Elder Murphy's Adventures in Mexico: 2014

The MTC (Missionary Training Center) is really cool although it took me a while to get used to it. I have to admit in the beginning I was a little home sick and it seemed like every day was an eternity!! This first week has felt like a month that I've been here, but its starting to go by faster. The food has really taken its toll. They serve donuts like every meal .... like what the heck?? And I made the terrible mistake of drinking chocolate milk every meal for the first 3 days.... that was a mistake. I don't do that any more, skim milk only. Hahaha.

My companion's name is Elder Wright. He's a really cool guy from Pennsylvania. He's super smart and extremely sarcastic and he's the funniest elder in our district!! He's 6' 4, so I feel tiny next to him.

(All missionaries are assigned a companion of the same gender while in the MTC, and later on in their mission. They work together as a team. Boys are called Elders and girls are called Sisters. A group of companionships make up a district. A group of districts make up a zone. And a group of zones make up a mission. )

Also big news: the second day here I was assigned to be district leader so there's never a dull moment or a lazy one. (That means Michael is responsible for leading the 10 Elders in his district.)

The District

The only thing is Elder Wright's a democrat .... I know right. So while we've been waiting in doctors offices we always talk politics. But we've both agreed to stop cause its not really that important.

(Michael hurt himself the first week in the MTC by twisting his knee awkwardly while retrieving a ball. He aggravated an old injury from a year and half ago when he fell off the roof and dislocated his knee. He has been checked out by a sports medicine doctor and is going to receive an MRI to verify he didn't tear his ACL in the past. The doctor says unless Michael gets surgery he will not be sent home. He has been advised not to do any lateral movement like soccer or basketball on his mission.)

Funny story: I woke up one morning and turned on the light because I thought we had slept through our alarm. (I had accidentally slept through my companions alarm the morning before and his coughing is actually what woke me up. So I accidentally slept in 3 minutes that morning :/ ) I get on my knees and start to pray when I hear my companion say "Elder Murphy it's 4:30 in the morning go back to bed." I felt really dumb. Hahahaha. It's been the district joke for a while.

Hamming it up

Thanks for your letter and thanks for sending it through Dear Elder so I could get it the next day. You should tell everyone to do that while I'm at the MTC because it's much faster. (If you are interested, check out this post. It's free!)

I'm at the west campus MTC. Although they're moving us to main campus in 2 weeks and shutting down west campus for good which is sad because I really like west campus. It's not so prison like and we have our own apartment dwellings. AND the BYU creamery is in our apartment complex. Otter pops are mostly what we eat in our apartment hahaha! I met another parent whose son is in Xalapa and we got to talking. My companion is also going to Xalalpa and I think 4 in another district are also going as well.

Spanish is coming along great. I'm learning so much at the MTC, I've already learned to pray, bear my testimony and gave 2 lessons in spanish and that's just in week one. Hopefully I'll be pretty good at this in six weeks/ by the time I get out of here.

I loved conference! (The LDS church holds a world-wide conference two times a year. It is broadcast via satellite and the internet to all of it's members. Church leaders give talks to inspire, warn, uplift, etc. They choose topics through the Spirit. Music is often provided by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, volunteers, and missionaries from the MTC.) I came a week too late to be in the MTC mens choir which made me super sad. I really liked Elder Jörg Klebingat's talk. It was really my favorite because it was bold and to the point which is what I thought I and all the other missionaries needed. I thought the analogy of having an interview with the Savior in one minute and grading ourselves spiritually really made me stop and think what I could be doing better. I also liked both of President Uchtdorf's talks as well. (Talk 1, Talk 2)

Doctrine & Covenants 11:21 Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men.

Mosiah 2:41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.