Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room

We woke up pretty early today to make it to one of my Christmas choir concerts that we had in the morning, and I am way tired, but you know what? I am full of all sorts of Christmas cheer, and it makes it SO worth it. Also, the words to the hymns in Spanish are similar but don't always have exactly the same meaning, and I have really relished this Christmas season, pondering over the words to the Christmas songs and hymns that I just love so much. Ya know. It's just the most wonderful time of the year.

So this week, we have really cracked down and started sharing the He is The Gift (El es la Dadiva) with the entire world.

He is the Gift Video

And it is AMAZING. I am almost positive that all y'all have seen it, but I am still requesting that it be posted to my blog (please and thank you, parents of mine!). It gives me chills every single time we watch it, and at this point, we have watched it at least 50 times in our teaching and contacting and such. Guys, it is the BEST. We have found an amazing way to share the message that has proven to help those we teach feel the spirit of Christmas and also feel a desire to do something more than just decorate the house, eat yummy food and give gifts to their seres queridos.

We are doing a STOCKING FOR CHRIST.

For real. Keeping that good 'ol Harkins Home tradition alive and spreading it around our whole ward. We have a white stocking, we walk around everywhere with it and little index cards and tons of pens. We talk to EVERYONE about He is The Gift, we share the video (we have it on a little pen drive, we are radical modern here in Chile Santiago West Mission), and then we read in Matthew 2 about the 3 wise men and those classic gifts that they gave. The most precious, valuable, things that they could imagine to give to the Son of God. And then we explain how the stocking ties into it all. You write down on your index card a gift that YOU want to give to Christ...something personal, something that requires effort (like going to church every Sunday, reading your scriptures, being a better disciple of Christ, its between you and your Redeemer)...something precious and valuable that you want to give to your Savior for Christmas. And you put it in the stocking.

In my family, the tradition is that before we put our cards in the stocking, we take out our cards from the year before. And we read them to see if we had accomplished what we promised to do. Whenever we get to explaining that part of the stocking tradition, they always get really silent and serious. And that is when you can see on their faces that they are really thinking about what it is that they can give to Jesus Christ. It is in that moment that we give them the cards and the assignment to ponder and pray over what it is that they will give, write it down, and put it in the stocking the next time we come. When Christmas is over, we are going to store the stocking in the cabinet in our study room with instructions on how the stocking works, and that they are to pass all the cards back so that everyone can check and see if they completed what it is that they promised.

COOL, RIGHT? Christmas is the best. I feel like I just didn't take advantage of the Holiday Season last December, we are just ChristmasChristmasChristmas here in El Manzano! Working hard with He is The Gift and with our little white stocking, and we have had all sorts of amazing experiences, helping others to feel the REAL spirit of Christmas.

One of those experiences happened this last Saturday night. It was 8:58, we were just about to our pension to finish up for the day, and we start talking to the family that lives in the house in front of us. Mom, dad and their son, all sitting together on their front porch swing, enjoying the cool evening air. It was awesome, because as soon as we said hello, the mom stood up and told her husband to go get the keys to open the door. We literally had barely said "hola", and it was as if they were just waiting for us to talk to them to share the good tidings! I LOVE that! So we go in, we get to know them and we explain our purpose as missionaries, and then we dive right into talking about Christmas. Their house had exploded with Christmas decorations; a tall tree, lights inside and out, lots of little Santa and Reindeer and Snowman decorations...you could tell that they are into the holidays.

We ended up not being able to share the video...interesting how Satan controls technology. First their tv USB jack wasn't working, then the Internet wouldn't connect, we even had our min DVD player that has a USB jack that usually works, but in that moment, it just wasn't happening. But that's OK! Because we have the scriptures and our testimonies, and that requires absolutely nothing from technology's wonders! HA! So we shared in Alma 7:10-13 and in Isaiah about the prophesy of Christ's birth. We had a great, open conversation with them about Him as our Savior, she being Catholic and he being Evangelist. But they were really eager to talk to us and to listen to the message that we had.

At one point, she said "You know, up until this very moment, the thought of Christmas celebrating Christ's birth never entered my mind. We get all hyped up for the tree and the presents, but we so easily lose our focus on the true meaning." Talk about WOW! I love when the spirit guides us to those that are ready, and then works so efficiently in their hearts to help them acknowledge the beauty of the message that we bring, and help them to WANT more. To want to listen not only to the message of He is The Gift, but to want to hear about the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, to feel a true desire to press on in this path, to enter through the covenant of baptism, to endure to the end and live in the presence of God.

And all because a loving Father sent His son.

