"Know what I need right now?" "Chocolate?" "Exactly."

My comp and I are so unified :)

So I feel like I have started out so many emails as "Let's just be honest..." But honesty is the best policy, right? Jesus says so ;) but for real, let's just be honest, this week was a toughie! Doing sector clean up and lots of unanswered doors and appointments that fell through, and my comp getting a stomach virus in the middle of it all...one of those endure-to-the-end weeks.

Now don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean that I don't have any little gems to share with you all, don't go fretting :) Thursday through Saturday we were confined to the pension with my companion's illness, but you better believe that Monday through Wednesday we worked our butts off, and then finished it off with a bang on Sunday! #bestjobever!

The first one that I want to share happened with an inactive sister named Victoria. As you may have gathered, we have been working in a basically white washed area and doing a LOT of contacting and door knocking and searching in the area book for references and that is why we are so pooped. The idea in all of this contacting is to find new people to teach, new investigators that we can help come to be baptized. But it's just interesting because, in these last two weeks, we have found 5 inactive members, just knocking doors. Members that never accepted the missionaries before, but now are choosing to open their hearts once again to accept the gospel. It's just ironic...we haven't found any new investigators, but TONS of inactive members. You can't tell me that that's not meant to be.

Anyway, I wanted to share about Victoria. She is a middle aged single woman, and once she invited us to come into her house, she called her two sons downstairs so that they listen as well. We were expecting two little kiddletts, but here come two teenage boys, 14 and 19. *ting future missionaries*! We start talking with and getting to know them, and we found out that they were pretty active after their baptism, but that when they moved to this area, they became less active, not going every week because they didn't know anyone, and then they went completely inactive. That was 10 years ago. It was time for a refresher. So we shared the message of The Restoration. Once we got to the end, both her sons were saying "we want to go to church! Lets go to church!" I love when we can recognize when people feel the spirit, because it makes them want to do something more to continue feeling it! SO AWESOME!

The second gem that I wanted to share happened with Rosa, yet another inactive sister that we found knocking doors, in our search for investigators. She was baptized a very long time ago, and openly admits to being baptized only because the elders that baptized her were cool and friendly. That's the thing, if we get baptized for the people, we aren't going to stay long. People change, but the Gospel is constant and true, always. She was even a little sassy, asking lots of questions that people ask to try and confuse us, lots of craftily worded phrases with the intention of befuddlement. About the priesthood, about prophets, about Joseph Smith...ya know. The works.

After about 10 minutes of questions of being interrupted every time we tried to answer, she took a breath and said "I just don't understand it all." We just smiled and I said "If you give us 20 minutes, we can answer all of your questions." She looked sceptical, and let us say a prayer and we taught her about the Restoration. She had a pretty hard-set face...up until we started talking about Jesus Christ, and how he established his church. That was when she lit up, started smiling, nodding her head in agreement. She even shared her testimony with us of Christ's love for us.

And it was just beautiful, because through that connection that she let us make, we were able to testify boldly of how Joseph Smith restored that same church, he received that same priesthood power, and that is how we know that the church is true and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Because it has been restored in its original power and glory, and there are millions of people who have read the Book of Mormon, pondered and prayed about its message, and testify that this is TRUE. This is REAL. We were able to clarify the answers to all of her questions, AND she felt the spirit testify to her heart that this really is the truth. It was a beautiful lesson.

So, let me just be frank. This week was tough. Those two experiences were amazing and spiritual and I treasure them, but this week was hard. Lots of hard effort given with not very many results, lots of contacts in the streets, many doors knocked, tiring hours...with not too much to show for it.

Thursdays, we do weekly planning, which involves companionship inventory. My comp told me that the only thing that I need to improve is that I can't be too hard on myself. That it is great that we both have so much desire to work long and hard and find those people that are ready and waiting for this change in their life, but that she can tell that I am putting a lot of blame for the lack of success on my own shoulders. She told me to just take it easy, and that it will all come in God's time.

I love that :) God's time :) That's the best time, right?

But by the end of the week, once my comp was able to get over her virus and we could finally leave again, we worked SO hard. And we felt SO great, coming back to the pension with aching feet and dusty shoes and our hearts were just joyful, to have been able to go out and do our missionary thing! I LOVE THIS GOSPEL! AND I KNOW THAT IT IS JUST SO TRUE!

