So
Mondays are one of my most stressful days of the week, so as you are
reading my email this week it is more of a journal entry then it is a
scattered mess. Sister Nowell and I have started typing up a little bit
about each day, except now I am seeing that it has made my emails super
long, so I am not sure how that is going to work out. So don't feel bad
if you don't actually read this, lol.
Monday:
Today was an EPIC day. We started out our P day by waking up early and doing our studies. I was able to study about temples and I was able to read in 2 Nephi 5 about the Lamanites being cursed and Nephi building a temple to the Lord. It was a really good study and I loved the talk that I read "The Holy Temple- A Beacon to the World" by President Monson. We then were able to go with a family in our ward, the Andersons, to a hike called Susan Creek. It was BEAUTIFUL. Oregon forests are gorgeous and this was a super easy trail. The Anderson's in our Ward have 3 kids, Ainslee, Evelynn and Lacee. They are 5ish, 3ish and 1ish and they were all able to walk on their own then Lacee was in a backpack. So cute. Ainslee had Sister Nowell as her missionary and then Evelynn had me as her missionary. I seriously was holding her hand basically the whole walk. They are the cutest, smartest and funniest kids that I have ever met. Sister Anderson was a school teacher so I think that is where they get all of their smarts from. The waterfall was beautiful and I have lots of pictures from that, and we have a lot of videos of the girls saying funny things when we were by the creek, I wish I could have gotten in the water it looked so nice. At one point the girls were throwing rocks in the water and Ainslee made a comment about when the rocks fall in it sounds like music, so then Sister Anderson made it a science experiment for her to test if the small rock and the big rock made a low noise or a high noise. I am telling you, they are so freaking smart, I hope one day I can be like them! We ate some snacks and watched the girls play in the creek for probably a good 45 minutes until we realized that we were all being eaten by mistquitos which wasn't the funniest experience so we were able to then leave and walk back. The trail head was probably a good 45 minutes away from our apartment but it was still in our area. On the way back we stopped by Colliding rivers which was pretty cool, it is one of the few places in the world that has two rivers that come together head on in one spot, the North Umpqua river and the Little River. It was really cool and honestly so pretty, so glad we were able to stop there and see a spot in nature that is specific for Roseburg/Glide! Sister Anderson was then nice enough to take us to lunch at Subway- she is seriously the best. We love her so much and are so grateful for everything that she does with us. We also love her girls so much, we think we are going to get some pictures printed from today and take them over to them, they are going to love it.
After that exciting adventure we were able to go grocery shopping. Here in Oregon they are all about recycling cans and bottles, so Sister Nowell and I decided to get in on the action! Sister Nowell drinks a lot of Coke, so do I some weeks, but anyway we got a pretty good collection growing and we ended up getting almost $3 back! Which was enough to put towards our groceries for ice cream! And of course we had to get Umpqua ice cream, I haven't written home about this ice cream but it is seriously the best, no joke. Sister Nowell and I always get Chocolate Peanut Butter, it was like flakes of Peanut Butter in it, so good. And it's made here locally in Oregon!
After shopping we went to the church to email home, this is always sort of stressful for me, trying to get all of my thoughts into one email for the whole week. So this week I am trying a thing where I write down all my thoughts on my iPad then I can transfer it over to an email, hopefully it works a little better. Anyway this week I remembered that my Aunt Jodi had told me that one of my cousins friends is serving in the same mission as me and I remembered that my brother Dallins friend was also serving here, but I couldn't remember either of their names! So I emailed my mom. And randomly these elders come in, while I am writing my emails, and I recognized one of them and not thinking much about it I go back to writing. Well a couple of minutes later I said something about my brother Dallin to Sister Nowell, and then the Elder suddenly asks, "How is Dallin doing?" Suddenly I realized this was my brothers friend! We laugh and we were able to talk to each other, his name is Elder Hoskins and he is doing very well here in Oregon and is actually training this next transfer in Coos Bay I believe and he is training.
Once we finished emailed we had dinner at the Shumways, a family in our wards, house. Sister Nowell and I had never eaten there and it was quite the experience. We had a dress up show, a car race and a sticker fest all while we were there. Their kids had a lot of energy but all in all it was so much fun to be able to be in their home, and also we have a new Elder in out Ward family! Elder Stohl was transferred to Corvallis and now we have Elder Broshears. He is from Murray, Utah and he really seems like a great guy, I can't wait to get to know him better!
Tuesday:
We woke up and really just didn't have any energy, it was weird because normally I am able to roll out of bed, maybe I was just exhausted from that very strenuous hike yesterday
😉
We were able to teach institute today! Sister Harker, in our Ward,
texted us on Sunday and asked if we could do it, and Sister Nowell and I
have been trying to find a way to interact more with the youth, and
this was the perfect opportunity to do that. And they actually had 3 non
members there for the lesson! We want to get to know them more and
maybe look into teaching them. But we were able to talk about the Holy
Ghost and how we use it in our teaching as missionaries, because this
was a mission prep class. It was actually pretty great because we were
assigned this topic to write a 15 minute talk on it for our zone
conference in a couple weeks, so I am already a little more prepared!
One of my favorite quotes from this lesson was from President Packer and
it said:
“This voice of the Spirit speaks gently, prompting you what to do or what to say, or it may caution or warn you.
“Ignore or disobey these promptings, and the Spirit will leave you. It is your choice--your agency”
Wooah! That is pretty serious. It is your choice if you listen to the spirit, so it is pretty important that we are always trying and continuing to act on those promptings that we are getting, even if they don't make sense all the time.
