Mar 17...walking area

So to be honest I don't remember a whole lot of what we did this week. I know that we did a lot of walking. Monday night we were walking home from a lesson and a huge wind storm hit and we were basically walking in place so it took awhile to get home. Then on Tuesday we woke up to some snow! I thought it was finally starting to get beautiful. On Thursday we had a district meeting to talk about goals that we want to set as a district and prepared for zone training meeting that we had on Saturday. The district meeting was very inspiring we started with sharing our testimonies of why we came on a mission. I think it is so amazing to look back on that because it keeps me motivated and knowing that I only have about 6 months left it makes me want to work my hardest and accomplish all that Heavenly Father has in store for me. There is a girl we are teaching right now who I taught in Spanish Fork and then she moved here to Provo. She got baptized in January and when we saw her this week she told us that she has been going and doing baptisms for the dead every Monday! We also have this 9 year old we are teaching right now who was baptized back in November and it was so amazing at the end of the word of wisdom lesson she bore her testimony and then her 10 year old brother who hasn't been baptized said he wants to start taking the lessons so he can get baptized soon. We had another miracle on Friday, we had just finished a lesson and we were walking to our next one and one of the relief society presidents was sitting on her porch with this guy who just moved here from Springville and he told us that we should start visiting him. I think lord knows I want to work hard and do my best so he is blessing me for it. I am grateful that I have the knowledge of the gospel and that I know God has a plan for each of us.

On Sunday we got to speak in a ward about missionary work (imagine that) but it was really cool because afterward a lot of the members went up to the ward mission leader and said that they want to start a family mission plan. So we are probably going to be doing some work with the members on that. I really don't know how we would do this work with out the members. 

So since I am in a walking area now I seem to always be hungry and always tired. I also decided to wear some shoes one day that I haven't worn almost my who mission and that was a bad idea because now I have huge blisters on the backs of my heels. I know its not much this week but like I said I forget a lot of what happened.:) 

Love you all!

                                                      Kaylynn and sister Wang

                               bowling international on pday with missionaries from China,     

                                                            Norway and  Chile

Mar 10...bound to happen

Monday night and Tuesday were so hard because I had to say goodbye to some really amazing people. Well I guess it is just see you later because I am only in Utah and visiting will be so easy after the mission.
So after serving for almost one year with always having a car, I was finally put into a walking area this transfer. Have been transferred to central Provo with Sister Wang from mainland China. Her English is pretty amazing, she studied in Australia for 4 years before she came on her mission. She is the only member in her family and she joined while living in Australia. My district is all Spanish speaking missionaries except for me and Sister Wang. So have a feeling I will be learning some Chinese and some Spanish this transfer. I help Sister Wang with her language study and it is making me realize how much English I don't even know.

We had quite a crazy first two days. I was told not to unpack because we would be moving houses the next day, moving houses required us to pack up everything in the apartment. There had been missionaries living there for 2 and a half years so there was a lot of stuff! But mission accomplished and the new apartment we moved into is quite interesting. It smells moldy, the walls are bubbly and soft because they probably are moldy. So we are having someone come check it out to see if it is even safe to live here. But for now I am so grateful to have a roof over my head since it has been really rainy here.

Something fun about my area is that about twice a week we get to go to the information booth for the new Provo city center temple and help people learn about it. So it is almost like serving at a temple visitors center. Me and Sister Wang want to ask president if that can be our full time area. We will be the Provo City Center Temple Booth sisters:) Just kidding we like going out and teaching people too. The story of the tabernacle almost always brings me to tears because I know that each of us individually goes through something quite similar. We sometimes have to be tried so hard so that one day we can be perfected and live in Heavenly Father's presence.

So ever since I have gotten to Provo there has been some crazy small world experiences. For example, the first dinner I had in the area was with this young family and the husband is originally from Idaho Falls, so I told him how I lived there while dad was working at the INL, he asked what dad's name was and when I told him he said he has talked to him before. Then the second day I was here, we were teaching a family that had just gotten baptized and when I walked in the little boy said I looked really familiar. We finally figured out why. I was the one that taught one of their friends in Spanish Fork and when she got baptized they were at the baptism.

The majority of our wards are all young married couples with babies. The youth groups are so small which is so weird because I am so used to our huge youth group in the candy mountain ward. It makes the rule of not holding babies kind of hard because they are all over! 