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

Hermana Harkins

Feliz 18 de Septiembre! (in 2 ways, you know who you are ;))

Lemme tell you, Chilean Independence Day parties are way different in the field than they are in the CCM. Last year, I was just a confused little gringita in Santiago Centro, gaping at the culture shock, let's just say, it was a FUN week. We had a ward party, a special lunch (BBQ YES YES SO MUCH YES), cualquier empanada, everyone was playing traditional music really loud, lots of traditional dancing, it was just delightful. Estoy enamorada con Chile, nunca quiero salir de aqui!

As for the work week, let's just be honest, we still have our work cut out for us. We did a lot of prayer about who it is that is really progressing and who it is that we should really use our precious time for, and in addition to that , it was Independence Day. Not very many people were home, and if they were, they were...ya know...eating, drinking and being merry. In the end, we finished up every day literally limping, but we endured to the end of each day, not coming in any earlier than 9:00 (hashtagobedient), we had a handful of lessons and more street contacts than I have ever had in my whole mission. But we felt good by the time we made it to the end of the day, and then the end of the week, because we knew that we literally gave every single possible effort, no wasting any time, not giving up...I know that that is such a missionary thing to say. But it says in PMG that a successful missionary is one who works and gives the effort, not one who baptizes every Saturday and Sunday. We are EXHAUSTED, but we are happy :)

One good experience we had actually happened in choosing to stop visiting one of our investigators. It was kind of tough, because we don't have very many, but the spirit was so strong and so evident that we could not deny it. It happened with Jorge, I think I mentioned him in the last email. We had an amazing experience receiving revelation for him, shared Alma 34:32 which is just REALLY direct, and when we got around to sharing it, testifying, Hna. Salazar and I were just exploding with the spirit! IT WAS SO STRONG! We were crazy with our testimonies! But when we asked him how he felt, what he could understand from what we shared, he said "I don't know, I'm just thinking about other things." And then he went off on a rant about science. We have literally taught something about The Plan of Salvation in every lesson because he always has some doubt about it.

But it was just interesting because, as we listened to his rant and his questions, we both had the answers coming to our minds, where they are in the BoM or ways that we could explain it simply, but neither of us felt prompted to say anything. I didn't understand why, and at that point I still didn't have the whole story, but we ended the lesson, and as we walked away, I just thought to myself that maybe it's a bad use of our time. Then Hna Salazar said to me "I feel so strongly that we have to stop teaching him." We both shared our feelings of being prompted not to respond to his questions, knowing that it has all been explained to him numerous times, he will read any phylosefy (OH MY GOSH I CANNOT SPELL IN ENGLISH) book but not the BoM, and we just shared one of the most direct, face slapping verses in the BoM, and he didn't feel anything, while we just basked in the direct light of the spirit.

So we stopped visiting him.

But we both learned the importance of following the promptings of the spirit, even if it's hard.
Although, just because that happened doesn't mean that it wasn't a wonderful week. In our weekly zone meeting, our zone leaders asked us 20 or so missionaries to hand over our agendas that we use for planning and proselyting so that they could do surprise inspections, to make sure that we are using them and using them directly. At the end of the meeting when we got announcements and such, the zone leaders wrote on the white board "the good the bad and the ugly" of the agenda inspections, and Hna. Salazar and I got special recognition for having the most organized, legible, easiest to follow agendas in the whole zone. hashtaglawofconsecration pays off being an organization freak sometimes!

Saturday was our toughest day- we left at 10:30 and contacted till the end of the day, stopping only for lunch in a member's house. All the appointments fell through, no one was home, we got yelled at a few times and 3 people we contacted only wanted to debate. Even as a missionary with almost 13 (BLASTED) months in the mission with an equally experienced comp with 9 months, its tough navigating the debaters. By the end of the day, we were tired and a little defeated. Not enough to be bummed out, but just a touch deflated. And then, FINALLY, we entered a house and were able to teach. It was a less active family, and we taught the Restoration, which is literally the most taught lesson by every missionary on the face of the planet, but we were just so STOKED to finally be able to teach that we taught with our whole soul. We were laughing and getting along, serious at all the right parts, and they came to church the next day after a month of not coming. That's just got to amount to something.