Church is true, folks :) Be Bold, Stay Rad, Do what you do and Let your Light So Shine :)

Hermana Harkins

Is There a Place where The Savior can be Born?

Well guys, we are officially deep into that lovely time of year where Hermana Harkins goes Christmas LOCA. We are taking advantage of the fact that everyone has their heart open a little more, everyone is a little more willing to accept a message from the missionaries about our Savior Jesus Christ and the plan of Salvation that our loving Heavenly Father has prepared for us. I'm loving the Navidad, even more than usual. If you can imagine it. Only good tidings and RADICAL joy coming to you from Sunny Santiago :)

I want to start my email by sharing an experience that we had by sharing the glad tidings of the Christmas season to help one of our investigators. We went to her house with the great plan to teach her about The Doctrine of Christ (L3, my fellow missionaries), but upon entering, we quickly assessed that it was NOT the message that she needed. Her kids were going hog wild, she was upset with her husband's work schedule and the fact that he has been gone for over a month, it was hot, the baby was crying, her son had fallen and scraped his knee...and on top of all of that, "I have to put the tree up!" She had that exhausted craze in her eyes, and to top it all off, she felt that it was a burden to make Christmas magic.

Yeah...neither my comp nor I felt that she needed to hear about The Doctrine of Christ. So we helped her clean up a bit, got the tree up, and sat down to take a breather and lemme tell you, she had a lot to get off her chest. A lot of pent up frustration and hurt and even a touch of anger. There is a great quote in PMG by Elder Holland about the importance of listening to your investigators, and it's true. We listened. And it came to us that we needed to share a Christmas message with her. She had become wrapped up in the stressful part of Christmas, so we shared with her the real meaning of Christmas. It was great to see the stress melt off of her face and she SMILED! We shared Alma 7:10-13, it was simple but powerful.

And right as we finished the prayer, her 6 year old son got home from school. They had done Christmas crafts, and he came home laden with homemade ornaments made out of popsicle sticks and foam cut outs and lots of glitter glue...you know the type. He was happy to see that the tree was up and ready to be decorated with his masterpieces. And she just started crying. She told us that she had gotten so caught up in the Christmas of it all instead of getting caught up the the CHRISTmas. And her son coming home with a homemade nativity ornament for her was the icing on the cake to get thinking more about CHRISTmas than Christmas.

We also had a great experience with one of our inactive members that we are helping. We have been teaching her for a while, she has nearly come to church a few times, but every time something seems to come up. This last Monday we were knocking doors, our appointments had fallen through, and we started to contact. We had the idea to go find someone in another part of our sector, but felt prompted to keep knocking the doors in that particular street. And when we got to the end of the street, we figured out why.

We found this dear sister crouched in the shade of a tree on the corner, smoking a cigarette and crying. We asked her what was wrong, and she threw the cigarette on the ground and told us that her husband left her for another woman, and that she didn't want to go home and have to tell her sons that their dad wouldn't be coming back home. We consoled her for a while there in the street, and then we made our way back to her house so that she wouldn't have to go in alone, and we shared our favorite scriptures of comfort with her; my comp shared Mosiah 7:19, and I shared 1 Nephi 21:14-16. She thanked us for being in the right place at the right time, for helping her in the way that she needed.

It was just one of those amazing moments when we notice how the spirit guides us, and how important it is to ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS follow the promptings of the spirit. Even if we feel that it doesn't make sense, even if we feel like it won't make a difference, you do not know who you are going to find that needs you. You don't know the difference that you can make, simply by following that beautiful, still, small voice. YOU don't know, but God knows. And He needs you. He needs us to be good instruments.

And to end for the day, a fun miracle that we had with an investigator named Juana. We were honestly about to stop visiting her because she wasn't progressing...not reading the Book of Mormon, she didn't want to come to church, she accepted the invitation to be baptized but won't accept a specific date in which she can be baptized. In our lesson with her earlier in the week, my companion invited her to pray with a specific question in mind, open the Book of Mormon, and she would find the answer if she had faith and if she read with an open heart. So we said "Ok, if she did it and got the answer, we will keep working with her. But if not, we are going to have to move on."

So Saturday we go to visit her and we asked if she did the exercise. She was excited to tell us that YES, she did it, and she found the answer to her question. She wanted to know more about cherubs.

Yup, cherubs. Nada que ver.

And you know what she opened up to?

Alma 42. Where Alma is explaining to his rebellious son about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and how God put CHERUBS and a flaming sword around the tree of eternal life.

I LOVE how God answers prayers. It is the BEST EVER.

