So Grateful to Be a Missionary!!

NOVEMBER 9, 2015

Hello, fam!! 

This week has been so great! Why, do you ask?? Wellllll, 

1. I learned how to fix tire pressure! Our tire pressure has been low and I've just kinda been ignoring it because I don't know how to do car things, but then I went on an exchange with our STL and she didn't think it was normal that I didn't know how to do that.. so she taught me! I'm learning all kinds of life things here in good ol' GJ. 

2. IT SNOWED ON THE MOUNTAINS... AND DIDN'T COME DOWN IN THE VALLEY (10 gold stars to whomever caught my song reference right there.) The temperature has dropped a whole bunch this week. I'm not a fan of winter and it hasn't even started. It snowed a whole bunch on the mountains all around us, but didn't go further than that. I am nottttt looking forward to snow. But I'm so happy that I don't have to deal with it yet! 

3. Our investigators are all superstars! We've made a lot of progress with all of our investigators this week. I've had the same 4 main investigators the whole time I've been here in Junction and it feels good to see them all progress so well! Sara, Erica, Patience, and Alaska are all on track to be baptized by the end of the year. They make me so happy to be a missionary. 

4. I'm going to play to the flute in sacrament meeting this Sunday! A lady in our ward majored in flute performance in college and I told her that I played for a long time and she was like "Sweet, lets do a duet!" and so a duet we are doing! I'm actually really excited about it! I've missed playing and I forgot how much fun it is! I think I'll pick it back up when I get home!

5. Miracles! Our miracle of the week happened yesterday! We needed one more new investigator to hit the standards of excellence and we only had 10 minutes before we had to leave for dinner and only one more house to knock on the street we were tracting. Both Sister Webster and I had faith that this last door would be a new investigator. We knocked and did the survey with a lady named Debbie, but she had no time for a lesson. We shared a very brief summary of the Restoration and then asked when would be a good time for us to come back and share more. She said she loved studying religion with people, but that she had no time to meet with us. We kept trying to set up a return appointment, but to no avail! Then she saw the name of the Church on our name tags and said, "Oh! I used to study with some people with your church! I loved that!" and so we explained that that was what we wanted to do with her and she understood. She had to go inside, but yelled out for us to come back at 1:30 next Saturday as she was closing the door and walking away! She was our new investigator! I know that our Heavenly Father was paying attention to us and that our faith helped us find Debbie. We see miracles every single day!

Being a missionary is the best and I love love love this work that I get to be a part of! I am so happy to be here. Thank you all for the love and support! I feel your prayers and I'm so thankful to the letters and emails I get each week! 

Have a wonderful week and don't forget to be happy!! 

Sister Harshaw 

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NOVEMBER 16, 2015

Hiya!

SO. This week has been fantastic! Elder Wilford W. Andersen of the Seventy did a tour of our mission this week and on Tuesday we had a big fat meeting where we got to go listen to him speak! All of the missionaries on the Western Slope of the mission met together and President and Sister Murdock drove over to speak to us as well. We got to hear from the Murdocks and then both Elder and Sister Andersen. They told us all about the Christmas initiative we'll be starting at the end of the month and how we can be better missionaries and about the policy change and a whole bunch of other fun things. It was a very uplifting meeting and I really enjoyed it! At the end some of the ladies in one of the wards here provided us with a super awesome Thanksgiving style dinner. It was a great day of speakers, seeing mission friends, and yummy food. 

Our most solid investigator, Sara, is doing so well! We went to go see her last night and one of the first things that she told us is that she has already given up drinking coffee and that she feels good about her decision to do so! We committed her to keep the Word of Wisdom not even a week ago and she is already keeping it. She is amazing. She was on date to be baptized this month, but last week we felt prompted to ask her when she would want to be baptized if she were to choose her date. She told us that she had been thinking about it a lot and that she would really like to be baptized on January 1st. She said that she wanted it to be a "new year, new me" kind of thing and that she really felt she would be ready by then. Sister Webster and I thought it might be a little too far out, but fasted about it and received the answer that her date of January 1 is the perfect date for her. She has told her friends and our bishop and is very excited. I am so impressed with her desire to change and become better. I have decided that my favorite thing about my mission so far is watching the gospel change people. It is an amazing thing to witness and I am so glad I have been here for Sara's whole spiritual journey. I cannot wait to see her enter the waters of baptism.

I got to play the flute in sacrament meeting yesterday and it was actually so much fun! I did a duet (How Great Thou Art) with Sister Simler, a lady in my ward who plays the flute professionally. It reminded me of how much I actually enjoy playing and I really kind of miss it! I think I might pick it back up again when I get home, but who knows. 

BAD NEWS. It snowed for like 5 minutes this morning. I am not fond of all this cold weather. I feel like when it actually turns into winter that I'm going to transform into Randy from A Christmas Story....  "I can't move my armsssss!" It should be a fun time... Also the fact that I'll most likely get transferred to somewhere WAY colder than Junction in January is terrifying. Oh well. Onward and upward. Speaking of transfers, we had interviews with President this week and he told me that Sister Webster and I will pretty much definitely be staying together for another transfer and then I'll be moved somewhere else. That means that I'll be here for Sara's baptism! Wooooo! I've really come to love Grand Junction, actually. The people here are soooo wonderful and I love them a lot. 

