Hello, hello! This has been such a wonderful week!

Sister Ollerton is up here now! She's from Snowflake, AZ. We served in the same district a year ago in Cherry Grove. What goes around comes around :) She has been just amazing! Lots of changes have happened in our Fort Wayne family, and they're all great!

Last Monday, Sister Seamons and I were getting out of the car to see the Gonzalez family, and a man was walking by. He was clearly upset and not in a talkative mood, but I had the feeling that I needed to give him a card. He has been going through a lot of trials. He feels like we are an answer to his prayers. We gave him a church tour Saturday, and yesterday he came to church! I know that the Spirit helped him feel peace, and that Spirit prompted him to let us come back.

The Gonzalez family is incredible! They are all changing together. I'm so proud of them for keeping the commitments we invite them to keep. They have overcome a lot of opposition. The Spirit is in their home, and they are all excited for their baptism coming up. Please keep them in your prayers!

I know this work is important, eternally important. I know that our Savior loves us and that He is our strength when we're weak. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father listening to our prayers. He has a plan for each of us. He loves us!

I hope that you have a week full of miracles!

Sister Murdoch 

Hello, everyone!

Oh my goodness.... if you could just see my reaction to what's going on today...

Only 7/16 missionaries in our zone are staying... including me. Sister Seamons is leaving, and I was 98% sure that I would be leaving. I'm terrified. Both of our zone leaders are leaving, and so is our district leader. I kind of feel like I'm being left behind. It's really nerve racking, but I'm SO grateful that I won't have to do it alone. The new Elders and Sisters coming in will become like my own family. I get the feeling that Heavenly Father is trying to prepare me for something, so I'm going to do my best to learn and serve. Please continue to pray for me!

Sister Seamons and I are like 5th cousins by the way :D I don't know what I'm going to do without her. I'm glad that we live pretty close to each other though. It took about 2,000 miles to find a friend about 40 miles away :)

We had the most amazing snowball fight with the Gonzalez family! We randomly showed up at their house to see them, and they let us join their family activity. I'm including a picture of the snowman the girls built. They are doing so well! I love them so much, and I think they're the reason I'm staying in Fort Wayne another transfer. I'm excited to be with them for their baptism in February!

I love you all! Thank you for your prayers. The church is true. Heavenly Father loves you! Have an incredible week!

Sister Murdoch

P.S. Sister Seamons caught me when we walked to see a Sister and take her flowers :)

The Gonzalez Family

Hello, everyone! 

My time is short because we played bubble soccer earlier. That was the best zone fun day ever! :D

The family we're teaching is doing well! They have seen the gospel bless them so much. There are 5 kids, ages 8, 6, 3, 2, and 4 months. The middle child is a boy, so I can relate to being in the middle and being the only one :)

I want you to know that I know Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. This week He has blessed me as I've been continuing to face much opposition. Sometimes I think that I can't do another day, but the Savior always gives me just enough to do it again.

I love you all! Have a fantastic week!

Sister Murdoch

Hello, everyone! If you're reading this, I just want to congratulate you for not dying from eating less, eating healthy, and exercising :D Just teasing! I really do hope that your New Years goals are wonderful and that you're excited for 2015.

Last week we went to see a young lady that we'd met. Her older brother answered the door. When we asked for her, he slowly asked, "What did she do?" Haha! We assured him that she wasn't in trouble and then told him about how Jesus Christ has restored His church. He invited us inside, and we taught him and his girlfriend about it. She was more interested than he was, and we're seeing her again tonight. I'm excited to start teaching them!

We had a wonderful New Year. At 6:30 pm on Dec 31, we were inside working on a little package President and Sister Porter gave to us. It took the rest of the evening and until about 3:00 p.m. on Jan 1 to complete. It was all about who we want to become and what we want to be.

That's what life is all about. We need to focus on the question, "What do I want to be?" more than "What do I want to do?" I'm excited for what 2015 will bring! I'll be doing things that I never dreamed would happen. I welcome the hard and wonderful experiences that will come my way.

