CUT MY LIFE INTO PIECES!!!!!

Hey everyone, hope your week has been going well and it was full of happiness and joy. My week was pretty good, nothing too crazy exciting but a good week overall.

One cool thing that has happened is as of today...I am on my 100 DAY countdown!! Crazy to think that I have been out here for almost 21 months already. I have really enjoyed the experiences and all of the people that I have met. Looking forward to the next 3 months!!

Sooooo pretty much biggest thing that happened this week was that we had Zone Conference on Thursday. So since we had that on Thursday we had to travel down to Barrie to spend the night on Wednesday. And you know who is in Barrie...ELDER HAPUKU!!!! That freaking New Zealand man!!! It was amazing to be able to see him again and be able to talk with him a bit. We were making plans to hang out with each other when we get home, so I might go to New Zealand. 😉

Thursday we had Zone Conference and that was pretty good. Elder Mathewson and I had to do an instruction at the beginning. It was funny, we talking about the principle of unity but made it like an episode of Full House. Everyone seemed to enjoy it so maybe my acting career is about to take off!!😂😂 I always love being able to see all the missionaries that come to Zone Conference and being able to catch up with them. After that we had some cheeky Nandos for dinner and then drove the rest of the way home. It is about a four hour drive back home so we didn't get back till 10:30.

Another pretty cool thing that happened was that a member here in Sudbury made me a little gift. It is a jar that has a bunch of red, white and blue origami stars in it. All the stars represent how many days I have left on my mission. It looks super dope and I am very appreciative for the effort they put in. ✩✩✩

Well that's all I got this week! Hope everyone has a good rest of their week!!

Love and miss you all!!!

Elder Murray

YOU SPIN ME RIGHT ROUND!!!!

HEEEEEEYYYYOOOOOO!!!!!
Hey everyone, how was your week? I hope it was good and that you were able to get a lot accomplished. My week was pretty good, nothing too crazy or exciting happened but it wasn't a terrible week so I should be grateful for that. But anyways without further delay, let us jump right on into this thang!!!
So P-Day was on Tuesday last week because of Canada day, so we went to Science North and checked all that out. I have been to Science North before but none of the other guys have, guess that means I have been here a little while 😂 It was cool to see all the stuff again. I went on the gyro again and I got it spinning even faster this time!!! The whole thing was moving around because of the momentum. After that we went and had dinner with some of the members and then played with their little golden retriever puppies. They were only 4 weeks old!!! So freaking adorable and cute and just ughhhh!! I would adopt one if I could. 🐕🐕
The rest of the week was just a run of the mill kind of week. Elder Mathewson got his cast off on Monday but his ankle still bothers him a lot so we try to take it easy and not overdo it. We were able to meet with a couple of people and talk to them for a bit and try to help them overcome some of the problems that they have. We had District Meeting again on Friday. That was pretty good. We talked about how we can be better at following the example of Jesus Christ and personalizing and applying his gospel into our lives.
Sunday was good. I actually spoke in church on Sunday about covenants. I learned a lot as I was studying about the topic and it gave me some new insights on things. I always love being able to talk to everyone that comes to church. Everyone is just so different and unique and has a story to tell. Honestly one of the greatest joys of my mission is being able to get to know the members of the congregation in the area I am serving.
And that brings us to today. I think we are going to go fishing today so I am pretty pumped for that. And I am about due for a haircut so I might do that as well. 🎣
Well that is all I got for this week. Hope everyone has a great rest of their week!
Love and miss you all!!!!

Elder Murray

DISTRICT MEETING WEEK

Hey Everyone, I don't have a lot of time today but I will try to sum up this week for you pretty quick.

So this week was pretty good. We didn't really do a whole lot because Elder Mathewson actually hurt his ankle so that's been causing him a lot of pain. So we were just trying to take it easy and just drop by a couple of people and just visit them and stuff like that. I guess the big highlight that happened this week was that we had a District meeting, which was everybody getting together over in New Liskeard. It is about 3 hours away from here but it was a good meeting. I don't know if I've mentioned this or not but I'm the District Leader now so I conduct the meetings. We talked about how we can feel the spirit more and how to be better as missionaries. The people that are in my district are really nice and they're super awesome so I'm looking forward to the rest of the time that I have with them.

Today we're going to go fishing again! I'm hoping that today that I can catch a pike or a pickerel because that would be pretty sweet. I am making sure that I catch the biggest fish because I'm the master Fisher and I can do everything. 😂

Elder Mathewson’s ankle had been hurting him all week. So on Monday we went to the hospital and had an x-ray and we were there for like 4 or 5 hours. He just has this little fracture in his ankle so they put a cast on it and now he's on crutches so I'm sure this week will be pretty adventurous. 🏥

That is pretty much all that happened this past week.

