Culturally Aware in California‏ - September 3, 2013

 

Hi everyone!

 

All of the libraries were closed yesterday so we couldn't write! But here I am today at the library!

I have some very exciting news for y'all: First of all, we have two progressing investigators.  They are great! Second, one has a baptismal date! Her name is Marcella and she's SOLID.  Cool story about this one:

So the Los Gatos elders have been so good about giving us referrals.  They're honestly our favorites.  So they referred us to this girl named Marcella and they were really excited about her. So we went over, planning on teaching the first lesson (The Restoration).  During the opening prayer, however, I just had the strongest prompting that we needed to teach Plan of Salvation instead.  I looked at Sister Ferrin after the prayer and I half-whispered, "We are going to teach Plan of Salvation, okay?" She looked at me funny and then I just went for it.  It ended up being a really good lesson and the spirit was so strong! The member that was with us was really good, but his dad was even better.  He invited her to be baptized and she said yes! We asked her if she thought all of this was true and she said yes without a doubt.  Last night we taught her the restoration and she said that she would pray about the 28th of September for her baptism.  We're so excited for her! The Lord truly is hastening His work!

So that's the exciting story of the week.  In other news, we made an amazing cultural breakthrough! We were contacting in a park one day and we felt prompted to go talk to this Indian lady who was just walking around.  We went up and talked to her and gave her a Book of Mormon in Hindi! She looked genuinely grateful when we told her she could keep it and she thanked us as she walked away.  Man, I just love all the diversity here.  

This week, we had dinner with the Chinese elders and half of their branch.  It was a really cool experience to meet all of the faithful Chinese saints and to see the love they had for the gospel.  Although it was sad that we got their hopes up.  When they saw us there, they all asked if we were the new Chinese-speaking sisters in the branch.  We loved spending time with them, although the food was a bit interesting.  It was a pot-luck, so we didn't feel like we had to try everything, luckily.  But we decided we should at least try one new thing, so we dished up some curry-ish stuff called fish balls.  It was honestly the first time I actually gagged on my mission.  But the company was so good, that we didn't mind all that much.  

We've been doing splits this week with members of our Relief Society and it's been a really good experience! Even though most of the time, the less-actives we visit don't answer their doors, we still get to know members of the ward better.  It's been a great week!!

Last funny story: so the other night, we had a couple of hours of free time, so we decided to get caught up on our street contacting.  We went to downtown Campbell and decided we would talk to everyone.  We had gotten only about 15 contacts when we ran into this woman named Carolyn.  We gave her a card and she seemed interested, but we should've kept walking when she told us to hold on for a second while she bummed a cigarette.  After she took care of that, she sat us down at this bench and started telling us this plan she had to start a music camp for "the babies".  She wanted a religious atmosphere and she wanted our help.  We patiently listened, while she blew smoke in our faces and called us babies.  She asked for suggestions of what to call her camp and we threw out a few.  When we would say something she liked, she would respond with, "Ooh that's good, baby, write that down!" Haha! She was talking to us for 45 minutes.  We literally had to go home after talking with her because it was late and we were scared we would run into her again.  

Gotta love good times on the mission.  I'm loving it and there will be pictures on the way soon!

I love all of you, and I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Love you,

Sister Julie Catherine Harris

p.s. read Mormon 9!

Santa and Elvis in Santa Clara, and a pass-along ticking bomb in Saratoga! August 26, 2013

Hey everyone!

I am doing so well. The work here is picking up ever so slightly, but we're grateful for whatever we can get.  Victoria is leaving this week for Minnesota, so that's bittersweet.  It'll be so good for her!  We've been making a little bit of progress with Richie.  We planned this amazing lesson and we were planning on extending a baptismal date, but then he cancelled last minute. ): So we're planning on teaching him some time this week and we'll let y'all know how it goes.  The teaching is going pretty well.  Sister Ferrin and I have been getting a little bit better each day at teaching by the spirit.  Can you believe I'm almost done with my training? So crazy.

