Answering Some Questions

Frequently asked question: What will you be doing on your mission?

Frequently given response: We don’t know

Today’s response: We know! Here is our “job description”

We are officially named Seminary and Institute Coordinators, and most of our work is in the Bismarck North Dakota Stake. This Stake covers 2/3 of North Dakota, and is comprised of 4 wards and 6 branches. There is one ward in Bismarck, two in Minot, and one in Williston (by the Montana border.) Each of those cities is about 2 hours apart. There is a seminary class in each of those cities, and in one of the branches. In addition, there are parents or teachers holding home study or daily classes in smaller areas scattered throughout our stake. An institute class meets Wednesday in Minot and Thursday in Bismarck. We are the link to the CES system. We will be involved with everything that makes these classes happen – selection of teachers, registering students, tracking attendance, teacher inservice, reimbursement, ordering supplies, certificates and graduation. We are supervised by the area office in Minneapolis. Much of this is “office work” A big part of our responsibilities will be visiting these classes, getting to know the teachers and students.

Part of our activities here in Bismarck involved the Young Single Adults and their activities. They have their own SS class that we attend, and when in town we attend all their activities and their institute.

In addition, we are missionaries, and work with the Elders and Sisters in these areas. We will let them know when we are coming to their areas, and offer to join with them in their missionary work while we are there.

We are just picking up speed, but this week is kind of an example of our work here “at home”. Monday night we had FHE with the YS Adults, this morning there was a conference call with our Mission President, tonight the missionaries are teaching a discussion to a young women who will be baptized this weekend here at our home. Tomorrow morning we will attend the Bismarck Seminary, and then later in the morning the missionaries are coming to our apt for their District meeting, and we will feed them lunch afterwards. We are working on our schedule for the rest of the week, but we know we will attend Institute here on Thursday night. Saturday morning there will be a baptism, and another one Sunday night, so our Mission President is coming from South Dakota for those, and we will have a chance to meet him. Next week we hope to be on the road to Williston and Minot to visit the groups there. The former couple said that when we visit, we give awards for consecutive scripture reading, take treats, and do whatever else the teacher would like.

In between these activities we are working in the office, getting settled in our apartment, and trying to work out the schedule for our new life.

WEATHER
Since everyone’s response to our North Dakota mission call has been “you’re going to be cold,” I’d like to mention the weather. They’ve certainly had some tough weather up here this winter, but since we’ve arrived it has just been normal winter weather. No one “plugs in” their cars in Bismarck, and many people leave their cars outside all night. We’re lucky enough to have a garage, but even some of the people in our apartment park on the street. We’ve noticed that even when the temperature isn’t above freezing, the snow is still melting in the streets during the day, so the sun does shine here, and eventually all the snow will melt.

WARD
Ward is great ward here in Bismarck. People come from all around the city and outside areas. We have been warmly welcomed. Most of the Stake organization and Temple Presidency comes from this ward, so many good people. And always the connections – The Stake President comes from Arvada; we were at a home last night where the woman’s mother was raised in Tremonton; the Elders Quorum President is the son of Lynn Southam, a former Denver Stake President and friend of Steve's through wood badge.

SHOPPING
There is everything here we are used to, in stores and franchised eating places. There’s a big grocery store just 2 blocks away (open 24 hrs) and several shopping malls. We went to the big one this morning to walk indoors, and there is every store that would ever be needed . There are the stores that remind me of shopping with my some of you (Zumies, the Buckle, Aeropostal, Maurice’s - you shopped, I paid), Target, Wal Mart, K Mart, and at the mall I found the store I was hoping to see – Christopher and Banks. Now I can settle down in Bismarck.They open the mall at 7:30 for walkers, and there were 30 cars when we got there this morning. The mall is in a big Y shape, and it takes about 15 minutes for us to walk around it once. Most of the other people there were MUCH older than we were – grey hair and everything. :p But since the streets and sidewalks are still snowbound, it’s nice to have an indoor place to walk.

APARTMENT
We are on the end of the 1st floor, and the building is very quiet. We have heard some footsteps upstairs, but never voices, music or bathrooms. There have only been occasional and accidental sightings anyone else who lives here. Our apartment is warm and comfortable and we have plenty of space. It was left well furnished by the previous missionaries.

That’s probably more than you wanted to know about Bismarck, but the bottom line is that we are alive and well here.

You can all get a look at our new "home away from home" - and see that it's very nice. My decorator daughters and daughter-in-law will see room for improvements, but the basic colors are great, and there's lots of space. Wish I had you here to go shopping with me. We have been gone this week, but are starting today to get organized and re-organized. Love you - Mom

Standing by the back patio door. The door on the left is the front door.

We can this "before"-- before we unpack and before we improve.

Here are some other pictures of the move.

We had breakfast with Diane and Nana before we left.

Dad got a special commendation for getting almost all our things into the car....without complaint!

On the Road - Part Two

We arrived in Bismarck about 2:30 Saturday afternoon, and the Elders showed up about 10 minutes later to open the doors for us. The sun was shining and it didn't take us long to get our things into the apartment. Later that evening we drove around town to orient ourselves and find the church for Sunday. The meetinghouse and temple are only about a mile away, but there is a hill inbetween so we can't see it from our apartment. We took pictures right away, but won't be able to get them on the web until next weekend.

Sunday we attended the Bismarck Ward, which meets at 10 AM - the only ward in the building. Members come from all around the city and outlying areas. We were warmly welcomed. We attended the Young Single Adult Sunday School class and met the members there. We stayed for choir practice after church. Good thing - the pianist wasn't there and the chorister was going to try to play and lead. There are 4 organists in the ward, so I think my chances of subbing for Sacrament meeting are slim to none. (Katie, Laurel and Addie - it's a Rogers Organ. I'll have to go over there during the week just to try it out sometime.)

