Code Word: Purple.

For starters, mom I received your letters this week.  The envelope with everyone´s letters.  Thanks for the pictures!!!  People are beginning to change on me.  Not sure how I feel about that...  The sent date said the 22nd of September.  So things are coming pretty quick.  Things are averaging two to three weeks now.  Just if you are wondering.  Also, I´m writing today because like I previously mentioned, if there´s a holiday on Monday, we work.  Yesterday was Christopher Columbus Day.  I guess he did discover ¨America.¨

I feel like whenever I make mention of the weather being nice, or  there was no rain, or something like that, then that is when things happen.  On Friday, the big one came.  Around 3pm, the skies started to get black.  You could tell that a big front was coming from the east, in Brazil.  It was a scene straight from the Wizard of Oz.  There we are, standing in the street.  And all of a sudden, we get hit by this HUGE wave of air.  It literally almost knocked us off of our feet.  We quickly stood up against the nearest cement house.  The wind sent things everywhere, including dust.  Who knew that dust could sting so bad when it hit you!  The rain didn´t come for a space of a time after, but not before the hail came.  Tons of trees and streets signs weren´t so lucky.  It was so windy that I didn´t want to kill my umbrella.  So... I was a drowned rat by night´s end.  What fun.

I realized something huge that I´ve neglected to tell you guys...  Life-changing, even.  Alfojors.  God´s gift to Argentina.  They are impossible to describe accurately, other than heaven in your mouth.  This brownie-like thing, filled with dulce de leche has made life amazing.  There are probably 100s of different Alfojors out there.  As the owner of the corner store told us, Alfojors are like an art form.  Everyone is making a different type.  I have a running collection of wrappers right now, actually.  I´m at 40 different wrappers.  An elder that recently left for home had 103.  My goal is 104.  I´ll be sure to update you periodically what the count is at, don´t worry.

Sorry this is a shorter email than usual.  If you have any specific question, feel free to ask them!  I´ll be more exciting next time, I promise.  This week, I´ve begun the war chapters in the Book of Alma.  Moroni is a man amongst boys.  Read Alma 48:17, and strive to be like that.  There´s nothing shaky about that verse.

I love you all lots,

Elder McMurray

Better than Christmas

Thank you for all of the emails this week!  It´s always good to hear from all of you!  Just a little note of interest for you -- if you want to write me, now is the time to do it.  I live in the same apartment as our zone leaders.  Meaning, I get mail ¨pretty fast.¨  Usually, about two to two and a half weeks.

 

It rained for the second time this last week, since my stay here in Paso de los Libres began.  Definitely a big change from my first area where I spent my first 5 days in straight rain.  Believe me, talking from the perspective of someone that is always outside, I´m not complaining.  This week has been a fairly standard (but still amazing) missionary week.  Well, standard with the exception of the Weekend of ALL Weekends, that is.  I hope you all took advantage of the opportunity to listen to the Lord´s servants.  From your emails, it sounds like you all had the chance to listen or watch (...for some, in person).  But I´ll get to that later...

 

I realized I haven´t been telling too many missionary stories in my emails.  I guess I will have to change that.

 This week´s topics -- Rejections.  A personal fave.  This last week we followed an address to a less-active member´s home.  When we clapped at the door, a lady (I´d say 40s maybe) came to the door and told us that her father (the member) was very old and it was too late in the evening to talk to him.  Okay, that´s fine.  Well, then came her brother to the door.  Fireworks went off.  And not the good kind.  He said everything from ¨I´ve asked to have his name removed,¨ to ¨I´m going to get a lawyer,¨ to...my personal favorite..¨you don´t practice what you teach.¨ Friendly fellow.  Another good one was when we knocked on a metal door.  We knocked softly, I promise.  A lady came and told us that it was very rude of us to knock when there is a baby in the house and that is why she had a doorbell.  A doorbell?  That´s more quiet?  Still, we run into many amazing people that make missionary work worth it.  These are only on rare occasion.

 

It was a picturesque moment after the Saturday Afternoon session of General Conference.  We went out to find people.  All plans fell through.  This is never fun.  We decided to try a less active gentleman that we´d never visited before.  When he came out to greet us, I understood every word that he said.  Yes! ...then I realized he was speaking inEnglish.  So much for thinking that I knew Spanish...  Turns out that he lived in California for 10 years. A really nice guy.  After chatting for a few minutes we invited him to the Priesthood Session in about 45 minutes...and he came.  Best part of all; he came the following day --- with a tie on!  Sometimes, all a person needs is the invitation.  It was a healthy reminder that we need to reach out to everyone.

 

Conference was... amazing. Lucky for us, there´s only a 3 hour time change. (though, Priesthood was a little rough...ending at 11...30 minutes past my bedtime.)  One of my personal favorite lines came from Elder J. Devn Cornish, when he said, ¨Much like medicine, prayer only works when used as directed.¨ We need to have the faith and trust in the Lord that our prayers will be answers.  There were so many good talks that I´ll stop right there.

 

From a keyboard that has a sticking Kkkkkk,

 

Elder McMurray

Palta!

Today marks two months in Argentina, and yesterday was 4 months in the mission field.  If it hasn´t been said enough, I´ll repeat it for you, time flies!

This week, I had my first true sloppy joe since my arrival.  That´s what you get when you have somebody who has spent years as a grandma in Utah.  We are so very grateful for the Larsons in our branch.  I think I mentioned before that they are the Senior Missionary Couple here in Paso de los Libres.  We have been very blessed to have lunch appointments everyday here.  I´m lucky, so they tell me.  Literally, the weeks leading up to my arrival here, the missionaries cooked nearly everyday for themselves.  Unfortunately, my belt is not so lucky...

