Mission Update

To Our Family and Friends,

Today is Tuesday, August 18th, 2009. We have now been on our mission for 6 1/2 months and we have seen winter, spring and a cool summer. Last week Bismarck made the national news with temperatures reaching 100 degrees. Wouldn't you know that we were traveling to Minot where it was only 97 degrees. We have come to be highly suspicious of temperature readings around here because there seems to be some exaggerations on the part of the populist. This may be the case with most places but maybe a wee bit more for North Dakota. When we were freezing at a -20 everyone told us that it was a -30. The other day when it was +97, someone told us it was +115. You can see why we are reluctant to accept some of the claims that people make. Most of the summer has been cool with temperatures in the 70s. We have had less than a week of temperatures over 90 degrees.

The other day, in a phone conversation, we were asked if North Dakota grew anything. How I wish that I had a camera that could take a picture of the vast fields of corn, wheat, barley, oats, flax, canola, sun flowers, every type of bean and all other varieties of crops. As far as the eye can see there are fields of beautiful grains and corn. Right now the sun flowers are maturing and one can see thousands of acres of "Yellow". There are also huge grass lands with cattle grazing. This year, because of the heavy snows and the later rains, the land is green and lush. Cattle have had all of the grass they could eat and they are healthy and fat. There are some worries over the crops because of the short growing season. Many fields were planted late because of the slow snow melt and the wet soil. The farmers and ranchers would like to have 3 to 4 weeks of high heat so the corn and sun flowers could grow fast and mature. This morning it was 43 degrees so we will see what happens in the next month. No one wants an early winter.

(This is not a river- this is a field of flax)

Today is transfer day in the mission. Because of the many states and cities, within the Rapid City South Dakota Mission, the mission uses a 12 passenger van, with a large trailer, and they run through the mission, picking up missionaries and dropping them off in their new areas. This transfer van is called the Transfer Train. It will gather missionaries from Minnesota on the east to missionary in Sheridan Wyoming on the west and it will take approximately three days to make all of the stops. Tonight it will reach Bismarck where we will greet some hungry elders with a hot meal. Besides the missionaries on the Train we also have other missionaries driving to Bismarck tonight where they will make transfers and take missionaries back to their areas. We feed this "Train" monthly and have figured a way to feed them quickly without a lot of clean up afterwards. We have picked up a ham that is cooking in a Crock Pot and we will include a big baked potato, some corn, whole wheat rolls, and some fruit. To finish the meal we will serve cake and ice cream. The cake today is made from the zucchini squash which two of our elders grew in their garden. These elders live on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and they planted a garden in back of their home. Among the lettuce and carrots they also planted about 10 squash plants, not aware of the law of the harvest, and are now feeding zucchini squash to all of Fort Yates, 25% of the Sioux Tribe. There have been a lot of laughs about the number of squash they have given away and so it is fitting that as these elders move on that we should feed Zucchini Cake for desert tonight.

Along with the transfer we are also sadden to see a number of elders going home where they will be released by their stake presidents. This is what every elder looks forward to but when the two years are up they find that leaving the people whom they have come to love is very hard. Many tears are shed. In our area four elders, three of whom we have known since arriving in February, will complete their missions. They have served well and have been faithful servants. We will all miss them.

One of these elders has served 18 months on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. His father will be driving out from Seattle to pick him up later this week. Interesting enough his father also served on the same reservation when he was a missionary thirty years ago. This coming Friday, Elder Davis will be adopted into the Sioux tribe. He is being honored because of his service to so many people, in and out of the church. He is embarrassed over the attention and would rather not go through such an honor but it would be looked upon as an insult to the tribe if he refused. This young elder stated that all he ever wanted to do was to teach these people the gospel of Jesus Christ. He would have wanted to baptize a few more families rather than receive an honor. His father will be with him and he will see how much these people love his son. There are many social problems on the reservations but Elder Davis has never been judgmental and has just loved each and every one he ever met. I will include a picture of Elder Davis.

