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. 

#blessed- July 6, 2017

hi! wow its been 3 weeks already! so craaaazyyyyy. this week was so good! on Friday, we all went to the local university and contacted! in spanish! whaaaaaat. it was pretty scary. the hardest part was just going up and talking to people haha. but we got THREE peoples addresses for missionaries to go teach them! and one fake address/phone number. so thats fun. but it was so fun to talk in our broken spanish to people. everyone was so nice! and everyone was catholic haha. on Sunday, we went on the ROOF. whoa. it was cool. we could see some of the city and the beach and we gotta take some #lit pics. we watched president uchtdorf's devotional on Peter and it was goooood. the Haitian missionaries left on Tuesdaymorning so that was sad :(((( we were bffs. update: soeur thelusma gave me my jacket back. so that was nice of her. haha. but i miss them. they were so fun and nice. and every time i tried to speak french to them they got really excited. now no one is happy when i say "como ca va" :'(. Tuesday was THE 4TH OF JULY! woo!!!! everyone here was super excited for some reason that i didnt really understand because we're not even IN THE US but whatever. they had a super nice dinner with some good ol american food. hamburgers, mac n cheese, corn on the cob, apple pie. it was nice. yesterday, about 50 new missionaries came! SO MANY. there are 7 hermanas about about 40 elders. soooooo yeeeahh. all the elders are very awkward. and now its so crowded. we have 3 new hermanas in our room, who are all from the US so i guess we can't practice our spanish with them. too bad. but they all seem nice. 

my teaching is getting slightly better every time we teach! we taught hermano jimenez one night and he was acting as a non active member and he was such a good actor it was like WHHHOOAAAA. we invited him to church and he said yes and he only said yes to hermana smith and me out of our whole district. YEAH. he said we had the best lesson. so yeah. wasssup.

thats all i can think of! every week is a blur because we're doing something every single second of the day. no blugging allowed :'( 

and cole, we get nutella here everyyyy dayyy. you mad?

ok bye! love you all! have a good life

hermana murphy <3

1. all tha hermanas on tha roof!

2. me and one of my FAVORITE PEOPLE, hermana martinez! she is one of my teachers and is so sassy and funny and i love her. shes pregnant, if you cant tell from her shirt slash stomach.

3. DANE!!! this is a boy i met named dane, too! hes from the island of ANTIGUA and had a super cool accent. like a mixture of jamaican english austrailian and everything. him and 2 of his friends played basketball with us and they insisted we called them steph curry, michael jordan, and lebron james hahaha.

4. HERMANO JIMENEZ! one of my favorite teachers. theyre all my favorite and i can't decide who i like the best. he thinks im really funny. we're best friends. "he likes me a lot so we're friends" - dallin.

5. i thought mom would like this so here.

 

WEEK 2!- June 29, 2017

HI! I SURVIVED ANOTHER WEEK! IT WAS SO GOOD!

this week, we watched 2 MTC devotionals, one by elder Holland and one by elder Bednar. they were both AWESOME!!!! funny how once im here i enjoy watching that type of stuff. lolllllllll. its like a movie but spiritual. both of them were about how to improve ourselves as missionaries and how to have the "power of the word within us." (Alma 26: something). mind blowing stuff. 

i gave the closing prayer in sacrament meeting on sunday, and i was scared i would forget how to say some stuff so i wrote it on my hand. but no one saw because everyone had their eyes closed! woooo! 

my teaching skills/spanish are both slowly improving. all of our lessons this week have gotten better with each one. for example, i dont have to write everything down that i want to say and what i should say for every single possible response. which is GREAT! its good that the teachers are so nice and patient with our spanish hahaha. 

our lessons every day are all super fun. some people complain about how repetitive it is and such but i seriously have no complaints. im learning so much every day and i can feel myself getting a lot better at everything. 

soeur thelusma is teaching me french/creole. i now know how to say "komon eu yea" (thats how it sounds, no idea how to spell it) and all the haitians get very excited when i try to speak french HAHAHA. the gift of tongues is real. i know about 4 french phrases now. also "twoilette" is toilet. just add a ton of letters you dont pronounce and there you go.

