Sept 23...street contacts, drinks and dunkings.

So this week was transfers and it makes things a little crazy but some many mighty miracles happened this week!

A couple of weeks ago we street contacted into this lady and commited her to come to church with us! We never saw her at church which made us a little sad but last monday we got a media referral, and the name seemed really familiar. We went to drop the bible off to the media referral and low and behold it was the lady we had street contacted into! She recognized us and invited us in and we were able to teach her more about the characteristics of God! She is from china and knows nothing of God and when we told her we believe we are children of a loving heavenly father she got excited and her face lit up and she said the sweetest prayer where she begged a God she barely knew to please help her become his daughter. It was a great experience thats for sure! We get to go back and teach her and we are SUPER excited. Unfortunately we also found out she did try to find the church but wasnt able to locate it so she went to a local church instead and feels like she shouldn't leave them right away.... thats okay we will change that soon enough!

We also got asked out for a beer... again... me and Sister Fellows were walking in our area when we started talking to a guy who was out by his truck. We talked for a good ten minutes about the gospel and why we are out here inviting him to learn more... when we told him we would call him to see how his book of mormon reading is going he asked us if we ever went to the pub.... i mean SERIOUSLY! Part of me was tempted to say yes only if you let us pray with you and teach you... but then reality set back in and we had to respectfully decline.... hopefully he still chooses to look into the book of mormon and we will still be following up on how that is going by calling him sometime this week.

E***...(he is one of the elders investigators that like everybody works with) has decided to get baptized... After two long painful years of investigation (painful for the elders due to his enormous amount of questions and objections, and long because it is overdue) he has decided to be baptized oct 12 at 7:00!!!! we are so excited and proud of him and are rejoicing with his wife who joined a couple years ago!

Now about my new companion! Her name is Juli Fellows and she is from utah! She is incredible and I like her a lot! We are very similar in a lot of things so we know this is going to be a fun transfer. She also is very sarcastic and stubborn so thats always a hoot too! I have a feeling she is going to work me hard and we are going to get things done this transfer. We have a transfer goal of 2 baptismal dates so if you can remember to keep that in your prayers i know that will help us!

Things are going fantastic here! I love the weather, the people and (i know i cant even believe im saying this but) the city... I really am learning a lot on my mission and i know this is where i need to be right now... I wish everyone the best week ever!

Sept 16...more miracles.

Looking back on my week and trying to remember what I did was hard! It has been such a quick transfer that all my weeks are blending together!

I do know that this week was a week of trials when it came to our appointments. We have never had so many cancellations and no shows on our entire mission and this week was full of them! It allowed us to really look into our back up plans and hope we followed the spirit and not just the natural man and 9:30 seems like midnight. We worked hard and never gave up and as much as we didn't see a random baptism or we didn't have 20 new investigators we both felt like we worked our hardest and the lord is pleased with what we did. Sometimes it is hard to not base success off of numbers or what others are doing but I have come to know this transfer that God doesn't work that way. I may be obedient and even though I am not perfect I am working my hardest to get better each and every day and yes I am being blessed for it. I may not have felt like all those cancellations and no shows are blessings but I know God has something big in store for me and my work here or I wouldn't be here. I cannot see the miracles as missionaries we expect all the time, because then they wouldn't be miracles... so I have found little miracles throughout each day and I want to tell you about them.

I as a St. James missionary do not go hungry... My ward has been my miracle as I have a meal appointment every single day with members and get to be in their homes and feel the spirit as well as practice my skills.... that is a miracle!

I got to sleep in a bed that is warm as it starts to cool off outside. We have a homeless guy who walks on our street a lot and every time I see him I consider my accommodations a miracle!

I have leaders who honor their priesthood and take care of us... that is a MIRACLE!

I get to go door to door in Winnipeg, a city I never expected to be in, and share what i know to be true! That is a miracle

I am finally seeing how I can best help the less actives I am working with and the direction I need to go there and that is a miracle!

I can still wake up every morning at six thirty and be studying by eight.... that is a MIRACLE!

So although i didn't see someone get baptized this week and we weren't able to find any new investigators I know the lord is blessing me and my efforts through the little things... the lord is in charge of my mission and if he didn't want me here I would be home! That is a MIRACLE! I will keep him in charge of my mission from here on out because i know he knows better than me!

I hope everyone has a fantastic week... You are all in my thoughts and prayers!

 

PS

So....

Here is what is going on with transfers....

I will be staying in the St James area and finish the training of sister Fellows who is currently being trained by my great friend and old companion sister Hutchinson! Sister

Christensen is going to my old ward Gateway to be in a tripanionship....

We are both excited and surprised by these calls... we were so sure I was leaving that I started packing my bags but it looks like the lord has something else in store for me! I'm excited!

 

Sept 10...let me tell you a joke....

I  am always not sure how to start my letters to you.... I dont want them to seem like a list and im not interested in being super tactful so what i am going to do is tell a joke....

why could none of the mormons eat dinner....?????

anybody anybody

Because moroni hid all the plates! hahahahhahaha

This week has been fun! I have learned more about the atonement this week and especially gained a testimony of the importance of taking the sacrament! I've decided there is no such thing as a perfect week for a missionary because there is opposition in all things and while this week had some incredible miracles is also had some rough patches.... but you know what? thats okay! how in the world could we enjoy the miracles if we didnt have to trudge through the mud a little. plus i've never been the kind of girl to be afraid of a little mud. :)

We were able to find three new investigators this week which was a miracle in itself. When you do hard work the lord finds a way to bless you and even though none of the new investigators seemed to be from anything we did, they seemed to just fall into our laps, we know thats the lord blessing us for our hard work and our obedience.

We also got to participate in a baptism this week. L*** got baptised! She is 15 and she is the girl who comes to church on her own all the time. We finally got some elders in her area teaching her and her baptism was saturday! She is so beautiful! and we are all so proud of her for making this decision. Her baptism was incredible and everyone was so loving. She asked me to give a talk on the holy ghost which was such an honor. She also always asks me to sit by her at church.... I have learned that one of the people i have come out here to meet is L*** and i hope she continues to stay strong!

We also had dinner with one of the members of our bishopric yesterday and we taught their family about repentence. They have three little kids under the age of eight and they are adorable. As we left they all were surrounding the door waving, saying we love you we love you! We later got a text message saying how much our visit was appreciated. I dont think i ever realized how important being in a members home was for a missionary. Its stability and the spirit is present and there are many times where that isnt what we deal with all day. When we get yelled at or doors slammed in our face the members loving us and caring enough about us to want us to come over really makes it worth while to have one more door slammed in our face!

I love being a missionary i really really do! I have a great companion and i work in a fantastic ward! I have a district leader who deals so well with us and I work with elders who really help encourage us to be our best. This may be the hardest experience i will go through but i can tell you right now it is one of the most rewarding! I couldnt imagine what i would be doing if i wasnt here and i dont want to because here is where i belong and here is where i am able to serve my lord and savior! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!! thanks for everything... and helping me become who i am today... im excited to one day show all of you who God has helped me become out here!

Love Sister Harrison!

Sept. 3....miracles

So this week we had a lot happen and I was planning on telling you
every boring detail about everything when i realized that the most
important day of the week actually happened yesterday!
Yesterday was our day of miracles. President texted me in the morning
asking me to call him after studies and i was nervous.... it kind of
feels like being called into the principals office whenever president
calls even though i know that he loves me! So i prayed and prayed and
prayed to know why i would need to call president... and after i said
amen my district leader called me (i just want to point out that all
my district leaders have answered my prayers through a phone call). We
have a beautiful fifteen year old girl who wants to get baptized we
just aren't sure what ward to baptize her in because she has a support
system in our ward but she lives in another ward and so president just
wanted my opinion on that matter since i know her really well and was
the one to make sure she was taught by missionaries. So either this
week or next week we will be having a baptism in our ward!!!! I am so
excited! and i get to help her with the prep work and preparing for
the baptism and she even asked me to give a talk at her baptism... i
love this girl so much!
MIRACLE
Then we had pday which was different then most pdays because we had
time do things because EVERYTHING was closed for labor day... so we went
with the ysa sisters went to sushi and then went to the church and
played basketball.... it was great! and then back to missionary work
We had a lesson with one of our investigators that tanked... it didnt
go like we thought it would at all. But we were able through that
lesson find a direction to take to best help her! MIRACLE
Then we went to a less actives house who kind of shewed us away last
time we were there and we were both determined to have a miracle and
reach our goal of one less active lesson for the night... she was
outside almost like waiting for us and asked us if we wanted a drink...i
quickly agreed so we could get in and talk to her and she allowed us
to share a message and even stop by again!
MIRACLE
Then we needed to find a new investigator... there was this one guy we
tracted into that we commited to read the book of mormon so we decided
to stop by and see how that was going! He was home! not only that he
had questions for us and invited us to come back next week to
hopefully answer some of them...
MIRACLE!!!!!!!!
God works miracles in all of our lives... he is there for us and
watches over us but more than that he cares for us unconditionally...
look for the miracles God has put in your day because I can promise
there are some there! I love you all!!!!!