Getting a Spiritual Education Week 32

Hello Everyone!

 I am reminded me of a time when we were praying with an investigator. We were outside, it was windy, kinda noisy, and I didn't want to pray cuz I was struggling SO much with Spanish. But I did it anyway and in the prayer I said something like, "Gracias por tu hijo, Jesucristo, y por la oportunidad de arrepentirnos" and as I was saying it I just felt that burning and I started crying and could barely get through the sentence as I realized what a gift it is, and what it really means for ME. It was incredible!! :)

I've also been thinking a lot about faith. God cannot perform miracles in my life if I don't have faith. So I need to step it up!

Miguel's restaurant is yum!

We had a Zone Meeting in which they talked about Jeremiah 16:16, and we talked about seeking people, from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes in the rocks. So this week we've been talking to EVERYBODY. We've had some success and some... interesting experiences. But it's good. (One lady we talked to was so excited to talk to us but when we offered to come back she got defensive and said no and then a bird pooped on her. It was...interesting.)

Sometimes it's frustrating when all our appointments fall through, but the we always end up finding people. It's really neat how the Lord just puts us where He needs us. :)

At the temple the other day we got to teach a youth group about the temple. Well, it's a ward, and they bring investigators, and after our lesson they go to the Battalion. It was pretty sweet. We had some of the missionaries there bear their testimonies about when their families were sealed in the temple. It was a really neat experience. :)

Lots and lots of driving experience!

We also had one of the coolest lessons yesterday. It was with a family (those are the best) and the mom really wants her children to have a 'spiritual education.' So she had them all sit down in a row and pay attention. It was cool because usually when we go to teach a mom, the husband refuses to join, and she lets the kids run around the whole time. But they all listened and participated. It was sweet. :)

Well that's about it for right now. I never know what y'all actually want to hear so I never know what to write. Love you all!

--Hermana Harris

Choosing to be Happy and Enthusiastic! Week 31

Alrighty, 

This week was crazy. I've been working specifically on being happier. I realized that I've got everything I need to be happy - so why not be happy? :) It's been pretty sweet. The MoBat has been swamped this past little bit, too. We had almost 900 people come thru on Saturday. That's insane! 

Well, I've had a great week but I never know what to write about. We had interviews with President yesterday. That was pretty sweet. I need to start having questions so I can talk to him about them, though. I never know what to ask so it's always a super short interview. Like. 4 minutes. The rest are like 12-20 minutes. XD Oh well.

We had a short lesson with this lady that wasn't all the way there. She was so sweet though and after we finished our short lesson she thanked us so much and gave us hugs and  just looked so happy. I love being able to bring that happiness to people. I mean, everyone can do that, but I just get to do so with random strangers. :)

I feel like I always need to re-learn to not judge people by their appearance. It's always the big tough guys with the tattoos that look angry or busy that actually take time to listen to us and let us come back and visit with their family. Little miracles. :)

Sweetwater Zone

So I had a sweet experience, and it's going to be my story for the week. So on Thursday I was working specifically in the Battalion on being more enthusiastic in my tours/fluctuating my voice. I kinda tend to be monotone whenever I speak, as you all probably already know! So I tried something different. It was painful. It felt weird for me. It was uncomfortable too. But I tried putting more intonation into my voice and changing it up and stuff. And guess what? Someone on my tour filled out a card at the end, requested to hear more, and in her comments on the card said something like "'the hostess was very enthusiastic." So basically when we try to do better, we get better results. Crazy how that works, huh? XD It seems like common sense. But it's a hard principle to learn! Anyway. It was sweet. :)

In my scripture study I read a sweet verse in Deuteronomy that talked about how the children of Israel, in their journey in the wilderness for 40 years, were being tried by God, to see if they'd be faithful. Sometimes I feel like I'm wandering in the desert. I don't always feel the Spirit. I don't always feel that burning in my heart. Most of the time I just have to hold on to what I know I've felt in the past. If we felt it all the time it wouldn't require faith! Anyway. I love when the Scriptures come to life for me. :) I love you all!! :D

Oh hey I have a question. How has the gospel blessed your life? :)

  LETS ALL WRITE HER AND TELL HER! JULIAH@MYLDSMAIL.NET

Oh yeah, and Ammon is pretty awesome. I read a sweet talk that talked about him. If he had let the memory of his past sins stop him from moving on, he never would have been able to bring thousands of the Lamanites to the knowledge of their Savior and Redeemer. If he had said, "Oh, I'm too old to go on a mission, I should've gone back when I was younger," those thousands of Lamanites would've remained en oscuridad. :( It's never too late. :)

--Hermana Harris

Week 30 After all we can do!

