THREE MONTHS! 1/6 OF THE WAY DONE!!; October 14

well, this week has been a good week according to our stats and our area we are in. and we finally got a car. it's a 2014 chevy cruz. we got it with five miles on it. it's brand spankin new. we're spoiled. anyways, we contacted one referral and had 6 less active lessons! that's amazing! that never happens! the week started off rough. last monday we had an appointment with a less active named Ardith and we've been trying to get one forever and then she cancelled. but that's part of missionary work. then tuesday we got the car. wednesday our appointment the less active who was going to take us to lunch went through! we went to applebees. She basically finally got together with us to tell us her husband came back and so she's going to be moving now. her and her husband have been separated for many years. so we won't be able to get in contact with her anymore. that's okay. we got to leave a little spiritual thought at the end. also, a girl named stephanie that Sister Trower and Sister Carter worked with before i came out. moved back. they activated her and then she moved away and now she's back and back into her same life before she left. she's a sweet girl. all she needs is love and friends. so we visited her a few times this week. Thursday was my three month mark. I'm 1/6 of the way done. Friday we had zone meeting. It was really good. I also had my three month interview with President during zone meeting and it happened to be during training and practice so i didn't have to do role plays. i hate role plays haha we also met with Mollie twice this week. She really wants to go back to the temple but she needs to go to church and pay her tithing. so we talked to her about tithing. we watched Elder Bednars most recent conference talk on tithing and blessings and read her a few scriptures on tithing and she said she was convinced about tithing and was going to start paying it but she didn't come to church on sunday but we're not losing hope. saturday we were at the visitors center and a bishop called in and said he was bringing a co-worker in to tell him about the temple and take him on a temple tour. so since sister carter answered the phone we got to do that. his co-worker he was bringing was afraid he was going to be preached to and was worried about coming in so he just wanted us to give him the facts. so that's what we did. The guy was very receptive and asked a lot of good questions. after they left we got a call from that bishop saying that we did everything perfectly and asked how we did it without even knowing the guy and thanked us for going on missions and we're being great representatives. it was great! Then on Sunday it was sunny and warm! it was a miracle haha and we had an investigator at church! Her name is Lauren. Sister Carter and Sister Trower taught her once and we've stayed in contact with her.  She's in dental school and really busy for lessons but she came to church with her boyfriend so that was great! that was the week :) hope you all had a good week. love you :)

~Sister Harris

Longest Week of My Life; October 07

This week we didn't have any appointments. Mollie and Heather that we usually meet with each week both cancelled. We made cookies this week and had a ward missionary drive us and come with us to some of the less actives. She drove us in her red Hyundai Accent. It was the best thing of my life. Anyways, we had about 12 plates of cookies and all but three plates were given to someone in the house. I prayed to get at least one return appointment and by the end of the week we got a text from a less active named Mary and I met with her once at the very beginning of my mission but we haven't been able to get a hold of her again and she said she wanted to take us out to lunch on Wednesday so hopefully that goes through and goes well. We also got another appointment with a less active named Ardith tonight. Hopefully that goes well. We did a lot of tracting and contacting this week. Nothing else went on. The VC has been pretty slow because school is back in. Today we got together at the Johnstons and had a VC pday. it was really fun. There are a lot of new sisters in the VC and we don't really know each other and a lot of people have just been breaking down and falling apart. I think it's because the VC is so slow it's hard to keep us busy and it just gives us time to think of home. so we needed this day to get together with everyone and just bond haha we made pumkin waffles and pancakes for breakfast with chocolate chips. they were delicious. and one of the companionships in the VC couldn't handle each other for two more weeks so they had to have an emergency transfer and so that means one sister left the VC so we got a new one. Sister Farley! She's the one from Bountiful in Aunt Roni's ward. So that's fun. Conference was really good! I loved it! Each talk was amazing! I loved how on Saturday the big theme was missionary work and members and missionaries need to work together. Hopefully that'll get our ward excited again. Apparently the ward was a lot of help and excited after the mission president broadcast in June. Another thing that really stood out to me in conference that was said by Uchtdorf was "Doubt your doubts, before you doubt your faith." Faith is everything. If you don't have that sure foundation of faith, where are you at? I also like how a lot of talks were all about enduring and having a deep conversion. Just think about where you are in life and what needs to be done to be where you want to be. Life is hard, but we are promised it is so worth it to endure to the end to reach eternal life. Everyone has trials, but how do you face those trials? Head on with a happy countenace or avoid them and approach them kicking and screaming? You decide. You all have your agency. But i'd much rather take the happy easy rode. It seems hard but through Christ you can do all things and it's super easy. It's just using that faith and steping into the dark but everything works out. Love you all. I miss you. See you soon.

