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