The Last Singapore Post

To all, this is the last post for Sister Harrison's mission to Singapore. She will be coming home May 10th. Thanks for all of the love and prayers that you have offered on her behalf. She'll be sad to leave Singapore and Malaysia and to leave many new friends and fellow saints behind, but we will be glad to have her home after serving a productive and inspired mission. (SBH)

wow.

i can't believe the last email is here. its pretty crazy. this week was very good. there was a baptism yesterday, a girl named Aling. she has been waiting years to get baptized, there were all of these problems, her fiance's ID card said he was muslim, so he had to get that changed, and then they had to get married but it takes a long time to arrange a kampung wedding. and her fiance, Samuel, was going to get baptized on Christmas, but then someone told him that wasn't the actual day that Jesus Christ was born, so Samuel got baptized on April 6th, he got the priesthood, and then he baptized his wife Aling yesterday. last year when i was here the elders were working with them, trying to get their marriage worked out, and now, a year later, they are baptized. it was a pretty special baptism, a really good last baptism to attend. she wanted me to be the one to translate for her baptismal interview last Sunday, and then yesterday i got to give a talk at her baptism. it was so nice. i like her so much! and that talk was probably the first one ever that i didn't have written out notes for. just me and my kitab Mormon. i talked about the gift of the holy ghost. gosh, when i first got here, i would be very nervous to give a talk in church, especially in Malay. I've really changed a lot.

another really cool thing happened this week. we were waiting for a bus, to go out and find a former investigator, a bus pulls up, but it is too full. then i see a lady sitting in that bus, staring at me, and i realize that i know her, she was an investigator that i taught last year when i was here. she almost got baptized too. so i waved, and the bus pulled away, and we decided to go visit that lady instead. she lives in this kampung, Kampung Baru, i think i sent a picture of it. it is a pretty poor kampung, and i hadn't been in that part of it since i was here last year. it was so crazy being back there again. and we saw her, she is doing good, we are going back there on Saturday. while we were there, we met two other former investigators from last year. Noreni and Loni. noreni couldn't ever come to church because she was always working on Sunday, but now, she has Sundays off, and they are coming to church!! can you believe it, just like that! maybe that is one of the reasons that i was supposed to come back here, if i hadn't, they would have been lost. it made me remember how much you really love the people you teach; people i hadn't seen in a year, but i just met them again, and like instant friends again. they are really cool. (and now i can understand them a lot better, haha) I'm really glad that happened right before the end of my mission, i hope i always remember that feeling.
leaving Malaysia is going to be very hard.

i love you family, i cannot wait to see you again!

sister Harrison

Getting Closer to the End

Hi family,
Its me! Sister Harrison! Remember kah? I hope you all do because I will be coming home in a few weeks.
So this week was really great! Lazaias brought his grandpa and his older brother to church! It was conference weekend so we were a little hesitant for them to come because usually they don't really like watching the movie...but turns out they enjoyed it. Jerry convinced Lazaias to stay for the second session..... i like Jerry (that is lazaias' grandpa) it is so sad that i cant' really teach him for too much longer. conference was very good. it is kind of nice to watch it a couple of weeks later, because you hear little things about it and then get even extra excited for it. one sad thing is that lazaias can't get baptized anymore while i am still here :( because he is still trying to quit smoking. but he is doing really good. he only really smokes one a day, so it won't be long until he is baptized. and now maybe he and his grandpa can get baptized on the same day. i like Jerry a lot. he's only twenty nine, we still can't figure out why lazaias calls him his grandpa, he's not even married! also we met this new guy named memory, and he is so good, has very good questions, and when we asked him if he would pray, he said he would try. and then he said that no, he wouldn't just try, he would do it. we like him so much!

OK gotta go, don't have that much time left.

love you,
sister Harrison

PS me and sister hite learned how to whistle in harmony!

PPS happy birthday kendy, i love you!

Beaded Bracelets, who would have thought!?!

hi family!
number one, i can't believe Bryce is getting marred already, he is younger than me! Dan and Dustin, now Bryce, the cousins are dropping like flies! and maybe there are some i don't even know about, and i bet they all have kids, i can't believe it. things here are going so good. Lazaias, last Sunday brought three friends to church. i was giving a talk (PS i will never be afraid to give a talk in English ever again) and sitting at the front, and they seemed a little bored and they left right after the meeting, but turns out they all want to come next week, they even told Lazaias that they want to sleep at his house Saturday night so they can come with him! and one of his friends, Jerry (lazaias calls him his grandpa, but he is only twenty nine, we are still trying to figure it out) said he wants to be baptized on the same day as lazaias! which is good news and bad news, because selfishly i want to see lazaias' baptism, but if he really wants to be baptized with Jerry we will have to push it back so Jerry will be ready. but who cares, he'll get baptized after all. and lazaias is making me and sister hite and sister Howard matching beaded bracelets with our names on them! mine is done already, it looks awesome, isn't that so nice? we really love him. haha, he told us that he only remembers my name because harrison is long and i am the tallest. haha, i love lazaias. okay family, not much else to say but this week i really started loving chrysanthemum tea, here they sell it in juice boxes, yum! they don't sell that in America, do they? also, sister hite taught me how to make egg drop soup, it is so easy. love you family,

sister Harrison

PS shout out to Lisa, happy birthday on the sixteenth!
PPS(yours is on the sixteenth, right, and Kendra's is on the twenty second?
sometimes i get those mixed up, love you Lisa!)

