Swaggerhoundish (March 25, 2013)

FIRST AND FOREMOST: foremost? GAGE! the word SWAGGERHOUNDISH. Yes. I FULLY support that new invention. I USE. IT. ALL. THE. TIME. obsessed. writing you back TODAY.

 

I made a new rule I am NOT reading emails until AFTER I email, because then I come up with 1,000 more things to say and no space. OHHHK. (thank you for all the love ps)

this week = CRAY.TOWN. (which sounds more funny in my mind because Sis Hawkins old area was called RAYTown so yeah IM PUNNY OHHHK.)

 

Every time I back a car I just think of the Mayhem commercial when he's the "blindspot" and just yells "You're good!" and they smash into a car. ITS SO FUNNY. So I always get back in the car laughing and Sis Christenot just makes these huge eyes like "what the." So now I started coming up with every way possible to freak her out when backing. Ideas are welcome.

 

AN IMPORTANT FACT I FORGOT: the Cat Man from last week--UPDATES! So his cat Magic...still really investigating the Buddhists (saddest) BUT the goot news is:

-he only has 2 legs.

-but his owner is now making him a cat wheelchair and walker so HAVE NO FEAR. He also said because of our prayer Magic WILL walk again. Bless him.

 

Ok. Dinner appointment. Best in the land. This family is bombDIGGity. The Flakes. They made us their delicacy called "Big Sandwhich." Imagine my horror when we hadn't eaten all day because we forgot to bring a lunch and they come out with A GIANT DELI SANDWHICH. *remember that i hate these.

BUUUTTTTTT I can't even believe I am WRITING this. But I ate it (all together didn't pick apart the pieces and eat it separately) and i LIKED it 467836!!!!as;kdjgh aqwiryh w;gh sle;kjf

I know.

I even bought stuff to make a VERSION of it today. I KNOW. #blessings

 

Ok so at the Flakes. They have this beautiful little creature named French Fry. It is a guinea pig and it looks like a cartoon and it is freaky.

SO obviously they asked me to hold it.

Then cutest-child-award 3 yr-old (JACK GEORGE- you still are cutest child award, this young chap is mere second place) named Miles comes out and shows me his new instrument. A recorder. And asked if it would be alright if he did a little performance. OBviously YES.

Preceeds to play the most beautiful arrangement of random notes and its just REALLY LOUD and he is a very accomplished musician because he has owned this red recorder for 4 hours now.

All of this while I am holding foreign object French Fry.

He finsihes, it was REALLY LOUD but really great. Someone takes away French Fry.

Getting up to leave.

Look down.

Hmm....little beans have somehow gotten on my skirt. Weird...did we have beans....?.... those are NOT LITTLE BEANS THAT IS POO! Poo. poo. GUINEA PIG STYLE.

 

Summary: Cutest-child-award concert scared creepy guinea pig, and IIIIII was holding it. BLESSINGS

 

We met LITERALLY the most awesome woman in the world. Did I tell you? her name is Nang and she is like 4 foot nothing and is SO funny, is writing a huge disertation so is only awake at night and so really losing it in the day time running off no sleep she is SUCH A PARTY. Anyway she always insists we take random gifts from her = SOMEONE PLEASE LOOK UP MYLO (Milo?) we may or may not have just broken the Word of Wisdom. But she was so persistant. And it smelled like Hot Chocolate so we took a leap of faith and went with it. But she served it in tea cups...with all of the workings of tea....

I REPEAT DO NOT FOLLOW MY EXAMPLE. Bad. Children no don't do this.

but she is awesome we love her and her crazy husband James who is real time hick. They have had every pair of missionaries to ever serve in Lawrence over, they just love missionaries, ZERO desire to hear the gospel, but love missionaries.

 

I LEARNED SOMETHING AMAZING: if you stay quiet people feel so awkward. and it is AWESOME! Yes, we are making people feel awkward ON PURPOSE! Like this concept JUST barely clicked in my mind. BECAUSE they end up spilling stuff out that they had ZERO INTENTION OF SHARING WITH US! it's amazing. And happened like 40 time this week. Because now with our investigators we have moved past the first lesson (which I am still "passing off")

 

So we show up to one appt (Troy-awesome black man who I WILL BAPTIZE (or someone will do that part for me because WHATS UP ASKED HIM TO BE BAPTIZED FIRST LESSON AND HE SAID MAYBE! holla.) anyway we were teaching lesson 3. Whelp, HOLY GHOST'n it because I am still novice. Which meant I just stayed silent for a reeeeeeeallly long time.

 

Past point of uncomfortable.....

 

Into phase of *at what point does this become too long of silence and into no recovery zone we just walk out with it still silent* and he asked this GOLDEN question, led into some awesome stuff about organization of the Church. COMMITTED TO come to church.

