July 14...transfer #12

Tuesday we spent a lot of the day packing and Sister Coleman wrote a bunch of letters to people we are teaching. We delivered them and we also taught a super awesome lesson to one of our ward mission leaders foster daughters. They had recently had an FHE on the Plan of Salvation and since that is what we were teaching she already knew a lot. We are waiting for the states clearance on her getting baptized, which she really wants.

Wednesday was transfers but we did things a little different this time. Sister Coleman was going to be going to an endowment that night and her new companion is my new companions old companion, since they had lots of lessons that night and we did to Sister Hedley and Sister Lasson stayed together until 9:00 that night. We were able to find a split for me and a split for Sister Coleman so she could go to the temple and I could stay and teach lessons. That afternoon we had a super awesome lesson with Mercy. She is interesting to teach because she really does believe everything that we believe except that polygamy is no longer. We taught about the Book of Mormon and she had a very strong testimony of that book. That evening I had a really good lessons about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a good lesson because the lady we were teaching knew the gospel blesses us she just was struggling putting that faith into action. She has been doing a lot better lately.

Thursday we did a lot of contacting. Sister Hedley has a list of people her mom knows down here, since she grew up here. One of her friends that live in our area is a non-member and so we decided to go drop by. When she answered the door Sister Hedley told her that she was the daughter of her friend so she let us right in. We talked a lot about memories she had and then I decided to bring up the gospel. She has lived in Utah all her life and isn't a member. She said she had investigated the church when she was younger and never became interested. Our chapel tour was interesting. We spent about 30 minutes setting up for it and then no one showed up. It was a little disappointing but hopefully next week will be better!

Friday morning about 1:30 Sister Hedley woke me up because she had the stomach flu. So I called Sister Stewart (the mission nurse) and she said there was nothing we could really do. The Elders had told us the day before at DTM if we ever needed a blessing of healing in the middle of night they would move mountains to be able to help us out. So we called them to see if they could come and give Sister Hedley a blessing. After the blessing she felt a lot better, the only problem was that we were wide awake and not tired anymore. So we ended up watching the "Prophet of the Restoration" movie until 3:30, and then we were finally tired enough to go to sleep. The nurse called in the morning and told us to rest for the day because she wasn't sure if Sister Hedley was contagious or not. So we did our normal studies, got to know each other a lot more, and we also were able to do weekly planning and get a lot of calls done. That night since we had nothing else to do we played some Mancala and some Skip-Bo. It was fun!

Saturday was such an exciting and busy day. We were able to have quite a few lessons and we made some contacts and set up a ton of lessons for Sunday. In the morning we went to a ward breakfast and our investigators were there which was cool to see. After that we decided to go sticky note the elders door with thank you's for coming to the rescue the night before. After lunch we met with one of our recent converts and he has been talking with his non-member sister about the church and now she wants to meet with the missionaries. She is in Missouri so we talked to him about the different ways he could get missionaries over there. After that we met our new investigator. Her name is F*** and she is awesome. She is from California and right now she is here in Utah at a eating disorder treatment center. But she says she is progressing quickly. In California she was on date to be baptized and so she is very golden. She reads the Book of Mormon all the time, prays and goes to church. That afternoon we got to go down to Spanish Fork for B*** baptism. I taught him for a long time and so it was awesome that I was able to go down. That night our dinner told us about this house that they were pretty sure had non-members in it. I really don't enjoy cold contacting but Sister Hedley was a good missionary and talked me into it. It was an amazing miracle. The lady that answered the door invited us in. She said she had taken the missionary lessons before but never finished them. As we were talking she let us know that she didn't think it was for her. We showed the "Because of Him" video and her whole perspective changed. She wants us to come back and teach her and her family!  

Sunday was a busy day. We went to our coordination meeting and then we went to a ward council. We had to leave the ward council early so we could make it to the primary sharing time that we were teaching. After that we ran to another ward to teach relief society. All the topics were baptism and the covenants we make. It was such a fun lesson to teach about since that is the goal we have for everyone we teach. Our afternoon and evening was filled with lessons and all of them went really well. The sad thing that happened is we basically dropped one of our family of investigators because they just aren't progressing. But they said that if they do it, they want to do it as a family! Which is exactly what we want!

So now a little bit about my new companion. First of all, SHE IS AWESOME! She is from Toronto Canada. She is 21 and she loves to be active. She is such a hard working missionary and we have a fun time working hard. I think I am going to love this transfer! I just hope time doesn't go by to fast!

Love you all!

July 7...celebrate

Monday was a great PDay. We were able to get so much accomplished, including washing our car that hasn't been washed or vacuumed in weeks. A clean car is so much more fun to get into. I also got to go see the mission doctor. Don't worry I am okay! I have been having dizzy spells and really low blood pressure so they wanted me to come in. I am doing a lot better now.

