Road trip to Paraguay anyone?

Querido Familia Mía,

Another seven days has come and gone again.  I learned something new about myself this week.  For those of you that know me well, you know I´m not a fan of tomatoes or bananas.  Well.... I had several this week and my taste buds have turned on me.  I love them!  I think it has something to do with the ¨carb diet ONLY¨ that we get at our lunch appointments that has caused this change of taste.

I am now in my new area, Paso de los Libres.  It is in the Province of Corrientes.  I´ll elaborate more about my new area later in this email.  First things, first; last week I, nor my companion, had any idea where we might go next, we just knew we were leaving the area.  We received a call from the Mission President in the early afternoon Tuesday.  Those are sometimes scary calls to answer.  This one was a good one, my companion was assigned to be a Zone Leader in a different zone.  I know that he will do great, and that he will shed his sunny-Chilean disposition on all of those he comes in contact with.  I wasn´t so lucky, I didn´t find out where I was going until nearly 9pm, Tuesday night.  I sang ¨Don´t Cry for me San Vicente¨ many times, don´t worry.

We had the ¨amazing¨ opportunity to catch a bus at 3am the next morning.  You can imagine the excitement we had when we woke up at 2:30am!  We grab everything together as fast as we could and ran.  Literally, we RAN.  Have you ever had the chance to run a 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile with a 50 lb suitcase that has a broken wheel?  It´s plenty of fun, I assure you.  I ended up going army-style and carried it on my hunched back, while running.  All was well, because we made it just in time.  Qué Suerte!

We then made our way to the Bus Station in Posada, the capital of Misiones.  This is where I parted with my trainer.  It was a fast six weeks with him.

But, I soon began to sweat bullets as I was informed that if I didn´t have a certified copy of my passport, and the bus was checked, I could be treated as an illegal, and taken to the Paraguan border.  Guess what -- I didn´t have a copy of it!  They don´t check the buses everytime, but if they did, my only saving chance was to act asleep.  Oh, you better believe that I acted asleep!  I think I even when as far as faking a little drool.  Needless to say, I made it to my new area without a problem.

My new area:  Paso de los Libres, is in the very southeastern part of Corrientes.  It is worlds away different from San Vicente, in terms of the surroundings.  I came from a near jungle climate, to a flat, dry, Gaucho ridden area.  Not only do we have Motos (any kind of two-wheeled automobile) racing by us, but we also have you average day Gaucho riding past us on a horse.  Instead of getting my shoes covered in mud, I now fill them with sand as I walk along the roads.  The city itself, has nearly 70,000 people I hear.  Miles bigger than San Vicente.  We share an apartment with two other elders(the Zone Leaders).  The cover the heart of the city, while we cover more of the outside areas.  We are right on the Uruguay River; the city Uruguaiana, Brazil is on the other side.  Aunt Elizabeth, I´ll have you know that my area is the closest part of the mission to Urugauy.  Technically, our mission boarders Uruguay.  But there are no missionaries right at the boarder.  Oh!  I nearly forgot to mention my new companion!  Elder Robinson is from Arizona, and has been here for a little over a year.  I´ve already learned lots from him, both Spanish and Gospel-related.  I´m excited to be here and work with him.

This week, I´ve continued my studies in Alma.  I read the chapters about Ammon (17-19 specifically).  Oh how I love the chapters about Ammon!  I love that he taught King Lamoni, a man that knows basically nothing about God or the gospel, about the creation of the world (along with other things.)  At times we get scared and rationalize, ¨I can´t share the gospel with my friends because they wouldn´t understand.¨ This chapter is proof that we can share ANYTHING with our friends or family if we have the spirit with us.  Pray for opportunities to share things, big or small, with others.  We know the truth, after all.

Churro deprived, (it´s been 5 days) but loving life more than ever,

Elder McMurray

Expect the Unexpected

Hmm... some questions of late that I want to answer.

