Sister Bailey Anne Harrison: Dogs, Key Lime Pie, Blenders and Baptism!

August 8, 2016

This week has been an interesting week!

It started our with Sister Nowell and I meeting with a less active member in our ward. She has been taking care of a lady who is close to death and hasn't been able to make it to church. She has truely been through a lot in her life and the more that she talked to us the more I felt bad for her. But it was amazing to see what these trials have given her in life, and that is a strong testimony that she know the church is true, and that her Heavenly Father in continually watching our for her and that her Heavenly Father loves her unconditionally. She talked about a time a couple of months ago when the Sister Missionaries took her to the church and gave her a church tour. As they were sitting in the chapel the missionaries asked her, "What are you striving for?" When she asked this question I thought about it in my own head and tried to answer it for myself. What am I striving for as a missionary? And you too can ask yourself this question, What are you striving for? I feel like in life as we try to work towards something we get to a point where we reach that goal and we forget to make a new one. Once we achieve this goal it is important to continue to move forward and to always try to continue to grow closer to our Heavenly Father.

As Missionaries we hand out A LOT of Mormon.org cards everyday. Most people we talk to aren't really interested in hearing our message. So we offer them service in what ever they may need help in. We also give them this card because a lot of people that we talk to have never heard about our church, and people tell us that they will have to "google" us. No. Not a good idea at all. So we give them this website to be able to find more information. Well, in all the time that Sister Nowell has been a missionary she has never found any success from Mormon.org cards. Then the other day we got a call from a number that we did not know. His name was Frank and he said that the missionaries had stopped by his house and that he had some questions. We were amazed, especially since we had not met anyone named Frank that day! It turns out that from our exchanged last week that our Sister Training Leaders still had the Mormon.org card with our number on it and accidentally gave it out to someone. And so Frank then called us that night. He had a lot of questions pertaining to what he called "Post Morteum Baptism" or Baptisms for the dead. Then he also had questions about if baptism was a choice and what our basic beliefs were. We were on the phone with Frank for over 30 minutes answering his questions, and the next day the sister training leaders were able to go and talk to him and now they are teaching him and he is awesome! Sister Nowell and I can't wait for the day where we will be able to meet Frank!

At the beginning of this week we were able to stop by a less actives home and she wasn't home when we stopped by. But our dinner was right around the corner so we decided just to walk down the street to the dinner and tract a little on the way. While eating dinner the member actually asked about the less active and told us that we should stop by and see how she is doing! Weird right? So we decided to see if she was home, and sure enough she was. And her freakin' huge dog was also home and was running around outside. Sister Nowell and I walked the furthest that we could so that the dog would not touch us, it was so huge. Anyway we got inside and this house was nasty, Sister Nowell and I didn't even want to sit down so we were only there for a few minutes. We decided that it would be a good idea to do a family home evening with this family and that were are going to do at at another members home. And while we were on our way out the dog got loose outside. The dog when it jumped his front paws were on my shoulders, a big dog. So the dog after attacking me went to Sister Nowell, and I bolted to our car, well that was a bad idea. The dogs chain that was keeping the dog in place got wrapped around Sister Nowell's leg and when I ran the dog ran after me, so all in all not a great situation. Sister Nowell now has a pretty gnarly rope/chain burn.

Right after that happened we got in the car and she was in quite a bit of pain and we had a text from the Harker's in our ward telling us that they had dessert for us. When we went they had huge key lime pie cupcakes from Costco! So yummy.... and so many calories. Anyway while we were there Mama Harker took good care of Sister Nowell and treated her wound. It is looking a lot better now but I am pretty sure that it will scar. Also Sister Harkers daughter comes home form Mongolia in a couple of weeks from her mission. And everyone in the ward has been telling me that I look exactly like her, so I will have to send a picture of us when she is home! People also tell Sister Nowell and I all the time that we could be sisters, it must be meant to be!