Our summer months have been spent in preparation for the new Seminary Year, which will start next week. (We realize that Seminary started this week for those of you in Highlands Ranch.) During the summer is when "In-service" is taught to the teachers. Because of the distances involved in the Bismarck North Dakota stake we have put together in-service lessons which have been mailed to our teachers, followed up by a visit from us. It has been a joy traveling around and meeting with our wonderful teachers and discussing better ways to teach the Book of Mormon. We have made the rounds three times to teach in-service and one additional time to deliver materials and manuals. We have now put 24,000 miles on our Honda Civic since leaving Colorado. We think that we have traveled most of the roads in the western half of North Dakota and a number of the roads in South Dakota. No wonder we have seen so much of this beautiful land.

We want to tell you of a Sister in Fort Yates who has now read the Book of Mormon 18 times. She was baptized about 18 months ago and has never stopped reading the Book of Mormon. A quick calculation shows that she completes the reading of the Book of Mormon every month. About a week ago she received her endowments in the temple. Before she was baptized she had a history of alcohol abuse. She now is running a 12 step program in Ft. Yates for alcoholics. She believes that the Book of Mormon was written to her people and that it has given her the strength to keep sober. I can tell you that she will read three chapters today, and every day. Her testimony is that it was written to the Lamanites. She loves this set of scripture.

We are enjoying our preparation for Seminary, which will be a study of the Book of Mormon. The story that we have just related is a perfect example of how we should all be searching for the truths found this book. We have been memorizing the "Scripture Mastery" scriptures and have done better with our memorization than we had anticipated. Out of the 25 scriptures we have about 17 memorized. By doing this we have come to appreciate the beauty of the wording and phrases in this great book. The writings of the Book of Mormon are masterful and filled with beauty. We marvel over it all. We are also reading and we would like to complete the book by the end of the year. We are taking it slowly so that we can study in detail and not just read. We want to be prepared for our teachers and students. We are encouraged to spend two hours studying a day. If we did this faithfully we would have completed the Book of Mormon by now. We had better focus on this great study.

It is a great blessing to be able to work in the temple here in Bismarck. We are so thankful for the training and experience that we received in the Denver temple. Even though there are always things to learn regarding the ordinances of the temple, we came into this mission prepared to do temple work immediately. We have explained too many of you before that working in a small temple has its challenges. The majority of temple workers for the Bismarck Temple come from one ward, the Bismarck Ward. The closest town outside of Bismarck is Minot, two hours away. You can imagine that most of the work that is done in the Bismarck Temple is done by the Bismarck ward. This does not take anything away from the other wards and stakes in this temple district. Those who come from Rapid City or Sioux Falls have to drive 6 hours to get to Bismarck and then return or stay over night. With that said we would like to say that we have never seen the temple closed because of a lack of attendance. We understand that even during the severe blizzards that local people still showed up at the door, willing to work. Well, we are blessed to work with these wonderful people. Everyone wants more people in the temple but we need to be grateful to those who make it all happen. Our temple presidency works very hard to keep everything working and we so admire them. They are always happy and excited to see us and take every opportunity to greet us and thank us for coming to work in the temple. We are thankful for this part of our mission.

We love our time while serving in this area. So that you know that not everything that happens in North Dakota is "wonderful" (That is how this news update sounds) we want you to know that we also see a lot of heartache and sadness. Our missionaries want to teach and baptize. They plan and prepare only to be forgotten or turned away. I cannot say how many times we have gone out to work with the missionaries only to find that their appointments are not home or will not open the door. We see them at the door of the chapels waiting for their investigators to arrive only to be disappointed. On the reservation we drive to the homes of members to transport them to the church and find that they have slept late and are not ready to go. There is far too much of this but all of these things do not take away from the excitement of the "Work". We have also seen baptisms of families and individuals. The story that we related to you above is most precious. We love the service and the time together and we are happy being here.

We miss you all. We pray for you at home but we know what capable leaders you have and how strong your testimonies are. We encourage you to support the missionaries in your stake and wards and especially the new converts. May our Father in Heaven bless each of you.

Love from here,

Elder and Sister Harris

July 10, 2009

I started looking for the last time that we reported, and went back a ways before I found something - so we are behind. We wondered what we would do during the summer, but we have kept busy every day.

