What a World- September 25, 2013

So today was a little bit sad. WE woke up to go play basketball and we played with an inactive 17 year old from the ward in the court outside the chapel. WE were playing and I was SOOO BAD and I have turned into a nonathletic slob. I could barely touch the rim and my shots were all over the place. Maybe it is the humidity because that was some awful times. But it was fun! And afterwards Elder Cannon and I saw a guy with a sledge hammer pounding a roof into dust so we went up to help him! He said they were going to redo the roof, so we got to go onto the top and fire away. It was pretty fun, but hot!

So last Friday we ended up going with Fellito to the office to find out about his ¨celula¨which is kind of like the social security number needed to do anything here, and they said it would be really almost impossible. BUT they said he only needs a passport to be married. WHICH IS AWESOME except for the fact that it costs 2000 pesos to get a passport, 10000 for a non-Dominican and a Dominican to get married, and then 500 for each of their three kids. So 13500 pesos for a Haitian without a set job? that will take years. but he seems excited and we are hoping he keeps working for it because a few years of working is worth the infinity with your family in the kingdom of God. Also, we went today with a friend of Elder Cannon from his previous area to see about them getting married. He is a return missionary and isn't married to this sister and has been inactive for a few years. BUT elder cannon taught his soon to be wife, and they are both in it to get sealed in the temple. They have a sad story though, they were in an accident with their house where they made it out but their house burned down... and their three kids didn't make it out. They were heart broken but it made them realize even more the importance of families. I can see the happiness they have, and Elder Cannon and I get to be there wen they are married In villa Gonzalez on Friday. WOOT WOOT.

ON Sunday we ran into some crazy guy, and that was a little frustrating. He first didn't let us start with a prayer,  but we decided to try and have a nice lesson on the plan of salvation. He immediately started pulling scriptures out of his bible and was arguing concepts that didn't even pertain to the lesson and the scriptures didn't pertain to the arguments. But I decided I would only ask him to read the BOOK of Mormon then testify of its truthfulness. As I began speaking, he started talking and I got mad and said ¨'hey puedo hablar!?!?¨and i realized there that there was no hope. SO we just parted ways nicely and went off to the rest of Villa Gonzalez where I enjoy talking to the people.

One cool thought that I had was this. When we were teaching a cousin  of a newly baptized member, we began talking about the fall of Adam. I realized this. If the fall hadn't happened, why would we need Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ´s atonement did two things... the first being made it possible for all men to be resurrected, and the other was that we could be forgiven of all of our sins if we repented. So if the fall didn't happen, we wouldn't have had death or sin in the world... so Jesus wouldn't have needed to come. But he was chosen from the beginning to come and do that, even before Adam and Eve, so the fall was a necessary piece of the plan of God. The perfect plan.

Sorry about the weird typing, this keyboard stinks. I love hearing from you all, I am working my self as hard as I can and I am loving every minute. I am hoping that everyone who is thinking about serving a mission decides to do so because this is the very best ever. I am just continually happy and working. Stick to the work til it sticks to you, for beginners are many and finishers few. Mom I just made that up isn't that pretty good?

But really, thanks for your prayers and help, Love you all


Dallin Murphy, Elder

Momma knows best- September 18, 2013

Pretty tame week, I must say. Basically, nothing happened. Why? Somebody got Dengue. That person felt really weak for a whole week, and he and his companion stayed in the hospital from thursday night to tuesday morning. It was nice for them to be in the air conditioning, but that was basically the only good part. For him, he had a fever, was weak, had a headache and his bowel movements were far from normal. For his companion, it was awful. Elder Cannon was the one with Dengue HAHA I was the companion. So I think that the Lord is telling me something...  GO AND USE BUGSPRAY. So from now on  I am going to use it 2 to 3 times a day. And then Mom, you cant get mad because then I will have done all that I can. But I got plenty of reading done in my Book of Mormon. I was in 1 Nephi 4 and then got to 2 Nephi 4! 2nd Nephi Chapter 4 is too great, I love the emotion Nephi uses. He gets so frustrated with the little things, he is trying to be the best he can be but there are so many things that come up and hold him back, basically being the instincts of the Natural man instead of someone being a follower of Christ. I have a lot of those sort of feelings a lot. It is frustrating but what more can we do than try to be better day by day.

That is so hard to hear about Ryan Conley. I did not know him too well, but anyone that is worthy to be a part of that Gates family is probably 10 times the person that I am. I send my humble condolences to them and hope that they do alright, but I know that they are so firm in the faith and know that they know what there is besides this life. 

Also, I am now praying for Wes. He is such a warrior. I think about him all the time when I am out here, because he was so amazing  with the Nicaraguan people. I want to be as awesome as he is and friends with these people as he was with those people when he lived there for about a year. 

