Week 55 And a Happy New Year!

This week has been pretty cool. I loved caroling at the MCRD, and the luncheon at the Battalion was pretty cool, and there were a billion people at the temple, and then we had a few lessons. We've been talking to a lot of people. It's kinda scary sometimes. But it's good stuff. Haha. In fact, this morning we were shopping but the other sisters had the keys and they moved the car so we finally found it and wanted to put our groceries in the car but it was locked, so we sat there waiting for them and a homeless man walked up to us with his walker and sat down on it and just talked to us for a good 8 minutes (about how he can't walk...) until the sisters finally unlocked the car. It was pretty exciting. He said he used to be a mechanic, and he has a degree... in something, not sure what he said. But anyway, it's always an eye-opening experience. Heavenly Father has SO MANY CHILDREN. And He loves them all. It's cool to be able to feel that love. :)

Yoga dogpile?

We had a miracle on Saturday. This WHOLE transfer we've been trying to find these two families, and on Saturday we found BOTH of them! They were finally home! And we set up a return appointment with one and had a lesson and set up a return appointment with the other. :) It was pretty sweet. :)

The Battalion has been CRAZY busy. We had 1045 people come. (That includes the whole tour or just them coming on and deciding to leave... they do have their free agency after all.) :) It was so sweet! It's a little stressful but kind of fun too. :)

Oh and our Christmas Eve was fun. We went to this Carnival Market place and bought fresh tortillas and queso fresco and lots of delicious goodies, and then Hermana Bermudez and I made bunuelos. They were super delish. I know I said this already in the phone call, but this is my favorite story so here it goes again. That night we went to our less actives house. When we asked if we could share a message she said no. So I told her it was a family tradition to read Luke 2, about the Savior's birth. She said that'd be ok, so we read it, and then testified about Christ. She got a little teary-eyed, and then we prayed, and then the tamales were ready, so we went into the kitchen and she called everyone down. Now, keep in mind that her children are all athiest. So they're all grabbing tamales and talking and she says, "Callate. Sientate. Vamos a orar" then she turns to my companion and says, "Ora!" (Be quiet, sit down, we're gonna pray.) (Pray!) Yes ma'am! It was pretty incredible. :)

Oh man. I still cannot believe transfer calls are in a week! It's gone SO FAST. >_< Well, next week I'll know if I'm at the Battalion for the rest of my mission or not. Our directors are changing in 3 weeks, and the Afflecks are leaving in 5. :( One thing's for sure: change is just around the corner. I'm working on being excited about it. Haha! :)

--Hermana Harris

Week 54 Spreading Christmas Joy!

So on Christmas morning we're going to sing at the MCRD, and that'll end around 11, and then at 12 we have a luncheon, so I'll prolly call around 11. 11 here.. so 12 there? Then we have the luncheon, which'll include caroling in Old Town, then temple shift, then the area for a few hours. It'll be quite the day! :) Haha And on New Years Eve we have to be inside by 7. But that day is our pday and that ends at 6... and it takes 30 minutes to drive to the area where we serve. So... yeah. We'll figure something out. It'll be an adventure!

The District December 2013

Our Ward choir sang in Sacrament meeting. We sang our best for Him; pa rum pa pum pum! Haha... well the good news is that even though it was challenging, some in the congregation cried during the last song. So hearts were touched! That's the whole point! :) Ooh. I also got to talk on Sunday. I was super nervous. I basically ended up just teaching the Restoration and then telling everyone to shape up. I've never really been one to be bold but uh... it was pretty bold. I enjoyed it, haha! I also got to tell the first vision. I'm pretty sure that's my favorite thing in the whole world to do. :)

I led a tour last night with one of the new Sisters. She's so incredible. Anyway as I was doing the last bit, the part where we really testify, I had sorta planned to say something differently than I had said it before, and then it came out even more different... but it was really good. :) It turned out way sweet and was what I needed to hear! It was a very cool moment for me. :) These (Mormon Battalion) men were going through such difficult times, and yet they turned outward and served others the whole time. What an example! :)

Aww, yesterday our Ward mission leader gave us all presents and dinner. Awww! They said that they didn't think they were going to have enough money that month, but then the Lord blessed them with extra work so then they had more than enough, so they wanted to give some back to him by serving us. It was the sweetest thing! Their kids are adorable. They also have a 12 year old daughter, Joyce, with cerebral palsy. She's absolutely incredible and so happy and so wonderful. :) I love that family so much!

