Sep 29...the hardest thing i'm ever gonna love to do.

This last week has been FILLED with mixed emotions for me because I love Canada so much and I know its not going to be the easiest or cheapest thing for me to get back to my mission but I also know that the hardest thing I am EVER gonna love to do is getting on that airplane Friday morning and come home to you! I miss you all so much and its weird to think that a computer screen and lots and lots of miles wont separate us anymore. 

haha I have one suitcase packed an filled because we dont have enough room in our car to take both me and sister porters stuff to winnipeg... YEP we are BOTH getting transferred. They are changing sisters to elders because there is SOOO many sisters going home... areas are gonna start closing like crazy because they cant keep sending enough sisters. I plan on filling the other two this week and getting ready to get back to YOU FINALLY!!!!!! because im coming home this week... i didnt really want to write a long email mainly because i want to be able to just talk to you about these things later on... I love you so much! I am so grateful for the things I have learned as a missionary and the things that I can apply to the rest of my future! I am so grateful for how much my mission has strengthened my testimony and i love you all so much and will see you on friday! 

dont party too hard until i get there :) 

LOVE YOU!

Sep 22...biking on my mission

Okay I wanted to start off by explaining my pictures because well... that way I wont run out of time if i cant finish all i want to say haha!

One of the pictures is me and sister porter with helmets on... we are biking/walking sisters now because our car was in an accident last transfer (it got 'scratched' on the side of a car wash) and will take TWELVE DAYS to fix... when they told me that i couldnt believe it because i wouldnt have even taken my car in with the damage that was done to it haha. but oh well... since my number of days and the number of days tell we get the car back are almost the same we are making the best out of the situtation! Also realized it may either be God punishing Sister Porter to talk to more people (street contacting!) or it might be God answering my prayers in an effort to get healthy and happy before I get home (you should be careful what you pray for.. i should know that by now as a missionary haha but it works i have lost five pounds since i have come to selkirk!) so there is the story of why I am sore and tired and SOOO happy.. which all dont really relate haha welcome to missionary work! 

The second picture is of me and a boy named J*** in our branch... he is thirteen. we had lunch at his place on sunday and he wanted to show me his halloween costume... it was a pretty intense halloween costume... his family is all being lego characters (apparently i missed the lego movie so i have no idea whats going on) but all i know is he put on his costume then started running towards me...scariest thing ever! he is bigger than he thinks and if he doesnt stop he could really take me out. but he stopped and i screamed and he laughed.... im gonna miss that kid.. hes like my buddy and he is the only active young man in our branch so i always praise him and his worthiness and willingness to use his priesthood! he is going to be an incredible missionary one day! 

Okay! I will start with this week and if i have time i will try to tell you more about last week!

MONDAY: We went to the city for pday activity for the first time since i have left prince albert... so many missionaries... i only knew like three... it was sad... but we played basketball so it made it all better! then we just kind of hung around as close to winnipeg as possible for the rest of the day. We had dinner in birds hill with a member, we planned outside the gateway sisters apartment because they didnt get home tell nine thirty. we had lunch with sister menlove at costco.... LOVE SISTER MENLOVE! and i got a bunch of stuff done that needed to happen before i go home... it was a very productive monday just a horrible emailing day. 

TUESDAY: we had a specialized zone training meeting that was all about giving members tools and having them pray for us in our missionary work. It was very inspired and very incredible. and I had to give my departing testimony which was hard... I have loved my mission so much not sure i could ever express it in words. But of course i saw Ed (st james recent convert) he comes to all those things... and of course the meeting was suppose to be done in time to get us home by like three.... and what time did we get home.. .like five, no big deal! but i think the best part was President and Sister Thomas made us recommend holders specific to the cwm with the regina temple on them! SO FANTASTIC! 

WEDNESDAY: We went to go see a member and what do we end up doing. Carry a table down the hall and around the corner to a neighbors apartment... its funny seeing old ladies worry about if you are lifting too much or not! Then we went and saw the L*** (the foster family we are working with) and they are super cute... they want to talk to us about boys and everything and their mom is so strict... its a funny dynamic to watch. 

THURSDAY: was the day we lost the car... it was a sad day... but its okay we only walked an hour to do online to realize the place we were walking to was closed... and how did god bless us for our efforts. He sent us to find D*** who is HILLARIOUS! He is a short skinny man who wears biker clothes with long hair but is the nicest smiliest man you will ever meet in your entire life and he is really helping us teach according to our skills because he wants us to put well us in our lessons... its fun! Then we went to the norwells (recent convert family) and had a lesson about the parable of the popping corn. what do you do under pressure and heat?! do you reach your full potential and become delicious or do you fall short and get tossed in the trash! really its up to you! 

