May 29: Week 5

Hello I have ten minutes to write this email so please excuse the horrible grammatica.... ahahahah

 

and it's going to be in bullet points like this.

 

we actually are not at raintree. The teachers were confused. our zone moves there at the end of june--after we're gone so we're still at the central mtc!!! yay we were kind of upset for like 2 minutes but it's the Lord's will duh so we're totes fine :)

 

I didn't get to see Lindsay. :(((( sooo sad. Did they drop her off at Raintree??

 

Ok so your packages. Hannah Pyper. You are litterally such a joy!! Holy goodness that package was amazing!!! The sisters were going nuts and we still have tons left!!! Thank you for making all of us missionaries incredibly happy and full of sugar!!!!

 

So no reassignment. LAME. But that probably means I etither got my visa (doubt it) or that we're gonna get reassigned next week and leave a week late. that's all i got. lo siento!!!!

 

I had a real great experience with some hermanas going to japan this week. It involved me sharing my testimony in spanish, and them understanding it compeltely through the spirit (honestly) and them all bawling (they just got outta a real bad lesson and have been here for a week) and I just basically testified of God's lvoe and the strength we can find in Christ. It was sooooooo coolllll. Hopefully I can share more next week.

 

"If you love me, Feed my sheep" What does your love for your Savior motivate you to do?? I"f you cannot feel Him, it's because you need to move closer to Him" from devo this week......

 

Also read the first presidency message for this month. it's superb.

 

Anyways, I've exhauseted all my time and have gott to go unless I wanna die by lightning in about ten seconds...hahaha

 

LOVE YOU ALL!!! Happy Bday dad, I love you all, and if I do get a reassignment I get to call you soon :)))) loves loves loves!!!

 

Hermana Harkness

 

 

May 22: Week 4

HOLA FAMILIA!!! 

I'm so sorry but I forgot my journal/sticky note of things that happened this week!!!! I'm the worst :( Sooooo sorry. I will catch up on what I forgot next week.

WE GOT REASSIGNED!!!! TO RAINTREE!!!! hahahah it's not our real reassignments, but they are moving our zone to raintree. EVERYTHING I TELL YOU IS ALL I KNOW. All we need to know is that it's all according to the Lord and trust in Him and have faith. What happens, happens. So we're moving to Raintree next Tuesday and will be the "pioneer" missionaries as the teachers called it. We will be hosts the next day....maybe if Lindsay gets put into Raintree I'll get to see her!! They'll provide shuttles up to the central MTC for our last-minute tasks and for the temple--our teachers said we will want for nothing (in essence) and that if we need stuff as we are getting ready to leave the MTC we'll be able to get up here to get it done....hope that run-on made sense. No clue how mail/packages will work. They would not send us there if they did not have it figured out. They are catering us food (I'm assuming BYU food-to-go) and there will be laundry. We'll probably only be there for 6-10 days, depending on travel plans. We're either getting reassignments tomorrow or next thursday...no clue. I have no clue about visas, reassignments, anything, REALLY. Everything I've told you is all I know. This is week 5 for us (they count those first few days as a week) so I think we'll get our reassignments next week (in week six). Basically we're all stoked!!!

The new two zones are great. One is just elders: Williams, Powell, Adams, and two others.....woops. The other district has five elders: Miekle, Clingo, Schow, and two others....forgot them too. Hahahahhah the hermanas are much more important to me.The Hermanas are wonderful and I love them all so much!! Hermanas Hadlock, Graffleman, Black, and Kirkham. Their companionships are made in heaven and they're all getting along splendid--it's almost unreal. Also, for a beginners class, they all know lots of spanish and have had relatively good first lessons. Hna C and I trained them with the zone leaders on thursday and they each stood up and told us a short testimony and why they're here. Each of them was SO DIFFERENT, yet we all had the same thing in common--this Gospel, and our Savior Jesus Christ! It was amazing to feel of their spirits and be uplifted by their words.

