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| The Sisters at Bayou Country Store |
Zone conference September 2011
Oh No Sister Urie is driving!!
Lizard in the window
Weekly Food Picture
Sister Urie Goes to the South!
Monday, September 26, 2011
Week 18-You can't get a dollar answer for a penny prayer"
Dear Family,
Greetings from Slidell,LA. Things are going great here. We are working really hard trying to find a family to teach. The MJM mission has the goal to baptize 300 people this year. we are about half way to our goal and it is almost October. In order to meet our goal every companionship of missionaries in the mission has to baptized 3 people by the end of the year. So in other words, we are looking to find and teach families. We are trying to make everyone in the ward aware of our goal because this is not just our mission as missionaries, but there mission as well as member missionaries. This has been really hard, trying to find a family to teach. We have a few families that we are working with and hope that they see how much the gospel can bless their lives and that they can be together forever.
The first family we are working with is a part member family. They are great! The dad was a convert to the church at age 10 and he felt he was forced to go to church and activities. This shaped his way of parenting, he never forced his kids to go to church or told them which religion to join. We can really tell that he wants this in his life. The other night when we were over there and trying to discern his concerns again he told us, again ( his daughter was sitting there) "If I get an answer its true I'll be in big trouble and have to convert these knuckle heads". He is such a great man and you can tell he is searching for something more in his life. We pray everyday that he will have the desire to read the book of Mormon and find the peace that is promised that comes from reading it. He always gives us food when we go over. It is really funny.
The other night when we were over we were inspired to ask him if he would go get one of the Many copies of the book of mormon that he has. ( he has had a lot of missionaries come over) He grabbed a book that one of the elders that used to come over, years ago, left. We read the chapters he had asked him to read and then in a following visit he tried to call the number and got a busy signal. Another really cool thing is I had the violin in the car because it was just after a practice we had had for the musical number we did this week. So I was able to play for them and 'bear my testimony through music. music speaks where words cannot. there are so many things about the gospel that cannot be expressed in words. I love the gift of music and how it can fill in those gaps and bridges that languages creates.
So here is the story.. There are 4 Jen's in our life right now. it has been pretty crazy. We have an investigator Jennifer, another investigator jenjen ( from china), a less active Jennifer, and another investigator Jen. It has been crazy!
Jennifer our investigator has been having a really hard time in her life. As of recently the elders referred us to her and we are teaching her. We taught her a great restoration lesson. The spirit was really strong and we thought she was understanding and had a desire to find out if this was really for her. When we went to the relief society broadcast a day later we talked with a member that used to work with her. She said that Jennifer was getting a lot of anti influence about her decision to continue to learn more about being" Mormon". I am coming to learn how important it is to take our decisions to the Lord before we ask the world what they think.
Jen Jen, Our investigator from China is doing great! I just love teaching her. She moved to the United States 4 years ago and converted to Christianity 3 years ago. She has met with missionaries before us and we recently found her from our area book. She was originally a referral from a member of the ward and so she still has pretty good member fellowship. This is the Second week she has come to church and we were able to teach her after church this Sunday. We talked about the Plan of Salvation. ( the why we are here, where we are going, and what happens after this life.. you know! :))
She loved it and had such great questions to ask and really wanted to know more. It is amazing the difference between those searching for truth and those who are to learned to care to know more about a "Higher power". It was a great lesson!
What else is there to tell you... This week has been so long! I never thought as a missionary I would be in so many meetings. The weeks feel like months and the months are starting to feel like weeks, yet I love it.
We had zone conference this week. Sister LeBaron and I played a musical number 'Did you think to pray'. It was great to bear our testimonies through music and song. We were able to gain great insights for our area and are working to implement them. One thing that President Tucker has challenged us to do is read the book of mormon all the way through before Christmas. we all received a blank copy of the book of mormon and are marking it as follows, red-references to Christ (lord,father, son, Christ, ect.)
another color- attributes of the savior ( Christlike attributes)
another color- doctrines and principles contained in the book of Mormon.
(Doctrines- Godhead, plan of salvation, atonement.) ( Principles-Faith, repentance, ect.)
Also we have a new mission song! It is to the tune of 'Carry on'. (yes i helped with the words.)
We also had the opportunity to watch the General Relief Society Broadcast. It was so wonderful! I loved President Utchdorf's message. He talked about the forget me not flower and the German legend associated with it. then he told the women 5 things that they should never forget. Forget me not's..1.Forget not to be patient with yourself 2. Forget not the difference between a good and foolish sacrifice. 3. Forget not to be happy now. 4 Forget not the 'why' of the gospel. and 5 Forget not that the Lord loves you. I just loved this message and hope that I can remember these forget me not's in my own life.
Well that is pretty much it on the week for me. I hope my stories made sense and that ya'll are doing well. I miss you and love you and hope that you have a safe fun week! Thank you for your prayers and support!
Love, Sister Urie
Southernism: Commandment #2 in Cajun... Don't pray to nuthin' or nobody...jus' God.
Tracting tips: ( to clear up confusion..this is money we find on the ground while we are tracting.) We found 21 cents this week!
