I'M IN LOVE WITH THE CHURROS!!!!!!!!

HEEEEEEEYYYYY YOU GUYSSSSSS!!!!!!

This week has been super awesome but I don't have a lot of time to email so hopefully I can make that up with some pictures.

However I do have some exciting stories to tell!!!

First off Elder Roundy and I are getting along super well and we are having so much fun together. We make each other laugh all of the time and we teach super well together. Hopefully we can stay together for one more transfer so we can kill it here in Owen Sound!!!

We also had a big multi-cultural event where people made food from their backgrounds. It was super good and there were so many awesome people there. Two of our investigators even showed up and they had an awesome time!! Also a man named Rei who is a former investigator came and he performed a couple of songs that he wrote. One of them was titled "I love you" which is basically about him expressing his love to us for reaching out to him to teach him the gospel. It was super powerful and touched the hearts of many. It was a great night surrounded by the people I love and I can't wait for the next one.

One of our investigators Simon has set a baptismal date!!! March 11th is the date so I am looking forward to the day when he gets baptized. He is such an awesome kid and will definitely enjoy the gift of having the gospel in his life.

Well that is all I have for this week. I love you all and wish the best for every one of you.

--

Elder Murray

CRAZY PAST WEEK!!!!!!!

HOWDY YALLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope everyone is doing well and that you are enjoying life!!!!

Remember last week when I said I had to take my companion back to the hospital to get another x-ray on his foot? Well he got the x-ray and the doctor told him that his foot is not healing properly and that he needs to have bed rest for two months so he doesn't have problems down the road. That pretty much meant that he needed to go home. So this past week was just getting him ready to be sent home. It was a little stressful at times but we got everything taken care of. On Friday night I had to take him to Brampton where the mission president lives so that the next morning they could take him to the airport. I also met my new companion Elder Roundy. He is such a great guy and super funny. We get along so well and always have a good time. He has been serving for almost a year now. He was born in Arizona but has moved around to Idaho, California, Missouri, New Mexico and North Dakota. He is awesome and I can't wait to serve with him more.

Well that's all I got. I don't have a lot of time this week but I love you all and can't wait to hear from you!!!

--

Elder Murray

coleton.murray@myldsmail.net

LOTS OF TRAVEL!!!!!!!

HEEEEEYYYOOOOO

Whats poppin everyone!?

This week was pretty uneventful it was just a ton of traveling back and forth to different areas. But I do have a couple of stories to tell so we will jump right down into it!!!!!!!

So the first story, I had to take my companion to the hospital to get more X rays on his foot that he broke a couple of weeks ago. After a little bit he got his appointment with the doctor and I had to sit out in the waiting room. The only problem is it is the Emergency Waiting Room!! I had to sit in that room for 2 hours just surrounded by different sick and broken people!!! The only saving grace was that they had a TV in there so I watched Buying and Selling Homes for 2 hours. Unfortunately I have to do it all over again tomorrow so hopefully they got something good on TV.

My next story is when Elder Kohl and I were traveling to Midland for Zone Conference last week. We were going a day early because we were going to spend the night there. As we were traveling the worst storm I have ever seen came through and hit us. It was literally just a white wall and I couldn't see anything!! There was one point when the GPS said we needed to take a left turn and I literally couldn't see anything anywhere. So I parked the car and got out to see if I could find it. Well I found it but there was a road closed sign that was blown over and was covered with snow lying down in the center of the road. I got back in the car and decided it was best if we just kept going straight. We continued on and luckily got into this big train of cars so the road was lit up and we could see a little better. As we kept driving we just saw car after car sitting in snow banks and ditches and there were people just sliding all over the place. I am truly grateful that we were able to make it to Midland safely and unharmed.   

The meetings this week were pretty good. I went to Zone Conference and learned some things there about how to be effective with the new schedule and how to be a better teacher. I then went to the adult session of stake conference and they talked about how to be better in our families and to hold family council so there can be better communication and more trust. It was super interesting and super inspiring to hear all of the council that was given. Then there was stake conference and that was super good as well. Most of the topics were about how to be a better missionary and how to share the gospel with loved ones and people that we want to join the church.

