Transfers... October 22, 2014

So today was transfers... and I am staying here in Bella Vista!! And so is my companion Elder Herrera!! So we have got 6 more weeks together to do a lot of work here in Bella Vista. Elder Torres and Elder Dickson (the other missionaries in the ward) have been taken out of here (Elder Torres to his house in Mexico and Elder Dickson to another area right here in Santiago) and they put sisters here in Bella Vista! Hermana Enriquez and Hermana Malabi are going to be working hard with us. It will be a real blast!!

So we had stake conference this weekend, which was good. While we had no investigators, we had the great chance of seeing Vives, the 106 year old convert, get called by the stake president to share a testimony in front of the whole stake! He is so great, even though he cant see. He got up there really slow, but he speaks really strong and has a great testimony. 

After stake conference, President Douglas went over to my good friend Elder Stegelmeier and asked him how he was doing, then told him he had a special job for him. He paused, then said "I want you to be one of my assistants" and Elder Stegelmeier just was stunned! But when somebody here thinks about it, they know he is the right choice. I have been on a few exchanges with him and he is just a super positive, happy, humble person. 

We have a few families that are starting to progress pretty well. We have been utilizing pretty well the employment center with people and some of them are actually seeing how helpful that is and when they see that, they realize how organized everything is in the church. One is Denny, who we are sharing with with his family, and he has gone a few times in order to get his name out there because he wants to change his job. They are progressing pretty well!! We just want them to start to go to church and theyll be good. 

But yeah this has been a pretty good week. I am thankful  for everything that the Lord gives me, all the blessings and all the trials. It is SO FUN TO BE A MISSIONARY!! There is nothing better than this. 

Love you all!! Keep working hard, reading your scriptures and doing your family home evening. Bethany, i hope youre getting ready to go on a mission in 2.5 years!! WOOOOO!!! and Cole you too!!

CAMILLE AND ALYSE ARE PREGNANT WOOOOAHHHHHHH NO WAYYY!!!!! I CANNOT BELIEVE IT!! I was totally hoping to have 2 more nieces or nephews before I got home and its true!! DREAMS DO COME TRUEEEE!!!!

Elder Murphy

1. With my good friend Elder Torres. He went out with me the first day of the mission with his companion and another missionary in my group to go give out "Book of Mormon"s!!!

2. My man Elder Stegelmeier

A Pretty Special Weekend- October 15, 2014

On Saturday we had a pretty awesome day, we had 6 baptisms. The other Elders in Bella Vista had 1 (one of them fell, the girl went out of town but we will see when it gets done). So, it was a pretty special weekend for Bella Vista and the ward. Tania, Wandy, Yalinet, Yuderlis, Vives and Mercedita were in all white on Saturday, along with Rosa (the other Elders' baptism) and also Elder Alvarado (the missionary I replaced), Elder Herrera, Elder Torres, Bishop Disla, Hermano Alberto Lugo, and me. We sang a special musical number (Abide with me tis even tide) with the sister missionaries from the ward right next to ours, Sister Douglas came with her violin to do the prelude and the postlude (is that what its called? HAHA), and it was just a really special time. So many people came that we had to do it in the sacrament meeting room, then go over to the baptismal font to baptize them. 

The next day we had the primary program, and we had 4 investigators come. Jose Guzman, one of the guys we have been teaching for a long time came for the 2nd week in a row and he was really excited. Also, a boy named Emmanuel came. He is 17 years old and one day, I KNOW IT, will go on a mission. He is really excited about everything and we gave him a baptismal date for the 22nd of November. Also, Nelly came, without Peralta because he had to work, but she also did well. WHAT A WEEK! We were pretty content. 

Also, on Sunday afternoon we went and visited Elvis and Luz. They have been pretty lame for a while because they always say that they are excited to go to church and NEVER GO!! Well, they arent lame, but they are just a little unmotivated. So we went and decided to share a little message with them. I opened up my bible and turned to Matthew 11:28 to 30. Wow, just talking about it made me realize so much more about the importance of it. What he is inviting us to do isnt to let him help us... because really he doesnt say "Give me your yolk and ill help you with that" but he says "Take MY yolk upon you"! He is inviting us to basically leave our way of doing things because we are trying to go alone and do the stuff by ourselves. Going with him means 2 things: He will be right there to help us AND HIS BURDEN IS LIGHT AND HIS BURDEN IS EASY!!! It will be way better. We just have to do it his way, not our way. I love that scripture. So, I made them a contract  and asked them what they wanted to do in order to take HIS yolk upon him. They told us a few things (read, pray, GET MARRIED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE (elvis is a member but luz isnt, hes legally married with someone else) and go to church), and it was a way that we were able to hopefully help them. 

Everything is going well, and I am happy here. Next week is transfers, we will see what happens!!

Elder Dallin Murphy

 

 

General Conference- October 8, 2014

General Conference was pretty awesome. Since I have another americna elder in my ward with me, I was able to watch with him in the secretary's office and it was a great! We had air conditioning!! (The rest of the chapel doesn't have air conditioning). It was a really good conference. I cannot explain how much it just helped me realize that the leaders of the church KNOW that opposition is coming BIG TIME and it is just really really important to get our own testimonies. We need to know what we are doing. 

My favorite talks (not in order) were: Elder Chistofferson, Elder Anderson, Elder Oaks, Elder Jorg Klebingat, Elder Uchtdorf in both!, Elder Bednar, Elder Holland and the rest! Wow as I think about it I just love it! It was just the main topic. WE HAVE GOT TO KNOW THESE THINGS FOR OURSELVES!! I really know that Satan knows that the end is coming, and he wants to give his last effort to take down as many of the chosen ones as possible. We are here as members of the Church of Jesus Christ as foot soldiers against his army. And the missionaries do the dirtiest work. That is why I love it so much!!