Also guess what? Elder Wright is my zone leader! He knows my cousin Tanner, or as he is known now, Elder Leishman! This is a crazy small world and it is so much fun to find all these connections. I can't wait to be able to serve with him for the next 6 weeks, he seems like a pretty cool guy!
Wednesday:
Today was a glorious day! We woke up this morning and I literally rolled out of bed and was ready to go on our daily walk in about 5 minutes! We started walking and we got further then we ever had before! It was amazing, we were able to find this little pond thing and a statue next to the hospital, it was beautiful! Then we came home and got ready for the day then had study time. Right now I am just getting into the Isaiah chapters in Second Nephi and I spent 30 minutes on 11 verses trying to find the hidden meanings, it was awesome! Then this week for new missionary training we are learning a lot about the Book of Mormon so I was able to study from preach my gospel. Then we had to take our car into the shop, but before we did that the Pearsons, the people that we taught institute for, came over and brought us flowers and a sweet card! They were so appreciative of us doing that for them, but honestly it wasn't big deal! It's what we do everyday and Sister Nowell and I loved doing it!
Anyway we had to take our car into the shop because it has yet another problem, note to self never buy a Chevy Cruze. And it was a pretty warm day today, Sister Nowell got sunburnt, but we spent most of the day walking around on a busy street called Harvard, because we figured we always see lots of people on this street, what we call OYMing or opening your mouth. It's always fun to walk and talk with Sister Nowell, it seems like we never run out of things to talk about! We got lunch at Taco Time then when we were walking a member saw us and stopped and offered to take us to lunch! Of course! But we had just eaten so we said no thank you but she offered to give us a ride and in the process got us drinks at sonic, Sister Siepert is seriously one of my favorite people.
We then made a card for a member in our Ward who is less active, she has been doing live in caregiving and just last week the person she had been taking care of passed away, her name was Pat. So we wanted to drop a card by her because she told us that she hasn't been up to visitors. Well when she saw us she actually let us in! She isn't doing the best right now at all but we were able to talk about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and about how Heavenly Father never leaves us alone in trials, Sister Nowell read the verses in D&C when Joseph Smith is in Liberty Jail, and he asks god why he is going through these hard trials. Then I suddenly got the impression to talk about the plan of salvation, but I didn't know how to bring it up, it was like Heavenly Father was giving me a clue as to what the conversation was leading to, because suddenly she started asking about how sealings in the temple work, wooah! So we talked about that and then we told her that Pat was learning about the gospel in the spirit world and with that situation she could prepare to go to the temple to do pats temple work, and I honestly think that gave her some strength.
We then went and taught two other less actives who are in our Ward. One of the guys that we talked to has an amazing green thumb, like his front yard has probably hundreds of different plants! Anyway we asked him what his secret was and he said you just have to bury a Jehovahs Witness with them, they are pretty good fertilizer, Sister Nowell and I died, it was so funny. It is always so interesting to me when we talk to people who aren't coming to church and ask them why, and most of the time their answer is that they are too busy. Like what the? You are too busy for eternal salvation? Really? But that is okay, all in all we were able to meet some really great people and it is crazy when you look at our Ward list, sometimes it seems like we have more less active members then active members.
Thursday:
Thursdays are our weekly planning days but, We were able to have dinner at the Hansen's and they are a sweet couple in our Ward that is here for half the year then they go to Arizona for the other half. Well they have a less active son who just got divorced, and Sister Nowell and I have been trying to find a time that we could meet with him, and he was supposed to be at dinner. Well he didn't show up unfortunately. But while we were eating we heard a knock on the door and it was some high priests in our Ward asking for their son, and he was actually home! He just hadn't come in to say hello yet. And they were able to meet with him and he told them that he has been fasting and praying to his Heavenly Father to find out what he needs to do right now, and the high priests coming over was an answer to a prayer. Heavenly Father answers our prayers in so many different ways and often times we don't even recognize them as answers. I know that as we pray to recognize the answers that we are relieving that our Heavenly Father will show these things to us.
We were at Walmart for something today and we saw in a tabloid that Julie Andrews died so we had to texted Sister Anderson in our Ward to find out- don't worry it's a hoax! Long live, Maria and Mary! Sister Nowell and I decided that maybe we should vote for her for president.
Friday:
Today we went to New Missionary Torture, I will be so happy when I do not have to go to New Missionary Training again. I had a funny thought this morning when I was getting ready. My first missionary training last transfer president and sister Russell randomly showed up and for some reason I felt like that was normal, well it's not, everyone was surprised by it. So this morning I thought about it and laughed about it well guess what happened, the assistants to president showed up today! Not totally the same but we were all surprised this morning. We had a great district meeting and we talked about new ways that we can find, because at this point in time the elders in our Ward and sister Nowell and I are having a hard time trying to find new people to teach, so hopefully we try to implement our new ideas that we gained.
After our meetings we were able to go to our new service opportunity that we are doing at the Red Cross! Don't worry, we aren't poking anyone with needles
💉,
but we are greeting people when they first come in and give them drinks
and treats at the very end, no blood involved. We are so excited! And
just on our first day we were able to meet so many people and be able to
talk about what missionaries do and a little about what we believe in.
Both of the ladies that were training us live in our area! On of them
has a really close friend who is LDS and she knows an elderly couple who
is on a mission in our Ward, so cool! Then another lady said that if we
came by her house that she would let us in to talk more about the
gospel! I am really excited to help out our community and be able to
find people who are ready to hear the gospel through our service
opportunity.
