Having a blast!

hey guys! hope everyone is doing way good, im still having a blast of course.. but yeah i wont lie there are alot of difficult times probably everyday really.. but the good out weighs the bad! I got to baptize David Newkirk on saturday! woohoo! it was awesome.. Brother Newkirk is a life time convert.. and we know that as he prepares to get the aaronic priesthood (next week?) that he will be a tool in our Heavenly Father's hands to baptize his family! but taht was way cool, especially cause hes probably about 300 pounds and im probably about 112-115.. yeah i gained 5-8 pounds at the MTC and in the field i would say maybe another 5-8 pounds or just the same.. i dont know.. food is good here still havnt really had any southern food though.. we are teaching an awesome part member family.. i cant remember if i brought this up before but its the Dargan family just an older couple who have been married for about 3 months, they both had families in the past. Anyway the Husband is a member and served his mission in.. Ecquador? i dont know somewhere where he spoke spanish, and they both work at a hosptial thats how they met.. anyway they feed elder jones and i like crazy! like we dont even expect it (we know better now) but they feed us every single appointment we have! they are good people and his wife is coming along nicely, and she has quit smoking and stuff.. she has a baptism date setup for next weekend! the work has really been up and down alot latley.. sometimes we have awesome investigators but the next.. we dont.. to many people we meet just fall through.. we always commit to baptism on the first lesson (thats how the church does missionary work.. at least here and thats what they taught at the MTC).. since ive been out, here in sumter, we have probably commited like 20+ people who said "yeah, i will prepare to be baptized.." and yet.. they all fell through.. so there are deffinently some really depressing things in missionary work, especially when you know they felt the spirit and KNOW the message we share is true.. so about those pictures.. yeah sorry i changed my mind about it at walmart, elder jones said i should wait till i had more pictures, but today when we head out im going to try to email them from walmart if the camera thing works like that. i got a letter from dax, let him know i said thanks, that was way cool of him, but i probably wont get time to write him back yet!.. so to answer anyquestions lets see.. sumter is super gehetto, not REALLY in the country, and yet you only ahve to drive about 10-15 miles and you get right into the country.. that is of course where we hit that deer.. there are some "random" really nice and "rich" areas here.. the gehetto places are tough becuase the people ALWAYS listen pretty much and yet they ALMOST never seem to progress.. what else.... the weather has BEEN way cold but the last week it warmed up for some reason.. umm one of my least favorite things right now is getting up at 6:30 and then exercising pretty much right away.. its tough.. but really not THAT bad.. what i really enjoy is teaching the lessons and contacting people, that is fun! right now i really have mixed feelings everyday mostly like.. "we already have to do this?...; right now?; again?" but those are just like background feelings, not really thoughts.. and i cant wait to get out of that.. i think alot of it has to do with being "the new missionary" and the junior companion.. if i cant send the picutres today i will send them next week for reall! whats the status of sarahs baby? is anyone taking care of you guys while you're sick? is math dating someone.. oooooo! to answer bens question, i dont have any motab music at all.. so any would be welcome.. also any ties.. but i dont mean to beg or anything at all! i miss everyone and hope all are doing well.. how is asher? oh a recipe for no bake cookies would be awesome! and lets see.. umm a story...

yesterday we were contacting at the parking lot at walmart (sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.. and walmart is a good place to find alot of people in the parking lots, also just to let you know sunday is just like every other day regarding missionary work.)

but anyway one guy i came up to looked at me and asked me if i was a Jehova Witness, (we get that alot here, i think ive seen two of their churches here) and I said "nope im from the chruch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints".. and he was like.. "okay, okay." (in a nice old man type of way) then he said.. "let me ask you this, who is Jesus Christ, who do you believe he is?" so i told him "Well we beleieve that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Son of our Heavenly Father.." and he says, "okay well what about the [three of them or the trinity] what about that?".. and I told him just how it was, "We beleieve that our Heavenly Father, our Savior Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are all three sepereat beings.. then he looked at me KIND OF suprised and said "alright! you are doing really good [young man]!".. and then he just started walking away.. and I asked him if i could at least leave him with a card and he said no.. heh so that was kind of weird.. and boring i know.. but no one here in sumter really has a southern accent at all just so you know.. but anyway thats about it! oh and at the baptism with David, well lets just say "3rd times a charm".

