Week 31 Pictures

Only in the South!

Merry Krismoose!

Week 31 - Best Christmas Ever!

Dear Family!!

I would ask you how you are doing..but i know because I saw you yesterday! It was so great to talk with and see ya'll yesterday. It is was kind of weird..It is great to know you are all still alive. Thank you for the surprises..Congratulations Jessi! I am excited for you and hope that I will be home in time for the wedding..(Hint hint..wait till next winter!)

We had a great Christmas here. Whenever I would hear people say that Christmas on the mission is the best I would shrug it off and not really believe them..but they were all right! Christmas on the mission is wonderful. This really is a home away from home and It was so great to spend it with the people here. We were blessed to be able to eat dinner at a wonderful member's home and go around and visit so many wonderful families.

Well this email will be somewhat brief because this week was cut so short. We drove Sister VanRoosendaal to the doctors in Jackson on Tuesday. In case you were wondering..she is still not doing very well. Thank you for keeping her in your prayers. She did receive a beautiful blessing of healing on Wednesday and it gave her a lot of hope.

Do you remember me telling you about the woman that was the friend of a member who wanted to get baptized just so she could get food and have a church family to do stuff for her? Well..she's back! She came to church with her member friend Christmas Sunday and apparently she talked with the Relief Society President and asked if she could have "more seasoned missionaries" come and teach her. mmhhm.. oh no she didn't!! lol. Yes Jesus said love everyone.. But hey! No bueno friend! So we will just pray for her that she will have a change of heart and want to get baptized for the right reasons..

So i have included a picture of me pointing to this knife. We went to LaCombe to see a less active family we had a family night planned with ( Which they forgot about..) Anyways..so we get out there and go up to the door of this really nice house trailer thing and I put my hand on the railing of the porch and felt something. I take my hand away and look and there is this knife as if it had been thrown into the railing! Only in the south...So I had to take a picture with it.

We were able to go caroling twice this Christmas..which was so much fun! no..I did not take the violin with me too cold. Yet we had a lot of fun and gave out a couple of 'Joy to the world' DVDs. Have you ever seen it? It is so great. Loved the music that was in it. Also Sister VanRoosendaal and I watched Mr. Kruger s Christmas, Christmas eve before going to bed. It was so sweet it made me cry. (Have you ever seen that one?) I don't think I have ever seen that one either. In the movie he has these different day dreams while listening to Christmas songs and during this one song, What child is this, he day dreams that he is in the manger with all the shepherds, Mary Joseph and the baby Jesus. He pours his heart out in gratitude for the things that the baby Jesus will do for him. How He is is closest friend and savior and how Christ has stood by him in the hardest of times and through he lowest of lows. I feel this same way about my Savior. It was wonderful to be able to go to church yesterday and partake of the sacrament on Christmas. This was what I feel is the best way to spend Christmas, remembering what Christ our lord has done for us. He is the 'reason for the season' and it is his name that is the only name by which we can be saved.( 2 nephi 31:21) He was born to die for us and Now he lives. I glory in his life and I Marvel at his birth of such meek and humble circumstances. ( 2nephi 33:6)

What else has happened this week.. everything escapes my memory.. I do however want to tell you this! I love my Heavenly Father and Savior,Jesus Christ and I know that they live! I know that the only way to return to our Father in Heaven again is by following the example of Jesus Christ and keeping the commandments that he has given us. They are a safe guard and are put in place to keep us happy and safe. This Gospel really is good news ( Luke 2: 10-11) and will bring great joy to our lives as we follow its teachings.

I hope ya'll have a wonderful week! Please tell everyone thank you for the Christmas wishes. I felt so loved and I appreciate all those who pray for me and the work of the Lord here in the MJM. May God bless ya'll and have a very blessed week!

Love, Sister Urie

Tracting Tips: none...

Scripture: Since I gave you so many Scriptures in my letter..here is the challenge from our mission president for the new year adapted to you. President Tucker challenged us to reevaluate our missions, or re evaluate your life, and ask your self "What kind of a missionary am I going to be this year?" Then decide three things that you are going to do different this year to rededicate yourself. In other words, what 3 commitments to the lord do you want to make for this new year. I enjoyed this a lot better then a single new years resolution we make each year such as to loose weight or to eat less sweets..ect. the changing we make should always be directed towards how we can become more like our Savior. This is Repentance.

So I ask you as the year comes to a close, to ask yourself.."What kind of (a member, daughter of god, son of god, You fill in the blank) am I going to be this year?" You will see as you make this change miracles will take place in your life.