Then on Sunday we sang and said goodbye to the departing district. That was SO SAD, yet SO EXTREMELY EXCITING!! It was a rather odd mix of emotions. We sang to them and gave them notes and stuff and then said goodbye to two elders that got their visas last-minute to peru. The 5 hermanas are headed to Kennowick WA and are going to be fabulous! They all had such great influences on my life and I will remember them forever.... Hermanas Ray, Newbold, Robison, Villalobos, and Patton became some of my bestest buds in just four weeks--but especially in these last 2 weeks as STL. We got to visit their rooms each night and give them hugs, listen to their worries, and cry and talk and laugh and cry. I love crying....It's uber weird!! I've barely cried here and when I do it's like taking your belt off after Thanksgiving!! Thanks to the cielos for tear ducts and snuffly noses. Like I told the Hermanas when they cried. "Jesus wept" (there's a scripture ENTIRELY devoted to Christ crying), and so can we. If we're trying to be like Jesus, why not cry??

Hahah anyways... so I cannot remember anything else....when you're learning all this stuff, your journal becomes your memory bank. It's interesting here how many people want to go home. It's hard--but in such a weirder way than I expected. I cannot even try to describe it. I've been fine because I'm so darn stubborn I wouldn't come home "unless I was in a body bag" like Trevor so wisely stated. But when you fail in lesson after lesson after lesson and are progressing at such a slow rate, and the teachers/prophets/Grandmother willow keep telling you that the salvation of man is upon your shoulders...that's when the weeping of missionaries happens. So please pray for those wailing missionaries. Almost every missionary I've talked to has thought at one point, "why am I here? should I go home?"

It hurts for me to admit this, but I had that thought my first week here. On thursday night, I remember sitting at my desk, looking down at my scriptures, the burden of my inadequacies riding on my shoulders and thinking, "should I go home?" I remember that it was not, "why am I here?" I knew that with ALL MY HEART. All of it. But the first thought (should I go home) caught me offguard and I was repulsed at myself and embarrassed and terrified that I would ever think that. It was horrifying to me. BUT. Then I talked to myself like a crazy person. I went through EVERY REASON in my head, my heart, and my soul why I was here. WHY? Because this gospel is SO TRUE, Jesus Christ is SO REAL, and His Atonement works so good, SO GOOD, that I could not abandon it and run home. The first thought that came into my head right after (should I go home) was, "Are you KIDDING me?" (refer to Glory Road for a good reenactment) Hahaha I'm like some weirdo coach to myself. But honestly, each of our paths is different, God has a different path in life for each of us, mission or not. But if one thing is true, it's that we should NEVER abandon the faith we have because it's "too hard". Are you kidding me? NEVER. (Pretend like I'm Elder Holland yelling at you and this just gets 10x better.) One of my favorite scriptures is Isaiah 41:10. If He will never up and leave us, if He will never forsake us, why should we? Because it is too hard? Because our friends want us to? Because I'm too tired. Nope nope nope. Now is when you go read/sing How Firm a Foundation....Fear not, I am with thee o be not afraid. For I am thy God and will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen theee help thee and cause thee to stand. Upheld by my righteous omnipotent hand! .......The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes; That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, I'll never, no never, I'll never, no never, no never forsake! Were there enough nevers in there for y'all? Goodie goo. Have faith, people! Read your scriptures, everybody! Love those around you while you can, before they leave and then you're an empty old dead person with no one to love. God commands us to l ove everyone so just do it.

Sorry this was the craziest email ever--hope something made sense!

Also, I was in the temple this morning randomly reading Luke something..... And there was this scripture that said, "take up your cross DAILY and follow me" How much  more specific can He get? Daily. I loved this because He wants us to follow Him daily, look to Him in every thought, and then find ourselves by losing ourselves. Jesus loves you and so do I!!!! Have a splendiferous week and I'll talk to you from Raintree....or letter-wise because I doubt we'lll have computers there.... I have no clue.

