2 months in, and I survived my first transfer!!

August 15, 2016

Hello my dearest family and friends,

Today is the day of my first transfer and I am happy to report that Sister Nowell and I are staying together for the next transfer!! I love Sister Nowell, she is the best trainer that I could have asked for and I learn so much from her every single day. I feel like she is more my friend then she is my trainer, she is a forever kind of friend, we seriously get along so well and I love every minute of it! I am excited for the success that we will be getting in the next transfer as a companionship. Elder Stohl in our ward left to Corvallis, our ward family got split apart :( but we are excited to have Elder Brocheres in our ward for the next 6 weeks!

This week has been full of adventures, some of them fun and some of them very hard, but you know that is what missionary work is all about! We have been doing a lot of finding in the last week trying to find new investigators but we haven't been having a lot of success which is kind of disappointing. We had an experience with this lady named Brenda. She when she was growing up was part of the Jehovah Witnesses and is very against organized religion. But she reads the bible everyday and she feels like she has a very strong connection with God. We left her our card last week and told her if she had any questions to give us a call. Well we went back to visit her this last week, because if there is one thing that missionaries are good at, it is we are good at always coming back to potentials that we see. We came back and the first thing she said to us was, "I don't have any interest in investigating your church anymore, I googled you and you were right next to the JW's and I don't have any interest in joining a cult." I had never ran into anyone that thought we were in a cult. They told us that we worshiped our prophet and that we aren't what we say we are. We even tried to give her a Book of Mormon and try to explain what our religion actually believe and she told us that she is not letting any of that into her house. At first I thought that I was going to get combative with her and start arguing, I then had a feeling come over me and I started to feel bad for her and the things that she had thought about our church. We tried all that we could with her but obviously at this time she is not ready to accept the gospel. I hope that in the future missionaries will be able to stop by and see if she is ready to accept the gospel later in her life.

We had the most amazing experience today. After we did our weekly volunteer work at UCAN (a food bank here in Oregon) we decided to have lunch with our STLs at our apartment. They came over and we had homemade pizzas. DELISH. When we were all finished, we started cleaning up and we ended up hearing a knock at the door! We were kind of confused, no one ever knocks at our door! Feeling kind of freaked out, we nominated Sister Sidhu to go see who it was. Well, it was this lady who explained she wasn't trying to sell us anything, but that she worked for a vacuum company and if she found 60 people to show off this vacuum, she got to go to Vegas for free. She asked if we were interested, and we all looked at each other, not knowing what to do! So we just said yes! She was stoked and said she would come back in five minutes. So she ended up showing up with this guy named William and he was going to clean our apartment. So we got to talk to him from our porch as he cleaned. Anyways, we got talking to William and come to find out, he told us that his mom is actually a member of our church! So he tells us about that, and how he knows a little about the church and how he knows there is a lot of misconceptions. It kind of started out like a Q&A session, in which we ended up teaching him most of the restoration, some of gospel of Jesus Christ, some of the plan of salvation AND the word of wisdom. It was seriously SO cool. He asked some really inspired questions and we got to tell him more about what we do as missionaries, while in turn he totally cleaned our carpet and it looked amazing! He got up so much nasty dirt and grime. Well, long story short, we had an amazing chat with him. We talked about tender mercies and how we all crossed paths for a reason, that there is no such thing as coincidences. We gave him a Book of Mormon and asked him to watch the Mountains to Climb Mormon Message. He also gave us his number so that we can hook him up with missionaries in Springfield where he lives!! So cool. It is so neat to see how Heavenly Father prepares people's hearts and minds to be open and ready to hear the Gospel In their own time. In HIS time. Anyways it was a great experience and definitely the highlight of my week so far. This was seriously one of those experience where you feel like Heavenly Father bring someone to you instead of the other way around.

This week we were meeting with a member trying to find some referrals for the week, and the son who is only 16 years old gave me this really great advice before I left their house, he said, "Be a King in your mind but act as a servant." I loved this event because it really just showed me that you are a child of your Heavenly father and we all need to remember that, and we are put to work here on this earth to be able to find those who are searching for the gospel, it was seriously an amazing moment and I was so glad that we told me that quote.

This week we were invited to a wedding reception of a member of our stake. It was a really cool experience! Elder Mafi in our ward is Tongan and at this receptino there were a ton of Samoans! It was so cool. We were able to go because the member that invited us, is the only member in her family and her whole family was there. So it was really cool to be able to be there and interacting with non members in our church building. Also we were able to watch some men to the Haka and that was so cool. Seriously freaked out and it was amazing.

