Elder Viñas.

Judging by your emails (or the lack there of) it sounds like life is crazy busy.  Life is better that way.  You should always be anxiously engaged in something.  It sounds like BYU had a ¨close¨ one.  What are the opinions on BYU´s season thus far?  I heard the news on elections... It appears that the media here swings heavily for the democratic side of the park.  Everyone was talking about how Obama won and how it was a good thing that he won.  (¨So uh... president Heyman, I was wondering if I could receive a four year extension on my mission.  Would that be possible?¨)

This week was a successful week.  We had the privilege to hear from President Heyman and Elder Viñas of the Seventy.  Pres. Heyman gave a great talk on faith, hope, and charity.  Elder Viñas hit many topics that included  the Atonement and Statistics of the Area (my personal favorite).  The scary statistic was that of the Posadas Stake, only 10% of the adults have temple recommends.  Both President and Elder Viñas gave me a new outlook on the missionary work in this area and more sense of urgency to help all of those around me.  We can´t force anyone, but we can show them the way by teaching them the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This week, we worked particularly hard with the members of the branch.  We were able to come into contact with several friends, family, and acquaintances.  We found several people that have lots of interest in what we have to share and how they can enhance their lives by coming unto Christ.  One of those friends even came to Church this week.  With that being said...  Please do all that you can to help the missionaries in your area find people that are ready to hear the Gospel.  Not just their lives will be blessed, but yours as well.  Have courage.

Do you remember the man who is a leader in his Church that came to General Conference last month?  Well, we were very blessed to have him at Church yesterday.  Silvio Kluka drives a taxi all night (until 6:00am), but still managed to come.  We happened to have the Primary Program as well.  Though very tired, it looks like he liked it a lot.  He is SO close.  Please pray for him.

Read 1 Nephi 16:15-32 and decide what type of person you are when it comes to adversity. (ie Laman and Lemuel, Lehi, or Nephi)  is there something you can do to improve?

I love you all,

Elder McMurray

HIJO MIO

The week was a crazy one!  Thanks for all of the emails.  It looks like Halloween was a blast.  The fear of a nursing home must be hereditary.  I´m sad to hear that cross country ended on such a sour note.  For those that aren´t seniors, there´s always next year!  (Sorry, seniors).  Though I never was truly satisfied with what I accomplished in cross country, I still miss it.

Another curve ball was thrown my way this week.  I forgot to mention that we were going to have transfers last week.  I guess I kind of figured nothing would happen to me or Elder Nish.  How wrong I was...  Tuesday night´s call came with a few surprises.  One, Elder Nish was going to Formosa.  Meaning that I am getting a new companion.  The next question that came across my mind was, ¨Okay, what part of the mission is he coming from?¨  Answer:  I need to go to the office of the mission to get my new companion.  In other terms, I´m training.  I think I´m more nervous than my new companion.  Elder Alcaraz is from Argentina.  He hails from the province of San Luis.  Words cannot describe the feelings that I have felt the last few days...  So I´ll leave the rest to your imagination.  Just know that I am excited and hope that I don´t let President Heyman down.  Any suggestions that y´all have, feel free to send them my way.

This week´s treasure...  A sweet little couple named Matías and Yessica.  They attended a baptism Saturday and came to Church on Sunday.  Call it luck, but all of the lessons were about Eternal Families.  Do I hear destiny calling?

This week I´ve been thinking a lot about the Atonement.  This week will we have the privilege of hearing Elder Viñas of the Seventy here  in Posadas.  We must come with a 5 minute prepared talk about how the Atonement has helped me be a better missionary. Atonement Studies are my favorite studies.  If you find a moment this week, do a little digging and see what you can find.

I love you all

Elder McMurray

 

Boca v. River

I would like to publically apologize to you, Matthew, for forgetting to wish you a happy birthday this last week.  I literally thought about it the entire week before and yet I still forgot.  I kept thinking to myself, ¨He´s going to be a missionary in a year!¨ It´s crazy to think that you could be out here only five months after I get home.  In the wise words of any Argentine singing ¨Happy Birthday,¨ Que Los Cumpla Feliz!

You guys definitely made up for last week's emails ( aka almost none).  Thanks for providing me with fun bits about your lives this last week.  Parker, I´m a huge Cosmo fan (especially now.).  The Paper, Rock, Scissors most certainly had to be the fun of the party.  You ¨Go¨ Caroline. (It seems to me that nobody taught Caroline that you shouldn´t wear white after labor day.. :) ) It also sounds like BYU is managing all right.  It sounds like they definitely brought the wasp killer to the last one.  Lets hope that this trend continues...

This week has been another rainy week.  Making it uncharacteristically ¨cold¨ here.  The weather was in the 70s and low 80s all last week.  The locals say that it is not common, being this ¨cold¨ for so long.  From what I remember from last year, they are right.  Last year was already nice and toasty by this point.  Needless to say, I don´t mind the freshness at all.

Unfortunately, rain on Sunday mornings equals low attendance at Church.  We were fortunate enough to bring Sergio with us (the kid that went to Conference with us).  He seemed to like the meetings.

Yesterday, was the long awaited Boca versus River game.  I think you´d have better luck getting into a house (to teach someone) in the US during the Superbowl than you would during a Boca v River game, here.  Even though we spent our time in the streets, we had a pretty good idea of the score. (Four rounds of continuous fireworks means 4 goals)  We found out later that River was up 2-0 and the game ended tied, 2-2.  After having endured a year and half of ridicule (being a River fan) I thought our chance to brag had finally come.

2 Nephi 31:20... Life Goal.

Aguante River,

Elder McMurray

The rain in Spain falls mainly in Argentina.

The Notre Dame v BYU football game??  Come on, you´ve got to save at least ONE fun trip for when I get home. (The list is adding up... STYX, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bill Cosby, Mitt Romney, Florida, New York, Oregon and Washington, and now Indiana?!)  Is this like a two year vacation of, ¨Quick, we have one child less in the house.  Lets go everywhere.¨?  I hope there is still some fun left in y´all when I get back...

The week has been unanimously a rainy week.  It´s rained over half of the week straight.  Monday we were treated with flash floods and rivers, springing up everywhere. (Don´t worry, I got some great, on the scene, footage.)  We also have been provided with some amazing light shows.  From what I´ve heard, Misiones has some of the most lightning strikes in the world. (Which makes the obnoxiously red dirt make sense...it´s filled with iron).  Last Monday night we had to have been within a quarter mile of a lightning strike.  It literally shook us, and the houses around us.  Oh and just to give you an idea of the humidity here... My shoes got soaked on Monday night.  By Tuesday afternoon, they had grown some type of fungus. There is definitely a fungus among us.  But I can´t complain, rain on a tin roof is extremely soothing for one that comes home rather tired everyday, wanting to sleep.

This week, we opened the eyes of Silvio (the leader of another church) a little bit.  He had a question about resurrected beings.  So.. we whipped out Matthew 27:52 to show him that people were resurrected after Christ was.  He was like, ¨This is good stuff!  I´ve read this part before but I never realized that.¨  It looks like it´s never been talked about in his church.  It truly is amazing how awesome the Book of Mormon, AND the Bible are.  Like it says in Ezequiel 37:17, ¨Júntalos.¨(Put them together)  Try it and do some cross references with the Bible and the Book of Mormon this week.

I´m excited for lunch today..  We are making onion rings and milanesa.  Mmhmm..

Love you all lots!

Elder McMurray

Bombachas

The weeks truly are going by faster than before.  It looks like we have a few more missionaries coming into the field, ehh?  Emily, please notify me when you get your call. :)  Thanks for the pictures of BYU and future missionaries, Mom.  Looks like it will be pretty easy to get into BYU when I get back.  Everyone else is packing the bags and leaving.  I´m okay with that.  Speaking of which, Michelle, are you going to start sending me the application essays?