We had Zone Conference. It was super incredible. :) We learned SO MUCH and it was exactly what I needed. They taught us all about how to teach! Yay! :) We've been applying it and we've already seen and felt a huge difference. :)

Oh man. So we got to go shopping at this Mediterranean/International Market last Tuesday. We all bought a random candy bar from some other country. I bought a Criks. It was basically a kit-kat bar but SUPER DELISH. :) Sister Frampton got a banana something... it was like banana laffy taffy only coated in chocolate. (Mom you'd love it!) Sister Bermudez got something pastry-like and it was in arabic so we don't know what it's called, and Sister Benfield got a Lion. Lyon? I dunno but it was good too. We also bought pita bread and hummus. :) Yum! and bananas - 3 lbs for 1$! Today we're going to another random market like that. It'll be another adventure. :D I really love being with the other sisters. There's no room in the apartment but it's so much fun. :) I wouldn't have it any other way! ^_^

On Saturday we had a Mission Christmas Party! The ENTIRE MISSION was there. It was so much fun! We got to sing a bunch of hymns together and then President talked to us and it was super powerful. Then afterwards we had Battalion, and then we had to get an oil change on the car. As we were weekly planning in the park (waiting for the car) we talked to someone that apparently the elders have taught. He was going on about how he felt like only rich people could be "Mormons"... ha that's a laugh. So we had a sweet lesson with him. Then we had the ward Christmas party. TWO of our investigators came! They ended up talking to each other and it was super sweet, they even planned on visiting each other... and having coffee together... ok so it wasn't the best, but... they both came. So it's a step. :)

Tonight we're going to a less-actives home and we're having tamales! Then we're going to go caroling with the district. :) Yaaay!

Well, that's about all this week. I love you!

--Hermana Harris

Week 53 Caroling Caroling now we go!

This week was super sweet! We got to go to Old Town and do what was supposed to be a flashmob but got changed into us just caroling for the Chamber of Commerce meeting. It was pretty sweet. They seemed to enjoy it a lot. We also got to sing for all the people in Cafe Coyote. It was super cool; singing songs celebrating Christ. :) It's my favorite!

Seal of approval?

This week I've learned a lot about tender mercies. They recently gave us very strict and exceedingly small limits on our mileage, so we have to share the car with the sisters almost every day that we, so the sisters dropped us off and we walked around for 5 hours. We were trying to contact a former, and we had made this goal to talk to everyone. So... we were walking, and we missed the street we were supposed to take, but we figured we could just take the next one and backtrack, and as we went we saw someone outside talking on the phone. Well, we had that goal, so we decided that at least we could give them a card. So, we approached him and I tried to hand him a Battalion card. As I tried to, he told us his wife was inside, and told us to go in. ? We were super confused. But we figured, hey, why not? So we walked over to the house, and as we entered, one of the kids shouted, the missionaries are here! And they all welcomed us in. We were SUPER confused. Finally Sister Bermudez asked what her name was, and the wife said Hna Alfaro. OH. I've heard of them before - they're a family that lives in our area but attends in Logan Heights! Hahahah! So, it was our miracle for the day. Haha! One of those tender mercy things. :)

On Friday our branch had a night at the temple to see the lights. One of the members brought champurrado, (it was chocolate flavored. It's kinda like hot chocolate but thicker and not quite as sweet, and can be other flavors too) and it was super delish, and then they had us missionaries sing carols for them. It was pretty... uh... 'exciting,' especially since both Elder Day and I were sick, and had no voice. (Well, mine was super low and his got super high. Lots of jokes about how we switched voices). But we sang anyway and they loved it. It was pretty sweet. Also this week at the temple (during our temple shift) we met this super sweet lady from Damascus. She was so sweet and loved talking to us. I just felt an instant kinship with her. Not sure how to explain it. But I just feel like super close friends. It was a very precious moment for me. :)

We definitely need to add more people, so we decided to go street contacting for 2 hours in this apartment complex on Sunday. There were these two people walking and we tried to talk to them but they "didn't hear us" so we followed after them and they went inside, so we knocked on the door, and started caroling, and their son opened the door, saw us, and slammed it shut. So we finished the song, and left. It makes the words of the songs come to life, and makes the whole representative of Christ thing real. I'll never think of The First Noel the same way. After that we ran into my favorite Filipino lady, A. She's this grandma that walks around the apartment complex with her little push chair thing. She's the sweetest and I LOVE just talking to her. She taught us how to say I love you, but she said it's the true meaning of love, so it's very powerful. It's ini ibig kita. :) Another tender mercy.

