"I got my travel plans today!

I got my travel plans today! I leave the 9th of October and fly to Denver then to Nebraska. I do have a bit of a layover in Colorado where I'll be able to call home. I'll be able to talk from like 11 something to 1pm. Make plans for a call then. I love the MTC but I'm so ready to get to the field already. I got a letter from my mission president and he said he's looking forward to my arrival. I can't wait to pack up my things and head to my new home. 

Everybody here keeps telling me they've heard Nebraska is nice, i looked the mission up on the lds website and there are more densely populated cities than I thought there would be. I also looked up my house in nampa but i got off the page pretty quick because i started to get homesick. Don't worry about me though, I'm having a good time and I've been carefully maintain my good attitude, which is easy because I'm doing the work of the Lord. The MTC is actually pretty empty right now, lots of people left this week. 

It's weird that there aren't as many people here as when I came but I don't mind shorter lines for food and for computers come email time. I love getting all the letters and emails from everybody, keep them coming, maybe a few more with good news. 

I skipped a page in my journal on accident and didn't know what to do with it but then I started writing the names of elders that I meet and really get along with. I've got like thirty names and I haven't even gotten to the field yet. Forgive me if when i get back i just spend a day adding elders names on facebook. 

My Spanish is getting better and better still and I'm starting to speak it most of the day, It's really easy to slip back to English but I'm trying and the practice helps a lot. The other day I was reading a Spanish hymn book and it was on "I'll go where you want me to go" which is "A donde me mandes ire". I couldn't remember how the song started so i asked a BYU custodian if she knew. She had no idea what I was saying and said she didn't speak Spanish and it took me a while to realize that i asked her in Spanish. If I can accidentally speak Spanish after a month and a half i can probably learn to speak Spanish well and on purpose before too much longer. 

I'm the same weight as when I left but I'm in way better shape, I even got a free shirt because an elder in my hall ate too much to fit into it. 

Since i fake baptized one of my investigators the other day the teacher became now acts like somebody else who is totally different. I actually like teaching now that I can say most of the stuff I want to. A teacher from down the hall came into our class the other day and taught us about how to connect the gospel to the needs of our investigators and it was really cool to see him make up a situation and demonstrate tailoring the lesson accordingly. When you know how to connect the message to the person you can really help them know exactly what it can do for their life.

I don't know how next week will go with email and stuff because of conference but I'll email next time I can. Until then, remember that I send my love and I pray for everybody back home missing me. That's about all I have time for this time.

Love,
Elder Harrison

"It's amazing how much I've already changed...."

The end of my stay in the MTC is steadily approaching and I'm very excited for Nebraska.

 I still get along with my companions and can teach pretty well with them but it's safe to say that I'm also excited for a new companion. This week in the TRC with member volunteers we get to give a forty minute lesson instead of two twenty minute lessons. We like that because our twenty minute lessons usually last like half an hour, not that we are long winded or really knowledgeable it just takes us a while to say anything. 

We are really starting to get the hang of the language now though, I can say a lot of stuff I want to and if I don't know a word I can usually just talk around it. I love the language, I can't wait to be fluent enough to really express myself and the gospel as well as I can in English, hopefully better. 

Wave and waves of new missionaries come every week and I love saying welcome to the MTC when I see their orange dots on their name tags. Hopefully I'll have a chance to be a new missionary host and show the greenies around campus. Now that we've been together a while our district is pretty tight and we have lots of fun together. 

 We're already talking about reunions after we all get back from our mission. Except talking about what we did before our missions or what we'll do after is kind of off limits because its super distracting, I sometimes look back or forward to who I was and who I'm going to become.

 I'm glad I'm better than I was and I know I'm going to be really different when I make it back home. I just hope I'm not too weird from never hugging or flirting with girls, I don't want to lose my game. I'll have to relearn that part of me but I'm hoping to keep all the good habits I develop while I'm working out in Nebraska and keep all the bad habits away. 

My mom would be happy to know that I fold my clothes and put them in drawers and make my bed every morning. I keep my shirts on hangers and my shoes shined in my closet. It's amazing how much I've already changed, and it's change for the better.
 I don't have a whole lot of time left this week but I send my love to my family and everybody back home.


 Thanks everybody for sending me letters and dear elders and keeping me up to date on everything going on back home. If I write letters to you and something I write sounds funny or is spelled weird it's probably because I started thinking Spanish and it tripped me up. I'm not a pro yet or anything but I'm starting to accidentally speak it which is probably a good thing. I guess that's what happens when you pray and study all the time and try your hardest to learn a language and then God helps you out with the rest. Until next week,

Love, 
Elder Harrison

Happy 20th Birthday to Elder Jacob Thomas Harrison!