im gonna miss the haitians when they leave. they leave next week. they all sing louder than anyone ive ever heard and are all so nice and humble and hilarious. one funny thing that happened is soeur thelusma was cold one day and asked for my jacket and so i gave her my grey hoodie. i thought she would only wear it for the day and then give it back, but she has worn it all day every day for the last week and im not sure if shes planning on giving it back ahhaha. and i can't really ask because she speaks very little english. its ok if she keeps it though. hahahha.

my district is great! we're all going to puerto rico so thats fun. all of my teachers are the BEST. i got very lucky. 

on tuesday we went to the STORE!!! WE GOT OUT OF HERE! it was basically like walkmart and i got some SICK candy (mom is probably so happy.) it was fun to get out and walk around and see a little bit of the streets and such.

ok! i cant really think of anything else to write!

ive been thinking a lot about alma 26: 11-13 this week. good scriptures. so fun. 

bye!!!! love you all! 

hermana murphy

1. roomies!

2. me n all my best friends

3. hermana smith and i! theres no iconic map here so we used this small map :-)

4. My district and one of our teachers, hermano gomez!

I'M ALIVE!- June 22, 2017

hello!! i have survived my first week at the MTC! actually, i didn't just survive, but i THRIVED! the CCM is awesome! there are only 25 of us here right now so everything is in super small groups and very personal and its really fun. the food is good. lots of rice and beans and meat. and fruit. occasionally they throw some vegetables in there. its fun!!!! my companions name is hermana smith from rexburg idaho. we also have a hatian sister living in our room. she only speaks french but we communicate with lots of sign language. there are 8 hatians here and only one of them speaks english but we tight. we play sports together and we say "bonjour" to each other. i have three teachers, hermana martinez, harmana eusebio, and hermano gomez. they're all super fun and chiiiiilllllllllllll. they all speak english which is good but they really try to make us speak spanish in our lessons. we are basically in class all day except for meals or physical activity. im basically fluent in spanish now!!! jk!!!!!!! its fun though. yesterday, we finally got out of the compound and got to go to a park next to the MTC and go do some service (picking up leaves and trash) and I finally had my first conversation with somene outside of the MTC! unfortunately, i said "buenos dias" instead of "buenas tardes" so it was disastrous. all my hard work, gone to waste. hahahhah. life is good though. one of our teachers acts as an investigator that we are teaching and all of our lessons have been terrible. hahah. its ok though. they would be good if they weren't in spanish, but since they're in spanish we get all flustered whenever he asks a question and and we don't know how to answer. and they kind of just let us prepare our lessons without telling us how to do anything so thats fun too. but we're learning. i can now pray in spanish and bear my testimony, which is basically just saying "yo sé"a lot. 

my district is 4 hermanas and 2 elders. they're all really cool! we spend basically all day with our districts so im glad they arent annoying :----)

yesterday, elder zivic (of the Caribbean area presidency) and his wife came to speak to us! Sister zivic spoke about spiritual gifts and being the best us we can be and not comparing ourselves. a very relief society topic. but it was super good. and Elder Zivic spoke about remembering Christ in all we're doing, keeping investigators active and converting them, and the book of mormon. he said no one is looking out for us more than Jesus Christ, since we're on his mission! :0. so deep. super good. 

this morning we went to the temple which was so fun! the temple was so beautiful! 

alright here are some pixxxxxx.

im not sure what else to write so i have 20 minutes left of email time so yeah.

1. the view from my crib

.2. me and a sister from jamaica! shes hermana brown and has 2 sisters serving missions currently :0 

3. me n soeur thelusma, the hatian sister! shes great.

its not letting me attach any more pics so ill send another email

4. all tha hermanas!

5. the person taking the picture didn't tell us he was taking the pic so many people are unprepared but heres some of us!!! its #lit

Here I am!- June 14, 2017

i made it to the MTC! i was the only one on my flight from miami and literally every other missionary was on a flight from new york but we got to the DR airport at the same time so its all good. theres a group of like 15 of us. and the MTC president is going to set me apart after i finish this email. but yeah its gooooood!!!! and apparently my MTC companion is a girl that is from haiti and only speaks french creole! so thats exciting. 

our pday is thursday but we wont be emailing tomorrow since we just got here so you'll have to wait until next thursday.

ok! thats it! bye!