Later this evening we taught a less active who has some kids who are very against the church. Sister Nowell and I are trying to think of ways to get to know them more and to be able to build their connection with missionaries a little more. We were able to watch parent of meet the Mormons with them and it really was a neat experience, just because that movie is able to show our basic beliefs, and this mother is a recent convert to the church and doesn't know all too much about everything, yet! We hope that we can help the mom come back to church and be able to come closer to Christ, but she is a little bit of a push over when it comes to her kids, hopefully we work something out. Sister Nowell and I have just found a concept that is very important in families, parents have to be an example to their kids, because if the kids don't have that example to watch in their lives then they won't be able to see the blessings that come from living the gospel. I am so grateful for the parents (both paternal and step) that have helped me become the person that I am today. Someone on my mission asked me if I would rather have both of my parents married rather then divorced, and my first thought was no, just because I have grown so much from the trials that I have been given and I wouldn't be myself without those trials. I love all my parents and I am so grateful for their testimonies that help strengthen me every day.
Saturday:
We had a lesson with Elena, who was our progressing investigator, last week it was a hard lesson, we talked about the Book of Mormon and about how she believed that we worshiped Mormon (this is a concept that I have never heard before), but this week was even harder. Right when we walked into the lesson she was in attack mode. She flat out told us that the Book of Mormon was false and not real, and that latter day prophets aren't a thing and how we can't put our trust in Men. We had a member with us, because Elena speaks Spanish and we have been having a hard time explaining gospel terms to her, and he was able to basically explain the restoration in Spanish, but she the whole time just kept saying no no no. After awhile of going back and forth Sister Nowell and I came to the conclusion that right now Elena isn't ready for the gospel, and that was really hard. It's really hard to come out on a mission and to have people tell you that what you believe is wrong, when you believe with all your heart that that isn't true. She told us in the end that she loved and respected us but that what we believed in was wrong. She then asked if she could pray for us, one lesson she told us she could speak in the gift of tongues because that is what her church believes in and we thought during her prayer maybe that's what she was doing, this sounds wrong but it kinda made Sister Nowell and I laugh, oops. In her prayer she prayed that we would stay away from bad men and that Brother Lander would stay faithful to his wife, awkward. I pray for her that one day she may get off the crazy bus.
We were able to get a new investigator today! Her name is Patty or how Sister Nowell and I call her, Patty cake. Seriously she is one of the sweetest ladies! Her mom was a member before she past away and her sister lives in springville! Super cool. Anyway she told us that she totally believes in a lot of things that we teach but that it is hard to go to church when your husband isn't there with you, but she did tell us that everytime she is in Utah she goes to church with her Sister. We told her that we would love to have her at church and we would save her a spot, she told us that maybe she would surprise us in the future! We are already thinking of so many fellowshippers that we can bring to help her feel more welcome.
One thing that Sister Nowell and I have been talking about a lot lately is about how much members influence the people around us. We have a list right now of about 10 people who have some influence of members in their lives and that is how they have been introduced to the church! There is a quote by President Hinckley in Preach my Gospel:
“So many of us look upon missionary work as simply tracting. Everyone who is familiar with this work knows there is a better way. That way is through the members of the Church. Whenever there is a member who introduces an investigator, there is an immediate support system. The member bears testimony of the truth of the work. He is anxious for the happiness of his investigator friend. He becomes excited as that friend makes progress in learning the gospel.
“The full-time missionaries may do the actual teaching, but the member, wherever possible, will back up that teaching with the offering of his home to carry on this missionary service. He will bear sincere testimony of the divinity of the work. He will be there to answer questions when the missionaries are not around. He will be a friend to the convert who is making a big and often difficult change. … The process of bringing new people into the Church is not the responsibility alone of the missionaries. They succeed best when members become the source from which new investigators are found” (Ensign, May 1999, 105–6).
We have been sharing this as a dinner message lately and we know that it is very powerful. The more that we get members involved in the missionary work, the more success that we will have as church! I love the members around me here in the Melrose Ward, they are seriously so great and they are always trying to help out the missionaries. For example Sister Harker in our Ward, she is fabulous, invited a non member to our relief society activity a few weeks ago, well guess what. We are now helping this friend unpack her house! Someone who probably wouldn't have let the missionaries in before is now befriending us. Seriously, member missionary work does wonders
Sunday:
The Sabbath day, one of the best days. Today Cameron Rynearson was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Lattey-day Saints, and received the Holy Ghost during sacrament meeting. It was an amazing experience to be there, I might have shed a tear or two. It is so fun to see how excited he is to receive the priesthood and to be able to pass the sacrament, he will be going to do baptisms for the dead in just a few weeks! I am serious stoked for him!
We then had AMAZING talks in sacrament meeting. We just had a couple come home from their missions from Hawaii. They spoke about what they did there and such, but the sister that spoke talked about Be Willing. And I thought this was a very profound subject to speak on, I loved every minute of it. She talked about callings and being willing to fulfill all callings that are given to us. She talked about being willing to serve and about how that changed her mission. She talked about being willing to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. And I loved the last sentence of her talk "He was willing to love us before we really knew him" to me this means we need to continue learning more about the savior and being willing to come closer to him and know what he did for us. Being willing is essential for our salvation.
In relief society our WHOLE lesson was on eternal marriage, probably a missionaries least favorite subject. But there was a great part that I loved from President Hunter.
