Cambios y Navidad

Hello, happy people! 

This week has been, well, basically the best. 

Christmas in the mission field.. There are no words. It was honestly my favorite Christmas. I can't imagine feeling more loved, more full of love, or more happiness than I felt this year. That is how good it is. :) I'm so stoked that I'll get to have another one. We got to have a District Meeting on Christmas, and it was so much fun. Elder Morales made us sweet tamales. And they were pretty darn delicious. But it was great to be with the wonderful Zuni District for Christmas. I love those 7 missionaries so much. 

I hope that you all had a most wonderful Christmas and that you all had good experiences with the Share the Gift initiative. We sure did. Getting to share the message of Jesus Christ at Christmas time is the best. :) Really. No words. 

We have transfers tomorrow! So crazy. I've already been in the field for two transfers. I can't. Time is going SO fast. Anyway. Literally half of my district is being transferred -- all 8 of us will be getting a new companion tomorrow. Sister Arnold is leaving me, and I'll be taking over the area. And then Sister Adair, Elder Morales, and Elder Marin are all leaving. So..it's going to be so weird this transfer. Our district is going to be so different. But I'm really excited! 

So, I was going to overload you all with pictures today...but we're in the library, and we have a time limit here. (we were all so bummed that the Family History Center was closed. The library is nasty.) So. I'll picture overload next week. :) 

One of our less active members told us this week that her goal is to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. Which was super awesome to hear. 

So here is what I propose! As a missionary, my purpose is to invite others to come closer to Christ. And I would like to invite everyone to find some way that they can dedicate this new year to coming closer to Christ! You can do it by reading the Book of Mormon. Or going out with the missionaries (but really. Go out with the missionaries. A lot. Please.) Or studying Preach My Gospel. Studying Christlike attributes and trying to develop them. I can promise you that as you dedicate this year to coming closer to Christ, that you will feel His influence more powerfully in your life, your testimony will grow, and your relationship with our Savior will become so much better and more personal. 

I love you all! I pray for you always. 

Con mucho mas amor que palabras pueden decir, 

Hermana Sherilyn Harper

Happy Christmas

Hello, Happy People! 

Christmas is in 3 days! Soooo. FELIZ NAVIDAD! I hope you all have a most magical Christmas. Because I sure will. :) 

This week..well, it was a weird week. I was reading through my journal this morning and I was just shocked that the things that happened this week...happened this week. It feels like they happened MONTHS ago. It's so weird. 

This week, we ate weird things. Like, pumpkin. Just baked. With a little sugar or something on top. I felt like I was eating baby food. Also, I didn't want to eat it because the actual dinner we had eaten was ridiculously huge. But such is missionary life. Also, we ate part of a palm tree. It was called the heart of the palm tree. The woman who made it made like a salad kind of thing with avocado and it was basically the most delicious thing. Also, this part of the palm tree? It was canned. So weird. But it was delicious. 

Also, you should just all know that my District is the best. We're doing Secret Santa, because we're having District Meeting on Christmas. Also, we had an ugly sweater party at our last District Meeting. And it was great. And there's pictures...but all of the Elders have them. So I'll have to send that to you at a later date. :) 

Update: I'm still singing all the time. I had a special musical number on Thursday with Sister Eldredge for our Christmas party. And last night I had to sing for like...3 hours at the open house that we had at our Mission Home. So..I died a little bit. And couldn't talk afterwards. But I'm fine now. And am grateful as always for opportunities I have to share my talents. :) 

I had a really hard day on Friday. But then I had a really cool experience. And do you know what? God loves us more than we can possibly imagine. All of us. Because we are His children. And He loves us in spite of our imperfections. And that is what I have learned this week. Is that God loves us. And if we just rely on Him, He will help us. He wants more than anything to help us. But we need to ask. 

I love and miss you all more than you can possibly imagine! And Happy Christmas! 

Con amor, 

Hermana Sherilyn Harper 

Service por Dias

Hello, to my most wonderful friends and family! 

Mental break down moment: It's officially the 5th week of my 2nd transfer. Time. Is. Going. Too. Fast. 

This week was....pues, it was a week. We did a TON of service, which was great! It made me really happy. On Saturday we went helped at "Santa's Workshop" which is a place where people can go get some toys for their kids for Christmas so that they don't have to make a decision to not pay something so that they can have a good Christmas. SO it was great, and really happy! Except: I was at a checkout point, and I had to be the Grinch sometimes. Because everyone needed to have an equal opportunity, each child could only get one big toy. And some people did not have this explained to them very well. SO I had to be the one to do it. And it was sad. But everyone was really good about it. 

We also had our ward Christmas activity! And it was really happy! Guys. There was so much food. Tamales. Mole. Cookies. Cheesecakes. This fried dough stuff with cinnamon and sugar that has a name that I don't remember but it's delicious.Basically, the food never ended. It was crazy. And delicious. Then there was a nativity presentation. And so much singing. It was so happy. I loved it so much. Also! One of our investigators came! (We were deliriously excited about this, because she just got back from a trip. And as a general rule, when investigators come back from trips they just drop us.)

Both sets of Elders had baptisms yesterday! It was so great! One of our kind of recent convert's husband got baptized! And then another one of our recent convert's boyfriend got baptized! It was really great. Also, I think that I am the "Official Baptism Chorister." Possibly because I can sing really loud. 