Julia's mission stocking

Yesterday we went and had FHE with los Alfaro, and the Sandovals were there! They're a family from Logan Heights. :) It was SO sweet to see them again! They said my Spanish has gotten better. Yay! It HAS improved! :D It's good to know. For the lesson we talked about giving a gift to Christ. It went really well. :)

Oh! We have a Christmas "tree" in our apartment. It's definitely more like a bush, but it smells good and it's named Alfie. It can't stand up on its own so it's actually tied to the fan with Christmas lights. But they're on the wrong way so we can't plug it in. We'll try to fix that today. Ha!

Well, Shengdanjai kuaile! According to Sister Wells, that's how you say Merry Christmas in Chinese. I have no idea if it's right or not, but there you go. :) Feliz Navidad and all that. I think my favorite Christmas song is still What Shall We Give. It's a good question. :)

Hermana Harris

Week 52 The Zoo, life and everything

Elder Seegmiller told me that Davis County got a big winter storm. :) I still remember last winter, all bundled up, making shapes in the snow in the middle of the storm.  It's been pretty cold here, not as bad as where you all are though. Yesterday I wore Sister Benfield's knee-high grey socks and had pants on under my pioneer dress and I was still cold. Haha! I forgot to wear a shirt under too. Next time. :) It's a wet cold, so it just pierces through all the layers. But it's still not as bad as Utah, right? It warms up in the sun. :)

So yesterday at the MoBat a group of RMs came in and said they just got back from serving in Buenos Aires. I asked if they knew an Elder Stockton, and they all replied in the affirmative. >_< I didn't know what to say after that. Haha! They said to tell him "The Crew" says hi. So... if you talk to him, you can tell him that.

Hermana Benfield drew a picture of us at the Zoo!

So the zoo was a blast! :) I left my camera at home so I can't send you any pics this week, but it was fun. :) Saw lots of animals. I think some of my favorites were the Secretary Birds, these cute monkey things, and the red pandas... or the camels. The rhino was super sweet too, and we saw some two-humped camels. Man. Those things are super ugly. Hahahaha... saw a llama too. I wonder how many times that poor llama gets called Tina. Hmm. Reminded me about Joshua Giraffe. They're trapped in a zoo with buffalo.... well anyway they were NOT next to the elephants but not too far.

So there is this sweet family in our ward. Hno Lopez and his wife have their son living with them, with his wife, and their 3 kids. Their oldest child, a daughter, had her birthday party on Saturday. It was Monster High themed. In case you don't know what that is, it's a t.v. show with a bunch of zombies and vampires and werewolves and mummies that all go to high school together and have very interesting fashion. Anyway. The birthday girl is 6 years old. So... anyway the good news is that they told us to come because they invited a friend they want us to talk to. So we got to meet them and at first they were a little wary but they warmed up to us. It's a good start! :D

We had a SWEEEEET restoration lesson with this lady. We invited her to pray about what we talked about, to know if it's true, and she said "I already know it is." So... where do you go from there? Haha but we're going to go back see her more this week. She also told us she wants us to teach her daughter, and her other daughter, and her husband. :) So things are looking up! :D

And we officially gave J. to the other sisters. Done. When we switched areas he went to them but we were going to give him to the YSA sisters but he said he doesn't feel like he belongs there, so I guess he's staying here, so we had to hand him off. It's weird but we're happy for him and we think he'll start progressing more. :)

Whoooo! I hope you all saw that Christmas devotional! Super sweet! Afterwards we had ward choir practice. It was our first and last time we will be able to attend, but it was super cool. J. came and sang too! The choir is trying so hard! They're full of so much love and devotion. It makes me super happy. :)

I love this branch. They're the best! ^_^

That's about it for now.

Hermana Harris

Week 51 Giving and Thankfulness!

Well we're going to go to the zoo so I only have a few minutes left. So here's the basics:

Turns out we're sharing an apartment! Yes, it's the same size as the other apartments but now there are 4 of us. Still one shower, but at least there are two 'bathrooms.' So... it's been a little crazy. My claustrophobia isn't getting any better  but it's okay, I think we'll survive. It's actually pretty fun. :)

Thanksgiving we had a lesson with J, had district meeting, then went and visited M. She had a friend over, and they fed us a TON. We had a short lesson with them, and the next day M. told us that her friend, after we left, said she really liked us and that she really felt the Spirit when we talked. It was pretty cool. :) After we visited a member and then went and tried to fix up the apartment a bit. (8 suitcases+ of stuff everywhere...)

Remember how we switched areas? Well, J. is actually in the other sisters' area. So we're transitioning him over to them. We'll make the switch sometime this week. So... hopefully we'll have a miracle!

