Temple Trip, Year Mark, and Wedding, Oh My!

 

This week was awesome! So much happened!

 

The fireflies are coming out! A couple weeks ago I saw my very first firefly, and ever since then there have been more and more of them! Sadly they don't show up very well on camera. But they are beautiful! I love summer on the east coast!

 

Tuesday was our semi-annual temple trip! Our zone drove to the Union City chapel and parked our cars there. I may or may not have been a bit overexcited about getting to see my old area for a bit. Sister Stone is still in the same zone as me, so we got to walk down memory lane together in our old area. It was so fun. We all took a bus from Union City through the Lincoln Tunnel, and then we walked about 20 blocks through Manhattan to get to the temple. It was over 90 degrees and so humid and gross, but it was so fun to walk through New York! We walked through Times Square and it was amazing. We all were exhausted and drenched in sweat by the time we got to the temple.

 

 View from Union City

 

Times Square

 

The temple trip is a huge deal for us missionaries because we only get to go twice a year. It felt so good to be at the temple again. It was incredible to go from the crazy, crowded, chaotic streets of New York City to the quiet peace of the temple. 

 

 

At the Temple

 

After the temple, we decided to take the subway instead of walking 20 blocks because we were all exhausted. The subway is so crazy but so fun! We then took another bus through the Lincoln Tunnel and back to sweet home Union City. As we were walking to the chapel to get to our cars, Sister Stone and I were praying that we would see someone we know. Then we get to the chapel and who do we see standing there? Argus! The younger son of our miracle convert Carlos! Argus was baptized by his brother Sebastian about a month after I left Union City. It was so great to see him and to hear that he is still doing great and coming to church, even though his dad is currently in the Dominican Republic and isn't there to make him go to church every week. Then right as we were about to leave, Sister Stone said "Let's pray in our hearts that we see Eddy" (Eddy is 13-year-old member that we worked with a lot). Just 20 seconds later we see Eddy and his friend John Paul coming towards us on their bikes! It was amazing! Alan, another member friend, was there too! I love Union City and I'm so glad I got to go there again and see some of my favorite people I worked with during my 6 months there. 

 

 

When we saw Argus and Alan at the Union City chapel!

 

Thursday June 25th was my brother Jonathan's 18th birthday and was also my year mark in the mission, which is totally crazy. I can't believe that it's been a year since I said goodbye to my family and got on that plane. Even crazier is thinking that I have less than 6 months left. Time is going so fast and it's kinda scary. I am trying really hard to use these last 6 months as best I can and to do as much good as possible here in Jersey. 

 

Our investigators Yolanda and Manuel, who have been learning about the Church for 6 years, got married on Saturday! It was so special. They would have gotten baptized years ago if only they had been married. They weren't able to get married until now because he just got his passport about a month ago. They would have gotten baptized yesterday (the day after the wedding) if it wasn't for Yolanda's kidney pouch and her doctor who said it's not safe for her to be baptized, even if the pouch is protected by plastic and waterproof tape. Manuel still could have gotten baptized (we actually had him be interviewed for baptism this week just in case it ended up happening, and he passed) but he decided that since he and Yolanda have been investigating together for so long, he would rather wait until she can be baptized so they can be baptized together. That means the baptism might not be for several months until her kidney pouch comes off. Sadly I probably won't still be here to see it. But oh well, I know that I did all I could do for them, and that they will be baptized soon, whether I'm still here or not. The wedding was awesome! Basically the entire branch was there and so many of the members showed up early to help set up. It was great to see all the support. They are such a cute couple. They've been together for about 18 years and they have two little girls, and now they're finally married!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sister Bloxham and I have come up with a list of a few things that every stateside Spanish-speaking missionary learns. It's still a work in progress:

 

• We often get fed a mysterious kind of meat that we can't quite identify, always very oily and smothered in sauce. We call it "Mystery Meat." It can be difficult to eat the first time, but all Spanish missionaries will learn to just chew and swallow and pray that they'll be able to keep it down. 
• A Hispanic's home can easily be identified if it has the following items in the front yard: an old TV, an article of child's clothing, approximately 5 children's bicycles. random pieces of wood, an old piece of furniture, and piles of trash. If you're lucky, you'll also see the house number written on in Sharpie.
• Every time you try to set an appointment, and the response starts with "Lo que pasa es que..." the answer is always no. 
• Each time you enter a home, all odds will be defied and you will meet somebody new that you didn't know lived there before. How many people live in one house? Our best guess is 52.

 I love serving the Hispanic people here. They are amazing. Have a great week!

 

<3 Hermana Harris

 

 

 

 

 

Times Square 

 

 

 The Ripley's Museum!

 

 

A Wax Morgan Freeman in front of the Wax Museum

 

 

 

 

  

 

  

 

 

 Central Park

  

 

Back at Union City

 

  

 At the Wedding

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have I Mentioned I Hate Satan?