Elder Murray

coleton.murray@myldsmail.net

WALKED AND WALKED AND WALKED!!!

HEEEELLLLOOOOO!!!!

I hope everyone had a good week with a lot of fun activities planned. My week was pretty good. The main highlight of the week was that Elder Mathewson and I had to walk everywhere we went! There was a dent in our car that we had to take in to get fixed so it is in the shop right now, we still don't have it back. 😂 But without further delay, let us jump right on into this thing!!

So the beginning of the week was pretty interesting. Because of transfers there were a lot of missionaries staying at our place. So Monday and Tuesday were kind of a blur. On Wednesday we had lunch with a member in the morning. She gave us some tuna sandwiches as well as some wisdom. I got the whole run down on wheat extenders and how versatile they are! So if you need to EXTEND your meal just get some wheat extenders and they will work wonders for ya. After that we went and got ice cream with a member and her boyfriend that we are teaching. We went over to the park and hung out with them and answered some of the questions that he had. Then we went and helped some random people move and....it was a very interesting experience. Basically to sum it all up there was a lot of swearing, crying, and breaking of things. I rolled my ankle twice and to top it all off we found out that they had bed bugs. 🐛 So needless to say we did not take any chances with those bed bugs and made sure all clothes were off before we got back into the house so we could put them into the wash. After that we walked over to the church because there were some members that wanted to get their picture taken with me and the sign that I made them for their anniversary. They so lovingly offered us a ride home.😀

That was the big part of the week, most of the other days were spent walking around and talking to people. Then we get to Saturday where we got to volunteer at a roller derby!! That honestly was such a blast to be a part of! I was in charge of score keeping and the penalty box. I was getting so invested into it! I don't know, there is just something about watching people crash into each other that gets me so hyped.  😂 After the roller derby we boogied over to the church to meet with someone there and then we had to hustle over to our next appointment. After that we went and got some food at McDonald's and walked home.

Sunday was good as well, awesome people that come to church. Everyone is always so kind and loving here, it makes me super happy. One of the things that we are actually doing now is when we go to eat with people we sing for them. Kind of weird I know 😂 But everyone seems to really enjoy it so we will keep rolling with it!!!

Well that's all I got for this week. I hope everyone has a good rest of their week!!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Murray

coleton.murray@myldsmail.net

SHORT EMAIL!!!!!

HEEEEEYYYYYOOO

Hey everybody hope you had a good week. I have to make this pretty quick because today is crazy. We have a bunch of missionaries staying over here because it is transfer week and everybody's traveling to different places and we just have to get everything figured out. So I don't have a whole lot of time, but this past week was pretty freaking sweet. It was Elder Olson's last week here so we hung out with him and made his last moments as a missionary freaking legit. We were able to meet with some of the members and some of the people that we're talking with now. So that was pretty good to be able to see them and to connect with them. As far as transfer news goes Elder Mathewson and I are staying together here in Sudbury and replacing Elder Olson is Elder Oviatt.

That's all I got this week! Sorry for the short email but I will try to fill you in a lot more when I have more time next week.

Love and miss you all!!! 

Elder Murray

I AM FINALLY GETTING MY COLOR!!!!

HELLO!

Hey everyone so glad I get to talk to you again and hear about all the amazing things you are doing! My week was pretty good, nothing too crazy happened but a good week. The weather is getting a lot nicer here and I am starting to get my tan back which is awesome! But without any further delay let us jump right on into this thang!!!

So to start off with, I don't have a whole lot of time today but I'll just try to summarize this week into a short little paragraph for you.

This week was a whole lot of walking around and talking to people. Like we would do it for hours on end and we would just go out and not even drive our car. We would just walk everywhere and just try to talk to as many people as we could. It was really good. We got to explore Sudbury a little bit more and I got to get my tan on so now I'm looking a whole lot more beautiful and you know losing weight at the same time so that's always awesome. I went on exchanges to North Bay this past week and it was super fun to be able to be over there with Elder De Vries and talk with him and just hang out with him a little bit.  Nothing really too crazy was going on this week, just trying to set up appointments with people that we had. On Monday last week I bought a new pair of pants so I'm feeling pretty good about that. Today we're probably going to be cleaning the house a little bit, buying food, and just doing regular P Day activities. I am super pumped for basketball tonight!  I'm super excited for that and I can't wait to play ball with all the boys. Yeah, that's it, I really can't think of anything else like pretty much I'm telling you, our entire week was walking, talking, and knocking that was pretty much the entire week.

That's all I got for this week, hope everyone has a good rest of your week!!