In our CES work, we are trying to arrange classes and teachers for next year. Most of the ones from last year will continue, but we are finding more youth sprinkled all over the stake who would like Seminary or Institute. We are still attending the Minot institute Wednesday nights, and we are sending out email Inservice lessons to help the teachers prepare for this year's study of the Book of Mormon. We're re-reading the BOM ourselves, and working to memorize all 25 Scripture Mastery scriptures before the start of the year.

Because we don't have Bismarck Institute on Thursday nights, we are able to work in the Temple on both Thurs and Friday nights some weeks. This saturday we will also be there with our District, and another Saturday we will go with a sister receiving her endowment. With summer vacations taking members different directions, the temple presidency are always happy to see us come through the doors to help.

We're enjoying our Elders in this Zone. We feed them lunch after the weekly District meetings (12 people), and feed the Transfer Train when it comes through every 6 weeks (as many as 22). We inspect their apts and cars (the level of cleanliness and order is improving), give them a big candy bar as a reward, and take them to breakfast or lunch afterwards. They like to see us coming. We also have weekly opportunities to visit and teach investigators with them.

We have been at the McLaughlin Branch for about 2 months now on Sundays. I think this week we will begin to attend at Ft. yates again. We love the members in those branches and are involved in their lives and challenges. We were in McLaughlin for the 4th of July and enjoyed the parade and pot luck at a member's home.

We have Stake Youth Conference in two weeks. They are going up to a Youth Camp about 40 miles out of town. We asked if we could attend to be with our Seminary youth and help in any way. We liked the thought of standing by the wall observing. This morning we got a call saying their key note speakers couldn't come, and could we speak for an hour, introduce the theme, and make it fun and exciting for the kids??? The theme is about being an outward example of inward beliefs, taken from 1st Timothy 4:12. I don't have to describe the overwhelming feeling we have about this assignment. Will you please pray for us?? That is a serious request. Please - we need your faith and prayers.

We are in the season of serious thunderstorms. Wed night a tornado took out part of Dickinson, where we have attended seminary and church. But inbetween the weather is beautiful. Some of the planted fields are canola, and right now their yellow blossoms turn the whole field bright yellow. It is beautiful to see as we travel. We'll put on some pictures. We are happy and healthy.

Love to all of you - Elder and Sister Harris

Father's Day Visitors

From Katie:
WOW!! What a weekend we have had! Friday night around 11:00pm, Layna and Matt called us because they decided that they wanted to spend Fathers Day with our dad. We emidiately agreed to come with them. So we left Denver early Saturday morning, telling almost no one where we were headed, including mom and dad. After driving all day through WY, SD and ND, we got into Bismarck around 6:20pm. One problem, mom and dad weren't at their apartment. so as we were waiting for them, we drove around the close resturants looking for them and trying to call from my cell. When I finally got a hold of Dad, they passed us in the car. I chatted with them (never mentioning that we weren't in Denver) while they unloaded groceries. When hey finally went into heir apartment, we snuck up to the apartment, knocked on the fron door and yelled "happy fathers day!" when dad answered. Mom was changing and didn't realize it was us. She was QUITE surprised when she came out expecting from young single adults from the area. It was a WONDERFUL surprise!! Probably the only fathers day gift dad would happily accept! Mom and dad showed us around Bismark, showing us the church bld, temple, capital, parks, and river. We ended with dinner at Golden Corral, where everyone got whatthey wanted, including dessert.

Sunday morning Dad made us an excellent breakfast of friend potatoes and sausage! YUMMY!!!!! We drove 2 hours with them to the branch at McLaughlin. There were probably 16 people there besides us and mom and dad. We only stayed for the sacrament and then had to leave. It was a tini bld with wonderful members! It was a tearful goodbye and we wish that we would have had more time with mom and dad. It was so WONDERFUL to see them, see where they are living, see a little of where they travel, and see the wonderful work they are doing!! Bismarck is lovely and we could easily see why mom and dad love it so much!! What a wonderful weekend, however short it was!!

On the Road Again.... (humming)

The trusty road warriors have been on the road again. As with anything done over and over, we are getting very good at packing, living out of the car, driving several hours at a time. We really enjoy the spring greenery all around - it is beautiful in all directions.

