10/26/15

Hello family! This week has been very eventful! We did another exchange this week and I went with Sister Wilson in Pullman, Washington for the day. She is the same age as me but has been out a year. She left the summer after high school. She told me that she was super homesick her first couple months of her mission. She said she loves her mission now though and gave me some tips on how to make the mission more fun! I learned a lot from her. The day I got back to Moscow with Sister Ungricht, I had a package waiting for me from Brianne. It was so good, it had double stuff oreos. Peanut butter and Oreos together are amazing by the way! We taught a lesson to Matthew last week and he said that he wasn''t sure about baptism yet because he is really involved in his other church. He was introduced to the Bible by his friends from Canyon Creek church. He goes to all the meetings at his church and kind of wants to be baptized by one of his friends in that church. We have taught him about the priesthood authority but I guess we are going to stress it more with him at our lesson tonight. My ponderizing scripture for the week is Alma 32:27-28. I have been thinking a lot about my testimony. I really do not have a solid foundation because every time an investigator challenges Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon, I have doubts enter my mind. So I have been working on planting that seed by fervently praying and pondering the scriptures. In Alma 32:28, Alma talks about swelling motions within you and that you will know it is a good seed. I have felt comfort and love as I have read the scriptures and prayed. I really want to share this love with everyone around me. I want to learn how to apply the atonement in my life to become a happy and healthy person. I then want to help other people come unto Christ so that they can receive strength beyond their own. Today, we had an adventure. Sister Ungricht and I went on a run and did our studies this morning like normally. We then went to Walmart to shop. We got all our food and then Sister Ungricht wanted to go get her flu shot since the mission pays for it. So we went to the pharmacy and I was like I guess I will get one too since we are here. Sister Ungricht gets her shot first, sits in the chair in the booth, and the woman gives her the shot. She gets up and then I walk over and sit in the chair to get my shot. Sister Ungricht is behind me waiting for me. I start to get nervous like always before a needle gets stuck in me. The woman cleans my shoulder and is seriously about to stick me with the needle, when we hear a clunk behind us. I quickly turn around and I see Sister Ungricht passed out on the floor. The nurse quickly hurries over to her and yells for the other assistant to call 911. Sister Ungricht is like shaking a little bit and then lets out a groan. I am just in shock while the nurse starts asking me if she has seizures or heart problems. I tell her no and Sister Ungricht slowly regains conscious and raises her head off the floor. We wait for the paramedics to get there. They take her vitals and make sure that her head is ok. The nurse then turns to me and asks, "Do you still want your flu shot?" I stand there for a second and then I'm like "No, that's ok". So I did not get the flu shot. Sister Ungricht is still very pale and dizzy and cannot walk to the car so she gets carried out to the ambulance to go to the hospital. So I got to ride in an ambulance on the way to Moscow hospital. The doctor checked her out there and she is ok now. She is emailing her family right now. She will just have a big bruise on the side of her face... perfect for Halloween. I was so worried for her though! I love Sister Ungricht and my heart was pounding so hard while she was passed out on Walmart's floor. She is seriously the best and now she is just laughing about the whole experience even though it is kind of embarrassing. I love her so much and I am so grateful that she is ok. So that was my exciting experience today and that is why I am emailing you later on in the day. For the next two Mondays, I should be on between 11 and 12. I love you family! I am working hard and learning so much about the gospel, other people, and just life in general. Hope you have a fantastic week! Love, Sister Murphy