I hope that you all have a fantastic week! I love you all!

Sister Murdoch

Hello, everyone, and a Happy New Year!

I just want everyone to know that I have the best family in the world, and only a mission would keep me away from them for 18 months. I love them so much, and I'm grateful that we can be together forever if we stay faithful. They also informed me that of the 4 of us Murdoch kids that have served missions, I have the most boring emails ever sent ;)

So this week I have a fun mission story for you :)

Last week Sister Seamons and I went to visit a woman we're teaching. Her brother was in the hospital, so we went to go support her. We got there and found the waiting room filled with people. She introduced all of them... turns out that she has 11 siblings :)

We sang "Away in a Manger" to them, taught them about Jesus Christ and His restored church, then passed a stack of cards around the room and invited them to learn more. It was so much fun! I felt like one of the missionaries from years ago, teaching to a room filled with children of God.

To redeem myself, I will tell a short one. Yesterday a 9-year-old girl we're teaching came to church for the first time. She suddenly got very nervous, and extremely stubborn, right before Primary. She absolutely refused to go anywhere. I was kind of wishing that I could carry her right inside, because I knew that she would love it if she would just try.

Much like the GPS story, the Spirit reminded me, "What do you want her to remember?" I knew that I'd rather have her remember walking inside, not being dragged inside. Long story short, what actually got her inside was a 3 Musketeers from her teacher - good, old-fashioned bribery :) It was a great "parenthood" lesson for me to learn before I actually become a mother. Guess what? She LOVED it! I knew she would...that sounds like a mom, too, doesn't it? :)

I love you all! I pray that you have a wonderful new year and that it's filled with tender mercies, blessings, and lots of happiness!

Sister Murdoch

Hello, everyone!

Remember how I had asked for prayers for the Christmas conference? I have one of the funniest stories to tell you :)

We were carpooling with some other Sisters in the area, and it is about a two hour drive to the place we had the conference. We asked the Sisters if they had put in the address. They replied that yes, they had. Both Sister Seamons and I wanted to check the address, but decided to trust them instead.

We drove the two hours, and I was getting more anxious the closer we arrived to our destination. Sister Seamons had made a couple comments about how we had passed certain places and it didn't seem right, but the Sisters insisted that we follow the GPS. So we trusted them again.

By the time we reached our destination, we would have been just in time to practice before the conference... but the wrong address was in the GPS! It turns out that we went into the Indianapolis mission... two hours away. (For the record, I like the Cincinnati mission better!) We missed all of the musical pieces and arrived at the conference just before lunch, which is definitely one of the best parts ;)

Haha! I had worried all week about the songs. I practiced several times a day and dreamed about them, too. I'll be honest: at first I was really frustrated. I wondered why we had trusted them so much and thought that we should have done things differently.

Then the Spirit asked me, "How do you want these Sisters to remember this experience?" After that thought, it was much easier to laugh. We took pictures and recorded the event so that we'll never forget it.

I learned several important things, and I want to share two of them with you:

1 - It's important in the moment, sometimes even critical, to respond properly. Your reaction makes all of the difference in somebody else's life.

2 - We need to always be checking ourselves on what our destination is. If we have the wrong address, then we need to change it.

I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior when we're on the right path and fighting to stay on or on the wrong path trying to find the right one. I love you all and wish you a Merry Christmas!

Sister Murdoch

Hello, everyone!

Again, my time is drawing to a close. This needs to be short.

Sister Seamons and I have had so many adventures, from ministers trying to convert us, to families with kids running around and screaming. Heavenly Father loves all of His children, and I'm grateful to be here to serve many of them.

I'll be accompanying a few Elders at our Christmas conference on Thursday... prayers on our behalf would be greatly appreciated :) I'm excited and terrified at the same time. Being a missionary at Christmas time makes the calling feel more special and the season more magical.

I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. He is our friend, support, and advocate. He saves us every day. I love Him, and I know that He loves each of us.

Love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Sister Murdoch

Sister Yokum (MTC Companion), Sister Murdoch, and Sister Seamons (current companion)