Journal February 2
At our Inservice Thursday night I was a real help to Dad. Ha, ha. We had a teleconference call to our teachers all over the stake and were connected and waiting for one of the teachers to get his scriptures when I decided our phone would be easier to speak into if it was sitting on its base, so I got the base and took the phone that was laying on the table and stuck it in the base. Dad was not happy because it immediately disconnected the call which had taken some time to get set up and connected. After some quick “tricks of the trade,” of which we aren’t too efficient, Dad was able to get the call reconnected and everyone was still on the line. WHEW!! So much for trying to help. The Inservice went well and the teachers seemed appreciative. Dad said it was a hard way to teach, but we are learning all kinds of new skills wherever we go.
Monday night Dad and I went to FHE and after being there about 10 minutes he got a terrible headache and we had to leave because he turned pale and was starting to feel sick to his stomach. He went right to bed when we got back to the apartment and slept through the night except for a brief time at 10:00 when he got up for a few minutes. It must have been what he needed because he feels better this morning. Before we had gone to FHE we visited a young couple that we wanted to get to know and maybe help the husband come back to church. We had a good visit and hope one day he sees the light. They are both Returned Missionaries.
While we were checking out at the check stand at the grocery store yesterday I noticed Dad was buying a bottle of coke. I looked at him questioningly because he doesn’t drink coke (at least that I know of) but he laughed and said” you’ll see in a minute why I’m buying a coke”. After we took the groceries to the car he pulled out the bottle of coke and poured it over the battery and used the windshield brush to scrub the build up on the battery. Amazing—clean as a whistle. Wonder what it does to the insides of our bodies, when it can clean that kind of corrosion off the battery.
Our trip to Miles City to teach and train for Institute went well. We also attended a zone conference while we were there and enjoyed all that we did. It is always great to be around the missionaries and Mission President and his wife. President Gardner always talks about my parents and how they were such an influence in St. George. It is great to hear him brag on them and what an influence they were to the community.
We found out when we returned from our trip that the “budget” for CES has been slashed and we have spent 2/3 of our budget for travel already. That means we won’t be able to do a very good job here unless the expenses come totally out of our pocket. We have decided that we will do the later. The church is really tightening its purse strings because tithing is down because of unemployment of the church members.
Mark be sure and let us know how your accompanying for the quartet went in conference on Sunday.
Lyndi, how was being Principal for a Day? What an honor. Getting so many reading points certainly has its benefits. What did you do as “Principal for a Day?”
Well, Kerri, it is hard to believe that our oldest grandchild is now an adult. How was your 18th birthday? Have you heard anything about college yet? Lots of exciting things will be happening and continue to happen in your life at this wonderful age. Just think, you can even vote. Be sure you take advantage of this wonderful privilege. Tyler, surely wish we were there to see you in Oliver. Corinne and Elaena—sounds like you are both excelling in school. Lyndi and Jenna how are your rabbits doing? Is the cold making them freeze? We got another 3 inches of snow last night and a couple today. It seems like winter will be around here forever. I love it though. Dad doesn’t, but he has to deal with it since he made the choice to leave Mexico.
Attached are pictures of zone conference and our Institute class in Miles City. Wonderful young people serving missions and attending Institute.
Love,
Dad and Mom/Grandpa and Grandma/Elder and Sister Murdock

Journal January 5, 2010
What an experience we are having here. We found that you never drive anywhere, even to Wal Mart—the closest one is 75 miles from here—without a 72 hour kit (survival kit) in our car in the winter because of the dangerous conditions. Today we had to cancel our visit with a teacher in a community about 50 miles from here (Circle) because of the snow, wind and temperatures and it looks like we may have to cancel the appointments for the next 2 days, also, because of the weather. With the wind chills, the temperature is 20 or more below zero. What were we thinking when we decide to ask for a change in venue from warm (HOT), balmy (HUMID) Villahermosa? It is beautiful and exciting here with the weather as long as we are not stuck somewhere in it. One city that we do visiting teaching in is in North Dakota and when we visited there on Friday it was minus 32 degrees. Our poor car wonders what is happening to it, but it started. However, it was so cold the front door wouldn’t shut until we had let it run for about 15 minutes.
By the way, for those of you that do not have our new address (thanks so much to those of you that have kept in touch) it is Elder and Sister Murdock
301 Sargent Ave #4
Glendive MT 59330
We were able, after all, to visit several of those we had scheduled because, even though it was bitterly cold, it quit snowing and the wind quit blowing—to some degree—and so we had some good visits of Seminary classes and getting to know the students and teachers. What a fun mission this is to be able to meet so many people. Each place we visit is 50 to 200 miles away, so we usually have to plan an overnight trip in order to visit the Early Morning or Home Study Seminaries. We have 3 Early Morning Seminaries, 8 Home Study Seminaries, and 1 Institute Class that we need to visit and help with training the teachers.
Sounds like Micah and Monica are both in full swing with their new school sessions. Good luck to both of you. Melissa we loved the new song you wrote for Aaron’s Camp for Brendon’s group. It is beautiful. Tiffani thanks for checking our mail box and sending us the mail. We appreciate it. We finally got the Verizon rebate that you sent.
Tonight we have FHE at our place for Singles over 30 and Empty Nesters. Should be fun. The work is progressing and we are learning our assignments and enjoying doing them.
Tomorrow we are visiting the Early Morning Seminary here in Glendive and taking a dozen doughnuts so they will be glad to see us.
Love to hear how things are going with each of you and your families.
Love,
Dad and Mom

