Happy Family Day!

Happy family day! Though you're right it is a little different out here, haha that's okay I'm from BC so I will celebrate it with you.

I was able to get a call from President Clayton this week and he never mentioned that you called haha. We just talked about the letter I sent him on my health and he gave a few more ideas that I am trying. As I relayed in the other email, I was able to receive help from a member out here in Bowmanville which is fantastic! 

This week we were so blessed I can't even believe it! We prayed that the Lord would bring someone into our teaching pool that would be prepared for hearing the gospel. This was probably at the lowest point of my health this week, yet we received a call from a gentleman named Justice Kotei. He was asking if he could speak with a minister or something because he was right at the church at that time. Our eyes grew huge and we drove right over and met him. We introduced ourselves and gave him a church tour, taught him the restoration and he felt the spirit so profoundly that he KNEW it to be true, and he asked us if he could be baptised and join the church!! We met with him a second time on Saturday and shared the Plan of Salvation and how he can be with his deceased wife in a Temple of the Lord. Tears came to him as he now knew that he can see his love again, very sweet.

Now Justice is from Ghana Africa and he is leaving this Thursday for an uncles funeral, then he will be remaining there for 6 more months. He is just amazing he came to church yesterday and LOVED IT!! We found him the address to the church in his area in Ghana and he will continue learning and proceed with baptism there and upon his return he will be a member of the Bowmanville Ward YAY!!! Miracles!!

We had another great lesson with some less active members. At the Spencer's home we taught one of the top 3 restoration discussions I have ever done. At the Snow's we shared family history stories and had a blast!

Speaking of family history I was able to go down Papa Jim's line and found a correction that I fixed and it gave so much information and names! Eventually I found the family crest, a family pin and someone did a 23 page PDF on our family history! It is amazing! Muirhead family rules! I love family history, spirit of Elijiah is so real.

May 18th  is my return! Well to be honest Mom I would like the airport to be us as a family and extended family. Then if people wish to come over and visit or be there when we pull in that would be fine. I don't need a huge crazy dream welcome home, just my loved ones.

Keep sharing the gospel and find the elect, the angels of heaven give thee mad respect! :)

Elder Muirhead

De Hola Querida Familia a quien amo !

Hola Dear Family Whom I Love!!

THE GURYNS CAME AND SAW ME while they were in town!! It was cool, a member told us a group of people were looking for me and we went out to the hall and I saw the crew. I was so excited to see them, they sound like they are doing fantastic. I didn't get that picture that they took can you send it to me? 

This week was really amazing we met with Jennifer again and she is doing amazing. We taught her the plan of salvation and during the lesson she brought up baptism and asked "When can I be baptized? I am guessing next week is to soon?" hahaha YES! We are having a member and his investigator wide be the fellow shippers for Jennifer (The Macdonalds, we get to go to their wedding on the 29th of August then work on the wife's baptism). We have a goal for the 16th of August for Jennifer's Baptism.

St. Thomas had a huge car show with 900 cars present, the main street was packed, we invited 104 people out to church from that. While we were there I talked to an older gentleman named Fred and he invited me to sit down and ask me some questions, I obliged and we talked for like an hour about the plan of salvation, the God head, Heaven and families. Fred showed me his family pictures in his wallet and we testified to each other and told each other we would see each other in Heaven one day. At the end of our conversation I gave his a pamphlet to help him with what we were talking about, he then grabbed my arm and leaned in thanked me told me I was doing a great work for the Lord and testified of Christ to me and as I looked at his eyes I saw Papa in this man it was surreal. His spirit was very familiar to me and it made me teary and smile at the same time, then we parted ways.

My present goals are to be able to lean on the will of the Lord and humble myself a whole lot more then I presently am. I want to do the things my master commands and not have to murmur or second guess my thoughts, I know that as I continue on what I am doing I can accomplish it. I am focusing on my prayers at night, I go to a room by myself and verbally address Heavenly father and pour my heart out about the day and my gratitude. 

