No Soliciting (Unless You're a Kid)

 ***I missed posting last week, so here are parts of Kelsie's last 2 emails.***

Hi, everyone! Its been another greatttt week out here in Grand Junction! 

 

So this week we found a total of 3 new investigators. To be considered a new investigator we have to have taught them the first lesson and they have to make a return appointment for us to come back. We haven't been back to teach any of them yet but we have high hopes for them! We found two young moms who both just moved in and who both have young kids that want to go to church. So those are hopeful! No one really seems to stay put in Grand Junction. Everyone is always moving in and out, which makes it kinda hard. We had two families move into the ward this week, but both are only planning on being here for a year, and two families are moving out this week as well. This is a temporary place for a lot of people! We also found this guy named Dale, and he is awesome. He is super well-versed in the Bible and has actually read the Book of Mormon before and we had really good conversation with him. He was super excited to meet back with us. 

I gave a talk in church yesterday about Samuel the Lamanite and the lessons we can learn from him! There were three pretty important things I learned when studying him.

1. Sometimes we just gotta stand up on our walls and let people shoot arrows at us and stand firm in our beliefs. People are stinky sometimes and they'll shoot their arrows, but if we have strong enough faith in the Lord, we cant be wounded. Some people might actually admire you for standing on your wall and defending your beliefs and who knows, maybe you can pull them up onto your wall with you. The view is way nicer from up on the wall than from down below. (;  

2. There is no such thing as being "too far gone" in the gospel. 

3. Repentance is the coolest thing in the whole entire world. Seriously.  He atoned for us so that through Him, we can return to our Heavenly Father again. When we repent, we are developing Christlike character and making ourselves more clean. I'm just really thankful for my Savior and that because of Him, I can be with the people I love for eternity and live in the presence of my Father once again. 

Helloooo! So this week has been a pretty great one! I'm gunna tell a funny story to start off..

So, we have been teaching this couple and their names are Joe and Tara. They're in their 30s and they're super interesting but way nice. Before I got here there were elders in our area and they had been teaching them for a few weeks. Sister Clarke and I started teaching them the week I got here and we've seen them about 4 times since then. On Monday we had a lesson with them and everything was going really well and we felt like we should invite Tara to be baptized, so we did! And she just said, "Well, I've already been baptized." Which is something that we hear allllll the time. And then she went on and she was like, "Yeah, once when I was like 13 in the Pentecostal church and then when I was 24 into that church over there on Orchard Lane." Our church building is on Orchard Lane.... Turns out Tara was baptized into the LDS church when she was 24 and I guess she just ya know, forgot to mention that to the elders who were teaching her for 4 months and then to us. Soooooo instead of getting a baptism we just get to add her to our overflowing list of less-actives! hahaha oh well.

I went on exchanges with one of the sister training leaders this week and it was awesome! Her name is Hermana Eldredge and shes a Spanish sister (obviously) so it was definitely an interesting day! The spanish sisters have a wayyyyy bigger area than we do, so it was nice to get to leave our tiny boundaries for a day. We went and taught a lot of their investigators and I understood pretty much nothing the whole day, but it was great and it furthered my desire to learn Spanish! I will someday. 

Everyone and their grandmother here (literally) has a NO SOLICITING sign either on or near their doors. We ignore them (duh) cuz if we didnt then we wouldn't be talking to anyone! But there are some really funny ones and I decided this week that I'm going to start taking pictures with all of my favorite ones. The "No Soliciting (Unless You're a Kid)" one was my personal fave this week. There was also one like, "NO SOLICITING. This means you. This means I dont want your window cleaner. This means I dont want you shoving your religion down my throat. This means if you knock my door and I am not expecting you that I will let my dog out. He is hungry." We knocked, of course. It was some Buddhist dude and he was not thrilled to see us, but we made him take a pamphlet and he said that he wouldnt read it and that it wasnt going anywhere nice, BUT HEY WE PLANTED A SEED! hahahaha I think tracting is so much fun. We always knock and usually people seem to forget that they have the signs at all, but some yell at us and tell us to learn to read, some open the door, look at us, and slam it before we can say anything, and some will just open the door and point to the sign until we walk away. Its actually kind of hilarious. 