Short but Sweet !

hi family, I've done it again, waited until the end of my email time to email the family, aahhh! I'm the worst sister!! and i promised myself that i would be a better sister and write a really good email, dang it. but this week has been a really really good one. just the last couple of days have been really stellar. church was great, people gave very powerful testimonies, and we have had some very good lessons. also, remember how i was getting all worried about goals and everything and how our mission had a goal? our president sent out a new letter, I'm attaching it. it made me feel so much better, like a huge weight had been lifted. instead of working hard and getting really good numbers, we can work hard and find good people who will progress and help the church. I'm really glad he sent that before the end of my mission, i feel like there is a completely different tone to missionary work, and it is very nice.

we are teaching this guy, lazaias. he is really good. the only problem, he is a pelupa. in other words, very easy for him to forget. he didn't come to church because he forgot, and went to this other place. that sounds bad, but it is true, he really does forget. he is really funny, and really good. trying really hard to quit smoking. he used to smoke almost thirty a day, and now he is down to eight! he has to quit by the sixteenth and come to church, and then i can be here for his baptism! we'll see. he's so cool, he wants to bring his grandpa to church next week. we taught him earlier today because he couldn't meet any other day, and then he came with us to the shoe store, when we left he was telling us we should have given the shop girls pamphlets. he is really good. missionary work is so fun sometimes! love you family,

sister Harrison

can't. compute. overload. of. emails. received.

family! email day was the best today! all these emails from brothers and sisters all over the world, greedy for their postcard from Borneo. haha, just kidding, i am happy to oblige.

i feel like i have so much to tell you, but i can't fit it all in! missionary work is the best because, sometimes you are just happy all the time, for no special reason. wake up happy, go to bed happy. go around all day talking to people, having appointments fall through, visiting people. it is the best! and last month went by so fast, i can't believe march is practically over. that leaves me really worried for April. oh well, what is coming is coming.

last night i talked to sister lim on the phone, she was telling me everything that is going on in Kuching. one really exciting thing is that this lady, Lidia, is getting baptized. Lidia lives in an area that we rarely go, it is very far and there is only one family of members who are active. but a few weeks before i got transferred we started going there. that one member family, the mom's name is truni, all of her brothers and sisters are baptized except for one. the first day we went there we met truni at the house of the non member, set up an appointment to come back. me and sister lim taught her, Lidia, once, and she came to church for the first time on my last Sunday in kuching. then the area split, and the elders started teaching her, and now she is getting baptized! isn't that so awesome, i was so happy when i heard that. it is really cool to have part in the start of the story, and then to hear the happy ending. she is probably the first person to be baptized in that area in years. so exciting!

some other exciting news, a boy from the branch here in KK just got his mission call. everyone thought that he would get called here, because most locals are called to this mission. but guess what? he is going to the salt lake city south mission! we can't believe it! he is our branch mission leader now. later, when I'm home i could help them out with their investigators! he is really excited, he actually really wanted to go to Utah. i can't believe he is really going there.

and I'm also really excited for Trent's mission papers, keep me updated, do you think he'll get his call while I'm on my mission? I'm praying that he will get sent here, but anywhere in Asia is cool too.

well , that is about all for today. thanks family, for always reading my emails and letting me be your little sister. i love you!

sister Harrison

Scripture Chase Winners !!

hi family, how are things there on the America front? things here are awesome, as always. last week we had zone conference. i had to give a surprise talk on the book of Mormon, (thanks a lot, zone leaders, for not telling me the topic before hand) but it was fine. and then at the end i had to bear my testimony too because it was my very last zone conference. so sad. i cried through my whole testimony, and i don't even cry in testimonies, i didn't even cry when i bore it on my last day in Kuching. i have a feeling that i might be an emotional wreck when i have to leave. oh well, worth it. the other fun thing about zone conference was that we played jeopardy with these scriptures that we were supposed to memorize. all i can say is thank goodness for sister Howard, she pulled our companionship through. it was the best when me and sister Howard were quoting together 'believe in God, believe that He is, believe that He created all things,,' and the crowning moment of the jeopardy game was final jeopardy, the put a verse up, and we had to guess what book it came out of: i will quote it for you now and test your scriptural knowledge: and now, my beloved brethren, i would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying and endure to the end, and as the lord liveth ye will be saved. OK the kedai is closing right now, but it is omni 1. 26 and i knew it down to the verse! i have to go, i love missionary work, love you family,

sister Harrison

Threesome and an upcoming Baptism !!

dear family,

number one, i love the family newsletter! i just got it this week, and seriously, sometimes it makes me feel bad, i get this huge envelope out of the mailbox, take it upstairs, take out a huge sheaf of letters and spend the rest of the night devouring it, showing my compies pictures, laughing out loud to my self, yelling, 'you gotta hear this, you gotta hear this!' basically making everyone wish they had a family as awesome as ours! i really wish i could contribute, maybe i will try next month. but then again, you guys get to hear from me every single week, yay!

but this week has been soooooo good. yesterday was the climax. so we are teaching this guy, Lazias. he is really cool, 21, pretty religious, kind of funny. he got mad at sister hite and sent like three texts explaining why she couldn't say oi! haha. sister hite actually contacted his brother on the bus, and the brother gave our card to Lazias. Lazias called us up, and we started teaching him. we actually have only seen him two times and haven't even taught him about the Book of Mormon yet. So, on Saturday night he wasn't sure if he could come to church the next day, but he came, and he had an awesome time, made friends, stayed the whole time. so great. great Sunday. on the way home he was telling us that that very morning his brother came to wake him up to go jalan-jalan, to go out, but his heart was thumping and he knew he should go to church, so he pretended to be asleep! so awesome! then yesterday we got a text saying he couldn't meet with us for a few weeks, then we got another text asking us about the book of Mormon, and we got all worried, that someone had told him bad things about it, or i don't even know. so sister hite called him. turns out, the night before, he had been reading the pamphlet we gave him, and he was praying about Joseph Smith, and he said he'd never prayed like that before. He said words came into his heart. he's been going to another church for a year and a half, but he says these two weeks he's felt full, he felt truly touched. He also was asking about why we don't use the symbol of the cross, sister hite told him it was because we believe that Christ is still alive, and he said when he heard those words, he really felt something in his heart. Lazias is so golden, huh?! i love missionary work! he said that he knows this is the church he should follow. when he said that, sister hite asked him if he would be baptized, and he said yes. he has to go to kampung for a couple of weeks, that's why he said he couldn't meet, but he's getting baptized on April 30, the Saturday before i leave!! i really hope everything works out. he is so great, we were talking about it, just being able to be a part of his story is so worth it, so worth all the door knocking and all the hard weeks. he is really cool. so that is the miracle of the week. and we found all of this out, on just one phone call!