Another goal of course is to fix my stupid body at the moment, I can't wait to try these new things you ordered for me Mom they sound helpful thank you so much. It has progressed negatively, but I have been pushing myself to get through it, so this week I am slowing down. 

Well I am glad to hear that you both have been so busy lately sounds like a ton of things to achieve, #1 kill all the mice and rats of the Island. Speaking of which there was a mouse in our apartment this week. We trapped it with Tupperware a pencil and peanut butter, then we put him in a box and played "God be with you till we meet again" and BYE BYE MOUSE! He was outta here.

Love, Elder Muirhead

Babies, Transfers, Birthday and Mother's Day Plans

Dear Mom,

That is so amazing to hear about your friend Spencer glad to hear she is doing so well with her testimony building! 

This week I again went to the hospital to give a Sister a blessing, when we got there she had a 3 day old little baby girl in her arms asleep. It just radiated the spirit to me that after all these bad things I have been feeling lately and have had to hear, the Lord sent me a tender mercy to see one of my favorite things in the world, Babies! I Adore children, and I am excited for the future, where after my mission I can begin to build the Lord's Kingdom in a new way, through my own family. 

We also helped a sister move which took a lot of work, about 5 hours of moving stuff. They are a super cool family The Jimemez Family, they are from Mexico originally and they are just having a bit of new challenges lately but the Lord has their Backs.

Well we got our transfer calls last night and Elder Morby will be moving on to Brampton, and I will be staying here but guess who is my companion?? Elder Sopal! I'm Super excited, in case you didn't know I went to High School with him in Lethbridge sooooo sweet! So we will get the switch tomorrow, and press on. Elder Morby is kinda nervous to leave his first area behind but I hope I reassured him enough to not stress to much about area 2. 

Mother's Day is coming up and it will be amazing to see you all and tell you some funny stories. It will go just like Christmas where I will call the day before and tell you the time that I will be on Skype on Sunday.

My Birthday is also coming up on the 13th and I don't have any clue what to do for it ? I honestly don't really need anything out here, It is now just a weird thing to think about. Not really expecting anything to crazy to happen because I will just be working still haha. ahh doesn't really matter that much its just a number. I can just get a cupcake or something lol :)  

I shared my testimony yesterday in church about the Plan of Salvation. I shared a couple of experiences that have been happening, like hearing here and there about death and how I was about to help a sister in the hospital find peace as she was dying last week. And how I helped another sister who was about to have twins and that one wasn't doing well and we were about to assure her that everything would be alright and talked about families being sealed forever. And this week seeing that little baby girl fresh from heaven. I bore testimony that our Heavenly Father HAS a Plan for EACH of US! He knows our need, he knows our pains, our joys, +'s and -'s. This last couple months I have been able to witness the Lord's plan move all around us on each level of mortality and it is Beautiful! I have been able to take my studies into a personal knowledge that these things are necessary, and for what TO BE WITH GOD AND BE LIKE HIM!

I had a lady in the subway tell me that we were wrong because the Book of Mormon taught that we will be like God. She only wanted to contend so I just walked on without explaining for it would fall on deaf ears, But to you I can truly say that this has always been God's end goal "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." It is all throughout the Bible, Book of Mormon and more how do I know this, well I LOOKED IT UP! It will happen and we shouldn't think otherwise it is merely a fact! Unfortunatly due to the Apostasy many people won't believe this or accept this doctrine, but we should let everyone have the chance to at least hear it and let their agency do the rest. For "Faith without works is dead", and what I have learned out here is that if we don't open our mouths we take away people's agency to choose to accept the gospel. 

I wish to Challenge each person who reads this to testify to 1 person just 1 person each week and from it you will find joy in knowing you are doing what is expected of God.

