Glory Glory Hallelujah‏

It's a hot humid day in the wheat plains of Kansas! Spent the evening with some cute newly-weds sharing the gospel to Aaron as he watched his two toddlers in diapers only run around the freshly cut lawn. Dawn was setting and he was makin us laugh with his crazy roofing stories and funny church attitude, all the while smoking his long cigarette. Aaron is my age, but his life has been so so different, yet he has clung to choosing good, a wife that he so so loves, and holding his babies he wouldn't give up for anything. Just hope we can get him to just read the BOM on his own. Soon enough it will happen :)

It is so marvelous how God has blessed us with families. Those new-born babies teach a person something completely new about their Father in Heaven, and about themselves as His creation. THey change EVERYTHING in your life. It is so cool....

Laura made it to church again yesterday, so there will be NOTHING stopping her from being baptized this Saturday. Wow. Surreal. Can't wait to cry about it :) For now I'm holding back the water works haha

I've hit a point on my mission where I... I don't even know how to explain it.... I've applied certain teachings line upon line, and am starting to see some permanent growth.... it's almost as if you are training for a new employment, and there is so much to learn and you have to work really hard to not mess up. Finally, the job becomes a joy, you can perform almost every ounce of your tasks subconsciously and you feel connected to it on a whole other level. I see people and see myself in an entirely new light. I still struggle to know how to communicate to my Father as if He were right here beside me, that will be a long struggle I feel, but I work for Him and respect Him in a totally new and better way...

I was reading Uchtdorf's talk from last conference, and I feel I need to share a particular part with you all. It is sort of long, so bare with me:

"In any circumstance, our sense of gratitude is nourished by the many and sacred truths we do‍ know: that our Father has given His children the great plan of happiness; that through the Atonement of His Son, Jesus Christ, we can live forever with our loved ones; that in the end, we will have glorious, perfect, and immortal bodies, unburdened by sickness or disability; and that our tears of sadness and loss will be replaced with an abundance of happiness and joy, 'good measure,pressed down, and shaken together, and running over."
(Read his whole talk HERE)

It must have been this kind of testimony that transformed the Savior’s Apostles from fearful, doubting men into fearless, joyful emissaries of the Master. In the hours following His Crucifixion, they were consumed with despair and grief, unable to understand what had just happened. But one event changed all of that. Their Lord appeared to them and declared, 'Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.'

When the Apostles recognized the risen Christ—when they experienced the glorious Resurrection of their beloved Savior—they became different men. Nothing could keep them from fulfilling their mission. They accepted with courage and determination the torture, humiliation, and even death that would come to them because of their testimony. They were not deterred from praising and serving their Lord. They changed the lives of people everywhere. They changed the world.

You do not need to see the Savior, as the Apostles did, to experience the same transformation. Your testimony of Christ, born of the Holy Ghost, can help you lookpast the disappointing endings in mortality and see the bright future that the Redeemer of the world has prepared."

D&C 78 talks about being thankful, and how blessed we become for it. For me, being grateful causes me to act in ways that my carnal man never would, and to serve God with my heart. I hope and pray that I will ALWAYS be like this... even when I return home and emerge out of this glorious bubble I float in. I want to always be grateful enough that everything I do is in the name of Christ.

Anyways, I love you all so so much. HAPPY JULY! July is just so great, isn't it??

Best, Sister Murphy Senior