Sunday, October 21, 2012

We received the "Safe Arrival" letter from the Mission Home!

As a mom, I was happy to open the mailbox and find the "Safe Arrival" letter that the Nebraska Omaha Mission home sent to us telling us that Jacob had arrived safely in Nebraska.

Here are some quotes from the President Michael D. Weston, the mission president regarding Elder Jacob Harrison:  (moms love this kind of stuff!)

"We are impressed with his goodness and desire to serve the Lord.  His presence will lift the overall strength of the mission.............It is our focus to help your son fulfill his purpose as a missionary......Elder Harrison has been assigned to serve in the Denison area of the Council Bluffs Zone.  His trainer will be Elder Cade J. Terris; their current address is 1812 2nd Ave. South, Denison, IA 51442."



In the letter were two photos of Jacob; one with all the missionaries that entered the Omaha Nebraska mission on the same day and another with just Jacob and the mission president and his wife.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Elder Jacob Harrison's First Area: Denison, Iowa

We finally received an email from Elder Harrison, so we know that he arrived safely to Nebraska!
It is so exciting to hear about his first days in the mission field!
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Email sent October 15, 2012

Wow, a lot has happened since my last email. We shipped off from the MTC early in the morning and headed to the airport. On the leg from SLC to Denver I sat by two missionaries so i didn't get to talk to anybody but after a pretty long layover in Denver we headed to Omaha and on the plane ride I sat by this woman and we talked all about her life and my life and her church and my church and Christianity in general. I didn't give her a book of Mormon or anything but it was a really cool conversation. We got to Omaha and met our Mission president, he's really cool and his wife is really cool too. 

We spent the night at a hotel then the next morning got a tour of the Mormon trail visitors center and other local landmarks in Mormon history.


After that we went to President Weston's house and ate then met a bunch of other missionaries. They wanted to get us right to work so they gave us all temporary companions and sent us knocking doors around Omaha. I went with an Elder Terris who has been out for a year, he must have learned how to find the right people because the very first door we knocked we started talking to this woman with a few kids and she invited us in. My companion took the lead of the lesson but at the end I bore testimony of the Book of Mormon and invited her to pray for an answer and I asked her to be baptized when she got one, that part was a little rough because I hadn't spoken Spanish for a few days but she said she would. I'm pretty pumped about that. Later after some get to know you stuff with the presidency and the office staff and everything we had a testimony meeting and then got our assignments. 

My first assignment is to Denison Iowa being trained by the same Elder Terris that I tore it up with in Omaha. The area had missionaries in it a year or so ago but they closed that area. Elder Terris and I will pretty much be starting from scratch in a town forty five minutes away from a chapel with like one member family. It'll be hard but it'll be awesome because like eighty percent of the people in Denison are Hispanic so we'll have plenty of opportunity to practice the language. Since the area is new when we got assigned they didn't have an apartment ready for us yet so we stayed in a teeny tiny little town in Iowa called Persia with some other elders in our district. 
Downtown Denison, Iowa
One of the days we were waiting for our area to be ready we had the opportunity to go to a Gladys Knight performance in a stake center in Omaha. The Persia Elders brought a few investigators and so did pretty much every other missionary around. The music was pretty unorthodox, really peppy gospel stuff and keyboard and base guitar and stuff. The members didn't really know how to react but some of the black ones were waving their hands in the air and saying amen and stuff. On the way home from that I hit my first animal, a raccoon ran across the freeway when i was going seventy, got my heart going but I've seen the end of Simon Birch so i didn't swerve or anything.

After they got our apartment and furniture ready on Saturday we went to Dennison and started moving in we got everything settled and it's a pretty big apartment for missionary standards. The windows are all pretty drafty and there was a weird centipede in the sink one morning but other than that no wildlife yet. The gas wasn't on yet and still isn't so we have been without heat or hot water for two mornings, that's pretty fun.

We visited the Pacas family last night, they are an old husband and wife that have some grown up kids that aren't active. Brother and sister Pacas are really cool and will be the anchor for all the people we'll be converting in Dennison. It'll be hard to get anyone to church since it's so far away but we're going to work hard anyway.

I'm pretty pumped to be here even though I'm kind of in the middle of nowhere, Dennison has like 10,000 people and it's by far the biggest town for miles and miles. Me and Elder Terris get along well so far and he'll be a good trainer.
It is pretty cold in Denison!Denison, Iowa average temperatures

Sorry I couldn't call more people at the Airport that card worked great and had tons of minutes but I could only call so many times and I used them all up. Christmas is coming sooner or later and I can call home then. Keep sending my mail to the address I gave for the Omaha office and they'll get it out to me.

My time is about up for this computer I'm using in the library so I'll have to sign off here. Keep us in your prayers so we can find lots of people and teach well. Till next Monday which is my new P-day, I love you all and I miss you. 
Sincerely,
Elder Jacob Harrison




Saturday, October 6, 2012

"I'm going to stay at the top till I'm done with my work"

This is the last email I will send in the MTC! It's crazy to think that I'll be in Nebraska on Tuesday. Yesterday was what is called In-field Orientation which was just an entire day of learning more missionary stuff, how to find people to teach, how to work with members when we teach, what to expect in our first weeks in the field. It's all really exciting, which is an emotion I never thought I'd feel about Nebraska. Yesterday was our P-day but infield took that up so it got moved to today. Of course general conference is today General Conference so I get to do all my laundry and letter writing and all the other stuff I have to do before I leave between sessions. It'll be cool to watch general conference now that I'm more separated from the distracting things of the world than I have ever been. I'll get a lot more from hearing the words of the prophets this time around, plus I won't be watching from a couch with a blanket so it'll be easier to stay awake. 


I'm going to miss all the other Elders I got to know while I'm here, I met so many cool ones. Forgive me if I say the same things a lot when I email, my memory isn't so good. One that I think I forgot to mention was this elder I saw while walking the temple grounds I thought I recognized from somewhere. I started talking to him and it turns out he is the star of that Youtube video with the Mormon kid who just got his wisdom teeth out and was rambling about the church while on the surgery drugs. Also a little while before I got here my teachers taught someone you might know, an Elder David Archuleta heading to Chile, the teacher told us he was really humble and really kind and spoke really highly of him.

 During the infield one of the speakers told a story of how he was playing in the park with his family and he tried to throw a football over a tall pine tree but it got stuck in the top. He tried sending his seven year old son up the tree but he got up a ways and got scared so the father went up the tree after him and got him to go back down. The father climbed up to the top of the tree but couldn't find the ball. The tree was swaying a lot and he was a little worried and he thought of going back down. He was scratched and covered in sap but he realized he was already up at the top of the tree so he might as well stay up there till he found the ball. He compared the story to us being on missions. We are already out on our missions, way out of our comfort zones. What we are trying to find is more important than a ball, it's people to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is hard and it does take a little courage to stay in the tree or to just go up to people in the street or to knock on doors but I'm already at the top of the tree, I'm going to stay at the top till I'm done with my work.

 Thank you everybody for your support and for sending me letters and email, those are pretty awesome, keep them coming. I loved the big batch of letters from my family that I got the other day, I'll see if i can find the time to write back individually. I've got to go finish up some laundry and things before conference starts but I'll send another email during my first P-day in the field. Till next time, Elder Harrison.