Well guys, my time is about up. May we all make room for Christ in our hearts. So be bold, stay rad, do what you do, and let your light so shine.

Hermana Harkins

A Thrill of Hope...The Weary World Rejoices

Guys. December first.

AND THE HERMANA HARKINS CHRISTMAS BEAST IS UNLEASHED!

I know that it doesn't have too much to do with missionary work, but I just wanted to describe to you all how awesome we are making Christmas in our little pension here in Chile. In my house, we always decorate the day after Thanksgiving. And I would not allow it to be any other way here. My mom sent the biggest missionary Christmas package ever that included a box entitled (Open the day after Thanksgiving). Ok, cute Christmas banners, ornaments, Christmas paper straws, tall Christmas socks, chocolate covered Christmas pretzels, drawn pictures from the kidletts...better believe we put on the Motab Christmas cd and decorated our tree and wallowed in the Christmas of it all! We bought a Chilean fruit cake and hot chocolate...it. is. CHRISTMASTIME.

Ok, now onto the work of Salvation :)

We had an AWESOME experience with a new investigator this last week; we were walking down the street after having an appointment fall through, and we saw a woman outside watering her garden and we started to talk to her. She was really nice and pretty receptive, and she let us in to share a message with her. Upon sitting down, we asked her if there was anyone else in the house, that our message is for families and we would like to share it with her whole family. She called her 21 year old daughter down to join us. And we were very surprised to find Nicole. Nicole is a girl that we contacted about a month ago that wanted so much for us to come and teach her, but she just moved here and didn't remember her address. She had given us her phone number, but it didn't work. The three of us were very surprised and pleased to find each other. It is so great how things work out like that!

And the best part was when we started talking with them to get to know them and what they believe, and Nicole said "But tell us, what do YOU believe?" I just LOVE that question. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. We shared with them the message of the Restoration, and they were both excited- EXCITED!- to read the Book of Mormon and pray and accept an invitation to be baptized. I love when we find these people that are ready for the gospel. Many times, we find people that are receptive, that are kind enough to accept us in their homes, or that only want to obtain more knowledge...but they don't have intentions of changing. It is the best ever when we find the people that are looking for that missing part of their life and then we come, just in the nick of time, and your testimony is strengthened of how God is in the details of our lives and OH MY GOODNESS THE GOSPEL IS JUST SO TRUE!

We also shared a touching moment with a less active family that hasn't come to church in about 6 months. They have a few excuses, and we are working on strengthening their testimonies to help their desire to return. We invited their 12 year old son to give the opening prayer, and he was eager to do so. And it was one of the most tender prayers ever, mostly because he gave so much thanks for the Atonement of Christ. When he finished, we praised him for the sincerity and spirit of his prayer, and he told us "That's just how my mom taught me how to pray, so that's how I always do it."

Well, you better believe that that brought tears to our eyes. Especially for his mom. In that instant, we changed our lesson plan from The Doctrine of Christ to Alma 56:47-48. You know, the 2,000 stripling warriors, and the knowledge that they had in the faith of their mothers. You better believe that those mothers "let their faith show" (Elder Nelson, General Conference, April 2014), and that they did all that they could to give their sons an example of how to trust in God. I love how the family is in the center of God's plan, because it is always just the thing to touch people's hearts. The gospel is so simple yet so essential, and when we are living the gospel, we touch people. This little 12 year old boy touched our hearts with a simple but honest prayer, and it gave us missionaries the perfect opportunity to testify to his parents of the importance of their example of letting their faith show.

I just love the gospel. It is SO true.

Another great experience we had was with another inactive sister that we are working with. We wanted to really focus in on the Book of Mormon with her and help her get a head start on reading it daily. We got to her house and asked her where she was in her reading, and she bashfully replied with "1 Nephi 1." So we read it with her and simply talked about it, what we understood and how we felt that we could apply it in our lives. She ended up sharing an amazing experience that she had a few weeks ago...

She was outside pruning her bushes and a companionship of Jehovah's Witnesses came up and started talking to her. She was kind, but was direct in telling them that she is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (she even said the whole title! That's somethin!). They began asking her all sorts of questions, mostly about Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon. She answered them all calmly and adequately, explaining that he translated the plates of brass, that he restored the church, and that we worship God. They had tried to tell her that it was impossible that Joseph Smith could have received revelation from God to restore the gospel, and started going on a whole rant of the ordeal.

But she was firm and steady in standing up to them and saying that "I KNOW that The Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God, and nothing you say can sway me. I know that the restoration of the gospel was inspired of God, and that if we accept the restoration, we accept God. And I ACCEPT Him."