I feel like I don't have any really great experiences to share with you this week. But something I did learn is that if your companion is going crazy and doesn't really want to do the things we're supposed to do, you need to stand up and be an example. Sometimes going against the grain is hard, especially when you're younger, but it's so necessary, and it will be so worth it. 

I hope you all have a most wonderful week! Only 10 more days until Christmas! :) 

I love and miss you all SO MUCH! 

Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Sherilyn Harper

Another Great Week

Mis queridos amigos y familia,

Siempre espero que todo esta bien. :) Todo esta bien en Colorado. En verdad, Denver es mi amor. Me encanta la gente aqui. Este oportunidad que tengo ser una misionera es la mejor.

This week was a really great week! Which was grand, because we really thought it was going to be a rough week. But it's been our best week of the transfer!

On Wednesday we got to go to the temple! The first Wednesdays of the month are the best on the Metro-side of the CDSM. So that was really, really great. Also, I think the Denver temple is super pretty. I love it so much!

This week, we did a lot of service! We had a huge Christmas concert in the stake center on Friday, so all week was busy spent handing out fliers and setting up everything. But we got to go to the concert on Friday, and it was so beautiful! There were so many people and the music was top notch. And it made me really, really miss being in a choir. Or really, just singing in general. But, it was so great. The spirit was so strong!

We did so much tracting this week. (Because basically all of our investigators are doing their annual flock to Mexico.) Tracting is always...interesting. You get to meet a ton of people! And sometimes it's a lot of fun! And sometimes, it's really hard. Mostly though, this week was great tracting. We met a lot of really beautiful people!

Missionary work is the weirdest thing. If you really think about a mission, and what we do, it's so crazy. It's really no wonder everyone is always so surprised. Sister Arnold and I talk a lot about the weirdest parts of a mission, and how it's going to be so weird/hard to go back to normal life. (She just hit her year mark and she's starting to freak out.) We leave our families for 18 months or 2 years. We write our families and our friends once a week. We don't watch movies or TV. We don't read normal books. We have limits put on our music. We only get to drive so many miles a week. Our schedule is always so packed. We go teach strangers about what we believe. And we're so young. I think that's probably the craziest part. We're so young and we do all of this. How could the message we share not be true? Why would we do all of the things we do if it weren't true? Why would we let ourselves go through all of the hardships that come with being a missionary? The only reason that could ever make any sense is that the message we share, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is TRUE. I know that without any doubt.

Having the opportunity to share this message with the people of Colorado has been the absolute best thing of my life. It is literally the happiest I have ever been.

I love and miss ALL of you, so much! And I really do hope that all is well with you. Go out and be missionaries yourselves. And remember to #ShareTheGift because celebrating Jesus Christ is what we need to be doing all the time!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Sherilyn Harper

Thanksgiving and Exchanges

To my dear friends and family:

This week was a good week! TONS better than last week! It was still weird though. Haha. Missionary work on Thanksgiving is just weird. Basically, no one wants to let you into their house. But we did go see a less active member, and then we had dinner with another less active member. I had delicious food on Thanksgiving, but it was so weird not being with my family. Not in a bad way though, just in a weird way. I didn't get homesick. So that's good.

We had exchanges on Saturday! Sister Hancock came to the Spanish area with me, and Sister Arnold left me to go speak English for the day. It was a REALLY good day though! I was so much more confident this time than I was last time I had to do it. And it went so much better. I knew that the Lord would help me. And He did. :) Also, we ended up tracting into this one lady who had just moved here from Utah. She had been baptized, but her daughter who is 10 hasn't yet. This family is in really, really humble circumstances. They lost everything that they have. But we shared the "He is the Gift" video with them and they LOVED it. It was just what they needed at that point!

Unfortunately, this family doesn't speak Spanish. So I won't really ever be seeing them again. But it was so great to find someone who needed me. It was a really beautiful experience.

The South Sisters had a baptism yesterday, and it was one of the most beautiful, spiritual baptisms I've been to yet. It was so good. The Spirit was SO strong. Getting to see this gospel change people's lives is the most amazing thing.

Everyone PLEASE go to christmas.mormon.org and watch the video and share it with EVERYONE! #ShareTheGift It is the most beautiful video, and it will really help us all get into the true spirit of Christmas!

I've been reading the Book of Mormon and focusing on different aspects of the Atonement. So last time I read it, I highlighted everything that applied to the strengthening and enabling power of the Atonement. This time I'm reading about how we can be comforted through the Atonement. And it has been amazing. If you really focus your reading on something, you'll get so much out of it. And the more you know about and understand the Atonement, the more you'll have a desire to share the Gospel. That is SO true.

I know with my whole heart that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, that it truly testifies of Jesus Christ. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, called of God to restore The Church of Jesus Christ to the earth, and that with this calling he received the priesthood authority of God. I know that Jesus Christ truly is our Savior, and He is MERCIFUL. I know that He wants every single person to learn of Him, and come closer to Him. And I know that my purpose as a missionary is to HELP people come closer to Christ. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true church.

I love you all so much. I hope you have an amazing week!


Con mucho amor,
Hermana Sherilyn Harper