june 24...transfer time

SO.... this week has been weird and hard and emotional but it is all worth it in the end. :) I decided pictures do say more than words so here are some pictures... one is of a murual that we see every time we go into the north end. There is also a couple we have been teaching english and our ward district leaders wife who is super nice and supportive and then there is a picture of all of our shoes from the ward activity... I hope they work out...

This week is transfers.... E. Cassinat is going home, he is from Calgary and he is such a good friend I love serving with my elders... they make the mission a little easier. I am being transfered to St. James ward here in winnipeg and i will be training a new sister. I am super nervous but im also humbled by the chance to serve but I am going to miss the people so much in this area... I have grown to love them and they will always be my first area! And I am being torn from my comfortableness.... which is just God trying to help me to learn and grow but haha well i was just getting comfortable. I have had a lot of good revelation where goals I have in my life have been made more clear and now i understand why God wanted me to serve a mission... I needed to be better prepared for my future family and the only way i am going to learn what i need is by working hard on my mission... Its going to be great and my future husband will just have to patiently wait haha.... :) its been a good week and im just busy with good byes... I will tell you more next week... I have a whole new area to tell you about :) Love you all... and I got permission to come back for mjs baptism.... super excited for that.

June 17....a week of lessons!

I just wanted to start out by saying I copied kaylynn when it comes to titles on my email... I am proud to say that I look up to my little sister and the INCREDIBLE things she does. But... enough mushy stuff time to tell you about my wonderful week.

On monday we had a dinner appointment with a member who is from Africa... We brought auntie Mabel with us and it was an incredible dinner where we talked about where they have been, how they have come to know that the church is true, the places they have traveled, and some of the crazy things they have seen. I am sheltered and don't get out enough, it is official. There have also been many people sick so we have spent a lot of time going from house to house with soup hoping to offer a warm smile as well as a warm meal for those people whose tummys aren't feeling so good.

 MJ is still doing fantastic, she is so ready for baptism. We went over the questions with her and my favorite was when we went over the prophets. We asked her if she believed the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints was lead and guided by a prophet today. She said yes. We then asked her questioning do you know who the prophet is. She didn't know but she faithfully declared I don't need to know who he is or even be in the same room as him to know that there is a prophet on the earth today... SHE IS ELEVEN!!!! 'Im hoping if i get transferred (calls come this week) I don't get transferred too far because I want to be there on that day with her. We also went to go teach english to an investigator. We decided to just focus on english because it would make teaching the gospel easier, apparently God had another plan because without us asking she went and grabbed a children's book of mormon and began reading it with us. Wow wonderful!!!! We went tracting again... not as much fun as the first time but it is still a part of being a dynamic missionary. We had a dinner appointment with a german lady who made us a full german meal followed with fake coffee, which tasted SUPER GROSS!!!!! but she is so sweet and the meal was so nice. We had an potential investigator who met us and dropped us all in the same week. That was kind of hard but I know that if it is the Lords will he will send a better vessel to reach him and share the gospel with him. We had dinner with some members this week then spent the night doing service for them. I cannot tell you how much I love it when people let me serve them in different ways :). We also had a dinner appointment with the london ward elders. This sweet old lady invited all seven of us to eat at her house, what a brave soul. Oh and we had a ward activity. We went bowling and it was so much fun. Apparently here they play five pin instead of ten and the balls are tiny but I was still pretty good at it even in a skirt . We had two investigators show up and five less actives. It is a great way to find common ground and I felt so loved that night. I love this area.... I hope I get to stay a little longer but I feel some change in the air. It will be exciting to see what the Lord has next for me and i'm ready for the trials to face ahead... I have learned trials are the only way we learn to grow.... :) LOVE IT!!!!! Love you all, you are in my prayers often and I hope everyone is doing good! Please remember that the little things you choose to do now make the biggest difference in the long run, in eternity!!!!! LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!

june 10

Okay so I am going to try and write a lot but Im scattered and I might seem everywhere so good luck with following.

