Jammin' at the park - September 16, 2013

 

Hey!

Sorry I'm emailing so late! We spent the morning and afternoon in Santa Cruz, living the dream! It was a lot of fun! There are some places I need to take you guys when we come back to visit! 

So here's the update: Sister Ferrin is getting transferred and I get a new companion tomorrow! The transfer text came during our nightly prayer, and we heard the other sisters read it from the other room.  But I kept on praying, and then we started bawling when it was over.  I'm gonna miss her. And also, I don't know how I'm going to hold down the fort in Monta Vista without her.  But it's alright, I've got the Lord on my side! 

So how's everything at home? Maddie is engaged???? What the? Tell her congrats for me! Weird! 

This week has been good but crazy.  We've been using the Ukulele for contacting and it's been a surprising success! We went to a park and pulled out the ukulele while we just sat on the grass.  Neither of us knew how it would work, but we both felt prompted to go contacting with the ukulele in Sunnyvale of all places.  So we went to the park, sat down, and started playing.  And then, these high school boys with a guitar shouted to us and asked if we wanted to jam! We said yes and went over to talk with them.  We played them a song and they started talking to us and asking questions.  It turned into a mini version on the restoration and we gave away 2 Book of Mormons!! It was a success! Everyone loves the uke here! So thanks for sending it! 

We've had a lot of good experiences this past week! It was really slow because our whole ward was in Lake Tahoe and the people who weren't in Tahoe flaked out.  So We were working really hard to focus on our purpose and be productive.  It was a challenge to fill our days when everyone we planned on fell through, but it worked out.  I feel like we did a lot of good anyway.  It's amazing how the Lord guides us and teaches us in His own time and His own way.  We were guided by Him so much this week! It's been wonderful! 

One of our Zone Leaders, elder Lambdin, is going home this week and we're really going to miss him! He was a wonderful elder and he'll do great things after his mission.

Tonight, we are teaching the FHE lesson for the ward, and we're pretty much calling everyone to repentance.  It's about missionary work and we're trying to get them motivated to do it! So pray for us and wish us luck! This has been the last full day with sister Ferrin, so it's a little bittersweet.  And we'll find out tomorrow where she's headed.  

Things are happening in this mission and I'm so excited to see the Lord's plan for the California San Jose mission!! 

I love all of you so much and I'm grateful for you! Thanks for your thoughts and prayers and keep them coming! 

God Speed! Hurrah for Israel!

Love, Sister Julie Catherine Harris

 

P.S. To answer your questions about my last letter...

1. So everyone in California is ALWAYS late. Like all the time.  And since I was always taught to be punctual, it bugs me sometimes. haha.

2. People are SUPER flaky here. You give them an appointment or something to remember, and they'll forget if you don't remind them 5 minutes beforehand. It's a little crazy.

3. Homeless people ask us for money all the time. It's kinda sad.

4. It's definitely not a good idea to walk around after 8 anywhere in our area. People are already drunk and they look at you differently.  We've DEFINITELY been protected by divine power.

5. Everyone here, despite their flakiness and lack of punctuality, is so cool! I just love them! And I don't think I can even tell you about all of the cool experiences I've had with the wonderful people here!

6. Sacrament meeting in any YSA ward is an adventure.  Ours almost never lasts an hour.  We usually end up not having sunday school because people just keep talking.  It's a little bit outrageous. And most of the time they get really off-topic too. haha

7. Since we're in a YSA ward, dinner appointments aren't always sitting down to enjoy a nice meal.  We've had pizza delivered to our apartment, we've had to walk with a member to get pizza, we've had dinner/lunch in a classroom in the church, we've had first discussions for dinner messages, and all sorts of stuff.  We seriously never know what's going to happen at dinner appointments.  It's fun though!

So I haven't sent pictures because the cord that I received is the wrong one! So I'll try my best to send you pictures! I sent you a few forwarded from Victoria. 

Love you so much!

Love, Sister Harris

 

 

             Sister Ferrin, me, and Victoria

Just some thoughts about California... September 10, 2013

Hello! So the library was closed again yesterday! I hope they don't make a trend of this! Anyway, this week has been great!!

Sister Ferrin and I worked really hard this week and we got our numbers way up! We taught 19 lessons and had 140 contacts!! So the work is going well.  We are trying to keep up the good work! Transfers are coming up soon though, so we don't know what's going to happen!

Wow.  Has it really been 12 weeks already?? At then end of this week, I will be done training! Weird! I am loving all of the people we are teaching and I'm so excited for them! Lilli, one of our less-actives, is getting a temple recommend soon! And a patriarchal blessing!! We're so excited for her!! It's amazing to see how the Lord is hastening His work and how we can be a part of it! 

We had our Sister Training Leader with us on Saturday.  It was so much fun! It was nice to have a Hermana with us, because we don't know Spanish! It came in handy a couple of times! 

Things have been going well and the weather is cooling down a lot, so now I can handle it! Some things I learned this week:

1. There's Mormon standard time, and then there's California standard time.  

2. People here don't remember a thing. ever. 

3. There's always something going on somewhere.

4. Everything people do involves alcohol.

5. People always ask us for money. 

6. Don't walk around after 8.

Among other things.  This week has been very educational and very interesting! We've met some cool people and had some fun experiences.  Some perks to being in a YSA ward:

1. Do you like pizza?

2. Free food. all the time. 

3. Sacrament meeting is always an adventure.

4. You never know what's going to happen at dinner appointments.

And sooo much more.  Haha. Can I just tell all of you how much I love it here? I probably sound like a broken record because I say that every week, but it's true! This is an incredible area and it's absolutely where the Lord needs me! I know there are people who are prepared and I'm so excited to go out into the drunken streets of Campbell or the chinatown-feel of Cupertino to find them!  I love California.  I love my mission. I love the Lord.

Love you all!

Sister Julie Catherine Harris

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