Um, WOW. Alma 17:2-3. Alma 4:19. Talk about power and authority in the testimony of the members of the church! We were so impressed in that moment, and praised her for how she handled the situation; some would have ranted and raved and made a scene, happy to have a chance to "prove their point", but she did just the right thing...she shared simple testimony of the things that SHE KNOWS. And she did it was such simplicity, yet such preciseness, that she literally left them speechless. May we all share our testimonies! With the whole world! AAAH THE CHURCH IS JUST SO TRUE!

Well y'all, that was my week. We are doing well here in Chile. So be bold, stay rad, do what you do, and let your light so shine. (light=testimony)

Hermana Harkins

The box and my planner open to the day after Thanksgiving :)

Our feast

Me and my comp in our Christmas socks...and of course I have my filthy animal shirt!

Christmas Christmas :)

Our tree...we put some paper straws on paper clips and cute cardboard swirlies out of...drumroll...toilet paper rolls. We are so eco friendly. And that is a mexican doll on top, courtesy of hna McQuinn's friend serving in Mexico. We. Rock.

Me with my trainer and my greenie- hna Velazquez goes home TODAY! crazy!

Training meeting

Sister trainers

Sister trainers

We accidentally had Thanksgiving a week early

Ok for real though, we don't have any excuse, there are TWO gringas in our pension, and Hermana McQuinn and I were both entirely convinced that Thanksgiving was THIS Thursday. Its kinda tough when Chile just doesn't want to acknowledge the peace between the Pilgrims and the Indians in North America. What the heck, man. Haha just kidding, but seriously. We feel ashamed, what kind of Americans are we? We had a rotisserie chicken and mashed potatoes and made brownies for dessert. #chilemishlife #proudtobeanamerican

This week we started to see some great progress with the people whom we are visiting. It is very gratifying as a missionary to see those who you are trying to help, start to feel those promptings of the Holy Ghost to do something - and they have the strength to do it. So Great.

One of those moments was with the Pratt Family. They have been inactive for a few years now, and when I first got here, they were pretty set in their ways and "comfortable" with the routine of life that they had fallen into. They flat out said that they are "lazy", and that it is just "easier" to "take a break from the gospel." But we tried every possible outlet to help them; asking the members of ward council to visit them, we started helping their 15 year old daughter with her personal progress, we helped them out with their family scripture study, and passing by Sunday mornings to get them going so that they can make it to the chapel on time, and they have now gone a whole 4 weeks IN A ROW coming to church! Um, wow!

The moment when the progress hit us in the face was when we went to their house last Sunday to do a Family Home Evening with them, and the house was all clean, they had hymns playing, Hna Pratt had set up the table with snacks and arranged the furniture so that we were all sitting in a circle, and she was even dressed up in a skirt and cute blouse. It was the most adorable thing to see just how excited she was for the FHE, and like in all homes, when the mom is happy, everybody is happy (or you'd better get happy ;)). It was a wonderful Family Home Evening and it was great to think back on the first time I had visited them, to think about how they wouldn't talk or contribute or do much of anything, but now, it is completely the opposite.

We are teaching the 11 year old son of an inactive sister in our ward right now, and this week, we invited him to be baptized. It was right after we had finished teaching The Doctrine of Christ. He is a pretty awesome 11 year old and had all sorts of probing questions to know more, more than many of the adults that I have taught in my mission. So we get to the point of inviting him to be baptized, and he says "Well, of course I want to be baptized!" We asked him why he felt so sure, and he said "Because I need to be baptized by someone who has the authority of God. And the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has that authority, it got restored, so that's why." Goodness, if everyone could understand it like he did, that would just be dandy! Do not EVER underestimate the power of a child's understanding. It can surprise you.

Another interesting experience that we had this week happened in two separate lessons. We learned a lot about how the Holy Ghost works to help us out. One of the lessons happened Thursday afternoon with a little girl that we found that was baptized a little more than a year ago; she was baptized without having all the knowledge that one should have at baptism, part of that knowledge being her own testimony, and almost immediately, she became inactive. She saw us walking down the street one day and told us that she was baptized, rattled off the names of a bunch of missionaries that she knew, and invited us to come to her house so that we could teach her.

Aventura cada dia, cierto?

So we go in, and it was the most peculiar thing to feel the holy ghost leave so abruptly. It was one of the most interesting lessons that I have ever taught, simply because I- and afterward, I found out that us both, so WE- had absolutely no idea what to say. The spirit was completely absent. This little girl was talking about cualquier tontera, so many ridiculous little things, even talking about God with extreme disrespect. At first, we were a little confused. Why did we feel so tongue tied? Why is it that absolutely nothing came to mind to share with this little girl? Upon observing our surroundings, we realized that we honestly were in a situation that was not safe for us. The spirit was completely absent until that moment, when it was practically screaming at us to LEAVE.

