love you all!

hermana murphy

Hurricane 2.0- September 18, 2017

ANOTHER HURRICANE? EN SERIO???? @MOTHEREARTH is trying to punish us or something. we're gonna be in our house again all day on wednesday and currently trying to plan some fun productive things to do. because we're MISSIONARIES and need to be PRODUCTIVE!!! WOOO!!!!!!!!!! but srsly. thx 4 the hurricane :-) we just heard that we are going to be in our house all day after the district meeting tomorrow and wednesday. :---) :)))))))) :) :) :) :---)

this week was great! first of all, we had evelyn's baptism. FINALLY! we were finally able to teach her all the lessons and she was baptized on saturday and is very happy. i luv baptisms. for some reason....

we moved alex's baptism to the 30th of september because we still have to teach him some more and are working on the word of wisdom! but he came to church yesterday and we didn't even have to persuade him! steps in the right direction! and he came with us to dinner at a members house (the olmos, the greatest people) and he had a good time. he is really progressing! too bad maria is coming so we can't teach too much this week :(

also this week, we were contacting and met a man named jorge perez. and hes from ECUADOOORRRR!!! he told us where his house was so we went a few days later and found it. but its like up this steep driveway so he couldn't hear us yelling from the bottom. hermana medina went up to go knock on the door and saw TWO GIANT DOGS sleeping at the top. and one of them opened its eyes and SAW HER AND THEY STARTED BARKING AND CHASING US AND WE THOUGHT THEY WERE GOING TO EAT US. IT WAS SO SCARY. we ran away and the dogs were staying by the fence and FINALLY the owner, JORGE, came out and was like "come on up! they dont do anything!" and we were like ummm nope. your dogs are going to eat us. and he kept insisting that we walk past the dogs to his house and we just kept standing there hahaha. he finally came down and got his dogs and we could walk up to his house in peace without dying. we were teaching him and it turns out his sister is a member! and hes been to church before! and without even asking him, he was like "yeah ill go to church next week! i promise!" and it was great. so nice when people arent difficult. 

we found some other good people this week and have good investigators! Tania is really busy with school and being a mom and such (its hard because all the young people here have kids and are super busy and distracted in lessons so its hard to teach them). so we havent taught her too much. 

life is good though! with me luck with hurricane part 2. so fun!!! hermana medina has decided that she doesn't like to run so she works out outside as I run in circles around our street. hahahaha. and schools here start really early so everyone is like outside and i look dumb haha. and we had some food at members houses this week again and it was great. the food here is gooood. riiiiiice and meat. mmmm. and we actually bought some fruit and vegetables! mom, you should be proud :) and today it started pouring as we were walking and we didn't have umbrellas and some nice random ladies gave us a ride! people are so nice. luv. puerto rico #yeah!

love you all! hopefully ill have electricity and can email next week!!!!!!!!!!! if not, im sorry. 

love,

hermana murphy

1. evelyns baptism! <33

2. heppy 3 months to me! hermana medina is too nice.

3. just proselyting, ya know. the usual.

HURRICANE!!!!!- September 11, 2017

HELLO! thanks everyone for your worry this week with HURRICANE IRMA. if i had to describe it in a word, i would say... weak. haha. we were inside from 5 PM on tuesday and all of wednesday and it was pretty boring.the 4 hermanas from cabo rojo were going to come stay with us for the hurricane because our house is safe, but then they were here for about 2 hours when they got a call from the assistants that they wanted them to go back to cabo rojo. so tragic. it was going to be a hurricane party. i included a picture........ a true tragedy. we didnt have electricity all day on wednesday so we just read scriptures and ensigns.really nothing exciting happened all day. just a lil wind and lil rain. we even had a wood panel over our window and didnt need it. and its still there because we dont have tools to take it down haha. on thursday it was "service day" for the whole mission! which was great! except for the fact nothing happened here in good ol san german. sooooo. we went to a recent converts house and cleaned!! the hermanas from mayaguez were staying with members in our ward so they helped us too! and the elders. so there were 8 of us, and that was not enough. shes pretty old and lives in a big house and can't really clean. so there were approx 8000 cockroaches:---) haha. we cleaned all day. good times. sooo fuuuuun. gonna bleach my shoes because theres probably cockroach guts on them. 

yesterday was GREAT! we had FIVE investigators in church!!!!!!! FIVE! we had dianette and her brother ivan, alex, alejandro (the son of a less active, 9 years old, we're working with them) and benito (kind of creepy old man that we are giving to the elders :-)). weve never had more than 1 or 2 investigators in church so it was AWESOMEEE. and alex has gone to church twice but didnt like it but we CONVINCED HIM TO COME and he seemed to enjoy it. woo! we have 2 baptisms planned for this saturday, alex and evelyn. we still have a lot to teach alex though because we can never get to our lesson because he asks like 1023 question every time which takes forever. but were having a FHE tonight with the Olmo's in our ward about the word of wisdom because he has some problems with dat. wish us luck!!!!

also ive said how people love giving us avocados. we got FIVE YESTERDAY. FIVE. IN ONE DAY. hahah. good thing avocados are delicious. it reminds me of the video "the californians." hehe. 

so yeah that was this week! hurricane irma! hopefully we dont have another one any time soon. love you all! 

1. just doing some 12 semanas while waiting out hurricane irma in the dark. i think the church could use this as an advertisement as some kind.

2. WE LOVE AGUACATE

3. what could have been... sigh....... #rip

4. #rip elder arteaga. we're getting a new elder in our ward this week!

September 4, 2017

hola familia y amigos! (see! im fluent!)

this week was a GOOD WEEK! the highlight was our baptism on saturday of Nayelis. i think i talked about her a little bit in my last email. shes 13 years old, daughter of a recent convert, Maribel, and her brother is in the bishopric. she said she wanted to get baptized so it was easy! all we had to do was teach the lessons! and she didn't have problems with anything. she comes to church every week, probably the easiest baptism in history of baptisms. we were going to baptize evelyn this week too, but she got moved to next saturday. yay! baptisms!

on friday, we had a family home evening with the ward and it was GREAT. like 50-60 members came and it was super fun. there was a ton of food and we played games and everyone had a great time. and we had THREE investigators there! Dianette and her mom, Antoinette, and Alex! Dianette is a 16 year old girl who hermana medina found when we were doing exchanges. she is great. she is always willing to have us come teach her and is always trying to come to church, but she doesn't drive so she hasn't been able to. but we've taught her like 3 times and shes always willing to pray and ask questions and its amazing. its like she actually WANTS us to come teach her! so weird. haha. and Alex is about 30 and we've been teaching him for a little while. he has a baptismal date for september 16th. he always has super deep doctrinal questions that I have no idea what hes saying but hes very attentive and a good listener to our lessons. he says he knows that the message is true but he doesn't know God's will or something like that and doesn't know if he has a testimony and i dont know. its confusing. but we're teaching him a couple times each week and hoping he can get answers to his prayers!!!!!!! 

another great thing that happened this week - we went to Tania's house, and we've talked about baptism a few times but she hasn't committed to anything. but we walked in (and this day, we weren't planning on seeing her but we were near her house and decided to stop by) and she said "guess what! me voy a bautizar!" and we were like :--------) what so confused. we thought she was joking but nope! she had a dream about baptism and she already has a testimony of the book of mormon and the church because shes recieved missionaries before. she is super close with one of the missionaries who was here like a year ago (whos home now) and she told her about the dream she had and she decided she needed to get baptized. it was an answer to her prayer. so we've been back 2 times this week to teach her lessons and shes great. its kind of hard to teach her because she has 2 young kids who are kind of crazy haha but she understands the message and has a date for september 23! wooo!!!

so yeah. those are the most exciting missionary things that happened this week. 

i can't believe im done with my first transfer in the field! soooo weird. one of the elders in our ward is finishing his mission tomorrow, so we're getting a new one! we recieved like 4 avocados this week hahaha everyone likes to give us avocados. good thing because theyre DELICIOUS. another thing. so we have 2 cd's in our house. one with some of the classics, some david archuleta and sisters in zion and good stuff. and the other one has motab. haha. im going crazy. we listen to the same ones every day. its like the same 30 songs. #lit and dont worry. the hurricane got NOTHING on me. i can take it. "HIT ME" as one of my favorite movie characters would say. im getting a really nice farmers tanline which is fun.

