Happy New Year!

Hola familia y amigos! 

 

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I sure did! I got to spend it with some of my very favorite people. And I got to have some awesome phone calls home! 

 

This week was...well, it was a little bit of a struggle. Ha. I was really, really sick at the beginning of the week. We tried to go out teaching, but I couldn't hear anything that was happening. And I was kind of miserable because I couldn't breathe. So I wasn't able to participate really in the lessons. 

 

The good news of the week is: 

THE RODRIGUEZ FOUND BETO'S EX-WIFE AND SHE AGREED TO SIGN THE DIVORCE PAPERS!!!!!! So we printed out some divorce papers (at which point I further vowed to myself that I will never get divorced, because it's WAY too complicated) and helped him fill them out. (We filled them out on Christmas Eve.) Haha. But we're really excited about that. So Beto and Noemi will probably be getting baptized next transfer. Please pray that everything goes smoothly! 

 

Julian got baptized on Saturday. It was the most awkward baptism of my life, but we're really excited that he's a part of our branch and that he got baptized! When he was going to get dressed, he turns to his dad and says, "Papi! Tengo miedo!" But his dad reassured him that everything was going to be okay. And it was! 

companionship picture for Christmas. :)

 

Okay, I'll tell you about my Christmas! 

We spent Christmas Eve with the Schillers. They have a tradition of having Chinese food. And it was delicious. We had a white elephant gift exchange. And it was a really fun night. 

Christmas morning, we had with the Schillers. :) We opened presents with them and ate a "brunch". We skyped with our families at the Bugarin's house, and then we talked with them for a long time. It was basically the most spiritually uplifting thing of my life. It made me feel so much better about life. The Bugarins are fabulous. We ate dinner with the Archer family. And we caroled with Elder Pulsipher and Elder Scott. It was a lot of fun! :) 

 

I've been reflecting a lot on 2015, since it's ending this week. And it has been quite the crazy year. But I'd say it's been the best year of my life. 

In 2015, I have: 

-Served in four different areas (Denver 1 North, Eagle Valley, Glenwood Springs East, and San Juan)

-Had 7 different companions (Noakes, Hansen, Adair, Bauer, Moody, Salazar, and Chavez)

-Seen 6 beautiful souls enter the waters of baptism (Juan, Adamaris, Abraham, Dayanara, Dorothy, and Julian) 

-Met a lot of amazing people. I can't even list those out, it'd take entirely too long. 

-Most of all, I've learned a lot about myself, who I am, and who I want to be. I've learned how to deal with trials. And I've really developed a very close relationship with my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ. 

I am grateful for all of the things that have happened in this year of 2015 and am SO excited for all of the adventures that lie ahead in 2016. :) 

 

I love and miss you all. Stay up until midnight for me to ring in the new year! :) 

 

Con mucho amor,

hermana sherilyn harper

Happy Christmas, Harry.

                   Star wars shirts.

"Yo soy tu padre"

Friends and Family, 

 

It's Christmas this week. My mind is blown. I have NO idea how time has gone by this fast. I'm still in denial that Christmas is in 4 days. It's basically not real. And I am officially in the single digits of how many weeks I have remaining in my mission. So everything is SUPER not real. So much denial. 

 

This week was okay. I've been sick. So that's always a delight. And I forgot my planner so I can't even do a list of things that we did this week. So I'll just tell you what I remember. :) 

Or maybe not. My mind is blanking on everything we've done this week. Too much pressure in my head and too much cold medication.. 

Okay, I know that we've taught Jose a few times this week. He's doing really well. Handling the fact that he has to post-pone baptism very well. We taught him yesterday and had a REALLY good lesson with him. We asked him what he wanted to talk about, and he said overcoming temptation. So we read a few scriptures to him and just talked about it. He told us he was feeling really down all the time because all of these bad influences from his past life are still here haunting him. We ranted to him about how frustrating it is that he can't get a fresh-start that he desperately needs, but that through reading the Book of Mormon and going to church each Sunday he can overcome those temptations and feel even happier. We talked to him about how he needs better friends and to stop hanging out with the people from his past. He agrees and doesn't even want to hang out with them anymore. It was a really good lesson. He told us how much he appreciates us and how much we've helped him change his life. 

