Transfers

I just received a email from DJ that he has been transferred to Elgin, Illinois and he is in the Schaumburg, Illinois stake. He stated that he will be serving in the Elgin 1st &3rd wards, whereas on Sundays he will attend church from 8 am to 4 pm and his new companion is from San Francisco, CA.

Feb 2nd- Chicago Blizzard

I just want everyone to know that life as a missionary is hard work that is truly a life changing experience. Like me update you all on Vivian & her husband William, we meet her on that Tuesday and two days later she set up her date to be baptize on Feb. 26th (it's crazy right), she said that she is ready. 

In the past like 12 days we've had 13 new Investigators of the church that's more than 1 a day. The Lord has really been blessing us. Elder Senator and I meet the gentlemen while tracking in a neighborhood that later we found out it is illegal to do so there. Well while there we meet a gentlemen that who stated that he was at his lowest point in his life as we were talking he felted the spirit so strongly that he started to cry, hugging us and sobbing. As we were about to he stated that he would be anxiously awaiting a call from us to check on him. When we call him 2 days later all of the good feelings that he had felt was gone due to the fact that after we left he did some research online on our Church and went think he found some anti-Mormon messages. This phone conversation was heartbreaking he yelled loudly to us to "Never Call him again" he did this like 5 times at my companion. We were a little discourage after this conversation my companion a lot more than me but as we pulled together and focused on the Lord's work he blessed us w/ 4 new investigators all from knocking doors that day and we had many gospel conversation with people. 

Yesterday and Today are crazy days because of there being a blizzard here. We are supposed to get up to 24" of snow with 50 miles per hour winds. Our Mission President told everyone to stay inside from 4 pm til 4 pm the next day. So I'm using this as a time to write some letters and do other things. So last night we looked out the window and saw this guy, who was stuck in the snow.  So we went outside and helped him to move his car by pushing it. This was just the beginning of a long night of trying to help stranded people. We got back to the apartment around 10ish pm and a few minutes later and as we saw another guy stuck in the snow. So we went back into the blizzard, but this guy car was stuck worst than the first guy. So we got some shovels and started to dig around his car. When he finally got his car free some kind of way my companion Elder Senator saw another car stuck down the road. Its was very cold but the wind was the worse and it almost blew me over several times. You couldn't see because of the 50 mph winds blowing snow sideways and the ice smacking you in the face. So we finally got to this guy who was in a van and we finally shovel him out. Afterwards we saw two more cars stuck down the road. So we went and

 tried to helped them by shoveling around their cars but these cars were stuck worse than the other 3 cars that we had dug out earlier. We pushed and pushed and pushed ( You guess that it was a lot of pushing) and finally got them free. After all of this hard work it would have been easy to just go back to the room and get warm, but as we look down the street we saw another that was stuck worse than all the other cars.. The blizzard was getting worst and the snow plow hadn't made it to our street yet. so we decided to help them also but there was no way we could shovel him out and push the car to the parking lot. The snow was getting deeper and deeper so the guy asked us to help shovel his car out and pushed it in reverse to make it back to the main highway. Well we tried this for a while but it didn't work. Then finally the snow plow came and shoveled a path to the apartment, but we still had to shovel the snow out the way and push it to the plowed area. By the time we finished it was thirty minutes past midnight. Now people cars are buried in the snow and they are trying to get them out. We we arrive back at the apartment my hat was frozen and my pants. That was a night that I will never forget!!!!

January 24, 2011 -Comments from DJ

I wanted to share a particular event that testify to power of faith and prayers. Elder Senator and I as always prayed for Heavenly Father to guide us to one of his children that was ready to hear his message. Well, as we were out contacting (knocking on doors). We came to this house that was divided into four different apartment units. So we just randomly chose a bell at the door and rang it. 

The bell we rang was to William, who lived on the top floor, we explained to him why were there and he let us come up. To make a long story short William and his wife Vivian had just moved into the apartment. They began to tell us that they had just arrived home 5 min before we got there.  They were in a good mood after just having a good discussion about god. They further elaborated that they are the only family now living in the apartment building and it is unusual for them to come down the steps when someone rings the bell to answer it.  They usually look out the window to see if they know the person, If not they just ignore them. 

After further discussion we found out that someone had told Vivian about the church before and she had a copy of the Restoration DVD. After teaching them the 1st Discussion they looked forward to meeting us again and are ready to receive their on copy of the Book of Mormon. I know for a surety that the Holy Spirit lead us to this apartment building and to this family, who was been prepared by the Lord to receive his message. 

January 6th, 2011 -Comments from DJ about his first couple of weeks on his Mission

Hi All, the missionary life is hard work & it takes some getting use too. My days starts off the same everyday- wake up at 6:30 am exercise for 30 minutes, then shower, find something to eat for breakfast, then personal scripture study at 8 am until almost 9 am when companion study starts.

I have started this new year with a new exercise routine of  200 pushups & about 40 pull ups every morning. My goal to gradually work up to 400 pushups a day. Besides my exercise routine, I have learned a lot on my mission so far, but it comes to me slowly so it seems like I haven't learned that much yet. Like 2 Nephi 31: 10-11, which talks about following Jesus Christ, we use that sometimes when we want people to be baptized.

I am learning how to forget about myself everyday and to put the Lord first and go to work. Because missionary work is very awkward, you knock on peoples doors and just start talking to them about the gospel or have to call people, even though you know they don't want to talk to you. We do it anyway because its not about what you want its really about what our Heavenly Father wants us to do. 

I have only been on my Chicago mission now for 2 weeks and already had to give a talk on my 1st Sunday there and couple of spiritual thoughts the next week. The thing I love the most about being here is the variety of the good food of our dinner appointments. The 1st week it was homemade chicken noodle soup and I got the recipe so my cooking skills are getting up there. Then we had Japanese food (which was yummy!!!), Mexican, and just regular good food. Next week we will have some polish goodness! (lol). One guy heard that I am from the south so he is going to make me some grits- can't wait. 

The thing that I don't like about my mission is the fact that Chicago is soooo cold. We went contacting today my toes and fingers froze and almost fell off (Not literally but that is what it felt like). Because of this, me and my companion came up with an idea to go the local Target store and we had the idea of standing outside running up to people with a box (that had a hole cut with a veil covering the it so that people couldn't see in) and offer them a free gift. The box was wrapped in Christmas gift wrapping paper and it had a pretty bow on top. It was a pretty present that we called the "Jesus Box". We would run up to a people in the parking lot and offer them a free gift- some people was scared off, some thought that we was joking, then there was a few that actually put there hands in and got a free gift. In the "Jesus box" was an assortment of free gifts, for instance, pass along cards with the telephone number to call to receive a free copy of The Book of Mormon, Bible, Jesus DVD's, we also included some copies of the DVD's. We also included cards that answered the questions of the soul that had our phone number written on there and we taped gum, chips, and other stuff to some of them.  We think that the "Jesus Box" was a success so we are going to make up some new boxes and just leave them out at some shopping centers with a card that says "Please take a card free gift. We came up with a different design for these boxes that are open - like the ones you see in stores. We have set up something with the ward seminary teacher to teach the class about the importance of missionary work and we just might use one of our "Jesus Box".

So this is my life right now.  Bye All for Now!

Arrival to Chicago Mission

On Tuesday December 21, 2010, Elder DJ Harrison arrived in Chicago after a long delay due to the snow. Mission President Doll & Sister Doll made a video of the arrival of the missionaries and also their new companion assignment. I will be able to attach the video soon.

His new companion is Elder Senator and he is from Russia and they will  be serving in the Gurnie 2 ward of the  Buffalo Grove Illinois Stake.