Spokane Temple

9/28/15

Yes i got your package! Thank you so much for that. I got your package and dads letter around the same time and it just meant so much to me. I went to bed that night feeling so loved. The camera is so much better! I now feel more motivated to take more photos and videos. I also saw the red moon last night. Yeah I wonder if it is a sign for something...probably. This week has been pretty good and it is getting colder. Sister Ungricht and I pretty much biked everywhere this week. It was really good exercise and one day my legs and butt were so sore I could barely walk. A lot of our lessons didn't show up but we still taught Matthew. He didn't come to church Sunday and we don't know how well he is reading the Book of Mormon. Luckily we have a lesson with him tonight so we can find out where he is at. The lesson with the religion student went surprisingly alright. We had a member go with us and we all bore our testimonies of the Book of Mormon. He said he would read it and had already read the introduction. He had a bunch of irrelevant questions though like are all the prophets and apostles from your church American and white? So I feel like he thought that our church is just an American Church and we favor America. He also talked about how we believe the nee Jerusalem to be on the American Continent. Really to me though it does not matter if the prophet was black, Chinese, white, or any other kind of race. If he is called of God, he is the prophet and I am going to listen to him. But yeah we tried to teach him the restoration lesson. I have been learning a lot from Sister Ungricht. She has great insights in our companionship study. I am learning all I can from her and I hope we do not get transferred. The work is just starting to move in Moscow, Idaho. I have talked to the Sisters who live below us in our apartment complex and they are in Aunt Sheila's ward. They actually said that they went over there for dinner. I told them to say hi to her for me. I have not seen her yet but hopefully I can eventually run into her. That would be cool! I think that is pretty much the update for here in Moscow. It is getting colder and we just end up a lot of the times street contacting on the university of Idaho campus. We loved women's conference and we are super excited for general conference. It is a great opportunity to invite others to come listen to the prophet. I have never been so excited for conference before in my life. I was super excited to hear women's conference and counted down the time. I think we are going to get some amazing revelation this weekend. Oh and Happy Early Birthday Mom! I am sending a letter and some videos home to you. I do not know when you will get it but I will send them this afternoon. I am sorry I cannot be there to take you out for lunch but I send you my love. I will work extra hard for you this week;) Love Sister Murphy

9/22/15

Hi Mom! I am again very sorry there has not been very much improvement on your pain. I have been praying for you. Thanks for letting me know your youth planned activity, I knew it would turn out great with the catchy name. Today I got to go to the temple and that is why P-day is again this week in Tuesday. The temple here in Spokane is pretty small but it was really neat experience. The bishops wife who took us to the temple took us out to eat at Cafe Rio after that. the members here are awesome and so giving to the missionaries. On Saturday, there was a baptism for Pullman Sisters in our Zone. Sister Ungricht and I invited our progressing investigator Matthew to come to the baptism. He said yes! He came and we gave him a church tour afterwards. Matthew is on date to be baptized October 17th. he is reading through the Book of Mormon so fast. He read the bible cover to cover last summer and found it was what he was looking for. We first met Matthew just out on the street and starting talking about religion with him. At the time he said he had a Book of Mormon but was not ready to read it until he read through the Bible again and memorized it. We got his phone number and called a couple weeks later and met up with him after his work. We talked about the First Vision with him and at the end of the evening all by himself said that it was crazy to just focus on the Bible and decided to start reading the Book of Mormon. He is already in Mosiah and only started like a week ago. He loves reading! I am very excited for Matthew. There was also the Moscow fair last weekend and we went and street contacted over there. We saw a kid throw up on himself on one of the rides. It reminded us of the movie Sandlot when all the boys threw up on the ride. It was pretty nasty but we got to talk to a couple of families. Since we are in a married student ward, we have to find creative ways to try to find married students. We look for the young kids and wedding rings. Sister Ungricht, my companion, is the best and pushes me everyday. She is from Salt Lake, Utah. She went to two years at the University of Utah and did a Study Abroad in London, England. She has been out on her mission for a year now. She was trained in Moscow and did one transfer in Lewiston, Idaho and then she has trained other missionaries since then. It makes sense why the Lord keeps calling her to be a trainer because she is amazing. We run together in the morning on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. She is in better shape than I am. Anyway that is the update for here in Moscow. I am learning so much and I am so grateful to be out here on a mission. The Lord really does work through his servants even if they are still are so imperfect. Love Sister Murphy

Pictures 9/14/15

9/14/15

Hi mom! I am so sorry about all that you are going through. Good health is such a blessing I take for granted. I will continue to pray for you. I wish there was something I could do. I like how in your last email you said you know that the Savior knows your pain. I pray that the dentists and doctors will know how to help you. I am sad for Mckay too. That is a big bummer I hope she gets better quickly! Thanks for keeping me updated. I totally forgot it was Aidens birthday today. I remembered it was Brianne's but I dont have her email. If you could send that to me that would be great! As for my address in Moscow it is 1531 S. Lenter St. #9 Moscow, ID 83843. I should at least be at this address for a three more weeks. After general conference is transfers so I will most likely stay but could go somewhere else. I will let you know. I already got some winter boots but Nutella sounds good. I also want a better high quality camera. The picture quality on this one is not very good at all! That is just a thought though if it's too expensive or you already got stuff don't worry about it. This week was an awesome and exhausting week. Elder Johnson from the Seventies came and talked to us about being epistles of Christ and teaching people about God. A lot of people have misconceptions of God so it is important to let them know the nature and personality of God. Sometimes people just think he is like a cloud or entity. Sometimes missionaries assume that people already know that God is our Heavenly Father who has a perfect body and loves his children. It was a cool training to have and then to connect that with the training I had yesterday with Elder Dallin H. Oaks! I got to shake an apostle's hand yesterday. Elder Oaks came down to talk to the Lewiston and Moscow missionaries. He taught us about using the Plan of Salvation to answer questions. One of the biggest things that separate us from other religions is our belief that we can one day become gods or like God. The Plan is all about coming to Earth and being tried so that one day we can be like our Heavenly Father. Sister Ungricht and I had the opportunity to teach a few people that on the college campus yesterday. It was really cool to watch them think about that doctrine. It kind of just changes my whole perspective on life. God gives us commandments so that we can act more like him. When we keep those commandments, he blesses us with more commandments. When I first heard that I was like what?! why would we want to keep the commandments if we will just get more of them. Well I realized commandments are a blessing because they really do help us to act more like gods. There is a scripture in 2 Nephi Chapter 28: 30 that talks about God giving us more when we receive the things he has already given us. Progression! I feel like I have had to progress this last week like none other. I am trying to apply all the doctrine I have learned this week to my life. Anyway it's been sorta of hot up in here in Moscow the last week but I am learning the area. I am also learning how to get along better with my companion. She is an awesome servant of the Lord. We have been running in the morning for a few days this last week. I am already way out of shape! It feels good to get some exercise. I am pretty drained on energy right now but hopefully I can get myself to be energized. I love you so much and I miss you. I am really worried about you and all the things you have been going though. Have a good week! I will talk to you next Monday!

Alyssa email 9/8/25

Thank you Mom for the song lyrics. I have been having some tougher days. I am really sorry you are still in pain. I will continue to pray for you. The weather in Moscow last weekend has been cold! It was in the forites and fifties with wind and rain. I am going shopping today for winter clothes. Today is Pday instead of labor day because it was a holiday and a good day to proselyte when people are home. Yesterday was blue skies and 70 degrees. It was a good labor day. My companion and I talked to alot of families in the neighborhood and in the parks. I get tired really fast and at the end of a day I am whooped. I could barely keep my eyes open til 10:30 yesterday. There is this rule that we have to go to bed and arise the same time as our companion. My companion is super obedient so I am trying really hard to keep all the rules. Who knew that 8 hours of sleep a night was not enough! We have met some real interesting people the last couple of days. A lot of people try to avoid us. We do a lot of street contacting on the college campus. Sometimes we will go up to a person and say "hi! how are you doing today?" and they will completely ignore you or walk away saying "I can't hear you!" Haha yeah so we get rejected alot. But there is this scripture in John 15:8 that talks about how the world hated Christ before it hated you. I love it every time we get rejected now I remember that I am in good company. I do not know how the Savior loved us. We are so rude and ungrateful. He did this an amazing atonement and yet people will just spit in his face. The savior's love is a miracle. Something I feel unworthy to have but yet do have. My testimony of the restoration has grown this last week. We have ran into people trying to tear our beliefs down. They say that Joseph Smith is a false prophet and the Book Of Mormon will bring wrath upon us. they think that the Book of Mormon takes you away from the strait and narrow path and that there is only the Bible. We then ask them if they have sincerely read the Book of Mormon and of course the answer is "no". If they would only soften their hearts and read the word. So it's been kind of hard. People have told us we are going to hell and one man told us we were mentally ill and should get some help. He was an atheist and said any person that believes in God is crazy. I have had to reflect on my testimony over and over again. I love the way I feel though when I am studying the Book of Mormon and I am trying to be obey the lord. To end on a positive note, last Saturday was the Farmers Market in Moscow. The missionaries run a stand there about family history and family home evening. We make balloon animals for the children that come by. So I got to learn how to make balloon animals! I learned how to make a dog, swan, snail, and sword. I was proud of myself. I'll send you a picture in the attachment. Oh hey and Elder Levi Morse is in the same area as me. We took a picture together and that is in the attachment as well. Anyway I hope you have a good week. I love you! Sister Murphy