 

But then we got SNOWED IN. so he couldnt come cause Church was cancelled. ALL the same. A commitment. #winning

 

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT WE GOT 14 feet of snow in ONE NIGHT. No one could drive ANYWHERE. THE WHOLE TOWN SHUT DOWN.

..................................

Proof.

 

But literally, the Snow Day yesterday. We couldn't leave our house and I was really nervous that I was going to go CRAZY. but it was the exact opposite. I had one of the most productive study sessions of my LIFE. I studied LITERALLY ALL DAY fron the Ensign. This magazine is the THANG. Wow. I can't believe it has been around my whole life and I never touched it. (oops accidental confession)

UM. EVERYONE GO LOOK AT IT.

 

Read the Article "The Savior Mission and Ministry" or something. STUDY this. not just read it. There are a million scripture references so those alone will take you like 147 hours (yes if James Franco had this acrtle he probably wouldn't have cut off his arm) but SERIOUSLY I was so touched by it.

Also, as I am PERUSING through I came across this amazing picture with an article, oh, who is the article written by? NONE OTHER THAN MY LONDON DIRECTORS! GO YOU SEELYs!! (Grace write that on the fb wall, I'm SURE someone already has!) IT was also SO amazing, I love them so much ESPECIALLY for including some artwork from the London National Gallery. Tender.

 

But really, I had one of the most spiritual experience of my life yesterday studying, I felt so close to the Savior, we watched the Testaments (Dad remember when we accidentally found ourselves at the premiere??) which I thought was so cheesy all along and WOW. That movie is powerful.  At the end when the man stands before the Savior and he calls him by name and heals his blindness, Sis Yates was like (we are all in TEARS) "how would that feel to stand before Him and say, "no, I never doubted you." WOW. That has stuck with me in my heart ever since, and has become the theme of my mission, No I never doubted you!" It can, has, and will, apply to SO many experience I have had thus far and I am going to have.

 

 I am SO excited to continue serving here in Lawrence. The work is really starting to pick up and we have big things happening this week I'll have to tell you about next time. 

 

LOVE YOU ALL!!! 

Love sis murrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrray 

PICS: (for Alyssa so she knows Im alive)

1- This is our (old) house COVERED in snow! amazing. .......................

2- whats up YouTubers! (Markell, stolen from Jar. can't help it.) This is me, wearing a trash bag, vacuming a replica of a garden tomb with a Ghost Buster machine. NBD.

3- Me and dear Sis Hawkins. MATCHING at Zone Conference. #blessedchild

4- me and new comp Sis Christenot #sweetangel

5- Me and my lesbian mom trainers OOPS i get one appropriate comment a week. Sis Park is on the right she just left back home on Friday. (I am their baby, get it? I KNOW so missionary help me.)

6- THIS IS A SUNRISE NOT A SUNSET!! I KNOOOOW. no this will not or EVER will become a thing. but it was amazing. one for the books.

7- Me in my Arabian Palace aka my new room (Sis C against the wall- downsized from Wildflower BUT they let us roam the whole house so its ok but my knook closet NOT ok.)  

 

SHOUT OUTS 

BRYSONS got your amazing bundle of joy letters WRITING BACK 

 

DAD JayHawk suckers = SUCCESS everyone loves them ROCK CHALK GO JAYHAWK (LITERALLY can someone find out what the heck that even means, every time i "suck" up to someone and throw out a random go jayhawks the response is always "rock chalk". It makes no sense, but I am now throwing it out left and right becuase it seems to be some sort of code word for "friendliness".

 

KENDEL YOURE ALIVE you look freezing. that sucks for you.

 

JONTHON- dont quit your job. but also do because then I wont be the only worthless one to put in my 2

weeks notice on my first day of work. JOKES (but seriously quit so you can go to the beach with cute boy PRIORITIES as Chris Nash always said "you can retake the class but you can't relive the party")

 

SPEAKING of Chris Nash - WRITE ME YOU WEENIE I NEED TO KNOW WHAT AREAS YOU SERVED IN IM DYING

 

DON VITo and JAYCI- got your letters LOVED the one that came in a credit card bill pre addressed envelope GO don vito writing you back today

Chaos in Kansas (March 18, 2013)

Something terrible happened. It's something we like to refer to as Tornado Tuesday. (I wish it was real, no keep PFATing) 

There are 2 Wards in Lawrence, one of the other Sisters suddenly had to go home and get back surgery = Emergency Transfers and IIIIIIII had to leave. OMG MELT DOWN. Literal. I hesitate to talk about it because I will not lie I hit a new LOW. It was really hard because Sis Hawkins is so awesome we got along so well, but I we still see each other a lot, and now we get to text each other sweet nothings so it's all good. My new comp is Sis Christenot, she is like a little small bunny that is so nice and friendly and has a very soft voice she is like an angel dove. 