Anywayyyy, this week has been wonderful and I'm looking forward to another great week of being a missionary! I love this work and I love my Savior and I love all of y'all and I love life. Be happy and do something kind for someone this week! (: 

Love, 

Sister Harshaw  

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NOVEMBER 23,2015

Howdy, loved ones! 

This week has been a super duper great one! I feel like I say that every week, but that's mostly because its true every week! So oh well! 

Sara Ramirez, our #1 superstar investigator, is doing so well. She is living the Word of Wisdom, coming to church on a regular basis, making friends in the ward, and telling her friends and family that she is going to be baptized. She is truly becoming converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ and I love being able to watch it happen. She will be baptized on January 1st for sure! What better way to start off the new year than to see her get baptized?? I sure can't think of one! 

Oh, awesome news! So I have been working with the Bonds, a less active family, since the first week that I arrived here in Grand Junction. The mom and three kids were not attending church at all and honestly had no desire to start coming back. The dad of the family comes regularly and is fully active. He asked us to try our best to get them to come back to church because it was breaking his heart to watch them fall away. Sister Clarke and I set up dinner appointments with Cameron, the dad, and would go over and get to know them and enjoy each other's company and then share a quick spiritual thought before we left. We did that for a few weeks to build trust and then we started just popping in every few days to see how they were doing. We became great friends with Misty, Brenna, CJ, and Ashlyn (the mom and kids) and we eventually started teaching them the missionary lessons once a week. They finally came back to church and have been coming regularly for a little over a month now. Yesterday our bishop told us that the three kids are officially reactivated!! I am so excited for them! Misty still has some Word of Wisdom problems to overcome, but we will get her there. She is making lots of progress. I love the gospel and I love seeing it make other people happy. Rescuing the Bond family has definitely been a miracle and I'm so glad they're becoming firmly rooted in the gospel again. 

I'm soooo excited for Thanksgiving this week! Sister Webster and I are going to spend a big part of the day at our favorite member's house. We're going to go over and help cook and clean and get things ready, and then we're going to have a feast! The elders and their recent convert and Sara and an awesome lady from our ward are all going to be there and its going to be so great. We're pretty much going to spend the day house hopping and eating a lottttt of food. I'm way excited. 

We got to go to a Hymn Festival thingy that one of the counselors in the mission presidency put together last night and it was wonderful! He is a professor at a college and he teaches music and directs some orchestras or something like that. There was an orchestra and a big choir and they performed all kinds of awesome hymn arrangements! I really miss live music and just music in general, so it was nice (even though they were hymns) to be able to attend the concert. (:

Anyway, thats pretty much how the week went! We're teaching and working hard every single day and the blessings that come from this work are amazing. I love the gospel and I love being a missionary and I love life. (: 

Have a wonderful week and be happy, y'all! 

Love, 

Sister Harshaw 

This is Jetta.  She's 11 years old and is the only Latter-day Saint member in her family.  She's read the Book of Mormon 23 times!!

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NOVEMBER 20. 2015

So! First things first! I'm being........... 

TRANSFERRED. 

I was notttttt expecting that at all!!! President Murdock called us on Saturday night and let me know that I will be leaving and that wherever it is that I'm going really needs me there, whatever that means. He also said that he has something for me to do, but that he will talk to me about it in private later.... I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT THAT MEANS EITHER. I'm really sad to be leaving Grand Junction because I was just about to see some amazing things happen, but I know that wherever Heavenly Father needs me is where I'm going to go! I asked my sister training leader what president might have meant, and she said that I may be getting a "special assignment", which means I would be working with a sister that is struggling. So who knows!! 

With that being said, if you were planning on sending me something in the mail, hold off until next week because I don't know where I'm going! If you already sent something, Sister Webster will forward it to me. So no worries. (: 

Anyway, this week was so great!! We spent Thanksgiving at the Elijah's house, one of our favorite member families. We helped make a TON of food, and then some people from the ward and the elders came over and we ate and ate and ate! It was way fun and nice to be able to spend the day with my ward family. I love the Pear Park ward and I'm so sad to be leaving it, but I'm so happy that I've been able to spend the first four months of my mission here! 

Sara Ramirez is doing wonderfully, per usual. She is developing a strong and sturdy testimony of her own and I feel so lucky to have been able to watch her progress. We taught her about tithing and fasting this week and she was more than excited and ready to begin paying, even though she is struggling financially right now. We were reading the scripture in Malachi to her and she said, "Yes! I agree with that 100%. I believe that when we do good things like that, that we are repaid for it in ways that we can't even understand!" She is always more than willing to do what we ask her to and she loves the gospel. She opened up to us in our lesson and told us that when we initially started teaching her that she was skeptical and was mostly just being polite. But then she came to church and saw how much the members of the ward actually care for one another and she loves the way the church is run. She said, "I am so excited to be baptized. I love the way the Church actually takes care of its members and that people know my name when I walk in the door. I want to watch my boys grow up in this church." I love Sara and I love her desire to serve the Lord and follow Him. I am beyond sad that I will not get to be here on January 1st to see her finally get baptized, but I know that she is going to be in good hands! 

Anywayyyy, I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving! Don't forget to be grateful every day and be happy!! :D 

I love you all!