Tuesday we had District Meeting at our house, and fed the missionaries lunch afterwards. What great young men. When they sing together, teach, and testify there is a wonderful spirit in our home.

Wednesday morning we packed the car and drove to Minot, 2 hours north of us. We attended the Minot District Meeting, inspected some missionary apartments and cars, and did some other CES things while in town. We stayed overnight at our favorite bed and breakfast, the Dakota Rose.

After breakfast the next morning we drove 2 hours back to Bismarck, quickly grabbed a few things we needed, and drove on to Pierre, about 4 hours south of us. We met with the new Senior missionary couple there, the Faerbers from Idaho Falls. They are part time proselyting missionaries and part time CES missionaries for the Pierre District. We did a little training about CES things for them. We had dinner with them and the full time Elders in Pierre that night.

Thursday we worked with them again in the morning, took them to lunch, and then drove 3 hours west to Rapid City So. Dakota. We stopped at the famous (at least in billboards all over the western US) Wall Drug. We didn't buy anything, but did see lots of tourists and lots of tourist trinkets. On to Rapid City, where we attended a Young Single Adult conference Friday night and Saturday during the day.

Friday night they had games and treats at the stake center there. Saturday we had breakfast at the church, a service project at a local Children's playground, a trip to Mt. Rushmore, and lunch in a nearyby city park. That evening they had special speakers and a very nice dinner and dance at the church. We really enjoyed getting to meet the YSAs from Rapid City, Sioux City (SD), and Gilette, Wyoming.

Today is Sunday, and we got up very early to drive 5 hours north and NW to attend church in Dickinson, North Dakota. That is one of our Bismrack Stake branches (also seminary class), so we knew a few people. They had a regular 3 hour block church, and we got to know some of the people there, before driving 2 more hours east to Bismarck. I hope that makes sort of a square.

Someone will add up hours and directions and figure out we should be somewhere in Nebraska or Montana. Chalk it up to my sense of direction. At least we got home! Tonight we will attend our Bismarck Ward YSA fireside. It's all good.

The weather has been very nice/some rain but easy driving and we are in good health. Watch for postcards from Mt. Rushmore next week.

Thanks for emails, letters, calls, pictures. We love hearing from you.

Love you-Mom/Kris/a.k.a Sr. Harris :)

p.s. - today we passed North Dakota's highest "peak" - 3118 feet. Anyone wanting to climb the tallest mtn in any state might as well start with North Dakota.

Memorial Day

It sounds like almost everywhere had cold rainy weather for the holiday.   Saturday we went to Ft. Yates to join the Elders there for some service projects.   (we got to wear jeans - a first for us)   First we went to the ranch of the RS president and helped her family brand cattle.   You can see from the pictures that Dad got right into things.   I held everyone's cameras.   Well, someone had to do it. :)   They fed us lunch afterwards set out on the tail gate of a truck. (my first tail gate party). 

Working with Elder Davis - he took hold of the back leg and Steve "flopped" the calf on its side.

The family branded about 70 caves on Saturday.   They end up with a tag in their ears, three different shots, the brand and for the males they are made steers.   These people made it all look so easy and they were very fast.

 

Next we went to a woman who's not a member of the church, but likes the missionaries.   She is 80 years old and lives alone in Ft. Yates.   We helped her plant her garden in the back - tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, and do some yard work there.   She showed us many quilts she has made, and gave us some beautiful key rings made from antlers that are carved into animal shapes.   Her son carves them, and they are her "thank you" gift for helping.

What a wonderful picture of Elder Davis and Elder Grant with a sweet Sioux baby girl, framed by the center of a Star Quilt.

We did a couple of other things for people before leaving Ft. Yates.   When we got home we had ice cream with a couple we know here in Bismarck.

Sunday we went to McLaughlin Branch to church (about 100 mile drive) to do music for sacrament mtg, and then drove to Ft. Yates to help there at the end of their meetings.   Wonderful people in both places.   We met with the Bismarck YSAs that evening.

Seen on many fences in North Dakota.   A boot on the fence was a sign that the person living down the lane was home.  Now boots on fence posts are just decoration.