I wish you all well and Love the pictures of your faces so so much, I miss you. But like I said Mother's Day is just around the corner!! ;)

Loves loves loves,

Elder Muirhead

PS. OH MY GOODNESS!!!!! I just got word that the eldest Walsh girl Veronica

 got Baptized this week!!!!! AAAAHHHHHH!! I am so excited,

Temple, Baptism Date and Transfers

Dear Momma,
We had the chance to go to the temple on Saturday and it was great so wonderful to get into the Celestial room again, I truly got some comforting revelations there. We currently have one investigator named Samuel he is filipino and catholic, he had many questions about the church and hasn't attended his own in 4 years. He wishes to grow his faith and when we shared the Restoration with him the spirit was so strong. At the end of our discussion he said " I believe in God and therefore I believe what you say to be true as well" WHAT!! AWESOME! Then he accepted a baptismal date for April!! He is so amazing we now just need to get him coming to church, operation fellowship is underway. We love him.

We will be getting two new MTC Missionaries in our district which means there will be some miracles happening here shortly, greenies are just to innocent for people to say no to haha. 

Sending some stuff home today.. with a letter no worries!

Brigs Noah I hear that you aren't feeling well today I will be sending some treats in a package for you guys to share this week.

Love you so much Elder Muirhead

PS - Oh transfers came today and Elder Morby and I are staying put for another round in Don Mills Ward we are pretty excited!

Behind me is a signed poster for all the missionaries that have served in the Don Mills area since it was posted up, I have me on there too!

Baptisms, Goose Down Jackets and an Infestation

Well some crazy experiences this week!

First we had our investigator's 16 year old daughter Sadhana come to church by herself which was so cool. Then, her mom asked us to locate a church in Trinidad while she was there for the week. We set a Baptismal date for the 1st of Feb she is so prepared!! She was able to repeat back the restoration and the Plan of Salvation, Prepared or what! The mom comes back on Wednesday so we will get her (Esther) date with Sadhana's. YAY! pray for this family they are sick! (as in awesome for my Grandparents who don't know what Sick means).

We have had wicked cold snaps lately and both our jackets were not cutting it so we were told by the mission office of a sale on 80% off winter coats which turned out to be triple Canadian Goose jackets they are sooooo nice and warm. We are now able to withstand the recent weather!

 

Another missionary has left to go into the mission field and gave his farewell talk yesterday, it was pretty sweet and fun seeing him try to hold back the tears. Then all of our amazing Filipino families went nuts on the luncheon after church it was amazing...I love Filipino food now.

This morning was the most stressful day of my mission, and yes on a Pday. We awoke with little bite marks and went for a hunt... sure enough as the people of Egypt dealt with locusts we have bed bugs!! AHHH! So Ticked!! I was getting so anxious but we took all matters into our hands. We told our super who is getting the pest control guy in on Thursday, cleaned everything like crazy, laundry maniacs and the bugs we did find I put in a zip lock bag and gave them a Nordic funeral and lit them on FIRE!!....we may have to stay with the Zone leaders, we shall see. Going today to get plastic bed covers, bug power and cordizone we luckily had for the itchy bites....I am telling you that bed bugs are the nastiest thing ever!! can't believe they aren't extinct I hate them. Makes me miss the west cost so much :( haha but still the work needs to press forward.

Disgusting Yucky Bed Bugs! 

We are doing well here and things are starting to pick up in the work, Elder Morby's training is going so well. He inspired me to improve every day I love this guy!

Thank you for the pics and the prayers.

Love you 

Elder Muirhead

P.S. The pic of Lola and dad is so cute, I am so proud to hear that all my little crew is doing so well in church and in the spirit of Christ. Congrats on the calling Mom, now we will all be working together even closer to serve the Lord how awesome is that!! I will be taking that quote from Bishop Carter hahaha all aboard LOVE IT!

And I love you!

The Quote from Bishop Carter that he's referring to was in talking about the Hastening of the Work of the Lord right now. "The train's leaving the station. All Aboard!" he said. Love it!

Being Goofy in our New Coats

6 Month Mark - Staying in Sudbury!

Dear Mom, 
I love the family picture you sent to me so much! Just to let you know I shall be staying in Sudbury this Transfer (6 more weeks) at the same address with Elder Bowman! Christmas in the frozen North its going to be a blast! We are getting a tree from our Bishop this friday I think? Exciting!

