Week #13 - HOLA

this one needs to be in some church magazine i think :)

We have officially started summer here in AR and let me tell you... It is HOT! It gets up to 100 degrees with 80 percent humidity. It is awesome... For the first time in my life I am actually tan! I have a watch tan line.... Yes, a Murphy has a distinct tan line. WOHOO!!! But really, this sun is so strong. I am so grateful for Hermano Pereyra and his family. They bought me an umbrella!!

familia Pereyra MY ARGENTINE FAM :)

This week was great. We have 17 new investigators and I finally feel comfortable in teaching! We teach lesson one a lot, and I really love telling people how this gospel can bless families because it has blessed mine! Yesterday at church we had 4 investigators come!!  YAY! It was so cool and the Bishop was so happy for us! Oh! I have a funny teaching moment. We teach one recent convert every couple of weeks and she LOVES English. Last night she asked me to pray for her in English and while I was saying it, SPANISH came out. My companion BURST out laughing. You could say I am a pro in Spanglish :)

We had transfers this week which is bittersweet! It is fun to get new missionaries in our zone, but it is sad to see some go! We got a new zone leader who is 6´8 and everyone just loves him because he is so tall! haha. It is so funny. 

Saying goodbye to Elder Litchfield -- hermana moreno (ecuador), elder litchfield (florida),

 elder muñoz (california) and me! These are all great people!!!!!!! :)

During this week I read a talk by Elder Bednar that I wanted to share. 

There is no physical pain, no spiritual wound, no anguish of soul or heartache, no infirmity or weakness you or I ever confront in mortality that the Savior did not experience first. In a moment of weakness we may cry out, “No one knows what it is like. No one understands.” But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He has felt and borne our individual burdens. And because of His infinite and eternal sacrifice (see Alma 34:14), He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy. He can reach out, touch, succor, heal, and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do relying only upon our own power. Indeed, His yoke is easy and His burden is light. 

I have come to really know and understand Christ and His love for all of us. I challenge you all to find Jesus Christ because I know it will help you and heal you. I know this is true and this church is true too.

Thank you for the love and support! I love you all. 

Hermana Murphy

Here is the link to the talk :) https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/bear-up-their-burdens-with-ease?lang=eng

Other pics from Hannah this week:

hermana moreno and i :)

:) this is michi. my argentine timber

noemi and josé eubicina. the family we live with. mom.....
she is def my mom here. she is so cool.

my favorite dog lubbi :) he is so darn funny 

this woman is so spiritual it is crazy! she got baptized right as i got to argentina :)

this is astrella (which means star in spanish...) and she is my little best friend. i love this girl so much 

hermana moreno, astrella, me 

pride and prejudice huh?  my view EVERY night.  also, right next to my house

An additional note from Heather: 

Hannah has officially been gone almost three months this week (89 days as of today, but who is counting, right?)  I don't know about you........but I think she truly RADIATES in every single picture that she sends us.  It makes my heart smile....thanks for all of your prayers, letters and support.  I know that is how she is doing so well and feeling the love and support from home, family and friends.  I will be forever grateful!  XOXO

p.s.  I think Timber may be A LITTLE jealous of Hannah's Michi.  (Michi sure looks a lot more loving than Timber.......but we have proof that Timber misses Hannah a lot....Here she is climbing on Hannah's amoire in her bedroom.......trying to "play statue" in the books!)

Week #12 - Soy una gringa de Dios (Whatever that means??) haha

{YAY!! Pictures this week!!}

 

This week has been really rough for my companion so not much happened with contacting! I have a few funny “Hannah moments” so please brace yourself. If you do not know, my mission is basically in the jungle and there are some really weird bugs. A couple of days ago I was getting breakfast ready and I flipping saw a cockroach the size of my hand on the floor. It gets worse..... IT WAS FIGHTING WITH A SCORPION!!!! My companion is the bug killer, but she was in the shower so I had to come up with a creative way to kill it. I probably looked at those bugs for a good 15 minutes before I did anything about it. I was totally stressed out!!!