the past couple of days, I've just felt so happy, the happiest I've been in a few weeks, it was kind of a hard transition to come here from kuching, but i really love it here. and i just love my companions (ha ha that last line is funnier if you say it in a high Texan accent, huh, Matt?) but i love our family, i can't wait to do karaoke with everyone, you are going to love Indonesian karaoke! love you guys,

sister Harrison

It's a Threesome !!

dear family bizamily,

so i have two new companions, sister hite and sister Howard. seriously family, i have lucked out in the companion department, or maybe Malaysia just attracts really awesome people. but they are great, and it isn't even weird being in a threesome. it is actually kind of nice. sometimes when i have something i feel like i need to announce to the world, i can yell out, you guys!!.. its kind of nice. and talking to them has made me realize what an awesome family we have. i wouldn't change our family for the world. so i love you all, that is all i have to say.

on Sunday, it was fast Sunday, right? and so me and H and H decided to cook. curry to be exact. so the night before we happened up this tiny little market, just selling vegetables and fried food and stuff, so we bought a whole kilogram of raw chicken, and had them chop it up for us right there, we bought some curry, some potatoes, and on Sunday, we tried our curry experiment. I've cooked curry one other time with sister lim. so this time, instead of following the directions on the packet of curry, i decided to make up my own way (i mean, come on the packet didn't even call for coconut milk, what is curry with out it?) so we did it, cooked the chicken, curry, potatoes, added the milk, it was delicious!! it was so good, i can't wait to cook it for you when i get home!

sister hite always makes these rice experiments or tofu experiments, they always turn out pretty good. i hope you guys like rice, because that's what I'm going to cook for you. anywho, family, i gotta go, but i love you, stay awesome, okay?

sister Harrison

I'm in a Three some !?!

first off family, i apologize for not emailing you more last week, i was very frustrated because my computer kept turning off, and we had no time left, so basically, to heck with it. but a week has past and I'm over it, a lot has happened in one week. the first most important thing is, I'm sick. really, like i didn't know a human body could create that much mucus. (haha just kidding, i mean nosy stuff) and my voice is gone. but i think it is getting better, i had a fever for a few days, but I'm on the mend. Do you want to know something funny about Malaysia? the people here seem to get sick all the time, like every other week they're not at church because they have 'demum' which is a fever. its demum this and demum that. at the beginning i had no pity, what could possibly be making these people get sick, it doesn't even get cold here. they are afraid to get rained on because they are afraid of demum. but now i kind of understand, because they weather changes so fast here, its pounding heat and then rain and then heat again, i think it makes me sick to, i can't ever really remember getting a real fever before my mission, now i get them all the time. weird, I'm turning into an Asian!

in other news, missionary work in KK is awesome, i forgot how much i love it here. it is a really fun place to live, we take buses everywhere, buses to the airport, buses to the hospital, its awesome. the branch here is so cool, its big, and it has tons of young single adults, and it actually has enough people to fill most of the callings, unheard of!

oh yeah, i forgot to tell you, my companion, sister Goodwin, finished her mission yesterday. it was pretty sad to see her go. she would have fit right into our family, sometimes listening to her talk sounded just like Jamie or Tracy. AND, she used to listen to the same yellow tapes when she was little, you know the ones, standin' tall, 'Mr. Robinson Mr. Robinson!' 'what a terrible mess' 'i hit your window with my ball, and i've come to confess'......'i'm proud of you child, for you showed honor,' 'I told the truth!!' and she remembers lots of them too. what more can you ask for in a companionship that to be able to sing about "Captain Dependable" together? but now she is gone, and instead of having four sisters in KK we just have three now. so I'm in my first ever threesome on the mission, and I'm probably going to finish off the mission this way. Sister Hite and Sister Howard are their names. S. howard is from Seattle, and S. Hite is from North Carolina, but she went to elementary school in Utah, so we could reminisce about playing the Oregon Trail and even sing the Utah song together. its not exactly standin' tall, but it'll do.
i have mixed feelings about threesomes, first off, its going to be awesome (before i moved to KK i was kind of sad that i never got to be their companion, but now, here i am..) but its kind of hard to teach in a threesome, kind of overwhelming when you're knocking, and if you take a member its like a Mormon takeover. right now we're trying to get used to teaching together, so far the problem is our lessons are pretty long and intense because we all have been on our missions for awhile now and we all have things to say. and it is kind of dumb to finish your mission in a threesome, i feel like the third wheel, they just stuck me here so i had a place to be until i die. i hate feeling like that. but i know I'm supposed to be here, and if being in a threesome is a necessary evil, it couldn't have happened in a better place, with better companions and a better branch. it is awesome here! so it is worth feeling like Mormon takeover.

