Week 73 There is GOLD at the end of the rainbow!

Yay! We had another lesson with D yesterday. It was AWESOME. We read part of 3 Nephi 11 and talked about how the voice they heard pierced them to the soul and we asked him if he had ever felt that, and he said yes, but that it goes away, and that he wanted it to stay longer. So we also talked about the gift of the Holy Ghost, and we asked him what he thought would be the next step for him. AND HE SAID HE WANTED TO DO SOMETHING, LIKE, MAKE A PROMISE WITH GOD THAT HE WOULD FOLLOW HIM. Seriously. This guy is INCREDIBLE. :D

So. We saw the C. family, and they made us chile rellenos. :) Yum. On Wednesday we saw 4/5 people we planned to see... unfortunately 3 of those 5 were busy doing something. But. We saw them. And we had two members with us. Haha. :)

Thursday we had both our appointments cancel on us, and we still had to finish weekly planning, but we felt like we needed to go out to the area for a minute. So. The first street that came to mind was the one we selected, and off we went. We had a house in mind and on the way there we saw a young man. We stopped and invited him to the Battalion and then talked to him for the next hour. It was super cool. I KNOW that God put us in his path that day. It was a super cool experience for me. :)

One more before the road! Last P-Day!

Cinco de Mayo weekend was nothing like last year's, unfortunately. :( We only had like 300 visitors each day. This year they had most of the roads leading to the Battalion blocked off. So. That was less favorite. :/

But. Yesterday was the best day ever. Like I talked about earlier, we had a lesson with D. It was incredible! But before that - we had a mission-wide conference with Elder M Russell Ballard! That's my second one! It was so incredible. All the speakers were so inspired and inspirational. I felt so pumped to be a missionary! And here's the kicker - the night before one of the assistants to the president texted and said President asked if I would give the closing prayer. >_< 

Ummmm... so 6 people spoke, the 6th being Elder Ballard, and then we sang a song, and I closed with a prayer. I literally almost lost all bodily functions. I was so nervous I couldn't even breathe. But as I walked up, President Morgan gave me a smile, and that helped. Then I saw Sister and President Clayton giving me a smile too, and that helped. Then I saw Elder Ballard and he was smiling at me too! So I knew it was going to be okay. :) Then I tried to speak and my throat clenched again and nothing came out. But finally something did and I guess it was okay, no one booed or shouted "false doctrine!" and President didn't send me home, and I just ran down, relieved to be done. It was pretty cool though, because during it I felt the Spirit really strongly, and I felt the joy of being a missionary. I felt such gratitude and love and happiness. It was really sweet. :)

THEN at the Battalion I saw a sister taking a tour by herself so I asked if I could go with her. Sister Rasmussen said yes, so I joined, and it was so cool. It was a mom and her daughter, and they had come by the day before but they didn't have any time, so they promised Sister Baker they'd come back the next day. And they did! And she was on shift! Outside! When they showed up! :) Miracles! So anyway we took the tour.

In the end we were out in goldpanning and we were just talking to her, pretty lowkey/casual. Now, something I've struggled with my whole mission is TALKING to people. I just don't know how. I usually just straight up ask if they'd like for missionaries to come visit them. And I usually just get a 'no thank you.' But this time was different. Questions just came out of our mouths and the conversation was steered by heavenly hands and suddenly she was telling us about how her brother converted and how they were super nice to him and when he went to Afghanistan they even helicoptered him to church every week and how she's asked him about it but he always thinks she's just making fun of it and yes, she'd like a Book of Mormon and she'd love to hear more. I got to testify to her about how the Book of Mormon unites families and brings such a strength into the home. She seemed really touched and was so happy when she left and Sister Baker and I were ecstatic. It was such a miracle!

THEN. I took a tour with Sister Calderon and these two people from Jordan. They were a RIOT. So funny! Haha, then I went to whisper something to Sister Calderon at the same time that she turned to whisper something to me and we ended up bonking into each other and well she got a bloody nose and it was pretty hilarious. :) But the tour went super well and we both learned a lot and Z and M learned a lot too. :)

Things are going so well! It's going to be an incredible week this week. MIRACLES! :D

Well. I love you all!

--Hermana Harris

Week 72 Happy Happy May!

Cinco de Mayo will be filled with lots and lots and lots of Spanish tours. It won't be as intense as the 3rd or the 4th though. Both of those will be CRAZY. The Battalion gets SUPER BUSY since Old Town has a massive celebration. It literally takes 30 minutes to get from the freeway exit to the Battalion. It's normally a 2-3 minute drive. So. Yeah. It's bad. But it'll be good because all those people will get to feel the spirit and learn about faith in Jesus Christ!

We went and visited a recent convert that's struggling. So to help support her we all gave up something. I gave up complaining. Well... I failed. I still complained some. BUT I did get better at recognizing when I complained and then changed what I said to be something positive. So it's getting better. So I liked what you said about creating positiveness in your thoughts. I've been working on that! :D

Wednesday we had another lesson with M., but this time we had a member with us. It went so well! She's listening more and objecting less. So that's good. :) More open to the message. Progress!

Thursday we had exchanges!!! Sister Amendola went to Barrio 20. Sister Bermudez! The amazing one and only! came with Sister Calderon and I. It was a pretty intense day. But. We also met lots of people and got a referral for the deaf elders and learned a lot. It was pretty awesome. :)

On Friday we had the coolest miracle ever. A while back the elders in our area gave us a phone number and told us to call the guy, but they didn't give us the area code, so the number didn't work. So then a week later they gave us the area code and we called and set up an appointment. On the day of the appointment we called him and he said he had forgotten, so we set up another appointment. 