But seriously NICEST ever. And so funny, she LOVES to sing, loves.to.sing. always. BLESSINGS 

Ok the goods. 

Once upon a time I got shelac (shelaque? chelack? shelache?) nails. The sweet little Vietnamese woman punked me and replaced that with cement, so now I have granite top counters on my hands because THEY ARE STILL ON. Like not chipped. WHAT. Like apparently I just am growing these out until they are gone?? Amazing. 

Sis Hawkins trained a sister from Taiwan, and she has a lot of "isms" 

#1 Lip of Face (leap of faith) ((crying when I got this one LOVE.HER.))

#2 Preis-TH-ood (with a th tooth pronunciation) ((English is HARD, technically she is right it is T-H))

We have 2 Senior Sisters in our Zone, the cutest. ONE of them is CYNTHIA CROOK re-incarnated as a 65 year old woman and she is KILLIN IT! She is so spicy just like you Cynthia- so don't worry, in 25 years you are still going to be AWESOME. 

Ok: went to Salvation Army again this week. ATTN I DID NOT MAKE THIS UP I REPEAT THIS IS REAL LIFE I STILL AM BAFFLED. 

Thing #1- this sweet little woman who loves princesses and wears overalls was telling me how she loves to play the piano and sing ...and also speak German. And she said "you know what, I think I want to sing right now." It was towards the end of the hour and spirits were low so i said, you know what GO for it! "The sun'll come out TOmorrow..." HOW can you not join in on that song!? So i did....AND SO DID THE WHOLE ROOM. Literally fireworks were exploding in my mind, AMAZING it was so funny especially because one of the ladies in charge named MJ hates when people sing and dance (but somehow i still find myself liking her). 

Thing #2- There is a 70 year old man from Iran named Manush and i love him. He gets to hand out the GOODS (aka chocolate milk and the desserts) so everyone is ESPECIALLY nice to him so it really just hits the spot when people speak to him in spanish trying to get on his good side. SO classic. "HOLA- LECHE POR FAVOR" in an even worst accent than me (imagine) and they speak REALLY LOUD BECAUSE THEY ASSUME HE CANT HEAR. it's so great. 

But he is like having comedy hour when we are there so he usually makes some really funny comment to them about being 106 and having 25 children and all of us are his wives so yeah, obsessed. 

Thing #3 I am still deciding whether the guy who comes in every week wearing the Grateful Dead t-shirt is terribly confused...or has the best sense of humor in the nation. Because we have now had the EXACT, exact, same conversation about his T-shirt FOUR separate times....and i'm just passed confused. 

Thing #4 The cream of the crop. 

PICTURE this. A very sweet man who wears magical T-shirts every time he comes in and is SO nice I want to cry and cheery comes up to us.  He starts tearing up thanking us for our service, WOW nicest........but doesn't stop there.  

The tears are coming faster now as he describes his dear cat, Magic, is converting to Buddhism. yes, tragic.  "What can I do to bring him closer to Jesus? He needs that in his life. Maybe you could pray for my cat Magic and my other cat T.V., he just gets lonely watching Lady and the Tramp, and then my dear friend Oracle." Sis Hawkins: ok we can do that, right here? done.

She preceeds to give the greatest prayer in the history of the world, and it took EVERYTHING in me to stay focused as our dear friend starts crying like think Alyssa Kleenex commercial fake crying with the sobs and gasps but he is SERIOUS (even though there are not real tears). 

THEN next random man comes up just stares at us for a realllllllllly long time.................."you guys are cool." 

Well thank you, so are you.....but why?

"Well........(dramatic pause)......I'm Oracle." (we just prayed for him) 

Well nice to meet you-- 

**This part is rated PG-13 but I'll edit**

Oracle explains to us his thoughts on life. Us being "Ecclesiastaries" (hm?) 

Well, we all have a right to be here, the fact that you are here means you are a fighter! We were all in a ______ and we swam around and then it was a RACE to who could make it to the egg first. And who won? YOU did. (Magic cat man is now sobbing with joy) 

"yeah, I can read your minds. (pats head) see what I did there? READ. YOUR. MINDS. ALL of you." 

(Sis H) "Really? what am i thinking?" 

You're thinking I should leave. 

No actually I was still thinking about that SHOCKINGLY graphic analogy you just shared ORACLE. 

WHAT THE. 

I could not look at Sister Christenot for one more second or I was going to lose it, tears were in my eyes, her face was PURE. SHOCK. one of the greatest moments of my life. 

What can i say? Spreadin' the gospel like it ain't no thang!...................................

NOW tracting nightmare 2013: knock on a door, no one comes, there are 2 peep holes, one at like waist high and I'm thinking "how cute, one for a little kid in case he wants to see! what a fun family, they must want the gospel." no one answers! 

