October 28, 2013

Family and Friends,

Last July in the Liahona, President Uchtdorf wrote a message about always thinking that you are in the middle of your time.  The first thing he mentioned was that missionaries should think that they´re always in the middle of their time on their mission, whether they got in the field yesterday or are leaving the field tomorrow.  He gave this analogy because everyday as missionaries, if we are diligent and hard working, we are planting seeds that will have an affect now or in the future.  I´ve always been striving to think that I´m in the middle of my mission and even more now than ever.  

He also quoted Emily Dickenson, "Forever is composed of nows."  That quote for me is so true, every little thing that we now do has an impact on the future; so we better do well our part.

I hope you all had a great week that passed and have a great week that is now starting!

Love Always,

HERMANA HARBISON

October 21, 2013

Family and Friends,

It´s a pleasure to write you all this week and hear from you all. Sorry for not writing anything last week...whoops. Last week we went to Quinua that´s an hour away in van. Here´s a pic of our Zone here in Ayacucho North:

Last time we went to Quinua my companion got sick from the guinea pig so we decided to pack a picnic from the local sandwich place here that also sells the best cake ever. Well picnicing in Quinua brings all the street dogs to the yard:

We didn´t have anything to give them but they just longed for something with their puppy dog eyes. There are a ton of dogs here in Ayacucho, most of them are mutts and super ugly but some are cute.

Thanks for all the love and support and have a great week!

Love Always,

HERMANA HARBISON

October 7, 2013

Family and Friends,

Wasn´t General Conference so great? Well if you don´t know what General Conference is or you didn´t watch it, go to lds.org and look it up. Here´s our Zone after the Saturday afternoon session:

You can really see that they´re putting an emphasis on missionary work and helping others to come unto Christ. Love it.
Well I hope you all have a great week! Just wanted to send my love in Spanish for you all this week!

Love Always,

HERMANA HARBISON

September 30, 2013

Family and Friends,

Did you know that it´s the rainy season here in Ayacucho? Well now you do. Almost everyday the sun is super strong at noon and then in the late afternoon it starts to rain hard and usually we get caught in it. I love it. Life´s all good here in Perú, we´re getting excited for General Conference this week :):)

>Sorry for the shortness but I wrote you all last Wednesday so that´s why haha.

Until next week, have a great week!

Love Always,

HERMANA HARBISON

September 25, 2013

Family and Friends,

Here I am, still in Ayacucho with my same companions :):) We were relieved and so happy to hear that we would still be together for my last missionary transfer...

One day we dressed in super bright colors just to walk to have lunch and everyone greeted us. Which is a total rarity here in Ayacucho as we always greet everyone we meet and no one ever responds to us.

I´m ready for this last transfer, giving it all my all and not thinking that the end is so close... I hope you all have a great week!

Love Always,

HERMANA HARBISON

September 16, 2013

Familia y Amigos,

Good week this week as Hna Saenz and I took a trip to Lima, the big city! I had to do some immigration paperwork so Hna Saenz was my company as Hna Mendoza stayed and worked here with other Hermanas in Ayacucho. She was happy because the last time she took the 10 hour bus ride to get here she got super carsick and that wasn´t fun. So on Wednesday night we were off on the bus and on Thursday night we were back on coming back to Ayacucho. It was a long time but we had a good time in Lima as we got to go to the Temple which was great and beautiful! However, after a long, terrible sleep on the bus night, we were excited to be reunited with Hna Mendoza on Friday morning.

We´re working hard and not looking forward to the call this Saturday about the transfers for next week...

Love Always,

HERMANA HARBISON

September 9, 2013

Familia y Amigos,

On monday we went to a place called Quinua.

It was so pretty and reminded me of Colorado up in the mountains. Well while we were there I ate guinea pig.

After a year here in Perú I´ve finally eaten the classic dish from the sierra of guinea pig or as it´s called here cuy. It was nice and fried and it was pretty tasty not going to lie. I love Perú.

Love Always,

HERMANA HARBISON

September 2, 2013

Family and Friends,

Good week this week. We´re doing work and seeing results and I love it. We also had the chance to have a zone conference as President and Hermana Douglas came down from Lima. It was great to see them and be edified, seeing what I can do to be a better missionary. Here´s a pic that I took last Monday as we were walking around town:

August 26, 2013

Familia y Amigos,

I hope you all had a great week this week. This week there was a full moon!

We came home for a quick dinner and took a picture, which totally doesn´t do it justice because it looked so much bigger. This week we´ve been enjoying the start of the rainy season. For two days straight we have been getting afternoon rain storms. It´s not the best when you don´t have a set lesson to go to but they only last hard for a good ten minutes and then we´re good.

Other than the unexpected rain storms life is going great here in Ayacucho. The work is coming along and I love it. Hope you all have a great week!

Love Always,

HERMANA HARBISON

August 19, 2013

Family and Friends,

Good week this week here in Perú. I love Ayacucho!