So things are going well in the Monta Vista ward.  I'm getting to know a lot of the people in the ward now, so that's good! We did splits last night with these two sisters in our ward and it went so well.  I'm so glad we were on splits, because we visited a less-active and she remembered the member I was with, so they exchanged numbers and she'll be at church this week! We're doing a lot of good work with the less-actives here.  Meadow was at church again yesterday and she actually made some friends this week! So we're happy she's getting to know people.  This seriously is the best YSA ward on the earth.  The longer I'm here, the more I realize how awesome it would be to be in the Tongan program.  President now has sisters in the program so it's only a matter of time before I am in it! Haha just kidding.  There are also sisters in the Chinese program so we'll just see.  Honestly I would be just fine sticking with English, but you never know!  

Things have been going well here! The other night, we had dinner with the Hermanas and we met this elderly lady named Santa.  We walked into her apartment, and Elvis' face was everywhere.  After we ate an amazing meal, she told us about her favorite Elvis album and showed us a shirt she made with him on it.  It was awesome.  We're pretty much best friends now.  Yep.  We just keep having cool experiences every day, but most of them wouldn't be the same over email.  

I love California! 

Love you all, 

Sister Julie Catherine Harris

 

Oh and another funny story.  Kind of sad, but funny.  So we were contacting in downtown Los Gatos and we ran into this lady and her boyfriend sitting on a bench.  We went up and invited them to check out our website, handing her a card, and she said, "Oh, no thanks.  I'm a strong athiest." We tried not to laugh. Then her boyfriend, in all seriousness said, "yeah, me too." It was a little awkward because then we were just like "oh, okay. welp." haha and then in Saratoga yesterday, we would try to hand people cards and they would take it, look at it, gasp, and then give it back quickly and say, "OH no thanks. no. yeah. I'm fine." And they would like run away. That happened probably five times.  It's a pass-along card, not a ticking bomb.  So just a couple of funny stories I forgot to include in the letter.  Love ya!

Livin' the good life in Santa Clara... August 19, 2013

This week has been awesome! I just love all of the crazy, insane, awesome experiences we've had! 

On Tuesday, we had to drive up to Palo Alto to pay a citation that Sister Ferrin got for not yielding.  The traffic laws are ridiculous up here! So that was an adventure.  And that night I actually tried good quality sushi and for the record- I still don't like it.  On Wednesday, we got lost in Sunnyvale and were almost an hour late to a dinner appointment /:. It was a little bit ridiculous and we felt really bad.  But we had a great dinner appointment anyway!  Thursday was a really long day.  We didn't even have a dinner appointment because we didn't have time for one! We were running around all day.  It was really good though, because we had an awesome lesson with Richie.  He hadn't been keeping his commitments or reading the Book of Mormon, so we read with him in Alma 32 instead of going on to the third lesson.  He really loved it and the members we had there were awesome! We are hoping that he is keeping his commitments now.  I guess we'll find out when we meet with him tomorrow night!  Friday was a crazy day! I had a six hour training in the morning with Sister Sotele, so Sister Ferrin and Sister Palmer went to all of our appointments.  Anyways, right after getting back from that, we went straight to the temple with Victoria! We did baptisms with her and it was a really sweet experience.  Sister Ferrin and I were both crying when Victoria was doing baptisms.  It was awesome! Overall, the temple was an amazing, wonderful, inspiring experience! Victoria was so happy! On Saturday, we met and taught Cody, a new investigator! The Los Gatos elders told us about him and they met with him with us.  It was a really good experience and he said the closing prayer of the lesson! He's amazing.  He then came to church on Sunday and said the opening prayer in sunday school! He's doing really well and we've only taught him once! So we have high hopes for him!

So that was my week. It was a great one.  Other than that, things have been basically the same.  Today for p-day we're washing our car.  Yay!  

Can I just say how much I love being a missionary? It's sad whenever a missionary here goes home.  Everyone refers to it as dying (Elder Phelps died last transfer).  I'm just glad that I am not dying anytime soon! I'm just loving it.  Every minute of it.