"I think the greatest decision you must make … is the decision that’s going to shape your life for eternity, and that is your marriage. I’m sure that you would agree with me that this is going to be far more important than anything else you do in life, because your work and your profession or whatever you’re going to do is not nearly as important as eternal values. … [The decision about marriage is] going to affect you through eternity; it’s going to affect you while you live here upon the earth too.
Do not … rush into a relationship without proper forethought and inspiration. Prayerfully seek the Lord’s guidance on this matter. Stay worthy of receiving that divine assistance.
Many of you … worry about courtship, marriage, and starting a family. You probably will not find the name of your future spouse in Nephi’s vision or the book of Revelation; you probably will not be told it by an angel or even by your bishop. Some things you must work out for yourself. Have faith and be obedient, and blessings will come. Try to be patient. Try not to let what you don’t have blind you to that which you do have. If you worry too much about marriage, it can canker the very possibility of it. Live fully and faithfully as one person before having undue anxiety about living as two.
While waiting for promised blessings, one should not mark time, for to fail to move forward is to some degree a retrogression. Be anxiously engaged in good causes, including your own development."
I really like the part that it talks about being anxiously engaged in a good cause and developing yourself. I right now am anxiously engaging myself in the lords work, and how amazing is that! And all in all it is helping me in my own development as a person, I am learning more about myself each day, I am truly learning how to love from my investigators. On that note, I love that I don't have to worry about getting married right now because I am anxiously engaged in this good cause. And it's weird that we are talking about this so, Anyway, sister Nowell and I spent the whole lesson feeling weird, and then sister Nowell made a comment saying "I may not have a lot of experience in this department but..." It was pretty funny a lot of the ladies laughed.
Recently during lunch time we have been watching I am a Mormon videos. Well weird thing happened, we started one and I wasn't watching the screen but I recognized the voice, suddenly I turned around and Chad Lewis was on the screen! I was like "wooah he's in my Ward" later sister Nowell told me that he spoke to her in the MTC! So that is pretty cool!
For dinner tonight we are with this lady named Winifred, she is 97. 97 YEARS OLD, AND SHE IS STILL KICKING
👵.
She is kicking so much that in a week and a half she is going sky
diving, I kid you not, but don't worry, she is going tandem so she will
be hooked to another person, did I mention she might be nuts? When we
eat with her we literally go to her assisted living home and eat with
her in the dining room, it brings back a lot of great CNA memories!
Anyway she is one of the greatest human beings, she bought us a couch a
couple of weeks back, and today just gave us a CD player because she
doesn't need it anymore. She does a lot for the missionaries and loves
us. Something that is special about Winifred is that she LOVES the
temple. She is a convert to the church and she really sees the amazing
blessings that come from temple service. Still at 97 years old she tries
to go to the temple once a week, but because she is BLIND, she pays
someone money for gas and lunch to drive her there. One day she went
with a lady in our Ward and did 6 sessions, 6 SESSIONS! THATS 12 HOURS!
Sister Nowell asked her if she fell asleep at all during those sessions
and she responded, "oh no that would be so terrible to fall asleep, I
could never do that." I couldn't believe it when she told me. Seriously,
she is the greatest.
On another note about dinners, I might start starving soon. A couple of weeks ago President Russell emphasized something that we are trying to implement in our Ward, and that is the stopping of dinner calendars for the missionaries being sent around during church. He talked about how it is Important that investigators and less active members first are given the opportunity to feed the missionaries and how important it is for us to be in their homes. So this means that Ward mission leaders are instructed to make phone calls, go to less active homes and invite people to feed the missionaries, which is a very daunting task to say the least. When we brought it up to our Ward mission leader he literally told us, well we have done this before, I just want you to be prepared that you might not get fed as much or at all. So Sister Nowell and I might be living off of Mac n cheese, lol. But we know that if we follow the council from our mission president that we will be blessed and our area will be blessed, so let us go forward with faith! On a side note, since being a missionary I have seen the role of a Ward mission leader in a new light, and man it takes a lot of work, seriously, it's probably the third busiest calling in a Ward, next to bishop and relief society presidents of course, so all you Ward mission leaders out there, you are well appreciated
I am so grateful for all the love and support that I receive every Monday when I see the emails from all my family and friends. I have so many pictures to send this week, so hopefully I will be able to send all of them! I am loving my area and the longer I am with Sister Nowell I am able to see that she is the best friend that I never knew I was missing, she is seriously the greatest. The other day I was super home sick and I was trying to hide it, and for some reason I thought that I was doing very well at it. We had to stop everything that we were doing and Sister Nowell sat me down and asked me what was wrong. Seriously, having a companion with me 24/7 is really preparing me for marriage I think. But I love that Sister Nowell and I are able to be so open with each other and have so much fun. The last couple of days I have really felt my abs as we have laughed so muc
I won't write about our Pday adventures from today in this email but lets just say, Sister Siepert in our ward took us to Wildlife Safari, and I am so excited to write about it. Last night at 10:30 at night I felt like a kid on Christmas morning, I got so much energy and I just couldn't hide my excitement to go, and we had so much fun
Thank you so much for all of the love and all of the prayers that everyone sends me, the support is amazing and I am loving my mission every single day, and wow the days go by so fast!
