MARCH 21, 2016--A BIRTHDAY, BAPTISM AND METH HOUSES
Hellooooooooo family and friends!! How are y'all? I hope you're having as happy of a week as I am!! I'm mixing things up a little and telling you about my week in bullet point form! Here it goes!
- Shakira King was BAPTIZED! She got baptized on Saturday, the 19th and confirmed in sacrament yesterday! She is easily the cutest little girl you will ever meet. It was such a great day. She has a lot of less active and nonmember family and they all came to her baptism. Shakira really is a light to her family right now! Her nonmember dad is one of the nicest people I have ever met. He is a great man and needs the gospel! He came to church on Sunday for her confirmation and stayed for all three hours. After church Bishop brought us into his office and told us that Shane, Shakira's dad, is ready for the gospel. He accepted Bishop's invitation to read the Book of Mormon and the invitation to take the lessons from us! We are going to begin teaching him this week! He has no hold ups and we really think he could be baptized by the end of this transfer, which is in just three weeks! The King family is truly a miracle. We have been doing the 21 Day challenge in our ward for about 2.5 months now and it has been amazing! The 21 Day Challenge is this thingy from Elder Ballard. The promise is that if you will pray for a list of nonmembers/less actives for 21 consecutive days that at least one of the people on that list will accept the invitation to take the missionary lessons. We did the challenge with an older couple in the ward about two months ago and the Kings are the fruits of their prayers. When Shakira and her mom came to our ward for the first time a few weeks ago, the lady we did the challenge with came up to us in the hallway and said, "I cannot beileve Jackie King is at church today. She hasn't been in years and my husband and I have been praying for her for 21 days!!" Shakira was just baptized, Jackie is coming close to reactivation, and we will begin teaching Shane this week. The Lord is so amazing!! (PS- I'm totally sending a copy of the challenge home so you can do it too, family!!) ((PPS- Baptism >>>>>> Hawaii))
- We are moving!!!!! Hahahaha mother, you will be very pleased about this (I didn't tell you about it before because I was pretty sure you'd like.. call the mission office. And you know how I feel about you calling places for me heheheh) .... So the place I have been living for the past 4 months is the single sketchiest place in all of Fruita. We live right across from a super rundown trailer park where half of the homes are actually meth labs, a man was murdered quite literally on our driveway last summer (and a sister missionary witnessed it..), anddddd our neighbors fight violently and smoke weed that comes into our apartment through the air vents on a regular basis! We have been telling the mission office for months that we need a new apartment and they just got one for us this week! We'll be moving on the 1st of April and we are so pumped! No more weed/sketchy trailer parks!!!!
- I'm going to be old this week! Like.. super old! And I don't know how I feel about it! I definitely don't feel old enough to be 20. Here is a list of a few reasons that I am not old enough to be 20: (and these are really and truly just a few of the many reasons)
- I still sleep with my baby blankie.
- I'm still short.
- I still prefer kids menus at restaurants.
- I'm still not very fond of the dark.
- I still get overly excited about anything and everything Tangled.
- I still look like I'm 14 years old.
Oh well, at least I get to share my birthday with the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ this year! The last time my birthday was on Easter Sunday was when I turned 10.. time flies when you're having fun!
- We didn't get to have our awesome meeting in Veil this week.. it snowed like crazy in the mountains so we had to have a mini one here in Grand Junction. It was still awesome, but slightly less awesome than it would have been if it were in Veil.
Anywayyyyy, this week really has been wonderful! I am loving my time as a missionary sooooooo much! I love the Lord and I love that I was somehow lucky enough to be born into this gospel. There really is nothing better than bringing people unto Christ. I am the happiest of all the campers on the earth. (:
I love y'all to the moss (oops I meant to say moon but I said moss and its way funnier than moon so I'm leaving it) and back!!!