So we left. It was curious.

But then, in the very next lesson, it was RAD. We had a member there to help us teach this investigator who has already read the Book of Mormon twice and loves taking his kiddos to church, we taught about The Plan of Salvation, he had lots of great questions and the flow of it all and the balanced depth of how we taught and answered his questions left us feeling great. I have realized as a missionary that, quite simply, I feel GREAT when I recognize that the spirit is working with us to teach people! Its the best ever! And I feel almost foolish writing that because its like, duh Hermana H, that's kind of the point of missionary work, but it's the truth. It was astonishing as we went back home at the end of the day and analyzed all that we had done, and we both felt very impressed by how the Spirit had helped and guided us. It really is one of the most important tools that we have, not just in missionary work, but in general for our lives. We must have the Spirit to help and guide us. We receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, but we must do the right things to listen to its promptings and act on what we receive. We will be surprised by what happens.

In other news, I got a humongous package of Christmas goodness from the best mom ever, decorations and presents and all. Friday we are decorating, I pulled my "Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal" shirt out of my suitcase, and the Christmas hymns will be played daily from here on out. We are on the look out for a tree. Mis queridos Chilenos have started putting up the Christmas decor. It is the most wonderful time of the year and my FAVORITE time of year.

Speaking of Christmas hymns, I am in my mission choir again! Just like how we did for Easter, we are doing a huge Christmas program. The first practice was today, and my Choir comp is Hna Dominguez, my chummy buddy from the Easter Choir. She is directing the whole shindig this time around, and she has enlisted my help in leading and in doing sectionals and helping choose the order of the songs and who will sing what solo and all sorts of fun stuff. My favorite song that we have practiced so far is Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel; part of it is in Latin, and the whole thing is going to be a capella. #mills #millsmeansmusicchills

So be bold, stay rad, do what you do and let your light so shine :)

Hermana Harkins

Working the tan line - it's summer!

Early Thanksgiving

Christmas graffiti

Sister Damian out in the field six weeks

Hello SAN DIEGO!

Opening my Thanksgiving/Christmas box from home

Yes folks - I carried this home on the bus

I love my mom - best package preparer ever!

The Primary Program was Yesterday

It reminded me of my daydream of having the primary kiddos in my home ward sing I hope They call me on a Mission for my farewell talk...I just love the primary songs in Spanish.  I am totally biased. Spanish is the best ever.  Although, I did get my hands on a copy of the Book of Mormon in French this week, let's put this whole gift of tongues thing to the test ;)

It was a good week with lots of great experiences, little moments where I found myself saying "wow...I'm a missionary."  Almost 15 months in the mission and I still find myself saying that.  I dunno, from what I have been able to tell, you get to a certain point in your mission and start going downhill, not working so hard, getting a little lazy on the obedience, counting down the days till you get home.  Or you can be a missionary that just keeps on going.  It helps when you have a companion that has some awesome greenie excitement for absolutely every aspect of the mission ;) we just keep going, we keep seeing miracles happen, and we keep loving life.  I have the best job ever.

One of the great things that happened this week was with one of our investigators. She is really great, super receptive, she likes the message that we teach and how it blesses families...but she isn't married.  And she doesn't see the need to get married to her pareja (how do you say that in English?  I haven't a clue). And this week, my comp and I felt the strongest prompting to share with her The Family: A Proclamation to the World. It was very necessary to share with her this vital step in the Plan of Salvation and making it to the Celestial Kingdom.  And we felt that the best way to do is to share with her the proclamation.  Who can we trust more than the prophet of God?  That President Hinckley.  He just has a way with words.

It started out a little rocky- we invited her to read the first paragraph, where it says that marriage between a man and a woman is vital in the plan of God.  And eyes widened and her jaw dropped and she covered her mouth with her hand and just stared at us.

OH THE TENSION!

But thanks to the Holy Ghost, we were able to level it all out to even ground and we had a little open conversation of the subject.  It turns out that her reasons for not wanting to get married go much deeper than "I just don't see the point".  It was evident that at first, she did NOT want to talk about it.  But, 30 minutes later, she ended up confiding in us many things that she has seen happen, many things that have happened to her, and it gave us the chance to testify that God's way is always The Way.  That when we strive to be in His path and keep the commandments that He has given us, when we strive to make choices that can help us to be closer to Him, even to live with Him in the Celestial Kingdom, He will provide for us.  The lesson ended up being AWESOME, the Spirit was present, she confided in us her real feelings, and when we invited her to say the prayer at the end, she did so and then began to silently weep.

