Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Week 9 - Pictures

 
 In picayune Mississippi on exchanges,
lots of Country roads
 The pictures of those signs in peoples yard were something I thought was funny

 Our district,  The Elders are serving in picayune and so are the other sisters. The other Elders that are serving in Slidell are zone leaders and only come to our district meeting every other week.
 The other Baptism for this week
Our other Baptism this week!
 We rode bikes this week!

Week 9 - 2 Baptisms and Biking

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was another great one!  As of yesterday I have officially been out two months and Ive been in Slidell a month and a half! It is so crazy how time fly's.
We went on exchanges this week. I went to Picayune, Mississippi and sister Hills stayed in Slidell. Picayune is more of what I thought my mission would be like. Long stretches of country road with a house every so often. It was really pretty, but almost more humid then Slidell! The people were great. While I was in picayune I was able to meet their ward mission leaders wife who comes on exchanges with the sisters once a week. She was such a sweet lady. Not a day goes by that we do not hear about the devastation that Katrina caused from one person or another.
Oh! I almost forgot the best part of Picayune..I got antied for the very first time! Sister Spencer and I went to try a member referral. When she opened the door and realized who we were she started telling us about what she believed and how we did not believe in Christ. ( this always amazes me.. because the name of Jesus Christ is in the name of the church. lol go figure) She prayed for us on her door step.. " Dear Lord, bless these girls,I pray the scales of darkness fall from your eyes!" It was great. I will say though i have never felt the spirit leave so quickly. There was so much evil and hatred in her... All is well now. ( see 2nephi 29..that is the south!)
 
We had two baptisms this Saturday!  These two men that got baptized made huge changes in their lives. This is has really helped my testimony to grow. The Atonement is real and people really can change if they have the desire and help from the Lord.
So funny story..Right after one of the men getting baptized and came out of the water ( after having been baptized but still in the water..)  I don't know what kind of a change he was expecting to feel. He really wanted to be baptized so that he could have a completely new clean slate.. So after he came of out the water he put of his hands up and did this little step back almost falling in the the side of the font looking up to the ceiling. It was so funny.
The other man that got baptized was just recently married to his wife who is a member. They are very excited because now they can be sealed in the temple a year from Saturday..on her birthday! She gave the talk on the holy ghost at the baptism. It was very sweet.

We rode our bikes yesterday! ( PS..my bike is still tassel-less..walmart does not sell them. so if you see any send them my way! lol) First you need to know that it has been raining like crazy here! Some one told us yesterday how there were tropical storms coming?..yeah no big deal. lol

So we had planned to bike... That morning we went tracting around our apartment and it sprinkled rain a little, but we knew it wouldn't rain because we had to ride our bikes! We prayed that it would not rain because we were trying to be obedient and ride our bikes. We rode our bikes and no rain!  The crazy part is that when we were visiting with someone whose house we rode to on our bikes they were shocked when we told them we had rode there. Apparently they had had so much rain that morning. The whole time we were at their house and all the way back to the car it was very sunny. See! God really does answer prayers!

(I got to eat Craw Fish Et touffe. It was really good! Craw fish is my new favorite. I will have to cook it for ya'll one day! :) )


I have also included a picture of our district. the elders are serving in picayune and so are the other sisters. The other elders that are serving in Slidell are zone leaders and only come to our district meeting every other week.oh.. this week I drove the mini van last Thursday. I am going to be driving this coming month! time really is going by very fast.


Southernism: for .. Instead of saying for example, " let's have dinner at 6 pm.." You would say " dinner for 6 pm" 

Tracting tips:...Times have been rough the water is washing away all our pennies.. we only made 3 cents this week.

Scripture: Jacob 4


Well that is all me for this week. Things are going great here.


I love you and hope you have another wonderful week!