North Dakota has one of the largest oil reserves in North America.   This is a site you see all over the Northwest part of North Dakota.   The people tell us that as long as the company can get $60.00 a barrel they can continue to drill new wells.   The storage tanks will fill and then the crude oil is trucked away by trucks to Mandan where it is refined.

Another sign that one is traveling through North Dakota are the piles of rocks in the fields.   The farmers pull them into one big pile.   These giant rocks are all over the land - remnants of the last Ice Age.   Steve remembers Denmark looking like this.

Monday morning there was a temple endowment session we attended.   They also do one on Labor Day.   Some people come who can't get to the temple other times.   It's graduation time here, so in the afternoon we attended an open house for one of the graduates.   Except for an hour's walk around the local golf course (where we found 8 golf balls in different places around the sidewalk and gave them to golfers we saw) we stayed inside where it was warm.

Summer's officially started. Yahoo! 

Love Elder and Sister Harris

Dad and I have had a big weekend. There was a big youth activity Saturday morning at our church (for the Stake, which means lots of travel for everyone outside Bismarck.) Then seminary graduation Saturday afternoon, which went very nicely. We did a lot of work to prepare for that - collecting lists of stake awards and special recognitions for students and teachers, printing the program, arranging music, printing diplomas and Stake President's Awards, etc - but all went very well. I played the organ for the graduation - my first chance since coming here. (don't want to get too rusty).

A special treat was that the missionaries here before us, Lund and Karen Johnson from Pocatello, came for the graduation and we got to meet them. It was so fun to see them face to face, and we visited all weekend about various things. They had a busy schedule seeing the people they wanted to see, but we ended up at the same activities. They are great people and we are very happy to know them.

Today was Branch Conference in the two branches on the Reservation - McLaughlin South Dakota (10 to 1), and Ft. Yates (1-3). We attended both, and I played the piano for both meetings. All the Stake people also attended both - following each other in cars down to McL and then back to Ft. Yates, and finally home. You will notice that the small branches only have a 2 hour block, but most people drive a ways to get there. For us it's 1 1/2 hrs each way to Ft. Y. (McL is another half hour further). That would be like driving from HR to Ft. Collins each week for church. If we drove that far in Colo, we'd be in traffic all the way. Here we drive along the Missouri River, a very quiet ride (at 65 mph) - past buffalo, cows, horses, wild turkeys, fields turning green, flooding (we see willow trees putting on leaves, and the water covers their entire trunks) and other signs of spring. We enjoy the drive very much.

Saturday at the stake youth activity, we walked into the gym and knew the name of every seminary-aged teenager there. It was a great feeling to be able to visit with each one. We are beginning to feel very much at home here. All is well. Thanks for your continued prayers.

Love - Mom

Oh the Sun Shown Down and the Floods Came Up

We’re whizzing down the road on our way to Williston, 4 hours away, and our hearts are turning to song: “Oh the sun shone down and the floods came up…”

We have had one week of warmer weather (meaning the temperatures were above freezing) and the snow has begun to melt. Since the ground underneath is still frozen, the water is running downhill. As we drive along the roads the barrow pits on either side are filled with water, and in many places entire fields now look like small lakes. Some roads are closed because the water on one side is flowing over the road on to the other side. We drove through an area like that yesterday when we took someone home from church. Picture shows the flooding-- You can seewhere the fence was in what used to be a field by the side of the road. We are seeing this all over ND.

The ice has broken up on top of the rivers, and there is worry that the ice, logs and other debris will form dams at the bridges, flooding land behind it, and then when the water breaks through, the debris will tear up the bridge. (The pieces of ice look to be 24 inches thick and some of the pieces are raft size) There will be major flooding in Fargo this week, but Bismarck is in the middle of the state. Nevertheless there are flood warnings for the local area since the small contributories are causing some real problems. Once again we are driving into the western part of ND as a big storm comes into Bismarck. This is a rough spring for this area of the country. Picture shows the broken ice, piled up in front of the bridge.