Tuesday morning I got to go get an EKG. To see if the dizzy spells was caused by my heart. But I got good news on Wednesday my heart is totally normal. Also on Tuesday we got to do exchanges. I got to go with Sister Wang in her area. It was interesting because they cover two cities that are merged together quite a bit, so it was hard to find addresses. We did a lot of finding and setting up appointments, we also had the chance to do a service project for this young mom who has cancer. I was so shocked when I walked into the house. You could hardly see an inch of their floor. The mom was up in bed and so we got right to work. I wish I could have spent hours at their house organizing and cleaning because they really needed and deserved it. We got to eat dinner at home because they didn't have a dinner appointment set. Cooking dinner was interesting because they have a microwave and a hot plate to cook with and that's it. As I was cleaning up I moved the hot plate with our realizing it was still hot. Luckily my burn went away with in a few hours. That night we switched back for one of our appointments because Sister Naef wanted to see the people they were teaching because it was most likely her last time seeing them. So I got to teach the Parramore's in my area. The twins are too cute. We talked about the plan of salvation and I was so impressed with what they knew. Then we switched back and me and Sister Wang went and contacted this guy who they are trying to work with and he wasn't home but one of  his roommates was and she wanted to talk to us. She has really been struggling and she knows that the gospel is what is going to help her. It was such a busy day and it went by so fast.

Wednesday morning I got to do more service. We went to help this lady pack who is moving to Texas in a few weeks. We didn't get to much done before we had to leave so that I could be back with Sister Coleman. Me and Sister Coleman were able to eat lunch together and go to DTM and then we had to switch and go on exchanges with another set of sisters. This time I went to the Spanish sisters area. We also did a lot of driving around like yesterday because the area is big and they only cover the Spanish people in that area. So driving from one place to another usually took a while. All the lessons that were taught were in Spanish so I was no help. At one point in the day we went to this trailer park that made me feel like I was in the middle of Mexico. Not in a bad way at all, it was just a very humble place and all the little kids that were running around were these little Hispanic kids.

Thursday we went to another district DTM and we were able to help with the training. We talked about how to effectively plan everyday so we are using the lords time wisely. After that me and Sister Coleman headed back home to eat some lunch. The rest of the day was spent contacting but we had little success because everyone went out of town for 4th of July. That evening for our dinner appointment they had us come to the ward BBQ. All day was so hot but as soon as the BBQ started this storm cloud rolled in and it got super windy and then started down pouring. Luckily their was a pavilion everyone could get under. We ended the night with a very great training for the ward mission leaders by the stake president.

Friday was such a crazy,  fun, exhausting day. I wish I could say its because we had appointments every half hour all day long, but since it was 4th of July that was not the case. We had to wake up at 5:00am just so that we could make it to the mission office by 7:00. And with all the crazy traffic and all the roads closed for the 5K and the parade it took us 45 minutes longer than expected just to find a way to the mission office. We then got carpooled over to the high school where the parade started. The parade was so much fun, just like last year everyone stood up when we came by. You could tell who was mission moms because they were all crying. The parade this year was a little more fun because I saw a lot of people I knew. Holly Taylor and her family, Brett Palmer(who served in the Kennewick mission)  Mindy Strong, Kylie Egbert, Nathan Christensen, Copa girls, and a few more. It was so cute. They Taylor girls made me cute little posters and I got a mommy hug from Holly. After the parade we were allowed to walk around for 45 minutes or so and talk to people so me and Sister headed off to see who else we could find. After a while we got super tired of walking and it was so hot out so we headed to the chapel for lunch. During lunch I showed President McCune a picture of all 6 of us Tri-cities sisters. He asked us to send it to him so he could send it to the church news. How crazy would that be if they published something about us! After lunch we headed back to Orem and we dropped by the Cornish's for a little while to talk to them about the parade. At 5:00 we were required to go to a chapel with the district. While we were there we had a member bring us dinner, it was so yummy! And we got to watch "Frozen"! Such a cute movie! I love it! After the movie we finished by playing some volleyball. When we got home we did our planning out on the porch so we could watch some fireworks for a few minutes. We got a bit of a show but there were a lot of trees in the way. It was a fun 4th but I am excited to see what next year will be like.

Saturday we did some contacting and we also had to help some sisters out that weren't getting along. So we didn't have time to do everything that we needed to do but we had time on Sunday. Saturday night we taught some really awesome lessons, they weren't awesome because of the things we said but because the spirit was there and so strong. Sister Coleman felt prompted to go stop by this one couple who she had been working with quite a but last transfer but we haven't really seen this transfer. They usually never let us in their RV (where they live) but A***  told us she was just about to light her cigarette but when she heard us knock she put it down. She invited us in and she told us about the struggles she has been having lately with falling back into addiction. We talked a lot about the atonement and that she can use it to help her. It was such a powerful lesson. She really needed the drop by and I am grateful Heavenly Father led us there.