This time he was able to come and we met and it was the most incredible lesson. He is literally the most prepared person I've ever taught. Ever. We asked him what faith in Jesus Christ meant to him, and he said it meant that he needs to follow the example of Jesus Christ in everything, because He came and set the example for us, and we need to follow Him and try to be like He was, and do what He did. And after we talked about the Book of Mormon (the elders had already given him one) he asked what was the best way to study it so he could really learn from it. It was so cool!! Anyway. Yeah. So we are going to see him again this week. So excited. :)

On Saturday we went tracting with a bunch of members. We met some very cool people, and I really feel like God wanted us right there at that moment. The best feeling ever! We met this lady Y. from the Middle East and she was going on about how she just believed in Christ, not in all these churches created by man, and how Jesus taught the truth, He taught the pure truth, and then man changed it according to what man wanted, so that's why she doesn't believe any western religions. 

SO she already understands The Apostasy! Perfect! Now she just needs part 2, The Restoration. :) Anyway we sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives", and she said it gave her the "goosey bumps." When we first knocked at her door she was a little...well she didn't want us there so much. But by the end she was hugging us and said she felt so good. It was waaaay sweet. :) And the member that came with us said she felt really good too, and that she didn't want to come at first but she was SO glad she had! :)

BTW>>>Turns out I really like Thai food. Had some yesterday. It was SOOO GOOOD. ^_^

Love you all!

--Hermana Harris

Week 71 Thats why I'm here!

This week! Whoo, what the week. We've really seen why Sister Calderon was sent to us. We had a lesson on Wednesday with our investigator M, and she LOVED her. She said Sister Amendola and I are nice, and quiet, but she just really connects with Hna Calderon. So, we're super grateful to her. She's so awesome!

I made a bread loaf called a Stollen Loaf. People kept asking me what it was. So I told them it was a stollen loaf. But of course they all heard stolen. Did I bother to clarify? ...Well, I DO love a good pun....

On Thursday we had a sweet training meeting where they had some of us come in costume as someone that we've met at the Battalion or an acquaintance or something. So I came wearing jeans (it was a surprise so I couldn't say anything so Sister Calderon was freaking out) and sunglasses and we went through the tour and it was one of my favorite moments. I took the tour through my character's eyes and it was just so powerful. I LOVED it. I love that no matter how many times I take the tour it always applies in different ways. :)

On Saturday my companion was having a super hard time. But then we went to the Battalion and we took a tour together, and afterwards she had, as she called it, a Best Two Years moment - "That's why I'm here." She testified to these two Marines that God loved them regardless of tattoos or the mistakes they had made. She told me she felt His love for them and just shared it with them and they walked out changed men. It was a neat experience for all of us. :)

Sunday! Easter is the best. I LOVE IT. :)

Well, yesterday we again saw why Sister Calderon is here. A member invited us over, and had her friend come as well. Her friend is from the Dominican Republic. So. She immediately connected with Sister Calderon and talked to her the WHOLE time (every time we tried to talk the lady just cut us off and talked to Sister Calderon again, haha) and was so happy and wants us to come over. She's not in our area so that's a problem. But. It's fine. Miracles are miracles. :)

Today we're going to go tour the Midway!( a Navy Aircraft carrier) I'll be thinking of Grandpa the whole time. :) ( Grandpa David worked as an electrician on those big ships the Navy shipyard in Bremerton)

Love you all! :D

--Hermana Harris

Week 70 Loving Laughter and Miracles!

Here are a few quotes from Sister Calderon, our new trainee:

"Will you just chill? Take some Hawaii cough drops or something."

Hermanas Harris, Calderon, X.  and Amendola

"Another prayer? We are just saying HELLOOO to you today!" (that was directed at the ceiling... haha...)

This one was as I was trying to fall asleep: "Sister Harris, you are so naturally beautiful. You just wake up in the morning, like, "Aaahaaaahaaaaaaaah aaahaaahaaaahaaaaahaaaaaaah!" <--- That's the song Ariel sings when Ursula is taking her voice.

Last night she was telling us (for the 3rd time) about how she accidentally called a group of elders 'guys' and how they freaked out. She was dramatizing her would-be response, and said, "Woahwoahwoahwoahwoah. I'm NEW, chumbucket!"

We had temple shift this week, and we were talking to someone about who was in charge of driving, and she said she was, and added, "God said give her the keys, and so they gave me the keys!"

She was telling us once about her shower routine (not sure why... but you know, that's how it goes) and she said it takes so long because "I shave, then shampoo my hair, rinse it, conditioner, rinse it, shampoo again..." we interrupted her and asked her why she had to shampoo twice, and she said, "It says shampoo, rinse, repeat!!"

Oy.

Then she was talking about how she loves shoes, especially Uggs. "I bought this pair of sparkly Uggs right before I came out. They were SO cute. I wore them like 3 times. BLESS. THOSE. SHOES."

"Raisins rogues sans panini? What the heck?" (Reading the side of the bag of red seedless grapes).

In the car once she was talking about how people in Utah get married so quickly. "I don't know what the secret is in Utah. Maybe it's the water. I need to drink more of that stuff."

And this one is probably the one you should put on the blog: "I want to be a talk show host, because if there's one think I can't get enough of, it's talking!"

 (THEY WERE ALL TOO FUNNY AND I HAD TO PUT THEM IN!)

