August 15th

Mommy, Dear Mommy,

Mission life is good.  Thanks for telling me about your seminary fireside. I love your concept for that talk! Thats the biggest thing we deal with is helping people understand that we're not coming into their homes to tear away their faith and throw it out the door. We want to help them build on that foundation. We INVITE others and thats all we can do as missionaries. I like that idea that the Holy Ghost brings things UNTO but not INTO your heart. That they can only get INTO your heart if you do the work and then let them in. Thats awesome about accountability for the seminary kids reading. I think that would be interesting to tell them that so they know that their nightly reading is something that Salt Lake, the Prophet wants to know about!

 

The weather just got crazy out here! We're looking out the door of the church right now and its practically flooding outside! I'll send some rain and puddle pictures too!

 

I can definitely tell how a mission would be AWFUL if you're being disobedient! If it weren't for the uplifting feelings I get from the spirit, I could NOT stay here. And the spirit will only be here if I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm grateful for your guys' prayers, especially about me getting a good trainer! I couldn't have asked for a better trainer! Hes so obedient but hes friendly and loving and helping me be more healthy! I'm developing more patience and understanding! I felt so bad yesterday, we asked the Bishop if he could get us an Elders Quorum calander and he sighed, looked back and forth and said "Brethren, lets do it on Wednesday." We walked away and I said "So I guess the Bishop is the last person we should ask for things." I was grumpy because he wouldn't help us but Elder Christensen said "Only because hes so busy, its not fair to ask him to do things for us unless we absolutely have to. We should really only ask him for counsel." That totally hit me in the face! DUH! I felt so bad! Its exactly like how some people treat Dad and I felt awful! I just wanted to let Dad know that I'm sure there are a lot of people that take him for granted and don't even realize it! I know he's doing a good job and I'm so grateful for the hard work he puts in and I know Bishop Daniels here is a great man!

 

So my exchange was in Chambersburg, PA with Elder Gowdy. Hes hilarious! We were tracting and knocked on this door and this guy answered. His skin was sickly grey with splotches, he looked really dirty and he was ROCKING back and forth, staring at us. Elder Gowdy said "Would you like to hear a message about Jesus Christ" and the guy said "I don't believe like you do!" And Elder Gowdy said "Ok, well...do you know someone who would benefit from this message?" And the guy replied, "I would, he would, we would but I don't want it." And closed the door. As we were walking away, Elder Gowdy was stunned. "That guy can't be real." I thought it was very funny!

 

Speaking of funny stories, Elder Christensen and I volunteer at this Food Bank and we got invited to a luncheon for all the volunteers so I ordered a salad and he got something else. When the salad arrived, he stared unblinkingly as I proceeded to take the tomatoes, the crutons and the Bell Peppers off the salad. He stared at me, the salad and back at me. "Are you serious?!?! Everything that excites that meal...trashed!" We were laughing really hard and the elderly, retired volunteers watched us awkwardly.

 

Last thing, I promise I'm sending birthday cards to Dad and Shelby! I feel like its gonna be hard for me to stay on top of that since we only shop once a week! I need to plan ahead, but I promise I didn't forget! Happy birthday to them both and they will soon receive cards!

 

I think thats it, I love youins and I promise I'm doing smashingly!

 

Feel free to give my email address to anyone I guess. If anyone wants to write to me, they can. I have kept up that everyone that writes me does get a response and so far with email, I've done the same thing. But I don't promise everyone will ALWAYS get an email response but I will respond. Especially with letters!

 

Youins are awesome!

god speed

Onward and upward

Faith, hope, charity

Love one another

 

Sinceriously,

Elder Harrison

August 8th

Ok, so we only had 3 investigators at church again. Same three. I think that first week with lots was just lucky. It was interesting. We feel like we worked super hard this week but our numbers don't reflect that. However, our first week we didn't work very hard and had appointments fall out of the sky. So I definitely feel strongly that numbers don't actually represent the work you do. But Seanna and her husband haven't been coming to church lately but she DID tell us that if she got an answer to her prayer, she would be baptized. Same thing with another woman named Trudy (OH MY GOSH, I LOVE THAT WOMAN). She needs an answer to her prayer, but yesterday we taught her about temples and eternal families and she started crying! Shes a hilarious woman and she super loves us! I'm gonna cry like a baby when she gets baptized! Shes amazing. Can you add her to your guys' prayers?

