This week has been such a crazy week! I spent most of the week doing a lot of finding. We as a Zone decided to have a "Family Finding Week". We like to consider our Zone as our family. I love it. We were able to make a goal at the beginning of the week to try and find so many new investigators, Sister Nowell and I didn't really reach our goal but we are extending our goal for next week as well. So we are excited to get out and be able to do more tracting and to get more referrals from our members in our ward.
I think living in Utah I missed
out on a lot of what missionary work is in the church. Like I didn't
really know what the true responsibilities were as Ward Missionaries and
Ward Mission Leaders, even when I was a Ward Missionary! It is so cool
to be able to learn more about the church and more about how everything
works. I love it!
Anyway it has been super hot
here this last week. Like the other day Sister Nowell and I totally
thought that our legs were getting sunburnt and sure enough they totally
were. So you could say that I have some AWESOME tan lines going on my
feet, and my arms are kind of ombre because of my different sleeve
lengths. I love it.
This week we were able to
go visit a less active. We actually went to go visit her yesterday! As
we approached the house we didn't know what to expect... it was a little
sketchy but we felt like we still needed to go up. This old man opened
the door and told us to go to the RV. So weird thing, the RV was the
exact RV that my dad and stepmom have. It was weird, anyway we walked up
to the RV and this lady poked her head out, and walked away. We didn't
know how to respond, then suddenly she tells us to come in. Come to find
out she was raised in the church. She doesn't normally let missionaries
in when they just stop by and don't call first. But as she was driving
in town just that day she saw a church building and she thought about
going to church again, and she says that every time that happens she
knows the missionaries are going to show up! And sure enough we did that
day! It is crazy the things that the spirit can tell you to do it when
you are in tune with it. Sister Nowell and I pray so many times a day
for the spirit so we can know where to go. We talked to this less active
and she is actually moving into another area (this is like the 10th
person who has done this in the last couple of weeks, Sister Nowell and I
are getting used to the planting of the seeds). But she talked about
how she knows that we are never too far off the path to be able to come
back to our Heavenly Father. And that she knows and feels her Heavenly
Fathers love all the time, and how the Atonement is so real. Honestly
she taught us way more then we taught her. I am so glad that we had the
opportunity to be able to go and talk to her.
We
had a Less Active Member at church on sunday and had a weird experience
with her, someone asked to talk to us so we left class for just a
moment and one of the members carries a gun with him all the time. And
she literally flipped her lid and I felt so bad. But at the same time it
is a right that we have to carry a gun... so Sister Nowell and I are
really unsure about how we are going to handle that situation.
This
week we were able to go down to Grants Pass to be able to have a
Specialized Training. This is basically a big meeting with our Mission
President, The Assistants to the President and a couple of Zones. Here
we were able to talk about Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon, What it
means to be a successful missionary and how important the role of the
spirit is when teaching. This was such an awesome experience and I loved
every minute of it. And I was able to see Sister Rhoton from my MTC
district! There was a lot of laughing and catching up to do. This next
week we have the opportunity to get together with all the new
missionaries to go over training and such, so I will be able to see
everyone this week and I am so excited! We also got our ipads at this
meeting that we went to. The technology that the Lord has given us to
share the gospel is incredible and I am so grateful every single day for
the opportunities that are given to us as missionaries.
One
thing that we have been using a lot for dinner messages with members is
the church put out some Bible Videos where the stories are being retold
by little children. I invite you to go and look up these videos, they
are so powerful. To be able to see the information that little kids
know, I know that I am almost in tears during some of them. My favorite
one is the Atonement. So good.
This week we
were able to have a 3rd hour meeting in our ward. And one thing that we
talked about is testimonies. And I think every one should be reminded
about what a testimony is from time to time. We talked about how our
testimonies need to be anchored in the first principles and ordinances
of the gospel. We talked about how bearing your testimony is giving a
gift back to you Heavenly Father. To be able to bear that is showing him
all the things that you know! The Holy Ghost will never be restrained
as we are bearing a pure testimony. Remember this as we go into Fast and
Testimony meeting this week. We also talked about Sacrament meeting
talks, which was really interesting. They made a big point to talk about
how we shouldn't waste our precious time. And I think this is done a
lot around the world. People forget that they are at our most sacred
meeting that we go to all week, and they begin to talk about stories
that don't really make sense to the topic that they have been given. It
reminds me of an investigator that we are teaching right now. She has
been to church once and it was a fast and testimony meeting and she
didn't see how it had to do with Jesus Christ because of the stories
that were being told. So now she is having a hard time coming to church.