Frogs, Squirrels, and Coyotes; Sept. 30

Alright, this week has been interesting. Actually, I don't know. I always have so much to tell you, but once I sit down and start writing I don't remember anything that happened the last week. Well Sister Carter and I had to teach in district meeting this last week on how to be organized. and in district meeting we always teach for about 15 minutes and then everyone is supposed to practice for 30. well how in the world are you supposed to practice being organized? exactly. well luckily or district leader talked forever about goals and such that we only had 15 minutes left. Just in time to teach. The Lord works in mysterious ways and knew there was no way to practice it haha 

On thursday, two guys came into the visitors center one after another who weren't members. One asked if he could go inside the temple.  I told him he could but he'd have to prepare first and showed him our temple display and the video on baptisms for the dead and what happens in the temple.  He told me he was agnostic and wasn't religious. and after i showed him one two minute video he didn't like it and left. but in the middle of the other guy walked in and walked straight up to us and after the first guy left I asked this guy about himself and if he was a member and he told me he wasn't but his daughter had friends that were and wanted to know more about it. and i don't know why i got these two guys one after the other. everyone else was goofing off somewhere else i guess. but anyways, since we were already at the temple display i showed him the baptisms for the dead video again and then he asked how our marriages were different from normal marriages. yes he said normal. and then i should him the sealing video. then he asked really good questions about the priesthood and prophets and apostles and joseph smith and it was really good. and of course sister melgaard came out and started butting into the conversation but it worked out well. and i told him about the book of mormon and moroni's promise and gave him a book of mormon and told him to read alma 32. which is on faith. i put a book mark in that chapter and i wasn't sure why and then we went on a temple tour on the grounds because he asked for one and we told him more about moroni and he asked if he could see the gold plates and then he would know for sure this was the true church. he is one that just wants a sign and he even said while on the tour he was a man of little faith. so hopefully he'll read alma 32. and when he left he told him to atleast read to alma 32 and he said he'd probably read the whole thing. he lives in hillsboro so who knows if we'll hear anything about that. but it was a really cool experience. especially to teach with sister melgaard because i actually got to talk. sister carter talks too much and i never get a word in. so that was nice. and on friday i had a melt down because there has been so much gossip going around in the visitors center about other sisters and people having problems with their companionships and i couldn't handle it anymore so i was the tattle tale and I told Sister Johnston. so hopefully things will be better soon. also, on sunday I was called up in third hour to talk about patriarchal blessings for five minutes and i don't know if it was five minutes but all my words were jumbled and i told about my experience on how and why i decided to go on a mission and i was praying i would at least touch one person and this kid that was from the singles ward slipped into the chapel when i was speaking because the YSA meet after us and he came up to me after and he told me that because of things i said he finally decided to go on a mission. Im so glad i talked to the one person i wanted to touch. That was awesome. well that's all i have for this week. oh ya, it's been pouring rain this whole week and frogs have just been hopping across the road ahha a little odd. and on a regular basis there is always squirrels running across the road. i live in a forest. and everyone tells us to watch out for coyotes because they're everywhere and roam the streets, but i haven't seen one yet. just some animals im not used to haha have a good week. love you all.

~Sister Harris

Lake Oswego; Septemeber 23

Well this week has been interesting.  It went by so fast I don't remember anything that happened. I feel like we had a ton of meetings. We had two visitors center meetings and we had zone meeting and President Morby was there and talked for awhile that means it went over and our proselyting time was cut short and we don't have much of that anyways because we're in the visitors center half the day. also, this week the other sisters in our ward/area got there car taken away. Not because they were disobedient but because an Elder that is in a biking mission hurt his foot and can't bike anymore got their car. That means we are sharing a car. So that means we are walking half the time. and of course when we start walking it decides to actually rain in Oregon. weird. I know. It's been raining in Utah and everywhere else a lot but not here haha but i loved walking in the rain. that means this week we have been doing a lot of tracting. We tried to get in contact with a lot of our less actives on Saturday and they all said they were busy and to come back later, but wouldn't give us a specific time. Imagine that.  Then that's when we tracted the houses around the less actives house. We were able to give out one Book of Mormon while tracting. That's fantastic for Lake Oswego. We couldn't get in contact with any of our potential investigators, but we won't lose hope. We'll keep trying. We have two investigators. One, Jackson we still haven't got a hold of him in two weeks. He's going through a divorce and doesn't have a phone.  And Heather cancelled our appointment with her this week but said we could come next week. So we just keep praying things will work out. But she did come to sacrament yesterday because it was the primary program and her kids were in it. It was awesome! She usually just comes to the last two hours of church and goes to primary with her kids. But the biggest miracle that happened this week was our Less active we've been working with, Mollie, finally came to church! AND she stayed for all three hours! It was such a huge step. On Friday when we met with her we really stressed the importance of the sacrament and the spirit finally pricked her heart and she came. Our prayers were answered.  This is another short email but i don't really have much else to say. Love you all! MIss you. see you soon.

~Sister Harris

Oregonians; September 16

Okay, No one worry. Elder Hadlock is our newest zone leader. What? I know. Who knew when we were messing around in high school that we'd both be on a mission in the exact same place in the exact same zone. It's crazy. He has changed a lot. He is a great ZL. 