Oh no, what did we do?!

The thing is, her husband works a lot.  He is hardly home.  In Preach My Gospel it says that we shouldn't fear the silence, so we waited for her to collect herself, and then she said "I'm sorry that I am so emotional, I just really miss David, and the subject of the class today just made me realize how much I love him and how much I want to be with him forever."

It was great :) Church is true :) The spirit is real :) I just love love :)

Another great thing that happened this week was with a mixed family of inactive, recent converts, and investigators.  We were teaching about the importance of the sacrament, and miraculously, the whole family was sitting silently, paying attention.  I mean, WOW.  At the end, we invited the less active 16 year old son to give the prayer, and almost immediately, his mom said "He won't say the prayer. He never does."  But we invited him again to give the prayer, saying that it doesn't have to be anything extravagant, just what he is feeling in his heart.  And you know what he did?  He folded his arms and bowed his head and he said the prayer!  And it was a great prayer! When he finished and we all brought our heads up, his mom was crying.  She said that she had let go of the idea that he would ever want anything to do with the church again, and didn't even think to ask him to pray, or read the scriptures, or come to church.  She was shocked that he even sat down to listen to the lesson.

Guys, sometimes all we have to do is invite people to do something. We can be amazed at what can happen.

And of course I have an adventure to share of new missionary training.  I remember being in a meeting with my mission President's wife the day I found out I was training, and she told us that there will be days or lessons when our greenie says something absurd, and it will be our responsibility to fix it in the lesson and then to give that good 'ol criticism afterward. She taught us how to give sandwich feedback- say something good, advise, and finish with another good thing that they did.  Honestly, I find it a success that the first time that that happened was right as she hit a month in the field. We are doing good! But alas, that moment did come. She said something absurd, the man got offended, there was some thick tension, the Spirit certainly wasn't present...and we left and I was trying to go through in my head how exactly I could help her to know that that wasn't ok.  I was so flustered and I had no idea how to put it into the right words.

But almost as soon as we left the investigator's house, she blurted out "Oh Hermana Harkins, I feel like I did everything wrong and I have completely ruined it for him!" It turned out that I didn't even need to point out her error- all I had to do was love her! Give her a sandwich, like good moms do :)  I am learning that there are just some things that greenies do. As missionaries, we all have to pass through those rough moments of messing up and feeling horrible, and it is always way better to have your trainer give you love instead of criticism.  I certainly remember those moments in my training.
 The thing that she learned in that lesson is that we, as missionaries, have the answers to almost everything.  It's rad. We can answer people's doubts with many aspects of the gospel, it's one of the ways that I just know that this church is true.  Because it has EVERYTHING. All we have to do is study it out in our minds, ask God to confirm its truthfulness, and we all can know. And in that lesson, this man had many questions, comments and doubts. The best thing to do in those situations is listen to him so that we can know HOW to teach this beautiful truth that we have. But my comp just got so excited that she could answer all of his questions that she began to do just that...answer everything. And that, my friends, can be a little overwhelming for the first lesson with the LDS missionaries.  Long story short, it didn't end out too great. And she knew it. But it was something that she needed to go through so that she could see the difference #knowledgeofgoodandevil

But it was cool, because in the end, she recognized the difference. I told her that just because we have the answers doesn't mean we share it all.  Just listen and follow the Spirit and it will all work out, I promise!  And the next day, THE VERY NEXT DAY, something similar happened and I saw the desire in her eyes to answer every single question, but she explained that the message we share cannot all be taught in one lesson, but that with time and study and prayer, we can find all the answers to our questions. It was a proud mom moment.

So that's all, folks :) Be bold, stay rad, do what you do, and let your light so shine :)

Hermana Harkins

In My Need You Have Always Been There

Today, my pension roomie and gal pal Hermana McQuinn requested Motab Christmas music, so I whipped out my cd of Motab featuring Alfie Bo (duh) and we took a silent moment and let the song Bring Him Home sink into our souls. It was a good morning.

Well here we are, pressing forward, further and further! I can't believe that we are halfway done with this change, the time is seriously flying. So cliche, I know, but I am honestly in awe of it all. Before we know it, we will be facing Christmas and then January and then February and that is just ridiculous. I don't want to think about it. So I will just share with you all the little blessings and wonderful experiences from this last week :)

This Monday evening, we had a FHE with a less active family in the ward. Only the mom of the family is active, and after Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, she asked if we could come the next night to put on a little something for her family. We of course said yes. About 20 minutes later, she came and found us again and said "can you just be sure to do something really great?" She obviously had high hopes, so we asked what it is she would like us to teach. She said "Oh I dunno, something about eternal families or something, whatever you think is best."

