Girona - the promised land? 9/19/22

 I learned last week that the Queen of England has left us for a better place. This rocked my world a little bit. Pls, send me your favorite fit check in attempt to console me. 

But hey! Here's three weeks in one this time. 

I don't have any chronological timeline of when any of this happened, so here are just some things from the weeks:

- There's a little old guy that has figured out the hours we normally go to the church, so he's started hiding in different rooms and scaring us. I get a small pang of anxiety every time I enter that building. 

- I translated sacrament meeting again for a family from Germany and sheeeeeesh. Translating is like patting your head and rubbing your stomach while playing sudoku while saying the alphabet backwards.

Wasn't my best showing...

- Trains are seriously the key to happiness in life. I think I could ride a train in an endless loop and be perfectly content. Which might clue you in to my current level of ambition or intellectual state... 

- Last P-day we grabbed lunch with the ysa in the ward. All you can eat sushi +  immediately followed by the windiest road ever + stick shift car = 💀

- To explain the level of exhaustion I've reached, here's a story: One day, we were visiting the Bishop, and I went to fix my headband with a full glass of sprite in my hand and just dumped the whole thing on my head. We all had tears laughing (mine were real tears tbh). Sups #classic

- I was fed an interesting soup this week. It was a bowl of water with bean paste and eggs inside. Wasnt half bad! Would I recommend? No. 

To drink, we were given something even better - legit straight rancid fruit. Idk if any of you have ever left your lunch in your backpack for weeks - imagine that smell but in a giant thick brown juice.  Health benefits I suppose. So, in the name of health I put it down. 

- I attempted to give the big rocks lesson (object lesson about prioritizing) in a noche de hogar. I freestlyed a little bit and went with dried lentils and ping pong balls. Anyway, the Tupperware thing didn't work and the kids were having a hayday with it. Movies, treats, and playdates first yeahhhh. 

As for our teaching pool, so much progress! We're on the up and up. It's been so incredible to see God's hand in the work here. 

Before, finding people here was the equivalent of finding water in the Sahara desert or something. 

Anyway, one day, a switch just flipped and we started finding a TON of people. Don't get me wrong - the rejection aspect is still alive and well. But yeah, tons of miracles. They're actually putting another companionship here next transfer! 

We're going to have more missionaries than members in the church..! But I'm stoked. 

Writting an email is tricky, because pretty much everything is such a cliche missionary phrase. But for reals, being here really does feel like a privilege. 

We were explaining the Book of Mormon in a lesson this week and we started explaining the layout and timeline. We casually dropped that Christ visits the America's, when our friend stopped us and said, "You can't just say that and move on!!!!"

And I just sat there for a second and was like. Holy cow. He's right - how incredible is it that we have a whole other account of Christ?!? 

And with that, how easy it is to take things for granted!

Anyway, I 100% learn more in our lessons than the people we teach. Which I know is backwards, but let's be real - I needed this mission more than this mission needed me.

We were in the middle of teaching the Plan of Salvation this week, and while our friend was looking for another scripture, he found this one: "And they never did look upon death with any degree of terror, for their hope and views of Christ and the resurrection; therefore, death was swallowed up to them by the victory of Christ over it." (Alma 27: 28). It was a really special moment, because he realized he doesn't need to live in fear anymore. He's chosen to be baptized in a few weeks, and he's so ready! 

This gospel is a gospel of hope! It gives us perspective, motivation, and purpose!

That's it from me, love you all! So grateful for you!

Love, 

Hermana Harris

- Jas

- Julio

- plaza de porro (or blunt plaza 😰😭)

- learning catalan, because sometimes people get mad when you don't speak to them in catalan #politics

- Zone conference (3 weeks ago)

- girona 😍😍🤩 

- finally remembered our umbrellas!