Well this week has been crazy. Our area has been slow and Sister Carter wrote her dad about it and he is the bishop of her ward at home and he said that the Mission President in that area where they live advised the missionaries to get a bishop blessing from the bishop in the ward they are serving in because he has the keys to the area. So that is what we did. One thing that stuck out in my blessing was that my happy joyous countenance will be a blessing to others. I know. You're all shocked. I am too. The thing I hear the most since I've been out here is your so happy. i love your smile. I know you are all collapsing reading that. At home everyone thought I was grumpy. I'm glad I'm seeing some change in me haha the gospel brings me so much happiness I hope it brings you all so much happiness.  Anyways, things finally started to pick up.  We went tracting on Tuesday and tracted into a former investigators house that we've been trying to get an appointment set up forever. She wanted to wait until school started and then she shattered her hand and she is just a mess. but we talked to her sister for awhile and she is a true christian and she has such a strong testimony of Christ and she has had so many spiritual experiences we just need to help her recognize the spirit and she will be baptized and be a solid member. She has never sat in on any of the lessons and she said she would. I'm so excited. Then our other investigator Heather we finally got to meet with and it was a little crazy with her 3 year old running around everywhere. She has taken the lessons before but since she has no religious background she needs the lessons again. She had them over a year ago. but she has been going to primary with her kids for over a year because her kids love it and she loves the simplicity of it. she'll finally be in sacrament next sunday because it's the primary program. and she told us her family has family prayer every night and when we went to visit her her three year old daughter gave the prayer. I love when little kids pray. And her daughter who is 8 goes to activity days and came home with a scripture chart and wants to start reading scriptures. so she wants to go through the scriptures with us so she can explain it to her children. she also wants to start doing family home evening but doesn't know how. she is super solid and is doing this all for her kids because her kids learn it in primary and all their friends do it. we just need to help her gain a testimony and realize how important baptism is. Yesterday, there was two baptisms for two kids in our ward who are Heather's daughters age and we called and reminded her about it and she said she wasn't going to make it and then she called back 5 minutes later and asked if it was too late to change her mind because all her kids want to go.  Kids are so great. Then with our less active, Mollie. I don't remember if I told you we are teaching her the lessons and getting her to come to church isn't working so we decided to start small and make her a scripture reading chart and get her into her scriptures. She's been keeping her commitments and reading. It's awesome! and the other day one of Sister Carters recent converts came in and had questions about the law of chastity and feels like she is trapped and sister carter didn't teach her about it. we answered her questions and told her bluntly and i sat there and listened most of the time because i have a hard time opening my mouth when im not comfortable and at the end i asked her why she got baptized and if she believes this is the true church and she said yes so i asked her why she was questioning all these things and got mad and yelled and said we don't understand because we're not her age and stormed off and said she was leaving the church. I felt so bad. That's twice now, when i get the courage to open my mouth I make the people mad. 

On Sunday, yesterday Sister Carter and I had to teach the Sunday school lesson. It was last minute and not many people were there and we didn't get much discussion going and my words got jumbled like usual and it was a mess. but things are okay now though. all those experiences are in the past and now we move on haha

One more thing. I don't remember if I told you we went back to the Welton's Mansion to eat dinner and their dining room and entry way is as beautiful as the outside of the house.  Their kids were so well behaved and well mannered and they are super smart. They have 6 kids. They must be doing something right to be that blessed and then that reminded me of my favorite scripture Mosiah 2:41.  They keep the commandments, they are humble, they know where that wealth really comes from and they are blessed not only spiritually but temporally as well. They are truly happy people. Not because of their wealth but because of the gospel. We can all be happy and be blessed if we just do the simple thing, keeping the commandments. It's a simple pattern but not easy to follow but I know we can all put the distractions of the world away and put God first and everything will work out. Love you all. sorry for the long email.

~Sister Harris

Septemeber 9 ; Just another week

well everyone. good news. Sister Carter and I are staying together and will be staying in Lake Oswego for the next 6 weeks. This week hasn't been real exciting. We had another lesson with Jackson on Tuesday and didn't tell his friend about. The lesson went great.  His friend did come up to our ward mission leader at church and told him that we were scaring Jackson away because we're too pushy with baptism. but Jackson is a grown man. im sure he'd tell us these things. He know he feels pushed so we didn't mention it in our last lesson.  We need to hear these things from Jackson not other people. It's ridiculous. Oh well. it's missionary work. We've also been meeting with this less active named Mollie and all she likes to do is chat. we finally got through to her and we're teaching her the lessons, but getting her to church is hard work. she hasn't been to church since she moved here two years ago because no one fellowshipped her but she doesn't like to come to church because people ask too many questions. so how do you get to know someone without asking them questions? it's a mess. That's about the only exciting things that happened this week. 60 primary kids came in to the visitors center on saturday and they wanted a temple tour and there were like a billion weddings so we had to dodge them all some how. it was a mess. it was fun though. anyways, on wednesday at district meeting i was asked to give the spiritual thought on patience. of course, because i need to work on patience. I get so easily irritated out here with everyone and i don't know why. I especially get mad at myself everyday. but we just all need to remember that everything is done in the Lords time. Everything works out in the end. We just have to be patient and enjoy every moment between or what you're waiting for won't come or won't be that enjoyable. Irritation and anger is of the devil and the Lord can't bless you when you are irritated and angry. He will bless you when you are patient and WILL give you your righteous desire when He feels you earned it. I love you all. Sorry for the short email. 

~Sister Harris      

Sister Jessica Harris with Sister Jessica Harris! WHAAT!?

Tender Mercies

So my friends, this week not much has happened. Tuesday we had a visitors center training meeting. The four sisters that met Elder Holland got to talk about it for a minute and I just bore my testimony on the spirit that was there. and the next day at the zone conference Sister McPheeters, one of the senior missionaries, told me how much the spirit touched her while i was baring my testimony and saying how i have everything figured out and together haha it really means a lot when people tell me that because im always afraid im not making any since but i really do have power in what i say. I just need to believe that for myself. and also at zone conference sister morby called me to lead the music hahahha that's funny huh? I don't know how to lead and im not comfortable standing in front of people. but of course the Lord knows how to stretch me in different ways and get out of my comfort zone. Then on friday morning a member in our ward invited us over because they were inviting a whole bunch of people over for a bbq and a lot of them would be nonmembers. we pulled up to their house and it was HUGE! i've never seen anything so big.  they basically had a water park in their backyard and had a sign in front of their house that said Welton Estates. that's their last name. some people haha and then on friday night i was just minding my own business at the visitors center and it was really slow so I was watching mormon messages i haven't seen yet and my companion runs and says "Elder Holland is here!" I get up and run out super excited thinking Elder Holland came in again and I see Elder Holland! my buddy Justin Holland!  It was so good to see him. Apparently in July when the mission split he was transferred to the Salem Mission and is the AP there. and then on Saturday he came in again. both times he brought a less active. On saturday we took his less active on a temple tour. everything i said shes like "I like that" "I like how you said that" After a rough beginning of the week things always turn around. Then on sunday we went to see one of our less actives and she only likes to chat. and then i asked her one question and that was to tell me about herself and she told me her whole life story and we got into talking about the atonement and we left her with a chapter to read in the book of mormon and a return

 appointment. that never happens. we usually just have to drop by. She we're moving somewhere with her hopefully. and when we were talking to her at the end she said "Thanks for going on a mission" I've been really struggling with my purpose and why im even here and that was an answer to my prayer. Also, a less active family with a mom that's kind of active. she goes to church to fulfill her calling and then goes home. but one day this week we ate at their house and left them with a message like we always do. we left them with d&c 84:61 its about being forgiven for your sins when you bare your testimony. i knew you could be blessed and get a stronger testimony when you bare it but i didn't know you could be forgiven of your sins and on sunday the mom bore her testimony. short and sweet and to the point but she did and it was great! people actually do listen to our message. then on saturday we were going to a stake breakfast and we were driving on the freeway and apparently Oregon state and Oregon university were playing and everyone was driving down the freeway with their flags on their cars and i was having football withdraws. i miss it. and then we were at a members house teaching a short lesson to get them involved in missionary work and we were talking about the 49ers and neither of us could remember the quarterbacks name. I always called him capricorn so i couldn't remember it and then in the middle of the lesson he yelled in out hahah it was so funny. he said he'd keep me updated on byu and the 49ers and austin collie haha ;) don't tell anyone. well that's all for this week. keep smiling my friends. love you.

August 26; Elder Holland? What?

Okay so Tuesday we had an appointment to teach someone. I don't know if I've told you about Jackson, but it was with Jackson. Jackson is friends with a guy in our ward. So they guy in our ward is our member present. Well the last lesson we had was two hours long! Are you kidding me? that's ridiculous and Jackson was falling asleep the whole time and me and sister Carter could never get a word in. Brother Parks, the member present, thinks he knows how to teach and what needs to be taught and it's ridiculous. He tells us right in the middle of the lesson what we're doing wrong and what we need to fix right in front of Jackson. And Brother Parks loves to go into deep doctrine and teach everything he knows. NO, we're supposed to teach simply and the basics. Last time we talked to him after and we got no where with him, because it's his way or no way and the conversations are very uncomfortable because it's kind of arguing but not and I hate it. Oh well. Well anyways, Tuesday he didn't show up. We called Jackson and his phone was disconnected. We called Mike and he thought the appointment was on Thursday. So we met on Thursday. Again, no one showed up. Oh well, that's missionary work I guess. We emailed him and haven't got a response yet. I was feeling kind of down. I haven't taught much and I'm still working on opening my mouth and talking to people at the visitors center and I was helping a family and I put them in the God's Plan movie and it's ten minutes long and then I talk to them after. And it's just a normal slow Friday night. and I'm waiting for the movie and I'm looking out our big glass window and a man comes walking up our stairs. It looks just like Elder Holland. OH MY GOODNESS IT IS ELDER HOLLAND!!!!!! Elder Holland came to the Portland Temple in Lake Oswego and the Visitors Center while I was there. It was unreal. ONce he walked in the door you could feel his strong spirit. You know what it's like when you feel the spirit this was times 100. He just came in for about 10-20 minutes. It was really fast. He shook everyones hand and asked where we were from. And everyone is crying and I have a new way of feeling the spirit and it's i can't stop smiling and im just so happy. so i was just smiling away and Elder Holland shook my hand and with his other hand pinched and patted my cheek hahahah he sure slaps people around haha and he's like "aren't you smiley?" hahah I just stood there like a weirdo really. I mean what do you do when your face to face with an apostle like that and you weren't expecting it? before he left he just talked to us missionaries for a second. It was only me and my companion and another companionship and a senior couple and the Johnstons. He said he prays for us everyday and there isn't a day or minute that goes by that he doesn't think of us. "you and the prophet are the most prayed for people in the church. you and Thomas Monson right here side by side." (he squats a little and puts his hands up in front of him.) he says we're both constants in his prayers. He said you keep testifying, you keep preaching, and the word will proceed you. When I shook his hand he pierced my soul with his bright blue eyes. He also said while shaking my hand, "sister harris, you are blessed and doing a great work; the lords work." He said missionary work is on his mind all the time, but now it's more personal for him because his grand daugthers out and his grandson is in the MTC. He loves the missionaries. "The church is run by revelation and when I say revelation, I mean we are in the Lord's house speaking with him." I don't know whether to take that literally or in prayer. The he said "we stand on Thursdays and every week without fail, we pray for the missionaries and the work of salvation." "The church could not be what it's destined to be or what it is now without you missionaries." It was such an amazing experience and it was what i needed to lift me up a little bit for the next week. I was so excited to tell everyone hopefully it all makes sense. love you all. the church is true. From meeting Holland face to face and feeling his spirit there is no doubt that he has been called of God to help us in these last days. I hope you all have a great week. love you all. 