Well that is all I got for this week. I appreciate all of you and all the support you show me. I am truly grateful. I love and miss all of you.

Quote of the day: "Fake it til you make it"

--

Elder Murray

 Pday will be on the 21^st next week because next Monday is a holiday. In Canada it is Family Day.

A little background about the holiday – it was first held in Alberta, Canada in 1990, it is supposed to reflect the values of family and home that were important to the pioneers who founded Alberta, 
Canada and give workers the opportunity to spend more time with their families. One of the other reasons for introducing Family Day was that there was a long period when there were no holidays from New Year’s Day until Good Friday.

NEW TRANSFER, NEW ME!!

LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

Hey everyone, good to be able to talk to you again and see all of the support that you show me. I really appreciate it.

This week has been kinda slow nothing too exciting happened. It has been the first week of the transfer and Elder Prettyman is new to the area so I have been introducing him to the members and just showing him around so he can get familiar with things. He is a pretty cool guy. He is from Arizona and has been out on his mission for nine months. He liked to play sports back home but doesn't follow sports whatsoever so that is kind of a bummer that I can't talk sports with him but it will be okay. We have some things in common that we can talk about. One of them being SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!!! He is as big of a Spongebob lover as I am so we can spend hours just quoting Spongebob and sharing a good laugh.

Also found out something crazy the other day. Apparently I am related to one of the members over here!!! Not directly related but apparently one of her ancestors married a Murray a long time ago. So now we just call each other cousin all the time. It is pretty funny. That family is so awesome and does so much for us. It would be a privilege to be related to them.

Now for a missionary story…

The week was super good. We were finding new people to teach and everyone was keeping the commitments that we left them, especially Jim Baker. He agreed to come to church for the first time! I was super excited because we were going to have 3 people that we were teaching show up to church on Sunday. But then Sunday rolled around and the snow was coming down, oh and did I forget to mention that it had been snowing for the past 8 days!! That morning Jim called us up and said there was no way he was coming to church in this weather. So Elder Prettyman and I rushed over there so we could talk to him. When we got there he was out shoveling snow so I got out and went and helped him shovel. I talked to him to see if I could convince him to come to church but he was firm on saying no and he didn't want to go. So of course I can’t force him to do anything he doesn't want to, so I respected his decision and left to get ready for church. We got to church and sat down in our first meeting and none of the people that said they were coming showed up. Not a single one. I was a little disappointed and didn't understand how come I was putting forth all of this effort but I wasn't seeing any results from it. Later that day I was reading an article and it was titled "A Scout Masters Prayer." Basically it was a story about how this scout master was leading a whole group of boys and their fathers to this camping area but he couldn't find the turn off they needed to take in order to get there. He said he had taken this trail more than 20 times and knew this area like the back of his hand. But for the life of him he couldn't find this turn off. So the boys and the dads were starting to get a little angry because it was getting late and they were still not at the campsite. The scout master said he was going to go on foot alone and try to find it and would signal them when he found it. But really he went off and decided to pray for guidance. He poured out his heart and soul and asked God for help in finding this campsite. He said that after he said his prayer he expected to get up and just find the trail he was looking for right in front of him, but he didn't. He didn't find the trail so he told the boys and their fathers that they were going to have to stay in motels for the night and they would try again in the morning. He said he felt so discouraged because he had made these people pay for motel rooms and buy pizza to eat that night and he didn't understand why God didn't answer his prayer. Then he heard a loud boom and went running outside and saw a huge thunder storm right in the area that they were supposed to be camping in. He realized at that time that God did answer his prayer it just might not be in the way he wanted to but the way that it was supposed to be. I am applying that story to myself because I put forth all of this effort and didn't see any results come out of it. I know that God has a greater plan and I just need to take the time to recognize the greater meaning behind this event.

Anyways that is about all I got for this week. I love and miss you all so much and hope you are making every day better than the last.

Question of the day: If you could meet anyone in the whole world who would it be and why?

--

Elder Murray

coleton.murray@myldsmail.net