Elder Murray New York New York
6/22/2016-07/11/2018
No pictures this week... Elder Murrays device broke... so here is one from the past with one of his missionary buddies (Elder Vincent in the front) that is serving in Armenia. Go Elders!! So you probably don’t remember but one of our investigators named Reynaldo is on baptismal date for the 25 of Feb! He has been meeting with us for 3 weeks and has come to church for the past 2 weeks which is almost unheard of in Yonkers because Literally nobody has cars. Well he is super committed and it is so awesome. This area has become awesome in the last couple weeks! Last night we had this incredible lesson with the Collazo family. So Sister Johnsons’ sister passed away and her son was getting VERY poorly treated by his dad. So the Johnson (name changed to keep their personal life personal (-:) family is helping him (the nephew) get his life together because he doesn’t know what he is doing. The Johnson family has their own story but they are amazing just to give you a little info on them, Brother Johnson was a part of every gang in Yonkers, has done every drug there is to do, has been thrown in jail just over 25 times and now he is married, sealed in the temple, has 4 kids and loves his life. I so wish you could meet these people!! They are a real example of the enabling power of the atonement! Anyway we planned to teach the nephew the plan of salvation and it was one of the most powerful lessons I have experienced. Have you had lessons where things just get brought back to your memory from forever ago? By the time the lesson is over you have no idea what you said? Ahh that is what this lesson was like and by the end this 15 year old kid was in tears and he is coming to church next week!! Missions are AWESOME!!!
I love and appreciate you all!! Elder Murray
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This week was much much better! Haha our trials were but a small moment! We have a golden investigator rn. He like calls us to make sure we meet with him and daily contact is super easy because he is always responding and it's awesome!
We had planned to have 3 investigators at church. Donte, Janice, and Jaequann. Yes Jaequann Elder Paulsen 😂. Anyway Sister Terrero came in clutch the morning of church and asked if anymore of our investigators needed a ride to church. And we were like UM YA. So we took her up on her offer and Reynaldo came to church and loved it! He's so willing and ready and it's awesome. The first time we had a lesson with him we invited him to pray for specific things and at this point he was looking for a job and Literally two days later had a job and boy was his faith boosted. And yeah it was cool. We were teaching gospel principles and he shared that experience with the whole class! Then we had an issue after church and the person that gave one of our less actives a ride forgot about him and we found him a ride and had to leave because we needed to eat so we could get to our appointment on time. We'll he got left at the church for 3 hours... uhhhg I felt AWFUL. We had the member call and apologize. Luckily we are tight so it was all goo and we are meeting with the less active soon. Ummmm what else? we had a zone activity today and played volley ball. Got to go on splits with the AP's which was fun. Going on splits tomorrow with the zone leaders. Elder Lusk is struggling with homesickness a little bit still. Has had to go talk with President the past 2 weeks. Man praying for empathy though. Trying to put myself in his shoes. Lots of awesome dinner appointments this week. We got a few potential referrals from members, we went to dinner with the Daines family. They have 7 kids 3 of whom are triplets and that was a good time. The dad who is also our ward mission leader is crazy and works 70 hour weeks and it's slowly dying. Poor guy. He looked straight pooped the whole time we were there. The triplets were and hoot though. Can't wait to see my cousin triplets. It'll be awesome. Sorry not a ton of time but yeah! That is about it! I love and miss you all! Hey ya'll! Oh man. Too much finding this week with wayyy too little success. It's been a long week let me tell you what haha. On the upside however, a while back Elder Brown and I were prompted to go speak to this man on the street. We later found out that he had just been kicked out of his apartment. We shared a short message with him about how God is our father in heaven and he wants the best for us. The words "God loves you" were so powerful in this lesson and they made this guy cry too. Wow! The spirit is awesome. So we got his contact info and everything and didn't really think to follow up with him because he was homeless and you aren't really supposed to teach homeless people. Well just this last week we were prompted to text him and so we did. It ended up being his birthday which was pretty cool and we were able to set up a appointment with him! We met him at the public library in Yonkers is which is surprisingly probably the nicest building and thing in the city of Yonkers and had a fantastic lesson where we invited him to baptism and he said he would! This guy is willing to give the gospel a try and I know that answer he does he will see the biggest blessings in his life! I'm so excited for him!
