June 18, 2018

hi! we had a good week this week.

so milsa and abed and shauri are all so CUTE and THEYRE SO READY TO BE BAPTIZED.
abed is 9 and shauri is 10 and milsa is like 70 lol but theyre all the cutest and we love them.
on friday, our ward had a mothers day/fathers day party (more on THIS later) and we had to go
when it was 9, and so we left but on sunday, a member told us that milsa and the kids had come
after we left! and everyone treated them super well and gave them cake and ice cream and they
loved it. yay!!!!!! theyre so golden.

ok so the ward party. hahahahahah. so apparently it was like a talent show (that no one told us about)
so we got there and hermano valverde was like "hermana peterson is going to play two songs on the
piano!" and she was like ummmmmmmm ok. and then when she finished he was like "and as you all
know, missionaries are never alone. they always have a companion. and so now
hermana murphy is going to come up here and share her talent!" and i was like
ummmmmmmmm and everyone was laughing SUPER HARD because i did not want to go up.
but i did and he kept going "alright she is going to share her talent! im going to give her the mic
and she is going to do it" and i took the mic and said "no tengo talentos" and then hermana peterson
yelled "TELL YOUR JOKES!" (Because about two days before, i learned like 5 spanish jokes) so
i said "tengo un chiste!" and everyone got super excited. so i basically did stand up comedy at the
ward party. HAHAHAHAHAH. here are the jokes i told

a donde van las vacas? de vacaciones

por que el tomate no toma cafe? porque toma te. HAHAHAHAAHHAAHHA.

it was so good. hahahahahhahah. i know mom is so proud of me :))))

this week our mission also started reading the book of mormon together. for 6 months. woohoo!
so we started and this morning i read nephi 4. its about a chapter a day. and every day, we're
supposed to write down a word that came to our mind as we are reading. its super cool! woohoo!!!!!!!
book of mormon!!!!!!!!

this week we also had zone conference and it was SOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOD. like probably the
best zone conference ive ever been too. you could just FEEL the spirit like a slap in the face. we
watched president nelson's youth fireside talk thing and that was pretty fire. i just learned a lot and
had a lot of epiphanys. wowzies. and it was the day i hit a year in the mission. best cumpleanos present ever!

another major accomplishment from the week - so on mothers day, i told the fam how hermana peterson
and i run every morning, and they asked how much, and they werent very impressed with my answer. so
hermana peterson and i decided to start timing ourselves and increasing 30 seconds or a minute every day.
and on saturday we hit 20 MINUTES. WITHOUT STOPPING. YEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHH. it was AWESOME.
weve been talking about it ever since. it was a pretty big accomplishment.

hermana peterson and i are hoping for #5transfers together. (this week we hit 5 months of companionship,
and we have made a metaphor for this. being with a companion for so long is like running (Bc we're professional
runners now). theres a moment where you feel like youre gonna die, but you push through, and then you feel like
you can go forever HAHAHHA). that would be lit. but we have transfers next week and have no idea whats gonna
happen. but i love it here in cabo rojo and its seriously the best. the mission is just the greatest. ive learned a lot in
my year here and i have lots more to learn. but i think the thing that ive learned the best is just to trust in God and
his timing. his plan is perfect!

love you all!

hermana murphy

1. the cruz's had us over to celebrate my birthday 2 weeks late HAHAH. they were like "we wanted to have
you over on your real birthday but you didnt answer the phone!!!" but we didnt get any phone calls.............
oh well. theyre the best <3333

2. MTC FRIENDS!!!

3. HAPPY 1 YEAR FROM 4/6 OF THE DISTRICT

4. MORE MTC FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!

5. the ALOOOHA district (some of us went more hawaiian than others for zone conf......)