CAMERON GOT BAPTIZED YESTERDAY! It was seriously one of the coolest experiences to be a part of Camerons baptism and it was amazing that I was able to teach him during the last 6 weeks. He is such an awesome kid and I have seriously had such a blast teaching him. On Thursday we asked him on a scale of 1 to 10 how excited was he for his baptism and he said 52,000. Seriously. He is the best, I laugh so much when ever we go over there to teach him. We are going to start the new member lessons this week or next and he is going to do them with some young men in the ward so we can make it a little more fun. We are having his confirmation next week during sacrament meeting and we are so excited because his mom is coming! Seriously, she is very against the church and I am totally seeing his heart soften over the last couple of weeks. She was at his baptism as well and she is so great.

To finish my letter I want to talk about something that is near and dear to my heart, and that is the temple. Yesterday in Sacrament meeting we had an amazing talk on Temples. He quoted a lot from the talk "The Holy Temple- a Beacon to the World" by President Monson. READ IT. Its awesome.

 Why are so many willing to give so much in order to receive the blessings of the temple? Those who understand the eternal blessings which come from the temple know that no sacrifice is too great, no price too heavy, no struggle too difficult in order to receive those blessings. There are never too many miles to travel, too many obstacles to overcome, or too much discomfort to endure.They understand that the saving ordinances received in the temple that permit us to someday return to our Heavenly Father in an eternal family relationship and to be endowed with blessings and power from on high are worth every sacrifice and every effort.

I love this quote because sometimes we forget how much it is worth it to sacrifice for the temple. Today in my personal study I was reading in 2 Nephi 5 and it talks about how one of the first things that Nephi did when he came to the Americas was build a temple. And he built it with workmanship that was exceedingly fine. I love this. I love how we can learn a lot about things in our life from things in the Book of Mormon and from our living day prophet.

Also for those who are reading this letter who may not be worthy to go to the temple at this time.

If you have not yet been to the temple or if you have been but currently do not qualify for a recommend, there is no more important goal for you to work toward than being worthy to go to the temple. Your sacrifice may be bringing your life into compliance with what is required to receive a recommend,perhaps by forsaking long-held habits which disqualify you. It may be having the faith and the discipline to pay your tithing. Whatever it is, qualify to enter the temple of God. Secure a temple recommend and regard it as a precious possession, for such it is.

I love this, always strive to work towards the temple. One thing that they also talk about in this talk is having a picture of the temple in your bedroom, this counsel is from Spencer W. Kimball. I love this and I think that it is very important for us to keep that in mind.

I have a lot of people in my life in the next couple of weeks that are having the opportunity to go through the temple to receive their endowment in the next couple of weeks. I am so excited for these people and I am so happy for the progress that they have made in the process. The temple is such a magnificent place and it is the closest place that you can be to Gods presence here on Earth. Never take the temple for granted, do all you can to go to the temple. I invite every one who can make it possible to go to the temple to be able to receive the blessings that come from it. President Monson in his talk says that some of the best experiences in his life that he has had in the temple is when he was there with his family doing work for his ancestors. I know this is true and I have been able to see that in my own life and I am so happy for all of those experiences that I have been able to have with my family members.

Thank you so much for all of the emails that I get every week. I am so sorry that I don't always send back much. But I am always so grateful for all the letters that I get. I love the testimonies that I hear the experiences that my families and friends have every week.

I love you all so much and thank you for all of your prayers every week. They mean so much to me.

Love, Your Favorite Sister Missionary,

Sister Harrison

 

 CAMERON'S BAPTISM

Again, So cute! We took pictures on Elder Mafis ipad, gotta love it!

 Sister Nowell and I with Cameron!!!

 Our ward family at the reception with the beautiful bride and groom!

This guy came out of the reception and asked if he could get a picture with the missionaries! I love finding people that are excited to see us because most of the time people aren't very excited!

 Dolla Dolla District 2.0 picture with our matching Chevy Cruzes.

 Don't you love my desk?

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!

 Welcome to Roseburg sign!

 Cute Sister Nowell and I this morning at our Zone Adventure!

One of the many pictures from UCC today.

 Our super yummy Key Lime Pie Cupcakes from costco, they were super huge!

A picture of some pretty vineyards in our area, Oregon is beautiful.

The beautiful view of our whole area this morning, the camera does not do it justice.

 Sister Nowell wanted to throw in a dabbing picture... so we did (:

Cute Sister Nowell and I!

 Our zone throwing up some signs in the air, mine is closer to the middle, the I Love You Sign (:

 Our Zone at our Zone Training Meeting!

