hey hey from the LA in the PA!!!

i made it!!! i love it here! its just been a grand 'ol flag!! i got picked up by my mission pres. and his wife, the Summerhays-  i think my flight arrived kind of early b/c no one was there to pick me up. so i walked around for about 5 min. in and outside looking for elders? Pres. Summerhays? wasn't sure who was coming to get me, and then i said a little pray, and just decided to stay put inside, and sure enough sister summerhays, and her son and his wife and 3 kids walk up to me, and greeted me, and then coming down the escalators was pres. they are such nice people. they instantly made me feel very welcome and comfortable. and the 3 little kids even helped me w/ my luggage. 

we went out to dinner at a japanese  restaurant, that was fun, they cooked the food on this huge griddle right in front of you and do fancy tricks w/ knifes-throwing them in the air and fire, just lots of fun, i felt so special, then we drove to the mission home in Pittsburgh, had an interview w/ Pres. and talked about what to expect. i'll be serving in a trio until Dec. 17 when one the sisters goes home! and then its me and sister bradshaw from UT for the rest of the mish. Sister Sonderegger is from UT as well. both absolute sweethearts who are hard working and obedient. two things that i was worried about having being a problem, so i've been so blessed. we have so much fun together, get along really well. so transfers is actually today, and pres. had his board w/ all the new changes on it, and he let me look at it-haha, i felt so honored to be looking at classified info- except for the fact that it didn't mean anything to me, cuz i didn't know anyone on there, haha. so we finished up the interview, and then i went out and talked w/ them just casually for fun w/ pres and his wife and their son and daughter in law. they are so kind and down to earth. then i went to bed!  and i slept all by myself downstairs, so weird not having a comp! then in the morning,(i was just exhausted, cuz i lost 2 hrs) yikes! but in the morning, i got to sleep in-pres. was so nice to me! 

just got ready and they had breakfast for me, and i took my study materials up to breakfast and studied and played w/ the small and adorable chilln's until my comps arrived! we chinned for a bit while Sister Summerhays finished up preparing the thanksgiving spread, and then we all ate! they actually seat us sisters in the kitchen just by ourselves while all the "adults" ate together, haha, there were a few other couples from the mission that came, yummy yummy food- not the same as the fun thanksgivings we had, but it was the next best thing. :)

then we got me packed up, and we drove the 3 hours to our area. so i wont' actually be serving in pittsburgh, guess where i'm at??? this might actually be more excting to dad, and joe, and maybe brent b/c its home of the Penn State Nittany Lions! haha- i'm in State College!!!!! good 'ol college town! we cover a family ward and a singles branch. this'll be lots -o- fun! eveyone was so kind and welcoming, and actually i'm the  home ward of one of the sisters serving at temple square! i met her parents yesterday, so that was fun to make that connection.

 the work here has been great. definately different by a bunch. at temple square, we are constantly on our feet, litterally ALL day, here, its the opposite, lots of the day is spent in the car driving from appointment to appointment. so that is a big change. one dif. that is nice about here is actually building these relationships w/ people and getting to keep them, follow up. and eating at members houses. you really get to gain a closeness w/ people which is so valuable when teaching them. 

 yesterday was my first day of tracting! we take turns who leads the convo at the door, and thankgoodness, my first one was a cute girl who was a junior in highschool. she was really nice. i had no idea what i was going to say, but said a prayer in my head, and said i'm putting my faith in you Heavenly Father, and i'm jsut going to open my mouth and trust that what i say is what needs to be said. i think it went alright. :) haha, i'm so glad that we teach "two by two" or in our case "3 by 3" to have that support, so that we can add thoughts so we're not by ourselves. but she said we could come back on tues. and talk to her again w/ her mom. so hopefully it goes well. 

 i've got 6 min. left and i want to put some pics on, so i'm gonna wrap it up really quick here, but i did want to say that--oh dang it, i'm not sure how to do the pics and i have just 3 min. now, and i don't want the comp to kick me off w/o saying a proper goodbye. well, i'd best be going. i'll figure out pics next week. mondays are the day of Preparation for me! i love you so much! thanks for your letter. it was fun to hear how the fam is doing! heres my new address. dont send anything to the other one i gave you.

LOVES!!!
10 Vairo Blvd. Apt. 245 C
State College, PA 16803

Written by Janet Harris: 

AJ's Outbound. She's going to either Texas, California, Pennsylvania, Florida, or Colorado.

Suspense....you've got to look at the next email...Tee Hee.  Of course our family has to do things this way!

Aaaaannnnd....Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania!  She leaves early tomorrow morning.  She said she is nervous and to please remember her in her prayers.

hey family!!!

Well, things are going pretty good.  I an thinking that I will get my outbound on Monday. i'll actually get to email you to let you know! so stay close to your computer on Tues, and then if i go, i'll be calling you too, so then you'll at least know generally when i'd be calling you on wed. yay!! i'm probably going for sure. its my class that's up next. so i'm going to start packing. i'm going to try and send you a pkg. of things i don't need anymore. 

well, things this week have been good! just normal stuff i guess. nothing really out of the ordinary. just being a missionary!! we went to breakfast today, at the Nauvoo Cafe where we ate lunch when you came to visit, and someone had paid for our meal! what a sweet person! we don't know who it was, but it was some man the lady said. so we told her to tell him thank you! that always makes me smile! 

we have been having a Preach My Gospel Marathon-is what we call it, the AP's or the ZL's teach it. President Holmes wants us to be the most prepared and most educated mission in the world on PMG! so we get an hour set aside each day to study it even more than the 2 hrs we have in our personal study and comp. study. isn't that great?! and we've been doing service as well, so tomorrow we get to go the Jordan River Temple and do a session. i'm really excited!