I'm going to be so sad when this is over. missionary work is fun and it fills you up, so much stuff to do and people to see, everyone always says they love the people, and you know what? they are right. so so many good people, just every day people. it makes you never want to be mean to anyone ever again. I'm so glad i came on my mission, have i ever said that? it was worth everything. all the riding bikes in a skirt, and the sweatiness and the ugly clothes, all the crazy things Malaysia does to your skin. it was all worth it just to have this little glimpse into people's lives, to come and feel like you are their family. I feel like this week, i had a glimpse into what real charity is like. i think in a lesson i was feeling impatient or annoyed with someone, i can't remember. and then i wondered why i was feeling that way and tried to get over it, really concentrate on the lesson and the people, and then, bam, i love these people so much! who are these people? their house is one room, and they were sharing just a bit about what the gospel meant to them. that's all, but it was so cool. this was sister Roslina, the one that came to church for the first time my last week in KK, a year ago! awesome.
i love you family! sorry if i overuse the word awesome, sometimes that's the only way to describe things!

rindu sama kau,
sister Harrison

I'm going Crazy and I'm Transferred

mom and dad,

well first off, my address is the exact same as it was when i was in KK last time, do you still have it? if i remember right
B7-12 Maria Court Condominium
Lorong Api-api
Kota Kinabalu, Sabah 88000
Malaysia

I'll let you know if i get the mail. oh, and if you have any question you can just send it to the mission office, and that will come right to me, too.

I'll tell you one thing, family, it was so so so cool to come back to KK. i went to church, and after the meeting started, a lady walked in with her two kids. my last day in KK last year, was her first day at church. i got to sit next to her in Sunday school, and she was answering all the question, and it was so cool. and now her sister is baptized, whom i had only taught one time, and it was so cool to see people that i had worked with a lot still there at church, gosh, i don't think very many missionaries get to see that, and I'm really grateful. i love the branch here. i felt bad, like i was betraying Kuching, but one week here, and i love the people so much, and there are tons of new people i don't know, and it is so fun. and so crazy to be back in the old area, taking the same buses i took a year ago, seeing the same people that worked at the bus terminal a year ago, I've been living in the twilight zone for the last week! Goodwin is a great companion, and I've already learned a lot from her. its so fun to be with her, she is from San Fransisco, already graduated in history from Berkley, into music and food, i really think that she would fit right into our family. sorry, Matt and lance, she has a boyfriend. but i invited her over when we are going to Matt's house for his graduation. we'll bring some Indonesian karaoke. and she wants to go rollerskating with us too. but enough about that. me and sister Goodwin got name cards made, just enough for the rest of her mission, and we got this brilliant idea that they should have our pictures on them, I'm sending one of these name cards, they are awesome. you will see. so we are having fun and contacting people like crazy. the work is definitely different here, but it is good to be back.

oh and guess what? we just got back from Mt. kinabalu today, the whole time i was here last year i wanted to go, so we just went, we didn't hike all the way up, but it was sweet. the tallest mountain in southeast Asia. anyway, parents, i love you, so much, I'm so excited!

sister harrison

PS. since I've been back here, people have said that I've gotten skinnier, I've gotten fatter, I've gotten taller (which i actually think may be true, if that is even possible, I'm a solid 5'6", maybe a little above, and before i never was, is that possible?!) I've gotten prettier, my hair has gotten longer and my legs have healed. pretty good. i'll take it. and in relief society, when they announced that I'd come back, all the ladies clapped for me, so nice, huh?

Transfers, baby

hey mom and dad I'm writing you from a new place!

i just flew into KK like two hours ago, it is crazy town. i never guessed that I'd come back here, never in a million trillion years. but here i am, my new companion is sister Goodwin, and she has three weeks left on her mission. haha, I'm killing of another missionary. but she's awesome, when i came into sibu at the beginning of my mission, she was in the same house, four sister in that house. and now, there are four sister in this house in KK, and I'm with Goodwin again! dang, it still doesn't seem real. i had to say goodbye to everyone in kuching, and it was so sad. i didn't know it was possible to feel that way. that is such a good branch. and as always, we have a baptism next week that i am missing, oh yeah. but KK is awesome. i can't believe i got to come back to sabah. it was exactly a year ago that i came here. i came last year on February eighth, and i came this year on February ninth. insane!!

so sad to leave sister lim, too. they are splitting up my old area, and bringing in two elders, so she has to show her new companion and two new elders around our area, and our area is huge! it is kind of a perfect time to split, though, kind of a miracle, we just started having good investigators in the area the elders will be taking, so they will have good people to work with right off the bat. very sad to give up good people though. one of them, Lidia, was so cute, she said to me at church that she was sad because she just barely started learning, (her family has been members for years) seriously, we've only taught her once, and now i have to leave. gosh, i like the people there so much.

but in other news, sulin and simbut made dinner for us before i left, and we ate jellyfish! you don't cook it, just put it in this spicy liquid, and it is delicious. the texture is just like really firm jelly, it was so good, and they said that they would make it again when you guys came, haha. but the interesting things i have eaten just keep racking up, jellyfish, chicken feet, pig's ear, pigs intestine, very good, by the way, if you know how to cook it. the sisters in sibu got feed dog by some of their investigators. oh yeah.

i love you mom and dad, being a missionary is awesome,

love,
sister 'i forgot it was winter in America, suckers' Harrison

Short and Sweet !