Love, Sister Urie

Thursday, July 21, 2011

New Story from week 8

"I forgot to tell you a funny story that happened on Wednesday so here it is."
We had some time before David's baptism interview.  (we promised we would be there before he went in.) So we decided to do a little tracting on a street we planned to try.  No one was interested.  We kept walking.  we saw a man playing the guitar on his front lawn.(this was perfect because we had just enough time to try on more house.)  I turned to sister Hills and told her I thought he was playing "Hotel California" we introduced ourselves and asked him what he had been playing.  I was right! (that's the part I thought you would appreciate that dad) we asked him a few simple questions about what role religion had played in his life and how his faith had grown as he trusted in god.  for these 2 short questions he stood there for 20 minutes and told us his life story. (It is amazing the things people will tell us)  some how we tied it back towards a gospel principle.  taught him about the restoration and loaned him a copy of the book of Mormon.  He told us to call him in about a week.  As we  were walking away he asked us if we did this all the time.  we told him we were full time missionaries.  Then we ran back to the car because we were late and he saw us peel out and speed past his house.  yep, we are missionaries!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Week 8 Pictures

 This is rain. we have been getting buckets and buckets of it!
 
 
 me, Sister Hills, David, and Sister Goodin. (one of the senior sisters)

Week 8 - The Great Pearl

Dear Friends and Family,

This week has gone by so fast and was so crazy!
It all started Sunday when we got a text from a former investigator. He said he was in town and wanted to meet with us. ( the background on this investigator: The sisters in Slidell have been teaching him for about 8 or 9 months. he was staying with his dad who lives in slidell but he actually lives in laurel. not in our boundaries.  David is about 38 years old) So we called David and he said he wanted to meet with us. Everything was cleared up and he wanted to talk to us about "getting him baptized". So we went over on Monday afternoon and talked with him. He was still smoking and drinking tea..but once we told him that if he wanted to get baptized he would have to stop today right now he said .."well sisters i've just smoked my last cigarette" and that he did.

President Tucker came down to interview him on Wednesday. And the baptismal service was on Saturday. In between that time we had the opportunity to visit with him everyday. He loves all the scriptures especially the book of Mormon.( He called the pearl of great price 'the great pearl.') he keeps trying to slip his dad and step mom a copy of the book of Mormon. They used to think we were a cult. David was able to get both of them to attend his baptism and they were very impressed. At Davids baptismal service sister Hills and I had to sing a musical number ( I am a child of God) David didn't know any of the hymns, when we were helping him pick out which songs he wanted sung at his baptism. ( He wanted everyone to sing "this little light of mine" and "amazing grace"..but we said no. He also wanted to sing " the four walls of raffer" but that was a joke.) So we sang some hymns for him. He thought we sounded so beautiful that he wanted us to sing at his baptism. We told him we would..I told him he better keep praying so we sound better. Only for him would we ever sing at a baptism.
On Sunday at church David really wanted to pay his tithing. He was so excited. (I have never seen anyone so excited about the gospel or paying tithing in my life!)  We showed him where to get the tithing slips, how to pay and who to give it to. He felt so bad that he could not pay more and said he was so embarrassed. "If all (Investigators/members) ever were and would be like unto (David)" This church would grow like never before. It was sad to see him have to go back home to Laurel. He will be a great addition to their branch.
This coming week we have two investigators scheduled for baptism. One was interviewed by President Tucker when he came down and the other is being interviewed on Friday.
It has been raining so much here! It is crazy. Everyone here thought they were in a drought because apparently it normally rains every afternoon. well it's back! Thank goodness for umbrellas!
The work is going great here in Slidell, LA. We just keep praying that we will find a family to teach.
The one less active family we have started working with did not come to church this Sunday. The girl that came last week was out of town. We stopped by to visit with the dad and he was in New Orleans with his wife. We were able to visit with the older daughter and invite her to church. They are pretty interested in our message..they are just unsure. We just keep praying. Hopefully this week they'll come to church. we are  hopefully meeting with the younger sister for a lesson this week. She really enjoyed church last week.

We were about to go back out to work after dinner Thursday evening when we saw a family a few doors down from us playing out side. So we turned around and parked by our house ( Saving miles! ) and walked over to them. The little boys were fishing out craw fish and baby frogs with nets from the canals in front of the house. We talked with the mom and 11 year old girl. She was very interested in our message and wanted to learn more. The mom was very hesitant at first and used the excuse of.."we just have so many little ones..we don't have time I'm sorry." To which i replied " Oh that's no problem.. could we set up a time and have a family night with you?" She loved it! We are going back this week to teach her and her family. She just has two girls( age 11 and 2) the two boys were her nephews.