Email dated 9/14/2012


This week was awesome, especially today because it is my birthday. Thank you to everybody that sent me something, I got some stuff yesterday and got a package today but I know there is some mail waiting for me I just can't open it till tonight. 
This week we will be saying goodbye to a second advanced district. They are the ones that speak spanish really weel and only have to stay here for three weeks, we work pretty closely with them and ask them questions and practice speaking, we get to make friends with them just before they leave. We should get another one before the rest of us go to the field so that'll be pretty cool. You get to meet all sorts of people you would never meet anywhere else.

 Last friday I participated in a tie draft which is when a bunch of elders get together put one of their ties onto a rack and then put their name into a hat. After all the names and ties are offered, an impartial elder starts drawing names and when your name gets picked you have ten seconds to pick a tie from the pot. Ten seconds seems like a long time to choose but it's a tough decision because most of the elders bring really ugly ties so there isn't much to choose from. Last week My name got picked like fourth to last so I got a really interesting one probably leftover from the early 90's.



 Yesterday our teacher showed us a really cool and mission applicable game where we have cards with gospel doctrines and other words on them and when he hands one to someone they have to start teaching about it. Everybody has to listen intently because when they talk for a while he hands a different card to somebody else and they have to teach what's on that card after somehow smoothly transitioning from one topic to the next. It's really helping my companions and I to teach as one and have a clear central message. Most of the stuff we do here is pretty monotonous but we try to keep things interesting by finding fun things like that to shake things up a little. I am enjoying my time here and am enjoying learning spanish, I'm not ready to go pro but if i keep working hard I can be pretty well fluent by the time I get to the field.

 I think I mentioned that I had an "Investigator" named Ronaldo in one of my previous emails. We've been teaching him for a while he's going to be fake baptised tomorrow. Since it's not real we won't really no anything untill we do our follow up lesson and see how he felt and how we can help him continue to progress. I can't wait to be in the field and doing this kind of thing for real, I'll face alot of rejection and disapointment field but I can't imagine how I'll feel when I really do bring a real person to Christ. I know that this work and this message will help people improve their lives or even help them turn their life around.

 I'm glad I had good parents and teachers and leaders to teach me the gospel and build my testimony because one of the big points they keep teaching us here is that you can't teach anything with power and conviction if you don't believe it with power and conviction. I do know this gospel is of God and I'm pumped to share that knowledge with other people and bring them the happiness and strength that it has brought me. I'm out of time for this week but i wrote plenty of letters so those will have a little more in them. Till next week, Elder Harrison.

"I am looking forward to serving with people from all over (the world)"

          

This email was sent by Elder Harrison on  9/7/2012:

This week marks the halfway point of my time at the MTC, It's weird to think that I've been here for almost five weeks and I have less than five weeks till I go to Nebraska. The food is still good, it's keeping me full and healthy, I haven't gotten sick yet, everybody cross your fingers for me. During lunch one day I started talking to a senior couple and it turns out the sister was born and raised in Nebraska, she gave me all sorts of advice on how to deal with tornadoes and other extreme weather I'll be dealing with while I'm there. She told me to get inside when i hear tornado sirens but i think I'll take some pictures really quick before I do. 

She gave me the scoop on all the cities that have rough parts and stuff like that. She said the members are really strong and will be good to work with, I'm looking forward to that, members make missionary work way more effective.

 My Spanish is coming along pretty well, I can hardly remember before i came here and could hardly hear or say anything I wanted to. I can't wait to learn more Spanish so I can not just talk but really communicate with the people. The spirit will help a lot with the communication i know but studying Spanish helps too.

 I'm pretty used to sitting around all day now except my butt gets sore sometimes. The gym times are good even though they don't allow Ultimate Frisbee, they are keeping me in shape and my clothes still fit which can't be said about some missionaries here. 

Fast Sunday here was good, the spirit was really strong with all the 2500 or so people here all trying to get closer to Christ, Dinner that day was a mess though worse than most days. I look around during meals and see tons and tons of missionaries and although the lines are long it means that there are a whole lot of people about to go out all over the world and bring even more people to Christ.