Sister Harshaw 

Totally Not Drugged Cheeseburgers (read to the end for this story!)

OCTOBER 19, 2015

Howdy, y'all! 

So guess what! We got our transfer news this week! Sister Clarke will be transferred and I will be staying here... AND TRAINING A NEW BABY MISSIONARY!!! WOOOOO HOOOOO! I'm actually so excited about it! I have only been out for barely three months and I just finished my own training YESTERDAY, but if the Lord thinks I'm ready to train then I suppose that means I'm ready to train. Sister Clarke said that its actually really uncommon for missionaries to train as early as I am, which is kind of terrifying, but also awesome. I can't wait to start tomorrow! What better way to learn than to teach? I'll definitely be doing lots of learning right alongside my trainee. (:

Sister Clarke's birthday was yesterday and it was so great! We don't have a very big or active ward, but the ward members that do come are SO great. We went to three lessons yesterday that ended up being surprise parties and it was so much fun. I have never consumed so much cake in my life, and I feel kind of gross about it, but its fine. Being on a mission has actually ruined dessert for me. Hahaha like everyone makes us these big huge desserts and I feel bad if I don't eat them so I do and then I feel gross. Like I wasn't a huge fan of sweets in the first place and now its like HERE EAT MY COOKIES/CAKE/CHEESE CAKE/PIE/PUDDING/BANANA BREAD/HOMEMADE ICE CREAM every. single. day. Being a missionary is rough. Not really. But kind of. Hehe. 

So highlight of this week (other than finding out that I'm going to be a mommy ((missionary slang for trainer)), was putting Sara Ramirez on date to be baptized! I think I've talked about her before, but she is so so so great! She wanted to read and pray more before she committed to a baptismal date or anything, but she has been making lots of progress and committed to a date! She will be baptized on November 7th, and I can't wait. She has been coming to church and she's been reading the Book of Mormon consistently and she said she feels like shes had a change of heart. She is truly a miracle. Stories like hers are unheard of. Tonsssss of people around here come to the bishop for financial help with no intention of looking into the church or even associating with the church past the help that is offered to them. But Sara is making so much progress and has new friends in the ward and I am so happy that I get to stay in this area to see her get baptized! In our lesson this week she was talking about how shes noticed that the people in the Church have a certain light about them that she wants. She says we glow and that the more she reads the Book of Mormon and the more involved she becomes in the Church, the more of that glow she feels in herself. I LOVE HER. 

Anyway, that is pretttttyyyy much the sum of this week! Its been great and I love this work so much. I can't wait for the new opportunities that are coming my way with my new missionary tomorrow! I hope all is well with y'all! Be happy!

Love, 

Sister Harshaw 

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OCTOBER

Hello, friends!! 

This week has been a gooooood one to say the least! First of all, my baby missionary, Sister Webster, is awesome!  She is getting the hang of things quickly and definitely has the new missionary fire everyone talks about. She has been quite the good luck charm as well! We hit the standards of excellence this week and found 10 new investigators, which was an absolute miracle! I've only hit the standards of excellence twice since I've been out, and hitting them on the first week of the transfer with a new companion just never happens! She is willing to work hard and never has anything negative to say. She is already an amazing missionary and I love being her trainer. It took a little bit of getting used to, considering the fact that I'm barely more "experienced" than she is, but I think I'm getting it all figured out! 

Our most solid investigator, Sara Ramirez, is doing wonderfully. We taught her about prophets and what they do and why we follow them and she had great questions. She has told all of her friends that she is taking lessons from us and is happy to talk about the gospel with others. She came to sacrament meeting on Sunday and enjoyed the talks given. She is on date to be baptized on November 14th, but we may move it back by a week so that she absolutely feels ready. She is incredible and we love her! 

We have Trunk or Treat this weekend and guess what I'm going to dress up as... A MISSIONARYYYY. Woooooo hoooooo. Hahah Halloween should be an interesting night! We aren't really allowed to go out and work that night cuz it'll be crazy and I'm not necessarily in the safest area, so we're going to go to a member's house to help hand out candy. It'll be fun. (: 

Its getting allll kinds of chilly here! I really hate winter, so hopefully I stay here in Grand Junction for the better part of the winter so I can avoid all the nasty snow in the monutains/Denver area. The leaves are all changing colors and everyone is feeding us soup (which I love), so I guess that means fall is in full swing! 

Anyway, not toooo much to write about this week, but it was a good one! Hey, fam! Guess what! Only two months till y'all get to see my face via skype! Can't wait! (; 

Hope all is going well! Be happy! Love y'all so much! 

Sister Harshaw 

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NOVEMBER 2, 2015

Hello, and a (late) Happy Halloween to all!

Funny/odd/strange story of the week...we parked our car for like 3 hours one day, and came back and found some "totally not drugged cheeseburgers" (see pic) on our car.... Welcome to Colorado, I guess? Hahaha no, we did not eat them. No worries, mother. 

This week has been a slowwwwwww one for Sister Webster and I, but it was a good one anyway! On Tuesday all of our appointments fell through, on Wednesday the same thing happened, on Thursday we had a zone meeting that took up all of our good work time, on Friday we had our weekly all day planning session ("Planning of Death") and our ward Halloween Party, and on Saturday no one wanted to talk to us because apparently Halloween is an all day event here! We didn't get to visit all the people we hoped to this week and we didn't find any new people to teach, but it was still good!