This week we were able to have a new missionary follow- up training. I was not very excited at all for this because our Zone Leaders had told us that it was a lot of testing to see if we were learning the stuff we were supposed to be through role plays. I really don't love role plays. But it is something that I am praying that I will begin to like more as time goes on, but I do know that they help me a lot and that I learn a lot through role plays so that is a plus. Anyway, the follow-up training wasn't bad at all! I honestly loved it! I was able to see Sister Sorensen and Sister Datwyler and they are doing so good in the areas that they are serving. I miss seeing them everyday like I did in the MTC but it was so fun to be able to see them. And we were able to be taught from our awesome Mission President and his wife and that was probably the best part of all. We were able to watch a video about the Atonement and Missionary work. I will have to send it home someday, it is truly inspiring. We were also able to talk about all the things that we should be doing as new missionaries and we were able to do some role plays that I feel like Sister Nowell and I really benefited from but I didn't feel like it was an overwhelming thing like I made it sound in my head. It was awesome.

This is the best news of all week... just wait for it. So this week we had a lesson with an investigator names Cameron. He is 13 and his dad is a recent convert to the church and his step mom has been a member all her life. Cameron has been taking the missionary lessons for a long time and has the desire to be baptized, but because of a lot of things going on with his mom, who isn't supportive of the church in the slightest, he hasn't been able to be baptized. So when I came in the area Sister Nowell and I had planned on sending Cameron over to the Elders thinking that he would do better with Elders in the long run. But the problem is that his parents had gotten really used to us teaching him so every him that we tried to send him over to the Elders, his parents just expected us to be there to. So we have been co teaching Cameron. We were planning the lesson with Elders and we all really didn't know how the lesson was going to go. We decided to teach him the 10 commandments then ask him the baptismal questions without him knowing that we were doing that. Because every time we talk to him about baptism he knows so much, but feels like he doesn't know enough. So not knowing how the lesson was going to go we went and started. The lesson was amazing. Cameron was more interactive then ever before. He talked a lot and was even making jokes. When it came to the baptismal questions he answered all of them with flying colors. So we then told him that those were the baptismal interview questions and told him that we know that he is ready for baptism. His parents did the same thing, and one thing lead to another and Cameron is going to be baptized next Sunday! The day before transfers! We can hardly wait! I am so excited for Cameron and the progress that he is making as we is drawing closer to his Heavenly Father.

There were some struggles this last week with planning Camerons baptism, to a point were Sister Nowell, Elder Mafi, Elder Stohl (The Elders in our ward) and I fasted for him. So yes, we fasted twice this last week. But fasting brings forth miracles and as of now there are no problems in the fore see able future and Cameron will be baptized next Sunday!

This week we taught Elena a lesson. She is our investigator who at this point in time we are having a hard time with because of a language barrier. Sister Nowell and I didn't know what to teach Elena because we couldn't find a member to come a translate for us. We had the lesson on Saturday, the same day as pear picking in Medford, did you know that the church grows all of its pears in Oregon? Cool, huh! We weren't able to go unfortunately but I am sure it was a wonderful experience. Anyway, everyone was at that so we went in head first to this lesson without a translator. But we found out that they make Mormon messages into Spanish sooo we showed her Earthly Father Heavenly Father, which by the way is awesome go look it up. She loved it, and she was so impressed by the mans Spanish in it! We the felt like we should sing a song to Elena. In our Zone Training Meeting this week our Zone leaders talked about who music brings in a different spirit then anything else. So suddenly Sister Nowell and I were singing I Feel My Saviors Love. And wow. It was seriously amazing. The spirit filled the room and she was moved. It was beautiful and she can't wait for next weeks lesson. Music is such a wonderful thing, especially hymns, I invite you to listen to more hymns and to make it more of an everyday thing.

