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