Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Tucson--#23


Hola a todos!
 
Oh do I have a surprise for you guys! I am staying in the Picture Rocks ward but I have also been asked to train a greenie and also to be the new district leader. You can start sending letters back to the Anthony address. Too much responsibility for such a small boy haha. My greenie is Elder Johnson and is from Oregon. 29 missionaries came in this transfer! Elder Wynn went to the Coronado Ward in the Tucson North Stake. Not much has happened this last week. A couple in the ward got married on Saturday so we are going to start teaching the wife and daughter.  They have been slated to be baptized twice already but the whole "marriage" thing put that on hold. The husband, Paul Olive, has been a member his whole life but has been inactive for a good amount of time. He is a HUGE Polynesian with long scruffy hair. I want to run away whenever I see him but he is a teddy bear when you get to know him. Brooklyn is still slated to be baptized on March 2nd. She has to attend church 1 more time though. President's main goal in getting us to teach 20 lessons/week is to get members more involved in missionary work. I feel like some member referrals are on the horizon and we already are seeing some members be outstanding missionaries. We should have at least three baptisms this transfer. Elay is still iffy and is giving me too many gray hairs. We are almost at the point where we will leave the ball in his court to make a decision. Looking forward to this week. Thanks for all of the prayers and support!
 
 
Love,
 
Elder Urry
LiveStrong
Alma 34:32-34

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Tucson--#22

Hey Everyone!

We had a phenomenal week! Niiki, Thomas, Jenica, and Serah got baptized!
Elay was able to attend which was great becuase I know that he felt the
Spirit. The spirit was so strong at the baptism. It has been the most
spiritual baptism that I have ever attended! President and Sister Killpack
even attended which was not good for my nerves haha. I was the last one in
the font so I had to drain the font. I couldnt twist the plug with my foot
so I had to "baptize" myself in order to pull the plug. Yep I was drenched
from head to toe. As a mission, we have been challenged to utilize the 5-10
minute intermission after the baptismal ordinance. We asked the Sister
missionaries give a 5 minute lesson on the Restoration and then we had a 13
year old recent convert bear her testimony. From what I heard it was very
very good. We found three new investigators this last week! We went over to
teach Brooklyn and the 14 year old daughter, Bella was there along with her
cousin. We were teaching the Restoration and invited them to join us for
the lesson. Their desire was very minimal at the beginning but we were able
to answer their questions and able to relate concepts with analogies to
help them understand and they accepted to read, ponder and pray about The
Book of Mormon. The third new investigator is actually a funny story haha.
Multiple times a week we go and share a lesson with the Tucker's who are
recent converts. The daughter invited over a non member friend who had been
present for previous lessons but never wanted us to start teaching her. The
friend said, "I will read out of your mormon book if you do the cinnamon
challenge..." Elder Wynn agreed but we added on to the conditions and
invited her to allow us to teach her one lesson. She agreed and the deed
was done. We should be meeting with her later this week. This Wednesday we
are going to mutual for a "missionary night" and teaching the youth how to
perform a street contact and sharing one of the missionary lessons. We are
completely looking forward to this opportunity! This is the last week of
transfers so I will find out next Sunday whether or not I am getting
transferred. Thanks for the support! All is well in Zion!

Love,

Elder Urry
LiveStrong
Hebrews 12:9

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Tucson--#21


Hey Everyone!!

For P-Day we hiked a local mountain that is called Sombrero Peak. Elder Wynn loaned me his Vibrams which are those little toe shoes that people have started wearing. They are not the best shoes to hike in....I will just say that the hike was rocky but I had a blast anyway! Because of Word of Wisdom issues (coffee) we had to change Elay's baptismal date to March 2nd. Niiki, Serrah, Jenica and Thomas are going to be baptized this Saturday!!!! They are the coolest family! We found out that Niiki and Thomas were actually born in Ethiopia. Last week was a little bit of a struggle to get them interviewed and confident about being baptized. In an appointment we asked them how they felt about being baptized on February 9th. They were very apprehensive, scared, did not want to do it, even questioned the need to be baptized by authority. Hmm...all thoughts and feelings that Satan uses to prevent God's divine children to come closer to Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. We felt that we should review the baptismal interview questions with them. After we did this they felt more comfortable but still a little apprehensive. Elder Wynn and I were concerned that they might not be baptized on Feb 9th. We were not going to force them to do anything. Sunday came and all four of them were interviewed before church. After their interviews they were all STOKED to be baptized! That was truly an answer to our prayers. Last night after creating the baptismal program, I celebrated with them by showing them some of my "dance" moves. That was for you Miles! We have been able to meet with Linda Larson's youngest daughter, Brooklyn, and set a baptismal date for March 2nd. Brooklyn is a smart 9 year old and learns really quick. We have an appointment with them tonight. Hopefully we can get the 14 year old daughter to be present for the lessons. We went over to see Debbie and pretty much have a dropped lesson. We went over and said that she would like us to "study" with her which unknown to her means teach her the Gospel and get her baptized. Debbie told us that she will come to church this Sunday! Transfers are the 19th so we are trying to get as much work as we possible can before then. Cool experience for ya'll. We went to visit a partly active/less-active family with some unbaptized children. They were not home. I had a prompting to go see the Elder's Quorum President. I thought why the EQP? We went and as we got to his house we saw his wife and daughter drive up to the house. We talked with the whole family and the daughter asked us a lot of questions about the mission and mission papers because she is currently working on her own papers. We then talked about The Book of Mormon and how it is the keystone of our religion. We challenged them to hand out a copy and then left. We thought nothing of the visit. It was just a normal visit to some active members. Yesterday, the daughter thanked us for coming over and answering her questions. She was doubting about going on a mission and pulled over in her car and asked God if she needed to serve a mission. And lo and behold, we showed up at her house later that day and alleviated those doubts that she had. I am grateful I acted on that prompting and did not just brush it off as I have probably done too many times in my life. Who knows, if we did not come over she might have decided to not serve a mission. The field is white and ready to harvest and you do not need to be a missionary in order to harvest. The church is true.

Love,

Elder Urry
LiveStrong
Acts 7:55-56