Our favorite less active is really starting to like us. :) Hearts are softening! She's also really excited to make tamales with us on Christmas eve. :) We're excited too! :D

Fast Sunday went well. We had a meeting with our Branch President and Branch Mission Leader about some ideas we have for how to kick up the missionary work in the branch. :) We'll see how they all come together but so far it sounds pretty exciting. :) Good stuff coming!

Yesterday we had a sweet miracle. We've been trying to teach this lady for a very long time. We received her as a referral through church headquarters (she requested a dvd) but whenever we went by she told us to come back later. Anyway we saw her outside of the apartments on Saturday and she talked to us and eventually told us she was going to have her house fumigated and she needed to take everything out so we offered to help and she was super hesitant but we convinced her to let us, so we came by on Monday and helped her out and she opened up SO MUCH and told us the story of her life and we talked about it and the Atonement and she was crying and it was a super sweet lesson and a super sweet miracle. :)

So it's been a great week! :D I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!! :D I love you all!!

--Hermana Harris

WEEK 50 Sweet Blessings!

This week has been sweet! Saturday I had my favorite MoBat day EVER. I took three awesome tours. First tour: The group walked in and this lady walks up to me and tells me that she was here back in June, and that I took her on a tour. She said her son was with her, and that he's less active. She then said that now he's fully active and doing great, and that it all started here. She told me she just wanted to thank me and tell me that the things we do here do not go unnoticed and that we're changing lives. I definitely teared up a bit. It was such a sweet moment for me. 

Sisters Davies Patterson and Harris

So that whole group she was in was actually a mission reunion. They all served in the Philippines together, 30 years ago. One of the other gentlemen from the tour was from Texas. He brought his whole family with him. At the end of the tour, their 12 (?) year old son kept trying to talk to me, sort of. He looked a little nervous and kept almost speaking and then not. Finally I just asked him if he said something, and he said, "Yeah, umm, are you related to Liam Harris?" I was about to say no but then remembered oh yeah, I do know a Liam Harris, so I said yes and asked if Jeff and Cecilia were his parents and he said YES! Turns out Morgan (the boy) is Liam's best friend! Whaaaaat? And it's Liams birthday soon and he'll be turning 12. Happy Birthday, Liam! It was a pretty cool tour. 

Second tour was the French guy in the picture I sent. Super funny, and he really got a much better impression of what Mormons actually are. :) Third tour: J. came back with his brother and his brother's friend! They laughed a lot but really liked it. :) It was way sweet!

The other day we had MTEs! Woo! Missionary Training Exchanges. We got two referrals in the temple! This one guy was from Belgium, and he speaks Italian, and what do you know, but the one missionary from the whole San Diego mission who is FROM Italy was there, so they got to talk to each other. It was way cool. :) MIRACLES. The next day at MTEs we learned about positive thinking. :) Just what I needed! It was super sweet. :)

Oh man. We had a SUPER cool experience. So the less active that I talked about before, the one that can't pray out loud because she can barely breathe, invited us over for dinner! She made us these delicious potato...things. You boil potatoes then mash them a little, and add queso fresco, a few eggs, a little chicken bouillon, and... I don't remember what else. But then you fry them. Not very healthy. But SUPER delish. :) But here's the cool thing, once again, in case you missed it: SHE INVITED US TO DINNER. This is a HUGE step. She's the one that said she was going to fall asleep while we talked to her. How cool is that? :) Hopefully she'll come to the activity on Saturday. :)

Well, that's about all I can remember right now. It's like 40 degrees in this room so... I can't really type much more. Haha! Have a great week! :D

PS

Next transfer I think I'll finish training Sister Bermudez. We'll find out, but I think that's what'll happen. Then I think I'll go full-pros for 2 transfers then come back to the MoBat. We shall see!

--Hermana Harris

Week 49 Looking for more Miracles!

We went to the mission office and got Hermana Bermudez her Tiwi card so she can drive next week! WOOOOO!!! It'll be the first time I've had my companion drive me ANYWHERE. Since I've never had a companion that could drive! :D Exciting stuff. :)

The trio is going super well. :) Sister O'Neill and I are basically complete opposites, and Hermana Bermudez is the perfect balance to both of us. :) It's PERFECT. :)

This week has been super sweet! We're working hard and teaching and learning and doing what we're supposed to do. Yesterday we got to do some service with one of our investigators, we'll call her S. She's going through a super hard time. Her whole family is having issues sleeping. So she has these sleeping pills she's taking, but her son supposedly took 4 of them (she is 4 times his size and only takes 2) and passed out on the ground.

