June 25: Hola!

Familia!!!

Thank you for the updates! Sorry this email is a day late, yesterday because of the crazy weather, the computers in the library didn't work and we didn't get to finish emailing. So here we are now! 

Answers to Questions:


"Did you get to watch the broadcast today? (Jasmine did the music; for the video clips). What did you think about the internet stuff and opening up the church buildings during the day? Dad and I think its great! We both had people ask if they could go to our chapel and pray during the day, for somewhere to get away from the world and have peace…when we said no, they would turn to a Catholic church that is open during the day. I’m curious to know how your mission will implement these new things.  What did you think of the bid MTC choir? Wasn’t it great?"

THE BROADCAST WAS AWESOME!!!! Wow I hoped you all learned a lot, and if you didn't watch it, you have to! I learned so much! I loved the clips--ESPECIALLY the music :) Thank you Jasmine :) I thought they were very moving and I especially loved the medley one. That's all it really is--it's simplicity. Just do what you know to be right, love others, and the Lord will work wonders through you. Just don't have fear (everybody read this scripture: D&C 68:6. It was my rock that first weekend here in IC). I thought that thing about the chapels was so very interesting. I wonder how it will all work out. I will let you know when I know for sure. Also, the facebook/technology stuff was cool too. I think that'll be mostly in the states for now...I doubt it'll be going on much in Argentina. But what do I know...? Nothin :) hahahahah. Oh I was so excited whenever they showed closeups of the choir, because they showed a couple huge closeups of missionaries that were in my MTC zone!!! It was so exciting to see them there singing and a part of such an amazing event.


"What are your meals like?"


So in Iowa we have breakfast, lunch and dinner. Usually breakfast is in the morning times right about 7-8. I usually eat cereal, yogurt, bananas. We have Personal study from 8-9, then comp from 9-11 (two hours because we're training, it'll go to one in a couple of weeks), then idioma from 11-12, then luncho from 12-1. They're really flexible with the hours, so if we have service in the manana, we'll just come back and study then. I eat lots of quesadillas and  green beans and apples and banans (no worries, I am being healthyish...) and most times we eat dinner with the members.



"How do you find people to teach?"


We try to talk to everyone, and occasionally we go door to door...The goal is to get it all done through the members. That is the most effective way, and really we're just here to assist the members in their ward. They're the main driving force and we're mostly supplementary (well, that's how it should be). So right now the bishop just changed and we're just trying to get the bus rolling. For example today, we're going on splits with the Sister Training leaders and mostly we're going to go visit members to gain trust and tell them how much we love them and all of our potential investigators that are their friends :)


 We had a goodbye zone conference this week with the Jergensens, and I learned so much from them. They are absolutely incredible and shared the pearls of wisdom that they have learned throughout their lives/marriages/mission stuff. They talked a lot about family, and it made me so much more grateful for the wonderful family I've got back nestled by the mountains (while I'm at it, please enjoy the mountains for me :). I don't know why God loves me so much to give me the best parents in the world, the cutest sibs ever, and James of course!!! I hope you all know how much I love and adore and appreciate all of you. Your love and support mean the world to me, and I think of you all practically every day :)

I have had the coolest experiences out here with the priesthood. IT IS SO REAL. Wow. I am incredibly moved by the Spirit and feel this thickness, almost claustrophobia-ness in the air. Every time I have been amazed how God literally speaks through these missionaries. I testify of the reality of God's love. He is so real that I cannot comprehend how anybody could reject Him. His love is everywhere, it is almost terrifying how well He knows us. And because His love is so grand, He provided a way, THE way, Jesus Christ for us to return and live with Him again! How marvelous is our God!! I will never doubt His love or His grace again in my life. It is almost impossible for me now to do so.


Church this week was awesome, as always. This man spoke and gave a gorgeous talk about humility. He has been coming to church for 6 plus years and just barely got baptized due to some incredibly humbling family/housing/medical experiences. He worked in the army rangers for 20ish years and here are some of my notes from his talk: "we can be both humble and fearless, courageous and humble. Being humble isn't about being the best, it's about doing what you can for your fellowmen and following His will. He gave an analogy about us all being on the same plane (the Church) and how it doesn't matter where we sit, because we all get off at the same place. If you're having issues and you don't think you can handle it, hand it to God because if you trust in Him and believe, He can make more of it than you can." He was a remarkable example to me, and again the Spirit testified to me of God's love for EVERY SINGLE one of His children.




Well, gotta run. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!
Have a fabulous week and don't procrastinate the day of your repentance!
Also, get involved in missionary work. It'll change you.,



Love, Hermana Harkness

June 17: Questions of the week

FAMILIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My week was GREAT! I honestly LOVE it here (except for the humid days, yucky). Good to hear that you got that message :) He's really a great Pres, but they leave next week to go home and Pres and Sis Jensen will be coming. We're sad to see the Jergensens go but super duper excited to meet and welcome the jensens!!