I took the end of the broom and kept hitting them until they died. It took a good 10 hits for the scorpion to die.  Hermana Moreno walked out when I was trying to kill them and she could not stop laughing! She always tells me that gringas are the biggest babies when it comes to bugs... I believe it. Now I feel like I could live in AZ without any problems!!

 

Mom and Dad, are you proud or what?!!?!?!?!? When I get home I can kill all the bugs in the house :) after 18 months I will be a pro. Anyways, I think Heavenly Father wanted me to learn how to deal with bugs! I need this haha.

 

Anyways, I have a cool experience to tell you all about!  On Saturday the stake was holding an activity for the youth. It was called “Missionary for a Day.” We were able to go around with the youth and teach them what it is like to be a missionary! Yes. I was in charge of 2 girls. By myself.  IN SPANISH. You all have no idea how nervous I was for this. I prayed all morning that it would go well.... and it did! I taught lesson 1 by myself 7 times! I honestly needed that experience because I needed to be more confident with my Spanish. Speaking of my Spanish, I understand well but speaking is hard for me. It is weird because I can have a super long conversation with Hermana Moreno even using past tense but when I get with investigators, I freeze!!! Anyways, it is coming along well. I try and focus on WHY they say what they say instead of what they say and it works really well.

 

This week we have transfers (can you believe I have almost been out for 3 months...) Hermana Moreno and I will still be serving in Barrio Jardin!! We will finish my training together :) She is seriously awesome! I am so grateful for her!

 

Thank you all for the love and support! I love you all more than you know and I love getting your letters and love! You are all in my thoughts and prayers!!

 

Hermana Murphy

this is hermana león. she is a doll and she cleans our clothes

 

 

oh yeah. i forgot to tell you my foot is super swollen by some weird bug bite....

 

Familia Rios!! Camila, Nedela, me, and Mañuel

 

 

ruins

 

My Zone at the Ruins.......elder muñoz, elder litchfield, me, hermana dance, hermana anderson, hermana gonzales, hermana moreno, hermana larzo

 

This last picture was sent especially to Rick.......she knows her daddy well..........

 

we eat this basically everyday. you should be jealous :)

 

just kidding. i feel like i break the WofW at every meal!!

 

Week #11 - ALMOST Like Disneyland..........

Hello everyone!

My heart has returned to a normal beating pattern and the knot has left my stomach.......we FINALLY heard from Hannah today.  I didn’t ever think about how unsettling it would be to not hear from your missionary.  But alas, apparently Argentina had a holiday yesterday and therefore the missionaries had to move their P-day until today..........SHWEW! 

Here is Hannah’s letter.  Enjoy!

This week has been crazy!!! Sorry friends, P day for me was on a Tuesday this week. There was some holiday so everything was closed :( This Sunday in AR is Mother’s Day, so have the best mother’s day to all my favorite moms out there! Especially my sweet momma :)

This week has been crazy!!! Disregard everything I said about Jorge, he can be baptized!! Pres. LaPierre said he is all good :) I really enjoy teaching Jorge because I understand him. Not all the time what he is saying, but I understand him spiritually and what he needs spiritually. It is so funny how the Spirit works!!! Sometimes I have no idea what he is saying (he is from Colombia so he talks really fast....) but whenever we teach him, I always know what to say and what scripture story to share with him. It is so cool.

I had my first division with Hermana Anderson on Friday! She is so cool! I learned a lot from her. Something that I really like is that she is a great listener and very patient for her investigators. She is such a great example! She is heading home soon, so she gave me 2 bottles of 100 percent deet and ALL of her gospel library books. (mom be proud, I am already done with 2 of the four... ) The bugs here are insane and my legs are filled with bug bites. but they are healing thanks to Hermana Anderson :)

Hermana Romana Pereyra and her husband Mario came to church on Sunday! They will be getting baptized soon which I am so excited for :) We taught gospel principles and she cried! I seriously love seeing how the Spirit works on people! I just know that this gospel is true and is right for everyone!