FRIDAY: i waddled like a penguin most of the day because i was so sore... my knee acted up which caused me to limp which effected my walking just in general! it was really funny! but its okay because we weekly planned and did a phone lesson... i curled up in a blanket to avoid from crying haha seriously SOOO FUNNY! 

SATURDAY: I hit my eighteen month mark.... that was weird... and really unreal for me... but we celebrated with D*** by meeting him at dairy queen for ice cream. then it was pouring rain... our loving district leader said he prayed for it. so i looked like a wet dog. but you know what! rain is beautiful! so why not learn to dance in it right!!!!!!

SUNDAY: we started teaching cal who is way interested in religion for his age! he was so excited he wanted to meet again tomorrow! its weird to see how the lord still has a hand in everything we do even when we feel like we cant do as much as we normally can. Then we got a ride to winnipeg and was able to sing in the stake choir. Sister Emmers is an incredible arranger that really turns into MIRACULOUS music! it was so fun to sing it even though i wont be here for the choir. 

Love you all... and like kaylynnn said! See you next week.... AHHHH SO WEIRD!

Sep 15..."best email ever"

Okay... So I was trying to be smart and wrote out all the incredible things for the week and was all ready to write the best email ever when unfortunately i realized I left it at home.. .next to my bed... smart one sister Harrison... and i would just make sister porter drive me home to get it but unfortunately haha we decided to go to Winnipeg for the day so I am thirty to forty minutes away from my apartment so here is to the recollection of a dying missionary on what i did this week... and then i will put my list in my suitcase so i can tell you about all the stuff i forgot.

Monday we were SUPPOSE to have celebrated Sister Porters nine month mark... found out it was only her eighth... and we built a fort and everything. our fort has a name. its flicka's fort... Sister Marx (the mission therapist) came up with the name but that's a story for a different day. Then we went on a crazy search for a navy blue shirt for family pictures when I get home... made me realize how close it really was... but it seems like we have found the perfect match. :) Then we had an incredible lesson over the phone... Kaylynn has all of these fancy gadgets that help with her missionary work haha my phone makes it so I can talk to a less active who lives an hour and half away one way... haha its crazy to see the differences in our missions but still know that God uses weak and humble servants to hasten his work all over.

Tuesday we were in Winnipeg for district lunch and you will never believe what happened. They made me do a portion... on how to be a successful missionary... they said it had something to do with me coming home soon, I kind of laughed because even though I am going home soon I feel like I learn every day how to be a more successful missionary... I don't think I will ever get there in this lifetime but I sure try. I ended up using the Climber, Camper, Quitter analogy dad sent me forever ago as a pep talk because to me a successful missionary is someone who gets up every day and climbs not someone who baptizes like crazy. It's courage for me to keep going in the face of struggle then to be able to put on a tough face and show the world that you can conquer it all. "It's the climb" as a famous artist once sang... but do you think I could remember who that was to save my life haha NOPE the mission veil has got me for sure! Then we went to a members house for dinner and I thought i would check the phone before we started the lesson... GOOD THING! We had eleven messages, seven missed calls, and six voicemails... apparently Sister Porters facebook got hacked and the mean person was putting horrible stuff up so we had to do damage control for the rest of the night and Sister Porter was pretty shaken up by it but we got it all squared away... i guess there are pros and cons to the technology we are using now days.

Wednesday we had a lot of member appointments. We were at members for dinner and supper (yes our lunch appointment calls lunch dinner) and then we were able to help out a member who was moving unpack some boxes... Luckily we were able to end the day with an investigator family of ours that are a foster home.... what was the rule with summer getting baptized? what were lessons really like i cant remember them to save my life?

Thursday we had another lunch appointment (i think this branch wants to fatten me up) and we were also able to have another phone lesson but nothing really exciting happened... I saw a porta potty in the middle of the street that i have to tell myself I CAN'T use every time i pass it because its so tempting... how neat would it be to say you used the bathroom in the middle of the street. We also found out we are losing our car for twelve days starting Thursday because of scratch its the worst... but im running out of time so i will add on to next week what i didn't get done... LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! thanks for the support and I will keep sprinting :)

Sep 8...Time is starting to soar.

