I'm Not Quite Dead Yet!

Hello hello hello! This week was awesome!

 

Tuesday morning was Pedro's baptismal interview. We walked with him to the church so our district leader Elder Hilton could give him his interview. He passed with flying colors and was so happy. We walked him from the church to his house and talked about how he felt. It was super cold but none of us cared. When we got back to his house and said goodbye, he had the biggest smile on his face and said "Hermanitas, gracias por salvarme" (Sisters, thank you for saving me). It was such a sweet moment and I almost cried because the Spirit was so strong.

 

Afterwards was probably the best District Meeting I've ever had. We talked a lot about the Plan of Salvation and what it means for us and for the people we teach. We all ate lunch together afterwards and talked about deep doctrine, which Is a favorite subject of missionaries :)

 

After District Meeting we did a trio exchange with two companionships of sisters. Sister Nielsen went with Sister Rogers and Sister Hale in their area in Plainfield, and I went with Sister Robinson and Sister Troconis in their area in Scotch Plains. It was a pretty easy exchange because the sisters I was with are superstars and know exactly what they're doing. Sister Troconis is from Venezuela and has only been in the mission for about two months. She just barely joined the church about a year and a half ago, but she knows so much. From watching her teach it is hard to believe that she is so young in both the mission and the Church.

 

Wednesday we came back to our area in Elizabeth and went to a Noche de Hogar (family home evening) activity at the church. Two elders in the ward, Elder Jacobs and Elder Strech, did a cool Book of Mormon battle reenactment game based on the war in Mormon chapter 9. Some of us were Nephites and some of us were Lamanites and we had to throw "weapons" at each other. It was super fun!

 

Thursday was Thanksgiving!! Our zone did a Turkey Bowl in Newark with another zone of missionaries and it was actually really fun even though I'm not the world's biggest football fan. Last year it was snowing and super cold, but this year it was a good temperature and we had a lot of fun. We were definitely sore the next day though. For dinner we went with the Ortiz family (a super great Dominican family in the ward) to the house of a friend of theirs who lives by Scotch Plains. Turns out there were four other companionships of missionaries from different wards who were also invited so it was really fun to be with them. The house was so crowded and there were probably fifty-something people there. The hosts said that they had lost count of how many people they had invited and they weren't expecting that many. But luckily there was enough food for everyone! It was a good mix of American food (turkey, potatoes, etc) and Dominican food (rice and beans and fried plantains) and it was awesome!

 

Friday we had MLC in Morristown. I always learn a lot during MLC. President Taggart talked a lot about trusting the Lord because he has a perfect plan for us.

 

Saturday was rainy and wet but we still were out working a lot and found some cool people! That night there was a wedding for some members of the ward and they asked the missionaries to sing a song for everyone. It was really pretty and of course there was a ton of great HIspanic food.

 

Sunday was such a special day because Pedro was baptized!!! He showed up early to church in a brand new white shirt and tie. He was so excited to be baptized. President and Sister Taggart happened to be there because they gave talks in Sacrament Meeting (with translators) and they stayed for the baptism! Also Sister Ivie was able to come from her new area in Perth Amboy to see the baptism :) It all went really smoothly and so many people from the ward were there to help and show support. They even already had his home teachers assigned and introduced them to him. I am just so grateful for all the miracles I've seen here on my mission and for the change I've seen in Pedro since we first started teaching him in August. Before he started learning about the Gospel, he was so lonely and didn't really know his purpose in life. Now he is so happy and has a place and knows why he is here. He just radiates joy, because that is what the Gospel does to people :) I am so grateful God put us in the right place at the right time and we were able to talk to him on the street that day.

 
 

People keep asking me how I am feeling about "dying" in 2 weeks and I don't really know what to say because it still doesn't seem real. I know it is almost over but I am still working hard and giving all I can to the Lord. In the words of my favorite comedy, I'm not quite dead yet! ;)

 

<3 Hermana Harris

 

 

 

Busy, Busy, Busy!

