PICTURE .. COCO

His baptism!

 

I found a poem on a wall.. ;)

The ¨Key¨ to Success.

Family,

 

It sounds like you all are alive and kickin´.  It´s always fun hearing from you guys.  I´ve been one lucky missionary.  Even after 100 weeks in the mission I still receive lots of emails and letters.  I must admit, I feel a little spoiled when I hear other missionaries talking about the 2 or 3 emails that they got.  Keep the emails coming!

 

So I´ll just put your mind to rest...  Yes, Coco got baptized on Saturday!  Cornelio Martin Gomez is the newest member of the Güiraldes Ward.  After his baptism I asked him if he was nervous.  He responded with a, ¨No, I had already decided that it was what I needed to do.¨  Well there you have it.  A man with a testimony.  His future is truly looking bright, in the Church.

Javier, his nephew, is on fire.  We conveniently have 12-14 members between the ages of 18 and 25.  Seeing as he is 19, he´s fitting in quite nicely.  He´s getting excited for his baptism on the 11th of May.  Keep him in your prayers.

Other random note... Do you remember Raul, that got baptized like two months ago?  Well, he passed the sacrament for the first time Sunday.  I think I almost cried.  I love seeing progression.

 

Last night, as we got back to the apartment at 9:30pm, we realized that we were missing something.  As companions, my duty is the cellphone.  For my companion, it´s the keys.  You probably know where this is going...  I´ll paint the picture..  There we were, tired after a long week that involved lots of walking.  By Sunday night, the brain is already thinking about its Preparation Day on Monday.  How nice it´s going to be, taking a breather and maybe even taking a nap.  And just as you are about to walk into your apartment (with air conditioning waiting for you), you hear a question, ¨Do you have the keys?¨ Your heart sinks.  As was the case with my heart.  The keys were nowhere to be found.  After a few failed attempts at locating the keys, we called a taxi to go stay at some other elders´ apartment.  Only one problem... Three beds, four missionaries.  You can do the math.  I was the lucky one.  How many of you can claim that you slept on the floor last night?  :)

No worries, we were blessed to find the keys at a house that we had visited yesterday.  Home Sweet Home!

 

My spiritual thought is going to be on prayer.  Yesterday, I heard one of the most beautiful, heartfelt prayers that I´ve ever heard in my life.  It came from a woman that we had barely met, just 20 minutes before.  She told us about how she doesn´t have contact with her family and that she´s worried for her son.  She feels alone, at times. It´s been years since she had given a prayer.  But by her sincerity it was as if she was speaking face to face with our Heavenly Father.  When the prayer ended, there were tears rolling down her face.  It strengthened my testimony to know that we have the blessing of speaking with a Father that wants to know everything that happens in our life.  We are never alone.  The experience has pushed me to be even more sincere in my prayers.  Feel free to do the same.

 

Hasta la proxima,

 

Elder McMurray

PICS

They are putting cement on our dirt road!

 

Represent America.

 

My comp.

 

The colors are changing!

Fourth Quarter.

Family!

 

Dad, I´ll see what I can do on your souvenir requests.  I´ll make sure to get back to you on that one.  It sounds like the brothers are representing the family nicely this soccer season.  Keep up the good work.  I´m excited to play you guys...I´m pretty sure that I´ve gotten better since I left two years ago.  Be prepared.

 

Fall is officially here, it looks like.  The colors are changing on most of the trees, now.  The weather has been very nice lately.  I think that just as the ¨cold weather¨ gets here I´ll be heading home for summer.  Isn´t that awesome?

 

This week we had interviews with President Heyman.  I´ve truly come to love him and his wife.  The interview made me laugh a little though...  When I walked into his office, instead of the usual, ¨his desk separating us¨ interview, it was us sitting in two chairs, side by side, with only a small table separating us.  I had flashbacks of all of those interviews that I´ve had in our front living room.  I think all McMurray children know what I´m talking about. :)  The interview was a great time to ask him many questions.  He gives great counsel and I respect it a lot.  I left from the interview inspired and even more determined to finish this next month strong.

 

Sunday, we had Ward Conference.  We were not only blessed by great talks, but also by having several investigators attending with us.  Do you remember Coco?  Well, he´s getting baptized this weekend, the 27th.  Keep him in your prayers.  His nephew, Javier, should be shortly following him.  Back to the Conference... The Stake Counselor gave a great talk based on Alma 47.  Lehonti was tempted and went down only HALF WAY on the mountain.  For his decision, he lost his life.  In life, we might not let our standards down ALL of the way.  But that´s not the point.  We must keep them up at all times.  If not, we will inevitably pay for the consequences.

 

Another highlight of the week came on a late, fourth quarter hail mary.  Saturday evening, we went by the house of a lady named Noelia.  I first met her about a month ago.  The first time we entered her house, it was rather difficult and the lesson didn´t go that well.  They weren´t that interested.  We didn´t schedule a follow-up appointment.  For one reason or another we didn´t go by again.  But after several weeks, we decided to give it one more try.  Looking back at it now, we were probably following the impressions of the Spirit.  How else can you explain the fact that we arrived at the exact moment that she needed help most?  She was going through a very hard time and, unknowingly, we arrived at the very climax of it all.  She paid very close attention this time.  She asked questions.  She committed to coming to Church the next day.  She said she doesn´t believe in coincidence.  Long story short, she came to Church yesterday with her two little toddlers.  I believe several prayers were answered.

 

Until Next Week,

 

Elder McMurray

I Wish They Could All Be Californian.

Family!