We're trying to help her stay strong and to help her family through the Book of Mormon. We're expecting MIRACLES with this one. We're really going to need it! She's willing to do anything to help her family. Oh and they're living with her brother, because they can't pay rent, and her brother is an "dancer." (He has a picture on the wall that says so. And we've met the guy.) But they tell us he's a dental assistant? It's kinda weird... one step at a time I guess!

We also had a way cool miracle with a less active!!  She's having a hard time breathing and thus praying. >_> Anyway when we got there, we knocked but no one answered, so we knocked a few more times, and waited around a lot longer than usual. Then suddenly the door opened! Turns out her son was sitting on the couch ignoring us but eventually she made her way to the door and let us in. She then sat on the couch in the corner and pulled a huge jacket up around herself and told us she hoped we didn't mind of she just fell asleep while we talked to her. Basically things weren't going to well. We sang, prayed, shared a scriptures with her or something, and that was about it. Then after we prayed again, we asked if there was anything we could do for her. She said no, but said she was just about to make dinner. So we immediately volunteered to help her with it, and she actually let us! So she taught us how/we helped her make albondigas. (Meatballs in soup.) It was super sweet. :) She was laughing and smiling and super happy. It was so cool! I love it. :)

We went to a funeral on Saturday. It was for this lady in our branch who had passed away because of cancer. We only got to visit her once. All of us missionaries sang Grande Eres Tu. It went well, as far as funerals go. :( Very grateful for the Plan of Happiness!!

We recently inherited a former investigator from the other sisters. (We switched up the areas a bit.) She's the mom of one of our members. She was almost baptized, but then, according to her, "se metio el chamuco." She recognizes that Satan doesn't want her to do this, and we had a super good lesson with her about baptism and she said she'll read the Book of Mormon every day and committed to be baptized in 2 weeks. We have high hopes for her too!!

Oh man. So all the MoBat sisters that are leaving this transfer got to sing a song together at the fireside. It was absolutely incredible. ^_^ I don't remember what it's called. But the chorus talks about drop by drop. It's all about how we're lamps and part of this big plan and drop by drop by drop we're preparing ourselves to meet Him again. It's super sweet. ^_^ Anyway basically I love them all and I'm NOT ready for them to go!! >_<

We had a super cool Zone Meeting this week. It was SUPER spiritual. We read part of D&C 76 and wrote down what the Spirit told us about what our Heavenly Father expects of us. There was such a feeling of peace and happiness in the room. It was SO STRONG. I loved it! Suuuuper cool. :) Being on a mission is the best!

Well, I'm ready for another week of miracles! Love you all!!

--Hermana Harris

Week 48 The Heavenly Virtue of Patience

Hermanas O Neill, Bermudez and Harris

We recently reorganized the areas in Sweetwater, so that was pretty exciting. We're excited to be working in a new piece of area (well, new for us) and we've already added people and it's pretty cool to see how the Lord has His hand in everything.  That's been our miracle so far. We also had a ton of people at church! It was such a miracle! We had set an appointment to visit with a less active Sunday morning, but she wasn't there, so Sister O'Neill suggested we go see M. So, 30 minutes before church, we visited her and invited her to come to church - and she said yes! So she came to church with her 3 kids! But J. came too! It was so awesome!! Unfortunately, because we have Battalion shift at 12:30 we had to leave them as soon as Sacrament meeting finished. So we got them to classes and ran off. 

Anyway, life is awesome. Last week we told J. to read all of 3 Nephi but he only read 3 chapters in a whole week, so I told him I was disappointed. That night he texted us at 3:30 in the morning saying he finished the whole thing and went the extra mile and read 4th Nephi as well. Then the rest of the day he kept texting us about how awesome he feels, and how he just feels super happy and excited and he just wants to feel like that all the time. We're trying to get him to see that THAT IS THE HOLY GHOST TELLING HIM THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE, but he... I don't know. He just says he doesn't know. >_> It's frustrating. Oh well. I guess "the heavenly virtue of patience is required."

Well I learned that excuses are lame. We talked to someone who said they can't read the scriptures because they're too busy sleeping, they can't go to church because they don't want to ask for a ride, and they can't pray out loud with us because of their allergies - they can't breathe very well. So... the moral of the story is to stop making excuses, Sister Harris.