Scripture: Alma 11:3-19, 21-25.. So this might seem like a weird chapter..why would they find it important to tell us about how their money(lucre) system
works? Well I'll tell you! Everything in the book of Mormon is of great worth and value, there is a reason for them explaining to this to us! when you read verses 21-25 after knowing the value of there money it helps in understanding what Zeezrom was asking Amulek to give up by denying the existence of a supreme being..just a thought :)
Greetings from Slidell,LA. Things are going great here. We are working really hard trying to find a family to teach. The MJM mission has the goal to baptize 300 people this year. we are about half way to our goal and it is almost October. In order to meet our goal every companionship of missionaries in the mission has to baptized 3 people by the end of the year. So in other words, we are looking to find and teach families. We are trying to make everyone in the ward aware of our goal because this is not just our mission as missionaries, but there mission as well as member missionaries. This has been really hard, trying to find a family to teach. We have a few families that we are working with and hope that they see how much the gospel can bless their lives and that they can be together forever.
The first family we are working with is a part member family. They are great! The dad was a convert to the church at age 10 and he felt he was forced to go to church and activities. This shaped his way of parenting, he never forced his kids to go to church or told them which religion to join. We can really tell that he wants this in his life. The other night when we were over there and trying to discern his concerns again he told us, again ( his daughter was sitting there) "If I get an answer its true I'll be in big trouble and have to convert these knuckle heads". He is such a great man and you can tell he is searching for something more in his life. We pray everyday that he will have the desire to read the book of Mormon and find the peace that is promised that comes from reading it. He always gives us food when we go over. It is really funny.
The other night when we were over we were inspired to ask him if he would go get one of the Many copies of the book of mormon that he has. ( he has had a lot of missionaries come over) He grabbed a book that one of the elders that used to come over, years ago, left. We read the chapters he had asked him to read and then in a following visit he tried to call the number and got a busy signal. Another really cool thing is I had the violin in the car because it was just after a practice we had had for the musical number we did this week. So I was able to play for them and 'bear my testimony through music. music speaks where words cannot. there are so many things about the gospel that cannot be expressed in words. I love the gift of music and how it can fill in those gaps and bridges that languages creates.
So here is the story.. There are 4 Jen's in our life right now. it has been pretty crazy. We have an investigator Jennifer, another investigator jenjen ( from china), a less active Jennifer, and another investigator Jen. It has been crazy!
Jennifer our investigator has been having a really hard time in her life. As of recently the elders referred us to her and we are teaching her. We taught her a great restoration lesson. The spirit was really strong and we thought she was understanding and had a desire to find out if this was really for her. When we went to the relief society broadcast a day later we talked with a member that used to work with her. She said that Jennifer was getting a lot of anti influence about her decision to continue to learn more about being" Mormon". I am coming to learn how important it is to take our decisions to the Lord before we ask the world what they think.
Jen Jen, Our investigator from China is doing great! I just love teaching her. She moved to the United States 4 years ago and converted to Christianity 3 years ago. She has met with missionaries before us and we recently found her from our area book. She was originally a referral from a member of the ward and so she still has pretty good member fellowship. This is the Second week she has come to church and we were able to teach her after church this Sunday. We talked about the Plan of Salvation. ( the why we are here, where we are going, and what happens after this life.. you know! :))
She loved it and had such great questions to ask and really wanted to know more. It is amazing the difference between those searching for truth and those who are to learned to care to know more about a "Higher power". It was a great lesson!
What else is there to tell you... This week has been so long! I never thought as a missionary I would be in so many meetings. The weeks feel like months and the months are starting to feel like weeks, yet I love it.
We had zone conference this week. Sister LeBaron and I played a musical number 'Did you think to pray'. It was great to bear our testimonies through music and song. We were able to gain great insights for our area and are working to implement them. One thing that President Tucker has challenged us to do is read the book of mormon all the way through before Christmas. we all received a blank copy of the book of mormon and are marking it as follows, red-references to Christ (lord,father, son, Christ, ect.)
another color- attributes of the savior ( Christlike attributes)
another color- doctrines and principles contained in the book of Mormon.
(Doctrines- Godhead, plan of salvation, atonement.) ( Principles-Faith, repentance, ect.)
Also we have a new mission song! It is to the tune of 'Carry on'. (yes i helped with the words.)
We also had the opportunity to watch the General Relief Society Broadcast. It was so wonderful! I loved President Utchdorf's message. He talked about the forget me not flower and the German legend associated with it. then he told the women 5 things that they should never forget. Forget me not's..1.Forget not to be patient with yourself 2. Forget not the difference between a good and foolish sacrifice. 3. Forget not to be happy now. 4 Forget not the 'why' of the gospel. and 5 Forget not that the Lord loves you. I just loved this message and hope that I can remember these forget me not's in my own life.
Well that is pretty much it on the week for me. I hope my stories made sense and that ya'll are doing well. I miss you and love you and hope that you have a safe fun week! Thank you for your prayers and support!
Love, Sister Urie
Southernism: Commandment #2 in Cajun... Don't pray to nuthin' or nobody...jus' God.
Tracting tips: ( to clear up confusion..this is money we find on the ground while we are tracting.) We found 21 cents this week!
Scripture: Alma 11:3-19, 21-25.. So this might seem like a weird chapter..why would they find it important to tell us about how their money(lucre) system
works? Well I'll tell you! Everything in the book of Mormon is of great worth and value, there is a reason for them explaining to this to us! when you read verses 21-25 after knowing the value of there money it helps in understanding what Zeezrom was asking Amulek to give up by denying the existence of a supreme being..just a thought :)
Monday, September 19, 2011
Week 17 Pictures
Big cockroach
Yum, Cupcakes
Someone has a new Umbrella!
