Elder Will Murdoch-Ft. Worth Texas Mission

Angelique's baptism: It was about 8am. Things were... calm. I thought of the quote from Futurama Soldier: "This is the worst part... The calm before the battle." Fry: "Really? And then the battles not so bad?" Soldier: "Oh right, I forgot about the battle *fearfully squeals*" The last baptism we had the adversary made an attempt on our lives so naturally we were slightly uneasy. We made our first move of the day by calling the Bedford elders to borrow their flash drive and then the games began.  We learned to little too late that the Bedford elders had changed apartments and so they were now about 25 minutes away instead of 15. We left our own apartment way too late to make it to them by 10:30. We had a lesson 30 minutes away from them that was supposed to start at 11. We showed up at Bedford and they couldn't find the right flash drive. They were on exchange and so Elder Hartman was on the phone with Elder Lundel...

Well shoot, gang. This week flew by so quickly I didn't even have time to smell the roses. All I've got is a little story this week! Baby Footprints: We were teaching this new person, we'd met him a week earlier and were preparing to teach him again. We went to his apartment and he started off with a prayer right away but right after he said amen he posed a question, "In America, why do doctors imprint baby's feet?" I knew in an instant why he was asking and desperately tried to think of a way to bring the conversation back to the gospel but he insisted.  Let me explain, In Africa, people are a lot more superstitious and if you asked the average African the most common form of death besides old age, "witches" would be a very popular answer. My own companion is also a staunch believer in witches and explained to me long ago the easiest way a witch can curse you. Basically all the need to do is find someone's bare footpri...

Island Storm: Recently, they changed up our districts so we've been with a new district and a new district leader who I went on exchange with last week. This week, I went on exchange in his area with his companion, Elder Kairo. The forecast was looking like rain which was really bumming me out because it's a bike area and I've never been a strong biker, let alone in the rain. Morning came though, and so did the rain. And as you already know about Texas, when it rains it pours. We mounted our bikes and charged into the storm to contact Less Actives. At first I was being very careful to avoid puddles because the back tire would flick water onto my back. Then someone in a 20 year old Mazda intentionally splashed us and we were drenched. I didn't get mad, though Elder Kairo, if he were given the chance,  would have punched them so hard multiple ambulances would have been required for any witnesses within 15 feet. I thought about Joseph Smith and how he seale...

Manuia Asofanau: First of all, thank y'all so much for your love on my birthday, I really appreciated it!  Side note: some guy tried offering us a smoke (Not in a creepy "hey kids, want some drugs?" Kind of way but in a genuine nice way.) Then he caught himself and said, "y'all aren't old enough to smoke are you?" We said no but as we walked away we realized we are old enough to legally smoke which was weird. Unfortunately I had to go on exchange on my birthday with my district leader, Elder Tafua  who is indeed Samoan. It's not that I dislike him or hate going on exchanges, I kind of just wanted to be with Elder Shiday so the burden of decision isnt placed wholly on my shoulders. The day was ok, in fact, it was pretty normal. We did some contacting in the morning, had lunch at Chick-fil-a where I realized I've been ordering the same thing from Chik-fil-a for years. We had a few lessons in the afternoon and dinner with one of our b...

The Best Day Ever: Saturday was the best day ever. Of all the days of my mission and possibly my life that was the one I loved the most. Because of the awkwardness of my hands (Ether 12:24) I'm going to have trouble explaining it, please bear with me. The week had been lame. We were getting at each other's throats and we were low on miles. After resolving our differences Friday night we realized we couldnt be driving all around DFW until Wednesday we had about 33 miles left per day. We had a lesson with Angelique and decided that was the most important thing to do so our plan until dinner was to tract out her entire complex after her lesson. We don't really tract because Africans just kind of mix with every one else and so it's not an effective way of finding them but we didn't have much of a choice. We showed up at Angelique's around 1pm we knocked and when she answered her smile turned into a frown. "Where's your third guy?" She asked, ...

Pick-up sticks: We got a mysterious text from our Zone Leaders Monday night that pretty much demanded we come to service with them for one of their members, after everyone complied they sent out a mysterious follow up text for further guidance: "Spray your jeans with permethrin tonight."  We did so and the next day we showed up the next morning with our district leader and no one else was there. The lady who we were doing the service for was there at first but had to go drop her kids off somewhere.  We had no idea what we were supposed to do so we just sat there. While we waited, we saw that the Mid-Cities Baptist Church had a "prayer garden" next door.  I knew "prayer garden" wasn't a Biblical term so we set out to see what it was. It was actually really lame, there was a gazebo and a few water features with some bored looking cherub statues attached to them. There were some suits of armor that I assume were for really skinny mi...

Joseph Smith look alikes at Zone Conference Kunama: A Miracle in Statistics: On Saturday I was on exchange with Elder Crane in my own area. The day had not gone as planned mostly because we hadn't properly planned it. All of our set lessons had fallen through and I felt like we weren't being effective enough. Our Zone Leaders called us and wanted to do a pass-off lesson with a guy in a nearby complex   in 5 minutes . We showed up and waited in the car for about 5 minutes but it soon became apparent that the Zone Leaders would not be here for a while. Trying to make the most of our waiting time we got out and just started walking along a road in this apartment complex, at first the only person out was an older Hispanic lady who accepted a card, said, "No English" and then hobbled off.  I was getting ready to start knocking every door on one building in particular when someone a few feet in front of us started revving their parked Nissan Altima so we walke...