Another Week, Another Awesome Experience

August 1, 2016

This week has been such a crazy week! I spent most of the week doing a lot of finding. We as a Zone decided to have a "Family Finding Week". We like to consider our Zone as our family. I love it. We were able to make a goal at the beginning of the week to try and find so many new investigators, Sister Nowell and I didn't really reach our goal but we are extending our goal for next week as well. So we are excited to get out and be able to do more tracting and to get more referrals from our members in our ward.

I think living in Utah I missed out on a lot of what missionary work is in the church. Like I didn't really know what the true responsibilities were as Ward Missionaries and Ward Mission Leaders, even when I was a Ward Missionary! It is so cool to be able to learn more about the church and more about how everything works. I love it!

Anyway it has been super hot here this last week. Like the other day Sister Nowell and I totally thought that our legs were getting sunburnt and sure enough they totally were. So you could say that I have some AWESOME tan lines going on my feet, and my arms are kind of ombre because of my different sleeve lengths. I love it.

This week we were able to go visit a less active. We actually went to go visit her yesterday! As we approached the house we didn't know what to expect... it was a little sketchy but we felt like we still needed to go up. This old man opened the door and told us to go to the RV. So weird thing, the RV was the exact RV that my dad and stepmom have. It was weird, anyway we walked up to the RV and this lady poked her head out, and walked away. We didn't know how to respond, then suddenly she tells us to come in. Come to find out she was raised in the church. She doesn't normally let missionaries in when they just stop by and don't call first. But as she was driving in town just that day she saw a church building and she thought about going to church again, and she says that every time that happens she knows the missionaries are going to show up! And sure enough we did that day! It is crazy the things that the spirit can tell you to do it when you are in tune with it. Sister Nowell and I pray so many times a day for the spirit so we can know where to go. We talked to this less active and she is actually moving into another area (this is like the 10th person who has done this in the last couple of weeks, Sister Nowell and I are getting used to the planting of the seeds). But she talked about how she knows that we are never too far off the path to be able to come back to our Heavenly Father. And that she knows and feels her Heavenly Fathers love all the time, and how the Atonement is so real. Honestly she taught us way more then we taught her. I am so glad that we had the opportunity to be able to go and talk to her.

We had a Less Active Member at church on sunday and had a weird experience with her, someone asked to talk to us so we left class for just a moment and one of the members carries a gun with him all the time. And she literally flipped her lid and I felt so bad. But at the same time it is a right that we have to carry a gun... so Sister Nowell and I are really unsure about how we are going to handle that situation.

This week we were able to go down to Grants Pass to be able to have a Specialized Training. This is basically a big meeting with our Mission President, The Assistants to the President and a couple of Zones. Here we were able to talk about Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon, What it means to be a successful missionary and how important the role of the spirit is when teaching. This was such an awesome experience and I loved every minute of it. And I was able to see Sister Rhoton from my MTC district! There was a lot of laughing and catching up to do. This next week we have the opportunity to get together with all the new missionaries to go over training and such, so I will be able to see everyone this week and I am so excited! We also got our ipads at this meeting that we went to. The technology that the Lord has given us to share the gospel is incredible and I am so grateful every single day for the opportunities that are given to us as missionaries.

One thing that we have been using a lot for dinner messages with members is the church put out some Bible Videos where the stories are being retold by little children. I invite you to go and look up these videos, they are so powerful. To be able to see the information that little kids know, I know that I am almost in tears during some of them. My favorite one is the Atonement. So good.

This week we were able to have a 3rd hour meeting in our ward. And one thing that we talked about is testimonies. And I think every one should be reminded about what a testimony is from time to time. We talked about how our testimonies need to be anchored in the first principles and ordinances of the gospel. We talked about how bearing your testimony is giving a gift back to you Heavenly Father. To be able to bear that is showing him all the things that you know! The Holy Ghost will never be restrained as we are bearing a pure testimony. Remember this as we go into Fast and Testimony meeting this week. We also talked about Sacrament meeting talks, which was really interesting. They made a big point to talk about how we shouldn't waste our precious time. And I think this is done a lot around the world. People forget that they are at our most sacred meeting that we go to all week, and they begin to talk about stories that don't really make sense to the topic that they have been given. It reminds me of an investigator that we are teaching right now. She has been to church once and it was a fast and testimony meeting and she didn't see how it had to do with Jesus Christ because of the stories that were being told. So now she is having a hard time coming to church. But we are still working with her. There was another idea that they brought up during this third hour meeting that I loved. They talked about how we have just partaken of the sacrament and repented and renewed their baptismal covenants for the week, now they are ready to be edified and they want to listen to you, that is important to remember as you are beginning to write any talk for sacrament meeting,that is very precious time. Don't waste it.

We taught an investigator this week and it was really powerful. Sister Nowell and I were able to talk about the restoration with her and at one point we mentioned how there was a living prophet on the Earth today. And her next response was, "Well who is it!" Her desire to know things about the gospel is so strong and I am so excited to see where she progresses. She is an older Hispanic lady and has a hard time with the language barrier, so we are going to be taking a member of the ward with us next time that we go to visit her. But that moment with me truly strengthened my testimony on latter day prophets. I know that Thomas S Monson is the prophet that has been called for our day, and I am so glad that I get to follow his teachings and learn more about how I can come closer to Christ through his teachings. I am so grateful for modern day prophets. In this visit with this investigator I was able to challenge her to baptism, and what a wonderful experience that was. She says that she has already been baptized, but I think we will be able to explain it more as the time goes on with some one there to translate.

I was able to go on my first exchange this week with my Sister Training Leaders! They are fabulous and I really learned a lot from them. It was weird leaving Sister Nowell, but Sister Sidhu took good care of me and kept me really busy. I loved it. We were able to go an help some recent converts that Sister Sidhu helped in the finding process for them, they are a great couple and own a pizza joint here in town, SO GOOD. I was then able to go teaching with her in a couple of visits and one of them I was able to recite the First Vision for the first time! I never thought that I was going to be able to do but what an awesome experience it was. The spirit was so strong and I was so happy that I was able to do it all by myself! We then ended our exchange with an ice cream visit, yum!

We also had an experience this week where we were teaching another investigator and she has been taught for a long time. So people like to call her an eternigator, meaning she will be an investigator for an eternity. Anyway she was meeting with us and wwe started teaching the restoration. And the first part in this is talking about God is our Loving Heavenly Father. And our mission president has made it a goal to be able to talk about how God has a body of flesh and bone in this part of the lesson, because once a person more understands who they are praying to, they are more likely to receive answers. So we asked her, "When you pray to your Heavenly Father, what do you see?" She talked about how she sees a beam of light. She had never even heard that God could have a body of flesh and bone. This was crazy to me! Because my whole life I have been taught this idea! And once we taught her about his body, she was amazed and she understood so much more. Our Heavenly Father loves us so much, and I see that more and more as I begin to learn more about him. He knows us and he knows what we are going through, he is never going to give us something that be can't handle and that is amazing to me.

This week we have had a lot of people drop us, meaning they don't want to be taught anymore. This has been a really sad thing because most of the time in our heads they have been really strong investigators, like as I am writing this email we just got a call. It is crazy to me how much Satan works on all of us, and our investigators. But don't worry, the work still goes on!

Sister Nowell and I are getting along so well. Just the other day we both realized that not only are we companions but we are best friends. I love the opportunities that I have to be able to learn from Sister Nowell and the experiences that we are able to have together as a companionship.

I am loving Oregon and all the awesome experiences that I am having. I need to be better about writing down things to remember what I need to write about, also I need to be better about pictures, so much better about pictures, but I do have a few from this week!

I am also so grateful for all the love and support from my family and friends at home. Thank you so much for the prayers that everyone is sending me, you can never pray too much! Honestly, I can't even count how many times Sister Nowell and I pray everyday. The number is way too much!

I love you all so much!!!!-

Sister Harrison

 

 Sister Nowell and I at Specialized Training eating Pizza for lunch, yes there are 3 slices on my plate. Don't judge, I was hungry, Sister Nowell also ate 3 pieces.

 Cute Sister Nowell and I! See there is her third piece (;

​Sister Rhoton and I at specialized training, I LOVE HER!

 

​In our area there is this really cute little library thing where you can put a book in and take a book, and guess what, there was already a Book of Mormon in there! It was awesome and it had a testimony in there from whoever put it in. Super powerful. I loved it.
We put our card in there for whoever gets it

​

We got lost yesterday trying to find someones house, I didn't mind too much, the drive was beautiful!

***DISCLAIMER*** This week involved A LOT of VOMIT

 July 25, 2016

This week was such a great week, but I decided that I should start this letter with something that wasn't so great. Once Upon a Time on a quiet Thursday evening Sister Nowell and Sister Harrison were invited to go to dinner at a Members house, and let me give a disclaimer, we didn't know this family at all. And we will probably never be going there again. We sat down at the dinner table and we were having Shredded Beef Tacos, which you know, is delicious! But I am pretty sure that I am a vegetarian now so that is a thing. We started to get to know the family and the dinner was going very well, when suddenly Sister Nowell began to choke on some of the meat. But she thought she could just swallow some water and be okay, nope. The meat was lodged in her throat and the water all came back up and landed on her plate in front of her. Sister Nowell then asked to go to the restroom to freshen up and she was gone for 5-10 minutes when I decided that I should get up and go to see if she is okay. When I got there she told me the situation and said that the meat was stuck in her throat, I knew I couldn't do the Heimlich because she was talking and breathing so we decided to call the Mission Nurse and asked her what to do. Basically every couple of minutes Sister Nowell was throwing up her own spit because it would get to the meat and come back up, she was basically a muggle Ronald Weasley throwing up slugs, but the slugs were her own slime spit. So the mission nurse said to go to the ER. Once we got to the ER they took us to the back and we were literally there for an hour and a half and they did nothing for us. I sat in the chair next to Sister Nowell and watched her vitals go really low and then all of a sudden they sky rocked and I started freaking out and I was going to call someone for help because she suddenly began having a harder time breathing when suddenly.... She DISLODGED the meat by throwing up! It was a really good thing, and the ER people didn't do ANYTHING. But it was actually nasty and I then wanted to vomit. It was so gross and ever since Sister Nowell hasn't really been feeling well. But we are just glad that nothing is stuck anymore, but it was probably the grossest thing to ever happen. We might be a vegetarians for awhile.

This week a weird thing happened to me- Sister Nowell had been craving raisins, weird I know, but she decided that she was going to buy a big thing of them. Well she was eating them one day and offered me some. I HATE raisins. But she told me to try one anyway. Now all of a sudden I love raisins, so the world must be coming to an end. As I am typing this Elder Deppe (One of my Zone Leaders) said that the world will really come to an end when Costco raises their prices of a Hot Dog and a drink from a $1.50, so I guess thats really when the world will end and Jesus will come, we will see!

I was able to use my CNA skills this week. We met with this lady and her sister. Her sister had just changed her insulin type and was not feeling good at all, she literally looked real bad. But she asked if either of use knew how to take blood pressure, so I took her blood pressure and she was able to know if she had to take something to get her to feel better, I love that I was able to help them with my skills that I have learned over the years, all that CNA work was put to good use!

One thing that I have noticed this last week which is quickly becoming one of my pet peeves is when people call us Mormons. Thats just what everyone knows us by.... but suddenly it is becoming my pet peeve. We are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it just clarifies a lot because I feel like a lot of people get confused about what we believe because our name, I don't know, it is just becoming one of my pet peeves and I am trying to correct people, lol. I also began to count during sacrament meeting how many people called us Mormons, so that was kind of a fun game to do. 

One thought that really came to my mind this week is, "You can't change a person, but Christ can change their hearts." And I thought this was really important to think about in missionary work and about in our day to day lives. With conversion the investigator has to turn to Christ to be able to know more about the gospel. They have to open their heart and with Christ that is possible. I think there have been times in my life that I have felt that I could change a person and force them to do anything, but as a missionary I have learned that nothing is possible without Christ, and I can't so anything on my own, and the person has to decide for themselves that they want to do that. I love that the Atonement can help with all of this. The Atonement is essential to everything in our lives and it is infinite, I don't know where I would be without the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

In personal study I have had the opportunity to read the conference talks from the April General Conference and it has been so awesome that I have been able to do this, and I have learned so much from this experience, and I invite you to read these talks! These general authorities have been called for us in these days and there is something in almost every talk that I have read that I have needed in my life.

One of the talks that I read this last week is called, "The Healing Ointment of Foregiveness" by Elder Kevin R. Duncan. One quote really spoke to me and it says, Forgiveness is the very reason God sent His Son, so let us rejoice in His offering to heal us all. The Savior’s Atonement is not just for those who need to repent; it is also for those who need to forgive. If you are having trouble forgiving another person or even yourself, ask God to help you. Forgiveness is a glorious, healing principle. We do not need to be a victim twice. We can forgive.

I loved this quote. It is so true to remember that the Atonement covers so many different things in our lives.

Last night we were able to have a lesson with a guy who I think I talked about last week, but this time we were able to bring a member with us. It was a good lesson and we were able to talk to him about the restoration! And the member that we brought is seriously amazing, his name is Ottis and he just all of the time talks with the spirit. But the problem is that Ottis tells someone that they are wrong and tries to correct them. Sister Nowell and I decided that he needs to read Preach My Gospel to be able to learn more about how to teach the gospel to people who are just learning. But something new came up that Sister Nowell had never heard of before. This man that we were talking to said that he believed that he already had the priesthood and that the priesthood and the spirit were the same thing. So we are praying about a way that we can more explain that to this man but we are excited to continue teaching him.