I hope yall are having the best week and that you remember to be happy!! 

Love yall,

sister harshaw 

Ain't life Grand?

Hellooooo friends, family, and everyone in between! This week has been so super duper!!

We left the MTC on Monday and flew to Denver where we had an orientation thing all day long. It was kind of the worst because we had to get up at 2 and we had to sit in a classroom all day long listening to people talk about stuff that was rather boring, so we were all very sleepy to say the least. I met my mission president, President Murdock, and his wife and they're the best!! They're really nice and I feel like I'm going to get along with them justttt fine. On Tuesday we had the transfer meeting where I found out that I was going to be sent out west to the other side of the mountain toooooo.... *drum roll please* good ol' Granddddd Junctionnnnn!! hahah I knew I would be sent here. I'm in the Pear Park ward and my trainer is Sister Clarke! She is so great and I like her a lot! Its kinda funny though, she always tells me that I should be the trainer instead of her. She has only been out for 3 months and she just finished training herself, so she gets really stressed and feels like she has no idea what shes doing, but I just think shes great. She tells me I'm the trainer in this relationship because I'm always having to encourage her and keep her going instead of her doing that for me. But I love her and we work really well together. Grand Junction is.. well.... a very interesting place. My area is pretty small and its composed of mainly mobile home parks and old crusty apartment complexes. The people are so interesting and hilarious and I love it. We dont have very many solid investigators right now, but the ward has approx. 500 trillion less active people in it so we have lotssss of work to do. Seriously though, if all the less actives were active they would have to make a new ward. I'm pretty sure only like.. 35-40% of the ward is active. So we teach a ton of them and we have a goal in our mission to baptize/reactivate one person each month. 

Finding people out here is really quite fun, in my opinion. We have this survey that we do where we ask people 11 questions concerning their beliefs on the family and their moral values. The survey doesnt actually go anywhere, but it gives us a good idea of their beliefs right off the bat. So we knock on a door, they answer, and we say, "Hi! We're just going around the neighborhood doing a quick 11 question survey. Would you be kind enough to help us out?" and then if they say yes we do the survey and after say, "Thanks for helping us out with our survey. As missionaries we do share a message about Jesus Christ. Can we share it with you?" and then if they say yes (probably happens about every 8 people we survey) we teach them the first lesson right then and there! We usually ask to go in their house because it makes for a better environment. But its awesome! And they encourage us to invite people to be baptized on the first lesson if it feels right, which is kinda hard but kinda great if it feels right and you just do it. For example, Sister Clarke and I were knocking this one street and we came up to this house with a tiny picket fence around their yard. We tried to open the gate and the door fell down and was really loud and we were gunna just leave, but we felt prompted to go in anyway. So we did! A 17 year old kid named Buddy answered and did our survey and let us teach the first lesson and was interested, and it felt right so I invited him to be baptized to which he said yes! (one of the requirements for baby missionaries on their first week is to extend the baptismal invitation. so woooo) We plan on going back to teach him more later this week and hopefully he progresses. So yeah knocking doors is kinda fun! I also got 2 doors slammed in my face this week, which in my opinion is pretty hilarious. I mean, first of all, a grown man or woman slamming their door in a couple of 19 year old girls' faces is just.. well.. funny. I dont know why but it makes me laugh every time. Its also nice just cuz we dont have to waste precious time on people who wont give us the light of day. I think a really big part of missionary work is just planting seeds. They say that for lots of people it takes an average of like 7 different interactions with a Mormon before they become curious, so if I'm just supposed to be one of those 7 interactions for these people, I'm okay with that! I'm like a little gardener, just planting seeds for future missionaries to harvest and take care of later on. Even if those future missionaries dont come for years, thats okay. I like planting seeds. (: We also have a lottttt of plans fall through. Actually probably most of them. hahaha people are just very "forgetful", but thats okay because it just means more time for finding people and planting seeds! 

The ward, though tiny, is really great here and they treat us well. I already love them a whole lot! anyway, I'm loving it out here and I love being a missionary! There are alllllll kinds of people here and it makes for some interesting interactions and lessons. But theyre great. 

I love y'all and hope everything is going well!  Be happy!!:)

Sister Harshaw