sept 23...in a nut shell.

So me and my companion were trying to think of creative ways of doing door approaches if we ever needed to go tracting and our favorite one is "Since you live in Utah we were wondering if you would like to know about the people you are surrounded by." We were just trying to be funny.

 

So on Tuesday we were at the doctors office when a set of Sisters texted us telling us that they got left at the temple by their ride and they were wondering if we could come pick them up. Luckily we were near the temple and very able to pick them up. As we were driving home there was the most random hail storm ever! I thought it was going to break through the windshield for sure! That night we were so busy. We were running from appointment to appointment and then out of no where Sis. Mabey calls us and tells us that Sis. Farthing needs to be at the new missionary orientation and she is going to be spending the night at the mission home. That left me companionless. I found some sisters to go with me for the night and then I got Sis. Balero and Sis. Shultz to spend the night with since my companion was gone. The next morning I got to go to transfers to pick up my companion and see a bunch of old missionaries that I have served around. Wednesday afternoon we had an awesome lesson with one of our investigators. She is getting baptized Sept 28th and she has so many people in the ward there to support her! Then we had an interesting night at mutual with one of the wards. There was a past mission president that came and spoke to them and he was telling them that none of them had testimonies and none of them were worthy to go on missions. I was taken back by this a lot. I could tell that a lot of the kids would be wonderful missionaries and that they did have testimonies. It is so hard when you are a teenager to feel confident of your testimony and he just bashed any testimony that they did have. But luckily we got to talk to them about preparing for missions.

Thursday we had a great DTM that helped us understand the importance of extending commitments to our investigators. We also were able to have some wonderful lessons through out the day. Friday was my 6 month mark!!! Yay for 6 months! I can't believe it has already been that long. 1/3 of the way done. But some times it still feels like I just barely got here.

On Saturday we made someones day by doing her yard work. She was so happy that we were willing to do the yard work for her. I love making people's day and I love doing service projects! Sunday was a wonderful day at church. There was amazing talks given about member missionary work and I love being able to work with so many great members here in Orem!\

 

Love you all and I hope you all have a fun week and keep staying strong!!!:)

Sept 16...busy and happy

okay so this week was a great week! I don't really know how to explain it all but it just seemed like it was a week that made me happy. And when I am happy and busy working I know it was a good week.

We were able to really challenge our selves with some of our investigators. They want evidence and to use logic when finding out if the church is true. It just seems weird that they won't just take the feeling they get from the spirit as an answer. They tried to prove to us that Joseph Smith is a false prophet but we had answers to show them differently.

We have also been able to teach a lot of people that are progressing so quickly. We have a lot of people who have changed so much since we started teaching them and they are finally gaining an understanding of the happiness and peace the gospel brings into our lives. We have two of our investigators getting baptized on September 28! 

On Saturday we had a super fun day. Sister Farthing(my companion) had a baptism from her old area that we got to attend. Then we had a BBQ with a family that invited a bunch of people from the neighborhood over and we got to know a lot of new people. Also on Saturday I got to do a service for one of our less-actives. She is a cancer survivor and ever since she hasn't had hair she has been wearing a beanie. It has been about 2 years and so her hair is now really long but since she has been keeping it in a hat it is a tangled mess. So me and one of the bishops wife got to work on combing out her hair for about 2 hours, and it still wasn't done. I really hope that we can help her so she will start coming back to church.

Sunday was also a super fun day full of meetings and church. So we went to a 9:00 church and then we got to help out with that ward's primary. We talked to them about missionary service. We then got to go to a ward council and I love how much the ward is ready to get involved in missionary work. Then we had a stake coordination meeting and talked even more about missionary work. I really hope that it means the work will start picking up. I really want to be so busy teaching people that we need another set of missionaries in this area! We will see. But I have really loved this past week and all of the miracles I have seen!

Sept 10..moving forward at a faster pace

I can't even start to explain how this week has been! it seems like it has been a whole 3 weeks stuck into one! I guess that is due to all the changes happening. I didn't think I would have to cope with change 2 weeks before transfers! But its okay because I know that Heavenly Father doesn't give me anything I can't handle.

I got to attend an incredible meeting on Wednesday all about moving the work forward in Orem. Elder Monday from the 70 was there and discussed how it is ward and stake counsels job to find people for the missionaries to teach and that each of them should be having the missionaries in their homes to teach lessons to non-members and less-actives. I really hope that all of the wards start doing this because if each ward even got us one lesson a week we would be having at least 22 lessons a week and we could even be more busy.