My favorite part of the mission so far?  Being a missionary.  I already feel like such a nerd.  I get really excited for things like Study Time and reading the Liahona.  BUT, other than the typical missionary things, there are other favorites as well.  I LOVE the handshakes here.  I have no idea how to describe them, exactly.  Basically, you go in like you are shaking their hand the normal way.  But once you make connection like that, your thumbs act as a revolving point, and your hands continue past the normal position.  If that confused you, I´m sorry.  You´ll have to ask a person that served in Northern Argentina to show you, because I hear they don´t do it in other parts of Argentina.

Yes, at times we do a lot of clapping, but that is usually when we are short on investigators or ran out of backup plans.

This has been a very different week for me, as compared to the previous five in San Vicente.  Top of the list; we had our first baptism of San Vicente on Saturday! (at least, since I´ve been here)  Ceci is a 15 year old girl, whose family owns a local radio station.  Which is kind of funny because often times, when we are passing a house with a radio on, we get to hear her: Makes it really easy to find her!  We had a nice baptismal service (that included a makeshift baptismal font!) and I even provided the music for the program.  We don´t have a pianist in San Vicente, so it was a real treat, I hope.  AND I played a musical number, ¨I Like to Look for Rainbows.¨ (¨Cuando Te Bautice.¨)

This last week I had the chance to participate in my first Divisions.  I went to Oberá, where the rest of our district is, with Elder Planck, our district leader.  I stayed from Tuesday afternoon to Thursday afternoon with him.  He has a month and a half left in the mission.  His Spanish is amazing.  It brings me hope that I can conquer this language eventually.  It was really beneficial to see how other missionaries do thing; it being the first time that I taught with someone other than my trainer.

Which leads me to the ¨expect the unexpected¨ part...  So I can´t remember if I mentioned it or not, but with the new program the Church has, you spend at least two transfers with your trainer.  I was thinking that that meant I would be in San Vicente for at least 3 to 6 months. (I hope you took note that the previous sentence was in PAST tense).  Yep,  I´m leaving San Vicente.  We received a call from the Zone Leaders that, both my companion and I, will be leaving this week. (For all of you RMs out there, you know what that means for the next elders coming in here.)  I am so very sad at the thought of leaving San Vicente on Wednesday.  I have never loved and hated a place more in my life, then I have with San Vicente.  So many memories started here.  I feel a tiny piece of my heart will be left in the muddy streets of San Vicente.  But, the Lord knows best, and that´s good enough for me.

This week, in my studies I´ve been reading the first chapters of Alma, in the Book of Mormon.  Chapter 5 might just be every missionary´s, that is dealing with laziness or some other problem, favorite chapter to read.  Alma holds absolutely nothing back when the members of the Church aren´t doing what they are supposed to be doing.  Very powerful stuff.

Do what you love; love what you do,

Elder McMurray

ps  Mom, I received letters from you all today that have the date 8-7-11.  Thanks!

Gotta love ´em dogs.

Earthquakes?  Hurricanes?  Tornadoes a few months ago?  Who would have guess all in the same year!  What an exciting time we live in!  I am definitely missing all of the North American action..  Surprisingly enough Dad, there hasn´t been any rain since Tuesday, when I last wrote.  There has been heat, though.  I´m a little anxious about what is to come, seeing as this is equivalent to the end of our Februarys.  I already feel like the humidity is the same as what you described Florida as, Mom.  I think I could probably cut the humidity in half with a machete.

I few things out of the ordinary have happened this week.  For starters, I gave a talk in Church.  I have a hard time giving them in English! ...We were ´fortunate´ enough to have upwards of 40 people attend.  I lived to tell the tale.  I think I spoke for nearly 10 or 12 minutes (in REAL time. ..my heart time...probably in the neighborhood of 2 hours).  It was a fairly easy topic, the First Lesson for missionaries.  I felt a little more confidence when Hermana Cata gave me a nod of approval during the discourse.  Hermana Cata is one of a kind, but at the same time reminds me of other people in my life.  She is German; a little rare for these parts, but not totally uncommon.  She knows Spanish, German, Portuguese, and a little Gurani.  Have you ever heard Spanish with a German accent?  It´s kind of amazing.  If you ever have the opportunity to hear it, please take advantage.  She very kind-hearted; always feeding us and making us bread.  But at the same time, I would not be at all surprised if she was a member of a gang.  Though she´s in her 70s, she gives off that vibe.