Southernism: "You need Jesus, I'm jus Sayin..." ( a sign we saw on the side of the free way nailed to a tree..while driving to Jackson,MS)

Week 30 - Pictures

Week 30 - We are shining stars

Dear Family!

Merry Christmas! I wanted to let you know that I love you all so much and I hope this season is finding you remembering the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ into this world. Christmas on the mission has been wonderful thus far. The one thing that makes it so great..any guesses?.. People aren't as annoyed to talk with us about Jesus Christ and his gospel. Everyone is just a little more friendly then normal ( which normally they are really friendly) and we have been passing out a lot of 'Joy to the world' pass-a-long cards and DVDs. It has been great fun.

This past Sunday we had our Christmas choir program in church because our pianist is going out of town this Sunday. I was able to play a duet for one of the pieces and will also be playing this coming Sunday The Greensleeves duet with one of the Elders here, Elder Davis.

So the last email I sent home I am pretty sure it went up until Tuesday of this week..So since I last wrote home so much has happened!

Wednesday we had specialized training in Hattiesburg and then our Christmas party. They did not feel good about having us drive to hattiesburg for a party so we had training also. The training was about Doctrine of Christ. I love this gospel! It is wonderful to see the gospel in action. When we teach families or investigators the Doctrines of the gospel ( The godhead, Plan of Salvation and Atonement) They come up with there own application. It is wonderful. There really are three people in our compaionship and the Third one is the Holy Spirit! During the training they also focused on inviting to be baptized on the first visit. We did this on Sunday when we found a new investigator and it worked great! ( Story coming soon!) After the training we had lunch and then we played the gift of the magi. The gift of the magi is a game where you have a pair of dice in a tin and pass it around in a circle. When one person rolls doubles they go into the center of the circle and get to open a gift, as many gifts as they can until the next person rolls a doubles and tags them out. Only one person in the center at a time, the catch is that you have to wear gloves while opening the presents. Very fun. :)

That evening after the training we had our ward Christmas party. The investigators we invited did not show up, which is alright! We were able to meet a lot of people that the are not members that members brought and contact a lot of less active members. Also Santa came!

This week for dinner one night we had Popeye's Chicken!! Yes, my very first time having Popeye's chicken. it was very yummy.

Here is a missionary experience or two... We were invited to a little boy in the wards birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. So we went on our lunch hour for a little bit. We thought it would be a great place to find families. You know what..? We did find someone! One of the worker people there we handed a Joy to the world pass along card so he could get a free DVD. He told us he was trying to get "into the ministry" and understood what we did. He said he was very interested and would be calling us soon. 

Another story...We were blessed with a new investigator yesterday at church. A member came up to us during gospel principles class and told us there were two ladies wandering in the foyer and looked lost. So we went out to see who was out there and we saw ( we will call her amy) who is a member and her non member friend sitting on the couch in the foyer ( both 15yrs old). They told us they were sitting out in the foyer because they were to "sick" to go to class. We asked them if they needed help finding there class. They said that they did not and were waiting for her dad to come. So we told them we could just teach them here and they said great! So we taught the first lesson to them and invited Amy's friend to be baptized! She said she would and she felt really good about everything. also when we were sharing the first vision that she felt chills and that she had felt it before. we testified that it was the holy spirit and that it was testifying of truth! Set a return appointment and bam! a new investigator. Heavenly Father really loves us and is blessing us everyday with people to teach, even when I am fighting being discouraged.

Also! We have a baptism coming up on December 31st. It is an 11yr old girl from a part member family. She is so great. she really loves the gospel, the church and Christ. We are really excited for her to take this step in her life. She is also excited to get the year off to a good start with a baptism. Alsoo this means that we will be having a white new years! woo hoo! :)

So long story short...This was a crazzyy week! Even though it was so crazy we somehow managed to have the best numbers in the whole district! Our district leader said we were his shinning stars. When we told him about our story of getting an investigator at church he said we were his rock stars! oohh yeahh!

I hope yall have a very blessed Christmas and I cannot wait to skype/ talk with you on Sunday!

Love,

Sister Urie

Southerims: ( a joke we heard) " What has the biggest ears?" ..what? "A mountain!"..huh? how..?.." ya ain't never heard of mountaineers before?"

hehe it was really funny.

Tracting tips: none!..so sad again..