 



 

For Pday we went to the beach again (surprise!) in Seaside Heights, this time with our whole zone. It's so pretty! I just wish I could get in the water!

 

The weather this week has been weird. Super hot and humid with random thunderstorms. A couple times this week it just started POURING out of nowhere. One night we actually had to pull over and wait out the rain because we couldn't see anything. There was a river of water about a foot deep running down the side of the road. It was crazy. Hermana Bloxham and I took turns running out and doing raindances for a few seconds and we got soaked! Haha it was so fun!

 

This week we officially got the Area Book Planner app on our iPads. President Taggart asked us to transfer all of our area book records from the past four months into our iPads this week. Needless to say, it was extremely tedious. Basically whenever we didn't already have a set appointment, we were at the church putting our many many records into our iPads. So we didn't get a whole lot of teaching time in this week. But now that we have a lot of our records in the iPads and we are starting to figure out how the app works, we can see how nice it is. It is much faster and easier than writing out paper teaching records. And it's always so hard to remember to update the area book at the end of the day, but with the app it has you input a quick report of the lesson right after it happens. It's awesome!

 

Thursday we had another specialized training in East Brunswick in President Taggart. He's so great. Our favorite part of this meeting was when he was talking to us about how hard the members here work, and then he randomly asked "Where do all the Spanish people here get their food?" We all weren't sure what to say. "Umm... the store?" Then he said "No! They go out into the woods and they hunt and fish for their food! They go hunting and fishing!" We all were just a little confused about where he got that idea because from what I've seen with all the Hispanics here, they get their food at the store just like everyone else. Hahaha President Taggart is a funny guy!

 

We had a pretty big disappointment yesterday. The past couple weeks we've been working so hard to get Yolanda and Manuel married and baptized. They're wedding is this Saturday and they were going to get baptized on Sunday. Yolanda has a little plastic pouch sticking out of her because of kidney problems. We were planning on using waterproof tape and a plastic bag to keep it dry while she was being baptized. The Roses (the senior couple) even had already practiced it on themselves to make sure it would work in keeping part of her body dry. Everything seemed to be going well, but then yesterday at church we found out that she talked to her doctor and he said she can't risk it at all. So now her baptism is off. Manuel could still technically be baptized next week, but they've been wanting to get baptized together for so long and we don't think he would want to get baptized without her. The kidney pouch doesn't come off for several months, so now they probably won't be getting baptized until I leave the area :(

 

Also we've decided that William is the modern version of the Old Testament Job. He has gone through sooo many health problems it is ridiculous. Last week it was looking pretty good about him finally healing up, getting out of rehab, and getting baptized. But when we visited him on Saturday he was sooooo sick. He couldn't even talk to us because he was coughing so badly. Satan is working really hard to stop him from being baptized. 

 

So yeah, Hermana Bloxham and I are pretty upset with Satan right now. We've been working soooo hard to get these people baptized, but he keeps throwing all these dumb health issues at our investigators and it's halting their progress when they are so ready and willing to be baptized in every other way. There is nothing more frustrating than that. And I will probably be leaving this area in about two weeks, so I may not be here to see any of them actually get baptized :( But at least Yolanda and Manuel are still getting married on Saturday, so that's still a good step forward towards them getting baptized. We're going to keep working with them so that they'll be ready to be baptized as soon as Yolanda's pouch comes back, whenever that may be.

 

<3 Hermana Harris

 

 

Our District on Beach Day:

 

 

Me and Sister Stone

 

 

Birthday and Beaches

Wrath of the Pouches

This was a week of epic proportions. We had 6 member present lessons which required a lot of phone calls and careful planning because all the Hispanic people here have CRAZY work schedules and almost never have time to go team up with the missionaries.

My birthday was awesome. I can't believe I'm 20! Hermana Bloxham went to a lot of effort to make my day really special. She has surprises up her sleeve for me all day. She made me a cute "Happy Birthday" banner and put it on my desk. After studies, we went to the Family History Center at the church like we always do on Wednesdays. Afterwards, we were going to go home and have leftovers for lunch. BUT as soon as we get in the car to go home, she blindfolds me and drives around for a few minutes. When she parks and I take off my blindfold we are in the Olive Garden parking lot. So I got to eat lunch at one of my favorite places! She's the best. In the afternoon we visited William and taught him about the Word of Wisdom and then we visited Eddie. Later, Hermana Bloxham blindfolded me again and kidnapped me to my favorite frozen yogurt place here. Then in the evening a few members in the branch threw a little combined birthday party for me and another member whose birthday is this week. There was cake and flan and a few of them gave me cute presents. I love the members in this branch so much and it is going to be hard for me to leave when I get transferred, 

Thursday we had a meeting in East Brunswick for some of the newer missionaries and their companions. There were only about 12 missionaries there plus the Assistants and President and Sister Taggart. It was cool to be able to work with President in a relatively small group of missionaries. As always, they fed us an amazing lunch :)

For dinner on Thursday we went to a member's house in Seaside Heights, I just love it there. The beach is gorgeous. Pictures to come.