This week we met a young guy named MJ and he is so awesome. He came on the bus to attend church and I taught him with a member (my companion was helping fix a door at the time - service rocks). Anyway he loved to hear the story of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, He said that "I wish I had known this stuff sooner, I want to hear more." Man my heart melted it was great. He's already set a Baptism date of Dec. 14th! Please pray for him as he prepares for Baptism. 

Also this week I found out that one investigator we had in Barrie that we dropped, the sister missionaries are going to baptize this month!! I couldn't believe it or sleep that night. Blessings!

This week we had two Elders come stay with us due to a special meeting for the leaders, so we went on transfers with them I got to be with Elder Tuilotolava From Tonga for 2 days. He is EPIC! made me feel like "Kolipoki" from The Other Side of Heaven movie. hahaha 

One thing that I really love to do on Mondays is to watch the Bible videos, they make the scriptures just come to life and help me see and feel how they really impact all of us. (there is a new one that is awesome, Jesus walking on water).

NOAH!!! Happy Birthday little man! Wow 10 years old now that went fast. I remember you as a little baby coming home for the first time which was so exciting cause I wasn't able to see you while you were in the hospital NICU (kinda ticked me off). But I got you and I STILL LOVE YA! Have the best day ever!

I'm Going to be burning my 6 month tie today...it's an ugly one.

Love Elder Muirhead

Oh yeah! The Muirhead Building!! Represent

P.S.
Mom thank you for sharing those amazing ideas. I will for sure think on the attitude of gratitude and how it affects our positivity. Love it!

Barrie Baptisms!

MAMAMAMMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Sounds like you had a nice time out with the girls, Red robin Is now on my mind..mmmmm oh well (grin). 

This week has been so amazing I'm soaring! We have been trying so hard to hit our standard goals for the the last two weeks and we ACHIEVED IT! One more week to go to finish this Transfer strong. This Sunday I will either get a call from President Clayton to move on out or not so I would hold on sending any mail this week. Friday night we went up to Brampton to sleep over again so we could go to our Temple trip in the Saturday morning it was awesome to be able to gain more spiritual power this weekend. I was thrilled to be able to speak to the Lord in prayer in the Temple to further my guidance to my growth, and I received great inspiration on how to change in myself into a greater man. 

The Baptisms were amazing experiences, Christine and Ryan ran out of gas trying to get to the church, (Mormon standard time) But they made it! It was so exciting to do that ordinance for them, as we were changing out of our wet clothes Elder Baumgartner was trying to get a Mormon message on and the church blacked out haha at least it didn't happen when I lowered them in the font would be awkward. I felt like I usually do with the Spirit so calm and clear minded, They came in and out of the water with joy and smiles on their faces. We asked her last night how she felt after her confirmation and she said "weird like tingly and my heart was lifted" It was awesome. They Both bore their testimonies. Even better Ryan came up in testimony meeting the next day and shared his testimony, It was SO STRONG that he made us all look bad, he's just a spiritual stud, he's so going on a mission someday;)

We were able to visit a part member family that we have been trying to visit since we got here in Barrie, and we got 2 new investigators 2 referrals and a new baptism date, Sick!

Working hard, fighting the good fight and getting pumped to see the transfer results. At the last week of transfers we get kinder eggs and try to guess where we are going using the toy you get, I got a top today so I may be sticking around but we shall see. HAHA

On Cloud 13,

Elder Muirhead

https://www.lds.org/church/share/goodness?cid=HPTU093014452&lang=eng

This is what we are working on the 11th where we are having members of follow the Toronto Mission around and tweet pictures and posts on social media. Please support,share, and FLOOD THE EARTH with Righteousness!

(Mom please add on Blog and tell everyone to join in) 

On facebook we have a Canada Toronto mission page as well check it out! the movie Meet the Mormons is coming out on the 10th as well! 

Squirrel in the Coat Room - (Barrie)

Dear Family,
Well this week we finally met a member a famous Canadian wrestling family. He is the most hilarious guy ever! He talks about the most random things, on Sunday he was walking to church and saw a dead squirrel and decided to bury it. Then 5 minutes later he found a baby squirrel half dead twitching and figured that he would just put it in his bag and bring it to church so he can make sure its ok. Turns out the squirrel was JUST FINE and went all over the coat room and some members had to catch it, SOOOO funny!!!