Move on, knock, AT THE SAME MOMENT both people open the door, first new door young college kid, and as i turn in slow motion expecting a precious little child........NO. Woman in a WHEEL CHAIR who looks like she might kill me. AHHH. Ran back over to her, who was NOT a sweet innocent child using the small peep hole. And she almost slammed my hand in the door when I said hello. TERRORIST. 

Lastly a miracle. 

First day I was tranferred I was silently freaking out but we had an appoitnment that night. (first one EVER). His name is Troy he is a big black man in his 50's who is the nicest ever and loves to talk gospel. He had read the intro to the BoM and had so many questions. We taught him and it was AMAZE and he invited us to meet again on Saturday. 

He met us at a coffee shop, seems harmless. 

Imagine, EVERY. DISTRACTION. EVER. We walk into a room (luckily empty) that is COVERED with writing, imagine Sammy's but x1,00000000000. Every inch is covered with college kid humor and slogans and names and expicits AH. Terrifying. 

Then there is music blasting. and we're like whaa....? Seriously they need to consider implementing this environment into the MTC because I had to exercise EVERY OUNCE of concentration I had and prayed 3 million times that I would concentrate on Troy and his needs. WOW. We had the most amazing lesson on the whole earth, I brought up SO many random things totally brought on by the Spirit because I was SO focused. i know that would not have happened if we had met somewhere else becuase I wouldn't have been so determined to listen. The Lord works in mysterious ways but wow how He loves us! 

Family I love you SOOO much. I have never really shared my testimony with you all but I KNOW that the Lord loves each and every one of us. It is truly amazing how well He knows us. The mission is so hard but so rewarding but so confusing all at once, but I have grown so much in just 1 month than I have in maybe my whole life! I am so grateful for this gospel, and i am so grateful for this random computer at the Library that has somehow switched me into italics. And on that emphatic note I leave you. 

Everything seems more peaceful and calm in italics. I hate it. 

Fare - thee- well. 

SIS MURRAY 

EVEN CAPITALS SUCK. dang it. 

SHOUTOUTS: SUMSIONS OMG YOU ARE PFATING!! that was the greatest letter ever received THANK YOU SO MUCH! BEN- the SECOND you get your call you better write me a letter SO EXCITED for you! 

JEN- WHAT THE HECK! loved your package SO nice, and OF COURSE i loved the princess brush. favorite. 

Timmer/Alyssa- I can not WAIT for my Jmurr Curr package, i laughed at loud when i read that. LITERAL lolz. 

Jonathonaka Boss - I just found a dear elder i never opened from you so the Alma scripture was referring to you not writing me....but now doesnt apply because you HAD written me, writing you back today!! 

LOVE YOU ALL THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR LETTERS - they seriously make my hour/day/week/month

PS IS KENDEL ALIVE!?!?!?!?

OHk. (March 11, 2013)

SHNA!

 

whoa. IM IN FREAKIN KANSAS HELLO HELLO IS THERE A WORLD THAT EXISTS BEYOND AN HOUR LONG LINE TO GET INTO THE GRAND OPENING OF ROSS!. Ross. ross. THIS PLACE IS AWESOME.

 

ok ok ok backing up. So much happened in the MTC but it literally feels like that was back in 2006 so we'll skip that.

 

BEFORE I FORGET! Dad, Kendel, Al, Kels...anyone else out there who is reading this I HAVE A CHALLENGE FOR YOU: Every Sunday, or someday or every single day if you can! Read your journal from your mission and see what YOU were doing on that day I am out here or whatever. I realized Dad you probably haven't even TOUCHED your mission journal....let alone maybe even HAVE your journal with Nazi-cleaner on the loose (mom-seriously. dont clean my room. please.) BUT what a blessing it is to write things down! I even have felt the blessings from it re-reading things from the MTC, its crazy how fast you forget.

 

FAST FORWARD: ok blah blah left the MTC before the sun was up wanted to cry a little bit but also laugh at the same time becasue me and sis nash got new roomates so we were packing in the dark and then had so many bags we couldn't even carry all of our random stuff and we had to pull it all the way to the opposite end of the MTC and we were running late OF COURSE and sis nash can barely walk so i was trying to help her but my suitcase weighs 68 pounds and my other one 59 so i could barely walk IT. WAS. SO. FUNNY. just imagine a train wreck and that was us.

BUT we made it on the bus....and then to the airport....and THEN to Missouri.

I prayed I wouldn't have to sit next to someone on the plane I would have to preach to and i was wedged in between so many missionaries I coudln't even breathe... the Lord has a sense of humor.

 

Got to Kansas Ciry MO, wow. airport is so small. we are walking off the plane come out of the terminal, some man and his wife say "hi sisters!" we're like 'ya ya hi..." EVERYONE in slc would say that:

 "where are you going!?"

"Missouri!!"