>Here´s a pic of "The Strip" as we were walking to the market last Monday.

There isn´t anything too exciting from my end. I love my companions, we´re learning and laughing a lot and I love it. I´m learning how to speak Spanglish. Hermana Saenz is slowly but surely getting better with her Spanish, but we still speak a lot of English. I´m slowly losing my Peruvian accent and I don´t like it haha.

Sorry for the shortness of the letter but I sent a picture...

Love Always,

HERMANA HARBISON

August 14, 2013

Familia Y Amigos,

Every missionary in Perú Lima South dreams to get the phone call to hear that they are going to serve in Ayacucho, well that dream was made a reality for me this week as I am now in Ayacucho. It´s a province 10 hours south east of Lima, 9,000 feet above sea level, the air is dry, and the sun comes out everyday so far. I love it.

From the left: Myself, Hermana Mendoza, and Hermana Saenz

Here we are on our roof, it´s the view we see every day as we go to do exercises in the morning.

Hermana Mendoza is from El Salvador and she just started her mission the last transfer. She´s 21 years old and she was in another part of the mission as well. Hermana Saenz is from West Virginia, my first American companion! She´s 20 years old and just started her mission the last transfer as well and she was here in Ayacucho before we came, she´s teaching us about the area and the people. Here I am training two completely new companions and it´s great!

Well here I am, ready to do work, avoiding all the calendars that are around me, soaking in the sun, having to remember to put on bug spray, and inviting others to come unto Christ. I love being a missionary.

Love Always,

HERMANA HARBISON

August 5, 2013

Familia y Amigos,

We had a great week this week because we had the chance to be apart of the progress and baptism of Richard!

Dennis, Elder Burgos, Richard, Hermana Castillo, Myself, Hermana Traverso

Richard came to church with his friend Dennis (on the far left) and he just kept coming and kept coming since the end of June. However, we never had the chance to have a lesson with him for lack of time and lack of other things; but when we finally had a lesson with him it went so GREAT as we invited him to be baptized on August 3rd. With a few other challenges that came our way, he was still able to be baptized. He´s wanting to apply to the military here, so as we taught him he would always respond with "Sí hermana" or No hermana" haha it was super straight forward and respectful. It was a great opportunity and I´ll always be grateful for the joy felt as we taught and watched him learn and repent.

Until next time I hope you all have a great week!

Love Always,

HERMANA HARBISON

July 29, 2013

Greetings from Perú!

Like I say every week: Hope you all had a great week! Life here in Perú is nice and cold. Yesterday was the 28th of July, Perú´s independence day. In sacrament meeting we sang the first verse and the chorus of the national anthem and it took a good while because it´s weird. Turns out there are 8 verses and it takes about 20 minutes to sing the whole thing. I love Perú!

Love Always,

HERMANA HARBISON

July 22, 2013

Familia y Amigos,

Hope everyone had a great week this week! Life here in the field is going great. Miracles are happening here in the ward and it´s the best. This week we had to move apartments because our original one was a little too small for the three of us. We have a new room that fits all our beds, clothes, desks and everything perfectly. It´s great! Nothing else too exciting happened this week. The work is coming along and it´s a privilege to be a missionary at this time here in Perú. In our trio we are learning lots of things…We are all very different people and Heavenly Father is showing us all our weaknesses. However, as the scriptures say (Ether 12:27) he gives us weaknesses so we´ll be humbled and these weaknesses will then become our strengths. What a blessing and opportunity to learn and grow and become who our Heavenly Father knows we can become! Have a great week!

Love Always,

HERMANA HARBISON

July 15, 2013

Family and Friends,

Hope you all had a great week this week like we did. The ward that we are working in is catching the wave of missionary work and it´s great. For the first time in my mission, President and Hermana Douglas had a conference with all the Hermanas in the misison. It was like a women´s conference and it was great.

July 8, 2013

Family and Friends,

Hope everyone had a great holiday that passed! Everything is going great here in Peru. Turns out we're going to move apartments because our apartment really isn't going to work out with the 3 of us...It's just too tiny. This week we're hoping to move. That's about all the news that I have here on my end. The work is coming along here in Chorrillos, the ward is just about to "Catch the Wave" of all the work that needs to be done. Support your local missionaries, give them references. Well hope you all have a great week!

Love Always,

HERMANA HARBISON

July 3, 2013

Family and Friends,

"Hermana Harbison, you don´t have a transfer but you will be in a trio, training two new Hermanas there in Chorrillos." That´s my transfer this time around. My companion, Hermana Odar, went to Cañete in the south to open an area training two new hermanas as well. The mission is changing and I´m so grateful to be a part of it. Yesterday we recieved 16 new hermanas, 9 that are permanent and 7 that are temporary, waiting for their visas. Every single Hermana that has finished their training is now training here in the mission, many are training two at a time. It´s a priviledge to be a missionary at this time and I´m ready to teach and learn and do what I´ve been asked to do and do it the best I can.

Here are my new companions: