January 28th - Mariposa!

Dear Family,

This week was good. I had to use quite a bit of money on my card this week because the mission screwed up and we didn't get paid the extra $35 that we are supposed to get monthly because of the dinner rule changing. So I had to buy all my groceries this week with my card. Also if you could please send me a new bank card, that would be good. The one I have has got a big crack in it along the swipe part and will probably snap pretty soon. Other than that I am good on business stuff.

This week has been a fun week. We started out the week with mostly same old, same old. We did missionary work and talked to a bunch of people. I am going to hit the highlights and funny moments of this week.

First thing of note was that we did go to the Zoo again this week. It is usually a weekly thing. The reason we didn't go last week was because of DLC, which is a meeting my companion went to. This week I was working in the hall so I worked with some bears, some bobcats, a coyote, two crazy looking birds, and this tiny spooky screech owl.

On Saturday we had this cool thing that we did. We went up to a mountain town like 45 minutes from Yosemite National Park called Mariposa and we tracked with the members up there. I went with this man named Tom. He was a really cool guy who was originally from Texas. All those people up in small towns are characters though, so it was an adventure. We received a lot of rejection and not very much success.

I also lost my glasses at some point this week so I was searching for them for around two days. No worries though, I finally found them in the crack between my bed and the wall. 

Last awesome thing was that an Area Seventy came to our little Spanish branch in Atwater this Sunday. He is the area seventy that our Mission president and the Sacramento Mission president reports to, so I took a picture with him. It was crazy. He talked over the pulpit to two of our friends we had brought and he called a member out and told him that the Lord had sent him to tell him to serve a mission. It was pretty nuts. His name is Elder Dorius. I am not certain how to spell it though.

I tried to take some good pictures this week so here are some pictures, some of them goofy.

Love,

Elder Dave Murray

January 21st - Melon Adventures with a Canadian

Dear Family,

It's been a good week. Merced is super crazy like all the time. There are a ton of homeless people here and most of the citizens are Mexicans. Most of the time, the rising generation  is either just really lazy or drug dealers. So we deal with the parents who just work really hard jobs and come home tired and don't want to listen to us. Or those who are younger who are stuck in the world. If you talk to everyone though, then you are bound to find those that are prepared. It would be cool if I got more emails on Preparation day or if someone sent me a letter every once in a while, but I don't want to complain about it anymore. I haven't heard from Ben in like a month now. 

Anyways, let me hit some highlights of my week so that you know what I have been up to.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week were pretty standard. We just did missionary work and found more people to teach. We teach a ton here because there is nothing to hold us back.

Friday, my companion had a District Leadership Meeting so I went on exchanges with an Elder in Atwater who is Canadian. We biked past these random melons laying on the side of the road which didn't belong to anyone so we decided we would shotput a few into the field nearby. That was pretty fun. Then my companion came back and we went back to work in our area.

Saturday, we helped this man we are teaching take a ton of recycling to the exchange. By a ton, I mean we made like 4 trips with his entire trunk filled. Our hands smelled like beer by the end and it was super gross but it was fun to help him out and try to get more on his good side. That night the branch had a wedding in Atwater so we went and supported. I got to hear "Bailando" the song which was fun. We left like 2 hours or so before it ended to go teach more.

Sunday was church. We had meetings in the morning and then church. It is a little weird here because we do classes before sacrament because the youth don't have enough people in the branch so they go with the English ward. After church we had a baptism for the Atwater Elders, so we did the interlude. It wasn't our best work but it was still okay. 

Merced is a good place. I am going to the gym again. My companion is kind of a Jack because he loves to work out a ton. Thank you for sending Cerave I ran out this week and have been feeling pretty dry. Keep up the good work back home and I hope to hear more from you.

Love,

Elder Murray

January 14th - Merced!

Dear Family!

Well, this week has been super crazy. I don't have anything for business, other than I received the new shoes. I was super surprised though, because I had trashed my other shoes so bad that I couldn't even remember what they had looked like originally. 

Let me answer some questions before I get into the happens.

My new area is Merced! It is pretty ghetto, a lot different than Visalia. There are a whole ton of weirdos here, so we have had some pretty sweet street contacts.

My new companion is Elder Wride from Salem, Utah. He is a Gorilla. But actually he has arms as long as mine and he is only 6'2" and he loves to work out. We get along really well, but we aren't sure why President put us together because we are both over a year so pretty experienced, and I am still not leadership at all so we aren't Zone Leaders.

My apartment really sucks. It doesn't have any carpet which makes it pretty cold. Also it is super small, like just two rooms. The shower head has like no water pressure at all, which is a bummer for showers. Some of the drawers are broken, one of the burners is broken, the doorknob is upside down, and we don't have a working microwave. Good thing we don't spend a lot of time in the apartment because we are usually working. 

One great thing is that we both know how to be missionaries so we have found like 7 people this week and we have done a bunch of teaching.

Overall the week has been pretty good. I am just going to share a couple of crazy things that have happened here so far.

We are teaching someone who told us that it wasn't the Oakland Raiders but Raider Nation. He is pretty funny. He always gets mad at his dogs.

We had this man tell us that he learned how to speak Arabic, Spanish, and Japanese while he was in prison as he was preparing some weed to smoke right in front of us.

We helped a lady clean out her neighbor's gutter and taught her the Restoration. Then we helped another lady clean her car and taught the Restoration.

The Branch here has got a lot of problems but that is what we are here to do - help fix the problems and unify the Branch. It might be a challenge but as long as I leave it better off then when I came in we are making progress. 

We went to do service at a zoo here in Merced that we go to every week. It was pretty cool. I got to hang out with an Emu named Bob and a couple of deer and chickens. It reminded me of the chickens back home. I got to clean up poop which is the best thing ever! Haha.

The area is super Hispanic so there are a lot of Spanish people. 

That was my week, I love you all and wish you the best.

Love,

Elder Murray

January 7th - Transfer!

Dear Family, 

Well, this week is Transfer week. As for business, we have been doing pretty well so I don't really have anything. I bought space bags this week to try and help me fit all the stuff in my suitcases. I am getting transferred this week to Merced which is like 2 hours north of Visalia. I will let you know how it goes.

This week has been pretty good. I will hit the highlights because I don't want to be boring. 

We visited my recent convert Jesus in the hospital a couple of times. He cut his leg and it got super infected so he has been there for a while. It was good though, because we haven't seen him in a while. 

Jansy got her temple recommend this week so hopefully she will get to go to the temple soon to do some baptisms. We also convinced her that she needs to go to BYU which is cool. She will have a way better life if she gets away from home. 

We gave an interlude at a baptism this week for a youth that got baptised in another ward. It was cool we talked about how faith leads to repentance.

Yesterday was spent driving around and saying goodbye to a bunch of people from my Ward here in Visalia. I am really going to miss this ward. I have loved it here and I am not looking forward to leaving tomorrow. 

Have a good week family! I love you all and look forward to hearing you next week. 

Love, 

Elder Murray

January 1st - New Year!

Dear Family,

If you were wondering why I didn't email yesterday, it would be because my Preparation day was changed to today. For business stuff, I don't have anything and honestly my week has been pretty boring. I will talk about the highlights.

You talked to me Tuesday That night we went to a member's house and had a good time. I was happy to get all my gifts and I would like to thank everyone who sent me one.

Wednesday we had a District Council which was good.

Thursday was another good day. We have been knocking a lot lately, to try and find more people to teach. That has been fun.

Another day this week we biked out to Goshen, which usually isn't super fun. We had a lot of potentials out there so we spent time contacting them and trying to set up appointments.

Yesterday was New Year's Eve. We had a really good time at a member's home and played some games. My favorite part was having a pillow fight with their kid who is 8 years old. That night we cracked open the Martinelli's to commemorate the year of 2018. We had some poppers and we talked it up. It is weird to think that 2018 is the most full year that I will have as a missionary. There were only 2 days last year I wasn't a missionary.

Today we had another nerf war and it was fun. I lost every time which was sad, but it is okay we had fun.

Anyways, I hope that the New Year will have much good in store for all of you.

Love,

Elder Murray