"oh..."

so we were over that at this point

EXCEPT for that that was President and his wife... haha best first impression ever. Me and Sis Nash were apparently way ahead of everyone so we awkwardly tried to recover but WOW THEY ARE SO NICE OBSESSED WITH THEM

so many things happened, #1 30 of us fit inside of their house comfortably (there were only 30 of us due to sickness etc) it was awesome. Seriously they are so nice I will bow at their feet every time I see them for the rest of my life now.

 

After a long story I will have to tell you later....got assigned to...... LAWRENCE KANSAS. Hometown of Kansas University and WOW EVERYONE IS SO OBSESSED. There are these TERRIBLE KU signs outside peoples houses like straight up rock sign with their last name on it and this ugly little mascot bird BUT awesome because we can ultimate creep on people becuase it has their last name.

 

So sad saying bye to Sis Nash. Had to be done.

 

COMPANION/TRAINER: Sis Hawkins. LOVE HER. small world Dodi and Bro Clark were her Bishop at BYU. tell them.

She's the greatest.

oh except yeah i also got a BONUS companion for 10 days, Sis Park, because she is going home next week and me and Sis Hawkins (shes been out for 9 mo) are new to the area so it has been like WHIRLWIND memorize the maps and peoples names, and the system, and the area, and the bus route, and the places where food is quality...and where it is not..and what people are nice....and how the RS Pres hates america...and yeah.

So on that note......I'm going to need a GPS at some point......becasue apparently the people out here in good ole Kansas decided "hey, we hate America, so instead of making our road system SIMPLE, we are going to name every cross street after a state of America....in order of WHEN THEY JOINED THE UNION. and then the other streets we will put numbers on them....but not in order because we have now renamed half of them after dead people. And then we will get people hopelessly lost because we have no mountains and no hills and its so flat they will keep driving on Bob Billings street whcih turns in and out of 23rd street and think its ok because we just built a new ROSS."

Help me. Sis Park has a Garmin....and shes leaving Friday.

 

SO MUCH TO SAY. This is not fair, I have been here for way longer than a year in the amount that has happened but one email to sum itup.

 

Highlights: first day of the mish involved feeding homeless people AWESOME they do this community thing every other month broke my heart how nice the people were I was loving it...but then got slapped in the face awakening when they were like "wow you love this! how about you go get some of the food and sit with them and eat! you deserved it!" ohhhhhkkkkkk. I HAVE A PHOBIA OF PUBLIC CUTLERY. ESPECIALLY ONES THAT DONT GET WASHED.

but i did it.

Blessings.

Sat by a woman who wouldnt tell me her name "guess its a church song!" Ruth...? Noel??? "Grace." DUH. shes awesome....and 195 years old. comes every week. LOVE

then went on a tour of the town by a sister giving us a ride home ..... and 2 hours later we now had a more confused perception of where we were as we drove back and forth and everywhere as she told us EVERY. BUIlDING. EVER. BUILT. EVER. I literally fell asleep like 4 times....woke up... STILL TALKING. so funny. but she bought us slurpees BLESSINGS.

 

Salvation Army the next day to serve food again. SAME PEOPLE. so awesome I love them. and they get confused when i introduce myself as sis murray so they all started introducing themselves back as "brother Damien" or their name YES SPREADING THE GOSEPL............................................

 

First appt ever: less active kind of handicapped 60 yr old man who is trying to finish the book of mormon, sis hawkins was falling asleep AS SHE WAS READING outloud. so funny. he didn't even notice. apparently we were really entertaining.

 

FIRST EXPERIENCE TRACTING: in the rain. but it was warm. and really windy. PFAT!! (pray for a tornado! PLEASE I WANT DESTRUCTION SO WE CAN BE PART OF HELPING HANDS) except no death.

So I contracted a strnage disease where my tongue strats to swell and I can't speak so i became a mute I KNOW,

so they forced me to talk at an apt complex we were knocking.

and so a young girl answered SO not digging our tags or us being there or religion and im so nervous rambling on THEN literally the doors face each other in a corner, other lady opens the door to walk her dog, freaked out we are standing there but facing sideways talking to the nieghbor (following?) dog gets loose RUNNING around

Sis Hawkins said we looked to scary having 3 of us on the doorstep so she hid around the corner, dog comes up to her she pops out to save the dog running away, girl is freaked out like we were going to try and jump her with one of us hiding, lady and daughter trying to calm down wildabeast CHAOS.

One of those it was funny now...no STILL funny now. I started laughing when trying to tlak to the girl and I just wanted her to so badly shut the door in my face and make it stop. SO. AWKWARD.

 

We visited a less active lady in a trailer that smelled like old flesh, cigarette smoke, cats....and mystery meat. I LITERALLY COULD NOT BREATHE. said 1 million prayers that my weird nose disease where i pick up on ONLY bad smells would go away and all of a sudden i started smelling my hand sanitizer i put on SERIOUSLY THE LORD LOVES US its amazing.

