Hello! I am still doing well out here in the Central Valley, living it up and doing missionary work. As many have questioned, I did receive the packages last week. I got one from Mom with much-needed white shirts and some Halloween stuff and one from Grandma with some more Halloween goodies to rot my teeth. I'm sitting pretty right now, with not a whole lot of needs. For business, I am kind of ticked that after fixing my back tire last Monday, my front tire is now as flat as a roadkill skunk, which means I will be doing more bike repairs. This week was action packed, so I will get right to it.
Monday night we had an FHE with a family in our ward here and invited one of our friends, but he bailed last minute so it ended up just being us and that family. It was really fun though. We drank some cinnamon tea and ate some cookies which were very tasty and had a great message about the Savior. It was weird to be on the other side of the teaching. I brought a pumpkin that I was going to carve but never got around to it so I left it over there. Hopefully I will have a chance to get it soon.
Tuesday was Trainer/Trainee so we went to Fresno for training. It was cool to see everyone again and to hear some advice as a trainer. We had a good lunch and then went back to our areas to work for the night.
Wednesday we had a regular day up until like 6:15 pm, when we had to stop working. We all went to this member's house where we played games and had fun until it was time for us to go home. I made it a Elder Murray tradition to absolutely destroy the other missionaries in Catan by beating them really bad, which now makes it a two holiday streak, repeating Fourth of July. We ate pizza and had root beer which was cool.
Thursday was the only normal day that we had all week, so we just worked and tried to see people and it was a good time. It was the first time we have not had dinner in Visalia so we went to Wendy's together.
Friday was a crazy day and it will explain to you the title of my email. We had some studies in the morning and then went to a service that the Elders from the English ward had with a man who needed us to help him move out of his apartment. He lost his leg a couple of months back, because of something, so he has some trouble getting around. Well, we rolled up to this apartment and went in and the place smelled like poop and he had this pitbull in a cage in there with a totally ripped up floor thing underneath. The place was a mess and the crowning feature was the man's mother who was sitting in the corner swatting the legit hundreds of flies that were flying around in the corner. It was strange, but it only got weirder. We started to move this stuff into his Uhaul truck but the whole time this dude was talking crap about his wife that he was divorcing, and how he was moving to Cebu in the Philippines because there are quote "19 million single girls there." This man was 53 and he was telling us about how he hangs out with 19 year olds. He was a straight creep, not to mention he kept making suggestive jokes and talking about his friend that is a transgender. Well, the service ended up taking like 6 hours because this dude had us move all his stuff into a storage unit and then from there move his crap out of another storage unit into this new one. The only good part was that he bought us pizza afterward. I honestly thought it was really fun because I love to have adventures and this was certainly a mission adventure that I will not forget. My description of the experience does not do it justice you had to be there to understand the true magnitude of weird.
Saturday we also did service. We went to help out the man that we usually help that lives out in the country. We helped him fix part of his roof in the garage that the previous owner had let rot out because of an unfixed leak but it was pretty cool. We got to use some power tools and move some stuff. Once again we got pizza. That night we biked to a dinner five miles away and had a really good conversation about Alma 12 when he preaches to the city of Zarahemla.
Sunday was a good day that was also crazy. We had church and stuff like normal and then had a get together with the ward after where we broke our fasts and ate a lot of food. That night though, the sisters' car broke and the engine overheated and it was smoking, so we had to drive out there and help them and then wait for a tow truck for like an hour.
All in all this week has been a crazy week. My studies have been centered in the beginning parts of Alma recently and I am constantly edified by the wonderful missionary examples of Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah. I love their teachings and how they help us to grow closer to Jesus Christ and the true and lasting happiness that we search for in this life. I love the gospel and the message of hope that it is and urge you all to live it to your fullest.
To answer a few of your questions that I didn't answer, being a trainer is interesting. It requires a lot more studies and a lot more leading on my part, but it hasn't been too hard so far and my companion is pretty cool. My Spanish is good. It is better than most missionaries and I would say that I am fluent but I still have a lot of room to improve and won't ever stop trying to get better. My ward is really awesome and they actually get a lot done, unlike other wards I have served in. My bishop is really cool. He is a dentist and has really sweet property in the fields. He is white but speaks Spanish really well and the Ward loves him.
I love you all and wish you the best this week.
Love,
Elder Murray
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