I think we all know what it is that she wanted ;)

The next day, she called to tell us that she had invited another inactive family that also happens to be in our sector that we are helping, and when we heard, it made us a little nervous. We planned a great lesson based on The Family: A Proclamation To The World, and these two families are very different and have very specific needs. We were a little weary about whether or not it would all work out, but we pushed forward with the same plan to teach about the proclamation and the temple and eternal families.

And you know what? That Family Home Evening rocked. It was AWESOME. Yeah, they are very different families. And they have their different needs. They have their different trials and excuses for not doing what they know they should, and even though what we shared was direct, it was done with love and with the spirit, and by the end, almost all of us were left in tears. I have such a testimony of the power of the words of the prophets- only something given by the mouth of the Lord's servants can work such wonders in the hearts of his children. I know that the whole experience comes off as very simple when I try to explain it, but just trust me when I say that the spirit was strong.

Another great experience happened with yet another family that is struggling with enduring to the end; when I first got here, we visiting them once and chose to put to them to the side for a moment because they weren't progressing and it was a tad obvious that they honestly didn't want visits from the missionaries. Last week, we felt a prompting to go visit them, and it turned out that it was just the moment when they were in spiritual need. We went in with a plan to teach one thing, but almost immediately, we both recognized that it was NOT the message that they needed. While we didn't know right away exactly what it was that they needed to listen to or feel, we just listened. Listened to what it was that they needed to say, knowing that the spirit would help us to know. And eventually it DID come. And it was a wonderful lesson.

It is wonderful that we as members of the church all have the humongous blessing of receiving the gift of the holy ghost, and that if we can tap into that communication that we have with God, that is how we can truly be instruments in the Lord's hands. I remember that being one of my biggest insecurities when I first started my mission. The idea of it all baffled me, being someone who had never felt that sensation of being "an instrument", or at least in the way that I expected it to be. Now, I really can testify that it is something marvelous to be under the complete influence of the spirit. Best job ever.

And to end, I wanted to share what I learned from our big visit this week from Elder Nelson. (Is it normal to receive so many visits from general authorities in your mission? I feel outrageously blessed!) It really was wonderful. He started out with a detailed description of the Abrahamic Covenant and the 12 tribes of Israel, and how these two things help to identify ourselves as missionaries and messengers of the Lord. I couldn't relay it to you all if I tried, but in the moment it all made sense and it was all very profound. He talked about our responsibility to help others to come to the path of the Lord or to return if they have turned astray. He just has the most adorable way about him, I am such a fan girl of our Prophet and his Apostles.

At the end, we had a pretty amazing experience. He said that he wanted to share his testimony. The whole while, he had someone translating everything for him. But he took a deep breath and began speaking in Spanish. Now, I don't know where he served his mission, I don't know if he knows how to speak Spanish...but what I do now is that his accent was perfect, he was rolling his rs, and he was talking in vuestro-vosotros, which is the Spanish biblical vocabulary. And he started his testimony by saying that he had an apostolic prophecy for us in the conference. Yeah, strong stuff. You can say it was a good meeting :)

May we all remember what we signed up for in the pre-mortal existence...Sister Nelson talked about our "earthly to do list" before her husband spoke, and it was very touching. Every thing that we go through in this life, good and bad, tough and miraculous, crushing and defining, seemingly-impossible and defining, are things that we KNEW we would go through. We all have a list of things to do. One of MY things on my to do list is to serve the Lord in Chile. And there are people that have on their list to accept the gospel from the sister missionaries in Chile. What's on your list? Chew on that. Food for thought. I'd love to hear your thoughts :)

So be bold, stay rad, do what you do, let your light so shine, and remember your to-do list!

Hermana Harkins

I learned how to appreciate sunsets on my mission

It's true though, we are getting into summertime here, which means that we are seeing more of the sunsets every night. They are spectacular. I just feel like before the mission I got so wrapped up in so many other tidbits and I didn't realize how beautiful it is when our Heavenly Father starts playing with summertime sunsets. Out of the many things that I have learned and will continue to learn on my mission, I am so thankful that it has taught me how to slow down and appreciate Gods magnificent creations.