HAVE A GREAT WEEK
Love, Your Favorite Sister Missionary,
Sister Harrison
Monday:
Today was an EPIC day. We started out our P day by waking up early and doing our studies. I was able to study about temples and I was able to read in 2 Nephi 5 about the Lamanites being cursed and Nephi building a temple to the Lord. It was a really good study and I loved the talk that I read "The Holy Temple- A Beacon to the World" by President Monson. We then were able to go with a family in our ward, the Andersons, to a hike called Susan Creek. It was BEAUTIFUL. Oregon forests are gorgeous and this was a super easy trail. The Anderson's in our Ward have 3 kids, Ainslee, Evelynn and Lacee. They are 5ish, 3ish and 1ish and they were all able to walk on their own then Lacee was in a backpack. So cute. Ainslee had Sister Nowell as her missionary and then Evelynn had me as her missionary. I seriously was holding her hand basically the whole walk. They are the cutest, smartest and funniest kids that I have ever met. Sister Anderson was a school teacher so I think that is where they get all of their smarts from. The waterfall was beautiful and I have lots of pictures from that, and we have a lot of videos of the girls saying funny things when we were by the creek, I wish I could have gotten in the water it looked so nice. At one point the girls were throwing rocks in the water and Ainslee made a comment about when the rocks fall in it sounds like music, so then Sister Anderson made it a science experiment for her to test if the small rock and the big rock made a low noise or a high noise. I am telling you, they are so freaking smart, I hope one day I can be like them! We ate some snacks and watched the girls play in the creek for probably a good 45 minutes until we realized that we were all being eaten by mistquitos which wasn't the funniest experience so we were able to then leave and walk back. The trail head was probably a good 45 minutes away from our apartment but it was still in our area. On the way back we stopped by Colliding rivers which was pretty cool, it is one of the few places in the world that has two rivers that come together head on in one spot, the North Umpqua river and the Little River. It was really cool and honestly so pretty, so glad we were able to stop there and see a spot in nature that is specific for Roseburg/Glide! Sister Anderson was then nice enough to take us to lunch at Subway- she is seriously the best. We love her so much and are so grateful for everything that she does with us. We also love her girls so much, we think we are going to get some pictures printed from today and take them over to them, they are going to love it.
After that exciting adventure we were able to go grocery shopping. Here in Oregon they are all about recycling cans and bottles, so Sister Nowell and I decided to get in on the action! Sister Nowell drinks a lot of Coke, so do I some weeks, but anyway we got a pretty good collection growing and we ended up getting almost $3 back! Which was enough to put towards our groceries for ice cream! And of course we had to get Umpqua ice cream, I haven't written home about this ice cream but it is seriously the best, no joke. Sister Nowell and I always get Chocolate Peanut Butter, it was like flakes of Peanut Butter in it, so good. And it's made here locally in Oregon!
After shopping we went to the church to email home, this is always sort of stressful for me, trying to get all of my thoughts into one email for the whole week. So this week I am trying a thing where I write down all my thoughts on my iPad then I can transfer it over to an email, hopefully it works a little better. Anyway this week I remembered that my Aunt Jodi had told me that one of my cousins friends is serving in the same mission as me and I remembered that my brother Dallins friend was also serving here, but I couldn't remember either of their names! So I emailed my mom. And randomly these elders come in, while I am writing my emails, and I recognized one of them and not thinking much about it I go back to writing. Well a couple of minutes later I said something about my brother Dallin to Sister Nowell, and then the Elder suddenly asks, "How is Dallin doing?" Suddenly I realized this was my brothers friend! We laugh and we were able to talk to each other, his name is Elder Hoskins and he is doing very well here in Oregon and is actually training this next transfer in Coos Bay I believe and he is training.
Once we finished emailed we had dinner at the Shumways, a family in our wards, house. Sister Nowell and I had never eaten there and it was quite the experience. We had a dress up show, a car race and a sticker fest all while we were there. Their kids had a lot of energy but all in all it was so much fun to be able to be in their home, and also we have a new Elder in out Ward family! Elder Stohl was transferred to Corvallis and now we have Elder Broshears. He is from Murray, Utah and he really seems like a great guy, I can't wait to get to know him better!
Tuesday:
We woke up and really just didn't have any energy, it was weird because normally I am able to roll out of bed, maybe I was just exhausted from that very strenuous hike yesterday
😉
We were able to teach institute today! Sister Harker, in our Ward,
texted us on Sunday and asked if we could do it, and Sister Nowell and I
have been trying to find a way to interact more with the youth, and
this was the perfect opportunity to do that. And they actually had 3 non
members there for the lesson! We want to get to know them more and
maybe look into teaching them. But we were able to talk about the Holy
Ghost and how we use it in our teaching as missionaries, because this
was a mission prep class. It was actually pretty great because we were
assigned this topic to write a 15 minute talk on it for our zone
conference in a couple weeks, so I am already a little more prepared!
One of my favorite quotes from this lesson was from President Packer and
it said: “This voice of the Spirit speaks gently, prompting you what to do or what to say, or it may caution or warn you.
“Ignore or disobey these promptings, and the Spirit will leave you. It is your choice--your agency”
Wooah! That is pretty serious. It is your choice if you listen to the spirit, so it is pretty important that we are always trying and continuing to act on those promptings that we are getting, even if they don't make sense all the time.
Also guess what? Elder Wright is my zone leader! He knows my cousin Tanner, or as he is known now, Elder Leishman! This is a crazy small world and it is so much fun to find all these connections. I can't wait to be able to serve with him for the next 6 weeks, he seems like a pretty cool guy!
