Yo ho!

December 1, 2008

Hey y'all,
So this week was a good one. We finally got to sit down and teach this awesome golden/elect that a member found for us while doing door sales. His name is Kevin, he's from Trinidad and England and he's black. He was taught by Elders for a while I guess in Trinidad, but we're still not sure why he was never baptized. Oh well, we'll do it! :) But he is sooo golden and sooo elect, which is what we're in the business for. He said he knows the BOM is true and he kept going on and on about how it coincides so well with the Bible. It was amazing.
Our mission goal for Nov. was 70 baptisms, and with 2 fasts in the month, we baptized 64 and confirmed 58 I think (are the numbers so far). We set a new record for this mission though, which is pretty dang awesome! So now to meet the standard set by the first presidency to double baptisms, we are shooting for about 100 in dec. So pray hard for us for that... Thanks!
This week I was surprised to meet again with my old comp and trainer, Sis. Arnell. Long story short, she is now dating seriously the son of the people we lived with in Franklin. Oh, and the son is in my ward now, here in M'boro. Yeah, ironic. It was a little bit weird, to say the least, to see her at church, holding hands in sunday school, and then to eat dinner with them, on my bday. Ha! Yeah, little awkward. Anyway, it made for a really good funny story! And that's what life's all about, right?
The work is going good here, the church is true and the BOM is amazing!!
I love you all, love,
Sister Gurr
PS--Funny story, on Thanksgiving, my day started at 4:20 am when I rolled over in bed and fell out onto the floor. See, my top mattress is light-weight and kindof thin and it slides a little bit, and it had slid off some, so when I rolled over, I was off the bed and then immediately on the floor. But on the way down i knocked over my wooden bedside table with my neck and face, which sent it falling down, knocking the plastic drawers next to it over and everything crashed. Sis. buhler woke up to the crash with me on the floor with my neck and chin in pain. She was so kind though, and said sleepily, "are you okay?" "yeah", "do you need any help?" "no, i'll do it in the morning" (everything was all over the floor). I just tipped my wooden table back up, put my clock on it, pushed my mattress back to the wall, and got back in bed. It wasn't that funny then, but we cracked up about it the next morning. Ha! That was the first time i've ever actually fell out of bed! (the pic of me on the bed is the after math, in the morning, after I had been running, hence why I look frightening)
But it was our preparation day, so we cleaned and grocery shopped at Wal-Mart, and then we were fed and taken care of very well by members and hung out at their houses, cuz we had the whole day off. Then we watched the Work and the Glory with Alicia and Roland, which we had permission to do. It was a great day!

What can ya do when yer 22...and on a mission?

November 26, 2008

So due to the wonderful holiday of my birthday, I mean Thanksgiving, our preparation day (p-day) is on Thurs. this week, but libraries are not open, so we are emailing today. FYI.
This week was fabulous--Ariana's baptism went very well on Sat., nothing too terrible happened other than the morning of, the Smyrna elders (the church where the baptism was going to be is in Smyrna, about 20 minutes north of us, so the Smyrna elders were nice enough to turn on the font for us) called us and said none of their bishopric were home and their ward mission leader was out of town, so they didn't have keys to the font. So we ended up rushing to our Bishop's house, getting keys, then rushing up to Smyrna to give them the keys (so much for saving on miles that day:), then we came back down here to M'boro where we finished up some last minute baptism prep before getting a ride from a member up to the baptism that was at 12:30. But it was great, we had a great turnout. And while Ariana was getting dressed, Roland (Alicia's man, who we are sort of teaching too, we love him) was just beaming, and kept saying things like, "That's gonna be me soon." It was great. There are a lot of legal things he needs to take care of before he can be baptized (it could be a couple/few years before he can, not sure), but that he is saying things like that is a great sign. He's great.
On sunday, Ariana was confirmed, and we had THREE less-actives that we've been working with at church (Amy Smalley, Marisa Manning, Julie Wilcox)!! We were thrilled!! It was so great! And all three of them are part-member families, which is great. We are hoping to teach their family members soon or eventually. Things are starting to pick up in this area. We have been having good success with the new swimming-pool family mission plans, and with teaching the members so far.
Our mission is praying and working really hard right now to reach our goal of 70 baptisms in the month of Nov., which would be a record in the history of this mission. By the end of this week we should be at about 62 if all goes well. So please pray that we can make that goal.
Oh! Cool experience! On friday night there was about 10 minutes left in the night and we had set a goal that day to find 3 new investigators, which we hadn't found yet; we were driving home, and I felt we should go to Kroger. So I asked my comp if we needed anything at Kroger. She said milk. So we went and the first lady we came across while on our way to getting the milk we stopped and started talking to, and long story short, she ended up being in our area (first great surprise:), and she turned out to be the lady some nonmember referred the sisters to (his neighbor, she had been going through a hard time) months ago, before I got here, but who the sisters hadn't yet been able to contact still. She was so friendly and told us about her kids, and she has two 14-yr old twin girls who she said are getting into boys, etc., and need some direction in their lives, and she basically ended up asking if and when we could come over. It was amazing. So there were our 3 new investigators for the day, and we are going to go teach them today. So pray they will be prepared and will accept our message and will want to be baptized.
I love you all! thank you Mom and Dad and Kerrs for the birthday packages!!! I loved them and really appreciate what you all sent me!! Very useful things (Mom and Dad), thank you!! And I was so excited about the honey! :)
And thanks to those that sent cards! ;)
Love, Sister Gurr
ps--and thank you Peter for the email (and lindsay and boys)!! It's good to know you still remember your sister on a mission! :) I love you!
pics:
some explanationg: The football one-- we were not watching the byu/u game...it was just on in the background for a little while at the Bishop's house where we were eating...he wouldn't turn it off... :)

The Church is true!

November 10, 2008

So this week was an exciting one--we sisters got to go on exchanges!! It was exciting because the sisters rarely get to do exchanges because we're a lot farther apart than the elders, and there's no traveling assistant sister to come to us or anything. But for multiple reasons, we got permission this week to do an exchange from Pres. Hutchings; so from thurs. to sat. I was up in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee with Sister Smith (from CA) and her comp came down here to M'boro. I have wanted to be companions with Sister Smith for a while now, because when we have been around each other at like transfer meetings and zone conferences, etc., I could tell we clique (sp?). And I don't think we'll ever be companions, so I was excited to get to be her comp for a few days at least. It was such a blast! Sister Smith is so great and we had so much fun teaching together and contacting together, and it was very productive too.
The fall here is SO beautiful!! The leaves are starting to really fall off the trees, but the colors are amazing! we have been loving this season in this here Tennessee!
Bytheway, I'm glad you all got the pictures. I was a little nervous about that email, especially cuz there were so many pictures. But to explain the cotton field one: "the field is white, already to harvest" haha... in case you didn't think of it. :)
Yesterday we taught Relief Society on the 2nd Coming and Millenium (the teacher was sick, we were asked the night before--Mom, no, I've never had to speak in a sac. mtg. yet on my mission), and it went really well. It's so exciting to know that we really are in the last days, and that Christ really is coming. And we don't have to fear as long as we are doing the small things God has asked us to do, like daily scripture study (SO important), daily prayer, going to church every sunday, family home evening, etc. They are such small and simple things, yet we get to busy that sometimes we get out of the habit of doing those things. But I have such a testimony that if we just stick to the little things, everything else will fall into place and our lives will be filled with so much more joy and peace. Especially in our families. Satan is sure working hard right now to tear the family apart. We just need to stay close to the gospel; that's truly where safety lies.
Dad, yes!! You can send me pictures! Please do! :)
I love you all!
Love, Sister Gurr
pics:
my pumpkin (only mine, not sis. Buhler's, weird) grew a ridiculous amount of mold really quickly, and was leaking like it was in a pool. Weird.
sis. Smith (tall one) and I in Mt. Juliet in front of some beautiful colors!
Fall in TN
Our district walking to the library at MTSU to email just a little bit ago (that's me TODAY :)

Finally Some Pictures!

November 3, 2008

This email may be short, but I wanted to finally send some pictures with it.
For Halloween we were to stay inside and do our weekly planning that we normally do on friday mornings. So we did, amongst some of our investigators (Alicia, Ariana, and Amari--Alicia's 2 kids) that came trick-or-treating to our apartment, and then after we were done planning, we carved pumpkins quickly before going to bed. It was a lot of fun! Mine is on the left and Sis. Buhler's is on the right. Can you guess what mine is? (and the little thing at the bottom of mine is supposed to be grass, not a fire...I was in a hurry:)
Things are going well, we are doing well, we are ready for the work to explode here soon. We are really focusing our efforts on the members, hoping to see some great success from it, that our Mission President has said we will. But our mission made our goal of 50 baptisms in Oct! And now we're shooting for 70 in Nov, and 3 in our area specifically. So please pray for that.
I love you all!
Love, Sis. Gurr

(Joseph Smith's First Vision)

Hey hey

October 27, 2008

This one's going to be quick, but it's been a good week!
Highlights:
Erin is now back on board, it turns out that it was her husband that didn't want us to come over. But she called us tues. and wanted us to come over, so we were really happy, but when we got there that night, she was quite drunk. She really loves us, and we love her, but her love for us came out in a very uncomfortable way that night. She kissed my comp on the cheek, on the ear, and kissed both our hands (which she has done before, but it wasn't so weird, cuz she wasn't drunk. Anyway..). We realized we couldn't teach her anything, so after a few minutes of being inside and her wanting to talk about the JS pamphlet she read (which we were proud of her doing), and after not being having been in this sort of a situation ever before in my life, and not being able to think of a soft way to do this, I said, "Erin, we love you, but you're drunk. And we can't teach you anything when you're drunk." She realized what we were saying, and she was a little hurt, and we told her she should go to bed and sleep it off, and we'd see her tomorrow. Anyway, long story short, we eventually left after singing some hymns to her to try to calm her down and bring the spirit, and we both felt so gross and uncomfortable. It was not an experience I want to ever repeat. I never want to see anyone that I already know and am close to drunk ever again. It was actually really sad to see her not in control of herself.
Anyway, since then, she felt really bad about what happened, and she even mailed us a letter and apologized for it. We've seen her again, sober, and she just begs us not to give up on her in this trialsome time in her life. Her husband is not being a very kind or Christlike husband, so she puts up with that, her family is not very supportive of her meeting with us, and her mother-in-law (who sent her to jail for 13 months before) is moving in with them again this weekend. So her life is really hard right now, to say the least. But when we were with her, taking a walk to get her out of her house and calmed down the other day, we met her neighbors (an older couple) and the cute old woman, Louise, asked for some "literature". She's met with missionaries before, has a BOM, the works, so we're going to go teach her on thurs. Yay!
Sandy (the one with many mormon relatives, love geneology) is back from the hospital and from rehab, so we'll be able to teach her again now. We visited her once this week, and she can't get around too well yet, so it might be a while before she gets to church and can be baptized, but she'll get there.
We had an amazing experience yesterday! We were contacting this referral that a member gave us the other day, and after talking to the referral and their neighbor (neither interested, but both very friendly and very nice), we felt like we should keep walking down the street. So we did, and a few houses down, I felt like we should knock on the door. So we did, and this woman named Carol answered the door with her large and ferocious dog that had been going crazy since we walked up the sidewalk to her porch, opened the door about 5 inches, saw us, then closed it. We weren't sure if she was just putting the dog away, or if she wasn't interested. So we started walking away slowly, then she came and opened the door and came out. We ended up chatting with her for about 10 minutes, then she asked us what we were asking for or selling (something like that). We told her we weren't selling anything, that we teach the gospel for free! Anyway, we ended up teaching her all about the restoration and the BOM, and at the beginning of the JS story, she looked like she was trying not to laugh, and by the end of the 1st vision, she was crying. She told us we had no idea how much she needed this and appreciated it, etc, and it was amazing. We are going back to teach her on thurs, and we're really excited!
I love you all, thank you so much for your prayers and your emails and letters!!
Love, Sister Gurr

It's fixin' to be Winter it seems!

October 20, 2008

So I think I jinxed us here in Tennessee last week when I talked about the amazing weather, because since then it has gotten significantly cooler. But it's still really pretty, and it's pretty nice in the daytime. And as for allergies, they really only lasted that one weekend, when I wrote about them. Just in case any one wondered...
Anyway, missionary work is awesome in this here Tennessee. Our district leader, Elder Rothlisberger from New Mexico, is going home tomorrow, who we've become pretty close to; he's a fantastic missionary. So that's kindof sad; but the work goes on!
Speaking of the work, some updates:
Erin has turned weird on us. We're not sure what is going on with her. She and joe were going to come to the ward Halloween party on Sat. night (trunk-or-treat/"Fall into Missionary Work"--we were a central part, got to answer questions from the primary kids about being missionaries, it was really fun and very productive!), but Joe got really sick the day before and they took him to the hospital that day. But it's like she got antied or her marriage is better and so she's done with us after getting a good spiritual high, or Joe told her not to talk with us much anymore, or something. We're going to go over tonight to hopefully straighten things out. She needs the gospel so bad! Aaa!
We had an awesome experience sat. though--we had met this girl, Jaki (Ja-KEY), who is 17, on fri. She was outside her house, across the street from Erin, actually. We talked to her for a second and asked if we could come back the next day to teach her and any of her family. She said sure, so we went sat. at noon-ish, not expecting anything great to come of it, but the Lord sure showed us! She ended up not being there, but her mom was, and her grandma, Sylvia. And it turns out Sylvia (black woman, in her early 60's, probably) used to live in the other ward area and used to be taught with her son, by Elders. So she was very familiar with Joseph Smith and the BOM, etc. but she had just moved cuz her house had burned down or something. So we ended up teaching her (re-capping, really) a first, gave her another BOM, and she totally wants to come to church (in a couple weeks, when she has work off) and stop smoking and get back into the BOM. It was amazing. These descriptions of these experiences do no justice to how it really is, but she has the most amazing attitude and outlook. She is so golden! She was even like, I want to just spend an hour today, just reading the BOM. We were like, okay, you do that! (didn't really say that, of course) And she said, "I'm going to go humble myself and pray to the Lord to quit smoking." She is awesome, and we are so excited to teach her more tomorrow.
This week we also had a great correlation meeting (first one since i've been here) with our Ward Mission Leader, and he is now able to focus more on the work, and it was so great. And the members here are so amazing and so supportive and want to be really involved. We are so blessed to have great members here in the Blackman Ward.
The Church is true and the Book of Mormon is amazing, and it truly does bring us closer to Christ!!
I love you all, thank you for your prayers!
Love, Sister Gurr

It's Fall Y'all!

October 14, 2008

So if I wasn't sold to live in Tennessee someday already, Tennessee in the Fall has me sold. It is soo beautiful here and my favorite part is that while the leaves are changing and it's so pretty, it's still warm!! We are still wearing short sleeve shirts and loving the weather. Even at night it's still so nice! We slept with our window open last night and my comp even was hot a little. But word is that it's going to cool down quite a bit this week, but it's beautiful right now. I hear that UT has snow, that's weird to think about here. I'm definitely not looking forward to wearing a skirt every day in the freezing cold weather that Tennessee apparently gets in the winter. Oh, well, there are worse things in life right? And being a missionary is amazing, so it'll be worth it anyway.
Speaking of being a missionary, it just gets better and better. So this last week we found out (through District and then Zone Conference, which was yesterday, which is why we're emailing today, FYI) that the First Presidency has asked (or commanded, really) all US missions to double their baptisms. This is huge. Our mission (TNM!) has an average of about 40 baptisms/month, give or take a few, and we are shooting to have an average of 70 a month (that doesn't sound like it's doubling, but with the different months goals now, and different totals, etc., it is, just trust me:). So we are really focusing on working with the members and with certain little goals within each companionship to accomplish this. Because if it came from the Prophet, it came from God. And God never gives a commandment without making a way to accomplish that (1 Nephi 3:7), this I know. So things are going to start picking up real quick I hope, I'm really excited about this new goal. Things in our area are going really well. We were told to pray to find the elect in every single prayer we say, and since we've been doing that, we keep finding them, it's amazing. Every single day last week we found at least one person. Oh, and I forgot to include in my email last week that I discovered the week before (my comp was kindof still discovering this herself) that my comp has the Gift of Discernment. If there is any gift of the Spirit that you would want as a missionary, it's this one. She can tell with almost any one we talk to, if they are elect or not (ready for the gospel or not). It's amazing. So after we talk to someone I ask her something like, "what about them?" or "Are they?" and she either says no or yeah! And now we have a communication system to know while we are talking to someone, so if I'm talking to them, for example, and they are not elect, she lets me know by clearing her throat and then we can end the conversation and not push to teach them and we move on. It's so awesome. So now with potentials, we are weeding them out more effectively and don't worry about going back and going back to try to teach them if they aren't an elect. We just drop them and find someone else. However, being elect doesn't always mean they will accept the gospel, just that they are ready, we have concluded.
Well, i'm almost out of time, but to update on some of our investigators:
Erin is doing awesome!! We have taught her the Plan o' Sal and the first lesson (Restoration), and she hasn't successfully quit smoking yet but she quit drinking coffee through the stop-smoknig-workshop we did with her (that's one of the steps--no coffee, tea, or alcohol for those 7 days). She had been drinking 6 cups a day, and is not drinking any now!! But there are a lot of stressful things going on in her life right now, including her husband not being supportive at all of her quitting smoking. So please pray for her to be able to quit because she wants to so bad. But with her husband, we've been praying for him to have a softened heart toward us and the Church, because she feels like she is restricted on how involved with the church she can get because of him, and miracle last night!! We went over to take them brownies and thank you cards, mostly for him to thank him for copying this really neat picture of Christ for us, and then he ended up coming out and sitting with us and listening to us sing hymns to them, and chatted with us for a few minutes before going back to bed (yeah, he had been in bed). She said after that she never thought that was possible that he would do that. And when we got there, she was a wreck--had been smoking, drinking, sweating like crazy, crying; and she'd asked her husband (Joe) for a divorce earlier that evening; and by the time we left, she had apologized to him, told him she didn't mean it, that she loved him, and he had come out and joined us, and then by the time we left she was completely at peace, composed, didn't need to smoke, and said she was happier then than she had been in years. And I can testify to you that these miracles we saw last night in the life of Erin are because of the power of God. God is so real and is so aware of all of us. And He led us to her because He loves her so much and wants her to have this joy in her life, which we are so privelaged to be able to bring to her.
I know that God lives and that He loves us all so much. Please pray for her and for Joe to have a softened heart and to want to learn what she's been learning.
I love you all, thank you for your support and prayers, really, miracles come from the power of prayer.
Love, Sister Gurr

Happy Conference Weekend!

October 6, 2008

No, I am not going to jail. Yes, I have sent in the certificate that I forgot to send in (for those who don{t know what I{m talking about, after going to traffic school for my first speeding ticket ever (dang it), which now that I{ve confessed to more than my family, I{ll have to send the whole funny story out to everyone. But after traffic school I was supposed to take the certificate in after getting it in the mail, forgot to, and then got a notice at my home in SLC saying if I didn{t by Oct. 21, there would be a warrant out for my arrest. But don{t worry, it{s taken care of!) So yeah, Mom, you can stop worrying. Although, my comp and I of course joked about it, and I of course told her that that would have been the second time there was a warrant out for my arrest. How do I do that? We also joked that if I did go to jail, she would call President and say, "uh President? My companion is in jail, and there{s nothing in the white handbook on that. What should I do?" haha, we got a good laugh out of that.
Anyway, so no jail for me. Darn, that would have been a good story though.
Speaking of jail, with Alicia{s jail situation, turns out that she had to go to jail for some really unfair circumstances. So don{t judge her. :)
Camilley, thank you for your recent emails, loved them. And yes! I did love conference! Conference weekend was so great! It{s like a holiday for missionaries, we look forward to it for so long! And i actually can get your videos, just not sound. But i loved the one a while ago of Christian dancing, that was darling, even though I couldn{t hear it.
Sally and Joe! Congratulations!! I am sooooo excited for you guys!! And I LOVED the package and card and picture! (friends, my sister and bro'in'law are finally getting to adopt a baby!)
So this week was so so great! We had multiple awesome experiences (by the way, the symbols on this keyboard are all messed up, sorry):
We met and got a return appt. with this guy we met, David, in the WalMart checkout line a week or two ago, and he had just gotten out of jail, and didn{t seem that amazing of a prospect, so we went to teach him on wed. night, not really expecting much of the appt., but we got there and he and his cousin, Timmy, and their friend, Tanya, were on the porch eating. So we ended up going inside and teaching them and Tanya{s 2 kids, Savannah (12) and Brooke (11). And it turns out that Tanya was actually baptized like 10 years ago, then stopped going after her new husband didn{t want to go. But all of them were totally into the lesson and even the 12 year old was asking questions and stuff, and Tanya even bore her testimony, which was amazing, of going to church and how it feels so right, etc. They all wanted to come to all 4 sessions of conference (which ended up not happening because of a family emergency mostly I think, Timmy got in a bad accident), and we committed them all to read from the BOM and pray about it, and we soft committed them to baptism! And we gave them all a BOM (FIVE!)! Toward the end of the lesson we asked them how they felt, particularly the guys, and both of them said so good, and so happy, and David was like "let{s do this more often!" and we were like "We can arrange that". The spirit was so strong, and it was one of the most amazing experiences that I{ve had on my mission so far.
We also met this lady Erin. She is so friendly and so nice. We had been at a less active{s house, and asked who she knew that we should go talk to, and she mentioned that the sisters used to visit her neighbor across the street, but didn{t know if the lady still lived there (different lady now, I think). So we knocked on the door, and met Erin. We ended up talking to her for a little bit, and she started smoking, and I asked her if she had ever wanted to quit, and she was like YES, she wanted to quit so bad, and we told her about the stop smoking workshop that we do, and she was all for it. So 2 days later we came back with all the stuff for it and did it with her, and she was so touched that we cared enough about her to get the stuff (cinnamon toothpaste, cinnamon mouthwash, grapefruit juice, vitamin C, new toothbrush, cinnamon gum), and to come back and help her. She is so great and is so gung ho (?) about quitting. We are planning on starting to teach her the gospel tomorrow hopefully. But we are really excited about her.
And then Sandy, the one getting surgery, in fact that is today. But the elders came over with us the other day and gave her a blessing, and he commanded her spine to be healed in the blessing, and it was amazing. She had an amazing experience with it and the spirit, and she is so ready to just embrace the gospel. We just need to get her healed after this surgery so we can baptize her.
Anyway, out of time, but I love you all!
Love, Sis. Gurr

It's fixin' ta 'pear fall-like here!

September 29, 2008

So remember back in the spring and I wrote about how I got allergies so bad in this here south, that I ended up with a cold? And that people say that in Tennessee allergy season comes again in the fall? Well, I have now gained a testimony that this is true. My allergies started up again about 3 days ago. And they haven't been too bad yet, only one day they were crazy, it was weird. But the good news is this time I got a cold BEFORE I got allergies, so I shouldn't need to worry about that this time around. Maybe in the fall here you get a cold, and that's what gives you allergies. Who knows? But yeah, my comp and I both woke up sick with a cold on the same day this week, both with a sore throat and the works that comes with a head cold. That was on about tues I think, but now we are both just peachy. Mom, I got a kick out of your comment in your card this week, when you were like, "just try not to get sick" or something like that. I was like, too late! :) But I'm all good now. And I'm all stocked up with Allegra this time, so bring on those southern pollens!
The weather here has been so nice for the last couple weeks. Still pretty warm in the day-time, but it hasn't hardly felt humid at all. We've felt like we were in Utah lately. It's been great. And the leaves are just starting to change around us, we are excited for the fall colors here, we hear they are just beautiful!
So has the whole gas industry been crazy in other parts of the country the last week or 2? Because gas has been crazy here. A couple weeks ago gas prices shot up to like $4.00, give or take some cents, depending on what station, because of the hurricane in TX we heard. And then last weekend on I think friday and saturday cars were lined up like crazy at the gas stations. Apparently rumor was spread that the gas was going to run out so everyone went to fill up. Kind of how these Tennesseans run out and stock up on milk, eggs, and bread when it snows half an inch... But there were some unkind exchanges between some gasoline consumers, and a gun was even pulled on someone or something. That's what we heard anyway. We missionaries pretty much just go by whatever anyone tells us--word on the street, that's all we got. So we just believe anyone! :) And then most of the gas stations around were actually OUT of gas for a couple/few days or so, it was really crazy. But we also heard from I think 2 different people that the gas situation was the worst here in the Nashville area out of the whole US. That's why I wondered.
The work was a little slow again this week, mostly because we were ill, also because most of our teaching appointments bonked us (didn't answer the door for whatever reason, or cancelled on us) but we are still slowly finding more people to teach. We are working a lot with less-actives, so that's been good.
Remember Sandy who we are teaching that is practically Mormon, but is getting surgery soon so we can't baptize her just yet? Well, the sunday that we taught her the first lesson (last week), afterward we met this cool black guy (what black guy is not cool?) across her little street who was at his mother's house, and we set a return appointment and taught him yesterday afternoon at his house. His name is Omar and he is from Jamaica. He's really great. His wife was at work, and his kids were out playing, so we just taught him, but we're going to teach him again this saturday and call him before that, so please pray that he will read the BOM and pray to know that it's true, and get the answer. I really want to teach him and his family. Last week he gave us a referral to go talk to his brother-in-law who lives near his mom, where we had met him, and we finally contacted him a few days ago at his house, and at first he wasn't overly interested, and said he was too busy for us to come teach him, but then he let us give him a BOM, and of course we took that opportunity to show him the pictures inside and tell more about the BOM that way; then we said we wanted to come back and answer any questions he had about what he read and we could tell him more, and was there really not a good time to come back and do that, he offered an available time. I was so grateful! There is some serious power in the BOM. I love that book! We are planning on teaching him this thurs, so pray that that appointment goes through and goes well. His name (he goes by) Mookie (like cookie, but with an 'm'), and he is from St. Thomas (black as well, and cool, of course :).
Alicia and Roland (and their baby, Amari) came with us to the fireside at the mission home last night, given by Pres. Hutchings, which sparked some more interest in Roland, which we are excited about. Pres. Hutchings talked about the need for a prophet, how Christ set up His church, the apostasy, and the Restoration, and did a great job, always does. We are hopefully going to have a lesson with Alicia and Roland tonight to answer their questions and hopefully come to find that Roland prayed about the church and got the answer that it is true by now (after the fireside he asked my comp, "so if you want everyone to join this church, how do you know that it's true?" or something to that effect. Golden question!, which Alicia answered by telling of her experience of praying about it and finally getting her answer. So my comp then committed Roland to praying about it last night, that's why we're hoping for the results tonight).
I love you all and i hope all is well in Zion.
Love, Sister Gurr
PS--I recently learned that we're not supposed to communicate with others besides family through email, which is why I haven't been mentioning little friends tid-bits, just so you all know. You can still email me through my sister though... ;)

Hey y'all

September 23, 2008

So this last week was a good one. My companion has tendonitis in her arm as of a few weeks ago, and has been having stomach problems, so between the two, she hasn't been feeling the best all the time. So we stayed inside most of the day friday because of that, and we started off with kindof a slow week, but it actually turned out really good. So to report on how the 2x4 contacting has been going, since a couple of you asked, it's great! We haven't done it a whole lot yet, but when we do, it's great. It gets us away from the same old same old of how we contact and what we say. We've used the "do you know who Thomas S. Monson is?" a few times, and also once I asked this black kid sitting in his car on his work break in the Wal-Mart parking lot, "do you know what the gold plates are?" It was great. You make them actually think, and they know then that you know something they don't know. Love that feeling. It's made contacting a lot more exciting when we hit people with a 2x4. :)
So a few of the people we are working with:
Alicia is first. Alicia (pronounced Alee-see-a) is this awesome woman (turns 30 in Nov.) who is totally into the Church. She loves it. She was found by the sisters back in Feb. and they started teaching her after she announced to them, "Y'all, I need to be saved!" She's wanted to be baptized for a long time, but there have been a lot of things she's needed to take care of. One of which was putting in her due time in jail. Not for anything really really bad, but she turned herself in a couple months ago, with the sisters in tow, and spent 22 days in jail. She is so funny because she talks about when she was in jail like it was nothing. She is a crack up. She is a great person with a great heart and knows the church is true. She has 2 kids, Ariana (9) and a little boy named Amario (16 months). She is a great mother. She is currently living with Roland, who is Amario's father, We are teaching him as well, and he is a crack up. We love their family. Roland has a lot of things in his life to take care of as well, if he were to get baptized, and we're hoping that he eventually has the desire. Lately he's been participating more in the lessons, and he even has been reading the BOM more. This is good. They just need to get married. Except Alicia doesn't want to marry him because he's not willing to change, but she says lately that she has seen small improvements in him, so she still has hope. But she is still on probation til June 7, 2009 (which got cut back from like 2 years to just 9 months, cuz she turned herself in I think, so this is a blessing), which is the day she is planning on getting baptized. She comes to church with her family every sunday, and is practically a member. They are really fun people. And she reminds me a lot of Rosanna, actually (which Rosanna already knows..;). She's great. So that is Alicia.
Then there is Sandy. We just found Sandy the other night in the Kroger parking lot. She is probably in her 60s, and half her family is Mormon. She knows a lot about the church because of that, and because she says her cousin Marcus has been "working on her" for a long time. :) I thought that was funny. She has done family history work for years and loves it. She used to be visited by elders some years back, and would feed them dinner every week for a year or so. She says the only reason she is not Mormon is because her daughter-in-law is Catholic, so her son is too now I guess, and she doesn't want to create tension there I guess. So we ended up teaching her just on sunday, and she is very familiar with a lot of the other Christian religions, and our makes sense to her, and she committed to pray about the BOM. She has had a lot of trials, including losing 2 of her children--one to suicide after rape, and her son to murder--so we are really excited to teach her the plan of Salvation. We told her a little bit about where we go after we die and how temple work plays in, and she loves it. She is just thirsting for peace, it's exciting. She is getting surgery in a couple weeks on her back, so that might be a little set-back in getting her baptized, but it won't stop us! :)
Arden and Judy are an elderly couple who the sisters started teaching a few months ago, and even set a baptismal date with Arden, but then Judy got all freaked out about the thought of getting baptized again (she's had a bad experience getting baptized in another church), so they dropped the missionaries. But we went and visited them the other day, and Judy wasn't there, which was actually a blessing, because we got to have a great talk with Arden and found out he wants to come to church and be baptized so bad, and wants to be a positive contributor to God's church (so awesome!) but he won't go against his wife's wishes. He knows it's true and loves the BOM (he sneaks into another room to read it when he can), and just wants to be baptized. So we are going to try to help Judy to want to come to church at least, just to see that it's a good place, etc.
So those are the main investigators we are working with right now. People are great in this area, I really like M'boro. I like that it's not so affluent. People are more humble and willing to listen. There's even a trailor park next to the train tracks. We found a new investigator right by them the other day, down fishin' in the river by the walkway (called the Greenway) that we go contacting on sometimes. His name is Lee. We gave him a BOM and told him about it and about Joseph Smith and the first vision (promptly before which the train noisily went by and interrupted, but the story continued after, and the spirit was there again, thank goodness), and he said he'll read it. Hopefully I'll be able to tell good things about how that goes when we teach him soon.
I didn't email yesterday cuz the internet was down here in the complex club house, where we live.
But I love you all and thank you so much for your prayers and thoughts and support!
Love, Sister Gurr
PS--By the way (for anyone in the Carnton ward..;) I realized that what I might have said in my email last week sounded like I was knocking the carnton ward; I wasn't! I love that ward and the members! I just wanted to clarify that. :)
PPS--Mom, could you send me an absentee ballot so I could vote? That would be great! Thank you, I love you!
Rosanna, thank you so much for your email, I love you and miss you too!!

Hello from Murfreesboro, TN!

September 16, 2008

Hey hey, this has to be a quick one today, sorry. So I really like Murfreesboro (M'boro from now on:). The ward here is great, it's smaller and not as affluent, which is kindof nice, I'll be honest. The members are SO into missionary work, it's awesome. They are all so so willing to do anything for us, they're so nice. The stake pres. is even in our ward, and he and his wife are so involved and willing to help us out. I now live in an apartment, and I really like that. It's nice to have our own kitchen, etc. And we have more room to ourselves than just a bedroom. I really like it here. My comp, Sis. Buhler, is pretty awesome too. I am senior comp, but we both take turns driving. I've really liked that. I don't know where I'm going, but she does for the most part, but I'm learning. She is from American Fork and we are a lot alike. We've had a lot of fun so far. She actually reminds me a TON of you, Sally. :) Mom probably told you that already (Mom, did you get my letter with the flavored honey in it?), from my letter. But yeah, I feel like I'm living with you sometimes, Sal, it's so great. So feel like you are living with me right now too. ;)
We aren't really teaching a whole lot of people right now, mostly trying to find more investigators. There are a couple people we are teaching, and I'll tell about them next week, but they are great. We just had zone conference yesterday (which is why p-day is late), and Pres. Hutchings gave us the "2x4 approach" to contacting, which will hopefully help us find more people to teach. It basically consists of immediately engaging the person in a gospel conversation, with a "2x4" question, like, "do you know who Thomas S. Monson is?" and then go from there, talking about how if there was a man like Moses on the earth, would they want to hear what he has to say. Also, "Have you ever heard of bap. for the dead?" and talk about how it is an ordinance that the Savior performed when He was on the earth, and how it is being performed today in temples, and when can we come tell you more about this? We are excited to use this approach and have some fun with people. :)
Well, I gotta run, but I love you all, and I'm so excited for Mitchell!
Love, Sister Gurr

I'm Fixin' to be Transferred!

