Christmas Miracles!!!!

Helloooooo and merry merry merry Christmas to all!! 

This week has been absolutely incredible and it has been filled with real life ACTUAL Christmas Miracles!!

To start off, Ed Swenson-the grumpy old man-was baptized and confirmed this weekend!! It was the perfect little baptismal service for him. He has some social anxiety and large crowds make him nervous, so the small crowd of 10 people at the baptism was just right for him. It was short and sweet and the spirit was strong. It was actually kind of funny. Ed quite literally only speaks when he absolutely has to. When the service started, his wife, Renia, pulled out the hymn book and handed it to him for the opening song. He grunted and pushed it away and stared off into space for the song and opening talk. Then he was baptized and his countenance was totally different. He was talking to people and when it was time for the closing song, he pulled out the hymn book himself and started singing, which no one has ever seen him do. I think I might have even seen him smile at one point. It was awesome and Ed is a changed man!! Hahaha well, at least he's beginning to become a changed man. He's a funny one, that Ed. The spirit really does work in mysterious ways. 

Next big fat miracle! This morning we got a call from our bishop telling us that there is a young man in the ward who wants to be baptized as soon as possible!! He is in the Naval Academy and is at his grandfather's house for Christmas. His grandpa is in our ward and the young man, Kaden, would like for his grandpa to baptize him before he goes back to his Naval base. He has several LDS friends in his troop and they have been bringing him to church and he has a strong desire to join the church. We just have to teach him the lessons and then he can be baptized! Depending on the circumstance, we may even baptize him as soon as this weekend! We will start teaching him tomorrow and will probably go through all the lessons this week! I don't know what it is about this ward, but the miracles are flowing in. Stay tuned to find out what happens with Kaden this week!!

I have gained a very strong testimony that we just have to do what our Heavenly Father expects of us and thennnn the miracles will come. We do a lot of tracting in this area with little to no success, but we know that God wants us to be out knocking on doors, so we do! We knock and we ask for referrals from members and we work hard to do all that Heavenly Father wants us to, even though we don't really see anything come from it. Door after door is closed in our faces, but by being diligent we are seeing so many better doors open. The blessings may not come how or when we expect them to, but they do come. The Lord is amazing and the miracles that come from loving and living the gospel are incredible. 

I am so excited for my first (and only) Christmas on my mission!! You'd think that being away from family around this time of year would be kind of a bummer sandwich, but there is nothing as sweet as being in the service of the Lord. When you're working hard and you're devoted to your purpose as a missionary there really is no homesickness. I love this work and I love my Savior and I am so happy to be here sharing the light that comes from living His gospel. Jesus Christ really was the first gift of Christmas and his humble birth in a lowly stable was our Heavenly Father's biggest manifestation of His love for each and every one of us. 

I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas!! Take a little time to remember the Savior and to think about what His birth means to YOU! 

I love y'all!!!

Sister Harshaw

#ASaviorIsBorn 

This is Sara, my favorite investigator in Grand Junction.  I'm probably going to get to go to her baptism on the 1st, and I am so excited!!

We Come Bearing Candy Canes!!

DECEMBER 7, 2015

Soooooooooooo, can you guess where I am???! Hahahahahah I am now serving in Fruita, Colorado which is easily one of the weirdest places I have ever been in. My subject line is an actual thing that they say here. Like everyone in the ward said it to me yesterday at chruch. And they sell hats/shirts/stickers/magnets/cups/anything you can think of with that saying on it. Its hilarious. 

My new address is-

Sister Kelsie Harshaw

559 W Pabor Way #2 

Fruita, Co. 81521

Yeah, so the ward I'm serving in is the Fruita 2nd ward and it covers a huge part of Fruita, all of Loma, and all of Mack, Colorado. I am as far away from the mission home as I could possibly be and our area goes all the way to the border of Utah (pictures to come). It is hugeeeeeeee compared to my area in Junction. Its actually only like 15 minutes away from where I came from. And even funnier than the fact that I'm practically serving in Utah and I moved about 2 seconds away is that I took Sister Clarke's place here! She came here after she trained me, then I trained, and then she got transferred to Denver and I took her place here! I'm following in the footsteps of my mother! :'-) This area is super duper different than Junction. Its a whole ton of farmland and cows and sheep and middle-of-nowhere houses. They say that this is the place where people come to hide. Its right outside of Utah and all the Mormons that don't wanna be Mormons come here and move to the middle of nowhere because they think no one will find them.. BUT THEY ARE WRONGGGG. We find them allllllll. 85% of the ward is inactive and when we show up at their houses they're always surprised to see us and less than happy that we decided to visit. Its quite funny. 

My new companion is Sister Ytac (pronounced E-Tack). She is from the Philippines and she has been out for 3 months, so I'm still the senior companion. She is a lotttttttt a lot a lot like Sister Clarke. She is so sweet and I love her a lot, but she struggles a whole bunch. President never called me to tell me what I'm doing here, so I'm still not entirely sure what that was all about.. but this area is struggling pretty badly. There is no one on date to be baptized and there are no progressing investigators and 85% of the ward wants nothing to do with the Church, so there is a ton of work to be done here. I'm really happy to be here and I am going to do my absolute best to lift the ward! They sure need it. 