Sister Harshaw
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MARCH 14, 2016
So to start off, I just want to clarify that I am not at all even a little bit jealous that my family is on their way to Hawaii right now. Nope. Not at all. Not even a tiny. Fruita, Colorado is the place to be. Its sunny and 45-50 degrees all year round. Hawaii is overrated. Totally not even cool. I never even wanted to go to Hawaii, so its fine.
Phew, now that I've got that off my chest, let me tell you all about my wonderful week!! It actually hasn't been all too eventful, but it has been good anyway. Our most progressing investigator right now, aside from Shakira King who will be baptized this weekend, is Joan Robinson. She is not on date yet, but we are hoping to get here there soon! When we first started teaching her she was not interested in becoming involved with the church, she just wanted to learn. But now all of her best friends are members of the ward and she is really grasping onto the gospel. She loves learning about it and she absolutely loves all that we teach. She has come such a long way since just December and I am excited to see how she continues to progress.The ward members really have no idea how much of an impact they can make on someone!
We found two new investigators this week. Ivy Rockwell, the wife of a less active man, and Amrick Reeves, the brother of a sister missionary currently serving in Florida. Ivy is the sweetest lady and already has a strong testimony of almost all gospel principles. We invited her to be baptized and she said she already feels like she is because she walks so close with Christ. But she understands that baptism by the proper authority is necessary and she said she would like to be baptized someday. Hopefully sooner rather than later! Amrick is a wonderful young man that loves God and loves his sister serving a mission. He had some wrong ideas about what we believe, but we are hoping the Book of Mormon will open his eyes.
We found two new investigators this week. Ivy Rockwell, the wife of a less active man, and Amrick Reeves, the brother of a sister missionary currently serving in Florida. Ivy is the sweetest lady and already has a strong testimony of almost all gospel principles. We invited her to be baptized and she said she already feels like she is because she walks so close with Christ. But she understands that baptism by the proper authority is necessary and she said she would like to be baptized someday. Hopefully sooner rather than later! Amrick is a wonderful young man that loves God and loves his sister serving a mission. He had some wrong ideas about what we believe, but we are hoping the Book of Mormon will open his eyes.
(I may or may not have just copy and pasted my email to President Murdock because I'm lazy and didn't feel like writing all of that out again in a less "I'm-trying-to-be-professional-sounding-for-the-mission-president" kind of way. Forgive me. I know I'm lame.)
The work here in good 'ol Fruita is going well and Sister Johnson and I are bound and determined to baptize the whole town! We are getting there slowly (emphasis on slowly) but surely!! I love being a missionary here. I honestly wouldn't mind spending the rest of my mission in this little town. Its the best.
I get to go to Veil again tomorrow for the super awesome leadership meeting and I can't wait! Its weird to be excited about an all day meeting, but you take what you can when you're on a mission. Its nice to mix things up every once in a while!
I hope y'all are having a wonderful week, and again, I am so not jealous of my Hawaii-bound family! NOT AT ALLLLL!!!!!
hehe Love y'all a million and then some!
Sister Harshaw
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MARCH 7, 2016
HELLOOOOO FAMILY!!
So! This week has really been quite slow, but it has also been quite wonderful. Everyone and their grandmother cancelled on us but we still managed to teach quite a bit! We were supposed to have like, 10 set lessons this week but only 2 of them happened. But hey, that's life for ya!
Wow, I actually didn't realize until right now how uneventful this week has been. I have close to nothing to report, but here are a few key points of the week!
*We successfully reactivated a less active man this week! His name is Jeff and he is about the sweetest human you will ever meet. He is in his 50s and he has had a tough life! He just recently quit the job he has had for 12 years so that he can find a new one that will allow him to keep the Sabbath Day holy. I'm always so humbled by the people I meet. I'm always thinking, "What would I give up to live the gospel more fully??" Jeff is a rock star of a person and I love his example of devotion to Heavenly Father.
