Viva Argentina!

 

Hola!

This week went super fast!!

On Tuesday night a family in the ward took us to Olive Garden! Definitely made me glad I'm serving in America! #statesideperks

So sisters serving in Temple Square get to spend a few months serving in another mission in America so they can get a taste of what missionaries outside of Temple Square do. They don't find out where they are going until a few days beforehand. A couple weeks ago my friend Jennifer Skaggs who is serving there emailed me and said that her trainer Sister Casagrande was coming to my mission for 2 transfers! And then a couple days ago I found out that Sister Casagrande is now companions with Sister Lewis, the sister who trained Sister Galvan!

In mission lingo, your trainer is your "mom", so your trainer's trainer is your "grandma". And when you leave the mission, it is called "dying". So your last companion is the person who "kills you". Sister Lewis will be going home after these 2 transfers, so Sister Casagrande is killing her. So in mission lingo, Jen's mom is killing my grandma!! Crazy!

Sometimes we get up early to go on runs down by the water. Seeing the sun rise over New York City is amazing! The pictures definitely don't do it justice! When I eventually get transferred to another area (I'm hoping that won't be for like another 4 months) I'm really going to miss having such a great view in the mornings!

One interesting thing about Union City is that there are sooo many Jewish people here. Pretty much everyone here who isn't Hispanic is Jewish. There's a couple streets where every single person we see is Jewish. This is so different for me because I had never seen orthodox Jews before! They dress all in black and the men all have beards and little curls on each side of their face. Sometimes we can hear them speaking in Hebrew. Hermana Galvan says they're not allowed to talk to us. Whenever we walk past them we say hi but they always just ignore us and look away.

Yesterday, like 10 minutes before church started, the ward chorister came up to Hermana Galvan and I and asked if either of us play piano and Hma Galvan was like "Hermana Harris does!" So apparently nobody in the ward plays piano (which is so different than wards in Temecula because seriously everyone plays piano) and the only person who sort of plays wasn't there yesterday. So I had to play the hymns in sacrament meeting for the whole ward yesterday. I was so nervous because I got hardly any time to practice and it was so much pressure! Haha but all was well and I got through it. I'm just scared that now they're gonna ask me to play every week now that my secret's out haha.

I've realized that I'm becoming more and more Argentinian! Hermana Galvan already has me speaking with her accent, and then this week she had me try this drink called mate (pronounced maw-tay). It's kinda like an herbal tea and apparently everyone in Argentina drinks it every day. You have to drink it from a special kind of cup that makes it taste better... it's definitely different but I like it! She also sometimes makes milanessas (a really popular chicken dish from Argentina) and it's super good. And finally, our most solid progressing investigator Cristian who we saw like 4 times this week is from Argentina too!

Cristian is awesome. He had a baptismal date for yesterday (the 28th) but he didn't get to it in time because he hasn't had much time to meet with us and also it takes him a while to get to Union City because he lives in Queens New York (we got special permission from the bishop to teach him even though he doesn't even live in New Jersey). We asked him if he would be baptized on October 25th and his response was "can it be sooner?? I want to get baptized now!" So we told him that we will teach him as much as we can and if he learns everything faster than we expected, he can get baptized before that date. He's progressing so well. He said that he didn't believe in God before he started meeting with the missionaries but now he had no doubt there is a God. But here's the problem with Cristian. He lost his job and he's been looking for a while and hasn't found one. Yesterday he told us that he has $150 left and that's it. If he doesn't find a job this week, he won't have enough money to take the bus to Union City every day to see us like he's been doing. He also won't be able to pay his phone bill, which means we would have no way of contacting him. We are so worried about him because he has so much potential but if something doesn't happen this week we will have no way of seeing him anymore. So everyone who reads this, please pray that Cristian will find a job soon!!

Caminando cada dia (Walking every day)

Hola everyone!

I wasn't able to email yesterday because we had a Zone Conference with President Taggart and his wife and also Elder Anderson from the Seventy spoke to us! It took like all day, so our Pday this week is Tuesday instead of Monday! But it was awesome! So many great speakers and I learned a lot!

I'm so glad I'm in a walking area! Literally 90% of the people in the city are Hispanic. It's so fun to just walk down Bergenline (the main street in the city) and talk to people as we walk and ask them where they're from. We never know what the answer is going to be because the people here are from everywhere!

On Saturday we had a service activity in Passaic. Like half of the missionaries in Jersey came and we were all wearing the Mormon Helping Hands yellow vests picking up trash and pulling weeds. I've never pulled so many weeds in my life! It was for like 4 hours straight! It was awesome though because a lot of people saw us as they walked by and would say things like "I really respect you Mormons because you always do big service projects like this. Thank you".

