Happy Halloween

Oct 31, 2016

Well this week was a pretty good week, it had its ups and downs just like every other week, but I know that is life and this is how it is supposed to be. I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father who continues to bless me everyday with the knowledge that I am a daughter of my loving Heavenly Father. Yesterday during a dinner message we showed the Mormon Message entitled, Our True Identity, in this video it has Dieter F Uchtdorf telling the story of the ugly duckling, a story that we all know and love. And during the video it talks about when we realize who we are and where we come from that we will feel love in our heart overflow. At the end of the video we bore testimony of this truth as we always do and I remembered a quote that my Dad always says at home. He used to say, "Remember who you are and what I stand for." Well my dad decided to change that when he heard President Monson say, "Remember who you are and what God expects you to become." Heavenly FAther gives us the challenges in life not so we fall, but so that we can be built stronger, to what he wants for us. So even though this week wasn't a picture perfect week, it was a successful one!

Well when Sister Rhoton and I finished Pday last week we went to dinner at a families home in our ward named the Oshitas, and I love them so much. They are the people that I am pretty sure will become general authorities one day. Anyway they have a daughter that has recently come to live with them and she is so great. Apparently she was inactive for awhile which honestly I couldn't tell. I want to take her out on lessons with us she is so great. The first thing that she had us do when we walked in was write out favorite scriptures on a chalk board for her room. She then thought that we were so crafty so she decided to pull out some knitting and told us to teach her how to knit. Well, I haven't knitted in a long time, so we took some yarn home and we are still working on it. If you have any tips please let us know. Anyway after dinner we felt spiritually uplifted from the Oshitas so we went out and started tracting even though it was very cold. Well we found a new investigator! She is one that says that she is going on a mission soon to South Africa sometime soon and asked us if Utah has any good land. We asked her if she had ever talked to Mormon Missionaries before and she then told us that she doesn't really believe in their lifestyle... apparently she didn't realize we were Mormons. But we got a return appointment with her! She wants to study the bible, and we asked if we studied the bible with her if we could study the Book of Mormon too, she said sure! When we went back she wasn't home, dang it. Well we will try again some other time I guess!

Another man this week told us that he has been doing some research and asked if we believe that Satan and Jesus are brothers, of course we said yes, he then began to tell us his beliefs while his wife literally came between us in the door way and told him to stop it. We might have walked away laughing, oops.

Sister Rhoton and I roughed it like true Oregonians this week and didn't wear a jacket, we will let you know if we end up sick from this adventure, lol.

I made the goal this week to finish the Book of Mormon before Christmas. I will literally have to be reading 3 chapters a day, which you know doesn't sound that bad, but as a missionary I take so much more time in the Book of Mormon then normal. So my lunch times will now have me reading the Book of Mormon, wish me luck. Also this week Sister Rhoton and I realized that we literally only have one more transfer then it is Christmas, crazy right?

This week we have suddenly come in contact with pictures of Elders in our Zone before the Mission. Well Sister Rhoton and I will randomly airdrop them to the Elders and it is seriously hilarious. We did it to this Elder named Elder Merkley. He has only been out for a transfer and when we sent it he was literally in shock and walked away and we thought he was crying. We felt so bad then suddenly he came back hysterically laughing. I am glad I was able to make his day instead of end it lol. This is a fun ritual that we may continue doing as people so us pictures from their past.

One day this week Sister Rhoton and I literally had 4 lessons planned and we were so excited to finally begin teaching again. The last couple of weeks has been a lot of finding. Well guess what. Every single one of those lessons some how got cancelled and we were left to finding again. But that is okay. The other day when President called us he suggested that we begin to teach the families in the ward. This way it will help us build a relationship with the families and once that relationship is built they will want us to teach their friends. This will also give Sister Rhoton and I some practice teaching people. It will basically be Role Plays in real life. I really hate Role Plays, so I am going to be positive, but I really would love to teach more people!

This week Sister Rhoton and I were so good about exercising. Usually we get up and moving around and maybe do some stretching. But this week we woke up right at 6:30 and went on a walk then did a 7 minute work out on the app. Seriously it made all the difference. We have also started doing calf raises as we brush our teeth, because you know our calfs are the only part of our body that people see on a daily basis. And we also tried doing squats while brushing our teeth, that one is a little harder, but it is good for us so we do it.

This week the Zollangers, a senior couple in our area. Came and checked our smoke detector in our apartment and when they walked into our apartment they couldn't stop commenting on how clean it was. And honestly we didn't think it was that great! But they told us about some of the missionary apartments that they had been in and they gave us a gold star, so we literally put a gold star sticker on our door. I don't like living in a messy house anyway.

This week we went and got our Plan of Salvation cut outs laminated and we dropped them off one day then picked them up the next. Well the general manager saw us both days and came up to us and gave a $5 off of $5 to help us with our spending habits, lol really we were just there to pick up our papers! But it was hilarious! So then we went and bought some sharpies with our coupon of course, he was a really nice guy and we gave him a Mormon.org card. Maybe he will get baptized some day.

This week for Rescue Night I went with a lady named Rayna Gausnell who is one of our Ward Missionaries. She is really great and we went to go visit some people. Well the first person we went and saw I didn't know they knew each other. So I literally stood there the whole time trying to get a word in and they just kept chatting which was fine. But the less active that we saw just got remarried and her husband isn't a member. But he went to his first week last week and he loved it! so we are going to have to keep trying to meet with him. We then went to go see Rayna's brother, who had just gotten home from a camping trip and he really wasn't very excited about her bringing over a Sister Missionary, so that was really awkward. Hopefully next week is better!