that was my week! lots of walking! lots of sweating! its alll gooood. all good in the hood. i started reading the book of mormon in spanish! welll see how this goes. it might take 6 months but I WILL DO IT. WOO!

 love you all! 

hermana murphy

(is this descriptive enough for you? WHAT DO YOU PEOPLE WANT?)

1. nayelis!!!!!!!!! (reppin the otavalo shoes again)

2. a nice little street! 

3. SWAG

and Wetness is the Essence of Beauty- August 28, 2017

hola! how goes it! i hope everyone had a gr8 week. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CAMILLE!!!!!! ON THURSDAY!!!! WOOO!!!! WHY I LOVE CAMILLE: shes so niiiiceeee!!!!! camille always sends me funny stories and pictures of cora and its so fun to read them. and camille always thinks im so funny (she has a really good sense of humor!!!). she's always good about emailing me every week (and when i was home and had a phone and was connected to the world, texting and facetiming!). i love camille!!!!

i got a letter from alyse this week telling me my letters are TERRIBLE!!! just kidding. she said i need to describe more. so heres some of the aspects of my every day life - 

ok. so san german is technically campo, but we live in the middle of this little town. but if you drive like 10 minutes in every direction you're in the campo. its like a rural little suburb. the houses are so cute. it reminds me of beauty and the beast when belle sings "little town, its a quiet village...." thats basically how it is. people ride horses around and have chickens and animals and its a little quiet town. its great. i feel like im in a 3rd world country sometimes, sometimes i feel like im in the US. its just a mixture of both. 

we have AC in our bedroom which is #blessed. we just use it when we sleep and its amazing. the one night i slept in mayaguez for intercambios they didnt have AC and it was a lot harder to sleep. hahah. blessed.

there is no public transportation so we walk everywhere. and its HOOOOOT but this last week its rained almost every day which is amazing because there are clouds and its not as hot and i dont die. yay!

what we eat every day. for breakfast its either eggs or oatmeal (yes..... can you believe it) and occasionally, if we feel like spoiling ourselves, pancakes! for lunches we eat a lot of quesadillas and sandwiches and ive made pasta and rice and baked potatoes. i do most of the cooking around here hahha. theres a chinese fast food restaurant right next to our house and its great. like panda express but even BETTER. and hermana medina said "they're speaking CHINESE!!"  and i had to explain to her that i've heard probably the equivalent amount of chinese and english in my life. #irvine reppin. i feel at home there. haha. last night we went to a members house for dinner and she made pastelon which is like lasagna but instead of noodles theres platanos and i didn't think i was going to like it but it was suuuuppper good. everything they make here is super fatty and good and oily hahaha. 

we have good stores here. a good grocery store right next to our house and a supplies store next to it. and theres walgreens and kmart about a 30 minute walk away. woo!!!!!

i have no idea about anything politics related, if puerto rico is going to become a state or anything. no one tells me anything.

yep! those are some of the mundane aspects of my every day life! 

today, i finished reading the book of mormon!!!!!!!!! wooo!!!!!!!!!!!!! i started about 2 weeks into the MTC and have been reading it every day and im DOOONEEE! it was great. what a book. everyone should read it! its TRUUUEEEE!!! if only all of our investigators read it. sigh.

this saturday we have TWO BAPTISMS PLANNED! pretty crazy. one of them is for nayelis, the daughter of the recent convert! we've been teacher her all week and have more lessons this week to help her get ready! and the other is for a lady named evelyn. she lives with her grandpa, herbert, who is a recent convert. she comes to church every week and goes to all the activities and i literally thought she was a member because NO ONE TELLS ME ANYTHING. but last sunday the bishop was talking to her and said "lets set a baptismal date! how about september 2nd!" and she was like hmmm ok! and i was confused because i thought she was a member but hermana medina explained to me after hahahha. and she said she wanted us to teach her, and not the elders, who baptized her grandpa. so she's ours! haha. we still have to teach her a lot this week but she's ready to be baptized on saturday! haha its funny, none of the people we are finding and teaching are progressing super fast but we have gotten 2 people in the last few weeks who just say they want to get baptized. oookkkkkk!

thats my week! well, a lot more happened but probably nothing you guys would find interesting. a lot of contacting and teaching and not understanding whats going on. haha. but im getting better!!! 

love you all!