Thank you all for the loves and letters and food!!! You are all on my thoughts and I can feel you love down here often!! I hope you can feel mine!!

I LOVE YOU ALL LIKE THE SUN LOVES MOM'S SKIN!!!!!

Con amor, Hermana Harkness

May 15: Week 3

HOLA FAMILIA!!!!!!!!!!!

The MTC considers this my fourth week (thos first four days count as a week to them) so technically I only have 2 weeks left till reassignment! We still don't know where we will be reassigned. Ah! I never told you about the consul! He was some Argentine dude who nobody believed was actually South American--he was as white as all of us and had blonde hair. He told us about Argentina and said that the people are the greatest, the food is the greatest, and the water is not gross (the MTC gave us all a fancy filter water bottly thing that I think I'll use anyways). And we did fingerprints.

THANK YOU JASMINE FOR THE BANANA BREAD!!!. I ate it almost all to myself.

Thursday we had a lesson with Felipe (Hermano Humbert) and it was good...and funny. Halfway through I was trying to describe something about the BoM and apoligized to him because my spanish was bad. I actually said, "I'm sorry your spanish is bad" he was all flustered and like, "what? you're saying my spanish is bad?!?!?!?" And being a missionary I'm all like, "si, si, si!" (because that's literally all we ever say to anything.... and my hermana realizes what's going on and goes, 'no! no!" hahahah it was great and we all had a good laugh.

I learned a lot earlier this week about not receiving a witness until after the trial of your faith. The prior week I felt like I was personally wandering around a thunderstorm, trying to find a patch of light somewhere. Then all of the sudden one of the days in the last week (it's a twilight zone, remember?) was like as bright as a sunny day in HI. No clue why. It was so odd that I could not figure out the exact reason the day was so good. The whole day I learned about having faith through difficulties and stuffs and was able to look into the past week where I kept going even though I had no idea what on earth was going on at all. In class (and in PMG) is a quote by some dude: every man will be backed up to the wall of their faith--and there YOU must make your stand. Don't ever let your faith fatler. As Elder Holland talked about in last conference, even if you ground of faith is small--KEEP THE GROUND YOU HAVE WON, keep the faith you ALREADY have, and hold on. Never letting go. God will never forsake us and neither should we. Then during one personal study I was reading in 1 NEphi 8:8 and it talks about "hours of darkness". I think that there are times in our lives where we go through "hours of darkness". BUT, if you read on, what comes next?? THE TREE OF LIFE!!! If we persevere through all God has in store for us, what comes?? The love of God in the form of salvation! It's so exciting!! That's why I'm here--to bring people to this gospel so they can get baptized, then get to the temple to recieve those saving ordinances to live with their familias para siempre!! Nothing is more exciting and more important to share with everyone we know.

Moving on...let go of your pride of yourself and LOVE them. The only thing stopping you from loving them is YOURSELF. As soon as you step into the light and insist on letting go of your wants to love yourself or your personality or you desires to be a certain way...or something that is not in accordance with God's will...then you'll figure out how God loves them. To love some people is so hard. But when you get there, and you get to experience God's love from a different view, it's overwheming.

Momma thank you for the packages!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!! The one with all the food (nike) was insanely wonderful!! I still have tons left! Every night we go visit them and I have new food,  and then we all sit on the floor and eat  and talk about our days. They're all the greatest! The most recent package of cookies/brownies blew them all away and we still have most of it left. I'll be sure to share tons with the new hermanas tonight

WE GET TWO NEW DISTRICTS TODAY I'M SO EXCITED!!! We get 11 elders and four hermanas!!! Sooooo excited!!!!! Hna C and I get to train the lil babies tonight and tomorrow--I cannot wait to meet them and love them and hug them and feed them too!!!!

