Unfinished

Hola todos! 

So the Jews here have a pretty strict dress code. The girls have to wear shirts that cover their elbows and their collarbones, and skirts have to go 4 inches below the knee. One day, we inadvertently wore shirts that were almost Jew-appropriate. From the back we definitely looked like Jewish girls. We were knocking the door of a referral in what we like to call "deep Lakewood" (the part of Lakewood where everyone is either Jewish or Hispanic) and a few Jewish guys about our age were walking down the street behind us. We could hear them whispering "Are they Jewish?" "No, they're Christians!" It was pretty funny. Most of them crossed the street and walked away. But one of them (who appeared to be very drunk) stood there behind us and yelled "Hey! What's up!?" We then proceeded to explain to him that we aren't Jews. He just stood there disappointed for a bit, mumbled a few other random things, and staggered off in a drunken stupor. It was pretty great. I can check "Be hit on by Jews" of my bucket list! Success.

This week we spent a long time inputting teaching records into the Area Book Planner app on our iPads. In the process of doing so, we came across the records of some pretty cool people that I hadn't read about before. We called a ton of the phone numbers in our area book and we actually got some 8appointments and found some cool people that way. We got 3 new investigators on Saturday and 2 of them were people we found in our area book. We have been pretty focused on finding new people because the current people we have just aren't progressing and aren't putting in the effort they need to. 

One night this week we were walking contacting people on the street and I see a some people in a car that is stopped at a stoplight motioning for me to come over. I walk to the car and one of them asks "How much for one of your books?" I say they're free but I only had Spanish ones with me at the moment. He said he needed an English one, so I told him to give me his phone number and we would make sure he got an English copy. By this point the light had turned green but this guy was still telling me his phone number and holding up traffic. Everyone was honking at him to get going so I whipped out a pen and my planner and wrote the phone number down super fast and said "We'll call you" before he sped off. That whole exchange lasted about 10 seconds. This morning we called him and he said he lives in Jersey City and wants a Book of Mormon. We got his address and sent it to the missionaries there and told them to go bring him a BoM! I'm so glad we were in the right place at the right time for him to see us on the street. 

Other than that, everything is pretty much the same here. One big step forward we are seeing is that the Saavedra parents (the ones whose oldest 3 kids got baptized recently) got their passports a couple months ago and they can get married now! They put off getting a marriage license for a bit because she had a baby last month, but now they finally have their appointment to go get their marriage license this week! They will get married in August or September and will hopefully be able to be baptized pretty soon afterwards! Unfortunately I probably won't still be here in this area to see it happen... but as long as it happens I will be happy whether or not I get to be there. 

I have 3 weeks before I should be getting transferred. I am working hard to leave this area better than I found it. I know a lot of the fruits of my labors won't be seen until after I leave this area, but I feel good in knowing that I am doing the best I can. My work here in Toms River isn't quite finished yet so I am giving it my all. And enjoying the beautiful Jersey Shore while I can ;)

<3 Hermana Harris

 

This was written on a wall next to the front door a big run-down house with a lot of people in it. I thought it was hilarious. It  means "Please don't leave glasses of beer here. Don't urinate. Don't vomit. Thanks. Try to take out the big trash okay"

Madness

So about a month ago we were told to take all the records in our area books from the past 4 months and input them into he Area Book Planner app on our iPads. We had to put a lot of time into it for about a week but it wasn't too bad. Well this week, we were told that by August 1st we have to have ALL our records put into the iPads. This means two big binders full of hundreds of teaching records from years ago. It all has to be in the iPads by the end of the month and then we have to shred the papers. We were told to set aside an hour a day so we can have all the records done on time. We did that this week, but we still have so far to go. We think we're going to have to start inputting records for 2 hours a day if we are going to finish on time. It's super tedious but it's something that has to be done and it will make the work a lot easier for future missionaries here. Unfortunately, it is very time-consuming and we didn't get much proselyting and teaching time this week.

Yesterday we had 3 investigators at church, which we haven't had in quite a while. One of them was Eddie. He actually asked us to stop visiting him, but he is going to church more than he did before.