 

We saw the Rodriguez. Obviously. :) We saw just Noemi on Thursday, I think. We watched Legacy with her. We didn't have it in Spanish. #outweststruggles But the good news is she understands English pretty well. #thankyoumissouri It was good, she loved it. We ate dinner with them on Thursday as well, and we talked to Beto a lot about why we don't worship the Virgen. He understood it, and it was really good. On Friday, Noemi had someone in her family pass away. So we wanted to cheer her up, so we printed out ridiculous pictures of ourselves, pictures of them and us, and put them in a photo-book. And we took her chocolate. She said she loved it and it made her feel a lot better. 

This week, we're having a baptism in our branch. A really adorable 11 year old kid named Julian. :) We're really excited, because he's really awesome. I'm sure you're all wondering why you haven't heard anything about this kid, and it's because we're not teaching him. It's this really long story, and kind of a sensitive topic. But he's being taught by some English Elders. But we're really excited to see him enter the waters of baptism on the 26th. :) 

I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and that you truly remember why we celebrate Christmas! Take some time to remember and reflect on the birth of Jesus Christ and the true reason why He was born. 

 

I know that Jesus Christ is truly our Savior. That He loves us so individually that he suffered for every single one of us. For our sins. For our sadness. For our weaknesses. I know that through Jesus Christ and His Atonement, we are never alone. We can overcome all things in our lives. I know that He lives, that He loves us, and He wants us to be happy. 

Feliz Navidad a TODOS! Les quiero mucho, 

Hermana Sherilyn Harper

Alma 17:11

Whipped cream in my eye....

Oh my lovely friends and family. This week was crazy. But it was so fun! 

Monday: We saw Chelsey, and Alejandro sat in on the lesson with us! We watched the Christmas videos with them, and they loved it. We saw Eduardo, and Bro. Archer came. It was a good lesson. Kind of a struggle, because Eduardo wouldn't talk super openly. But it all worked out. We had a Family Home Evening with the Rodriguez. Beto gave the lesson. :) (It was great) and we played a lot of really fun games with them. :) (There may or may not have been whipped cream all over everyone's face, as well as cookie crumbs.) 

Tuesday: We did some service, we cleaned a house. It was crazy. So much laundry. We saw Eduardo again and Luis came with us. Eduardo actually talked openly with us. So it was good. :) Also we went to a Relief Society activity because we're trying to have a better relationship with the branch. So that was fun. We decorated cookies. 

Wednesday: We did more service. More cleaning! :) We taught Jose and Hno Barrientos came with us. We had a good lesson. Hno Barrientos got SUPER bold with him. It was great. And also scary. We had dinner with the Rodriguez. :) 

Thursday: We had Zone Meeting. It was good. REALLY long. But good. We saw Chelsey again and she's doing really well. She and her new baby are both doing a lot better. (There were complications and both have been sick off and on since the baby was born.) And we saw Jose. We talked to him more about prophets, why we have them, and all that good stuff. It was really good. We had dinner with the Rodriguez again. We planned to teach them something, but they went on talking about some random topic (racism, of course) and I was able to share a scripture from the Book of Mormon with them. (2 Nephi 26:33 if you're wondering.) It was really good. 

Friday: Weekly planning. We had dinner with the Rodriguez again. :) 

Saturday: We taught Hno Meza, and it was great. I love teaching him. When we do, I cease to exist for an hour or more. It's awesome. :) But he is really great, no worries. He's been making a TON of progress since I first met him. We helped the Rodriguez make tamales. :) They had to make like 200 or something ridiculous. SO they needed help. So we did it. And it was fun. And we got to eat some of them. Also they fed us, besides the tamales. :) I wasn't feeling well, so I laid down after that. But it was good. 

