ONLY 5 MORE DAYS!!!

We are so excited for general conference it's not even funny. But seriously. So every just prepare and read talks and scriptures and stuff because its gonna be amazing i can feel it!
Daddy! I hope you had a wonderful birthday! I`m glad to hear things are going well with Elizabeth and the twins! Hope everyone else is great as well!

And now, this week in Paraguay...

hahaha sometimes I can`t get over the fact that I`m in Paraguay. Its like the most random place ever and I love it!!

So this week, we turned into gardeners. One day we met a lady planting bushes, so we offered to help and my hands got really dirty (remember how I don't like plants and outdoors because I hate getting my hands all dirty- yeah I think I`ve gotten over that here) and then taught her about the gospel of Christ and invited her to get baptized. She said no, but was super sweet and it was fun to serve her. 
Then the next day, we passed by a former investigator and they were pulling weeds out of their yard, so we went and helped them. And while we were there, I PET THEIR PIG!! pigs are so cute!! (small ones, I`ve seen some huge ones, and they`re not quite as pretty.) When my comp tried to pet it, it was freaking out and jumping around and wouldn't let her. So that was fun. Service! I feel like we dont get that many oportunities to serve.

Now that said... Last Tuesday we had a service project!! (so this week we did serve a lot, but usually not as much as we would like). We went and helped out with Operation Smile! It was fun. We basically just unloaded trucks and moved boxes and stuff, but it was nice to serve, and there were lots of missionaries there, so I got to see a lot of friends and former comps (picture attached of me and 4 of my comps). And for lunch they gave us Mcdonald`s. Funny how Mcdonald`s is chuchi here (like expensive/fancy).

Thursday was... alright. We got rejected a lot that day. We started the day off with one lesson, and then spent the rest of the day walking, looking for people to teach because all of our plans and back up plans fell through and no one wanted to let us in. And finally at the end of the day, and young mother let us in. But after about 2 minutes her dad came out and told her that her son was crying, so she left. And then he told us he didn't want us there and kicked us out. So I was just sitting there, thinking how it was dad`s birthday and I could be home eating cake. But I pushed that thought out and we kept going....

And Friday was amazing! We found new people. EVERYONE let us in (that may be an exaggeration.. but not really!) And basically we were just loving life and the mission and teaching about the gospel. The whole weekend really has been great! So moral of the story... we always receive the blessings AFTER the trial of our faith (and diligence and patience) (Ether 12:6? i think..)

So yesterday was great as well!! Jessica and David (Diana`s two oldest kids- 8 and 10 years old, respectively) came to church!! Diana couldnt because she just got a new job where she works from 5pm to 5am, so she was super tired Sunday. But she worked it out so she only works every other Saturday night, so she`ll be coming to Conference this week, and trying to figure something out to be able to keep coming to church. But her kids, Jessica and David, ARE GETTING BAPTIZED THIS WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!! So I`ll send you pictures next week!!!!

Also, we are finding so many prepared people and I am seriously just loving the mission right now!!! This is basically the best part of my mission so far!! I hope it just keeps getting better and better!!!

Well, that`s it!! I hope everyone is great and loving life!!
Love you all dearly!
Hermana Urie

me and some of my comps: Hna. Mills (MTC), Hna. Thacker (MTC), Me!,
Hna. Walker (Ita), Hna. Rios (current comp-Villa Elisa)

om! Look how healthy I`m eating! You would be proud. Hna.
 Rios makes me eat lots of fruits and veggies, so this cambio
 our fridge has looked really strange to me. Very... fresh... and
green.. and very lacking in chocolate (but I am gaining a
testimony of the Word of Wisdom, so thats nice)

12 DIAS!!!!!!!!!!

..............HASTA LA CONFERENCIA GENERAL!!!!

