Sister Bailey Anne Harrison: Welcome to Brookings

November 14, 2016

This week has been so great, I can not even tell you how much I am loving Brookings, it is so beautiful here. It is really weird because one moment you will see trees, trees and more trees and a bunch of deer then you turn the corner and there is the ocean. This is very much not so Southern California, but I am loving it. One day this week Sister Datwyler and I had some free time and I hadn't been to the beach yet so we went to Harris beach here in town and it was amazing. Seriously coming back here someday and visiting. Sister Dat was saying that during the summer this place is packed but now since it is getting to winter time it is truly slowing down, it is kind of nice. On thing that you need to know about Brookings is that there are a TON of old people here. But there are also a lot of religious people. The other day someone told me that in this little town that there are 20 different churches, that is pretty hard to believe since there is really only one grocery store, lol. But I am seriously loving it here so much, and I love Sister Datwyler, she is from Sandy, Utah. She was in the MTC with me so we already loved each other before we were companions together. And I know what a lot of you are thinking right now, man Sister Harrison has served with everyone she was in the MTC with! And yes you would be correct on that one, people just keep telling me that President Russell must have confidence in us, I guess that is a good thing! The other day he called us the day after transfers and told us to keep the fire burning in Brookings, he said that he would like to pay for fire insurance on the mission home because of the fire he sees down here, lol it is going to be a great transfer. Although this will be a short one because it is only 5 weeks long!

So Monday was a crazy day, I would like to apologize for the short emails that I sent, I was literally in the car all day. Brookings is basically isolation for missionaries. The closest missionaries to us down here is a senior couple in Port Orford which is an hour away, so they come down once a week for district meeting but that is about it. I rode the transfer van from Roseburg down the Grants Pass Oregon, I was literally the only sister on the van, how awkward. I wrote letters the entire time, Elders can be crazy sometimes. So you could say once I got off the van and saw Sister Datwyler I was pretty excited. We waited in the Walmart parking lot for a couple of hours with some missionaries who were being transferred north. Once we were able to leave it was a 2 hours from Grants Pass to Brookings, but man it was a BEAUTIFUL drive. I have a time lapse of it, I should have recorded more but it was so pretty. It was a really windy road so people were offering me motion sickness pills and everything. But I just emailed and slept, it was kind of nice. Apparently, there are car accidents all the time on that road because of crazy drivers, luckily I had no anxiety over that because no one told me until after the fact. Also the drive is really cool because we drive into California a little bit! So weird, I was in a different state this last week! But in actuality Brookings is right on the border from California, so that is strange. We had recent converts drive us to the transfer spot and they are the Sheffels, Sister Sheffel has almost been a member for a year and Brother Sheffel for 6 months, they are AMAZING! And they are going to the temple for the first time the Saturday after Thanksgiving to do baptisms, Sister Dat wants to talk to President to see if we could go, if so that will be awesome! I am sure you will hear a lot more about them because apparently we see them a lot. On Monday night when we got back to Brookings we went straight to grocery shopping and finishing sending emails. Then we went to dinner and we had family home evening with some investigator, the Applebakers! The mom is Jessica then she has two daughters, Emily and Stephanie. And Stephanie was actually baptized only the Saturday before I came! She is awesome! And Jessica and Emily are on date for the beginning of December, they are so ready and they really are just a great family.

On Tuesday we went and did service for a lady named Barbra, she is so great! She isn't interested in joining our church but has a hard time doing things on her own so we help her with the little things. Like this week we helped her bake cookies for her church gathering this last week, lol. But they were so good! They were cinnamon chip raisin. She gave Sister Dat and I a bunch of them to take home, don't worry they are already gone. But she loves for us to share a little message centered on Christ so I was able to share from the Book of Mormon Alma 26 when it talks about:

12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boastof my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

I love love love this scripture, and I studied it the morning that we went to go see Barbra. It is important that when things are going good in our lie that we are able to turn to our God and thank him for all the things that he has given us. I love the Book of Mormon, seriously, you should see me talk about it in the mornings. Sister Dat is always laughing at me. But in all seriousness the Book of Mormon is the word of God and we can grow closer to our Heavenly Father everyday as we continue to study from it.

We also went to go see this lady named Angie this last week who has received all of the missionary lessons then every time it comes to her being baptized something comes up. Well when we went and visited her she talked about how she wanted to figure out the information so someone could do baptism work for him in the temple... so then we had to explain that it is important to be baptized on this earth and everything, it was a really interesting conversation. Hopefully we meet with her this week so we can put her back on date for baptism!

There is this girl named Kaylee who is 14 and has been coming to church and has received all of the missionary discussions. But her mom won't let her be baptized. In church on Sunday instead of doing a Wednesday Night Young Women in Excellence the young women in the ward did a sacrament program, it was amazing. And Kaylee even spoke in it! So this week we were able to actually meet with Kaylee and her mom. And Sister Dat and I were actually planning on having a full blown lesson with them but every time we tried to we just didn't feel like it was right. We did a little bit of how to begin teaching and actually the most lesson stuff that happened was from Kaylee herself. So when we saw Kaylee at church yesterday we asked her how she thought that her mom took the meeting and actually it was pretty positive! She said that she was glad that we weren't so preachy the first time meeting here and that we actually seemed like normal humans (I know... Sister Dat and I are for sure not normal!). But we were so glad that we were able to follow that small prompting. Hopefully Kaylee will be able to be baptized, she is right now on date for December 23!

On Friday this week Sister Dat and I realized that we had been teaching a lot of lessons this week but that we really needed to go out and try to find some new investigators. So we drove down to Harbor, basically south Brookings and we picked the street Bay View Drive (because you know I am Bai... Sister Bai). And it was pouring rain so bad but we kept going and no one was letting us in, until we went to this one house. When she turn on her porch light there was a bamboo plant covered in Christmas Lights! It was beautiful! And when she opened the door she automatically let us in, which we thought was weird because usually only members let us in. Anyway we start getting to know her and she actually has a lot of family ties that are LDS and she told us that we surely do Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk. So then we told her that our purpose as missionaries is to help people learn How to Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk and guess what? We got a lesson with her scheduled this next week! Her name is Ginny and I am so excited about it!

On Friday we went to this place called Fat Irish Pub with the senior couple from Port Orford after district meeting and I had the BEST clam chowder bowl. Seriously my mouth is watering just thinking about it. And I had fish tacos last night for dinner and I didn't even vomit. I actually really liked it! So I think this Sister Missionary is beginning to like fish, weird right?

Also there is a family in the Brookings ward that has a bird named Bailey... but he is a he. And so that was weird. They kept calling for Bailey and I kept turning around... oops!

Someone told me that in Brookings I wouldn't get a lot of rain compared to Roseburg, but then someone down here told me that is it supposed to be a wet winter. It has rained every single day since I have been here. So theres that! I am seriously loving it, except for when the wind starts picking up, then it is not my favorite.

Okay folks this is all for now, I am loving the Celestial Part of the mission and I am sure I will have a lot to report on for next week. I love you all and hope that you have a great week!

Love, Your Favorite Sister Missionary,

Sister Harrison