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 :)