Sunday was going to be a busy day but then one after another appointments cancelled. We were still able to get in two really great lessons. That morning we also had the opportunity to teach the young men. We talked about getting ready for a mission and what it was going to be like adjusting to the new life. The all had really good questions. After church we finally got to do our weekly planning. We have some pretty big goals set for the month and in order to reach them we need to see more people so this next week will be a busy one.

So transfers... Sister Coleman is being transferred to Springville and I am staying and getting Sister Hedley as my new companion. She is from Canada and at one point was my STL. This is going to be a new adventure and I don't know how okay I am with it all yet but I know The Lord has inspired President McCune with these calls. So yes I am now on my 15th companion. I am freaking out a little, okay a lot because I really don't know this area very well because I have spent all transfer in other sisters areas on exchanges. How in the world do you avoid being stress? AHH!

Love you all! Only two more transfers!

Jun 30...weeks are going too fast!

Last Monday was a really good day again lesson wise. We were scheduled to have an appointment every 30 minutes and we didn't know if we were going to be able to do it, but we made it through and it went by so fast. The family we ate dinner with gave us two names of non members to visit.

Tuesday went by super fast too! We had MLC ( mission leadership council ) from 9-3:30. It didn't even seem like that long of a meeting because everything we were talking about was so amazing. Right now are mission is down in baptisms and president wants us to work harder on that. Something he said is that him and the brethren have faith in our mission. They doubled the number of missionaries so the numbers could double too, and they haven been so he set a mission goal of 150 baptisms a month. So we get to help the missionaries work harder and have more faith so that as a mission we can hopefully get to 200 baptisms a month by the end of the year. After MLC we ran to the mission office to grab some stuff for some sisters in our zone and then we headed to the young women's president house to talk to her about some non member girls in her ward that attend some times. She committed to inviting all of them to hear the lessons! Then we headed to dinner. After dinner we decided to do some contacting of the families we were given at Mondays dinner. We were able to catch the mom of one of them home and she said she would set up a time with her son and his non member friend for us to start teaching. Then we went and talked with our investigator that got baptized on Saturday and set up her program for the baptism. We also got the mom to say a prayer, she says she hasn't said a prayer out loud since she was 17. The daughter had never heard her pray so it was a great experience. We went and dropped the program list to the ward mission leader and he told us that his 11 year old foster daughter wants to take the lessons. So we have a new investigator!

Wednesday was a day of miracles. I think The Lord is realizing how hard we want to work and he is letting the people flow in! In the morning we got to do our quarterly temple trip, which was a great experience. I think it would be so amazing to be a temple worker after my mission. Then we had a lesson after that we had to hurry off to before we could get a picture in front of the temple. The lesson was awesome. We taught about the Book of Mormon and it was our second lesson with C***. We read through the introduction even though he had already started reading last week. As we were reading he asked us why in the world we didn't have him start there. I guess he loved how powerful the introduction is. After that we had a meeting with the zone leaders to discuss our zone training meetings, and we planned them out. Then we were supposed to do exchanges but we rescheduled it for next week so that we could plan for ZTM. We contacted a lot of the day but it turned out to be a blessing. Our chapel tour that night had two investigators and some recent converts and less actives. We are going to start teaching both the investigators that were there. One is the ward mission leaders foster daughter and the other is a little girl that the senior couple has been working with who just turned 9 so they have to turn her over to us. The rest of the evening we spent contacting in the condos and we had a hard time finding the right building numbers. We walked the whole thing twice before we found the apartment we were looking for. We knocked the door and the girl who answered it said she was living there with her non member boyfriend. We asked if we could come teach the lessons and she said she would love it. We also talked to another non member who said he would talk to his wife about a good time for us to come over.

Thursday was the first of 2 ZTM's. The training went really well. We talked a lot about setting goals and making plans that were in harmony with our purpose as missionaries. I really hope this training is going to help the missionaries and that we will be able to reach the goal of 150 baptism for the month of July as a mission. I know with faith and diligence the Lord will make it possible. After ZTM we had a meeting to train the District Leaders. And after that we had a lesson that was different than most. It was with an investigator named M***. We have been trying to figure out what kind of background she comes from and we have heard from a few members of the ward that she comes from a polygamist family. Sister Coleman finally came out and just asked. M*** seemed a little shocked that we would ask and I guess she has been afraid to tell us because she was scared we wouldn't want to come back. I guess in the past that is what the missionaries have done. But not me and Sister Coleman. We love her! Her family is pretty active in their church and her grandpa was the prophet of her church. We are just going to be teaching the basic principles and help her feel the spirit so that she can see the difference.  That evening we had another really good chapel tour for the other stake. There was a little boy that will be turning 8 soon and so he wanted to see the baptismal font.

