Heya!

Well this last week was pretty slow again.. and this morning has been a little rough.. i messed up a load of all my whites when it turned out i washed AND dried them with a pen in one of my shirt pockets.. so that was cool.. but Elder Cram, in the district had a good idea about washing them all with bleach, so I think that helped a bit.. but anyway! life moves on! We are really hoping for 2 baptisms this weekend, one is a cool 12 year old girl that is friends with a family in the ward, she wants to be baptized too, but we gave her time to decide when, and we are hoping she says this weekend sounds good! that and Richard, we are hoping to see him and get him married or something and just shoot for his baptism this weekend too..Oh and tell G-mom and Pop i said thanks for the letter, and the tree ornament! I can't really think of what else to write about.. This Wednesday I will find out about Christmas calls, and this Saturday I will find out about transfers.. transfers happen on the 23rd, it's kinda funny.. Oh! If I had to ask for one thing for Christmas it would be a sweet missionary eating thing, cause I don't eat well and I have totally gained some weight.. really it would just be nice to have an idea of simple things to buy and take 2 seconds to prepare and eat and are healthy and fit within a "$30" a week budget or something.. but actually I think I can just use common sense.. so scratch that. But no.. I'm not like fat fat, I actually probably weigh now what I "should".. Oh heres a cool story! I may have told it before but maybe not? A member in my ward, taught and baptized(while he was on his mission) the man who plays as Jesus, in the movie Testaments!.. cool huh! Yup anyway.. I think I'm pretty good on warm clothes and everything else! But anyway! Love yall!

-Elder McMurry

Slowby!

Hey all.. this last week went by PRETTY slow and it was a rough week.. not much really happened, but we did meet some cool people, and actually had one of our longer investigators come to church for the first time which was so awesome! This month Elder Jones and I are hoping for at LEAST one baptism! We think we can do it, so long as it is according to the will of the Lord, and we have an awesome guy in mind.. which awesome guy actually let me sit in the driver seat of his 18-wheeler and actually start the engine.. that was pretty awesome.. he is a way good guy! Truckers are actually cool so be nice to them! The work continues always though, whether slowly or swiftly, so that's good.. I don't have a lot to report on.. umm the weather is getting cold cold apparently it wasn't like this at all last year either, so I hear. Those pictures of the kids were awesome, Zach is getting so big! I love and miss you all!

thank you for your emails! oh and please tell g-mom and pop i said
THANKS for the peanut brittle, it is AWESOME!



I got to watch most of the Christmas, First Presidency message last night and it was pretty cool.. it really hit me when President Eyring bore his testimony and said that "this IS the ONLY true Church of Jesus Christ!"... I thought about that and felt overwhelmingly blessed.. how cool a statement!? Not only that but I have been called by our Savior, to teach and share that message with others.. that the exact same church that our Savior, Jesus Christ established(the one spoken of in the Bible), has been brought back to the earth again; that after Christ was killed and His called apostles as well.. that our Savior Jesus Christ, did in 1820, restore His church again on the earth and that it is not a church organized by man, or men.. it is not a church organized by a prophet, it is THE church organized by Him who created it in the first place, our Savior Jesus Christ! What an exciting message to share with the world! The book of Ephesians in the Bible, talks all about how and why Christ established His church.. saying it was for the "perfecting of the saints" and that it was founded upon, "apostles and prophets.. Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone" (these are in Ephesians chapter 2, and chapter 4).. now im not at all saying or attempting to say that our church is the only church with truth (as all christian churches have, at the very least some of them maybe even just a particle of truth), however being a church made or organized by man or men, it simply can not be perfect, and something which is imperfect could never "perfect the saints".. That is why it is such a blessing to know that Christ's PERFECT church has been restored(brought back after the death of the apostles)! Now not one of the members of the Church is perfect, not even the prophet, but that is what makes the message so awesome, the church is not led by a prophet, but by our Savior, Jesus Christ who speaks through His Prophet Thomas S. Monson(Amos 3:7 in the Bible)! But anyway I love you all and miss you all.. I hope I didn't sound TOO preachy I just love the message I get to share everyday!

