Elder Murray New York New York
6/22/2016-07/11/2018
It's been a good week! We got to go on a split with the Assistants this week and it was inspiring. It was cool because we didn't listen to any music or any general conference talks on the long drive back to the assistants area. Both of us just talked about the gospel and how we can help our investigators overcome their road blocks the entire time. We literally talked about the gospel all day and it was so enlightening. So Elder Peterson and I have been applying that and there has been no contention ever since. The gospel changes things! Also this scripture has meant a lot to me these past couple days.
D&C 58 27 Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; 28 For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward. I think that is so cool! We are created by God. He has given us the ability and power to choose right from wrong. The power is in us! As you rely on Jesus Christ it becomes much easier to choose the right. You begin to understand your real purpose and identity. You understand that you are a child of God and have divine potential to one day live with and become like God! It is so sweet. This week Taryn has been progressing towards baptism so well! We taught her about tithing and how sacred it truly is. She committed to pay tithing after she was baptized! She also is making it so she doesn't have to work on Sundays! We talked about how blessings truly do come from giving back to the Lord. I love how simple it is to teach this principle. God has given us everything we have. All he asks in return is 10%! And he blesses you without measure when you do pay tithing. God is good! Hebrews 10 35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. 36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. I have sent this to you before but I felt to send it again. Something I learned this week about leadership was having confidence in the Lord and his promises. I invite you all to study the promises that God has made to those who keep his commandments. It truly is incredible! God keeps his promises! D&C 82 8 And again, I say unto you, I give unto you a new commandment, that you may understand my will concerning you; 9 Or, in other words, I give unto you directions how you may act before me, that it may turn to you for your salvation. 10 I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise. As we keep the commandments everything will work out! I know that God loves us and he has a plan for each and every one of us! Sometimes we need to step back and look at the bigger picture and ask ourselves "what can I learn from my current circumstances that will help me later in my life?" So yeah! This week has been good! I love you all! And I AM SO STOKED FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE! Make sure to prepare questions to take to Conference. They will get answered! God does speak to his children ☺ Elder Murray
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Holy moly. Prayer is the bomb! I have been praying for increased desire for this marvelous work this week and it has come outta nowhere! I love it I love it I love it! At times I feel like the sons of Mosiah in Mosiah chapter 28:3 where it says
Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble. It is so tough when people turn down the plan of salvation, the restoration, the gospel! Ahh! They just don't know what they are missing! I want to help them so bad. But praying for an increased desire to serve will bring big blessings! I want to desire to do this work more than anything else! I love God's plan for us I love how God is an excellent example of goal setting! His goal: to being to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. His plan: the plan of salvation. As we live the gospel we are truly on the strait and narrow. Its a journey of joy and happiness. Trials will come but we have our savior Jesus Christ. He's experienced the strait and narrow and he's here to help us accomplish the things which God has commanded us. The atonement is incredible. I am so grateful for living prophets today. I know that Jesus Christs church has been restored along with his priesthood authority. I am so blessed to know that I carry that priesthood and the responsibilities that come with being a priesthood holder. I love you all! Sorry for the short email! Running out of time... Elder Murray This week was awesome! On Wednesday one of the cadets here brought his friend to dinner at one of our members families homes. It was great! We were able to teach him to restoration and he loved it but not enough to be baptized... It was still cool to see how anxiously engaged our returned missionaries are though! I got to go on splits twice this week. Once in the Spanish program in Newburgh and once with on of the district leaders here in my area. It was so cool. In the Spanish program I can't really understand too much during lessons. What they were saying must have been true though because I sure felt the spirit. After the lesson we had the opportunity to give to priesthood blessings. My companion for the day Elder Sumsion gave both of them in Spanish. The first blessing was pretty rough because elder Susmion is still learning Spanish. So all throughout the second blessing I was praying and praying for him. Well after we left and got in the car he turned to me and said that while he was giving the second blessing he could feel the spirit working through him. He could tell that God had a lot of love for the lady that he gave the blessing to.