~Sister Harris

August 19

Here are a few talks recommended by Sister Harris
Testimony of the Book of Mormon
His Grace is Sufficient (There's a video that goes along with this one, but I couldn't find it so if you can find it watch it, it's really good.)

Well this week went by really fast and I don't remember what I did. I realized I've been telling you a lot of not important things so I'll try and keep it short with important information. Last week for P-day we played softball with with our zone. Our zone is only made up of two districts. It was district against district. But the sisters from the other district decided not to show up.  It was really fun though. Our district made t-shirts and the Elders on the other team went to the thrift store and showed up looking like the kids on sandlot. it was so cute haha well this week we got in contact with another former investigator who wants to start meeting with us again once school starts. which is after labor day. so now we have two investigators like that. I'm super excited. also, the visitors center is opening up tomorrow and my mission call will be starting for real. This week we also met with Jackson and found out he is our investigator now. We've been sitting in on lessons because his member friend who is in our ward wanted us to. His member friend gets way too intense in the lessons and goes way too deep and makes the lessons way too long. It's awful. We start teaching him this week and we talked to his friend and told him if he wants us to start teaching we're keeping it simple and no longer than 45 minutes and if we have to we can take multiple visits for one lesson. so hopefully this next lesson goes a lot smoother. And this week we went on exchanges. I went on exchanges with Hermana Quijada and she is serving in the English ward of Beaverton. She warned me before we got there that Beaverton is like another country. She was right. It was so scary. It made me grateful for my comfortable place in Lake Oswego.  She made us tract all day. I hate tracting and it's the least effective way to find people but apparently not in Beaverton. We found about 5 potentials. First we went street contacting at the Farmers Market. We found one person there. and first off. When we go tracting in Lake Oswego no one answers their door. Probably because they have cameras on their porch and decide not to answer. So this was basically my first time actually talking to people. It was really scary, but I got used to starting the conversations and then Sister Q took over. So one day i will be comfortable finishing it haha and then we tracted out an apartment complex. an entire one! we found five people really interested and want us to come back. but i can't go back. only she can. we also went to go visit a non member in really sketchy trailor park. we walked in and this old lady we a little beard told us we looked really pretty and gave us a hug and held us there forever and gave us a blessing. i was trying my hardest not to laugh. we gave her the move testaments. she wouldn't take anything else. she had her own religion. That night we ate dinner at a members house. they had 6 kids and that ward also feeds the spanish missionaries and they are in a trio and one of the missionaries was Elder Hadlock. It was so nice to catch up with him. and Dinner was crazy. I loved it. the members in lake oswego are old and ive only ate with one family with kids and they were older kids. well last about all that's exciting that's happening here in good ole Oregon. love you all!

Current Addresses

Jess's address until OCT. 14:Sister Jessica Marell Harris
                                            4893 Parkview Dr. Apt. M
                                            Lake Oswego, OR 97035
* ONLY send LETTERS to this address*

Mission Home address:  Sister Jessica Marell Harris
                                      Oregon Portland Mission
                                      1400 NW Compton Dr. Ste 250
                                      Beaverton, OR 97006
*Send PACKAGES to MISSION HOME ADDRESS*

