Elder Murray New York New York
6/22/2016-07/11/2018
Chicken Feet, My friend Elder Caines car (the bullet), my new companion Elder Tatafu, Saying good by to Elder Lusk and our old area friends... I will miss Yonkers! Yup! This place is full of hippies! It's actually really funny. I think everyone we street contact here is on something... Oh yeah! So I'm in a branch now! It's tiny! There's probably like 40 people that attend it's awesome. HOLY, I ATE CHICKEN FEET. Oh my goodness it was terrifying. The Walkers (a Jamaican family in our branch) told us to stop by last night and pick up some food and you know us missionaries we love food from the members! 😉 so we went to pick it up and brought it home not knowing that it was chicken feet soup and we went to dig into it when we got home and low and behold a chicken foot gets scooped out of it and Elder Tatafu almost jumped out of his seat! It is hands down the weirdest thing have ever eaten. I ate the pinky toe because I couldn't do anymore. You had to spit the bones out and ewwwwww. Yeah so it's hard to adjust to this new area I'm not gonna lie. We are teaching this guy named Teddy and set a baptismal date with him last night! We took the branch presidents 18 year old son with us to the lesson last night and man that kid is prepared. He grew up in Payson and then moved out to New Paltz in 2015 where nobody believes in God. And it has strengthened his testimony so much. It was awesome to get him excited to go out on his mission. Good times. We had dinner with a few families and had teddy over to dinner with the Walkers and it was a really spiritual experience for him! But that's pretty much it! The pictures I sent were of me and my roommates, Elder Lusk the families we visited the most in the Westchester ward, annnnnd chicken feet, Elder Tatafu and I and yeah! Oh and the bullet for my good friend John 😉 I've been learning some Tongan from Elder Tatafu and it's such a sick language! Ofa atu!
Elder Murray
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Best District... playin a little spikeball Tranferrrrrrrrs...
Still trying to decide if I like this. I am going to New Paltz it's pretty dang rural. Hey at least I get the crickets though! My companion will be Elder Tatafu. Finally a companion that isn't white and isn't from Utah he's from Alaska and is 7 feet tall. YESSSS. I swear I'm not racist and I love Utah. But people on the streets will give us grief for that kind of stuff hahaha! Elder Lusk is getting transferred too... to Yorktown. The week was a complete blurrrrrr but the highlights hmmm Lots of visiting members, and holy snowstorm. So much shoveling my hands are full of blisters... never had such girly hands... no more guitar no lacrosse and I wasn't using gloves either so that was fun! We happened to be on splits with the zone leaders that day and it was cool! Just went around helping people shovel their walks and get stuff done! Got an unexpected dinner and everything! We went and helped this old crazy guy clean his house. He really wants to get the Melchezidek Priesthood so we have been working with him a little it's kinda hard but I'm trying to be Christlike. We were in a trio for a bit with Elder Dick. Great guy. Mike knighted him as a missionary and it was pretty funny hahaha. So there will only be one set of Elders in our ward now. Elder Norton and Elder Visaya had the northern ward boundaries and then Elder Lusk and I covered the southern boundaries but now Elders Norton and Visaya cover both. So we got permission to have all four of us in our area and I went with Elder Norton and introduced him to everyone I could in our area and Elder Lusk went with Elder Visaya and introduced him to everyone he could in our area as well and it went very well! Now they know a lot of the people in our area! I very very much dislike telling people I love that I'm getting transferred... ahhhhh it's so hard! But I've made it a goal to treat everyone like I'm getting transferred the next day because we had a lot of spiritual lessons filled with lots of love and it was really good. Reynaldo blessed the sacrament yesterday and dang it was awesome. He had to do it twice but he went forward with faith! I was praying for him and just asking Heavenly Father to make sure he was in good hands and will stay strong in the church because while watching him up there bless the sacrament the spirit just testified to me that everything would be ok and just gave me the biggest feeling of peace and comfort. He will be a wonderful leader. I love him and I especially love this gospel and how INCREDIBLE Christ and his atonement is. I love it! I love you all so much! Thank you thank you! Elder Matt Murray Purple flowers Irish village Diagram of the strait and narrow Yeahhhhhhh what even happened this week? Not sure I'm gonna check my area Book. Time went by too fast! It's a blurrrrrr. So oh! Last Monday night I got an impression to go to a single sisters home even though we just went there a few days before. We almost didn't because I didn't want to go over because we were just barely over there. We'll it was like a battle in my brain and I finally decided to yield the enticing of the Holy Spirit (Mosiah 3:19). We just did it and she needed us! She was like "Elders! I've been thinking about you all day! I needed someone to move my dresser from upstairs to downstairs because I'm selling it and they are coming to pick it up tomorrow." So, we couldn't go inside but she lives in an apartment building so we told her if she and her daughter stood in the hall outside of her apartment then we could do it! So she did. It was great to be able to serve the members!