I'm sorry but this email has to be super fast because my time is up and we have to go home to go to this thing for Chinese new year! Chinese new year is absolutely crazy here. gong xi fa cai. I'll write you more in the letter.
today was such an awesome email day, shout out to mom, dad, lance and Kim! sorry lance and Kim, i will write you next week, but i loved you emails. i love my family!

today i will say that missionary work is awesome, we have met some pretty golden people recently. i used to think that golden people were few and far between, but then i came on a mission, and it seems like we are always meeting them! well, relatively always. a member brought his friend to church last week, and he was commenting in class, about how the holy ghost feels, and then we talked to him after church, and he says he really has wondered why there are so many different churches who teach different things, and then he texted us to set up and appointment. he wanted to meet on Sunday, so i said, how about we meet you right after church? all sly, and he said, yep, that's great, I'll see you at church. ! his name is elister. I'll send you a picture when he is baptized. haha. but i love it here, and guess what? already registered for summer semester, look out byu. I'm taking two dance classes. bad idea? we shall see. not very much selection, word up.

loveyou family, so much. maybe next week I'll have a new companion. we know nothing yet, but I'd be willing to bet a lot a ringgit. love you!

sister Harrison

I have a miracle Baby! (It's not what you think !!)

dear mom and dad,

good week this week. first off, sister lim is a miracle baby. do you remember when a car rolled over her hand and nothing happened? this week, we were riding down this neighborhood like road, she was going pretty slow because we were going to turn, and a car came and drove pretty fast around her, and as he came around her, his bumper hit the front wheel of her bike. it was loud, too. but she didn't even fall or anything, and nothing happened to her bike! the guy stopped up the road, and got out, all mad, we were just standing in the road, no way were we going over there, he checked his car and drove off. crazytown. haha, and then the next day we were going up a hill, and sister lim ran into a parked car! sister lim's balance isn't that great, and I've taken to riding behind her on the bike, just to watch her, and sometimes its kind of scary, maybe I'm just paranoid, but i feel like i notice a lot of close calls. not that much, but sometimes. but the other day we were coming back from an apartment complex that is kind of far. before we left we prayed for our next appointment, and as an after thought, i prayed that we would be safe. and then one minute later, we were waiting to turn onto this road, a car is coming, pretty fast, and sister lim starts going, aah! sister lim! I'm yelling, there is a car! she got across okay, she said he was in the other lane, but he wasn't, and it was way scary. I'm glad she's still here. sister lim is definitely a miracle baby, but lets not push our luck.

one cool thing about missionary work, is that you get to see people from the start, and see how they change, and sometimes you can detect the thing that really opened them up, that made them excited about the gospel, and its different for every person. sometimes at the beginning of teaching people, they have the attitude of, okay, sure, I'll listen. but then something clicks and then they are all in, and eating up what you say and at church every week, its really cool. for simbut, she didn't even like listening, and only listened because her husband wanted to, but after she came to church for the first time, she loved it, and it was her answering the questions, and sharing the gospel with her friends. we are teaching this other lady, Emba, and she listened at first because she didn't have any other religion. but one day we brought a member over who shared her testimony and experience, and all emba needed was a friend with her. before she never would commit to come to church, but after she met sister Mellon and sister Ida, she really wanted to learn, and church was no problem. its very cool. we had a lesson last night, that was really cool. it was our first time meeting this family, a dad, a mom, and an 18 month old. they were so friendly. we asked them if they had ever heard of the bible, and she said yes, and got up to get it, and lo and behold she brings back a book of Mormon. missionaries had taught them a little a long time ago. we just shared a little about prophets and Joseph Smith, and about heavenly father, but what we said really touched Jenny, the wife. i think that was the opening point for her. we asked if we could come back and Sasok, the husband said maybe after Chinese new year (nooooo...!!! Chinese new year is two weeks long, ps) but then i asked them if we could meet once before Chinese new year, 'can we come next Tuesday?' i said, and jenny said, 'boleh, boleh boleh!' (can, can, can!) but I'm so excited for that family, they were so easy to talk to, like we had been friends for a long time already. and we just found them knocking, i think we only knocked like doors that day, we just had a little extra time, and i like them so much now, even after meeting only one time.

but changes are coming, me and sister lim can feel it, we've already been companions for five months now, can you believe that? it is seriously crazytown. i love the mission! and its going by in a flash. i love you family!

sister Harrison

PS i love sister lim so much. sometimes i get stressed out about numbers, and its bad, because that isn't really the important part. but we were singing 'let us all press on' (an awesome missionary song, PS) and she pointed out a good line for me, 'we will not retreat, though our numbers maybe be few....' haha! she's awesome

Singapore, it's still there!

hi mom and dad!

parents, things are going so good here in kuching. i just barely got back from visa run in Singapore, that is why i am late emailing you. there were three other sisters there, and it was really fun. we got to go out to lunch with sister lim's mom, and we got to see the 'merlion' which is like Singapore's mascot, and i got yelled at for drinking water at the metro station. apparently there is no eating or drinking on the metro, and i found out, hard, that it includes water, too. sheesh. Singapore put me on a little high because everyone thought i was so funny there. recently, i feel like I've been losing my sense of humor, but its back, baby!

oh here's a funny little story for you. of course, here, everyone tries to guess the transfers and who is going where and who is training who, blah blah blah. me and sister lim basically worked it out that i have to be training next time, two new sisters come at the beginning of February. I'm almost 100 percent sure one will come here, but we will see. so i was talking to sister hite, we were getting our bags out of the car, and i was saying something about how i was sad i never got to be her companion, because we get along really well (she thinks I'm funny, and so i like her). and so i say," when i get my new trainee, she'd better be fun" forgetting the whole while that my mission president is waiting just outside the car, and that i really have no idea if i am going to train or not. oops. i hope he didn't hear me. i tried to backpedal a bit, 'uhh, i mean, if, uhh, thats just what me and sister lim think..' oh gosh.

