July 22: Transfer #2

Hola familia!!!

Wow it hears like you're all doing great!! Nate! Dude!!!! Congrats on the awesome bball news!! I don't understand how you even have time to eat and sleep between all these millions of tournaments you have going on! Sheesh! Keep up the good work and keep having fun. That's the most important part ;)
Liv Liv!!! Santa vaca little lady I just knew you'd be the best YCL ever!! You are incredible and are a HUGE example to me. I'm sure you made those girls' camp the best one they're ever going to have because of your love and support. Way to go! I'm so proud of you :)

Trev!! I could cry for excitement for you!!! I'm freaking out over here!! When do you enter the MTC? Which one? What's your farewell topic? If you don't write me while you're in the MTC...you just don't wanna know what's gonna happen. :) hahaha you're going to make the BEST MISSIONARY EVER!! I would give you advice, but I really don't think you need it. I wrote you a letter this morning that I'll send to you today sometime. Love you!!

Questions:

"How are you this week?"

I'm super duper!!! Thanks for asking!!! (More on that later..)

"Who are you teaching this week?"

That is a great question. One that I would personally like to know the answer to. Some of our investigators/less actives think it's funny to hide from us or only like to meet with us every other week. But over the past couple of days we have found some SWEET potentials that I'm pretty sure a couple of them will be baptized real real soon.

"Have you heard anything about the Facebook proselyting yet?"

Nope, darn it all!! We're very curious, but the fact that our president is so new I think is part of the reason why. He's still just trying to figure out how to wake up so darn early every morning :) Hah we haven't heard anything about anything, except the possibility of getting ipads, since the broadcast. We might be one of the first missions to get ipads (have scriptures, videos, our area book--EVERYTHING on it). I'll let you know when we find out more.

Entonces, this week has been superb!! I've given out a lot of Books of Mormon, and every time we leave the car and I grab one, the Lord always provides a way for me to give it away. We've had a couple of people really get pumped to read it, like one lady, "Wow!! I need to read this book!", and "so this is a book of revelation? I can't wait to read this!" So yeah, basically expect Iowa to be flooded next week so we can adequately baptize them all.

We moved last week! We moved out of our "bear shower" apartment (the shower never drained, and when it did it left all of our hair so it looked like a bear) into the old Bishop's basement. Good news--it's wicked awesome! Bad news--they have two cats and two dogs. I didn't realize how much I don't like furry little critters that lick you and pee all over things until we moved in with them. It's been a real blessing to live with them. They're actually gone right now and have been since we moved in with them. bro sheffield is a famous genetics dude (like you could google him famous) and so they're at a conference in utah and so we get to watch the animals!! One of their cats is crazy pants old and she told us to bury it when it dies haha. Two nights ago we got locked out of the house, so I got to climb on the roof (yeah baby in a skirt!!) and break in through their daughter's window. It was nearly pitch black and I couldn't find my way outta her room! For some odd reason she had a million doors in her room but no worries--I made it out eventually and saved my companions. it was a grand adventure :)

Transfer meeting was great! We're all staying here for 6 weeks and we got a new DL (he used to be a ZL in cedar rapids) and actually he Elder Winchester, served 6 months in IC at the start of his mission about a year ago and is on fire. We set baptismal goals for the District higher than the zone goals for the next three months. Expect some baptism pictures from me soon :) We got great news on the two elders in the bad car crash from a couple of weeks ago. i dunno if i told you but they got t boned at 50 mph and the one driving had serious problems (life flighted). He's doing better now--he got up and shot a couple of baskets and such and now remembers some of his family. A couple of days after the accident his parents were at his side and he could barely remember who his dad was--but now he knows his mom too!!! Yay!! We all wrote him letters last week and I sent one also to his companion, thinking nothing of it. then some random elder at t meeting comes up to me and knows my name and I forgot to read his tag for a while and was totally weirded out hahah  until I realized that it was the other elder. It was cool to know that a simple act of kindness had really affected somebody and I felt like an accomplished missionary that day :)

Last week we also got pulled over! Hna P was going 11 over in a construction zone and the officer let us off!! Instead of giving us a 260 dollar ticket, he gave us a warning! What a blessing! I forgot to pray until we started driving away (after he pulled us over), and I felt like a bad child. I learned the importance of the scriptural plea, "pray always" and how our every thought should be focused back to our Father in Heaven and in Jesus Christ. We always need His help and when those desperate times come, we need to be ready and worthy to pray.

We found the coolest people ever on saturday!!!! We were trudging through Boston way, wakling back to our car and the spirit told me to go talk to this man on this porch. did I want to? no. But I did. turns out his wife has schizophrenia, they came to church, there was a talk on mental illnesses, and the lord knows his children so well!! We've seen miracles and continue to give thanks for them every day :)

time is out, and i love you all so much!! Have a great week!!!!

Hermana Harkness

Thanks for the gift card, mom!!! It is very much enjoyed here :)

Us, Elder Andreasen (zone leader that went to LP also that got transferred to Des Moines last week), Elder Schubert (our great little District leader that got turned ZL last week over a new zone) and our still faithful zone leader Elder Bates.

that is me. and a pretty lake.

TORTUGA!!!! Isn't he beautiful??

WE FOUND THE COOLEST TURTLE THIS WEEK!!! He was all scratching around in the window well during personal study and Hermana Phelps and I went and snatched him up!! Sooooo coooll!!!! That was friday--so the day that Hna Howell was sick and so we found critters and studied and I cleaned all day. We also found some frogs and a snake. We named him michealangelo (sorry i can't spell) and set him free in the grass. He was the cutest critter I ever did see!!