hiiiiii - July 30, 2018

hi! this week was pretty fun. a pretty good time here in rio grande. we had mlc and went up on this moutain in aguas buenas (we are pretty sure its where the temple is gonna be) LOOK AT THAT VIEW. SOOOOO GOOOOOD. it was so cool. president smart keeps talking about LIFTING OUR VISION and it was so cool to talk about the mission goals and such and look out over puerto rico, thinking about all the people that need THE GOSPEL. its true, there is a special spirit on THE MOUNTAIN OF THE LORD. 

THIS WEEK WE SAW A MIRACLE. so on saturday we had appointments ALL MORNING at 10, 11, 12, and 1 and at like 11:30 we were both rrreeeeaaaaallllly hungry becausue thats when we usually eat lunch haha and so we were saying a prayer before we went into a lesson and hermana mcdonald prayed that we wouldnt be hungry and as she said that A PARCHA FELL FROM THE TREE. HAHAAH. so we started eating parchas. and then while we were in a lesson a man came over and gave us a whole branch full of canepas. GOD PROVIDES. 3 nephi 13: 31-33. hahah. 

also this week another cool thing happened. we were debating if we should go to this one place to go find this less active lady or keep contacting where we were, and we both felt like we should leave and go find the less active lady. and so we went over there and as soon as we got there we saw this lady walking and carrying a bag of ice and a grocery bag and she looked really tired so we asked if she needed help and she said yes (which was weird because normally no one says yes) and so we walked with her to her house and carried her stuff and it turns out that shes a member who just moved here like 2 weeks ago from another pueblo! and shes super cool and was active for a while but then went less active within the last year. and it was cool because her house is in a super weird place so we never would have met her if we hadnt been there at that exact moment and offered to help her carry her things :))))))))

we also started a book of mormon claass in the branch because like no one here reads the scriptures and all the members are PUMPED! its super cool because the members are telling us that theyve been reading every day or that theyre in 1 nephi 6 or something and it makes me so happy because WE NEED TO READ THE SCRIPTURES TO BE CONVERTED and so this class is really going to help them

this week i also got roasted a ton :) physically, also emotionally. people were being such SAVAGES while we were contacting HAHAHH. here are some funny contacts we had

 - i gave a man a pass along card that i wrote our phone number and names on and he went on to just make fun of my handwriting for like 5 minutes and every time we tried to say something he just kept going on about how ugly it was hahahah

 - a woman asked us "ustedes son hermanas o madre e hija?" and i said "cual de nosotras seria la mama?" and she pointed at me HHAHAHHA. so not only i look old enough to be a mom, but HERMANA MCDONALDS MOM

-  someone said to me "tu le quitas la comida de ella verdad? porque ella es flaquita y tu eres gordita" BUUUUUURRRRRNNNNNNNNNN. i was getting wrecked

just gotta learn to laugh ha........haaaa.................. hahhaahh

also we contacted this one crazy guy and asked "conoce a su vecino?" and he said "nadie puede saber el destino de nadie.... no se sabe si alguien va a matarte o chocarte con el carro...." and it was super weird hahah. goooood times

we´re continuing to do the book of mormon challenge and this morning we read the story of enos. its going by so fast. this book is sooooo gooood. one of our investigators, farah, is doing super good at reading it and last night she sent us a text just quoting 1 nephi 4:14. she GETS IT. its soooo cool to see investigators actually read/understand the scriptures.

have a good week!!!!

hermana murphy

1. its been a while. RAINBOW!

2. SAN JUAN ZONE!!!!!!

3. sistaz

4. MLC 

Woohoo Rio Grande - July 23, 2018

heeeeyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!! this week was pretty lit. i dont have much time to write. so here are some pics! woohoo!

we had zone conference and it was so good. my first zone conference not in the mayaguez zone!! haha. it was amazing of course because the smarts did it :)))))))))) haha

our investigators are doing good, we had a super cool lesson with farah and she basically gave her testimony about how she knows the book of mormon is true and she feels peaceful while she reads it and its only logical that we have the book of mormon and the bible. shes sooooooo cool. were gonna try to put her on date tonight.

some of our investigators fell off the face of the earth this week and it was kind of stressful but this week is gonna be our breakthrough week and we're gonna put them all on date.

yay! love you all!

hermana murphy

1. yay! puerto rico!