so funny story.. I went to answer the phone the other day.. ( well this actually happened twice) and I said " Hi! This is Sister Hills with the missionaries." Sister Hills looks at me and says." You're sister Urie" and ... oh it was so funny. She must be doing a really great job training me. I answer the phone the way she does. our Investigator that is getting baptized on Saturday called and I did that same thing.. I said " Hi! This is sister Hills with the missionaries..oh no I lied sorry I'm sister Urie." He didn't notice though. It was pretty funny.

oh ..so one of the ladies in our ward works at chick-fil-a..Sister Hills and I have eaten there at least 4 or 5 times in the past week. She gave us free sandwich coupons. I never liked chick-fil-a before..but we love it now!

I am going to be going to picayune this evening for exchanges and one of the sisters from picayune will be coming to slidell. I will be there from Monday night until Wednesday afternoon and we will switch back after District meeting. I am very excited to see how the work is going down in picayune. This will be my first exchange! They wanted us to ride bikes during the exchange..but it has been raining a lot so i do not think that will happen. We are supposed to sacrifice a 10th of our miles and ride bikes. It has either been too hot or rainy to ride bikes lately.

This week...
Tracting tips: $1.23

Southernism: 'set'... People say sit..but it sounds like set.
Scripture: Alma 36 ( Alma's "conversion" story being told to his son Helaman. I love this because it shows that there is hope for all of God's children if we desire to repent and turn there lives around.)

I love you family and friends, hope all is going well! I am excited to be able to tell you all about this upcoming week and the adventures I will have. Thank you for all your prayers!

Love, Sister Urie

Saturday, July 16, 2011

MJM Birth Announcement

This is Becca's MJM Birth Announcement.
The Southern Name comes from a street name
The Black Name comes from the craziest name of a 
Black person we meet.


Monday, July 11, 2011

Week 7 Pictures

 City Hall
 "Drury Lane"
' Drury Ln.' you know... the muffin man! He lives on Drury Ln.! Well we didn't find his house..but I know he lives on this street somewhere! :)
 There is a picture of a huge bug we saw on the ground. I think it's head is gone..which was fine by me.

  A place called lees hamburgers. ( I guess they sauted finely chopped up onions and then put them into the meat and make the patty..so bad for you but so wonderful!) 
This experience merited a picture.
 Yum!
In the picture of sister hills and I on the back wall there are pictures. Those are Mardi Gras pictures! Mardi Gras is a huge thing down here. Kids get a week off of school for it! It is crazy! Gause Rd is pretty much shut down and they have parades all the time.

Week 7 - They Came

Dear Friends and Family!