1. zone activity today! we went to the BEAACHH and played capture the flag and it was so fun. 

2. our HATS. hahahahhahah. we look so dumb. but i DONT WANT TO DIE

3. tha beach

Water is the Essence of Wetness- August 21, 2017

Hello family and friends and people!

apparently there is an eclipse happening right now as i type but we're just chillin in the chapel because about 15 people have told us this week that we shouldn't be outside while it happens. haha. they're all so concerned for us.

This week i had my first BAPTISM!!! a woman named Johanna! I didn't do much. She was all set for baptism by the time i got here. But i got to be here for the baptism! woo! the baptism was great. it was very spiritual and Johanna was so happy. and so were we! woo! she got confirmed yesterday in church too. 

my spanish is definitely improving. as of now, i can more understand more of the general idea of what people are saying. they still cut out like 75% of the letters and just sounds like a mixture of t's, u's, and b's but im getting there. i am learning more of how to contact and teach and actually trying to express my thoughts. haha. it doesn't sound hard. but it ISSSSSS. spanish. wow.

a daughter of a recent convert, named nayelis, told her mom that she wants to recieve the missionary lessons and be baptized! woo! so we started teaching her this week and have a baptismal date for september 2! we also met a woman named Irma this week who is great. we met her one day crossing a bridge and started talking to her. Turns out she's Mexican and she loves hermana Medina because there are like no mexicans here haha. so they have a special bond. but we have taught her a couple lessons and extended a baptismal invitation for september 9. she, like everyone here, said "well I don't want to commit..... so fast... meh meh meh mip mip meep." but we got her to agree eventually and now we have that date! so everyone pray for us haha.

i think our biggest challenge is getting people to church. for some reason none of our investigators want to come to church. which stinks. so we gotta find a way to get them to come. 

sooo yeah. (haha im sure dad likes that I said that)

that's my week. its still hot and humid and sweaty. except one day we had the NICEST WEATHER EVER. it was amazing. it was cloudy all day and i didn't even sweat. and yesterday we had the craziest rain storm. one minute it wasnt raining and about 10 seconds later it was POURING and we were just huddled under this little shed thing hahaha. good times. 

love you all! plz dont forget me.

hermana MURPHY

1. baptism! yes i realize i am a giant. 

2. intercambios! i went to mayaguez with hermana santos!

August 14, 2017

HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOURE THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what i love about mom: shes nice and has a good sense of humor :-))) jk. its true, but ill add a little bit more. mom is so selfless! she always thinks about others before herself, especially her children. whenever i think about charity, i think about mom because she is kind to everyone, even complete strangers, and i have never heard her talk bad about anyone. she loves everyone and everyone loves her. the EQN missionaries are lucky. love you!!!!!!

this week was a good week. we have a baptism scheduled for saturday, the 19, for Johanna. she has been recieving the lessons for a long time apparently, but she seems ready for her baptism. 

last week, we were teaching a woman and she could tell i didnt speak spanish very well (for some reason... i cant imagine why) and she said "theres a girl who has an english book of mormon! you should teach her!" so she gave us the address and we showed up and it turns out this girl, Tania, has taken the lessons before and was going to get baptized but got sick and ended up not getting baptized. this was like a year ago. so she was really excited to see us and she speaks ENGLISH #blessed so she speaks to us both in english and spanish haha. but we've been teaching her and shes super awesome! we'll see what happens.

another thing - we had a zone conference on friday and they talked a lot about praying for specific things. so on saturday hermana medina and i decided to try this out. she said "at 5:00we will find a woman at Joanne apartments with a lot of bags and we will help her and then we'll teach her." and i was a little speculative... not really sure what to think haha. but she had a lot of faith that we would find her. we were at joanne apartments and we were in the elevator at like 4:55 and it stopped to let someone in. and in walked a lady with a shopping cart of bags that she was taking out to the dumpster. and we both looked at eachother and asked if we could help her take her bags out and she said yes and so we helped her. then she kind of left us when we asked if we could teach her she was like meehhhhh so she went up the elevator and we said "ok maybe it wasnt her." so hermana medina said "im thinking of the numbers 2 and 5, so lets go to floors 2 and 5." we went to 2, and no one was there, then we went to 5, and decided to knock on the doors. the first 2 didn't open, but the 3rd door, a woman opened the door and let us in. she is very christian and agreed to let us talk to her. about 5 minutes later..... the door opened and in walked THE LADY WITH THE SHOPPING CART!!! WHAAAAT???? she seemed very surprised to see us hahaha and we were super surprised as well. her name is Ana and she doesn't live in that apartment, but is friends with the lady who lives there and helps her take care of her son who has cerebral palsy. so it was a MIRACLE!!!! she was the ONE. it was so crazy. i dont know if im conveying it very well but it was AWESOME. so we're gonna go back and teach her this week. 

so yeah. thats some cool stuff that happened. 

love you all!!!!!!!

hermana MURPHYYYYY

1. zone conference! my friends!

2. making pizza at a members house! the olmos! they're the best. they have missionaries over every week on sunday and make pizza and its sooo gooood.

August 7, 2017

hello! its me! ive been wondering if after all these years you'd like to meet.......

lolz. 

this week was good! heres what went down:

on tuesday, we had our first district meeting! it was GREAT. it was so refreshing and nice to see other missionaries. my district is awesome. also it was in our chapel that has AC so that was nice. haha.

i actually started talking in lessons this week! woooo!!! its just a few sentences here and there, but it feels so good to teach. people are so interested in what youre saying (some of them) and the spirit helps me so much because when im talking in lessons i don't stutter or anything! i just say what i want and its all goooood. its just a couple sentences but its better than what I could do by myself! #blessed. 

we have 

in my personal study, ive been reading at the end of Alma and the beginning of Helaman. I read about the strippling warriors and it was soooo gooooooood. even better than the animated hero classics, believe it or not. its very inspiring to know that the Lord takes people who are so inexperienced and weak but if we have faith he will help us and NOT LET US FAIL. a very good message for my current situation haha. gotta love it. 

also, my area is HUGE. it covers 3 cities or something, san german, lajas, and sabana blanca. go look on a map. its ginormous. and we walk everywhere. unless we get rides from people haha.

thats it for this week! love you all! 

hermana murphy

1. my district! im squatting a lil so thats why my legs look funny hahaha. the elder taking the selfie and the other next to him are the elders we share our ward with. all the other missionaries are in cabo rojo.

2. selfieee!!!!!! today for p-day, a super awesome family in the ward took us to this field in lajas and it was so fun and cute and i loved it.

3. me and hermana medina! ("whats a me-an?")

PUERTO RICO!- July 31, 2017

hello! COMING TO YOU FROM THE CHAPEL IN SAN GERMAN, PUERTO RICO! i can't believe im actually here! and ive been here for ONE WEEK. actually, it feels like ive been here for like 5 years, besides the fact that i dont speak spanish haha. but its good. everyone here is super nice and friendly. everyone says hola and buenas dias when we walk around and say "buenprovecho" or however you spell it when youre eating in a restaurant haha.

ok. first of all, my companion is awesome! her name is hermana medina, she's from mexico, and has been on her mission for 9 months! she served 6 months in mexico because she couldn't get her visa and has been in puerto rico, in san german for 3 months. she's an amazing teacher and i learn so much whenever i hear her teach in lessons. she doesn't speak much english so we talk in spanish all day, which is good for me. shes very patient with my learning spanish. we talk in english at night in the apartment to help her learn, which helps her and keeps me sane.