I know this church is true. I love being here, in spite of how difficult it is, in spite of the exhaustion from this last week, in spite of all the little difficulties that I could focus on, I adore Chile and I adore being a missionary. There is absolutely nothing else that I would rather be doing. Sorry if this is short, I did the best I could haha so just be bold and stay rad and do what you do and let your light so SHINE!

Hermana Harkins

This is the change of all changes

That's what my comp and I keep saying, its actually really invigorating, we basically grunt it out once we finish our prayer to go out for the day :) I am loving where I am, who I'm with, and all that we are doing. And, I know that I've said this about almost all of my companions, but she really is like a best friend. But the difference is we can actually talk about things and then say "no worries, post mish I will take you there" or "once you get home we will go do that". LOVE having a gringa from Utah as my comp. We will basically be life time buds, no worries :) hakunamatata :)

So I figured out pretty quickly that my area is a little dry. Literally and figuratively. For real, it's started to get hot again, hallelujah, but there are also very few people that we have to visit, and I guess that you could say that we have our work cut out for us. But that's why we grunt CHANGE OF CHANGES multiple times a day. Because this is going to be the change where we change this sector. We will revive it. We are going to FIND the people that are READY. And we both have cualquier animo to do it, it's really awesome.

So a little more about my area; it's classified as country, and while there are some pretty humble and rural parts, we have some richies as well haha we have mansions and cardboard shacks, all in one sector. I have heard my whole mission that you get served a mountain of food from everyone when you're in the country, but I have found it to be the opposite; we got fed more in the city. But the people are more receptive and more loving, so it all gets evened out. And everyone is just a step higher on the humble scale, which makes them a step more accepting for a message about Jesus Christ.

I LOVE THAT.

We live in a pension with four hermanas which I LOVE and have MISSED. We are with Hna, Puchi from Chile and Hna. McQuin from Utah (she went to Alta but we have graduated so we can be buds), and McQuin is a greenie in her second cambio, so she's just the most adorable thing in the world. We have fun. We all go running together every morning. Then we have little smoothie making parties every night, it's the funnest thing on the face of the planet. My comp and I found out quickly that we have the same taste in music, but to stay obedient and not sing indie rock all day, we are doing covers of all the hymns in our jazzy indie singing voices and it is the best ever. I'm loving Peñaflor.

And even though there aren't quite as many people in our redil, we had some amazing experiences this week that I am STOKED to share.

The first was with a a little investigator family, Francisca and Luis and their little toddler, Juan. We taught them yesterday about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and they were really receptive and great. Apparently Hna. Salazar and Hna Velazquez (still weird that my trainer was just here...) had taught them the same thing about two months ago but then were never able to find them at home again, so it died a little bit. We felt it was best to simply teach it again, and they even said that it made more sense this time. Then Luis says "we will have to tell Carmen that the missionaries are coming again." SO naturally we ask them who Carmen is. And he tells us that he works with a member of the church who suggested that he let the missionaries teach his family (translation- she was fulfilling her baptismal covenants and gave the missionaries a reference. hint hint.) and that this member lives in El Abrazo.

Radar up :) That's my old sector :)

I ask a few more questions, I find out that it was a reference that I had written down in my old agenda from two changes ago when Hermana Carmen Muñoz who lives in my old sector told us that she has a co worker ready for the gospel. And then I ended up teaching him yesterday.

That cannot be anything short of a miracle.

The second experience happened on Saturday. It was a little difficult that day because we had the stake adult session of conference (is that a world wide thing that the missionaries can now go to all of stake conference? It was awesome!), it was in the middle of the afternoon and far away, and when we left the chapel, it was cold and raining.

Well, pucha. (dang it.) We got back to our sector at 7:30, we have an hour and a half to work, our appointments fell through, and we found ourselves knocking doors in rainboots and umbrellas and being sprayed every now and then by a passing car. Potentially miserable, but this is the change of changes, so there was NO WAY that we were getting bummed out! And at about 9:45, we remembered a contact that we made with a seemingly less active member that had recently moved to the neighborhood that lived pretty close to our pension, so we decided to take a chance. Guys, I just KNOW that when we endure to the end, God blesses us!

