Week 12

Hello Friends and Family!

I love you and Hope you are having a wonderful week!

Things are going great here in Slidell, La. Last week felt really short though..and yet again not too much to report.

We had leadership Training in Hattiesburg, MS Wednesday-Friday of last week. It was great. We went over the 8 fundamental lessons that we learned in the MTC. ( for those who have not had it yet) and at night we stayed with members(In Petal) and got to go on exchanges with ward members. It was a lot of fun.(yes missionary work can be fun!) I got to visit this one less active family one of the nights. She was sick and had been offended, her reasoning's for not attending sacrament meeting. As missionaries, we get to focus on helping member's remember their testimony and why they became members of the church. I got to ask her if she remembered how she felt when she was at sacrament meeting and when the last time it was she had been to the temple..another neat thing was she took us on the "grand tour" tour of her house. She played many different instruments and I asked her if she had a violin. She did! A full size. She told me her husband had bought it for her because she wanted to learn and she had never learned and it had never been played before. I was able to tune it up and play a couple hymns for them. I hope that they were able to feel of my testimony of the gospel through word and music. I hope they remembered..

Another thing I learned from training, that touched my heart was that..we do not have a temple in our mission and this has been a little hard on me. I love love the temple. It is the house of the Lord. One thing that President Tucker said during training, pertaining to revelation through church attendance ( one of the 8 fundamentals) is that our Sacrament meetings should be a mini endowment session. It should mean that much to us and we should come that prepared. I had the opportunity to do that this week and I have never felt the spirit so much during the sacrament. He also said that the first thing most people do after the sacrament prayer is said is they pop their head up and look around. How much more would it benefit us to after the prayer is said to keep your head bowed and ponder, reflecting on the words of the sacrament prayer and what it really means. putting your name in the prayer. This has really helped me in not being able to go to the temple. At least I have church! :)

Oh! I have to tell you.. One of the largest Baptist churches in the mission is in Hattiesburg, MS it is called 'Temple' baptist church.. It is huge..this picture ( from the car window) does not do it justice. It is so big that the high school that is up on the hill behind it looks very wimpy.. I will try to send a better picture of it soon.

The picture of the swamp was from during exchanges in Petal. The sisters in the pictures are Sister Linton, (new sister, 2 1/2 weeks out) Sister Tieki (from the Pacific Islands) Sister Harding ( my MTC companion) and ME! It was so great to see my district from the MTC again and sister Harding. Like a mini family reunion.

Stories from this week...

We have 2 new investigators!  A mother and daughter..when i was away at training the elders found them and gave them to us. The mom is great. Sister hills and the other sisters that came to slidell went to visit her Thursday and taught her the restoration..we went back Friday night and between that time she had already read to ch12 in the book of Nephi! She really wants to learn more. And shes already invited us over for her daughters birthday party. we set up an appointment and went to visit her Saturday and she was not home..hopefully she was just not home. We like to hope for the best. Hopefully we will be able to work really hard in helping them progress. Sister Hills and I were worried that we got over excited about finally having a new investigator and scared her away by giving her too many commitments at once...We'll see what happens..

On Tuesday we went over to a part member families house for dinner. The elders are working with the husband who is not a member. They taught about faith and gave him a challenge to do for one month. They had plant starters dirt things and seeds and had everyone take there own and plant it..and this was to remind the family about the challenge they left them to do for one month..to read the book of Mormon, pray..and come to church every week. It was a nice lesson. It was not received well though. Until We know who God is and our relationship with him, prayer is almost meaningless and pointless. we need to know who we are praying too..when we know who God is  we will want to pray and we will know why it is important. ( I hope this makes sense) The husband had a lot of concerns about if God is even really there..

last story, Sunday was a nice sunny day and then come mid afternoon during lunch rain came pouring down! It was crazy. It rained so hard that it felt like we were going through a car wash on the power and it was pretty hazy. We had Dinner at the senior missionaries house..we made it no problems..but going inside was the crazy part. the rain was coming down so hard and the wind was going crazy. my poor umbrella broke. flipped inside out and we were all soaking wet. It was soo funny I couldn't stop from laughing. It reminded me of the crazy rain we would get in Florida..but even harder rain! Good ol' SLidell :)

That is pretty much it for this last week. This week we are focusing on working with the member's. I will let you know how it goes! :)

Thank you again for your support and letters. It means the world to me!

Hope y'all have a great week!

Love, Sister Urie

Southernism: Momo - means grandma. instead of saying grandma they say Momo.

Scripture: Mosiah 1Nephi 2:12. When we know our relationship with God and who he is..we wont mummer! :)

Tracting Tips: $1.41 ( I counted it finally! )Almost enough to get cupcakes!!