Marci's Mission Blog

Hey, this is Katie. Marci told me to tell all of you about her mission blog.
We just got her first email, so it is on there now. Here is the URL: www.sistermurray.blogspot.com

She would love to hear from all of you!!

20 March 2010

Wahooooo!

Christian is home safely!!! He is amazing!

14 Dec 2009

Hey everybody!

I spent a little bit too much time admiring the Calvin pictures, so I'm going to have to be quick! Congratulations to Ariana and crew!!!

Good grief, it sounds like the house EXPLODED. I hope the insurance and everything pulls through. I remember the last time the pipe froze in the living room, but it sounds like that was nothing in comparison to this one.

Well, transfers happened, and I stayed. Elder Johnson went to my last area in Lisbon and Elder Greg Walker (who knows Uncle Golden and Missy) came over. It's just three of us covering what was once two areas. We've been working even crazier than usual in order to finish me off well. We've been finding a bunch of people to talk to and trying to get them discovering what we're really offering them, but so far it's nothing too spectacular. We've spent most of the time in Monte since Costa is mostly empty at this time of year (it's basically a beach town).

I've got a funny story about learning gratitude. We were heading home Friday night and decided to visit Raul, a legless guy who I had talked to in the street a couple times before. He lives on the 7th floor of one of the pink buildings by our house. It's rare for the elevators to work in mamy of the buildings around us, but we got this one to work to get up there. On the way back down, the elevator wasn't working, so we went to take the stairs. The lights weren't working (not surprising), so we walked slowly down the dark stairway. I was going down first, and after making it to the first landing I pointed out a stair I hadn't been expecting to the other two. Then, getting down to the sixth floor, I REALLY found a stair I wasn't expecting and twisted my ankle a bit. It was pretty funny to me at the time, and I got to share the story of the last time I had fell down the stairs. Ghettos and stairways are not a good combination for me, apparently. Anyway, we walked home and I iced it with a couple frozen hamburgers, sleeping with it elevated on a pillow. We went to get me an elastic bandaid the next morning and after wearing it for a couple days, it feels way better. It doesn't even hurt anymore, but I'm still being careful and wearing the bandage. Moral of the story: I'm glad I have ankles I can sprain.

We had the ward Christmas party this Saturday, which was much better than expected.

I'm running out of time. ... in more ways than just email. hahaha

Well, thanks for updating me on my bank balance. I'm going to Lisbon today to get some last-minute stuff. I'm pretty sure this is my last real P-day, seeing as next week's is the day before I leave.

gotta go I LOVE YOU GUYS

Elder Lobo

Baby Calvin

Dec 7 -- from Lisbon

Hey everybody!

It was surprising to hear that baby Calvin already made his grand appearance! [Born Sunday at 2:45 -- all are doing well!!!] It sounds like he just couldn't wait. That's pretty cool. I hope everything is going well now and he's enjoying his first couple days on Planet Earth. Dark hair, eh? I love how my fat head was the reference for comparison. Hahaha I hope everything keeps going well.

Well, I just spent 20 minutes trying to figure out how to send pictures from this internet café computer, but I couldn't find a way to do it. It won't read my card, nor my dvd's. Oh well.

This week has been interesting. We got a reference from the wife of the bishop who has a stack of copies of the Book of Mormon on the counter of her store. It's pretty funny how differently people react to something when they realize that there are no strings attached. I'm pretty sure people think we have some personal motive when we talk to them. He's kind of an older guy, but he grabbed the Book of Mormon for himself, so he has a pretty interesting attitude about it. It's so cool how much of a difference it makes when people investigate and experiment for themselves without having to be convinced to just give it a shot. It's just a book, for crying out loud, not a handgrenade!

Thanks for the extra money! I'm considering getting a new carry-on bag (realizing that I'm going to have to drag one all over the horrible Paris airport). I'm going to try to use most of it here. I still want to get a laptop and do a lot of shopping while I am in sales-tax-free Oregon, and I don't know how that all is going to be financed if not by you guys. :)

Well, I'm running out of time. Today is the last day of the transfer, and we still don't know what's going on, but I'm betting on staying, and good grief, if I have to move again, I'll be a little cheesed. Every time I leave people it sucks just a little bit more out of me. I'm pretty sure it has the same effect on other people, too, because when they find out I'm leaving soon it completely changes how they act. That's one of the first things they ask missionaries when they get into the area: how much time do you have on the mission? It's like checking somebody's price tag.