Scripture: So. God is our Father in heaven and loves us so so much, he gave us the best Christmas present we could ever ask for. That present is Jesus Christ..(Alma 7:10) We celebrate The birth of our Savior Jesus Christ this season, which leads me to ponder the wonderful gift Christ gave to each of us because he lived, The Atonement. ( Alma 7:11-13) My question to you is this..what gift are you willing to give to the savior this Christmas? ( Alma 7:14-16). I know that as we focus on the atonement and try to use it everyday, not just at Christmas, our lives will be more enriched and blessed. We will find so much more peace and our Gods divine plan for us will make more sense. I love this Gospel and the Atonement! I know God our Heavenly father and Jesus Christ live and care for us so much!

( 3Nephi 13:7-11)

"Greensleves" Merry Christmas

Week 29 Pictures

 

 Christmas Decorations

 Yumm Creamed Possum

So Cute!
 

 Stuffed Mirliton (Chayote squash, known in the Deep South as mirliton or vegetable pears, are steamed and then filled)

 Christmas concert for the stake!

 I played green sleeves at the Christmas stake concert..the Mannheim steam roller version with piano accompaniment. Elder Davis one of the zone leaders here in slidell played for me.

Week 29 - "We had some good Groceries"

Dear Family!!


Greetings From Slidell, LA. and I hope your holiday Christmas season is going great.


I am sorry that we missed emailing you Monday and Tuesday..We had our Zone Conference on Monday and we were to apply what we learned Tuesday. Hence Preparation day on Wednesday!


Since last week so much has happened. One of the ladies in our ward that had MS died this last week. She was so strong until the end and has a great family. The Wake was on Friday and The funeral service was on Saturday. As sad as it is, it really is great to see plan of salvation in action. There were a lot of nonmembers there and people of different faiths. I loved that we were able to share Gods plan for us of what happens after we die and how there is more after this life. Also one day she will be reunited with her body, a perfect body never to have the illness that she has had in this life effect her. 


We are teaching this other family we found in the area book. Sister LeBaron and I found them two transfers ago and we finally had time to go back and see them. They are amazing! They want us to come and teach the grandma the stop smoking workshop, they are coming to the ward Christmas party and the best of all is they are looking for a church to go to. they have no problem with the book of Mormon and are so excited to have us come over. We have been so excited about them and hope and pray that we can help them progress towards baptism.


We had the great privilege of having a general authority at zone conference. Elder and Sister Cardon came to our conference. It was so great to have them and I learned so much. One thing I love that he shared with us that I wanted to share with you is directly related to Christmas. Any guesses?..No? Well I will tell you..The wise men! Where did they come from and how did they know to follow that star? We learn in the bible  Matthew 2:1-10 that the Wise men came from the east and had followed the star to Jerusalem. ( We say there are three because of the three gifts they brought to the young boy Christ. Really there were many) They from there inquired of King Herod where the child was to be born. The King then called together all of his chief priests and scribes to tell him where the Christ Child is to be born, in Bethlehem.Then he, the king, sent them to Bethlehem.  Thus poses the question..where did they come from? All we know is the East. Another question..How did they know about the star. No where in any of the records the chief priest and scribes have in Jerusalem does it talk about "a star". There is a record though it which it does talk about a star. We read in the book of Mormon in Heleman 14:5-6 when Samuel the Lamanite tells the Nephites of the signs of the saviors birth, that there will a new star appear. These wise men who came from the east only knew of this star and all those who were in Jerusalem were troubled because they did not know of this star yet the records they had told them where Christ was to be born. Long story short.. Those wise men in your nativity are (how ever many you have) 3 additional witnesses to the book of Mormon. And if you do not believe that those wise men are additional witnesses then you need to get them out of your nativity, and we all love those wise men. Just think about it... :) ( I hope this makes sense. I will try to type up a better version with more scriptural references)


Stuffed Mirliton (Chayote squash, known in the Deep South as mirliton or vegetable pears, are steamed and then filled) Is the picture of the food we had that I sent home.  Some people call it Coyote Squash. Beef, okra, and shrimp mixed with seasoning and the squash filling stuff. It was actually pretty good! Though I do not think it was Sister V's favorite. She is happy in the picture though! :)


Sorry there is not more this week. We have a very short p-day. So much to do so little time! I love ya'll so much and hope that you are having a great Christmas season. Remember the wise men!
Love, Sister Urie


Southernism: "We had some good Groceries that night!" means: There was really good food there
Tracting tips: sadly..only one! We pulled up to put air in our tires and there was a penny right next to the tire. Yes, God's hand is in the little things too.
Scripture: Heleman 14:5-6 and Matt. 2:1-10 The wise men.

Week 28 - Pictures