This week, I won on the bartering game.  At the infamous, ¨Placita¨ (huge open market) I made a friend and brought my bombachas (Gaucho pants) down ten pesos from $70 to $60.  Oh yeah.  That´s like $12 or $13 bucks.  I´ve now developed four or five tricks to bring prices down.  Just let me know if you are looking for something. (I specialize in clothes/tie bargaining)  We also bought some cow hide to make scripture cases.  There´s a brother in our Branch that has a gift for drawing.  What he will do is burn images into the hide.  He´s already done a masterpiece for an elder, here.  I´m excited.  I´ll keep you posted on that one...

I forgot to mention last week..  Sister Heyman had a stroke at the beginning of this month.  She´s doing great now, but it was a little scary.  She´s still currently in Buenos Aires, and will be there for a few more weeks as she recovers.  Keep her in your prayers.

Remember how that leader of another church came to General Conference?  His name is Silvio Kluka.  We had an amazing lesson with him, on Thursday.  We went to his house with his friend, Mario Urizar (Our Branch Mission Leader).  We hit just about everything from the Priesthood of God, to Baptisms for the Dead, in an hour.  It was very powerful, Mario testified of these simple truths with such a surety that it was undeniable. We gave him a Book of Mormon, as well.  He´s already to page 8 (including the Intro) as of Saturday.  We´ll see how things continue.

I found out a couple of interesting facts this week..  Did you know that it specifically mentions the ¨Melchizedek¨ Priesthood in the Bible?  Several times actually.  And did you know that it specifically mentions the laying on of hands for; the healing of the sick, the receiving of the Holy Ghost, and for receiving the priesthood of God, all in the Bible?  I´ll let you look for them. :)  One last one..  when did the Word of Wisdom become an official commandment? (and no, the answer is not 1833)

Los quiero muchísimo,

Elder MCMurray

60,000 Honeybees.

Can I get a, "Craziest Conference Weekend ever," holla'?  That had to have been the best General Conference in my 20 years of existence.  I've never felt so uplifted after such an occasion.  I'll give a few highlights and updates of this week..

For starters, Friday, we helped Cristian move.  He told us repeatedly that he was moving a block away from where he was currently living.  Due to a last minute, money saving change, he chose another apartment to rent... outside of our area.  We were thoroughly distraught.  Fortunately, the Church is true, no matter where you live.  It looks like the final touches will be left up to the sister missionaries.

The real surprise of the week came from a 17 kid named Sergio.  We first met him on Tuesday and talked to him twice this week.  We invited him to Conference and said we'd come by and go in bus together.  For those of you that have served missions, you will understand that it is rather difficult to find someone in the middle of the week and then expect them to go to a Church that they've never been to before, on Sunday.  But, true to his word, Sergio came.  He loved the Saturday Afternoon session so much, that he gladly accepted the invitation to stay for the Priesthood session.  He was particularly touched by Elder M. Russell Ballard's talk on the honeybees, and the talk by Elder Gary E. Stevenson (the one about peer pressure and marijuana).  Even better, he made friends with a couple of the guys from our Branch.  Other highlights of our visitors was a man named Silvio.  Silvio is a leader in another church.  He liked it a lot and said he's got lots of questions for us now.

This week (month) appears to be celebrating women's rights.  In all of Downtown, the were huge signs that read, "Bienvenidas Compañeras."  There were easily more than a thousand women participating in the event.  In between sessions, we walked around handing out invitations for the next session(s).  We received just as many invitations for the "movement" that they were about to have, as we handed out.  I think the highlight of it all was when we left the Priesthood session just after 11pm local time.  Shortly after we had boarded our bus, a large group of these women boarded, as well (tattoos, backpacking backpacks, you know -- the usual hippie style).  Guitar in hand, they began to sing.  Though the bus was particularly packed, "Hit Me Baby One More Time," was heard loud and clear.  Though it was very entertaining, I give them props for how well they sang an English song.

 

Another indicator of the women's rights week (month) theory, is the Centro del Conocimiento.  I'm emailing you from here, in the Center.  They have a very large exhibit on Women's Rights.  Very educational, I might add.