Another new event this week was helping an investigator put in her floor to a new house.  Impressive, right?  Who knew I had that talent.  Unfortunately,  this wasn´t your average floor.  She´s building a house for her mother, the one that is 105, next door to her´s.  The floor that we helped with consisted of a truckload of dirt.(after the dirt is in place, they will put floorboards in on top of it)  Shovel in hand, we began to help.  Boy, are we out of shape!  She, 65 years old, was easily doubling our work...well...doubling more of Elder Escobedo´s work.  Though I was sore the next day, I thank you mom for preparing me for this by having me work in our yard at home.

Now for the best (worst) part... I thought I´d save it for last so only the faithful followers would know what happened.  I don´t think that I´ve mentioned it before, but Argentina has large quantities of dogs.  Yes, I know that every missionary alive has argued that their mission has or had the most dogs.  I choose not to argue that mine has most, because I know for a fact that it does.  Each household has at least 4 dogs.  Usually, they don´t mean any harm. Usually.

You know where this is going...

Every Wednesday we eat at the Branch President´s house.  After visiting with his mother-in-law (next door), we walked across her yard to their yard.  Naturally, we walked right up against the house.  I learned a very valuable life lesson from this: When a house is elevated with blocks, thus providing a gap underneath, NEVER walk close to the house.  That little booger shot out from under the house quicker than I had time to blink.  If it weren´t for my slightly baggy dress pants, that beast would have taken a chunk out of my leg.  His little teeth marks, and slobber were right at the ankle line.  Okay, yes it was only an overly large, lap dog.  But that ´thing´ had me sweatin´.  He(or she) definitely has a mad case of Little Dog Syndrome.

I found an Ensign from July, 2008, in our apartment this week.  I read an article by Elder Kenneth Johnson, former member of the Seventy.  My favorite part was his quote from the book As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen.  It said, ¨Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain, or rise with your thoughts, your vision, your ideal.  You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration.¨  Isn´t that deep?  I won´t even begin to interpret that for you.  Make with it what you will.  I also had the chance to finish Mosiah and start the book of Alma this week.  There´s so many good parts that I came across, that all I can say to you is please read those chapters again.

Guess what, I love you, I love you, I LOVE YOUUUU,

Elder McMurray

ps for all those ELF fans out there, you´re welcome.

I spoke too soon.

Can you believe I´ve been in Argentina for a whole month, this week?!  What have I done with my life?!  Remember last week how I said that I thought the cold weather was behind us?  Yeah, well I lied.  Starting around Thursday or Friday, it started to rain; and boy did it rain.  Remember how I also mentioned the large amounts of orange mud?  Well put those two together and you have quite a sight to behold.  Streams and rivers were popping up everywhere!  I took a picture of this street that, I kid you not, had 2 to 3 inches of water covering nearly all of it, as well as raging rapids on the sides in the ditches.  

 

You begin to develop a different feeling towards cleanliness here.  It´s hard to describe, but in essence, you don´t really worry about the three pounds of mud attached to your once-beautiful-looking Rockports.

 

Along with that rain came the cold.  Who knew the Pulsiphers' basement would prepare me so well? :)  I was a little more prepared for it this time.  I even whipped out dad´s old coat from his mission that he gave me.  AND yes, I made 1980 look stylish.  My companion and I laughed the entire way down the street after a couple of teenage girls tried to suppress laughs as they passed my amazing coat.  I´m not exactly sure why.. :)  Needless to say, that bad boy kept me nice and toasty.

 

Speaking of toasty,  I made French Toast this morning.  I had been waiting all week to do so.  It went perfectly with our freezing apartment.  With a little dulce de leche, they were a big success with my companion.  I might have just started a new food trend in Chile..

I´ve developed an addiction since arriving in San Vicente.  Panaderías.  The bread and pastries here are amazing!  And extremely accessible.  So... I have to attempt to control myself from time to time.