Because we got to their house and their whole family was there, mom dad and three kids, 8, 5, and 3. They cordially invited us in, reprimanded us for walking in the rain when we should be cozy at home (but we are missionaries!), gave us hot chocolate, and upon getting to know them, we found out that they are not members at all. That his mom has been a member for years and would take the grandbabies to church and they LOVE it, that he has read the Book of Mormon, all the way through, TWICE, and that he just never got baptized because there didn't seem to be time.

Um, hello, talk about RIDICULOUSLY PREPARED FAMILY!

And the last experience that I want to share happened with an investigator named Jorge. He has a baptismal date, which is a big deal, and we are just working really hard with him. We had an amazing experience as a companionship during our study time where we basically received revelation for him as we shared the basic things we learned in our personal study, and we both felt strongly to change what we had previously planned for it and just go completely with what the spirit was telling us. It was AWESOME. Hna. S said that it was the best comp study she has had her whole mission. And the lesson with him was so powerful, all about faith and how baptism is required for our salvation, we had him committed to come with us to stake conference and everything.


And then he called Saturday evening and said that he wouldn't be able to make it because he was going to be out late on a date with some girl that showed up last minute. Hna S hung up the phone and was SO frustrated. I mean, I was frustrated too, but not like she was. Maybe it's because that has happened more to me in my one year than to her in her 8 months, maybe its because she has been working with him longer than I have, the reason doesn't really matter. But she was practically on the verge of tears.

But I assured her that that just means that she has Christ-like love for him and that we can turn the frustration into patience and charity and keep helping him. 2 Nephi 33:3, Nephi cried for his investigators, as well. It just means that we feel God's love for the people we are teaching, and that makes us successful missionaries. We feel driven to do everything in our power to help them enter in the gate, and that makes us successful. Not baptisms, not numbers. The amount of love and effort we feel makes us successful.

Guys, I just know that this church is TRUE. I will admit, I am exhausted. But I am exhausted from contacting, door knocking, lesson teaching, spirit following, belly laughing, and tearful loving. This is the mission. This is the change of changes. So just be bold and stay rad and do what you do, be a light that cannot be hid. (WHOA who just added to her slogan!)

Love y'all :)

Hermana Harkins

Countryside of Peñaflor

Smoothies in our pension for dayssssss

New companion, Hermana Salazar from Saratoga Springs, Utah

This is a short one

So...I have something to admit. This week was absolutely crazy, I had changes, I am in a new sector with a new companion, and I have a little book where I write down everything I want to include in my email for the week and I totally spaced writing in it. I also really wanted to take the chance to write good, chunky emails for the fam bam. Sorry y'all, but this week the email is short.

But for details, I am in the Peñaflor zone in the El Manzano ward. Its classified as a "campo" zone. For a whole year I was in the city, my beloved Santiago Maipu. Now I am going to get to know the country. Remember Hermana Velazquez, my beloved Argentinian that finished my training? She was here right before I got here. She squealed out loud when it was announced in the changes meeting that I would be reporting to her old sector.

My companion is Hermana Salazar; 20 years old, born in California but lives in Saratoga Springs, but her whole family is Mexican, so she looks Latina, speaks perfect English, totally hipster (we clicked instantly. obviously.) She has 9 months on her mission, and she is a total doll. I am excited to get started.

It was hard leaving El Abrazo; something that Hermana Barreros said in a meeting a few weeks ago that we have to think of the wards where we serve as OUR wards; our ward is not our ward back home. The ward where we are serving is literally OUR ward. We are listed in the member registry as members. We have to think of it as our ward. And El Abrazo really became MY ward. I was excited to see everyone come to church because I really love them, and it made me happy to see them come and partake of the sacrament. And I was sad when people DIDN'T come, because I really love them, and it makes me sad when they DON'T come to partake of the sacrament.

But I know that changes are good :) And I am excited to get started here in Peñaflor :) I know that this church is true and I am absolutely elated to be here serving my Heavenly Father. Be bold, stay rad, and do what you do :)

Hermana Harkins

p.s. sorry it's short!