Read John 14!

Love you all!

Sister Julie Catherine Harris

Life Is Good... a chinese blessing, a high pit bull, and driving with my eyes closed! August 12, 2013

Hello from your friendly neighborhood missionary!

Things have been going well this last week, even though or numbers were lower than they've ever been.  We're just pressing forward though! Last p-day the Zone Leaders gave us a challenge.  They're having us read the entire Book of Mormon in one transfer, get one new investigator a week, and they told us they know that every ward in the zone can get a baptism THIS TRANSFER.  They are amazing missionaries, so we're trying our best to work hard and live up to the challenge.  We've been visiting a lot of less-actives and honestly, I find rescue work more rewarding than teaching investigators.  Maybe that's because we hardly have any investigators.  Richie is progressing though! We think he's still pretty interested and we're teaching him the THIRD lesson on Thursday! So wish us luck!

Victoria has been struggling a bit.  All her family does is just bring her down, and they were all in town this week.  So she's having a rough time.  Only two weeks until she moves to Minnesota! And we're actually going to the temple with her on Friday to do baptisms! So we're excited for that! We might also be going to the temple on Saturday with Meadow and her atheist boyfriend.  She really wants him to see the temple and know how important the church is to her.  So Saturday will be a critical time for their relationship. 

I got to witness my first priesthood blessing in Chinese! We have a half-investigator with the Chinese elders named Allen.  So we were over at his house the other day.  He didn't want to meet with us, and in the middle of our conversation with him, his grandmother just blurted something out in Chinese.  She said that her blood pressure was really high, rising, and she was really afraid.  We all just kind of paused, because it was really random.  But the Chinese elders offered to give her a priesthood blessing and they did.  It was a really sweet experience, even though I didn't understand a word they were saying.  She was crying after, and the spirit was so strong! We do a lot with the Chinese elders and we really appreciate them. 

Sister Ferrin and I made a goal last night to be exactly obedient, and to manage our time better.  So hold us to that! We've been working hard this week!

Last week on Tuesday, we were waiting for a lesson with Victoria and we went to the nearest park to go contacting.  We saw a huge cloud of green smoke with a bunch of teenagers inside it, sitting on some park benches.  And of course, we both felt prompted to go talk to them.  Like expected, they were all under the influence of who-knows-what, but they actually talked to us.  We met a guy named Effron, who was holding a pit bull puppy (which is part of the reason I went to talk to him.) and a girl named Chrislin.  We talked to them for a long time about the gospel because they'd heard of Mormons before and had a lot of questions.  We ended up giving out SIX pamphlets to just the two of them and a Book of Mormon to Chrislin.  We also invited them to check out mormon.org.  It was awesome! We've been having some pretty good contacts at local parks.  Just planting seeds, I guess!

So yeah, it's been a really good week! Funny story: so on Wednesday, we were driving up to Los Gatos to meet with an investigator, and the moment we entered the Los Gatos city limits, I started having an allergic reaction of some kind.  It was so weird! My eyes started swelling up and watering, and I couldn't see a thing! So I had to attempt to pull-over and Sister Ferrin started driving.  I guess it's kind of a good thing our investigator didn't show, because I was a mess!! I bet you can all imagine. haha.

So anyways, life's been pretty good up here in Nor-Cal.  I love it a lot! Even though we might encounter difficult times, always remember that the church is still true! I love it so much! Everyone who's reading this, read Alma 29!

I love you all! Jesus loves you too!