This saturday we have 8 baptisms in the ward, and 6 different people are going to be baptizing. So there will be a lot of white!! I am so thankful that the Lord has allowed me to be here in the time where people are able to complete with this little path and begin a new, more important one. Tania, Wandy, Yalinet, Yudelis, Vives and Mercedity are all planned to get baptized from our side!! It is just such a wonderful work. 

Keep up the work, you are all in my prayers. Read and pray and you will know. 

Thanks for all you do!!

Elder Dallin Murphy

1. Wandy and I at his wedding!

2. Elder Herrera and I with Tania and Wandy

La Buena Vista- October 1, 2014

So yes, this has been a really good week. We were able to work more with the members and invite them to go out with us to a couple lessons, which was a good way of helping the investigators out. Also, we did 2 intercambios with the district leaders in the zone, which was a really cool experience too. I went out with Elder Stegelmeier from my group and with Elder Orrellana. Elder Stegelmeier has a nickname by basically the whole mission, or not a nick name but he is just a "maquina" or machine. We went out and taught a bunch of super awesome lessons here in Bella Vista. With Elder Orrellana I went to his area while his companion came to Bella Vista and we enjoyed La Yaguita del Pastor. 

We had Tania and Wandy get married yesterday!!! I would like to send pictures but I forgot my chord in the house so it is kind of impossible right now. But it was a super cool experience to see, I loved seeing people take these steps to keeping the commandments and showing more and more love to the Lord. They are going to get married, with 2 of Tanias daughters on the 11th. Also, 2 of our awesome investigators (Vives and Mercedita) are with the date for the 11th as well. How fun is that!! I feel like I didnt do much to help, since they were pretty ready when I got there. But they are really excited and I cannot complain. Sometimes it is just a real pleasure to be able to participate in these kind of things. I am so lucky!! As a missionary, youre just a little instrument in the Lord's hands. He does the work, he just tells you what to do. And if we do it, the work will get done AS HE WANTS IT TO GET DONE not the way that we want it to get done. 

In church, Roberto got up and shared his testimony. It was a really great experience. He just said that he is so happy to be taking seriously the things of the Lord now, because the Lord had given him chances before and now he is taking advantage. He said "Then Elder Herrera and........ I call him California but his name is... Murphy came and helped me out to keep things going!" HAHA but it was good. Also Vives (he is 106 years old) got up to share his testimony and just testified that this is where he needs to be. How great is that!!

Oh yeah, turns out that Eddy is a less active member. I knew that it was too good to be true, as an investigator. But we will help him out! He had an accident and said that he doesn't remember a lot of things before that accident, but now he is getting back to the fold. That is why we are here. We aren't here to give something new to these people, this is the Oldest truth that has existed... We are just here to remind people of what they already know, as we know from the Plan of Salvation. 

Well, I am so glad for all that you do and thanks for all your prayers!!

Love,

Elder Dallin Murphy

Milagros Milagros Milagros- September 24, 2014

Wow, it was a really awesome week. We have seen a lot of progress in a lot of our investigators. We have been teaching this family, and the parents are named Victor and Cristina, the best friends of the family of our ward mission leader. (their houses are connected). So when we started sharing with them, Jorge, the ward mission leader, told us that he doubted that it would go well and stuff and he wasnt too sure because Victor is a doubter. And has a lot of prior thoughts about the church, so we would have to help him a lot. BUT THEY CAME TO CHURCH!!! How awesome is that??? (Well, if you all dont really understand, being here in the Dominican Republic it is really hard to get someone OUT OF BED and INTO CHURCH on Sunday mornings.) But they came, stayed all 3 hours and loved it!! They seem pretty excited. Their kids went this morning to a youth activity too, so we are hoping all keeps going well. But about his DOUBTS, theyre basically about Joseph Smith, seeing that people really talk bad about that name. He asked what we believed about him and what sort of powers or authority we believe that he had, and we explained about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the priesthood and prophets and it seems like they are doing well!!

We also had other investigators, which was great. It was just a killer sunday!! The family of Tania and Wandy are now going to get baptizedon October 11th because they couldnt get married before this saturday. BUT they are super excited, they know everything, it is just good stuff. We are just getting work done here!! Working hard in Bella Vista. 

For the 2nd week in a row we had Roberto and Papito in church, which was just great. They love it there, and Roberto is just going really well. They are like best friends, and we share with both of them but sometimes Papito isnt there (papito isnt his real name). But Roberto says that he is reading the Book of Mormon to finish it and love it! He is the man. 

Also we found this guy named Eddy after a week of going by his house and not finding him. He was really excited to see us again (it was our 2nd visit with him), and I wasnt too sure why. He pulled out the pamphlet of the Restoration and explained to us EVERYTHING. PERFECTLY!! It was really awesome. He even answered the questions behind!! So, we asked how he felt about it and he said that he prayed and really believes that is was necessary call these prophets in the Americas and in these Latter Days to help us! I hope that it isnt too good to be true, but it is a real miracle.

Good week, love you all!!

HAPPY BDAY DANE!! I LOVE YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE JUST GROWING SO FAST AND IM YOUR FAVORITE UNCLE AND I JUST CANT WAIT TO HANG OUT WITH YOU ALLLLLL THE TIME!!!

Elder Dallin Murphy