September 8, 2008

Hey you all,
So yep, I'm being transferred tomorrow to Murfreesboro, to the Blackman Branch. It's actually right next to our current area/ward, but in a totally different stake/zone and everything. And apparently it just got made a ward a few weeks ago. And Sis. Ross's (who we live with) son, Scott, who we know cuz we live in his parents' house, lives in that ward. So i'll still be able to keep a little bit in contact with the Ross's, so that's good.
I was actually very surprised when I found out that I was being transferred; I thought I'd be here at least one more transfer, with my comp being so new. But the Lord has other things in mind for me and for this area. My new comp will be Sister Buhler, and she has been out 2 transfers, but she's been trained by a fantastic missionary, so I'm sure she is great herself, so I'm excited. I'm sad to leave this ward and a lot of the people we are working with, but excited for change as well. It'll be good to be in a new area.
This week we taught 2 new awesome investigators. We are really excited about them. One is Tammy, and her son, Tae, got bap. like 7 or so years ago, and she went to church with him 2 or 3 times, and we taught her the other day, and she is golden. Before we finished the lesson, she asked how we know if it's the true church, like we said (love those questions). And she said that she's been kindof looking for the truth (more or less) for about the last 3 years. She was completely set on coming to church at our lesson, in fact, she brought it up before we could even invite her. Love that. She didn't come yesterday for some reason, we're not sure why yet. Hopefully that doesn't mean anything.
Then we taught this guy, Melvin, who is a really great person. He's black, about 23, and such a nice guy. Really sincere and respectful, and open. He wanted to come to church but had to work already. But he said he'd read from the BOM and pray about it. We're excited about him too. Sis. Arnell and I met him at Kroger a few months ago, then bonked us (he wasn't there when we went to teach him); but then Sis. Dickson and I met him again the other day in this neighborhood--he was at some friends' house, who we were talking to (a bunch of black guys, some kindof punks, it was great :), and he was like, "hey, I met you at Kroger" and I was like, "Oh, yeah, are you the one that lives in...?" And he was like yeah, and so anyway, he said he was sorry for not being there last time, that he got our note (we live by stickys), and that we could come back again. So we did, and he was there, and the lesson was great. So that's Melvin. But you all may not hear what happens to these 2, cuz I'm leaving. Sorry. I'll update if I hear and it's worth telling. :)
But things are going well for me, I hit my 6 month mark a few days ago, and I can't believe I've been gone that long. Time really does fly out here. The mission is great though, I can't imagine not having come on one. I have come to learn and appreciate so many things from being here. The Gospel is so amazing, it is SO true. I testify that this truly is God's true and living church on the earth, that the prophets in the Bible testify would be lost, and then restored; that the BOM is a true book, and a second witness of Jesus Christ, and that we do have a Prophet of God walking on this earth right now; and what a blessing that is: that we don't have to wonder which interpretation of the scriptures is right, that there is no need to argue or debate them. I love the Book of Mormon so much.
And I love all of you--thank you so much for your support and prayers!
Love, Sister Gurr
PS--FYI, Brett Raymond (LDS musician) lives in the ward next to us; and...I found out something else cool, famous-wise, this week..I can't remember now. Oh well. Have a good week!

Fixin' To

September 2, 2008

The phrase "fixin' to" is a phrase used quite regularly in the most southern states of the United ones of America. The phrase is used in describing the state of "getting ready to" do something, as one would say in the west. Sister Gurr is not quite fixin' to use this phrase yet, however; It is not one that sticks too quickly. This phrase is one that takes a longer period of time to catch on to, one that foreigners to the south may never actually begin using in their vocabulary. (An exception to this rule is Jason Woolsey.)

So this Saturday we find out about transfers, whether we each stay or go to a different area. Part of me is ready for a new area, with new investigators to work with; but the other part of me is really comfortable with my area (Franklin, TN), and I love the family/couple we live with and I love the ward we are in. The members here are so great. So I guess whatever happens will be good.
Things have been a little frustrating lately. We are fixin' to (ha!) go talk to Debbie tomorrow evening, possibly for the last time, teaching-wise, because she has pretty much decided to go back to her church. It is so hard to work with someone for so long and invest so much time and energy and emotion into helping someone to come to know and love the Gospel, just to have them walk away from it. There is still a chance she will change her mind. We made her promise to really ask God if Joseph Smith was a prophet (we have challenged her and asked her to do this many times, but for some reason, she never has directly asked this question to Heavenly Father) on sunday night, and as of last night she still hadn't gotten an answer. But she seemed more closed while talking to her than she has ever been. So pray that some miracle happens and we can hang on to her. Otherwise, we'll just leave her in the Lord's hands, and hope some missionaries knock on her door down the road and try again.
The most exciting thing of the day though, has been the lesson we had this morning with a 40-yr-old black woman (gorgeous woman--those people do not age here! She looks like she's 20! Anyway...) named Tammy. Her son got baptized about 7 years ago when he was about 15 or so, and went to seminary and church and stuff, and then moved out to CA just this year. So our RS Pres. came with us this morning for our lesson, cuz she new Tammy's son and that was a great connection. Plus she is a great woman, returned missionary too, so that's nice (Speaking of which, have I ever mentioned that there are about 60 RMs in our ward, and about 20 of them are Sisters? Crazy, huh! Our whole RS presidency and most, if not all the Primary Presidency are RMs. Crazy.) So we taught Tammy, and she is what we call elect. She is the kind of person we are looking for. She has been looking for the truth and gets the reason why we needed another prophet, and wanted to know how we can say this is the true church (we told her:) and really wants to come to church, and she's going to bring one of her other sons with her on sunday. She was really sincere about everything and we were kindof all emotional, it was great. It was a really great up to the past week or so of not getting a whole lot of new investigators, amongst other not-so-ups. We have been teaching quite a bit still though, so that's been a blessing. We have a good number of progressing investigators, they just seem to all suddenly be really busy or sick or something, and they're just kindof sitting. I'm ready to start setting more baptismal dates or something! Hopefully soon.
Yesterday for Labor Day, we had our usual p-day. Hence the delay in the email. But for it we went bowling with the Elders, and then drove around, trying to find something fun to do in Franklin (not a whole lot to do besides bowling) and then we went to a member's house and borrowed some board games and went back to our house (the Ross's) and played Apples to Apples and Catch Phrase. It was actually one of the funnest P-days I've ever had. Then the Ross's had invited us to their cookout, so we got some good food too. Brisket is always a good thing. :)
Well, that's all for now, folks. Thank you all for your support and prayers, i really appreciate them. I love you all!
love, Sister Gurr
PS--Tisah Marie, i am so sorry i haven't written you back forever, but I did get your last 2 letters, and I SO appreciate and love them! Know that i love you!!
Also, Camilley, did I tell you yet THANK YOU for the Oh's?! Oh my goodness, I loved that! (So did my comp:) For all y'all's info, my dear sister camille wrapped a box of Oh's cereal and mailed them to me. I thought that was the greatest idea in the world. Aim and Cher, i of course thought of you. :)

Bueno!