 

Another great week has come and gone so fast!

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

 

 

 

No Pressure

This week was fantastic! It was Sister Ivie's last week here and we worked super hard. I feel like the whole month of October was kind of a drought for us because we were working so hard but didn't see much fruit of our efforts. But after this week, we decided that Heavenly Father had been testing us and our patience because this week we finally saw some great results.

My sickness wasn't getting any better so I finally went to Urgent Care on Tuesday after Zone Meeting. They got me some cough syrup and an antibiotic pill. They seem to be working since my cough is almost gone! The only annoying thing was that the cough syrup makes me really drowsy so it was really hard to stay awake and focused in some of the lessons.

We had our last exchange of the transfer from Tuesday to Wednesday. The last few weeks have been super busy with a ton of meetings so we ended up with two companionships left and only one possible day to do exchanges. So Sister Ivie and I decided to divide and conquer and hit two companionships at once. Luckily both were in Perth Amboy so we all just met up and Sister Ivie went with one companionship and I went with the other. I was with Hermanas Becker and Detrinidad, who are both fabulous missionaries. I've always thought they would both be great companions, so I'm glad I got to be companions with them at least for the day :)

Getting Pandebono (a delicious cheesy Colombian roll) with Hermanas Becker and Detrinidad

Saturday morning we had an amazing lesson with Pedro. We were pretty worried about him because he hadn't been to church since September. For over a month he always told us he would be going to church on Sunday but then his work always got in the way. We had also extended him about three different baptismal dates because we always had to keep pushing the date back due to him not being ready yet. We had all this in mind as we prepared his lesson Saturday morning. We had been planning on teaching him about temples, but we felt that he needed something else. We decided to teach him about repentance because he had been struggling with forgiving himself of past mistakes and feeling like he was worthy to be baptized. We read Alma 7:11-13 with him and talked about the Atonement and what Christ did for us, and then we read verse 15- Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him this day by going into the waters of baptism.

We explained to him that he doesn't need to be perfect to be baptized; he just needs to be willing to work towards it through the help of Jesus Christ. We invited him to be baptized on November 29th, and this time, instead of hesitating and laughing uncomfortably, he simply said "Yes" with a huge smile on his face. He then gave the closing prayer and thanked God for sending us to change his life. He came to church yesterday for the first time since September and he stayed the whole 3 hours and participated in the classes. At the end he mentioned that he is going to come every Sunday now and he's going to tell his boss that he can't work on Sunday's anymore. It was such a "proud mom" moment for me :)

We also visited Melva, the wife of our awesome Cuban investigator Ivo who is on baptism date. We hadn't seen her in a while, so we asked her if she had been reading the Book of Mormon and praying to know if it's true, and we were pleasantly surprised when she told us that she had read and prayed and she knows it's true! We taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she accepted a baptismal date as well!

In addition to the people on baptism date, we were also able to get a lot of really solid new investigators, so I am excited to work with them and see them progress as well.

As is the case every week in Jersey, in addition to the amazing lessons there are always some that are pretty weird. There are simply a lot of strange people in New Jersey, especially Elizabeth, and we never have a shortage of random experiences. Here is the lesson report we put in our area book for one of our lessons this week, in which a recent convert Jorge met up with us to teach his sick ex-mother-in-law in her hospital room:

"We were 10 minutes late but Jorge was right on time and was there waiting for us. We spent 5 minutes on follow up/opening prayer and then taught the Restoration in about 5 minutes and then Jorge took over and went on for 20 minutes about who-knows-what, then a random old man passing out religious literature showed up and talked for about 5 minutes (and gave us marriage advice), then a couple friends of hers joined us and gave her a snowman that sang "Let It Snow" for 5 minutes, she cried and they bonded for about 2 minutes while we awkwardly looked on, then they chatted for 5 minutes while we sat there, then we prayed and said our goodbyes for 3 minutes, for a grand total of 60 minute and quite possibly the single greatest hour of our young lives."

