Tucson--#14

Hey Everyone!

This last week has been a little bit crazy! The last missionaries did not
leave us much to go by but that does not matter because the Lord knows what
is going on and He will guide us in the work. We traveled to the mission
office to make an area map. It took us over an hour of photocopying and
taping together but it is the "Mona Lisa" of area maps! The Picture Rocks
ward is pretty large and thank goodness that Elder Wynn has a GPS! The
weather has been pretty nice out here in Marana. It gets pretty cold at
night and during the summer it is the hottest part of the mission. We have
been cleaning up our trailer a lot this past week given two missionaries
died there. We took five trash bags of stuff to the church dumpster
yesterday and there is still more for us to clean! Every Wednesday we go
over to the ward mission leader, Bro. Hughes' house for dinner. Bro.
Hughes' sister I think is married to the youngest Owsley. Small world eh?
 There is a lot of potential in my area. There is a part-member family, the
Boughan's where the husband and four kids are not members! They have been
going to church consistently but have never been taught the lessons. We are
going to meet with them this week. According to a ward member who is good
friends with the Boughans, the children will get baptized IF asked, it is
the husband that we need to focus on. We will have a white Christmas! There
is a guy who runs a horse rescue farm that we help feed his 27 horses twice
a week. To be honest, I was not looking forward to doing this until I asked
if there were any race horses that he takes care of. He said, "well as a
matter of fact, over here are my only two thorough bred." And guess what
triple-crown winner is their grandpa? Yep! Secretariat. Elder Wynn is an
awesome missionary. We both have recognized that we need to gain back the
member's trust. We have been visiting a lot of the members this last week
and just getting to know them. We coincidentally happened to have dinner
with the Bishop on Friday. We told him that we are here to serve and ready
to put our shoulders to the wheel. We asked him what would be the best way
to serve the ward. He told us, "Just show them that you are willing to work
hard. They will notice and help you with missionary work." He conducted
Sacrament meeting and when he introduced us to the ward he told them that
we are here to work hard. Bro. Hughes tells everyone that he comes in
contact with the same thing, that we are here to work hard. That is an
answer to prayers because I have been praying to find the easiest way to
get all of the members' trust and Bishop and Bro Hughes are doing just
that! I had a mini fast yesterday that we would be able to have success in
this area. We were tried to contact a former investigator who happened to
not be home at the time. There was a young man, Clark, who happened to be
there though. We introduced ourselves and he invited us to come in.
Apparently we hesitated a little bit and he said, "Don't worry I am not
going to shoot you guys. I'm not THAT crazy." haha Clark is apathetic
towards religions but believes in God. We taught him the Restoration and he
seemed to like the idea of the Priesthood and the importance of having the
priesthood on the earth. He asked us, "How can you know if someone has that
Priesthood?" We explained how Joseph Smith received the priesthood and it
has been passed down ever since. He committed to read, ponder and pray
about the Book of Mormon so he can get an answer and also to get the extra
strength he needs to quit smoking. We have a return appointment with him
tomorrow. This Thursday is our temple trip! I am so stoked to go to the
Gila Valley Temple! One thing I have learned on my mission is: If you work
hard missionary work is easy and if you work easy missionary work is hard.
We are going to work hard and I know that the Lord will open doors for us
because He already has with Clark!
Love,
Elder Urry
Livestrong