CHARLIE MY MAN You´re in the MTC!!! AHH thats crazy. Seeing that I am now a seasoned veteran, I invite you to email me with any questions. haha just kidding, but I am sure he did so good with his talk and his eagle court of honor. Good to see all the friends back together for one last time without their stout cornerstone who is here only looking at some nice pictures of the good looking people back from Irvine. 

So we have a branch. Our branch consists of More or less 600 members with 35 to 40 coming to church weekly, so that is a lot of fun. we work a lot with less actives, but we are trying our best to do all we can to be positive and love them. Which we are. 

We teach 3 to 6 lessons a day, so that probably evens out to 20 to 25 a week. It is just so spaced out, we could probably get more in but it takes like 30 minutes to walk to the closest investigator. 

In Santiago there are these things called Ruta´s, which are little taxis that just go on a route in the city, They pack in people, in their little corrollas, so there is a max of 7 and they just go and honk and stuff and they drive crazy. They dont really have traffic laws except stay on the road and stop at red lights. When we need to get to Santiago we take a bus, and those also they PACK so it is a lot of great fun in public transportation. But we walk around Villa Gonzalez. 

We eat every sunday at a member´s house, and it is a bunch of rice mixed with beans called MORO it is sooooo gooooooooodddd I LOVE IT I eat so much!. They also eat fruit, they eat a lot of basically chicken. They also love spagetti! This is the best food I have ever had besides mom´s food, but I love it. Like I probable 2 full mounds filling the plates full at home when we make it and when we go to a house. I love it. 

Anyways, not much else.  I love you all and trust that you are still the same, wonderful friends and family I have always had. 

Stay lovely,

Dallin

Sweaty Rain- September 11, 2013

So I got my first wonderful taste of Dominican rain. On thursday, friday, saturday and sunday, it POUNDED rain down on us! It is pretty fun. I thought it was raining hard, and that was just the beginning because I am just used to good old Irvine rain. It just never stops once it starts here, but it gets so hot that it is a nice thing. Also, it has been mostly raining in the afternoon and night time, so it cools down since there is absolutely no Air Conditioning here. But rain will not slow us down, we keep working and walking and walking. 

We walk a lot. the other day we walked to an area for a straight hour, and then taught 2 families, then walked an hour back. It takes 15 minutes at a minimum to walk anywhere, like the closest places we go, from our apartment, but no complaints. it just takes a long time. When I am walking I always get really wet. Either it is HOT and HUMID and I sweat up a storm, or it is nice and cool, with rain pounding down, or both. My shoes are getting a little gray, but I am learning to shine my shoes so that is a good thing. 

I stopped reading my scriptures in spanish. I was going to finish my reading of the Book of Mormon in English, but it was just taking way too long. Also, it is sad when I open up my scriptures and see a blank set of scriputres since I have no annotated my Spanish ones really at all. But I am going to get there. 

On sunday, we didnt have any investigators to church... but 4 less active members came! It was awesome to see all of them there. One was Fellito, my man, then there was a guy named Gregorio and his son, and Aries, a lady we have worked with a decent amount in our time here. Fellito is working to get his citezinship number (I cant spell anymore haha) because he seems to want to get married. We are going to go with him and work with the place here in Villa Gonzalez that can help him with that. Gregorio is a man with great faith, but has been going to a church that skewed a few of his perceptions of Doctrine in the scriptures. But, we are working with him a lot on the importance of ordinances and authority ALONG with faith and the spirit. Aries has a daughter on a mission, and has a daughter who is really active. But she came and seemed to really enjoy herself. 

We taught a good amount to less actives, and it seemed to always go back to the importance of the Sacrement. The importance of always keeping/renewing the covenants of baptism every week at church. We have the opportunity to have the companionship of the Holy Ghost with us always, but we have to be worthy and show we are willing to submit to God's will in the way we live our lives. 

This place is wonderful. I am loving the people, the food, the fruit, and everything else. The people have a culture of drinking lots, and it seems that every single drunk guy speaks english. We were teaching a family, and the dad was very intoxicated and was talking and stuff the whole lesson. but it turned out well. He cussed me out in English though! Pretty impressive.

We are continually working as hard as we can to invite others to come unto Christ day by day, minute by minute. 

Charlie, have fun in the MTC. Email me! But yeah I hope you've been prepping and focusing on this because it is exhausting and so humbling. I feel like I know nothing and am nothing, but God makes up the difference when we are trying to work the best we can. 

Dane, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I love you my man. Don't get too yolked while i'm gone. 