6. calle AMOR lol

7. this is a chevere wall

8. exchanges with hermana rich!! (we didnt even mean to twin)

9. there are some vacas

10. HAHA so we went over to obispo cruz's house today to vaccum our car and he decided to wash it. and now its super clean. so we took a pic. #og

June 11, 2018

hello! 

last week, we started teaching milda, abed, and shauri and they are AWESOME. seriously. theyre on date for july 7. milsa is raising abed and shauri (who are 9 and 10) because their parents are not able to, so shes been raising them since they were like 2. and THEY ARE SO CUTE. milsa and abed came to church yesterday and it was SO NICE because literally we had like 10 people tell us that they would come and NO ONE DID. but they showed up late and loved it and YAY! milsa is also the cousin of a super strong member in one of our wards. but we just found them contacting houses. theyre so sweet. and TOTALLY GETTING BAPTIZED.

this week we also did exchanges and i went with hermana vincent in isabela. SHES SO COOL. shes been out for 16 months and i learned so much. and we had a GREAT DAy. we found this super cool guy who is like 25 and he is the boyfriend of the granddaughter of a member and they were at the grandmas house when we went over and we started talking to him and taught him about the book of mormon and gave him one and he was so grateful for the book of mormon. he thanked us like 8 times. and he told us about how he was in jail for like 2 years and he started reading the bible and loved the story of job and it was a super cool lesson. he has lots of potential. too bad hes not in my area. haha.

idk what else, we found lots of cool people. a pretty solid week. i dont really remember anything else. lol.

this morning we did zone olympics and it was so fun haha i had to do something where i had to spin in a circle for like 3 minutes and then shoot a basketball shot but i literally fell on my face when i stopped spinning and tried to shoot i was sooooo dizzy it was so funny. i won the award for "best flop shot". woohoo!

love you all!

hermana murphy

1. yeet

2. zone olympics TWINNING

3. mayaguez zone TILL I DIE

4. sistas

5. milsa and abed!! <3

6. exchanges with hermana vincent in isabela

MIRACLES - May 4, 2018

this week was SICKKKKK. we had a couple BIRTHDAY MIRACLES. we had a noche de hogar with a less active family from cabo rojo 2, and we watched the movie the testaments. and while we were watching, the non-member husband walked in and watched the movie with us! and we were able to give him a book of mormon and such and we have another appointment with them tonight. birthday miracle!!!!!!!!!!!!! we also had a lesson with MIRIAM. yes, remember her? haha. it was like the first good lesson that we've had with her in like a MONTH. and guess what. SHE CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY! FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE HER BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!! BIRTHDAY MIRACLES!!!!!!!!!!!!! MIRACLES OF FASTING. it was SWEEEEEET. and next week, she can get interviewed and confirmed if all goes well. WOOHOOOO!!!!

we had MLC this week also and it was a good time. and we have it again in a few weeks. woop woop! hermana peterson and i gave a training on how to plan good baptism programs because president smart loved our baptism haha. one thing that we brought from ogden is the 4 minute restoration, which the missionaries share while the person who got baptized is getting dressed. basically you share the message of the restoration super fast and its really good for investigators who are there. and president now made it a mission policy to do it at every baptism. woop woop. #legendstatus

and so on the way home from MLC, since its in bayamon and we had to leave at 6:30 AM, we did our daily planning for the two hours we would have to work that night. and we werent really sure what to do so we prayed and thought about it and i thought of this family that we had contacted like 3 months ago. actually, i might have written about them, idk but we had just started our fast to find families and then like 20 minutes later we walked into them and got a return appointment and such but then they were literally NEVER HOME/ or ignoring us. haha. but i had been thinking about them throughout the week and i thought about them when we were driving back. so we decided to go visit them. so we got home and walked over there to san Francisco courts and as we were walking in, the mom was standing right there! MIRACLES. so we got to talk to her and THEN. GUESS WHAT. she says "de hecho, me bautizaron en la iglesia mormona, cuando tenia como 9 anos. yo y mi papa y mi mama y mi hermano." SHES ALREADY A MEMBER!!!!!!! and she has 4 kids, two who are baptismal age, and her husband isnt a member. MIRACLES!!!!!!!!!!! it was crazy. so we got her phone number and a return appintment for this week. her name is ivelisse. shes super cool. so BASICALLY it was craaazyyyyy. 

hermana peterson and i found a great idea on how to get referrals from members. just ask about PART MEMBER FAMILIES! legit we got like 6 referrals this week because the members arent scared of giving references for people where someone is already a member. haha. so weve been doing that and actually seeing some success from it.

in cabo rojo 2 there was a book of mormon activity this week and it was SICK. they went ALLLLL OUT. they made displays for the liahona and the brass plates and the standard of liberty and the tree of life and the whole activity was on giving book of mormons out to our friends and stuff. it was super awesome! we did a ton of role plays with the members and got them all pretty pumped to share some book of moromons.

yep that was our week. pretty good. i had a good birthday. got some donhelado (donut + ice cream). and i went on exchanges with hermana cluff. and yeah life is goooood here in cabo rojo. 

love

hermana murphy

1. hawaiian birthday. hermana peterson grew 8 inches for my birthday!