We went on Splits this week again! I went with Elder Norton up to his area. We FROZE. It was so cold and windy and I only brought my jacket. It was awesome. We had a long talk about how to become better missionaries. He struggles a little with obedience. But is an amazing Elder. I love that guy. Since he is training he is starting to see that his disobedience is rubbing off on Elder Visaya and he wants to change that. We talked about the small and simple things and I challenged him to work on one small and simple things right now to work on to progress! It was cool and do I love sitting down for a while and talking how to get better by doing small and simple things. (Alma 37:6) We've been praying so much this week and it helps so much! Every time we get out of the car we pray, every time we do anything we say a prayer. Prayer is such a small and simple things but it brings great things! What small and simple things will you do today or even this week to help you have an optimistic attitude? Write it down! Do it! God will bless you with more happiness! Reynaldo passed the sacrament yesterday! Such a stud! It was amazing to see that. He is an incredibly dedicated guy. We found this cute little Irish village and I got excited. I've never seen anything like it! Oh, and we saw some really vibrant purple flowers too. Nature is cool. Elder Clayton of the seventy came to our ward on Sunday and it was awesome. He gave a talk and he gave us an update on president Monson's health. He said he was doing everything the Lord needs him to do. He doesn't give long talks but he tells us exactly what we need to hear. He also was in a meeting with all the general authorities the other week and he said President Uchtdorf's hair is always perfect, President Eyering cries in every conversation you have with him, and then he stopped for a second and looked around the congregation and said "Christ is coming soon." And the spirit just rushed over my body. I know that's true. "He gave the ward one piece of advice. He said to those of you who are married, love your companion. Just love them." It kinda got me scared because I wanna get married and be a dad in this life! He made it sound like the end was REALLY close and wow! Mixed emotions about all this! A little testimony builder that happened that I never mentioned was when I was sick I got the worst bloody noses and one night it wouldn't stop. I was up until 11:30 with blood running down my throat and I put all the pressure in the world on it and it WOULD NOT STOP. Well I tried waking up my companion do he could give me a blessing but he like legit wouldn't wake up. So I finally ally got the courage and the faith to ask Elders Wadsworth and Perry for one. They gave me one and no more bloody noses! Went right to bed and slept great! It was so dang cool! Well that's all folks! I love you all! 1. Gospel of Jesus Christ cycle 2-4 splitttt 5. Lunch and fruit roll up tongue tattoos! (I promise I'm not high) 6. Dinner at the Ortiz 7. We found a pic that made it look like Reynaldo was smiling so I had to send it. Sooooo this week was sick! It all started with Elder Gong! It was cool. It's crazy. Time and time again every time I hear an apostle or seventy speak I'm always so amazed how simply they talk about the Gospel! Time and time again I am reminded how simple the Gospel of Jesus Christ really is! I feel like everyone complicates living the Gospel. I know I do. I am so thankful for the opportunity to listen to the Prophets, Apostles, and general authorities! It's an upward cycle of lasting happiness! I love it. I drew a little visual to help people understand that it's not something you just do over and over and over again. It's a constant cycle of progression and learning. It never gets boring! "It works wonderfully!"-President Uchtdorf. Best talk! Read it.
Oh snap! And we had zone meeting. Such a spiritual meeting. It has been miraculous watching Elder Lusk's growth. He was asked by the Zone leaders to give a Testimony at the end of zone meeting and so he did. He had been studying Jacob 5 during his studies that morning and had been taught by the spirit and had really more fully understood the parable of the vineyard. He explained that not all of us have been producing good fruit all our lives. He then quoted this scripture it's Jacob 5. It says: 26 And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard said unto the servant: Pluck off the branches that have not brought forth good fruit, and cast them into the fire. 27 But behold, the servant said unto him: Let us prune it, and dig about it, and nourish it a little longer, that perhaps it may bring forth good fruit unto thee, that thou canst lay it up against the season. 28 And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard and the servant of the Lord of the vineyard did nourish all the fruit of the vineyard. He then went on to say that Jesus Christ wants to nourish us all a little longer. No matter what situation we are in or what we've done or anything! He Literally everyone in zone meeting crying. I am so proud of this man. He is going to be such an amazing leader in this mission! So blessed that I got to be his first companion! I got to arrange Splits with the Elders in my district which was fun! I went on a split with Elder Visaya who is Elder Norton's trainee. It was a good time and lots of learning went down! It ended up being his birthday so I took him to McDonald's for dinner because it is his favorite and it was great to talk to him about his goals and his purpose as a missionary! And what he does well and what he could work on. He made this crazy sandwich at McDonald's and I took a pic of him. Sunday happened! And it happened real good. Man, we have been seeing progress in this ward! Everyone is so supportive of Reynaldo and his decision to be baptized! Brother Clayton gave him the priesthood and ordained him to the office of priest! Reynaldo payed his tithing for the first time and Brother Collazo was paying his tithing at the same time and basically bore his testimony to Reynaldo about the blessings that come from paying tithing. It was awesome! Then Brother Ortiz invited Reynaldo and us over for dinner and that was awesome! Reynaldo showed up in his white shirt and tie and man did he look fresh! It was so cool! I have a Testimony you of the Gospel changing people. It can change every single one of us for the better! Oh, and almost every single person we have been working with less actives and investigators showed up to church this week too which was such a cool blessing. Hard work will pay off when you least expect it! WOW WOW WOW! and yeah that was out week! I love being a missionary! And I love you all! |
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
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