We had to drop Pablo, one of our really solid progressing investigators. Long story short, he fell in love with us. And obviously we can't continue to teach him if he is meeting with us for the wrong reasons. So we gave him to the Elders. If he really does want to learn about the Gospel, he will listen to them.

The most memorable lesson of the week was last night. Martha is this super awesome Ecuadorian lady that was inactive for like 20 years. We found her and got her to start going back to church and she LOVES it. She loves us and she loves going to church and she wants us to start working with her family (she has a husband and three daughters and none of them are members). She also has a nonmember sister who has cancer. Last night we went to their house and we took the Elders with us so that they could give her sister a priesthood blessing. After the blessing, we talked to their family (but it was mostly for the sister with cancer) about the Atonement and how Jesus Christ knows what she's going through because He suffered the pains and afflictions of everyone. Then we had everyone share their testimony. When it was my turn I totally cried (it was pretty embarrassing) but Hermana Galvan said it was good because it really brought the Spirit and let Martha's family see just how much I love my Savior and this Gospel. It was a lesson I won't forget! I am so grateful we found Martha because, in addition to how happy she is to be coming back to church, her are now teaching her family as well!

-Hermana Harris

My First Baptism :)

Helloooo! I am officially done with my first transfer (6 weeks) in the field! Woot woot!

So this week started off with a huge miracle. So there's this Argentinian guy named Cristian who Hermana Galvan and her previous companion used to teach a couple months ago. Hermana Galvan told me he was super awesome and he was supposed to get baptized in July and the only reason they stopped teaching him is because he lost his job and had to move to New York. On Monday night we got a text from him saying that he was in town and wanted to see us. So we go and meet him and teach him again, and we ask him if we can write down his new address so we can give his information to the missionaries in NYC so they can start teaching him. Then he says "No, I don't want the missionaries in New York to teach me. I don't want to go to church in New York. I don't like it there. The ward here in Union City is my home. I am willing to come here every Sunday if you sisters can teach me." We taught him a really good lesson and he loved it and then afterwards he left on his skateboard shouting for joy. (He's 35 but he's totally a hippy skater boy type!

We were super happy but we weren't sure if we would be able to teach him, because he doesn't even live in New Jersey. We talked to the Bishop about it and asked if he would be able to officially be a member of this ward if he were to get baptized. The Bishop said that usually the answer would be no, but he made an exception for Cristian because he is so committed to come here every week! We were so happy! So when we taught him again a couple weeks later, we were going to ask him to be baptized. Hermana Galvan was like "Ok we have a question for you" and he already knew we were gonna ask him to be baptized and he just gets this huge smile on his face and says "Sing it to me! I'm ready!" It was so cool! So now he is (hopefully) getting baptized in two weeks!
So our investigator Pablo (the one who bought us roses? Yes, that one) is a chef at a really nice buffet called El Farolito. On Saturday he had us come to his restaurant and it was soooo good and then after he got off of work we taught him the Plan of Salvation. He wants to come to church so badly but it is so hard for him to get Sundays off of work. We are still teaching him and hoping that eventually he will be able to come to church and get baptized.

The other awesome thing that happened this week was that I had my first baptism! Daniel was baptized yesterday! :) He's 11 and he was born here but his parents are from Colombia and Puerto Rico. He's the best friend of Eddy (the 13-year-old that we reactivated). He's so cute. He just had the biggest smile on his face afterwards. His mom and his sister, who are not members, came to his baptism and his mom really loved it. His mom even talked to us afterwards and said "I want you to start teaching my daughter too".  It was such a great day and the perfect way to end my first transfer in the field!

XOXO Hermana Harris

 

 

 

9-11 and other pics

​I don't know if you can tell in this picture... But in New York City every year on the anniversary of 9/11 they shine two giant lights into the sky where the Twin Towers used to be. I saw the light in the sky as we were walking home!

 

 

I finally figured out how to curl my hair with a straight iron!

Noche Inter-Americana

Hola mi familia!

 

This week it was nasty hot and humid. We sweat so much. EWWW. Thankfully it should be cooling down soon!

 

I've started keeping a list of the different countries that I've met people from... so far I'm at 28 countries! The diversity here is incredible!

 

On Tuesday I went on an exchange in Bayonne with Hermana Duke, one of our Sister Training Leaders. An exchange is where I basically spend 24 hours in a different area with a different companion so she can see how I'm doing and let me know if there's anything I need to improve on. It was cool being in a different city for a day, but I'm glad I'm back in Union City!

 

Our miracle of the week is this guy named Harold. We found him while walking by his house as he was sitting on his porch. He's awesome. He was immediately super interested. The next day when we stopped by to see how he was doing, he had already read the Introduction to the Book of Mormon and the testimonies of the witnesses that we told him to read.  He's from Puerto Rico and he speaks both English and Spanish. Just two days after we found him, he committed to baptism on September 28th.