also while we were in Singapore, they had us sing songs from the children's songbook in Malay, so they could record them, make cds, and give them out to members. oh yeah. just one person singing their heart out. i sang four songs, a child's prayer, he sent his son, when i am baptized, and stars were gleaming. it was pretty scary, and he played your voice right back out to you, yikes. but we got through it, and i stopped worrying about how my voice sounded, because i was mostly stressed out about the pronunciation and stuff, and whoever laid down the music track had an odd sense of timing, there were definitely a few rouge formattas in there. I'll save a CD so you can hear my voice. lovely.

but i love you, mom and dad, there are a lot more stories, but they will have to wait. say hi to everyone for me!

sister Harrison

Happy and Sad, work goes on.

dear mom and dad,
i liked your email, and what you did for family night. this week we did a family night with three families from the branch, and it was so cool, just to kind of sit back and watch them laugh and have fun together, one was our recent converts, sulin and simbut, i like them so much, i hope they always do good.

yesterday, we had a zone meeting, and our zone leaders were telling us what the mission goals were for this year, and how they were broken down to our specific goals, and what we can do to help our mission. its kind of crazy, because they are pretty big goals, and we will have to change a lot of things about our work, but at the same time, we know that we can be doing a lot better, and all we really have to do is believe that heavenly father will show us and help us and tell us what to do, and then work like crazy. our mission is sort of a high baptizing mission, its doing really good right now. our goal for baptisms this year, I'll tell you just for curiosity's sake, is 1200. last year i think we had 1024. but i think it will be really good, to keep me on my toes until the very end. so that has really been on my mind a lot lately, because i think i will have to keep focused to the max, because they broke it down for us, and eventually, they want us to get around ten new investigators a week, and nine at church every Sunday. i hate to bore you with numbers, but it is what is on my mind, so whatever. its pretty high, but i want to do it so bad, to have the faith, and put the work in and see some results. so that is the goal, mom and dad. there is a really good scripture in Romans, about how experience worketh our hope. sometimes i used to think, 'what if it doesn't? what if you have a lot of experience, but all your experience is that you tried and you failed? what then?' but in the gospel, experience always worketh hope. you just can't tell now when you are working and trying and not seeing any results, but later, you will. that is where the faith comes in.

anyway, how about one sad piece of news and one happy piece of news? sad first. we've been teaching this family for four and a half months now. they almost got baptized in December, their interview was the next day. but he drank on Christmas. so we had to push it back, and push it back again because of this stupid conference thing, and two weeks, maybe three now, they haven't come to church, and last night, they ditched out on their appointment. so sad! we have to start dropping them, and it is so sad family, i like them so much. but then last week, a family, a mother and a daughter, came to church for the first time, i kind of thought that they wouldn't ever come, but they came, and they loved it, and they are really into the gospel now. they are excited to get baptized, and it is really cool to see. even though sometimes we're not that great of teachers or whatever, the gospel can overcome all of that and shine through. its good.

sister Harrison

Chinese New Year, Hurray !!

dear mom and dad,

Christmas and new years are over now, and Chinese new year is in full swing! it doesn't technically start until February third, but that doesn't prevent every store and business from loudly playing Chinese new year music, fast paced, high pitched, sounds like the same three songs over and over, oh yeah. but that is the only down side to Chinese new year, and I'm hoping against hope that i will still be here with sister lim until then, it will be my best Chinese new year ever! go year of the rabbit!

anyway, I'm glad the holidays are over. the work was a little bit slower, and it was hard to find new people, and i think I've gotten distracted or something lately, i don't know, but i want to start doing better. it always surprises me that even if you are thinking and teaching about the gospel every day you still can lose touch a little bit. but now we know, and knowing is half the battle, and i want to stay focused on what is important until the very end.

in other news, we met the coolest person this last week. he was a friend of the first counselor, he came to the branch party on Saturday, and then to church on Sunday. you know people are good when you actually meet them in church. His name is Palima, and on Sunday night we got the chance to teach him the first lesson. we asked him how he liked church, and he loved class so much. we taught him a little about Joseph smith and the priesthood, and i taught the apostasy differently than i have ever taught it, and that was cool. He was so into the lesson, basically eating up everything that we were saying. we asked him what he thought about everything so far, and he thanked us for teaching him, and he said, 'now i know, that this is the way for me.' ! me and sister lim were so happy, we didn't know what to say. then he asked us if there were things that weren't allowed in our church, (a lot of people think that we can't eat pork.) oh great, the word of wisdom on the first lesson. so i said, yeah, Joseph smith, when he became the prophet, received revelation, a law of health, and there are five things that the lord told us are not good for our bodies. bam bam bam bam bam. and guess what? he said, now i know that there are two special things about this church, class and the word of wisdom. haha, he is awesome. the saddest thing? he lives so far away! he is moving here, but not until later this year, and he only come every once in awhile. but he will get baptized, and I'm glad i got the opportunity to teach him once. what a great guy.

isn't heavenly father the best? even though i still have a long way to go, he still lets us be a part of really cool things. that's sort of how i feel about my whole mission, so happy that i got to be a part of it, just for a little while.

i love you family, I'll let you know next week about my release date. is it just mom and dad who are coming? any sibs coming along? just wondering. love you, have fun in the snow, suckers. and I'll have fun being sweaty all the time, haha

sister Harrison

Holiday Treats Gone Wild?

hi mom and dad!

