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