Wednesday:
Today was a glorious day! We woke up this morning and I literally rolled out of bed and was ready to go on our daily walk in about 5 minutes! We started walking and we got further then we ever had before! It was amazing, we were able to find this little pond thing and a statue next to the hospital, it was beautiful! Then we came home and got ready for the day then had study time. Right now I am just getting into the Isaiah chapters in Second Nephi and I spent 30 minutes on 11 verses trying to find the hidden meanings, it was awesome! Then this week for new missionary training we are learning a lot about the Book of Mormon so I was able to study from preach my gospel. Then we had to take our car into the shop, but before we did that the Pearsons, the people that we taught institute for, came over and brought us flowers and a sweet card! They were so appreciative of us doing that for them, but honestly it wasn't big deal! It's what we do everyday and Sister Nowell and I loved doing it!
Anyway we had to take our car into the shop because it has yet another problem, note to self never buy a Chevy Cruze. And it was a pretty warm day today, Sister Nowell got sunburnt, but we spent most of the day walking around on a busy street called Harvard, because we figured we always see lots of people on this street, what we call OYMing or opening your mouth. It's always fun to walk and talk with Sister Nowell, it seems like we never run out of things to talk about! We got lunch at Taco Time then when we were walking a member saw us and stopped and offered to take us to lunch! Of course! But we had just eaten so we said no thank you but she offered to give us a ride and in the process got us drinks at sonic, Sister Siepert is seriously one of my favorite people.
We then made a card for a member in our Ward who is less active, she has been doing live in caregiving and just last week the person she had been taking care of passed away, her name was Pat. So we wanted to drop a card by her because she told us that she hasn't been up to visitors. Well when she saw us she actually let us in! She isn't doing the best right now at all but we were able to talk about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and about how Heavenly Father never leaves us alone in trials, Sister Nowell read the verses in D&C when Joseph Smith is in Liberty Jail, and he asks god why he is going through these hard trials. Then I suddenly got the impression to talk about the plan of salvation, but I didn't know how to bring it up, it was like Heavenly Father was giving me a clue as to what the conversation was leading to, because suddenly she started asking about how sealings in the temple work, wooah! So we talked about that and then we told her that Pat was learning about the gospel in the spirit world and with that situation she could prepare to go to the temple to do pats temple work, and I honestly think that gave her some strength.
We then went and taught two other less actives who are in our Ward. One of the guys that we talked to has an amazing green thumb, like his front yard has probably hundreds of different plants! Anyway we asked him what his secret was and he said you just have to bury a Jehovahs Witness with them, they are pretty good fertilizer, Sister Nowell and I died, it was so funny. It is always so interesting to me when we talk to people who aren't coming to church and ask them why, and most of the time their answer is that they are too busy. Like what the? You are too busy for eternal salvation? Really? But that is okay, all in all we were able to meet some really great people and it is crazy when you look at our Ward list, sometimes it seems like we have more less active members then active members.
Thursday:
Thursdays are our weekly planning days but, We were able to have dinner at the Hansen's and they are a sweet couple in our Ward that is here for half the year then they go to Arizona for the other half. Well they have a less active son who just got divorced, and Sister Nowell and I have been trying to find a time that we could meet with him, and he was supposed to be at dinner. Well he didn't show up unfortunately. But while we were eating we heard a knock on the door and it was some high priests in our Ward asking for their son, and he was actually home! He just hadn't come in to say hello yet. And they were able to meet with him and he told them that he has been fasting and praying to his Heavenly Father to find out what he needs to do right now, and the high priests coming over was an answer to a prayer. Heavenly Father answers our prayers in so many different ways and often times we don't even recognize them as answers. I know that as we pray to recognize the answers that we are relieving that our Heavenly Father will show these things to us.
We were at Walmart for something today and we saw in a tabloid that Julie Andrews died so we had to texted Sister Anderson in our Ward to find out- don't worry it's a hoax! Long live, Maria and Mary! Sister Nowell and I decided that maybe we should vote for her for president.
Friday:
Today we went to New Missionary Torture, I will be so happy when I do not have to go to New Missionary Training again. I had a funny thought this morning when I was getting ready. My first missionary training last transfer president and sister Russell randomly showed up and for some reason I felt like that was normal, well it's not, everyone was surprised by it. So this morning I thought about it and laughed about it well guess what happened, the assistants to president showed up today! Not totally the same but we were all surprised this morning. We had a great district meeting and we talked about new ways that we can find, because at this point in time the elders in our Ward and sister Nowell and I are having a hard time trying to find new people to teach, so hopefully we try to implement our new ideas that we gained.
After our meetings we were able to go to our new service opportunity that we are doing at the Red Cross! Don't worry, we aren't poking anyone with needles
💉,
but we are greeting people when they first come in and give them drinks
and treats at the very end, no blood involved. We are so excited! And
just on our first day we were able to meet so many people and be able to
talk about what missionaries do and a little about what we believe in.