Okay so usually I am all prepared and have a piece of paper in front of me that reminds me what I have done this week but this week apparently I didn't quite get to it haha.

So now I am gonna have to do the day thing to keep everything straight because its hard to even remember what I have eaten for breakfast! 

   Monday we made back to school kits for the kids in our branch and spent that night stopping by delivering them. I kind of worked with a hope kit that i used before and made it specific to back to school. So for example we did an eraser to help with the mistakes, a mint so they are always fresh, a rubber band to help them stretch, a paper clip to help them hold it all together, a picture of the best tutor they will ever have (Jesus Christ), and a chocolate coin so they are never broke. It was a really really cheesy idea but it got us into homes that we have been trying to get into for FOREVER and it really helped us show the branch that we love them. 

   On Tuesday we had district meeting with probably my favorite practice that we have had in a long time. We did minute doctrine where we were blind folded and picked a number and then had a minute to explain that principle. It was really fun... and of course i got law of chastity, luckily I also got baptism and so it wasn't like i was full of all awkward things. Then we skyped Sister Porters aunt and was able to start teaching her. That was really fun for Sister Porter and my little quiet companion sure does have a BOLD testimony that i am so impressed by! 

   Wednesday we were able to do a lot of different kinds of appointments so it was a really fun day. We had lunch with our branch mission leader and his wife and son (who is married and has a family of his own... thought i would put that in for age purposes) and they are always fun to eat with. They take such good care of us. and they love to tease us too and on wednesday apparently it was my turn to be teased about how i am going home soon and getting "married" even sooner... haha and as much as that is a goal of mine the idea of it is kind of scary as my mission gets closer to an end. Then we traveled for an hour out to a members house and was able to teach her a lesson out there. It is such a long drive and so in the middle of no where that it makes me suprised that a huge city (winnipeg) is so close to these outskirt beautiful areas. There are also some nice looking old vehicles on the property haha. (the blue one is a bus for the snow) We also saw some recent converts and read the scriptures with them because they hadnt done that for a while and were able to start teaching a family of five. They are incredible. They are a couple who does foster care and has four girls and so we have started teaching the girls who range in age from 14-20 so its an incredible experience that is bringing back memories of when Summer was taught my the sister missionaries in Idaho! 

   Thursday we weekly planned because we had exchanges on friday. Then it seemed all of our lessons fell through. but we always find a way to keep ourselves busy because if we slow down we are in trouble. (its easier not to get trunkier the busy you are... kaylynn has the right idea, dont give yourself time to get trunky)

   Friday we had exchanges and it was good! I got to go with Sister Haner who i have been on exchanges before. It was fun! We were able to drive out to Stonewall which is this BEAUTIFUL little town! I loved the scenery and the buildings... .I could spend a week there (even though it was really small and there wasnt much to do) walking on main street made me feel like i was in the movies. Then we got to go teach R***. He is so funny. He laughed for five minutes because we was like "i drank all my life tell ten years ago, and when i was drunk the girls came no where near me. Now I dont drink and I have five young ladies in my house" he thought it was the funniest thing. we all laughed for a while about it! Then we had the most INCREDIBLE lesson with a less active on the phone and she is just progressing so well. I love her so much. And we were able to teach the parable of the talents. My favorite parable there is!!!!

   Saturday is a special day its a day we get ready for sunday! like seriously trying to see everyone we can who needs to come to church so they are ready for the best day of the week! We were finally able to meet with two of our investigators again and because of that they came to church! We are excited for the energy we are finding in this area and hope that it continues to grow. on saturday night we got invited to an inner faith performance by an investigator of ours so we decided to go to be supportive. and it was INCREDIBLE! the music was so powerful and inspiring and its funny how everything they were teaching could be answered through the restoration. hopefully one day!

   Sunday! I love sundays. We get to partake of the sacrament and get to feel the love and faith of the branch and get to usually go to supper at a members house! yep sundays are good days! 

Today was Sister Porters nine month mark! HAPPY NINE MONTHS! so we built a fort and ate lunch in it... yes we may be missionaries but dont worry mom im still a kid at heart! love you all! cant wait to see you again!

Sep 1...What were you thinking

Please ignore my grammar mistakes as i am going to be writing fast because I am running low on time... as per usual!

Well mondays in selkirk are extremely relaxing. There is no rush or fuss we just do what we need to do and EVEN GET A NAP! I didnt believe it when sister porter told me until i went and laid in my bed and closed my eyes... NEVER in my life of a missionary has that happened. SO GREAT! Also we sleep over at the gateway sisters apartment monday nights so we dont have to drive forever to get into town tuesday morning for district meeting (its like a fourty five minute drive from selkirk to northern winnipeg where district meeting is) and so I got to stay in my first apartment with Sister du Plessis. That was fun! We even found the book of mormon sign book me and sister rush and sister hutchinson started when we first opened the apartment. It feels like just yesterday i was there until someone reminds me it was almost a year and a half ago.... ouch... stab at the dying missionaries heart why dont you haha! 

District meeting this week was really good! it was all about Companionship Unity and communication and for me and sister porter (who are out by ourselves) communication is key because there isnt anybody else around to talk it out with. Then we ran errands all around winnipeg because we would be in town. We were able to go get me my medication and go turn in the receipt as well as turn in an accident report since our car was banged up before i got here! man did that take longer then i thought it would but it was all worth it in the end because i got to give sister menlove a hug. Then we had a sports night where NO ONE showed up. one of our members came who is the soccer coach who we apparently help out during the season but no one else came so he taught me how to kick a soccer ball. Its funny how people keep trying to teach me soccer and how i keep being not so good at it. 

Well i finally was able to meet our branch mission leader on wednesday and that was good! it ended up with his friend stopping by, him asking us to teach his friend, and his wife giving his friend a book of mormon. the members here are incredible! Online also proved fruitful as we got a new investigator from nigeria that we taught a couple of times and have turned over to the missionaries there! hopefully they find him! Then we met with a less active that sister porter told me was schizophrenic... and i dont think thats what he is. I think he has mulitple personality disorders but either way it was a very odd lesson that we might not jump at the opprotunity to do again. oh and one of our investigators who started out super bitter and closed off looked up what is prayer online, He also started closing his prayers in the name of Jesus Christ and reading the book of mormon... its incredible how god softens hearts. 

We met with these two little girls who recently got baptized and were talking to them about fasting that their step dad would join us in our lessons... so next sunday we are all gonna fast for that! its incredible to see these girls willingness to learn and grow in the gospel! Then we went and saw a branch member who is from scottland (in fact we are emailing at their house today because everything is closed) and they have the most incredible back story. They are true pioneers as they were baptized into a branch of four... them and two others when the missioanries left them to be on their own and they had to keep things running the best way they knew how until the sent missionaries again. The stories they can tell are incredible! 

We finished weekly planning in one day again! I love it when that happens. Then a set of triplets in our branch got baptized. They broke the record of number of people being baptized at once for our little branch and we even had to borrow a lot of jump suits because for some reason our small building wasnt equipped with three kid size jumpers. haha but it went really good! 

Our weekend was more eventful though as we helped a member move from an hour out of town to into town. When we finally got there sister porter told me it was okay to call where we were at the middle of no where (since i think everywhere in selkirk is the middle of no where) but once we got back into town it was getting all her stuff in the elevator that was the tricky part haha. the guys who were helping us (since there were only four) jokingly told us to go get the deep freeze off the truck and bring it in. We both knew they were joking but what did me and sister porter go do. We went and got the deep freeze and brought it in haha.... their faces were priceless but then they made us set it down because apparently we couldnt finish the job we started then sent us to get a trunk that was heavier then the deep freeze haha. Makes me grateful my dad had me help him carry all those couches and stuff. then we had a lesson with a member that turned into life lessons sister harrison and sister porter need to know and they talked to us FOREVER! it was good things to know though! A less active we are teaching showed up to church. She lives over an hour away and she hasnt been in years and she surprised us and just showed up we were shocked and SOOO happy! We also had an incredible relief soceity priesthood class on the talk What are you thinking? from general conference its incredible and talks about working with what we can control and trying to understand all parts of the situation and its my suggestion for attitude this week because it has a LOT of good advice in there! Also in sunday school we learned about jonah and the whale and how we cant run away from our callings... thats kind of a scary thought... but all in all my weekend ended with my district leader asking me how long i was in canada because he could barely understand me. Thank you... thank you very much. didnt think i talked that much like a canadian but apparently i do haha! 

LOVE YOU ALL! cant wait to see you

                                           Jessalyn copying her dads selfie in the background.

