Every destination is just a new beginning - josh groban ;)

Let's see...I don't have much time, but thought I'd give y'all some updates on the life here in this blessed city of Lokeren.

Anja shall become baptized this Friday night, and confirmed this coming sunday. Stoked for her. We've been teaching her like crazy this past week, getting all the harder lessons in and some in the same lesson, but she has committed to living them and is excited for this big step in her life. Grateful to know her, she is such a blessing. I love her. she is converted and has had some awesome experiences to back her conversion story up.

Went on my last exchange ever, and to make it even more special I got to go with my MTC comp, sister Romney :) we got to reminisce on our missions together and plan things for the future when we're home and be sad together that our journeys as missionaries are coming to an end. But just like in that Josh Groban Christmas song, every destination is just a new beginning ;) I love Sister Romney and I'm thrilled we get to see each other at home and throughout the eternities :) what would eternity be without your best friends? :) hopefully it works that way...

umm, so like yeah, I love being a missionary and Im going to love it as much as I can this last week. Thank you for all your support, prayers, and love. I love you all! Pray for Anja as she makes this step in her life :)

Zusje Harris:)

Sister Romney and Elder Byers :) pictures of train window, wild flowers we picked for Anja, sushi that Anja made for us

 

 

Another week bites the dust

This week has been one of the most memorable weeks of my mission. To start, our investigator Anja who just walked into church my first Sunday in Lokeren has been progressing so much. We were able to teach her again this week and even set her up for baptism in 2 weeks, my last Sunday here. I have never met someone so prepared for the gospel. It was such a sweet experience, the night we came. We taught her the plan of salvation which alone is amazing and spiritual, and we were like...we don't want to like push you or anything or stress you out, but we really see you are so ready and if you feel ready enough, we can set up a date for you to become baptized and she was like...yes yes yes!!! So she pulls out her agenda and is like "ok, I know you have more things to teach me, why don't we figure out right now all the times we can meet and how many more lessons do I need to learn before I can do this and what is everything I need to do?" And as we were trying to hold back our tears and jump up and down we were able to keep ourselves chill and plan out each appointment and then she made us dinner and drove us home and it was awesome. The elders had an investigator get baptized this weekend and Anja came to it, but before that she picked us up from the station in Lokeren and we went with her to a family's home in our ward to eat dinner with them then headed over to the baptism. It was such a good day. And to top it off we were able to play soccer that morning with the ward which was amazing haha it felt so good to kick a soccer ball and have an intense game of soccer :) and to make the week even better we were able to travel up to Dordrecht yesterday after church in our ward to attend Daan's baptism, an investigator of mine that I was privileged to teach in Dordrecht. It was so cool to see him take that step of baptism and make that promise with God, when before he was atheist. It was a privilege to teach him. These people are all just so prepared, and I am grateful for their influence in my lives. I am excited when he will get to receive the other half, the gift of the Holy Ghost. Missionary work is so rewarding and I can't wait to have these experiences for the rest of my life. I love the Lord and I love this work. I love you all and again, I can't wait to see your cute faces in a few short weeks when I will squeeze the air out of you, so be prepared.

Love you all and remember John 20:29 :)

Have a lovely week!

Zuster Harris :)

 

 

Life is fine and dandy

Hello lovelies,

 

It was so great seeing you all on that tiny screen and hearing your voices! However, I can't wait to see you in real life soon and hear your voices forealzies. I love you guys :) Mom, I hope you had a wonderful Mothers Day, because you deserve it and I am so grateful for you! Thank you for raising me to be the person I am today. 

 

Let's see, last Sunday there was a lady who walked into church and told us she wanted to learn the lessons and come to church every week, and while we were drooling from our mouth, we were able to set up an appointment with her but my companion didn't get her address from her, only her phone number so we called her to get her address and the number didn't work!!! We were stressed out when one morning the Gent elders called to give us referrals and she was one of them, she had ordered a Book of Mormon online and her address was in the information, so we were able to go to her and teach her the first lesson, which was a very spiritual lessonl. She has a very kind heart and turns out her boyfriend is a member in Antwerpen and she got interested in the church because of him, but she made it clear to us that she wasn't doing it for him, she wanted to know for herself, which just makes her that much more solid!! (flirt to convert, am i right?? ;) ) anyways, the lesson was really positive and she came to church yesterday and offered to feed us this week and drive us home and wants to meet twice a week and we are just so excited for her. She does a lot of service for people and she is just so genuine. 

What else...oh yeah, I got sunburnt and boy, it feels real good hahah we are just LOVING this sun!!! I showed you guys my crazy tan/burn line on my feet yesterday, right?!? it's awesome. The mornings are beautiful here and I am just loving this place and these people. After talking you all yesterday I have nothing but graditude in my heart. I'm grateful for this opportunity to be here and to have met the amazing people I have met on my mission, to be the person I have become, and to have you all as my family. God is good. 

Sister Burnham and I are working our bums off and enjoying working together and laughing together and talking together and doing everything together.I will be sad to leave her in a few short weeks. I have really grown close to her. I am so grateful I got to be companions with her!!

So I guess you could say that gratitude is the theme of this email today. Don't really have much more to say than that! I hope you all have a wonderful week and that you can see the miracles every day, whether big or small, because they are there and God has not ceased to be a God of miracles. 

Lovessssssss

 

Zuster Harris 

p.s. I got to see Sister Fredrickson, my trainer, this past week with her parents! it was so good to see her. also, pictures of cows because why not? and a selfie of us being so happy after our appointment with Anja, and pictures of the Antwerpen station. 

 

 

Man this week went by fast....

HEYOOOO

First off, can I just tell y'all how much I love and appreciate you all? Thank you for the prayers of support and praying for the missionaries around the whole world. I know they go a long way. So thank you :) 

 

So like it says in the subject line, this week just flew by! and I just LOVE it down here in Lokeren :) It's definitely a different-ish culture and dialect...I felt like a greenie all over again when I got here because I had to listen real good again to know what they're saying, but I really like their accent. It's beautiful! It's like a mix of dutch with a strong french influence. We are teaching some suuuper cool people, a few that are just around the corner of being baptized. And I absolutely ADORE my companion, Sister Burnham! It seriously feels like she has been on her mission for months, and she's only on her second transfer! We joke a lot and laugh a lot and are just enjoying the happiness that doing misisonary work brings :) Sadly a lot of our appointments this week fell through which left for a lot of time of knocking and finding, but it has been really awesome and we have found some solid potentials. 

The ward is amazing, just ready to jump when we say we need help with anything. I really love it here. I am sad I only get to be here for 4 more weeks but I am at least grateful I get to be here at all :) Sorry this email is rather short, we have to get going soon to visit a city here in Belgium for our P-day...

But just know that I love you all, each and every one of you and I am so grateful for this opportunity that I have of serving the Lord, and that I still have een beetje time left :)

Love, 

Zuster Harris :)