Oh, and a new outfit!
Oh, and a new outfit!
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| Sister Urie and her new companion, Sister Lebaron |
Week 17 - Yep more cupcakes
Dear Family!
Hello and greetings from Slidell, LA! This are going great and things are looking up. After much hard work we finally have some investigators. It is really hard to find people to teach, yet I am learning how to have better gospel conversations with people. We have been promised that if "we listen that something someone says will highlight a gospel principle to which we can bear testimony of". Also..please do not get me started on how important it is that Members are missionaries too. Missionaries are tools for the members. As I have been serving as a full time missionary I have come to understand this more and more. Keep on being great examples to those around you and talking to everyone. The Lord will bless you with missionary opportunities.
This week we had some really great lessons and some great progress on the work. I think I told you last week about the 'vision of Slidell' and I am pleased to report that it is going great! I really hope that this will help the work.
We were really blessed to be able to teach some really great lessons this week.
One of the first lessons we taught on Monday was to this woman who is really struggling with finding her place in life. There are a lot of challenges with her family ( as far as them not being supportive of her joining the church) and struggles with getting older, finding and job and who to marry. You and I know that these challenges can be over come through the gospel of Jesus Christ and the atonement, yet it is really hard to have that faith to just join some church. We had a great gospel discussion with her and helped answer a lot of her questions through the book of mormon.
Another lad we are teaching we found in our Area book! She is friends with the first lady i was telling you about. She is Chinese and as of recently has converted to Christianity. We taught her about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how we can find out for ourselves if it is true by reading and praying about the book of Mormon. She said that she would read and pray and when she knew it was true get baptized. We are going to set her with a baptismal date the next time we meet with her. Oh..and did I mention..SHE CAME TO CHURCH! Actually.. we had FOUR investigators in church. It was a great day. I have to confess something though.. One of the investigators was the lady I told you about a few emails ago who wouldn't really let us leave her house because she thought we wouldn't be safe and the hurricane was coming. She came to church. I was shocked! I believe she was only there for the last hour of relief society..but she came! We are going to go see her sometime in the coming week.
We found this really awesome lady when we were tracting. She was worried because she was not going to be able to make it to church this week and asked if it was OK that she came next week? we said.. of course it is! We are going to have a family night soon with her and her family. When we talked to her on the door step the spirit was so strong as we talked with her. IT was great..and what was even better is she recognized it and told us she felt it! I love being a missionary!
We decided that we want to teach the cupcake man and his family.. so naturally we had to go get more cupcakes. I have included a picture of the beautiful cupcake I got this time. Strawberry Cheesecake. So good. Yes missionary work can be fun too.
We had Ward conference on Sunday. Both the bishop and the stake president spoke. It was perfect for the investigators we had in church. I feel really blessed as of late because I have been given a lot of opportunities to play the violin. We played two weeks ago in church, Wednesday sister LeBaron and i are playing in the ward talent show a musical number..and were doing the same musical number at zone conference.
So there is a picture I am sending you that is the " light of the world church" We drive past it quite a bit and thought it was cool..so here is a picture!
Not to many stories to report this week.. but here is something cool. I have never really seen love bugs before and they are all over the place down here. kind of annoying, but cool. Also! There was this crazy huge flying cockroach at the home of one of the people we were visiting. it was huge..and after several attempts to kill it.. it died. I sent a picture. it is kind from far away because i was scared it would come back to life again..and it did. ha
Well I hope you have a wonderful week!
Love, Sister Urie
Southernism:
The Ten Commandments in Cajen..
1. God is da number one... and das' All.
( I will put one each week!)
Tracting Tips: we mad 18 cents this week! crazy! We walked by this one house after we found this awesome lady and there were a million penny's on the ground.. i was worried for a moment that it might be stealing.. but.. I do not think so. please do not judge.
Scripture: How can a belief in Jesus Christ help me? read Alma 36 in The Book of Mormon!
Hello and greetings from Slidell, LA! This are going great and things are looking up. After much hard work we finally have some investigators. It is really hard to find people to teach, yet I am learning how to have better gospel conversations with people. We have been promised that if "we listen that something someone says will highlight a gospel principle to which we can bear testimony of". Also..please do not get me started on how important it is that Members are missionaries too. Missionaries are tools for the members. As I have been serving as a full time missionary I have come to understand this more and more. Keep on being great examples to those around you and talking to everyone. The Lord will bless you with missionary opportunities.
This week we had some really great lessons and some great progress on the work. I think I told you last week about the 'vision of Slidell' and I am pleased to report that it is going great! I really hope that this will help the work.
We were really blessed to be able to teach some really great lessons this week.
One of the first lessons we taught on Monday was to this woman who is really struggling with finding her place in life. There are a lot of challenges with her family ( as far as them not being supportive of her joining the church) and struggles with getting older, finding and job and who to marry. You and I know that these challenges can be over come through the gospel of Jesus Christ and the atonement, yet it is really hard to have that faith to just join some church. We had a great gospel discussion with her and helped answer a lot of her questions through the book of mormon.