Happy 27th anniversary mom and dad

My new companion, Hermana Salazar

I mean, come on, we are preaching the gospel! How could I not just be happy ALL THE TIME?!

Ok wow, awesome week, can I just say for the millionth time that I have the best job on the face of the planet?

So we will start out with the details of a MIRACLE that we stumbled across this week! Her name is Dana. And she is a gem. Allow me to elaborate.

This last weekend, a house caught on fire in our sector. The next day, we decided to contact the houses in that area, knowing that someone MUST be pondering the meaning of life after something so sudden and dismal.

And we found her. Her name is Dana. And she is a gem.

Upon sitting in her house and talking and getting to know her, she told us that her neighbor's house fire had really startled her, and that she found herself meditating over how short life is, how quickly it can end, and that maybe, there is something more that she needs to do to. Something more that God has planned for her. I'M NOT EVEN KIDDING. And then she started talking about how she had been praying that our Heavenly Father could help her to know what more she needs to do to do His will.

And who do you think knocked on her door in that PRECISE moment?

I'm. Not. Even. KIDDING.

She's a gem. She was excited about the Book of Mormon, had lots of questions about President Monson, believes that Joesph Smith truly did what he did, and NEARLY came to church on Sunday. One of those investigators that is just ridiculously prepared and ridiculously golden :)

Another great "proud mother" moment that we had this week was with Evelyn and Marcelo. They are a wonderful pair, married and very loving towards their children, surprisingly mature in this aspect despite the fact that they are a pretty young couple. But the thing is, they both said from the very beginning "I don't read." And that makes it a little complicated when the key to knowing if this church is true comes from reading a book. But we challenged them to read it anyway, assigning here a little and there a little. And at first, they never read.

And then, this last Friday, Evelyn was very excited to inform us that she had read up to Joseph Smiths testimony. She was giving us an overview of Angel Moroni, where the plates were, how many times he visited Joseph, the whole spiel. We were pleasantly surprised, and Marcelo kept giving her a hard time, but we smashed his teasing with "Well she read! Now you have to catch up to her!" They called the next day to inform us that they read together up to 1st Nephi. Ugh I just love that.

Also, a great learning moment. We had lunch yesterday with an active member, and she had quite a crowd at her house; us, her brother who is one of our recent converts, three of our investigators that are living at her house, and a friend visiting from out of town. All adding up to a delightfully vast teaching pool and wonderful opportunity to share what we believe. And everyone seemed to enjoy our message, except her friend from out of town, Maria.

She put her guard up as soon as we explained about the Book of Mormon. She kept her lips pursed as we shared a scripture, and when we finished, she said "But aren't you going to share something from the Bible too?" And her eyes were saying "if you even HAVE or BELIEVE in the Bible." It was like a challenge. And for the first time, I was very thankful that my companion always has ALL of her scriptures with her. Yes. That includes the humongous Bible. We shared a scripture from the Bible, and she actually smiled. Said that we must be representatives of God, and said amen at the end.
And then we invited her to say the closing prayer. She smirked a bit and said "Fine, but I'll do it MY way." And sure, it was a different kind of prayer than I have ever heard (and in this year, I have heard a good assortment of prayers), but it was a prayer right from her heart. She respected what we had to share once we found common ground, so of course we are going to respect her and accept what it is that she will give us.

Also, something along those same lines, was when we were knocking doors and we came across a little Jehovah's Witness grandma. She got a huge smile on her face when she saw us and proceeded to tell us that she had just returned from preaching the word, told us to wait so that she could give us pamphlets, and told us where their chapel is and what time their Sunday services start. My companion was rolling her eyes a bit, but look; we knocked HER door to share what we believe with her. She tried to do exactly the same thing that we were doing, and a little patience and listening goes a long way. So we listened to her spiel. You better believe we gave her a pamphlet about the Restoration, but we smiled and listened. Honestly, I have learned that we should do that. We should respect others that are trying to teach what they believe, as we hope that people will listen to what we have to offer. It's good to respect and listen.