We met a man named Jason who was kind of looking low and we said Hi and started to talk with him. He loved that people noticed he existed. He has depression and anxiety, He said that he knows he wants to go to church and be saved. The problem is that when we go by his house he is most likely past out from alcohol which he uses to self medicate, I really want to help him out. Good news he has a Baptismal date though....I wonder if he remembers? 

One companionship had a Baptism, it was awesome, all the Missionaries participated including me. I spoke on Baptism briefly which was such an honour. It's just amazing the choice he is making to follow Jesus Christ, I talked about how the blessings of my own Baptism affect and help me in my life.

Our song last week at our Zone meeting went really well. We sang "Lord, I Would Follow Thee" with 3 Sister Missionaries and one other Elder and me. So that plus a talk on Baptism and more wow busy. But I am always busy talking to people.

Zone Meeting

I have been wanting to do more family history lately, so I've been asking for help with that from Muirheads and Wynders super excited!

Well next week I will be a bit later on writing to you due to a road trip I have. I'm just going to visit the mission doctor, but it's no big deal just about my medication. So yeah, just know I love you all and enjoy every single Monday when I get to hear how you are doing and all the crazy stories of your adventures.

With great love,

Elder Muirhead

*Elder Muirhead also wrote some personal emails to each of his siblings this week, but those won't be posted. The kids are thrilled to hear notes specifically to them. 

Name Tag Pics - Barrie Area

Hey Fam Jam!

This week has been so crazy slow...probably because I didn't have my medication that I needed? but I am getting those today YAY! My Missionary skills are sharpening, but at the same time I have just so much more to do! Elder B. and I have started doing the "Purification Challenge", which is where we write a list of things we can change and fast on them for 40 days to improve our spiritual abundance. I'm excited to say that I see some results already, one day we were about to go to one street and a strong feeling came over me and I felt inclined to go somewhere else. I looked at the map and said go here, when we came to the street there was a man who I just felt so strong to speak to so I went over and started to talk with him. He turned out to be a really nice atheist, but I believe it may affect him or someone in the future from our visit some how? Neat experience.

We also had a street knocking story this week, a Russian man came to the door and said, "No Thank you, I know Everything you are going to tell me." So we, seeing that we can't go anywhere with him offered him a picture of Christ. He then  says " Who is this?"  I admit it kinda startled us and raised an eyebrow or two since he said he knew everything we were going to share. "That's Jesus Christ,The son of God" we said. "Son of God who told you this?" "God and the Holy Ghost." "How do you know? Do you have birth certificate?" he said and then he closed the door.  It was interesting to run into someone who apparently knows everything yet nothing haha. The Birth Certificate line was funny though.

We are working with a new investigator named Kirsten and she was so happy to see something different than the Bible which she has issues with. In fact her kids went to Catholic school and brought home a kids bible to let Kirsten hold for even a second and she said "Nope I dont want to touch that book." In meeting with her she has felt the spirit from the Book of Mormon and I have been able to make the connections between both books so she can understand how things are the way the Lord intended it to be like, So for her the bible...work in progress, Book of mormon loves it. ** Update: She has a date set to be Baptized please pray for her, we also want our investigator Alec to be able to commit to making that decision (he's had 2 dates already) please pray for him too. It would be so great to have that added Muirhead Pack prayer assistance!

Oh I took your request to the test Mom in taking name tag pictures and I hope you enjoy the beauty I took after a long day!

Family I love you all and I love seeing everyones pics and stories it makes me feel like I'm there a little bit. Glad to see you all so Happy! The Lord is helping me and refining me, and I am amazed by the speed of growth.

Today in my studies I have looked up the Armour of God from Paul in Ephesians so great to learn and look up in my institute manuals. 

Things I need to work on is sending more pictures I know this and I will work on it! at least I take a few a week.

Keep pushing the Lord's work forward!

Love you,

Elder Muirhead

JOSH, BRIGS, NOAH and LOLA - Your Big Bro loves you so much!