On Friday 6 of the less active families and 3 investigators we invited to the ward party showed up and it was so great! We were able to get lots of good fellowship for them and hopefully they'll feel more comfortable coming to church in the future. We spent pretty much all evening at the church setting up and cleaning and mingling and it was actually a pretty fun and successful night for us! 

Halloween on a mission is definitely an interesting thing. We had a meeting that lasted all morning and then went to lunch at a members house and then tried all afternoon to contact people and find new people to teach, but to no avail. Everyone is out and about and not interested in talking to you unless you're a small child looking for candy. It was kind of funny, actually. The first door we knocked was this lady with little kids.. We heard her say "TRICK OR TREATERS! YAY!" and then she opened the door, saw us, and said, "orrrrrrr not....." and she slowly closed the door on us as we tried to do our survey. Hahahah always a good time..  We went to dinner at a member's house with the elders in our ward and then stayed the whole evening passing out candy for them! We weren't really given any specific instruction as to what we should do on Halloween night other that we needed to stay out and be productive. We decided that being outside talking to people wouldn't be the safest thing in our area, so the Braden family took us elders and sisters in for the evening. They let us share a message with them and then do some service by being on candy duty! The members in our ward are so great. 

Anyway, thats pretty much all I've got for the week! It's getting cold and I'm so glad November is here cuz that means its almost CHRISTMAS! WOOO! I may or may not already be listening to Christmas music.... hahaha some sister left a CD behind and it has 5 Christmas songs on it and I've been listening to it on repeat for two weeks already. I'm just really excited, okay? 

I hope all is going well for everyone! Thank you for all the letters and emails! I feel sooo loved. (:

Love, 

Sister Harshaw 

Jesus is the new Marlboro Man

SEPTEMBER 28 2015

Hello, friends and family and everyone in between!

Its been a pretty good week here in good ol' Grandddd Junctionnn! To start off, I figured I'd tell y'all about the main people we're teaching because I just realized I kinda haven't told you about any of them. Oops.

-So our very mainest (I know mainest isn't a word but its fine) people are these two sisters named Patience and Alaska. They're 9 and 12 years old and they're daughters of a less active lady! They're super cute and fun and they're both on date to be baptized on October 17th. We're really excited about them because they're helping their mom come back to church and learning about the gospel at the same time! We teach them twice a week and they're superstars.

-Erica, the 12 year old girl we met a few weeks ago is our other main focus! She is also going to be baptized, but we don't know what the date is yet because conference is coming up and the weekend after is super busy, but we'll get her there! Her dad is Catholic and her mom is a less active and both of them are pushing for her to join their church, but she wants to join ours. Woooo! Haha she's super sweet and really loves having us come over. She has lots of good questions and is really excited about the gospel. 

-Sara Ramirez is a 30ish year old lady and she is soooo great! She got some financial help from the bishop a little while ago and he called and told us that he really felt like we should teach her. So we went over and taught her for a little bit and she wasn't all too interested. We'd leave her stuff to read and do, but she never did them. Thennnn, she broke her foot! She has a newborn and newborns and broken feet don't get along too well... so we went over all the time to help take out her trash and clean up and just help out! We taught her more and because she was off her feet she had lotsss of time on her hands to read the Book of Mormon. She did, and she had so many good questions! She wants to know how we  can know all of this is true and she came to church for the first time yesterday and she loved it! Her broken foot has been kind of a blessing, really. We have lots of high hopes for her. :) 

Yeah so those are our main people! We have a lot of less actives and a few more investigators we are teaching, but we're working on getting them to progress. Lots of good work going on here. (: 

I decided that I kinda like just listing off stuff I appreciate/love/enjoy so I'm gunna do that every week I think. hehe 

1. Homemade jam. Everyone and their grandmother cans here. Like.. everyone. They all make jam, they all can, and they all have like 500 years of food storage. Its awesome. A very big pro to that is that we get allllll kinds of homemade jellies and jams and theyre soooooooo good. I eat wayyyy too much toast now. Oh well. hehe..

2. Hand-written letters. Okay, I am probably the worlds biggest fan of letter-writing and mail and whatnot. I appreciate all of your letters of love and support SO much. They make me a happy happy camper. We generally have about three hours every P-Day to do whatever we want, and I alwayssss spend all of my time writing letters. More people in the world need to write letters. It would make it a much happier world, in my opinion. 

3. Peanut butter. I have decided that peanut butter is my second favorite food behind pickles. I eat it at leattttttt once a day. Peanut butter sandwiches, peanut butter and apples, peanut butter and bananas, straight peanut butter on a spoon, peanut butter on crackers, PEANUT BUTTER ON EVERYTHINGGGGGGGGGGGGG. I love it. I just do. 

4. Women's Conference. OKAY CAN I JUST TAKE A SEC TO EXPRESS HOW EXCITED I AM FOR CONFERENCE???? I'm so unbelievably excited. We got to go to the women's session of conference at our stake center and it got me even more pumped for conference than I already was. I'm with ya mom, women who speak in conference do have kind of awful Utah voices, but their messages were awesome. I loved President Uchtdorf's talk a wholeeee lot. I absolutely cannot wait for this weekend. 

