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