Ok so this one takes some explanation. So Sister Amendola told me about this song she learned from a video that teaches sign language. It says something like, "I like apples on my pizza, I like apple pizza please. Put more apples on my pizza, don't forget the extra cheese." Then you change what you put on it. Anyway. It was stuck in my head in the shower and I kept mixing up all the words and making up new verses, like "I like popcorn on my pizza, I like popcorn pizza please, put more popcorn on my pizza, don't forget the extra cheese" and "I like carrots on my popcorn, I like popcorn pizza please, put more carrots on my popcorn, don't forget the extra cheese?" When I came out of the shower, I was telling SIster Amendola about it, and Sister Calderon was listening. She said, 

"OKITHINKYOURPIZZA'SFULL."

Anyway!

Speaking of pizza, last Tuesday we made a pizza with rosemary dough for the crust and put bell peppers and onions on top. It was SOO good. ^_^ A cream cheese sauce would've been better maybe but I didn't know how to do that so... we just went with the regular kind.

On Wednesday we finally had a lesson again with X. She made us crepes. She's the cutest! She also gave me a birthday present! It's a beautiful grey and brown scarf. It looks very elegant. And here's the super cool thing. She LOVES Hermana Calderon. She just was straight up and bold with her and loving and Xachi kept saying, "Wow you're so powerful! I love having you hermanas here, but YOU speak my language! You have such a way with words! What you said has entered my heart. I feel it very strongly." So... that's good! Like I said, she's an incredible teacher. and a rocking awesome missionary!

On Friday Sister Calderon took her first solo tour at the Battalion! WOOO! Very proud of her. :) She's doing awesome! We also had an adventure with the cars. Turns out the Chevy Cruze had a recall on the axle, so we had to take it into the nearest dealership, which was thankfully only about 10 minutes away. So we went and they checked it out, and we had to wait for about an hour in the dealership. I had never been inside one before. It was all so fancy. It was pretty fun. We especially enjoyed the complimentary herbal tea and water and fruit. We got to share the gospel a bit, read some scriptures, etc. Not bad. :)

Laundry day is a special day! It the day we get ready for laundry...

Saturday we had choir practice and threw together a song for the Fireside on Sunday. Good news: Heavenly Father helps you when you're missionaries. It literally just came together and it worked out perfectly. Very neat. Then we had temple shift, and afterwards went to the corner store that our member just opened. Such a cute little shop! If anyone goes to La Jolla, go buy something from him! It's off of Judicial. It's in this little square for an apartment complex called Crossroads something or other. It's so cute. ^_^ Get some frozen yogurt or something.

Sunday we had the fireside. It went really well! The song wasn't flawless but it sounded fine, and that's not bad considering we literally only practiced it with the piano ONCE. The testimonies were really unique but good and the messages were awesome. :) One is called Wrong Path or something. It's by Jeffrey R Holland.

Yesterday we had interviews with President. And at the Battalion I got to see an AWESOME miracle. :) I wrote a bit about it, and Sister Kennedy wrote the ending.

 Here's the story. 

One day I was standing in the lobby talking to some sisters at the front desk, and I felt prompted to go outside. I merely glanced outside to see if anyone was out there, and my eye caught a glimpse of someone walking with their bicycle, looking at the Battalion but hurrying on. I thought, “Oops, too late, I missed him.” The Spirit and I had a battle in my head: “You can still catch up.” “No, I’d have to run.” “Well, RUN.” I had been praying all week for the ability to recognize and obey the Spirit, so I repented and jogged all the way to the statue, catching up just in time.

 I spoke to him and we had a friendly chat about the Battalion, what it was, etc., and he said that he helped organize after-school activities and that he might have the kids come through some day. He mentioned that he had often walked past the building, and had always wondered what it was. He added that after seeing all the friendly sisters outside waving all the time, he felt like he should check it out. He said he didn’t have time that day to take the tour, but that he would definitely come back soon. I gave him some Battalion cards, and he went on his way. After he left, I felt such peace and excitement. I knew the Spirit had prompted me to go out and talk to B, and I felt the joy and thrill of following a prompting and planting a seed.

Many times here at the Battalion we don’t see the fruits of the seeds we plant, or even much growth. As time went on, I started wondering what ever happened to B. It had been over a month since we had met, and I wondered if he had ever come in or not. For the past week or so he kept coming to mind on a daily basis, but I just pushed it aside, accepting that sometimes we just never see the end. Then, as I was greeting a cute member family from Fresno, I saw B. walking past with his bicycle! As soon as I saw him, I knew Heavenly Father was answering my prayers, and that a miracle was in the making.

I waved, and he saw me and stopped and parked his bike on the street and headed up the stairs. I went outside and greeted him again. He remembered me, and my name, (“Like you said, it’s Sister Harris, because your ‘hair is’ always covering your name tag!”) and said he had time to take the tour. He was so excited that he left his bike on the sidewalk. I told him he could bring his bike inside, so he grabbed his bike, put it in the lobby, and joined the two families in the intro room. Throughout the whole tour, he was just beaming from ear to ear.  At the end of the tour, I ended up taking the pictures of the families, and so the other sister on tour was able to talk to B.

-Sister Harris

(Sister Kennedy wrote)

I had just come from dinner break and the senior sister asked me if I would hop in on the tour that Sister Harris had already started. I obliged, and as the video played, Sister Harris informed me that B. was a miracle in the making. Throughout the rest of the tour I just prayed that he would feel the spirit and that Sister Harris and I could bring the spirit and have a chance to share the gospel at the end.