Another lad we are teaching we found in our Area book! She is friends with the first lady i was telling you about. She is Chinese and as of recently has converted to Christianity. We taught her about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how we can find out for ourselves if it is true by reading and praying about the book of Mormon. She said that she would read and pray and when she knew it was true get baptized. We are going to set her with a baptismal date the next time we meet with her. Oh..and did I mention..SHE CAME TO CHURCH! Actually.. we had FOUR investigators in church. It was a great day. I have to confess something though.. One of the investigators was the lady I told you about a few emails ago who wouldn't really let us leave her house because she thought we wouldn't be safe and the hurricane was coming. She came to church. I was shocked! I believe she was only there for the last hour of relief society..but she came! We are going to go see her sometime in the coming week.
We found this really awesome lady when we were tracting. She was worried because she was not going to be able to make it to church this week and asked if it was OK that she came next week? we said.. of course it is! We are going to have a family night soon with her and her family. When we talked to her on the door step the spirit was so strong as we talked with her. IT was great..and what was even better is she recognized it and told us she felt it! I love being a missionary!
We decided that we want to teach the cupcake man and his family.. so naturally we had to go get more cupcakes. I have included a picture of the beautiful cupcake I got this time. Strawberry Cheesecake. So good. Yes missionary work can be fun too.
We had Ward conference on Sunday. Both the bishop and the stake president spoke. It was perfect for the investigators we had in church. I feel really blessed as of late because I have been given a lot of opportunities to play the violin. We played two weeks ago in church, Wednesday sister LeBaron and i are playing in the ward talent show a musical number..and were doing the same musical number at zone conference.
So there is a picture I am sending you that is the " light of the world church" We drive past it quite a bit and thought it was cool..so here is a picture!
Not to many stories to report this week.. but here is something cool. I have never really seen love bugs before and they are all over the place down here. kind of annoying, but cool. Also! There was this crazy huge flying cockroach at the home of one of the people we were visiting. it was huge..and after several attempts to kill it.. it died. I sent a picture. it is kind from far away because i was scared it would come back to life again..and it did. ha
Well I hope you have a wonderful week!
Love, Sister Urie
Southernism:
The Ten Commandments in Cajen..
1. God is da number one... and das' All.
( I will put one each week!)
Tracting Tips: we mad 18 cents this week! crazy! We walked by this one house after we found this awesome lady and there were a million penny's on the ground.. i was worried for a moment that it might be stealing.. but.. I do not think so. please do not judge.
Scripture: How can a belief in Jesus Christ help me? read Alma 36 in The Book of Mormon!
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Week 16: New Companion and The Vision of Slidell!
Dear Family!
Hello! I love and Miss you so much! From the weekly email it sounds like ya'll are doing well and happy.
This week..well from Thursday-today..has been great..AMAZING! Now that training is over I am no longer "green" and am a "normal" missionary. I have learned so many things this week. I will start by telling you about my new companion.
My companions name is Sister LeBaron. She is 22yrs old and has been out on her mission "for over a year". ( This is what she tells people so they don't ask her about home because she goes home this next transfer.) She is great though! Sister Lebaron has the most beautiful singing voice. Yes I was very excited for this because this means that we can do a musical number together. which we did! She is my friend and we are having a great time serving together in Slidell.
So here's the story. There is so much potential in Slidell and so much to be done. ( as there is in any area a missionary serves in) You know what they say about potential..Potential has the word po in it..if you don't do something about it it is going to start to stink..So we have decided to "revamp" Slidell. Our vision for Slidell is " To build a re pore with Members, Less active members and part member families. Also to baptize (at least) one family!" We are going to have a CTJ ( come to Jesus) with the ward list tomorrow and see how best we can accomplish this goal. Sounds crazy? well it probably is..but we're going to do it! ( with the help of the Lord of course)
On that note..Last week went great. I am really learning what it means to teach when you find and find when you teach. You do not have to sit down and have a lesson with someone for you to teach them. You listen to their concerns and we are promised that everything they say will highlight some truth of the gospel to the which we can testify and teach about. I feel like I am learning how to be a more effective teach and am really becoming a friend to the people in this area and learning to truly love the people here. ( I hope it doesn't sound like i know it all..because i do not! I am learning a lot and am just so excited to share this with you.) I am learning what it really means to be bold. to me it is coming to mean that being bold is not just being confident in talking with people..It means being bold/confident It talking with people about gospel topics.
This week we had a couple of great teaching experiences that I want to share with you.
So we were knocking some doors on this one street after trying a couple potentials and we walked up to this lady's door. In her front yard she had a cactus plant in this bath tup. It was crazy! So after we introduced ourselves we asked the woman about her plant. she told us about how the tub came to be sitting on her front walk way and how her daughter put a prickly pear cactus plant in it. We asked Fabian, the woman, if she had ever tried to eat the prickly pear and she said she had not and asked us if we wanted to try it. we said sure! So she gave us some we took it home and ate it. Lets just say..it's not very good. We tried it and it tastes like cucumber/green pepper/leafy and has a pumpkiny/ slimmy/ sticky texture. we ate it raw which is probably why it didn't taste very good but oh well! So there is a point to this story.. People are being prepared to receive the gospel! We had a great gospel conversation with Fabian..she told us how she had read the book of Mormon before and how she used to have members of our church living across the street from her. She said she liked to question this and know things for herself. So we asked her to question the book of Mormon and put it to the test. We have a return appointment for next week to share more about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with her.