Both of the ladies that were training us live in our area! On of them
has a really close friend who is LDS and she knows an elderly couple who
is on a mission in our Ward, so cool! Then another lady said that if we
came by her house that she would let us in to talk more about the
gospel! I am really excited to help out our community and be able to
find people who are ready to hear the gospel through our service
opportunity. Later this evening we taught a less active who has some kids who are very against the church. Sister Nowell and I are trying to think of ways to get to know them more and to be able to build their connection with missionaries a little more. We were able to watch parent of meet the Mormons with them and it really was a neat experience, just because that movie is able to show our basic beliefs, and this mother is a recent convert to the church and doesn't know all too much about everything, yet! We hope that we can help the mom come back to church and be able to come closer to Christ, but she is a little bit of a push over when it comes to her kids, hopefully we work something out. Sister Nowell and I have just found a concept that is very important in families, parents have to be an example to their kids, because if the kids don't have that example to watch in their lives then they won't be able to see the blessings that come from living the gospel. I am so grateful for the parents (both paternal and step) that have helped me become the person that I am today. Someone on my mission asked me if I would rather have both of my parents married rather then divorced, and my first thought was no, just because I have grown so much from the trials that I have been given and I wouldn't be myself without those trials. I love all my parents and I am so grateful for their testimonies that help strengthen me every day.
Saturday:
We had a lesson with Elena, who was our progressing investigator, last week it was a hard lesson, we talked about the Book of Mormon and about how she believed that we worshiped Mormon (this is a concept that I have never heard before), but this week was even harder. Right when we walked into the lesson she was in attack mode. She flat out told us that the Book of Mormon was false and not real, and that latter day prophets aren't a thing and how we can't put our trust in Men. We had a member with us, because Elena speaks Spanish and we have been having a hard time explaining gospel terms to her, and he was able to basically explain the restoration in Spanish, but she the whole time just kept saying no no no. After awhile of going back and forth Sister Nowell and I came to the conclusion that right now Elena isn't ready for the gospel, and that was really hard. It's really hard to come out on a mission and to have people tell you that what you believe is wrong, when you believe with all your heart that that isn't true. She told us in the end that she loved and respected us but that what we believed in was wrong. She then asked if she could pray for us, one lesson she told us she could speak in the gift of tongues because that is what her church believes in and we thought during her prayer maybe that's what she was doing, this sounds wrong but it kinda made Sister Nowell and I laugh, oops. In her prayer she prayed that we would stay away from bad men and that Brother Lander would stay faithful to his wife, awkward. I pray for her that one day she may get off the crazy bus.
We were able to get a new investigator today! Her name is Patty or how Sister Nowell and I call her, Patty cake. Seriously she is one of the sweetest ladies! Her mom was a member before she past away and her sister lives in springville! Super cool. Anyway she told us that she totally believes in a lot of things that we teach but that it is hard to go to church when your husband isn't there with you, but she did tell us that everytime she is in Utah she goes to church with her Sister. We told her that we would love to have her at church and we would save her a spot, she told us that maybe she would surprise us in the future! We are already thinking of so many fellowshippers that we can bring to help her feel more welcome.
One thing that Sister Nowell and I have been talking about a lot lately is about how much members influence the people around us. We have a list right now of about 10 people who have some influence of members in their lives and that is how they have been introduced to the church! There is a quote by President Hinckley in Preach my Gospel:
“So many of us look upon missionary work as simply tracting. Everyone who is familiar with this work knows there is a better way. That way is through the members of the Church. Whenever there is a member who introduces an investigator, there is an immediate support system. The member bears testimony of the truth of the work. He is anxious for the happiness of his investigator friend. He becomes excited as that friend makes progress in learning the gospel.
“The full-time missionaries may do the actual teaching, but the member, wherever possible, will back up that teaching with the offering of his home to carry on this missionary service. He will bear sincere testimony of the divinity of the work. He will be there to answer questions when the missionaries are not around. He will be a friend to the convert who is making a big and often difficult change. … The process of bringing new people into the Church is not the responsibility alone of the missionaries. They succeed best when members become the source from which new investigators are found” (Ensign, May 1999, 105–6).
We have been sharing this as a dinner message lately and we know that it is very powerful. The more that we get members involved in the missionary work, the more success that we will have as church! I love the members around me here in the Melrose Ward, they are seriously so great and they are always trying to help out the missionaries. For example Sister Harker in our Ward, she is fabulous, invited a non member to our relief society activity a few weeks ago, well guess what. We are now helping this friend unpack her house! Someone who probably wouldn't have let the missionaries in before is now befriending us. Seriously, member missionary work does wonders
Sunday:
The Sabbath day, one of the best days. Today Cameron Rynearson was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Lattey-day Saints, and received the Holy Ghost during sacrament meeting. It was an amazing experience to be there, I might have shed a tear or two. It is so fun to see how excited he is to receive the priesthood and to be able to pass the sacrament, he will be going to do baptisms for the dead in just a few weeks! I am serious stoked for him!
We then had AMAZING talks in sacrament meeting. We just had a couple come home from their missions from Hawaii. They spoke about what they did there and such, but the sister that spoke talked about Be Willing. And I thought this was a very profound subject to speak on, I loved every minute of it. She talked about callings and being willing to fulfill all callings that are given to us. She talked about being willing to serve and about how that changed her mission. She talked about being willing to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. And I loved the last sentence of her talk "He was willing to love us before we really knew him" to me this means we need to continue learning more about the savior and being willing to come closer to him and know what he did for us. Being willing is essential for our salvation.
In relief society our WHOLE lesson was on eternal marriage, probably a missionaries least favorite subject. But there was a great part that I loved from President Hunter.
"I think the greatest decision you must make … is the decision that’s going to shape your life for eternity, and that is your marriage. I’m sure that you would agree with me that this is going to be far more important than anything else you do in life, because your work and your profession or whatever you’re going to do is not nearly as important as eternal values. … [The decision about marriage is] going to affect you through eternity; it’s going to affect you while you live here upon the earth too.
