Week 79: Happy Thanks giving, Jackson branch and the suit coat.‏

Dear Family!

 

Wow oh wow what a week! Can you even believe how fast time is flying? ... I sure cannot. I am officially 18 months old ( in missionary "years") ..can I tell you I feel old too! ha Things are going great in our area. The work is going very well and yes..it was another great week in Flowood, MS.
Honestly I do not know what day it is or what even happened last week.. ( time..what a funny thing it is) So bear with me as I try to recall all the awesome happenings of our last week!...

 

First Monday we had a great lesson with Noah and his dad at the Presidents House. We made them dinner ( enchiladas..only thing that would've made it better would've been some salsa..ha..*cough*dad*cough*) and then had a little Family home evening. Our focus on the lesson was Joseph Smith and the sacrifices he made, relating it to the opposition we face as members of the church and  sacrifices we make to help others know about the Gospel. One thing I loved that Noah said was..he was telling us about what he had watched of the Joseph Smith : the prophet of the restoration movie and said about the end of the movie when the prophet is killed.. " that was just horrible that they shot him. He was just bring people closer to Christ. Just think of how many more temples could've been built if they hadn't shot him." To that we told him How sad we agreed it was. I love how Joseph in his history says " Why persecute me for telling the truth? I have actually seen a vision; and who am I that I can withstand God, or why does the world think to make me deny what I have actually seen? For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it..."(JSH 1:25) ..He did so much good and The work did not stop with him. It kept going and there will forever be more temples dotting the earth.

 

Speaking of Joseph Smith... we were 5-5-5ing some members and ran into the cutest older couple..She let us right in and invited us to sit and visit with them before offering the blessing ( which we never left..just a normal prayer for obvious reasons..) He is a..was a baptist preacher. It was so sad to me...He wouldn't let us even tell what we believed because he already knew what we believed ( which was a lie). The one topic he kept going off about was the "As Man is God once was and as God is man can become".. he told us that someone higher up then us told him..well why not! Why cant we become like them..well the first sin ( so he said was when Satan temped eve and told them they could become as gods knowing good from evil..) which is not true..the sin or transgression was when the actually partook of the fruit... yeah so as I am typing this it just hurts my heart all over again..spirit was gone..no room to teach. he didn't even think we believed in Jesus Christ and that our sins were cleansed through Joseph..blaspheme! ..also they had a problem with polygamy..anyways.. long story short..the spirit was so gone and we were just trying to get out of there. so we said a prayer and left. ...poor sweet man. If only people knew the truth about our church.

 

So thanksgiving was amazing! We had such a fun time..we ate with a wonderful family in the ward..Sister Johnson and I made some cute turkeys that I took a picture of . Also we got to go to another awesome members house who shared with us some real southern thanksgiving food. I took small portions but it was so good and a new favorite.pecan pie! mmmM M mm..

 

Oh! This was fun too.. We were invited to go to the Jackson Branch yesterday for sacrament meeting. I played the violin accompanied by sister Lefgren to "ill go where you want me to go". it was the best experience being able to be among those wonderful people. Of all the wards I have been able to be in on my mission..that is by far the least judgmental. I loved it! Just good people. If only all wards in the church were as humble and as sweet as this ward. It was just real and not so much of the mormon"culture" that we all tend to fall into out west. It was interesting..The Jackson Branch was so loving and excepting of who you are that it just made you want to be so much better and try to much harder to repent and come unto Christ. I'm not saying that we " do it wrong out west" or anything like that.. but it is amazing what happens when you take the culture aspect out of our church.. It is Christ church restored again to the earth!

 

Well... We have two people with a date for baptism, our awesome single older ladies.. Jane ( sweet Jane who is in her 70's) She loves the book of mormon and is so excited to come to church and be baptized. Her health is not the greatest and she is having trouble making it to church and keeping appointments. its really sad. I'm sure we'll have to push her baptism date back. I pray not though because it is set for before I leave.

The second one is Ruby ( another sweet lady in her 70's) She loves taking the lessons from us and visiting with us... She reads her pamphlets and stuff to prepare for the "quiz" we give her each time we come over to visit. This last week we "quizzed her" on the introduction of the book of mormon and she loved it and got 100% ha. next week its on the plan of salvation pamphlet. Her date for baptism is December 15th. I sure hope she makes it. She said it would be great if her whole family could get baptized on that date..one can only hope..and first it starts with coming to church! Just come to church and then you'll love it...

 

Did I mention it is getting really really cold here?... :( We had ice on the car Sunday morning.. crazy..

 

 

Well I think that is all for this week. just trying to visit the less active and bring them back still..same work..different week. I am excited to tell you all about the adventures we'll have next week.

I just love yall so much. I hope you know how much I love our Heavenly father. he lives! I know that His son, Jesus Christ, is our savior. it is through him and his atoning sacrifice that we are able to be clean from sin and return to live with our loving Heavenly father again. How Glorious and what a glad message this is! Salvation is possible to all who will keep his commandments and Follow Christ. I love him and know that he lives also. There is a way.

I hope that yall have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Urie

P.s: bah! time is getting so short

 

Tracting Tips: 2 cents

Southernism: Cute little girl when we were waiting for church to start leans over and says " I got some mart Lu king ( Luke but it sounded like Lu) pants and I like to dance!" She told me to look up the Fresh beat band- tap dance .. Also it was so cute..one lady got up to give a talk and said " they asked me to talk for 12-14 minutes..no American woman can stand and talk up here for just 12-14 minutes" haha it was awesome.

Scripture: Alma 37:37 and Alma 7:23

Tracting Tips:0