We have done a lot of walking this week already! It is a good thing that I have lots of shoe options. I am excited to serve here and I have a feeling I will run into more people I know. 

love, Sister Harrison

Mar 3...service and bruises

This week I managed to be clumsy and ended up hurting myself quite a
few times. I only came out with two big bumps, and four bruises! Don't
worry hopefully this week I can be a little less clumsy.
So me and Sis. Horne have been dying to do some service and so on
Tuesday, all three of us went and found a habitat for humanitarian
store and was able to get an hour of service in and then on Wednesday
we went back and did about an hour and a half. It was a good change
to add to our usual routine. We unpacked boxes, priced and organized
items. Then we broke down the boxes and then cleaned the store. It was
fun!
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were so warm and beautiful, it got up to
the 60's! Tuesday night we had an adventure, we were leaving the house
after dinner and decided it was time to take the garbage out, so we
grabbed our bags and the garbage and headed out and locked the door behind
us. As we were headed to the car I reached in my bag to get the keys
and they weren't there! We locked them in the house. Our lady lords
weren't home and we couldn't get a hold of them. So we started walking
and calling people. We were finally able to get a hold of our land
lords after about 35 minutes or so. And we were able to make it to all
our appointments on time!
We have so many people to work with but just have a hard time getting
appointments with them and after we decided to fast and go to the
temple for some answers about how to help the area pick up we decided
to stop by everyone's houses and get appointments. It is amazing what
we have lined up this week already! I mean why would God put more
people in our path if we aren't working with what we already have. We
also found out about some new move-ins and so we decided to be the
welcoming committee. And we have three new less-active families we are
going to be working with. So many people. how do we have so much work here
in Utah and my answer to that is they move here to hear about the
gospel, they just don't know that when they first get here.
We also had a really cool experience with some of our favorite
less-actives. We got a text on Wednesday morning from the lady of the
house and she was really struggling because her boyfriend won't make
the decision to marry her or move out and so she asked if we could
teach a lesson about moving forward and making decisions. It was
probably one of the most spiritual lessons I have ever had. You could
tell that they really felt like changing. I also committed them to
staying to all three meetings in church because usually they only stay
to sacrament.  And the little decisions help us practice for making
big decisions. We were in the ward that meets right before them and so
we were able to catch them after sacrament to make sure they went to
Sunday school. We stayed with them and I was so proud because they
participated quite a bit and had a lot of good things to say. I fasted
for them in hopes that it will help the boyfriend make a decision and
I will let you know how it goes.

So transfers are this week and here is what's happening... Me and
Sister Jones are both being transferred out of Spanish Fork. I don't
know where I will be going but I know it will be an adventure. I am
sad to leave because I really fell in love with the people here.

Feb 24...Busy!

This week was so busy! And it flew by so fast. But a lot of the busyness was meetings, lessons and temple trips. We had an awesome zone conference on Tuesday and learned all about making our lessons simple and pure doctrine but also the importance of testifying. We also talked a lot about rising up and magnifying our calling. Our mission has a theme of ARISE this year. That night we went and taught a mutual group about Preach My Gospel and how to use it to prepare for a mission.

On Wednesday morning we took a temple trip as a companionship. I am so grateful to be in this mission and be able to go to the temple twice a month. The temple has become a really special place for me. I always go with questions in mind. This time I was focusing on how to help the area continue progressing. I think what we need to do is work harder on what we already have. We have a teaching pool of over 30 people all we need to do is work harder with those people, see them more often and get them progressing because why would The Lord give us more if we aren't working with what we already have. Wednesday night was a good night for lessons. We have this one family who the two girls are totally ready for baptism but their in-active dad doesn't want them getting themselves into a covenant they aren't ready for. So next time we teach them we are going to focus on the covenants and commitments we make at baptism. It's really important that everyone understand that they are making a life long commitment when we enter into the waters of baptism.

On Thursday we had district training meeting, like we do every Thursday. We did a role play on teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love watching and listening to other missionaries teach because it show me what I can do better. Thursday night was crazy! Our first set appointment was at 4:00 and from there it just got busy. We had two appointments at 6:00 and when 7:00 rolled around we remembered another lesson that we had scheduled that night so we ran and dropped Sister Jones off at one of the appointments with a member and me and Sister Horne ran and taught another lesson. We read 1 Nephi 8 in our lesson with some less actives and we asked them where they were in the vision, where they are now, and where they want to be, they noticed that in order to get where they want they must hold to the iron rod, the word of God. They have not been very good at reading their scriptures everyday but they now see the importance. Then we had to run and pick up Sister Jones and run to one last lesson for the night.