After the tour, we were in the artifact room and B. asked if the artifacts were real. I assured him that they were all genuine, and then guided him to the case with the Bible and the Book of Mormon, telling him that it was my favorite case. I then asked him if he had ever heard of it. He hadn’t, so I explained a little about what it was and that’s why we are sometimes known as “Mormons”.  I asked him if he was religious at all and he told me “kind-of”. He said that most of his life he had been Agnostic, but he didn’t want to be. He doesn’t like the fact that he questions everything, so he has been going to a Christian church and praying a lot, but doesn’t feel like his prayers are really being answered. I told him that as missionaries, our purpose is to help people find answers to their prayers, and I asked him if he would like to meet missionaries. He said yes! 

As we talked more, I testified of the power of the Book of Mormon and of prayer, and how these two things combined with church will help him to answer his prayers. He was concerned that his prayers were not being answered because people told him that their answers were like a “punch in the face”. I explained to him that this usually isn’t the case, but that they come slowly, with time. 

When we receive a referral, we are told to let the missionaries that come to their house give them a Book of Mormon, but the spirit told me that he needed to hear a scripture, so I grabbed a nearby book, and read to him Heleman 5:30 which says “And it came to pass when they heard this voice, and beheld that it was not a voice of thunder, neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold, it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul”. 

He read it again, and he looked at me and said “I love that.” I told him to keep it, and he was so touched. He asked me if he could meet with me and Sister Harris. It broke my heart, but I explained to him that we had our assigned areas in which we teach, but he could visit the battalion and tell us how his journey was going! He said he would, and asked me how soon the missionaries would come. I told him “as soon as possible!”

Sometimes it’s hard to be at the battalion because you plant these seeds and almost never see the growth, but its days like these where I see the miracles that remind me that the work I am doing is making a difference, and that the Lord sees and appreciates my labors, and it makes it all worth it.

-Sister Kennedy

So there you go. :) AWESOME. I love being a missionary!!!

I think that's most of what happened. Love you all! :)

--Hermana Harris

Week 69 Sister Calderon arrives!

Hermana Calderon

So. The adventure continues in La Mesa. Sister Amendola and I are still companions, and we have a new trainee, Sister Calderon. She's from North Carolina, but her parents are Dominican, so she has a sweet accent and a lot of spunk. She's SUPER pumped to be a missionary and loves tracting and teaching and just being with people. She has the gift of being social. So I'm trying to pick up some tips from her, haha. It's like magic. It's fascinating just watching her talk to people. People are literally spellbound. She just makes insta-friends. On her way here she placed two Books of Mormon! Like, on the flight over from Utah and then in the bathroom at the airport. She's on FIRE. So basically, watch out La Mesa, because we are going to tear it up! She's super funny too. She makes us laugh. A lot. She's just hilarious. We've got a lot to teach her and we've got a lot to learn from her. It's going to be quite the adventure!!!

I left my planner at home so I don't have my usual notes to know what happened this week so I'll give a few highlights. Yes, they're ranked. :)

4. We visited the branch president with Sister Calderon. We taught a lesson about 1 Nephi, and we acted out Nephi getting the plates from Laban. Mia (the 3-yr-old) was Nephi, Cristina (her 7-yr-old sister) was Sam, Sister Amendola was Laman and Lemuel, Sister Calderon was Lehi, and I was Laban. Oh and their dog Stick was Zoram. No they did not decapitate me, but they did take my cardigan and put it on Mia, so then Stick gave her the 'plates.' (a quad... haha) It was really neat. :)

3. An investigator came to conference!!! :D She watched like 30 minutes of the 1st session and stayed for the intermediate meal thing and watched the last session too! It was so awesome. We haven't seen her yet since then but we'll be sure to follow up on it. Follow up is important! :) Oh. And conference itself was just so incredible!!! LOVED IT.

2. This comes from our trainee. She was having a hard time at the Battalion, because she felt like it wasn't doing real missionary work. She was struggling with that a lot, and then suddenly Heavenly Father gave her a tender mercy: someone came up to her and started asking her missionary questions, and she was able to testify and teach and do all the things she felt she was missing out on. Heavenly Father knows us so well, and He knows what we need and helps us when we need it most!!

1. Yesterday we had a follow-the-Spirit miracle. We had planned to see someone as a backup, but as the night went on we felt really really really strongly like we needed to visit them regardless. So with only a few minutes left we raced over and stopped by. We're working with her on quitting smoking, and when we opened the door she looked really sad and she told us she had just smoked a cigarette. She then told us about how she hasn't seen her grandkids since Thanksgiving and her daughter lives literally a 2 minute walk from her house. She feels lonely and sad and rejected by her children and she's struggling so much. We listened and comforted and we read some scriptures and all knelt and said a special prayer for her. We all cried and hugged her, and it was such an incredible moment for all of us. What a blessing to be an instrument in His hands!

I love being a missionary! Here's to another excellent week!

--Hermana Harris

Week 68 Feliz Cumpleanos Hermana Harris!

Ok so this week has been interesting. Here's the good stuff:

Fun thing this week:

Sunset Cliffs, but we were very careful and did not die!

-Last p-day we went to Sunset Cliffs. It's so pretty!!