So on Friday night We were preparing for President Nelson and as soon as we got home we had a conference call with the mission. President Smith talked to us about logistics of the meeting and everything and how it was to be set up and where we were to sit and all to make it most efficient and reverent. Well at the end of the call we got to pray together as a mission over the phone. President prayed and wow it was incredible. The spirit was so strong. He was kneeling in prayer with his family at home, the whole mission was kneeling in prayer with their companions, and I felt like I was at home. I felt like I was having prayer in the front room on the red rug with my family! The spirit was so strong. President then gave us a blessing by the authority of the Melchizedek priesthood that we would receive answers from the prophet of God that was coming to see us the next day. President Russell M. Nelson, Elder Gong of the presidency of the seventy, Bishop Wadell of the presiding bishopric, as well as area seventy Elder Buckner, and all of their wonderful wives were all at the meeting. We were getting set up for the picture on the stage singing "We thank thee oh God for a prophet" when President Nelson walked in with Sister Nelson and the spirit doubled as soon as they walked in. He turned 93 on the same day we met with him and he is as spry as a water buffalo on a cool day. He was so excited to be there! After the picture we all got to shake their hands and it was awesome. I was lucky enough to be one of the 5 missionaries to get my picture taken shaking an apostle of the Lord's hand. It was such a cool experience. At one point in the meeting President Nelson said "Well, now I would like to answer a question that you may ask: Brother Nelson you are a prophet seer and revelator, what do you see when you look at us? (...Long pause as he looked at us all...) I don't see 18 year old youth, 20 year old, 21 year old. I see you as mother's and fathers, I see some of you sitting in the chairs that we now sit in, and more." As soon as he said this the spirit swept over me like a big warm wave. I know he is truly a prophet seer and revelator. We are so blessed to have the same organisation as the primitive church. We are blessed to have a prophet on earth today to lead and guide us as children of God! I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! Elder Murray Wow! What a solid week! I'll kind of go from Wednesday to Wednesday so here we go! Last p-day was awesome. We got together as an 8 Elder district and played soccer. So fun! We even had these mini 6 by 4 goals. Perfect for 4 on 4. That was a blast! Then that night we had a member referral lesson with dinner! So awesome! So We have been setting goals with the members to have someone ready to be taught the gospel by certain days and alot of members chose the beginning of the harvest of their set dates is here! We were able to teach him the restoration and were able to use a lot of the How to begin teaching points in preach my gospel. I love those! We talked a little about baptism but didn't invite him to be baptized... I'm kinda mad at myself for not doing that. I totally should have. It's gonna happen next time! #repentanceiscool
Then on Thursday we had another member dinner referral lesson. So sweet! We got to teach the restoration and invited him to be baptized and he said yes! We will be setting a date with him in our next lesson! I love the feel of the room when we teach the first vision. It's awesome. So yeah these last two member referrals were from cadets here at West Point. We just went over to member families for dinner and a place to teach and they helped a ton! Then we had another member dinner referral lesson at the Merkley's. Their friend is more curious than anything but "Faith is power, and it can cause things to happen that need to happen" -President Nelson On Friday we had MLC which was awesome as usual! There has been some contention in our zone due to some misunderstanding and we pretty much got that all solved. Phewwww! It felt like a load just got lifted off our shoulders. Then on Saturday it was Roberts Baptism! Such an amazing experience! We probably had around 50 people come to support him! We got to share the restoration as part of the program and it was the best! It was so neat to feel the whole rooms atmosphere completely change when we taught the audience the first vision. After we had taught the restoration we invited anyone who was there who didn't have a cop of the Book of Mormon that they were welcome to co e up to us after and get a copy! So Roberts niece came up to us after and asked for a copy of The Book of Mormon. We gave one to her and set up an appointment with her for Monday night with Robert and his dad. Then on Saturday night we got transfer calls! Elder Peterson and I are staying! We had a new area open up in our district so now it's a ten elder district! It's a party. On Monday night We went over there and did a little recap of the restoration and now to begin teaching. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted and then set a baptismal date with her! She is so prepared! The field is white already to harvest! (D&C 4) On Tuesday we met with Shane. He's a 14 year old boy we have been work I g with. He came to church the past two weeks and seems to really like it! We had a great lesson with him yesterday and set a baptismal date with him as well! We are so excited for the transfer! Our goal is to have 3 baptism by the end of the transfer and we have already been guided to two of those souls! God is good ☺ Something cool from studies I learned this week was from the book of Mormon Reading challenge we are doing. In 1 Nephi 8:13 and 1 Nephi 15:27. 13 And as I cast my eyes round about, that perhaps I might discover my family also, I beheld a river of water; and it ran along, and it was near the tree of which I was partaking the fruit. You will see in verse 13 that Lehi didn't even see that the water was filthy. He didn't even realize that the depths of those waters were the bitterness of sin and all that bad stuff. Then in 15:27 it says: 27 And I said unto them that the water which my father saw was filthiness; and so much was his mind swallowed up in other things that he beheld not the filthiness of the water. So as our minds are focused on helping others we won't have to be be scared of the filthiness of the world. We can be so enveloped in the good and in God that that alone will help lighten others loads will help you be a light unto others. It was a pretty sweet chapter! So yeah it's been a great week! I love the mission! I love the people here and I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that there are living prophets today. They truly are lead and guided by the spirit of God and I am so blessed to be a part of this great work! I love you all! Happy Birthday to Eva! Thanks for being an awesome sister! 😊 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
New Paltz 2nd Area
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