Funny moment this week; we were helping a less active sister in our ward make alfahores, they're cookies with usually dulce de leche in the middle and drenched in chocolate. But we invented one that we call The Gringo, because it's a cookie, peanut butter, cookie, jelly, cookie, and all drenched in chocolate. And it's called The Gringo because its like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which they just don't DO here. I posed the idea, and the sister named it. And it was delicious.

And, to end, another sister in my zone told me this week "Hermana Harkins and smiling just go together. Hermana Harkins and sadness just doesn't work." I just love that :) I mean, come on, we are preaching the gospel! How could I not just be happy ALL THE TIME?! Alright folks, I'm off. Be bold, Stay Rad, and do what you do!

Hermana Harkins

Marcy- there is a brother in my ward that knows how to play the Ocorena

True story. #zeldajokes

So to start out this email, I wanted to share a funny experience that we had this week. In companion study, we do all sorts of fun things, like planning for the lessons we will teach, Preach My Gospel Activities, and reading the Book of Mormon in English to help my comp learn the language. I have fallen in love with a little game we play called "Preguntas del Alma" (questions of the soul), where we come up with questions or doubts that our investigators have, or commonly asked questions, and we answer it with a verse in the Book of Mormon. It is so fun.

But the funny story happened Tuesday morning as we read the Book of Mormon in English. We are in the part about Nephi's vision explaining Lehi's vision, and I kid you not, I COULD NOT EVEN REMEMBER HOW TO PRONOUNCE WORDS IN ENGLISH. At one point, Hermana Davila just said "Yeah, we can just read in Spanish if you want."

Que vergüenza.

You could say things are going well with the language :)

This week, I had many testimony builders of the power of hymns to invite the spirit. I have always known that, it's not a new testimony. And anyone that knows me knows that I am passionate about all types of music. But it all started with listening to Motab as a little girl whenever we ran errands with my mom. It's odd sometimes for me to hear the hymn sung normally and not how Motab does it. My crazy huge love for music started with the hymns, and it continues to grow.

One of those testimony building experiences happened with Hermana Dominga; a little grandma here in the ward that has been a member for forever, she is totally adorable, gives us lunch every Thursday (and its always tan rico), she is a gem. And Hermanita Dominga had a bad fall, is confined to her bed, and called asking if we could come to help her feel better.

Well, we honestly didn't know what we could do, so we just went with confidence that the spirit would guide us to know what to do. We chatted for a moment or so, shared a scripture about the Atonement (Alma 7:11-13), and then I felt that little nudge to whip out my little green hymnbook and sing a hymn together. Upon asking her favorite hymn, she said that she wanted to sing The Lord is My Shepherd.

I know, I know that missionaries always use cliche phrases in an attempt to describe the spirit, but it really is something that is indescribable. Something so celestial that we, as mere human beings, truly cannot describe it. The only way I can think to tell you all how it felt is to say that I could truly feel, at least a small portion, of the love that our Heavenly Father has for her. As we sang that hymn, as she silently cried and then bore testimony to us of the Atonement, it was just palpable. The spirit is so beautiful. And I always feel it strongest when we start singing those sacred, beautiful hymns.

Another experience that I had this week with the hymns happened at a zone baptismal service, called Noche de Blanca. We invited as many as we could to be baptized for one specific date, and we ended up with 8 people being baptized this last Saturday night. Oh, it was incredible! So many people in white. I just love that. And of course, as a zone, we did a little special musical number, singing Nearer My God to Thee (mas cerca Dios de Ti).

People...I sang a solo.

That has never happened before.

It was always singing the soprano part in a quartet of some sort, but never just me, alone, singing, without a microphone or anything.

OOOH IT WAS TERRIFYING! AND I DIDN'T WANT TO DO IT! AND I WAS SO SCARED! (and my mission president was there)!!!!

But I did it :) and my voice didn't even tremble :)

Now, the best part of it all, was that Saturday morning as we contacted in the street, Hermana Davila asked me "how many musical numbers I have done so far in my mission", since I am always singing in the pension and in the streets and she knows that it is something that I love doing. She was almost MAD to hear that I had never sung alone in front of a crowd before. She asked me if I would do it if someone asked me to or if I was assigned to do it, and I said yes, but only because I do what I am asked to as a member of the church.

