Monday Sister Ivie and I got to do something called the Fearbuster. It's a tradition in our mission where the brand new missionaries fresh off the plane get taken to downtown Newark right after getting picked up from the airport. There they meet some more experienced missionaries and are assigned one as a companion for the activity. They are told to stay with their companion but they don't know why. We all stand in a circle and sing Called to Serve, and on the word "onward" all the experience missionaries scatter and run in all directions, and the new missionaries are a little confused but know they have to stay with their companion so they follow them. When the new missionaries catch up to their companions, the experienced missionaries then give them their first experience at street contacting and handing out a Book of Mormon. There were only two new sisters coming in this transfer so Sister Ivie and I were the only sisters there besides the new ones. My companion for the activity was Sister Mora, who is originally from Mexico but grew up in Kentucky. It was so fun to show her how to talk to people on the street, and she was so confident and comfortable and had no problem testifying to people she had just met. We found some pretty cool people and got their information and sent it to the missionaries who live in their areas. It was a really fun experience and brought back memories of that hot and humid day over 15 months ago, when I was fresh off the plane from Mexico and pretty overwhelmed to suddenly find myself talking to strangers in downtown Newark. Time flies.
Transfer conference was on Tuesday and I got my final companion! Her name is Hermana Nielsen and she is from St George, Utah, and she is the sweetest thing ever. We worked really hard this week and found a ton of new people and got a lot of referrals and she is already learning her way around the area really quickly.
Transfers are usually 6 weeks, but this transfer is 5 weeks because flights around Christmastime are crazy so they are sending my group home a week early. Having a short transfer is going to make these next few weeks insanely busy, because we have to go on exchanges with 7 companionships of sisters in 5 (now just over 4) weeks, in addition to Thanksgiving, a Christmas fireside,a temple trip, and a couple special trips for departing missionaries. So needless to say it is pretty stressful but I know it will all work out.
Friday Sister Nielsen had a meeting in Morristown for newly called leaders, so I was on exchange in Morristown for a few hours with Sister Bascom, who is the companion of the other newly called sister training leader. Sister Bascom was in the MTC so it was fun to reminisce with her about the MTC days and to see how far we have come in almost 17 months.
Saturday was going to be our only normal proselyting day this week, when we got to follow the normal missionary schedule without any special meetings or planning getting in the way. Well missions are full of surprises. At 7:45am the Assistants called us and asked us to drive up to Paterson (about an hour away) ASAP. There was a stake youth activity where the youth were going to go on splits with missionaries for a few hours to see what missionary work is like. Only problem was that nobody remembered to ask the missionaries to help until about an hour before we were supposed to be there. So we booked it up to Paterson, picked up two 16-year-old girls, took them back to Elizabeth, and proselyted with them for about 3 hours. We split up so I was with one girl and Sister Nielsen was with another. We taught Pedro about tithing and he was so willing to pay it because he knew the blessings it would bring. We then knocked doors for a while and found a couple really cool people. One of them said she was really impressed with how we were so happy and energetic about knocking doors in the cold on a Saturday morning, and she let us set another appointment with her :) The two girls thought it was the coolest thing ever to be out with "real-life" missionaries and they both can't wait to be old enough to go on missions.
I am stressing out a bit to know that I go home a month from today, but I am trying to just work as hard as I can and give everything I have to the Lord and make this the best month ever! I love being a missionary and feeling the Spirit every time I testify to someone. I'm not slowing down. Go go go!
<3 Hermana Harris
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