Friday we had our second ZTM and it went well also. We talked about the same things that we did in the first one, just with a different group of missionaries. The rest of Friday was pretty uneventful. We did our weekly planning and we also cleaned up our area books on the iPads. There were a lot of people on their that we had no idea who they were. We ran to the mission office to grab some stuff for the sisters in our zone and then made trips to drop it off to them. We also had dinner with this couple whose daughter we are trying to teach. They are an older couple and their daughter is in her 40's. She was supposed to be there but didn't make it because her boyfriend wanted to take her out to dinner.

Saturday was awesome! We had a baptism in the afternoon for a 12 year old girl named A*** whose family is very less active. It was so cool to see that the parents were feeling the spirit during the whole thing. A***was glowing with the happiness of the gospel. That night was also amazing! I got to spend the evening at the temple watching people I taught get their endowments and get sealed. The spirit was so strong and they were so happy. Especially their little girl. She was excited that her family would be able to be together forever! What a great opportunity we all have. As we follow God's path we can experience eternal joy!

Sunday was supposed to be busy but lots of appointments fell through. We also had some problems with our iPads that we finally got figured out. It had deleted all our investigators' records. But the AP's told us how to get them all back. It was a long process but it worked.

This week we have some fun plans for the 4th of July. We are going to be walking in the Provo City parade and then we will go out and visit people until 5:00. At 5:00 we have to be at the chapel with our district until 9:00. We will be watching Frozen!!!!! YAY! I am so excited to finally watch the movie everyone has been raging about!

Sister Coleman and Harrison love apples. They attribute that to being from Washington

This missionaries appreciates a chocolate covered cinnamon bear

A family sealed in the temple

A family that helps the missionaries alot!

Jun 23...my week

Happy 15 month mark! I can't believe it! Only 101 more days until I come home!

Tuesday was such crazy weather, and it happened to be the day I was on exchanges so I didn't have the option of getting warmer clothes. It was below 55 degrees all day, and it was pouring rain! Luckily we did have a few minutes to drive back to my apartment really quick to get a coat. I was crazy and didn't think to grab an umbrella too. So even with my jacket I got drenched. But the lessons we had were super awesome. All of them were about prophets and the Book of Mormon. I love teaching super simple and powerful lessons because it helps my testimony grow stronger each time we teach. I am grateful that God loves us so much that he gives us prophets to receive modern day revelation to bless us and guide us on our path. I also know God loves us because he gave us scripture to study. I know with all my heart that as we read the Book of Mormon we can grow closer to our Heavenly Father.

Wednesday morning we had to exchange back a little earlier than expected because the sister that Sister Coleman was with got sick with the stomach flu and we had a lesson at 11:00. Our lesson was with this guy that just moved here from Georgia and he has been a member his whole life but at the age of 16 he left the church and went down the wrong path. He moved in with his friends here in Orem that are active members of the church and he wants to gain a testimony of the things that our church believes. So we are going to be teaching him the lessons because he really has no memory of anything he was taught as a kid. I think it shows the importance of staying active and studying daily so that we can not only remember what we have been taught, but so that we can gain more knowledge about what we are taught. At DTM that day we talked about how the Book of Mormon answers the questions of the soul. Our district leader had us write down some soul questions and then we split up into teams to find scriptures from the Book of Mormon to answer the questions. It was amazing some of the scriptures we were able to find. Later that night we taught two really good lessons to some less actives. The first one was with the Smith family. We taught the word of wisdom because that is one of the biggest things holding them back from the temple. It was a really powerful lesson and they committed to quit smoking! The next lesson was with this lady who really wants to come back and help her family become more centered on the gospel. So we taught about the Book of Mormon. She was really excited to start reading and we got her a Book of Mormon Stories to read with her kids.

Thursday was exchange day again. This time I got to stay in the area, which was a little stressful because I have been in other areas every other day for the past 3 weeks, so I really don't know my area very well. But this gave me the opportunity to get to know it, especially since we didn't have any set appointments. I got to do a lot of contacting to set up appointments with people I haven't meet but Sister Coleman has. But it ended up being a great day! I was able to set up 3 appointments for later in the week. And 2 of them are new families to start working with. Our teaching pool has been filling up pretty fast lately and it is keeping us happy and busy. We were able to teach one person. We stopped by her house to see how she was doing because it had been a couple weeks since we had seen her, we asked if we could come in and read the scriptures with her. This was actually really cool. We ended up just reading where she was at, it was a war chapter in Alma. It talked about how the armies were as the sand of the sea and how even though there was a lot of destruction the nephites were strengthened because of their faith. Her husband is in the military and so this was a comfort to her. It also made her more excited to go to the temple so they can have those extra blessings and protection. That evening we did our weekly chapel tour and only people from one of the ward councils showed up, but this ended up being a blessing because there was a youth conference thing going on and it ended up getting in the way of our chapel tour. For our coordination meeting  we were given some names of people to start teaching. We had about 20 minutes after coordination until we had to be home and so we decided to go stop by one of the families. We were able to find them at home and set up an appointment to start teaching their twin girls who are 8 and half and not baptized.