So when we started putting together the musical number, an hour before the baptism, and the elder directing asked who would be comfortable (look, look at the wording! COMFORTABLE!) singing a solo, guess who volunteered me?

That little Nicaraguan rascal.

But I did it. Totally overcame THAT huge fear. Look at the things that I am learning in my mission ;)
And on the teaching front, things are going great. If you all could pray for our investigator Erika, her baptismal date is set for this coming Sunday, and she really is ready, but she is still feeling waves of self doubt. Satan is such a jerk, but if we could all just come together with prayer power, I think that we could just see a miracle.

We had a great experience with a less active sister this week named Lucy. It's a little difficult to get to her heart, or even to get her to just sit and let us teach a little something, so we had to think of other ways to gain her trust, and thus, give her a desire to listen to our message. So we offered to help her with her sweets business; she taught us how to make Alfahores and cuchufli, two classic Chilean numbers, and then we shared a short message with her.

And it was SO WORTH IT! As missionaries, we get so focused sometimes on teaching that we lose the big picture of HELPING others, and sometimes, there is a little something more that we can do, in addition to teaching the gospel, to help others. And after helping her, she truly wanted to listen. And we ended up hearing her testimony of the Book of Mormon, which is very strong and very outdated and in need of refreshment. And, in that moment when we could recognize her need and we KNEW  what it was that we could do to help, she had sufficient confidence in us to listen to OUR testimonies and accept the invitation to read the Book of Mormon cover to cover.

This work is the BEST EVER!

So be bold, stay rad, do what you do, and let your light so shine and put it on a hill for the world to see and bask in because YOUR LIGHT IS BEAUTIFUL AND YOUR LIGHT IS YOUR TESTIMONY!

Hermana Harkins

El sol esta lleno de esperanza

Well this week rocked :)

For starters, I'm sure you are all wondering how things are going with my companion. I have two words for you.

Belly laugh.

Every day.

(ok, four words, no se preocupe) It is one of the best things in the world to work in the mission field. And its the cherry on top when you are doing it with someone so delightful. Also, its getting hot again! Blue skies are smiling at me :) thus the title of this email. El sol esta lleno de esperanza- the sun is full of hope. I said that to my lil Hermana Davila yesterday as we left the chapel and walked out into the sun, and it was so impacting that we made little quote cards out of it. We are rad.

This week was full of strengthening experiences and funny moments and some straight up testimony builders. I'll start with the fun experience I had this week of being in divisions.

with...drumroll...Hermana Mittlesteadt!

My cute CCM comp! She is an hermana leader trainer now, which is basically an assistant to the president, but a sister missionary and not an elder. She happened to be assigned as my leader, and this week we went on divisions. And lemme tell you, it was CRAZY AWESOME to go out and teach in my sector and just look back at how far we have come. From crying together at night after a hard day of attempting to teach in Spanish to contacting together in the street and telling each other jokes in Spanish. It was what I call a face slapping moment, as we sat at the end of the day in my pension, swapping stories of mission experiences. Like, "wow. Look how far we have come." It was great :)
Also this week, as we left our weekly district meeting, we came across a box addressed to my comp and I, which was odd because we only get mail every other week now, and it was the no pouch week. But when we opened it, we found a CRAZY amount of mail for the both of us. Which can only mean one thing- my pal Elder Bertagna put all our things together and set them where he knew we would find them so that we could have surprise mail happiness. What a gem, right? Got a package from the cutie Katie Miller, chocolates from old companions, and letters from Marcy, Staycia (serving her mission in Costa Rica), and Steve (:D). Thank you, all, for your love. There is nothing like surprise mail to make a missionary giddy.

As for the teaching, we had some great experiences this week. The first was with a little family we are teaching, Norma and Francisco. We taught about the Restoration, which I am totally digging right now, don't ask why, but I am just smitten with explaining how the priesthood was restored. I truly do not know why, but Ill go with it :) as we explained about prophets, Francisco said "But I have a question...what about the papa? It seems just the same as your prophet."

