Hola!

Hey everyone around the world, where ever you may be! 

Crazy busy week.  This week but full of immense blessings!  This will be a short email because I don't have much time, but I'll try my best.  My companion and I have been working like crazy trying to reactivate and energize the ward here in Tlapacoyan to come back to church.  We have a long list of in-active members and we try to visit at least one of them a week.  We've yielded some success and it's been coming along slowly.  They always invite us in with welcoming arms and offer us water (which we always accept.) And we share a message with them.

Our mission president has challenged us to teach about the law of the tithe with the members and investigators and share with them the blessings that come from being a full tithe payer.  The people here in Mexico are so humble.  Sometimes they have little to no money to barely eat each week.  But they still give their tithes to the Lord. 

I challenge each of you to keep the law of the tithe and help to edify the Lord's kingdom.  The Lord will bless you in all things spiritually and temporal even so much that you will have no room to receive all the blessings He gives. (Malachi 3: 8-10) The Lord has given you all you have, in you all have in your life He only asks you give some back. 

This week my companion (the district leader) had a leadership meeting out of town and I had to work a whole day with a male member.  Hahaha.  Me a gringo, in a land I don't know, talking with people in a language I can barely speak.  So I prayed all day and and a little into the night for the Lord's help the day before and I was blessed immensely!  I lead in lessons, contacted people and taught by the spirit all day and I grew a lot as a result.  It was awesome! And just what I needed to to continue growing as a missionary.

Adios, until next week.

Greenie Week

I finally made it to Xalapa!

I'm in a tiny pueblo called Tlapacoyan, (about 3 hours from Xalapa) and if you look it up its basically in the middle of a jungle.  The cash crop here is bananas so you see a banana tree pretty much everywhere you go.  Mexico is definitely a trip, sometimes I think I might have gotten a little culture shock but that's ok.

My companion/trainer is Elder Lopez and he's from Monterey, Mexico.  He's been out for 21 months and leaves home basically after I'm done training.  He doesn't speak hardly any English and yeah it's sometimes difficult to communicate.  Hahahahah.  But I learn a lot of Spanish cada dia (every day).  I thought I had a good handle on the language, but I didn't calculate on all the slang that Mexicans speak. Lulz.  It's like learning a 3rd language!  So I speak super proper and sometimes they don't understand me, but it's no biggie.

The work here is hard, there's only one ward in the whole town and it's suffering.  They have so many inactive members and our goal this week is to invite every one of them back to church.  The closest town to us is Martinez de la Torre and its about 40 miles away.  Our area is the whole town and it used to be covered by 3 sets of missionaries.  Now it's just me and my companion. Hahahah. I guess the last sets of missionaries lost the trust of the ward, so they took them out and put us in.  So another goal of ours is to gain the trust of the ward back.  The closest town to us is Martinez de la Torre and it's away, so it's us against the world.  I actually thought I was the only gringo (white person) for miles, but then I saw one on Sunday.  It was quite a relief.  Because we're basically covering 3 areas we walk a lot!  I am getting in shape. Hahah.  We also have more investigators than all the other missionaries combined.  We're working muy duro! (very hard.)

This week was actually kind of rough, I got super homesick and it stunk.  The first couple of days all I could think about was home, and it was really distracting.  But as I started working and filling all my time in the Lord's field I didn't have time to think about home, which is good.  There is great news however; we had a baptism on Saturday!! Yayayaya my first baptism!  His name is Orlando and he's a tiny little fella.  Only 9 years old and a rascal but he's super funny. (Yah I'm the whitest person ever.)  (The picture he sent didn't come through. I assume it is of him and his new friend. When he sends it,  I will try to update this post.)

I love you all so much and miss you a ton!  Thank you for your prayers and love!  I want you to know that this work is hard, but the Lord is on our side and always helping us.  I see his hand at work everyday!  I can't wait to call you guys this Sunday!

Until then,

Elder Murphy