 There are so many people here from all over, there are elders next door to my classroom one from Brazil and a redhead from Spain. I went down a level in my residence hall and spent like five minutes and met a Frenchman with a Mexican companion and a Chinaman speaking Spanish and countless other foreigners with cool stories behind them. I'm looking forward to serving with people from all over when I get to the field. Maybe I'll even pick up a little of their different kinds of spanish accents and sound like I learned Spanish all over.

 Even though it's hard here sometimes I gotta enjoy the little things and stay excited about this great work I will be doing. Missionaries always face disappointment in one way or another but discouragement is a choice that I will not make. The scriptures have been really helpful, i keep finding stories about missionary work and love for the people you teach. Even more about patience and enduring to the end which is great for missionaries. The scriptures in Spanish are so cool, I really am learning to love the language, I'm sure I'll love it more as I get better at it. 

Thanks everybody for sending me letters and emails and stuff, it really perks me up to hear my name called when my district leader is handing out letters. I've been trying to find really exciting things to write home about but all we do here is spend 9 weeks changing from regular 19 year olds into bilingual men with more powerful testimonies. I'm sure the field will bring some more interesting news. Until next week, keep praying, Elder Jacob Harrison.

First Photos sent from the MTC!

We received a letter today from Jacob and he included the data card from his camera.  So finally we have photographic proof that he is actually alive and well in the MTC!  It was soo good to see these.  We have missed him very much.  Wow, 2 years....It is starting to feel like a long time and we are on month 1!

Temple Trip

Jacob's original artwork adorning the missionary planner!

Jacob's shoes.  One of many pairs to come!

Week four in the MTC: "I shouldn't tiptoe when the Spirit says march!"

Elder Jacob Harrison's email dated: August 31, 2012

 Another week has passed, a week full of great devotionals and incredible talks. They just film all the general authorities that come and speak and show the best talks every week. They only let missionaries watch them but i wish you could see them, I've seen sides Holand and Uchtdorf and Bednar that you don't see in general conference. 

    



The devotionals are also really cool I have been singing in the choir, I miss the music of Babylon but hymns are really great too, especially in Spanish, the poetry and imagery is better in Spanish. There are even really good ones that don't exist in English. My Spanish is getting better, I have been praying so much for that as I study and try to teach in Spanish. 

Last week I think I mentioned that I was going to the TRC to teach people who volunteer to come and learn form the practicing missionaries. I was worried about it but it turned out to be one of the best lesson that we ever gave, and during it I spoke the best spanish I've ever spoken. I get to do it again today and I'm really excited to practice bringing people closer to Christ. 

Speaking of which I get to go to the temple once a week and it's really cool to be able to do that work, I love seeing the interesting names form other countries with dates from as far back as the 1600s. My companion and I continue to get along pretty well, he love to study all the time and that got him really good grades in school and a better start on spanish then any of us. He's a by the book, follow procedure kind of a guy which is good because sometimes I like to plan a little less and teach more by feel and by how the spirit directs so we balance each other out. 

One of our roommates moved to the Dominican Republic MTC to learn dominican spanish there so there are three of us in the companionship, our new companion, elder Mull is more of a by the seat of his pants missionary but he is getting better at Spanish and getting the hang of our teaching together.

 The first Lesson we did together was for an "investigator" named Ronaldo. He's an old man who has been married to a member for years and has heard so much from the missionaries so many times and is a little hard to teach because he doesn't think he ever feels anything. i keep wanting to be really frank with him and tell him this is exactly what he needs and I know he knows it's true and has felt the spirit. Being blunt and to the point with investigators is hard enough in English, Spanish is harder. I am learning that when I am prompted to say something I should just say it and not be worried about the language, I shouldn't tiptoe when the spirit says march. I'll have to always have enough guts ready to say whatever I am directed to say, no matter how scary it is. He is an old man after all, he could die before too much longer, I have to get him and his wife to the temple quick. I know the investigators here aren't real but they do a good job making it feel real and if I can love fake people then loving real investigators should be easy.

 I'm not sure how dear elder works but there is a Jarom Harrison here right now learning russian who gets my emails by mistake sometimes so be sure you send it to the right Elder Harrison.

 Lots of people here are getting sick including both of my room mates but I remain healthy for now, probably because of all the fruits and vegetables and other healthy stuff I have been eating. I'm so glad we have so much gym time, I don't know what i'd do without that release of wiggles.

 Give everyone back home my love, tell everybody thanks for the prayers and letters and emails, I really appreciate all of them. I'm looking forward to more of them, especially around the 14th, my birthday, I could use some more ties, but anything with love behind it would mean just as much to me. Till next week, so long for now.