April 21 - Week 37 Forgot Camera, Easter, Su Friend Alex already has testimony, Service works, Su gets Holy Ghost, Gospel blesses families

I forgot my camera … 2nd week in a row.  I am kicking myself for not bringing it.  I have pictures from Su's baptism and us dyeing Easter eggs for you guys.  Oh well next week I will bring it for sure.  Thank you so much for the Easter package. It was perfect; everything I miss about Easter at home with you guys.  I ate too much crap this week though.  This morning I went on a run with one of the AP's; I definitely was slowed down by all those whopper eggs.  Too good.

This week was crazy and stressful.  We said a bunch of prayers, and spent a ton of time texting and calling and arranging rides and all that fun stuff and we hit standard!  

Tuesday we had a lesson with one of Su's friends named Alex. He had met with us before and said he wasn't really interested.  We asked if he had read any of the Book of Mormon, he hadn't.  So we started explaining why it is important to read to gain a testimony and all the sudden he says.  "I already have a testimony."  We both stopped and listened to him tell us about how when he came to Su's baptism he felt the Spirit and now he believes in God!  We said awesome, so will you read and pray about the Book of Mormon to grow closer to God, and strengthen your faith.  He said no... too much homework.  He said "God wouldn't want me to be more stressed out."  We bore our testimony of the positive influence it would have on his life.  And got him to commit to at least try. We will keep working with him. 

I got to get out a little early today, so I will summarize the rest of the week.  English class struggled again.  Not very many people.  Su is doing great!  He got the gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday.  Shell brought friends to meet with us, and one came to church yesterday!  Li Rui hit her year mark of being a member.  We got a new investigator yesterday by helping carry some groceries earlier in the week.  Service works!  

This week in PMG I studied the gospel blesses families section.  I know that this gospel really does help families develop stronger relationships.  I think it is because we all have the same goal of living together forever as a family. I really want to help others see that.  Knowing that I will get to live with you all forever is the greatest thing I have.  I work hard everyday to strengthen this testimony and do what is right so I can be with you guys, because you guys are what make me happy.  I love you all so much!  

-Elder Murray

April 14 - Su Baptism, Working with Christopher, Mulit-zone Breakfast, Possibly last interview with President, Exchange with Elder Yeung, Slurpee and sunburn, Repentance like Endless windex

Well it was a stressful week, but like I was talking about last week.  Things work out in the end.  

Tuesday we had to each lunch in 10 minutes so we could make it to an apppointment.  The appointment was ok.  It was two new investigators; they listened to the first lesson, but we haven't been able to get in contact since then.  In the evening Elder Yeung came to translate for Su's baptismal interview and Elder Heaton went to translate for another baptismal interview.  It was fun to be with Elder Yeung for a while.  We talked to a lot of people, he taught a lesson in Cantonese which was interesting.  I could  pick out and guess some stuff, but it is so different from Mandarin.  Su passed his interview no problem.

Wednesday we had interview with the President.  This is probably the last one we get with him.  He leaves after next transfer.  He is really cool.  We talked about how he had been really worried when Elder Jiang (The old Chinese elder that trained elder snyder)  left for home and there were only two white Elders that had been learning Chinese for 5 months.  However, he told me the work didn't skip a beat.  He said that we try our best and the Atonement makes our best more than good enough.  So he told me just to try my best.  

Thursday was weekly planning and we had a few lessons, we met with Su just to get everything all set up for his baptism.  Oh I forgot on the day before we had met with Christopher.  We went over the baptismal questions, he passed.  He did express that he was worried that he couldn't come to church every week because he is graduating in June and he is really busy.  We bore our testimonies of being helped and supported when we try to do what Christ wants us to do first.  After that he said he was ready to be baptized.

Friday we had Christopher's baptismal interview.  He also passed no problem.  Friday we didn't have any appointments in the afternoon, so we stayed outside and talked to people walking to and from class.  It was really hot that day so I got a slurpee at 7/11, and Elder Heaton chugged 3 water bottles. At night we had a really good English class.  A lot of new people came and they all really liked it.  When we got home Elder Heaton realized he was really sunburned, he was not happy.  So I have been lending him my sunscreen.  It has been really hot here.