August 25, 2008

So things are going well out in this here Tennessee. The lady, Donna, that we have been teaching again (round 2) came back to church yesterday, with one of her 3 children. She loved it, which was great. We feel that if her husband, Russ, wanted to be baptized, Donna would just jump in the water. So we are going to focus more on him and try to help him see the significance of the Gospel. He did tell us this last week that we are now in his "circle" (he's a little bit of an odd one, but we still love him:), which is major progress. He used to be against the church, which he has openly told us, and he isn't anymore. And he told us that he still will never convert to our church (we'll see about that), but he did readily commit to read from the BOM and pray about it. Go figure. :) Pray for him to be more open to the truth and to gaining a testimony of it.
Our friends, Debbie and Katie (mom and daughter), have been doing well. Katie was supposed to be baptized this coming sunday (her birthday), but didn't make it to church, again, yesterday. So we will post-pone her baptism again. It's killing me that she still hasn't come to church. She just sleeps in really late. But she always acts like she really wants to come and is going to make an effort to really get there the next sunday. We're not sure what to do with her at the moment. Debbie (the mom) has decided she needs to deal with her past for a minute, by re-visiting her church (presbyterian) for a couple weeks. She went yesterday and loved it. But she loves the BOM, loves us, so we're hoping this won't be a major upset in her progression in the gospel. Skipping church is never a good thing when one is working toward baptism though; Satan is really good at what he does and takes good advantage of those times. So please pray for Debbie to know this is the true church and for us to be able to work out Katie's issues/concerns.
We are continuing to be blessed to find more people to teach. Last night we were parking-lot contacting (can't go IN, it's sunday! :) and we didn't get any new investigators, but we got some great positive contacts and felt we made a good impression of the Church on people. Plus my companion (my greenie) was a lot more brave and outgoing with talking to people, so that was really good.
The Book of Mormon is amazing. I absolutely LOVE the Book! If any of you all are not reading it regularly, repent! God has blessed us with an amazing tool to make life so much easier, why not take advantage of that? Plus, it's true! I love the scriptures and I am so greatful for them.
This is God's Church, this I know.
Thank you all for your prayers and your support, I love you!
Love, Sister Gurr
PS--mom, where is Camryn going again? I forget. And that's so great that he is doing so well in the MTC!
pps--Jakey!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! For some reason I was thinking your bday was on the 29th, I'm so sorry! Sorry you didn't get a card. Bummer. But the card would have said basically that you are such a great bro-in-law and thank you for being so great to my sister and that you should write me. I love you!
And Rosanna, no, I've never been up to that camp since they finished it, it sounds fun though, that's great you get to use it next year.

Mom and Dad: Happy 31st Anniversary! You are the best!

August 18, 2008

Dearest family and friends,
So Junior Aguirre (Ashley's brother, Heather's 10-yr-old son) got baptized on saturday!! It was so exciting! So now their whole little family are all baptized. Junior came out from getting dry and dressed with a great big smile on his face and he just beamed. Heather was so excited and so proud at the baptism, that was really neat to see. I still am just amazed at the totally different woman Heather has become since I first met her. And the fact that the more one lives the commandments and follows God, the more one is blessed, spiritually and temporally, is so evident in Heather, I just can't almost believe it. Everything in her life, practically, is going better since she got baptized. It's amazing. The Church is true! And Junior liked Primary for pretty much the first time yesterday! Yay! :)
To answer your question Dad, the Debbie that quit coffee is the same one that still needs to quit smoking. She knows she is going to quit, it's just a matter of when. She still says she's not quite ready, but keep praying for her. We're hoping to help her quit this week, so she can get baptized by the end of August. She is doing so great though. Everything we tell her, about new commandments and things, she just grabs a hold of and runs with it. She's amazing. She has so much faith and trust in us and in the Lord, that this is the truth and that she will be blessed for keeping these commandments. Her daughter Katie probably won't be baptized in August because she still hasn't come to church yet, and they need to come at least 2 times before they get baptized. She feels really good about the BOM and about everything she's been learning, and also about her baptism, but she just keeps sleeping til like 2 pm on accident on sudays, or doesn't feel good. That darn Satan is good at what he does, that's for sure. So as soon as the dang girl comes to church twice, we'll throw her in the water. :) just kidding, we love her. I really like Katie. She's our age and she's really chill and down to earth. She's great. Plus, don't forget, she can see my fairy. :)
Oh! other news of the week: Remember Donna Turner, the lady that we were teaching a few months ago, and she seemed so golden (had always been curious about our church, seemed to accept it all, knew the BOM was true, and we set a bap. date on like the 3rd lesson), and then noted us saying we didn't need to come back? Well, to make a long story short, we are teaching her again, and we have an appt. to teach her husband too this week! Before, he was nice enough to us, but not open really at all to learning more himself about the church. But the other day we stopped by when Donna wasn't there, and just talked to him for a while and it was so great. He told us he's been wanting to come to our church for a while, but he is afraid of Donna's parents (very Church of Christ, which is what Donna and he (and their kids) are too), which sounds like is the same concern Donna has had the whole time, is her parents, and what their reaction will be. But it's going to work out, and we are teaching her again, and she still knows the BOM is true, and we're so excited!
We've had a really great week again, with many people to teach and many new investigators again. Heavenly Father is blessing us so much, His hand is SO in this work, it's amazing.
I just read the little "Missionary moments" column on the back of the church news the other day, from a recent week (not sure what week)
and it was really really good, entitled "Coffee? No, thanks" You should all read it--it illustrates the power of just opening our mouths has.
I love you all, and I'm so happy for all of you that you are enjoying watching the Olympics (especially you, Mom:). We live with avid Olympic watchers and when we get in at night and go in the kitchen to say hi and they are watching them, it's all I can do to not watch them. But they have been keeping us up to date on Michael Phelps at least, he's amazing! Go USA!
The Church is true!
Have a great week!
Love, Sister Melissa Gurr

Mission Story of the Week

August 18, 2008

So you probably all know by now that I got a blessed speeding ticket about 6 weeks ago or so. So after emailing Mom and Dad back and forth about what I should do, and taking Mom's advice and talking to my Mission Pres. about it, I decided that I would go to traffic court, so I could go to traffic school, so I could get the points off my record (which of course is what Mom suggested, she is always right:). So tues. morning at 7:30 my companion and I walk into the traffic court of the Franklin City Hall building, and the first person we see is our Relief Society pres! She (Sis. Scott) turned around and saw us as we walked in, which was so funny--but it gets better: then as we took another step in we saw the ELDERS behind her (our District Leader and comp)!! We were all dying and trying not to make a scene by laughing and gawking, and saying/thinking "what are YOU doing here?" while being embarrassed that we were there as well. It was so funny! And sitting next to Sis. Scott (who got her ticket in the same place I did (speed trap): in our subdivision, on this 4-lane stretch on the way out of the subdivision that is still a 25 zone--very hard to go 25 on) was this girl in the Elders' ward. The Franklin police are out to get the Mormons. But the whole court was each called up one by one, and Elder Funk was called up before I was, so then when I got called up there, after the judge asked me "guilty or not guilty?" ("Guilty"), and then "You are eligible for traffic school, would you like to go?" ("Yes"), he said--in front of the whole crowd, mind you--"What is this, a Latter-day Saint rally?" I laughed (along with the rest of the traffic violators that filled the room) and said no, and then walked back to my seat, got my stuff, and my comp and I went to go pay my court fee. So then the conversation with the elders out there was, "So when should we all go to traffic school?" The whole thing made my day.
So we four missionaries ended up going together to traffic school on saturday, and the girl from the other ward was in our session too and sat by us, and we laughed about it all again with her. She told me that after the judge in traffic court that day had made the Latter-day Saint rally comment, she and Sis. Scott were like, "good thing we're not wearing badges!" :) And our session of traffic school was only about 2 1/2 hours long, when it was supposed to be 4 hours, so that was good. And I learned some things, like how easy it is for someone in the state of Tennessee to get a liscense, which scares me. They aren't required to take any kind of a class out here---aaa! No wonder no one signals in the south, they don't know it's a law!
Anyway, that's my story of the week, now on to the email de grande! haha
Love, Sister Gurr

The Church is true!