5. The blood moon! Okay the moon was the coolest thing ever last night. The night owl in me wanted to stay up all night long so I could just stare at it forever, but unfortunately the night owl in me isn't allowed to stay up past 10:30. Anyway, I just thought it was awesome and I love outer space and stars and the earth and life. Ya know?

Thats about all I've got for this week, folks! Its been good and the work is moving right along! I love this gospel so much and it really is the source of all of my joy. I know my Savior lives, I know that my Father in Heaven loves me, and I know he loves all of you too. (:

Have a happy week, everyone!! 

Love, 

Sister Kelsie Harshaw

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OCTOBER 6 2015

Hi hello greetings!

This week has been quiteeeee the week for Sister Clarke and I! 

First of all, sorry I didn't email yesterday! Sister C. and I drove to Denver.  The drive took about five hours because there was a bunch of roadwork being done, but its soooooo pretty to drive through the mountains in the fall. I love the earth and I just think our Heavenly Father loves us soooo much. (lol I sound like a hippie but its fine) Yesterday we went to the doctor and then pretty much just hung out in the mission home for the whole day! President Murdock didn't want us driving back in the dark with the road construction, so we stayed the night in Denver. President and Sister Murdock actually weren't even there because they're going to zone conferences, so Sister Clarke and I had the whole house to ourselves! It was kind of awesome. I had time to write lotssss of letters yesterday, which I always love doing! We also went to Chick-fil-a which was a happy thing because there isn't one in my area in Junction and I've been craving it for like.. 3 months now. hehe. your home is!!! We drove back to junction this morning and now we're trying to do all of the stuff that we usually do on our P-Day! 

As far as missionary work goes, we have had a super duper successful week! We have really high standards of excellence in our mission and this week our district leader challenged us to hit those standards! He said that if we hit them he would eat some kind of super hot pepper and that if we didn't that we would have to eat one. Sister Clarke and I were not in the mood to burn our faces off, so we decided to work extra hard to hit those standards and we did! We found a total of 9 new investigators, which is definitely a miracle! Our teaching pool has been running a little low as of late, so now we have a whole bunch of new people to teach! As far as our other investigators, they're all pretty much still the same. Patience and Alaska are still on track to be baptized, but we have to move their date back because its hard to meet with them. We met with Erica this week and shes a superstar. She is going to be baptized on November 7th. (: One of our new investigators we found this week is going to be baptized too! Her name is Danielle and she is 15. We are teaching a lot of young girls and its really fun!

Conference was this weekend and I loveddddddddddd every minute of it. How lucky are we that we get to hear from our prophet and apostles every 6 months? SOOO lucky!! I love this gospel with my whole heart and I know that it is true! A lot of people here ask if we were raised in the church and when we tell them yes, they discredit everything we say because they think we are brainwashed and its ridiculous that everything we believe is based on a "mushy gushy feeling" we get. But when you've felt the feelings that come from this gospel you know that they can come nowhere but from God. You just know. So, yes. My entire life is based off of an ooey gooey feeling and I think its just wonderful. 

Anywayyyy, I hope yall have all had a fabulous week and that all is going well! I love yall! Be happy!

Sister Harshaw

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OCTOBER 12 2015

Helloooooo, everybody! How is everything?? I hope all is well with y'all and that everything is peachy!

This week has been rather slowwwwww but so very wonderful! On Monday we drove to Denver and on Tuesday we drove back and had to take care of some housekeeping things and then Wednesday was Zone Conference, so we only had 4 full days of work which was weird! But Zone Conference was sooooo great! President and Sister Murdock are awesome. We talked a lot about working in harmony with the Spirit and learning to recognize its promptings. The Holy Ghost really is the most incredible gift we could possibly be given. Elder Bednar said somewhere in a question and answer thing that one of the biggest problems people have is they don't know if they're receiving a prompting or if its their own thoughts. Then he pulled an Elder Bednar and was like pshhhh it doesn't matter where the thought comes from! If its telling you to do something good, do it! It doesn't matter if its you or the Holy Ghost. Just do good and you'll figure it all out later. I'm a big fan of Elder Bednar. 

So there is an air force base somewhere here in the Grand Valley and these crazy fighter jets are always flying around here. They're megaaaa loud and we always have to pause our lessons when one flies over because we can't hear anything. Well this week there was this massive two day air show thing for a Broncos charity event and the jets were going crazyyyyyyy. It was SO cool. They do flips and spiral things and they write things in the air and its just so cool. Anyway this is really random and theres really no point in me telling y'all this other that I thought it was cool and now I want to be a fighter pilot when I grow up. Okay maybe not, but i'd feel really cool if I did. 

We didn't really meet with any of our progressing people, so they're all still on the same page. We do, however, have this awesome investigator named Sara that I'm not sure if I've talked about yet! She was a referral to us from our bishop and we've been teaching her for about two months now. We invited her to be baptized a little bit ago and she said she wanted to read and pray and really find answers before she committed to anything. Well, shes been coming to church and reading and praying and she watched General Conference and we really think she is going to be baptized! She is in her early 30s and shes a single mom and she told us that shes been having a change of heart lately! We're really excited about her. (:

So this week we had exchanges again and one of the Spanish sisters came here to our area with me. I had to do the driving and I'm not used to it so I didn't pay attention to the gas gauge and I forgot to fill up on Saturday... so we had enough to get us to church and back on Sunday, but that was it! We had to walk alllllll day on Sunday and it was awesome. I'm thankful for the car we have, but I enjoy walking! 