She also told us about 400 different ways of how her husband died...so we realized that she may or may not have amnesia...or some sort of crazy resilience becasue apprently he died in a chair last year...but also in a crazy car accident 10 years earlier....but then also he had a bad heart and had a heart attack. So TBD which one.

 

I'm in love with the Church building. It brings so much peace and comfort, the Spirit is so REAL. It's amazing how prevalant it is, and how i missed seeing that in Utah when that Spirit is at every building. I love Church so much, it was the fastest 3 hours of my life! I love Lawrence. I LOVE IT. (pep talk.)

 

Help. Lawrence is waht we call "dead." Sis Park admits that she helped kill it beasue shes been sick and not wroking as hard as she could. We have 0 investigators, 1 we just found yesterday (amazing story) BUT maybe not amazing because he is from China named CHARLIE (give charlie a hug for me) and we ran in to him power walking. He smiled a lot and agreed to having us come over agian.....but I'm pretty sure he might think we are actually selling girls scout cookies and not his salvation so....maybe I have little faith but it's definitely a challenge. We have maybe 15% support from the ward, apprently they hate us. GO DO ANYTHING YOU CAN TO HELP THE MISSIONARIES there is nothing like proactive members. I'm so excited to turn it around though. I KNOW me and sis Hawkins can do it I KNOW IT (right? right? right?) at least i know Sis Hawkins CAN do it. so blessed to have her.

 

THIS is a century long. still figuring out this time thing. I'm pretty sure I just spent it all writing this and not the President. CRAP

ok bye.

LOVE YOU ALL

ok bye.

 

*******---->JOCELYN: Alma 60:6<-------******

 

STRINGHAMS AND BRYSONS: I want to cry. Your letters MADE. MY. DAY. I'm writing you back stat.

 

SHNA (March 2, 2013)

FAMILIAAAAAAAAAAAA

Sometimes I pretend that I am speaking a language and say random phrases at people walking by, becasue EVERYONE. ON. EARTH. does it.

OH so on the first day I got here, you have this little dot on your name tag that is supposed to signify to the world that you need compassion or something and EVERYONE comes attacking saying hello in whatever language you are learning and you just sit there confused like....am I supposed to respond in...what was that? Armenain?.....? It is not a quality thing.

TURNS OUT THEY ACTUALLY TELL YOU TO DO THAT! They tell everyone to "welcome" the new missionaires. THIS ACCOSTING IS ON PURPOSE!? Seriously. I feel so bad for everyone with a dot now. Especially because even if you have just been here a week everyone acts like they built the MTC and know it like the back of their hand, so even if you have a confused expression on your face for A HALF SECOND someone comes up to you on a Wednesday and will explain the layout of the entire "closed campus we now live on."

 

THIS WEEK HAS FLOWN BY WHAT IS HAPPENING MY WORLD IS A TIME WARP. everyone told me it would fly by but the first 3 days were so slow I couldnt comprehend it.

SUNDAY i saw aunt colette and uncle Jim BLESS THEM! made my day.

 

UM wow. emailing is hard. So much has happened.

 

Whenever I wash my hair I have started coming up with cartoon characters that I look like...some also that are not cartoons. I'm trying to get my whole Distrcit in on it but they won't participate probably afraid they will offend me BUT IT WILL HAPPEN.

The list so far:

-The Muppet that has shaggy hair that plays the guitar and is like a throw back 60s Beatle...?

-Bret Michaels from Rock of Love. GIVEN

-Shaggy from Scooby Doo.

-At some points in the day if it is still wet and i start to brush it I can begin to resemble Malfoy...which I am not actually complaining about. so.much.gel.

-Sometimes I look like a happy asian baby when i do a bun.

 

DISCLAIMER: this is not becasue I have a terrible haricut but actually becasue I HAVEN"T BEEN BALD SINCE I WAS IN 9th grade!?!?! So I forgot that people have to ACTUALLY dry their hair. THAT IS A THING!?!?! It's terrible

(because if I don't I wake up and it.......so.....poofy.......can't.......describe......) hahahaha actually. It's just so funny there is no comnparison I laugh at myself every morning when I wake up and see it and usually don't stop until we are leaving for class so everyone on my hall thinks I am a CRAZY person in the morning BUT IF YOU COULD JUST SEE IT

 

enough about the hair.