-During district meeting we made cake waffles and put ice cream and strawberries on them. It was SO GOOD. ^_^

-Oh! I had a birthday! Shout hurray! Dolores bought me a little cake and made me some catfish. She's so cute! Then we were on our way back to the battalion for the Sisters' farewell and when we got there my companion disappeared...so I was freaking out and no one knew where she was and then someone came up to me and told me to close my eyes and they led me to the teaching room in back and had me open my eyes and Edgar and Joaquin and some of the sisters were there and they said Happy Birthday!!! and Joaquin then say Las Mananitas and he gave me a cake and a present (he told me it was 'symbolic') and then we were ushered into the other meeting so I didn't get to open it until we got back home, and inside was a variety of goodies, including toothpaste, soap, a ice-cream maker-shaker, oven mitts, and a stethoscope. He also wrote a letter explaining the 'why' for everything. He's such a sweetheart! Haha the soap is dove soap, and he said it's symbolic because it reminds him of the baptism of Jesus Christ when the Holy Ghost descended like a dove. :) and the stethoscope because as missionaries we listen to peoples' hearts. Aww!

More spiritual things:

-Learned more this week about the importance of hymns. We always sing a hymn whenever we visit, but this week I payed more attention to the Spirit it brings. :) I love the hymns!!

-On Friday we had 3 set appointments - and they all turned out! We met everyone we had set an appointment with! That is such a miracle. We had a temple shift, too. It was pretty sweet. :) Met lots of people. Woohoo!

-The broadcast was INCREDIBLE. I can't even begin to describe what a wonderful time that was. Seriously incredible. I've almost never felt such a unity and sisterhood before. It was such a special moment for me. :)

-On Sunday there was a fireside that we didn't go to, because someone had to be at the Battalion, haha. So I ended up going on 5 tours! That's pretty incredible. Usually on busy days 4 is the most, but there you go.

 There was a sister from Sweetwater that came back from her mission while I served there that came through and I took her on tour. It was cool seeing her again. She brought her nonmember friend with her. I think he enjoyed it. In the same tour was this young adult going to UCSD. He had on the coolest sweater EVER. It was the Beatles abbey road pic, but different. It had Totoro on it, and Howl from Howl's moving castle, and the little girl from Spirited Away, and then someone from Princess Mononoke. It was so sweet! Well. anyway. He and his mother loved it. They're from China but they live here now and speak really good English, but I told them it's in Mandarin as well, and they got really excited and said they'll come back and also bring their friends next time too! :) 

-Last night Elder Barnes had an FHE thing and invited all the battalion sisters to come, so we did. The guest speaker was his daughter in law, Thessily. She's SUPER COOL. She talked about the three C's. Her Conversion story, her bout with Cancer, and how she has come to know her Savior, Jesus Christ. It was awesome. And she talked about how she went to a temple visitor center and one of the sisters there changed her life by just saying something that was an answer to her prayers and exactly what she needed and she decided to be baptized and carry on! So that was really nice to hear. :)

Ok well I ran out of time. Love you all!!

--Hermana Harris

Week 67 Little Miracle add up!

I heard this joke in honor of last week.

What do you call 3.14% of all sailors?

Twinner shirts!

Highlight here--->Pi-rates. :) Get it? Hahaha... :)

So I had a insight while reading the scriptures the other day in Spanish. It's also connected to something I learned in Zone Conference. So in the most recent Zone Conference, President Clayton told us about 19 Evidences of the Book of Mormon. He prefaced it by explaining that obviously the only way to know that the Book of Mormon is true is by reading it and praying about it and receiving spiritual confirmation by the Spirit. There are also textual evidences of it too. (There's actually a book called Mormon's Codex or something that has over 400 of them. I want to read that book!!) 

So there's something called a Similie Oath, which they used back in those times, which just means that you make an oath and if you break the oath, then whatever you did to seal the oath will be done to you. For example, Moroni and the Title of Liberty. All the people rent (meaning they tore) their garments and covenanted that if they broke their oath then they'd be rent like their garments. Anyway. So I was reading El Libro De Mormon, and I read a part that talked about how Lehi offered up burnt sacrifices. So I remembered that the Jews of course did that as part of the Law of Moses. In El Libro de Mormon they call them sacrificios y holocaustos. So...when they rejected Jesus Christ, they broke their oath/covenant with God... that similie oath was fulfilled. Tragic.

So excited. We finally met this lady again, one we had been trying to see since the beginning of February. Turns out she's going to move soon, but she's going to let us help! And since she's moving to Temecula, we're going to get in contact with the ward up there and they'll help her out! :D SUPER SWEET!

We lost another Senior couple this week. But the good news is that means we get a new couple, so new friends! Yay! :)

This week I would have to say our biggest miracle is X. She has a lesson with her and we just made it as simple as possible. We just taught about prophets. We discussed several prophets and what they did and why it was important. and then testified about a prophet today. THEN. On Sunday she came to church AGAIN!!! :D AND she stayed for the gospel principles! AND what was the topic? PROPHETS. :) So all the people were testifying and she was asking all sorts of good questions and it was awesome. :) SO COOL.

Also on Saturday we had a pretty awesome night in the Battalion. I took two Spanish tours. I haven't take one in a very long time, so that was good. On one of them, when I was doing the wrap-up speech at the end, I said something different that I've never said before, and it was pretty cool, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't actually me. But it was super cool. Something about how every day we have the choice to choose whether we let our fears hold us back or if we follow our faith to where God wants us to be. :) Woo!

Yesterday we had some sweet miracles too. We had a lesson with these two guys from the navy that were just sitting in their car. It was super sweet. That night, it was like 8:30, and it takes 15 minutes to get home, so my comp asked if we should go, but I felt like we needed to stop by this member's house. So we went and knocked, but no one came, and someone walked past that Sister Amendola recognized, so we followed him and talked to him and he was this guy we had been trying to visit for a long time, so that was super sweet! Then we were walking past the member's house again so we tried knocking again, and were about to leave when the member's daughter opened the door. She used to be inactive but is recently coming back. She told us that her family was having FHE at someone's house but she got off work too late to go, and told us that our visiting her was perfect, and just want she needed, because she was feeling lonely and sad, and was super grateful for it. I was so grateful that I listened!! I love being a missionary. It's the best!!!