We were able to talk to someone who we are having a lesson with this Saturday, she is awesome and Sister Nowell and I can totally see her getting baptized. She told us when we were talking to her that she has already been baptized but she feels like it was not from the right source which was something that really surprised us and I just wanted to tell her everything about the gospel at that point, but we decided to teach her on Saturday and give her a church tour which we are really excited about.
 

We tried to meet with some less actives this week one of which we found one of them got baptized in another church... so we are having dinner with her later this week so that will be interesting...

Sister Harrison

 

The Sisters took a picture and somehow Elder Mafi got in on it so that was funny.

 This picture was from our Saturday Service project with our ward. We shoveled a lot of mulch for the Roseburg Visitors center and oh my goodness my shoulders hurt so bad the next day! 

But we got yummy doughnuts out of it so it was SO worth it.

We had a Zone Training Meeting this week and took pictures, please ignore my ugly hair, 

I was a hot mess this day.

 This was right before we left, we had to have proof that we were there in the ER that day!

 This was the actual Sisters picture that me took!

 Sister Nowell and I decided that we needed to take a cute picture so
here we are and look I even did my hair!

 

Us in the ER and I told Sister Nowell that we had to take a selfie, 

don't worry we are already laughing about the experience.

 Here we are again!

 

July 19, 2016

This week went by so freakin' fast!!

More on my "Car Accident" We are all totally fine. It was a fender bender and really we just had to do a lot of paperwork and stuff because the church needs very specific information for insurance purposes. But today was the first day that I was able to drive! Normally they assign one person to drive for the whole transfer and that has been Sister Nowell, but we went to the eye doctor today for her and she had her eyes dilated so she couldn't drive, so I drove! And I was freaking out the whole time, I love driving, but it is different when you are driving a church owned vehicle.... anyway it was weird and I haven't driven for a long time either.

More on Sister Nowell, she is from Brigham City and she is amazing. She is 24 and graduated from Brigham City, she is adopted, all of her siblings are adopted, she has 2 brothers and one sister. She came out last October but because of some medical stuff she got sent home in January and then she came back out a transfer before me. She really is awesome and I learn so much from her everyday. I am not going to lie I was really glad to find out that it was someone older then me training me, just because everyone in my MTC district was younger then me. But she is super funny and we are basically just laughing at each other everyday. But she is also really good at helping me get out of my comfort zone to be able to help me grow and be able to see the things that I am capable of doing.

 

I don't have an ipad yet! This will be 2 weeks so I am hoping that they come soon. It will just be nice when Sister Nowell and I both have our own devices so I am really excited, and it is such an awesome tool. One thing that I found out about is I am not allowed to read emails unless it is pday, but I also think this will be a good thing because then I won't be tempted. Anyway, we are also not allowed to open letter and read them unless it is pday, or write letters. But on that note I am able to open packages whenever!!! So thank you for my greenie package!!! I seriously loved it, I love getting a little something from home!

This Sunday we were able to have a Less Active come to church... let's call her Sandy. She is super awesome. She hasn't been coming to church very often and she was baptized about 5 years ago. So we have been teaching her regularly but she still hasn't come to church. So it was so rewarding to be able to see her on Sunday to be able to know that we were able to help her in some way and this week that was to be able to get her to church. We were able to call a member to get her a ride and we were able to go to classes with her. For our week lesson with her we were able to talk to her about Prayer and the importance of Prayer. She told us that she was really good with morning prayers but she felt like she didn't have anything to say for her night prayers, so she just doesn't so them.... she then told us that she prays for 2 hours in the morning! I don't know if I could do that! I was so impressed by her determination to talk to her Heavenly Father and it was a Testimony builder for me to be able to try to make my prayers more sincere. Our Heavenly Father wants to hear from us, he is our Dad, and he loves us so much! So We made her a prayer rock to be able to remind her to pray, I can't wait to follow up with her this week.

Another awesome thing happened on Sunday, we had one of our investigators.... Debra come to church. She is a very logical person and I actually had never met her yet. She has been super busy, she has a new puppy and she works a lot. But she told her neighbors who are members that she wants to get married, which surprised Sister Nowell and her old companion. But seriously, it was freakin' awesome that she came to church on Sunday because she had never been. But the sad part is that she is moving into another area in our zone!!! I am so sad, but I am happy that we get to give some service and help her move in a couple of weeks, hopefully she will come to church next week. And not only did she come to church but she stayed for all 3 hours- when she told us at first that she was only coming for 1 hour, and she came to a devotional Sunday night as well! Seriously she is awesome.

