Christmas

Merry Christmas!

I really enjoyed getting to talk to all of you yesterday! I miss you all a lot and even though we talked a little longer than planned, I´m glad I was able to get to spend so much time talking with every one and seeing every one, too. 

As far as things with me and my week, it was pretty normal. In the middle of the week, we had our mission Christmas party. The party was mostly just playing sports and getting to talk with other missionaries for a couple of hours. We also had a pretty nice dinner, where we got a decent sized steak and french fries. It was pretty good. I got to see my friend from the MTC too, Elder Beck, and spend the day with him, which was nice. We did a little proselyting activity as well,which was fun. 

The mission president reminded us though of the importance of working hard and staying focused on our objective. Makes me kinda feel bad about to talking to you all for so long, but that call really lifted my spirits and gave me a real boost. On Thursday, we went on exchanges with our zone leaders. I went with Elder Gerkin. We worked in area, which is pretty different than mine. We worked really hard, though. I learned a lot about being a missionary from him. It was nice because he's an Anglo, so there wasn't a language barrier:  I was able to understand a lot about how we need to adapt as missionaries to our areas. 

Even though a lot of the mission looks the same, each area is different, with different needs and different problems. The importance is being humble, asking for help and guidance in identifying these problems from the Lord, then changing the way you find or teach so that you can invite more people to come unto Christ. It was really good. 

Friday I got sick and was up for most of the early morning. Friday afternoon when I came back to our area,  we went out with a recent returned missionary who is in the bishopric and contacted and taught our investigators. We tried to get them to come to the ward Christmas party and we were able to get some of them to. By the time of the party I was in a lot of pain though, so I didn't really enjoy myself too much. Saturday was kind of slow, since most of the people were getting ready for Christmas. We contacted a lot of members. We are trying to build a good relationship with them and work through them to find people. Saturday night we ate with the Bishop, who is a good guy, and at midnight everyone set off fireworks, so my companion and I watched that from our apartment. 

Fireworks are beautiful but only for a couple of seconds and then there gone. I think there´s a metaphor there somewhere but I´ll let you find it. 

Sunday I got to talk with all of you, which was amazing. I was very grateful for that. It was a blessing. Today we have a party as our district, since it is p-day. We are going to watch a movie and play some games possibly. It should be fun. I really want to work hard this week and try to find as many people as we can. I´m grateful for this opportunity. I will be patient and try to learn as much as I can. 

I hope you all have a great week and get a chance to relax. I'm very grateful I got to see you all. I miss you. Have a great New Years! Stay safe.

Love,

Elder McMurray 

P.S. Thank you for the photos. I really appreciate them. They´re wonderful.

Also, I´m sorry there are no pictures this week. The computer I am using does not have a port for me to put the sd card for my camera. Hopefully next week