Back to 1 Nefi (earlier in this email) in verse 21 it talks about pressing forward. I immediately thought of "Called to Serve" and how at the end of the chorus it says, "God our strength will be, press forward, ever called to serve our King!!!" I know you all are not "missionaries", but you ARE!! Remember that one prophet that one time that said that every member is a missionary? That means YOU!  And being a missionary to your brother, mother, friend, some dude Walmart, and the high council dude sleeping in church are JUST as much "investigators" as the beloved people in Argentina that I'll be teachign. If you've been baptized, you bear his name and a responsibility to share your light. So do so :)

On Saturday we had another lesson with Felipe and we were planning on talking about the BoM and Jose Smith. Then all of the sudden....WHAM. Baptism. I could literally tell that the Spirit was taking the lesson in a different direction and it was so cool to teach what was coming! I asked him to be baptized (hahaha I partially read it off the wall in the classroom that we were in...he didn't really notice hahahah) and he said maybeeeee ish if he understood why it was necessary to be baptized again. We taught him why in supremely broken spanish (the part about immersiion was hiliarious. I forgot how to say immersion and just said "cuerpo todo bajo de agua" with a bunch of miming on the side....I have no idea how these teachers keep straight faces) We have another lesson with him tomorrow.

Also read 3 Nephi 11. It's great.

SUNDAYS ARE THE BEST. JASMINE I SAW YOU ON THE SPOKEN WORD!!! Up close and personal on the camera just playing your litte heart away!!! I was like a child seeing Mickey Mouse! "Jasmine!!!! That's my sister!!!" And then my eyes got mysteriously full of water and I pretended like nothing was happening.....Good thing they didn't show you again or I would have lost it!! Hahahah you look gorgeous, dear, and it made my day and WEEK  to see your beautiful face pop up on two huge gigantic screens in our auditorium!!! Also, I told everyone about you and your playing gigs and they want your autograph. And I told them about James' pee job and basically they think you two are the bees knees. The first song is MY FAVORITE!! I dunno how you figured that out and told Mac, but thank you :) Hahaha I love the part, "Was I brave, and strong, and true? Did I fill the world with love my whole life through?" Those words are so simple and something to work for, I think. HAPPY MOMMA'S DAY, My dear Momma!!!! I thought of you the whole time and didn't tear up one bit...hahahah jk jk jk jk. I loved the song that a mother's eyes reflect the heart of heaven! How true! If you had a penny for every time you've been an angel in my life, there'd be enough pennies to fill the universe stock-full!! "What a difference a mother makes!!"

Janice Kapp Perry came and talked to us for RS. It was so great and I felt the sprit so strong! We sang many times her songs and I've never heard a more gorgeous room of voices. Really everyone was so in tune and on pitch and everybody was crying as if we were all little babies at EFY again. But it was a real great, strong spirit. SO tangible. I loved when we sang this medly of her songs. I lost it most at "I belong to the Chruch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know who I am. I know God's plan. I'll follow Him in faith. I believe in the Savior Jesus Christ. I'll Honor His name (his ways?). I'll do what is right, I'll follow His light. HIS TRUTH I WILL PROCLAIM!" Wahoo it was great. How simple these words are really helped me to realized how simple my faith is in this gospel. Yo se que Jesucristo es my Salvador. Yo se que Dios es amoroso y El tiene amor por my y ustedes. Yo se que mediante Jesucristo, yo puedo ser feliz y limpo. Yo se que el Libro de Mormon es verdadero!! It is!!!!!!!! If you are unsure, just start reading! You have to start somewhere, so just start today so you're not all depressed tomorrow that you didn't start today. Entiende?? Elder Nelson came last night and gave a great devo. His wife was totes adorbs and told us about FH work in missionary work. We need to pray to be lead to those people whose ancestors are praying for their posterity to find the Church!! Elder Nelson talked about always telling people who you are, being bold, being simple, and always testifying of Christ. He said to simply say, "We follow Jesus Christ." I love Jesus Christ with todo mi corazon y that is why I am here! I love Him so much that I KNOW that the peoples of Aegentina need to know and feel of that love, so that they too can be with Him forever!!!