*We found out this week that Derek is struggling with some things that we were unaware of. We talked with our bishop about it and it seems Derek will not get baptized anytime in the near future, but we still have so much hope for him. He is a good man and I don't want to leave Fruita until I see him enter the waters of baptism! We will keep teaching him three times a week, but he is not on date to be baptized for the time being.
*Shakira King is making great progress and is the cutest little girl ever! She is on track to be baptized on the 19th, so we hope hope hope she'll actually make it!!
*Sister Johnson is still an A+ companion and she and I have SO MUCH FUN together. I love her and I am so happy to be serving with her.
*There was a thunderstorm last night and it made me the happiest human on the earth. I have been craving a thunderstorm for months and we finally got one!!! This is random but it made me extra happy, so whatever.
Mmmmmmm, yep!! That is about all I have to report today! Hopefully next week will be a little more exciting! I hope you are all happy campers and that all is well in the world!
Love,
Sister Harshaw
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FEBRUARY 29, 2016--NEW COMPANION, LET'S MAKE FRUITA A STAKE!!
Hola, loved ones!!
This week has been sooooooo wonderful!!! To start off, I LOVE MY NEW COMPANION!! Its actually hilarious, we knew each other before our missions! Her name is Sister Johnson and we randomly just so happened to go to the same random session of EFY in random Redlands, California (of all places), three years ago! We were in the same company and everything! I knew her name was Sister Johnson before I met her, but didn't think anything of it. And then I went to go pick up my new missionary and it was her!! We went to BYU together and saw each other around campus all the time and now we are companions! It's so funny how the Lord works. Three years ago when we were both signing up for EFY I bet He was like "Hm. This will be hilarious." and then he put us together, destined to be future mission companions. Good one, Heavenly Father!! Seriously though, I love her. Its only been a week, but I'm pretty positive we are going to be great friends on and after our missions. She is a superstar of a missionary and practically came pre-trained. Its awesome and we are having a blast. :D
SO. This week we, as the Fruita, Colorado District, held a WAY COOL activity for all the wards in Fruita. There are four Fruita wards at the moment, but we as missionaries set the goal at the beginning of the year to make Fruita into its own stake by the end of the year. We talked to our stake president and all that fun stuff and he is completely on board. There are actually enough people in the Fruita wards that we could be a stake right now, but we need more strength in our members. Soooo, with that being said, we came up with the idea to hold a chili cook-off for the Fruita wards called Saddle Up, Fruita is Becoming a Stake! and it was meant to get members excited about doing member missionary work! 300+ people came and ate chili and had a great time, and then we had a little presentation about what it will take to make Fruita into a stake. We introduced this thing we are doing called the 21 Day Challenge where members pray specifically for people they know who are not members of the church or who are less active, and then the stake president spoke and that was that! It was all western themed (because farmers, duh) and everyone dressed up in cowboy gear and it was just so much fun to plan and organize and then hold the activity. It was such a success! We're living the missionary dream here in Fruita!
In other news, Derek is not doing so well right now. More details to come in a future email. Shakira King, however, is doing wonderfully! She is the nine year old daughter of a less active woman in the ward. Both she and her mom (who has not been to church in years) came to church yesterday and stayed for all three hours. Shakira is reading from the Book of Mormon every day and praying as well. She is such a sweet girl and we are excited for her baptism on March 19th!
I hope everyone is having as wonderful of a week as I am!! Enjoy life and be happy!! :D
Love,
Sister Harshaw
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FEBRUARY 22, 2016--DREAMS
Howdy, loved ones!
SO. This week has been yet another crazy one for Sister Hall and I!! First things first, I really actually did dream a dream.. and it was weird, to say the least.