 

I feel I must address the issue of maté.(make sure you pronounce that one right.. :) )  What is maté, you ask?  Maté is more common in Argentine households than Santa Claus is on the night of Christmas Eve.  It usually consists of yerba (an herb...which is grown in my area.) and hot water.  They throw the yerba in their maté cup and, with their straw that has a filter on the bottom, they sit around and relax.  This herb is not caffeinated, but due to the large amount of time that people waste when sitting around drinking it, missionaries are not allowed to drink it.  This always raises eyebrows when we say ¨no¨ to their maté.

 

 

The language.  I´m beginning to hear every word, more or less, fairly clearly, now.  But I´m still having issues processing it in the right order.  This provides me with a little bit of entertainment, though.  Certain phrases just kind of jump out at me at random times.  For example,  we were teaching this man and his family (but mainly he did all the talking).  He was a chatter box, and always moving during the conversation.  We´d be talking, and out of no where he´d do stuff like read my companion´s name out loud, ¨Elder Escobedo.¨  But my personal favorite, random phrase that I got from him was, ¨well then God lied.¨ Excuse me?  Did I just hear him correctly?  Yep, I did.  Not sure what happened there.  Halfway through the lesson I noticed a big machete next to the door.(you´d think I would have caught a hint..)  Needless to say he wasn´t the most receptive person, but he did calm down a bit when he lit up his cigarette. :)

 

In my personal studies I finished reading ¨Our Heritage.¨  It´s an exciting read that will get you pumped up about missionary work.  It does a really good job on briefly summarizing the entire history of our Church.  I´ve also been reading most of Mosiah, in the Book of Mormon, this week.  It´s amazing to see a people like King Limhi´s(son of the wicked King Noah) turn from wickedness to a realization of the truth.  And when the people were united in the cause, the Lord heard their pleas to be released from bondage from the Lamanites.  If we put our trust in the Lord, he can help us with our challenges in our life.

 

 

From ¨all things considered¨ in San Vicente, Misiones,

 

Elder McMurray

Spring is coming to an end.

Another week has come and gone, and I think Spring has, too.  We are already experiencing heat and much humidity.  One day will be in the 80s, while the next day is in the 60s.  Strange.  But the humidity is always there.  I´m just thankful that I grew up with humidity.  I never payed close enough attention to the weather before now.  But as missionaries, we live and die by the weather.  Speaking of weather, due to the high intense heat that comes here in the summers, missionaries are required to wear sombreros.  Yep, sombreros.  Isn´t that wild?!  I´m pumped.

 

San Vicente has two things; friendly people, and orange dirt.  When it rains that orange dirt becomes...yep you guessed it.. orange mud.  Just what every white shirt needs!  I´m already finding dirt that I have no idea how it got there.  I´m determined to find a more innovative way around this.  I´ll keep you posted...

 

Another interesting thing about life as a missionary here is that we do not knock on doors -- not once have I knocked on a door. (So much for living that childhood dream...)  Instead, we clap.  We stand in front of the person´s house, and clap.  I found this rather strange when I first started doing it, but I´ve adjusted quickly.

 

The language is continuing to come along.  I´m still having issues understanding people, but I can hear all of the words fairly clearly, now.  I just have the slight problem of processing all of it a little too slowly.  They say you are truly fluent when you dream in the other language. Well.. Elder Escobedo says that I talk, both English AND Spanish, in my sleep.  Is that close enough?

 

Tuesday, during lunch, I died and went to heaven. twice.  One of our eternal investigators found out that it was my companion´s birthday on Tuesday.  So.. she proceeded to make us the greatest thing known to man -- a calzone.  It was HUGE.  She also threw in delicious meat and homemade bread covered in sauce and cheese.  What topped it off was that she let us have the leftovers.  A missionary´s dream.  Also as a side note:  Her mother is 105 years old.  Yep, I shook the hand of something that was alive during both World Wars.  She doesn´t look a day over 85.