And this week was a good one. Remember all those emails from last month where it was a lot of walking, a lot of doors knocked, a lot of contacts, and just not too much success? Well, it is all starting to catch up in these last two weeks since Hermana Damian has come. I really just know that God knows what to do to lift up his new missionaries and get them animated; some need a rough start and some need explosive success, and it makes me very thankful that my hijita can start out her mission teaching and inviting a lot. She really is a gem, I am so motherly-prideful.

One of the best experiences from this week happened with a woman we found named Ana. She was kind when we started talking to her in the street, very direct in saying that she is part of the Evangelist church, but was open to letting us come back to her home to share a message with her. Once we got there we started talking with her, trying to get to know her, but she dived right in and said "I want to hear about what you all believe in."

Alrighty, then! Lets get started!

So we shared with her about the Restoration of the Gospel, started with how God is our heavenly father and ending with Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.She was relatively silent the whole way through, simply nodding her head when we asked her questions, but she wasn't saying anything. So we get to the point where we invite her to pray to know if what we taught is true, and she said that she would. She then told us that she had heard many things about "the Mormons", and that more than anything, she invited us to come back because she wanted to know if we believe in God and in Jesus Christ. That she was thankful that she did let us come back, because for many years, she was taught that we worship Joseph Smith and that we don't believe in the Bible.

Now that is honestly not the first time that I have heard that from someone. But the amazing thing with Ana is that she took the time to let us come and teach with the spirit, clarify the shady areas, and she had a strong desire to let us come back, to accept a copy of the Book of Mormon, and to really do her part to know if this is the truth. Perhaps she was silent. Perhaps she was stoic. But she has DESIRE. And that is what we are looking for.

Fun fact, an 11 year old jovencito that we are teaching has a coin collection, and he gave me a nickel and a Chilean coin from 1895. That was on Halloween, we taught him the 10 commandments, and when we invited him to keep the commandments, he said "Well, it IS Halloween. I think my only problem will be the "thou shalt not kill."" What a gem, right? For Halloween, we switched name tags. We have our fun :)

Another great thing that happened this week was with a recently baptized 9 year chiquilla. She loves having us missionaries over to share messages with her, and she has some crazy big desires to go to church, but she never reads her Book of Mormon. And her mom tells her that she cant go to church unless she does her reading. We started really hunkering down on that, because we want to get that little girl coming to church again, and when we went to her house this week, she ran out to the gate to let us in screaming "I read, hermanas! I read!"

Oh my goodness, best thing ever to see a little girl so excited to tell us that she DID it. She DID her part, what she knew she was supposed to do! To make her mom happy, to make the missionaries happy, to make HERSELF happy so that she could go to church, but more than any of that, to make her Heavenly Father happy. We made her a little card and gave her a candy bar to reward her, she was the happiest individual alive in the chapel this Sunday, wearing her new skirt and new shoes and grinning from ear to ear...I have the best job.

As for training, it is going pretty well. I definitely love my comp, she is a doll. But there are some interesting things that go down when you train. I really know that God is with us every step of the way, and that He gives us experiences and challenges to shape us into who He needs us to be, because we have had some weird stuff go down since she has arrived. We have had people yell at us, conversations with a few drunk people, we had someone confess to us...all sorts of crazy shenanigans, some of which I had never had happen to me until this point in my mission. It's certainly an adventure, we are having our fun figuring it all out together :)

And of course I recognize that it is mom training. I realized something this week- I realized that I cannot make her the type of missionary that I think she should be, or what I think a missionary should be like. I don't know, I think I went into this thinking that I had to help her become a missionary. But it's not like that, she already IS a missionary. She has already been set apart. And she already has her course set by her Heavenly Father to become a wonderful messenger of His truth. I am only here to guide her and to teach how to teach, how to gain people's confidence, I am only here to help her know the rules, teach her the rails, set her on the missionary path. Never before have I felt so much like an instrument. Not in the way, like "wow, I am an instrument in the Lords hands, how rad am I." No. Not even close.

It has humbled me to the dust! I am ONLY an instrument. That in and of itself is a big responsibility, but I am simply an instrument to guide her to know what it is that she must do to be an effective missionary. In that first week, I was so nervous about the training program, about the little things she did that she didn't even know were against the rules (yeah! 6:30, time to wake up!), I fretted over every little thing, like I'm sure every trainer- or mom- does when they first get their kidlette. But I came to the realization this week that I am only an instrument. Only here to help, only here to love. Everything else will fall into place.

Well y'all, I hope you have a marvelous week. Be bold, stay rad, DO WHAT YOU DOOOOO and let your light so shine!

Hermana Harkins

Me and my hijita :)

For Mitchell- better believe I've got an investigator in Toronto ;)