Love and miss you!!

Elder Murray

coleton.murray@myldsmail.net

PRAISE JESUS!!!!!

HEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYY!!

How y'all doing this week?? I hope everyone had a good week and that it was full of fun and excitement. My week was pretty good, nothing too crazy, but a good week nonetheless. It's June now so the weather is starting to get a little bit warmer up here, which is a blessing and a curse. But anyways without further delay let us jump right on into this thang!!!!!

Monday last week was pretty good. We went and did some more fishing, it was good day for fish and we had a really good time. Elder Olson caught a walleye, pretty decent size walleye, and we fried it up right there on the spot. It tasted pretty sweet. I didn't catch anything but maybe next time I'll catch something and it will be even bigger than his. 🐟 After that we went and played ball and that was really good. We had a couple of new people show up and they could play really well so the competition is getting even stronger which is really good to help me with my skills.

On Tuesday we had lunch with a member and heaven forbid that she feeds the one food that I absolutely hate, corn dogs!! 😝So I had to suffer through that but it was okay.😂 Then after that we went and just walked around and talked to some people downtown and then we went and visited another member. We talked with them for a little bit about stuff going on and how we can help them out. We had dinner that night out in Capreol with another member. They fed us pretty good. We had steaks, chicken, sausage and potato salad. Just freaking top notch! Then we went and did some more walking around and talking to people and dropping by people to see if they were home and see if we can help them out in any sort a way.

On Wednesday most of the day was spent doing missionary work like walking around talking to people and knocking on doors. That evening we went over to the church and helped paint some jars for a bridal shower that was happening. I painted a pretty dope looking jar but the problem is nobody else thought so. 😉 

On Thursday we had lunch with some members that lived out in Lavack which is a 40 minute drive. They are couponers so they get a ton of food every time they go to the grocery store. So they just loaded us up with all of this different food, it was freaking awesome! Best members in  Ontario hands down... I'm just kidding they are really a great but I would never say that they're the best because everybody that I have met is the best. Then after that we had a lesson with one of our investigators and that went pretty well. We talked to him about faith and repentance and how we can keep God in our minds and keep moving forward through all the struggles that we have. Then we went and had dinner at another members place and then went to their son’s house for cake because he was graduating from college.

On Friday we had district meeting in the morning and usually we do district meeting over Skype but this time we actually all met up for this week. So everybody drove down to Sudbury. We talked a lot about being full of integrity and being accountable to ourselves.  It was really good to see everybody and to be able to talk to them face to face and just say what's up. After the meeting we went to lunch at Montana's which is just like a Steakhouse place. Elder Pollard, who I think is one of the funniest missionaries in this entire mission, hooked us freaking up! He is going home pretty soon, but he has been saving money throughout his entire mission. On his missionary card he has like $800 bucks! So when we get there and we're eating lunch, he just looks at everybody and says don't worry I'll pay for the whole thing. I LOVE YOU POLLARD!! After lunch we went over to a member’s house because I needed to go and make this sign that I'm making for some other members  anniversary. So I was over there doing that and we're talking to them for a bit and then after that we drove to the church and we helped set up for the bridal shower that was happening the next day. We helped put up flowers and put up tables and chairs and just like decorating the entire thing. We had fun doing it, it was a lot of fun and the members really appreciated it. 

Saturday was pretty sweet. I was on exchanges with Elder Olson all day and we decided that we weren't going to drive anywhere and that we're just going to walk everywhere. So we walked I think for like 6 hours or something that day and it was pretty freaking great. 🏃 It was cool to talk to a lot of people that we got to talk to and the experiences we were able to have. We had some pretty weird conversations with people. We talked to one girl who is actually a musician and a singer for a band and she gave us her card and she told us that she would play something for us sometime. Then that night we watched a broadcast that the church put out that was freaking amazing. The music that they had was so uplifting and soul inspiring. It made me want to get up and move and dance around.🕺

Sunday we decided that we were going to go to church out on Manitoulin Island so that's like a 2 1/2 hour drive to get out there so we left at 8:30 in the morning to get out there. The drive is absolutely beautiful, I love driving out there because the scenery is just fantastic. It was really good be able to see all those people again and talk to them and just a see if we could do anything for them.  We were out there for a bit and then we talked to another one of our investigators who lives out there to see how he was doing. We set up something for next week and we're going to go help him with some things around the house and then we are going to go fishing with him. After that we drove back home and ate some dinner, made up some studies, and went and watched the devotional that night.

Well that's all I got for this week! Thank you all so much for the continual love and support that you show me. I hope you all have a good rest of your week!

Love and miss you all!!

Elder Murray

coleton.murray@myldsmail.net