 

Today was a monumental day for me.  I bought my first pair of Alpargatas.  Everyone here owns at least one pair.  I´ve already determined this will become a scattered tradition over my mission; to buy different colors.  It is a small shoe that is known in the U.S. as TOMS.  I paid a grand total of 13 pesos (basically just over 3 American dollars.).  Definitely beats the prices in the US... like $60, right?

 

In my personal studies I´ve been reading the first few chapters in Mosiah.  It is most definitely true that ¨When we are in the service of our fellow beings, we are only in the service of our God.¨  I´ve only just begun to see the effect that missionary work does with our fellow man; and I love it.  Lately, we´ve really been pushing the members of the church to share the gospel and serve their friends and co-workers.  What better way to serve others then helping them come unto Christ?  I can´t think of many others.. :)  So... Serve others!

 

Smiling and nodding when appropriate,

 

Elder McMurray

 

ps Thanks for the recipes mom!  Argentina has very nearly the same food products as the US.  The challenge for me is translating. :)  So basically we cook simple things with rice, potatoes or some kind of meat.  But there are many more things to use out there.

I understand. Sort of.

Another week?  Clearly, the clocks in Argentina aren´t working correctly...  I have now experienced my first full week in the Mission Field!  Today has been nice.  We got ice cream during siesta.  I washed my clothes by hand.  And we played some Padle: a combination between tennis and raquetball, played with a pickleball-like paddle. Aka tons of fun.

My address, again.

Elder Ryan McMurray

Entre Rios 435

Resistencia, Chaco CP 3500

ARGENTINA

Crazy things that have happened...

The beginning of this week was cold.  Since there are no AC or Heating Units in the apartment, that meant it was even colder.  So cold, that in the mornings I woke up to a runny nose and could see my breath.  See my breath!  I had no idea it could get this cold down here.  And what makes it worse, (or fun, in my opinion, depends on how you look at it) is that the colder the temperature outside, the colder the shower is.  For those of you that have been in the water of the Colorado River, after Lake Powell,  I would have welcomed that temperature (47ºF).

Needless to say, it was a little chilly.  But, I will have you know that the weather is now amazing.  This is peak time for weather in Argentina, before the death of summer.

Though San Vicente is small, they still have a bus system.  So,  in order to visit a few members in the Branch, we have to take a Colectivo (bus).  It costs a sum of 2 pesos, or about 50 cents.  They´re fun, because I´ve never really used buses much growing up.

This week, we had our semi-monthly District Meeting.  The reason we only have it every other week is because we (the San Vicente elders) are a 3 hour bus ride away from the rest of the district.  Meaning, basically our entire Tuesday was taken up by the meeting and our travels.

Remember how I mentioned that we had 12 people attend church last week?  Well, this week we had about 40.  It was awesome!  It made me laugh how much the weather can effect your faithfulness in church attendance.  With that being said, I already love these people.  So friendly!  Though I am thousands of miles from home,  people are still very similar.  Crazy enough, we ran into a guy that was wearing a Tennessee hat; how did that get here??

The church building

The children gathered for a church activity

 

Yes, I have discovered Dulce de Leche -- and yes it has changed my life -- and no I have not called Jenny20, yet.

Siesta is a very real thing, here.  From 12 to 4, everyday.  I thought it was strange last week when they shut off the lights at the Supermarket while we were in the checkout line.  Clearly, they mean serious business.

The language?  Oh, the language.  Yes. It is still here.  It´s very difficult, but now that I´ve adjusted more to my new surroundings,  I am learning more and more Spanish everyday.  Luckily, Elder Escobedo is patient with me.  It does get a little tricky when I have no idea what the person just said to me and they are expecting a response.  We were at someone´s house and my companion went to the bathroom.  These are my least favorite moments thus far.  I had the total deer-in-headlights look going on after she asked me a question.  I was traumatized!

Ryan and his companion

In my personal scripture studies, this week, I read Alma 40.  All about the Resurrection.  Of late, I´ve used a notebook when I read.  It´s amazing how much more you can learn with a pen and paper next to you.  If you´ve never tried it before, do it!