 

TUESDAY ELDER BALLARD CAME

another story: at the MTC they LOVE DRAMA. literally. so when you go to the devotional you have to get there 47 hours early to get a spot (becasue the MTC is now completely overmaxed out so there is not enough room ANYWHERE you even have to go early to the overflow to get a spot) anyway. we did get there early enough and then you have to wait there forever and they don't announce who is speaking on purpose. Then there are all of these security CIA looking people everywhere trying to pose as "ushers' but they are huge and scary. Everyone is like EDGE OF THEIR seat becasue they haven't had a GA here in like 5 weeks so its coming time....then the doors open and everyone instantly stood and literally this man is so small you can't even SEE him you can just hear them shuffling up to the stage beacsue everyone went INSTANTLY quiet. I just started crying for no reason becasue seeing that alone and how reverant it got in .00003 seconds was so cool. Then to add to the suspense they pause for like 30 seconds and then put up ELDER M RUSSELL BALLARD and I'm pretty sure they pay missionaries in the audience to make a HUGE gasp and then he speaks. And literally gave one of the best talks I have EVER heard. Our branch president after even said it was top 5.

He is so powerful I am AMAZED. He read from the scriptures in 3 Nephi for a solid 3 minutes and to hear him read about Christ coming and preaching about baptism was SO powerful, you KNEW, KNEEEEEW that he believed it, without any doubt you knew. He encouraged us all to be like that and to "relax! you know enough already." amazing

 

Oh I got called as coordinating sister which just means I needed the blessinsgs the most our of my whole zone, literally. So STORY OF THE CENTURY:

I decided to write notes to all of the new sisters mom for them to send the first night. Our teacher bro ellsworth is the most inspired man on the planet and he will always like puase mid sentence and be like "the spirit is telling me we should change....or I feel like someone needs to hear this...." AND IT IS SPOT ON EVERY TIME. so cool.

So i decided that i should try that?

So i'm writing my notes and "I felt like the spirit told me" to adderss one of the notes to both sister AND brother _____ incase the dad felt left out. RIGHT?

So i left them all blank (the names) to fill in after I met the girls.

Met them.

Assigned the names, "FELT LIKE" bro and sis should go to Sister Baird. Done. Given out. sent.

Thursdya night comes, Branch Meeting where they all introduce themselves.

Sister BARID stands up. "blah blah.....it's just me and my Mom. She adopted me when i was just a few days old so its just been me and her my whole life. We have so much fun like gilmore girls..."

w0[ uuypiouwqe p7u 1895734q9p8 ue;gkljsaf;lks gjhg w

......................

mind exploded.

dead.

HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN.

let me repeat.

i sent the ONE letter i addressed to a BROTHER and Sister Baird to the ONE GIRL ON THE WHOLE EARTH besides Rory Gilmore WHO ONLY HAS A MOM.

Literally I hate my life.

But whatever. I told her about it after and she KIND of laughed....which didn't help.

 

ATTN ATTN I LEAVE ON WEDNESDAY FOR MISSOURI AND I AM FREAKING OUT

apparently there are so many sisters going all at once rumor mill is that they are putting 2 new sisters a companions without trainers ALL OF THE TIME MY WORST NIGHTMARE PRAY FOR ME AH

but in other news I will be calling you on wednesday for .2 seconds becasue we are traveling with 38 people all going to indepndence the biggest group theyve had in the mission EVER.

 

its sersiouly crazy how much I have learned already. I hated the MTC and just wanted to get to the field at first and now I am FREAKING out and just want to stay here and gulp down as much of the fire hydrant they are spraying at me. BUT I CANT wah.

 

I love you ALL so much. I will write again in literally the blink of an eye (or maybe in a week) FROM INDE-MO AHHHHHHHHHHH

 

-love sister murray

Ps this letter sucks i really need to consider making an outline before i come into the computer room of DEATH it feels like the testing center in here everyone is so intense.

 

SHOUTOUTS

To all of my LOVELY friends who wrote me, you know who you are and i am WRITING YOU BACK RIGHT NOW

to all of you terrible friends who didnt. you ALSO knwo who you are and I am taking names! you have 3 more days to dear elder me something or else TOAST! (ahem Alexandra Lynn)

STRINGHAMS YOU ARE THE BEST the cupcakes were amaze.

MOLLY AND JENNY I literally love you so much I almost started crying when I got yours too!! They were so good and so nnice and thoughtful you are the BEST

Mom got all of your packages dont worry

 

SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME HOW THE NECTOR OF THE GODS GREAT HARVEST PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP BREAD FELL OUT OF THE SKY AND CAME TO ME! You didn't put a note and i am ETERNALLY GRATEFUL! also for all of the other goods in there! WHO ARE YOU YOU ARE SO NICE

 

ok loves.

this is the title.

Yes, the Boring Headlines tumblr is fiercly entertaining, and their slogan "Where every day is a slow news day" is spot on, but take away all of the humor, and all you see is just really bad news. The fact there are enough headlines like "Rick Santorum not talking much about the economy", "Soils hidden secrets", and simply "Gingrich makes gas station stop" to fill an entire blog, is well, pathetic. 

(Unfortunately, this is a real article of the NYT: "In Maine, More Lobsters Than They Know What to Do With")

Also, ^^^ no one is every skipping to the "exciting legal copy" ever...ever. Not even in the 1920's when this ad was placed. ....ever. 

