Hey hey!

April 21, 2008

Hello friends and family--
This last week was a little rough/slow at the beginning, but picked up and was full of blessings by the end. So we have 2 baptisms this week, one on Wed., and one on Saturday. We are really excited for both of them. The saturday one is the 11-yr old girl named Ashley. She is half-hispanic, with a caucasion mother and a mexican father, who lives in mexico...? Anyway, at their house lives the mom, another mexican woman, a few mexican men, Ashley, and two other little boys, one 9 and one 5. Ashley is amazing. She will be the only one that is a member, but the amazing thing is that her mom, Heather, is extremely supportive of her decision to be baptized. She's a great person, just not into changing her life that way right now. But she and a lot of Ashley's family and friends will be attending the baptism, so we are hoping and praying that her mom will be touched enough at it to want to learn more and change her life herself.
This past saturday there was a big family history workshop put on by the church and the public library, held here at our church (next to the temple). We got the chance to help out with it, passing out people's registrations when they got there, and helping with the massive lunch of soups/salads/bread and goodies. About 300 attended, and I think over half of them were nonmembers, which was great. We had some really great interaction with them, and they all loved it. Hopefully we'll get some new investigators from it... But it was really fun! There were lots of different classes, during 3 different sessions/classes, with lunch after the 2nd class/session. We and a set of elders in our district got to help, eat, and talk to people. It was great, and it was a nice break from our regular activities.
One of my favorite things out here is the members. We have amazing members in our ward! There are over 60 RMs in our ward and a good chunk of them are returned sister missionaries. The families are really strong in the gospel, and so nice to us, very willing to feed us or help in any way. It's nice to just cover one ward, to get to know the members in the ward.
Another one of my favorite things is the less actives we are trying to reactivate. We are working on about 8 or so families, trying to get them to come back to church. None of them have yet, but we are close with one family, and hopefully it won't take too much with another that we just met last night. The funniest thing about a lot of these less actives is that they know and talk about the gospel like they're active--they just don't come to church. Go figure.
So to answer some questions:
Mom, we are given a credit card to use, they put about $125 or so a month on it I think, for food, etc. Yes, I got the package you sent!!! Thank you!! Those things were exactly what I needed/wanted! I'm good for now, thank you again! That was fast, too!
Rosanna, I'm excited for you and Steve to be speaking, you'll do great I'm sure! I wish I could be there to hear you... anyway, about daily scripture study, I think it's good to know WHY it's important to read/study the scriptures every single day (cuz we've been commanded to, because we need spiritual nourishment every day to keep us on the right path, to learn, etc.), and there's a neat analogy you could use that I really like. We used it to help teach our 16-yr-old investigator that is getting baptized this week about the commandment to study the scriptures. So if it were me speaking to a friend, I would give them a long letter to look at, like a few pages long (you could use my first letter to you:), and I would say so what if you (the friend) were to write me a really long letter that took you a few hours, and you included some very important things in there for me to know, and you poured your heart out to me about some things that are very close to your heart, etc., etc., and then took the time to get an envelope and a stamp and mailed it. Then how would you feel if, when I got that letter, i just chucked it under my bed or on my shelf, maybe opened it a while later, read a little of it here or there when I wasn't busy, let it get dusty.. How would you feel if i just didn't really care about it? Then the friend, obviously would say they would feel terrible, would be hurt, upset probably, etc. So then I would hold up the scriptures and say, guess what these are? This is a long letter from our Heavenly Father and brother Jesus Christ to us, that they spent hundreds of years on!! And then you can go into how people risked and even gave their lives so that the scriptures could be preserved for our benefit. And how do you think Heavenly Father feels when we don't even open them every day, let alone read them? There is so much stuff in the scriptures that Heavenly Father and Christ want us to know, that is for OUR benefit, that will only help us to be happy and to return to live with them. But we have to open and read them! Of course you can change the whole analogy around to fit you or whatever, but it helps me put the scriptures into perspective.
So that's my two cents for your talk, hope it helps! :)
Merkleys--yes, I got Jake's dearelder.com in the MTC, thank you! Sorry that I never mentioned that before. And I loved your postcard from nashville, thank you! Thanks for your blog letter too, I LOVED reading all about your trip, and Camille, thank you for your advice, it really helped.
Rosanna, also, good luck with your eyes! That is so exciting! You've always wanted to get that done. I will definitely pray for you. The 28th right? Oh, and a long time ago, happy bday stevie wevie! Don't worry, I thought of you back then, just forgot to ever write it! I hope you don't feel too old being in another decade than the rest of us... ;)
Dad, congrats on the window sales to the Samuelsons!! Maybe if you give them a discount on their windows, they'll give me a discount on my tuition when I go back to BYU...think about that... ;) Or even better, maybe they could let me into the nursing program...
Oh, Camilley, your hair is so long! It's so cute, I love it! Thanks for those pics, Christian is getting so old!
Peter and Lindsay, thanks for that darling picture from Joey! That totally brightened my day! I hope you guys are doing well--have you figured out where you will be after graduation?
Sal--I would LOVE more pics from Hawaii...just a suggestion. ;) How are you guys? Still alive in texas?
PS--There was a big earthquake out on this side of the country recently, but we didn't feel it. Too bad..
Oh, Camille, yes, my allergies are getting bad. My eyes itch mostly toward the evenings, weird. But I do sneeze all the time. But like you said, other people have said that their allergies are worse out here than in the west, so yeah. Mine haven't been way terrible, but they're there. So no, missionaries are not exempt from allergies unfortunately. :) But also, I can't believe you got 20 shots for numbing!!! I'm glad you got your tooth fixed though. Man, that's a lot. Is that how many Peter would have given? Just curious.
Love you all, thank you for your prayers and mail!!!!!!!!
Love, Sister Gurr
PS--Jared, please don't stop emailing me, your emails crack me up and give me something to laugh about. Thank you!
PPS--Good luck BYU with your finals!!!
PPPS--Natalie Ginos--how are you?! How's the calling (a while ago, I know) going by the way? I'm sure you have done a phenomenal job with the girls of the ward, I didn't ever doubt that for a second. Everyone loves you! But what are you doing this summer? Staying in the hood? I love you!