Thanksgiving Week

We did a small little concert for the opening of Gingerbread. FUN!

This week was awesome!
Gingerbread opened this week!! It was so great! And super busy. For the opening we had a ribbon cutting ceremony and the Mayor of Omaha came and cut the ribbon, so that was cool! 

There are SO many amazing houses there!

 

The exhibit our ward did is over at the Kanesville Tabernacle. I will have to get a picture of it. It was actually the race track from Wreck it Ralph! And funnily enough, that's been the theme of my dreams for the past few nights. Kind of scary, actually.  haha

 

 

Gingerbread is such a great missionary tool for us.  We have Joy to the World playing in the theater on a loop and cards that people can fill out to learn more. It's awesome! It brings so many people in every year!

 

 

 

We also went on exchanges! I was with Sister Brough (pronounced Bruff) in Loess Hills. It was SO fun! It was kind of cool because I was talking to her about following the Spirit and learning to follow the spirit more. We had like an hour of time and we were trying to figure out what to do and I felt like we should go to this apartment complex. So we drove there, and I felt like it was wrong. Then another name popped into my mind, and we went and tried him. Nobody was home. So then, we prayed. Another apartment complex came to my mind, so we went there. It was kind of funny because we had planned to go there a little bit later in the day, but for some reason I wanted to go right then, so we went. 

 

We tried some potentials in the complex, and I just felt to go and walk around the building. As we were walking we saw this guy going out to his car. He was awesome and totally interested! He took a Book of Mormon and said that he would read it and that we could come back any time. 

It reminded me so much of the "Wrong Roads" Mormon Message.

 

 It's so amazing to me how Heavenly Father helps us to know not only where we need to be, but he helps us to be sure that we're supposed to be there. That's definitely how I felt that day!

For Thanksgiving this week we are either going to a member of our old bishoprics house or eating at the TC. And yep! I'm bringing a Swedish Apple pie!! I'm seriously so excited to make a pie!!! It's going to be awesome!

 

Also, I want to go and buy a coat today. One that's more wind resistant. It might be kind of expensive. Maybe that could be an early Christmas present. 

 

Anyway,I am so grateful for my mission and for everyone who has been so supportive! Tell everyone I love them and Happy Thanksgiving! 

 

 

 

Almost time for Gingerbread!

Hey everyone!

This has been a crazy and awesome week!! Some awesome things that happened this week:

It’s time for gingerbread!! Basically everyone in surrounding areas submits gingerbread houses to be displayed in the basement of the Trail Center. It gets pretty intense…. But I guess it’s a GREAT missionary opportunity. Last year 25,000 people came to the TC to see the gingerbread! I’m so excited! We’re decorating today and we’ve already gotten some gingerbread houses. 

We got in contact this week with this less active who is awesome! After we met with him, he sent us a text that thanked us for reaching out and he promised that he would come to church. He came! It was so good and I think that he really liked being there. There are so many people that just need someone to reach out to them and to love them. It was cool to see that first hand!

Another awesome part was our investigator making us pinky promise that we would be friends forever! Love that kid so much!

We also met someone named Shamar. Sweet! He's super funny and had lots of questions about Joseph Smith, so we're meeting later this week.

Another super funny thing, the other day, there was this cute sister just walking around and innocently singing a song under her breath. It was definitely not a church song, so we pointed it out to her and she was like, "Nu uh! That's a church song!" Sister Farnsworth said, "No. That's Usher." We died laughing! It's so funny how things kind of blend together like that. (It was Confessions, for those of you who were wondering)

Oh! And thank you so much for your testimonies! I loved getting to read all of them and getting to feel the strength that comes from bearing testimony. Because you were all so nice and sent me your testimony, I wanted to share mine with you!

I kind of don’t even know where to start with it... There is so much to say! 

The decision that I made to go on a mission has been the best decision of my life. I have truly been changed and I will never be the same person again. I have had the opportunity to watch people change through of the atonement of Jesus Christ. That’s the only way that true change is possible! Our Savior’s sacrifice for us makes us possible to overcome all. We can overcome sin, death, and every hard thing that confronts us. I know that He knows each of us personally and loves us more than we could ever know. I am so thankful for the chance that I have to share this with everyone!

Love you all!

Sister Harris

PS I'm still in the process of replying to all of my birthday letters! Sorry if it's taking a while. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you!

Lots and lots of service opportunities!

Sharing the Love

Hello!

This week has been great!! I am SO thankful that I get to be a missionary!!! 

This week we heard a story about our recent convert Chris from some of the sisters that serve with us at the Trail Center. 

They were teaching an investigator in the hallway of an apartment complex and Chris happened to walk past. He looked at them, gasped, and ran away. The sisters were super confused.(because who wouldn't be, right?)  But a few minutes later, he came back with his quad, his baptismal certificate, his Aaronic priesthood certificate, and a Book of Mormon. He shared his favorite scripture with them and gave their investigator the Book of Mormon. Probably the best story ever! He's kind of my favorite person on this planet. I felt like a proud parent when I heard that story! haha Love that kid. 

 
That's Jacob, our investigator's snake!
  

Just thought that I'd share that with you!! SO great! Sister Farns is good. Still really sick. But what can you do?

Love you! Have a great week!

Best Birthday Ever!

Ok. So I think for every single email of my mission I've promised to send a super long one the next week...so here's the long email that I promised!!!

I'll start with some of the highlights of the week:

-First off, it was my birthday!! It was a great day. I got a ton of letters, and a couple of packages, which were amazing! It was so fun. The best part I think was that our zone got to go to the temple! Best. Birthday. Ever!! haha It was wonderful to go and feel the spirit so strong! Sister Farnsworth was SO sweet and bought me breakfast and dinner. And she got me a super cute scarf! (I kind of have the best companion! haha) 

goofing around

Our neighbor Ashley decorated our apartment while we were gone with signs and balloons.   She's so sweet!

"22 things I love about Sister Harris"

"#1 I love your beautiful, million-dollar smile!"

We also had some lessons with Chris, our recent convert, and with Jacob our investigator. I think that the best part of the birthday was not focusing on myself all day. It was so fun for me to just go and help other people!

Chris with his priesthood certificate

Jacob in his new suit

-Another highlight: Zone conference was this week! We drove to Sioux City and had our conference with the Sioux City Zone. It was awesome!! We had this really great training about the "Loser List" again. (What Elder Robbins talked about when he was here.) Basically it was all about being accountable for ourselves. When we are on the "Loser List" we do things to put off responsibility like blame, have self-pity, run, hide, procrastinate, etc. Instead we need to take 100% responsibility so that we can have 100% control over our lives. Here's a quote from Elder Robbins that I LOVED,

"We are not free because we can choose. We are free because we have chosen wisely".

It was a great zone conference!

-The Plattsmouth Sisters (Sister Huss and Sister Wagher) told me this story about someone that we met while I was serving in Plattsmouth. 
So there was this gas station that Sister Huss and I would stop at all the time so that we could go to the bathroom. We eventually started being friends with a lady that worked there. We would have lots of conversations and she was always super nice. So this week I asked the Sisters about her and they just looked at each other and busted up laughing. They told me that the past week they were there and they started talking to her. She mentioned that she would like to learn more about our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. So they, of course, were really excited! The Sisters went out to the car and grabbed a mormon.org card and a Book of Mormon to give to her. They went back in and gave her the card and tried to give her the Book of Mormon, but when she saw it she looked around the store and got really quiet (as if she didn't want to offend anyone) and said, "Oh, I don't want to be mean, but I don't really like Mormons." 

hahaha SO funny!

We had a party  here for Halloween! It was so FUN! We watched 17 miracles and people dressed up! I ended up being a Christmas tree and wrapping myself in Christmas lights and putting a star on top of my head.

Here are a few more pictures just for fun:

I call this one "broken cookies".

Helping at the church

really?  Come on Nebraska!

Tell everyone I love them and thank you for all the amazing birthday wishes, packages, and testimonies!

Birthday Picture!

Thanks to Lucy's ward member and neighbor Ashley, I got treated to a real-time birthday picture today! Ashley says Lucy is having a great day, and even gets to go to the temple this afternoon. 

 Sure do love this birthday girl.