Buenas tardes!
This last week has been very good! We found a very good potential, Mark, while tracting our street. We will be stopping by later this week to see how he is doing. We left him with a Book of Mormon and challenged him to read it. It was very difficult to meet with Clark this week. Our schedules were just working out with each other. We were able to talk with him on Saturday. We invited him to a baptism Saturday night and join us for our Ward Christmas Party. He said that he would think about it. He decided to go with us to the baptism but unfortunately we were late and missed the baptismal ordinance. I was a little frustrated and then I thought to myself, "OK Elder Urry, why else would the Lord have wanted Clark to come to the baptism?" We gave him a church tour and clarified his concern about baptism. He said that he was told that the Bible does not talk about baptism being needed to get to "heaven". We addressed that concern with John 3:5-6 and reading parts of 2 Nephi 31. We ended up in the chapel and the spirit was so strong! We talked more about baptism and some of the plan of salvation. He opened up more to us and how he wants to change his life and start living a better life. We committed him to being baptized on 1/26/13 and he accepted! He did not think that he would be ready but we assured him that Heavenly Father would make sure that he would be ready by that date. That the Holy Ghost will testify to him about the truth of our message. One thing that he mentioned to us is that he believes that this is the way God wants him to go because we are persistent and are sincere about our message. That is so wonderful that he is able to recognize the need for the Gospel in his life! Elder Wynn and I are working hard trying to meet with members, visit people on the ward's 15 name list and finding people to teach. The temple trip was so amazing!!! The Gila (Heela) Valley Temple is such a beautiful temple! It is amazing the spirit that is felt when you are in the House of the Lord. I feel spiritually rejuvenated and ready to get back to work and bring souls closer to their Savior, Jesus Christ. Christmas Eve we are having a full mission conference. I am looking forward to seeing missionaries that I have not seen it a while I am going to have to cut this email short, we have lots to get done today. Thank you for all of your love and support! I truly feel it here in Tucson!
Love,
Elder Urry
LiveStrong
Moroni 10:32
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
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
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
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Tucson--#13
Hey Everyone!
I have been transferred! I am going to the Picture Rocks ward in the Tucson
West Stake which is actually in Marana, AZ. It is pretty much the farthest
west part of the entire mission. My companion is going to be Elder Wynn
whom I have not yet met because he is coming from Wilcox, AZ. So...yes we
will be "white-washing" the area! I am both excited and nervous. It is
weird leaving my first area even though I was only there for 3 months, I
met some amazing people and was blessed to have multiple baptisms. From
what I have heard, I am going to live in a trailor owned by a member.
Apparently there is a "zoo" in my front yard. There are some desert
tortoises, rattlesnakes, havelinas (wild pig like creatures). It will be
fun! And...we will have a truck! I always look forward to visiting the
Otero family because they are planning something new every single time.
Yvonne who has been a member for 12 years is preparing to go to the temple
in 3 months and Chris is preparing for a year from now. We were finally
able to get Patricia Vespoli to church! It was like pulling teeth but she
came. She mentioned that she was not getting an answer to her prayers. As
we talked we discovered that she was having trouble feeling the spirit.
Mary Bennett, the Relief Society President was at the appointment and
helped encourage her to come to church. We were a little nervous because
Sunday was fast and testimony meeting and those are always toss-ups and who
participates. We promised her that she would feel the Spirit if she came to
church. We prayed that she would be able to feel the spirits and listen to
the meaningful testimonies that would be given. My goodness were our
prayers answered! There were some amazing testimonies and each one I would
say to myself, "I hope Pat is listening because this is really good!" After
Sacrament meeting Sis Bennett told us that Pat enjoyed the meeting and was
crying during the testimonies and asked, "I do not even know why I am
crying" Sis Bennett explained to her that she was feeling the spirit just
like we had promised would happen not even 24 hours later. We met with the
YW president and one of her counselors and discussed how we could help the
youth get involved in missionary work. We decided on showing them the
Mormon Message "Invite All To Come Unto Christ" and just brainstorm ideas
on how to do missionary work. We have been meeting with lots of families in
the ward and explaining to them that missionary work does not start or end
with baptism. They do not need to shove the gospel down people's throats.
All they have to do is invite. We read part of Lehi's dream with them and
explain that Lehi's family did not come to the tree of life until AFTER
Lehi invited them to come. I am looking forward to what is in store for me
and Elder Wynn this next transfer! There will be a "white Christmas" in the
Picture Rocks ward.
Elder Urry
Livestrong
I have been transferred! I am going to the Picture Rocks ward in the Tucson
West Stake which is actually in Marana, AZ. It is pretty much the farthest
west part of the entire mission. My companion is going to be Elder Wynn
whom I have not yet met because he is coming from Wilcox, AZ. So...yes we
will be "white-washing" the area! I am both excited and nervous. It is
weird leaving my first area even though I was only there for 3 months, I
met some amazing people and was blessed to have multiple baptisms. From
what I have heard, I am going to live in a trailor owned by a member.
Apparently there is a "zoo" in my front yard. There are some desert
tortoises, rattlesnakes, havelinas (wild pig like creatures). It will be
fun! And...we will have a truck! I always look forward to visiting the
Otero family because they are planning something new every single time.
Yvonne who has been a member for 12 years is preparing to go to the temple
in 3 months and Chris is preparing for a year from now. We were finally
able to get Patricia Vespoli to church! It was like pulling teeth but she
came. She mentioned that she was not getting an answer to her prayers. As
we talked we discovered that she was having trouble feeling the spirit.
Mary Bennett, the Relief Society President was at the appointment and
helped encourage her to come to church. We were a little nervous because
Sunday was fast and testimony meeting and those are always toss-ups and who
participates. We promised her that she would feel the Spirit if she came to
church. We prayed that she would be able to feel the spirits and listen to
the meaningful testimonies that would be given. My goodness were our
prayers answered! There were some amazing testimonies and each one I would
say to myself, "I hope Pat is listening because this is really good!" After
Sacrament meeting Sis Bennett told us that Pat enjoyed the meeting and was
crying during the testimonies and asked, "I do not even know why I am
crying" Sis Bennett explained to her that she was feeling the spirit just
like we had promised would happen not even 24 hours later. We met with the
YW president and one of her counselors and discussed how we could help the
youth get involved in missionary work. We decided on showing them the
Mormon Message "Invite All To Come Unto Christ" and just brainstorm ideas
on how to do missionary work. We have been meeting with lots of families in
the ward and explaining to them that missionary work does not start or end
with baptism. They do not need to shove the gospel down people's throats.
All they have to do is invite. We read part of Lehi's dream with them and
explain that Lehi's family did not come to the tree of life until AFTER
Lehi invited them to come. I am looking forward to what is in store for me
and Elder Wynn this next transfer! There will be a "white Christmas" in the
Picture Rocks ward.
Elder Urry
Livestrong
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Tucson--#12
Hey Everyone!!
Chris and Alexia's baptism was awesome!!!!!!! Yvonne, who is the wife gave the talk on baptism and holy ghost. It was a great talk! You could tell that she was talking from the heart and not just reading some scriptures and explaining what they meant. She was grateful that Chris and Alexia were making this first step on their way to being sealed as a family in the temple! I ended up baptism Chris and Elder Woodland baptized Alexia. We were the second baptism of the morning so the font was rather cold. Alexia was shivering a little bit. I was nervous out of my mind to baptize Chris. I felt the spirit so strongly and I know that I was performing a saving ordinance of the Gospel. I am seeing D&C 18 start applying to my life. I have now experienced the joy of seeing not one but two people come unto Christ and now I want to get the entire city to come unto Christ. Maybe I should dust off my soap box and go to work! :) There was a pretty good turnout from the ward given that it was Thanksgiving weekend. The EQP and PP attended which was good for Chris and Alexia to get that support. After the baptism Chris asked if we could do the confirmation on Sunday. He asked me to confirm Alexia and Elder Woodland to confirm himself. Man, I thought the Spirit was strong at the baptism? Boy was I mistaken! After church we talked with the Otero's about the confirmation. They both noticed a change. Chris was more able to describe it. He said that he felt more at peace with his decision and knew that he was making the right decision. Hopefully, he gets the Aaronic priesthood next week or the week after so he can start administering the Sacrament. The ward is real supportive of us but we are still not getting any referrals from the ward. I hope that the ward notices that we are serious about missionary work, given that in the last 2 months we have had 4 baptisms. This Saturday we are meeting with the ward mission leader and are going to create a ward mission plan focused on member work. Member work is crucial to our success because tracting has gotten us no where with investigators. Elder Foster emphasized this when he visited that members are the ones who are supposed to find people so we can teach them. He told us that we need to make sure that the ward understands how easy missionary work can be, it all starts with a single invitation. Because we lost our two strongest investigators, we are going to focus strongly on finding new investigators. We are going to have multiple FHE's with ward members this week and hopefully get them pumped up for missionary work! One of our Thanksgiving dinners had to cancel so we ended up having dessert in the morning and two full meals in the afternoon. I was stuffed! (no pun intended) One of the families was the Samson's, who are less active and we baptized their 9 year old daughter, Ahdryanna last month. I feel like Christmas time is going to be the best time for missionary work. With the mormon.org/Christmas page and with the ward's help we should have enormous success in our area. That is so cool that Emma Hunt got her mission call! She is going to be a phenominal missionary! The field truly is white and is ready to harvest but the labourers are few and that needs to change and will change with the lower mission age. There should be an excess of labourers
Love,
Elder Urry
LiveStrong
D&C 76:22-24
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Tucson--#11
Hey Everyone!
This week has been awesome! Chris and Alexia Otero are getting baptized on Saturday!! They are completely solid investigators. Chris keeps bringing up getting sealed in the temple and also being sealed to immediate family. Chris asked me to baptize him. I am so nervous. This will be my first "real" baptism, one that I was there for their entire progression. Words cannot express my happiness! We have had trouble getting members to fellowship because of stake conference or they could only come to Sacrament meeting. We are planning on a big turnout for their baptism because we have really gotten the word out. Tonight we are having a family home evening activity with the Oteros and Neumillers (bishop's family) at the church. Alexia is the smartest 9 year old I have ever seen. She told us that she wants to serve a mission like us! We taught Ramon the Restoration and he came to church which is awesome! We extended a baptism invitation but he did not seem to like that. He has said that he knows that the church is true but if he gets baptized 'mormon' he is going to get baptized in every other church. We have a little obstacle that we need to overcome with Ramon but with the Lord's help I know that it will happen. We taught Patricia the Plan of Salvation and gave her the D&C video so she could watch Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration. She loves the story of Joseph Smith! We have not extended a baptismal invite to her but we are going to during our next lesson. She is hesitant about being baptized but we are going to relate setting a baptismal date to running a marathon. If you want to run a marathon but do not set a date, you are not going to prepare yourself that well. Whereas, if you signed up to run a marathon next month, by golly you are going to be running your heart out to prepare for the marathon next month. The half-mission conference with Elder Foster was really good! He expounded on Elder Holland's remarks during stake conference last week. Elder Holland in his usual self, called out all Arizona members about not being good missionaries. He said that tracting is a dated tactic and that member missionary work is going to lead to the most success from here on out. Elder Foster taught us how to better utilize the members and get them fired up for missionary work. The church is doing a website page all about Christmas. it is http://www.mormon.org/
Love you all!
Elder Urry
LiveStrong
Alma 26:22
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Tucson--#10
Hey Everyone!
First things first, they found Brother Wilkinson! Thank goodness! I
honestly thought that the next time that I would see him would be in a
coffin at a funeral. He was somewhere thirty minutes away and is now
getting necessary help for his health issues. We found three new
investigators this week: Chris (dad) and Alexia (8 year old) Otero and
Ramon Gonzales. Chris Otero is completely ready to be baptized! He is truly
one of the Lord's elect! The first time we met with the Otero's we did a
little "How to Begin Teaching" from PMG and then asked if he had any
questions. His first question was, "How do I go about being baptized?" That
took me by suprise! I actually chuckled a little bit (oops!) Elder Woodland
was a little bit more composed than I was and answered his question
perfectly. We watched The Restoration DVD and the Spirit was definitely
present! He committed to take Moroni's promise to read, ponder and pray. We
stopped by later on in the week and taught the Word of Wisdom (we saw he
was drinking tea the first lesson) and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After
talking about the W.O.W. he willingly accepted to live it. They have three
young girls, Alexia being the oldest. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ
with an object lesson. We talked about how baptism and the Holy Ghost helps
us get back to heaven. We used a tea-bag to demonstrate this. We opened up
the tea-bag and dumped out all the crushed up junk. We then took the bag
and shaped it into a cylinder. We took a lighter and lit the top of it on
fire. The fire moves down the bag and when it gets to the bottom the warm
air rises and takes the tea-bag with it. They...and I were fascinated with
the lesson :) We plan on meeting with them three times this week and their
baptismal interview will be on Saturday because they are going to get
baptized on Nov. 24th!! I am so stoked because this will be my first
baptism that I had a large part in the entire teaching process. Ramon is on
parole and is living in a half-way house. In prison he would go to meetings
where they would read the Book of Mormon together and discuss it. He seems
really solid and has the desire to come to church. Oh, great news in a
sense! Doug never went to Utah! He went into a drug rehab center here in
Tucson and called us still wanting to be baptized! Sunday was Stake
Conference and it was a broadcast from SLC. Elder Holland and Pres. Eyring
talked. Elder Holland mentioned that he cannot remember the last General
Conference that so much revelation was received and brought before the
entire body of the church. Wow! That was a pretty bold statement! He talked
a lot about the mission lowering age! The mission department called
President Killpack and told him that withing 3-4 months the number of
missionaries is going to go from ~180 all the way to 250! President Eyring
talked about the need to be optimistic through hard times because the
optimist is always better off then the pessimist. Thursday, Elder Bradley
D. Foster of the Seventy is coming to tour the mission and we are having a
half-mission conference. I don't know what that means yet but hey, it will
be good. Missionary work is fun! There is no better joy then seeing the
change that only the Holy Ghost can cause to happen. Thank you for your
love and support!
First things first, they found Brother Wilkinson! Thank goodness! I
honestly thought that the next time that I would see him would be in a
coffin at a funeral. He was somewhere thirty minutes away and is now
getting necessary help for his health issues. We found three new
investigators this week: Chris (dad) and Alexia (8 year old) Otero and
Ramon Gonzales. Chris Otero is completely ready to be baptized! He is truly
one of the Lord's elect! The first time we met with the Otero's we did a
little "How to Begin Teaching" from PMG and then asked if he had any
questions. His first question was, "How do I go about being baptized?" That
took me by suprise! I actually chuckled a little bit (oops!) Elder Woodland
was a little bit more composed than I was and answered his question
perfectly. We watched The Restoration DVD and the Spirit was definitely
present! He committed to take Moroni's promise to read, ponder and pray. We
stopped by later on in the week and taught the Word of Wisdom (we saw he
was drinking tea the first lesson) and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After
talking about the W.O.W. he willingly accepted to live it. They have three
young girls, Alexia being the oldest. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ
with an object lesson. We talked about how baptism and the Holy Ghost helps
us get back to heaven. We used a tea-bag to demonstrate this. We opened up
the tea-bag and dumped out all the crushed up junk. We then took the bag
and shaped it into a cylinder. We took a lighter and lit the top of it on
fire. The fire moves down the bag and when it gets to the bottom the warm
air rises and takes the tea-bag with it. They...and I were fascinated with
the lesson :) We plan on meeting with them three times this week and their
baptismal interview will be on Saturday because they are going to get
baptized on Nov. 24th!! I am so stoked because this will be my first
baptism that I had a large part in the entire teaching process. Ramon is on
parole and is living in a half-way house. In prison he would go to meetings
where they would read the Book of Mormon together and discuss it. He seems
really solid and has the desire to come to church. Oh, great news in a
sense! Doug never went to Utah! He went into a drug rehab center here in
Tucson and called us still wanting to be baptized! Sunday was Stake
Conference and it was a broadcast from SLC. Elder Holland and Pres. Eyring
talked. Elder Holland mentioned that he cannot remember the last General
Conference that so much revelation was received and brought before the
entire body of the church. Wow! That was a pretty bold statement! He talked
a lot about the mission lowering age! The mission department called
President Killpack and told him that withing 3-4 months the number of
missionaries is going to go from ~180 all the way to 250! President Eyring
talked about the need to be optimistic through hard times because the
optimist is always better off then the pessimist. Thursday, Elder Bradley
D. Foster of the Seventy is coming to tour the mission and we are having a
half-mission conference. I don't know what that means yet but hey, it will
be good. Missionary work is fun! There is no better joy then seeing the
change that only the Holy Ghost can cause to happen. Thank you for your
love and support!
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Tucson--#9
Hey Everyone!
This week has been absolutely crazy! There is a stomach bug thats been
going around and I got in on Thursday. It was no fun at all! I am just
starting to get my energy back but my appetite is lagging behind. Our only
progressing investigator, Doug Dicky was scheduled to have his baptismal
interview last Saturday. It needed to be with President Killpack because of
his past life. He didn't show up on Saturday for the interview so we
rescheduled it for yesterday. Funny thing happened while President
Killpack, Elder Woodland and I were waiting for Doug to show up. There was
a plane in the sky that had just drawn a smiley face in the sky. I thought,
"That is totally awesome!" Then the pilot started spelling out a word. It
started with an 'R' and then an 'O' and eventually spelled out Romney. It
was pretty cool to see and all of Tucson had to have been able to see it
because it was so large. I could not get it all in a single picture because
it happened almost exactly over our heads. Well, back on the home front
now. Sunday rolled around and I saw Doug before Sacrament meeting and he
seemed excited for his interview after church. After church rolls around
and I go up to Doug and ask if he was ready for his interview. President
was all ready for the interview and everything. Doug tells me that he
doesn't want to be baptized anymore and he is moving back to Utah tomorrow
which he is probably already gone by now. This took me by complete
surprise. He would not talk to us about it so there was nothing that we
could do to help him. On a positive note, we had a part-member family come
to church today where the husband and oldest daughter are not a member.
They had not been to church in a LONG time, since before I came out and we
did not even need to remind them. The husband is interested in learning
about the Gospel and we are meeting with the family on Wednesday. We also
met with Patricia Vespoli and gave her a large print copy of the Book of
Mormon. We talked about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. Her seed of
faith is already starting to grow. She told us basically what Elder
Holland's General Conference talk was on a couple years ago about the Book
of Mormon and Restoration. She said that Joseph Smith would not have died
for what he believed and knew to be true unless he actually KNEW. He would
not have lied to the thousands and now millions of people. Ever since our
Palmyra trip, I have looked at the Book of Mormon in a completely different
light. So many things needed to fall into place and they did and hundreds
of millions of lives have been changed because of Joseph Smith and
everything that the Restoration includes. I have noticed my testimony of
the Book of Mormon grow rapidly while being out on my mission. Talking with
Patricia, heard a change in my voice as I testified of the Book of Mormon
and I honestly felt like my voice was "like the roar of a lion". Oh if more
people would recognize the great good and eternal blessings that the Book
of Mormon brings to their lives and coupled with the Bible one's testimony
of both books will grow immensely. This morning, Sis. Wilkinson
(less-active family) texted us saying that her husband had been missing
since last night and had left a suicide night. I have come to realize real
fast that the mission is not for the faint of heart or for the little boy.