Well, the computer just told me I have a minute left, so I'm going to just send this.

I love you guys!

Thanks for everything!

Elder Lobinho

ELDER vs. WILD

I've been slacky posting Christian's emails! Here's his latest one....he's almost done! He'll be home Dec 22. Holy cow!

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Hey everybody!

Holy goodness! I loved today's emails. It's good to see that thanksgiving went well on all sides of the world and that BYU still had a puff of steam to beat Utah. I had no idea I was flying home with Coombs! Cool stuff. I loved the pictures of Preston -- it's good to know he's finally let chocolate into his life. Tough luck with the corolla, Dad. I'm not complaining, though. It'll be weird being in an automatic. I've only seen two or three of them here. (I still haven't received my portuguese driver's license...)

Well, this last week, we all had interviews on Wednesday, and overall everything went pretty well. We had family night Friday night, which turned into another coloring party -- we had Mo Tab Christmas music playing and colored a bunch of different things. The idea was to draw your favorite scripture story and share how it has helped you along in life, and there were great drawings from Jesus walking on the water to the tree of life, but a couple people must not have been paying attention and drew aliens attacking New York City and a tornado sucking up a cow. It was really fun.

Saturday morning, I woke up pretty sick, so we stayed in. I slept forever, took good care of myself, drank lots of liquids, blah blah blah so don't worry. I wasn't better Sunday, either, so I decided not to risk terrorizing anybody with the notion of Gripe A (swine flu) having them see me sick. I didn't have any chills or fever or anything, so I'm pretty sure it was just your run-of-the-mill disease. Here I am today... functional, coherent, wearing a scarf (because it's not femmy to wear scarves here), and enjoying the relatively frigid weather.

Oh -- our thanksgiving here was rather pathetic (but I prefer the term "simple"). We got together with the elders from Costa da Caparica and had Stove Top stuffing, mashed potatoes, pão de queijo (which is grounds for starting a pão de queijo tradition for thanksgiving), and chicken parts that totally didn't work out. We went to go do some "thanksgiving", as Ariana had mentioned to me, and we went visiting some members. That was when we ran into a guy named Manuel who joined the church several years ago but ended up letting day-to-day life get the best of him. Now that he has kids, it's kind of snapped him back into reality, and he supposedly went to church yesterday and brought his kids with him (I don't know -- we weren't there...). Moral of the story: no matter how busy you are, working to make your life worthwhile takes some reprioritization.

It's crazy to think that this is my fourth-to-last P-day, and everybody keeps telling me "you're the one that's going home, so we'll do whatever you want to do," but I have no idea what else to do here in Lisbon. We went to Palácio de Ajuda last week and also saw an art museum inside, and it was pretty cool, but a little ridiculous. I'm getting pretty desperate to find cool things that I haven't seen yet. I'm still not sure what's going to happen during my last two weeks (a new transfer starts two weeks before I leave), and we know that more missionaries are going home this time than coming in. Hopefully I don't have to move anywhere because a wheel on one of my bags busted off this last time -- it's the cobblestone -- it's like dragging your luggage down the stairs no matter where you walk.

I read Acts while I was sick on Saturday, and it was pretty cool to read at this point in my mission. I remembered times when I felt like I was right there with Paul. I got a completely different perspective of the rest of the New Testament -- those epistles seem like their weekly emails home. Not to try to compare myself with them or anything, but I wonder if they fail to write down as much stuff that happens as I do. There's a lot of stuff that I don't even know how to record. It's cool to have the apostles back nowadays.

It's weird being with missionaries that have so little time in the mission. If I mention anything about what I'm going to do when I get home or anything, they all instantly start daydreaming, and I instantly start laughing. No matter how much or how little results from my time here in Monte da Caparica, it would be good to know I had a good effect on them.

Anyway, rock on, everybody. I love you guys.

Beijinhos

Elder Lobo