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
No comments:
Post a Comment