Friday we traded back to our companions. Our afternoon was spent doing our weekly planning and Sister Coleman was kind of sick so we let her rest. After dinner we got to go to the wedding of a recent convert that Sister Coleman and Sister Nucci worked with. It was a civil wedding but they are planning on getting sealed in the temple next year.

Saturday morning was so much fun! We got to help out with the "strawberry days" parade. By 9:30 it was already hot! We headed out along the parade route 20 minutes before everyone else so we could hand out newspapers about the parade. By the time we made it to the end the parade had caught up to us. The people we helped out were going to car pool is back to the beginning but they only had a small SUV for our whole zone. Sister Coleman and I wanted to see the floats anyways so we walked back up to the beginning. It was such a fun day and made me excited for the 4th of July. After the parade we did our studies, we did them out in the Cornish's back yard, because they have this cute little pavilion out there. The rest of the day was spent contacting. We didn't have much success but we at least were obedient and tried.

Sunday was a busy day! It started at 7:30 and ended at 9:30 and it was non stop go, go, go. First we had coordination and then ward council. Then we went to sacrament meeting to sit with some of our less actives and they didn't show. Then we went to a youth sacrament meeting. This was really interesting. So the stake had youth conference all weekend and they decided to have a testimony meeting on Sunday for all the youth. So instead of going to church with their families they all came to their own sacrament meeting. We went to go listen to their testimonies but the stake president asked us if we would be willing to share our testimonies at the beginning. So we got to share our testimonies about the Book of Mormon. After that we had a lesson with our investigators the K****s and we finally got the kids to commit to baptism. Then the dad got a concerned look on his face so I asked him what was on his mind. He told us that he would have to start going to church and make some changes so he could be the one to baptize them. YAY! This family is progressing so quickly. Then we went and taught a new family. It was a quick lesson about the restoration and we set up a time to come back and teach another one. Then we went to our other stake's youth fireside about missionary work. We got to give talks on when we decided to come out on a mission and why, what we did to prepare, and shared an experience about our mission that has helped our testimony. Then we ran to dinner and the family we ate dinner with had just gotten back about 2 years ago from being mission presidents in Russia. So they told us all about their experiences out there and it made me very grateful to be serving in Utah. The we had a lesson with the 8 and half year old twins. They are talkers. We asked the parents if they were sealed in the temple and they said no but they are working with the bishop to get to that goal. The wife had just taken her endowments out about 3 months ago. We are going to be working with the husband to help him prepare. Then the last appointment was with this 16 year old girl who is so ready to be baptized. She has taken the missionary discussions about 7 times or so. Before now she hasn't felt ready to be baptized but now she does. She had some really deep but good questions and luckily the fellowshippers know a lot more than we did and were able to help.

I also found out this week that some of my less-actives from south Orem are getting sealed in the temple on the 28th of this month and they want me and Sister Funaki to come! So I get to go to the temple twice this month!

I love you all and I promise I am working hard and I am not getting trunky!

Jun 16...my my what a week!

Okay I know it usually don't explain Monday's very often but this past Monday was amazing. After p-day we start work again at 6:00. It was such a crazy night we had 7 lessons in just 3 hours. I think we are finally being trusted in is area by the people and by The Lord. We had 2 appointments at 6 so I went to one with a member and Sister Coleman went to another. The lesson I got to teach was awesome! I taught the restoration to two less active members. One has a quite a bit of knowledge about the church, while the other really doesn't know much. But the spirit was so strong and they said there is something about the church that is drawing them to come back. I know the spirit has told them they need to come. We also got a new investigator. He had wanted to be baptized at one point but something happened and so the baptism never did happen. We hope we can get him back on track for baptism. It was a really great night. 

Tuesday was a fun day. I got to do exchanges with Sister Funaki, who is the missionary I trained last October. It was so fun to see how much she has grown over the past 7-8 months. Our first lesson was with this girl from the Philippines. She is catholic and she her father just passed away. That is one thing I love about the message we share. We have the knowledge of an after life that allows us to be with our families forever. After that lesson we headed to the chapel so the
Elders could do an iPad update for us. Then we went to the mission office to pick up a Tagalog Book of Mormon. We then did some finding and setting up appointments and had a lesson right before dinner. We were planning on sharing a video about the atonement but since our iPads were just updated we didn't have any videos downloaded any more. So we found a scripture that talked about it. Dinner was interesting and a little awkward. This lady took us to a Mexican restaurant and when she was going to pay the waiter came back and said her card wasn't working. This was the only form of payment the lady had, so she called the bank and nothing. We offered to pay but she wouldn't let us. So we sat there until she finally decided to call her friend to come help out. After dinner we had some good lessons. We had one that we talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the guy was really struggling with falling back into temptation over and over again. He
said he feels really dumb repenting if he is just going to make the same mistake again. We also taught this little girl who has a super short attention span. Right before we went home we stopped by this apartment of some people that are moving. They literally had a zoo in their apartment. They had 6 birds, 2 dogs, 3 cats, a snake, a lizard,and a hamster. 3 of the birds we parrots and talked a lot, they even would laugh like humans. It was so cool!