puerto rico!!! my area, san german, is great! we share it with 2 elders, the zone leaders. its apparently a really big area, but we haven't been all over because most of our investigators live around us. its apparently called either "the city of hills" or "the city of pueblos" and such. but i understand about 75% of what hermana medina says so its kind of hard to know exactly ahah. heres a day in the life - we wake up, exercise, get ready for the day, planning, study, eat lunch, go out for the day and walk about 2134 miles (an estimate) and have 3-4 lessons and contact and such and such. then we get home at 9 and get ready for bed and read and then sleep, wake up, and do it all again!

the ward is great. mostly everyone speaks both spanish and english so thats good for me haha. i had to bear my testimony yesterday in sacrament and i was SO NERVOUS im pretty sure i was shaking but everyone was super nice and afterward said how great it was. theres about 70 members who show up every week, apparently. 

im basically just hermana medina's shadow. i just follow her around and sit next to her in lessons and watch her while she talks to people. haha. sometimes its like i completely forget how to have a conversation with people because SPANISH and they may or may not think im mute. whenever anyone looks at me while they're talking i just nod my head and hope theyre not asking a question or saying something too crazy that it looks like im agreeing with them.

but yeah! first week down. i can't believe tomorrow is august. so crazy. times flying, also going super slowly. i can't explain it. this was probably the longest week of my life. once i can actually talk to people i will be very grateful. just gotta keep working!

love you all! please pray for me. i need it. hahha. 

<3333

hermana murphy

1. first day! in san juan! 

2. this lady had a bird and it bit my finger also sat on my shoulder and POOPED ON MY SHIRT. HERMANA MEDINA LAUGHED SO HARD. IT WAS DISGUSTING. 

3. kinda cute.

4. someone gave uS THE BIGGEST AVOCADO IVE EVER SEEN

Last week in the CCM :0- July 20, 2017

hello fans! its me again! I CANT BELIEVE I LEAVE THE CCM NEXT WEEK AND AM GOING TO BE A REAL MISSIONARY! it doesn't feel real. im going to miss the mtc, but im so excited/scared for the field hahah. 

i got a letter from alyse this week where she said i didn't describe my teachers/days in enough detail, so i will do that.

my teachers: they are all dominican, most of them are fluent in english, and i dont want to sound dramatic, but my life had no meaning until i met them and they are my favorite people ever. ahahha. hermana martinez is our morning teacher. she teaches us from 9-12:30 and plays one of our investigators, neiva. shes basically what you would imagine if you had to think of an early-20s pregnant dominican girl. shes so loud and sassy and funny hahah. for example, she compliments our clothes every day and says "que bonita!! but it would look MORE beautiful on me!" because she wants all of them haha. its so funny. in the afternoon, we have hermana dumay. she doesn't let us speak english in class or else we have to do pushups haha. and she makes us memorize SO MANY SCRIPTURES EVERY WEEK and if we don't memorize them we have to do pushups. hahaah. lots of push ups. luckily i havent had to do any yet. but shes a really good teacher even though shes a lil scary. at night, we have hermano gomez. hes probably the coolest person ive ever met. no offense to anyone else, but if you met him you would understand. hes super inspirational and spiritual and gives the deepest talks and everything he says BLOWS MY MIND. hahaha. he plays our investigator javier. we teach almost every day. another teaceher that subs for us sometimes is hermano jimenez. hes the BEST. hes so funny. whenever you ask him a question about his life he lies about it and tries to make up all these stories which are obviously fake and its just so funny. literally the first converstaion i had with him i asked where he served his mission and he said "africa" and i was like ok..... what language did you speak? and he said "swahili" and i was so confused. and then he started laughing and said "just kidding, i served in mexico." thats when i knew he couldn't be trusted. but hes great. hes super sarcastic and always does these huge overexaggerated winks whenever hes joking and its great. we dab at eachother all the time. all my teachers are still in school and i dont know how they do it because they are in school AND working basically a full time job because they're here ALL THE TIME. they're amazing. im gonna miss them so much!!! 

