Sister Bailey Anne Harrison: Sutherlin Disney Light Parade 🎄 🎄 🎄

12/18/2017

Hello Fan Club! What a week, we had some really good experiences this
week with sharing Light the World with everyone that we could get our
hands on, let me tell ya! We also had some really great lessons and we
were able to get ahold of a lot of people, which might get a little
bit more tough as Christmas is upon us, but the World goes round! And
the work just keeps on going!

This week Sister Nielsen and I were struggling with getting the
Christmas Spirit. We sat down and tried to figure out what it was, we
even went to the grocery store last week and bought some cinnamon
sticks to make our house smell like Christmas, we were desperate! But
nothing was working. And it came down to the fact that at home,
Christmas is the time you get to focus on Christ and remember his
birth. Well as a missionary you focus on Christ everyday! We are
literally authorized representatives of Him! So we are literally
celebrating Christmas everyday basically, it is just the norm! So once
we realized that it was a little bit easier to get in the Christmas
spirit!

This week we were able to have 3 lessons with our awesome man Ken! AND
HE CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY! And he just walked in all by himself. We
were talking to someone and we turned around and he was just standing
there! What a great guy! Have you ever pictured two 21 year old girls
teaching a 76 year old man the Law of Chastity? Well that happened
this week. Literally our age experience together isn’t even his age.
Luckily the lesson went really well and there were no problems! And he
is still living the Word of Wisdom! Sister Nielsen and I call him
every single morning and say a prayer with him, at first we thought he
didn’t like it but now he teases us for it and calls us out when we
are late! He says that the prayers help and that he really feels them
strengthen him. One thing that I have learned from Ken is how to pray,
that may sound funny because we should be the ones teaching him how to
pray. But his prayers are just so sincere! When he is praying you can
tell that he is praying to God, and he knows it too. He even takes a
minute or two before hand to think about what to say. It is a pretty
humbling experience for all involved. He is still on track to be
baptized December 31st! Altho7h this week for some reason he thought
he wasn’t getting baptized until March... don’t worry we talked about
it and he knows that he is ready! I LOVE KEN, he is the highlight of
everything!

Our investigator Heather has been really hard to get ahold of
recently, like terribly hard. We call, we text, we stop by, nothing!
But last time we met with her she asked us to send her scriptures
every day for her to read, and we have been keeping to that promise!
Even though most of the time we never get a response. Well this week
she randomly called us! She told us that her AND HER HUSBAND have been
reading the scriptures that we send them every single day TOGETHER!
And that it was a highlight of her day! She apologized that
communication hadn’t been good because of somethings going on, BUT
that she wants to meet this next week! Persistence is KEY people!

In Sutherlin they have a Light Parade every year and for the last
couple of years the ward here has made a float that has been able to
be in it. Well this year we made 500 bags of candy and Light the World
cards and we were able to walk with the youth in the parade and pass
them out. It was so much fun! Sister Nielsen before we went said, “you
know when I think of a Light Parade I think of Disneyland.” I assured
her that it was probably going to be nothing like Disneyland, but I
beg to differ, I had so much fun walking in that parade, it might not
have been Disneyland, but it was a blast! We said Merry Christmas
about 1,000 times and listened to The First Noel from the float ahead
of us probably 100 times! A mile and a half walked in the cold? So
worth every step!

So our next door neighbor is a returning less active, and her husband
isn’t a member of the church. He is going through a lot of health
problems and it isn’t really looking good right now. But for the most
part he is okay for now. Well we have been spending some time over
there talking to the wife and talking to her about the gospel and last
week she even came to The Christmas party that the ward did with her
daughter! And she asked us this week if we would want to come over and
decorate their Christmas Tree with them! So we got permission to go
over there from 9-9:30 since they live next door and it was so much
fun. Their daughter is so cute and she writes us notes all the time.
So for Christmas we got her a Children’s Book of Mormon and wrapped it
up so she could put it under the Christmas Tree! It was fun to bring
the Christmas Spirit into their home, and the husband is starting to
get more interested after the many times we have talked to him!

Yesterday for Gospel Principles we were asked to teach a lesson on the
Millennium. But we asked permission to teach about Christmas instead
because it is just next week! So we decided to share the Church’s
Nativity Video along with some other things. Well during Sacrament
Meeting, before Sunday school, I happened to be reading in Alma
chapter 7 in the Book of Mormon, and I know reading this was no
coincidence!
Alma 7:10-13 says:
“10 And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the
land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen
vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the
Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God.
11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and
temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled
which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his
people.
12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of
death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their
infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to
the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his
people according to their infirmities.
13 Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God
suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins
of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according
to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony
which is in me.”
I’m so grateful for this time of year to be able to remember the birth
of our Savior. Without the Birth of Christ we wouldn’t have the
Atonement, or the Resurrection. We wouldn’t have eternal life! I am
grateful for this time of the year that I have to be on a mission
teaching people people about Him! I hope that you have a great week
preparing to celebrate the birth of the Savior!

I hope you all have a great week! Talk to you soon, LOVE YOU!!

— Remember who you are and who God EXPECTS you to become —

Love, Your Favorite Sister Missionary,

Sister Harrison ❤️