Sunday evening we attended a FHE group for the YSA and got to know them better. These young people are our Bismarck Institute Group too, so I think we will do a lot of things with them. There are YSA leaders in the Ward, and the Stake YSA leaders are also in the ward, so they attend too. There may be more adults at some functions than young adults.

We had two sunny days in Bismarck. There is plenty of snow that is gradually melting. But today (Monday) a storm is coming in. Since we had to drive to Minneapolis today, we started early and drove to St. Cloud Minnesota before dark. It rained all day, but we got to the hotel before the temperature dropped and the rain turned to ice. Tomorrow we will finish the drive to Minneapolis, but we are only about 2 hours away.

We drove to St. Cloud Minn. in heavy rain all day, but got to the hotel before it started to freeze. We heard that in Bismarck and ND places west there was 7 inches of snow. There has been light rain as we traveled the 2 hours more to Minneapolis, but I think this afternoon we might actually see some sunshine.

We are very anxious to get the CES training so we can begin to plan our schedules and know what we are to accomplish. That instruction will begin Wednesday morning. We will be receiving CES training tomorrow and Thursday, then will head back to Bismarck.

Here's something strange - all the gas in North Dakota is the same price at every station. We wonder if this is regulated by the state, or what. We will have to ask around. Seems strange, but there can't be much competition between stations when the price is the same everywhere.

And we haven't seen anyplace where people plug in their cars to keep the batteries warm. We'll have to ask about that too. Their very existence is an unconfirmed rumor.

We have been asked to talk in Sacrament meeting Sunday - and given the conference talk by Sr. Barbara Thompson on the Relief Society. We are wondering how to make that interesting or applicable to the entire ward. But it does give us something to work on before we learn our CES duties. We hope they can tell us what we are supossed to be doing up here, so we can go home and go to work.

That's our report from here, and here is St. Cloud Minnesota. Love you all - Elder and Sister Harris

On the Road

We are in Spearfish South Dakota this morning, and pretty excited to get to Bismarck and see things for ourselves. It's about 5 hours from here.

We had great weather for the drive from Denver. Dad did actually drive some of it, but his stomach was touching the steering wheel. (Because the car was so packed, the seat wouldn't move back far enough) We drove to Kevin McNevin's CD about Wyoming, and one from the Bar J Wranglers (thank you Colt and Adele) - it just seemed appropriate. We listened to other things too.

We met Diane and Nana for breakfast yesterday morning, and because of the setting and the circumstances the "good-bye" wasn't as painful as I had anticipated. I can say the same thing for the good-byes from the Denver kids as well. I don't want you to think that because there wasn't uncontrolled weeping, it wasn't sad to leave. But I appreciate all of you helping to make it easier for us.

The final sorting and packing was painful too. We probably still have things that we don't need....we'll know more by tonight.

Dad reminds me - and I remind you also - that in Bismarck we are in Central Time. It will take awhile to get used to that and make the necessary corrections when we call you.

Okay - got to get ready and go - exciting day ahead. Love to you all. Mom

Sunday at the MTC

This morning we attended Fast and Testimony Meeting in the International Branch (Carl is in the Branch Presidency of this branch, which is for missionaries who don't speak English). Right now there are only 12 members of the branch. Some are from the South Pacific (Tonga, Samoa, and Marshall Islands), others from Asia (Hong Kong, Taiwan, and 2 from Mainland China.) I asked how they came from mainland China, and heard about one Elder. His parents went to Los Angeles to graduate school and joined the church. They went back to China, but when it was time for him to be baptized, they traveled to Los Angeles again for his baptism. Now he is here in the MTC, going to a mission in Canada. Amazing!

As they bore their testimonies this morning I was so touched by their courage. We had our challenges in getting here, but these young men and women left everything familiar, traveled by themselves all the way to SLC, and are very far away from their support systems, and in a language they don't understand.

The newest Elder came from Mainland China this week. He listened to the meeting with earphones that translated it into his language, but he stood up read his testimony in English. And every member of the branch had such strong testimonies and such enthusiasm to preach the gospel.

I decided that if there are times that I need a little courage, I will remember these young men and women.

After the sacrament meeting we attended a Mission Conference - a 2 hour meeting with all the missionaries here. I wish you could hear what 2000 young people singing those hymns sounds like. Fabulous organ again. Great talks by the members of the MTC Presidency and their wives. Very exciting!

We sat with Carl and Melanie during that meeting. Afterwards we met another couple from our Seniors Group back at our building. He and his wife had taken a trip to Denmark, and he showed us pictures of Bornholm. What a beautiful little island. Our ancestors came from VesterMarie and OsterMarie, and he had pictures of both. I loved seeing those places -probably not much changed in the last 100 years in many ways, and it was cheaper than going there ourselves.

We took a walk around the Provo Temple this afternoon - lots of missionaries there besides us. After dinner (which should be greeted with great enthusiasm) there is a meeting for those leaving the MTC this week, and then a Mission Fireside.

We are glad to be enjoying a Sabbath Day together (and with no assignments for either of us.) We are enjoying the Peace of the Sabbath Day. Next Sunday we hope to be in Bismarck. This is a great adventure...we're glad to be doing it together.

Love from Provo - where the sun is shining. (Steve says it's warmer in Bismarck today than in Denver, SLC or Rexburg.)