Down South

Well I have officially been transferred to my second area! Saying goodbye to everyone I've come to love in Union City was super hard but now I am in my new area with my new companion! I am now in Toms River which is wayyy down south in the mission. It took 3 hours to drive here from Morristown. My new companion is SIster Daines. She is from Idaho and is #7 out of 11 children! She is one transfer younger than I am in the mission. 

 

There was a big change in the mission this week. The total number of missionaries is going down because the big group of people that came out soon after the age change is going home, so there are more missionaries going home than are arriving. There used to be 12 Zones in the mission, but at transfer conference on Tuesday President announced that now there will only be 10, because some areas are closing and others are getting moved into different zones. Most of the changes have been happening in the southern part of the mission (where I am now) because it's not nearly as densely populated down here as it is up north. A lot of areas down here are getting absorbed by other companionships to make up for the missionaries going home. 

 

There used to be 2 elders and 2 sisters in the Spanish branch here. But the elders both got transferred out and now the Sister Daines and I are covering their old area as well as the original sisters' area. So now it is just the two of us in the branch and no elders. Our new area is HUGE. It includes Lakewood in the north and goes down to the southern border of the mission, almost to Atlantic City. It includes 40 miles of the famous Jersey Shore so I am excited to go visit the beach on Pdays (when it's not snowing like it is today :/ )

 

This week we got hardly any missionary work done because we have been in the process of moving apartments. We are moving into the apartment that the elders in this area used to live in, and apartment that the sisters originally lived in is getting closed. So this week we had to deep clean that apartment and clear out everything before the lease ended, and move everything into the elders' old apartment. We got all the food that the elders left in their apartment plus all the food that Sister Daines and her previous companion had in their apartment. There is also another apartment here the mission is closing down that used to have English-speaking sisters in it, and they left a lot of food too. So now we have 3 apartments' worth of food in our kitchen! :D So we won't have to buy much food for quite a while! #dreamcometrue

 

Now I am no longer in a walking area! We have a car! This week I drove a car for the first time since I left home 7 months ago!

 

Here is my new address! Please send mail to this address instead of the mission home because we are about 3 hours south of the mission home and mail would take forever to get to me from there. 

 

83 Walnut St Apt #49

Toms River NJ 08753

 

<3 Hermana Harris

At Transfer Conference! Sister Detrinidad (on the left) is from Nicaragua and served with me in Union City.  She trained Sister Parker (next to her) and I trained Sister Stone, and now Sister Parker and Sister Stone are companions in Union City!

 

Hermana Soriano

Eddy and Evelyn

My miracle converts Carlos and Sebastian, and Argus will be getting baptized soon!

It was so hard to say goodbye to them!

Odalis (a menos active that we visited every week) and her cute kids Jade and Juji

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Empire State Building

So here's something fun! The Empire State Building is sometimes lit up in fun colors. So every time I've seen it a different color during my 6 months here I've taken a picture of it with the intent of sending it later. Now that I'm leaving this area here are the pics!

Red, White & Blue 

Purple! 

It was lit up blue and white for the 8 days of Hanukkah

 

Christmas! 

Union City Forever

Well there are just a couple days left of my fourth transfer here. It is very rare for somebody to stay in the same area for five transfers so I am almost for sure getting transferred. Plus I am done training Sister Stone now so it just makes sense that I would get sent somewhere else and she will stay here to lead the area. I will find out on Tuesday where I am going and who my next companion will be.

 

I am so grateful to have had Union City as my first area and that I was able to stay here for four transfers (almost six months). It's hard to picture myself loving any other area just as much as I love it here. Union City really is the Promised Land for Spanish missionaries in Jersey. It is one of only three Spanish wards in Jersey (the other two being West New York and Jersey City, everywhere else is Spanish branches). It is also one of the only sister's walking areas in the mission (which I am grateful for because everyone's always saying that missionaries gain weight, but so far I haven't, and I attribute it to the fact that I've been walking around these streets nonstop since August.)  EVERYONE here speaks Spanish which is a dream come true for a stateside Spanish missionary. There are some areas where it's impossible to find anyone who speaks Spanish but here it's no problem at all. It's the most densely populated city in America which is super fun... finding people to talk to is never a problem! Also, as if this place wasn't cool enough already, it's right across the Hudson River from Manhattan and there's a great view of the Empire State Building. The ward here is awesome, the members are wonderful, and I have met so many people I will never forget. Sorry for bragging, but I just really love this place <3

 

The next time I email I will be in my new area with my new companion! I will miss Union City and Sister Stone but I am excited for the change that is coming!