Sunday we performed a musical number in church. 'I need thee every hour' Sister LeBaron sang and I played my violin. It was a success we brought tears to the bishops eyes, who was conducting the meeting. After sacrament meeting we had a member come up to us and say " okay..I am going to be your manager.when you're both off your missions we're going on tour and we are going to have Celtic women open for us." It was pretty funny.
That evening after Church we had a lesson with a little boy who wants to get baptized soon. His family are all active members of the church, but they want him to take the missionary lessons so he can decide, for himself, if he wants to get baptized. This time one of his friends was over, Keyondray. Keyondray was very excited about the lesson. We talked about the Holy Ghost and how it tells us when things are good and right and the devil tells us the opposite. We asked the boys how they felt when they went to church. Keyandray talked about how he had fun and felt good..Then we asked Emanuel to tell us how he felt at church. Normally Emanuel is pretty shy and doesn't talk much, his friend is quite the opposite. He looked at Emanuel and said "Come on man! You should know this. I've only been to church once!" It was pretty funny. Afterward we played a game about the Holy Ghost ( where you hide something in the room, one person goes out of the room and closes there eyes..when they come back they keep their eyes closed and there is a person that is the Holy Ghost, who is leading them toward the hidden object and a person that is the devil, who is leading them away from it. Very fun.
Well that is pretty much it for me on the week. Things are going great and I cannot wait to tell you about the family that we are going to find and everything that we will have planned for the vision of Slidell!
Love, Sister Urie
Tracting Tips: We have 1 penny.. whoop!
Scripture: Alma 2:30.. This is when Alma, chief judge of the Nephites, is fighting against Amlici, who is the king of the Amlicites. During this fight Alma and Amlici have it says that Alma "being exercised with much faith" called upon the Lord. Through this story we learn that we cannot just call upon the Lord when we are in the moment that we need the most help. We must be constantly exercising faith..faith is a muscle that must be exercised just like a muscle in our arm is important to exercised so we can be strong enough to lift things. So must we exercise or "faith muscle" so we are strong enough to know the Lord will be there when we need him most.
Southernism: "Bow-Bow".. they say this instead of "owie" or Boo-Boo..Like A hurt.
For pictures from week 16 go to www.sisterurie.blogspot.com
Hello! I love and Miss you so much! From the weekly email it sounds like ya'll are doing well and happy.
This week..well from Thursday-today..has been great..AMAZING! Now that training is over I am no longer "green" and am a "normal" missionary. I have learned so many things this week. I will start by telling you about my new companion.
My companions name is Sister LeBaron. She is 22yrs old and has been out on her mission "for over a year". ( This is what she tells people so they don't ask her about home because she goes home this next transfer.) She is great though! Sister Lebaron has the most beautiful singing voice. Yes I was very excited for this because this means that we can do a musical number together. which we did! She is my friend and we are having a great time serving together in Slidell.
So here's the story. There is so much potential in Slidell and so much to be done. ( as there is in any area a missionary serves in) You know what they say about potential..Potential has the word po in it..if you don't do something about it it is going to start to stink..So we have decided to "revamp" Slidell. Our vision for Slidell is " To build a re pore with Members, Less active members and part member families. Also to baptize (at least) one family!" We are going to have a CTJ ( come to Jesus) with the ward list tomorrow and see how best we can accomplish this goal. Sounds crazy? well it probably is..but we're going to do it! ( with the help of the Lord of course)
On that note..Last week went great. I am really learning what it means to teach when you find and find when you teach. You do not have to sit down and have a lesson with someone for you to teach them. You listen to their concerns and we are promised that everything they say will highlight some truth of the gospel to the which we can testify and teach about. I feel like I am learning how to be a more effective teach and am really becoming a friend to the people in this area and learning to truly love the people here. ( I hope it doesn't sound like i know it all..because i do not! I am learning a lot and am just so excited to share this with you.) I am learning what it really means to be bold. to me it is coming to mean that being bold is not just being confident in talking with people..It means being bold/confident It talking with people about gospel topics.
This week we had a couple of great teaching experiences that I want to share with you.
So we were knocking some doors on this one street after trying a couple potentials and we walked up to this lady's door. In her front yard she had a cactus plant in this bath tup. It was crazy! So after we introduced ourselves we asked the woman about her plant. she told us about how the tub came to be sitting on her front walk way and how her daughter put a prickly pear cactus plant in it. We asked Fabian, the woman, if she had ever tried to eat the prickly pear and she said she had not and asked us if we wanted to try it. we said sure! So she gave us some we took it home and ate it. Lets just say..it's not very good. We tried it and it tastes like cucumber/green pepper/leafy and has a pumpkiny/ slimmy/ sticky texture. we ate it raw which is probably why it didn't taste very good but oh well! So there is a point to this story.. People are being prepared to receive the gospel! We had a great gospel conversation with Fabian..she told us how she had read the book of Mormon before and how she used to have members of our church living across the street from her. She said she liked to question this and know things for herself. So we asked her to question the book of Mormon and put it to the test. We have a return appointment for next week to share more about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with her.
Sunday we performed a musical number in church. 'I need thee every hour' Sister LeBaron sang and I played my violin. It was a success we brought tears to the bishops eyes, who was conducting the meeting. After sacrament meeting we had a member come up to us and say " okay..I am going to be your manager.when you're both off your missions we're going on tour and we are going to have Celtic women open for us." It was pretty funny.
