MTC

im so excited to get to colorado on monday!!! i'm really looking forward to meeting my mission president and really starting my mission. i love being a missionary. (: 

the mtc has been such a great place. i feel like ive learned so much and this is only the start of my mission. heres a little rundow of how our days go-

wake up

get ready

personal study

breakfast

class for 3 hours 

lunch

class for 3 more hours

companion study

teach investigators

daily planning

bed

it changes every day, but thats generally how it goes! the days are long and they all blur together, but theyre so good. i seriously feel like ive been here for like 12 years. hahah i have a long way to go! my district here is the best and my teachers are so so so good. they make sitting in class for 6 hours a day totally bearable. we've learned how to teach pretty much every aspect of the gospel in the past week and a half. we teach our teachers as investigators every day, but we have had two "real" investigators. our first one was named megan and she grew up as a catholic. we got to teach her two times before she went out of town and she made a lot of progress in those two days. we got her to commit to reading the book of mormon and to pray about it, which was really great based on where we started with her. even though shes not an actual investigator and shes just a member volunteer, we really came to love her and were super disappointed that we couldnt teach her more before she left! our other investigator was named alex and she transferred to byu to play on the golf team from tcu. we actually couldnt tell if she was a member or not. she may have been a recent convert. or maybe she was a really good actor.. but she was awesome and i learned a lot from teaching her. she asked really difficult and technical questions about things no one ever thinks about, but the spirit guided our lesson and we handled them like champs. the holy ghost is such a cool thing and im so glad we have him to lead and guide us as missionaries. this work would not be possible without him. 

my companion sister collins was really quiet when i first met her, but shes definitely come out of her shell over the past few days and i love her. she is still very quiet in our lessons, but ive been trying my best to not talk as much and nudge her into the discussions we have. sometimes before we go into a lesson i'll tell her something like, okay im not going to say anything but hello for thie first 5 minutes of this lesson and youre going to take the lead! but we've been making a lot of progress as a companionship and i feel like if we had just maybe a week more together we'd be super stars. hahah.

Finally...an email:)

We FINALLY got an email from our missionary girl.  One more day and I was about to go mad mom.

 Hellooooo all the way from the MTC! Its been a crazy week, but its been soo good. Well

 actually i haven' been here for a whole week yet.. but thats fine. I looooovvvveeee the mtc.  

 this place is incredible and I'm just so happy to be here. my district is made up of 8 elders 

 and my companion and i. 4 of the elders are going to las vegas and the rest of us go to 

 denver, so thats cool! My district is seriously so faithful and they're all such good examples to

 me. my  companions name is sister collins and shes great. she's from washington and she's 

 very quiet and kinda shy, but we work well together. she's very kind and takes good 

 care of me (: 

Here are a few things ive learned this week-

1- prayer is the coolest thing in the whole entire universe. we pray a LOT here.. like I'm pretty

    sure we say 20 prayers before 10am. But really though, we get to talk directly to our

    heavenly father whenever we want and He never gets tired of us. and he answers us too! 

2- I am not the teacher here. the spirit is. i am just a mouth and a pair of legs to him to borrow. 

    I have to study and learn so that i will be prepared, but the real teaching is not me. the 

    spirit is everywhere in the mtc and i love being in this environment.

3- melatonin saves lives. dont worry mom, i have been sleeping! i dont think i would be getting

    any sleep at all if it weren't for the melatonin though hahaha.. i tried not using it the second

    night and sat there for about an hour before i gave up and used it. hopefully ill just get

    used to going to bed so early and wont have to  use it all the time! 

4- not having a phone is actually really nice. i do miss google though... lol.. 

5- being a missionary is the best thing in the whole worldddddd.

im doing really well here and i'm sooooo happy. I love this place. 

All the days here are super similar and they all just kinda blend together. We go to class, eat, 

go to more class, eat, go to devotionals, etc. We teach our first "investigator" tonight and i'm 

really excited!! 

 

anyway, i love yall and i loved your emails and you should send letters this week while i'm still here! i like mail (; 

I love yall! be happy!!

sister harshaw (: 

Off she goes!!

Only a few tears (most of them mine) and off she went.  Swept away into the sea of other missionaries.  We haven't received any news from her yet, but I wanted to get her blog started, so that when we do, everything is ready.  Kelsie was is so excited to be serving a mission!  She prepared for a very long time, and will be an amazing tool in our Heavenly Father's hands.