Anyway, sorry this weeks email is kinda lame, but thats all, folks! I love y'all and I send my love your way every day!! Be happy and look for the good in every day! :D

Love, 

Sister Harshaw 

Trying to help a less active member quit smoking. Not sure if this will help, or not:)

Super excited about the blood moon/eclipse.  Well, I am anyway;)

Happy Happy Happy

SEPTEMBER 21

Howdy, y'all! 

This week has been a little bit slow for Sister Clarke and I, but it has been a good one anyway. We lost several of the people we have been teaching for the past little while, so we had to do a lot of finding. We either got dropped, had to drop someone, finished teaching someone, gave people to the elders that are now in our ward, or lost people due to other circumstances. I believe we lost a total of 9 investigators or less actives this week. But that just means we have so many opportunities to find new people! 

Sister Clarke and I also did a lot of finding yesterday. We found one new less active and a new investigator! The less active is named Nino and she is married to a non member and has two little boys. She used to be active when she was young, but she and her family fell away for reasons we don't know yet. We taught her lesson one and she was happy to set up another appointment for us to come back and teach her. We also found a super cute 86 year old lady named Peggy from England. She invited us into her home to do the survey and allowed us to teach her the first lesson. About halfway through the lesson she interrupted us and said, "I'm getting something from you two.. I don't know what it is but I feel it in my body. Like its filling my soul, kind of. Its strange and wonderful." and she motioned toward her heart. Sister Clarke explained that it was the Spirit she was feeling and Peggy strongly agreed. She was so excited to have us come back to teach her again. I really do love being a missionary. 

I really don't have a whole ton to write about this week so I decided to come up with a list of random things that I appreciate and that I love and that make me happy instead of being boring and saying nothing. :D 

1. The sound of happy birds. So there are like a million birds here and they're so dumb and funny. They'll fly right in front of the car at the worst possibly second and we've had plenty of close calls with these dumb birds. I'm pretty sure there are bird gangs and flying in front of a moving car is part of their initiation or something. Anyway, there is a tree right outside my window where I sleep and the birds are always singing away when I wake up and it just makes me happy. I like happy birds, even if they are stupid. 

2. Smile lines. I have decided that smile lines are some of the loveliest physical features a person can have. I mean, why wouldn't you want physical evidence of a well-loved and well-lived life? I don't know. I just think they are lovely.

3. Compliments from strangers. Ya know, like the kind where a total stranger will go out of their way just to say something nice to you? Yeah. Those are the best. One of my favorite quotes is "Never suppress a generous thought." I've been working on that a lot lately. I just want people to feel loved and appreciated, even if I don't know them.

4. Pumpkin anything and everything. The people here are jumping into fall with absolutely no hesitation. I love it. The leaves haven't started changing yet, but the weather is cooling down and everything is pumpkin now. I lovvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeee love love everything that has to do with pumpkin. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin candles, pumpkin seeds, etc. All of it. 

5. Snooze buttons. Sister Clarke made a goal to wake up every day at 6:00 instead of 6:30 to study the scriptures a little more. That means I have to get up at 6:00 too.. and anyone that knows me well knows that I am absolutely useless in the morning. Especially with my sleep issues.. But I love Sister Clarke and I support her sacrifice to be more in tune with the spirit, so we're up and at 'em at 6:00! We set the alarm for 5:55 and hit the snooze button once, and I have really and truly come to love the snooze button. Thank you to the inventor of snoozing. 

6. The word "heathen". I have no idea why, but I just really like that word. Thats pretty much all I have to say about that, actually. Don't ask why I felt the need to share that. hahaha 

Anywho, I hope y'all are doing well and keeping busy! I love being a missionary and I love all of you! 

Be happy!

Sister Harshaw

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 SEPTEMBER 14th

Helloooooo, everybody! (To be read in the voice of Gru from Despicable Me, obviously.)

This week has been kind of slow, but definitely still great! First things first, we have elders serving with us in our ward now!! Woooooo! This is great for a lot of reasons, the first being we don't have to spend much time in the super sketchy parts of town anymore! Our area actually covers half of a town called Clifton and just a little part of Grand Junction. Clifton is the sketchy part and we can't be there at night and a lot of our less actives live there, so we're happy we don't have to spend more time than necessary there and that we don't have to tract there anymore! Yay! Having elders is also great because we had a pretty big work load and now we get to share it so we can spend more time focusing on individuals.

We found some really great people this week! We went to dinner at a members house this week and asked for referrals (ps fam you should always have a referral to give the missionaries. We live off of referrals.) and she gave us the name of this less active lady named Lexi, but told us not to mention her because she might be upset that her name was given to us. So we went over there and she opened the door and was like, "Oh my goodness!! Come in!!!" and turns out she is a super awesome lady and she has been wanting missionaries to come by for a long time! She just moved here and she has a 12 year old daughter that she really wants us to teach. So we started teaching her daughter, Erica, this week and holy moly shes great!! She wants us to come back twice a week and she wants to be baptized and shes already read like 32 pages of the Book of Mormon in 3 days and shes just so cute! We are going to put her on date for October 17th! 

