August 5: Missionary Work in Iowa

Hola Hola!!

Hope you're all doing well and loving life in Utah & MTC!

This week has been INCREDIBLE!!!

Please thank the Rebers for me--that is unspeakably kind of them!!

Yay for Elder (aka Shalwayrydsk...did I spell that right??) Harkness!!! Ah, if I could just be the type of missionary you are, everyone in Iowa would be baptized right now. I'm so glad to hear that you are doing well!! Good job on being brave mom! Everyone here freaks out that you have two missionaries and then they instantly think Trevor is cooler because he's going to Bulgaria. But then I find comfort when I speak English and Spanish in lessons and not Bulgarian. I'll be praying for you Shalklksdfkljadkfjk Harkness--you're gonna need all the help you can get. But hello, God would not have called you there unless He knew that you would baptize the whole country. So I have no worries. I have the utmost faith and assurance that you are going to rise to and especially surpass this challenge and become the greatest missionary EVER!!

Hahah last night we had dinner with Las Tres (these three ladies that are roommates that all speak spanish). One of them is from ..... dont remember....somewhere south of USA...and went to Argentina/God's Country on her mission as well and made us some argentine rice/potatoe/beef stuff. Golly that's when I tried to buy the plane ticket. SO DELICIOUS!! I'm excited for Neuquen.

Sheesh I hate this one hour rule. I've got 12 minutes so please spare my grammar. so in response to your note about the dumb anti book, ive learned and thought a lot about that this week. we are teaching a man that is currently in the hospital right now. we knew him before and taught him twice before at a member's house, but he just seemed crazyish and we couldn't tell what was up. he came to church once...but we just didnt know what to do with him. friday we got a missed call from that member. later in the afternoon i remembered and called her back, when she informed us that he was in the hospital for his hand. that was odd, i thought, but we'll go see him. so we all decided to go and when we got to his unit he was in the mental unit. hmmmmm. the member told us that us three were really the only people he wanted to see. we chatted and I asked him if he was only here in the hospital for his hand, and nothing else? i was shocked that came outta my mouth, but went with it--as it came from the spirit. turns out he opened up to us. he tried to commit suicide the weekend before through injecting a bunch of random chemicals into his hand. he missed the vein and it was eventually his son that convinced him to go to the doc. so we've taught him lots of things about Jesus Christ. That is what we have focused on, because HE IS THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS. The only thing! It has been amazing this week as we've taught this to people like this man, who still wants to kill himself, but sees this glimmer of hope because he's starting to grasp the idea that there is somebody that loves and cares for him. (dont worry mom we're not in danger or anything, he actually loves us to pieces and told us yesterday that we're the only people he trusts because we're not malicious or devious. and he's not crazy. just sad and needs to know about God)

This gospel of Christ is so amazing, and it is incredible seeing it changing the lives of people here in Iowa. Next week I'm going to send an email with specific stories aobut our progressing investigators, because you all need to know about them :)

Since I'm a missionary and all we do is teach, commit, and follow up, I'm going to ask you all this week to focus explicitly on our Savior this week. Because we've been baptized we've already promised to do that. But this week, start now and think of Him all the time. It will change you and your relationships and your outlook on life. I will do the same and we can all follow up with each other next week :)

Love you to death,

Hermana Harkness

Nauvoo was totally wicked!!! We are all going there when Elder Harkness and I get back. I'm sending home a package soon full of stuff from it. And I got to see Sister Newell!! It was a joyous reunion and she is just as amazing as ever. Tell her mom that she is the best missionary in Nauvoo. :) more on nauvoo next week

funny story while these load. two days ago we were leaving seeing our bud/investigator in the hospital and hnaphelps kicked the car keys down the elevator shaft. hahahahaah. dont ever do that. but just in case you were wondering, missionaries are stupid too. we got them back and then the remote thingerbobber didnt work so then we panicked a wee bit but then magically hna p pulled a regular key out of the remote thinggerbobber. Thank the heafvens for smart engineers!! (But mostly just thanks to Heavenly Father who looks out for stupid missionaries)

wahooo the mississippi river!! Shannon (the lady who drove us) thought we were so silly for being so excited about seeing the river. We were like, "it's the mississippi river!!!" I hope you understand my excitement.

i can't remember what I attached. Enjoy.