Well. Halloween was sweet. :) The Bements bought us pizza. Aww! AAAND on Thursday mornings we have training meeting, so for this training meeting they had us come to the Seegmiller's apartment and they fed us breakfast! Then we wrote down our name on the top of a piece of paper and then passed it around (30 seconds a paper) and wrote down things we loved about each other on their paper. It was super cool and I realized how much I stinking love all the sisters here. :) The next day was Dia de los Muertos, so there were a lot of people running around with their faces painted like skeletons and a BUNCH of people took the tour. OVER half of them were nonmembers! It was so sweet! :D

Ok well that's about it. Love you all!!

--Hermana Harris

By their fruits ye shall know them Week 47

Ok so here are the highlights from this week:

1: I got to go to the baptism of Hermano M.! He's the husband of a less active that we used to visit! It was super sweet because when we first visited her she told us to go away cuz her family was there. The next time she let us in but was pretty distant. As we kept coming, she opened up more and more and warmed up to us a ton. Eventually, after much begging, she even tried inviting her husband to come join us in a lesson. We taught him twice or so and hen I got transferred out of the area. Well, they've been working with them since, and he got baptized on Saturday! :D I finally got to see the fruits of our labors so long ago. :D It's definitely a miracle for me! 

The District!

2: On Saturday our branch also had the branch activity! A carne asada in the park behind the MoBat. They also took tours at the MoBat. :) Unfortunately we missed half of it because we went to the baptism.  But... it was good. :) I love this branch so much. They're so sweet! :D Like, they're really incredible people. :)

3: Yesterday we visited a family that is attending Barrio 20 but they're supposed to be in our ward. They're super cool, and I'm excited to visit them more and help them transition to Sweetwater.

4: We have had some sweet lessons with J. We're trying to get him to get involved with Helix, and it's going pretty well! (Helix is the singles ward.) So he went to a baptism with them on Sunday and then yesterday he went to their FHE activity (caramel apples and a movie). :) Things are looking up! He really just wants to do what Heavenly Father wants him to do, like really truly. :) Sweet!

Well, then there's

 5: We're going to trio train the new girl. Which means moving apartments, starting the 12 week program with her/4 hours of studies every morning, and trying to figure out all over again how to be a missionary. AAAAAAAAaaaaaAAaaaaaaAAaaAaAAa! (I was quoting Charlie Brown.) We'll go pick her up today at 2. Maybe I'll make her some cornbread. :) Oh man. Oh man. I don't even know what to say.

Wellllll... time to go pack! Lots of love!

--Hermana Harris

Adventures with Sister O'Neill! Week 46

P day Barbeque!

So here's the big news! I AM companions with Sister O'Neill! :D I'm super excited. :D I was hoping to have her as my companion since like...3 transfers ago. And before that actually. But in any case, I'm super pumped. :) She reminds me a lot of Rachel. Not exactly sure why but I feel like she IS Rachel when I'm with her. It's like having my older sister back! :) Sister Contreras is now serving out in Ramona, but I got to see her on Friday...at shots... >_> I uh. Yes. Again. But I told them before it might happen. They said it looked kinda cool cuz my face all of a sudden went all white and then yellow and my lips turned purple or something and so... yeah I guess they enjoyed watching. And the lady gave me a muffin...so that was nice of her. :) 

Oh man. So here are some highlights from this week:

We street contacted this guy named D. He was kinda a major hippie. So is his girlfriend. Her favorite band is one called... zombie...something... and the main singer plays a thys... uhm... I forgot what it's called. That weird instrument that's electronic and you wave your hands or something to make it play? I can't remember. Theramin? (http://www.wired.com/design/2013/10/12-handcrafted-theremins-that-look-like-little-robots/)

 I dunno. Anyway. She also likes... The Octopus Project. (She wasn't there, he was just borrowing her car and she had those stickers on the back.) Anyway. He told us about a vision he had when he was 17 when this tree laughed at him but turns out it wasn't the tree laughing, it was the universe projecting his own laughter back at himself because he realized how futile all the little things in life are. In fact, in this vision he became the tree, and felt this sensation of growing and expanding and protecting...and then looked down and saw ants on crack doing a ballet. That represented all of us running around, so preoccupied with all the little things. Needless to say... it was interesting. And at the end we prayed in a circle holding hands and he definitely did NOT start or end the prayer correctly but it was kinda cool...well, anyway. More stories!

The apartment people had an inspection on the CO2 detectors in our apartments but when they finished they locked the deadbolt...which we do NOT have a key for... so we just climbed in the window. Turns out taking out our screen is incredibly easy. Problem? Probably. But it was kinda fun. :)

We had a lesson with J. and our branch mission leader. In the lesson we asked J. all the baptismal interview questions to see if he had any questions or concerns. When we asked about the word of wisdom he wasn't sure what we were talking about at first, but once we reminded him he was fine, but then our branch mission leader started going on about hot drinks and how you can't drink them because if it's really hot it'll burn your throat. ... >_> So... we might want to have the missionaries in his area go talk to him about that... Good news, J. afterwards told us he knew that what he was saying was wrong, and he understood what the WoW really meant. Sweet!