 

Also, sadly, Josh smoked again. And he hasn't been keeping very good contact with us lately which is really bad while hes trying to quit smoking but we're praying for him and hopefully hes still ok to get baptized...I don't know really. Hes been working more and we're just going to try as hard as we can. Greg's parents are super against him getting baptized and its been about two weeks since we saw him but we're meeting with him this week.

 

I leave today to go on my first exchange! Yay. I super love our District Leader. His name is Elder Gowdy. I definitely am excited to learn a lot and see another area's experience since I've only ever seen Waynesboro.

 

Speaking of which, Mom, if you want to look up the other missionaries in my district and see if their mom's are on missionary moms, feel free. Greg Gowdy, Jason Bluemel and Zach Dastrup.

 

Also, we went back to talk to this guy we had met while tracting who had had 6 deaths in 5 months and had no interest in a God but we basically talked to him for like 2 hours. He was still pretty stubborn and not super interested. But we feel like if he thinks at all about what we said, our message could REALLY help him. His name was J.D. and if you guys want to pray to soften his heart, I know we could really help him.

 

Oh! Some interesting things that have been happening here, I ate crab for the first time. Like...out of the crab. Like, step 1: snap off legs. Step 2: snap off shell. Step 3: remove intestines, lungs and fecal matter (I KNOW). Step 4: work tirelessly ripping off little pieces of hard shell for little flowers of crab meat. End result? You're still hungry and you're now surrounded by dozens of disembowled crabs staring at you...People who live by oceans are weird people.

 

Also, did you guys know that Mennonites have a yearly pilgrammage? Where every single one of them across the U.S. meets somewhere thats been planned ahead of time 3 years in advance?? Crazy stuff! Apparantly theres one happening around here soon, maybe I'll get to go. Elder Christensen are going to hopefully get to go to a civil war reenactment on Saturday with a member! Thats exciting! They have things like that out here!

 

Also, I was super bummed not to get a picture of this but I saw a man who was basically Grandpa Larsen but 6 times his size (big boy) riding a wheel chair down the street, super blinged out with a cockateil on his shoulder! I NEED a picture of that man. He's a neighborhood regular. It WILL happen.

 

Well...thats all I've got this time around! I'm super excited and everything is going well! Oh! Elder Christensen did indeed get your leter, didn't think it was weird! I'll definitely send home anything I don't need! Tell Dad we're going today to make copies of his scripture study guide and the Fruits of the Apostasy story (one for me and one for Elder Christensen) and then I wanted to send the originals home cause they're on old, typed paper and I think thats super cool and don't want to ruin them. I might also send home some of the mail I've gotten and stuff but probably nothing for awhile!

Oh! I almost forgot. Yesterday, we went to Kingdom Hall, which is Jehovah's Witness worship. We're trying to learn more about all the religions in the area and we decided to start there so we can know how to set ourselves apart when asked to do so. Sometime this week, we're hopefully going to get the opportunity to attend Catholic Mass with the non-member husband of one the members. Thats exciting!

I love you guys and I'm grateful for your prayers. I've only been on my mission for a month and a half!! Crazy stuff!!

 

I'll talk to you guys soon and I'll be on for a while! Love youguys

 

Elder Harrison

August 1st

Hello Hello!

 

So many questions... So many answers!! Haha. Um..Yesterday, we had a slow day at church. We expected 4 or 5 investigators and only got 3. This whole week has been rough but its been a huge testimony builder that God will give us a good week and inspire us to be good missionaries and then test us to see if we'll be good missionaries even when things aren't going so well. We had a lot of cancelled appointments and Greg Henry was set for August 13th to get baptized but his parents are hard core against it so he didn't want to make them mad and he went to their church yesterday. He still wants to get baptized but because of the 3 times going to church rule, we have to push his baptism back. BUT, we set Josh Swope with August 13th as his day to get baptized instead! We told him we could do it either the 13th or the 20th and he said "the 13th. I want to do this as soon as possible!' So we started the Quit Smoking program with him on Saturday and he has to be clean for 14 days before he can be baptized and the 12th will be day 14.