Anywayyy, I don't have a whole lot to report as far as the work goes because we basically just met with a ton of new less actives this week. Its gunna take me forever to figure out the area since it takes like 30 minutes to drive all the way to the end of it, but I'll get there eventually! 

I hope all has been well with y'all and that everyone is happy! 

Go watch the Christmas video the Church put out if you haven't already! (and share it too!) 

I love y'all!! :D

Sister Harshaw     

DECEMBER 15, 2015

Hello family + friends + fellow citizens! First things first, I love you all sooooo much and I'm so thankful for all of the love y'all are sending my way! I feel it every single day and your prayers in my behalf are definitely felt! Y'all are the best!

This week has been absolutely nuts! Ya know how last week I told y'all that we had no one on date to be baptized and no one really progressing? Well scratch that. BECAUSE WE'RE HAVING A BAPTISM THIS SATURDAY. LIKE.. WHAT?

On Monday, Ed Swenson, this really odd old man the sisters have been working with for more than a year called our bishop and informed him that he would like to be baptized. His wife got baptized a little more than a month ago, but he really wasn't interested in baptism for himself even though he has heard all the lessons and comes to church every week. We met with him on Tuesday night and when we asked him about it he told us he wanted to set up a date. We thought he was still working on quitting smoking, but he told us that he quit smoking on the 31st of October and has not touched a cigarette since then. We asked him when he would like to be baptized and he said as soon as possible! So Ed will be baptized this upcoming Saturday the 19th at 2:00! We taught him about temples and family history last week and we think the prospect of being with his wife, Renia, for eternity really got him thinking. Ed is hilarious. I've met with him 4 times since I have been here and I have probably only heard him speak 10 sentences. He communicates mostly in grunts and inaudible mumbles. I have never seen him smile and he has the most dry sense of humor. He'll crack these jokes and you can't tell if he's joking because he doesn't smile, so you just kinda laugh because the fact that you can't tell if he is trying to be funny is funny itself. He and Renia live in a tiny little trailer out in the middle of nowhere Mack and he always smells like cows because he just hangs out with them all day. Also I'm not sure if he has any teeth. He is the grumpiest old man I have ever met, but he is hilarious and I love him a lot. When our district leader interviewed him for baptism this week he said, "Ed is a man of few words, but the Spirit speaks for him. His grunts and head nods were actually pretty sincere and he is ready to be baptized." So baptize him we will!! Its a Christmas miracle! 

Another great thing this week! There is the less active man in our ward that has apparently been causing problems for a lot of people in the ward. He creates contention and is quite frankly a big ol' meanie. He doesn't let his home teachers in, he doesn't like missionaries, and he hasn't been to church in years. We told our bishop that we were planning on seeing him and he basically said, "Well good luck with that one.." So we drive to his house and we say a prayer in the car that we will be able to get into his home and share the Christmas message  with he and his family. Right after the prayer, I heard the Spirit say (in almost an audible voice), "Bring him the candy canes." We had just gone to the store to get candy canes to bring to a family to say thank you for something they gave us and they were sitting in the back of the car. I picked them up and I was like, "Alright Sister Ytac. I don't know why, but the spirit just told me that this man needs these candy canes. So lets go find out why!" So we went to his front door and rang the bell and a few seconds later he answered. He looked less than happy to see us, but before he could say anything I smiled nice and big and said, "Hi! I'm Sister Harshaw and this is Sister Ytac and we're the missionaries in your ward! We come bearing candy canes and a short Christmas video that we're hoping to share with you and your family!" He looked at the candy canes I was holding out to him for about 10 seconds and then opened the door and told us to come in. He called his family down to the living room and they sat and watched the two Christmas videos that had and the Spirit absolutely flooded into the room. When they ended we asked what they like about them and the man said with tears in his eyes, "You know, we talk about Christ in our home every single day, but I still don't think my kids understand the true meaning of Christmas. That is why I invited you in today. When you were standing at the door something told me that you would bring Christ into my home and that I should let you in. And you did. So thank you." We were in their home for a total of about 15 minutes, but that was the strongest I have felt the Spirit in my whole entire mission so far. The Spirit knows what each and every one of us needs and how we can best help others. If we listen real hard, that still small voice will ring loud and clear and lead us in the right direction. I'm not sure if the candy canes are the thing that convinced him to allow us into his home, but I do know that I learned a big lesson on listening to the promptings of the spirit, no matter how silly they might seem. 

I hope that y'all are all doing well and that you know I love and appreciate you soooo much! I love being a missionary and I love the joy that living this gospel brings. I know that it really and truly is only in and through Jesus Christ that we are able to feel true joy and happiness. This gospel is amazing and I love my Savior.

Have a great week and be happy!! I love y'all!

Sister Harshaw 

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;)