Love, Sister Harris

"No thanks, I know Jesus." August 5, 2013

Hello! This week has been a really good one! I'm trying to think of what all happened because it was a lot! We got a new investigator this week! His name is Richie and so far he's solid! We taught him the first lesson on Wednesday night and he had so many questions, it was awesome! We asked him to be baptized, and he said he would if he knew the Book of Mormon was true! Golden! We just barely had out second lesson with him yesterday and it went alright. So I'm excited to see what happens with him! Yesterday was actually a really great day at church! We had three of the less actives we've been working with come to church and all three of them loved it!
Victoria actually came to ALL THREE HOURS of church, and actually really enjoyed Sunday school.  We're really proud of her for pressing forward and enduring to the end.  I think she's doing pretty well! We also had Machelle and Meadow there, and I think we'll be seeing them next week at church too!
So Sister Ferrin and I both taught our first Chastity lesson this week.  It went so well! We were really surprised at how well we taught and how well it was received.  Not even awkward!
My first transfer is officially over.  I'm not training, and neither of us are being transferred.  So we get at least another 6 weeks together! Oh and we have a baptismal date! It's actually a funny story, because we haven't even met the guy yet.  The Los Gatos elders went over to his house just to visit, and he set a date with them! So now we're going to start teaching him! So that's exciting!
We haven't heard from Jose, Jacob, or Savannah in the past two weeks, so that's sad.  Jose and Jacob are having problems with health issues in their families, and Savannah is traveling just about every weekend with her boyfriend, who could potentially become an issue.  But we're still praying for them and hoping that they'll still have a desire for salvation.
Everything's going great though! I love all the people we're teaching so much and I really want what's best for them! The frustrating part about that is that what they need is the gospel! And they don't understand that! Sometimes when we're contacting on the street, I'll offer a card to someone and they'll say, "No thanks, I know Jesus." And I'm like, seriously? I always want to stop those people and talk to them, but everyone in California is in such a hurry all the time! It's like they don't have any time to find out about the true restored gospel and how their lives can change through Christ's atonement! But whatever, I guess they think they know better.

Oh and another thing, since I'm on a tangent.  Everyone who's reading this can really step up on their missionary work.  Every member a missionary, right? It's always really nice for us missionaries when members do their part and invite others to come unto Christ.  Just throwing that out there because I know it's something everyone can improve on.

Anyways, how are y'all doing? I really love hearing from anyone and everyone.  Seriously, like anyone.  I hope all is well! Love you!

Press Forward!

Sister Julie Catherine Harris

Santa Cruz and other news! July 31, 2013

Hello!
Sorry I'm not emailing until now.  It's been a really busy week! It's been awesome though! On p-day we got to got to Santa Cruz! We were only there for a few hours, but it was fun! I got to play my ukulele on the beach!

Life here has been good and the work has been picking up a little bit! We're working with a lot of less-actives rather than investigators, but I love it! I feel like it's really rewarding to bring someone back into the fold! So we've been having some really good experiences.  Can you believe this is the last week of the transfer? Crazy! Tomorrow we find out if Sister Ferrin or I have to train! Gah!

Hmmm let's see.  What happened this week? Well we had a really awesome lesson with an investigator named Allen.  He's technically not our investigator, but since he's YSA age, we get to joint teach him.  So we teach him with the Chinese elders, and we went in there to help them teach and they threw a curveball on us.  They said, "Allen, the sisters have an awesome lesson planned for you about the plan of salvation." We just kind of looked at each other because we definitely didn't plan on teaching the plan of salvation.  But it actually went really well.  The spirit was so strong and we did a lot of good teaching (not without help from the Chinese elders of course!).  So that was an awesome experience. I love being a missionary!

In case you were wondering, Mom I did get my packages! Thank you! I started reading Jesus the Christ and I love it! the other books are awesome, too so thanks! So the reason I was on an iPhone on a bus on Monday was because we went to Santa Cruz with Victoria and she felt really bad that we were there with her instead of doing our regular p-day stuff.  And luckily a zone leader was there, so when Victoria insisted that we use her phone for emailing, he said it was okay.  Victoria is such a sweetheart and she's doing a lot better.  We're seeing her almost every day now.  She's definitely one of our favorites. [:

But I love all of the people we're teaching.  Like so much.  Did you get my letter and the letter from sister Bodner? Debbie Bodner is one of our favorite widows to visit.  She lives in Las Gaddis and she is so sweet! She wanted to write letters to our families, so she did.  And I sent it to you!
Oh! Sister Ferrin and I are attempting to learn Spanish! We started reading The Book of Mormon in Spanish and English together! And I didn't realize I had a Texas accent until I tried speaking spanish. Haha. I'm terrible at it.  But we've made a couple of contacts in Spanish, and even handed out a Book of Mormon.  I'm pretty good at saying words like, Hermanas, Jesu Christo, among other things. 

It's funny though because there are more Chinese people than Spanish people here. I helped a Chinese guy take a survey- he spoke no English.  So I guess I'm getting pretty cultured while I'm here! Nehou!

But anyways, I have to go.

I love all of you! Stay strong and press forward!

Much love,
Sister Julie Catherine Harris
121 Saratoga Ave. #4202
Santa Clara CA 95050

Feel the Love... July 22, 2013

Yes, I'm getting some wonderful tan lines already.  Oh man, so much to tell you guys this week! We have met A LOT of interesting people! It seems like the only people who actually approach us are drunk people.  EVERYONE is drunk here. We also talked to a couple of kids that tried to challenge our beliefs.  We talked to a Jewish agnostic teenager while doing service the other day, and we totally taught him a lesson while we were gardening! We kind of graciously proved him wrong on a lot of points and when we left he said, "You guys are my first cult friends." In a loving way, or course. Haha.  The other one was a kid that was standing and preaching in the food court of the local college.  When he was done, we went up and talked to him.  We talked for about an hour and we talked about a lot of interesting things and at the end he told us to reconsider our choices.  He said that we're leading people astray and that we should do some soul-searching for the truth.  It shook us up just a little bit, but we pressed forward.

This week has been really interesting.  The one progressing investigator we had, got demoted to just a regular investigator, leaving us at zero progressing.  So the work is going a little bit slow, but we're doing our best.  This week I had crab and eggplant for the first time.  I didn't enjoy either of them, and neither of them agreed with me.  So I guess you could say I've had semi-weird food already on the mission. 

My companion has started making me do things (worst trainer ever [: just kidding).  So I'm now making phone calls, talking to people on the street and starting lessons.  It's a bit scary because sometimes she doesn't even help me.  Haha she totally knows what she's doing.  We're coming up on the last week of the transfer already! Crazy, right?? So Sister Ferrin and I may possibly be split up.  And that would mean that I would have to train! I just....ah. We'll see, though. 

Two of our investigators are going through a rough time with their families, so therefore have not talked to us in weeks.  Jose and Jacob are really having a hard time right now, and we haven't taught them in a couple weeks.  We're not sure how to help if they never get back to us.  Savannah is doing well I think, but we haven't actually gotten past the first lesson with her.  I guess working in a YSA ward is hard because everyone is busy all the time.  It's a lot of fun though.

Victoria is doing a LOT better.  She was in a really bad place the other day, but now she's in Minnesota and she absolutely loves it.  She's definitely turned over a new leaf out there.  She's coming back on Wednesday and she said she has a lot to tell us.  I'm really excited for her! The prayers and fasting for her have definitely paid off.  I can't even express my love for these people out here.  It's crazy!

I gave out a Spanish Book of Mormon yesterday! So I guess that was cool.  Haha.  I've been studying a lot in the Book of Mormon and it seems that whatever I study in the morning is always applied at some point throughout the day.  It's so cool how the spirit works.  Today I read about Abinadi and I got to thinking that he's the missionary everyone wishes they could be.  He was so bold and cried repentance up until the day he died.  He's always been my favorite, but I love him even more now.  I've really gained an appreciation for the Book of Mormon and I love it so much.

I can't believe how close I've gotten to these people.  Especially Victoria and Lilli.  I don't know if I've told you about Lilli yet, but I love her so much.  I really have developed a love for the people we're teaching and I'm really glad I am serving in the best YSA ward ever. 

I love you all so much!  Keep the pictures coming!

Love,

Sister Julie Catherine Harris

p.s. I totally saw Barry Bonds the other day.

Love you guys!