July 18th - Barao Bronchitis

Hello My Beloved Friends and Family,

Ah, the week of scout camp. It´s always one of the most fantastic, amazing weeks of the year. And Mom, if you thought that the family dinner was bad, you should know that that´s always the best food of the week. I´ll never forget that one time that we had eggs that you had to cut with a knife. Thanks for being available to feed the missionaries when their dinner fell through. It´s these types of families that are the most important to have. Also, how cool that we have a Brazilian missionary in our ward! Find out what part of Brazil he´s from, and I can teach you some of the characteristics of the Brazilians from that particular part of Brazil.

This week here in the Baron we knocked doors, taught people, and did the usual missionary routine. Here a lot of the time the ladies of the church can´t give us lunch, so they give us money, and we hit up one of the cheap restaurants around here. This happens a lot. So much that Elder Costa and I have visited 8 different restaurants. We've almost visited all that there are in Barão Geraldo. We´re saving up now with a goal to go to the expensive steak house one day in the future. We´ll see if it happens. 

Marriage here in Brazil is a complicated process. First, you have to go to the Government office and mark a marriage date for a specified time in the future. This usually costs a lot, and you have to mark the date for many days in the future. Luckily, here in Barão the period is a little bit smaller, so it´s only 17 days. And this Wednesday we went to the office and paid the fee to mark the wedding date of Timoteo and Euzine! Thanks for the prayers, they worked out well. 

We´ve been feeling the effect of the adversary this week, and he´s been attacking through a rather strange medium, bronchitis. Remember how I told you last week that Luiz couldn´t be confirmed because he had a bronchitis attack that night. This week, on the day we had planned to mark the marriage date, Timoteo had, you guessed it, a bronchitis attack, and had to go to the hospital. Then, the wife of our ward mission leader went to the hospital on Saturday night. This one was just food poisoning though, not bronchitis, so there´s that. I blame all of the attacks as of late on the fact that it´s a dry period here, and the government has taken advantage of that fact to clear the plant growth away from the highway. How do they do that? They burn it. So we´ve had a ton of ash landing on our front porch all week. Every single day this week I´ve had to sweep away ash from our front porch, and the ash also falls on your white shirt and turns it black, so there´s that too. In other news, I swallowed a coin this week to look for some latent ironpushing ability, but no luck. (Sanderson anyone?)

Last night we had a cool experience. We´ve been praying a lot to get references from the members here, but we hadn´t been getting much success. Then, last night, a young couple of members from a ward in another stake here in Campinas called us up and asked if we could visit the man´s father with them. The live in a ward 1 hour away, but their father lives in Barão, so we went. We had a very spiritual lesson, especially when the son shared with his father how much more unified their family is because of the Gospel. I know that the Lord answers our prayers, and that He wants us to succeed. With His help, I will succeed!

Elder Murray

July 11th - Yea for baptism!

Family and Friends,

This week was quite the party here in Barão Geraldo. Although nobody here celebrates the 4th of July here, we still had some festivities. Every single member of our family that wrote me this week said something about Pokemon Go. It must really be awesome, or at least cool enough that it made a bigger splash in our family than anything else this week. Maybe it´ll still be around in a year, but by then I should be so far behind as to make it impossible to play, so who knows?

I say that we had festivities because we played court soccer on our p-day last week with a bunch of guys from our district and some members. I was pretty awful, but I got a lot better as our tournament went on, and I had a really good time. I can now officially say that I have gotten the full Brazilian experience! (Although I still chanted USA USA when I scored a goal). This week we did very little studying because almost every single day during the morning we had to do something. Tuesday we had a Zone Meeting, Wednesdaywe had a Zone Conference with President Hill (I had to watch it in another zone because I would have missed ours, so I got to see Elder Azambuja again), then on Thursday we went to the Federal Police station. I got a renewed Brazilian Document and Elder Costa got a new Brazilian Passport (because he has double nationality). All in all, I now have a fresh paper that shows that I am legally here. It also works well as a before and after photo, because I have one from when I was really fat when I got here, and one from now, a bunch of weight later. It was a pretty long week in the end, but it went well because . . .

This week we baptized Luiz! (The guy in white in the middle) Luiz first came to church wanting to learn English during our free English course on Wednesday nights. After the second time he came, we invited him to go to church on Sunday and he went, and loved it. He´s a very timid guy who likes to read a lot and works making furniture. He overcame all of the difficulties that stood in front of him, and was baptized Saturday night. 

I´ve been reading a lot these last few weeks about the parables that Jesus Christ used to teach. As I teach people here on the mission, I do my best to emulate our Savior´s method of teaching, but it´s really impossible to get anywhere close to the level of mastery that He used when He pulled examples from the daily lives of people. All of the parables that he used were exactly tailored to the age, background, and mindset of his audience, and all of them bring true principles that help us in our lives. I´m thankful for the example our Savior left, and if I keep trying trying to follow his example, here in the mission field I will succeed.