I just want to take a minute and describe my days to everyone. A lot of people have asked me if we have cars. No, we do not. So, let me explain our walking days to you all. You know what it is like after a long day at Disneyland? You know, like when you want to ride Tower of Terror and then right after you have to walk to the other park and ride Space Mountain because you have fast passes, and then back to the other park and stand in line for 3 hours? Those are my days. My feet are always Disneyland tired.  But it´s okay because this place is truly the happiest place on earth, not Disneyland. I love it here.

Thank you everyone for your love and support. I love reading your emails and hearing about everything at home. Please don't feel bad if I don't respond! I really do not have much time!!!

Love,

Hermana Murphy

Hannah's mission president: President LaPierre, his wife Hermana LaPierre, Hermana Moreno and Hannah.....the tallest person in Posadas I think.  haha!

Week #10 - This Week........Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......

First off, this week flew by. I appreciate all of your prayers and thoughts, they mean the world to me! Seriously. Thank you. This week has been so great. It was so fun to experience conference in a different country! Although we did watch it in English. We were able to watch it with the Mission President and his sweet wife (who by the way are the coolest people in the world...) and it was a blast. As we were watching conference in English, one Elder walked in late, and President La Pierre said, "Welcome to America!!!" It was so awesome. We had about 20 in the English group. It was so fun. I just love conference. For a missionary, it is like Christmas. 

 

It is so cool how conference will answer so many questions! I went into conference with 5 questions about my life, and they were all answered. If you do not do that for conference, I suggest that you do it for the next one. I challenged my companion, Hermana Moreno, to do it, and she received answers almost immediately!  It is so cool how the Spirit works! I went into conference with some things in my mind about myself, investigators, and family members. I cannot tell you how much I love conference. It is the best!

 

One of my favorite talks was the talk that was the last talk given by David A. Bednar. I loved the story of his two boys and how they cleaned themselves up and then went to share the ointment and bandages with their friends because it made them feel better. I cannot tell you how true this is to my life. There have been so many times that I have been down or sad, and this gospel has helped me. However, I was not always the best at sharing it. Now, I am here, serving a mission bringing people the spiritual ointment and bandages. It feels good. This gospel truly has healing power. Why would we NOT want to share that with our friends?!?! To all reading this, I challenge you to give your friends the spiritual healing that you love so much. It will change their lives because it has changed mine.

 

Other things I enjoyed from conference were the numerous talks about the importance of family and teaching correct principles in the home. I had an experience a few years ago that I want to share that relates to this topic. Something that will forever stick out in my mind is a conversation I had with a family friend right when the mission age was changed. My family was at a missionary homecoming for a family friend. I was talking to the mother, Corrine Andrus and she said something that I think about often while I have been here. She said, "think about how strong these families are going to be because both of the parents have served missions." I love that. One of the reasons that I am here is because I want my future family to benefit from this as well. I have only been here a short time, but I am learning how I can be a better example for my family now and in the future! Sorry for the random thought, I just love families, especially my forevers!!!

 

Some sad news regarding Jorge... He cannot be baptized because he has an illegal job. He is going to continue coming to church, so we will see what happens. We did however commit THREE. I repeat THREE people to baptism! Two of them are the parents to the father Pereyra in my ward here. (My Argentine Family!) Their names are Ramona and Mario Pereyra. They are grandparents of many, so it was fun to talk about how they can be with their family members for forever. I am so happy whenever I talk or teach about the family, because I just love my family so much!!! That was probably one of the biggest highlights of my week.

 

Our other investigator that has committed to baptism is Samanta. She is 18 years old and is in college. She is a doll. She loves learning more about the gospel and it is so cool to see her understand what we are teaching!!

 

This week has been so great and I truly appreciate all of the thoughts and prayers. You all are in my thoughts and prayers too. Have the best week everyone!!! Miss you and love you all more than you could possibly comprehend!

 

Hermana Murphy