Merry Christmas!

all of a sudden there are 7 days till Christmas

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GOOEY!!!!! holy nut she is 19...

that same day I completed 16 months as a full time missionary...2 more to go...but actually ill be home when I hit 18 soo

DEBRA AND ROB GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!! I love them so much. Yesterday they completed their baptism with receiving the Holy Ghost! Debra is in bad health and so Rob had to wheel her up in a wheel chair :( but she was determined. she knew they needed to go to finish their baptism. they are amazing. we have FHE with them tonight...hey dad! could you send me some of your FHE on DVDs? I want to give them to Debra and Rob!!

We are super busy like always and I love it.

Line came home from her mission and so now im the last one!!!

love you guys so much. instead of thinking about presents and materialistic things, really focus on the Savior and His life. try to picture and imagine what life was like for Him growing up and coming into this crazy world. traditions are great, but do something different this Christmas. I promise you will remember it for the rest of your lives!

love, Hermana kiara harker 

Always on....FIRE

Not only has our mission been on fire this week literally, spiritually we are on fire as well. i would have thought my mother would have been a nervous wreck, but she was actually having the time of her life in hawaii! so you probably didnt even know, ma! Debra and Rob are entering into the waters of baptism this late afternoon at 5 o'clock! we are so so excited! President Thomas is coming, and a bunch of deb and robs family is coming, lots of non members, etc. its going to be a great time. 

weve been suuuuper busy with leadership-ness and dealing with other people not in our area, but its been great! 

oh yea and then sister rob chopped off a little more of my hair~!

love you guys so much! please read the Book of Mormon--it will save your life. 

--

Hermana Kiara Harker

With President and Sister Thomas

Couples Baptism

#MIRACLE!!

last sunday we caroled in our area and we caroled to debra and rob our investigators and then last monday debbie called us and asked how hard it would be to do a couple's baptism!!!! wattt`11.1/1/1/1/1/??!?!?!?!? she said that rob considered himself a mormon after we caroled to them!!! this is a guy that said it would take a year or 6 months to get baptized. #sisterpower

so next monday they will be baptized. they have already decreased dramatically the amount of alcohol they drink every night. they are amazing and we love them so much. please pray for them.

we went to the temple!!!!! i love it there. then we went to the cheesecake factory for lunch with our member. it was a great day. 

it was just a great week and this next one will be even better. i go to church only 10ish more times until i am home...hehe

pics:

exchanges with sister fogg and wells

brunch with debra and rob

Not your average Thanksgiving...

but it was a dang good one! 

we set debra on date! Dec 11 here we come! hallelujah! she is amazing and i love her so much. 

last year we had 3 dinners. thank goodness we only had 2 this year. we had a pretty traditional one with a white family: turkey gravy, blessed homemade rolls, green bean casserole, taters, etc. but then right after we went to a columbian home. they speak perfect english though. and their older daughter is dating a british pro chef guy. and so he made us 12 different dishes! we had lamb, duck, fish, scalloped taters, brussle sprouts, fancy carrots and more. it was crazy. and then we had a gramcracker gingerbread house making comp and it turned into a frosting fight between two sisters. it was so great. oh yea and the british guy fed us caviar on a silver spoon! i spit it out after a while. it was like a spoon full of soft sand right out of the ocean. so salty. 

then we started caroling with all the sisters in the zone: 19 in total. we baked a bunch of cookies and then went to some less actives, actives that needed some extra love, and our investigators debra and rob. it was so successful! we even got our members to drive the sisters around with us bc yanno, limited miles. the less active invited us back for dinner, debra cried, the active cried. it was just a splended night. 

EVERYONE NEEDS TO GO CHECK OUT LIGHT THE WORLD PLEASE

oh yea and i had sister robinson chop my hair off

love you so much! byyyyyyeeeeee!

pics:

hair before 

and after

me this morning. rob wrapped me like a mummy. check out my crocs.

November 13, 2017

Short Email

so many things happened. 

leadership responsibilities are hard and time consuming but we love it.

we love our moms. they supplied our new pajamas. 

sunsets lately are unreal. i love them. i love clouds. probably because my head is up there so often. hah!

we have hit under 100 days until things get craaaazy back in Draper UT when i go home...please follow the Prophet's councel and be up to date on food storage. 

