HOWDY, FRIENDS!
This week has been so good and so busy!!! Tuesday was transfer day and I went and picked up my new missionary and we went off to our new area! My companion's name is Sister Ball and she is from Shelly, Idaho. She is so so so good! She is going to be such a good addition to this mission. She wants to work hard and she has a great testimony and I already like her lots. Its really weird to be on the other end of the mission spectrum with me coming home in three months and her just arriving. Its kind of cool to look at how far I've actually come since being a baby missionary! I love her "greenie fire" and I'm so excited to work and learn with her.
SO. There are a few things that I have learned this week.
1. Elders are disgusting. We moved into an apartment that elders had been living in and OH MY STARS IT WAS SO NASTY. Moldy rice in the fridge, dirty dishes in the dishwasher, old nasty clothes left in the closets, YOU NAME IT. We spent the first day in the area just de-eldering the apartment because I can't function in unclean places. You'll be glad to know that after four trash bags, an entire roll of paper towels, and several bottles of disinfectant, our apartment is now livable. I have become my mother's daughter. :'-)
2. White-washing is one of my favorite things. The elders before us left us with a dirty apartment and absolutely no one to teach, so we're starting from scratch again! I love starting from scratch! It leaves us with so much opportunity. Especially with a baby missionary. We've done lots of tracting and talking to everyone and we're working hard so that we can be worthy of miracles! I know that the Lord provides for our efforts and I am happy to be serving here in Lakewood again. This ward is AWESOME and so so so missionary-minded. I love it.
3. Training is more beneficial to me than it is to my new missionary! When I was trained and even when I've trained missionaries in the past, I've honestly never been a fan of the whole "training" part of it. We have an hour each day to study from this little book for new missionaries and I've always thought it was kind of a waste of time. BUT WOW, NOW I LOVE IT. I forget sometimes that the basics of missionary work are the most important things and its so good to get a reminder. I'm learning a lot and I love going back to the basics.
4. GENERAL CONFERENCE IS MY FAVORITE THING EVER. I actually already knew this, but this weekend just reaffirmed it. I love having the opportunity every six months to hear from the leaders of the Church. I love the spirit that you can feel and I love my membership in this church. It is the thing in life that I am most grateful for and I don't think I'll ever figure out how the heck I got lucky enough to be BORN into it. Seriously, blessings don't get any greater than membership in the Lord's church.
5. So there are some superrrr cool recent converts in this ward. They are all African immigrants and wow, they're awesome. One of them, Rose, is quite literally a big-time African princess. HOW COOL IS THAT? Her grandpa is a really big deal of a chief over there and she is African royalty. I get to teach a PRINCESS the new member lessons. Life is good. 👸
ANYWAY, this week has been great and I am so excited to have these new opportunities to learn and grow! I only have three months left to do this great work and I'm gunna do my darndest to make the most of it. I love the Lord and I love His work.
AND I LOVE ALL OF YOU TOO. (: Have a happy week, y'all!!
Sister Harshaw
OH. My new address issssss:
Sister Kelsie Harshaw
3232 S Newcombe St.
Apt. 10203
Lakewood, Co. 80227
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OCTOBER 10, 2016
Hello, loved ones!!
Just a head's up, this'll be a rather boring email because it was a rather boring week! That's just the way it goes in missionary work sometimes. Its been a good week anyway, though. (:
This ward that we're serving in is SO stinking great. There are all kinds of people and the bishop and ward council are on top of things. As soon as we got here they handed us lists of people to go and visit. We've been able to meet lots of new people and and we've been gaining the trust of the ward as we help them in their work. They're so excited about missionary work and I loveeee it. They're even going to do a 40 day fast for missionary work! Its where a different family signs up every single day for 40 consecutive days and they fast for missionary work! We are DEFINITELY going to see miracles as us missionaries and the members work together with the same purpose.
Oh! A miracle! Kelly, the lady that came to us at church in Littleton about a month ago, is getting baptized on Wednesday!!! And her daughter wants to get baptized now too! I get to go to her baptism and I can't wait to see the gospel change her life even more. She was seriously every missionaries dream investigator and its so cool that I got to be even just a little part of her experience.
In other news, we get to watch the Fort Collins Temple dedication this Sunday and I'm super excited about that! It'll be nice when I can actually go there in real life, but I'm happy that I get to see part of the Lord's work moving forth.
Anyway, like I said, nothing too exciting to report this week! We're working on finding new investigators and building our teaching pool, so pray that we'll find the elect families that have been prepared to hear the gospel! We know they're out there!!!!
I love y'all and hope you're having a happy week!!
Love, Sister Harshaw
Oh!!! I almost forgot! We went to visit the cute little African family this week and they have four adorable little kids that LOVEEEE us. One of the little girls was sitting on the table while we were talking to her grandma when she asked if she could touch my hair. Next thing I know, I've got hair just like hers!! hahahah I love the little people. Also, I literally have no idea how she ended up on my lap, but I couldn't get her off so I just went with it. Don't tell President (;
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OCTOBER 17, 2016
Hello, friends!
This will unfortunatelyyyy probably be another kinddd of lame email, but 'tis the way it goes sometimes!
