Week 59 I will never stand down!

So I forgot to talk about what we learned in Stake Conference. They talked about missionary work, but in specific something I learned a lot about personally was our responsibility for our family members who are lost sheep. We're put in families for a reason, and it is our duty and responsibility to help them!! Uncles, aunts, grandparents, cousins, all of them. :) pretty nifty. Anyway.

Someone in the English ward before us gave a talk and said there is this sweet video on youtube called Idol Worship, in which it shows these tribes and their worship of idols (face paint, chanting, etc), and you think, wow that's crazy, I would never do that... and then it says something like, or let's put it this way: and then shows people in a giant football stadium with their faces painted and chanting and stuff. Sounded cool.

Also at Stake Conference they announced that this Fast Sunday all of southern cali is going to fast for rain. We're in a pretty bad drought, apparently! I made up a joke about it but uh... yeah. Maybe not.

We met this lady yesterday. Return missionary, sealed in the temple, but her life took some tough turns and said she's never going to come back to the church again. She helped me see exactly what I don't want to be when I get back., especially when things don't go how I want. I WILL NOT BE BITTER AND I WILL NOT LET OTHERS TAKE AWAY MY SALVATION. The Church is true, the book is blue. It's how it goes. I will never stand down, not ever!

This week I had two temple shifts in a row. Thursday we went on exchanges, and I went with Hna Milla, who has only been here for 3 weeks. We had temple shift, which means we were out there from 12-5. It's a long time, esp. when it's freezing (ok, I know I can't complain, but it's a wet cold. I'm still a desert rat, what can I say?) and no one is there. But we talked a lot and got to read some scriptures. Then, Friday I was back with Sister Amendola and surprise, we had temple shift again. Same story, except it was colder. Oh well! :)

Mormon Battalion Commemoration Day!

Oh! Last Wednesday we had interviews with President. I seriously seriously love and respect that man. He is absolutely incredible. :)

My favorite scripture from this week is Romans 8:31, the JST version. "If God be for us, who can prevail against us?" :) I also love the last two verses in that chapter. So beautiful.

"For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Hoping to make some enchiladas today. :) While we're planning our scholarship essays. haha. :)  Love you so much!!

I have no idea? Making all our guests at home?

Oh and I forgot. Saturday was the commemoration! :D It was a HUGE celebration of Old Town and the Battalion and all that. They had a re-dedication of the monuments on Presidio Hill. Sister Amendola, Wells, and Tucker sang the Star Spangled Banner and it was fantastic! Jeffrey R Holland's brother Dennis Holland spoke at it, too. Afterwards we went to Old Town State park and were in the parade. Sister Amendola and I got to push a handcart! It was super sweet. :) Anyway, then we wandered around Old Town and handed out Battalion cards, then came up, had lunch, took the most insane tour ever (all these little kids that would literally not stop talking) and then went back, had studies, then went back to the Battalion to take more tours. Good news: we had an approximate 1065 people in the Battalion that day! That includes short and long tours. But it was a record-breaker! :D Pretty sweet. Well, that's all. Gotta go! But I love you mom! :)

--Hermana Harris

Week 58 Pioneer tough through prayer!

Your description of Lang's talk definitely made me laugh... I can see him saying all that... XD 

I can't believe he's leaving! It's super weird for me to realize I'm not gonna see him for a very very long time. But I'm super excited to see who he'll become. :) I've seen and felt what the mission does to you and I'm so excited to see Lang v. 2.0. Still Lang, just even better. I love the mission. (Lang, her brother, just left to serve in the Missouri Independence mission. His blog is ElderLangstonHarris.blogspot.com.)