That evening after Church we had a lesson with a little boy who wants to get baptized soon. His family are all active members of the church, but they want him to take the missionary lessons so he can decide, for himself, if he wants to get baptized. This time one of his friends was over, Keyondray. Keyondray was very excited about the lesson. We talked about the Holy Ghost and how it tells us when things are good and right and the devil tells us the opposite. We asked the boys how they felt when they went to church. Keyandray talked about how he had fun and felt good..Then we asked Emanuel to tell us how he felt at church. Normally Emanuel is pretty shy and doesn't talk much, his friend is quite the opposite. He looked at Emanuel and said "Come on man! You should know this. I've only been to church once!" It was pretty funny. Afterward we played a game about the Holy Ghost ( where you hide something in the room, one person goes out of the room and closes there eyes..when they come back they keep their eyes closed and there is a person that is the Holy Ghost, who is leading them toward the hidden object and a person that is the devil, who is leading them away from it. Very fun.
Well that is pretty much it for me on the week. Things are going great and I cannot wait to tell you about the family that we are going to find and everything that we will have planned for the vision of Slidell!
Love, Sister Urie
Tracting Tips: We have 1 penny.. whoop!
Scripture: Alma 2:30.. This is when Alma, chief judge of the Nephites, is fighting against Amlici, who is the king of the Amlicites. During this fight Alma and Amlici have it says that Alma "being exercised with much faith" called upon the Lord. Through this story we learn that we cannot just call upon the Lord when we are in the moment that we need the most help. We must be constantly exercising faith..faith is a muscle that must be exercised just like a muscle in our arm is important to exercised so we can be strong enough to lift things. So must we exercise or "faith muscle" so we are strong enough to know the Lord will be there when we need him most.
Southernism: "Bow-Bow".. they say this instead of "owie" or Boo-Boo..Like A hurt.
For pictures from week 16 go to www.sisterurie.blogspot.com
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Transfers
Hi,
Just sending you a little up date..
Transfers just happened..I am staying in Slidell and I will be serving with Sister Labaron. She only has one transfer (6weeks) left on her mission. This will be very fun!
Here is a story I forgot yesterday..
Anyways.. Yes we are now soon finally off to Slidell, LA the land of flor de leis and red beans and rice. ( wow..I've been in the south TOO LONG! how was that grammar? haha) Hope you have a wonderful week.
Love,
Sister Urie.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Week 15 Pictures
Pecan Crusted Catfish
Deep Fried Bow Tie Pasta with
spinach and artichoke dip
One of the Bow Tie Pasta, Yum
Sister Hills and I at Copeland's
Chocolate Cheese Cake
Bananas foster cheesecake
Sister Hills and Sister Urie
We made confetti Pancakes on Monday
Happy Sister Urie, Playing the Violin again
Happier Sister Urie with her GPS
Week 15: Tropical storm "LEE" and "J'aime beaucoup les bon-bon!"
Hello Family and Friends!!
Yes, we are still alive! Tropical storm "LEE" hit us this weekend. It really is weird being a missionary because you do not watch the news, listen to the radio or read the news paper. So any information we get about weather or news comes from people,so we hear a lot of different things. We had a lot of rain..correct me if I'm wrong but I am pretty sure it was 20 inches? Driving to church on Sunday was a real adventure. The rain was coming down in buckets, windshield wipers at full blast! We made it though! Despite the rain we had a pretty good turn out at church. 80-100 people. We were very surprised. One of the counselors in the bishopric came up to us, we sit on the first row of seats in the over flow, and said " We might need you to move up today, doesn't look like too many people are going to come." we did not have to move :)
We stayed inside all day Saturday. I learned how to say "J'aime beaucop les bon-bon!" in french ( Sister Hills got her degree in french studies) It means.. " I like candy a lot! " In return for the french lesson I taught Sister Hills how to play the violin. She can now play 'twinkle twinkle little star' and 'amazing grace'. ( she really wanted to learn these two songs) Sounds like an eventful day huh? All the missionaries had cabin fever and just wanted to get out and work. We were talking to someone on Friday , who was not a member of the church, who said "Oh you'll find something to do during the storm.' to that we wanted to say.." You don't understand! This is all we do!!" I always thought missionary work would be teaching lessons every second of everyday!..well it's not! sometimes we have to stay inside. We were under orders the next couple of days not to tract or to avoid tracting because they didn't want people to think we were crazy!
Today when we went outside it was 73 degrees! it is beautiful..like a nice winter day in Arizona or..a spring day in Idaho. No humidity! Perfect cardigan weather. It is crazy!
A couple of stories...
We taught went and visited with our less active family. He said that he has been really thinking a lot about the things we have been talking with him about. we always challenge him to come to church. Right now we have asked him to pray about the book of mormon to know if it is true. When we went back he had not. When we asked him what would be holding it back he said.. " If I get an answer I'd have to convert these crazies!" ( meaning his family) Too funny. He is great he just has some concerns. I pray he will be able to be with his family forever because that is the only way he can be truly happy.
On Wednesday, before book of Mormon class we taught Jess! ( well her name is not Jess..but i think that is what i called her last week) She is great. We got there and you could tell her countenance has already changed. She said she has read a little and has been praying on her own. We had a great lesson with her. the spirit was so strong and she is really excited to read from the book of mormon with her kids. She hasn't really been having prayer with them like she would like to, but she is going to try.. We called her to set up another appointment with her and she said "The Prayer has been going great and We might start praying in the morning too!" It really is the little things that make all the difference. So simple..just Prayer and Scripture reading.