 this last Sunday was a neat day. we got to take a VIP tour, w/ educators from Pakistan. they were really nice. neat to just be meeting people from all over the world! then we also took another tour in Hindi and Urdu and 3 guys from Brazil, and two the Brazilians referred! such nice men! The Gospel is for ALL of God's children all around the world! isn't it just amazing?! i just love being here, serving. its never perfect all the time, you're tired, hungry, aching body, problems w/ guests or comps, but when it all comes down to it, this is the Lord's work, this is HIS gospel, that everyone needs to hear, and i just feel so blessed and privileged to be part of it. i can't believe that i only have 9 months left. it really does not sounds like that much! my oh my! 

well, i best be going. i love you so all so much and thank you for your support and all that you do.  

i am staying warm. i just layer up. no worries about me! it's been cold but blue sky almost everyday. it did snow a couple of days ago, and that is still on the grass, but it's nice here! the lights are up on the Square and the Navitiy scene, its all so pretty!!! how fun and neat!!!! 

LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!
love, sister harris!

ps, i'll buy 6 copies of the Ensign and send 'em home! haha. thanks mark! Ü

Sister Harris in the Nov '09 Ensign

Family,

 i'm sooo sorry, i left my adapter for the computer- so i have to pics to send to you this week. sorry. i promise i will next wk.  well, lets see, this week has been good! it's hard to think back to try and remember what's happened- everyday is the same, and the next and the next. haha. it just goes by so fast, altho, guess what?!!?!?!?! tomorrow-the 4th of Nov. i'll have only 9 months left!!!! can you believe it?!?!?!?  seriously, just nine months. woah, that doesn't seem like very much time left. 

yowza! OHHHHHHHHHHHHH MY GOODNESS!!!! I ALMOST FORGOT!!! YOU ARE GOING TO FLIP OUT. LIKE NO WAY MAN, WOAH HO HO!!!!!!! as soon as you get the new ensign- the gen.conf one, you might just want to look on  page 44.  hmmm....i dunnooo, you might recognize a certain someone on that page.hehehehehehheheheheheh ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ....anywho- just HAD to let you know! 

lets' see, what's been happening on the T to the Square Unit---- being w/ Sister Aslam has been lots of fun, we ran into a sen. couple that served in Pakistan while she was growing up and that has been neat. we also met these people that really have no connection to Pakistan, but she just fell in love w/ s. aslam, and then like a week later, we get this huge order of Pakistani food- amazing, so good. what a  kind lady.  dang it, i took a pic, but no adapter, i'll have to send you one next week.

 this last wednesday, we had a program for the youth in the surrounding stakes, its called "Called to Serve" to get them excited for serving a mission, i got to sing for it, it went really well, Heavenly Father really helped me out, b/c my voice was not quite there yet from being sick but i prayed really hard, and i think it went alright.

 on thurs, there was a big group of Vietnamese Buddhist Monks that came to visit on Temple Square. They didn't really speak English but i did  a little bow thingy and said hello. that was the extent of our interaction, but it was just so neat to look at them and think-this is the real thing, these are monks-dressed in their little outfits! and they are here on hallowed grounds, even though we can't speak to them-we don't have any sisters that speak vietnamese, i sure hope they could at least feel the spirit. 

ok, so remember my very first transfer here, and the story about the guy in the wheelchair flying passed me going down the ramp from the Christus Statue yelling weeeee!!!! well, he's a regular here, we see him a lot. his name is bob, and he was in a car accident many years ago, so he's trapped inside this body that doesn't work very well, but his mind is pretty much normal, its just hard to communicate regularly b/c of his body, so we were talking to each other, and i asked him what his plans were for halloween, and he said he was going to a singles dance, i'm guessing he's still in the singles ward, and he said that the janitor always gets mad at him b/c when he dances he his wheelchair leaves marks on the floor, and he said that's my "break" dancing! hahaha. get it? it made me laugh! he's a nice guy, always good for a laugh.

 oh another funny temple square story, we had a sister here from Japan, and her name was Sister Nishi- and the Japanese flag is just a red circle w/ a white background, and she asked a little kid if he knew where she was from, by looking at her flag- and he goes "TARGET!" oh my goodness it was funny, for those who may not know, target is a dept. store and it's logo is a red target. anywho, i had a good laugh.

Halloween was fun, we got off early, at 6pm, and we got to eat pizza, pop, popcorn, and tonz of candy and watch the movie, Emma Smith, and then a movie on Pres. Hinckley. so that was nice of Pres. and Sister Holmes. i wore my orange skirt and a black sweater w/ an orangey scarf that Jooge gave me. twas the best i could do for dressing up. the pics of the family w/ Halloween looked cute! yah, aubree did an amazing job w/ dereks face! 

well, today was pretty fun! just had the RC this morning, made lots of calls, and got lots of answering machines. yay! haha, but after that, we met up w/ s. aslams cousin and his wife and little daughter, and he took us to an Indian restaurant, for lunch, oh man, such good food. i didn't really eat much of a breakfast so that i could have lots at lunch. and i'm glad i did, it was a buffet, i've never eaten' so much, i was pretty proud of myself--haha, where have i been all these years w/o indian food! but then we went to walmart, did a tidge bit -o- shopping and now just go home and veg. the weather is beautiful! we've had a week straight pretty much of clear blue sky, i just love it!!!!!! well, i've better go. but i love you so much! thanks for your love! think about you lots and just feel so loved and thankful that i'm your daughter! love love love you!!!

love,
Sister Harris