August 12; The work is Progressing

So I don't know if I told you right before I got here the Portland mission boundries were changed. Portland is really small now. I don't even think the airport is in our mission anymore. anyways, so our areas are smaller. We just have the lake oswego ward boundries and it's cut in half because we have two sets of missionaries in our ward.  The lake oswego area is a very hard area anyways. They are very wealthy here and no one thinks we have anything that would make them happier than what they already have. So the last two weeks we've been full prosyliting sisters because the visitors center is closed and we've been starting with no investigators or anything. So last week all four of us have been sick and we didn't really get anything done. but while we were contacting a referral which wasn't home like usual and so we decided to tract the area because we had an hour until dinner. so the next house we went to my companion decided it should be my first door approach. so i knocked and told her who we were and asked if she'd heard of us. she said "yes, been there done that. come in." wow my first door approach got us in. nice work sister harris. so we talked to her for a little bit and then asked her what been there done that meant. she was a convert. she got married in the temple. but then her and her husband had a lot of questions that no one would answer and so they started doing research. We were there for like two hours and she was trying to shake our testimonies and start questioning. Everything we said we backed it up with something, but all we really could do was bear our testimonies. She told us not one of the things she told us would make her leave it was all of them combined. It was heart breaking. During the week some members told us about a lady who goes to primary with her kids who isn't a member who is a former investigator and that we should go talk to her. We went and saw her and she goes to primary because she had no religious background and doesn't know anything and that the lessons got way too overwhelming. but she's ready to start taking the lessons again once school starts. Yay! our hard work is finally paying off. We have one investigator haha and then on sunday a guy in the ward came up to us and said he had a friend who wanted to start taking the lessons. The visitors center is opened on sundays so he brought him to the visitors center and started with the first lesson and the ward member took over and made it way too deep. we need to talk to him about that. but now we technically have two investigators! yay haha we didn't do much this week but we're getting somewhere. The church is true my friends! There is no way Joseph Smith could have made any of this up. Why would he go through all that he did and put his family through it if it wasn't true. It brings so much joy to me, but there will be hard times because of oppossion in all things. You should read Safety for the Soul by Elder Holland. IT's amazing. love you all. miss you. see ya soon
Here's a link to the talk she was talking about.Safety for The Soul - Elder Holland

August 5; first week in Oregon

First lets take care of some business. It's pretty sad when I get a letter from my companions mom from Tennessee before I get one from anyone in Utah. Just because I'm out of the MTC doesn't mean I don't need letters. I do!

Now to the good stuff I guess. This week has been interesting. We are full proselyting and my companion has never done that before so we've had a hard time filling up all of our time. I'm new and don't know excatly what we're supposed to do. I suggest things but she's too scared to do them, doesn't want to, or we can't. I don't know. I never know what's going on. We contacted some referrals earlier last week and only one was interested and so we set up a time to come back and they weren't home. We went back like a million times and they never answered the door. So we did some tracting on that street and saw them pull out of their driveway and leave haha some people. The joys of being a missionary. Another lady we went to we knocked and her dogs were barking and she told them to be quiet but would never answer the door. Its happened many other times too haha I just laugh everytime and my companion doesnt think it is funny. We have to laugh about something though.  Thursday we had an all day training meeting for new missionaries and I finally figured out who my mission president looks like. Bob Barker haha it's crazy. His wife is the cutest. She is always matching. She always has on a plain colored cardigan, the same color of shoes, earrings, and a patterened skirt the same color. I just love her.

Friday was a busy day we had a lot of appointments and people to see and of course no one was home. I haven't got to do any teaching yet and it's frustrating.

On Saturday we helped a single mom move into our ward. she was excited to have sister missionaries in the ward because now she can have us over for dinner because she wasn't allowed to feed the elders unless she invited people to come over. and a fun fact about her she graduated from American Fork. The Relief Society president used to work at the Albertsons in American Fork and a member has family in American Fork and I know them. It's so great to have little connections everywhere.

Its been sunny and 90 here. it's been great. there has been one cloudy cold rainy day and i was freezing haha and everyones lawns are dead and brown. worse than utah. weird huh? fun fact about oregon. you can't get your own gas. it's illegal. so i love getting gas because you don't have to do anything haha

Oh and Saturday also we were teaching a less active and trying to get her to come to church and my companion said oh you should come because us missionaries are teaching sunday school. and i was like what? and she's like ya. i forgot to tell you. so that was nice haha the lesson was only two pages long and we didn't know how to split it up between the four of us so we decided to teach the first two lessons and me and my companion had the second lesson but we barely made it through the first lesson so we have to teach next week. atleast we have more time. also the lady teaching relief society called me and my companion up to talk about missionary work and I made everyone cry. I touched their spirits. It made me feel pretty good. also on sunday the visitors center was open and i walked in and immediately felt the spirit and didn't want to leave. at first it was hard to open my mouth to talk to people but once i did i placed my first book of mormon! yes it takes me longer than others but oh well. it was a great experience.  In the visitors center we're supposed to get familiar with all the videos on i'm a mormon and the mormon messages. they are fantastic and i encourage you call to watch them! they are amazing.

The church is true guys! God lives! He knows me and each one of you! he knows my strengths and my weaknesses and exactly how to push me and make me stronger. I wouldn't still be out here without him. He's holding my hand every step of the way. Delegate things to the Lord! He wants to help you. Yes he knows you and whats going on and what you need but he needs you to realize it and ask. so just ask!