Saturday we had a multi-zone breakfast with the first assistant in the mission presidency's house.  It was really fun. They did an Easter egg hunt for us.  The rest of the day we met with some potentials.  They listened and accepted Book of Mormon's but they didn't commit to a return appointment.  It is hard, but we are still looking for people that are looking for the gospel, and not just to understand American culture.  

Sunday was really good, and really stressful.  At one point we had 6 people that were going to come to church and some wanted to go to singles ward, and none of them had rides.  It was crazy stressful. In the end we had a bunch of people cancel, and we ended up with 3 at church and one came late for priesthood and Sunday school.  Biggest bummer was Christopher cancelled and said he had too much homework.  So he didn't get baptized yesterday.  We are meeting with him again today to see what we should do next.  The good news was that Su got baptized!  It was really good!  All the recent converts came.  He said he felt really warm afterwards.  The bishopric member came and congratulated and said he would get the priesthood soon.  Shell explained the priesthood as the authority to give the bread and water in church, and Su was pretty excited. 

Today has been fun.  The chapel has been closed for cleaning so we went and played tennis.  I stink but it was fun anyway.  Hope you guys have a great Easter Sunday!  This week in PMG I studied Repentance.  I like the reference to the BD which says that repent means forming a fresh view of God, the world, and ourselves.  I have felt this as I repent,  Everything feels better, I am happier and more grateful for what I have.  I am able to notice more blessing in my life.  It is awesome that through the Atonement we can form fresh views as many times as we need.  It is like a bottle of windex that never runs out.  And running with the window cleaning analogy sometimes you don't realize how dirty your windows were until after you clean them. Ok that is all for this week.  

ILY

Dexter

April 7 Week 35 General Conference in Chinese, Su Interview for baptism, Exchange with Spanish Elder Taylor - Dinner appointment without host, Christy and Liu Cancelled, Tomato Basil Wheat Thins

Hello everyone!  Conference was awesome!  It was so nice!  I was really able to feel the spirit and learn some new ways to improve.  I hope you guys enjoyed it.  Dad's letter was awesome I loved seeing the program from Parker's performance.  Hope he had a fun time on the music trip.

This week started off really good, ended sort of bad, but we had conference to pick us up.

Tuesday we put Su on date... and he accepted.  His interview is tomorrow!  He is doing awesome!  He is reading the Book of Mormon everyday and watched conference with us yesterday.  He is a really cool guy,  he has a lot of faith.  He agreed to live all the commandments without hesitation.  Keep him in your prayers.

Wednesday I went on exchanges with Elder Taylor, our Spanish speaking DL's companion.  It was pretty cold and rainy, we had a good time though.  We biked all over Riverside, we biked past this giant cup looking monument next to a wearhouse.  I will send a picture.  Dinner was weird though.  The food was awesome, but the lady just served us the food and then left us in the kitchen to eat without her.  Elder Taylor said all of the members in their ward do that.  It was a different experience.

Thursday we did weekly planning, and we met with Shelly.  She is still doing good.  She recently got her driver's license and is apply for an internship here after she graduates.

Friday we had ZDM which took up most of the morning.  In the afternoon we had some appointments set with Christy and Liu (both of whom really have potential, but have been unwilling/too busy to meet.)  They both cancelled and Liu said that he is too busy to set up a time.  It was sad.  English class was also poorly attended that night.  I was glad we had conference the next day.

Saturday conference was really good!  I really liked Elder Eyring's talk.  My favorite part was that he said both Pres. Hinckley and Monson, have positive attitudes and when others bring up problems or stressful situations, they have an attitude of "it will all work out."  I really need to be better at this.  Also Saturday was the last day of the transfer, so everything is all switched up.  Our ward will only have 2 sets of missionaries now.  Elder Heaton and I and Elder Reber and a new one coming tonight named Elder Fransen.  Also Elder Reber and I are both going to be district leaders.  I am excited, and a little nervous... but hey "everything works out."