Merry Christmas!!

Sunday: Jose had his interview with Pres. Atkinson. We have no idea how it went. But he's going to have a really, really long process before he can get baptized. We had Branch Council and it was the most frustrating hour and a half of my life. Church was good though. Luis and Kevin gave talks. :) We found a new investigator, Francisco. WE taught Julian with the Elders in Spring Creek. We taught Maria Soto, and it was a really good lesson. We also went to the Stake Fireside, it was all music. It made me really happy! We finally didn't have dinner with the Rodriguez. ;) 

Monday: We had a Christmas luncheon at the Skala's home. (It's ridiculously huge. I felt so uncomfortable. I was like...Uhm....this isn't a trailer? What do I do here? It's too fancy. What if I break something??) But it was really fun. WE had an awesome meal. And the Skalas made some Black Bear and Elk for us all to try. We had Christmas Hymn karaoke. It was great. The Gunnison sisters couldn't get back to Gunnison, so they stayed with us last night. It was so fun. We taught the Rodriguez! WE talked about following the Spirit, and they loved it. 

This week, we're going to have an awesome week. 

I love and miss you all! 

hermana sherilyn harper

I forgot to pick out a ponderizing scripture this week.... :(

Hi, Friends and Family! This week was a little bit crazy but we had a good time! 

Monday: We helped Alan with his hair again. We saw Eduardo and he's really cool! We taught him the message of the Restoration and he's really receptive to learning more! He even has a desire to serve a mission, so we're excited to keep teaching him! And we saw the Rodriguez, because we had to thank them because they feed us all the time. <3 

Tuesday: Not transfer meeting. (I'd gone to EVERY transfer meeting in my mission until I got transferred to Montrose. Now I never get to go.) But we had Sisters Meeting. Which was good. I gave a training on gratitude, since it was supposed to have happened before Thanksgiving. Oh well. We taught a woman named Amparo, and found the world's tiniest mailbox. I'll attach a picture, because I laughed about it for probably 20 minutes. We taught Jose. And we saw Eduardo again. He wants us to teach him every day. It's great. :) 

Wednesday: Not too much happened during the day. We ate dinner with the Bugarins (I love them!) Hna Bugarin made me her famous Alfredo Roll-ups. They were everything I'd dreamed they would be and more. WE saw the Rodriguez again and started doing mission prep with Luis. :) 

Thursday: First district meeting of the transfer. My district is super weird. But it'll be good. :) I'm excited. We taught Jose again and prepared him for his baptismal interview. And we saw Gloria. She likes Supernatural, too. So we always talk about that. :) 

Friday: We helped the Rodriguez make a TON of tamales for the Christmas activity that happened that night. It was so fun. Another picture will be attached. :) We taught Eduardo again, and then we had the Christmas activity. We went to visit less active families, to take them cookies and invite them to come back to the party with us.:) It was really fun. And we had a really good turn out actually. 

Saturday: We had Jose's baptismal interview. He needs to have another one with the mission presidency, and will probably have to get approval from the First Presidency to get baptized....or wait until he's off probation. Struggles. But he'll get there. We were also in a parade, handing out cards for the new Christmas Video: A SAVIOR IS BORN. It was a ton of fun, and we got to know our district a little better. 

Sunday: Christmas devotional and we taught the Rodriguez family about the Word of Wisdom, which they already understand. They're perfect. 

This week: Luis is starting his mission papers! :) I'm basically partying about this. He's going to be the best missionary! We'll have Zone meeting. 

Other news: Next week, I probably will be emailing on TUESDAY, because we're having a Christmas lunch/party thing on Monday. So I promise that I'm not dead. :) 

Love and miss you all! 

Hermana Sherilyn Harper