This week has been great! We have been blessed to find some great new investigators. I was struggling because before coming out on my mission I had the illusion that missionary work happened over night. But it doesn't. It really is a slow process that requires so much love and work.These are real people with real problems.(Seems so silly that I am just starting to learn this) We get to plant seeds of faith and help them grow! Best job ever right?
Here is an update on some of the people we are working with!
We were finally able to teach on of our investigators the stop smoking workshop! He has a baptism date for the 23rd of July. He is a great example of how you can change your life around and refocus on the things that are really important. He has had a pretty rough life and after finally facing things that have happened he is able to turn his life around because he realizes how important it is to be baptized by proper authority.
We have also been working with A young couple( The wife is a member the husband is our investigator). We were really worried because he had not yet prayed to know if Joseph smith was a prophet. we always left him the commitment to pray about it. he kept forgetting. We committed him to pray about it again and left it on a sticky note and he forgot. We came back the last time and he had prayed! He said he didn't receive an answer yet, but he prayed! ( This was huge for us because he will not pray in lessons with us)  We were able to watch the Finding faith in Christ DVD. (Which I highly recommend to watch!) This touched their hearts and you can really see the change taking place in him. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ!
Last we have a less active family we have started to work with. The dad was a convert to the church at age 10, then he became less active at age 18. We went by last Saturday to visit him and him and his wife were out of town, but his 19 year old daughter was there and invited us in. We got to know her and had a great visit with her. Then we told her about what we were doing in slidell (missionaries!) and about the message we share with people ( The restored gospel!) She was very interested. We loaned here a copy of the book of Mormon and invited her to come to church that Sunday. She said that she would come next week with her parents.
We went back This past Saturday, hoping to teach the daughter, or visit with her and her whole family was there. The dad and the daughter both visited with us. The dad told us about his history with the church. Questions about the word of wisdom came up and without bringing up church the daughter told us she was coming to church the next day! She begged her dad to come with her to church. He was adamant about not coming and kept saying that he wouldn't come. Toward the end of our visit, after we shared a message, the mom came and visited for a second with us too. We had a prayer with them and left. (The dads other daughter was there and we invited her to church too)
The next day was Sunday..We were very sure that the two daughters would be coming to church..Who should come to church but the daughter( The one that we initially met with), Her dad and her Mom! Sister Hills and I were so excited. We asked the daughter how she got her dad to come and she said her mom talked him into coming. We had a member of the 70 randomly show up at our sacrament meeting and talked a lot about the importance of attending sacrament and how we have agency. Exactly what our investigators needed to hear. God really does hear our prayers. I feel so grateful to have met and to be able to teach this family. I hope that they continue to desire to learn more about the gospel. After Church the dad told sister hills and I that we were only the second missionaries to ever get him to come to church! Sister hills and I smiled and said "So we'll see you next week?" :) He said we could come by any time this week. We are very excited and hopeful for them.
Oh big news! I was finally able to teach the Plan of Salvation to a real investigator. What is even more crazy is that I taught it by myself...well not all by myself. ( we were struggling to get members to come out with us so we had to split up and each go with a different senior sister). I am not going to lie..the lesson was super shaky and did not make a lot of sense. It is hard because the investigator did not really know who God or Jesus Christ is. In future lessons we are going to just go over individual principles and really take our time with them. We had just been meeting with the dad, but we invited his son to join in on the lesson. Come to find out the son had read a lot of the pamphlet we had left on the Restoration of the gospel and wanted to learn more! We committed them to come to church. The son is really excited about the gospel and really wants to come to church. The dad is a little shaky, but wants to do it for his son. ( His wife, died when his son was really young, so he has been a single dad) As we went to end the lesson the dad almost said the closing prayer..but the son said it. It was a very sweet heart felt prayer. (i have not heard so many humble prayers in my life as i have on my mission) As we were going to leave the dad turned to me and said.." I really felt something this time"..Success! It made me almost want to cry. Even though the lesson had been choppy..he still felt the spirit and desired to learn more. ( You can't go wrong when you are teaching about the atonement..right?)

There is a little glimpse of how the work is going for us sisters here in Slidell!

Southernism: "Catchall"- I know I've heard this used in my real life..but they use this word here all the time. Catchall refers to a room or place where all the junk you have gets thrown. "That room is the catchall.." Like that!
Tracting tips!: $1.17 (So close to happy hour cupcakes!)
Scripture of the week: 2 Nephi 9:49 I love this scripture because it talks about how much Nephi hated sin..he abhorred it! This basically means ultimate disgust or loathing. May we look upon sin as Nephi does and "delight in righteousness"! :D

Love, Sister Urie!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Week 6 Pictures

