New Area Brings Great Blessings!!

                                                                                                                                  Feb. 3, 2014
Hola mi familia!!! Thank you for writing me! 

AHHH SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think that this week was one of the craziest weeks of my life! It is such an adventure to open a new area!!

 

On Tuesday I received my daughter!!! Her name is Hermana Blau and she is from Missouri! She is amazing! So kind, and I know that we are going to be really great friends. She knows more Spanish than I did when I got here, so it has been so fun teaching lessons together.

 

We arrived in Coyquen on Tuesday night at about 9, and so we left to work until 10. There are four Elders in our Sector, and us. So six missionaries total in one Ward. It is crazy but it is awesome!!! The Elders gave us such a warm welcome because they had our house all ready and it is amazing! It is big for the two of us, and super cute. The owner is a member and she took such great care of us. I asked if there was a laundry machine we could use and she told us that there was room to put one in, but that there wasn't one. I was worried because I wanted to wash all my clothes and sleeping bag so  I wouldnt have to worry about fleas traveling, and so the first night I was thinking about that while I went to sleep on just a clean sheet, in case fleas came with me.

 

The next morning there was a knock on our door bright and early, and there was the Sister with her brother in law that had an old washer that he wasn't using only because it made an ugly sound. He gave it to us for free and it works well! It was such a miracle from Heaven and I know that Heavenly Father is taking care of us!! Our sector is great! It is big and thank goodness that it is flat! We have seen so many miracles this week!!!! We are getting to know the members and working with them!

 

Some of the greatest miracles are the Bishop and Ward Mission Leader. They are both so enthusiastic about missionary work and are really helping us to work with the ward and vice versa. This is going to be an amazing sector to work in. 

 

My cute companion and I made it a goal to talk to everyone this week, since we don't know anyone. we contacted 203 people this week. The standard is 140 haha. We tried to enter and teach people in their houses and we were able to find 5 people. Maria, Mercedes, Yuli(Julie), Jackeline, and Carmen. Yuli, Jackeline, and Carmen all accepted the invitation to be baptized, but Carmen accepted a baptismal date. She is amazing!! The lesson we had with her was so amazing and she really needs peace in her life. She was going to come to church yesterday, but we called and she couldnt hear us and then there was no answer. We went by her house but she had left to bike like she does on sunday mornings. She said she would come on her bike, but she didn't make it. We are going to visit her tonight with some members. Please pray for her!!!

 

Jackeline was also a huge miracle that came from talking to everyone. She felt the Spirit in the lesson, and couldnt come to church this week, but will next week. We also found some future investigators that we will be visiting tonight. One of them is Jackeline (another Jackeline) and she lives with her husband and two children! She asked us a lot of questions about our beliefs and really wants to learn more so that her family can be blessed. We also will visit Cesar and Carolina, and their 3 daughters. They are so cute and really nice. We are excited to teach them. Please pray that everything will go well tonight!! We are being blessed to find wonderful families to teach!!! 

 

I had a really cool experience this week!! The Relief Society sisters had an activity on Saturday at 6 in the morning!!! Crazy right? When I heard it was a 6:00 a.m. I thought I had misunderstood haha. I still question my Spanish. We wanted to support them and get to know the Sisters, so we got up at 5:30 instead of 7:30 haha it was hard but it was so worth it. We went to the chapel and they were outside sitting in a circle of chairs. We then had a testimony meeting outside as we watched the sun rise. The Spirit was so strong as we admired the marvelous power of our Heavenly Father and Savior as the sun came up and the warmth washed over us. I love the sun because for me, it is the love of God. It is the warmth we feel when everything else is bad. I love it and I want to help everyone feel it every day! The Saints here are so strong because they are all converts and have such great faith. I have seen so many miracles and I love this area. I know that we are going to work really hard and be exactly obedient and Heavenly Father will help us to help His children. I am so excited for this opportunity and I will do my best! 

 

I had a ton of funny moments this week too! We went to visit a less active sister and the miracle is that Heavenly Father sent us right when she needed it. That day she was feeling like no one from Church ever visited her, and then we showed up! We all felt the Spirit so strongly. But after that she went to walk us outside and her door shut from the wind and she had the keys inside. The only way to get it was through the back door, but she had a giant fence without a door. I decided to climb up the wall in my skirt, and walk along the fence which had a giant tree in my way, I had to get over a ton of branches, but then I was able to climb down an old ladder on the other side. haha It was quite an adventure. I don't know if you can picture how funny it must have looked to see a sister missionary climbing over a huge wall and conquering the forest of branches. Probably wasn't the best thing to do as a missionary, but we were able to serve :)

 

The other embarrassing thing is that we have a new cell phone and the Elder in the office had called our phone with his to see if it received called, and then called his phone with ours to see if it worked. He did this and then gave us the new phone, and the phone saved his number on the top of the list of the call log. So, I would try to call investigators and it wouldn't work so I would try to redial, and because his number was saved at the top of the list I would always call him and ask for the investigator. Haha I did it like 5 times this week and he would always say, is this Hermana Harris again!!! haha so embarrassing.but, I finally figured out how to delete it so we wouldn't have the same problem. I thought it was all solved until I tried to called the sister leaders number, which I had saved the other day, and I called the Office again because when I saved the number I save the first one on the top of the list. haha

 

Well that is all the excitement for this week. I will send pics next week. Just know that I love you all, I love this area, and I am so grateful to work as hard as I can to serve the Lord and His Children. Love you!!!! Have an amazing week! Hasta luego!!!