 

It was actually rather shocking. Sunday morning in ward council, we told them about Josh's baptism and then in sacrament they announced they would be having the ward pool party and picnic the same day...we were like, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! I was really concerned about it but that night we ate dinner at the bishops house and as soon as he heard that he said, "We'll change the day of the party. We know our priorities." So that was super cool! We're actually going to try and see if we can do it Friday the 12th because Josh wants to do it ASAP anyways so that will be cool!

 

Oh, so that marking set you got me? It was like blue with a highlighter and pen in it? It is literally the perfect set for Preach My Gospel. I'm going about marking Preach My Gospel with the same fervor that I did the Book of Mormon in seminary. Its awesome. And I used Mosiah 24 and D&C 121 in a lesson about asking for help! It was super cool.

 

Its funny out here, Elder Christensen and I ate at a Mexican restaurant and on the front of the menu, it had a warning that basically said "Not all Mexican food is hot. It can be prepared like normal food." So apparantly the Pennsylvanians are so scared of spicy food, they need to be reassured its...normal? Ha. I actually eat all the spicy stuff out here. Its not near as weird as at home. I'm trying a lot of new things and I drink a lot of water. I'm losing weight but not enough to jack up my clothes. And Elder Christensen and I started a new "spartacus" workout. I haven't been this sore since the first day of wrestling when I was a Freshmen. And hes super gung-ho about it, very intense. He strongly desires six pack abs to the point where he rarely accepts desert anywhere...I really just want ice cream. Sigh. But hes convinced me to be a little bit more healthy...Sigh. I don't like it. But I guess its good for me.

 

We had one on one interviews with President Topham this week. I guess this is the third time he's toured the mission in like the last month! Crazy!

 

I love the greenie package you sent! I especially liked the water bottle and the floss things. I don't think I had ever seen those before so it was super awesome to get those. It just added to the heavy amounts of green I already see in the hills and the trees up here! The card in the package also made me laugh! And the little notebooks! Basically, if I could get one of those every few months I would greatly appreciate it! I love getting those! I also got letters from Lauraun, Matt, Linlea and Heath and...oh, Sis. Begay? Not Joan, but Karen. She talked about really liking to read my blog. So that was exciting.

 

Thats awesome about Shelby taking Organ Lessons! She could play in sacrament! That would be soo cool!! Its definitely one of those numerous things where Mom and Dad could say I told you so that every missionary out here (including me) wishes they could play the piano and a lot of them try to teach themselves. But skills like that are SO awesome to have! Its crazy to look back at all the things I've given up. Bummer. Speaking of raising children, so apparantly the Bishop up here made his son move out as soon as he turned 19... like, hes living with members and moving around to different houses paying rent and he just sent in his mission papers. And we heard the Bishop saying he would NEVER co-sign anything with his kids. We thought that was super harsh. Its crazy all the different parenting styles you see out here.

 

I don't know if I already told this story but its my only "memorable" story so far Haha. We knocked on this door and this guy came out and said we didn't need to bother, he was agnostic. And we said "Oh, ok. So you do believe in some higher power though?" And he said "I do not believe in some mythical being that controls the masses." We were stopped at that...he obviously didn't know what agnostic means. He started to turn around and I said "So you believe that people are successful in life based on their own decisions right?" And he said "Yes, just like I'm making the decision to close this door." And we said "Have a good day sir!" With big smiles on our faces.

 

We've also had people drive down and shout out "DEVIL!" or "SATAN!" My favorite response to that is "You too!" or "Thank you!" We're never really sure if they're just stating a fact or they have turrets... A lot of people think we're crazy or magic or magically crazy. I've heard stories about people who won't look us in the eye because they think we can still their soul and convert them if they make eye contact. There are like, 200 churches in Waynesboro and it is definitely not a big place! There is even one church called the "Otterbein" that actually teaches anti-Mormon seminars! I would be interested to know the route of the word Otterbein. Any ideas?

 

I actually enjoy the crazier people because hopefully they get to see that we're not crazy! That talk that you told me about sounded awesome! We're actually trying really hard right now to work on the ward council and invigorate member missionary work with them, helping them and giving them the tools necessary! I would love a copy of that talk if you feel so inclined.