News is just not news anymore. What happened to the days of tuning into the news dying to hear what happened in the world today? Instead, you flip on the channel or turn on the radio and constantly there is all this jabber of uniportant "junk" news.  Was it VP Joe Biden got a Twitter? The current status of Jessica Simpsons body weight...or perhaps the current relationship status of Kim Kardashian.  Mainly dealing with celebrities, breaking stories of Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez breaking up is trumping that of important national issues.  (Here is a website dedicated purely to rating "junk" news.) 

In a recent Nieman Reports article, Michael Skoler talked about the overlying problem the media is faced with today.  

"Over the past few decades, news conglomerates took over local papers and stations. Then they cut on-the-ground reporters, included more syndicated content from news services, and focused local coverage on storms, fires, crashes and crime to pad profit margins. The news became less local and less relevant, and reporters became less connected to their communities. Surveys show a steep drop in public trust in journalism occurring during the past 25 years."

In the UK at The Telegraph, Tom Chivers, the assitant comments editor, wrote this spot on piece entitled "In America, A Barrage of Thunderingly Dull Headlines", joking that "if the Titanic sank today, you would not be surprised to see an American headline saying "On Well-Known Ship, Some Unexpected Wetness", which I have to say, I would not be surprised myself either. 

I don't think there is a place for "sweep" weeks, and should not even be a factor in todays news.  If we are no longer making news for the people, but instead for the advertisers, even if it is only for a week, we have lost the purpose of the "news" organization.  I know they have to make money, but this is not the way it should be done. 

Mormon Media Symposium

The I’m a Mormon Campaign: Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going

Brandon Burton, Parry Merkley, Ron Wilson

In a fascinating presentation on the recent popularity of the ‘I’m a Mormon’ campaign, members of Bonneville Communications and the LDS Church’s Missionary Department explained the origin of the groundbreaking idea and the ultimate goal of the new digital movement. 

            With the re-launch of the Mormon.org website in July of 2010, the site now reaches 18 different countries, over 28 million views, 120 English profile videos with 80 more in production, and now translated into 20 different language.   Pioneering the concept of showing instead of telling what we believe, the new campaign has been immensely successful.  In previous Church websites, the basic doctrine of the Church was explained in a simple format with not much variance. 

With the re-launch of Mormon.org, they took a huge risk in completely changing up the format the Church had previously operated, basing this new strategy off of the fact that when someone knows a Mormon personally, they are much more likely to have a warmer perception of the Church.

            The Church has always been very progressive in using different media platforms (such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter so forth) and has been since the beginnings of the Church.  Profiling its everyday members was a very new concept, and was immensely popular not only among non-Mormons, but Mormons themselves. 

Adding to the “one-on-one” relationship with the Church’s members, Mormon.org also added the  “profile” element to the site.  Any member of the Church can create a profile, answering some simple questions about the Church and some basic background information, and then sharing it to whomever visits the site.  With over 110,000 public profiles, and 100,000 more not yet published, the public profiles section of the site has become a huge tool. 

The Church tries to keep the integrity of each profile by only having 2 screening processes: one that takes out any excessive personal information for safety, and also checks if doctrine is correct- trying to dispel myths not create more.  Thus, with spelling errors and all, each profile is deeply personal and unique to those who created it, enabling viewers to connect to the Church at a different level.  

Who Let the Dogs Out?

Its a scary thing when you all you hear in the news is how the news is going down.  Not a very good sign.  And when such a factor like Watchdog Journalism begins to slip, you know it's trouble from there. Throughout the history of journalism, many reporters have taken the role of "protector" to it's citizens, a very admirable and well appreciated job.  But when people like Victor Neufeld say things like,  “Our obligation is not to deliver the news. Our obligation is to do good programming,” you begin to wonder where the future really is taking us.  

I believe that the "watchdog" role of journalism is one of it's most redeeming qualities.  Take examples like Watergate, 60 Minutes, and reporters such as Nelly Blye and Upton Sinclair.  They all had one goal in mind: protect the people and reveal the true information.  

In the digital age, yes- information is widely avaialable to every type of person, unlike 50 years ago, and some may say the need for this "watchdog" role is lessened.  But I believe it is the exact opposite.  With so many people capable of posting whatever they want online for everyone to see, with no kind of fact checking or screening, the need for these "watchdogs" is at an all time high.  (Click here for a great relating article.) Already websites have stepped into that role (such as Medill Watchdog) but there is a need for many more. 

It was just yesterday that me and my friends heard a rumor from the recent election we wanted to fact check. We turned to the internet, and though we found countless number of acrticles in support of it, it wasn't on our preferred "trusttworthy" newsource, so it automatically lost credibility.  It's these kind of establishments that will keep the integrity of the industry, and without them, I'm afraid of what that future may become.