Read your scriptures and don't procrastinate the day of your repentance :)

Muchas amor, Hermana Harkness

PS PLEASE give my love and thanks to Wally and Fam--they sent a HUGE PACKAGE this week full of food!! They are so kind and everyone in my district loves them so much!! I'll send another lettter home to y'all if you could get that to them itd' be the most superb thing ever. Thank you for you loves and prayers and everything!! I love hearing from you!!!

All the wonderful food I've been getting!

Try to read "Mother's Day" from our hands...

Our room, my bed is the one on the right by the window...top bunk

May 8: Week 2

FAMILIA!!

Wow has the time flown!! The night after I emailed you all I learned SO MUCH about the love of God. We had another awful lesson and I was just holding back tears. It's so hard to see everything you used to have confidence in rushing down a spiritual toilet! My teaching skills were just pathetic and I just couldn't convey anything except, "Yo se que Dios es amoroso" and other random phrases that just confused the investigator. It was rough and I was doing my best to be happy. It's terrifying to get in a room with your investigator (who is a teacher) and splatter the stupidest phrases of spanish at them while I swear they're doing their best not to just bust up laughing.  Also in Sunday I accidently bore my testimony saying that if we obey JS's words in the BoM, we will be happpy......JS didnt write the BoM. Oh well, at least it was in Spanish!! Anyways, back to the love story. So then my teacher shared 1 John 4:18 and my heart just melted! I felt God's love so strong that it was like filling every crack in my body! His love was everywhere, it was practically tangible. Brother Matagi (our teacher) taught us the rest of the night and kept saying "con amor". I learned a lot about teaching with love all the time--when I tried to do that in the lessons they always went better. Basically the only things I can do anymore is love people and tell them that Dios es amoroso y Dios tiene amor por usted. It's the life, I'm telling you!!! When the Spirit is there, it's just the greatest...and when it's not....it's the funniest thing you've ever seen!! Let's just say that Hna C and I laugh all the time about our pathetic lessons. It's either that or crying, and crying just wont do. This work isn't sad, it's absolutely fabulous!! And we are learning and loving and moving forward with little itty bitty baby steps.

A regular day in the life of a missionary at the MTC:

Wake up at 6:30. Ewwwwww the morning stinks!! It's cold and everyone is grumpy....which makes it rather funny. Pero the showers are always warm so that's good! Then we do our hair and all that jazz and then we go to breakfast at 7:30. Everybody here (every zone) has a different schedule. Like our schedule changed after the first four days, as well as everyone's elses here, so that's why pday is now wednesday. sorry i never explained that. bfast is good. they usually have good foods. i like cereal with bananas. or cold eggs (they're never warm by the time we get back to the table ahhaahha its a good joke in our zone). We all eat together and we lvoe each other so much, it's kind of freaky. We spend waaaaaaaay too much time together...I'm not quite sure if it's healthy or not. Then we have class some days or study time some days or service projects (cleaning bathrooms yucky). Basically we're either failing at teaching our "investegators", studying by ourselves, in class, or at mealtimes. The study times are great, except they never told us that everyting we do here  basically is self-learned. They really dont teach us much, except for in class. and even that is like, "hey, learn how to teach yourselves already." We have language study (from these red books that we have, from TALL a computer program, reading the BoM out loud, or doing whatever you think you should do), personal study (self-explanitory, PMG, scriptures, and stuff for investigators), and additional study (comp study or whatever we want). Class is good. Then we plan and then we get ready for bed but now Hna C and I go visit all the Hnas becasue we're Sister Training Leaders. And then we sleep.