Sunday was good we watched conference in Chinese at the institute.  I could understand a lot of it.  We also had subtitles though, but they would get so far behind or ahead.  For lunch I brought a sandwich and I got a box of tomato basil wheat thins which I shared with the Chinese there.  They loved the wheat thins.  They said they were the best snack they've eaten here  They ate the whole box... 

Ok that is all.  I love you guys... oh in keeping with conference.  In PMG I studied Bear testimony frequently.  It is really true that the best way to invite the spirit is to testify or "a simple declaration of belief."  This week I am going to work on bearing testimony more frequently.  

ILY

Dex

Mar 31 - Week 34 Getting Hot, New Semester, Ward Member Chinese Neighbors, Wangs, Giovanni, Busy Lu, Avocado Smoothie, Justin In China until August, Prayer with English Class Couple and Baby Dodo

Hello Family!  This week it has started to get even hotter.  I am starting to get funny missionary tan lines where the collar of my shirt and watch are.  Even though this week was Spring break we were still able to get a lot of work done and we actually still got 20 lessons... just barely!

Tues was awesome because we had an old lady in our ward call and ask us to come over with her to give a Book of Mormon to her Chinese neighbors.  It turned out to be really good and they agreed to let us come back and teach them.  Tuesday night Elder Heaton made me some Taiwanese food that was really good.  I am jealous of Parker this summer, he is going to eat some good stuff.

Wednesday I went on exchanges with my District leader Elder Jensen.  It was a pretty slow day, but we walked around and got a lot of people's numbers and invited a lot of people  to English class.  It is amazing how many Chinese there are here.  At night we had fifteen people at English class!  It was awesome.  I hope it gets even better as we start the new semester.

Thursday we met with the family from Tuesday.  It went ok.  The wife seems more interested than the husband does.  This weekend they went out of town so we haven't gotten a return appointment yet.  Thursday night we also met with the Wangs.  The mom and daughter that we found.  We had a really good lesson with them and got them set for church... but they missed it for the third week in a row... bummer.

Friday we got a new English class sign, it looks pretty professional!  I am excited to put it out this week.  We also got a new investigator named Giovanni; he just came here a month ago.  He is already some type of Christian in China.  He accepted a Book of Mormon, but I can't tell if he is really interested in the gospel or just wants to learn more about the church.  At night we went out to eat at a new Chinese place.  I got an avocado smoothie that actually was pretty good.

Saturday was a busy day we met with a potential named Lu, but said that he is too busy right now to investigate the church; that seems to be a common excuse.  We met with a few other people including a kid that we just picked up last week.  His name is Justin.  He met with us everyday this week.  He is really interested in the gospel, and he has recognized that he felt the sprirt, but he went home to China today and will be back in August.  

Sunday was really good.  Church was awesome as always.  At night we were at 19 lessons and we needed one more to hit the mission standard of excellence.  We called a bunch of people got reject twice at people's doors, but after an hour of scrambling around a family from English class let us in.  They are a really young couple with a 10 month old baby named Dodo.  They were really nice, we taught about prayer and help them say one together.  It was a neat experience.  

Ok that is all for this week..  I love you all.  Tell Amy I love her and am praying for her.  Keep on keeping on! 

-Elder Murray

Mar 24 - Week 33 Awesome Dave Email, Yvette and Justin, Henry - Shell's Friend and RS graduates, Shell LiRui and Shelly, Christy, Dallin Chen Taiwanese piano playing former missionary and T-mobile salesman

Hello family!  There is a really angry guy in the library. It is sort of sketchy; he is yelling and cussing everyone out.  It is pretty sketchy.  I hope I make it out  alive. (We got our snail mail letter on Friday so he made it out ok!) I got an awesome e-mail from Dave today.  He has an English teacher that is also a member, pretty awesome!  I have had a really good week.  It was pretty slow  with finals and all, but not too bad.

I ran out of time to write down a day by day thing and I forgot my planner so I will just write the cool stuff.  Hopefully I can remember all of it.