I MISS THE MOUNTAINS SO BAD!! Hahaha but really this whole flat thing with no hills is the worst. I never have any idea where on earth we're going and which way we're facing. If it weren't for our GPS, we'd always be lost. The river Dubuqe is totally flooded. TOTALLY. It's been flooded since we got here and flodded the main Dubuqe street and half of a park, and just basically everything in the area. I have some pictures that hopefully can give you a good idea :) It's been dumb because we need the Dubuque street to get to our area, so we have to go all the way around....But good news! It opened again last night--so the flooding is subsiding :) Yay!! Mormon Trek is the road that the Martin and Willey handcard companies took to go to UTah!!! Our church/stake center that we attend is located on the spot that they started from! How cool is that!?!?!?! Also, we'll probably get a chance to go to the Nauvoo Pageant!!! We'll see what the new pres thinks. 

Questions:

*How was church on Sunday? Did you go to a Spanish-speaking branch/ward?

Church was super duper!! The first week there wasn't too many hispanics there, but yesterday there were more! They're starting to love us and our horrible spanish. hahah Most of them if not all are from Mexico and are TINY. Like the men are 5 foot 3 tiny. But they are honestly the most beautifule people EVER!! Understanding them really isn't too bad...it's when they actually use tenses that I get lost....but for the most part I'm catching on. thanks to the Spirit I can mostly understand the main ideas in lessons. But I'm not terrified to talk to people in Spanish anymore!! Approaching the strangers...I'm still a little rough on that. But compare me now to my first weekend--Bam. You'd all be proud. It's really quite hilarous how I sound when I talk spanish :) Alll the mexicans just smile at me and nod saying, you speak good!! I've heard worse!...so comforting :)

There is this giant hispanic family in the ward called the Santos. They are so beautfiul and so cool!!!! Matilde (the mom/gma) and 7 daughters and 2 sons...or maybe it's six daughters. More about how cool they are in my letter today.

*How do you get around? Do you have a car or walk or bike?

We have a 2013 Ford Fusion. And it's gray, which is the best part :) We basically ahve the nicest car in the mission and all of the elders are crazy jealous. We can talk to it and tell it what song we want it to play from our ipods and stuff. It pretty much rocks!! We're probably gonna get bus passes real soon because there are a lot of hispanics in Coralville area and we've found a lot of potentials there. We have walked a couple of times just around Coralville (Boston way right by the mall, knowing you're gonna Google map it) and it was a SUPER humid day. I was sweating so much my face was liquid water. No joke. It was so gross. My garments are fine though. I really don't think the cotton ones would make a difference. It's gonna be hot either way :)

*How big is your area?

HUGE!! And we don't even live in it!!! That's the worst part and it's really killing our miles (we only have 1000 miles a month and we're 200 down because our car was driven from Des Moines transfer week for us--becuase we're opening a new area...hope that made sense :) So we live on Court street in IC (Iowa City) and our area is north of the 80. Dumb dumb. And it goes over to Johnson road, up to Linn Johnson road...and over for forever. If you go to the church maps, go to iowa city, and then find the one that's a rectangle that hugs the 80, that's us!!

*Are there other Spanish-speaking missionaries in the city too?

So there are two wards in IC for spanish. Us and the fourth ward (the gun-shaped one right below us). The hispanics just split between us and them. The zone leaders, Elders Andreasen (he went to LP) and Bates used to cover both wards, but now since we're here, opening the area for hermanas, we're in the first ward, and they cover the fourth ward. The ward is obsessed with us....I don't think that they know that I'm just a regular, tallish person from Utah with a really special calling. But without my calling/nametag I'm really not that cool. But whenever we go to dinner appointments the kids are all freaking out and their moms are so releived that we've finally arrived. hAHAH the ward members here are mostly young families whose husbands are residents. So yeah.

*How do you do your contacting? Do you knock on doors, find people on the street or in stores? Or do you get referrals?

We've done mostly member stuff. Like lots of the members are great, but not really all that active. Or they don't know any gospel principles. (the ones besides the medical student families). One member that we did some service yesterday on Hna H's birthday is a recent convert. Lucienne is her name and I adore her. She's around 50, lives in a trailer park, and has probably 8 cats. So...she has a lot of stuff in her house and so we went and did some service for two hours, folding laundry and picking up newspaper off the ground (two black bags FULL). I chucked this copper metal bowl thing into the trash (becuase I thought it was junk...it kind of looked like it should have been the bra on a viking breastplate or something) and I thought she was going to rip my ears off. Aparrently she had shaped that bowl herself from a chunk of copper and I was stupid enough to throw it away. Let this be a lesson to you all to never throw people's copper bowls away. Even if they look like viking bras.

We've witnessed many miracles this week as we've run into people at the oddest times and places. Like we went to go find this less active for the fourth time yesterday, and as we were walking back to the car (she didn't answer again) I felt like we needed to stay, but Hna H wanted to go. Just as we were talking about it, this man came out of a door right above us and was staring at us with his spiked lemonade in his hand and a sandwich in the other. I looked at him and knew we had to talk to him. So I said, Hola, and Hna P did the rest. I should have kept on talking, but I let my fear get the better of me--It is so much harder than I thought to talk to these Mexican men about the gospel. Tha's the other thing. I have no idea where all the women are hiding....we have all men investigators right now. Anywyas, he was interested,. We've had about four of these type of experiences this week. The Lord is helping us find the people He's prepared!!