“We are all enlisted….” For the last few weeks we have attended two different branches on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. There are less than 30 members attending each Branch, the majority of them are middle aged women. One of the branches has about 350 members and the other over 400, but few are active and most unsupportive. It is very touching to hear them pray that their children and grandchildren will be strong and remain active. We drive an hour and a half from Bismarck to get to the branches, but there are two Elders and a Senior Couple who live on the reservation and work there full time.

On Sunday we attended the Ft. Yates branch. It was a great day for them, because they had over 30 people attending. The Branch President is Native American, and his wife was the RS President until Sunday, when she was sustained as the YW President and another woman called as RS president. The Branch President serves without counselors and his only help are the full time missionaries. They have a 2 hour block; one hour for Sacrament meeting, and the 2nd hour for Relief Society/Primary/Priesthood/Young Women. After the meetings there is pot luck on the 2nd and 4th Sundays. The Branch president brings the main dish (he is a chef in Bismarck) and the members bring other dishes. After lunch the members fill plates with the leftovers and take them home. We have supplied our baked beans for two Sundays and we go home without leftovers.

We can’t say too much about the branches since we have only attended for three week but we see that only a few of the sisters come dressed in dresses and a few boys and men in white shirts but the remainder come to church in T-shirts and pants. This seems to be the dress for most attending. We are using surnames such as “Yelloweyes” “Elk” “Baldeagel” and Antelope”, different from Sollee, Condie, and Webb. These are brother and sisters that we will come to know and love. We both have noticed that there is a very strong presence of the Spirit in our meetings and we are both humbled and blessed with the outpouring that seems to be with us all.

We will both assume responsibilities in the branch and if possible we will try to meet with some of the inactive leaders of the past to invite them to join with us once again. There are duties that we can assist our branch president without making him feel intimidated. This is our hope and our desire.

“As Sisters in Zion we all work together…” Saturday there was a Relief Society celebration with both branches, held in Ft Yates. The women attending (20 - about the same number as the original RS meeting) stood to sing “The Spirit of God” as an opening song, and I think it was as thrilling to me as when we sang it with 2000 missionaries at the MTC. Their program went from 10:00 to 3 and included several talks and lunch. There had been a lot of effort in invitations, table decorations, and hand outs. They asked that I be their Key-note speaker which was a great privilege.
Two of the sisters are originally from Samoa, and did a Samoan dance during lunch. (We seem to see the Samoan culture throughout the church where ever we go) The one sister went home to look in her book (on the Samoan Temple) and found that it had been written by Carl Harris. She was very excited that his brother was in their branch. And as always, there are connections. We met a 90 yr old woman at the branch in McLaughlin South Dakota who comes from Tremonton and went to the same high school as Elder Harris and my mother. Picture shows Brand Pres and his wife on the top left, flowers from Steve to women, wagon wheel part of my talk.

“There is work enough to do…”Besides our work in the Branch, we have been wearing other hats. We went to Fargo for a conference with other CES senior couples. We learned how to prepare for Seminary graduation and how to order next year’s supplies, got some good ideas for in-service meetings, and enjoyed the fellowship of the other Senior Couples. We have visited a member in the hospital, helped Elders with car maintenance issues, attended Young Single Adult firesides and Institutes. We work in the Bismarck Temple once a week. We had dinner with a woman being baptized this weekend, who’s first exposure to the church came when she lived in Olathe, Ks (where we did) next to friends of ours. (Gaylin and Pam Thomas) This week we are traveling through Williston, Ray and Minot attending the Seminary and Institute classes.

“I’m glad they called me on a mission…”Here are some things we like about our mission: First and foremost – doing all these things together. It’s great to work together on every assignment, to plan, prepare and pray about the same things. Steve tells me that we are finally getting our second Honey Moon, and in many ways that is true. Next, we like the variety of the work we have here—always something different, and very often, something new. Many times our days fill up with the unexpected – the call to go to the hospital, the unexpected visit of missionaries from another town, the request to talk in a ward or branch. We are among wonderful faithful people, and are inspired by them.


Picture shows a white buffalo in the field. They are very significant to the Native Americans. There were about three of them on this field.

We send our love to each of you – our friends and extended family. Thanks for your support.

Elder and Sister Harris