With a churro, filled with ducle de leche, in one hand, and a desire to serve in the other,

Elder McMurray

Here is a picture of the Buenos Aires temple, which is being worked on:

Argentina. Been there, doing that.

Family!

 

For starters, I miss you and I love you!  ...Secondly, I miss English.  This week has been a VERY BIG week.

 

My new address is

 

Misión Argentina Resistencia

Entre Rios 435

Resistencia, Chaco CP 3500

ARGENTINA

 

I will begin...

 

Monday morning, at 3am, I left the MTC, for good.  I cried a little.  I loved place so very much.  Yes, it is small, but I learned and grew so much there.  It will always have a place in my heart.   My trip then commenced with my 6am flight out of Salt Lake City.  We then went via Dallas/Fort Worth, New York, and finally Buenos Aires.  When we arrived to Buenos Aires, we took a 2 hour bus ride to the other side of the city, to their Domestic Airport.   When we got there, there wasn´t much activity going on.  Weird.  We found out that due to a mini volcanic issue in Chile, all flights had been canceled.  Meaning,  we now had a 13 hour bus ride to Resistencia on our hands.  We were lucky, though, this bus was to be extremely comfortable.  It was an event just getting to the Bus Station.  15 of us ran to a local bus stop (with all of our suitcases. Oh, and don´t let's forget to mention that one of my wheels was broken off in flight.  I had to carry that 50lb sucker everywhere!)  We then found the brother that was helping us (who spoke little English--aka none).  But in order to get the rest of our things we had to ¨literally¨ sprint to his car to retrieve the other things.  Man, we were sweating badly!  Luck was with us, due to a demonstration in the city, our bus arrived a little late.  We made it.

 

We arrived at the Bus Station in Resistencia at approx. 11am.  I was SO excited to see President and Sister Heyman and the APs.  Our trip to Resistencia took nearly 53 hours!  Wednesday and Thursday morning were very nice.  We were able to eat and even pair up with another Elder in the mission to go out and teach.  Kind of scary.  Luckily, the Elder I went with knows English, naturally, considering he hails from Salt Lake.

 

Now to Thursday... Meeting our Trainer.

Like many of you know, we sat on opposite sides of the chapel.  They started with Elder G, I think.  It would happen that I was the last Elder called.  Oh well, that made it easy for me to see who was going to be my trainer.

Drum roll please......  Elder Escobedo! From the great nation of Chile.  His Spanish is very fast and his English is nearly non-existent.  Can you say FUN??  haha It´s interesting I can tell you that.  Needless to say, he is very spunky and very new at training.  I am his first.  He has been out since January, I think.  It´s a little difficult communicating, but we manage.

We left the Mission Office around 5pm.  We arrived in Posadas, the capitol of Misiónes at 10:30pm.  Unfortunately, our bus didn´t leave until 3:30am.  More FUN.  We finally made it to..... San Vicente! (in the Province of Misiónes) at 8 in the morning, Friday.  Making it a grand total of 4 days from the time I left the MTC, to when I made it to my final destination.  Crazy, huh? Just like the old days, I guess.

 

San Vicente is fairly small.  Lots of poverty.  But really friendly people.  The people speak a language I´ve never heard before.  I´m told it´s Spanish. :)  Some people, when they find out I am new, like to throw in Portuguese; to help me out, of course.  The branch has around 25 or 30 members that come; when it doesn´t rain.  Sunday? It rained.  We had a total of 12 counting us, missionaries.  The Branch President is amazing.  President Talquenca.  Apparently, he served in the Resistencia Mission like 5 or 6 years ago.  I guess he liked it enough to live here.  Surprisingly, it does get a little cold here.  Lots of rain, too.  Other than that and the language, who could complain?!

 

It´s interesting to note that we do our laundry by hand.  Yep, that´s right, no machines.  I´m excited!!!  Also, to get hot water in the shower, it´s basically a trickle.  I love it!

 

If you are having a hard time with something, read D&C 98:1-3.  It will help, a lot.  Trust me.

 

I love you all!

 

Elder McMurray