Another was Yolanda, who will be getting baptized in October when her medical situation gets fixed. The third was Andrea, the 15-year-old niece of our Relief Society President, Hermana Dircio. She was giving a talk so she brought her niece to come watch, and then she invited us to go teach Andrea at her house with her after church. So we didn't have much notice at all to prepare for the lesson but it went pretty well! We found out she's been taught over the years by a lot of missionaries. But this is her first time in a while, so hopefully she'll take the message more seriously this time around. We are seeing her tonight so hopefully that goes well!

Other than that, not a whole lot happened this week. So much of our time was taken by our huge area book project. We are working hard.

Today is my 6-month mark here in Toms River, and I have just about one month left here. I'm trying my best to do as much good here as I can and to leave this area better than I found it.

<3 Hermana Harris

Stuff

So I have officially begun my fifth transfer here in Toms River. I've been here such a long time. 

 

Last Monday was pretty crazy because I was helping Hermana Bloxham pack up and say goodbye to our members and investigators. She wasn't expecting to get transferred so she had a lot of people to say goodbye to that day. 

 

Tuesday we had to get up really early to go to transfer conference in Morristown. Sister Bloxham got sent to Paterson, which is by far the sketchiest place that they send sisters to here, so she's in for quite the shock going from Toms River to there. My new companion is Hermana Bentley. She is from West Jordan, Utah and she's been on her mission for 7 months. She is number 7 of 9 kids, and her dad is in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! Also, I am now on my third redheaded companion!

 

Saturday was a rough day. We had 5 set appointments and 4 of them fell through. The only one that actually happened involved our investigator throwing a bunch of anti-Mormon literature at us. Soooo that was fun. Luckily we had the Roses (the awesome senior couple) with us. Elder Rose is a master of the scriptures and a former Stake President, so he was able to handle the situation very well and answer all of the questions in a way that left our investigator speechless and actually let him feel the Spirit despite his doubts. A couple hours later, after a long day of failed appointments, we went to Chick-fil-a for dinner. There was a lady sitting close to us who kept looking at us. Eventually she talked to us and told us that she isn't a member but her children are. She then gave us a Chick-fil-a gift card and thanked us for our service. It was definitely a tender mercy on a tough day. 

 

The reason we didn't email yesterday was because we had an all-mission Pday activity in Morristown. We had to be there at 8:30am, which for us missionaries in the southern part of the mission would mean leaving before 6am to get there on time. Luckily,we got permission to drive up the night before and stay at the apartment of the sisters serving in Morristown. It's pretty rare for the entire mission to be together at the same time. We all hung out and played games at a park in the morning, and then we went to the chapel for lunch. They fed us CAFE RIO! Not from the actual restaurant because there aren't any on the East Coast. But it was imitation Cafe Rio recipes and everything was sooooo good. Oh my goodness I had forgotten how much I missed Cafe Rio. It totally made my day. After lunch each of the nine zones in the mission did a skit. They were all so funny! President Taggart's son Spencer and his family were in town so they did a skit with their cute little kids and it was great. Then Spencer spoke to us for a while and told some amazing stories from his mission in Guatemala. It was a great day! We didn't get home until 9pm because the drive was so long. 

 

The mission also had a mission-wide apartment clearout. Most missionary apartments have stuff (clothes, shoes, books, etc) that was left there by previous missionaries. Our apartment had three huge trash bags full of clothes left by the missionaries that had lived here over the years. For the activity yesterday,each zone had to bring as much leftover junk as they could, and there was even a competition to see who could bring the most. Now that we all have cleared the junk out of our apartments, the senior couples are going to inspect every apartment in the next couple weeks and take notes on how clean they are. The zone that has the most overall points (from bringing a lot of junk plus having clean apartments) gets a special Pday activity with the Taggarts.

 

I know this is probably my last transfer in this area so I am working hard and I know Hermana Bentley and I are going to see miracles!

 

<3 Hermana Harris

 

These cute little girls were in their front yard and talked to us and let us hold their puppies!!

 

Hermana Bentley and Me