 

<3 Hermana Harris

 

​Obispo (Bishop) Ernest Ernest (yes his first name is also his last name)

 

​Hermano Jimenez in the bishopric... from Costa Rica!

 

​Hermana Ernest

​Sedney and Jonathan

 

Alfredo and Rosalba from Guatemala.

Alfredo is an investigator and Rosalba is less-active. Their kids are adorable!

 

​Hermana Lara... our best friend

 

Miracles

This week was the coldest week I've had so far. We got through December with hardly any snow, but this week there was snow on the ground almost every day. The worst is walking home at 8:45 at night when it's 11 degrees outside with a wind chill making it feel like zero. But I can handle it!

 

More importantly, this week was a week of MIRACLES!

 

So Cristian is the cool Argentine hippie/skater/vegetarian/yoga master that got baptized at the beginning of November. Two weeks later he moved back to Argentina and I hadn't heard from him since. I had been wondering how he was doing and if he was still going to church there. This week I heard from Sister Galvan that her mom had found him on Facebook and found out that he is indeed alive and well living in Salta, Argentina, and is going to church on his skateboard :) It made me so happy to know he is doing so well! He is also planning on coming back to Union City on March 5th. 

 

The other companionship of sisters here in Union City have had this investigator from Guatemala for about 6 months now. He was going to be baptized in August but because of some crimes he's committed in the past he had to get interviewed by one of the mission leaders, who then had to send in his baptism request to Salt Lake City, where President Monson himself had to approve whether he could be baptized. Meanwhile, he had faithfully continued to go to church and meet with the missionaries.  His request had been being processed for so long and none of us knew when or if we would ever hear back. Well last week the sisters got a call from President Taggart saying he had received a letter signed by President Monson saying this guy can finally get baptized! So now his baptism is this coming Sunday!

 

This transfer our zone's focus is "binding the Lord" based off of D&C 82:10- "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." Each week we are to pick one thing we want to do better, and to "bind the Lord" and ask for a certain thing in return. Our Zone Leaders had chosen that they were going to get 10 contacts a day without fail, and in return, they wanted a baptism this transfer. Last week there were only 2 weeks left in the transfer and they didn't have any progressing investigators or anyone on date. I'm sure they were getting pretty discouraged and wondering if they would actually get their baptism this transfer. But then another miracle happened! A Mexican lady showed up at church and told the Zone Leaders that she had received all the missionary lessons in Jersey City but because of her job has moved to Union City. She said that she wanted to be baptized as soon as possible. So they picked her up and now she is getting baptized this Saturday, two days before the transfer ends! If that's not a miracle I don't know what is!

 

And finally, yesterday was probably the most rewarding day of my mission. Carlos, who was baptized two weeks ago, received the Priesthood in church, and then an hour later he baptized his 16-year-old son Sebastian! It all went perfectly. The baptism was packed! The Young Men and Young Women got involved, and so many people were there! This ward already loves Carlos and his family so much! We only first met Carlos six weeks ago and now he already was able to receive the Priesthood and baptize his son. Seeing them in the font together was the best moment ever. I have so much love for that family!! Carlos was just GLOWING with happiness yesterday, and knowing that Sister Stone and I were able to bring him that happiness was just priceless.

Carlos and Sebastian

 

Carlos has one more son, Argus, who is 13. He never participates in lessons because he has a hearing problem, and our gringa Spanish is hard enough to understand anyway without having hearing difficulties. But he is getting surgery on the 21st to have a Cochlear implant put in, so Carlos is hoping that will help his hearing and make him feel more comfortable listening to us!

 

I am down to the last week of my fourth transfer in Union City. This time next week I will know for sure whether I am going or staying, but I know the odds are against me. I am trying to make the most of the short time I have left here because I have so much love for this place, this ward, and the people who live here!

 

Miracles are all around, we just have to look for them and acknowledge them!

 

<3 Hermana Harris

Snow!

After the coldest walk ever

My reaction when I hear the forecast is a high of 11 degrees

 

Feliz Ano Nuevo!

Hey everyone and Happy New Year!!

 

We didn't do much for New Year's Eve. The ward had a party, but it started at 8pm which in Hispanic time really means people didn't show up until 10pm ... which is a problem when we have to be in the apartment at 9pm.  We just went to bed early that night... pretty sure that was the first New Year's Eve in 10 years that I didn't stay up until midnight. Also it was weird to think that the huge Times Square New Year's party with over a million people was just three miles away across the Hudson river... meanwhile, we went to bed at 10pm. Because that's what champions do.