And thus ended the twelfth week of the reign of Sister Ivie and Sister Harris. I have loved spending these 12 weeks with my MTC companion and seeing how much we both have progressed since then. Sadly, Sister Ivie is getting transferred and tomorrow I will have a new companion for my last 5 weeks. I know my time left is winding down, and I'm trying so hard to give the Lord everything I've got. It's funny; when I started my mission I felt like I was giving so much to the Lord, but now I feel like I've gained so much more than I've given. I've given 16 months of my life, but in return He's given me a better understanding of my purpose in life, a strong testimony of the truth of the Gospel, and some lifelong best friends. I wouldn't trade this experience for the world.

< 3 Hermana Harris

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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La Vida Loca

Exchanges with the Elizabeth English sisters a couple weeks ago 

¡Buenas tardes!  This week I was the sickest I've been my whole mission, which isn't really saying much because I've been really lucky and haven't had any health problems. But this week I had a sore throat and was coughing and sneezing a lot. I'm mostly better now, but my voice is still a little hoarse.

Thursday we had a lesson that was so inspired, even though we didn't know it at first. After Weekly Planning, we walked to the house of our 9-year-old recent convert Giovanni to teach him one of the new member lessons. When we got there his mom, who is also a member, told us he was sick and asleep, so we ended up teaching her instead. We had prepared a lesson for Giovanni, but when we found out we would just be teaching his mom we quickly chose a Mormon Message video to show her on our iPads. We showed her a video called "The Will of God", which talks about how God sometimes hurts us or gives us trials for our own good because He sees the bigger picture. Turns out that it was exactly what she needed to hear because she was struggling to understand a certain trial she was going through. Towards the end of the lesson I was getting worried about walking home. It was about 8 pm and it was really dark outside and we had about a 45 minute walk ahead of us to get back to our apartment. We walk home in the dark all the time without any problems, but for some reason I was really nervous and just had a feeling that we would get robbed if we walked home that night. When it was time for us to leave, Sister Ivie casually mentioned that we were walking that day, and Giovanni's mom offered to drive us home, which was such an answer to my prayers. We almost never get offered rides home on walking days, but I know the Lord was protecting us that night :)

Friday was Zone Conference, which is when about 3 zones get together and listen to trainings from President and the Assistants and usually a guest speaker. These happen about once every 3 months, and it was sad knowing this was my last one. In the meeting they emphasized teaching people simply and powerfully. The guest speaker was Elder Cherrington, who taught religion classes at BYU. He talked for a whole hour about Joseph Smith and the history of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. It was super interesting and I loved every minute of it. They also fed us a great lunch which is always a plus :)

In Sacrament Meeting yesterday I gave a talk on the blessings of being obedient. Obedience is something we hear a lot about as missionaries so I had plenty to talk about. I quoted from my favorite scripture, Mosiah 2:41. I love it because it says that those who obey the commandments are blessed both temporally and spiritually. So we just need to keep the commandments and have faith that God will take care of the rest.

Yesterday was crazy busy. We only had time to come home after church and eat a quick lunch before heading off to back-to back appointments all afternoon long. It was pretty stressful because we had appointments every hour and we had to drive around to pick up and drop off some members that were coming with us so we had to keep each lesson to about 30 minutes or less, which is a challenge with Hispanics because they talk so much. We were teaching our Cuban investigator last night and he hardly let us say anything at all because he would not stop talking.

Sister Ivie and I are working hard and having fun. We keep each other laughing all the time no matter what is going on. Each day as a missionary feels like the longest day of my life but it is also so rewarding. I am so grateful for this time I have to focus on what's most important. I know it will be over all too soon so I am making the most of it.

<3 Hermana Hannah Harris

The Three-day Thriller

This week was super stressful and crazy. There were some sisters in a nearby area who were really struggling with each other and their area. As Sister Training Leaders, it is our job to do everything we can to help them. When we heard about the struggles they were having, we talked to the Assistants to the President and determined that we should do a 3-day long exchange with them. We started the exchange on Monday night by having them tell us how they were doing physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. They both were having a really rough time. We helped them set some goals for what they wanted to learn on the exchange. For the exchange, Sister Ivie went to their area with one of them and I stayed in Elizabeth with the other one.

Throughout the exchange I did my best to work really hard and teach a lot of people and get the sister as involved as possible in the missionary work. She loved teaching our investigators and helping them as much as she could and we saw a few miracles. We visited a Carlos, a Dominican man whose family are all members. He has been taking the missionary lessons for a long time without any real progress. We were pretty close to dropping him. Usually when we teach him, his whole family is there and it is all very loud and distracting. But when we visited him this week, his wife wasn't home so we taught him outside in front of his house. It was just us and him with no distractions and that helped a lot. We shared a simple lesson about repentance and then I felt prompted to ask him what was stopping him from being baptized.  Before I could even ask, out of nowhere he said that he knows he needs to be baptized. I was really shocked and then asked him what was stopping him. He said "Nothing, I just don't want to rush. But I want to set a goal of when to be baptized." I knew that a baptismal date in the next month or so would be too soon and scare him, so I told him that my last Sunday here in Jersey will be December 13th and that I really want to see him be baptized before I go home. He agreed and though that day was a good goal. So know he is on date for my last Sunday here! We are going to be visiting him more regularly now and helping him work towards his goal.

The exchange ended on a rather dramatic note. On Thursday, the last day of the exchange, the sister went into the bedroom for language study so she could read out loud to herself in Spanish. When language study was over, I called out to her so we could start lunch, but she didn't say anything. I thought maybe she didn't hear me so I called out again, and didn't hear anything. I went into the bedroom and saw that she had fallen asleep during language study. She was sitting on Sister Ivie's bed leaned up against the wall. Her breathing was irregular and seems to be pretty labored, and she was making faces as if she was having a bad dream. I tried to gently wake her up but she wouldn't. I then called one of her former companions to ask if is was something that occurred regularly with her. She said that she'd never seen this happen before. I called the mission doctor and he told me to grab her shoulders and tell her loudly and firmly to wake up. When that didn't work, he told me to get a cup of water and splash it in her face. I got a cup of water and sprinkled a bit of it on her, and when that didn't work, I dumped what was left in the cup straight onto her face. She flinched a little but didn't wake up. The doctor told me to call 911. At this point my hands were shaking and I was freaking out. I remember thinking "I've had exchanges end badly before, but I can't have someone die on my watch!" I dialed 911 and explained what was going on, and 5 minutes later there were about 5 paramedics in our apartment. They were frantically asking me questions about her medical history and I was trying to explain to them that I didn't really know anything about her. After they weren't able to wake her up, they lifted her off the bed and carried her into the ambulance. They had me sit in the front of the ambulance while they were in the back trying to wake her up. It was my first ambulance ride so that was interesting. During the ride, President and Sister Taggart called and asked me what was going on (they had heard from the Mission Doctor) so I tried my best to explain the situation even though I didn't really know. She finally woke up while we were on the way to the hospital. She didn't remember what had happened and was understandably pretty confused. Sister Ivie and the other sister came and met us at the hospital and we had to basically just sit in the ER's waiting room for four hours while they were doing blood tests on her trying to figure out what had happened. The doctors still weren't sure exactly what had happened but it sounded like they thought it was some sort of anxiety attack she had in her sleep. After she finally got discharged, the four of us went back to their area to end the exchange and we went out to dinner because we were all starving and hadn't eaten since before the whole ER run happened.

So all is well and I am really glad she was okay. At the end the exchange, she told me that she was doing a lot better physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually and that she felt like she had found her purpose again as a missionary :)

On Friday and Saturday, we had another exchange but this one was a lot a lot less dramatic. I was with a brand-new missionary and she is incredibly prepared and happy so it was a pretty easy exchange for me.

Wow that was long. Props to anyone who actually read the whole thing!
I love being a missionary!

<3 Hermana Hannah Harris

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