 

I had my first exchange... it was with Sister Rush. It was kind of weird to have an exchange with your trainer while your training... haha pretty much i'm an oddity in my mission just like everywhere else. The president told us he has great faith in us to take us away from our trainer so quickly and i believe him. I can do this! On monday we had dinner with this family... it was the funniest thing ever. We walk in and the smoke alarm goes off, the bacon is burnt, the syrup boils over, and pretty much we cooked the pancakes but it was so much fun! She is the most amazing sister ever and sent us home with a bag full of food. Her kids are so cute too. Then we went to another members house and she talked for TWO HOURS STRAIGHT. Everytime we would try to take over the situation she would keep going. On tuesday we met with a lot of less actives and investigators. One of our investigators has lost lots of family members this week and her daughter said us coming over was the first time she has seen her mom smile. Her mom doesnt understand a lot of what we say but it just shows how powerful the spirit is when it is the teacher. We got to see MJ ,our investigator and she is just progressing beautifully. She is so excited to be baptized and she even prays to be ready by that day. I hope I don't get transfered so I will be able to share a part of her special day with her. On Wednesday we met with a less active who is a foster mom. She had two kids already and was just given a permanent. He is absolutely precious and was only 9 days old but so cute. It makes it hard to not be able to hold the babies. I understand the rules and i follow them but that one hurts my future mommy heart. Babies are SOOOO CUTE!!!! We meet with a lot of interesting people that have some real beefs about life but it is a lot of fun to be able to talk to them and see them slowly use the atonement to forgive their wrongs  and be healed. The atonement is real and i am so glad that my savior loved me so much to come and suffer for me. But I really wanted to tell you about this one family.  They are some less actives we are working with and they are both a little handicapped but they love each other and they are learning to love the gospel. They are our biggest miracle in the mission and we just pray for them all the time! As they are slowly relearning the lessons you can see their faith increase as their commitments and follow through get better and better. Bro. S. even helped with the sacrament one day thanks to Elder Moore and it almost made me cry. I truly care for the people in my area and their eternal salvation, I just hope they can feel the love I have for them through my actions. And then Sister Hutchinson got sick :( and because of the whole companionship thing BOTH OF US were stuck inside for TWO DAYS!!!! That was one of the hardest things i have had to do, to not be able to go work. I read preach my gospel cover to cover, watched church media, and read my scriptures. By the time it was over i didnt even want to do personal study haha. She is feeling better which is good and It was good for me to have that time to learn and grow but it was just long. And we missed church which is like my favorite thing of the week to watch those we are working with renew their promises with god and show their outward affection to their inward commitments, but selfishly i wanted the sacrament for myself. I know that I am not perfect and it is only through Christ I am able to do anything out here and so not being able to renew those baptisimal covenants was hard for me. Luckily we have wonderful elders who care about us so much! They asked permission from president to come over and give us the sacrament. It is the first time i have been on the recieving end of that but I know it was a tender mercy from God as we sat in our living room and they blessed and passed the sacrament to us so both me and sister hutchinson could renew our covenants. They showed true leadership by caring about our eternal salvation. On a less spiritual note today was pday. We threw down at the church and played dodgeball, lightning, and actual basketball. :) I held my own end and I am so glad my elders arent intimidated by that.... in fact they appreciate me more as I do it. I truly feel loved, sustained, and supported here! I love you all so much! you are in my prayers and I hope you all have incredible weeks. This week as you pray will you pray to have a spiritual experience as a family. I know that as we all pray for this the lord will bless each of us in our different areas with love and support and he will answer our prayers......

You are my favorite people ever!!!

PLEASE PLEASE remember the blessings the gospel have brought to our lives. We get to be together forever! Its all worth it.

Love Sister Harrison #1

 

June 2, 2013 ...Always and in ALL WAYS!