In church we also decided that we needed to talk to some of the young women to be able to see if #1 they had any friends that they think would benefit from the gospel in their lives and #2 to see if any of them are interested in coming and going out with the missionaries. So we are going to do that next week which I think will be awesome because I feel like that I never really had that opportunity growing up in Utah so I would love to be able to give people that opportunity to be able to go out with the missionaries.

So we did a lot of tracting this week. One experience that I am going to share went really well, and then another experience showed me about the real world and the type of people that I will find on my mission. #1 Peter, we randomly tracted into Peter and then later found out that he is in our area book. Peter was awesome, and he actually talked to us for a good 30 minutes. He talked about how he has talked to missionaries a lot in the pasted and that he had a lot of fun talking to them. He told us just that day that he had decided that he needed to increase his faith in Jesus Christ and he began praying again, and he said every time that he does that the Mormons always show up! He then talk to us a lot and one thing that really stood out to us was that he said that his church believes in the trinity and that he knows from the bible that isn't true but he doesn't bring it up because it is very controversial... but we though that was awesome!! I really think that he is already Mormon but he just doesn't know it yet! He told us to come by anytime and that he would love to talk to us again. This gave me a lot of hope in the whole tracting idea of the mission. #2 Daniel. I had a really hard time with this one and I really didn't even talk much, Sister Nowell did. He was basically bashing with us in a very nice way and we knew that we shouldn't be there. Basically the entire time he tried to question what we believed in and that he tried to question our testimonies. I really didn't like him and we left pretty quick. He obviously never read the Book of Mormon but still challenged it. All we could do in this situation is testify and invite. And thats what we did and then we told him to have a good day and left. When we walked away from the experience all I wanted to do was cry. Sister Nowell and I needed to take a few minutes before we could continue on with missionary work. We stopped and watched a video with Elder Holland. It was awesome and it gave me so much strength. It talked about how when you are rejected to remember about Christ because he also was rejected. To be able to share the gospel we must walk some of the path that Christ walked, not that we are Christ but it helps us come closer to the Atonement. As our knowledge of the Atonement increases so does our Missionary Efforts. I can not share the gospel without the Atonement and in reality that was a big message that I took out of this week.

Um and I have a miracle from this week. We had a dinner with a member, which you know is almost every night which is great! And the Sister texted us and asked if Sister Nowell and I liked fish.... neither of us really like fish. So we decided to be polite and say , "neither of us have really had fish a lot but we are willing to try!" And we were NOT excited. But we went. And when we go to members houses we always say a pray before we go in. In the prayer Sister Nowell literally said something like, "Please bless that we are able to eat the food, and LIKE IT, and not get sick." Then right when we went into the house, the Sister said We have been at a swim meet all day so I am so sorry but we are going to have to eat Pizza instead. Sister Nowell and I honestly were so happy. It was amazing. Heavenly Father is always giving us these tender mercies and I love when I am able to recognize these tender mercies because they give me so much strength and I am able to know that my Heavenly Father is watching out for me PERSONALLY.

Anyway this week has been pretty good, I don't have a lot of pictures, BUT Sister Nowell and I are starting a new goal where we are going to take a picture a day for the rest of our transfer so I hope we are able to fulfill that goal!! But I have some so I will be sure to send them (:

I also have been spending a lot of time doing online training because I am an awesome new missionary, and honestly it takes forever, so I am excited to be able to be done. But I have also learned a lot. I decided to start taking notes on the videos that I have to watch and it has been so much better. I have been able to remember what the videos are about and they have been able to stick more with me. I love it. But I will be happy when the 12 weeks is up! We also have a weekly planning session with the Zone Leaders. And I have to memorize something every week, last week I memorized the First Vision which I never thought I would have memorized but I did it! So be proud!

Anyway, Oregon is awesome and I am loving every second of it. I am so glad that you had a great time in Florida, sometimes it is so much fun to be able to get away for a little bit. I am sorry that you missed your first flight but I am glad that you were able to get right back on the other one! It can be sad a lonely with the kids gone, but I am glad that they are still contacting you. Make sure you get out and do something, don't just sleep all day! That is so funny that you are teaching Syd's class. I am sure that will be a treat for both you and her!!