Well we got some new investigators this week.  We had a couple show up to English class really late, but the stayed after and talked to us a long time and we set up a return appointment for the next day.  Their names are Yvette and Justin.  Justin is really interested and accepted the invitation to baptism.  No date just yet.  Yvette is still pretty skeptical, but we will work on it.

Christopher is doing good, but he went back home to see his family for Spring break so we haven't really gotten to meet with him at all last week or this week.  It is a bummer but we are texting him and reminding him to read and pray. In our last meeting we gave him a blessing to help with his finals.  It was a cool experience.

Henry (Shell's friend from last week)  is reading the Book of Mormon with us, but still doesn't believe there is a God.   He came to a ward activity this Saturday where a bunch of Relief Society women "graduated" from some program or something.  It was sort of awkward, and I think Henry was confused with all the old people in caps and gowns, but he enjoyed the food and he met the ward, so that is all that matters.

Shell  is doing great.  She came to Sacrament meeting yesterday, and is getting along really good with Li Rui and Shelly.  They are a good group of recent converts.  Shell came to help us teach a girl named Christy (has an aunt and uncle investigating in Arcadia).  They got along really well and Shell gave her a ride home.

Friday we had a guy walk in the institute to play piano.  He a guy from Taiwan who met the church when he was 15 and served a mission there when he was 18. Then when he finished that served the mandatory one year in the military as a paratrooper, and has been studying at BYU Idaho, but then came here to work for a few months as a T-mobile Salesman.  He just took us out to  lunch today.  His name is Dallin Chen.  He is really cool and willing to help us teach!  

Ok that is all that is going on.  I am having a great time.  I love the ward here.   I have been here a really long time (in missionary terms) so I've gotten to know them all really well. 

Plus side of California Pollution - Sunsets

  I love you guys and miss you!

ILY

-Elder Murray

Mar 17 - Week 32 St. Patricks Day, Overflow Baptism, Finding a Shell's Friend, Christopher, Multi-zone Conference, Finals Week

Happy St. Patrick's Day.  I hope the Leprechaun came and that you are all wearing green, and eating green pancakes or potato soup or whatever we do for today.  Today I got pinched hard by my district leader for not wearing green.  So I made sure to wear a green tie today.  This week was a lot of work, but it was really cool. 

 

Sorry for the short letter last week.  One thing I wanted to tell you guys last week that I forgot was that at Elder Yeung's baptism we overflowed the baptismal font, and water was running out from the dressing room door into the relief society room and hallway!  It was really stressful, but we got it all cleaned up with a vaccum type thing and mops, so it wasn't too bad.  It is funny now.

 

Well this past Tuesday we had almost nothing planned.  We just had one lesson with Shell.  So we spent a lot of time out contacting.  We had a security guard come harass us for a bit.  Elder Heaton got really mad because we weren't on campus propoerty at all.  So we went in and talked to an adminstrator.  They weren't very sympathetic. They said that they thought our English class was competition with their English programs so we tried to say we don't want to compete just help out.  They weren't convinced, but the said they would at least talk to the security guards to not bother us when we are on public property.  After all that we were walking on the street when we noticed a guy staring at our name tags.  So we stopped and talked to him.  We invited him in for a tour of the institute building;  he came in and we taught him the first lesson.  As he was leaving Shell came.  Turns out they are good friends!  Since then we have brought Shell to help us teach him, and she even brought him to church.  It was such a cool miracle.

 

Wednesday was pretty average.  English class has hit a plateau of about 10 people each class.  Which isn't as big as with Elder Snyder, but it helps us find new investigators so it is doing it's job.  Wednesday we taught Christopher the word of wisdom and committed him to live it.  The bummer is that he has finals this week and then goes home for a week of spring break.  His date for baptism is as soon as he gets back. Please keep him in your prayers this week.

 

Thursday we had multi-zone conference.  It was really good.  President and Sister smart gave really good trainings on loving your companion, and how hard times help us grow as people.  

