Dearest Diary,
It is awesome to hear from you all.
Although I am loving it up here, it is kind of sad thinking I will not
be able to see all of your beautiful faces for a while. But, luckily, I
got a little taste of home when Elder Riley Jones was moved into our
district/room from the beginner class. He had his farewell in the RSM
stake at the same time as mine, so our couple of mutual friends had to
choose between our talks. Some chose correctly, some didnt! Haha just
kidding, he is a great guy. He played for Tesoro volleyball and I knew
of him and he knew of me, but now we are homies and I'm so glad he got
moved in on Friday.
Also, last week Elder Parker Gentry (President
Rassmussen's nephew who played vball for San Juan Hills) was put into
our zone, and I became pretty good friends with him too. But he left Tuesday
morning for the Madrid MTC since he got his visa. The other members of
my district are Elder Warnes from Bountiful, Utah, Elder Rincon, Elder
King from the old district, Elder Jones, and then 3 sisters. Our
teachers are awesome! Hermano Johnston is a super funny guy who went to
Guatemala on his mission and Hermano Basuth went to Chile. They are
super awesome. They act as investigators for us, and for Elder Rincon
and I, Hermano Johnston is Pedro Quejiú and Hermano Basuth is Franco.
One cool experience was when Elder Rincon and I were
trying to prepare for a lesson, we could not get anything done. We
weren't agreeing on anything and we needed help. Elder Jones said we
should go say a prayer to begin our study, and we agreed so we went to
an empty room and sat there and I said a prayer. It was the first
english prayer I'd given in two weeks, which was a little refreshing,
and it was like 5 minutes. After that, we both just sat there and
thought about what would be best to teach our investigator. I was
flipping through my scriptures when I came across a scripture about the
priesthood as described by Paul, and I said that we should talk about
the priesthood. Turns out, that he had written the same thing down on
his sheet of paper. The Spirit testifies to us at all times, in our mind
and in our heart (D&C 8:2-3).
Our Branch President is President Tyler, a great old
guy who is a real scholar of the scriptures. Turns out he is from Long
Beach, and he said something like his sister or son or something married
a Dougherty out there. I'll have to ask Bishop Dougherty about that,
because he really rocks. He has a certain spirit about him and really is
able to testify and use the scriputres easily. He has a bunch
memorized. Hopefully, through my study of the scriptures I can have a
kid email home about how good I am with my scriputres.
Umm let's see, I am not sure what else happened this
week. Out here, it is kind of all a blur. We do the same thing all day
every day. I have
gained like 3 pounds but that doesn't count for anything. I wish I
could recieve Austin's emails, so hopefully he emails me because I
emailed him. What an espuma haha just kidding but the guy that hosted me
the first day is going to Montreal so I told him all that I knew about
it.
My spanish is coming along pretty well. I felt like for
a couple days I hit a little bit of a plateau and wasn't progressing at
all, but after a while I saw myself improving. Mrs. Kirkpatrick and Ms.
Heck helped. I didn't realize this but the teachers at Northwood are
actually pretty good compared to other schools. I'm starting to realize
when to use Subjunctive in my speech and I am loving it. I really
believe that God is helping me a lot because I am becoming more and more
comfortable with my spanish and doctrinal knowledge.
Bethany, how is volleyball? Are you going to be on
varsity?? Ron needs all the help he can get. Especially Wonder Woman
herself. How are the boys?
Cole, keep working hard. Tell me about how your life is going and how many pushups you can do! HAHA!
I liked the boxes of Food that I got, and the letters
inside. Cole's letter was so sincere and thoughtful and made my heart
melt a little bit. Cole, you're quite the wonder kid. Then theres
Bethany. haha just kidding, bethany your letter made me laugh so hard. I
miss you two so much, the Big 3 will reunite again. Dad thanks for
sending my Line of Authority thing, and your letters are always
splendid. Mom, I sent you a letter today but you are the greatest of all
time! Alyse your food was great even if it was all on sale, I was
suprised you could get so much food for 23 dollars!
Yeah this week was a little boring. Oh yeah during Gym
Time we played volleyball and since we had Elder Jones, Elder Gentry and
I and a few other guys, it was actually legit. Jungle ball was getting
old, so it was a lot of fun being able to play real volleyball. These
hands still distribute butter like no other, they call me the milkman
down here.
In my scripture reading this week I have been reading
the Book of Mormon, and reading about when Nephi quotes Isaiah. I loved
it when it talked about how bad and wicked the world would become, but
it also talks about how Satan wouldn't win. He never does! Jokes on him
haha! XD God always has a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, all the way to Plan
Infinity so that his work will continue, no matter who falls away or
what people do. God will always win. He's the best! His grace is
sufficient for all men, but we have got to work hard as well.
We listened to a talk by Elder Jeffery R Holland on sunday
from a while ago called "Missions are Forever". It talked about how
missions arent meant to be easy, but theyre real life. he said "You
don't get off the mission and go back to real life... THIS IS REAL
LIFE!". It was so legit, I was so happy when I heard it. He said that
the reason that our missions are so hard is because in order to be here
for Jesus Christ we must go through a little bit of what he did in
Gethsemane and on the Cross. It isn't easy for us because it was never
easy for him.
Friends and family, keep working hard. Life is a lot
easier when you're following the commandments of God. Just remember that
and you'll be SET! No matter what we go through, it will be worth it if
we are saved in the Kingdom of God.
Have a good week
Smooches,
Dallin Blake Murphy
p.s. people start sending me more letters. like people that havent! and I'll send pics later today but I forgot my camera
With Elder Jones and Elder Gentry.
Sister Izu at devotional!
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