So I was fasting on Sunday to be a better conduit of Father's love. Wahooo my answer came at 7:50 en la manana!! So I said a nice long prayer sunday  morning ( i may or may not have taken a nap in between my giving thanks and asking for blessings.....) and so we were 20 mins late to personal study....we're normally ALWAYS on time I promise!!! And we get there and everyone's like "you need to go talk to so-and-so" and my mind's like, "oh yeah, you're the new sis training leader" and I was like, "shoot we're the worst!!! We're so late!!!" little did I know that the spirit had been letting both us know about this for the past couple of days in our heads...but we both always dismissed it. Anyways so they extend it to us and Hna C was so releived that we were not in trouble for being wicked late, and then we rushed to the branch council meeting where all the elders were shaking their heads at us and the Branch president was trying to smile...but we were so late. Anyways once the meeting started no one really cared. It's basically  like being a RS pres, but SO MUCH easier. It's gonna be fun and I'm excited! I love visiting the hermanas each night and getting to know them better. They are all absolutely wonderful and hilarious and just down right awesome! We chat and they eat all our food and it's just a fiesta!

Devo on Sunday night was Chad Lewis and his wife--he's a great motivational speaker and got us all pumped for the missionary work. His wife was such a sweetheart, too, and we lvoed all their stores and testimonies of this gospel. Because it was fast sunday we didn't get to see Music and the spoken word, but we had a 2 hour MTC conference thing instead. It was good but my bum went numb. Those chairs are not meant for tall sisters. That's one thing I love about Hna C--she and I are tall and it's superb. Anyways there were TONS  of great talks. Let me sum them all up.

Sin just stinks. Like nasty cheese. When you stink you carry the smell wherever you go--you cannot drop it for a day, go teach, then come back and be like, 'yay stinky cheese again!". NO. we mst learn to embrace the Atonement and sanatize our souls and our lives so we can be a better conduit of the spirit.

Proverbs 3:5-7. Read it and it will be wonderful!!!

We are ALL one family--so be nice to everyone and invite them ALL to come unto Christ. God is our father and that alone should give us the strength and the courage to love and accept everbody.

He has given us UNFAILING compassion and mercy (if you cannot think of something, the Atonement fits into this category of unmeasureable love), and if you wanna be just like Him, you have to pattern your life after Him. So love everybody duh!!

It's all about God. Those who do not appreciate holy things will lose them.

Go listen to Come thou fount of every blessing and write down the lines that stick out to you. it's a moving song.

Momma I am going to write you a letter--HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO THE GREATEST MOTHER OUT THERE!!!! I have not forgotten you, nor will I ever, so just wait for the mailman hahaha :) Thank you SO MUCH for the packages--everyone was LOVING AND OBSESSING over the chocolate, it's like I'm the favorite hermana now with all the tasty foods!! Hahaha I'm sending home a letter to Whit, but she gave me her NM address and she moved home this past weeek to Alabama...could sombody find her address and get that to her por favor? I have no time lieft, literally 30 secs from the creepy clock in the corner, Lo siento I cannot type faster!!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH AND WROTE YOU LETTERS!!!

Love you much, Hna, Harkness

Laundry time!

My dear Hermana studying during language study

The Hermanas in our zone, and our sis training leaders that left this week

Temple walk

Our district at the temple

When a new district comes/leaves, we all get into one room and sing to them, the Elders like to stand on the chairs

The packages I received Wednesday, thank you!

I finally saw Bonnie and Kristie at the same time!!!

The beautiful flowers outside the MTC

This picture is for wally and fam, the Hermanas DEVOURED the chips and salsa.

May 1: Week One

Hola Familia!!

The first day was great--I saw Bonnie LITERALLY thirty seconds after I turned around from you all. I was still all puffy eyed and my face was wet and she looked rather bewildered to see me, but it lifted my spirits SO MUCH :) I've also seen since then : Kristie Hinckely, McCall Mod, Lauren Beck, Kate Lefrandt, Mindy Wong (JUST barely saw her--she's new today), Tori Cameron (friend from cafeteria and the bookstore, left to Germany yesterday morning), and a million girls from high school....Anyways our usher sister lady held my luggage and I went inside and verified that I was who I said I was, got my badges and a bunch of otra misc. stuff.  I met my companion, Hermana Christiansen from Lehi, UT. She goes to SUU and is pre-Vet. She wants to be a large-animal vet.