Heeey!!

hey all! let me start off with a cool story and then another cool story! so=
! last week, last p-day i had zone conference and elder johnson of the 70=
instructed us (im pretty sure i mentioned this last monday) so it was a =
way cool thing to have him speak to us 20 missionaries in the zone, also =
what was cool about that is that elder johnson is responsible for like 13=
0,000 members and yet the Lord asked him to come to south carolina and ta=
lk with and instruct us (he spoke with other zones as well not just ours =
but it was an individual zone meeting for each zone).. ok so elder johnso=
n and his wife are AWESOME! and they are british so they have cool accent=
s! But heres the awesome part! during zone conference he was teaching som=
ething about our duty in the gospel and it reminded me of a scripture i h=
ad memorized before my mission.. so elder johnson said does anyone have a=
ny comments? and i was like.. hmm yeah i do! and i recited Mosiah 2:36 fr=
om memory and he seemed to like it.. but now the even cooler part.. (and =
i dont mean to brag but it is cool!).. yesterday at stake conference when=
i saw president and sister mcconkie they told me that when they had left=
with elder johnson after the meeting that elder johnson was talking abou=
t me in the car! and he said "that missionary must be really smart or som=
ething!".. how cool is that? president and sister mcconkie and elder john=
son of the 70 were talking about my comment! heh.. ok anyway.. the fact o=
f the matter was that i quoted and recited from memory an "obscure" scrip=
ture, but i have always loved that scripture... ok now the next story..!

last thursday elder jones and i were headed out to a part member couple to =
teach the members wife about the word of wisdom.. it was around 8 at nigh=
t and we have to travel out in the country to get to them... i was kinda =
just sitting back in a daze listening to church music and all the sudden =
we hear a bang and elder jones is like "HOLY COW!" and im just kind of li=
ke.. umm ok so whats going on.. and he said "we just hit a deer elder!"..=
. soo we pulled over and yeah we totally did, the driver side of the car =
was all dented up and there was hair from the deer all over the side of t=
he car (which is now taped to my journal... heh.) we walked over to see t=
he deer and it was sad, we think we hit the deer into on coming traffic a=
nd another car then hit it.. so it was gross and we took pictures for the=
memory.. heh but anyway that left us without a car for the next day and =
then on saturday we got a new one!

so those are my two really cool stories! now.. the missionary work.. we sor=
t of "lost" alot of our good investigators.. they just didnt keep commitm=
ents and choose to continue to find out for them selves.. so we are havin=
g not the coolest time, but thats alright we will find those who are prep=
ared to hear the word this week! David (cant remember if i mentioned him)=
is an awesoem investigator! we love him and he is getting baptized this =
weekend! woohoo! and that part member couple, she is set to get baptized =
on november the 8th! we hope that goes well.. we introduced president mcc=
onkie to the two investigators at stake conference yesterday and he had a=
lot to say to them! it was awesome! the tough thing for David is that his=
family doesnt really agree with anything he is doing.. but president mcc=
onkie said he would have the oppertunity to baptize his wife.. so we are =
really hoping for that! other than that ummm.. i still need to buy a bike=
sometime, i will probably buy one next transfer which is nov 12thish.. j=
ust to let you know.. so thats way cool that Sarah and Shane are having a=
nother girl! and also that asher is doing well, good luck to Sam on his m=
idterms! thanks Becca and Matt and Ben and Sarah and everyone else for th=
eir letters!

umm not much else to say this week.. but i love and miss everyone! feel fre=
e to send me snail mail and pictures if you feel like it!.. i love you al=
l!

-elder mcmurry

Family, and friends.. and trends?