I`m rather jealous that you all were filmed this last week.  It must have been fairly entertaining, seeing what the family does at home.  A big fight in the Tazewell game, huh?  Six red cards is not too shabby..  I guess Matthew didn´t want to join one of his older brothers in the ¨red card status¨. ;) I´ll have to look for the video of the brawl when I get back.

Well, it finally happened.  I received my last companion.  On Wednesday afternoon, at roughly 4:30pm, straight out of San Martin, Elder Deniston arrived.  As has been the case with my last two companions, I had already known Elder Deniston before.  Elder Deniston was in my zone in Posadas.  He is from Riverside, California.  He has almost a year in the mission. (Finally, somebody a little younger in the mission that isn´t about to go home!)  He´s my first companion that was a wrestler before the mission.  I´m excited.  He´s only 130ish and 5´11¨.  I think I can take him.  This transfer is looking bright.  I´m really excited to work with him.  I really feel like we are going to be able to do some serious damage this next month and a half.

This Sunday was a fairly special Sunday.  Do you remember Raul that got baptized a month ago?  Well, he received the priesthood yesterday.  He´s doing really well.  Oh, and Gustavo that got baptized last week was confirmed a member of the Church yesterday as well.  I love seeing people being able to progress in the gospel.  There are few things better than seeing people make good decisions in the lives.

Question:  Are there any souvenirs that you guys were hoping to get from Argentina?  Is there anything that you guys are looking for?

Recently, I started the Book of Mormon, again.  It´s almost like I forgot about all of the things that Nephi had to go through.  Whenever I want to complain, I should just think of what he had to go through.  Especially when the Lord asks him to build a ship.  Have you ever built a ship before?  A Raingutter Regatta is already tough enough, I can´t even imagine.  But I love his answer; instead of complain or doubting his abilities, he does the contrary.  He asks the Lord where he should go for the tools. It´s probably safe to say that he´s never even attempted anything close to a ship.  And yet, he puts all of his trust in the Lord and asks where he needs to go to get the materials to do it.  What makes you different than Nephi?

Straight from Argentina,

Elder McMurray

PS Matt, yeah sure, why not.  Bring my cleats if you want. 

The Church is closing for good this week.

Family!

So did everyone wear my cleats this week?  I´ve never received so many emails that in unison say that you all touched my stuff.

General Conference was amazing!  It went by extremely fast, as usual.  I often times felt like they were talking directly to me.  How else could somebody know the things that I´ve been studying and thinking about a lot lately?  I´ll spare most of the details, you´ll just have to read them again.  One thing that I will be doing in the coming weeks is setting a few goals.  The best way to apply what we have learned is set a few goals to improve.  Feel free to do the same.  Find a few talks that you liked and put goals.  Ask Heavenly Father for his help and will assist you in your endeavor.

Dad, to answer your question, ¨How is Gustavo?¨ The answer would be, ¨clean.¨  Gustavo Michelucci got baptized on Saturday, the 6th!  What better day to get baptized on??  It was a very sweet baptism.  I had the privilege of helping him get into the font.  He has leg problems so we solutioned that by having two people in the water to help him.  He is now very excited.  We are also very excited for his future.  He already has plans to serve a mission.  He is 21 years old, so there is still time.

This week is my companion´s last week in the mission.  The Church era is coming to a close.  Elder Church is very excited to be going home.  It´s been rather strange, seeing two consecutive companions go home.  I´ll make sure to let you know what happens in transfers, this week.  Hopefully, I get a nice, young companion this time.  Fingers crossed.

This email is a little short.  Know that I love you.  The weather here is amazing.  We might actually be getting close to Fall.

un Abrazo,

Elder McMurray

PS  Keep Cornelio and Javier in your prayers.

April Fools!

Family,

 

It sounds like you guys enjoyed the Easter weekend just about as much as I did.  Way to go, Dad!  You were definitely deserving of the Servant´s Heart Award.  I´m sure your funeral will be even better than the celebration that proceeded the award´s ceremony.  Just know that I am proud to call you my dad, and that I am always thinking of things you taught me (whether verbally or by example.).  Keep up the good work!

 

This past week was a rather big week, here.  The Catholic Church always makes a big celebration out of the last week of Christ´s life.  It´s called, ¨Semana Santa,¨ or ¨Holy Week.¨  For the better part of the week, the local Catholic churches have large get togethers that often include a part where they are in the street with sections of the streets marked off.  A little on the intense side, but at least it´s for a great cause, right? :)

 

So I´ve been trying to think of things that are different here in Argentina.  I´ve realized that I´ve gotten very used to the life style.  One thing that I don´t think I´ve ever mention are the street fruit vendors.  Regularly, somebody goes around all of the neighborhoods with a horse drawn cart.  They have a selection of fruits and vegetables in the back.  They grab your attention by using a loud speaker.  99% of the time, what they say is unintelligible.  But that´s okay because everyone already knows what they have in their carts.  I´ll have to send a picture..

 

This week, I made a great decision in studying the day by day, last week of Christ´s life scriptures.  It made His life become very real.  It was impossible to not think about what happened to him throughout my day.  I strengthened my testimony.  I know that what he had to do was necessary.  The Son of God truly paid for all the wrong that I have done, am doing, and will yet to do.  I will ALWAYS be in debt to Him.  What better way to thank him than to serve him every day of my life?

 

Are you excited for General Conference???  I sure am!

 

I love you all,

 

Elder McMurray

 

PS Please keep Gustavo in your prayers.  If all goes well, he should be baptized this weekend. (What better weekend?!)