Space Jam

hey all! last week was awesome, im glad everyone had a good thanksgiving, sister dargan, fed the district and she made loads of amazing food so that was way cool, then another family in the ward fed us some leftovers for dinner so taht was awesome too! i hope everyone is doing so way good! i really love the work.. its stressful quite often, but i love it! woohoo! saturday went awesome! all 3 baptisms took place and it was a blessing and awesome experiences as always.. its so true that "there are no homesick missionaries when they are standing in the baptismal font"! I got to baptize both Sister Smith, and Sister Isaac, Elder Jones baptized Brother Smith, and I got to confirm Brother Smith! The gospel really is so awesome! The weather here is up and down a lot.. so cold some days, and randomly almost hot other days, but mostly just cold and its been that way more than half of the month of november probably.. Elder Jones and I really like working together, we are different but get along well and have a good time too, we are hoping to get 10 baptisms this next month, that is our goal! The work here is awesome, but it really does require sacrifice and we do try to be always busy! I wish i had a way cool story to share.. hmm.. last night we did knock this one house and began to teach this guy who said he was interested, but for some reason at one point in the first lesson he said, something like "hold on, i'll be right back" and went into his house.. so we were like ok. and then maybe 5 minutes or so passed and he never came back out.. it was confusing so we left.. anything exciting?.. hmm, also last night Elder Jones was riding without his bike light on, and totally rode into a huge puddle, it was pretty funny. today it is cold and windy! I dont know anything about the christmas call yet but of course i will let you know! how is asher? he looked cool in the pictures.. like hes a baby or something. we have interviews this wednesday which is cool, its always awesome to see and hear from president mcconkie.. we have met some cool people in the last week or so, that we are really hoping to get setup on a baptismal calander.. Brother Newkirk (my first baptism) is still way cool! He is just an amazing guy who let the gospel work in his life! After he was baptized, he didnt have a job and stuff and really needed one to support his family, so we invited him to fast one sunday, and we fasted with him and then the next week he got a job! so that was pretty awesome.. ummm i dont know what much else to say... oh christmas.. no candy please! i have SOOO much and i am getting "chubby" and im sure my teeth are getting ready to fall out! Not that im not grateful for the candy.. cause we all know i cant live without insane amounts of sugar, i just think my stomach and my teeth could use a break! oh and thanks everyone again for the music.. and really you dont need to send me anything for christmas but of course anything is welcome! the south is cool.. one pretty funny thing here is that people have a tough time saying words with "str-" in them.. so here's pretty much everything ive heard with that.. scraight(straight), screet(street), screppe(streppe throut, scrength(strength) and exapmles like.. scrawberries or something but pretty much anything with an "str" at the beginning turns into a word with an "scr".. but nothing really new or cool unfortunatley.. the coolest thing was those 3 baptisms! ANYWHOO! I love and miss everyone or at least some of you.. kidding. hope everyone is doing well and i have one question, does the startrek movie still look cool? you guys may have to wait for me to get home before seeing that one! love ya! thanks for your emails and pictures of the fam and everything!

Pictures

ok i have no time to really write today sorry!! today is not p-day by the way becuase we have thanksgiving as our pday.. i love and miss everyone! things are going way good! we have 3 baptisms this weekend hurrah! also let me know about my debit and credit card stuff.. umm thanks so much for the bday stuff! holy cow mom that was the most exciting thing ever and i felt so guilty! you dont need to spend so much money on me! i love you all! and tyler thanks aton for your email that meant alot.. like it just shows how cool i am when you think about it!

Some pictures from MTC.











ok i dont remember all of them that i just added so ill try to explain a few.. im sure you can tell which ones are of the mtc...

the picture with the elder holding me, he was in my MTC district, and he also happens to be the great grandson of lorenzo snow.. sweet huh?

another picture with me standing infront of the temple, that was my first official day in the mission field, i bet dax would think the tie was cool (he gave me it..)

i know i look goofy in most of these but whatever..

also there is a picture of my MTC companion and I standing infront of the fountain at the provo temple.. and another one is of 3 of my best buddies from the MTC in our district there, and then the deer that we hit.. i know its kinda gross and weird that there is a picture of that.. but hey! its a memory! i cant remember the rest i just added though.. ill write a short letter in just a minute!

"A bike a bike, we already have a bike, and we need no more bike!"‏

(hey so i bought a bike with my credit card, the actual bike was $330 after helmet and lock it was $400 something.. i hope thats ok, i tried to use my debit card but it was declined? either way i will make the bike last my mission promise!.. i wont worry about a gps till the end of transfers in case i move to a new area or something, as for now i will just use elder jones gps!) +also happy birthday tyler!

ahoy! thank you all for your awesome letters/emails and packages! i have SOO much candy now holy cow! and thank you so much sarah and shane and ben for the music it is awesome! oh the subject is just becuase i got a bike, (2 nephi 29).. just to let you know i am aware that i have two packages, but they are with the zone leaders right now and they will give them to me on thursday, but otherthan that i dont know who those are from.. i got a packletter from sarah, package from ben, package from becca, and a package from sam.. but the other two packages are with the zone leaders (they forgot to give them to me last time i saw them).. hmmm so whats happening latley.. by the way againt thanks a million for the awesome emails, i have been feeling bad for making such a big deal about it last week, but the more detailed the emails the more satisfied i am heh.. and holy cow that picture of zack! he looks way bigger! he has already grown aton in the past 2.5 months! i hear teebors home! aww man i miss him mucho! tell him to write me, and forward this to him! umm so we have like 4 baptisms set for the 29th this month hopefully those will work out! at least 3 of them deffenently will! it is so awesome when you find those people whom Heavenly Father has prepared to hear the word! The gospel is awesome and so perfect.. there is not one flaw in it!

Well i told you i bought a bike, so elder jones and i have gone some days just biking, it can be tough but it is so awesome how the world changes when you are spreading the gospel on a bike.. its seriously a different experiance.. the other day it was cold and rainy while we were biking but the experiance was so awesome.. it actually felt way good with all this wind and rain and the sun shining through the clouds with a bright orange glow and huge rainbows.. so cool.. and then to go see an investigator whos house is nice and warm, but totally humble becuase the living conditions in sumter are really poor.. but yeah i have seen some beautiful things spreading the gospel on a bike.. you truley get a different and unique perspective of the world and all things have their beauty when you aproch everything from a gospel perspective.. as i beleive Joseph Smith taught,the "eyes of [my] understanding" have been opened from time to time.. to actually see physical things with spiritual eyes is an amazing blessing and exerpiance!.. I know the message we share is perfect and true.. there is no denying it.. everyone must find out for themselves however.. no opionion of man matters, only the opinion of God.. and I know that He has restored His gospel through our Savior Jesus Christ, and the Prophet Joseph Smith.. people say it is hard to believe a prophet could possibly be on the earth today, but the truth of the matter is, that there was NEVER a time on the earth when it was easy to beleive there was a prophet on the earth. If people really believe noah could possible be a prophet they would have gotten on the ark... but in fact they thought he was a joke.. they thought.. how could noah possibly be a prophet? and they perished in unbelief in the flood..

Our Heavenly Father is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow; just as the scriptures teach, He has always called prophets to be His "mouthpeice" why would He stop calling prophets today, if He is a perfect and unchangeable God why would He change?.. My testimony is that He has never stopped calling prophets on the earth and that He has indeed called one again on the earth today. That the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, is the exact same church we read of in the Bible, the same Church our Savior Jesus Christ established. And I know these things to be true and bare this humble testimony, in the name of my Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen.

-Elder McMurry

Sumptown II

Woohoo! Transfers just came up and everyone in my district (the 4 of us here in sumter) are all staying! yay!! I like it here and we got some good baptisms set for this month! And we just baptized sister Dargan last night! hurrah! her husband did it, but elder Jones and I taught her! Thanks all for your letters and emails! How are G-mom and Pop? What are their latest adventures? Whats Tyler doing? Working somewhere? Schooling it up? hows zack? where are some pictures from you guys! (i know i dont have anyroom to speak.. but i am mailing off some cds of ALL my pictures tomorrow!) how funny are kathryn and hannah being? how is asher!? how is sams schooling going? do you guys use wii fit? how is becca? how is matthew? how is lacy? not sick anymore i hope? is allen getting way bigger? did that best buy open up? how is the weather? still way hot? is there any questions you guys have for me? .. ok so chew on those questions for a week and let me know next monday!
>
> so time really flys here! its crazy i feel like maybe just a month ago i was at home.. but im coming up on 3 months i think.. errr it was 2 months ago today i entered the mtc huh? cooool. i am certianly loveing it! "if i am honest", as bear gryls would say, the only thing that is really the most difficult is getting along with my compy now and then.. im just glad hes not my eternal companion.. hes a great guy but we are pretty good at having countless misunderstandings.. but we are good buddies.. but.. wheew.. i heard something from some older members a few weeks ago and it sounds like the Temple president is no longer the one that G-mom and Pop knew, if they are intrested i just wanted to share that, but i could be wrong!
>
> Elder jones and i have met some way cool people this last week, we were so busy teaching!.. im not sure if i mentioned it but we are teaching this older couple, Will Smith, and his wife, and hes probably the fresh prince of Sumter, they rock! we met them becuase of a media referal from the mtc, but that referal was for someone else who doesnt even look that promising; its awesome how the Lord works.. becuase Will smith and his wife live right down the street, and we would have never met them without that media referal..
>
> no really cool stories this week aside from the fact that Sister Dargan got baptized! she is really cool! so did you guys here about sumter on the news at all about that halloween thing? im curious! also i dont mean to sound mean but please feel free to ask me about my experiances in my emails.. like Brother Newkirks baptism or the deer incident or anything that i mention in an email you can always say something about it.. i want to hear every possible thing you can think of! and send me multiple emails if you want all throughout the week! if nothing is "going on" please just "talk to me" its getting depressing to get emails that dont even acknowledge my emails heh..but i love you guys still, and i know you are busy too, but there is nothing wrong with me getting awesome letters from the fam.. nothing will prevent me from focusing on the work.. but anywho! i love you all and the work is so awesome! life isnt suddenly perfect when you are a missionary and it is a whole new world of trials and struggles and a crazy amount of mixed feelings, but at the same time, it makes life just that much easier and enjoyable.. the next 2 years will surly be a process in the refiners fire.. every single day! love yall! (sorry if i was rude i just want you to know that i love you guys and emails and letters are important to me!)