Well Sister Rhoton and I got a call on Friday Morning at 7:45 from a lady named Michelle Miller. We called Michelle just a few days before because we saw that she had been taught by missionaries before so we wanted to see if there was still interest. Well she called us very mad saying that every time she tries to call someone that it ends up in a 3 way call with us and a man named Fred Boyer. She then told us that Fred has the mind of a serial killer. That he was her neighbor and that he cut holes in her clothes, threw rocks at her car and said inappropriate comments. Well while she was telling us these things we realized we had knocked on this mans door when we were trying to find Michelle. He has the man that opened the little door and said, "No you can not speak to the wizard!" So then this really freaked Sister Rhoton and I out. But we are fine now. We rationalized all of it. But, you could say it was a weird phone call to get in the morning.

On Friday we had our last District Meeting before Transfers next week. It was really great. I love coming together with other missionaries to learn new ways of finding and to be able to learn together. This next week we have a meeting with President Russell in Eugene. Apparently its the whole north half of the mission getting together and this kind of a meeting doesn't happen often, at all. So we will let you know how that goes next week!

After our District Meeting we had a Zone Blitz in Newton Creek. Which basically means a bunch of missionaries go in a certain area to be able to tract a bunch of doors. It was pretty fun for Sister Rhoton and I to do. We met a lot of people that weren't interested. But we also met a lot of people that had potential we just met them at a really bad time. But it was a good time, we were then able to get together with our zone to had a lunch. yum.

After our Zone lunch Sister Rhoton and I went on exchanges with our STLs, but we only went out for 2 hours. normally it is a lot longer but this transfer has been really crazy so they only had us do it for 2 hours which was fine. It was nice to go out with Sister Rhees to do some finding. Originally it was supposed to be Sister Rhoton in our area but they changed it last minute because Sister Rhoton started freaking out about taking over the area, so hopefully I don't get transferred next week!

We had dinner at our investigators house this week. Elena and Zach, and we thought this would be a great time to do a lesson after the lesson. Well little did we know that they were actually planning on going to the Trunk or Treat at the Newton Creek ward! So we actually got in the car and went to the Trunk or Treat with them! It was so much fun to see all the kids dressed up. We were able to have a little taste of Halloween on the mish. All of the members kept saying, "Wow, you look like such realistic Sister Missioanies, where did you get your name tag?" It was hilarious. I loved it.

Friday night we got a call from President Russell letting us know that Grandpa Conover passed away earlier that day. I was grateful to get a phone call letting me know that. He talked to me about the Plan of Salvation and how happy that we can be with this knowledge. And I know that is true! I am so grateful for a family and can be together forever. He then asked if we could have a mission wide conference call to pray for our family, actuall I don't think he really gave me a choice. But it was nice, to have all the mission come together. Elder Larson from another area was able to pray and it was great. I love the OEM.

Well the next day we received Ice cream from 3 different people and them asking if we were okay. And we weren't going to turn down ice cream. And the Melrose Elders even got my favorite! UMPQUA Chocolate Peanut Butter, so no complaints here (: 

Saturday night we were able to go to a wedding reception of some members in our ward. And it was a Polynesian wedding, my favorite. It was awesome and the Elders were asked to do the Hakka, so of course Sister Rhoton and I went for support, but mostly to watch it and record it. But it was awesome and we really enjoyed ourselves.

During Ward council this week we talked about Elder Hollands talk from conference, he gave it during the Priesthood Session and I have already read it like 5 times, it is fine. It was about Home Teaching but I think that it can be applied to both Visiting Teaching and honestly just being a member of our church. I loved it and I invited everyone to go and read it, or listen to it! 

Last night as we were tracting we felt inspired to go down this one street that we hadn't gone down before. We knocked on almost every door and no interest was found. Until we went to one of the last doors on the street and we found a less active that I had forgotten lived on the street! When he answered the door we introduced ourselves as missionaries and began to introduce the Book of Mormon. Well he then told us that he has been a member since he was 12, which threw us for a loop. He then asked if we wanted to come in and share a message, but that right now wasn't a good time and asked if we could come by next Sunday! We were so excited and we then saw that he has a bunch of little kids. I love teaching the gospel to a family, its the best. So we are excited for that next week!

Also we had dinner at the Hennekes last night in our ward. And Brother Henneke told us that he told his wife that they were going to get married after the second date. I think that Sister Rhoton was really going to throw up, it was hilarious. They then told us from that date that they were married only after a couple of months, Sister Rhoton then said, "Mormons these days!" Good times at the Henneke home, also yummy food. They made breakfast- yum!

Well this week has been a pretty good week! Lots of work but lots of fun! Happy Halloween everyone! Also shout out to Zachary Farnsworth, Happy Birthday Bud! Today for Halloween the Zone leaders bought a bunch of little pumpkins that we were able to carve. We have to be in our apartment by 6 for safety reasons but it was fun to be able to spend a little bit of time with the zone. I am perfectly dressed up as a Sister Missionary this Halloween. Well family and friends I hope you all have a fabulous week. I love you all! Thanks for all the love and support!

Love, Your Favorite Sister Missionary,

Sister Harrison