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