Birthday Elders

Mt. Rubidoux Zone

 

Friday - we had 2 appointments fall through so we went and knocked on these apartments nearby campus that are FULL of Chinese.  The first door we went to was a really nice woman in her 50's we told her who we were and about our English class.  She was really excited.  We asked if she was interested in learning more about Christ and she went back inside and pulled out a huge pile of books on Christ and English and Chinese bibles.  We got her number and got a return appointment for the next day.  After that we went back to the institute to teach some new investigators that just came from China two weeks ago.  They aren't too interested, but while we were teaching them, we had 5 random people walk inside because they saw our sign for English class.  They came and Elder Heaton taught them a lesson and they came to church this past Sunday!

 

Saturday we went to the return appointment with the woman we had contacted the day before.  We taught her, her daughter, and her husband the restoration.  It went ok.  The husband has to go back to China, but has been to Salt Lake City before and knows a little about the church.  They are really nice, keep them in your prayers.

 

Sunday was good we got 4 people at church!  That was awesome.  We also go some translation equipment for sacrament meeting.  It works really well, the only problem is when don't have someone that can translate well enough.  Shell tried, but didn't understand enough of the church vocab to translate fully.  Elder Heaton tried and did pretty good, but they would periodically laugh because he translated something awkwardly or his Taiwanese accent or both. 

 

All in all it was a good week.  Keep me in your prayers this week, because it is finals.  When that happens all the Chinese students shut themselves up in the dorms and study, so it will be a stuggle to find people to meet with, also it has been heating up A LOT this week.  I am not looking forward to the Summer here, but I guess it is just one of those things that I have got to accept and learn from instead of just worry and complain.  I love you guys.  Have a good week!

-Elder Murray

Mar 10 - Week 31 Shell Baptism (semi-drowned her), Former Elder Snyder visits from Utah State and takes trunk load of costco supplies to Dex, Exchange with Elder Yeung and Translating for Baptismal Interview

Ok today today has been really annoying and stressful, and not relaxing at all.  We are running late for dinner right now so I will have to make this short so I will just talk about the later half of the week which was the more eventful part. 

 

Friday afternoon we did an exchange with Elder Yeung and Elder Schoonmaker.  They had two investigators who needed baptismal interviews from a member of the mission presidency, and they needed a translator.  So I got to go do it since Elder Heaton had already taught her before.  It was a really amazing experience.  It really strengthened my testimony to hear their experience and how they had come to feel that the gospel was true.  They are a mother and a daughter.  They came to America a few months ago. Her daughter is about to have a baby that will be American citizen before they return to China.  Anyway they met with the missionaries to practice English and long story short they accepted the gospel.  I am really glad I got to meet them.  It was also a good experience for me to see that my Chinese was useful.  Here at UCR the students love to just speak English with us to practice.  They could all probably understand without me speaking Chinese.  The interview gave me a good chance to see that my Chinese can be useful, and I am not quite as bad as I thought.  I was at least able to understand what they said and get the interviewer's point across to them.  Even if it wasn't perfect.

 

Saturday I stayed over in Eastvale that night since... ok sorry I gotta go.  Long story short I had a good time in Eastvale with Elder Yeung.  It was awesome to see Elder Snyder.  [Former Elder Snyder now at Utah State called our house Thursday and we rushed to fill his trunk with Costco goodies and new shoulder bag for Dex.  It was so nice of him...we wanted to meet him but he came during work meetings for both Ty and I so he just took stuff off our porch]

 (In rush to get off of the computer to dinner apt -  Dex asked us to get baptism story from another email so here it is) "I baptized someone (Shell) this Sunday, and she wouldn't go under.  So I had to shove her down, then she came up and spit up water and was coughing a lot.  Everyone was sort of freaked out, they thought I was drowning her; I was just trying to get her all clean.  It was bad, she probably thought I was trying to kill her.  Oh well.  She can get into the celestial kingdom now."

Chinese Elder, Li Riu, Shelly and Shell and Shell's Baptism

 It was funny.  I love you

-Elder Murray