We just basically go from class to studying from dinner to planning to whatever. It's not that intense, the intense part is making sure that you're focused and ALWAYS on time and doing what you're supposed to. We got to see the Music and the SW on sunday morning!! The elders go to priesthhood and the sisters go to the big room in 19M and watch it. I was bummed jazz wasnt playing. next time i guess. it was really great. then bonnie oscarson (new YW pres) spoke to us for RS and shared DC 84:88 which is also what Pres. Anderson said in my setting apart blessing!!! So great. We had a great devo from some dude (I realized that I had been murmuring in my mind a lot, and he told us not to. it was real great), but the best part was the character of Christ talk by Bednar (from a couple of years ago from Christmas at the MTC). It's too bad you all cannot access it because it was SO AMAZING!!! He basicall talked about how all Christ ever did was TURN out to help everyone else. Every example in the scriptures that you can think of--he turned out. Even after he finished His mortal ministry, he went to the spirit world and taught. focus on LOVE, SERVICE, AND COMPASSION, above all else. Elder Bednar kept saying, "Who cares what you want, it's not about you!!!!!" He compared the natural man (Mos 3:19) to the cookie monster--it was quite hilarious. Testimony will never be enough for us--we must be converted. That is mostly the purpose of the MTC, to help us become converted (conversion=consistently being true to what you know). He said that whenever he hears some dude get up and takl about his ggpa that came across the plains, he says, "that's great, what have you done lately?" Hahaha but serisouldy, what have you done lately? Alma 23:6--> if you're converted you'll never fall away. He told us to get rid of the cookie monster, get outta the way, and STOP MURMRUING. He defined conversion again as changing from turning inward to turning outward. repenting is returning to God. Let me say that again. reTURNing to God. He said that everything we teach is intended to facilitate putting off the natural man and turning to others through the Atonement of Christ. The requirements: accept that God exists. maintain a correct understanding of the Character of Christ, and align you will with His (found in the lectures on faith). He urged us to learn OF Him, not just ABOUT him. We need to start by acting on our faith (even if our faith is small, act on the ground that is already won--talk by Holland from last conference). Then we'll eventually see some evidence, and that will eventually turn into knowledge. Don't get discouraged, however, eat the elephant one bite at a time, and stick the rest in the freezer (he didn't say thatpart about the elephant.....just to clarify). The Atonement cleanses us from sin, yes, but also INCREASES our capacity to DO BETTER. Mosiah 3:19--> become a Saint. Here's the three things he said: honor covenants, consistently live what is true, and become converted unto the Lord. The Atonement also gives us strength beyond our own: we are not meant to do this on our own--we are only natural men/women. The story of Ammon where he does not boast of his own strength...only of Gods.. read it. When you lose yourself in the service of others, you'll find yourself because you're not looking. He also recommended reading the book of mormon with a topic in mind (faith, charity...etc) and then marking it up as such. By the end of our lives we should have hundreds of Boms he said. That was basically taken from my notes so I hope it made sense....just thought I'd share the best part of my week. It inspired me greatly. 

Also will you please give my love and muchas thanks to GGHark for their sweet dear elder note and Wally, Annette and fam for the chips and salsa? Totes made my day and they are just the cutest!!! Also I met some elder from their ward, Elder Call who thinks Wally is the bomb.com and thinks Hannah is just fab. Maybe she should write him a letter, no?

 

Let me know if you have any questions...it's hard to think of what to tell you when I'm here at this computer with technology. 

 

Muchas love and amor my familia!!!!

 

Love, Hna Harkness 

(Here are some pictures from this week)