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?!)

CART

There you go.

The Floods Came.

It´s good to hear that Nathan was home for a week.  I only hope that he didn´t take more of my clothes back to college...

 

Congratulations on the mission call to Washington, Katie!  I´m way excited for you!

 

I quite rewind to last Tuesday, my birthday.  At precisely midnight, my companion was ever so kind as to wake me up in a fairly violent way.  He woke me up to screaming, ¨Happy Birthday, Elder McMurray!¨ with his rubber chicken that makes loud screaming noises, and a head lamp right in my face.  Oh... and don´t worry, he got it all on video.  (Which he proceeded to show to ANYONE that we came across that entire day.  The entire Zone enjoyed it.)  Also beginning at midnight was a rainstorm that continued ALL day.  The Maldonado family, whose youngest son´s name is Gabriel, had his birthday on Tuesday as well.  I definitely partied like a 10 year old for an hour.  They made us homemade pizza, and quite possibly the most delish cake known to man.  It was far better than any other cake that I´ve eaten here.  Highlights of the party were: Sitting in the dark while eating pizza and chatting (the rain knocked out the lights.), as well as declaring that if it rains on your birthday than it means you are a cry baby/whiner. It was determined that Gabriel and I are two of the world´s biggest whiners.  Awesome.  Everyone then sang, ¨Que los cumplas feliz.¨  They even gave me a special mini cake to take home for later. Over all, an amazing Birthday.  I couldn´t be happier.

 

Saturday, we had a little bit of excitement.  Elder Church got really sick and threw up multiple times. I was lucky.  We ate the exact same things, but I didn´t get the same results.  I think the highlight was when we asked our neighbors to use their phone. (We´ve been without a phone for 3 months now...) Elder Church sat in a chair as I tried to make a few calls.  He almost passed out.  Thus, leading to a conversation with the neighbor about how my companion was a little sick.  He then hesitantly suggested that I could call an ambulance.  I told him, ¨No it´s okay, just calling our companions.¨ I´m sure he found that rather random -- of all people to call!

 

Sunday, we were blessed to have Stake Conference.  We had the first ever multi-stake conference.  It was broacasted to all of Argentina (75 stakes, plus 20 odd something districts.)  We listened to amazing talks by Elder Shayne M. Bowen (former area president), Sister Stevens (from the primary, Elder L. Whitney Clayton (also former area president), and Elder Russell M. Nelson.  All but Sister Stevens spoke in spanish.  Elder Bowen gave an amazing talk on personal revelation.  He pointed out a few important parts.  Everyone has their agency.  God cannot force the Holy Ghost over us.  He said that often times, the hardest part about receiving an answer is the question.  We must work to get answers.  Forming the question is the hardest part.  We must search diligently.

 

This morning, I was blessed to finish the Book of Mormon again. Let it be known -- I know that that book is true.  I know it and believe it with all of my heart.  The last chapters of Moroni were an amazing testimony of a man that held true, even until the end.

 

This week, I´ve decided to study the final week of Christ´s life.  Each day I will be reading what happened and what he did on that particular day.  I invite anyone that so wishes to join me in this endeavor.

I love you all,

 

Elder McMurray

Mission picture

The entire mission all together all at once.

Can you find me?  :)

¨Francisco...Francisco...that´s a funny name.¨

For starters, thank you to all that wished me a happy birthday.  I really enjoyed reading all of your emails wishing me a great day, tomorrow.  I will be thinking out that (but not too much ;)) tomorrow during my day.

So... to explain my email Subject.  In Spanish, the pope´s name is Francisco.  I couldn´t resist the ¨Elf¨ pun. :)  But isn´t that crazy that Bergoglio became the first pope, not just from Argentina, but from all of South America??  I´m sure that with the coming weeks there well be plenty of times to share our message of the true church with restored priesthood keys to curious people.  The more Catholic areas in our mission will probably hear more about it in contrast to other areas. (Corrientes, home of the saints: Gauchito Gil, and the Virgin of Itati.)

This week´s weather was amazing.  All week it´s been in the 70s and welcoming breezes.  A few days were a little rainy and overcast, but who´s going to complain about that?

On Sunday, several of the talks were directed towards testimonies and being converted.  It was really cool hearing three different people talking about the same thing.  Testimonies come when we feel and know in our heart that something is true.  Conversion, on the other hand, is a process.  It comes with continuous care and growth of your testimony.  How is your conversion coming?  Could it be better?  What can you do to make it better or continue its growth?

A week or two ago, President Heyman wrote a very intriguing email to us missionaries.  He invited us think of our talents.  He then asked us if we were using our talents here in the mission.  Feel free to do the same inventory of your own life.  Think of your talents.  What are you doing to use your talents to help others?  Try and use a talent this week to help another.  You´ll be blessed.

Well... this is the last time that you will ever hear from your 20 year old son.

One year older (and hopefully wiser too.),

Elder McMurray

PS This week, President Heyman informed us of a new rule.  I really have no idea if it´s worldwide or just my mission...  But we are now allowed to write from our email, ¨family, friends, and our church leaders.¨   Just a heads up...