Love you all!!

--Hermana Harris

Week 66 Just a great week!

So here's the run down of the week:

Tuesday: Had 3 lessons in less than 3 hours, sweet! We visited a less active, who wasn't home, but her son was. He's not baptized. So we had a short lesson with him and he was way more open than usual and happily agreed to have us come back. Which we did Thursday. And had another sweet lesson. :) YAY!

Wednesday: Well, didn't turn out how we planned exactly. But we did have some very good lessons. Important ones. So that's what matters, right?

Thursday: We had one of the most intense lessons ever. This lady Y is going through a super duper hard time, and was crying and telling us about her struggles, and the member we brought with us is so awesome, she's a crier too, so she was crying and she really connected with her. So. It was perfect. :)

La mariachi? Random costumes found in the apartment...

Friday: Went to a new area in our area that we hadn't visited before to contact a referral. Didn't find her but we found someone else, but she's not interested, but she was Mexican. So that was our almost miracle for the day, haha. In the Battalion I took my favorite tour. This group of 4 lds young adults walked in at 8:40. The last tour really should start around 8:15, so... we told them we would have to give them a very short tour. Usually when we do short tours we just show them the intro, then walk to resource room and tell the story. But this time we went through the whole tour, and just didn't use the AV equipment as much, and thus cut it down. But it was probably the most spiritual tour I've ever taken. The Spirit was SO strong. It was incredible. I felt so full the whole time. I want all my tours to feel like that. :)

Saturday: We had choir practice for the Fireside, and we had a lesson with X. We invited her to be baptized and she... well she shot us down but it's okay, she still wants us to keep visiting her. So we will. And we met this guy named Baron. We were teaching T outside and we were about to pray when B (this big black guy with tattoos) comes running up the stairs, and T starts talking to him, and so we say hey we were about to pray, want to join us? So he says "Yeah, for sure! Do y'all hold hands and stuff?" and ran up and grabbed our hands so we all stood in a circle and prayed... it was one of the weirder experiences on my mission but still pretty cool.

Friday: The fireside was awesome. Sister Amendola sang with Elder Dingman. They sang O My Father (in Spanish) (a cappella) and they did all these super cool harmonies. It sounded like an Italian lullaby. Super pretty. :) And guess what???? X CAME TO CHURCH. :D :D :D

Unfortunately the first speaker was from the Stake so he just spoke in English. Which was less favorite since she doesn't speak English. >_< *trying to be patient* But the next speaker spoke in Spanish, just a little rusty. She served her mission in Argentina like...20 years ago. But still. At least it was Spanish. But then X left before the classes because her daughter told her she felt sick. Rats. Well. she came to church. That's the first step, right? :)

Monday: We saw this old man walking alone looking sad so we pulled over to talk to him but he disappeared when he saw us so we kept walking anyways and walked past a parked car with someone in it so we started talking to him and he speaks Spanish, and he said we can come back and visit him. Yesss! ^_^ Sweet.

Tuesday:That's today! Nothing too exciting to report so far. Just found the part to the bread maker that I had lost. It was in the disposal. Haha. :) well, it's a little chewed up but it survived.... and it'll still work pretty well. We hope. MORE BREAD! YAY! :D

 Love you all so much!!

--Hermana Harris

Week 65 Follow the Spirit!

This week has been so filled with miracles. It's awesome! Here's an overview. Going backwards though. Time travel is my thing now. :)

I took over a tour for Sister Wang, and at the end they asked if they could have a Book of Mormon in Persian! Two of them! So... that was pretty awesome. :) MIRACLES.

We finally got to go visit this lady in the branch. She's been trying to get us over since I got to the area, but things keep coming up so she never could... until yesterday. And we finally had the lesson we had been planning since the beginning. We talked about journals, and read 3 Nephi 23:6-14, where the Savior asks the people about Samuel's prophecies, and they said, oh yeah, he said that... and so He asked them why they hadn't written it.... and anyway we talked about when we have miracles in our lives we need to write as well! We also talked about 2 Nephi 33:4, where what we write in weakness will be made strong to bless our children/help them learn about Christ/grow in the faith. So then she said that she had a dream a few nights ago that she was about to die, and she said she wasn't ready yet, because she hadn't written down her experiences!! And she heard a voice telling her she had been given plenty of time but she didn't use it. So she said that our small message was a reminder from Heaven that she needs to write down her experiences! Her son is less active and she said that scripture helped her see that her experiences can help her son come back. :) It was super cool. :)

Our PMG class on Sunday night went really well. We talked about how to help nonmember friends learn about the gospel using bread. By which we mean 'pan.' P: Pregunten A: Apliquen N: No olviden de testificar. You need to really get to know your friends, not just on a shallow, oh-hi-hello-how-are-you-I'm-fine-and-you-I'm-fine-what-a-pretty-day' sort of level, but find out what their struggles are, what their fears are, what they want in life, etc. Who they really are. And it is then when we can see how the gospel can help them, and help them see how the gospel can help them. And as we testify about it, they will feel the Spirit and want that help. :) We also talked about the pan that softens hearts: Presten servicio, amenles, y no se den por vencidos. (Serve, love them, and don't give up.) It was pretty sweet.