 

We are with the three preteens (Eddy, Daniel, and John) like every day. We are working really hard with Daniel because he is getting baptized in a week! Those kids are so cute, they all look up to us so much and are always asking us to come over to Eddy's house and teach them.

 

Saturday was a super cool activity that we've been planning for ever since I got here a month ago. It was called Noche Inter-Americana and basically all the ward members brought food and decorations from their different countries and it was a big celebration of everyone's cultures. And in addition to it being a really fun ward party, the main purpose of it was to get non-members to come and get them interested in the church. We missionaries have spent the past 3 weeks handing out invitations to this party to random people we would meet on the street. We spent pretty much all of Saturday morning setting up the decorations. We got little flags from like every Hispanic country and put them all over the room. It looked even better when the ward members got there because in addition to bringing a typical food from their country, they brought big flags from their countries and decorated with random traditional things from their countries. It was so cool how our ward here is so diverse that we would be able to pull off an activity like this! We had members and food and decorations from Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, and Colombia. This party was such a big deal that even President Taggart (my mission president) came and brought his family! After everyone ate and had fun, we gave a tour of the church to all the nonmembers there, and the ward members helped explain what each room was (Relief Society, Primary, Young Men's, etc). After that, we went back into the cultural hall and they put on music and everyone was dancing, even President Taggart and his wife! It was such a fun night. I got to try food from tons of different countries and have a ton of fun, and most importantly we met a lot of people who were interested in the Church and got their information so hopefully we can start teaching them soon!

 

-Hermana Harris

 

President Taggart and his wife dancing at our party!

Me, Hermana Galvan, and Elder Bell

Los Elders

 

I Love NJ - Another Great Week!

Another great week!

 

So last week I had almost no time to email, because there was a softball tournament throughout my whole mission, and we had to leave emails early to get to it on time. Each Zone was a team and our Zone Leaders made us all really cool tie-dye shirts for our team to wear at the tournament.

 

We walk so much! I found out that in NJ there are only like 8 sisters in walking areas. And I'm one of them! We are so tired by the end of the day, but at least that means we sleep well!

 

The people in Union City are from EVERYWHERE. It's crazy. All these immigrants move to New York City when they first come to America, but they quickly learn that NYC is super expensive to live in so they move across the river to Jersey. I am keeping a list in my notebook of all the countries that I've met people from. I already have almost every Hispanic country, as well as a few European ones like Serbia, Italy, Bulgaria, and Albania! There are almost no people here who were born in the US.

 

My Spanish is coming along well. It is really hard to understand when people talk really fast (especially Dominicans) but I am getting better. And when people talk slowly or when I read it I can understand most of it. Hermana Galvan helps me a lot. She is fluent in both English and Spanish so that has really helped me. Since she is from Argentina and I am with her all day every day, I am starting to speak Spanish with an Argentinian accent!! In most Hispanic countries, the double L (like in pollo) is pronounced like a "y" sound. But Argentinans say it with a "shh" sound. So without even really realizing it, I've started saying using that same accent. Like when I say "estoy llena" (I'm full), it comes out sounding like "estoy sheno". All the people in the ward love how I'm picking up her accent haha.

 

So Eddy is the 13-year-old that we recently got to start coming back to curch, and Daniel is his friend who is getting baptized in a couple weeks. They have this other friend named John, who is totally awesome. He always listens to us teach his friends, and he had told us that he really wants to get baptized but he knows his mom won't let him because she's Catholic (almost all the Hispanics here are Catholic). Well this week, the three boys came told us they had a surprise for us, and they were so excited to tell us what it was. They were like jumping up and down. It was so cute. They told us that John Paul's mom finally gave him permission to get baptized! We are so excited to keep working with this kid. He is so great and so willing to learn!

 

On Wednesday there was a meeting in Morristown with the Mission President and his family for all the brand new missionaries. They basically just asked us how we are doing. A few of the people who came in at the same time as me are having a pretty rough time, but I feel totally fine! Every day is a challenge but challenges are how we learn and grow!

 

On Thursday we had a really awesome lesson with Pablo and we asked him to be baptized on September 21st and he said yes!! :) Afterwards he took us to get dinner again, but at least this time he didn't buy us roses right? haha

 

Yesterday, Marta (the inactive from Ecuador who we found on the street a few weeks ago) went to church for the first time in who-knows-how-many years. She LOVED it. During Sacrament meeting she would cry whenever she heard a hymn and she remembered hearing it so long ago. She also brought her husband and her daughter to church with her! They are not members and she wants us to start teaching them too. She is so great!

 

Keep the love and support coming!

 

<3 Hermana Harris