Oh man. On Saturday we had our District Leader give him is actual baptismal interview. When we got to the church though we kinda had a panic attack because guess what? The church was being set up for a Halloween Dance. So there are zombies and bloody fingers and spiders and mummies and skeletons and Frankenstein (technically Frankenstein's monster, I guess) and cobwebs and tombstones and witches and all kinds of decorations everywhere... not to mention teenage girls dressed in weird, questionable costumes, including a bovine suit, all dancing. Specifically, Bernie-ing. In the hallway. We definitely had some serious doubts about how the interview was going to go down. But the good news is that they didn't start blasting music until a little later. Phew!

Yesterday at the MoBat I took this lady on tour. She told me her good friend is coming here to the MoBat speaking Spanish! She's going into the MTC November 6th, so she'll be here probably in like 2 transfers. Which is probably when I'll go full pros if I go, but if not, I might train her! We'll see I guess. It was so fun though! I loved that tour. :)

Oh! We also had a meeting yesterday with the rest of the district where we totally re-divided the areas. It's going to be super sweet. :) We're expecting miracles miracles miracles!!

So here's the good news and the bad news. The good news is J. wants to be baptized. The bad news is he says he's prayed about it and feels like God wants him to be baptized.......wait for it......drumroll please....... in April. But uh. That just happens to coincide with the fact that he wants Hermana Contreras' dad to baptize him, but he can't baptize her if she attends the baptism, and she happens to finish her mission in April. So then she can attend and her dad can baptize him. ... >_> So we're kinda not sure what to do with him. We're trying to get YSA involved (now that Sister Contreras is in a new area he's open to going to YSA,) so maybe that'll help.

 Oh man. There is other good news tho - he finally told us what his actual doubts/problems/concerns are. So now we know what we need to teach him. Yay! And he said he'll keep reading the Book of Mormon and the Bible daily. So we don't have to worry too much. :)

Well, it's been a full week, to say the least. :) I love being a missionary!

Have a great week!! :D

--Hermana Harris

Week 45 Hold fast to that which is good!

So... tomorrow is transfers which means we got calls this morning! And here's the dealio. My companion is leaving me and going full pros! :( So that means I get a new companion but I have no idea who it is! Sister Romero and Amendola are staying together, even though neither of them can drive right now... so I guess that means I'll be playing chauffeur for a few weeks at least. There is a new Spanish sister coming in 2 weeks (mid transfer, it happens sometimes) so they might be trio training... XD In any case... I think I'll be getting Sister O'Neill. She's coming back from full pros. :) I would LOVE that!!! She's the most amazing ever. The transfer when I got Sister Contreras I thought I was going to get Sister O'Neill as my companion. So who knows! We'll see tomorrow!!

 This week has been crazy. J. is totally solid. And he finally told his mom that he wants to join the church. She spent an hour telling him how wrong he was and that he's being brainwashed y no se que. But he's solid and is NOT backing out. Every day she continues on the same rant, but he doesn't let it get to him. He knows what he needs to do! We are so incredibly proud of him. :)

The new senior? couple!

We had a fireside this week! It was awesome! Sister Contreras sang in a quartet with the other Latino sisters in the MoBat. :) Sister Romero, Silva, y Rex. They were so good! The rest of the fireside was incredible as well. Seriously, it was legit. And J. came! He really liked it. He came to Stake Conference too. Talk about golden investigator! We're having our last lesson with him tonight. I say last because it's Sister Contreras's last lesson with him. Oh man. I'm gonna miss her!

I read a scripture this morning that talked about how we cannot progress without diligence in the little things. You know, reading scriptures, praying, personally and as a family, going to church, talking to people about the gospel, inviting, serving, etc. So... keep being diligent!

Have an amazing week! :)

--Hermana Harris

Week 44 in Living Color!

Tree of Life...the most joyous to the soul!

Well, number one miracle/announcement for this week is J. watched all 5 sessions of conference. Afterwards, asked him what he thought. He told us that he knows now what he has to do. So...after further prodding he said that he knows he needs to join the church! He said he just felt this pure joy and excitement that he's never felt before, and that the only question left is how to tell his parents. We're praying for their hearts to be softened.