I love you so much Mom, have a great week! I love reading your letters (:

Love,

Sister Harrison

I loved that it was in an It works box and then it was all green, you are too cute, 

and a real good missionary mom! Love you!!

This is the first ting that I saw when I landed in Eugene, Go Ducks!

 

 

My Sister Training Leaders in Roseburg Sticky Noted my Door! They later apologized for spelling my name wrong, but that's okay I still loved it!

A picture of me in front of the berry bushes, you can't tell but there are literally hundreds of berries just waiting to rippen up! Can't wait!

Yummy Berries!

 Sister Nowell and I with some of the berries picked in the church parking lot!

 My MTC district and out teachers Sister Evans and Brother Griffiths, Brother Griffiths randomly sent me this picture this week, but its great!

Car Accident Monday's..... #thugburg

July 11, 2016

So I made it to Oregon! We flew on this really tiny airplane, well to me it was tiny. There were 12 rows so I guess it wasn't that tiny. But I wasn't used to it lol. Anyway I sat next to Elder Gittens who is from West Point, Utah and he had never been on an airplane before so he was so excited the entire time we were in the air. I got a little sick on the plane, nothing terrible but I was really happy once the plane finally landed in Eugene. It was really cool to be able to walk around the corner once we walked past security to see President and Sister Russell around the corner. They are absolutely amazing and I already love them so much.

All of the Sisters spent the first night at the mission home and the Elders went to the Assistants home to be able to stay there. I don't know what I was expecting for a mission home but this house was really nice. And in all of the rooms they have papers hanging up and at the bottom it says remember that this is the Lords house, and I had never thought of it that way. That all of the moment that is put in for missions is used from tithing money, and these are all things have been given to us from our Heavenly Father. This is an important work that is going on and with everything that we do it is important to remember that this is the Lords work.

We then had lots of training for the first day and it wasn't until the next day that we were able to meet our trainers. My trainer is Sister Nowell and she is seriously amazing. I love her so much already. She reminds me a lot of my friend Courtney, like it is kinda creepy. But she is seriously the best. She is from Brigham City and she has been out for... we are not really sure. She went home early for some health problems in January and then this is her second transfer being back, so who knows! But either way she is awesome and she is already teaching me so much. She is 24, and has graduated from Utah State and she is so funny.

We have been assigned to the Roseburg Oregon area and Sister Nowell likes to call it Thugburg, it has a couple of sketchy places but all around it is a great place to be serving and I am so happy to be here. We had a little car accident today, no worries nothing major just someone  hit our bumper at a stop light. But it was really weird because the lady asked if we were in reverse. Um no we were in drive... because we were at a stop light. It was very strange, anyway it was all taken care of and Sister Nowell and I are totally okay!

We spent our first night in Roseburg starting and knocking on doors. I was totally freaking out and I didn't really know what to do or say. But Sister Nowell was with me the entire time and it ended up being okay! And I gave away my first Mormon.Org card!!! We have a goal to knock at least 10 doors a day, they find that tracting doesn't really do a lot. So we are spending a lot of time to try and find referrals from members or investigators that we are already teaching.

Sister Nowell was teaching a family before I came into the area that was progressing really well in the area but yesterday they sent us a text to let us know that they were dropping us. Sister Nowell was really sad. But when one door closes another opens, so we are trying to be really positive about this week.

Other then that I am loving Oregon, seriously everytime I look at the trees I am in awe of how green it is outside. And in Oregon they have this thing where you can eat berries basically everywhere and it is awesome. Seriously. Like you can just pull off the side of the road and eat the berries. So cool, and so yummy.

Today was kind of a crazy day, and we have a dinner appointment at 4 so my P day is coming to a very fast stop, hence why everyone is getting the same email today. But I just wanted to let you know that I love you and I am having so much fun with Sister Nowell in Oregon and I can not wait for the coming week to tell you about all of our teaching adventures. I love you!,

Sister Harrison

PS. I was so excited for Sunday to finally have a normal Church Schedule again, except it was weird because I went to Ward Council for the first time. Anyway more on that later. love you!

 

 Sister Harrison and her STL Sister Nowell

 Heading Out

Week 3 PICTURES :)

Sister Sorenson and I on the way to the podiatrist.

Our last temple walk, we made the Elders bring their jackets so we could have a really nice picture.

Us sisters...

Us Sisters waiting for the Stadium of Fire Fireworks!

Sister Sorensen and I at the fireworks. We got everyone to sing the Star Spangled Banner while we were watching the fireworks. It was really a powerful experience.

Part of our Zone decided to take a picture while we were watching the fireworks!

Life with out an iPhone is always a selfie game, we love it!