 The Sisters with the Chick-Fil-A Cow
 Cupcakes from Happy Hour
 Yum

 She loved the Mirrored Door
Interesting mail box

Monday, July 4, 2011

Week 6

Dear Family and Friends!
This week has been crazy! The weeks are just flying by and I cannot believe I have already been on my mission a month.
Wednesday was Sister Hills Birthday. We went to Pecks seafood and po-boys for lunch. I got a Sprim Po-Boy. ( I included a picture) I had never head of a po-boy until I came out here but they are everywhere. They are like a sub sandwich..but even bigger.  For her birthday we also wanted to go get happy hour cupcakes but the place was closed. We ended up being able to go friday. The cupcakes are amazing! happy hour is buy one ($1.75) get one free. Super cheap and Super yummy. I know this sounds like it really doesnt have anything to do with missionary work, but it does! The man that owns the cupcake place has the cutest family and has a lot of friends from Utah that are mormon. He was really impressed with us and we might end up teaching his family..yes this means more cupcakes! :) win win i think.
Thursday was a really great day as well. we are able to go back and teach is lady named Brittney. She is about 26 years old and has a sweet little three year old daughter. She was pretty interested in what we had to say so we set up a return appointment for next week. She commited to read the introduction to the book of mormon and the first chapter. I love it when we find people that are searching for the truth.
This day was also monumentus because Chick-fil-A opened! Slidell now has their very own stand a lone chick-fil-a. ( I know, also not very important to the work, but we can always use it as a finding tool right? I kid..)
Friday we were able to teach one of our progressing investigators again. He has been reading so much from the book of mormon and has had some pretty good questions. I love it when they have a desire to read. The book of Mormon is so important and Wonderful! We taught him about Tithing and he said he was fine with it. We are very worried about This investigator though because he did not come to church and then he cancelled our appointment for last night.
Saturday was a great day for refferals! Everyone we talked to had someone they could have us go try. Most of the people that gave us refferals were people we had contacted and still thought we were there for bible study. ( We will set them straight soon)
There is another man that we have been trying to teach that should get getting baptized soon. He just needs to stop smoking. We are going to teach him the stop smoking workshop. He has been really good about coming to church and it is great to see that he wants to make this change in his life.
On Sunday, Fast sunday, we were able to get some tracting in. One door we knocked on a man about our age answered the door. I told him about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and that he could know for himself if this were true through the book of Mormon.. then I asked him if he had heard of the Book of Mormon. To this he responded.." I don't believe in Mormon." .. I was so shocked..i had never heard this response to that question before and was so confused. So i asked him what he meant. He then told me that he didn't really know anything about the book of Mormon.  The Book of Mormon is book of scripture comparable to the bible and tells of Christ dealings with the people in America... We do not worship Mormon, The prophet Jospeh Smith or Thomas S. Monson. There are so many misconceptions, I am coming to find, that people think about the Book of Mormon. Anyone who has not read it should greatly consider it. All we ask as missionaries and all the Lord asks of each of us is to read the book of Mormon and pray to know if it is the word of God. Then It is up to all who have asked in faith, who gain the witness, to act on that feeling and be baptized by proper authority. I love the Book of Mormon with all my heart. I know that it is the Word of God and that we can get nearer to God from reading from the Book of Mormon then by reading any other book.  ( ok..off my soap box.)
Sunday was really hard because we had so many investigators that were going to come to church and only one showed up. This work can be so rewarding, when we see people keep commitments because we know it will bless them. This work has also been very discouraging, because we see people not keep commitments and taking backwards steps. All we can do is keep praying and working.
Today Monday the 4th of July! This morning we had a ward pancake breakfast. There was also a little program after and a parade where the kids ( and a few adults) decorated their bikes, scooters and wagons and marched around the church. It was very cute.
Well that is is for me! Another great week in Slidell, LA.!
Keep on Keepin on my wonderful family and Friends! I love you and hope all is well!
 Love,
Sister Urie




Saturday, July 2, 2011

Letter from Sister Urie July 1, 2011

We got a letter this week from Sister Urie.  I wanted to share some of the stories.

"Things are great here, we have 3 baptisms set for July, Dennis, Aaron, and Baily.  We are teaching a man named Leroy Carter.He had met with the missionaries a few years ago and doesn't really remember any thing they taught him.  We actually found him when we were out tracting.  he was with 2 of his friends(he is about Dad's age I think)  We asked all of them if they were interested and one of the friends said yes, the other two said no.  A little while later we were tracting down the street around the corner and whose house should we tract into?  Leroy's!  He invited us inside was super nice. We met his wife and they gave us water.  when we were talking with us he told us about meeting with the missionaries a long time ago.  So we told him we would come back.  Yesterday when we met with him we taught him the message of the restoration.  he did not remember anything about Joseph Smith.  He asked what he needed to do.  So we read with him the last two paragraphs into the introduction of the book of Mormon.  he sat and pondered for a second then looked at us and said"so I need to read this and pry about it?  YES!  you do.  it was an investigator ah ha moment.  greatest ever. 
I love Slidell, a mission is a lot different than I thought it would be.  I figured we would be teaching people who had never heard the gospel all the time.  That is only a small part of it.  We get to visit so many less active and recent converts. 
Thank you for all your support.

the training program they have me doing is set up in such a way that they want, or your supposed to be ready to train a new missionary at the end of the 3 months.  I might be training here in 3 months! eek  Love Sister Urie