2. mlc (IN A TIME WARP)

3. hermana smart and i are ALMOST twins! just 2 days off :'(

4. puerto real VIEWS

5. cabo rojo <3 the libro de mormon!

6. exchanges with hermana cluff in mayaguez

7. dana and dilma and digna and javier and ethan! (zoom in on dilmas face)

Baptism - May 28, 2018

this saturday ethan got baptized!!!!! woohooo!!!! it was SUCH A GOOD BAPTISM. president and hermana smart even came! they made the 3 hour drive all the way to cabo rojo just for the baptism :))))) and they said it was one of the best baptisms theyve been to. the whole family was so happy and theyre all just so cute. ethan was so nervous he didnt want to go under the water haha. and an 11 year old girl in the ward, aliah, gave the talk on baptism and it was soooo cute she cried when she was talking about her own baptism and basically like everyone cried. and there were so many people there from the ward that there wasnt enough chairs. it was a very happy baptism. woohoo! and digna's (ethans grandma) sister, manji, who is active in the church, came in from new york for the baptism and surprised them. it was so happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and it made it even better because he got confirmed on sunday. yeeeeeeesss. 

this week, hermana peterson and i decided that we are going to BAPTIZE. hence the title of this weeks email. we are cutting down the time we are teaching slowly-progressing investigators and we're searching the ones who are READY. we are PUMPED. we only have a month left together and we are gonna make it THE BEST ONE YET. if theyre not progressing, BAM. theyre dropped. like a hot potato. not keeping commitments? BAM. dont want to get baptizd? bam. dropped. hahaha. we are super pumped to find all these people who are ready to get baptized NOW. we're workin. WE ARE BOLD. 

this week we were texting benji to ask about his book of mormon reading and such and we invited him to ethan's baptism on saturday and he said "tengo trabajo, pero no te preocupes, con el favor de dios pronto vemos el mio!" and hermana peterson and i were both like AHHHHHHH. WHAAAAAAT. and we were like CUANDO ES PRONTO? and he said "cuando menos se lo imaginen!!" ahhah. so we're just waiting for a surprise wedding any day. and he fasted with us yesterday :)

yesterday we taught luis and the coupeles fam and he was like "we (silvian and him) want to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead!" and we were like niceeeeee. and we asked when and he said "when we finish reading the book of mormon. we're thinking the temple in conecticut because silvians sister lives there" AW BEST CONVERT EVER. READING THE BOOK OF MORMON AND PLANNING ON GOING TO THE TEMPLE. it was so nice. and he passed the sacrament yesterday and he was so happy and he was like "i didnt even ask to do it, the bishop asked me! and next week i think theyre going to ask me to bless it!!" :')

we climbed a couple of mountains while we were contacting this week. it was so fun. and in one, it started raining super hard, as you can see in my picture. and we found some cool people while doing it. and people tell us not to get wet, but dont let us inside. haha. 

so yes, that was my week. a good week! and this morning we had a district activity and went to el faro and it was so fun. woop woop.

<3 hermana murphy

1. feeling like a testigo with my umbrella :)

2. i forgot the umbrella!!!!!!!!!

3. hermana morales!

4. luis and robielane and silvian!

5. the three muskateers

6. the SALT FLATS (hermana peterson's hair is like the founding fathers) (4 for 4 transfers)

7. im a great photographer :)

8. eternal companion :-)

9. the district

10. hermana smith and her 3 puerto rican companions

11. yay! we live in HEAVEN!

12. everyone made fun of me for my utah jazz shirt :)

13-16. pictures from ethan's baptism!!