I totally relate to that RS lesson. There have been so many times when just tears express it best, at least until the initial pain gets out, and words start forming. Prayer is my favorite. :) 

The other day I got this HUGE splinter shoved up under my nail. It was so incredibly painful. It was in my right hand too so my left hand was USELESS in trying to get it out. It was so rough. Anyway, part came out but the rest was super stuck inside... way deep... and I couldn't get it... I tried for like 20 minutes. Anyway eventually I just bit down on a piece of beef jerky and had sister Amendola try to extract it... I just closed my eyes and tried to hold still, and prayed. As soon as I finished my prayer, she said, "I got it!" and it was gone. Seriously. Companions rock. Prayer rocks. Good stuff, Maynard.

Yesterday was super sweet. We met some investigators!! :D They've all been in Mexico, but they're finally coming back. WOOHOO!! ^_^ Oh and Stake Conference was a regional broadcast and it was INCREDIBLE. Super super duper sweet. Lots about missionary work. This branch is wonderful! They're so pumped to be missionaries. Me too! :D

We also had a mission president's fireside on Sunday. It was super inspirational. :) Oh man. We had two full days in a row. It was pretty intense. :) But good! I am sort of almost getting to know the area. Well, I can recognize streets and stuff... but still not exactly ready to take over or anything!

Well nothing too exciting to report. That's about it for this week. Last Tuesday I just made pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting, and then we had in-n-out. (Protein style!) Oh. And we have new directors at the Battalion!! I've only met them once, yesterday, for a few seconds, but they seem super sweet and really nice. It'll be good. :)

Week 57 HAPPY NEW YEAR AND NEW EVERYTHING (Almost)

So this week has been awesome! I already sent the pic but here's the sweet sweet news, I'm with Sister Amendola again in La Mesa! :D WOO HOOO!!! :) We have like... 1 investigator.. but it's okay! We'll find more! In fact, this week we even knocked doors. Crazy! Never done that before. It was a ward activity sort of thing. We all met at the church and then drove to some apartments and broke up into groups and knocked and knocked. It was different. I was super scared but it turned out okay. We had 4 lessons and got a sweet referral for the English elders in the area. :)

We had zone meeting on Wednesday, so that was nice to meet the new zone. They're pretty chill. Afterwards we ate at this Greek restaurant, (JK's Greek or something like that...) (definitely wanted to make a joke about that but uh... wasn't sure how). (It's Greek food! JK, not really!) (Sorry.) (Haha..) It was pretty gross. JK! It was fantastic. :) No really, I had a gyro and it was fabulous. And the Greek guy said it with a hard g sound. Gyro. Well, anyway...

The branch is SUPER sweet. They're absolutely awesome. They're so focused on missionary work, it's incredible. Thursday we visited a few and they all were talking about how they were trying to share the gospel, and they brought up the questions their friends had and were asking us for help in knowing what to say. They were so earnest in their desires, it was super sweet and made me very happy. Here's the deal, though, I don't know what to tell them... they're supposed to get answers like that from the Holy Ghost. But we gave them some ideas and stuff. It was super cool. :)

Super sweet miracle from the week: We had an investigator at church! And here's the cool thing: neither Sister Amendola nor I had ever met her before. Sister Stephens (the one whose place I took) met her with Sister Rex on exchanges and invited her to church. And she came! So, it was super sweet. And she was crying during Relief Society because she was so touched by the testimony of one of the Sisters. Only problem: she has two jobs and is going to school. So she has NO time, so it's pretty rough. Well, as she reads and keeps coming to church she'll have a desire to make more time to see us. :)

Also on Sunday we taught a PMG class. It was a 'fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants' sort of lesson, but it turned out super well. :) I think we all learned a lot from it, and I know I felt the Spirit. :) Success!

La Nueva look

So in case you didn't know, last Tuesday was my last day in the area, and we were going to cut our hair but decided we didn't want to. So we went to zone sports, and I was talking to Elder Rodriguez, (the newest one in the district), and he said he was going to get his hair cut by Hno Lopez. I asked him if his wife cuts hair too, because she looks like she would, and he said yes... and what a coincidence, we had already set an appointment to come visit them that night. So... I asked her to trim my hair. And Hna Bermudez said, "Give her a new look!" and I said, "Keep the length!" and Sister Bermudez said, "New look!" and I said, "Just cut off the dead ends!" and well it definitely got cut. Oh did I mention that she is the mom that has a 6-yr-old that had the birthday party earlier?