We are still working on finding new investigators, BUT we have done a tonnnnnn of service this week!! We announced in Relief Society last Sunday that we were looking for service opportunities and allllll of the little old grannies in the ward have called us. We've walked dogs (which is an AWESOME way to get people to talk to you, by the way. I think every missionary should be issued a dog.), moved things into storage units, pulled weeds, reorganized and decorated houses, volunteered at a food bank, and a million other things in between! It has been such a good way to gain the trust of the members in the ward. They've started giving us the names of their friends and people in the ward to go visit, so we're being kept nice and busy! I've gained a pretty strong testimony of service since I've been on my mission. I think that if we're going to be full-purpose missionaries (or members) that we need to be looking for opportunities to serve all the time!! That's how Christ did his work, so we should do the same! Serve, love, and then teach.
Kelly, the golden lady from my last ward was baptized this week and she invited me to attend her baptism! She is amazing and it is so cool to see some of the fruits of your labors, even if those labors were cut short. The Lord really is preparing people all over the place to hear the message of the restored gospel. He loves us and wants us to receive the blessings that the message we share brings.
The Fort Collins Temple was dedicated yesterday and we had the awesome privilege of attending a broadcast of the dedication and the cultural celebration! I love temples and I can't wait until I can go back to the temple often. It is definitely something that I have missed since I've been on my mission and I look forward to being able to be involved in that work again. BUT. For now I'm involved in the work of the living, not the dead! And I love it!
Anyway, that's about all I've got for the week, folks! Stay happy and do some good!!
Love,
Sister Harshaw
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OCTOBER 24, 2016
Hello, people!
Ya know, sometimes the life of a missionary isn't as exciting as you might imagine it to be. Just like when you're at home and you just go with the flow of life and nothing out of the ordinary happens, sometimes missionary life is just plain Average Joe!! And so it is right now! But that doesn't mean that life isn't good. Because even on the most average of days, you're still a missionary. And being a missionary is the best. (:
With that being said, I have nothing terribly exciting to write about today. So insteaddd, here is a little list of things that I'm grateful for and a small miracle of the week:
1. The gospel. It is my favorite thing in the world and I am so grateful for my mission for teaching me more about it. It really is the key to happiness in a world that isn't always particularly happy. WE'RE SO UNBELIEVABLY BLESSED TO HAVE IT, FRIENDS.
2. Pumpkin everything. Everyone is busting out their best pumpkin treats and I am so totally a fan.
3. Crunchy leaves.
4. An abnormally warm Colorado fall. Props to whomever is praying that Colorado will stay warm, because its working!! I haven't frozen yet! I'm crossing my fingers and everything else that can be crossed that the snow will stay away until January! A girl can dream, right??!
The miracle of the week was finding a man named Paul. We were at an apartment complex trying to contact a part member family, but they didn't answer. We were going down the stairs when we noticed two men who were moving a bunch of boxes from an apartment into a moving truck. Sister Ball suggested that we offer our help, and after about a ten second mental battle with Satan about why we shouldn't even bother to offer because we probably couldn't do much, we started walking toward them. Satan is such a bum, but I won the battle! Take that, Satan! Before we could even get all the way over to them, one of the men who was on the balcony above us said, "Hey! Do you want to give us a hand for a second??" We agreed, to which he said he was joking, but we insisted and grabbed some boxes and moved them to the truck. The man who asked for a hand, Paul, told us that he recently attended an LDS wedding reception where he received a copy of the Book of Mormon, and that he and his friend have been talking a lot about it recently! He said he has been texting his friend about it right before we showed up and that he felt like seeing us was a sign from God.
Unfortunately, he lives about 30 minutes away, so we don't get to teach him. But we got all of his information and sent it in as a referral! From the brief conversation that we had with him, we could tell that he really was prepared. Its a good thing the missionaries in Thorton are on the same errand of the Lord that we are, and that my companion was spiritually in tune enough to heed the prompting to help!!
I love this work and the people here in Colorado. Its such a blessing to be a part of something so big and I love the Lord for sending me here. I hope you are all having the happiest of weeks and that all is well!!
I love you all a million!
Sister Harshaw
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OCTOBER 31, 2016
Howdy, y'all! And happy happy Halloween!!
This week has been so great! I don't think anything particularly marvelous happened, but it was just good anyway. We worked hard and we're starting to see the fruits of our labors. (:
A miracle of the week was being able to meet with a part member family, the J's. The wife is a member, her husband is not, and her less active son was home for the weekend. The son, D-, has been living a lifestyle contrary to Heavenly Father's plan, to say the least. We taught them about the Plan of Salvation with a big emphasis on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how we take advantage of that sacrifice by repenting. D- was thinking long and hard about everything we said and we could tell that the Spirit was teaching him something. He returned to school in Washington this week and yesterday he sent his mom a picture of him in his church building, going to sacrament meeting for the first time in years. He went by himself, introduced himself to the bishop, and has decided to get his life in order. His mom was beyond happy. I don't know if our lesson on the Atonement had anything to do with his decision, but I know that his steps to repentance will bless him and make him happier than anything else. I love seeing the gospel bless other people's lives.
Ummmmm, other than that, I don't have too much to report on! We received some great referrals and found some new investigators, but it is toooo soon to say much about them! So stay tuned! Its kind of weird when you get towards the end of your mission. I feel like all the days are blurring together and I never know what to write home about! So stick with me for two more months and then I'll just tell mission stories in person. (:
I love y'all and I'm so happy to be serving a mission. I love the gospel, I love the things that I've learned, and I love my Heavenly Father! Have a happy week, friends!
Love,
Sister Harshaw
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