 

So I just can't stop talking about how amazing Carlos is. We had a lesson with him on Wednesday, 3 days after he was baptized, and he was asking us how to pay tithing and who to give it to. So we brought him a tithing envelope the next time we saw him and then yesterday he brought his envelope to church to give it to the bishopric. First Sunday as a member and already willingly paying tithing! This guy is awesome!

 

Also our New Year's miracle was that Carlos texted us and told us that his 16-year-old son Sebastian wants to get baptized. He really enjoyed his dad's baptism and felt the Spirit and knew that he wanted to follow his example. So we put Sebastian on date for next Sunday the 11th! It is perfect timing because Carlos is going to receive the priesthood in church that day, so he can baptize Sebastian that same day after church :)

 

Carlos was confirmed yesterday in Sacrament Meeting! He showed up early and had his white shirt and tie :) He was so happy!!

 

So apparently there was a good amount of snow on the ground in Temecula this week... I just find it very strange that there was more snow back at home in sunny California than there was here. We only had one day of thin, wet snow this week. It hasn't even been bad!

 

Last but not least, let me tell y'all about Gary. On Sister Stone's first Saturday here back in November, we were at the church for a Relief Society activity and helped clean up afterwards. We were sitting in the foyer of the church when suddenly a confused-looking white guy in his 50's walks in, looks around wide-eyed for a few seconds, and then says "I was wondering if you have any literature?" So of course we were thrilled (although slightly confused) and immediately gave him a Book of Mormon, sat him down, and started teaching him about it. He is probably one of the only white people that lives in Union City (he grew up here and just never left) and he doesn't speak Spanish so we gave his information to the English-speaking sisters and they tried to get him to come to the English-speaking ward in Jersey City. But Gary is stubborn and insisted that his Spanish was sufficient enough to attend a Spanish ward, so he came to church in Union City for about a month (but the missionaries had to sit by him and translate everything because his Spanish really is not sufficient). Eventually the English sisters finally convinced him to go to the Jersey City ward so he can actually understand what's going on. They asked him to be baptized and he said yes but not until his birthday, March 18th, because he "wants to have two things to celebrate that day." So we are not teaching him but we see him walking around Union City all the time (he stand out pretty easily because white guy+ Union City=strange). We ran into him on the street three times this week. And he's always reminding us that he's "still penciled in for March 18th." He's funny!

 

I hope everyone is doing great. The work is going super well here in Union City. I am almost for sure getting transferred out of this area after I finish training Sister Stone in 2 more weeks. I really have fallen in love with this place and this ward and it's gonna be so hard for me to leave it... I'm trying to really make the most of the time I have left here.

 

<3 Hermana Harris

A Very Feliz Navidad

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas!

 

On Christmas Eve, Hermano and Hermana Aragon (he is the Elders Quorum President and she is the Relief Society President) took all 8 of us Union City missionaries to Olive Garden! That must have been a huge check! They're awesome. It was a really fun Christmas Eve treat!

 

Christmas was great. In the morning we opened our presents from home (the ones that we hadn't opened yet haha) and then we went out and contacted like crazy. We gave out 6 Book of Mormons and probably 40 He is the Gift cards! First we visited Martha (the Ecuadorian lady we reactivated) and then we went to spend the afternoon with the Quiles family (the same one that fed us on Thanksgiving). They fed us a super good lunch and then we got to Skype our families at their apartment!

 

Calling my family on Christmas morning to set up our Skype time for that afternoon.

I may or may not have been crying a bit ;)

 

 

 

 

Christmas Day I hit my 6-months mark! It was perfect because I got to Skype my family for Christmas and it had been exactly 6 months since I had talked to them. I was proud of myself for only crying at the very end haha. It was so good to talk to them and see how they were doing. 

 

This is my only Christmas in the mission (I should get home two days before Christmas next year) so I definitely made the most of it! How special it is to be a full-time representative of Jesus Christ during the time of year when we celebrate His birth. It was weird being away from home but I know this is where I needed to be this Christmas. 

 

Oh something else cool is that Sister Galvan got called as a sister training leader and now she is in Bayonne so she gets to do exchanges with the sisters in Union City, Jersey City, and West New York. So on Friday I went to Bayonne and she was here in her old area with Sister Stone for the day so I'm sure that was fun!