There was one day this week that we didn't get any work done because my companion was sick, so that was kind of the lamest day ever. You'd think that having a day of doing noting would be kind of nice, but its not. I mean, I did get a lot of studying done but it was mostly just boring. Oh well! Life happens. I was actually really thankful for the alone time I got. I was a boring day, but being alone for a little bit was a tender mercy. I love my companion, but I also reallyyy love/miss being alone sometimes. So that made me happy. 

Thats pretty much all I've got for the week, folks! The work really is hastening and I'm so excited to be a part of it (: 

Oh, and to explain my subject line.... hahaha so since I've gotten here I've been picking up every lucky penny that I come across and my collection is getting pretty big. Well today I went to pick up a penny that was buried in the dirt and it turned out to be a big fat bullet. So that was fun! hahah just another average Joe day here in good ol' sketchy Grand Junction! 

I love y'all and hope all is well! Be happy! :D

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SEPTEMBER 7

This week was good! At the beginning of the week we had yet another exchange and it was awesome because Sister Clarke went to our sister training leader's area and her companion came to ours which meant that I got to take over the area for a day! Wooooooo! I actually loved it so much. I really like taking the lead in everything and being in charge. We found out about exchanges on Saturday and both Sister Clarke and I will be staying here in Grand Junction. She is convinced that after this 6 weeks that she will be leaving and I will stay here to train a new missionary. Our president has been known to have sisters train after they finish their own training, so who knows! That would be pretty cool, actually. 

I also got to give a training in our district meeting on Thursday which was pretty neat. I talked about the importance of prayer and how to get investigators to pray. I think it went pretty well! I've come to discover that I actually really like to give talks and teach lessons and stuff of that sort. I know, I'm weird. 

We did a whole bunch of service this week! Our mission is a half service mission because we work with Just Serve, which is some organization. We mostly work in this little thrift store place, but this week we did a couple hours of yard work for this super adorable old lady. She is from the Netherlands and she actually called us from a pass along card we left when tracting, which never happens!

Oh funny story.... so like a week ago we went and had an 8pm lesson (lessons we have with members at 8pm so we can get to know them and have something to do. 8 isnt a good time to be out and about cuz its kinda sketchy, so the members take care of us.) with a cute old lady. She just kept staring at me and like looking me up and down.. then as we were leaving she was like, "I gotta tell you... you're going to need to put some meat on your bones before winter if you want to survive! You're way too little and you need some blubber to keep you warm." so we just laughed and went on our way. But then this week she called us and told us to come over and she made me cookies and told me to eat them all.. and she keeps calling us and giving us food.. and she signed up to feed us like 4 times this month... hahahaha shes dead serious about me putting meat on my bones and its hilarious. Every time she sees me she comments on my "lack of meat"..... hahahahah

Anyway, its been a good week and being a missionary is so awesome! We have a super full week so I'll have plenty more to tell you about next week! 

I love y'all lots! Be happy! :D

It's A Trap!!!

**I'm still trying to find my groove with this blog  (sorry Grandmas and Grandpas!!).**


AUGUST 24

Helloooooo family!! First of all, I love y'all so much! I feel the love and support being sent my way each and every day and it makes all the difference in the world. (:

So this week was crazy and hilarious and I have plenty of good stories to share. 

First, Sister Clarke and I walked straight into a trap this week and it was awesome.  Last week we were tracting and we did our survey with this man when his wife came out and was like, "Oh, we have to go right now, but do you like, make appointments so you can come back? We would love to have you come back soon!" and she invited us into her house for a minute and gave us water bottles and set a return appointment and then sent us on our way!  Sister Clarke and I were kinda like.. what the heck?  It seriously seemed too good to be true.  No one ever invites us in or gives us water or ASKS for us to come back.  WELL turns out it WAS too good to be true!  We show up later in the week for our appointment and the lady answers and she's super nice and her mom is there and they set out snacks for us and everything.  Like.. you don't understand how weird that is. They remembered the appointment AND set out snacks AND she invited her mom AND she read the pamphlet we left with her???  Wayyyyy too good to be true. So, we go upstairs and sit down and start giving the lesson and they're listening and its great and Sister Clarke and I are just in awe, and thennn we discovered we were in a trap.  The mom starts asking all these crazy Bible questions and trying to put us down and is literally telling us that we are wrong and that Joseph Smith didn't see God and Jesus, but that it was the devil in disguise and all this crazy stuff.  And we're just like listening to her and trying not to get super involved cuz contention is of the devil and whatnot, and then she was trying to tell us that our faith isnt in God, but its in the church, and blah blah blah... and thennnnn hahaha it was so funny.... then, since we say our faith is in God, she challenged us to "file for excommunication" to see if God would still love us. hahahahahah she was being dead serious and Sister Clarke and I just looked at each other and smiled and shook our heads and she kept going on about how she wanted us to come over twice a week so she could read all this stuff from the Bible that proves us wrong and we just stopped her and stood up and we were like, "Sorry, but thats not how we do missionary work." and we bore testimony of what we knew and then left. She walked us out the door saying to think about what we said concerning "filing for excommunication" and we just couldnt help but laugh. So we walked into a Bible bashing trap and it was weird and awesome, cuz it made me realize how thankful I am to have the knowledge that I have, and that I know what I know because I've prayed and received my own answers. The gospel is awesome and we shouldnt forget it!! 

