Lockdown, Laryngitis, and Last-Minute Miracles

This week so many things happened.

Tuesday we had a very special visitor. So back in March, President Taggart posted a very long letter on the mission website and told us all to read it. It is called "The Ricciardi Letter" and was written by a man named Danny Humphrey about 20 years ago. The letter is amazing. He mostly talks about Elder Ricciardi, who trained him when he was on his mission in England, and what he learned from him. The letter is now huge in our mission and is something every missionary is encouraged to read. When I read it many months ago, it definitely changed my perspective on my mission and encouraged me to be better.

 Anyway, long story short, Sister Ivie's dad is best friends with Danny Humphrey, and helped arrange for him to come speak to us!! It was a pretty last minute thing and we only found out about it a couple days ahead of time. About half of the mission (the missionaries serving in areas too far away didn't get to come) gathered in the Newark Chapel to listen to Danny speak to us about the Ricciardi Letter. We opened by singing "The Spirit of God", which is one of my all-time favorite hymns, and WOW the Spirit was so strong. Are there many things more powerful than 100 missionaries singing The Spirit of God? I think not.
There were parts where I had to stop singing for a bit because I was almost crying. After we sang, Danny spoke for about an hour and a half and I learned so many things from him. It was a real treat for us to get to listen to him.

Crazy side story Danny told us- when he called President Taggart to set up the visit, he asked him if he knew a Charlie Taggart. Charlie Taggart lived across the street from Danny growing up and was the reason Danny went on a mission in the first place. He encouraged him to go, he paid for his mission, and he was the only person who consistently wrote him the whole two years. If it weren't for him, Danny never would have gone on a mission, the Ricciardi letter never would have been written, and countless missionaries wouldn't have read the letter and learned so much from it. Turns out this same Charlie Taggart is President Taggart's father's cousin. When Danny and President Taggart found out the connection they both had to this amazing man, they both cried. Miracles are everywhere. Isn't God's plan so perfect?

Thursday we went to Ellis Island again. Every time we go there I ask as many people as I can where they are from because the people who visit are from all over. In one of my notebooks I have a list of countries I've met people from, and right now I'm up to 60-something countries. Whenever I meet someone from a new country I get really excited. This time around Sweden got added to the list. Also it was really cloudy which made NYC look gorgeous!

Friday we had MLC (Mission Leadership Council) in Morristown almost all day. The drive was beautiful because of all the trees and the amazing colors. We got home after 5pm, and then we had to be in our apartment by 6pm. In Jersey the night before Halloween is called Mischief Night and basically people here use it as an excuse to go do dumb things and wreak havoc and get away with it. It's supposed to be pretty dangerous. So all of us missionaries had to be in our apartments at 6pm on both the 30th and the 31st. We used that time to do Weekly Planning and practice teaching our investigators.

Another thing that took away from the time that we actually got to spend in our area teaching our people this week was that I was even sicker than I was last week. My stuffy nose more or less went away, but my cough got progressively worse all week long. I kept thinking it would get better on its own but it didn't. There were some points when I would try to talk but instead I would just end up coughing uncontrollably for a few minutes before being able to actually say a thing. This obviously makes missionary work difficult because talking is a pretty important part of my job here. Last night I called the Mission Doctor about it and he thinks I have laryngitis. So today we stopped by the pharmacy and I got some cough syrup he recommended that will hopefully help.

Saturday night we were pretty frustrated because we hadn't had an investigator at church the whole month of October despite all our best efforts. That night we called and texted everyone we are teaching to invite them to church and nobody sounded like they would be able to make it. We were pretty disappointed. But yesterday right before church, two people unexpectedly walked in- Henry, a recent convert who was baptized in June and hasn't been to church in months, and Ivo, our Cuban investigator. We were thrilled to see both of them! I sat by Ivo during Sacrament Meeting and he was so fun. After each hymn he would quietly say "Hallelujah" or "Gloria a Dios" (Glory to God), and after every other sentence when people were bearing their testimonies he would say "Amen". He also participated actively in the other classes and loved it. We are really excited to see him progress more.

I love New Jersey. I love Hispanics. I love the Gospel. I love my Savior, and I love representing Him. I would shout it from the rooftops, but my voice is pretty hoarse right now due to my laryngitis
;)

-Hermana Hannah Harris

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