On Thursday morning we had a great Zone Training Meeting. We were taught about how important a sure foundation is and President McCune said as missionaries that sure foundation is obedience. I know that it is so true. The more obedient you are the more the Lord wants to bless you because he can see your dedication and hard work. Also on Thursday we taught an amazing lesson about the Plan of Salvation. When we were talking about the 3 kingdoms and what they would be like K***(the investigator) asked us how to get to the Celestial Kingdom, and now we are excited to teach her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and show her the path she needs to take. We also got a text Thursday night asking if we had time on Friday because someone had a new investigator for us. Luckily we had quite a few open slots in our planner for opportunities to teach. So we got to start teaching A***, he is from England and has recently got married to a member and so he had a lot of questions that his wife didn't know how to answer. He was only here for a few days so we taught him as much as we could so that he would go back to England and find missionaries there to start learning from. We were a little worried to teach him the Plan of Salvation because he is very big on evolution. I didn't even know where to start with him. But I figured it out. Start from the beginning and teach simply. I feel like he has a better understanding of the creation and why it happened the way it did. On Saturday we had a really interesting baptism. One of the kids we are teaching didn't get baptized when he was 8 due to his fear of water. Luckily he has been working to get over the fear and has been swimming in his neighbors pool all summer. So he asked if we could do the baptism there. We cleared it with the mission president and I never thought I was going to witness a baptism in a swimming pool. He also got permission to wear goggles and a nose plug. We really wanted to do everything we could to make him feel comfortable with the baptism. It was a short program but we are so proud of the courage and strength he was able to have to make this decision and be that example for his 7 year old brother. Saturday was also a very weather bi-polar day. In the morning it was really warm and sunny and around 4:00 the clouds started moving in so quickly. I seriously have never seen a storm roll in so fast. I am so grateful that we were in a members home at the time the storm really hit, or else we would have been drenched. It was seriously a flash flood with crazy winds. It kind of reminded me of home. We didn't really have any appointments set up for the night and so we were planning on just doing some stop-bys but the Elders called us and asked if we could help them move all of the furniture and stuff out of the basement of the member's house they live with. When we got there we were surprised to see the whole basement had flooded, it is a new house too! So we spent an hour or so helping move everything upstairs so it didn't get water damaged. I really love doing service projects!

I had the opportunity on Sunday to give a talk in one of the wards we cover. It was on missionary work of course. But I really find it interesting how much the church has been talking about "hastening the work" "being good member missionaries" "reaching out". But I figured it out. It's because it is IMPORTANT! and it is our Heavenly Fathers work and if he said it needs to starting moving forward and a faster pace then I guess we need to be willing to help.

Love you all and I hope you are all looking for opportunities to reach out. Be the one to find the one!

Love, Sister Kaylynn Harrison

look who She ran into in Provo this week!

Sept. 3...count your many blessings

Well this week I was reading in the Ensign an article from Henry B. Eyring. He was talking all about how we need to be grateful for all the many things we have. I took the opportunity to start writing down all of my blessings and I was just so surprised by how many of them I have. I then got on my knees and said one of the longest prayers I have ever said just thanking my Heavenly Father for all I have! I have had some amazing things happen this week that just made me feel even more blessed. I just want to list a few of my big blessings this week to share how grateful I am. This week we had the opportunity to do exchanges and I feel like every time we get this chance the Lord just puts people in our path to teach so our days are just FULL! I also feel blessed that I am not in a Spanish area. I know this sounds bad but let me explain, when I was in the Spanish area on Thursday I got fed so much food that I thought I was going to explode. We went to go check on this lady who husband is less-active and she was cooking food and asked if we wanted some. We said we would take a little and she handed each of us a plate with one full pork chop and a few huge spoon fulls of macaroni. And then for dinner that night 2 hours later we were given a HUGE plate of Venezuelan spaghetti. I thought I was going to explode! But I guess I should feel blessed for having people who want to feed us. The next blessing was the opportunity to speak to a group of young women about missions. I just loved being able to answer all of the questions they had about serving a mission, and I hope all of them will be missionaries some day! Next was a great baptism. We had a 29 year old guy move here from Salt Lake about 3 weeks ago and he was more than ready to be baptized. The first lesson we had with him he asked when could he be baptized! I just know that Heavenly Father is preparing people! On Sunday when we went to the confirmation we were talking to the Bishop afterward to finish up some of the paper work and you will never believe who walked up to us!? Elder Dallin H. Oaks!! He talked to us for a little while and then told us it was a pleasure to meet us. I can't believe I met an apostle! It really has been a week full of many, many blessings and I am so grateful for all of my family and friends that are supporting me! I hope everyone takes a chance to count all of their blessings because its amazing how many each of us have and how different they are from one another's. I Love you all and wish you a happy successful week and just remember when times get hard turn to the Lord. The atonement is for more than repentance, it is for comfort, help and trials. I know that our Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers!