Elder Murray New York New York
6/22/2016-07/11/2018
This week was good! I listened to the talk called "bear up their burdens with ease". It is such a powerful talk. Here is an excerpt.
"I have a dear friend who, in the early years of his marriage, was convinced he and his family needed a four-wheel-drive pickup truck. His wife was sure that he did not need but merely wanted the new vehicle. A playful conversation between this husband and wife initiated their consideration of the advantages and disadvantages of such a purchase. “Sweetheart, we need a four-wheel-drive truck.” She asked, “Why do you think we need a new truck?” He answered her question with what he believed was the perfect response: “What if we needed milk for our children in a terrible storm, and the only way I could get to the grocery store was in a pickup?” His wife replied with a smile, “If we buy a new truck, we will not have money for milk—so why worry about getting to the store in an emergency!” Over time they continued to counsel together and ultimately decided to acquire the truck. Shortly after taking possession of the new vehicle, my friend wanted to demonstrate the utility of the truck and validate his reasons for wanting to purchase it. So he decided he would cut and haul a supply of firewood for their home. It was in the autumn of the year, and snow already had fallen in the mountains where he intended to find wood. As he drove up the mountainside, the snow gradually became deeper and deeper. My friend recognized the slick road conditions presented a risk, but with great confidence in the new truck, he kept going. Sadly, my friend went too far along the snowy road. As he steered the truck off of the road at the place he had determined to cut wood, he got stuck. All four of the wheels on the new truck spun in the snow. He readily recognized that he did not know what to do to extricate himself from this dangerous situation. He was embarrassed and worried. My friend decided, “Well, I will not just sit here.” He climbed out of the vehicle and started cutting wood. He completely filled the back of the truck with the heavy load. And then my friend determined he would try driving out of the snow one more time. As he put the pickup into gear and applied power, he started to inch forward. Slowly the truck moved out of the snow and back onto the road. He finally was free to go home, a happy and humbled man. I pray for the assistance of the Holy Ghost as I emphasize vital lessons that can be learned from this story about my friend, the truck, and the wood. It was the load. It was the load of wood that provided the traction necessary for him to get out of the snow, to get back on the road, and to move forward. It was the load that enabled him to return to his family and his home." The ultimate goal is to return home to our heavenly parents! We have all been given loads in our lives. At times they may seem unbearable but they provide the traction to move forward with faith in Christ! Elder Bednar says it a lot better but I love his talk. Check out the whole talk! https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/bear-up-their-burdens-with-ease?lang=eng I love you all! Sorry not a ton of time this week! Elder Murray
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Our ghetto bench press. Basically just a bunch of pvc filled with cement Book of Mormon taxi. He didn't want to learn more about the real Book 😔 My sons 😂 ok they are brother and Sister Ampah's. They are the best! Our house and sunset pics Well, the Book of Mormon is true! This week was awesome! Super tough but awesome. Mostly all of the appointments we had fell through. I got to grow closer to the Savior this week though! Couldn't ask for anything more. I found myself drifting a bit earlier this week and I was pondering why. Why does that have to happen? Why do we sometimes lose focus on the things that matter most? I had an experience that helped me find out why a few days ago. As a woke up one morning after a series of mornings of being groggy and tired, I decided I was done with being groggy and tired! I woke up and went straight into the room where we have a super ghetto bench press and started working out immediately. (Prayer to be said later) I did my exercise and then had my morning prayers. I connected my Bluetooth speaker to my tablet, chose a conference talk to listen to called "You are my hands" by Elder Uchtdorf, pressed play, and set my tablet outside the door (its a rule to not take your tablet or phone into the bathroom). Then hopped in to our bi-polar shower😈😇😨😈😨😇😈. It was miraculous! I listened to the talk and I felt the spirit. I felt this renewed assurance that Jesus Christ is my Savior and I want to and need to always rely on Him and trust Him. I came to the conclusion that we "drift" so that we may constantly come back and have that reassuring spirit come into our lives that what we are doing is right and true and that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. As this happens we do grow closer to Him and slowly but surely drift won't happen quite as much. It will still happen here on earth but less frequently.