May 21, 2018

this week we got a new member in our house, hermana SMITH! my mtc companion/hermana peterson's hija! its so fun. 

ethan is getting baptized on saturday! woohoo! the fam came to church yesterday and he is super excited to be baptized! and danna's (his mom) husband came to church too and we were able to teach him too and hes interested in the church as well! they're not actually married, so we'll have to work on that. but we're so happy that the family is getting reactivated. theyre all so nice.

this week hermana peterson and i spent a good amount of time contacting trying to find new investigators. and we found a good numer of people who gave us set return appointments to come back! so we have high hopes for this week that we'll get some good new investigators from this.

we had a FIRE lesson with benji and jorma this week about marriage and we brought obispo rivera and his wife, who got married so they could get baptized (like 40 years ago) haha. but WE COULD TELL that it realllly made benji think and we have a feeling that hes gonna surprise us all and get married. and hermana peterson and i keep telling them that it has to be soon because we both have to be there. hah. WE HAVE FAITH!!

so last week luis and a recent(ish) convert who was kind of less active for a little while and we reactivated him (alex!) both got the priesthood last sunday and yesterday they both showed up in their white shirts and ties and helped with the sacrament!! it was the best feeling ever!!!!! soooooooo happy

a few weeks ago we got a referral from this one guy who is from cabo rojo and hes currently serving a mission. he gave us a refereence for his friend, adriana, and her family who live down in corozo which is super far. basically the furthest down south you can go in cabo rojo. so we've taught her a few times and then we lost contact for a couple weeks but then we heard this week that her brother was shot and killed in mayaguez, so we went down with hermana morales and were able to teach the whole family about the plan of salvation. it was a very powerful lesson and they just kept thanking us for coming over and bringing them some peace. it was a lesson that really made me feel grateful to be a missionary and be able to really help people in their lives. and they said that they will come to church this sunday! woop woop!

a pretty good week here in cabo rojo!

<3 cabo rojo <3

love

hermana murphy

1. happy first day of transfers!

2. the new house! 

3. with the OG, hermana morales
4. :0

5. cute baby animals!

6. we luv da panaderias

Together 4ever - May 14, 2018

guess what! hermana peterson and i are together FOR ONE MORE TRANSFER!!!!!!! hahahah. wow. i never thought id be with a companion for this long :))))) but we're excited because we're gonna baptize EVERYONE this transfer. and neither of us wanted to leave cabo rojo, so we're pumped. get readyyyy. and we're getting 4 new sisters in the zone this transfer!! woo! besides that, basically no ones changing. 

i just talked to the fam yesterday so i dont really know what else to write. haha. yesterday night we went to go see dolores and when we showed up, she was reading the book of mormon, then we read three chapters with her, and then she texted us at 1 AM and said that she just finished reading jacob 5 and was going to go to bed. HAHAHA. SHES ON FIRE. i asked her "do you believe that the book of mormon is true?' "yes" "do you believe that joseph smith was a prophet?" "yes" "do you believe that the church of jesus christ of latter day saints is God's church?' "yes' and then she said "the only thing im missing is being baptized! but i hope it comes soon." so BASICALLY shes just waiting for a sign from God. so we're working on that. 

benji quit drinking coffee this week WOOOOOOO hes so good. we have a plan to get him married. then hes BAPTIZED. 

yesterday we put this lady yolanda on date for the end of june. we've been kind of on/off teaching her but we went like twice this week and yesterday she was like "i want to get baptized! i want to do it for god!' and she just has to come to church but she has like social anxiety so shes kind of scared but she really wants to come to church this sunday. 

ethan couldnt come to church yesterday so we have to move his baptism date back but NO WORRIES

we had a zone activity last week in the lajas parguera and we had a barbecue and played sports and it was so fun!!!!!! 

yep. im not sure what else to say. heres some fun pics! and happy mothers day yesterday! and happy bday to dallin on saturday! i love how dallin changed his major and is following his dreams................ DREAM BIG! **************** SHOOT FOR THE MOON! IF YOU MISS, YOULL LAND AMONG THE STARS ******************** haha but for realz dallin is so fun and we have a good time quoting movies and talking about bball and taking classes together at byu. hope you had a gr8 birthday!!!!!!

love

hermana murphy

1. forever companions

2. forever companions part 2

3. fail zone selfie!