Then, later in the week we were sooooo close to being saved by a couple of Baptist dudes! I went on exchanges again this week and when we were making lunch two Baptist guys knocked on our door.(I guess other people are feeling intimidated by our awesome missionaries going out and sharing what we believe and they feel like they need to send their own people out hehe) They started telling us that we're all sinners and that we have to repent, and it was really funny because we had something gospel related to counter everything they said and we totally stumped him and he got really frustrated and was going to leave, but wanted to say a prayer with us before he left, so of course we agreed. He starts praying to Jesus and my comp and then he tried to get us to repeat some stuff to get us to "confess to Jesus that we are his and that we are sinners", but we didnt think that was okay so we kindly told him that we don't pray to Jesus and he was disgusted. He was trying to get us to repeat something that apparently would have saved us right there on the spot. So we were really close! hahaha it was just an interesting experience. 

Thennnn, that same day, we had a really funny experience. We were trying to contact some guy, but discovered he moved so we just decided to knock some doors in the area. The first one that answered was a lady that was less than modestly dressed.. hahahaha she was in her bathing suit (if you could even call it that) and she came out and tanned/washed her car/had her husband come out and take pictures of her with her cars while we talked to her for a whole entire hour. We taught her a really great lesson and changed her whole perspective on the LDS church! She wasnt interested in having us come back, but even just being able to change the way she sees Mormons was a big success! The people here are seriously so interesting. Oh, and did I mention that she was 60!!!!!!!, had 5 children, and 25 grandchildren? hahahahaha she and her husband are body builders at ages 60 and 65. Theyre definitely rocking their old age. It was hilarious. 

This week has just been really great! I seriously love being a missionary so much. I wouldnt trade the experiences I have on a daily basis for anything!  I've definitely learned that perspective is a massively important thing in life! We can look at all the not so good things that happen in life and decide that life is the worst and that everything is hard and that we dont wanna do anything, orrrrrr we can decide to put a smile on our faces and look for the good in everything (no matter how bad the situation) and be happier! I love life and I love being a missionary and I love the gospel!

AUGUST 31

Helloooooo, everybody! This week has been quite the week! Definitely interesting. The days all kind of blur together, but I cant believe how fast its all already starting to go! Time is weird. 

So my very favorite part of this week was going on exchanges with Sister Collins, my MTC companion!! She is in my district so I see her every week at district meetings, but it was so fun to spend the whole day with her! Its pretty cool to think that we started out just a little while ago as little baby missionaries and now we're out here in the real world teaching real people and we actually kinda know what we're doing! It was actually such a good day. We had appointments the whole entire day and we set three people on date to be baptized! Thats a lot of people for one day! We were in her area, so I dont get to see those people again, but it was still exciting! We see miracles every single day out here! 

As far as work in our area, it's been a bit slow, but good anyway!  A few days ago Sister Clarke and I were just walking down a kind of sketchy street just talking to all the people we came across and we started talking to these two kids sitting on their porch smoking. They were 14 and 17. We did our survey with them and then started teaching them about the Restoration. One of our questions in the survey we do is "Would you like to be happier that you are at this point in your life right now? What is one thing that could make you happier?" and when we asked them, they both said they'd be happier if they could get out of all the trouble they were in and change their lifestyles. So we taught them and they were really into it and asking all these questions. We wanted to keep teaching them, but they live out of our area so we had to give them to some other elders as a referral. Well, yesterday we drove back by the house they were at... and they were being arrested............ Like, there were 5 cop cars and it was all crazy and nothing good was going on in their house.. It was definitely interesting. That just gives yall a little taste of what our area is like. That kind of thing is not all too uncommon to come across here. Its definitely nothing like home, but I love it. Its so different and the people are so interesting. Anywho, hopefully the lesson we taught them sticks with them. Maybe somewhere down the road they'll pull out the pamphlets we gave them and think about it. Planting seeds is such an important thing to do! 

We have two investigators that are actually progressing, which is great! The first is a little 9 year old girl named Patience. Her mom is a less-active and we were trying to get her to come back to church, but ended up teaching her daughter instead. She's super cute and wants to be baptized and she comes to church with her big sister every week, but she gets super bored and tries to stay home on Sundays. We hope to have her baptized by the end of the month, but we'll see how things play out! Our other one is this super nice lady we met right when I got here named Candi. We actually found her because we were lost and on the totally wrong street looking for a house that didnt even exist. She was just getting out of her car and so we talked to her and it turns out she had a great aunt that was LDS and she loveddddd her great aunt. She invited us to come back and we've taught her two lessons so far. We invited her to be baptized, but she has a "calling" in her own church and she feels obligated to go there. But we're working on it and shes reading the Book of Mormon and shes an incredible lady! We have a lot of hope for her!

Anyway, I love yall and I hope everything is going well! Missions are awesome and I'm so happy to be a part of this great work. (:

Love,

Sister Harshaw 

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