Missionaries encounter a variety of barriers that make it difficult for their investigators to get baptized. Some investigators can't quit drinking or smoking, some aren't willing to pay tithing, and others don't have a solid testimony. Lately we've been encountering a barrier of a different kind- kidney pouches. Our two most progressing investigators, Yolanda (mentioned below) and William (mentioned many times in previous emails) both have recently had operations that require them to have a little plastic pouch sticking out of their torso for several months. These pouches can't get wet, which makes it more complicated getting them baptized. We talked to President Taggart about this problem a few days ago and he said we shouldn't let that stop them from getting baptized. So now we are going to get waterproof tape and a plastic bag and make a waterproof "shield" over the pouches that will allow them to be baptized without getting the pouches wet.  Satan thought he'd stumped us with this dilemma, but joke's on him! 

So we have these investigators Yolanda and Manuel. They were first visited by missionaries about 6 years ago and have wanted to be baptized for a long time. The things holding them back was that they live together and have 2 daughters but they're not married and weren't able to get married because he didn't have passport. But he finally got his passport about a month ago, and they just barely got their marriage license this morning. They are getting married next Saturday, the 27th! But they originally thought that Yolanda wouldn't be able to be baptized until her kidney pouch comes off in October. But now that we are using the tape solution, they are getting baptized the day after their wedding, June 28th!!!

As for William, he is dying to get out of his rehab place so he can get baptized. Yesterday we visited him with the Guerras (an adorable older couple in the branch that got baptized 2 years ago and just got sealed in November) and taught him about temples. I showed him a picture of the Washington DC temple and he just looks at it and says "Wow! This is where I'm gonna get married!" It was so cute. He may need a liver transplant this week (the medical problems never end with him) but if not, he will probably be able to come home and get baptized in the next several weeks!

Big things are gonna be happening real soon!

<3 Hermana Harris

Good Crazy

Day 139 among the Jews. They are wary of outsiders but they are growing more accustomed to having me here and I believe that soon they shall accept me as one of their own. 

For Pday Hermana Bloxham and I decided to go do Jewish stuff! We went to one of their clothing stores and felt super out of place because... we're Gentiles. However, it was definitely the largest selection of sister missionary-appropriate skirts I've seen anywhere outside of Utah. The Jews have a dress code that is way stricter than ours. In the dressing room, there were charts showing what is considered modest enough and what's not. It was super interesting. Pictures to come! We also got dinner at a Jewish pita place. 

This was a great week. We got 6 new investigators and had a lot of lessons. We've been finding a lot of good people. This month of June, President Taggart wants us as a mission to have a lot of success and baptisms because we all found so many new investigators a couple months ago. Each companionship set a goal for how many baptisms they want to have this month, and they all were added up to create our goal as a mission which is 184 baptisms for the month of June. That number means everyone is going to have to baptize a lot more than we have been lately. It's a super high goal but we can do all things with the Lord's help. It's crazy but it's good crazy! On Tuesday, the entire mission did a special fast asking the Lord to help each companionship in the mission see miracles in June. Each Zone was gathered in a different chapel for our Zone Meetings, and we all Skyped in using our iPads so the entire mission could watch President Taggart pray as we all started the fast together. It was really special. We are excited to see the miracles that will come from it! 

We are really trying to get Eddie to be baptized on June 21st. He's super interested, and this week he told us he believes the Book of Mormon is true, which is a huge improvement from where he was a few weeks ago! There's still something holding him back from committing to be baptized. We are going to continue working with him and wait for the Lord to do the rest because we're doing all we can do to help him.

This week William got moved from his rehab center, to a hospital, to a different rehab center. The medical problems just never end with him. He is anxious to get released as soon as possible so he can finally be baptized. I know he will be baptized eventually, I just hope it's before I leave this area! That man is amazing. He's a little eccentric but in the best way possible. 

Friday we got to watch the streaming of Elder Perry's funeral on our iPads. He had been an Apostle for 41 years, which means he become one 21 years before I was born! That blew my mind a bit. That's such a long time! The last time an Apostle died I was too young to appreciate it or pay attention to it. But I am so grateful for Elder Perry and his life of service and I am excited to see who the newest Apostle will be!

Yesterday a member from the English ward talked to us at church and said she had a Hispanic man working in her yard and she wanted us to come see him after church. Then when we were sitting in sacrament meeting (our branch has sacrament as the last meeting) we get a text from the member saying that he was still there at her house but was going to leave in just a few minutes so our only chance to talk to him was leaving church early. So we ended up leaving sacrament meeting a few minutes early (and getting a lot of confused looks from the branch members) and hurrying over to this English member's house and arriving just in time to meet the referral (a nice man from Peru) and give him a Book of Mormon and get his information. It was crazy!

I love being a missionary, and I love June!

<3 Hermana Harris

Happy JEWn!

Modesty charts in the dressing room of the Jewish clothing store: