Hello
Family!
To start from the beginning of the week, both of my flights left on time and I got here to Fresno safely. The assistants to the President picked me up at the airport and we went straight to the mission home where all the other new missionaries had already been taken. I had a small dinner that night because I was so nervous and was not very hungry. Right after that, we were taken back to the assistants' house and that is where we got all of the sheets and blankets I will be using for the next two years. We woke up that morning and all got ready, then we went to the church where I had to do all the office stuff because all the other new missionaries had already done. Then we all got to meet our trainer or in my case trainers. I am in a companionship with three, so my trainers are Elder Lilly and Elder Jones and they are both pretty awesome. When the whole training meeting was done, I got to go get my bike and I took all of my stuff back to the apartment.
To start from the beginning of the week, both of my flights left on time and I got here to Fresno safely. The assistants to the President picked me up at the airport and we went straight to the mission home where all the other new missionaries had already been taken. I had a small dinner that night because I was so nervous and was not very hungry. Right after that, we were taken back to the assistants' house and that is where we got all of the sheets and blankets I will be using for the next two years. We woke up that morning and all got ready, then we went to the church where I had to do all the office stuff because all the other new missionaries had already done. Then we all got to meet our trainer or in my case trainers. I am in a companionship with three, so my trainers are Elder Lilly and Elder Jones and they are both pretty awesome. When the whole training meeting was done, I got to go get my bike and I took all of my stuff back to the apartment.
At
first, when I saw the apartment I was a little skeptical, but I have
grown to love
it. If you send packages, they all go to the mission home here. Our mission seems pretty strict on a lot of things so far. The rest
of this week was good as well.
I am a missionary in the Madera 3rd Ward along with 6 other missionaries assigned to that ward. Yeah I know, we have a ton. Madera is pretty much a little slice of Mexico. Of course we are on bikes, which seems irregular, because our mission has the biggest fleet of cars out of any other mission in the States. Crazy right? Yes, my ward is Spanish and the majority of the people we talk to speak Spanish, but the whole thing is very hard because all of the kids speak English so you find yourself switching between languages a lot. I don't always street contact in Spanish though. Some people here speak English, after all we are still in the States.
I am a missionary in the Madera 3rd Ward along with 6 other missionaries assigned to that ward. Yeah I know, we have a ton. Madera is pretty much a little slice of Mexico. Of course we are on bikes, which seems irregular, because our mission has the biggest fleet of cars out of any other mission in the States. Crazy right? Yes, my ward is Spanish and the majority of the people we talk to speak Spanish, but the whole thing is very hard because all of the kids speak English so you find yourself switching between languages a lot. I don't always street contact in Spanish though. Some people here speak English, after all we are still in the States.
The schedule of
a missionary
is really tough and I find myself looking forward to nights and
those few hours I get to actually sleep. My name tag fell off of my
suit in the airport, so I only have one name tag to use and that
is sort
of hard. The weather is really nice here and it only gets sort
of cold
during the nights. I do a whole bunch of studying the first half of
the day and then we street contact and go around to
investigators houses
during the night. Our dinners are pretty strict. They always go from
5-6 and we have to report to our zone leaders if we are a minute past
6 getting out of dinner or a minute past 9:30 getting home.
Every single
day we have a 7:55AM prayer and the missionaries here are very serious
about having consecrated obedience. My Spanish gets better every
day and I hope that the hard part of the mission goes by quick.
I really haven't been too sad about leaving home so don't worry Mom. This is just the next step of my life and I am trying my very best to take it in stride. For a funny tale from the week, there is a mom that has three boys, two of them are twins, but she is less active so the missionaries visit there to teach a lot and the boys make up a nickname for every new missionary. My nickname is Elder Mermaid which I thought was pretty funny. Seriously almost all of the Mexicans comment on my height here. They either say, oh mas grande or muy alto.
One of the things I have learned about the California Fresno mission is that there is something called the Fresno 40 which means I am supposed to gain about 40 pounds here on the mission because that is just what happens when you eat at Mexican families houses every night.
I love you all and I hope you aren't too worried about me or sad to see me go. I will return in two short years. Remember that you can do all things through Christ and that whenever you feel down He knows exactly what you are feeling.
Love,
Elder Murray
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