So Friday we went to visit a family in the ward. After the visit we were coming back out to our car and the rain was coming down in buckets! It was crazy. To top it off there was a RIVER OF WATER coming down the street. to get into the car we had to run through these puddles that were up to our ankles. There was pretty much no point in using my poor broken umbrella because the rain was coming down from every which direction. We decided it would be a good idea to go home. As we were driving home we say a truck on its side in a ditch with the back wheel spinning. This confirmed our decision to be a good one. I really don't think I have seen rain this crazy since living in Florida..and even there wasn't nearly as much flooding. There really isn't anywhere for the water to go... oh this was the same day we were supposed to see Elaine..the one i met at the oil change/ care dealership.. We got a call from her in the morning. She left us a message saying that the entrance to her street floods and she wanted to warn us before we came over. I was scared she would be insist that we wait the storm out in her house..so we called and canceled and will go visit her when it is sunny again..namely sometime later this week. ( please don't judge me.. lol)
I had my very First real 'Cottage meeting'. We went to have a lesson with Billy ( on of our Recent converts) and there wasn't a woman home..So we ended up bring chairs outside and having a lesson on the front porch with Billy and then Elders..and you know what? The weather was beautiful! I was almost a little chilly. ( Yes I was wearing a cardigan) It was nice sitting on the front porch talking about the gospel! Oh I love this work that we get to take part in.
So here is a food related story.. We went to this restaurant called 'Copelands' that is here in Slidell. (actually we went there twice this week! once because Sister Hills wanted to go before she left..and some members took us there) Very good food. Now the reason this is so significant is because I had Catfish! Yes..my very first time eating catfish. We ordered the pecan crusted catfish and the little bow tie things are deep fried bow tie pastas that you use for chips in the spinach and artichoke dip. ( Sorry the pictures are not the greatest. I remembered i had not taken pictures of my food until after i had started eating..so I hope you can still see how amazing it is from the half eaten picture of it. haha) It was amazing. 'Copelands' comparable to the cheesecake factory..and they have very good cheesecake. My new favorite is bananas foster cheesecake! (it tastes like a glorified cinnamon roll with cream cheese frosting and bananas!) anyways..back to missionary work...
That is is on stories for me.
Sister hills is getting transferred and they will be "taking the training wheels off", as president put it. I am excited and a little nervous, but I know as I put my trust in the lord ( and use my GPS) everything will work out according to the Lords will. (aka. pray i don't get lost. They only give us so many miles. lol )
We will be driving to Clinton tomorrow to pick up the sister I will be serving with. I am excited to see who I am serving with and will 'return and report' next week!
Southernism: " You scared the mess out of me!"
Tracting tips: NONE! Tropical storm 'LEE' washed away all of our coins..plus we were under 'no tracting' orders.
Scripture: Mosiah 29:10 I loved this scripture! This is when Mosiah is explaining to the people why they do not want to have a king but should have judges to judge them. This scripture reminds me that we need to weigh out all the options before we make a decision and then pick the option that will bring the most peace in our lives. There is nothing wrong with weighing all your options.
oh.. i was wondering if ya'll had heard of this restaurant that is in mesa called 'midwestern eats' ? There is this family here that just got sealed in the mesa temple! it was wonderful to hear. ( they said they ate there after the went to the temple. You should check it out and let me know if it is any good and we'll go when i get home. lol)
Well thank you once again for everything! ( The box was perfect and i appreciate everything you do more then you know.) Also I thank you for your support and prayers.
As they say in France..Adios! ( This is what Billy says all the time.)
love, Sister Urie :)
Yes, we are still alive! Tropical storm "LEE" hit us this weekend. It really is weird being a missionary because you do not watch the news, listen to the radio or read the news paper. So any information we get about weather or news comes from people,so we hear a lot of different things. We had a lot of rain..correct me if I'm wrong but I am pretty sure it was 20 inches? Driving to church on Sunday was a real adventure. The rain was coming down in buckets, windshield wipers at full blast! We made it though! Despite the rain we had a pretty good turn out at church. 80-100 people. We were very surprised. One of the counselors in the bishopric came up to us, we sit on the first row of seats in the over flow, and said " We might need you to move up today, doesn't look like too many people are going to come." we did not have to move :)
We stayed inside all day Saturday. I learned how to say "J'aime beaucop les bon-bon!" in french ( Sister Hills got her degree in french studies) It means.. " I like candy a lot! " In return for the french lesson I taught Sister Hills how to play the violin. She can now play 'twinkle twinkle little star' and 'amazing grace'. ( she really wanted to learn these two songs) Sounds like an eventful day huh? All the missionaries had cabin fever and just wanted to get out and work. We were talking to someone on Friday , who was not a member of the church, who said "Oh you'll find something to do during the storm.' to that we wanted to say.." You don't understand! This is all we do!!" I always thought missionary work would be teaching lessons every second of everyday!..well it's not! sometimes we have to stay inside. We were under orders the next couple of days not to tract or to avoid tracting because they didn't want people to think we were crazy!
Today when we went outside it was 73 degrees! it is beautiful..like a nice winter day in Arizona or..a spring day in Idaho. No humidity! Perfect cardigan weather. It is crazy!
A couple of stories...
We taught went and visited with our less active family. He said that he has been really thinking a lot about the things we have been talking with him about. we always challenge him to come to church. Right now we have asked him to pray about the book of mormon to know if it is true. When we went back he had not. When we asked him what would be holding it back he said.. " If I get an answer I'd have to convert these crazies!" ( meaning his family) Too funny. He is great he just has some concerns. I pray he will be able to be with his family forever because that is the only way he can be truly happy.
On Wednesday, before book of Mormon class we taught Jess! ( well her name is not Jess..but i think that is what i called her last week) She is great. We got there and you could tell her countenance has already changed. She said she has read a little and has been praying on her own. We had a great lesson with her. the spirit was so strong and she is really excited to read from the book of mormon with her kids. She hasn't really been having prayer with them like she would like to, but she is going to try.. We called her to set up another appointment with her and she said "The Prayer has been going great and We might start praying in the morning too!" It really is the little things that make all the difference. So simple..just Prayer and Scripture reading.
So Friday we went to visit a family in the ward. After the visit we were coming back out to our car and the rain was coming down in buckets! It was crazy. To top it off there was a RIVER OF WATER coming down the street. to get into the car we had to run through these puddles that were up to our ankles. There was pretty much no point in using my poor broken umbrella because the rain was coming down from every which direction. We decided it would be a good idea to go home. As we were driving home we say a truck on its side in a ditch with the back wheel spinning. This confirmed our decision to be a good one. I really don't think I have seen rain this crazy since living in Florida..and even there wasn't nearly as much flooding. There really isn't anywhere for the water to go... oh this was the same day we were supposed to see Elaine..the one i met at the oil change/ care dealership.. We got a call from her in the morning. She left us a message saying that the entrance to her street floods and she wanted to warn us before we came over. I was scared she would be insist that we wait the storm out in her house..so we called and canceled and will go visit her when it is sunny again..namely sometime later this week. ( please don't judge me.. lol)
I had my very First real 'Cottage meeting'. We went to have a lesson with Billy ( on of our Recent converts) and there wasn't a woman home..So we ended up bring chairs outside and having a lesson on the front porch with Billy and then Elders..and you know what? The weather was beautiful! I was almost a little chilly. ( Yes I was wearing a cardigan) It was nice sitting on the front porch talking about the gospel! Oh I love this work that we get to take part in.
So here is a food related story.. We went to this restaurant called 'Copelands' that is here in Slidell. (actually we went there twice this week! once because Sister Hills wanted to go before she left..and some members took us there) Very good food. Now the reason this is so significant is because I had Catfish! Yes..my very first time eating catfish. We ordered the pecan crusted catfish and the little bow tie things are deep fried bow tie pastas that you use for chips in the spinach and artichoke dip. ( Sorry the pictures are not the greatest. I remembered i had not taken pictures of my food until after i had started eating..so I hope you can still see how amazing it is from the half eaten picture of it. haha) It was amazing. 'Copelands' comparable to the cheesecake factory..and they have very good cheesecake. My new favorite is bananas foster cheesecake! (it tastes like a glorified cinnamon roll with cream cheese frosting and bananas!) anyways..back to missionary work...
That is is on stories for me.
Sister hills is getting transferred and they will be "taking the training wheels off", as president put it. I am excited and a little nervous, but I know as I put my trust in the lord ( and use my GPS) everything will work out according to the Lords will. (aka. pray i don't get lost. They only give us so many miles. lol )
We will be driving to Clinton tomorrow to pick up the sister I will be serving with. I am excited to see who I am serving with and will 'return and report' next week!
Southernism: " You scared the mess out of me!"
Tracting tips: NONE! Tropical storm 'LEE' washed away all of our coins..plus we were under 'no tracting' orders.
Scripture: Mosiah 29:10 I loved this scripture! This is when Mosiah is explaining to the people why they do not want to have a king but should have judges to judge them. This scripture reminds me that we need to weigh out all the options before we make a decision and then pick the option that will bring the most peace in our lives. There is nothing wrong with weighing all your options.
oh.. i was wondering if ya'll had heard of this restaurant that is in mesa called 'midwestern eats' ? There is this family here that just got sealed in the mesa temple! it was wonderful to hear. ( they said they ate there after the went to the temple. You should check it out and let me know if it is any good and we'll go when i get home. lol)
Well thank you once again for everything! ( The box was perfect and i appreciate everything you do more then you know.) Also I thank you for your support and prayers.
As they say in France..Adios! ( This is what Billy says all the time.)
love, Sister Urie :)
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Email from the Mission President
Brother and Sister Urie, We know that you may be concerned aboutyour missionary here in the Mississippi jackson Mission. Due to the recent rain andwind storms we have been experiencingfrom the tropical storm lee. We encouraged our Missionaries to remain in their apartments today to avoid the inclement weather.
I am happy to report that all missionaries in this mission are just fine and we have once again been protected by the lord.
This is a really slow moving storm, and is really bringing down the rain, the wind gusts are 25 - 35 mph. It should remain in our mission moving north east through the weekend. All of our churches are planning on conduction meetings tomorrow. we appreciate serving with your missionary and appreciate you sharing her with us. We are trulyblessed to serve together in this important work.
Please do not hesitate to contact us here at the mission office if you have any questions or concerns. With Warmest Regards,President Tom R. Tucker
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