Tuesday night of last week I had a dream that I was going to the Superbowl. The Broncos were playing (Colorado is rubbing off on me...) and everyone and their grandmothers came to Cowboy's Stadium to watch them play. The crew workers spent allllll night laying out this awesome Broncos turf by hand and all of the fans were there with their Broncos gear and face paint and all that jazz. The concession stands were up and running and music was playing and the Broncos were on the field warming up. It was like going to a Dragons game multiplied by like 50,000. Everyone was SO excited and ready to watch the Broncos cream the other team. But this wasn't your ordinary Superbowl. The Broncos making it to the Superbowl was all dependent on Derek Walker living the Word of Wisdom, and because he was living it the Broncos were playing! So I go and sit down in my seat and I had my popcorn and I was just watching the players warm up when I get a phone call. I answered, and Derek was on the other line. He said, "Sister Harshaw.... I slipped up on the Word of Wisdom." and then he hung up! So of course, I freak out and have no idea what to do! The Broncos couldn't play if Derek wasn't living the Word of Wisdom! So I went up to the head coach of the Broncos (that just so happened to be my high school pre-calculus teacher) and told him about the phone call I just received and that he had to call the game off. He freaked out and got on the big speaker and told everyone to go home and that they would have to come back later. Everyone got super upset and left in despair... and then I woke up.
I woke up feeling mega concerned and thought about that dumb dream alllllllll Wednesday morning. I kept thinking about it all day long, and then I finally decided to tell Sister Hall about it. After laughing at it, she told me that she woke up feeling super off about Derek's baptism on Friday as well. We had been keeping in contact with Derek every day and he was doing so well, but we decided to text him and ask him specifically if he had broken the Word of Wisdom. Anddddddd sure enough, he had slipped. SO. It's now the day before his baptism and he is no longer able to be baptized. I always thought it'd be super cool if my dreams came true, but maybe I was mistaken hahaha... We had to go see Derek and make a lottttttt of phone calls and call it off for Friday. Which was a big fat bummer, but actually a blessing in disguise.
It turns out some things that some members had told Derek confused him and gave him some wrong ideas. They all had good intentions, but Derek thought, based off of their experiences, that he just had to live the Word of Wisdom starting the day he was baptized, which we were able to explain and clarify. He has made a TON of improvement on that commandment, but he now knows what he needs to do to be baptized. His baptism is rescheduled for March 12, and it will for sure happen! Now all of his family will be able to make it and some other scheduling problems were resolved. He is spiritually on fire and will be even more ready when March 12th rolls around in 3 short weeks.
So, what I've learned this week is that the Lord works in mysterious ways! I've never received revelation in the form of a dream, so that's a new one to add to the books! hahaha ohhhh, the experiences you have on a mission. They're all so wonderful.
In other news, we got transfer news! They're changing the way transfers happen, so now when they call to give us transfer news they tell us where we are going and who our new companions will be. Which is way nice, because the anticipation of waiting for all that info is a killer.
I will be staying in Fruita for yet another transfer and I will be training another new missionary! Wooooooo!! I'm actually so excited. I feel wayyyyyyy better prepared to train this time. Four months makes quite the difference in missionary experience! My new companion is named Sister Johnson, but that is all I know about her at this point. I'm so excited to meet her and to help teach her the ropes! Sister Hall is leaving, meaning I am now going to be a solo sister training leader. Woo! I'm really glad I've had her to help me know how to lift and strengthen the sisters we have stewardship over. This transfer should be a good one!!
I love y'all and I hope that all is going well! Remember to be happy and to read your scriptures and say your prayers and be good!! :)
Love,
Sister Harshaw
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FEBRUARY 16, 2016--BAD MUMBO JUMBO, KIDNAPPINGS, MIRACLES
Hellooooooooooo!! (This is about to be my longest email like.. ever. Be prepared.)
MIRACLE NUMBER TWO: We received two phone calls this week from people giving us solid referrals of people who want to be baptized! Like.... they're asking to be taught!! The first is Leslie Weaver and we will be teaching her tomorrow night! She is best friends with Derek Walker's wife and wants to be taught at her house! She told Catelyn (his wife) that she just wants to raise her kids with the truth, but that she has no idea where to find it. DON'T WORRY LESLIE, WE HAVE IT!! We are soooooo excited to meet her. The second is Shakira King, the 9 year old daughter of a less active woman! We met she and her mom last night and taught lesson one and put her on date for March 19. She is such a sweet little girl and is so excited about learning and being baptized. We have been praying that those who are prepared will find us, and holy guacamole, it sure is happening.