I am so excited. But seriously, its gonna be amazing. Invite your family, invite your friends, because we`re gonna go listen to the prophet! We`re telling our investigators about it and trying to get them excited to come! And we are also probably going to have a baptism that day!
So remember Diana and her family? Well She came to church again yesterday, this time with all 6 of her kids! And her soon to be husband is planning on coming with them next week! Last Monday, we taught Diana about family prayer and how important it is, and the next time we passed by to see her, all her kids knew how to pray and were super excited to pray for the lesson. They are so adorable! I just love how whenever we teach Diana something, she`s so diligent and quick to put it into practice and learn. She has a strong testimony of prayer, and she loves to read the Book of Mormon, and she loves church! and her family really is already receiving so many blessing from the gospel, and we just found her 2 weeks ago! Its a miracle!! Now we`ve just gotta teach the guy! We already taught Diana about how they need to get married before they can get baptized, so we`ve just gotta set a date and plan a wedding! My first wedding in the mission!!! and my companion`s first as well, so we don't really know what to do, but that's okay, we`ll figure it out and send ya pictures! Tonight we`re planning to have FHE with them- no bake cookies and mormon messages! They are just adorable!

Also this week, we had a big Zone Conference in Asuncion with a couple other zones. It was fun. We sang the words of "Oh my Father" (in Spanish) to the tune of Come Thou Fount. And me and Hna. Mills and an elder did a fun trio thing for one verse, and the rest of the zone for the rest of the song, and it turned out really pretty. One thing that I loved that we talked about was the talk by Elder Utchdorf last general conference about gratitude- being grateful in any circumstance, and I just love that talk! Gratitude really is the key to happiness and peace in our lives, especially when we are going through hard times. And something that I love that he says is that gratitude is the catalyst to all Christ-like attributes. It helps us to be humble and love others, and to have hope and faith. And there are too many to list, but those are some of my favorites.

So I hope everything is going well with Elizabeth and the babies!! I know I`m super far away and I feel practically in a different world from you guys, but I`m still fasting and praying with the rest of you! I love you all and hope everything goes well!! Keep me updated on the twins!!

I think that`s about it for this week!! Love you!! Talk to you next week!!
Love, Hermana Urie

The view from our front door (beautiful foggy morning after raining all night long)

the view from our balcony (same morning)

Me, Hna. Rios, Hna. Kimball, and Hna. Tanner (yay, divisiones with Sister training leaders- super fun)

Liver, Heart & Intestines

Hey fam!

So this week was great!

Diana came to church yesterday!!!!!!! and 4 of her kids!! (if you don't remember who Diana is, look at last weeks email.) Her husband couldn't come because he had to stay and watch the house, BUT this week they are going to make arrangements so that the whole family can come to church! they are amazing and super excited! Diana is reading the Book of Mormon and receiving answers to her prayers and just loving it all! We`re planning to do a Family Home Evening with them this week, so they are basically just adorable and we love them.

So this week we`ve been working a lot with a new investigator. Her name is Patricia. The first time we found her and taught her she was a bit.. not really drunk, but she had been drinking a fair amount. She`s an alcoholic (but super calm, not dangerous or mean or anything.) But she was really nice and said she wanted to improve her life and stuff, and afterward my comp was like, "she`s really good, we`ve gotta come back for her!" so we did. And she was right-  Patricia is amazing. So we taught her about the word of wisdom and repentance and baptism and stuff, so she`s started quitting drinking. She went 3 whole days without drinking ANYTHING!! Yesterday she did have a slight relapse, but we`re gonna go back tonight and help her keep going and setting goals and stuff. She has enough faith and love in God, and is so ready for the gospel in her life. It`s gonna be hard, but we know that she has the strength and the will to do it!!

We also decided, to try and understand a little more, we`re going to make sacrifices of our own. We are giving up chocolate. Yes, I did just say that. We decided Friday. So Friday for lunch, we ate tons of chocolate and finished the s`mores that mom sent (amazingly delicious by the way, thanks!) and now nothin more until Patricia gets baptized! Its been 3 days so far. only.... at least 3 weeks (maybe longer) to go!!

Other random fun things:
Last Thursday, Patricia invited us to eat lunch with her and we had rice, potatoes, and liver. So far here in Paraguay I`ve eaten: liver twice, heart of something (chicken maybe? don't remember), cow intestines, and I`m not even sure what else.
Also this week we have a big multi zone conference, and our zone is doing the special music number, so the zone leaders put me and Hna. Mills in charge (one of my comps from the MTC, sings really good, is in my old area La Floresta, same zone as Villa Elisa). So we had lots of fun with that! I love singing, I miss music!