Sister Contreras is amazing. Even when we're trying to contact everyone and trying to visit people and yet no one's home, she just keeps going. And it's so true that the Lord blesses us with miracles AFTER everything we can do. One day in particular was pretty rough. NO ONE we had made appointments with was home and the people we street contacted ran away from us all day or even straight up refused to pray with us. Anyway. I was pretty discouraged and about ready to give up and head in when Sister Contreras suggested to go try and visit T, someone we had contacted, set up an appt, and he was never home. Anyway when we got there, this lady in a bathrobe answered (turns out she is his aunt) and we ended up having a short lesson with her and had her pray and she got about 2 sentences into the prayer and started bawling and told us she felt something warm inside her chest and we told her it was the Spirit, etc, and so we're going to go back and teach her again tonight. It just makes the whole day worth it, knowing that we helped her come closer to the Savior.

Something I really admire about my companion is her faith. She has complete faith that the Lord will give her inspiration. Every morning before personal study she has us pray for an investigator together so we can receive revelation for them in our personal studies. She expects that she'll receive answers - and then we receive them. She's taught me so much!

Also in my studies I've recently been learning again about happiness. The gospel really does make me happy - And remember it. I just need to show it.  Sometimes I forget. So I've been working on smiling more and showing that I really am happy! It's so sweet. I love the gospel!

I got to sing the song with Sister Amendola and Sister Romero at the Presidents Fireside on Sunday. It went pretty well! I was super nervous before but Sister Amendola was there for me and I realized that I'm surrounded by friends. I had always heard people talk about the amazing friends you'll make with people on your mission but it wasn't until that moment that I really felt it. It was a cool moment. :)





  In preparation for it, and basically just for fun, the night before I used Sister Amendola's hair rollers. XD Hence the fun pictures. 

Oooh we had a missionary activity at the church on Friday, where the people came from room to room to learn about a topic, and our room was the Plan of Happiness. They had to match up scriptures with the key word and the picture, and then put them in order. It was pretty fun.




 We had our first dinner appointment with this amazing family in our branch. They made us Mexican pizza. It was to die for. Turns out I like jalepenos on my pizza. :) And chorizo. Sooo good. :D Anyway. The last picture is from Sunday. It was super foggy and you could only see half the buildings and that was only if they were close. I love driving on the freeways in that weather - it looks super cool! (Well, riding in the back, not driving. Harder to look at the scenery when driving.) Anyway. I love you all! :D

--Hermana Harris

Week 29 Trusting that God will help me speak His words

Well, the computer lab is just at the Family History Research Center. We've always gone there but they finally started letting us use the back room. XD 

And in terms of the broadcast... well I was on shift at the Battalion from 3-6. So... I didn't get to watch all of it. I missed the whole first hour, but I saw the last little bit.I loved that lady's conversion story and the fact that (and I had heard this before) the Ward Mission Leader should keep the missionaries' schedules full so they don't even have time to go tracting. :) I didn't get to hear the part about computers/facebook or whatever, but I've heard bits and pieces. I'm going to watch the rest tonight during the Battalion if things get really slow. I'm so excited! 

Today we went to the temple! :D It's so amazing. A lot of our Zone went. It's so wonderful to see all these people you come to love so much all together. It's incredible. I thought about Uncle Lyle randomly during the session. I'm so sorry he's not feeling well! :( Please give him a huge hug for me!

I hope you gave Aunt Janet a huge hug for me too, because I love her! :) FORREST IS COMING HOME ALREADY??? Okay, that's weird. I cannot believe time is passing so fast! Charity's not working at camp? Weird! Sounds like camp is going to be lacking this year without all of y'all helping them out. Lang's still going though, right?

More about my companion? She's from Los Angeles. Born there, raised in Michoacan until she was 6, and then moved back. She's the sweetest thing ever, and shares everything, and likes doing my hair for me. (Yes!) She's a hard worker and doesn't like to be idle. She's very loving and kind, and she's a bold teacher. She's an incredible missionary and she's super chill/easy to get along with. She's patient with me and even forgets things every once in a while (to help me feel better about myself, I think. XD ). She's the best. :) She helps me be better but does it in a kind, loving way, so it makes it easy to accept it and change. :) She's the best!

The area is more open. It's not as city-like as Logan Heights. Way more spread out. It's more out in the desert. Lots and lots and lots of people to teach! The people are amazing, of course! We have had so many blessings these past few weeks in our new area. We've just been led to people who are seeking. How could we ask for anything more?

