First Solo Tour

 Sweet Sister Harris, who's been here less than 2 weeks, is preparing her pioneer stories and scriptures to organize in her Book of Mormon for when she gives a tour. She always has a smile and a cheery word for everyone.

Note from Randi:  I found the blog of a missionary couple in the same mission.  The picture and quote are from her blog.  Thank you Sister B!

* Now back to your regularly scheduled Sister Harris Post*

Hi everyone!
I'm starting to learn how things work here. Usually we're in the Trail Center for about half of the day and out in our area for the other half. Its really slow at the TC, so we study and things like that. But every once in a while people will come in for tours. Its fun taking people on tours. Definitely scary, but fun! Its awesome to get to meet people from all over the place and tell them about the pioneers.

I've really learned that its not about the facts that you know (even though that does help) but the spirit is so much more important in a tour.  I gave my first tour all by myself yesterday and I used some of the stories in my Book of Mormon, so that's fun.  The tour that I took was 2 people. They were both members and they were just stopping on their way through. I really like giving tours and teaching!

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 My companion Sister Bown is from St George. We live down the street from the TC, which is funny because Bellevue, our area is about 25 minutes away. So we don't actually live in our area, but we're really close to the TC.

When we're out in our area, we try to see as many people as possible, or we go finding. But we work a lot with less actives and recent converts. Sometimes you prepare for lessons, and sometimes you just come up with them on the spot, so that makes life interesting. Its a lot like that in the TC too. Every tour needs to be different depending on the person and their needs, so you're pretty much thinking of a lesson on the spot for every tour.

We teach mini lessons ALL. THE. TIME. On someones doorstep while they're trying to get rid of you, in the store, everywhere. And definitely on every topic that you can think of. One thing that I have been trying to practice is giving a PMG lesson in a minute or less. Its so hard! But helpful. Try explaining the restoration or plan of salvation clearly and simply in a minute. Its crazy!

Oh and we taught relief society yesterday...with only a little bit of notice. haha only like an hour before church. I surprised myself by not being nervous about it at all. Maybe that just comes from teaching and studying all day everyday. But it went well I think!

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I think that everyone here is getting sick. I haven't yet ....but Sister Bown has pneumonia right now so that's not good at all. She is SUPER stubborn and didn't want to go to a doctor. But her dad is a doctor, so she just ended up getting permission to call him and he prescribed her something. She's feeling much better now. I think that it was a pretty mild case compared to what it could have been. We had to stay in for a few days, but we're getting back to normal now.

We're really well taken care of though. Sister Weston is in charge of medical stuff, so we call her and she helps us to figure out what to do. Usually we go to a doctor, but if its an emergency we call her and go to the ER. So that's good.
Pres and Sis W are SO nice!

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 Its super funny working out here in the mornings. I usually work out upstairs, but they have some workout equipment downstairs too. I run around the gallery (26 times=a mile. its just painful) and do floor workouts. We're not allowed to do workout videos anymore :( But I just have to get creative about it. Its not weird at all to see people lifting packets of printer paper and using regular supplies around the TC to workout. But this morning was AWESOME. We made a music video! Its so great. Sisters just pop out from random places in the gallery and start dancing. Love it.

Hey From Nebraska!

The Newest Sister Missionaries with their trainers.
(picture courtesy of  Sister Bielefeldt.)

Hey from Nebraska!!
Oh my goodness I LOVE it here! My companions name is Sister Bown and she is AWESOME! Our companionship is a little bit unusual though. The training program for new missionaries in the field is 12 weeks, but this is Sister Bown's last transfer, so she'll only be here for 6 more weeks! So we made a goal to do the 12 week program in 6 weeks...I'll let you know how it goes. But I'll probably just be weird and have two trainers in two transfers.
We're in the Belleview First Area. The people are great! The ones that I've met anyway. And we're teaching some awesome people too!
Working at the Trail Center is really fun as well. Although giving tours is still a little bit scary for me...But I'm sure that I'll get used to it.
I LOVE being a missionary! It's so cool to know that you are truly helping people come closer to Jesus Christ.
Lots of love!
Lucy

Comments

*note from Randi*
I send Lucy a weekly email with any new comments on her posts so she will know who is reading and what they like hearing about.  SO rest assured that if you want to comment, she will get the message.  :)

Princess Training

Hiya Everyone!
The princess training has begun! So far its...different. It's good and everything, but very different from the training that we have been doing for the past three weeks. But it's good. There are so many awesome sisters in our class! They are from so many diverse places. To name a few, England, the Philippines, Russia, Portugal, and American Samoa. It definitely makes class interesting. I've heard so many prayers in so many different languages in that class. It's awesome!

On Wednesday we got to go to Temple Square! We took a small tour and then we talked to the manager of visitors centers for church headquarters.

Did you know that only 2% of missionaries get to go to Visitors Centers? And the calls to visitors' centers are extended differently than normal mission calls. It starts off normal, your picture and information come up on a screen, but when the General Authority gets the impression that you need to be at a Visitors' Center, your papers get set aside. When they finish the other mission calls, they come back to you. They look at your picture and information and then they decide which Visitors' Center you go to. Then President Monson looks at the call and approves it. (Or if it's not right he sends it back.) So that's cool! And we're going back to Temple Square tomorrow to go on splits with other missionaries and give tours. Crazy!

Oh I have a story! On Sundays we get to walk to the temple. It's just a nice chance to get some fresh air. As you can imagine, there are missionaries EVERYWHERE at the temple on Sundays. Like all over the grounds. So we were there, walking around, and I saw two people holding hands. I did a double take! But then I realized that they weren't missionaries. But Sister Walsh turns to me and says, "I saw those people holding hands and I wanted to yell Stop those missionaries holding hands!...and then I realized that they are probably married and just taking a walk at the temple." hahaha we're already awkward sister missionaries! I just love the fact that we both freaked out about it.

I have to get going. The next time I'll email I'm going to be in Nebraska!! I'm SO excited to get out there and start working!
Love you!
Lucy