This week we had the opportunity to go to a Friendshipping Relief Society Activity Dinner at a Members house. Sister Harker brought a nonmember with her and it was really great to get to know her especially because she is moving into our ward! We honestly thought we were going to die along the way. We are so used to, as missionaries, having this thing called TIWI in our car. Anytime we go too fast or stop too hard or take a turn to fast to yells at us. Well Sister Harker drove us out there and I thought we were going to die. But it was an awesome experience to be able to meet more ladies in our ward and to be able to become their friends. Sister Nowell and I are trying hard to be able to gain the trust of members because we know that as we do that these members will be more likely to have us teach their friends, so that is the plan. Also, we both have had the same thought of that we want to get to know the youth more in our ward. It is such a special opportunity to have 2 sets of missionaries in one ward. And I feel like I missed out on the opportunity to have missionaries in my ward growing up. So we want to extend the opportunity to be able to meet with the missionaries to the youth. It should be good!

Today we were able to go to a mountain place as a zone and do personal study. It was wonderful and a great experience. I love to be out in nature and I honestly was able to see a different side of Oregon, seriously gorgeous. Also it was a great opportunity to spend more time with our zone and be able to bond just a little more before transfers.

We had some funny tracting experiences last night. One lady answered the door and we told her we were missionaries for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and she said that she already had friends in our church and if she has questions she will ask them. Then she said that we interrupted her supper and we apologized and asked if we could come by some other time and her response was "No, please don't" well that was the first time I have ever gotten that response! Then we tracted into this other lady and she said that she was very strong in her church and that her husband used to be a minister. So we spent some time talking to her about that and she continued to tell us that she wasn't interested but thanked us for stopping by. We told her to have a great evening and she said oh yes of course its pill time! That is whats keeping me going, my pills and the Lord! She then closed the door. Sister Nowell and I laughed so hard, well at least she was honest! It has been so surprising to me to see how many people we talk to that have family members that are members of the church, and that they really aren't interested at all. I just want to tell the people that aren't interested that this is a message that will change your life forever and that it will bring your everlasting happiness before they close the door on our faces, maybe one day I will be brave enough to be that bold.

Today we were also given the opportunity to go to UCC- Umpqua Community College in our area. Almost a year ago there was a shooting there and it was something that really brought the community together. Sister Nowell and I wanted to go to be able to see what everyone was talking about when they talked about UCC and it was really cool to be able to go there and see the college.

A few weeks ago when Sister Nowell had her ER visit the Zone Leaders asked if there was anything that they could do for us. Sister Nowell was having a hard time taking down any food so she said if you could find us a blender that would be great, well they thought they had an extra blender and no they didn't. So what did I do? I went and bought a $13 blender from Walmart because we thought it would be worth it. Well last night the Zone Leaders were tracting and they found a house that had just been doing a yard sale that weekend and what was on one of the table, a kitchen aide blender! They knocked on the door and an African American Man opened the door and they soon found out that he was a Jehovah Witness, hence forth he wasn't interested in knowing more about our church at all. But he happened to ask the Zone Leaders if they wanted the blender because they were just going to take it to good will anyway! So of course they took it and now we have an awesome blender, that as a little bit of an aroma of vomit, but no worries that will wash away in a jiffy, so all in all I will be returning my Walmart blender very soon and the Lord will always provide.

This week I want to leave some challenges at the end of my letter. I think that Preach my Gospel can be used as a great study guide for all members of the church. I encourage everyone to try and read it and see what you can learn from it. I also want to encourage everyone, especially my family members to have a kneeling prayer. So much power comes from when we are able to kneel down and talk to our Heavenly Father. I have received so much strength from the prayers that I have said to my Heavenly Father, you can't even imagine how many times Sister Nowell and I pray a day, and honestly each and everyone of them are so important to our missionary service.

I am so grateful to be a missionary in the Oregon Eugene Mission. I am loving every minute of my mission and I am so grateful for all of the love and support that I get from the people at home. I love you all so much and I am so grateful for every one of you. Have a great week! I love you!

Love,

Your Favorite Sister Missionary

Sister Harrison

Sister Nowell and I loving our blankets.

Sister Nowells and my cute matching watches.

Some how I have broken 2 watches in 2 months, so I am on a roll.

Me in front of the vineyard. We pulled in to a potential investigators drive way and his door was open and his tv was on but he didn't come to the door, awkward. So what do we do? Take pictures!