Aug 25...From one side of the mission to the other

Saying goodbyes are really hard and this week I had some hard goodbyes to say! Its weird to think that these people can have such an impact on my life in such a short time but I hope to never forget the experiences I have had. So I am gonna start off this letter with a list of hard goodbyes I had to say! 

My district and other missionaries: Usually saying goodbye to missionaries is the easiest because you know you 'might' see them again through transfers or after the mission but I won't see these missionaries again unless I see them after the mission. And then on my travels I got to see old companions and friends that I just probably won't see for a while. The missionaries around you really become your family out here! I love them all oh so much! I have made a lot of eternal friendships out here that I plan on keeping around for a while. 

The YSA/Young Women of the Prince Albert ward: Those girls are incredible they really made me feel loved while I was up there and it was so sad to say goodbye to them! They have great things ahead of them and I hope they realize the impact they can make. Such powerful girls! 

The Kiefer's and Mavis: I swear in every area i got to there is one or more people who 'adopt' me. This is my Prince Albert mom and aunt and they are so incredible and so supportive. they told me if i ever came and visited i would have a place to stay! i may take them up on that one day! 

Cooks: I feel like i should never have had to say goodbye to them but president was kind enough to let me go anyways and that was SUCH A HARD GOODBYE! the hardest part was sheila walking me to my car and holding my hand and telling me she loves me but i have to move on with my life that i cant stay here or i wont grow and that she loves me. I love that woman so much! I am so incredibly happy I came on my mission so i could meet that family! 

Then off to my 11 hour car ride that went over two days to get from Prince Albert, SK to Selkirk, MB! It started with me and sister hudson driving down to saskatoon and then i lost my companion and was placed with wait not another sister... nope... instead with three elders... so for three hours i was in the car alone with three elders and HOLY was that weird. haha we ended up finally finding something to talk about but I was so excited to see sisters again when i arrived to Regina. In Regina we stayed with the sunrise sisters (sister meservey and sister fellows were there) and then at five thirty in the morning we had to be at the church ready to drive to winnipeg... so with no sleep and little time to get ready off we went on a six hour car ride in petunia my purple vibe from saskatoon! She drives horribly just so everyone is aware (petunia not sister fellows) but we safely made it to winnipeg that was followed by big hugs from sister thomas and sister menlove. seeing old companions, a special ordered pizza because sister menlove loves me and meeting my new companion sister porter... and would you think my traveling was done there... NOPE! I then got in the car with sister porter and traveled for an our to selkirk... but we finally made it! :) 

Now that i have given you a run down of what consisted of most of my week let me tell you some of the fun stuff that happened. 

I wrestled with C*** who is one of the young women up in prince albert... she thought it was lame the boys could wrestle but we couldnt and i told her we could so she was like REALLY and came to sports night and had me wrestle her... she taught me a few things and was sure she was gonna beat me... little did she know i am pretty tough so after we both threw each other once we called it a day because we were both tired. 

In selkirk we got to see some incredible people so far. Some of our recent converts were the first stop we made and they gave me a big old welcome hug and it was the best! im so excited to be here. Then we also met T and D who are our new investigators... T is an italian catholic who has way to much to say and D is buddhist she thinks but they are SUPER funny! We showed them the importance of faith using a tea bag and then got on a really good discussion about the importance of positivity. Apparently T has been so negative lately he is causing negative energy to make him sick or so D tells us. Then we spent two hours in the most secure part of the mental institution here in selkirk because we have a less active and an investigator there. They had to lock up my possessions and wand me down and it was incredibly weird but we did it. Then we met a real live viking... not sure what that meant but it was pretty neat that that was the first thing he told us. Then we met an investigator who suffers from MS and hasn't left his home in a year or more because he doesn't have a ramp. Poor guy! he is super bitter about it too! hopefully knowing Jesus Christ loves him will bring him some peace! The people we have met have confirmed to me the importance of positive thinking! its so important to be able to know that you can change your outlook and how you react to things. I love how the people around me sometimes teach me more lessons then what i teach them. On sunday i went to my first PEC and probably my only PEC meeting... i guess that PEC will just be for the men when i get home haha. 

Sister porter is such a sweet girl. im nine inches taller then her but she is ten times smarter then me. she wants to be a mechanical engineer when she gets home and maybe specialize into something with space, she talks in big words. But she draws beautifully she is an incredible artist! She is more on the quieter side but i love her! we will have a good six weeks together! Selkirk is small but its growing on me! population of 10,000 here i come!