HOLY COW this week has been an absolute monster roller coaster of a week!!! It has easily been the most eventful week of my whole entire mission so far. Lots of bad mumbo jumbo, but also SO much good!! I'll start off by telling you the bad, so we can get that out of the way because boo! Bad stuff is the worst!
On Tuesday this week we found out that Janine Maxfield, the sweetest woman you will ever meet and our most progressing less active, passed away unexpectedly. We were completely caught off guard and found out when we went to their house to see her for our lesson... The ward failed to mention to us that she had passed away the night before, so we show up to her house and knock on the door. Her 18 year old son answered, and we asked for Janine and his face just completely fell.. She left her husband, two teenage sons, and a teenage daughter. The family is struggling, but they seem to have accepted her death and know that they need to make some changes to their lives. The whole family is less active and they now want to begin attending church again because they know that it is what Janine would want them to do. As terrible as the situation is, this may be what they needed to help them become reactivated. They were baptized about 5 years ago and they have not yet been to the temple, so Mark, the dad, wants to work toward being worthy of the temple so he can be sealed to his wife and kids.
Thennnnn we received news that the 12 year old recent convert of the sisters serving in my last area (Pear Park) was kidnapped...... KIDNAPPED. Something pretty cool about being a sister training leader is that you get to know all of the people the other sisters are teaching. We get to teach them and love them and we ask about them all the time. Jordan, the 12 year old girl, is the sweetest thing in the world and that news just killed me!! She is okay, but is in the custody of the government until further notice.. she has no contact with her parents and they are devastated. SO SAD.
Thennnn more bad stuff... On Wednesday last week we had a superrrrr long leadership meeting in Veil. It was actually a really great meeting and I enjoyed it a whole bunch! Lots of good stuff to apply in our areas and teach our sisters. Anyway, so we went to go teach Derek Walker when we finally got back from Veil that night and he told us that he slipped on the Word of Wisdom and that he wanted to move his date back from this Friday, the 19th, to March 20th........... but we knew that was a bad idea. He was so sad to tell us that he slipped and he felt terrible about it and that he can't be baptized on Friday. He is soooooo ready to be baptized, but Satan is working on him like crazy!
Thennnnn we received news that the 12 year old recent convert of the sisters serving in my last area (Pear Park) was kidnapped...... KIDNAPPED. Something pretty cool about being a sister training leader is that you get to know all of the people the other sisters are teaching. We get to teach them and love them and we ask about them all the time. Jordan, the 12 year old girl, is the sweetest thing in the world and that news just killed me!! She is okay, but is in the custody of the government until further notice.. she has no contact with her parents and they are devastated. SO SAD.
Thennnn more bad stuff... On Wednesday last week we had a superrrrr long leadership meeting in Veil. It was actually a really great meeting and I enjoyed it a whole bunch! Lots of good stuff to apply in our areas and teach our sisters. Anyway, so we went to go teach Derek Walker when we finally got back from Veil that night and he told us that he slipped on the Word of Wisdom and that he wanted to move his date back from this Friday, the 19th, to March 20th........... but we knew that was a bad idea. He was so sad to tell us that he slipped and he felt terrible about it and that he can't be baptized on Friday. He is soooooo ready to be baptized, but Satan is working on him like crazy!