August 11, 2008

Dear family and friends,
First of all, to add an edition to my last email, the tribes my comp is from are Tlingit (said Clinket) and Lumbee. I realized I forgot to put that in the blank space last week. Just FYI. :)
This week has been so great! I love my new companion, Sis. Dickson, we have so much fun together.
The biggest updates of the week are:
Debbie, who is supposed to get baptized at the end of this month, we taught the Word of Wisdom to on sat, with Katie (her daughter) of course, and afterwords Debbie threw all her coffee in the trash. Unscrewed the cans and dumped it and everything! We were so proud of her! She drank V8 Fusion Sunday morning instead of coffee for the first time and came to church again for the 3rd time, and then we went over last night to visit Katie, cuz she wasn't able to make it to church again, and she wasn't home, but we were able to visit with and teach Debbie about Priesthood blessings, and then the Elders came over and gave her a blessing for healing for her back. She had major back surgery a few months ago and it's been giving her grief the last little while. So that was really neat. The Elders left and then my comp gave her a little massage, and by the time we left she was feeling a ton better and was able to stand up straighter than she had been able to. The Priesthood is so real, I love it.
We have gotten back in touch with Michelle, our miraculous find, after she didn't come to church and wasn't there for our appt that night. We were worried after that, that she'd been antied or something, but no, she's just going through a hard time, and she said she still wants to talk to us, so we're teaching her tomorrow, and we are so excited. We stopped by her apt on sunday before church and she was asleep, but she had a friend there and the friend came to the door and eyed us wearily (we wondered if she was one that was afraid of us, like Michelle described:), and then when she realized who we were, she said that Michelle has been talking about us, and to keep coming over, and to keep praying for her. We liked that reaction. :)
Also, Heather's 10-yr-old son Junior (Ashley's younger brother) is getting baptized this saturday! A few days ago, we were like, "so Junior, when are you gonna get baptized?" and he was like, "I dunno.." and we were like, "How about on the 23rd?" and he was like, "ok! Yay!" (or something like that.:) Then we moved it up to the 16th because he's basically been taught everything and then again, going through the lessons with Ashley and his mom. The day he also said, "I'm even starting to like church!" Loved that. :)
As a mission, every week we strive for 7 new investigators, and this week we were so blessed to get 12! We are so excited, we practically don't have time to teach everyone, it's so great. I now know what missionaries are talking about when they talk about loving greenie fire, when training a greenie. My new comp has so much faith and diligence, and we are being so blessed for it.
To answer some questions by family, Camille, yes you can keep forwarding those emails. Sorry I never answered your questions about that a while back, but yeah, that is okay how we are doing it. (another sidenote to FRIENDS: send any emails to me to my sister Camille (camillemerkley@gmail.com) and she will forward them to me, thanks!) Also, yes, it is hotter than heck here. The last few days have been actually pretty nice, but before that, if one could die from sweating, we probably would have perished. But there are worse things in life than physically melting while standing on someone's porch, talking to them... :) Love this southern heat!
Sally and Joe--THANK YOU so much for the hot green package!!! I loved it!!!
Grandma Froerer--Thank you so much for your yummy package and letter too!!! You are the best, and my comp and I have really enjoyed the caramel popcorn! (no olives huh?;)
I love you all,
Sister Gurr

Happy August!

August 4, 2008

So this week I got a new comp on tues. and she came straight from the MTC and I've been training her, and I still don't know what the Lord was thinking, but I think it's going okay. :) My new comp is Sis. Dickson and she is from Alaska and Arizona (born in Alaska, moved to AZ, goes to Alaska every summer). She is a full blood native American, from Alaska. She is from the tribe ______, that do the totem poles. She's totally American and English and stuff, I just think it's really cool that she's native American. She even brought all these hoops that she can hoop dance with. She is a beautiful girl, so at least people will talk to us. :)
But the work is going well here, we are being quite blessed. Debbie came to church again this week, and oh, last monday she was telling us that when she got home from church last sunday, Katie was asking her about it (I think) and Debbie said it was interesting and that it was different from anything she's ever experienced. Then Katie told her mom that this church makes more sense to her than any other religion ever has. We were so excited about that! The only big obstacle with them is that Debbie hasn't decided to quit smoking yet, so please pray for her to have the desire to quit ASAP. As soon as she decides she wants to quit, we can help her quit pretty easy, but it's that desire that she doesn't have yet.
Heather's kids are finally back from Texas, and were sad they missed her baptism, but glad that she got baptized. Well, at least Ashley is. Junior (10 yr old) still thinks church is long and boring, but what 10 year old doesn't? Hopefully we can get him to want to be baptized soon too. But Heather paid her tithing for the first time yesterday!!! She called us yesterday morning, asking how to pay it and who to give it to. I was so proud of her. And she fasted for the 2nd time. She is doing so great!
The experience of the week definitely happened on Saturday. Sat. morning we had just dropped off some stuff at the post office and I was going to head straight to this one neighborhood to try to contact some referrals we had, but then at the stop sign I felt prompted to turn the other way and go to these apartments that were right there, to try to contact a couple potential investigators Sis. Arnell and I had met from the new move in list a while back. I didn't want to, but I couldn't ignore the feeling. So I turned left instead, and we parked in the parking lot of the complex. Those people weren't home, then I remembered this other new move-in girl that lived there too..she wasn't home either, but on the way back to our car, there was this lady that we just talked to for a second (and I almost didn't!) and asked her if she knew the girl whose door we had just knocked on, just for something to say, and she didn't. Then we told her who we were and that we had an amazing message about the gospel of Jesus Christ being restored, and we'd love to come share more with her. She said we could that day (I couldn't believe it) and so we set up a time to go back and talk to her that night at 7:30. That evening, we were at Wal-Mart, contacting inside, and got stuck talking to this nice lady that kindof wouldn't stop talking, afterwhich we were late to our appointment with the lady, Michelle, who we had met that morning. Well, when we got there, we rang the doorbell a couple times (we didn't think it worked), knocked a couple times (the TV was on, so we figured she was there), and then decided to just leave a note. As I was writing the note, Michelle came to the door, kindof flustered, and said to come in, even though she said she was not what we wanted to see right then. She seemed like she was really flustered and just had something bad happen to her or something, and we were not there but one minute, when the doorbell rang. She answered it and it was apparently her ex-husband and son (about 10 or 11) and she kindof talked to them a minute and then came back to us and quietly asked our names and we told her, and she whispered, "first names", so we told her, and she turned around and she told these people at the door our names, like we were friends of hers and acted like this was totally normal that we were here. Then the three of them talked real quietly at the door, all hush hushed, while sis. Dickson and I just waited by the TV. To make the rest of this story short, she told us later, after she sat us down and basically said tell my what you believe, she said that people around here are afraid of us. That they always see us and they'll call each other when the Mormons are around and tell each other i guess. And that even before she had answered the door for us, three different people had called her, telling her that the Mormons were here! Ha! We were dying, practically rolling on the floor, as she is telling us this, if you can imagine. And she said that the whole episode at the door was that her ex- asked her who we were and she wispered back, "the Mormons," and he crossed himself, as if to help protect himself, or her from us or something. We were just dying at all this. She said that she has seen us all the time over there (and we really don't go over there that much, God must just be making us really stand out to her), and that she'd never wanted to talk to us. But that day she said she knew God had sent us to her because of what she was going through right then (which we never found out exactly). She is an alcoholic, 41 yrs old, and in the process of trying not to lose custody of her 3 kids, because of her alcoholism. But she sat us down on the couch and just went on and on about how she could see joy and peace in our eyes, and that she wanted that. It was the most amazing experience with her, for about an hour, and by the end, we hadn't really taught her a whole lot, but just being with her and letting her talk to us, we created a great friendship in just that time and were able to bring some peace to her life. She even really wanted to come to church with us yesterday, after finding out that anyone is welcome (she said they all think no one else is welcome--but that's the temple next door to the church, no one knows that's not where we go to church on sundays). She didn't make it to church, and we still don't know why, but we hope to contact her again soon. We tried to last night, but no answer.
I know I was prompted to go to those apartments, not for those new-move-ins, but for her. God works in mysterious ways, but He is so in control, I know that. My testimony of His hand in this work grew incredibly after that experience with her. I know God is real and is so aware of all of us and where we are and what we're doing.
I love you all!
Love, Sis. Gurr
PS Jared, Elder Osmond is in my district now! He got transferred here to Franklin, TN this last week. He's a great missionary and a very nice Elder. I thought you'd like to know that. :) For the rest of you, Elder Osmond is Jay Osmond's (Donny and Marie's brother) oldest son. He is good friends with my friend Jared, who I was just writing to, from BYU.
One of my goals on my mission was to acquire a guitar, and this week I have! We helped our investigators Debbie and Katie move out of their old house and Katie was getting rid of her guitar and said I could have it! I am thrilled. Now I just have to find and baptized Carrie Underwood (my other goal)...who, by the way, doesn't live too far away from where we are, apparently, but out of my current area. Oh, speaking of though, some of the elders in our district live in Hannah Montana's area (also Billy Ray Sirus's, her dad), and they knocked on her door the other day (I think actually rang the bell at the gates:). I thought that was pretty cool. :)

Great Week!