hey all! well im still having a blast its impossible to avoid having a good time while on a mission! so i don't have a ton of time right now cause yeah we have zone conference today.. and honestly i only got to read some of my emails i had to skip a few so i could write but i will read them! so, some cool things.. we have this investigator named david and he rocks i love him, elder jones, my companion, was teaching him with his comp before i came in, but since i've been here the Lord has been been able to use me in helping him gain a strong testimony.. or at least a stronger one.. david is definitely prepared, he is set to be baptized this weekend so well see what happens.. something really cool happened the other night.. after we had helped him rake some leaves we talked a little bit and before we left.. (it was late at night and we were outside) i felt prompted to promise him that he would receive an answer that night after praying and tell hing the Lord how he felt about things in his life.. and well the next day he told us that he had a vision, a vision of himself floating above the world.. and being the type of guy he is, he interpreted it to mean that he would rise above his problems. and it was awesome to hear.. it was so cool to think that the Lord wanted him to have this promise and used me to deliver it! Hes i think in his late 30s and has a wife and 2 or 5 kids or something, its kind of confusing, but hes was cool! that's really the highlight of the mission right now! ive met some awesome people in parking lots and stuff too.. its crazy how nice people are, but sometimes just to be nice.. and that stinks.. umm matt, that's sweet about the jet engine do it. also i did the cinnamon challenge.. and yeah its totally impossible to swallow a spoonful of Cinnamon! there is a video of it, but its on my elder jones camera so we'll have to figure that out another time.. also sorry no pictures yet.. i will try to try to get them next week! now! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! i hope it went way good! and you had some cool key lime cake or something! i really miss everyone! so dad are you 50 now? or 49? sarah thanks for the email! i hope you and the baby are doing way good.. love you guys!! tell jon match i said that his mission call is way cool and im excited for him, also tell him that when he gets to the MTC to do his very best to be different from all of the rowdy missionaries.. if there is one word of advice i could give to all future missionaries it would be this.. DONT BE A ROWDY MISSIONARY AT THE MTC!.. they are annoying and dont seem to follow all of the rules.. and there are many of them..mom thanks for your email like always! i was thinking the other day about the 2000 stripling warriors, how they learned from their mothers.. and i have learned so much from you and am so grateful for the impact that you and dad have had on my life! im sorry this letter is not as long as the last one, but i really wish it could be, but they kind of stole our p-day from us today so we could just hear from a general 70.. i guess thats important.. (kidding).. i did shake his hand last night at a special investigator fireside last night.. that was awesome, he and his wife are British, they are way cool, he gave an amazing talk and of course so did president mcconkie!.. oh and elder jones and i had to give talks in church yesterday.. they went really well we got a lot of compliments! so that was cool... well we have at least 2 scheduled baptisms for this coming weekend.. hopefully we will get them both! one of them has schizophrenia (not david, the other one).. oh and also.. like i said how there are only 4 missionaries in my district, the other two missionaries baptized a cool lady just on saturday and stuff, and she has 12 fingers.. yup.. 6 on each hand,.. it was really weird to shake her hand.. i bet rachel would think that was funny.. and weird and kind of cool, shes cool like that.. whelp! i love you guys so way much and am still of course so excited to be here.. my hardest thing to do right now is to just randomly contact people.. so really to knock doors.. its actually tough to do, but once its done its easy heh.. we also go to parking lots some times and just contact random people.. we have to get 20 contacts per companionship a day.. so 10 for me and 10 for elder jones.. its effective.. we meet way cool people.. and we meet kinda rude people and whatnot.. oh i wanted to tell g-mom and pop thanks so much for their letters! and also thanks to everyone else.. its really awesome... but hey guess what if you are feeling like it.. you can mail me actual letters too! i still havnt gotten any, but thats fine.. and as far as packages go all i can say is.. candy is really awesome, ties are really awesome, and pictures are really awesome.. the mail here is fine as far as i know.. just use the address on blog to the mission home!.. oh man i still have "some" time i wish i knew of some cool stuff i could write.. oh! if you are not in my family get my family to mail me your addresses!! so then i can write you an actual letter! cause i can only write family on the email stuff.. and yes its ok to get emails from family and friends but i can only email back to family.. but i can write actual letters to you if i have your address! oh and again to you guys at the UPS store.. wooo! whats up! i hope you guys are doing way stinking awesome, i know these letters might be confusing and uninteresting but, to bad.. read them anyway! Maybe ill ship you guys a package someday.. gum for all the gum i ate of peters, and suckers so max can quit smoking.. heh.. miss you guys! anyway all is well in south carolina... its a confusing state.. the weather is weird, but really nice.. and sumter (the city/area im in) is really really poor.. peoples houses are almost third wold.. its crazy and really sad.. people have it super super rough here! Well my testimony of our Savior's gospel is increasing day by day and I am always learning! I had a cool thought come to me in church yesterday as we were talking about families being the central unit for learning and this was my thought.. "Who we become later in life, is who we learned to be earlier in youth.." i thought that was kinda cool, and really its pretty stinking true.. we learn by example and.. yup! i had another way cool thought that came to me at the MTC one night while I was praying.. it went something like this.. "Our ability to teach is dead without the Spirit, which Spirit bares witness of the truth of all things, and carries the message we share to those whom will hear.." now thats not exact but i have my exact thought written down in my journal.. you have to write down your thoughts and feelings, i wrote it down right after i prayed, and yup, just as the Prophet President Monson taught.. "knowledge carefully recorded, is knowledge ready in time of need".. and also thats not exact either, but hey maybe you get my point! ANYWAY! I love you all and really do miss you all so much! I am so stoked for the rest of my mission and for the rest of my future! I want to teach, i know that more than ever that what i want to do with my time and my life is to teach.. i stinking fall in love with everyone i meet and i want them to have and know what I KNOW to be true.. but i can only share my testimony.. to find out the truthfulness of the gospel you must find out for yourself.. through prayer, scripture study, and honestly a weird one, attending church.. im starting to see how necessary church attendance is now that i'm here especially for those who truly want to know for THEMSELVES! anyway enough of that.. well there can never be enough of that honestly.. but thats good for right now.. i love you all.. have a way awesome week and remember who you are and who you WANT to be.. and be it.. remember.. "If you plan to be better later, you will never be.. If you plan to be better NOW, you will begin to be, and in that very moment, you will become!" heh i love these quotes! but truth of the matter is that the credit doesnt go to me, but to the Lord, who helped me to see what i already knew! AGAIN! i love you guys! fairly well! -elder andrew mcmurry!

THE CHURCH OF
JESUS CHRIST
OF LATTER- DAY SAINTS



SOUTH CAROLINA COLUMBIA MISSION 1345 GARNER LANE SUITE 307 COLUMBIA SC 29210-8362
Phone 803-798-8855
Brother and Sister Kelly McMurry 1001 Stoneport Lane
Allen, TX 75002
Dear Brother and Sister McMurry,


2 October 2008



Sister McConkie and I were so pleased to welcome your son, Elder Andrew McMurry to the South Carolina Columbia Mission and want to thank you for all you have done to prepare him for the wonderful experience of missionary work. We promise you that as the spirit of missionary work settles upon him, his experience here will be a highlight of his life. Proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ as a missionary is a special privilege reserved only for a select few. Elder McMurry has been recommended as one worthy of such experience by his priesthood leaders and we are honored to have him serve in our mission.

As you can see from the included picture, Elder McMurry arrived to the mission home on 9/29/2008. We have spent several wonderful hours together discussing missionary work in our mission with him and believe he has all the potential in the world to be a most marvelous and dedicated servant of the Lord. Through prayerful consideration I have assigned your son to begin his missionary service in Sumter with one of my outstanding missionary trainers -- Elder Mitchell Jones.

The next few months will be a great transition time as Elder McMurry adjusts to the rigors of missionary life and service. I urge you to join us as we pray for his success and happiness during this training period. I would also ask that you limit your correspondence to one letter or e-mail each week. This will help our missionary leave the cares and interest of home at home and fully devote his attention to the work of the Lord. I have also asked that he communicate with you faithfully each week sharing with you his successes and growth as well. Our mission policy is to allow each missionary to call home twice each year, once at Christmas and again on Mother's day.

We consider it a great blessing to be called to work with you son and pledge to you our unqualified love, care, and support to him as we serve together in this great cause.

Sincerely,

Stephen L. McConkie, President South Carolina Columbia Mission

Mission Home Address

South Carolina Columbia Mission
1345 Garner Lane #307
Columbia, SC 29210

What's Sumter?!

woohoo! okay, so i know its been forever since ive written but ill try and fit in as much as possible! ok so today is my first p-day in the field, p-days are mondays now so i couldn't write last week because i entered the field on monday. i am serving in sumter, and it is totally awesome, i love this place its way cool and i have a really awesome companion too, elder jones.. hes a cool guy we get along pretty well, hes an awesome teacher/example/missionary.. so sorry but i forgot to bring my camera but hopefully next week i can send home a lot of pictures! there are only 4 elders here in sumter and me and elder jones are car elders, the other two are bikes. there are something like only 6 biking areas in the whole mission the rest is car, so that's pretty cool. i really love it here it is such a blast everyday! i hope everyone is doing well, and bec, im way glad you got me those pictures in that album thing, its been awesome to look at now and then. mom and dad, just for your information i have only gotten like i think 2 letters from you (which is totally fine) im just saying if i haven't responded to any letters i only got two, or three if i include your email mom!.. and ben i think it should be just fine for you guys to email me.. my actual address in the field will not change at all so it should be that one on the blog on like garner or something. and to all my friends and stuff, i can only write actuall letters to you so if you want me to write you give me your street address... hmm what else to say? so its honestly a little weird to see white people here.. umm no bugs in the apartment which is awesome, my mtc companion says that he is battling roaches in his apartment so, looks like i was lucky on that one! being here is such an awesome blast! i love it! general conference was different being a missionary because we have investigators there too so watching it was different because you're are listening to it like an investigator too kind of? we have 2 really awesome investigators right now, hezikiah, and david.. both are awesome and man i hope they get baptized soon! the weather here is awesome.. not bad at all so far. the first day or two i was here it was so insanely humid you could see it sometimes and like always feel it but its been awesome the last few days, and the mornings are cold. its mostly hot during the day but it just feels awesome at the same time. being here is seriously like being in another country. sumter at least, seems to not be a very "rich" place.. lots of old houses and really really ghetto to be honest.. super ghetto. but the people in sumter are way cool. which is cool but a lot not cool all the time.. people are just nice, which actually is a problem. when we teach and they "listen" sometimes they are just being nice and give "southern yeses" where they pretty much just say yes but dont really mean it.. we were suppose to have 7 investigators come to conference yesterday, but only had 4.. but hey thats alright! david who is awesome stayed for every session, that was awesome he walked to church on his own and we didnt really need to call and remind him at all he just went... hes a good guy, he loves the spirit he feels when at church and just feels comfortable around everyone at church.. it just seems normal to him.. so thats cool, we have a baptism date set for nov 18th. hopefully he'll make it! hezikaih is set to be baptized sometime next month too i think, he needs to get married though so that can happen. sumter is just full of crazy nice people.. oh so something kind of cool: on my first day here while tracting with elder jones, we walked over a bridge and there was totally an alligator just chilling in the water under the bridge.. that was cool.. yeah, im totally loving it here and slowly getting the hang of things, but its all good, ill learn! so my favorite place in sumter right now is Harmony Court.. it is also just a nice looking little "apartment" place with small houses and wide open grassy areas.. whenever im there i feel like im in a totally different country! we are the only white people there pretty much and there are just tons of little black kids running around and playing all the time, its so fun to talk to them and play around with them, they are so cool! all the people in harmony court are amazing, but sometimes just to nice, and not serious enough about the gospel.. its sad when people have a testimony but just dont follow through with anything! anyway.. umm what esle.. President McConkie.. what an awesome guy! hes like 6'7 or something so stinking tall! hes a great and awesome guy! he used the song his dad wrote "I believe in Christ", and wrote his own addition to it called "Because He Believes in me" its kind of just a poem or something, but maybe he will turn it into a song one day its cool. Basically i love it here.. i am very very slowly seeing the beauty of south carolina.. but im not exactly sure what everyone was talking about before i came here.. heh.. its not that beautiful to me.. YET! but it is totally growing on me! I really cant think of much else to write! umm.. the work of the Lord is awesome.. missionary work rules! i dont have my mission address with me but it should be on my blog thingy, send all other mail other than email there! i havnt bought a bike yet and probably wont until next transfer (6 weeks).. i love and miss you all! if any of you are preparing for a mission get so stoked now.. it will blow your mind its so fun and worthwhile! im glad asher is doing fine! let me know about sarahs baby! mom and dad did you beat wii fit yet.. you guys better be playing that everyday! i hope you got my actual mail a few weeks ago when i sent it with pictures.. i think you should have at least 2 letters from me.. possibly 3.. im not sure, but yeah.. oh and by the way i saw adam stavast and derrek seria and the smoot (sp?) boy at the mtc that was kind of cool.. let me know when john match gets his call and anyone else too.. ask me any questions if you want and ill trying to answer them! thanks ben, jess, and kathryn and everyone else who wrote me! by the way kathryns coloring was awesome. sorry this is long im trying to think of more stuff to write about.. but that seems like about it for now! until next week, I love you guys!.. also if anyone wrote me there is a possibility i didn't get it and it may have gotten to MTC right when i left.. so i dont know what to tell you if that happened.. love you all!

elder andrew mcmurry
thedrew@myldsmail.net

Referal Center at the MTC

Highlights of Andrew's last letter. Before leaving the MTC. He should be in South Carolina now.

Data and Mombo,

Hey guys, I know this letter is short but I don't have the much time. I hope you got my email but if not my email is; thedrew@ldsmail.net.

You HAVE to get the "Joseph Smith, The Prophet of the Restoration" movie!! We only have the 20 minute one but this one will blow your mind! I'm pretty confident you guys haven't seen it. I never have till Sunday night. It would be an awesome FHE for you guys. It's about 1 hour 30 minutes. I wanted to cry so bad, everyone was in tears...a room full of like 2000ish or 1800 actually missionaries...there were TONS of tears..it is an amazing video you guys would love.

Anyway, got stuff to start doing soon. Love you guys. Have a great week!!! Write you soon.

Love ya'll,
Elder McMurry