But we are still working with her. There was another idea that they
brought up during this third hour meeting that I loved. They talked
about how we have just partaken of the sacrament and repented and
renewed their baptismal covenants for the week, now they are ready to be
edified and they want to listen to you, that is important to remember
as you are beginning to write any talk for sacrament meeting,that is
very precious time. Don't waste it.
We taught
an investigator this week and it was really powerful. Sister Nowell and I
were able to talk about the restoration with her and at one point we
mentioned how there was a living prophet on the Earth today. And her
next response was, "Well who is it!" Her desire to know things about the
gospel is so strong and I am so excited to see where she progresses.
She is an older Hispanic lady and has a hard time with the language
barrier, so we are going to be taking a member of the ward with us next
time that we go to visit her. But that moment with me truly strengthened
my testimony on latter day prophets. I know that Thomas S Monson is the
prophet that has been called for our day, and I am so glad that I get
to follow his teachings and learn more about how I can come closer to
Christ through his teachings. I am so grateful for modern day prophets.
In this visit with this investigator I was able to challenge her to
baptism, and what a wonderful experience that was. She says that she has
already been baptized, but I think we will be able to explain it more
as the time goes on with some one there to translate.
I
was able to go on my first exchange this week with my Sister Training
Leaders! They are fabulous and I really learned a lot from them. It was
weird leaving Sister Nowell, but Sister Sidhu took good care of me and
kept me really busy. I loved it. We were able to go an help some recent
converts that Sister Sidhu helped in the finding process for them, they
are a great couple and own a pizza joint here in town, SO GOOD. I was
then able to go teaching with her in a couple of visits and one of them I
was able to recite the First Vision for the first time! I never thought
that I was going to be able to do but what an awesome experience it
was. The spirit was so strong and I was so happy that I was able to do
it all by myself! We then ended our exchange with an ice cream visit,
yum!
We also had an experience this week where
we were teaching another investigator and she has been taught for a long
time. So people like to call her an eternigator, meaning she will be an
investigator for an eternity. Anyway she was meeting with us and wwe
started teaching the restoration. And the first part in this is talking
about God is our Loving Heavenly Father. And our mission president has
made it a goal to be able to talk about how God has a body of flesh and
bone in this part of the lesson, because once a person more understands
who they are praying to, they are more likely to receive answers. So we
asked her, "When you pray to your Heavenly Father, what do you see?" She
talked about how she sees a beam of light. She had never even heard
that God could have a body of flesh and bone. This was crazy to me!
Because my whole life I have been taught this idea! And once we taught
her about his body, she was amazed and she understood so much more. Our
Heavenly Father loves us so much, and I see that more and more as I
begin to learn more about him. He knows us and he knows what we are
going through, he is never going to give us something that be can't
handle and that is amazing to me.
This week we
have had a lot of people drop us, meaning they don't want to be taught
anymore. This has been a really sad thing because most of the time in
our heads they have been really strong investigators, like as I am
writing this email we just got a call. It is crazy to me how much Satan
works on all of us, and our investigators. But don't worry, the work
still goes on!
Sister Nowell and I are getting
along so well. Just the other day we both realized that not only are we
companions but we are best friends. I love the opportunities that I have
to be able to learn from Sister Nowell and the experiences that we are
able to have together as a companionship.
I am
loving Oregon and all the awesome experiences that I am having. I need
to be better about writing down things to remember what I need to write
about, also I need to be better about pictures, so much better about
pictures, but I do have a few from this week!
I
am also so grateful for all the love and support from my family and
friends at home. Thank you so much for the prayers that everyone is
sending me, you can never pray too much! Honestly, I can't even count
how many times Sister Nowell and I pray everyday. The number is way too
much!
I love you all so much!!!!-
Sister Harrison
We put our card in there for whoever gets it
We got lost yesterday trying to find someones house, I didn't mind too much, the drive was beautiful!
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