July 28, 2008

Hey, I have little time, but the greatest news of the week is that, who would have guessed it, but Heather got baptized yesterday!!! Can you believe it?! There definitely IS a God and He is good, I tell you what. In a nutshell, we taught her a couple times this week, brought the spirit back in her life, plus she got her bi-polar meds refilled, which really helped :), and she had a great experience with the spirit a few days ago telling her she needed to be baptized. Hallelujah! The baptism went really well, and she even took out her tongue ring finally, right before church yesterday! :)
We are teaching a mother and daughter named Debbie and Katie--Katie's the fairy girl (can see our fairies). Anyway, they are so great and we set a baptismal date with them on Sat. for Aug. 23, and Debbie actually came to church yesterday, which was a big step for her to even be in a church since her husband died 7 years ago (since then, she would only see his draped casket at the front of the church when she would go, so she stopped going). She said it was interesting and different, and because of her recent back surgery (and not being used to the length), the three hour block was a little long to her. We'll get her used to it though, it's so worth it! I love going to church, it's like 3 hours off from the world! How can you NOT like going to church?!
Uh..oh, yeah, I get a new companion tomorrow. I'm excited for the new companion idea, but I'm going to be training (yes, the blind will be leading the blind). Yep, my comp is going to be a brand new sister missionary straight from the MTC. Am I overwhelmed? Extremely, so if you all could pray for me, I would sincerely appreciate that.
I love you all, and I know that this is God's work, and He will make sure people can still be taught the gospel and be brought the amazing message of the restored truth into their lives, even if I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing....
Love, Sister Gurr
oh, Happy birthday Rosanna on friday!!! the big--I won't say it...:) And of course I remembered! You should be recieving something in the mail soon...
Camilley(and Jake)!! Congratulations!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited for you guys to have another baby! And that was a very cute way of announcing it!
Sal and Joe--I'm still praying for you guys to get a baby, it'll come, Heavenly Father is so aware of you and knows you will be phoenomenal parents, it just must not be the right time. Who knows why, but I bet you'll be able to see why someday. Keep having that strong faith I know you have. I love you!
And cindy--congrats on the engagement!! Keep me posted, and thanks for the email! Love you!
Cher, where are you now?
PS--Today we went to the Nashville Zoo for Pday, so fun!! You all should come out here and go to it! ;)

Have a Blessed Day!

July 21, 2008

So yesterday we have decided to forget investigators and just focus on reactivating the less-actives in the ward. :) Not really, but man, we are having really bad luck (or seeing the reality of the adversary, really) with our strong baptismal dates. This was brought on by Heather telling us yesterday that she couldn't go to church, she couldn't be taught this week, and she just isn't ready to get baptized this next weekend (in a nutshell). She is extremely bi-polar, and she has been out of her meds for like 5 or so days now, so we're hoping that she is able to get back on her meds today or very soon, and that everything will straighten out and she will see the error of her ways. But the good news with her is that she is totally done smoking and drinking. She says she's not really even tempted to smoke anymore! Yay!
Other good news includes how we had 2 less-actives come to church yesterday, who hadn't been to church in about 20 and almost 50 years!!! We have been working with and visiting/teaching these two (totally separate, unrelated), Pat Clegg and Terry McGibbon, since I got here, and the sisters before me had been already. (Pat Clegg is a 60 year old retired school teacher who is divorced, has no kids, and lives on land that she just loves to keep up. She is very youthful and you'd never guess she was 60, she's so great. Terry is a 44 yr old guy who is as sweet as a little boy and just loves the sisters. He and his wife, Wendy--totally uninterested in religion, but really nice and loves us anyway--are so much fun and so nice to us. They took us out to lunch last monday.) So for between 4 and 8 months, the missionaries have been trying to re-activate these people, and they both finally came to church yesterday!!! It was practically the happiest day of my life when we saw them both there on the back pew in the chapel. We had no investigators at church, but Terry and Pat both came!! Hence why we've decided to forget investigators and just focus on the less-actives. :) The joy that comes from someone coming back to church is practically more than when an investigator comes. Ah, it is amazing. The main reason (or one of the reasons maybe) that they both came is that my comp is going home next week, so we've been using that to our advantage with people, specifically these 2, to get them to come before she leaves. It's been a great excuse. :) But they both had such great experiences at church, and Terry even stayed through sunday school. We just love them.
Anyway, my time is up, sorry!
I love you all,
love, Sister Gurr
ps--peter (Gurr), thank you so much for the email and advice. I'm printing it and going to study it. We're planning on writing letters here soon to the Campbells, so I'll definitely incorporate what you suggested and taught me in there. Thank you! I can tell you WERE a great missionary (not that I ever doubted)! I love you!

Hey y'all

July 14, 2008

Hallo!
The last time I emailed was only a few days ago it seems, so since then, let's see...
Oh! The most exciting news is that today is Heather's 7th day of not smoking!! She has smoked for 27 years, since she was about 11 or so, and she has quit!!! We are so so proud of her, I am even a tad bit surprised that she's really gone this long. But she signed the paper promising she was quitting, and she is good to her word. It's been so exciting to see the changes in her. She dresses more modestly now, doesn't look so "hard", as a ward member mentioned yesterday, her testimony is growing all the time, she doesn't smoke any more, doesn't drink, we're still working on the morality issue, but she is trying hard. She is a totally changed person, and it has been amazing to see the literal physical changes that the Gospel has brought into her life. She is so excited for her baptism, which will be on either the 25th or 26th, she's still trying to work out her job schedule--oh yeah, and she has a job too (this is huge as well)! So pray for her to stay strong and to be given the strength to resist the temptations she still struggles with.
Yesterday at church we had a new investigator come, named Tommy. He is 43, looks hispanic, but is very American. He was taught by the Elders about a year ago, but just wasn't the right timing. So this is his 2nd time around being taught, and he said yesterday in Sunday School that he was there (at church) because he is looking for a home, and he will probably make here his home (the church; something to that effect). That was really neat to hear him say. He is trying to overcome alchoholism right now, and he got a blessing at church by 3 great members of our ward, for strength for that. We also just found out yesterday that he smokes too, which we didn't realize. But the thing is that he doesn't want to quit yet. But Heather was in his exact same situation just a few weeks ago, and we have seen miracles with her, so I don't doubt that we will see some with him. Please pray for him to be able to quit drinking totally, and to want to quit smoking. Cuz once he wants to, then we can help him quit. Then he can get baptized! :)
We are teaching this mother and daughter as of recently: Debbie (50s) and Katie (21). They just moved into our area a couple months ago because her husband died a year or so ago, and too many things reminded her of him, so she moved. She is the greatest, most lovable woman, so friendly and fun. Her daughter is really cool too. Debbie teaches/is a counselor at one of the nearby high schools, and she works with the gifted kids, which happen to primarily be LDS. So she just LOVES Mormons, loves 'em. So when we knocked on her door a few weeks ago to welcome her into the area (found her from the new move-in list, love that list!), she was so excited to see us and talk to us and had us sit down and chat with her for a bit. She is so great. Anyway, we taught her a 1st lesson a week or so ago, then Sis. Elmer and I went to visit her last week when we were on exchanges, and she (Debbie) wasn't there, but we met Katie, her daughter. We taught her about the BOM in front of her house, and gave her one, and committed her to read from it (3 Nephi 11). So then we went back this last Sat. night and taught them both together, a 1st lesson again, but much more in depth and with a lot of logic and historical backup, because we could tell that Katie was very scientific and into history (from a time we visited them in between these lessons). Anyway, it went so so well, they are so great, they are going to both read and pray about it all, and we soft-committed them to baptism ("If you were to come to know that this is true, would you be baptized?" basically). We are really excited about them. Katie is really in tune with the spirit, she has some really neat gifts of the spirit, it's really cool. I need to wrap this up, and I'll tell more later, but part of it is that she told us that everyone has a fairy--their own fairy. She stood there after our lesson and described our fairies each to us. It sounds like she's psycho, but she is actually very down to earth and really cool. So I've learned I have a fairy. :) Mine stays above my right shoulder and just kindof hovers. Sis. Arnells usually hides behind her head. And that's just the beginning of the descriptions. So now that you think I'M psycho... :)
Oh yeah, so we have a new Mission President, as of a few weeks ago. His name is Pres. Hutchings, he's from CA mostly, but moved to Lehi, UT last year. He is really really great, we love him! He is really hard working, energetic, enthusiastic, really fun, and very very in-tune with the spirit. I'm really excited to see what he does with this mission. His wife, Sister Hutchings is really nice too.
Mom and Dad, I did get the 4th of July card before the 4th, i think one or two days before even. Thank you, I loved it!
Sal, I never got the pictures with your email last week, I just got the email...maybe try again? I love you and am praying that you guys get a baby soon! You will both be amazing parents.
Rosanna, how are you feeling these days? It sounds like Steve is doing tons better, so glad to hear!
Camille and Jakey, how the heck is Utah? It sounds like you all are having a great time!
Oh, Mom, chicken salad sandwhiches on croissants is a great idea for the Froerer party I would say.:) In fact, could you mail me a couple?
Peter and Lindsay, you all alive down there in El Paso?
I love you all!
Love, Sister Gurr