it was so great to talk to you on Christmas, and really weird at the same time, sometimes i feel so far away, its weird that life is still going on like normal back home. weird.
basically, Christmas is insane, and my least favorite holiday in Malaysia ever! haha, is that over dramatic? so for Christmas, everyone invites you over to their house and you have to eat at every house you go to. like a meal. rice at every house. it was so bad, mom and dad. we were so full by the second house, and people kept saying, we cooked especially for you! we went to seven houses. and the last house, they are pretty well off, they had tons of people over, they made turkey and ham and lamb and all this stuff, and they loaded our plates with meat. and to top of the day, i got a flat tire, so the couple came to pick us up to take us home, and they came early, so we had to eat so fast, stuffing our faces with so much meat. merry Christmas, i never want to eat again! but other than that it was a really good Christmas. i LOVED my Christmas presents, and people love the Malay ctr ring, people are crazy for it. and the skirt you sent was so cute, and fits perfectly, and i can see me and it having a long and happy future, thank you so much!

the Sunday after Christmas i decided to fast, for a number of reasons, one of them being penance for Christmas gluttony the day before, and i think my body couldn't take so much stress, because the next day i was SO sick. i had a fever and a headache and an upset stomach, and i threw up in the afternoon, which was stupid, because by that time i had nothing in my stomach. yuck. we stayed in most of the day, but we had a few night appointments we couldn't miss, and i won't spare you the details family, when i got on my bike, it was pretty bad, I've never really felt that weak before, its a miracle i didn't fall off. we went to a recent converts house to explain why we missed our appointment earlier that day, and while we were there, i had to throw up again, in the ditch in front of her house. so bad. but after that, i felt a lot better, and we went to the rest of the appointments, and i was fine, they gave me something to drink and the bike ride home was perfectly fine. crazy. do you see why i hate Christmas? but now I'm fine except that i don't know if i will like rice as much as i did before. we'll see.

but other than that, kuching is doing fine, and since i think i am going to stay here until the end, I'm trying to really keep up the good things that we have seen happen here. i think one thing that i have learned is that you always have trials, no matter what is going on, so I'm just trying to push through them and have as much faith as i can. but i really really love the branch here, i hope to see lots of good things happen before i have to leave. but lets not think about that, there is plenty of time ahead of me. well mom and dad, i love you a lot, things are going good here, I'm learning patience like crazy and other stuff too. miss you,

sister Harrison

It's Almost Christmas !!

hi mom and dad!

this is a crazy week, sister lim went on a visa run to Singapore on Monday to Tuesday, today is p-day, tomorrow is zone conference, and Saturday is Christmas! it is insane, and its almost 2011. of course me and sister lim are getting worried about transfers again, because we have awesome people right now, and January is looking like a pretty good month for baptisms, we will see.

OK, listen to this crazy story. me and sister lim, seriously, have the craziest stories of how we find people. sometimes i feel like I'm kind of bumbling around a little bit, just doing missionary work the best way i know how, not sure if what I'm following is the spirit or just what I'm thinking. but i will tell you family, it is the spirit. this is usually how we find people. every day we bike around our area, going from members houses to investigators, and sometimes I'll just see a place and say to myself, hm, I've never contacted there. we should contact there when we have time. maybe I'll think that for a couple of weeks or so, and then, when we have the time to go knocking, we go there. That is how we found Angel and Buban. just a group of houses I've never been to, one night we walked over, there were tons of kids hanging around the door of the last house, so we said, hey, we'll go there. i kid you not, as we were walking up, the kids were rushed inside, the door was slammed shut and the lights were turned off. OK, we can take a hint, people are so weird. so we go to the next door neighbor. angel and buban. super nice, wanted us to come back, they are a young couple and they have a baby girl. they just moved here from Miri, and they just got baptized in another church there. but they really are awesome. we met them only one time, it was a great lesson. then, when we were back, nothing, door locked, and they don't answer there phone. so then, maybe a week later, we are at the church waiting for a member, I'm playing the piano and sister lim is bored, so she starts calling people, called up angel. angel said they had gone back to kampung, and had just come back to kuching that day! so we met them again, another awesome lesson. turns out they are going back to kampung again for Christmas, and we managed to meet them in like the four days they had in kuching. what are the chances! so we only just gave them a book of Mormon, but we are really excited for them. another day I'll tell you the other crazy finding stories, i have even better ones. so even though I'm not that good at recognizing the spirit guiding at the time, you can tell from the results. angel and buban asked us how we found them, we were literally guided to their door, thanks to their unfriendly neighbors. after we met them, we've never knocked the other doors in that area. never felt like i needed to. before i thought it was just my thoughts, but it is really cool to see your own thoughts be guided. i never thought that could happen before.

anywho, the work is going good, and i hope me and sister lim get a lot longer here. i've been here six and a half months already, and its been great. one day kuching will have a temple, and i will come back here. i know it will have a temple. its a really cool opportunity to get to be here and help it grow, the man we baptized last month, Sulin, i think he will help the branch a lot. we called them up to help us teach, and they were at the branch president's house from some Christmas thing or another, so we said, that is perfectly fine, just hang out with the branch members all the time, we are fine with that. they are so cool.

i was looking back over my journal, one of my first entries goes like this: 'do people actually like missionary work? i want to work hard, but I'm afraid, i just want it to be over already..' and then one of my recent entries, after a really good day went like this: 'I. LOVE. THE PEOPLE HERE. i love missionary work, i love Malaysia, blah blah blah blah.' there is definitely some growth there, don't you think?

so things are good, i love you family, so much. and i really love the gospel.

sister Harrison

P-Day and Christmas

hi mom and dad!

well, today is p-day, and as dad has requested, i will give you a little run down of how p-days go. the highlight of p-day, is, of course, email, and we either do it at the couple's house, they live below us, or we go to an Internet cafe, which is cheap, but usually full of Chinese teen aged boys playing shooting games with the sound turned all the way up. whatever. we go shopping, and sometimes the couple will even take us to get groceries, nice, huh? we have a washing machine, but we can do laundry on any day of the week. no dryer, though, so we just hang up our clothes to dry. usually we hang out with the missionaries in our zone, they live kind of far, but within a bike ride. we go bowling or to a museum, we went to an orangutan reserve once, pretty cool. and sometimes, sister lim lets us go to the church so i can play the piano, dang, mom and dad, i am really getting into the piano here. i mean, i don't really have time to play it except the occasional p-day, but i bet i could play for hours if i had the chance. i wonder if that will keep going when i'm home and have a piano all the time, i can't even imagine.