What an experience we are having here. We found that you never drive anywhere, even to Wal Mart—the closest one is 75 miles from here—without a 72 hour kit (survival kit) in our car in the winter because of the dangerous conditions. Today we had to cancel our visit with a teacher in a community about 50 miles from here (Circle) because of the snow, wind and temperatures and it looks like we may have to cancel the appointments for the next 2 days, also, because of the weather. With the wind chills, the temperature is 20 or more below zero. What were we thinking when we decide to ask for a change in venue from warm (HOT), balmy (HUMID) Villahermosa? It is beautiful and exciting here with the weather as long as we are not stuck somewhere in it. One city that we do visiting teaching in is in North Dakota and when we visited there on Friday it was minus 32 degrees. Our poor car wonders what is happening to it, but it started. However, it was so cold the front door wouldn’t shut until we had let it run for about 15 minutes.
By the way, for those of you that do not have our new address (thanks so much to those of you that have kept in touch) it is Elder and Sister Murdock
301 Sargent Ave #4
Glendive MT 59330
We were able, after all, to visit several of those we had scheduled because, even though it was bitterly cold, it quit snowing and the wind quit blowing—to some degree—and so we had some good visits of Seminary classes and getting to know the students and teachers. What a fun mission this is to be able to meet so many people. Each place we visit is 50 to 200 miles away, so we usually have to plan an overnight trip in order to visit the Early Morning or Home Study Seminaries. We have 3 Early Morning Seminaries, 8 Home Study Seminaries, and 1 Institute Class that we need to visit and help with training the teachers.
Sounds like Micah and Monica are both in full swing with their new school sessions. Good luck to both of you. Melissa we loved the new song you wrote for Aaron’s Camp for Brendon’s group. It is beautiful. Tiffani thanks for checking our mail box and sending us the mail. We appreciate it. We finally got the Verizon rebate that you sent.
Tonight we have FHE at our place for Singles over 30 and Empty Nesters. Should be fun. The work is progressing and we are learning our assignments and enjoying doing them.
Tomorrow we are visiting the Early Morning Seminary here in Glendive and taking a dozen doughnuts so they will be glad to see us.
Love to hear how things are going with each of you and your families.
Love,
Dad and Mom

Quierdos familia y amigos
Everyone has wondered why we left Mexico. The simple answer is that I had too much down time. Sister Murdock was busy with teaching English and piano classes. I was assisting her with English classes but this was not enough to fill my time and justify our being away from home. Our original purpose for being in Villahermosa was to train teachers and teach institute classes with a secondary assignment to promote the Perpetual Education Fund among the youth. Because our language skills were not sufficient to accomplish our assignment effectively I requested a transfer to an English speaking mission. This came after great effort to learn the language during the first nine months of our mission. This transfer was made after much prayer and soul searching. It was discussed with the Area President, our Mission President and the Missionary Department of the church. The final decision and assignment to Montana was made by an Apostle. If the final decision from the Missionary Department was to stay in Mexico we would have continued to build on the limited success we had enjoyed. The fact is that we were severely limited in our overall ability to converse in meaningful ways. No one should think of our Mexico experience as a failure in any sense of the word. We loved our mission there. We both were ordained Villahermosa Temple workers and know the endowment ceremony in Spanish. We look forward to the possibility of work in the temple using Spanish as a second language. We have very close and dear friends, both youth and adults that we will continue to email and encourage church activity. Also we are continuing to study Spanish and both of us are determined to become more proficient with the language.
We are excited about our new Montana assignment. We feel blessed to have an opportunity to be fully engaged with teaching, training teachers and speaking and doing our best to influence the lives of the youth here and renewing our acquaintances with many saints that we knew when living in Casper, Wyoming. For example, Brother and Sister Cheynoweth are in the Billings Montana Temple Presidency. We will do activation work in Billings for two months and then go to Glendive, Montana for the final six months of our mission. In Glendive we will be the Institute instructors and supervise seminary teachers. Geographically speaking, The Billings Montana Mission is the largest mission in the United States. Our responsibility will extend from the Canadian border to the Wyoming border and encompass the entire eastern half of Montana.
We love the Lord and His church. We have been blessed to have a varied and enriching level of church experience in the two missions Sister Murdock and I have served together. This includes Pohnpei, Mexico, and now in Montana. We have learned much and hope to serve where we are needed. We are greatly blessed to be members of this great church. Love to all
Elder and Sister Murdock