Love you all. Miss you.

~Sister Harris

Pictures

Sister Harris before she entered the MTC

All the girls in her MTC district

Sister Harris and her MTC companion Sister Andrus

 

All three wearing the same dress from Mika Rose

Sister Harris and Elder McGary

The Prayer Pillow

Sister Harris and her friend Chelsea

Sister Harris. Her friend Elder Crandall, and their companions

The Portland Oregon missionaries at a baptism

July 26

Hello my friends,

 

Two pdays in one week. How many people get to say that? haha today is mostly to do laundry and pack and stuff but they said we could email.

nothing much has happened since tuesday. we started our new training with our new teachers. It's only the 6 of us sisters. last week they had 32 sisters going to visitor centers. I feel like they messed up with us because they didn't know we were coming to Temple Square on Wednesday but things worked out. and how many people get to say they get to go on a field trip in the MTC? not many. so it's pretty sweet. we went to temple square and traffic was awful because of the parade and since we were there during the parade there was no one in the visitors center and all the sisters were at the parade so our teacher gave us a tour and some guy came and talked to us about our visitors center and told us how the Bretheren choose visitor center sisters because only 2% of missionaries are called to a visitors center. He actually quoted L. Tom Perry who said once our picture comes up on screen they can see the light of Christ in our eyes and out testimony of the antonement in our smile. That was a very humbling experience knowing the twelve could see that in me. I need to live up to my potential and get my head in gear.  On saturday we get to go again and be paired with a sister there and get to actually do what we're going to be doing in a few days. I'm so excited. Expect the Portland Temple and visitors center is closed starting July 29 right when I get there. Imagine that. Oh well haha Also, during our training this week a new thing the church is starting is a referral center thing. It's all online and only visitors centers have it right now. what we do is we get online and people can chat with us about any question they have about the gospel whether it is a non member or member. So now how many people get to say they taught real investigators from the outside world in the MTC? My experience here has been unreal. My companion and I only got to talk to two people online and they were both members. but it was still fun to search for their questions. Having it online is nice because you can search for the answer and talk with your companion before you give them an answer and since you're on the computer you have access to all church websites and can send them links. It's awesome. Since the class is just 6 sisters and a sister teacher I have got so much more out of it. Not that my other teachers were bad. It's just now from a womans perspective and she understands us better. It's way nice.

 

That's about all that has been happening. My companions mom made us all prayer pillows with our names embroidered on them. they are so cute. It makes me want to pray so much more. my knees are in heaven haha

 

Love you all. Miss you

 

~Sister Harris

Jess

 

P.s ill be on later to send pictures but the computers keep freezing right now.

July 23

Hello Everyone,

 

Second week down, one more to go. I love the MTC, but I feel like im sufficating. I need to get out of the gates. The sad thing is the thing I look forward to every Sunday is the temple walk because we get out, but not that far.  But the last two Sundays Sister Andrus and I couldn't find the way out of our little community. It was a little embarrassing. Oh well, what do we do that isn't embarrassing really?  This last week went so fast. I never believed people that said once you get to the first sunday everything gets better and goes faster. That is definately true. Well im sure you all want and update on our Asian investigator, Belinda.  Well we went back and she read the Book of Mormon and knew it was true, but didn't want to get baptized becasue of us. She didn't like our personalities and said we didn't know what we were doing.  It was awful. We left early.  But at the end we asked her if she could pray and she said yes and it was the most powerful prayer we had ever heard.  She is definately a member, because she is there every week to make missionaries grow and cry by realizing their weaknesses.  It was a great experience because we knew exactly what we needed to work on.  Also, this week we had a referal and we thought it was from Belinda becasue that's who they said it was from, but it wasn't. Thank goodness. It was a sweet old couple and the lady was from Ireland and had an awesome accent. We taught them the restoration and ended with a prayer.  They're not supposed to come out of character, but they did.  They told us how they could feel the spirit so strong and that we worked well together and that we were going to be amazing missionaries.  It was just what we needed to hear, because we didn't feel like we were imporving since we taught Belinda.  They just returned from their missions in Washington and he just retired from the MTC.  So hearing from him that we were doing great really boosted our confidence.

 

Well, the all of our Elders in our zone left this morning :( and the sisters in our zone left yesterday :( it's so empty and sad without them and it hasn't even been that long without them. Our zone was really close. well just the other district that came the same time as us.  There was so much love haha i've never felt so much love. It's so great. Tomorrow we get to go to temple square in the morning to start our training. I'm still not sure what we are doing.  We also go again on Saturday night.  And becasue our schedule is chaninging we get two pdays this week!!! sweet! it's on friday.

 

Today has already been rough because the Elders left and it's Sister Newsons anniversary of her brother dying and she's been having a really hard time. She gets to call her family today, so that'll be nice. but since she is getting so much attention Sister Melgaard, the bipolar one, feels like she isn't getting enough so she's being a difficult today too.  Sister Andrus and I don't know how to deal with any of it. It's really hard. Another thing is that the first few nights Sister Newson hasn't been able to sleep becasue she keeps replaying things of her brothers death in her head so we have to sleep with one of our vanity lights on and it lights up the whole room and it's hard to sleep. I can't complain because my issues aren't nearly as big as any of theirs and I don't know how to help them.