So missionary work is ALWAYS busy and we are ALWAYS doing something with our time.... ALWAYS!!! Even if it is wasting it (which we try not to do). We also are ALWAYS with someone which is crazy, and slightly weird sometimes... but to tell you the truth ALWAYS is kind of great! I didn't realize how ALWAYS having the spirit to be with me was such a blessing until there was a time where it left the room and I was alone. I don't ALWAYS understand everything but when I ALWAYS try the Lord will tell me what I need to know. I promise you I don't ALWAYS know what I am suppose to do, where I am suppose to go, or what I am suppose to say but I ALWAYS try my best and it works. The lord doesn't ask us to sometimes be his disciples... the lord asks us to ALWAYS be his disciples to follow him and to choose the right. The gospel isn't something we can choose one week and ignore the next. It is a lifestyle, it is an ALWAYS decision and when we realize that and accept it we will ALWAYS turn to the lord and be healed by the atonement and we will ALWAYS have the chance to be better each and every day. Like Elder Holland says, "Imperfect people are all the lord has to work with, how frustrating that must be for him." I can't really quote the rest but it kind of goes like this...But he is patient with us so we must be patient with ourselves. ALWAYS!!!!!

I am a missionary of the Lord! I know who I am and why I am here. There are times when I am not sure how I am going to accomplish what the lord asks of me but I know that he will find a way. I have enjoyed each and every one of our experiences here and I love being able to spend this time to not only help others grow but to help myself grow. I know why I was called to serve a mission and I will serve with all my heart, might, mind and strength so that I can ALWAYS remember this time and never go to bed regretting one minute of it.

 

 

PS:

Ok so this week I tweeked my knee.... Ive been icing it and now I have moved to heat. I think its sprained or pulled I don't think anything is torn, Okay just so you don't worry what happened was I twisted in a pot hole and my knee went one way and my ankle went the other and then we had no car because we ran out of kilometers so we walked two days in a row after that like ALL DAY! I didn't play any sports at pday today which was very difficult for me but I knew it would help the situation and sister hutchinson helped me out. :)

 oh and a little secret. I wore pants today and I felt uncomfortable. I wanted to get back into my skirt as soon as possible, my tomboy spirit has been harmed... i'm turning into a sister missionary :) Love you and hope you have a fantastic day.

Oh think of this... A mission is 1/10 of a 20 year olds life. As we serve missions we are giving tithing of our life to the lord.... what a neat thought right...  I will try to send pictures next week. I left the camera in my car. LOVES!

Sister Harrison numero uno!

May 27, 2013 ...Pros and Cons

SO this week was full of new experiences for me.

I have had the highest highs and some bad days too but all in all I still LOVE this work. But I also like the whole making things different so I am going to make a Pros and Cons list for the week and tell you some of the best, funniest, weirdest, and happiest things that have happened to me.

 

Pros:

-We set our first baptisimal date this week!!!! Her name is M*** and she is an 11 year old girl, whose mom is a less active we have been working with. She is just the most adorable thing and she so wants to be part of this gospel. She actually just turned 11, we set the baptisimal date on her birthday... what a neat desicion to make on your birthday. I am so excited for her and the changes she has ahead of her.

-We work with this family they are Bro and Sis S****. They are the cutest couple and they are developmentally delayed mentally but they have such sweet hearts. They are like children but man do we just LOVE going to visit them! Bro. S*** always shakes his head and was like yes, yes or no.... no full sentences but a simple yes or no but man he loves hearing about Jesus and wants everyone to be quiet while we talk.... SO SO GREAT!

-The members here are GREAT! We went to dinner at the L***'s house, they are from London ward and we were a little cautious because Bro. L*** isnt a huge fan of sister missionaries (bad experiences from his mission) and sister L*** kind of gets stressed and claims she has the missionary curse.... but it turned into one of the best dinner appointments EVER! They remind me of home. Their kids were everywhere, dinner was delicious and Bro and Sis L*** are the most SARCASTIC people of all times.... probably even a little more sarcastic then you. But so much fun and we got a whenever you need anything invitation which means we changed their minds about sister missionaries.

