Ft. Jackson!‏

Hey hey! Well, I am certainly feeling exhausted! We work hard, but I only want to work harder.. more effective with time, more effective with teaching and much busier finding and baptizing! Elder Adams and I are getting along fine like normal.. It's funny how alike we are. The Lord really knows what He's doing! But we still learn from each other. We are having a difficult time finding right now, but that's ok! It only means that the Lord is really really preparing the family we will find this evening! I don't know If I ever mentioned it before but my trainer, Elder Jones, is one of the Assistants to President McConkie and has been for I think 2 transfers now. Elder Adams and I had an awesome blessing and experience the other night. Elder Johns, one of my favorite Zone Leaders who is also an Assistant now, called us up on Saturday night and talked to me for a minute. He invited us to go with him and Elder Jones to the Ft. Jackson military base (probably the top baptizing branch in the united states.. seriously). They don't invite just anyone because they usually have the Zone Leaders and other near by missionaries go with them, so that was cool. So that night they came and picked us both up since they decided to bring Elder Adams along too! The base is awesome. All of this was a tender mercy and blessing and again an answer to my prayers. It was an awesome feeling being able to do all of this. What made it even cooler was that we stayed at the Office Elders apartment that night before heading to the base. It was cool to step back into the apartment I spent about 6 months of my mission in and had the most amazing success stories in missionary work a missionary could ever dream of! As we walked in, there was Elder Richardson planning for the next day with his companion, it was good to see him again.. I felt so comfortable being there, it was in a way, a sign of the Lord's love for me in a way that I felt relaxed and knew that it was a blessing for me to be able to be there... On Sunday morning I had totally forgotten my wallet and you just can't get on a military base without an I.D. strange huh? So we ran back by our apartment to get it really stressing for time but we got it and made it to the Ft. Jackson base on time.

The meeting was awesome! A chapel full of Soldiers all wearing their ACU's or whatever, their camo gear, and some with large m-16s or something. Non-members visit the base like every Sunday! So Elder Jones said, just go talk to people as they sit down and teach them a first lesson. (totally a missionaries dream to be able to just go sit next to someone and just start teaching them because they will actually listen!.. that's what the base is all about because anyone who is there is there by choice, because they want to be there, sure it gets them out of other army stuff but hey they still came to the true church!) Anyway the first two Sisters in camo gear came in and sat down and I went straight to where they were and sat down with them both and taught them a first lesson! It was awesome! They were receptive and enjoyed it. One was Catholic and the other was 7th Day Adventist.. It was cool. After the short lesson I invited them to stick around for the discussion class after sacrament and they did! Anyway so all of that was a cool experience. Then Elder Adams and I taught the discussion class right after sacrament in the Chapel. This class is where you just teach the first lesson and invite everyone to be baptized(class of about 25-30 soldiers, there were like 6 members there and 4 return missionaries)! Usually there are a few hands that go up when you ask them to be baptized and you take their names down, and teach them everything the next Sunday and just baptize them at the base in a portable font! Unfortunately no one raised their hands this time, but there was still a baptism that day and should be some next week! They just baptize all the time there because they just get to listen to the truth and its easy for them to accept it because not only are they humble but they are there by choice.. It was a really cool experience that I am grateful for and was so blessed to be apart of.

We did a lot of exchanges this last week, with the Zone Leaders and my self with the District. It was a learning experience. I am grateful for who I am and who I represent. This work is more important to me in my life than anything else! I love it! Merry Christmas to you all!

-Elder McMurry