 

Well I love you all!

 

Please write through DearElder so I feel like I'm getting letters haha and they come same day

 

~Sister Harris

July 16

Hey Everyone,

First off, thank you all so much for the Birthday cards and packages! I loved them all and I love you all! Being away from home on my birthday was pretty weird but not a big deal. My district made it the best. They made everyone sing to me every where we went. I don't like attention haha

A few things you need to know about me, I can't spell and there is so much to tell you this email may be a little jumpy.

I made it through my first week! Thank goodness. Things are going well. I haven't got homesick yet so that's good, but weird. Things are going much better than I thought they'd be haha My companion is great! Her name is Sister Andrus. She is part Samoan and I'm darker than her so I'm pretty happy about that, she's not haha she's from Mapleton, UT so pretty foreign. We get along great! We're pretty much the same person except that she is a louder version of me.  She is going to the Rochester, NY mission and the Hillcomora Visitors center. So I'm pretty sad I only have three weeks with her.  The days are pretty long being trapped in a little classrooom and not seeing daylight but it's alright. My teachers are great but it's weird because they are really close to my age. My district is awesome. We started out with four Elders and six sisters but an Elder went home on Friday so now there is only three. Two of the Elders are 19 and one is fresh out of high school and 18. All the sisters live in my room. We get along so well. Three of them are 19 and one is 21 and Sister Andrus and I are 20. Sister Miller (Morgan Miller) went to Davis High and knows Jessi Crosland so thats pretty cool. She was a cheer leader so I don't know if Parker would know her or not. Oh also, Parker I met an Elder Halford (Spencer Halford) I think that's his name. He said he loves you and the reason he even went to school haha I guess you're pretty cool lol anyways the first day within the first few hours I lost the back of my name tag, the magnet part and got my key stuck in my door so they had to call a lock smith which wasn't necessary.  Pretty embarrassing but whatever. Anyways, back to my district. Sister Newson who is Sister Millers companion is 19 and from Las Vegas.  They are both going to New York also.  She was a cheerleader also and I'm pretty sure her and Sister Miller are sister seperated at birth. It's weird. Then there is Sister Priday who is 19 and from Gilbert, AZ and Sister Melgaard who is 21 and from Ridby, ID.  They are both going to Portland. Elder Willson is from Smithfeild, Elder Savage is from Mesa and Elder Freeman is from Brigham City. Pointless information I know. Well everything was going great until Friday and our district fell apart. Elder Tipiani went home on Friday and Sister Melgaard had a little anxiety attack and talked to some people and found out she is bipolar and and had OCD. She started out all sweet and now she is just mean. She got permission from the Branch President to do her own thing so she can work things out and it's hard because we all want to be in class and obey the rules but Sister Priday wants to be in class and not follow her around everywhere. So it's getting pretty stressful. But it is such a blessing to have Sister Miller and Sister Newson in our district because both of their moms are bipolar so they know how to deal with it. Also, Sister Newsons brother committed suicide right before she came because he was bipolar and didn't want to hurt anyone. She was really supposed to leave on May 29 but there was a reason she needed to be in our district at this time. The reason Sister Melgaard is still here is because she doesn't have much family support and we need to help her. She hasn't got a single letter or package since she's been here. It's really sad. But it's amazing how much God is really looking out for all of us and knows each of our individual needs.

So we got our first investigators...Bob Nash (which is just one of our teachers) and Belinda Moey (which is a volunteer, but could be a real investigator). Belinda...she is so scary.  We went into the first lesson fairly convident about it. She is asian and doesn't believe in God. We asked her if we could pray when we got in there and she said it was fine. First, off she wasn't even going to let us in. and we prayed selfishly. We prayed for the spirit and we should've been praying for her. We explained God as best as we could and tried to answer all her questions (but she had a heavy accent) and she yelled at us. It was the longest 45 minutes of my life. Sister Andrus and I started crying when we left. Luckily we only teach her one more time haha It was a real slap in the face that we need to get ourselves in gear. We've both been fine and obeying all the rules but we can do better. always room for improvement. But since we've been fine we have been having a hard time feeling the spirit and think we're just going along with whatever happens and we really know we're supposed to be there and we're trying hard we just don't know what's wrong.

On a happier note. I saw Chelsea the other day and it was so nice to talk to her! It's always nice to see a familiar face here.

The temple is closed so we can't go to the temple the whole time we're here :( and our Elders leave next Tuesday. They are going to Nampa, ID. They are pretty solid Elders. You need a pretty good personality to be going there when you live so close. Once the Elders leave our last week we get to go up to Temple Square for the rest of our training. Only for the mornings though and we get to be companions with a sister that is serving up there right now. I'm pretty excited.

Well, I can't think of anything else to tell you all expect send letters! I have all day today to write letters and no one to write haha

Love you all! Miss you like crazy! 18 months will fly by. see you all soon :)

~Sister Harris

Jess :)