-Elder McMurry

Birfday in 9 days!

Hey hey! To begin with I’m fine. I'm not sure if you guys heard or not but supposedly Sumter (the city I’m serving in) made national news about a shooting on Halloween. A father with his sons went downtown to Columbia I think and did all this fun organized Halloween stuff and on their way home decided to knock on some houses in Sumter. They came to one house because the light was on and when they knocked a man opened the door and shot at them with an ak-47 killing one of his kids. Also there was a gang war or whatever and something like 9 people died. Not only that but a member’s granddaughter went to the hospital because she was in a car accident where another car broadsided her so Halloween night in Sumter is mega dangerous. It’s a good thing that missionaries do not go out on Halloween night! But we did get permission to go to the ward trunk or treat and it was the best one I have ever been too! There were TONS of people there considering Sumter only has 1 ward of like 150ish people. They had like hot dogs and nachos and pumpkin carving contest, pie eating contest and all kinds of stuff like that! We were there because we were expecting an investigator family of 6 to come but they didn’t. We’ll be teaching them some more this week, they are a way cool family but never make it to church. So I really hope I don’t leave this coming transfer and I hope elder Jones and I stay together for at least one more transfer but if not it will all be good.

We had to drop Hezekiah, he was totally not progressing. Missionaries have been teaching him since like June and really nothing good is coming out of it at all. Brother Newkirk is way awesome! (The guy I baptized last weekend) we have him setup on the "family mission plan" which is where the families help us find people to teach and his family is slowly coming along we love them, they rock. He has two daughters and two sons, and they are just way awesome and really down to earth, normal people.

Oh! How did Kathryn’s birthday go? Tell her I said happy birthday and thanks Sarah for the actual letter! That was way cool! I know everyone is busy but honestly the emails are stinking. I would like people to write me a real letter? Hate to be rude, but WRITE ME PEOPLE!


I’ve only been on my mission for what.. 5 weeks now and baptized someone who was 300lbs! The baptism took 3 times before it was correct, but that wasn’t really my fault or anything.

Ok ok, I’ll cut you guys some slack especially because mom has been recovering from her surgery. I need letters! I just want to hear from everyone. Letters are only supposed to be on a shortage around the 1 year mark so let’s get writing people!

In other news, elder Jones and I have a baptism coming up this weekend for a way cool lady! I think I probably talked about her before, Sister Dargan, she is married to a member and they are way cool! We also met this awesome guy on Saturday night named Will Smith, err William Smith. We met him just by knocking and shared the message of the restoration with him and invited him to church and he said "yeah ill come just get me a ride" so that was cool that doesn’t happen TOO often. Then when he got to church on Sunday he only had way cool things to say like "so when is my baptism this month?; is the baptism in the temples; I’m going to bring my wife and kids after next week; I’ve been married to my wife for 40 years, and that’s the only way to do it, you go through rough times but you stick together!" That last comment he brought up was after we talked about "Eternal Marriage" in gospel principles.

Anyway... did I tell you I went on exchanges again? I biked all day long with Elder Cram, it was way cool and a total blast biking is fun, but tough. Also the senior missionaries Elder and Sister Hixon, who live in our apartment complex, made breakfast for the 4 elders today "for my birthday" because next Tuesday is the end of their mission! They are way awesome!

But anyway! I'm doing well and the work is progressing! Being a missionary is awesome, it really gets me thinking about the future a lot, and the type of things I want to do and who I want to be... I’m stoked. Time flies by WAY fast when you are busy a week seriously seems like a day... it’s crazy. I could easily say it feels like I’ve only been out a week now... and it looks like I’m coming up on like 3 months now... I know that’s NOTHING, but it’s crazy at the same time.

I love and miss you all! Take care and recover quickly mom! Oh yeah and how weird is it that in 9 days I won’t be a 'teenager' anymore. Crazy and sort of depressing, but not. I think that’s probably why you have to be 21 to drink, because they want you to be depressed for a year and then the next year you can drink those depressions away.. That’s probably not true but I wouldn’t put it past the world to do something like that.

Oh yeah, let me know who’s the new president next week?

Anyway! Until next week!

Loveth yours!