 

We did 15.5 hours of "Finding" this last week. The usual goal is like 14. Its funny that we did like 8 hours last week and got 6 new investigators and 15 this week and no new investigators. I feel like maybe those numbers don't correlate. President Hinckley said finding is really just a last resort. The better way to do missionary work is through the members! I'm definitely grateful to have grown up in a missionary minded home but theres always so much we can do! People here are so afraid of ruining their relationships! If people cant get over the fact that you were trying to make them happier, then they're probably not great friends and if they DO accept the message, they'll be eternally grateful!

 

I love you guys and I've had nothing but good experiences thus far! The easy ones are exciting and the hard ones are rewarding! I did stub my toe this morning...that was neither exciting nor rewarding. BUT...mostly nothing but goodness.

 

As far as big hitting investigators, I was wondering if you guys could pray for 3 people specifically.

- Josh Swope: Quit smoking successfully and feel welcome at church

- Seanna Walker: Get an answer to her prayer and want to get baptized

- Greg Henry: Be able to soften his parents hearts or figure out a way to still get baptized

 

I would appreciate it!

 

I keep forgetting to bring my camera. I promise I'll email some pictures home soon. I just need to take some...Haha. I have quite a few from the MTC but not a lot out here. I'll try to take some this week!

 

I hope I answered all your questions and if not, definitely I'll try next week.

 

Thanks to everyone for the support!

 

Love you guys,

- Elder Harrison

24th of July

Oh Mommy, my Mommy-

 

How art thou? I'm doing well. It is indeed very hot and humid here. I've thus far lost 5 pounds from the sweating. This is the first time I've weighed below 160 Ibs. since I was a Sophomore. Pretty crazy. But I like it here. It was 115 degrees (if you account for the humidity, some kind of heat scale...I don't understand it.) But the actual temperature was 100 degrees. We have a car so its not so bad. But usually, we go tracting anyway because when we knock on a door and somebody says they're not interested, we say "actually, we were just hoping to get a glass of water." It doesn't usually work, but someday...hopefully, we'll get some water. Haha. But we've had no health problems. Its just a wee bit uncomfortable. Actually, President Topham told us that we get the 2nd least amount of sun (second only to Seattle) and so its a requirement to take Vitamin D pills because without seeing the sun, people get depressed...but with weather like this, I feel like I would be giddy if I never see the sun again. Haha. Just kidding...I'll take my pills...vitamin D pills are good.

 

I did get your package, thank you so much. The postcards were awesome! I might ask for more of those in a few months but right now I'm definitely set and I love the pictures! Thats exactly what I wanted. Don't worry about anymore. I loved the one with Hagmaier and I showed the first one, our family picture, to Elder Christensen and I was like, "this is my family" and then I showed him the crazy one and I was like, "this is my real family." It was funny. And thats a bummer you guys felt like it was a long week. For me, I feel like I was just here! Everything goes so fast. I just need to keep working hard and I'll have nothing to worry about!

 

I'm still super tired but I have DEFINITELY seen an increase in my ability to get up so hopefully I'll adjust pretty quickly. I said a prayer asking for help getting up and that definitely helped. I feel like things that are definitely miracles. And I'm grateful to know that I'm not the only one praying for me. Thanks so much! Oh, that woman you taught, is her name...Tina? I think. I think I went with the missionaries on their first visit there! I would love to hear about how things went with her. And thats awesome about your Relief Society lesson! I love those scriptures! With Joseph and the people of Alma. God doesn't always answer our prayers in the way we expect (as has always been said) but if he can change our perspective, thats not a better way of answering our prayers. Its ANSWERING OUR PRAYERS! We ask for deliverance from a physical difficulty. What will always be able to overpower a physical difficulty? A spiritual strengthening! I think thats awesome Mom!