ok now to the other stuff. this week i went out with a REAL MISSIONARY and did splits IN DA CITYYY!!! my companions name was hermana neff and she was basically a future me. my same height, *blonde*, plays basketball. she was kind of scary at first but once we started talking she was nice. we were out for about 6 hours and we were supposed to have 2 lessons, but they both fell through so we CONTACTED for the WHOLE TIME!!!!!! we started at some apartment buildings, where she would talk through the intercom and then she said "your turn!" so then i had to talk and people would say stuff back and it was so quiet and i could not understand ANYTHING. luckily shes been out for a year and is fluent because i had no idea what was going on. we then walked around the streets and went contacting at peoples houses. i started out the whole time and introduced ourselves and said we had a message and such and such and then they would respond, and i would look at her because everything goes right over my head, and then she would talk the rest of the time haha. it was so awesome. i was so nervous at first but it was so fun. i was so sweaty and tired at the end of the day but it was WORTH IT. 

on saturday, our district was kind of bad (because we have 5 elders now) and we watched the video "la expiación y la obra misional" TWICE. everyone should watch it. its like 10 minutes long but SO GOOD. so yeah. everyone go watch it. its in english. the atonement and missionary work. i wrote it in spanish to show how good i am now.

on sunday we watched legacy and an elder holland devo, which is always a good time. 

on tuesday we went to the store! so wow. such fun. 

yesterday we did service at the park. picking up trash and such. 

besides friday, its basically been the same. class every day, spirituality, being fluent in spanish, the norm. next time i email ill be in PUERTO RICO!!! 

love you all! dont forget about me!

hermana murphy

1. hermano rodriguez! one of the teachers here! hes so weird and funny. he doesn't teach me but the mtc is so small im tight with all the teachers.  please notice my tan line on my arm. so bad. haha. 

2. so wow. another picture of the hermanas. hahahah. surprise!

3. alma district hermanas!!!

life's good!- July 13, 2017

hello! wow! ive already been here for a month (tomorrow)??? times FLYING. i wonder why people say missions are hard.... . but anyways, this week was great! on friday, we went contacting at the university again and we got two peoples informations and passed out restoration pamphlets to some other people! one of the guys called us over and was like "ay mormones!" and so we were like AYYYYY SOMEONE WANTS TO TALK TO US. then we went and talked to him but unfortunately i could not understand one word that came out of his mouth. so i would just awkwardly laugh whenever he said anything and nod my head to act like i knew what he was saying and then would ask another question hahaha. and the other person was a super nice lady who was very open to talking about religion and having the missionaries over. people are so nice here! they're not even creeped out when you ask what their address is! hahaha. on sunday, i had to give a talk in church! we have to write talks every week and then president gulbrandsen just chooses random people every week to give talks and he finally chose me. and of course it was the first week that people who actually speak spanish are here and i read a scripture that had words that i had no idea how to pronounce. but whatever. it was fun! sunday night, we watched David A Bednar's devotional called "Characteristics of Christ" and it was soooooo gooooooooooood. he talks about developing the character of Christ, which is to "turn outward in service and love when the natural man would turn inward." and we learn of Christ when we act like him. good stuff right there.

yesterday, Elder Hugo E. Martinez came and gave a devotional! it was super amazing. i was sitting in the front row and he kept making eye contact as he was speaking and it was like WOWIE. such power. he talked about giving up our will for Heavenly Father's and being exactly obedient and serving with ALL our heart, might mind and strength. it all ties in. who would've thought. and we all got to shake his hand and introduce ourselves afterward and he said "i do this not so you can meet me, but so i can meet you." what a guy. quality. but yeah it was super spiritual and i had to ponder for the rest of the day. 

other than that, its just a lot of learning and sitting in class! its great though. i love it. its crazy how much you can enjoy classes when 1) you actually like your teachers and 2) you want to learn what they're teaching! all my teachers are amazing!

that's it. talk to you all next week! enjoy these qt pics. love you all!

hermana murphy

1. twinzies!

2. new girls in our room! 

3. im sending this picture for 2 reasons. 1, because it has the new people in my district. 2, because i look like dad when he looked like quasimodo. i guess we're related or something.