Catching Up

It's been a while since I've posted here.  Noah has been very busy: he's currently serving as a District Leader, and he's been training newly arrived missionaries:

Dear Dad,

This week was very good. We had a meeting with our mission president the beginning of the week with our half of the mission. We weren't able to complete our goals this past month as a mission and so we talked about the things that we can do better as a missionaries so that we can complete our goals and have more success. It was a very good meeting. After that meeting we were scheduled to have interviews with President. We went home first to have our room checked, went to go eat at a members home, then we returned to the chapel to meet with President. I had a very good interview with him. He gave me a lot of counsel and a lot of needed advice. I need to have a lot more faith I have realized. I lack a lot of faith. But I have tried this week to put more faith in the Lord and in his power. I left the interview with that in my mind and we were able to have a lot of success this week. This week I also had a work visit with an Elder that I know when I was first starting my mission. Elder Gutierrez is his name. We shared a ward together for 4 and a half months, although we were never companions. He went to another zone, I went to another zone. We never really saw each other again, until now. He is now the zone leader here in the zone I'm in and we are also sharing the ward again. He is very inspiring to me. In the work visit, I was able to remember a lot of the experiences that we had in my first area. I was also able to learn a lot from his example about things that I can improve on. It was a good week. I'm very grateful for the experiences I was able to have this week. 

I'm going to send pictures of a service project we did at a fire station near our area.  I miss you all very much as well. I look forward to talking to you on Christmas Day. I want to know what time we should plan for to talk. What time would be good for all of you? I'm sorry that my emails are so short all the time. I hope that you all don't think that it means I'm not missing you. I do miss you. At times I just don't know what to say. I will study those scriptures that you've given me to study. I hope you have a great week. Please send my love to Mom, Samuel, and Naomi. Keep going strong with the Light the World campaign. For family home evening tonight I would recommend listening to the last talk given by Elder Robert D Hales. I miss you, Dad. 

Love,

Elder McMurray 

Lots of Photos!

It's been a while since I've posted any messages from Elder McMurray.  Hurricane Harvey knocked us for a loop!

Things are getting back to normal, so here's an update:

 21 August 2017

The week has been a little hectic. Last Monday I got transferred to a different area and my companion got called to train a new missionary. I spent most of the night packing. I wasn't in my last area for too long, but we were able to have a good number of baptisms and the people in the ward were really nice. 

I got called to the other side of the mission, so I'm pretty far away from everything I previously knew. The mission is basically divided in two halves. One is a district that is called Sanjuan de Lurigancho. The other is made up of districts called Comas, Carabayllo and Independencia. I spent all of my mission up to this point in Comas, but currently I am in Sanjuan de Lurigancho. 

Everything that I had previously heard about this side of the mission -- that it is full of hills, that the majority of the people are really humble, that it is really dusty -- are not the case in my part of Sanjuan de Lurigancho. My new area is called Begonias 2. We don't have a single incline in our area, though it is pretty big compared to other areas. It is the greenest and probably wealthiest area that I know of. 

I don't know all of the mission but from what I do know, it is pretty wealthy. It was a little bit of a shock at first, but now I feel more comfortable. I got called to be senior companion with Elder Melita, who is from Chile and has 6 months in the mission. He wants to work hard,  which is good. 

We didn't really have anyone to work with when I got here, though, so we spent most of the week trying to find new people. Friday, I got a call from our zone leaders, who share our ward, and they told me that I was now the district leader our district, which consists of the zone leaders and other missionaries, who haven't had too much success in the past few months. It is somewhat intimidating, I have to admit. 

I was not expecting to be called as a district leader, and it has me a little nervous, because I know I lack in some leadership aspects. There is not much I can do other then rely on the Lord. 

Now, for some photos: