Baby on Board

Guess what everyone... I'm expecting!!! Don't worry, I'm not getting sent home. It just means I am going to be training a new missionary! In mission talk, your trainer is your "mom". So I'm gonna have a daughter soon!

 

Thursday was such a crazy day! At noon we got a call from the Assistant telling us we were going to be doubled out! Doubled out is what it's called when both the missionaries in a companionship get transferred out of an area at the same time. It's pretty rare for that to happen, especially to a new missionary who has just finished training. I had been expecting to stay in Union City after Hermana Galvan gets transferred out. This news totally shocked me and I just started crying and feeling so sad because I've totally fallen in love with this place and I didn't want to leave it yet. So I spent all afternoon super upset. We even went to Martha's (the member we reactivated) to say goodbye and it was so sad. Also I had already started packing my suitcases to go and our apartment was a total mess because we both thought we would be leaving in a few days.

 

 

THEN, five hours later, we got a call from President Taggart. He said "I'm sorry, there's been a mistake, you are NOT getting doubled out. Sister Harris, you will be staying in Union City and you will be training a new missionary!" Once again, we were totally shocked. I didn't even know what to say... I was SO EXCITED that I will be staying in Union City! And since training lasts 2 transfers, I know for sure I will get to stay here until the end of January!!

The next day I went to a meeting at the mission home for all of the newly called trainers. I was the only one there who just finished training. I asked the Assistants why they had to scare us so much by telling us I was leaving Union City, only to be told at the end of the day that I was staying and training. They said that it wasn't a mistake and that they really were going to double us out of the area, but then they prayed about it and received "serious revelation" that I actually need to stay in Union City for 2 more transfers and be a trainer. So it is a little intimidating knowing I am the youngest trainer in the mission right now, but I am super excited!

 

 

Yesterday was supposed to be Cristian's baptism. He was so ready and so prepared. But then at 7am yesterday he texted us saying he was super nervous. We called him and texted him so many times the rest of the morning but he wouldn't answer. And since he lives in Queens we couldn't exactly go to his house and get him. Long story short, he didn't show up to his own baptism and we were super sad. But we still have high hopes for him and with any luck he will be able to get baptized next week.

Transfer conference is tomorrow which means a lot of people are getting moved to new areas and it also means that I get to meet my daughter! Stay tuned...

<3 Hermana Harris

Wooooo!

I have been in NJ for almost 12 weeks which means I am almost done with training! There are transfers next week and Hermana Galvan is almost for sure getting transferred out because she has been in Union City for almost 6 months now. That means that I'll be leading the area! Pretty intimidating but I am excited!

I am really learning to love the members of the ward here. They are so fun and awesome! The ward is Spanish speaking, but a lot of the people in it have lived in America for like 20 years so they speak English pretty well too. I'd say probably a third of the ward speaks good English, a third knows a little English, and a third doesn't know any at all. People have told me this is one of the biggest Spanish-speaking wards in Jersey. In most other cities there aren't enough Hispanics for there to be a whole ward, so there are just Spanish branches instead.

 

During a meeting in Morristown last week, all us missionaries got to watch the new movie Meet the Mormons! I loved it. Something I noticed is that 4 of the 6 people featured in the movie are converts. It made me really think about how big of an impact the worldwide missionary force is having. And at the end where it shows a missionary saying goodbye to his family at the airport... pretty much everyone was crying because we've all experienced that and we know how hard it is.

 

On Wednesday Cristian had his baptismal interview with our District Leader Elder Shiraishi (he's from Peru!). The interview lasted FOREVER and Hermana Galvan and I were worrying that something went wrong and he wouldn't pass. When the interview was finally over they both came out of the room with really serious looks on their faces and didn't say anything for like 10 seconds. We were so scared they were gonna say he failed the interview. Then Elder Shiraishi just smiles and says "Good job teaching him, he passed!" They were totally messing with us trying to make us think he failed haha! But yeah! Cristian passed his interview and he is getting baptized this Sunday!!

 

Friday was such a long day. We didn't have any set appointments so we spent the whole day walking around the city, trying potential investigators, contacting, and doing street lessons. We walked SO MUCH. My legs were so sore the next day. I must admit my legs are getting pretty toned from all this walking! And my shoes are getting worn out too haha.

 

On Saturday we had to make an appearance at a birthday party for a little girl in a family that got baptized a few months before I got here. The girl wanted all the missionaries in the ward to be there. It was interesting because they were blaring pop and dance music and all us missionaries were just standing there wishing we could dance but we're not allowed to... it was funny! Haha we still had fun though!

 

It's starting to get really cold. Last night we were walking around trying to contact people but nobody was outside because it was sooo cold! And it's only October! This is gonna be a fun winter...