And thats it for this week!! Well I love you all! Hope you are doing great!! Have a great week!
Love, Hermana Urie

New Family

Hola familia!

so this week was pretty awesome! We found a new family (almost-we haven't met the father yet but we`re planning to this week). And they are amazing! The mom is Diana and she has 6 kids. They are super ready for the gospel! they will need to get married to get baptized, but she said they`re thinking about it anyway, so we totally might have a wedding this month! I really hope so-- I haven't had a wedding yet in the mish. The only thing is, they did not come to church this week. They said they definitely were going to come, but then they didn't :( Her doubt about coming to church is that they are kinda scared to leave their house unattended for very long, becuase they live in an asentamiento (...no idea what that means in English because we don't really have them in the states... it`s basically the poorer areas of Paraguay that aren't an official "neighboorhood or community" yet. There are lots of small wooden "houses/shacks" and the streets aren't legit streets so they dont have names or anything. At some point I will take a picture and send it to you because asentamientos are like my favorite part of Paraguay! I just haven't done it yet because I`m a little nervous about taking my camera there because if someone sees it we may get robbed...). So yeah, they live there and there house isn't very secure- its pretty open, so they think if they leave it alone someone will go in and rob them... which is quite possible in an asentamiento... or Paraguay in general.. but we taught her about faith in God and told her that God would protect her house while she went to church. So we`re gonna work on that this week. (don't worry mom, I have not yet been robbed on my mission, God protects his missionaries! :)

We are also working a lot with another family, Alcides and Elida (and their 2 kids) who are amazing!! Alcides already has his answer and wants to get baptized! They also were going to come to church this week but didn't because when Elida told her super catholic sister that they were sharing with us and planning on going to church, her sister kinda freaked and almost disowned her from the family... So we`re workin on that... pray for them.

Nothing else besides that. Random, out of nowhere, super hard rainstorm on Thursday morning. By the afternoon it was nice and hot again. You gotta love the weather here in Paraguay (by the way we had like 1 month of cold, and its already super hot again. This summer is gonna kill me.)

Love you all!! Have a good week :) and read the scriptures! err`day!
Hermana Urie

Me and my new comp.! Hna. Rios!

My district (last cambio)

The Flocks

So this week was basically amazing! We had changes! I`m still in Villa Elisa, but I have a new companion, Hermana Rios. She is from Montana, but her dad is from Puerto Rico, so technically she`s half Latina, but she`s super blonde so you`d never guess! She is basically amazing. Seriously, I`m pretty sure I`ve got the best comp in the mission, no joke! She loves missionary work, she loves the people, she works hard, she teaches well and the spirit is always so strong when she testifies. Basically she`s like super missionary. She`s only got 3 months left of her mission (2 changes), and I am hoping and praying that we stay together both of those changes! (if not, that would mean I go to my FIFTH area... I would really like to have more than 2 changes in an area sometime!) But igual no mas, I will go wherever the Lord wants me to go! Oh, and also, Hermana Rios and I had the same mom/trainer!! (Hna. Espinoza trained her right before she trained me)

So missionary work basically exploded this week. We are working hard and finding a ton of people that are super prepared and ready for the gospel! All we need now is lots and lots of help from the members and err`one here`s gonna get baptized!!


So I don't have lots of time this week, but I wanna share a scripture. It`s Alma 17:31 (and 32-33). I don't have my scriptures with me, but its when the flocks of the King Lamoni (?) are scattered and Ammon and the servants...recogerles.... gather them (sorry forget how to say that in English for a second). So I was thinking about how the sheep/flocks are like less actives (and basically all of God`s children), who are scattered and lost for a bit when temptations and struggles and trials (or the Lamanites) come along. And we are like the servants of the king whose responsibility it is to go get them and bring them back and protect them. I`ve also been thinking a lot about home teaching and visiting teaching lately and basically decided that it is the KEY to continued activity and excitement for missionary work in church members. So everyone do your visiting and home teaching because it really does exist with the purpose of saving souls and strengthen each other!! So if you do not yet have a testimony of this inspired program, I invite you to spend some personal time this week to study the doctrine and principle and application of it (why do we do it, what is it, and how should we do it), and pray about it, and then apply it in your life.

So the fun story of this week... We taught a pastor!! of an evangelica church! We had set up an appointment with a contact, so we were going back to teach him and we walk in on the guy and his wife sharing with a pastor and a missionary. So we totally crashed that party- awkward!! and at the end they did a blessing of health with vinegar or something... even more awkward... But we taught the Restoration and invited them to church.


Well out of time, but love you guys!! talk to you next week!!
Love, Hermana Urie