Elder Will Murdoch-Ft. Worth Texas Mission

Halthom City Blues: For the greater part of this week we struggled with finding people to use a scriptural comparison:   "11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of [Africans]:  12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the [Africans], and shall not find [them]." -Amos 8:11-12 Despite the intermittent rain and (mercifully) cooler weather we grit our teeth and started knocking on every door we knew had Africans and every door around them. All down in a little place called Halthom City It was a Friday and for the past 2 weeks we had found no one, we were desperately trying to find someone anyone we could teach, we met a lot of cool English speakers but not one African. We would teach a tree if it spoke French.  We knocked on the door of a lady we had knocked about a thousand times like, I ...

Hey everyone, my email got deleted just as I was about to add pictures and I don't have time to rewrite it so here's a talk I wrote for Sacrament as compensation. Sorry! Good morning Brothers and Sisters et Bonjour á mes fréres et sœurs qui parlent français. My name is Elder Murdoch and I serve the French speaking people of the Stake. I love being a French Elder, but the downside is I don't get to work with the English majority as much as I'd like to. I'll take this as my chance to prove that I do, in fact, speak English  I was asked to speak on a scripture that I've been studying lately, "easy-peasy" I said "I read so many scriptures I've basically got every verse of the standard works to choose from." But after reviewing my recent studies I realized that  pretty much nothing I've read recently stood out as something I could give a 5 minute talk on. I realize that I could easily just  make something up and find a scripture e...

Chapaté Gestapo: We were in a refugee complex on Friday, we had tried to contact a handful of people but no one answered there was also a flash flood warning that was moving it's way west. It had been at the doctors office we were just at for Elder Shiday' s leg and now it had started to rain here. We were bolting to the car preparing to go take shelter until it was safe to drive. On our dash back I stopped to give a Nepalese lady a "finding faith in Christ" card but when I tried to talk to her she ran and got her son to translate. They wanted to know where the church was, it attracted a large crowd of other Nepalese people asking where the church was and what time the bus would roll by. When we told them there was no bus they were all disappointed and walked off except for one guy and a woman whom I presume was his wife.  The guy tried to practice his English on us but he didn't speak much and then he would tell us a joke in Nepali but we wouldn't un...

You got him to shut up for that long? I was sitting in Elders quorum with Elder Bishara so he could translate for the deaf men while his companion went with Elder Shiday to translate for the deaf women in Relief society. We were on those crappy metal chairs, the kind motivate you to get to Sacrament meeting early, the kind that you slip off if you move too quickly. The Bishop aggressively sat down next to me but thanks to the slip factor of the chairs he slid so his shoulder was touching mine. I was a little concerned. He said that a member from Burleson was requesting a blessing for her non-member friend in the hospital.  Let me tell y'all that Elder Shiday and I are hospital pros now we've been there so much for Elder Shidays frail body and also for other people's blessings that people have kind of just come to accept us as regulars like in the hood.  So we jumped at the chance to go back to the hospital.  We got in the hospital elevator with 2 other peopl...

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...