(yeah, don't judge, I don't know if they call the Catholic papa "papa" in English...I hope y'all can follow my Spanglish...) And I don't know why, but I got all nervous and stuff! People can get a little touchy when you get the point of needing to explain that the person they believe is leading them isn't "the chosen".

But I can totally testify of the guidance of the holy ghost, and we were able to, together, testify that the Catholic papa is "a good man of God" (sigh, it sounds better in Spanish. Un buen hombre de Dios), but that we truly know that God is the same yesterday, today and forever, and that he called prophets before, and in restoring His gospel, he will call prophets again. I know that, when we get the point of explaining the big differences in our religions, if we do so with love and with the spirit, we will not offend and we can help others know that what we teach really is the truth.

But, to balance it all out, we had another moment with a new investigator where he was absolutely floored to hear that there is a real life prophet! Alive! RIGHT NOW! His name is Jose, and we found him knocking doors. It was one of those contacts where we walked away feeling like it was too good to be true, because the conversation went something like  this:

Hello, we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Oh yeah, I've heard of you guys.
That's great! What have you heard?
Not a lot, but Id like to know more. Can you tell me about your church?
Maybe we could share a short message with you and your family?
We have visits right now, but you can come back tomorrow at 4:00 if you want.
...
Anyone who has served a mission knows that that is just a golden contact :) I love that! And when we came back the next day, he was there and expecting our visit and his family is totally adorable and they sat in on the lesson and when we got to the point of explaining that we have a prophet that guides us, he stopped us and was like "Wait, there's a prophet? Living? Are you for real?"

YES! YES! ITS FOR REAL!

Sometimes, I feel crazy blessed for being born in the gospel- what am I saying, I ALWAYS feel crazy blessed for being born in the gospel!- and just knowing my whole life that we have a prophet to lead and guide us, and that we can always trust him because we know that he is receiving revelation from God. But being here and teaching others about the gospel, and seeing the shock and joy that many feel upon hearing that YES, we have a prophet to lead and guide us, has strengthened my gratitude in this truth that I have always had at my finger tips, and the love that I feel, for and from, our beloved prophet.

(side note. Y'all should search for the picture of President Hinckley "dubbing" Elder Eyring with his cane, and the picture of President Monson high fiving a little boy. I am such a fan girl for prophets

:D)

Another great experience was Nancy and Roberto, inactive members that we have been helping for some time now. After the first visit with them with Hermana Davila, she said that she felt impressed to teach about Enduring to the End. I was impressed...at this point, it feels like we have taught every possible lesson from every possible angle, with a good amount of "Elder Holland Directness" as we call it, and after the first visit, she felt impressed to share, what seemed to be, the only topic that we hadn't taught them.

And we truly can testify of the power of following the promptings of that handy, dandy, still small voice, because we taught enduring to the end as we never have before, talking about the Atonement and repentance and the pure love of our Heavenly Father, and we were all left with tears in our eyes and they were saying"we have to go to church. We've just gotta go back to church."

Guess who came to church this Sunday :) I love that :)

Also this week, with our investigator Erika, we taught the importance of serving others, how it is part of our baptismal covenants to be examples of Christ, and part of that is serving others. But it was funny, we got to her house and saw the day old remnants of a birthday party strewn all around her patio. We immediately offered to help her clean it up before teaching, but she rejected the offer. Meh, its ok, I knew that after the lesson, we could offer again and she wouldn't be able to say no ;)

So we taught the lesson, wrapped it up with our testimonies about the importance of service, closed in the name of Jesus Christ,and then I said: "And NOW can we help you clean your patio?"

We LUAGHED :) And then we cleaned the patio.

And one last little story to finish off this week's letter! There is another inactive member that we are helping right now that has started coming to church after years of not coming, but she would only come if we stopped by her house to walk together. Yesterday morning, we had a meeting in the church and couldn't stop by to walk with her, and when I called, there was no answer. And we were a little bummed out, because we thought that she wouldn't come. But, as we finished up the opening prayer, here she comes, walking through the door!

When we went over to talk to her after Sacrament meeting, she told us that our call woke her up, and that, while she didn't answer, she knew who it was, and she knew that she had to get up and come to church.

I love that :)

Be bold, y'all. Stay rad. Do what you do.

Hermana Harkins