Sunday, February 5, 2017

Hello my dear fan club

January 9, 2017

Hello my dear fan club! For some reason today I am having such a hard time getting into the writing the weekly email kind of mood. So you may have to bear with me a little bit for a second. This week has been pretty EPIC though. I think one night I wrote the word EPIC about 6 times in one journal entry because it was just a great day. But enough of that, lets get going to the good stuff!
On Monday we were able to go up with the Sheffels and have some fun in the snow. I don't remember how much I wrote about it. But usually once a transfer the Sheffels in our ward (a recent convert family) try to take the missionaries out to do something for Pday. They call it Sheffel Pday. Well we were supposed to go to secret beach on Monday, but that didn't happen because of the snow. But here in Brookings it wasn't real snow people. This was hail mixed with a little rain that people called snow. Really it was just slush. The kids even got a snow day on Tuesday, I NEVER in my life have gotten a snow day. And they got it for not so real snow. Anyway, the Sheffels took us up river about 30 minutes to Gardner Ridge and we had some fun in REAL snow. It was beautiful, winter wonderland for sure! We had a heater going and I spent most of my time next to that heater and they also brought a portable stove top and we made hot chocolate. Seriously it was great! But eventually we had to come back down here and really the "snow" was gone by the next day. The rest of our Monday was pretty uneventful, we had family home evening with the Applebakers and we were able to play bingo with them so that was pretty epic. But once we got out of our lesson we had a text saying that the mission was going to have a conference call to announce the new mission president! So we went home and got on the conference call and their names are Dale and Netta (I think) Orton from Cedar City, Utah! I really don't know if I am allowed to tell anyone yet, but they told us and didn't say we couldn't! They said that it will be published in the news in 2 weeks, so now it is only a week so I guess my fan club can know! I am really excited to be able to get to know them, they are expected to be in Oregon on June 28th and President and Sister Russell are planning on leaving on July 1st!
On Tuesday something cool happened, I got my first Media Referral ever on my mission from a member in Arizona! Super cool, her mother in law lives here in Brookings and she wanted us to go and help her move. So we were able to go and talk to her and apparently we were a little too late and she had already hired a moving company and she just thought that was going to be easier. But she is just moving to the other side of town so she gave us her number and new address and told us to come by in about a week to help her unpack. So awesome. We are pretty excited about it.
This week while we were doing some tracting we accidentally tracted into a less active member! She opened the door and told us to come in. Well she has a non member brother living with her right now who is smoking and drinking. And when we left their house we went to a members house and the member said "got a smokin problem sisters?" oops... so now whenever we go to their house we have to wear clothes that it is okay to smell like smoke in. But this less active member told us about how the last missionaries who stopped by to talk about her weren't interested in her so now we are really trying to get to know her better. And she even said that she would come to sacrament meeting next week! So we will keep trying with her.
On Friday we had the wonderful opportunity to drive to Coos Bay again. This was the 3rd time in 3 weeks. And I really really love the drive. But MAN. I get so tired by the end of the day because of it. We left on Friday at 6 am and didn't get back until 6 pm. So it was just a rough day. But we had a really awesome Zone Training Meeting. President Russell has brought out some goals as a mission for baptisms for the months of March (63), April (87) , May (87) and June (96). These are high numbers so as a zone we were supposed to talk about how we were going to reach these goals. It also brought up a lot of feelings that people were having that we struggling, but at the same time we were able to talk through a lot of those things and I think we were able to grow a little bit more as a zone. It was pretty awesome in the end. And one thing that one of our zone leaders, Elder Gage, said that Sister Heaton and I keep saying to each other is. "You have to EXPECT it." Whether that means we are walking up to a door during tracting, we have to expect that person to be a new investigator. Or when we are inviting someone to baptism, we have to expect that they are going to accept. It is all about expecting what is going to come. It in the end you are able to change everything with your mindset, and that is what I took from the meeting. That I need to change the way that I am thinking. The field is white and ready to harvest in all areas of the world, and it is ready here in Brookings!
So now is time for the story about Kevin. This week the senior couple missionaries from Port Orford asked us if we could pick up their dry cleaning and bring it to them before Zone Training Meeting on Friday. (There is only one dry cleaner from here to Port Orford) The couple told us that they gave the owner a Book of Mormon and that we should follow up on if he read it. Well we went in and asked for the order and he realized that he needed to repress the suit and so he took that time to explain to us a few things about the dry cleaning business. Anyway we ended up being there for 30 minutes, and it was about 2:30, and Sister Heaton and I hadn't eaten lunch yet and he still wasn't done with the suit. So we said that we would come back in 30 minutes. We came back and somehow we were still there for 30 minutes. But we were able to talk to him about what we do as missionaries, invite him to church, give him our number, and get his number and address all before we left. In our minds we thought, awesome, so cool new investigator on the rise. Well Saturday night we decided to stop by his house and remind him about church. We went and he said that he would just need a ride, so we told him we would find someone to pick him up at 9:45. Well we first thought to call Brother Sheffel. Well we went to the Sheffels house and they were asleep at 8:30. So then we called our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Johnson and asked if he could pick him up and he said oh sure of course. Well, we got a call from Brother Johnson, who happens to be a cop here in town, a few minutes later telling us not to talk to Kevin anymore. Saying that he has been accused of stalking women and has been to prison. And that it would be best to give him to the Elders. So our awesome potential is now in the Elders hands, and Sister Heaton and I are totally okay with that one!
This week we had about 30 minutes before Eli's baptism and Sister Heaton and I decided to go tracting and the biggest miracle happened. WE FOUND 4 NEW INVESTIGATORS IN 30 MINUTES!!!!! It was so epic and we were totally following the spirit on that one. 3 of them are a family and I just think they are awesome, and I can already see them in white. While the other 1... might just want to bash with us... so we are preparing ourselves for that one. But other then that we are so so so excited to be able to start teaching that family this week. The field may not actually be white here in Brookings, but it is ready to harvest.
So of course you saw from my pictures that we had a baptism this week. His name is Eli and he is 10 years old. His mom April recently got baptized in September and his Stepdad Jeremy was a less active until about a year ago. Now Jeremy is our Gospel Principles teacher. It is really awesome and while we were on Skype with Sister Datwyler and Sister Heiden April was talking about how they are making plans to be able to go to the temple as a family. It was just super awesome to hear about and I am so excited for the steps that they are making. Eli is the oldest in their family so he is being such a great example to all of his siblings. Especially since at first Eli said that he didn't want to be baptized until he was 21. This was a HUGE step for him and I can not wait to see where he is going to go in the church.
Well fan club there were a lot of amazing miracles that happened this week but it looks like we are about out of time. I love you all so much and I hope that you all have a fabulous week! Remember, change the mindset!!
---Remember who you are and who God expects you to become---
Love, Your Favorite Sister Missionary,
Sister Harrison


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