WEEK 50 Sweet Blessings!

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

Sisters Davies Patterson and Harris

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

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

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

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

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

PS

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

--Hermana Harris

Week 49 Looking for more Miracles!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

--Hermana Harris

Week 48 The Heavenly Virtue of Patience

Hermanas O Neill, Bermudez and Harris

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

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

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

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

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

--Hermana Harris

By their fruits ye shall know them Week 47

Ok so here are the highlights from this week:

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

The District!

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

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

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

Well, then there's

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

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

--Hermana Harris

Adventures with Sister O'Neill! Week 46

P day Barbeque!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great week!! :D

--Hermana Harris

Week 45 Hold fast to that which is good!

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

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

The new senior? couple!

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

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

Have an amazing week! :)

--Hermana Harris

Week 44 in Living Color!

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

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

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

Sistas at the MoBat

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

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

6 referrals from one tour

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

Have an incredible week!

--Hermana Harris

MmmRamen!

It started from this tropic port aboard this tiny ship?