*Where do you live? Is it a nice place?

We live across the hall from some serious pot smokers. It smells wretched in the hallway, but our apartment is really big, actually. I absolutely love it there. I always feel safe, secure, and at home. The shower is gross, but when is a shower really ever wonderful except in Hawaii...? Yeah never.

*Do you have an address where we could send you a package if you need it?

Iowa Des Moines Mission

8515 Douglas Ave. Suite 19

Urbandale, IA 50322

Sorry I forgot this last week. Send letters here too :)

*How are your shoes? Did we pick good ones?

I get more and more obsessed with my blue ones each day. YOU HAVE TO GET A PAIR. They're wondermus. And really all my shoes are fabulous. Not perfect for Iowa, but still fab. They're made for lots of walking, and we have to drive everywhere...but my feet have never hurt, so that's super duper, no?

Well I've got one minute left here on the computer, so I love you all, thanks for the updates, and I hope you had a great father's day, dad!! I was thinking of you all day and I had cereal for breakfast for you :) I'm sending you my letter today.

Love you all soooo much

Hermana harkness

June 10: New Mission Address

For the time being....Hermana Harkness' mailing address is:

8515 Douglas Avenue Suite #19
Des Moines, Iowa 50322-2924
United States
 

June 10: IOWA!!!

(Hermana Harkness didn't receive her VISA in the MTC. She received a reassignment to serve in the Des Moines Iowa mission!)

Familia!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Iowa is the GREATEST EVER!!! Really, this has been the greatest time of my life and  if it were up to me, I don't know if i would ever come home :) Sorry :) We have had the most BIZARRE, I really mean bizarre when I say bizarre, last couple of days.

I flew with Hna Houtz. She is so amazing and tall!!! Double points! Anyways, on the flight to Des Moines we talked to this lovely lady Kate with her 11 month old Hunter. The whole time my brain is screaming--TEACH HER TEACH HER YOU'RE A MISSIONARY!!! So I'm thinking...oh yeah. I am. AAHAHAHAHAHAHAH GET ME OFF THE PLANE THIS IS TERRIFYING!!!!! hahahah good news...I stayed on the plane :) So I remembered Jesus and then it got all uphill from there :) Basically she told us how much she loves her family and how she's been looking for religion and she asked us a lot of questions about us and what on earth we were doing. We ended up talking about relationships and ....... yeah for like 20 minutes. Like why we believe in chastity and stuff. And she basically believes the same as us so that's good :) and then I was trying to think of something to be like, can we share what we believe with you? But I was freaking out in my mind and the Spirit wasn't giving me nothing and I was a lost little pup. I don't know if God wanted her to have the experience of talking first (cause that like seriously made her mission, she told me) or if I should have opened my mouth and exercised faith...no se. But I learned and am getting braver as we speak.....And then Hna H asked a question and BAM. Gospel lesson on the plane with squirmy baby and all. For an hour. She is SO PREPARED it's almost funny. She kept saying things like, "oh, i was thinking a lot about that in the shower this morning...or last week..." etc. And then she was like, oh, can I go to church with my kiddo? Is there one in Ft. Dougles (CO) and I was like YEAH THERE IS YOU CAN GO WHEN YOU GET BACK AND GET BAPTIZED Wahhoooooooo it was so fun and she loved it :) And at the end she told us she had no idea why she even opened up to us. Because you are prepared, I said. Ok not really...that would be super duper creepy. And then the Portuguese sisters flying with us had a english BoM and so we chased her down in the airport and gave it to her. Then later when I turned around and waved goodbye to her when we were at the baggage claim, I looked at here smiling with her child, and I had the weirdest feeling. Like I already knew her. She looked so familiar and it was like we were best friends. The spirit testified to me at that point that I am here for a SPECIFIC reason. A reason so specific and important that i cannot do anything but do my absolute best.

And I love you all so much!!! Olivia, I have a cool experience I will write you about--so keep your ears perked. This lady we had a din din apt with asked me about you....she was like, so you have a little sister? And I said yes. And she said, I know. I can tell by looking at you that she is praying for you and is proud of you. It was remarkable. Muchas amore to all of you :)

This gospel is so true. Never in my life has it become more true than now. And I know it will do nothing but become more true. People. Read your scriptures. Pray. Even though you fall asleep during your prayers, keep praying. You cannot do what God needs you to without His divine help. Then, when His help comes, accept it and don't complain that it came in the form of a Nissan and not a mustang. Even though the scriptures are boring, just read them. Once you read them enough, you will find out why reading them is a commandment. Jesus is our Savior, and through Him we can do everything!! I know that through Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, all can be made right :)

Loves, Hermana Harkness

Oh, and I'm in a trio opening a new Spanish area in Iowa City, the first ward. We got food today--yay--and my comp's names are Phelps and Howell. They are wonderful to the max and I LOEV THEM SO MUCH!!!