so we usually go out for the morning and come back in the afternoon, because we can watch some movies that are approved, so we just watch, write letters, and at six thirty we go out again for appointments with investigators. but we usually just have two appointments, and then come home again. its pretty nice. today is a little different because sister lim is sick, kind of fevery, so we'll just take it easy today.

but we are getting excited for Christmas, because we didn't get transferred! hooray! i was sure they were going to, but it didn't happen. so it looks like we get to be here together for a few more weeks. our mission doesn't have regular transfers because we get missionaries from two different mtcs, Provo and Philippines, plus Chinese elders and people going on visa runs all the time just messes things up. the next missionaries leave in a few weeks, so there will be transfers then, and then another transfer in a couple weeks more. so you never know! but we are here for Christmas, and that will be really fun. probably new year's too, i want to still be here for Chinese new year too, because we have a Chinese recent convert, but that is stretching a little bit. we'll see.

something really cool happened this week too. on Sunday, two new investigators, Akie and Vanessa, came to church. we went to see them that night, but akie wasn't there, and Vanessa was crying and all upset, i think akie drinks, and she wanted to go back and stay with her parents. we saw them again on Monday, taught the word of wisdom, akie said he wanted to try to follow it, even though he has big problems with smoking and drinking. we saw them again last night, and we asked akie why he wants to learn, why he wants to go to church, and do you know what he said? that he wants to change and help his family, and he thinks that this, that going to church is going to make all the difference. we taught them about the gospel, and they were really into the lesson, you could tell by their body language. I'm really excited for their family. that is all it takes, you know, to want to change and have the faith, which obviously they have. we were reading 1 nephi 3.7 with them, and i was explaining the story a little bit, but Vanessa already knew the whole story, it was awesome, Ibans are not big readers, that is for sure, and they don't have a lot of reading comprehension, so when somebody actually reads and knows the story, it is so so awesome. we have this one investigator, who does read, but whenever we ask her what verse she liked, she picks the weirdest verses, like, i, nephi was told by my father to do this and the, and she says, yeah, this verse, i really like this one. hahaha.. another funny thing about ibans while we are on the subject, they have no concept of time. when we meet people who have met the missionaries, we always ask them, when was that, how long ago? and they always always say, i bet it has been two or three months ago for sure, when you know that missionary hasn't been here for one or two years, at least. oh yeah, our recent convert, dorina, always says, i think its almost been a year since i was baptized. yeah a year, maybe in like eight more months. hahaha, got to love the ibans.

i love you family!

Golden Kampung

this has been a crazy week, because it is the last installation of the missionary leadership training, and all the missionaries from East Malaysia are here in kuching for it. right now there are exactly forty two missionaries in East Malaysia, and forty two in West Malaysia and Singapore, crazy. and six sister missionaries in one apartment at one time, lets just say that we didn't exactly get to bed at eleven o'clock, ha 2. the conference was good, except that i had to give a talk on the purpose of missionary (i swear i speak at every conference) . also the zone leaders decided it would be a good idea to have it at their chapel, pretty much a forty five minute bike ride from where we live, hooray. (can i just say, just after biking from there, that kuching is huge? we just biked forty five minutes from there, and forty five minutes the other way is still in our area! )

later this week me and sister lim are going to the youth conference to talk to the young women about missionary work, and then this weekend is district conference, for all the branches in kuching. triple conference week. district conference is always a little stressful because its at a weird place at a different time, and you have to get it all worked out with your investigators, and then, they have a 'welcoming meeting' after conference for all the recent converts and investigators, and there is the mission president and assistants, seeing how many of your people showed up. oh well, it only happens twice a year anyway, but somehow I've already been through four of them...

if sister lim and i stay in kuching we are getting a ten ringgit Christmas tree and going to have an awesome Christmas! we find out on Friday if any of us are getting transferred....

this email is sort of a mish mash of thoughts going through my head right now, but i did want to tell you one kind of crazy story. so my district leader has been telling me for awhile that there is a kampung (like a group of Iban houses) in my area that i don't know about, and he wanted to show us where it was. it never worked out, but finally yesterday me and sister lim had some time and he explained where it was and we went kampung hunting. it involved going down this secret road through the jungle behind this huge Methodist church, past all these Muslim houses, across the high way, then he said to just look for the lane between the factories. we found it, and i had actually been there once before with sister seve, when i first got here, but i had completely forgotten how to get there. so what it was was a narrow little lane between a brick wall and a barbed wire fence, that just kept going back and back and back, and then, it opened up, and there, between the walls of these two factories, all these iban houses. Insane. but a member lives there and we went to see her, and then we went to the very end and started to knock all the doors. and get this, 1, 2, 3, 4, every house we knocked on said we could come back. we only had time to knock four though, so i can't wait to try the rest. so instead of a golden investigator, we found a golden kampung! we are seeing most of them on Sunday, so we will see. i got a picture of that little lane, just wait till you see it, its crazy. it feels good to have some new investigators though, and pretty sweet to start working in a new area, too. can you believe i have been in kuching for six months already? gosh, i can't believe it.

well, i hope you have a really good Christmas season, December is flying by... i love you, mom and dad! stay safe in the snow, okay? and i will live up my first Christmas on the equator.

love, sister Harrison