Elder Murray

July 4th - Oh Wait - Today's the 4th of July?

Oi Family and Friends,

I actually had forgotten that today was a holiday until I saw one of the other American missionaries on the bus, and he reminded me that today is the Fourth of July. How weird is that? I´ve spent so much time living here among the brasileiros (nearly 10 months!), that I don´t even remember the holidays of my own country. Happy Birthday America! I hope that you guys all eat some BBQ and some homemade ice cream, and launch some sweet fireworks in my rememberance. It´s on the holidays that you most miss home on the mission, but don´t shed any tears for me, I´m doing just fine. 

I hope your ride with Bro. McDonald was a good one. Generally when you think of giving someone a ride it´s just to their house, or to the school, or something like that, and not to another state, but there you have it. Also, congrats on the sweet EFY experience, brothers Dave and Jacob. It´s always a fun time to take a trip to BYU and have some spiritual experiences. In a way, it´s similar to the mission, expect that when you serve a mission it´s 2 years, you´re way longer from home, nobody speaks your language, there are no dances, and you have to do your own laundry. And you have to knock doors. Okay, maybe there are a ton of differences.

This week here in Barão Geraldo we went after less-active members and we held a ton of Family Home Evenings in the houses of various members. The funny story of the week would have to be the moment when I went and clapped in front of a house (how you knock doors here in Brazil), and there was a little girl standing on the front patio. When she saw us approach, she turned and fled, and ran away screaming. It was an interesting representation of the way that people treat us here, although generally the people aren´t so up front about it. I had some good laughs with my companion. This week we´ve been trying really hard to help a young couple that we´re teaching get married, and if they can, we should be able to baptize 4 people from their family. Put Timoteo and Euzine in your prayers. 

This week I thought a lot about the reasons that people leave the church and why they often times lose their testimony in the process. Generally, they leave because of 2 reasons. 1. They don´t want to live the commandments. When a person doesn´t want to go to church, or keep the law of chastity, or the word of wisdom, or any of the other commandments, generally they feel ashamed and stop going to church, or they rationalize away their problem, and they lose their testimony in the process, and then stop going to church. The other big reason would be 2. They fought with a member. A lot of people imagine that the church should be filled with perfect people. People that don´t ever make errors, people that don´t ever gossip, and people that don´t have a bad side. Although this would be great, as in any other group setting, there will be some people that don´t get along. Then, when the person sees this, they stop going to church. It´s a really sad moment. Both of these problems come from the same conception, that the church should be filled with perfect people. Once, Nelson Mandela was called a saint, and he responded " I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying. " This is the definition of saint that we adhere to in the church. None of us is perfect, but we try each day to be better.  The church isn´t a place for perfect people, but for those who need to improve. I really see this here on the mission. I hope that we can all remember this, and try to be a little better each day. In this, I hope that I will succeed.

Elder Murray

June 27th - Baron Zion!

Family and Friends,

First off, Mother, I am really sorry to hear about your loss. Peep was a good chicken, that lived well and died nobly, defending the others from many foes. That day that we hiked the two 14ers was a rough one. I remember that all the other guys either ran on ahead or didn´t want to keep going after the first 14er, so we were stuck in the middle. We had to stop about every 5 minutes to avoid dying. It was a really good time. Have a great time in Utah!

This week I got officially transfered to Barão (Baron in English) Geraldo. The area is pretty awesome. It´s a college town, so there are a bunch of college kids that really don´t want anything that we have to give them, but there´s also a ton of good people here, so it´s not nearly as hard to baptize here as the last two areas I was in. We're already preparing a family and a guy named Luiz to get baptized here in 2/3 weeks. Expect good things! Also, the ward here gets to church really late. Normally, in other wards, 8:45 you have a ton of people there. Here, the Bishop showed up at 8:45, and we had about 20 people until 9:10 when the bishop walked in to the chapel hall and church started. Then, as I gave a talk this week, I got up to give it, and suddenly I realized that we had 100 people in the chapel. It was really rather frightening.

Our house here is about double the size of my room back home. My study table is right next to the fridge, which is right next to the stove, and if I take two steps and a hop I´m already in bed. It sure makes cleaning easy! I took some pictures, but I´m having a ton of issues trying to get anything to work on this computer, so look for more in the picture department next week or in the future. My new companion is Elder Costa. I´ve not had him as a companion before now, but he was companion to exactly half of all my other companions, so there is that. Maybe you guys are confusing him with the general authority, Elder Claudio R M Costa. He was born in Brazil, but lived most of his life in Portugal. His mission story is a bit of a weird one. He was called to serve in Portugal, so he started his mission there, but, instead of being transfered within his own mission, after two transfers he got transfered to Brazil. Pretty crazy, huh? He´s a really cool guy, although he hates eggs. Reminds me a bit of Jacob, in a way. 