So there's only one week left of this transfer. I'm afraid someone's getting transferred but it's still possible that we'll stay. I guess we'll see. :( Hopefully we can stay just one more transfer. :)

Sistas at the MoBat

Yesterday after zone meeting we were faced with the decision of going straight to visit an investigator or eating lunch with our district first. Sister Contreras and I both felt prompted to just go straight to visit our investigator. So we left and when we got there she told us she had to leave super soon, but she let us come in. As we talked to her, she told us she was super sad. The last time we had visited with her she told us she was going to get her mole checked at the doctors.

So... turns out her mole was cancerous so she got it removed and now she's worried and sad and feels all alone and she's getting it checked up on in a week or so. In any case, we had planned to have her watch President Monson's talk, and so it fit just perfectly. I hope she'll find peace in it. :) In any case, follow promptings. It changes lives. :)

6 referrals from one tour

Well, I love you all! :) Did you all listen to the talk by S Gifford Nielsen? He told you to do 3 things. 1: Pray daily to bring someone closer to the Lord! 2: Pray for your missionaries and their investigators by name!  3: Invite a friend to an activity! (He's the one that talked about exclamation marks.) I thought it was a pretty sweet talk. :)

Have an incredible week!

--Hermana Harris

MmmRamen!

It started from this tropic port aboard this tiny ship?

Week 43 Progress and Patience

This week was amazing! J. came to church on Sunday AND to a baptism yesterday! We're having FHE with him tonight. It's going to be super sweet, we hope. :) Our original plan fell through so we're scrambling but that's how it goes. :)

Here's a miracle for this week:

We met a guy a few weeks ago named Jn. He was HUGE (like, this tall Mexican body builder with tattoos) and we saw him and thought, "Let's contact him!" so we talked to him and he was super cool and said we could come back to teach him and his family any time, but weekends are better because they're probably home. So on Saturday our lesson fell through so we went to our backup, contacting his family. 

So we knocked, his sister answered the door, saw who we were, looked super excited, talked to us for like 1 minute and then asked us to come in! So we came in and sat down and chatted for a while, and she told us that her mom used to be Mormon.

Well, we started our lesson and in the middle of the lesson she tells us that earlier that day she had been talking to her son about how incredible our memory is. "We can remember all the way back to when we were 5 years old!" And then she said that when she said that, she thought back to when she was 5 and how the missionaries used to come over to her house all the time to teach them. And then we knock on her door a few hours later. How incredible is that? :D I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.

We had Zone Conference on Friday. :D I got to see Sister Salinas again, and we learned SO MUCH. President Clayton is an incredible servant of the Lord. :)

Oh if you check out the CASD blog, there might be a picture of me. Sister Clayton told me she put up some pics but I was in the background of one making a funny face or something... :)

I'm so excited for General Conference! :D I'll be at the MoBat for 2 sessions and free for the other two, so we'll see how much I get to see. Hopefully a lot! :D I love it!

Well, y'all have no excuses. See ALL the sessions! :D

Love you all!!!

-Hermana Harris

Week 42 It has been an awesome week!

So this week was super sweet too! Yesterday J came to a members house and we all had FHE together. :) We met a lot of people, had lots of lessons, met more members, etc. 

Oh man. We were going to teach the Restoration to this lady, and we got like 5 words into it and ended up having an entire lesson just on prophets. I'm learning more and more about the Bible and I love it! There are so many incredible scriptures that teach powerful truths...truths that people are ignoring. In fact when we shared Exodus 33:11( Moses spoke with the Lord face to face) she told us that her Bible doesn't have that verse. >_> Hmm. Okay so both of those stories are about the same lesson. XD Anyway, I really don't know what more to say. 

OH. It was J's birthday on Saturday so we brought him a cake we made but when we put the frosting on it it just made a huge mess, but it tasted fine, and we even finally had a member with us. But he got lost so we were waiting and so we showed up an hour late. And he told us that his family wanted to take him out to eat or party or something but he told them he'd rather relax at home and have a lesson with us. Whaaat? Umm, okay.

 So basically it's been an awesome week. :) 

Oh wait one more thing. We taught WoW twice yesterday, and both people we taught had an issue with the coffee problem. One of them though said she'll try not drinking it. The other said she cannot give it up, refused to do so, and it was crazy. My favorite was when she said, "It's a good thing we get along so well or I wouldn't let you come back" and laughed. XD She's pretty sweet. :) I love these people so much! I've been feeling so happy recently. The weather is changing and it's getting cooler and I just feel excited! :D 

Ok well I love you all! :D

--Hermana Harris