It matures you real quick if you allow out. I would never have seen myself
a year ago not even a week ago trying to console a wife who for all she
knew her husband is gone. I feel like this should be an exception, please
pray for Sister Wilkinson and her family that they will be comforted.
Love,
Elder Urry
LiveStrong
Alma 34:32
This week has been absolutely crazy! There is a stomach bug thats been
going around and I got in on Thursday. It was no fun at all! I am just
starting to get my energy back but my appetite is lagging behind. Our only
progressing investigator, Doug Dicky was scheduled to have his baptismal
interview last Saturday. It needed to be with President Killpack because of
his past life. He didn't show up on Saturday for the interview so we
rescheduled it for yesterday. Funny thing happened while President
Killpack, Elder Woodland and I were waiting for Doug to show up. There was
a plane in the sky that had just drawn a smiley face in the sky. I thought,
"That is totally awesome!" Then the pilot started spelling out a word. It
started with an 'R' and then an 'O' and eventually spelled out Romney. It
was pretty cool to see and all of Tucson had to have been able to see it
because it was so large. I could not get it all in a single picture because
it happened almost exactly over our heads. Well, back on the home front
now. Sunday rolled around and I saw Doug before Sacrament meeting and he
seemed excited for his interview after church. After church rolls around
and I go up to Doug and ask if he was ready for his interview. President
was all ready for the interview and everything. Doug tells me that he
doesn't want to be baptized anymore and he is moving back to Utah tomorrow
which he is probably already gone by now. This took me by complete
surprise. He would not talk to us about it so there was nothing that we
could do to help him. On a positive note, we had a part-member family come
to church today where the husband and oldest daughter are not a member.
They had not been to church in a LONG time, since before I came out and we
did not even need to remind them. The husband is interested in learning
about the Gospel and we are meeting with the family on Wednesday. We also
met with Patricia Vespoli and gave her a large print copy of the Book of
Mormon. We talked about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. Her seed of
faith is already starting to grow. She told us basically what Elder
Holland's General Conference talk was on a couple years ago about the Book
of Mormon and Restoration. She said that Joseph Smith would not have died
for what he believed and knew to be true unless he actually KNEW. He would
not have lied to the thousands and now millions of people. Ever since our
Palmyra trip, I have looked at the Book of Mormon in a completely different
light. So many things needed to fall into place and they did and hundreds
of millions of lives have been changed because of Joseph Smith and
everything that the Restoration includes. I have noticed my testimony of
the Book of Mormon grow rapidly while being out on my mission. Talking with
Patricia, heard a change in my voice as I testified of the Book of Mormon
and I honestly felt like my voice was "like the roar of a lion". Oh if more
people would recognize the great good and eternal blessings that the Book
of Mormon brings to their lives and coupled with the Bible one's testimony
of both books will grow immensely. This morning, Sis. Wilkinson
(less-active family) texted us saying that her husband had been missing
since last night and had left a suicide night. I have come to realize real
fast that the mission is not for the faint of heart or for the little boy.
It matures you real quick if you allow out. I would never have seen myself
a year ago not even a week ago trying to console a wife who for all she
knew her husband is gone. I feel like this should be an exception, please
pray for Sister Wilkinson and her family that they will be comforted.
Love,
Elder Urry
LiveStrong
Alma 34:32
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