Wednesday I finally got back with my companion, at least for a little while. We had DTM in the morning and me and Sister Coleman were in charge of doing the training. We talked about the important role the Book Of Mormon plays in conversion. I think it is key. If you know the Book Of Mormon is true everything else follows. After DTM we attempted to do some service, but no one was home. So we asked the Elders in the Zone north of us, that we cover, if they could let us in to their DTM chapel because we would be doing a chapel tour for their training in a few days and we wanted to get acquainted with the chapel. That chapel ended up being a hard one to tour because their was no pictures, just long hallways of brick. For dinner that night we ate with our investigator family, the K*** . We followed up with them on whether or not they have been praying about baptism and they said they hadn't so we recommitted them. They did tell us though that they had been reading their scriptures together, which is a huge step for them. After dinner we had our weekly Aspen Stake chapel tour. It was a little nerve racking because the stake president was their and he likes the tours done a specific way and so the pressure was on. But, I felt like it ended up being great. That night we were able to teach two new people and they were both non-members. The first was is living with a family that is members and he really didn't seem to interested. The second one was a girl who met us at the church because her roommates are super anti. But that was a really cool lesson. Sadly we had to hand her off to the YSA elders. 

Thursday we did another DTM training on chapel tours and the elders forgot to tell us earlier that the actual chapel where we have sacrament meeting was locked. So we had to stop our tour a little earlier than planned. After that we got to do exchanges again. I went with Sister Andelin who was in the MTC with me. It was a fun day full of lessons and finding. A lot of the lessons were actually a little awkward because there was a lot of awkward silence at the beginning before we would start.

Friday we did our last DTM training on chapel tours, at least for a while. This chapel tour went a lot better than the one the day before. When we got home we ate lunch and then started our weekly planning. All of our appointments were no shows. Which made it a long day. The one thing that did happen that was cool was dinner. We ate dinner with Brother and Sister Skinner and when he asked where we were from he told us his sister lived there. It ended up being Delene Ostler's brother! What a small world. So I have now eaten with Delene's brother from Orem and sister from Provo! 

Saturday turned into a service day for our ward mission leaders. One of the stakes we work with really doesn't have a lot of work right now and so we wanted to gain the mission leaders trust so that they will give us more work. So we wrote all of them notes and made cupcakes. Hopefully this will help. We also spent a lot of time with the senior couple, the Cornish's. They take care of us as if we are their own kids. They are amazing and help us a lot. We tried make some more contacts but the big Orem fest was on Saturday so no one was home.

Sunday was Father's Day. We had a meeting with the stake to discuss missionary work. Then we went home and studied, then went to sacrament meeting. After church we went and helped a ward mission leader deliver a birthday gift to one of the non-members in his ward. She is 16 and she goes to church every Sunday by herself. Her mom works from 3 in the morning until 10:30 at night 7 days a week. She does home health care. I don't ever want to be away from my family for that long! The gift that we gave the girl was a quad with her name printed on it. We are starting the discussions with her next week. Then we got to go teach the K*** again. I love their family. We asked about how the prayers were coming and the kids said they prayed but the mom said she hasn't but she still will. We asked the kids if they felt like they got an answer and they said no. We asked about how they were expecting to get their answer. We found out the boy really felt peaceful and happy when he prayed about it. And really that was his answer he just didn't recognize it. So then we taught about tithing and they thought it was a little strange but they were will to pay it after they get baptized. We also asked them if we could shoot for a specific day and they got a little worried. I hope they didn't feel like we were pushing them. They told us they would pray about it. I really hope everything works out for this family. Dinner was interesting. It was really good thought. We had a fondue dinner, we each had two little sticks that we would put a piece of meat on and then stick it in a boiling pot of broth. It took a long time, it was weird having to wait 5 minutes between each bite. But they family we ate with was awesome. They are actually good friends with the K*** and so we invited them to talk with the kids on how they felt about baptism and also to make sure they come to church every week. 

We have an interesting new investigator this week. She comes from a polygamist family and her dad is actually in the hospital with a broken neck right now. We found out he broke his neck from falling off a carriage he was "driving". I don't know if she really knows the difference between her beliefs and ours so hopefully we can clear some things up.

I am grateful to be a missionary, I love sharing the gospel, and I love seeing lives change!

Love, Sister Harrison 

Jun 9...this week!

