Tuscon-- #5

Hey Everyone!

TUCSON IS GETTING A TEMPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Funny story about that. My zone had interviews with President Killpack Thursday before Conference. While I was waiting Sister Killpack asked me if there was anything confusing about the letter she and President mailed after I got my call. I told her nothing that I recall. But I was confused that there were five stakes in Tucson but NO temple! She laughed and mentioned that the church had purchased some land a while ago in the Foothills (richer part of Tucson) and were thinking about building a temple there. And then two days later President Monson announces that Tucson is getting a temple! We cheered so loud that we did not even here the Peru temple announced haha. I doubt it will happen but it would be so cool if the temple was finished while I was still on the mission. If not, I am definitely going to travel to the dedication. Ahdryanna Samson was baptized on Saturday! A good amount of people showed up to support which was good. The only scare that we had was not finding a baptismal suit for her dad to fit in. The first one we gave him was too small and the only other one was just a little bit bigger. Needless to say, he was able to fit in the suit but it was skin tight haha I'm going to start calling him Elvis. Kapua is going to be baptized this Saturday at 9 AM which will be cool. A lot of people in the ward thought she was already a member because she has been going to church every week for the last year! She wanted to be baptized on her year mark of going to church. We were able to visit Dickiann but she ended up dropping us. That hurt more than other dropped investigators because she was the first person that I tracted into. Life goes on and I know that there are other people out there looking for the truth but do not know where to find it. Elder McKenna and I are going to focus on finding a good amount of new investigators that we can teach because our teaching pool has really evaporated. This last week we taught a lot of Less Active members and contacted some less-active referrals. There is a lady in my ward that has a salon at her house. We went there to get haircuts recently and it was nice. Not as good as mom's haircuts. I looked like a marine afterwards haha. Every P-day, the zone has some type of activity that we do. Last week it was bowling and this week it was sand (more like dg) volleyball. Every Wednesday is district meeting and afterwards the entire zone goes somewhere for lunch. Most of the time it is a place called Molcha's. They are a street hot dog vendor/mini restaurant. They make Sonoran hot dogs which are amazing! On wednesdays they are buy 1 get 1 free so as you would expect there are always a bunch of missionaries there. A sonoran dog is a hot dog wrapped in a juicy piece of bacon with beans, grilled onions, regular onions, tomatoes, mayo, mustard, bell pepper all packed into a sweet tasting bun. It is so delicious! The zone record is eight in one sitting. I will break that record...eventually. I loved General Conference! My favorite talk was Elder Scott's and then Elder Holland's. A quote that I loved from Elder Holland's talk was, “I need someone to feed my sheep and save my lambs. I need someone to preach my gospel and defend my faith. I need someone who loves me, truly, truly loves me, and loves what our Father in Heaven has commissioned me to do. ... It is the work of the Almighty and it is to change the world…So we have neighbors to bless, children to protect, the poor to lift up and the truth to defend. We have wrongs to make right, truths to share and good to do. In short, we have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love of the Lord. We can't quit and we can't go back.” That pretty much sums up my purpose of being a missionary. Is it just me or were the Apostles more bold than usual? I found it amazing that they shared the same story from the scriptures multiple times. Especially since the talks get looked over by the First Presidency. I was glad to see that Elder Hales looked 300% better than the last couple sessions of conference. It is an amazing thing to look into their eyes as they bear their testimonies.

 

Love,

Elder Urry