As I studied Alma chapter 5 in The Book of Mormon that same morning I read these verses: 7 Behold, he changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God. Behold, they were in the midst of darkness; nevertheless, their souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word; yea, they were encircled about by the bands of death, and the chains of hell, and an everlasting destruction did await them. 8 And now I ask of you, my brethren, were they destroyed? Behold, I say unto you, Nay, they were not. 9 And again I ask, were the bands of death broken, and the chains of hell which encircled them about, were they loosed? I say unto you, Yea, they were loosed, and their souls did expand, and they did sing redeeming love. And I say unto you that they are saved. I love the word illuminated in verse 7. My soul was illuminated as I listened to the words of the living prophets, it was illuminated again as I studied the scriptures (everlasting word). Again, that confirmation that this gospel is true! As I studied these verses that morning I was energized and excited to go out and serve the Lord. I know that this can happen to each one of you as you study the Book of Mormon. I know by experience that The Book of Mormon answers questions and illuminates the soul with the light of Christ. I know that we have living prophets today and that as we follow their counsel we will have joy in our lives and receive divine direction. I love you all! Elder Murray Transfer day pictures and P-Day last week on the town This week was totally legit! We had an awesome zone conference and there was an inspired comment by my old district leader Elder Smith. "We have to stop focusing on changing ourselves and start focusing on trusting the savior." May we all do that!
How cool is it that Elder Oaks is in the first Presidency! He's mom's favorite apostle! I loved how President Nelson said in the broadcast that he is starting with the end in mind. More wonderful counsel. Before making decisions ask yourself: what effect could this decision have on life? We had some sweet miracles! There was a lady who had ordered a bible and never got it so we went by and tried to give it to her. She needs a large print but she let us in and asked us if we had been walking on white plains road earlier that day. We told her we had and she then told us that the spirit of the Lord told her to come and get us. She got too scared so she didn't. We didn't know who she was and we didn't see her on the street. Then it just so happened that we felt that we should go check to see if this lady had received her bible and! There we were at her front door. We were able to teach her the restoration which she doesn't quite yet fully understand but we set a return appointment and we are going back soon! We also talked about The ARP program during district meeting last week. Well elder Horner and I were talking about how we as humans would most likely not be the superior life form on earth if it weren't for the blessing of communication. We were talking about how sometimes we get nervous about opening our mouths and talking to people about the gospel. Then as I was saying that this man almost walked by us and we stopped him and he asked us a bunch of awesome questions and he is a recovering addict. We invited him to the ARP and he is stoked about it! We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he asked before we could even get to it if there was a certain place to start. We felt prompted to leave him with ether chapter 12. Miracles are awesome! Trusting in the savior is even more awesome. I love you all! I love being a missionary! I love my savior. The Book of Mormon is true! Ive felt it. Elder Murray Haha subject line explanation: a lot of people that live in the city are not from the city but when you ask them where they are from and they are from the Bronx 80 percent of the people from the Bronx say they are from the boogie down Bronx its pretty funny.
So! This week was fairly good! Besides the temperatures that felt like -15 it was actually super good! We have been calling people in our area book and have set up a lot of appointments! We met with this one man named brother Adrian this week! He is really cool! Committed to baptism and we are meeting with his whole family this week! There are six of them! I love this work 😊 he originally met missionaries in Ghana and has had a copy of the book of Mormon for a little over 6 years now. And now we are teaching him. I love gods timing. It works out so perfectly. Couple cool things I've found as a companion if you voice your spiritual promptings you are 100 percent more likely to follow them because duh who wouldn't want to follow a prompting given by God. By yourself sometimes it's hard because you're scared but with both of you BAM! Mission accomplished. So that happened a few times this week. Where I got a prompting and told elder Horner and we set like 2 return appointments because of that. Then another time elder Horner didn't voice his prompting but I saw it and asked him if he got a prompting and he said maybe and he went and knocked on this door and we met Larry! He's pretty cool and is interested in the message of the restored gospel! God is so involved in this great work. I have been memorizing scripture references along with a phrase everyday for the past 10 days. I love it. It comes in so handy in lessons!!! The spirit will bring them to my mind and teaching with the scriptures makes everything better. It's nice to have variety too! That is my week in a nutshell. I love talking to random people on the bus and subway some people are so awkward about it! We have some good conversations there though. It's exhilarating! President told me I would be training again before my mission ends! I'm super excited. I love you all! Elder Murray -The district the only black elder is my comp. He was just in my district and now we companions -the Fuhriman family -the Estelle family! The wife is a recent convert - the merkley family minis Charles 🙁he was napping. He's the cutest 2 year old -And the district bowling! The three family The Patel family The Ridgeway fam (our neighbors across the street) The Shaha family The Huxel family The Naylor family Elder Norton and I on transfer day The Goodiers! The Van Sweringens The Woodbrey fam I have been called to da bronx! White washing with elder Horner from cali. I'm no longer a zone leader I am a district leader again. It's gonna be sweet!
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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
New Paltz 2nd Area
Yonkers 1st Area
Manhattan 100 Day Book of Mormon challange
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