Ok second funny story of the week: I was in Courthouse, the last room of the tour, and I was standing in back because all the benches were full. As the movie ended I started walking up to the front to give the last little spiel and I realized my dress button wasn't snapped, so I snapped it, and I guess it sounded like a clap because then IMMEDIATELY everyone started clapping.... >_> It was super funny though. Claps are so contagious... I can't say I had ever started a clap for myself though. Well. I can now. Anyway...

We had Zone Meeting on Friday. It was super sweet. :) We talked about being the Lord's Best: Loving, Obedient, Righteous, Diligent/Dignified, Service-oriented, Builders, Enthusiastic, Spiritually-sensitive, and Teachable. Afterwards we had a potluck (more like a picnic). I ate some fried rice I made. It was delish. :) (Turns out I don't mind tofu when it's in small amounts in fried rice. I also tried making it with the apricot curry. I had this jar of apricot preserves I bought on sale a long time ago, and some frozen peaches so I made apricot peach curry instead but it was delish as well. Woohoo! But uh... I made the entire apartment complex smell like curry. My companion doesn't really like that smell so... it was a little awkward for a while. Oh well. I like it. :} Even with tofu in it, which was the point. :) Oh. I should probably close the parenthesis now.)

Thursday we had a sweet less active/recent convert lesson. We wanted to talk to her about preparing to go into the temple, since she hasn't gone yet and her year mark is coming up. So we shared 2 Nephi 5, and how they built a temple and even though there was all this fighting going on and Nephi had to separate himself from his family, they 'lived after the manner of happiness' and it was only because they had a temple. I just used the chapter because of the temple, but she totally related to Nephi: She had felt like she had to separate herself from her family a bit because they were treating her super poorly and not letting her be LDS and stuff, and she told us she's been having dreams about her family and she thinks it's because she needs to do their work in the temple. So now she's pumped about getting that all done and helping them out. So, it was super cool! The scriptures really teach us all individually what it is we need to learn. :)

So I had a cool lesson about following the Spirit yesterday. I was in the Battalion and I was standing by the front desk, and a man walked past at the bottom of the stairs. I only barely saw him out of the corner of my eye. In my head, I thought, "Oh, I should've been out there to talk to him." "You can still talk to him." "No, he's too far." "Not if you go NOW!" So I ran out the door and down the corridor/hallway thing, and caught him at the far end, and just started talking to him. he said that he was hoping someone would be outside, because he wanted to know what the building was. So I explained it a bit, and he said he had gone past so many times and always seen people outside waving, and it made him want to come inside. (YES!) He asked if we do school tours, and I said definitely! Turns out he works with the navy to help coordinate after school activities for youth or something, so we talked logistics and he said he'll try to work it in so they can all come! :D Also he is really excited about coming back. So it was super awesome and I'm so glad I listened! It's when we allow ourselves to be instruments that we get to see miracles. If I had just stayed inside I would've had a good day, taken several tours, helped some people grow their faith, but in talking to him I was able to potentially bring in maybe hundreds of children as well. It was so cool!

That's about it. I hope all is going well!

Hermana Harris

Week 64 Sacrifice Brings Forth the Blessings of Heaven! C'est bon?

Tuesday: Went bowling as a Zone. We were going to go skittle bowling but uh... no one else wanted to do it so we just ate the skittles. >_> Oh well.

Wednesday: Made a loaf of bread. ^_^ We street contacted into this guy, and he was pretty interested, so we sent his info to the elders in teh area. On Sunday they told us they contacted him and it was an AWESOME lesson and they're golden. Sweet! :D

Thursday: Made another loaf of bread. ^_^ Had district meeting and it was awesome, yet again. Answered a question I was thinking about all morning. This whole 'revelation' thing is pretty sweet. :)

Friday: Had a lesson with X again. She's the cutest, I love her. A. came with us. She's the girl in the ward that's about to go on a mission. She got her call to Chile! :D Concepcion. She's the sweetest, and we love her to death. In fact, we're going to go to teach her again tonight! (Teach X. with A. part of the lesson) We also had a MIRACLE lesson with C. and her son, J. We brought Hna Garcia with us. It'was super sweet. Hermana Garcia bore her testimony about the church, and Sister Amendola and I both shared our experiences/testimonies about coming to know the Book of Mormon is true. After we did, we asked J, who had been quiet the whole time, what he though. He stayed silent for about a whole minute, then slowly said, "I want to know what you know. I want to know that God lives and knows me." Oh, did I mention he's TWELVE YEARS OLD.

Super cool moment. ^_^

Saturday: Temple shift. So Saturday temple shifts are from 10 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon. Walking around outside. And well, it was rainy and wet and cold. So... it was quite the adventure. We met this girl who I'm pretty sure is Shirley Temple reincarnated as a Latina. She was the cutest thing ever. Our miracle for the day was definitely our lesson with M. She's a referral from the Elders that used to be in our area English speaking, but were switched to a new area, and she speaks Spanish. So. We finally finally finally got a hold of her, and had a lesson. She's got some pretty good questions, and is seeking answers. So... :) That's always good. :) "Why are there so many churches?? How do I know what's true?"

Mais Oui! 

Sunday: Our Branch President's daughter is engaged to this guy named J. And well turns out he really wants to get baptized. And he's moving into our area. :D So... we get to teach him. Yessss! ^_^ Score!