Alyssa's Mission President and her 1st companion

Alyssa mission email 3

Hi mom and dad! I am so glad your ear aching is being fixed. I've been worried about that lately. I'm glad that you got down to the root of it haha:) thanks for keeping me updated with that it sucks to feel miserable! Also I did give my luggage receipt to them and they should be reimbursing me on my missionary card. Also thanks for letting me know my current balance so I can know how much I can spend for winter clothes. Well here I am in Moscow, Idaho. Woohoo! A mission is incredibly hard to adjust too. I have been so exhausted the last couple days. I get no time to chill. It is go, go, go! the first couple of days I showed up, it was really smokey. We opened our apartment door and the air smelt like campfire. We had to stay in that day. It was hazardous to health. It rained the last couple of days and so now the air is so much better. My bike is alright. I don't feel like it is to high quality for the price I paid but oh well it works. My companion and I biked to church yesterday and my skirt got caught in the wheel. I need to wear a better skirt next time. We also share a car with other sisters in the area so we get to drive a couple days a week. My sister trainer(companion) is so awesome and really nice. When we came into the area, there wasn't much work done previously and so we are starting from ground zero. She is very hardworking and knows how to get the area moving along. We are over Moscow University married student wards 2 and 6. It is confusing having two wards. We met the bishops and ward mission leaders and even alot of members so far. They are so nice to us and have given u a lot of food. Our apartment when we first came in was lived in by elders who had an emergency transfer and so it was vacant for about a month. First of all no one had the right key for this apartment so we had to pop out the window screen and luckily the window wasn't locked so we climbed through the window. The keys were hanging inside the apartment. the apartment was also a disaster, there was garments on the floor, dirty dishes in the sink, rotting food on the counters and fridge, and the bathroom was pretty disgusting. So on the smokey day, my companion and I cleaned all day. Now it is home sweet home! Life is busy as a missionary and I am trying hard to adjust. I love street contacting although I get nervous and do not know what to say. We ran into some agnostics and atheists and that was interesting to hear their views. The University of Idaho is so close to us and perfect to street contact because there are so many people on campus. My companion and I also ran into an anti-mormon yesterday while trying to contact a potential investigator. Our potential's roommate was the one home and and boy he was ready to give us a talking to. He told us what we were teaching was blasphemy and that we were going to hell. That there is no prophet on the earth today and that we were following a false prophet. He got out his bible and gave it to us and told us to read it. We asked him if he had read the Book of Mormon and he said he had. He said that Joseph Smith made it up that it didn't bring others unto Christ. It was kind of a crazy conversation and we should have left sooner. He didn't want us to leave though. He said he didn't want to agree to disagree. I guess what he wanted was to tear down our faith. When we finally got out of there, he told us he would pray for us that we would see the errors of our ways. We then responded that we would pray for him too haha:) yeah so that was pretty crazy but I went home and read the Book of Mormon. I decided that the Book of Mormon is true and that is crazy to say that it doesn't bring you unto Christ. So that experience is actually strengthening my testimony. Um, well that is all i can think of right now but this week has just been crazy busy. I am taking one day at a time or else it seems to overwhelming. Oh and in the attachment is a picture of my companion and I with our area board. I was so exhausted that day and the last thing we did that day was organize our board.Well I love you and am glad that you are doing better. Let me know if there is anything I can pray about for you. Let Spencer know that I want to hear from him and how school is going even if it is really short. I miss him! And take Bella on a walk for me;) Anyway hope you have a good week! I'll talk to you next Monday Love, Sister Murphy

Alyssa mission email 2

Hey mom, I'm in Washington now. I arrived a couple of hours ago. I only have five minutes to write to you but mission President Dymock should send you photos of the new transfers. It is really smokey in Washington right now but also pretty green. The fire i heard is more in central Washington hopefully it doesn't come here. The first moment I came here, a sister missionary took me fear busting which is really just going out and talking to people on the street about the gospel. I actually really liked it. I'm sorry i'll have to tell you more later and answer more questions. Yes, I got grandmas and grandpas packages. I'm trying to send them a letter back but have to wait until I find a mailbox. I am so sorry about your ear! I had no idea it was bothering you so much. Thanks for telling me. I will pray for you and I hope it gets better soon. I'll let you know more later. Love you! Sister murphy