2. dang my camera takes GOOD PICS

3. z conf twinning with hermana beard!! <3

4. weepa

5. Helaman 5:12  ***~~~ Build Upon The Rock ~~~***

6. hermana smart!!!!!!!!!!!! <3333333

LIT WEEK!!! - July 16, 2018

hey!!!!!! this week was lit. lots of pics coming 2 u. so apparently im not doing a very good job at writing these emails. sorry to all my fans. ill do better.  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

this week we did lots of fun stuff. we had HERMANAS CONFERENCE and it was the BEST DAY EVERRRR. we went in WORKOUT CLOTHES and learned about being healthy on the mission and eating good and exercising good. and we did some spiritual stuff too. all the hermanas that are going home gave trainings. it was so fun to see everyone!!! it was the first time ive seeen everyone since the hurricane, which was SO LONG AGO. 

ok so now that i know all of our investigators i can say stuff about them:

yesterday we had 6 investigators at church!! MIRACLE! jessica and one of her sons came (the one who is weird about being baptized) and she was saying to our other investigators "espero que nos siga visitando!" LOL so basically she thinks that shes a part of the church now. we had a fuego lesson with her this week and brought a member and he talked VERY FIRMLY about how she needs to be baptized because her other baptism isnt valid. haha. luckily she didnt get offended. but i think shes beginning to understand

we also had farah and her son come to church and farah is SO COOL! the hermanas found her before i got here and taught her and her husband a few times and she is so golden. she reads the book of mormon like a MONSTER and literally gives better explanations than i can on the chapters that she reads. and she had 3 jobs, but she just lost her job that had her work on sundays, so shes free now from work on sundays WOO so she can come to church! shes sooo cool

we also had lizzette come and shes the sister/daughter of 2 recent converts and shes come to church like 5 times and is super cool, but she doesnt want to accept a baptismal date yet but we're working on it. shes going out of town on august 4th for like a month so WE GOTTA BAPTIZE HER BEFORE

brenda also came and shes the friend of a member and she has come like 5 times but all before hermana mcdonald got here so she had never met her but she came and apparently has a lot of interest and so yay! it was a good day at church yesterday

this week we also had a COOL lesson with some old investigators. we found this teaching record from 2006 and it was for this couple that almost got baptized but then their friends said some stuff about the church and they decided to stop listening to the missionaries. but we found their teaching record and decided to go over and it was kind of hard to find their house but we found it and theyre GOLDEN! theyre named ramona and vidal. theyre preeetttttyyy old and dont remember a lot of what the missionaries taught before but remembered that they went to church like 5 times. we asked ramona if she goes to a certain church and she said no, because she doesnt think that any of them are right. and we asked her "how would it feel if you found the true church?" and she was like "it would feel like the end of a looong search..." and then we just TESTIFIED about the church and she was getting so excited and we gave her a book of mormon and she was like "really!!! for me!!!!!" it was so cute. theyre so goooolden

we also have an investigator, maria, who is the mom of a recent convert and she wants to get baptized and she just has to get married, and she wants to get married, shes just super busy and here in puerto rico to get married you have to get blood work done and stuff and THIS WEEK SHE WENT TO GET THE BLOOD WORK DONE! and she has to get married within 2 weeks so EXPECT A WEDDING COMING UP SOON! #waptism

we are still working with arleene and we just havent been able to see her because shes been sick and stuff but shes still on date for the 28th. woohoo!

yep it was a pretty solid week. we have a pretty FIRE teaching pool. rio grande is super great. and milza abed and shauri got baptized!!!!!!!!!! yeeeeeet. GO CABO ROJO! GO RIO GRANDE!

idk if this summary of our investigators will be interesting to anyone else LOL but this week we didnt have anything crazy happen. just lots of good finding and teaching. haha. and today we went to el yunque for a zone activity! it was so beautiful yay!

love

hermana murphy

1. the fajardo district!

2. PR PRIDE

3. #GETFIT @hermanasconference

4. hermana moody!!!!!!!

5. the mtc group! reunited for the first time since MARIA

6. service

7. the best meal

8. artsy puerto rico art!

9. el yunque zone activity!

10. the hermanas of the san juan zone!

11. zone! (try to find me!)

12. living it up en el yunque

13-15. also here's pics from the bautismo en cabo rojo yay!!!!!!!

Hurricane Baryl - July 9, 2018

hi! we're just chillin here in the chapel waiting for hurricane baryl to pass. i dont actually know if its a hurricane or just a tropical storm now, but nothing is really happening, just lots of rain and thunder. BARYL!!!! welcome to hurricane season!!

this week was another good week! i got to meet basically all of our investigators which was super good. we put one of them, arleene, on date for the 28th. shes super cool and was an investigator of the elders before and has gone to church several times. we visited her this week and read alma 32 with her and talked a lot about faith and acting on our faith, and she accepted a date! 

this week we also had like 10 dogs attack us but we hit them away with our bags and keep on going :) and hermana mcdonald literally got bit. but NOTHING CAN STOP US!

we started teaching this lady named jessica this week who was a referral from a recent convert and shes cool except she doesnt really believe anything that we teach, but she came to our branch bbq and church on sunday and wants to keep coming! haahha. its so weird. we taught her about the book of mormon and gave her a chapter to read, and she read it and liked it but then asked "why does it say libro de mormon on the front if its the bible?" and then we taught her the restoration and she was like "anyone that says that theyve seen God is a false prophet". but she wants to keep coming to church and is super into it and everything and brought her kids....hahahha. 

milsa and abed and shauri in cabo rojo are gonna get baptized on saturday! wooooohhooooooo.

we're doin work here in rio grande and seeing lots of miracles!!!!! 

love

hermana murphy

1. flamboyant

2. happy 4th of july!!!!!!!!!!!