Spring has officially come here in the southern Hemisphere.  How was it celebrated? ...By a big party in the center of the city of course!  The people here, (and Latin America as a whole) are very funny people.  They find every single opportunity to have a party.  Oh, the creativity with their holidays!  The center of the city is not in our area, though.  We work in the suburbs (barrios).  So, whenever something big is going on in the city, the neighborhoods are legitimate ghost towns. ..The eerie feeling included.

I mentioned something about being in Gaucho country, right?  Well, I´ll elaborate a little...

You know you are coming to a house of a gaucho if there is a little red flag raised somewhere on the property.  It´s not uncommon to have someone ride by you on a horse.  It´s not uncommon to have a random, stray horse walk on past you; fences are not exactly a regular, habitual thing.  A gaucho wardrobe consists of: bombachas (the pants), faja (the belt), their hat (I need to learn the name...) and the ever-so-faithful, alpargatas (the shoes...they look the exact same as the shoe brand, TOMS).

Today, I played my second racket sport since being here.  Tennis (the first being Padle).  We have a dirt/clay court right next to our apartment.  It was nice doing something out of the ordinary.  My proudest moment came when I did a legitimate, French Open slide for a return on a volley: I think it would have even made Rafael Nadal proud.

This week I read in Alma, yet again.  Alma 32 is such a good chapter that I won´t even tell you much about it.  You need to read it for yourself (...preferably from verse 26 on)!  I also read the article, ¨Our Refined Heavenly Home,¨ by Elder Douglas L. Callister.  It´s an amazing article on basically everything in our lives--from thoughts, to actions, to entertainment.  If you have a chance, read it!  One of my favorite lines is his quote from Ben Jonson, ¨Language most shows a man. Speak that I may see thee.¨ Be careful with what you say.  People will know a lot by how you speak.

Love ya bunches,

Elder McMurray

80 Kilometers to Go.

I´ve now been here in Paso de Los Libres for almost two weeks.  I forgot my camera cord, but I promise that I´ll remember next week so that I can give you a little flavor of what my area is like, what I look like, what I´ve been doing, etc...

But now on to the real meat.

We will start with last week.  Wednesday, I did my first divisions with my new zone leaders.  I spent the day with Elder Montanares, another Chilean.  I seem to be a Chilean-magnet these days...but I like it because they have a slightly different vocabulary; meaning that I get to learn words that other people don´t know. :)  Anyways, Elder Montanares got a wart removed about two and a half weeks ago from the bottom of his foot.  Because of this, he´s been mainly in the apartment, nursing it.  With this in mind, I thought we´d have a nice steady day.  Little did I know that I´d be walking more that day than I´d ever walked in one day throughout my entire mission.  We walked so far that we couldn´t even find where we were at on the map that we own!  It was definitely a good day; we meet some great people.  Unfortunately, Elder Montanares paid dearly for it.  He still has the stitches in, even though it´s been nearly three weeks, and the wound hasn´t even really sealed itself.  I feel like it shouldn´t be like that.  I realized that I better be careful here and not do anything foolish.  I consider myself very lucky to live in the US with its medical capabilities.

Thursday.  My day started at 12am.  A little early, right?  We had to be in Resistencia, before 9am to listen to Elder Bradley D. Foster, of the Second Quorum of the Seventy.  We left the apartment at 1am, in our 19 passenger Convoy.  The passengers included the 8 of us in our Zone, as well as the Larsons.  We are very lucky to have the Larsons with us.  The are the only senior couple in the mission.  That´s right, the ONLY.  And we are lucky enough to have them in our Branch.

Elder Foster was great, leaving us with many things to think about.  We learned just how important it is to work with the members in the area.  The Conference, overall, was amazing and uplifting.  The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful, with the exception of the final 80km (50miles) back to Paso de los Libres.  Everything was going fine and dandy until our driver pulled over to the side of the road.  I am not exactly sure what happened, all I know is that next thing we knew, we weren´t going anywhere.  The driver tried things.  The elders tried things.  We even put it in neutral and had four of us push that big honker of a van to try and kick start it.  Nothing.  We were stranded until the owner of the van/bus came with a new part (a filter I think). Our original estimated time of arrival was 8:30-9pm.  We finally made it back at 11:30.  Definitely one of the longer days I´ve experienced.  But without a little excitement, life would be boring, wouldn´t it? :)

I became something I vowed I would never be, on Sunday.  The Branch Pianist.  Under normal circumstance I would probably not have agreed, considering I know around 10 to 15ish Hymns.  BUT, I led the music last week.  Have you ever had the opportunity to lead a group of dear saints, that hardly know the tune to any hymns, in singing a hymn you don´t even know -- without music!  It´s an experience, I can assure you.  I´m excited though, I haven´t tickled the ivories in months.

This week, I´ve continued reading in the book of Alma (in the 20s chapters).  It´s amazing what Ammon and his brethren had to endure as missionaries.  They had so many challenges, my mission here in Argentina is hardly comparable.  But, the remained faithful and eventually brought thousands unto Christ.  Ammon made the great statement that he does not boast in himself, but that he ¨boasts in [his] God.¨  Whenever something good in our life happens, we need to remember where it came from.  Sometimes, we forget.  I´m guilty of it on many occasions.  Nobody is perfect.  But through Christ and his infinite Atonement, we can accomplish all.

Keep your chins UP, even through the difficult times (...Utah game...),

Elder McMurray

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.