4. zone shirts!

5. us and waddy, a member of cabo rojo 1 who works on a farm with fun animals!!! like zebras! :0

6. first day of 14th grade! 

7. the district takes college!!! we had permission to go out without our plaques in regular clothes to do an experiment about the book of mormon at mayaguez university......... we're not disobedient!!!!!!!!! 

8. flowers from our friend who sells stuff in the intersection. happy mothers day to us!

9. shes so nice!

"Puerto Rico is in the ICU" - Area President Elder Gonzalez - May 7, 2018

this week was PROBS ONE OF THE BEST WEEKS OF MY MISSION. we literally taught ALL DAY EVERY DAY. it was crazy. we just went from one appointment to the next to the next to the next. and we had a TON of member presents. in our district meeting, the zone leaders said that if we got 27 member presents as a district, they would get us donuts. and there are 3 companionships in our district so it would be 9 each. and usually, hermana peterson and i get like 7. and this week we got THIRTEEN. we were very motivated by the donuts. as a district we got THIRTY TWO. it was legit. and we had FIVE investigators in church this week. LEGITTTT. 

remember the 9 person family i said that we contacted a couple weeks ago. well this week we started teaching them and theyre SO COOL. THEY NEED TO BE BAPTIZED. THEY WOULD MAKE PERFECT MORMONS. all the kids still live at home and are just so nice. theyre 21, 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 5.  the only problem is that theyre currently active in their other church... but we can change that. haha. theyre all homeschooled and all the kids play musical instruments and theyre all so cute and nice and we went and read a chapter in the book of mormon with them and all the kids wanted book of mormons and theyre SO AWESOME. and then SOMETHING CRAZY HAPPENED. so hermana peterson and i to call all the numbers on the ward list to find less actives to visit and try to find through them. soooo one night we were making calls and it was 8:59 and i caled one more number and i was looking for "eugenio" so i asked if eugenio was there and they said no, wrong number. and then they said "ustedes son las mormonas?" and i said "si, somos las misioneras" and she was like "this is taina's number" and TAINA IS THE MOM OF THE 9 PERSON FAMILY. WHAAAAAT. FOR SOME REASON THEIR NUMBER WAS UNDER EUGENIO ON OUR WARD LIST AND THEY DONT KNOW WHO EUGENIO IS AND I JUST RANDOMLY CALLED THEM. :0 it was crazy. i was laughing so hard. 

yesterday we had a meeting with elder gonzales who is the area president and he asked us questions and stuff and one of his questions was "if you were the mission president for a day, what would you do to find" basically saying if we could do ANYTHING what would we do. and he looked at me and was like "hermana murphy is thinking, what is your idea?" and all that was going through my head was if we got all our members to proselite like the testigos de jeobah do ahhaahahaa so i said it. it was funny. i personally think it would be very successful. it was a super good meeting. he said that of the 29 countries that he covers, puerto rico is the one in the intensive care unit :-) so we need to be working really hard to get it back up and running again. but which nurses and doctors are in the icu? THE BEST ONES! so basically it was like a compliment, he was telling us that we're awesome. 

this week we also found ETHAN, the 10 year old son of a less active member and we started teaching him and the WHOLE FAMILY came to church yesterday!!! the great grandma, the grandma, the mom and her non member husband, and the 2 boys. it was so nice!!!!!! finally, we have a progressing investigator in cabo rojo 2! haha. we were trying to set a baptismal date with him and asked which saturday he wanted to do it on and he said the 12th! haah! so next saturday. but we said the 19th, to make sure the family is a little bit more reactivated. but WOOO!!! im excited. we just need them to come to church next week again. and every week after :)

so a pretty SOLID week. i love teaching!!!!! cabo rojo is on FIRRREEEEE. i better not get transferred now that things are picking up.. haha. just kidding. ill be fine anywhere. we'll see what happens with transfer calls next week!

love 

hermana murphy

1. FIRST MANGOS OF THE SEASON!

2. passing out the family proclamation in the intersection with our friend

3. OG squad