We don't really 'tract.' We contact referrals and contact old investigators and members and returning families. It takes 30 minutes to get to the area so we never have a ton of time in the area as we have the Battalion as well. It's always an adventure! My apartment is smaller, and the kitchen is SO TINY but it's nice. I like the way the bathroom is set up better - the sink is outside of the bathroom part so you can use the sink/mirror while someone is in the bathroom. Very handy. XD And I'm finally with the rest of the sisters. :) It's fun, having them so close. :)

And so that's how things are going! We had a full day the other day, and it was INTENSE. We had some crazy intense lessons. There's a family that we visited and they said that the reason they stopped coming to church was because they came across all this anti-mormon literature online and on the TV. Lots of stuff about tithing money coming from Vegas and someone high in the church getting drunk or something. It was crazy and I had no idea what to say, so we just followed the Spirit, and by the end they looked a lot happier and maybe a tiny bit less confused.

We taught the girl who has my companion's name again, and she explained to us that she believes in God but not in Jesus Christ. I didn't know where to go from there, since almost every single person we talk to is Catholic, so they already have that foundation. It was neat, though, because it helped me gain a greater appreciation for the Book of Mormon as another Testament of Jesus Christ. I know that as she reads it, she'll feel His love for her and know that He lives and is her Savior!

The thing I learned most this week is just trusting that God will help me speak His words. I know I can't teach. I'm just me. But He knows what He would have me say, so if I just trust, I can help these people hear His message for them. :)

Anyway, I hope you all are helping the missionaries in your area to fill their appointment books with lots of people to teach. Just open your mouth and start talking. :)

I love you all!

--Hermana Harris

PS. Oh yeah. The other day I walked in to the front of the MoBat and there was a family waiting for a tour and it was time to start but no one was in there, so I walked in to start it, and the mom whispered to the daughter, "Go get grandma!" and so the girl runs out and walks back in with... the Mission President's wife. Aaand so I ended up giving our Mission President and his wife and his wife's family a tour at the Battalion. That was a little intense. But enjoyable. Sister Rasmussen came and joined me, and I hadn't taken one with her before, so that was good. I've been slowing down a little, finally. XD It's a process. Oh, and the other day I had animal fries from In-N-Out burger. I almost cried. Those things are amazing! I also had a protein-style burger. Also pretty delish. Pues... love you all! :D

Week 28 A New Companion

Hello Everyone!

I got transferred to Sweetwater, and it's amazing. The area is a lot more open (like, not as squished) and deserty. It's kinda cool. The branch is so sweet though. We met the RS president and she said she doesn't have counselors yet because the people she wants have turned down the callings. She's still working on them. In any case, this week has been incredible! It's so weird having a different companion but I absolutely LOVE Sister Contreras. She's amazing and adorable and a hard worker and so sweet and loving and patient. I love being with her. :D We get along really well and we are very open and when something bothers us a little tiny bit we just let each other know and it's all better. But she's amazing so there's not really anything to complain about, she just has to deal with me. She's patient though and she lets me know what I can do to improve with is super good. I need a lot of work!

We also had Zone Conference last week. It was super sweet! I love going there and meeting everyone and learning so much. Back to the branch. We've gotten to meet so many members and we've been out in our area. Heavenly Father has been blessing us SO MUCH. Every time we go to our area he leads us to people that are open and ready to listen! We even met a girl with my companion's name. Like, first and last name. Weird! She was so open and had so many good questions (like, why do some people worship the virgin Mary even though the commandments say to only worship God, and why do they baptize babies since they're innocent, etc). It was so awesome! During the lesson I just felt like I was talking to a friend. :) Sunday was super cool. It was kinda weird having church in an actual chapel, but it was a wonderful experience. The branch also had an activity on Saturday for Fathers' Day, so we went to that. It was good to meet the members and help them out and just see how the branch functions so we can help it along. It's just awesome.

In my personal studies I've been learning a lot about sacrifice. Something I learned is that when we sacrifice, we purify ourselves, and are thus more worthy to receive blessings, specifically revelation. So I want to look for little things I can sacrifice so I can be worthy to receive revelation to help our area! I'm so excited to be working in Sweetwater. :) I miss Logan and the members, but change is good, and I hope to learn so much!
Cool side notes: my old district leader is now one of my Zone Leaders, and I got to meet the moms of two people I met in the MTC. One of them is in my branch and the other was just visiting from the area. Pretty cool though! Also, my district has a Canadian as the district leader, so I was able to use my limited Canadian knowledge about things like nicky-nicky-nine-dooring and waygons and ketchup chips and such. There's also a sister that came out with us in my district, so that's fun to see her again! I'm super excited about our branch. Oh and we're whitewashing. They added a new companionship to the area! Exciting things are happening. :) (BTW, Sister Salinas is now with the ex-companion of my new companion. We just switched companions! Hahaha!)