Monday: Had another lesson with M. She's slowly picking it up. Hopefully we'll see some real progress soon. :) Still lots of questions, so we're hopeful. Her husband joined us this time. :) Maybe he'll read too! :) Ok and now this is the part I really wanted to write about. Best part of my week, for sure. 

Last night I had the best miracle ever. It was seriously such a blessing from Heavenly Father that I got to be a part of it. I had decided I wanted to be the last person in the Battalion to eat dinner, so I made sure everyone else went first. It was a pretty slow night, so not too many tours happened. All the sisters had eaten except one sister and myself, and the other sisters were going to finish in like 5 minutes, so I was 5 minutes from dinner waiting outside with some sisters when a family walked up. No one else moved so I went and greeted them, and invited them in, and led them to the first room. I looked around, and the only sister inside just looked back at me. Another sister walked past and said, "I'm going to the back." ... >_> 

Ok... so I decided to just lead the tour. It was a sweet family so I was pretty excited. So we finish the first room, and right as we're about to go to the next room, this couple gets ushered into the room. The man smelled like smoke and they were speaking another language and then they sat on the log I usually sit on in Enlistment, so I was a little flustered but I was determined to not let it ruin the tour. 

The rest of the tour went super well, especially in Courthouse. The Spirit was exceptionally strong. It was just an overall good tour. So here comes the cool part. Out in the courtyard I asked the man where he is from, and he said Miami. I asked what brought him to SD, and he said he just moved here because he felt like it was where he needed to be, and he ran into the temple, and talked to a Sister there, and she told him to come here and that he could have a French BoM here, and then he asked me for one. Uhhhh YES OK I'LL GO GET THAT RIGHT NOW. His sister was with him, and so he gave her that one and filled out his info to have the English one brought to him. So sweet. So super sweet. ^_^ And if I hadn't taken the tour I would've missed out. I LOVE IT. Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. :)

--Hermana Harris

Week 63 Knowing Backwards and Forwards!

So this week has rocked. First off. I made one of the best life decisions ever. Not only did I buy 6 pairs of earrings for 50c (total. As in 50 cents for 6 pairs of earrings) BUT I also bought a breadmaker. We went thriftstore shopping and I didn't find anything I liked so we were browsing the electronics section and here's the thing... For... 3 transfers or so I've wanted to go to a thrift store and see if there's a breadmaker. And well. There it was. Just sitting there. With a cute little green pricetag that said $9.95. So, I bought it. And guess what? Turns out it's the 1st breadmaker in America. It's SO OLD. 

(We call him R2-D2, or the robot slave. He's about as big as R2-D2...) 

But guess what else? It didn't have an instructions manual. Or recipes. Just the machine. And so I had no idea how to use it or what to put in. So Sister Affleck spent an hour on youtube watching videos about how to use it and took careful notes and gave them to me, and I tried it. And guess what? IT STILL WORKS AND I LOVE IT. I just put in the ingredients and 3 1/2 hours later, voila, a loaf of bread is sitting in our kitchen. It's probably the best idea ever. :) So...the first loaf was bad. But then we visited a member and shse has a breadmaker that she hasn't even opened yet so I asked if I could see it (hoping for an instructions manual/recipes) and guess what? The instructions manual/recipe book was still there! :D So she let me borrow it to get the recipes I need. So now I've successfully made 4 loaves of bread. And now our apartment smells much better. It just smells like fresh bread! ^_^ Wooo!

Last Tuesday night we had that lesson with X, the cute Japanese lady that speaks Spanish. She made us this 3 course dinner! Broccoli soup, followed by asparagus and milanesas (a classic Mexican dish which is basically fried steak) and fried rice, followed by pineapple pie. Definitely the weirdest combination of foods ever but it was all delicious! She loved hearing us sing and had us sing 3 songs, and then called her daughter, lied to her by saying she couldn't understand what we were saying so she should hurry up and come help translate. She giggled when she hung up the phone, and said she just wanted her daughter to get here already. So then when her daughter showed up, she said, "Oh, you missed them singing! It was beautiful!" and then paused, and said, "Oh! Could you just sing one more for her?" ... hahahah. She really really really likes Hermana Amendola's singing. Like. A Lot.

Afterwards we went to the mission home and picked up two new sisters! There are 3 new English battalion sisters, and so 3 left and went full pros, including my baby, Hermana Bermudez! :( Good news is, she's in the same area! They just made it a full pros area! :D Which is what we were hoping for all along. :) The new sisters are doing well. :) We're so proud of them! ^_^

Transfer craziness happened, plans got changed a lot, and it all came out alright in the end. One miracle we saw was when we went to visit an older lady in our branch, Hermana M. She told us about some people that used to be in her ward that served at the Battalion, the Ricks from Arizona. We had no idea who she was talking about, but let it go and feigned excitement. Fast forward 45 minutes. We're in the Battalion, and this couple comes off a tour and starts talking with us. They mention that they used to serve here at the Battalion. They say they're from Mesa. And yes, it turns out they are the Ricks, and yes, they remember Hermana M. How crazy is that??!?!

Friday we had district meeting. Our new District Leader, Elder H, was really nervous. In the end he had us teach the restoration backwards. We weren't sure why, but we tried it a few times. It was pretty cool. I think the point was that any way you do it, Christ is in the center of everything. Anyway. That night, in a lesson, we started talking about the Holy Ghost, and how it can teach you the truth of all things as we pray to know... and so I thought, hey, why not? And so we taught them the restoration backwards. And it was super sweet. :) (They had been taught it before so it was a review anyway.) Super cool miracle. :)

Well, we're excited for more miracles this week. Love you! ^_^

--Hermana Harris