 

Ok, I'm just going to go off this list of things I wanted to say and hopefully that answers your questions about who were teaching. First of all, we had 6 INVESTIGATORS at church yesterday! Seanna Walker, Analyse Hissong, and Ed Bonebrake (bonebrake...no joke) are all part member families so they usually come anyways. And then Kathryn Snowberger has been coming to church for years but is getting baptized in August (hopefully). She has to get medical clearance before she can do it. But even though shes been coming to church for years, she only just recently decided to get baptized. Its the weirdest thing! There are a bunch of active non-members out here! Its ridiculous. And then Greg Henry is a guy who had been taught before and he was actually the first lesson I taught here and we set a date for him my first time (but he had been taught A LOT before). So he has to come to church for the next two sundays in order to get baptized on August 13th. We prayed and fasted for his work schedule to line up and so far this week and next, hes off and can come to church! (The rule is you have to come to church at least 3 times before you can get baptized). It was definitely a miracle to see his schedule work out because he always says he usually can't get work off! And he was talking about what he wants to happen at his baptism and he said Elder Christensen would be dry and I would be wet...either he wants me to baptize him or hes planning on splashing me...hes a little off sometimes. But regardless, we're just trying to get him coming to church every week before we get into details.

 

Ok, so Josh Swope is the 6th person we got to go to church but he gets his own paragraph thingy because he has his own miracle to go along with! So, I might have already said this but I'll say it anyways. Elder Christensen and Elder Soleberg (the guy I replaced who went home) were just giving out pass along cards, gave one to him and he called and we've been teaching him. Every question he asks leads DIRECTLY into a gospel topic! Its ridiculous how prepared he is! He feels like the Book of Mormon makes sense and answers all of his questions. He had this question about why God did what he did to Job and he had asked his pastor and he had said "because God is God." Josh didn't like that answer. We were teaching the plan of salvation and afterwards he was like, "see, you guys answered that question for me."...We still can't figure out how we answered that question! But the spirit did! And thats fine with us!

 

Another miracle, we were walking down this street and saw this guy fixing a dent in a car. We walked up and said "Hey, what're ya fixing?" And he looked at us, realized we were missionaries and said "Ya, go ahead." Thinking we had said "Can we talk about Jesus Christ?" And I said, "are you fixing a light?" And he said, "wait..what?" he was totally caught off guard that we actually wanted to talk to him and not preach to him. His name is Titus and we went to his house to talk to him and his girlfriend walked out and said, "what Branch are you from?" We hesitated and said "The Church of Jesus Christ of-" "No, what BRANCH?" she interrupted. "Oh... the Fairview branch?" Apparently she had been an active member until just a few years ago! We didn't use ward records or anything to find her, we had just stumbled upon her boyfriend fixing a car! And she was excited to talk about the church and was basically teaching him for us. And we could tell this was his first experience hearing about her being Mormon or anything!

 

In your letter with the package, you asked about Laura. We're going to go try and see her tonight, just visit her and rebuild that trust. Antonio, we're not sure what were going to do because he literally speaks no english. Maybe we can get a spanish speaking member to go with us...Pennsylvania doesn't have a lot of those. But I've definitely seen how much the missionaries REALLY need the members help! Its a huge support when we have members to help us.

 

Also, we had our first (kind of) baptism last night. A little boy named Kaanan got baptized. And we were involved because we taught him and helped get things organized but he came to his mom after going to church once and said he wanted to be baptized. And his Uncle Caleb baptized him. So we didn't have a lot to do with it but it was super cool and he's an awesome kid!

 We got food from a food bank the other day, so I'm officially poor! haha. Just kidding...kind of. We volunteer at the food bank and the missionaries always have since like...the 90's so they love us and let us take whatever we want. So I got cereal and instant taters. That was exciting. And as far as me being starving, don't worry about it. I'm totally content. The only thing is, how much money do I have on my card? Just so I know. I haven't bought really...anything with it, I think. I just figured it would be safer to know.

 

Speaking of me being fine, I'm actually better than fine. Everything excites me. But we had a weird experience. We went to see Titus and he came outside and said he couldn't meet with us (which is always heartbreaking) but he had read the Restoration pamphlet we left with him and seemed really excited about it and said he would like to come to church and before we could even ask, HE SAID WE SHOULD PRAY TOGETHER!! We usually have to fight for that and here he is throwing it out! I was super excited! He read, he had questions and he wanted to go to church! But Elder Christensen was a little put out that we couldn't meet and was very skeptical that he would actually go to church. He didn't end up showing at church but I was still excited. I don't know, am I naive? I feel like that hopefulness is something I want to keep.

 

That's about all I've got for today! I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to do whatever God wants me to do and I know that I couldn't do these things alone. I know the spirit is helping me!

 

I love you all!

- Elder Harrison