Week 78: Samantha is the Best Member Missionary Ever!

Hello!
So I thought that I wouldn't have a whole lot to write in this email,
since it's only been a couple days, since my last email, but lots of
exciting stuff happened this weekend!

Okay this first story needs a little background. At the beginning of
Sis. Harward's mission there was a new elder she served with. He
really wanted something exciting to happen so he prayed for it. Then
one day he burnt rice and the fire trucks had to come and their whole
apartment building had to be evacuated. So don't pray for adventures
or exciting experiences because something crazy always happens! Then
last week Sis. Harward got an email from the elder that trained this
elder and he asked her if she'd had any crazy adventures lately. She
said no and that she was afraid to pray for them because the fire
trucks might show up. Neither of us prayed for an exciting experience
but we still got one with an ambulance! We had just tried to see a
less active member and were walking back to the car, when we saw this
guy in a parking lot. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, blood
started dripping out of his mouth, he fell to the ground and started
seizing! We called 911 and an ambulance came and picked him up. He was
somewhat conscious when the ambulance came and hopefully he's doing
better now. Oh my goodness it was so intense and freaky! But I'm very
grateful that we were there at time time to help this man because
there wasn't anyone else around. Hand of the Lord!

On Saturday we found out that a less active sister, Sis. Blakeney, was
in the hospital, so we decided to go visit her. Usually when we see
Sis. Blakeney we sing for her and she really loves it. She said that a
couple days ago the doctors did some sort of test or procedure and she
was a little nervous about it. She prayed for strength and comfort and
the thought that came to her was of us singing. She said it helped her
to feel peaceful and comforted. It was my heart so much to hear her
say that!

Saturday night the elders had a baptism. We went and it was great!
Samantha came and brought her friend Jacqui (Jacqui also came to
Samantha's baptism). After the baptism we went back to Samantha's
apartment for dinner. Samantha has only been a member for 2 weeks and
she's already such a great member missionary! She's been talking to
Jacqui about the church and she invited her to church and institute!
We taught Jacqui the restoration and it was such an awesome lesson!
And it was so great to have Samantha there to bear her testimony! We
invited Jacqui to be baptized and she got so excited and said yes! And
she got really excited when we gave her the Book of Mormon! I so wish
I could extend my mission to keep teaching Jacqui!

We went to the Joseph Smith Memorial today with Samantha and Jacqui.
It was awesome! I love that place! There is such an amazing spirit
there! Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin said this about the JSM, "Next to
Bethlehem where the Savior was born, this site, the Birthplace of
Joseph Smith, is one of the most sacred spots on the face of the
earth, and if we are worthy, we would see the angels that hover over
the trees protecting this spot and those who are here."

I love you all and have a great week!
Love, Sister Harper

Week 77: Thursday P-Day!

Hello!

Wow it's super weird having pday on a Thursday this week! We've had meetings everyday so far this week, so today was our first available day for pday. 

Things have been good out here the past couple weeks! Samantha is doing awesome! She has home and visiting teachers, a calling and her temple recommend! She's going on the youth temple trip on February 6! We started doing family history with her last night and she's going to take her grandma's name! And Samantha's already such a great member missionary! We're having dinner with her on Saturday and she invited one of her friends to come over too!

Last Thursday we had exchanges with the Lyndon sisters, and I was with Sis. Baldwin! She's so awesome! We had a really good exchange and got to visit a lot of members. And Friday-Sunday we had another social media split. We visited with lots of members and then they posted pictures of us on social media. So look up #socialmediasplit, #lds and #iammormon and you can see pictures of missionaries from our mission! 

Monday and Tuesday we had zone interviews. Pres. Stoker interviewed all of the missionaries individually while Sis. Harward, the zone leaders and I had a training meeting with the missionaries in the zone. Sis. Harward and I trained on not comparing ourselves to others. I learned a lot as we prepared and gave this training. The talks we studied from were "Latter-day Saints Keep on Trying" by Elder Dale G. Renlund, "On Being Genuine" by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "The Laborers in the Vineyard" by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, and "The Merciful Obtain Mercy" by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. They're all super good! We talked about how we instead of comparing ourselves to other imperfect people we should look to the Savior and strive to become more like Him. We don't need to compare our performance to others, but ask ourselves how well we love and serve others and if we're fulfilling our callings and responsibilities. God loves each one of His children individually. He doesn't bless one more than the other, but He blesses us according to our needs. 

Wow email time went by real fast today! I'll fill you in on everything else on Monday! Yay another pday! Have a great week, love you all! 

Love, Sister Harper

Sis. Harward, Samantha and me!

Week 76: Samantha's Baptism!!!

Hello everyone!

Wow it's been a real crazy week! It all started when I woke up last Monday morning and my knee hurt real bad. I called the mission nurse that day and she asked me to send her some pictures and that she'd get back to me about it. Then we dropped our car off at a repair shop for the bumper to get fixed. After Pday we and the 2 sets of zone leaders in Vermont drove down Manchester to spend the night in the mission home for MLC (mission leadership conference) the next day. MLC was super good! I always love President Stoker's trainings! The only thing that was hard was my knee hurt super bad all day during the meeting! And I got to see 3 of my companions, Sis. Craig, Sis. Bee and Sis. McVey! It was so much fun to see them all! I love them! 

We drove back home after MLC and then around 9:30pm the mission nurse called and told me she was positive I had cellulitis in my knee. She said I needed to go to the ER before it got any worse. Only problem was our car was still in the shop! So we called the elders and they picked us up and we all went to the ER. Late night ER trip with the elders was quite the adventure haha! The mission nurse was right, I have cellulitis in my knee. Cellulitis develops when there's an opening in your skin and bacteria gets in and infects your tissue. My knee got really hot, red and swollen. The doctor asked me if I'd fallen or anything like to that to open the skin on my knee, but I hadn't. He said that the skin could've opening up even from kneeling, so I guess I got cellulitis from saying too many prayers haha! #missionaryprobs They gave me some antibiotics and we got back home around midnight. 

The next day, Wednesday, was rough. My knee hurt so bad and I forgot my ibuprofen! I could hardly bend my knee and I was limping around everywhere! The elders gave me a blessing which helped a lot! In the blessing it said that Heavenly Father has prepared a way for me to be healed, but that I would experience a lot of pain and it would be a slow process. But surprisingly my knee has gotten so much better since then! Normally when we experience things like this we always pray that the pain will go away and it will end quickly. When I got this blessing I realized that it wasn't the Lord's will to heal me right away, He needs me to learn to be patient and humble. So instead of praying that the pain will stop right away, Sis. Harward and I have been praying that my knee will heal properly and that I can continue to work diligently. And the Lord has blessed me so much! My knee gets better and better everyday and I'm still able to do normal missionary work! 

Saturday was Samantha's baptism! It was such a special day! She's been waiting for 5 years to get baptized! There were lots of people from the ward and stake, and even some of her nonmember friends, that came to support her. She bore her testimony at the end and it was so powerful! I'm so happy for Samantha! And she had an interview with the bishop yesterday after her confirmation and she got her temple recommend! She's going at the beginning of February to do baptisms!

Today we had our district Pday and we went to the Ben and Jerry's factory! We were going to do the tour but we didn't have enough time. We split this giant thing of ice cream called a Vermonster. It has 20 scoops of ice cream, cookies, brownies, 4 ladles of hot fudge and caramel, a bunch of topping, 4 bananas and a lot of whipped cream! We downed it pretty good between the 9 of us. It was so good!

Okay, so next week is even crazier than this week. Monday and Tuesday we have zone interviews and Wednesday we have a missionary broadcast. So we won't have Pday until Thursday the 21st. I can still read emails anytime throughout the week, I just won't respond until Thursday next week. I hope you all have a wonderful week! Look for the Lord's hand in your life everyday! Love you all!

Love, Sister Harper

All the sister training leaders at MLC. Back row l to r: Sis. Craig, Sis. Crook, Sis. Harward, me, Sis. Eddington, Sis. Duncan. Front row l to r: Sis. Evans, Sis. Pankratz, Sis. McVey, Sis. Bee

Just chilling in the ER

My knee! The circle is where the redness was on Monday night, the elephant looking thing is where it was Tuesday night, and the picture was taken Thursday morning, so the redness spread a lot!

Samantha's baptism!

The elder with the Vermonster. L to R: Elder Dortch, Elder McCain, Elder Benson, Elder Poe, Elder Rappleye, Elder Andrew

Samantha, Sis. Harward and me with the Vermonster.

Week 75: 2016!!!!

Hello!

Sorry this is going to be a short one today. We have to leave in a little bit for Manchester because we have MLC tomorrow! I'll get to see 3 of my companions there tomorrow! Sis. Craig, Sis. Bee, and Sis. McVey (Sis. Bee and Sis. McVey are companions now)! Super excited!

Nothing super excited this week, but it's been a really good week! Samantha is doing great and she's all set for her baptism on Saturday! We've also had really good lessons with our less actives! Bro. Prevost came to church again! He's progressing so well!

One night we were on the way home and I had the thought to stop by one of our investigators (Lisa) that we haven't seen in forever. I knew it was a spiritual prompting, but I didn't want to follow it because I was super tired and just wanted to go home. I knew I would regret it if I didn't follow that prompting, so we went and saw Lisa and had a great lesson with her! And she accepted a baptismal invitation! My testimony of following the Spirit has grown so much this week! We've seen so many miracles as we've followed the spirit. And the greatest thing about following the spirit is that is usually leads you to serve someone else! The Lord does speak to us and He will bless us as we act on the promptings we receive. I love 1 Nephi 4:6-7 where Nephi says, "And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. Nevertheless I went forth." We can always trust in the Spirit, because he will never lead us astray. 

Super funny/awkward story! We had dinner with this one family and their son just got home from his mission a couple weeks ago. The dad asked me when I go home and I told him the beginning of February. Then he said, "Well hey, my son's available so you two should go out when you get home!" Wow so awkward!

Have a great week! Love you all!

Love, Sister Harper