Do not … rush into a relationship without proper forethought and inspiration. Prayerfully seek the Lord’s guidance on this matter. Stay worthy of receiving that divine assistance.
Many of you … worry about courtship, marriage, and starting a family. You probably will not find the name of your future spouse in Nephi’s vision or the book of Revelation; you probably will not be told it by an angel or even by your bishop. Some things you must work out for yourself. Have faith and be obedient, and blessings will come. Try to be patient. Try not to let what you don’t have blind you to that which you do have. If you worry too much about marriage, it can canker the very possibility of it. Live fully and faithfully as one person before having undue anxiety about living as two.
While waiting for promised blessings, one should not mark time, for to fail to move forward is to some degree a retrogression. Be anxiously engaged in good causes, including your own development."
I really like the part that it talks about being anxiously engaged in a good cause and developing yourself. I right now am anxiously engaging myself in the lords work, and how amazing is that! And all in all it is helping me in my own development as a person, I am learning more about myself each day, I am truly learning how to love from my investigators. On that note, I love that I don't have to worry about getting married right now because I am anxiously engaged in this good cause. And it's weird that we are talking about this so, Anyway, sister Nowell and I spent the whole lesson feeling weird, and then sister Nowell made a comment saying "I may not have a lot of experience in this department but..." It was pretty funny a lot of the ladies laughed.
Recently during lunch time we have been watching I am a Mormon videos. Well weird thing happened, we started one and I wasn't watching the screen but I recognized the voice, suddenly I turned around and Chad Lewis was on the screen! I was like "wooah he's in my Ward" later sister Nowell told me that he spoke to her in the MTC! So that is pretty cool!
For dinner tonight we are with this lady named Winifred, she is 97. 97 YEARS OLD, AND SHE IS STILL KICKING
👵.
She is kicking so much that in a week and a half she is going sky
diving, I kid you not, but don't worry, she is going tandem so she will
be hooked to another person, did I mention she might be nuts? When we
eat with her we literally go to her assisted living home and eat with
her in the dining room, it brings back a lot of great CNA memories!
Anyway she is one of the greatest human beings, she bought us a couch a
couple of weeks back, and today just gave us a CD player because she
doesn't need it anymore. She does a lot for the missionaries and loves
us. Something that is special about Winifred is that she LOVES the
temple. She is a convert to the church and she really sees the amazing
blessings that come from temple service. Still at 97 years old she tries
to go to the temple once a week, but because she is BLIND, she pays
someone money for gas and lunch to drive her there. One day she went
with a lady in our Ward and did 6 sessions, 6 SESSIONS! THATS 12 HOURS!
Sister Nowell asked her if she fell asleep at all during those sessions
and she responded, "oh no that would be so terrible to fall asleep, I
could never do that." I couldn't believe it when she told me. Seriously,
she is the greatest.On another note about dinners, I might start starving soon. A couple of weeks ago President Russell emphasized something that we are trying to implement in our Ward, and that is the stopping of dinner calendars for the missionaries being sent around during church. He talked about how it is Important that investigators and less active members first are given the opportunity to feed the missionaries and how important it is for us to be in their homes. So this means that Ward mission leaders are instructed to make phone calls, go to less active homes and invite people to feed the missionaries, which is a very daunting task to say the least. When we brought it up to our Ward mission leader he literally told us, well we have done this before, I just want you to be prepared that you might not get fed as much or at all. So Sister Nowell and I might be living off of Mac n cheese, lol. But we know that if we follow the council from our mission president that we will be blessed and our area will be blessed, so let us go forward with faith! On a side note, since being a missionary I have seen the role of a Ward mission leader in a new light, and man it takes a lot of work, seriously, it's probably the third busiest calling in a Ward, next to bishop and relief society presidents of course, so all you Ward mission leaders out there, you are well appreciated
I am so grateful for all the love and support that I receive every Monday when I see the emails from all my family and friends. I have so many pictures to send this week, so hopefully I will be able to send all of them! I am loving my area and the longer I am with Sister Nowell I am able to see that she is the best friend that I never knew I was missing, she is seriously the greatest. The other day I was super home sick and I was trying to hide it, and for some reason I thought that I was doing very well at it. We had to stop everything that we were doing and Sister Nowell sat me down and asked me what was wrong. Seriously, having a companion with me 24/7 is really preparing me for marriage I think. But I love that Sister Nowell and I are able to be so open with each other and have so much fun. The last couple of days I have really felt my abs as we have laughed so muc
I won't write about our Pday adventures from today in this email but lets just say, Sister Siepert in our ward took us to Wildlife Safari, and I am so excited to write about it. Last night at 10:30 at night I felt like a kid on Christmas morning, I got so much energy and I just couldn't hide my excitement to go, and we had so much fun
Thank you so much for all of the love and all of the prayers that everyone sends me, the support is amazing and I am loving my mission every single day, and wow the days go by so fast!
HAVE A GREAT WEEK
Love, Your Favorite Sister Missionary,
Sister Harrison
We found this beautiful purple tree when we were talking down
Harvard the other day so we decided to take a picture.
This is Becca Harvey. She is the best. She is off to school at Utah State and we love her and miss her.
Sister
Nowell and I are so cute. Seriously look at us.
This was last night and
the sky was beautiful so we decided to take a cute companionship pic.
This is Colliding River, Seriously Oregon is Beautiful
These
are the Andersons that we went hiking with.
Ainslyee is on the left
then Evelynn on the right, seriously they are adorable.
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