With love,

Elder Murphy

Villa Gonzalez- September 4, 2013

I´m in Villa Gonzalez, for those who were wondering what area I was in. It is great here! It is big and we walk everywhere, except when we need to go to Santiago. I went to the hospital already, but thats just because the doctor for the missionaries is there and I got bit by something on my hand and it swelled up a little bit. I AM USING BUGSPRAY MOM but these are no regular bugs, Dominican dwellers do not stop for Off!, they only stop when they decide to.

I have been seeing some fun things here that the Dominicans like to do. 1. They have their priorities all crazy. The most important things are their speaker systems, their mopeds or motorcycles, and their alcohol. Yesterday we were teaching a wonderful couple that want to get married. He said that he didnt have enough money, and I believed it when I saw the living conditions they were in. He is from Haiti and she is from here, and their little community is a hatian community where more little kids have no clothes than clothes. But then later we were walking and we saw him, driving the cleanest, slickest motorcycle I could think of. GO GET MARRIED FELLITO! But theyre awesome people. Their music plays louder than Bishop Bollard's band does, and they have no money. 2. When you say hi, they say bye. Like I walk by, say ´salugos´ which means greetings, and they say ´bye´ but its not even impolite its just normal. 3. They do everything on the front porch, no matter how loud it is. 4. They drink from 12:30-3 then at night. they love their alcohol but theyre still the friendliest people I have ever met. 5. They speak such lazy spanish and mumble, so I dont know how well i will be able to speak with the slick speaking friends back home, i´ll be cutting off syllables and not using my S´s.

It is really hot here. The nights are ok, when the power stays all night, but the daytime is really hot. I sweat, I drink water, I sweat some more. Dinners here consist of carbs carbs carbs. we have cream of wheat, rice, spagetti or top ramen. And eggs. but I love the food, we had a legit meal at a member´s house on sunday and it was Rice mixed with beans, beef, YUCA (some sort of root) and potato salad. They dished me the rice and it was a MOUND on my plate. but I ate it then got another serving. I am eating more than ever here, but we are able to do that and it tastes great. 

My spanish is coming along. I can speak pretty well, but it is hard to understand them. But it is coming along. 

2 lessons stuck out this week to me. The first was with a man Rafaelito and his wife, mercedita. We were talking about marriage, baptism, and the importance of them knowing if this really is Gods church. She said that she was not too sure, and she needed more time. We understood, and stressed that she read the Book of Mormon and come to church so that she can find out for herself if this was the correct path to follow. Then Rafaelito came out and gave a strong testimony about how this has really helped him. He talked about how much he wanted this for his family and for himself, and how he has seen his life improving from it. The spirit was spewing out of the room there was not enough space to hold all of it. I couldnt understand most of it but you could tell he really cares about flipping his life around. The second was with a couple, the man named Juan Diaz. Juan works at a tobacco factory (Villa Gonzalez provides the best tobacco in the country) and he said that he has to smoke to keep his job. The workers are the testers of the product. Elder Cannon explained to him that he can try and figure it out, and ask God for help. That didnt seem like enough for him, so I took out 1 Nephi 3:7 and told him, in my limited spanish, ´this is a promise contained in the Book of Mormon. If the Book of Mormon is true, then the LDS church is true. if this church is true, the word of wisdom, or the commandment prohibiting tobacco, is a true commandment of God. This is why you have to find out if this it true. Once you do, and you ask God for help, he will find the way. It is a promise. And I know that it is true. I am called as a missionary to help people recieve this Gospel. And I am so thankful for that´ and then he basically sat back and said that he needed to find out for himself. At that moment I thought to myself ´wow, this is real. I am legitimately a missionary´. It was a great experience. 

Alma 29:6 is such a great scripture. Why ask for more when we are called of God to preach his word? its the truth. All that we really need to do is be here and do our best. As long as we are keeping the rules, staying humble, and working our hardest, God will provide for the rest. God is so great, he is way too good to us. Christ is our savior and continually comes to us when we need him most, and all too often I do not notice it when he is helping. All I do is for them, or I am trying to make it that way.

I will send pictures next week, this week is a little weird but I have some good ones to send. 

That is awesome that the fam was able to go to Reno then to Dad´s old mission areas! I really want to do that when I get back home. Come back here, and hang out with the gang out here. They really are way too nice, just really drink too much. Even the drunk guys are nice, one came up to me the other night and was making friendly conversation in broken english. He was hilarious with a massive whiskey bottle in his hand, but its all good. I try not to judge. 

I heard that the USA declared war on Syria? a guy stopped us on the street to ask us about it and we had no idea. Way to go america, you guys care too much. Just live off your music and motorcycles and you´ll be set.

Well that is really all for today, its hot and sweaty but too great.

Oh yeah Camille, happy birthday! I love you because you write me every week and just love me way more than I deserve. You care a lot about others and truly try and be the best example. Keep working hard.

Sweaty and happy,

The better looking elder murphy