I said that this week I gave a talk, so I´ll give you a bit of the topic. It was only 5 minutes, so I read some scriptures from Alma 26 

"1 And now, these are the words of Ammon to his brethren, which say thus: My brothers and my brethren, behold I say unto you, how great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when we started from the land of Zarahemla that God would have granted unto us such great blessings?

 2 And now, I ask, what great blessings has he bestowed upon us? Can ye tell?

 3 Behold, I answer for you; for our brethren, the Lamanites, were in darkness, yea, even in the darkest abyss, but behold, how many of them are brought to behold the marvelous light of God! And this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work."

I shared my testimony with the members that we can all be part of this great work. We can become instruments in the hands of the Lord. Then I asked a question, that in my last ward our mission leader asked me. He asked "Who would you like at your side in the Celestial Kingdom?" To you all back home, I ask you the same question. Who would you like at your side? And have you already invited them to be there? Keeping this in mind gives me a strong purpose here, and I´m really grateful to be here serving a mission. I want to bring the largest number of people I can with me, and with the Lord´s help, I will succeed!

Elder Murray

June 20th - Another transfer!

Oi Family and Friends,

Happy Birthday Jacob! Jake with the afro-chicken was about my best moment of the week. That picture really turned out sweet. Even when life gives us lemons, at least lemonade is a tasty drink. The life here isn´t all sunshine and flowers, but you get through the hard moments and push to be happy. And the good moments are that much better when you´ve passed through some tough ones. Congrats to Andres for finally heading out! Good luck!

This week we wrapped up the transfer in classic style, looking for John (João in Brasil). This week during our district meeting, I challenged the missionaries to, along with their other activities, look for John. You had to get references for John, teach John, and invite John to be baptized. All of the people we met on the road, we asked if they knew John. And when they asked why, we told them that we had a message for John that was of eternal import, and that if they would like to learn what the message was, it isn´t just for John, it´s for them too. This worked suprisingly well, and we ended up teaching a lot of people. We even taught a buddist lady. Her son was praciticing his Jiu-Jitsu on the floor with the dog, so that was a fun lesson, although it was a little weird. In the end, we taught a bunch of people, but sadly, I will not be following through with any of them, because I´m being transferred! I will be leaving Valinhos this week, and I´ll be going to a university area within Campinas called Barão Geraldo. I´ve also been called as an assassin, as I will be serving with Elder Costa during his last transfer. When a missionary completes the mission, he dies, and the last companion is the one who kills him. Should be fun!

I´m grateful for this opportunity I have to serve a mission. I´m thankful for all the blessings I have been given here and I´m excited for the new area! Let´s baptize! I will succeed!

Elder Murray

June 13th - Return of the Cold

My Dearest Family and Friends,

I hope that those of you in my immediate family are enjoying your trip to California. You guys look pretty happy in the pictures, so it seems like you are doing pretty well. I ate at that exact same Panda Express as you guys did when I went to Universal Studios on that Band trip so many years ago. How the times change! And yet, everything stays the exact same.

This week here in Valinhos it got cold. And I mean actually cold. Even for me! It hit 40 degrees this morning, and with the incredible humidity here, you really feel it. Luckily I have a good sweater and a good jacket, so I´m not too cold when all´s said and done. The Brazilians are hurting though. Especially those from the hotter parts of the country. Elder J. Nascimento has been sleeping with jeans on! The weather has been really weird!

To answer your questions, yes, I did get the package! Thanks for the candy! I´m teaching several families currently, one is the parents of the girl that we baptized a few weeks back. They are really closed to being baptized, they just need to get married first, and marriage costs a ton here and you have to wait one month after you mark the marriage date. We´re also teaching a single mother with 3 daughters and a son who died recently. Thankfully the Plan of Salvation holds a lot of hope for her. The mission has various themes, mottos, and other slogans, but the biggest one is really simple, but powerful. "Let´s baptize!". Our three values are hard work, obedience, and love. I have a t-shirt from my first zone, but I haven´t gotten a new one since that. I ate Mocotó recently at a members house. It´s a soup thing where they put in a bunch of fat and animal parts. It was really nasty. The Brazilians dress a lot like Americans, they just have several different stylistic choices. Almost nobody uses tie-dye though, sadly. I haven´t seen any amusement parks, but I think that they do exist. I know that they at least have a Zoo, close to here. For vacation, they usually go "out to the ranch" or to the beach, which is less that 3 hours from here. They go whenever they have a chance really, especially on Sundays (argh)!

This week we were visited by President Tad R Callister, President of the Sunday School for the church. He spoke a lot about the fall of Adam and Eve and then the need for us to be consecrated missionaries. We really have to give it all we have and leave everything else behind so that we can go forth with the right mindset. He said that he would rather have 20 consecrated missionaries than 100 mediocre missionaries. This makes a good point in our lives too. The Lord´s math isn´t always our math. Sometimes our small acts of service seem really small to us, compared with the big ones that people always imagine, but they do add up. I´ve really seen that in action. Every day I strive to be a consecrated missionary. Have a great week! I will succeed!

Elder Murray

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.