 

Con Mucho Amor,

Hermana Harris

Week 27 Hooray for card readers!

On the trolley

Woah! Slow down Mr. Trolley Driver!

 Yesterday was awesome. We had a lesson at 10 with F. and afterwards he wanted to make us breakfast. Well, we can't be in a house alone with a male, so we had L. come over too. She lives in the same apartment complex, just down a floor and across the way. When we showed up at her door, she said she didn't have time to talk to us, but then we said we'd be having breakfast, and she immediately got all excited and was like, yeah let's go let's go! XD Anyway, it was super fun - we ate scrambled eggs, frijoles, y tortillas. It was super yum. Anyway, then we went and helped a less active clean her carpet and then she showed us how to make chicharrones! It's like magic! You just put in in the hot oil and it growwwws. Then you take it out and put lime juice and Valentina on it. Ohh my goodness. It was so delicious. :) I might like it better than popcorn! :D Okay, I like it better than microwave popcorn, but prolly not mom's home-cooked popcorn. :)

So yesterday I felt like I was going to be transferred, so that meant it was my last day in the area. Thus, in all the lessons I tried to be bold and unafraid, and to just say what I felt I needed to say. I should be doing this all along anyway, but it was a sweet experience. I want every day to be more like that. I guess that's sort of how life goes, right? Just go out and do your best.

MTE's, with Sister Riggs as our trainer. She used to work in DisneyWorld as a singer. No big deal. She's just amazing.

 My area is Point Loma. It's huge. It's also at least 15 minutes by car using the highway to get to the church. By which I mean school. Since we have church in an Elementary school. There are a lot of houses but people generally stay inside. There are no members in our area, just less actives. They're awesome, though, and I love them so much. I feel like they're my moms. I'm gonna miss them when I leave tomorrow!! D: At least we got to visit Hna L yesterday.

La Pinata!

 Carmen. She's amazing and when I told her last night I thought I'd be transferred she asked for a pic with her. So there ya go! No, we're not at a discoteca. It's at the Book of Mormon reading group thing they started a month or so ago in our branch. It's fun. :)

Week 26 The point of life is to learn!

Alrighty, so here are the highlights for this week:

We started teaching a member's husband who is a nonmember. He's the only one who's not a member, and he kinda likes being the unique one. When we teach him, we can tell he knows it's all true, he just doesn't want to do anything. It was funny - we asked him what he would do if he only had one day left to live, and he said he'd try to repent - but just a few minutes before he told us he doesn't believe there's life after death. Go figure. XD

 

We saw D. yesterday! She invited us over and we just talked a bit. She's still having a rough time but turns out she doesn't hate us, so that's good! We left on very very good terms, so we're relieved. Also, F. finally called us and let us come over. He told us he felt bad because he had drank coffee even though he knew he shouldn't, and he was so discouraged that he had "fallen" that he didn't want to talk to us. We assured him that we aren't perfect and that all of us make mistakes, and that that's the whole point of life! To learn! He's so amazing. He told us he realized he needs to keep talking to us because he needs to keep nourishing himself Spiritually to give himself the strength to overcome temptation/keep going on. He's so awesome! Anyway, he's happy again and it's awesome.

We had a sweet lesson with L. where we totally followed the Spirit and Sister Salinas quoted a scripture and I was like, "WHY WOULD SHE USE THAT ONE?!? She just told her that she's an abomination!" and was freaking out but then Lolita said, "Oh, I read that verse this morning when I randomly opened it and read a random verse." What? How awesome is that!

Today we're going to make tamales with a less active from our branch. She reminds me of myself a bit. She said that she doesn't like going out, she just likes being at home, but if people want to come visit her, she's more than happy to have them over. That's basically the story of my life right there. Anyway so we're going over and it'll be sweet. Then there's a Memorial Day bbq party (yes, a week late) at the MoBat today. :) We have a pinata that we're going to bring... I'll send pics once the card reader comes. One of our members' friends started to make it but then decided she didn't want it so they gave it to us. It's pretty special. XD

I've been learning about how to take feedback. I know people just give me feedback so I can improve but my pride always gets a little hurt. XD I'm working on it. It's frustrating though that I feel like I'm working on the same things but it's like they're not getting any better. Oh well. I took a sweet tour with a ton of 6 year old girls and it was one of the best tours I have ever given. I was enthusiastic and spoke slowly enough that they understood and I didn't just quote the script directly and they had a blast and it was super sweet. Sorry for the terrible grammar. :) One week until transfers - so next week we'll know if I'm still here in LH or if I'll be transferred! :O This transfer has FLOWN by!

Well, I love you all! Take care! :) Cuidense!

--Hermana Harris