Sweet Taste of Liberty

This week was pretty great!

 

One thing I've learned is that Mormons love meetings! There are always so many different meetings to go to, and this is even more true for missionaries! Sometimes it feels like we spend more time sitting in meetings than actually doing missionary work. This week we had 8-hour meetings in Morristown two days in a row.  In those meetings they taught us a lot about missionary work and how best to help the people we are working with, stuff like that. When you take into account the 2-hour drive each way, we got almost no missionary work done at all those two days. We had only 9 lessons last week. Aye aye aye!

 

Saturday was great! We spent the morning doing a service activity planting flowers at Liberty State Park in Jersey City.  It's a super awesome big park right on the water, and you can see the Statue of Liberty from it! It was raining and it was SO COLD!! Then we went straight from there to Ellis Island. This was my second time serving at Ellis Island. We basically just walk around the family history center and ask people if they need help with finding their ancestors on the ship manifests. Our lunch break is fun because we get to just walk around and explore the rest of the island and take pictures. So of course we took pictures with Lady Liberty, and then we walked around the museum part of the island. Since I'm such a huge US History nerd, I love getting to visit a place that was the gateway to America for millions of immigrants! After we were done serving, the lady in charge there even let us watch one of the movies they show to visitors.  

 

As far as our investigators, Cristian is really the only one worth mentioning right now. This week we finished teaching him all the lessons and we went over all the baptismal interview questions and everything and he's totally ready to get baptized! He is seriously golden!

 

Yesterday was super fun! We didn't get to email because it was Columbus Day and the library was closed.  So instead, we went to a "special training meeting" for all the sisters in the mission. But really it was more of a "girls' retreat" type of thing. They had a yoga instructor come and teach us yoga and they fed us a great lunch and we did a bunch of other girly stuff like facials and cooking and crafts and hair. It was great!

 

<3Hermana Harris

 

Service project in the rain at Liberty State Park

 

The 9/11 memorial at Liberty State Park. It's in the shape of the Twin Towers, and if you stand far back enough they look exactly as the towers looked in the NYC skyline when they were still there. On the memorial are the names of the Jersey residents who died in 9/11

   

​The Great Hall at Ellis Island

This room used to be filled with hundreds of incoming immigrants every day

 

​I found Sister Casagrande, who trained my friend Sister Skaggs in Temple Square.

She is serving here in Jersey for two transfers.

 

 

 NYC from Ellis Island

 

 ​Lady Liberty

 

First General Conference

Hello everyone!

The big miracle of the week was with Cristian. Last week we were so worried about him because he didn't have a job and he was going to run out of money and not be able to come from NY to Union City anymore. So on Monday we fasted for him to find a job. And then he got a job at a restaurant the very next morning! And that same day, the chef got fired and Cristian was immediately asked to take his job that had double the pay! Hermana Galvan and I were so happy when we found out; we were jumping up and down and hugging each other haha it was great! Fasting works!!

Union City continues to be... interesting as always. Last night we were chased down the street by a drunk guy cursing at us in Spanish. Same old same old...

Our teaching pool seems to have gone down. I don't know why. Cristian is really our only solid investigator right now. Everyone else either doesn't want to get baptized or can't. There are a couple kids we're teaching who really want to get baptized but their parents won't let them. And there's a super awesome Cuban guy Alex we're working with, but he has problems with the law (we're not sure what) and he's on probation for the next 18 months so he can't get baptized for a long time :( So we are working hard to find new people to teach, preferably families or women, because we've decided that the majority of the single men in this city are drunk and creepy. Speaking of creepy men, this week we were walking down the street and we randomly ran into Pablo, the one we dropped a couple weeks ago because he fell in love with us. It was seriously the most awkward moment ever to just run into him like that.

Last week I found out that the Infiniti I drove in high school finally bit the dust. And then a couple days later I saw a car that looked exactly like it so of course I took a picture to mourn my loss.

Wednesday we had exchanges, and this was the first time that I was actually in my own area for an exchange. I was definitely nervous for my first time leading the area without Hermana Galvan to help me! I felt like I didn't know my way around the area as well as I should have because usually I just follow Hermana Galvan around without even really thinking about where we're going. So it was fun to see how much I actually do know on my own when she wasn't here to help me.

And of course this weekend was General Conference!! Here in the mission General Conference weekend is like Christmas for missionaries. I loved every talk and I definitely got way more out of it than I did back home. I just feel like being on a mission makes me understand and appreciate all the topics discussed in Conference so much more than I did back home. For anyone who didn't get a chance to watch all the sessions, please do so because it was awesome!

<3 Hermana Harris

 

​Me mourning the loss of my Infiniti and seeing one exactly like it :(

 

The streets of Union City. I am in the Garden State but there isn't a single plant in sight.