So Sister Harris got a new look for the new year. :} And a new companion, and a new area, and a new apartment. Good news: I like all the changes. I'm still freaking out a little about the hair, but I'm more used to it now. And the new companion is actually just an old companion, the new area is super pretty, and the new apartment only has the two of us in it, so there's a TON of space. ^_^ It's going to be a sweet transfer!! :)

Oh. Also on Tuesday I was talking to Elder Day, the district leader for SW. Turns out he's actually from Concordia Missouri. Which is in the Independence Missouri mission. He said he used to go out with the missionaries and take care of them and stuff. :) So when he gets back (in less than a year) he'll keep an eye out for Lang. Also, he said to bring LOTS OF WARM CLOTHES OR HE WILL FREEZE TO DEATH. You have been warned. (Whoops I accidentally typed 'warmed.' Haha!)

Crazy story: so yesterday Sister Amendola and I took a local YSA group on a tour for their FHE activity. As they came in she recognized one, and he turned around and looked SUPER familiar, and it turns out we met in the MTC! I totally remember meeting him in the MTC - it was either Christmas eve or Christmas, when we were watching one of the movies. (Either Christmas Carol or It's a Wonderful Life.) Anyway, it was pretty crazy.

Well, I love you all lots! :) Please give Lang a fierce hug for me. Hmm. I haven't used the word fierce in a long time. >_> It was kinda weird. Well, just give him a biiiig huuug for me, teletubby style if necessary. :)

Hermana Julia Harris

Week 56 Splits and not splitting?

AAHAHAHAAAAAGGHHHGGGHHHH WE JUST BARELY GOT TRANSFER CALLS. AND I'M OUT. Out of Sweetwater. Not the Battalion, hopefully. Elder Walker said he didn't know for sure. But he thinks not. AAAGH!!! SO CONFUSED. There are 4 Spanish sisters training and only 3 new spanish sisters coming in... ?? We're super confused! Well... next week. We'll let ya know what happens!!

Hermana Frampton's last night at the Battlion

Well. New Years Eve was super fun. We got Cold Stone ice cream and then ate it by Lake Murray. Then we came home, updated the area book for an hour and a half, set visions for ourselves, and then drank Martinellis and had fun. :) We had a full day the next day, and it was pretty sweet. We've been trying to talk to EVERYONE so it's been pretty sweet. Oh on Friday I took a family from Connecticut on tour. One of the sons had a shirt that said, "Have you seen this wizard?" and had a picture of... rats I forgot her name but the MLP that's like... purple. And long purple curly hair? Radiant or something. OH Rarity. Yeah. Anyway. Turns out they're all bronys. Definitely made me think of Lang. I love him!!

Merry Christmas!

Saturday we had a 7 hour shift at the temple. It was pretty intense. Very long time. But it was good. :) ESPECIALLY since Hna Bermudez got to see the guy that helped baptize her parents!! It was quite the miracle. This group from Mexicali was visiting and he was there! She hasn't seen him since she was like 8. So it was cool for her. :) I also got to see some sisters from Logan Heights! :D Awww!! ^_^ Super sweet. :)

Sunday we finally had a lesson with this less active that we've been trying to contact FOREVER. It was pretty rough but I think it worked otu well in the end. OH I FORGOT. On Friday we went on splits! The first time on my mission. SIster Bermudez went with Hna Alfaro (the one that belongs to our branch but goes to Logan) and I went with Hna Morales, a recent convert of like... 2 months. It was super crazy and we were both really nervous but it was a lot of fun. :) And that day we had 5 lessons even though we only had 3 hours in the area! :) So, yep. It was sweet.

Well, This next week will be quite the adventure! :) We shall see what happens!! :)

Hermana Harris