Friday we went to the temple as a district. Afterwards we decided to go to Panda Express for lunch and we had someone pay for our meals. I know that it is such a simple act of service but those little things make my day. Then we had weekly planning. Friday night we taught a less active woman from another area but she requested sisters and so since we are the only English speaking sisters in all of Spanish Fork, we got to teach her. But by the end of the lesson we convinced her to have the elders over. So we got to make the elders day by giving them one more person to work with.

Saturday was kind of a slow day because Sister Jones was sick. But we still went to dinner and then after dinner we had a baptism. For dinner we went and ate with one of the ward mission leaders and his wife and grandma. It was such a fancy dinner. It was a 3 course meal. For an appetizer we had shrimp cocktail and it was so funny watching Sister Jones try and choke it down because she doesn't like fish, even though she hasn't eaten it ever. The the dinner part was good but the best part was the dessert. It was a cake with fruits and stuff. So good!
The baptism was the cutest baptism I have ever seen. It was for a lady who is in her 30's. Her husband was less active for a long time but he worked with the bishop and got worthy to be the one the baptize his wife. It was so cute when she came out of the water and gave him a big hug with a huge smile on her face.

This week I also hit my 11 month mark for being on my mission and my year mark for being endowed. So it was really neat to be able to spend two days in the temple this week.
As you can tell I have had an eventful enough week that I actually had a lot to write about this week. Only one full week left in the transfer and I am so anxious for next Monday to find out what is going to happen.

Love Sister Harrison

                                                 Kaylynn is serving in Radiator Springs

Feb 17...Heavenly Father corrects us with love.

So this week was quite interesting. It was full of lots of different activities than usual. It started with exchanges with the sister training leaders. I got to go first. So I stayed in the area with one of the sisters and all the appointments we had were all in the evening so we got to do 4 hours of contacting in the afternoon with no success. As soon as evening came things went great. We had appointments set for every hour and some even every half hour. That night and the next morning were hard because the sister training leader was really critical and hard on me as a missionary. So I just have some advice for any of you who are or will be in leadership positions and I am going to even apply it myself, always give advice and correction with love. It is important that we correct things that could be better, even our Heavenly Father does that, but it must be done out of a love for them.
This week I was also stressed about different things that I didn't even know how to put it into words but it got to the point where I wasn't able to sleep or eat very well at all. So I got to talk to President McCune about how to let go of the stress and be able to get back to working hard. It was really good hearing the things he had to say. I also got some really good advice from Bro. Wetzel, who is one of our missionary high counselors.
Thursday I got out of doing exchanges again because the sister training leaders wanted to do 3 exchanges and since I already did mine I got to go with some other sisters in my district so that made it so we only had to do 2. So we are done with those now.

On Friday we were contacting a hindu family that we heard about. When we got to the house there was these 3 dogs that were really creepy. After we said our prayer and opened our eyes there was a dog at each of our windows. So we waited until they left and then after the lesson when we went back to the car and they started running at us. But we are safe... Thank goodness for a car!

Saturday we went to a baptism that the Elder's had and it was all in spanish. I don't know why we decided to go but it was really cool.

Sunday went by so fast because we stayed so busy. We had appointments and so many wonderful lessons. I am excited for what this week has in store. We have Zone Conference, District Meeting, district temple trip, and so many wonderful investigators. Love this work and I can't believe this week I will be hitting my 11 month mark! Almost a year has gone by! WOW!

Love you all!:)

Feb 10...WOW!

This week felt so long but so short. I can not believe it is already February 10th. This morning our mission did a mission wide deep clean for our apartments so that is why I am emailing late. I was in charge of bathroom and Sister Horne was in charge of the kitchen and Sister Jones was in charge of bedroom and living room. We had the sister training leaders come check it and me and Sister Horne's parts past very quickly. But the sister training leaders had to leave so that we could clean the other rooms better. So we finally got it really clean! And its GREAT!

Tuesday and Wednesday last week we did a lot of knocking doors. Also on Tuesday there was a big city event for a police man that was shot while on duty this past week and so we got to try to figure out how to get from the east side of Main Street to the west side. It took us about 40 minutes because they had almost all of Main Street blocked for the police parade of cars.
A miracle happened in one of our lessons this week. We are teaching a part member family and the mom who is a member hasn't prayed in a year and a half because she is angry that God let her dad die. But my companion felt prompted to ask her to say the closing prayer and she did! Wednesday night we went to our dinner appointment and they had just gotten home from sledding and had something cooking in the crock pot but it was no where near ready so we ordered in Cafe Rio.
Thursday was by far my most favorite day of all week because we were able to teach 7 lessons in one day! We also got two new investigators! Seriously so many miracles that day. We were able to accomplish all of this because since we are in a trio we found a member to go with Sister Jones to appointments and then me and Sister Horne went contacting.
Friday was a pretty great day too, we had an amazing zone training meeting and learned all about teaching with our heart, working hard, and loving the work we do. It's always a good reminder because things are not always easy. We also did some fun interactive role plays about talking to everyone.
Saturday was a long day, we only were able to find one person home all day. I don't know where everyone was but it made it hard to want to stay out. But I know we will be blessed because of our diligence and faith in this work.
We have decided as a companionship that we are going to dedicate one day a week to doing splits so we can get twice as much work. It seems like all of the people we teach want to meet in the evening and so to fit everyone it we are going to try this and see how much it will bless the area.

Sunday we had quite the miracle happen. We had some dead time so we decided to go and contact the families who have unbaptized children. We felt inspired to go visit this one family and they answered and quickly invited us in even though they were headed out the door. So we got to know them quickly and I asked if they had always been members and the 12 year old is not one yet so they said they would be interested in learning more so she can get baptized! Miracle after Miracle this week. Which helps on weeks that are so dead!
Well I am looking forward to a week of companion exchanges and hopefully busy schedules!:)

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!:)

Feb 3...how does that happen?

So this week was hard because so many of our appointments cancelled and so we have done a lot of door knocking this week and for some reason a lot of those doors were unanswered. But because we set inspired goals we knew we would be able to reach them, and we did!
It was hard to stay motivated because the weather was cold and snowy this week. It seems like when it gets cold it would be so much easier to just stay home and cuddle up in a warm blanket by the heater, but we are missionaries and we need to get out there and share the good news of the gospel.
One of our appointments on Monday night was quite memorable. The sister we were visiting had a parrot and as we were sharing a scripture it started talking but it freaked me out because it didn't sound like a bird at all, it sounded completely human. We have also done a lot of visits this week to people who are less-active, but when you meet them and talk to them some are really hard to tell they are less-active. And I think a lot of them would consider themselves that way. But we made covenants when we were baptized and we have to live up to those. We are not perfect and we make lots of mistakes in life but that is why we get to go to church each Sunday and partake of the sacrament.
On Wednesday morning we got to go to the temple. I seriously love the blessings of the temple and the peace it brings into my life. As I was sitting in the chapel waiting for the session to start I looked around and saw a familiar face, James Olsen, who is headed to Argentina was there and it was cool to catch up after the session.
This week has also been a bonding week for our companionship. We have really gotten to know each other and are having a fun time sharing the gospel here in Spanish Fork. We laugh all the time but we also are so good at teaching in unity and testifying of one another. This is going to be a great transfer.
I was given some really great counsel from President McCune a week ago that I have really applied this week, he told me to stop caring about what others think and focus on pleasing Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I really love this because I honestly am not on a mission to make friends but I am on a mission to serve my Savior to the very end.
Also this week since we have had quite a bit of dead time we spent time to get to know the members and help them trust us so that we can get referrals from them. It is amazing to see that we are helping open their eyes to how much missionary work is around them. I think it is so funny to hear people say how they don't know any non members. But then we tell them that our mission had over 1,300 baptisms last year and it really gets them thinking. I am so grateful to be a missionary and to be able to help people realize how much Christ loves them!

Also this week I am finally getting a hang of sharing the gospel on Facebook. I had a name come to my head of a kid from high school I hadn't talked to in 2 or 3 years. And he has so many questions. Thing are going great. My hopes is to refer him to the missionaries in Richland. It should be good.

Love, Sister Harrison