Spring!

The weather is getting better here again! It is pretty nice. It just rains like crazy here though, but that's alright, that's when you feel like a real missionary! I'm interested in seeing how different the ward is nowadays.. Yeah life can be tough, certainly while you are serving the Lord with your all, in any calling.. I hope things go better for you guys and no one gets sicker.. I am looking forward to this next transfer! Change is such an important part of life, we just need to always have a firm desire and determination to change.. President McConkie explained it this way..

There are missionaries who work hard everyday and whether they have success or not they come home each night with an attitude of "The day happened the way it was suppose to.. we worked hard, so we'll just keep working hard and go with the flow.. if we find people, we find people, if we don't, we don't.."

That sounds like a good missionary but that is a missionary that relies on "Fate".. we are not to rely on fate and "just let things happen", we are to "make things happen".. We are not fatalist, we are facilitators of faith. Two very different attitudes.. one lets whatever happen, the other makes everything happen.. So we are not to come in each night "content" with the day.. but having made things happen that day.. we are to come in grateful and ready to improve and make more things happen!

I just thought that was cool, so I need to be careful with my attitude sometimes and not just be content with what happens, but to really do my part as a missionary and make it all happen.. that is the power of faith!

Anyway, please send pics of Easter! Pictures are great! I will send some next week! LOVE YA


Hey all! Transfers are here and I am staying in the great Mt. Pleasant! Elder Esplin is however, gonzo! Thats ok though.. I will miss him.. I have learned alot from him! Man I love my mission! I know that this is where I need to be and I am grateful for it! We had 11 non-members at church yesterday! Only 5 were our investigators (for now), but it was great. We saw alot of miracles and blessings yesterday and it was just an awesome day! We are planning for 5 baptisms this next transfer and I know we can do it! Keep me in your prayers, I love my mision! I continue to serve in a leadership position and that can be difficult at times but I really do enjoy it and am grateful for it, and am excited to improve at it! I have really come to better understand the Atonement and repentance and revelation these past few weeks in my personal study and am continuing to learn alot! Anywho! I am so excited for General Conference.. Like always, it is probably one of the most exciting times for a missionary.. to have your investigators see what you have been testifying of! I have learned so much from general conference on my mission than perhaps ever before! Anyway.. again! I love ya'll!

Heey...

HELLO! Mt. Pleasant is great! This is such an awesome place! I love to serve here.. it can be really tough quite often, really cause of the rain and the temperature. But things are going well. We have some GREAT investigators! Truly awesome.. Transfers are coming up next week and I've been feeling a little bit like I might be a gonner from Mt. Pleasant, but at the same time I can totally see things staying the same! We haven't had any baptisms just yet unfortunately but that's alright we are building a great teaching pool for the month of April! HURRAH! The weather is kinda sorta warming up here, but often rainy and windy.. But man I am so blessed to be biking in a place that is flatter than flat! The new library that we go to is pretty far away these days and its actually an old house.. like maybe the size of Gmom and Pop's house but they turned it into a library. I've seen the Church that Gmom was baptized in! I will get a picture when I can! There are a few people in the Mt. Pleasant ward that I am sure knew Gmom and Pop.. So if I could get a picture of them back in the day that would be really cool! Anyway! Times running out! LOOOVE YALL!

Monday..

Hey no time to write! Love ya.. we had a busy day, and go to a
different library now.. Anyway love ya! Things are going great! I will
possibly be asking president tomorrow about the extension! I love you
guys! Have a great night!

Where does the time go...

Hello! We are writing today because we moved into a new apartment on Monday and didn't have anytime to write! I hope everyone is doing well.. The weather here is finally warming up! I am continuing to work hard and learn and grow. I don't have a lot to talk about but I love the work!

Man! That is so exciting! I love when families get baptized! That is cool that you will be teaching primary! President McConkie said that after he returns home he fully expects to serve in the nursery.. His point was that it never really matters what your call is, don't aspire, just go where the Lord puts you! He also said it is a blessing when you don't always have the same stewardship responsibilities that some other callings call for, and at the same time he said that it is a blessing to serve in those callings.. All callings are blessings, none is more important than the other! Mom I had a really cool study about repentance yesterday! It was awesome.. I was reading in Alma 5 and learned that "a change of heart" is perhaps, not really the fruit of repentance, but a seed of repentance. Alma talks about how when we are in sin, we have the chains of hell around us but as we repent, we experience a change of heart, and awake unto God. Afterwards once the repentance is 'complete' in that thing, THEN you receive a "mighty change of heart", not simply a change of heart, but a mighty change. I drew in my notes three different hearts:

1. A "chained" heart
2. A changed heart
3. A mightily changed heart

It was a good study! I love personal study! That is something I will definitely take home with me is a love of studying the gospel daily!

You'll have to tell Zach and Sadie I said happy birthday! Welp! Love you!

Aloha!

Howdy Family. I have about no time to write.. sorry! I just wanted to say I love ya and miss you all! We have a cool 9 year old yet again that should be getting baptized in the next couple of weeks.. as well as a cool 13 year old.. and hopefully a way awesome couple that a member family is working with! Missionary work is the best! Love y'all!

Hey MOM..

Hey mom! Just wanted to write you and tell you how things were going! I am doing good.. I am a little harder on myself at times then I should be but I am doing fine! Elder Esplin and I are teaching a lot of people and that adds to my happiness.. The work can be really tough and demanding at times but it is always rewarding and a blessing to have people to teach and we have a lot of wonderful people were teaching right now. I have set some goals this week to become more focused and better prepared to help our investigators enter the waters of baptism, and we are confident that we will baptize at least 2 people this month. I have been learning a lot about myself these past two transfers and it has been such a good thing learning more about, about who I am. Bishop Jarnagin sent me a really awesome email last week that. That was really nice of him, I guess Elder Pearson of the 70 came and spoke, but it was a good email. He talked about the power we can have in our lives when we realize who we are and talked about the power of being able to say "I am..(a servant of the Lord, a child of God...)" and the power of commitment in the words "Will you...". I've reflected it on it a lot and am so grateful to be a missionary! I am far far from perfect at it but I am learning. Once we have learned one thing we go on to learn another. Once we have learned another thing, we go on to "..come off conqueror!" But I just wanted to write you and tell you how I was doing and thank you for all your prayers! I love you!

-Elder McMurry