Other than that my companion Elder Lusk is doing great, he's had some pretty bad homesickness but as we've got to work and try our hardest to ALWAYS be busy it's left! The coolest thing is he Atonement is applicable to all stages of life, at any point in time, whatever tough thing you may be going through. Realize that Christ went through it all so you don't have to! I mean you still have to but it's just something you get to grow! Nothing has to make you sad! Love the gospel. Oh and this awesome family fed us breakfast last morning! They acre sort of a less active family and have super strong testimonies. They just have a tough time getting up on time! So we went over there for dinner and the dad (Brother Collazo) asked us if we could go over to his house early Sunday morning and bang on their door until they woke up. So we did! Haha it was an we some. Sister Collazo opened the door and all she said was "We are up...😴" she looked so pooped. But then we were leaving to go to the church and we were going to be 20 minutes early to our ward missionary correlation thing and brother Collazo texted us and all they text said was "you are hungry" and he pulled up next to us in his car and said you want breakfast? It'll be 15 mins. And we were so down. He made THE best breakfast sandwhich! It had eggs and ham and bologna and cheese and mayo and dang I woulda payed 8 bones for that sandwich! Well I love you all! Thank you for your support! -Elder Murray Training is the best! My comp is awesome! This week was his first time inviting someone to baptism and he killed it!
Coolest experience happened this week! We were tracting and getting to an appointment because 2 appointments had just cancelled on us and so we knock this door and idk why but I was scared to knock on it but we did it anyway and I learned that if you are scared to do something DO IT! Cuz it's probably Satan telling you not to! So we knocked the door and this big tough and rugged looking guy opens the door and we shared the because of him video. It brought this guy to tears! It was such a cool and spiritual experience! Wow! It was 17 degrees outside and wind was going right through us but our hearts were warm and life is good! Let me tell you what, obedience brings blessings but exact obedience brings miracles! Of course I’m nowhere near perfect and mess up way too much but I'm trying! Sorry not enough time to write a much longer one but it’s a great day to be a missionary! I love you all ☺ Love, Elder Murray Pic of the role play Elder Wadsworth and a nice study chair he found on the street... Desmond one of our investigators on a Facebook video call. All the Trainers My new Trainee from Clinton Utah Elder Lusk Oh I gave my first haircut this week to Elder Wadsworth! It was cool! It looks pretty good too! I'm an official barber. Amy aren'tcha proud? 😉
Thank you for those awesome ties! Anndddd the calendar! I love that calendar haha I love you all.
Wow! Time sure done do fly! So this week was awesome! So last week Elder cheney one of the elders in our apartment finished his mission and went home! He went home 2 days before transfers so Elder Brown, Elder Wadsworth, and I were in a trio for a day which was fun! It was a whole different experience teaching in a trio! Then transfers were the next day and Elder Brown got transferred to Monticello which is clear upstate in a branch, and the new missionaries didn't come in for another day because flight plans around holidays are different. Elder Wadsworth and I were companions for a day becuase we are both training so we were waiting for our trainees. It was pretty funny because in one of our lessons we were teaching the restoration, I was talking and was going to let Elder Wadsworth tell the first vision. I turned to him when the time came and he gave me this look like, "I have no idea what I'm doing! Help!" But he was already talking and I wasn't just going to stop him. He made it through but because he is a Spanish missionary he only knows the first vision in Spanish and I didn't really think about it. Luckily people who haven't heard the first vision don't know if you say it right or wrong so it was alright! The next morning we had a meeting where you get your trainee! It was pretty cool! As a trainer we sit behind the trainees and we kind of guess who we will get as our new companion. Elder Wadsworth totally prophesied who he was going to train. It was crazy! His companion is Elder Perry. Long lanky skinny guy from Utah. My new companion is Elder Lusk from Clinton Utah. First missionary in his entire family ever. Its awesome! He did a semester at Weber state and now he's here! Our first day was crazy cool. I prayed that we would have an awesome first day together and we got seven lessons just by tracting alone! Prayer is awesome! It's so cool to start from scratch. I almost get to reevaluate myself as a missionary and it's been an awesome learning experience. I'm not gonna lie though it's alot of work! At first it feels like it's only you doing the work but as my new companion learns more the load is getting more balanced. I mean It's only been a few days so things are gonna be awesome! I love you all have a great week! Elder Murray |
MissionariesElder Murray called to serve in the New York New York North Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 6/22/2016 through 6/22/2018 Write to Matt
Elder Matthew Murray New York New York North Mission 700 White Plains Rd Ste 315 Scarsdale, NY 10583 Archives
July 2018
Current and Last Area Monticello
6th Area New Rochelle
5th Area
The Bronx 4th Area
West point 3rd Area
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