So... 18 and 19 are the new magic numbers, huh?  Who has already started their mission papers? I want to know who is already getting affected by it.  We truly have a living prophet that receives revelation from God.  Oh and thank you Nathan, for your "Exodus" comment.

From what I got out of Conference was that we must prepare ourselves to be better disciples of Christ.  We must do that by serving and loving those that are around us.  We must stand up and be proud of what we have.  I have a new desire and determination to help others.  Elder Holland's talk was particularly powerful.  We can learn a lot from his relating of the original Twelve apostles.  As the Savior said to Peter, "Peter, do ye love me more than all this?"  Do you?  Christ needs disciples.  He needs someone that will serve Him.  He needs someone to love Him.  Are you up for the challenge?  I sure am.  Don't forget his scripture that he used at the very end. (Luke 9: 62 .. look it up!)

"We can't take one single day for granted." (Pres. Uchtdorf)

Love you all,

Elder McMurray

ps Mom, could you send me another "Dear Missionary" pillow case?  There's an elder from Chile that is dying to have one.

Manos Mormonas Que Ayudan

You will be happy to know that I received your letters this week.  The mail seems to be going alright, these days.  I´ve been getting things that were sent between two and three weeks before I received it.  That sure beats a month or two. (The record is still six months-- a letter that was sent in September got to me in March.)  Keep the letters coming!  Also, so what´s the word on getting me more Lawry´s Salt?  Plausible?

This week, as the subject title indicates, was a week of service.  I´ll just state it now..  I. Love. Service.  What made it even better was that we did some of my favorite things (thank you, ¨Sound of Music.¨)  I got to help cut somebody´s yard, and I got to paint.

 

The first project consisted of the four missionaries that are serving in the branch, the branch president, and two other brothers.  Can I get a ¨Machete Fun Time,¨ holla??  Machetes never get old.. they just seem to feed that hungry-man side of you.  We cleaned up an aging brother´s yard, as well as that of a sister that recently had surgery on her hand.

 

The other project was on the Stake level.  But that might be a slight mislabel... it was more on the Missionary level.  The project had roughly 35 people in attendance; 26 of those being missionaries from Posadas.  We painted a school for Special Needs kids.  Just hand a bunch of 19-23 year olds a few paint brushes and some paint and the rest is history.  It was very fun, and equally satisfying.  The administration of the school was slightly emotional after we had finished the masterpiece.  I think the were a little surprised at just how eager we were to do it; and with no thought of payment.  They said that it had been several years since the school had been painted, and was badly in need of it.  They said the last time the school was painted, it was also a service project  ...done by the Mormons.  King Benjamin got it dead on in Mosiah 2:17.  There is nothing better we can do than serving others.  Look for something this week you can do for another.

The weather has been amazing lately.  We´ve had nearly two weeks of 70s weather.  And it´s looking like the weather will continue like that for at least a few more days.  We had a crazy little storm this morning that included the power getting cut and high winds. Posadas got a nice little morning bath.  They say there is more in store, but currently it´s sunny outside.

One of the things I love most about the Gospel is the power that it brings into one´s life.  Even without realizing it, one´s life begins to change for the better.  From our point of view (the missionaries), it becomes quite obvious, at times.  Often times, those that are investigating the Church don´t notice it, but we do.  We are teaching a man named Cristian these days.  Since we began teaching him a ways back, I´ve noticed some amazing changes that I never thought would be possible.  He´s using less foul language.  He offers to say the prayer when we visit.  He doesn´t get as mad at his family as he did before.  He´s reading in the Book of Mormon, even though he doesn´t like to read that much.  We were a little hesitant to talk about the Word of Wisdom, seeing as that is his lifestyle.  But he likes the idea and said that he wants to quit.  He also said he realizes which friends are the ones that will tempt him to do something wrong. (He even said that he´s trying to stay away from friends like that.)  He´s noticing the blessings, now.  Not only did he find a really sick job since we first came by, but he also found jobs for his two unemployed brothers.  He even told us last night that he´s thinking about buying a suit.  He´s such a champ. The Gospel has that kind of power.  I know it with all my heart, that it does.

OOXXoxXOxxOO,

Elder McMurray