June 6 - Humid

Hello Family and Friends!

I hope that those of you in my family are having a fantastic time in California, land of palm trees and In-And-Out Burger. One thing that you guys really have way better there in the US is fast food. McDonalds is almost a luxury restaurant here. It´s like 30 R$ a combo meal. It´s a rip off. Sounds like Mom´s girl camp experience was a fantastic one.  Every day you learn something new!

This week it rained a bunch. My clothes really haven´t been dry since last P-Day, because the air is so humid that they don´t even dry inside the house. A lot of the time I have to dry them off with the iron. It makes it quicker to iron though, I don´t even have to use the squirt bottle! Weirdly enough, even with the rain it´s actually gotten quite a bit hotter here than the weeks before, so I don´t have to use a sweater all the time. We taught a ton of lessons this week, but we didn´t really have a whole lot of success. It´s really pretty hard to convert to the church. You have to give up all of the worldly things and move to a completely new culture and way of life. It really takes a lot of commitment from people. I see every part of the conversion process and it really is a miracle. 

This week I really learned a lot about the power of a testimony. People love to challenge the Church in the middle of the road. Some quote Bible verses that don´t exist. Others quote Bible verses that do exist. A lot of people get really angry because we knocked on their door. I know all of the Bible verses that I would need and all of the arguments I could make to fight them, but I don´t because fighting takes away the Spirit. The best method we have to deal with these people that don´t like us, don´t like the Church, and even those that don´t like Jesus Christ is just testify. It´s very hard to argue with a sincere testimony of the truth. I know that Jesus Christ is our savior. I know that Thomas S Monson is a prophet of God. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has the fulness of the Gospel. I´m grateful that I have the chance to bear this testimony to all who will listen. I will succeed!

Elder Murray

P.S. Don´t hesitate to send questions if you have any.