3. us like an hour ago, after walking outside in hurricane baryl :-)

Rio Grande! - July 2, 2018

hey!! this week was crazy. im now in rio grande! it was sad to leave cabo rojo but rio grande is a good place. ok. heres a crazy story. so on sunday we were texing a ton of people in the ward telling them that i was leaving, and obispo cruz was like "we want to invite you over to eat dinner on tuesday" and we were like "alright cool!" and then we showed up on tuesday and they had invited LIKE A TON OF PEOPLE FROM THE WARD and it was sooooooo nice. such a fun lil party for me. all my favorite people!!!!!!!! even benji and jorma came!! it was so fun. i love them so much. i got to see everyone that i wanted to before i left. yay! 

on wednesday we got transfers done and i got here to rio grande! its like a mix between city and campo, it has a walmart (woo!) and it covers 3 pueblos - rio grande, loiza, and canovanas. its a branch and it has like 30 people that come every week. and GUESS WHAT! i am now the branch pianist! woooooooooo. mom must be so happy!! theyre gonna let me choose the hymns that we sing every week so thats nice. we'll see how this goes............ haha.

also big news. MIRIAM GOT CONFIRMED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES. MIRIAM. AFTER OVER 3 MONTHS. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. HERMANA PETERSON TEXTED YESTERDAY TO TELL ME THE BIG NEWS. I AM SO RELIEVED. HAHAHA. yep. that was a huge miracle.

well thats about it! have a good week!!!!!!

love

hermana murphy

1. party!!!!!!!

2. benji and jorma!!!!

3. shauri!!! (mom shes wearing the dress that you sent me that was literally made for a child)

4. im adopted

5. yay! rio grande!

6. hermana mcdonald! woo!

I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED :-(-:

big news. im getting transferred!!! basically the first real transfer of my mission haha. im leaving cabo rojo and going to rio grande to be an stl in the san juan zone, which is on the opposite side of the island. im sad to leave but also excited! its crazy because literally EVERYONE thought that hermana peterson was leaving, but its me. sad! but im pumped. but sad to leave everyone here. #rip the eternal companionship

ok i forgot to write about this last week but IT WAS SO AMAZING. so we were having a lesson with luis and the cupeles fam and then we finished the lesson and everything and THEN he just randomly shared his testimony and he was like "i know that this is the true church because this week i got into a fight with my friend and i was really mad and i prayed that God would take away the anger and then he did and i was able to talk to my friend like nothing happened. and because of this i know that this is the true church, and dejo estas cosas dichas en el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen." IT WAS SOOO NICE. AND THE FACT THAT HE SAID IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST AMEN WOW. IT WAS AMAZING. :''''') BEST RC IN THE WORLD. and yesterday he was like "if i want to get a temple recommend what do i have to do'?' :))))))))))))))) so nice

this week we started teaching TWO athiest guys! pretty crazy. neither hermana peterson or i have ever taught any athiests before, but its pretty fun. like they literally have no conception of who God is at ALL. so its literally just starting from ground zero. one of them is the grandson of a member who came to church last week and so we set up an apponitment with him. and hes super friendly and nice, but when we started teaching him, he was like 'there is no way that youre gonna get me to pray or read that bible of yours'" but then at the end of the lesson, he said the closing prayer AND committed to reading like 20 chapters in the book of mormon ahhaha. yes! woohoo! and when he prayed he was like "wow, that was weird. i feel super good! i gotta keep doing that" yeeaaahhh

this week we also got a referral from salt lake for a lady who requested a bible and that had never happened to either of us so that was cooooool. we went and taught her. woohoo!

we also had mlc and president and hermana smart werent even there haha they had a meeting with some general authority (we think) so it was just the APs and the senior couple running the whole thing and it was so fun. and we talked about hurricane preparedness :0 gotta get READY!   

milsa abed and shauri are still progressing. im so sad to leave them theyre the cutest family in the world :( shauri and abed are just so PURE and its so fun to teach them. also jorma FINALLY came to church yesterday. FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE WEVE BEEN HERE. YESSSSSSSSSSSS. she FINALLY had a sunday where she didnt work. BLESSED. 

thats it for this week. bye!!!!! bye to cabo rojo! <3

hermana murphy

1. RIP the district

2. vaca!!!

3. MLC!

4. SHAURI IS A LITTLE ANGEL I LOVE HER SO MUCH

5. the primary of cabo rojo (hes going out of town for like a month.....)

6. JORMA CAME TO CHURCH. POR FIIINNNNNNN

7. OGs

8. luis and the cupeles fam!!! <3

9. RIIIIPPPPP #4transfers

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