Wednesday, April 16, 2014

TOLEDO WEEK 6 A NEW BOOK BEGINNING

Hello everyone!
I just realized that it's been a year tomorrow since I opened my mission call. Isn't it crazy how time goes so fast? Time is a crazy thing. We are already halfway through my sixth transfer. The days just fly by. I want it to SLOW DOWN
This week has been really great. We have been working a lot with the branch lately, trying to clean up their records and do things to help them become a ward. We printed off the list of members last Wednesday, and it was 23 pages long! For a little branch with this many records we had our work cut out for us. We enlisted the help of 3 ward members to go through all 23 pages with us, talking about each person on the list. When we came across a name they didn't know, there was one really funny member who kept saying, "Patay na! Padayon lang!" (he died, just continue). We are hoping we can put faces to these unknown members, as I am fully confident that they alive, maybe just hiding from the missionaries :)
We had zone interviews with President Schmutz and I am sad that it was my last interview with him, since we'll be getting a new mission president in July. I love President and Sister Schmutz so much.
We went with Jenn and Rico to the city hall this week to get their marriage certificate, but it takes two weeks to process, so we moved their baptism and wedding to May 3rd. It is the Saturday before transfers so Sister Wechsler and I are just glad that we will both get to be here for it.
General Conference was wonderful, and I loved the talk by Elder Teh when he talked about the Philippines! Shout out to my people, they were all so happy during that talk. Filipinos LOVE conference. I think it's safe to say that their favorite part is when the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings, because they all sing along. It's like the intermediate hymn, for every single musical number. It is really cute and funny and by the end I found myself singing along and had to stop myself.
I also want to give a shout out to my zone leader Elder Wilding, from Syracuse UT, who will probably never read this, but he gave Rico one of his white shirts, so now Rico has a white shirt to wear to church! You should've seen RIco's face. He completely lit up and had the biggest smile I've ever seen.

It's not rainy season yet, but it's been pretty rainy here the last week. Our area has been flooded multiple times since we are so close to the ocean. The people are prepared though, and despite going to members houses that are completely flooded, they still laugh and are happy, and grab their makeshift shovels and scoop water out with a smile.

I want to be more like that in my life. Being here on my mission has made me realize how far I have to come. These people are teaching me so much. Before my mission I hated the rain. You couldn't catch me in a rainstorm...but on Monday night it was raining really hard as we were walking home, and I just said to myself, "I am going to let go of the last part of who I was before the mission." After I said that, I took my umbrella down and let myself get completely drenched in the rain, not worrying about my hair or my makeup or getting my clothes wet. I was soaked, and me and Sister Wechsler were laughing and smiling so much. This simple little moment was like the end of the book called "Joslyn" and a new chapter in the book called "Sister Harris".
Missions are so beautiful, and they change you in every way. I am so blessed to be a living example of this right now as I continue to let Heavenly Father take over.
I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Joslyn Harris
 
NO PICTURES THIS WEEK THE CARD READER IN THE COMPUTER DID NOT WORK

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