Alright.. this is where the good stuff starts happening. Two weeks ago we had a zone conference that was really good. Sister Murdock, the mission president's wife, always gives amazing trainings. Like, REALLY amazing trainings. They make you want to be a better person and work harder and save the world and man, they're seriously just the best. Well the training she gave this time was all about miracles and prayer. She told a story that is in the talk, "Witnesses Unto Me" by Elder Holland (read it if you haven't) about a man that went on a mission to Russia and became a potato-growing legend. The people there had been trying to grow potatoes on the same plot of land for years with little to no success. Then this little old man comes in and plants his seeds on the same plot of land, with the same sunlight and the same water and the same everything, and he grows more potatoes than like.. anyone ever. (I'm butchering the story. Seriously, just go read it.) When the Russians asked him how he did it he said, "We needed a miracle, so we prayed for one." So yeah, Sister Murdock gives this amazing training about the power of prayer and how the Lord is truly a God of miracles and how if we just ask, the Lord will provide a way for anything to happen.
So after all that had already happened in the week, Sister Hall and I needed a miracle. We knew that Derek needed to be baptized on the 19th and that if he waited until March that Satan would grab him and not let go. So we started praying for a miracle. We prayed that somehow, the spirit would pierce Derek's heart and tell him that he needed to get baptized sooner than March 20, and that the Lord would provide a way for it to happen. And because we know that there is power in numbers, we sent out a big text to all of the members of our district and our leaders and President/Sister Murdock asking them to pray for Derek and for a miracle to happen.
Welllll, the next morning we received a phone call from President Murdock. He asked us a whole bunch of questions about Derek and about his conversion and about his life and basically just everything about him. And then he said, "Sisters, I have never met this man. But I feel very strongly impressed that Derek needs to be baptized on February 19th. And I have only done this once in my (almost) three years as a mission president, but even though he slipped on the Word of Wisdom and he is supposed to be clean for two weeks before his baptism.... If he will stay clean for the next seven days, he has my permission to be baptized on the 19th of February."
MIRACLE NUMBER ONE, LADIES AND GENTLEMAN. We went over to Derek's house as soon as we got off the phone with President and told him the news and he was just blown away. The Spirit really did pierce his heart. He asked us if he could pray about it, and so when we went back the next day he told us that he made his decision and he will be baptized on the 19th. Derek is the most incredible man and I love he and his family so much. He has been clean since Friday, is doing well, was interviewed for baptism on Sunday, and will be baptized this Friday.
I really have gained a greater testimony of the power of prayer and that the Lord does perform miracles. "We needed a miracle, so we prayed for one." has become our motto for the week! Sister Hall and I have truly been "fasting and praying oft" for miracles to happen, and we have seen them. We know that Derek is ready to be baptized and we are beyond excited for his baptism this Friday night. He is converted to this gospel and now all he has to do is stay strong and obey the Word of Wisdom. We have complete faith in him, but we are still fasting and praying for miracles every day. Derek needs all the help he can get, so please please please keep him in your prayers! Lots of other stuff has happened since then too.. The Lord and Satan are playing tug-of-war with him, but we know the Lord will win!!
MIRACLE NUMBER TWO: We received two phone calls this week from people giving us solid referrals of people who want to be baptized! Like.... they're asking to be taught!! The first is Leslie Weaver and we will be teaching her tomorrow night! She is best friends with Derek Walker's wife and wants to be taught at her house! She told Catelyn (his wife) that she just wants to raise her kids with the truth, but that she has no idea where to find it. DON'T WORRY LESLIE, WE HAVE IT!! We are soooooo excited to meet her. The second is Shakira King, the 9 year old daughter of a less active woman! We met she and her mom last night and taught lesson one and put her on date for March 19. She is such a sweet little girl and is so excited about learning and being baptized. We have been praying that those who are prepared will find us, and holy guacamole, it sure is happening.
AH I just realized that I have very little time left, so sorry if I don't email a bunch of people back today!! This work is amazing and I am blown away by the Lord and the miracles he has been performing for us. This week is going to be AMAZING. I love this gospel, I love the Lord, I love prayer, I love my mission, and I love life. I hope you are all having the best week and know that you're always in my prayers! Love alllllllllll of you!!!
Love,
Sister Harshaw
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FEBRUARY 8, 2016--SLOW
Hi, family!
Just a fair warning, this email is about to be even lamer than last weeks. I don't have a whole ton to say and we have a bunch of errands to run today so I'm short on time. You have been warned!
This week we had zone conference, which was good! President and Sister Murdock gave a million and a half trainings and I learned lots of good stuff that's gunna be super helpful in the work we're doing out here! President Murdock has so much love for us and he is such a good example of hard work and diligence.
Derek Walker is doing wonderfully and is officially living the Word of Wisdom! He will definitely make his date of February 19th. I love the Walker family soooo much! They have three little girls and they kind of latch onto me and sit super close to me the whole time.They know they can't sit on my lap, so they get as close as they can! The oldest one (7yr old) came up to me after our lesson with them on Friday and said, "I'm going to be a missionary like you someday!" It just about melted me. She is so so so cute!
We honestly had a super slow week this week and it didn't pick up until Saturday, but I just so happened to be on exchanges that day so I missed all of the exciting stuff!
I'll be going to Veil on Wednesday for a Missionary Leadership Conference allllllll day long, so that should be a fun time! I'm kind of excited to go beyond weird little Fruita for a day.
Anywayyyyy, I did warn you. And this was lame. And I apologize. Next week will be better, I pinky promise!!
Hope y'all are doing well! Much much muchhhh love!
Sister Harshaw
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FEBRUARY 1, 2016--SNOW
Hello helloooo! How is everything going out in the real world?? Hopefully its not toooooo bad without me there. (;
This week has been a good one for us! I don't feel like I have all too much to talk about, but thats okay! Sister Hall and I have been seeing a lot of progress with those we are teaching and we will definitely be having a baptism this transfer. Unfortunately, three of the four people we had on date last week are no longer on date, but Derek Walker is progressing so well! He really really reallyyyyyy wants to be baptized and is 100% willing to do whatever it takes to get there. He will be completely living the Word of Wisdom on the 5th and he is excited to be making these steps in his life. My favorite thing about Derek's conversion is seeing how the gospel really does bless families. He has three young daughters and his wife just recently went through the temple. He is already looking toward the temple and he is so happy! I love the gospel and I love seeing it change people's lives. It really is amazing.
Ummmm, lets see. Hahaha I seriously don't have anything to write about. This is pathetic. We had two exchanges this week, so that was good.. Not too much to report there. Being a sister training leader is a pretty fun time, but the sisters we have stewardship over struggle quite a bit, so there's lots of work to be done!
It keeps snowing.. and snowing.. and snowingggg.... Every time it warms up and melts some of the snow it just gets all freezing and snows again. Its lame. We got three inches last night and we're supposed to get three more by the end of the day. And they cancelled school and everything! I thought Colorado was supposed to be all tough and only cancel school if it snows like 12 feet! I suppose I was wrong though.
Well.. this has been a really boring email brought to you by yours truly. I hope you will all forgive me for the lameness. Perhaps next week will be more exciting. Hehe actually, the next few weeks should be really awesome. We have a zone conference this week, a leadership meeting in Veil next week (road trip, WOOOOOO), and Derek's baptism the following week! Yay!!
I hope everyone is doing well and staying happy! I'm glad to see that they finally got my mission plaque up! I suppose 6.5 months late is definitely better that never! (;
Love y'all!!
Sister Harshaw
*******************************************************************************************************************************************JANUARY 25, 2016--MORE MIRACLES!!
Helloooo, everybody!
This week has been soooooooo stinking good!!! To start off, we got to watch the worldwide missionary broadcast on Wednesday, which was so good! It talked all about how to be a Preach My Gospel missionary, which is something that our mission has been pushing a lot lately. Our purpose is to baptize and that's pretty much it! We're out here to find people to teach and bring unto Christ through baptism. And its a pretty amazing thing to be a part of!
This week has been so great for Sister Hall and I!! It has been absolutely full of miracles and we have definitely seen the hand of the Lord in our work. I think our biggest miracle was finding Darren Post and Beth McCaul, two amazinggggg new investigators. We tracted into them and did our survey with Darren. They are living together and she was not home at the time of the survey, but we had a good discussion with him and set up a return appointment for later in the week. When we went to see him on Saturday we taught him about the Restoration and just he ate it up! He loved the discussion. He got super excited and we talked about all sorts of gospel principles. He began making connections that most people don't make until later on and he was really understanding. We were going to invite him to be baptized, but something kept telling me to wait until the next lesson to invite him. So we committed him to read the intro to the Book of Mormon, (which he was thrilled about) pray, and attend church. He promised that he would do all three, and a member picked him up for church yesterday! He brought his girlfriend with him and we were able to meet her. They stayed for the first two hours of church and loved it. When we texted them to ask how they liked it, Darren told us that he had shared the Restoration pamphlet with Beth and that she loved it and so we set up another time to go back and see them yesterday. We went over last night and taught an amazing lesson to both of them. We extended the invitation to be baptized and they both said yes. They have word of wisdom problems and they are not living the Law of Chastity, but they are 100% willing to give it all up so they can get baptized. Both times we have met with them the spirit has been so strong and we are so excited to be teaching them.
Yesterday was also full of miracles! After church we sat down and realized that we could totally hit the standards of excellence, so we moved our plans around, called some members and asked them to come out with us, and got to work! Our mission president just recently changed our standards of excellence and in the past month, and only one companionship in the mission has hit standards. They're super hard to hit! To hit them, we have to have four people on date to be baptized, three investigators at Sacrament meeting, 6 member presents with investigators, 5 new investigators, and we have to be exactly obedient to our morning schedule. We somehow got everything that we needed to hit the standards in about 3 hours. We found 3 new investigators and got two more member presents and it felt so good to accomplish such a feat! I love having a companion that has just as much of a drive to work hard as I do. It makes all the difference in the world!! We now have on date Derek Walker (from a part member family), Brooklyn Mecham (an unbaptized child), Darren Post, and Beth McCaul. They are all so solid and we are so happy to have good people to teach.
Derek Walker is doing really well too! We taught him the word of wisdom this week and found out he has a chewing problem, but he has been looking for a reason to quit. He wants to get baptized more than he wants to chew and he is going to work towards quitting. He is so excited and he really is becoming converted to the gospel. It is so amazing to see the gospel change people's lives.
Yesterday was also full of miracles! After church we sat down and realized that we could totally hit the standards of excellence, so we moved our plans around, called some members and asked them to come out with us, and got to work! Our mission president just recently changed our standards of excellence and in the past month, and only one companionship in the mission has hit standards. They're super hard to hit! To hit them, we have to have four people on date to be baptized, three investigators at Sacrament meeting, 6 member presents with investigators, 5 new investigators, and we have to be exactly obedient to our morning schedule. We somehow got everything that we needed to hit the standards in about 3 hours. We found 3 new investigators and got two more member presents and it felt so good to accomplish such a feat! I love having a companion that has just as much of a drive to work hard as I do. It makes all the difference in the world!! We now have on date Derek Walker (from a part member family), Brooklyn Mecham (an unbaptized child), Darren Post, and Beth McCaul. They are all so solid and we are so happy to have good people to teach.
Derek Walker is doing really well too! We taught him the word of wisdom this week and found out he has a chewing problem, but he has been looking for a reason to quit. He wants to get baptized more than he wants to chew and he is going to work towards quitting. He is so excited and he really is becoming converted to the gospel. It is so amazing to see the gospel change people's lives.
I am just sooooooooo so so happy to be a missionary right now. This work is incredible and we really are working side by side with the Lord in all that we do. There really is no greater joy than being in the service of God. I'm pretty positive of that. (:
I hope y'all are all having a wonderful week and that you're staying nice and happy!!
Love,
Sister Harshaw