This week was so busy, went by so fast, it was a bit exhausting and was so much fun! I am late getting to emails because we went on a hike this morning so that we didn't die of heat this afternoon.
Tuesday we had MLC (mission leader council) from 9-3:30. This is where all the sister training leaders and zone leaders come together and are taught by President McCune. It was a long meeting but it was so helpful. We had to take really good notes because everything that we learn we then have to go and train our zones. Two of the main things that were trained on is how to do a chapel tour and how to teach the Book Of Mormon. Both of the role plays were so powerful and I hope I am teaching my people like that. I was asked to be part of a survey that only 5 sisters from our mission would be part of. They asked a few questions about sister training leaders. It was a little hard answering them because by this point I had only been one for 5 days and had no idea what to expect. Our evening was full of appointments. We had one at 4:30 and we taught the Plan of Salvation. The husband had lots of really good questions and they both opened up about wanting to change habits in their life so they can be sealed. At 5:00 we had dinner with a recent convert and we were able to share a lesson with them after wards. They have been struggling with some stuff health wise and the husband has been out of work, so we shared the Mormon message about good things to come. At 6:30 we went and taught this family who is preparing to go to the temple next month to get sealed. They are so ready! We were a little stumped what we were going to do the rest of the evening but we got a call from a relief society president and we felt like we need to go stop by her house. We started talking to her about a sister in the ward that agreed to the missionary lessons but is moving on Saturday. The RS president called her and we ended up going over there that night to teach her. We taught about the Book Of Mormon. It was a super powerful lesson, she really knew the importance of reading it everyday after teaching about it.

Wednesday was also a busy day. We had an appointment at 10:00 that fell through so we went and dropped by this one guys house to give him some dvd's that he asked for. He has a non-member friend that just found out he has cancer and so the dvd's talked about finding hope through Jesus Christ. After that we had a meeting with the two sets of zone leaders that we work with so that we could decide how to train each of the zones. After that we got to do exchanges. Since we had a lot going on the next few days we ended up only doing like a 7 hour exchange instead of 24 hours. But sometimes you got to make things fit. I went to the Spanish sister's area since I am still new in my own area. We tried doing service but the sister wasn't home. So we did finding instead. I also now have the responsibility to check the iPads and make sure they are being used obediently. The sister I was on exchanges with is from Salt Lake and she went to Murray high school and knows David Archuleta. It was so fun being able to just observe for the day since I can't speak any Spanish.

Thursday was our first of 2 zone training meetings for the week. It went really well. I was so nervous but the elders let us off pretty easy on what they wanted us to teach. We got to be in charge of the chapel tour. Ever since we have been really focusing on these my testimony of church has been strengthened so much. The buildings we have to meet in our so significant. They truly are blessings that we have been given. After ztm we headed to the mission office to do some stuff. The we got to help out with what a stake called the "Alma Academy". There was a bunch of youth that are 17+ that have their mission calls or are thinking about a mission. We got to role play for them and then watch them role play and help them. At the end we did a Q&A session and we were asked some pretty good questions. After dinner we had a chapel tour and only 2 people showed up. That night we had to skip our coordination meeting because we had a lesson with an investigator that was supposed to get baptized on Saturday but she moved it back to the 28th. She had her baptism interview that day anyway. 

Friday we had our second zone training meeting. It was a lot different than the first but it was good also. I really don't remember what else happened on Friday sadly.

Saturday we got to do service for our land lords. After service we went to lunch with the senior missionary couple and coordinated the work in the stake. After dinner we tried really hard to get in some lessons. We said a prayer and told Heavenly Father we had the faith that he could lead us to people to teach. After the prayer we started finding people home and we were able to teach. I am so grateful that God listens and answers are prayers.

Sunday was AMAZING! We had a really good lesson. Our day started at 5:45 in the morning because we had to be to a priesthood leadership meeting at 7. After that we went home and studied, and then we went to an 11:00 church hoping we would see some of our investigators. The ward went on a trek over the weekend and our 13 and 15 year old investigators went! I guess the testimony meeting was super spiritual. During sacrament they had people share their experiences of the trek. Our investigators were there with their whole family! We then went and had a lesson with them right after church and both me and my companion had this super strong feeling that we needed to invite the whole family to be baptized. So we prayed really hard for the courage and faith to do it. So we taught the word of wisdom and then we brought up baptism. We asked the kids first if they have been praying about it. They said they hadn't really so we invited them to do so and then we turned to mom and asked her. I am thinking she had never been asked before because she was a little surprised. She finally agreed that she would pray about it. After the lesson when I got in the car the tears started coming. The spirit was so strong and I know this family needs the gospel. I know the kids want it, I think they are just scared to disappoint mom who is a practicing catholic. After that we were able to make some really good contacts in the evening. We contacted this one family who supposedly comes from a polygamist background and the wife's dad is in the hospital. We asked if we could do anything for them and they asked us if we could pray with them right then. It was so amazing. Then we went and contacted this one lady who the senior couple has been trying to get a hold of for a while and we felt really impressed to go contact her. She was home and she set up an appointment to meet with us! 

I am staying plenty busy with work in the area and being a sister training leader. We are in finding mode right now and we are getting a lot of referrals from members which is so awesome! 

I love being a missionary and I seriously can not believe that I have less that 4 months left!!! I am nervous to come home but I know there are great adventures waiting for me.