-We had a relief society president who has realized the weight of our call due to her being new herself. She went up and started crying saying how missionaries couldnt do it without us and since our parents are trusting us with their children we (the ward) should make sure they are taken care of and enjoy their experiences here... Her name is Sister Monchamp (Sister Varey is the other wards Relief Soceity President, they are both just FABULOUS).... she said well Im your mom now I will take care of you, we have been praying for sisters for so long we are so glad to have them!!!! YAY!

-Progression! We have this family we are working with, the C*** and they are so great. She is going through a nasty divorce and the ward wasnt sure she would want missionary visits but we have been over every week for family home evening and now her family is praying, reading their scriptures, asking questions about the gospel, and considering coming back to church. Each week gets better and better and it is just so wonderful! I am so excited to continue working with them and see how far they get.

-Questions are so good! We met this lady named Lelita and she has so many questions and her curiousity is just so amazing... I love when people ask questions it makes teaching so much easier.

-Wrong phone numbers turned into great appointments. The elders called a number and it was a wrong number, it was the first time they have ever tried this but they asked if they would like a visit from missionaries and they said sure why not. We went and they asked so many questions we pretty much outlined all the lesson plans and we got a return appointment. The best part is they were like so when should we start doing these things you believe if this is something we may want, we looked at each other and replied right away is good! Such a neat experience.

-Also basketball! Im still good at it and it makes the elders a little upset when i win but like always they can get over it, i dont win that often. We also played a nerd card game... found out a couple of the elders i work with were nerds in the past life... no suprising but it warmed my heart and reminded me of my boys back from college. :) Love pdays!

 

Cons:

-I think im going to be tired until the day I DIE!!!!!! so so tired and there is never anytime to catch up on sleep but its okay the lord keeps me awake when i need to be....

-Walking STINKS.... the view is pretty but I know there is a reason God didnt send me to an all walking mission and I LOVE HIM FOR IT!

-We have to deal with some of the strangest people and we learn way too much about people but thats okay its the weight of the mantel and with the lords help I can bear it a little longer.

-Time goes by WAY TO FAST!!!!! I cannot belive it is almost june that just blows my mind.

-When people cancel appointments or dont come to church its gotten to the point where my little heart hurts so much and I know that will just help me be a better missionary.

-I wish I knew spanish.... We had to deal with this one family who decided to tell us they were psychic and since they only spoke spanish it was hard to explain spiritual sensitivity and get into the doctrine behind those kinds of beliefs. The gift of toungues is real though because the fact they could understand even half of what we were trying to explain was a miracle.

-You really get to love the elders and the people you work with, so when one of them leaves or you realize they arent your best friend or family they are just people in your lives its a little heart breaking.... For example elder stoker, elder allred, and elder french from our last district have left.... every once in a while we just want to tell them something but cant and it can get kind of frustrating at times but its okay.... there is always until we meet again!

-6:30 gets earlier and earlier every morning... We have to change our alarm ring so we dont kill the phone when it goes off but it is always nice to have a companion who hates the morning as much as you.

-NO ALONE TIME!!!! At times I am fine with being around someone twenty four seven but there are days when you just want five minutes alone and you NEVER get it..... but its okay, i love my companion and she deals with my craziness.

 

I know there are cons to this letter and i almost considered not putting them there because i really dont want to focus on whats hard but lets be realistic this is hard.... one of the hardest things i have EVER DONE! But if we are being realistic this is also the greatest experiences i have ever had in my life and im blessed with miracles each and every day that make it more than worth being out here. This city is beautiful, the people are friendly, the work is progressing, and Im still here! Nothing can get better than that, except the occasional Diet Dr. Pepper.