 

Also, CARLOS WAS BAPTIZED YESTERDAY!! He is amazing. He had his baptismal interview on Friday (I missed it because I was on exchange in Bayonne) but he passed it with flying colors. The baptism went smoothly and he was so happy. At the end of the service he asked us if he could share his testimony. He is usually super quiet so we were surprised that he wanted to speak in front of a bunch of ward members he barely knows, but it was a beautiful and simple testimony. He is by far the easiest investigator I've ever found! We found him on December 2nd and he was baptized on the 28th! He just progressed so quickly and kept all his commitments without hesitation. One of those people that the Lord truly prepared to receive the Gospel. We found him the week we contacted 250 people. So we may have to contact a ton of people to find the prepared one, but it is so worth it when we do find them <3 He was truly a Christmas Miracle :) His two sons come to church with him but haven't been progressing as fast as he has. But now that Carlos is a member we are going to work really hard to get his sons to follow his example ;) I'll keep y'all posted on how that goes!

 

Peace, Love, and Happy New Year!

<3 Hermana Harris

 

 

 

First Time in NYC!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

 

Well this was definitely the most fun week of my mission so far. There was so much stuff going on! Definitely a rough week for lessons because we had very little proselyting time, but it was a super fun week!

 

First of all, Carlos is doing great and progressing quickly. He is super excited to get baptized this Sunday. His two sons that he takes to church with him aren't ready for baptism yet because they aren't as enthusiastic about it as he is, but we know they will come around eventually if their dad continues to be a good example to them. 

 

Wednesday my zone went to a fun little Christmas activity called "Traditions with the Taggarts". We went to the mission home and President and Sister Taggart fed us a super good meal and then played Christmas games and sang Christmas songs and stuff like that. Each of the 12 zones in the mission got to go on a different day, which was nice because it was a smaller group each time.

 

Thursday was awesome!! In my mission we get to go to the Manhattan Temple twice a year, in June and December. Since I got into the mission field in August, this was my first temple trip since before I left on my mission back in June. So that was super exciting! I had missed the temple so much. What made it even more exciting was that it was my first time ever in New York City! First our zone met at the Union City chapel, then we took a bus through the Lincoln Tunnel (the entrance to the tunnel is in Union City) which goes under the Hudson River.

Once we arrived in NYC we got off the bus and went into the subway. The New York subways are a crazy place! So many people and it's so easy to get lost. Also it's kinda stressful when you're with a group of 20 missionaries and you all have to stay together. We actually did end up getting lost and waiting for the wrong train. But then, a miracle happened! Hermana Lara (the Dominican lady in our ward who fed us on Thanksgiving) just randomly showed up on the same subway platform as us on her way to work. She was able to show us which train we really had to get on. Without her, we definitely would have been late to our temple session. And how crazy is it that out of all the subway stations in New York City she was in the right place at the right time to help us out. Tender mercies!

 

 

 

Super happy in front of the Manhattan LDS Temple

 

 After we were done in the temple we had a little bit of time to walk around and buy food from street vendors. Then we had to walk from where the temple is (66th and Broadway) to 40th street where we could find a bus headed back to Jersey. We walked down Broadway and through Times Square!! Meanwhile I'm looking around in awe like a little kid at Disneyland. Sister Stone and I were taking pictures like crazy and but our zone leaders made us keep walking because they wanted all of us to stay together so nobody would get lost. So we would just run ahead of the group a little so we would have a couple seconds to stop and take a picture before everyone caught up to us. But hey, it was my first time in New York City, I deserved to take pictures!

Also, the He is the Gift initiative that the Church has been doing this Christmas is huge. They have it in Times Square! Three different posters for it in this one picture!

 

 

 

 

Friday was another awesome day! We had an all-mission Christmas "conference" but in reality it was mostly a big Christmas party with 250 people. There were a couple speakers and then we had an amazing lunch provided by the Relief Society of the ward there. They also set up the cultural center of the building to look like a beautiful winter wonderland. We ate and played games and there was a funny variety show with performances by President Taggart, the Assistants, and other missionaries. It was so fun! At the end they gave us our Christmas packages and letters from home <3

 Then later that same day, right after we got home from the all-mission conference, we went straight to the ward's Christmas party. It was supposed to start at 7 but the opening prayer wasn't even said until 8:30 because when you combine Mormon standard time with Hispanic standard time, parties always start at least an hour and a half late. When it was time to eat, the members had the 8 missionaries sit at a special table where everyone could see us and they served us our food like we were the guests of honor. Then they had us sing a Christmas song (without warning us beforehand) and the members were taking videos with their phones of it as if we were the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It was weird. And then the bishopric presented each of us with little Christmas presents and we had to go up and accept our gifts one at a time as they called our names and everyone clapped for us. Once again, people were taking pictures and videos of us. We're pretty much celebrities here. 

 

I hope everyone has a great Christmas! And remember that even though the parties and presents are fun, the real purpose is to remember our Savior.

 

<3 Hermana Harris