Love, Sister Kaylynn Harrison

Jun 2...this week

This week was a little different than most. It is a new adventure, with an awesome companion, in an awesome area. My new companion is Sister Coleman from the Tri-cities. The reactions we get at dinner are funny, and they all wonder if we knew each other before hand. But as one of the senior missionaries said, "we had to travel hundreds of miles to meet each other and become friends." Sister Coleman is so fun, and such a hard working missionary. Something that I already love about her is that she eats healthy and loves running! My area is so much fun. The members here want to help with missionary work, that is so key!

On Monday we actually had a really fun district activity for PDAY and it was Memorial Day. We decided to bike from Provo up to Bridal Vail Falls, we only made it about 7 miles or so and then had to turn around due to time. It was so hot outside and the sun was beaming, so a few of us got sunburnt, me included, but it is all a tan now. The rest of the night was saying goodbyes to families since I got transferred on Wednesday. I first said goodbye to the Petersen's. I am going to do everything I can to come down next year to their sealing. Their family definitely has a special place in my heart. I know that I won't loose connection with them. 

Tuesday was more goodbyes and lessons. We actually had a really full day. We worked at the temple booth. After that we went to this yummy pizza place with one of the Relief Society presidents, it was amazing. Then we had a lesson with J*** and she was sad I was leaving because I had been there the whole time she was having lessons. But we are going to keep in touch over Facebook and she said she is going to invite me when she gets sealed! The good bye I said on Tuesday night was probably the hardest. It was the C***s. The 2 year old little girl would not let go of me. She really didn't want me to leave, and there was lots of tears. After we said our good byes and we started walking down the street she yelled "Harrison" and came and gave me a big bear hug. Her mom eventually had to come and peel her off of me. I ended up crying the rest of the way home.

Wednesday came so fast and we headed to the transfer chapel in the morning. I got my new companion Sister Coleman. As sister training leaders we waited to make sure all of our sisters had all their stuff and had rides to their new areas. I got to my new area, settled in and then we got to work. The stakes that I cover in this area do something so cool. Every week they hold a chapel tour. So members come with less actives and non members so that we can teach all of them about the importance of going to church. We also have a senior couple for each of the stakes we cover. One of the couples, the Cornish's, are like grandparents to us missionaries. They are so willing to help us, feed us, and take care of us when we need it.

Thursday we decided to find more people to teach. A Relief Society President was kind enough to give us a huge list of sisters that are either less active or struggling. So we parked the car and walked around the ward to contact the sisters. We knocked at this one door hoping to find a lady named J***and ended up finding her friend who is a less active, she invited us back to teach her and J*** the lessons. We also had DTM on Thursday, my district is us sister training leaders, the zone leaders, the district leader and his new comp from the MTC and two spanish sister that are going home the same day as me. It's going to be a fun and uplifting transfer. Thursday was the day of big families. So first we ate dinner with this family that has 19 kids! Only 16 kids are still at home and out of the 19 only 2 are biologically theirs.They have fostered over 60 kids and they ended up adopting 17 of them. The 16 that were there were all under the age of 15. You would think it would be a total mad house, but these parents are amazing. The dad is a veteran from the army and the mom is a school teacher so they know about discipline and order. The second big family was a lesson that we taught that night. Granted it was two families but they all live under one roof. We taught the Restoration of the Gospel to 9 kids. It was noisy and everyone had answers. It was fun and definitely different.

Friday was an interesting day. Ever since Wednesday Sister Coleman was telling me that as sister training leaders we don't deal with very much drama. Then Friday we both had an eye opening. We got a call saying that their was some sisters that needed help in their companionship. So we finished up lunch and headed out to go see how we could help. We ended up doing an emergency exchange for a few hours so that we could talk to each of the sisters. It was interesting because I was the one that went back to our area. I almost couldn't get there because I have only been in the area for 2 days. We also got informed about some other sister that we needed to help. 

Saturday was a busy day but not full of teaching appointments. Sometimes this can be discouraging to missionaries, but not me! We got to fill our day with service. We helped a ward to a clean up, the we help the senior missionary couple prepare for their daughters bridal shower, went to a baptism of a part member family, we drove some sisters down to a baptism, and had dinner with the family with 19 kids again. Then we finally got to do some contacting. We were able to find some people home that scheduled with us for later in the week. We also finally did our weekly planning since we had some sister training leader responsibilities on Friday. We set some really good personal and companionship goals that are going to help us become better missionaries.

Sunday seemed like it was never going to end, especially before dinner. This fast Sunday was harder than most, it might be because it is getting hot, or something. At dinner me and Sister Coleman ate so much that it made us sick. We are still paying for it today. It didn't help that the dinner was so super delicious.

I am loving everything about this transfer all ready and I can't believe it is already June! I better start working even harder, because time is getting faster. 

Love you all

Love, Sister Harrison #2