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