Quotes from President Thomas:

 

Only on Christ's triumphant shoulders can we ride to celestial glory--if we will but choose through our faithfulness to do so.
--Jeffrey R. Holland

For the fruit of the gospel to blossom and bless our lives, we must be firmly attached to Him, the Savior of us all.
--Jeffrey R. Holland

We must not become weary of doing good, and we must not become impatient; the changes we seek will come... in their time.
--Kathleen H. Hughes

May we be anxiously engaged in gathering in His sheep who have gone astray, so they can be safe in the fold.
--Ned B. Roueche

love, 

Hermana Harker

The Radford's

Thanksgiving Week

Elder Wakolo from the 70 came and spent 2 days with our mission this week! it was so cool! he's from fiji!

our investigator Debra called us the other day and asked when we were each going home because she wants us both to be here when she GETS BAPTIZED!!! we havent even set a date yet! we are thinking the 9th of December! she is so solid. we love her so much. her british husband will not be too far behind. we are so pumped. 

rob and i are staying together!!!!! another six weeks!! and then she goes home!!! and then another 6 weeks!!! and then i go home!!! yes. its true. better believe it.

yesterday we were either in the car, or in a church building. we were sitting down all freaking day. first we went to our church meeting with debra and her husband rob. then we drove to our members house and they drove us to Del Mar to go to church with our investigator Hunter that soon will be baptized as well. and then driving back to vc going 80 mph (our member bc tiwi wont let us). and then we drove again to bobier in vista to go to the face to face. driving. sitting. all. day. long. but i love being a missionary more than anything. 

also i made it into Helman in the Book of Mormon. i will finish before Christmas!

well i love you all so much. i know the church is true. i know that our Savior Jesus Christ lives. and i am so thankful for all your prayers and support. 

happy turkey day this week!

beware of the meat sweats!

love, Hermana Kiara Harker

p.s. if you would like to enjoy a Christmas card from Sister Robinson and I, please reply back with your home address:)

--

Hermana Kiara Harker

California Carlsbad Mission

pics: 

posterity picture!!! my trainer "mom", and my two "daughters"!!! hermana osburn is training (so im a grandma) but she went home for something.

we often dont have enough time to do laundry on p days...so at 9ish i sometimes have to wash my clothes by hand...

weekly planning and sis rob drew faces on my toes

Holy chicken I love the church.

I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY.

Tuesday: Halloween "party" with the sisters. we got all crafty and painted and ate goodies and had a great time. sister rob and I looked so great in our costumes. we had so much fun. we realized both during the day we forgot to put deodorant on. too busy.

Wednesday: Went to dinner. they had just killed their pet chicken an hour before we got there because it was annoying them, and so we ate it for dinner. it was really hard to do that. im thinking about going vegetarian when I get home...meat has scared me on my mission. I was eating the chicken leg and it was really rough meat and it was either the Achilles tendon, or the knee cap that snapped off the bone and then slapped me in the face...I almost lost everything I ate that day. I stayed strong and spit the knee cap or tendon into my napkin. you could say I was full pretty fast. Sister rob ate the rib cage.

Friday: we went up Palomar Mountain again. I love that place. we ate dinner with a less active family and taught their non member daughter. she is so close to getting baptized. they just live on the freaking mountain and cant come to church very easily. I love them.

Saturday: we had a lesson with Debra and Rob with the Tanners. I love them all. Rob went to the temple open house and brought us back the pamphlets, AND burned us a CD of the pictures Rob took and gave us each one. I love them.

Sunday: was the best day of them all!!! Debra and Rob came to church!!! and then they stayed for class and learned about family history. they love it. they will be coming back!! oh yea AND THEY PAID TITHING!! WHAT??  and then we were invited to sit in primary and share what we do to serve and how people serve us. and it was so cute because a lot of them recognize that we have come to their house and they freaking love us! and THEN we got invited to teach nursery about Joseph Smith and they sang songs for us!  HUNTER WENT TO CHURCH AND BORE HIS TESTIMONY in another ward because it was closer to his work. We had a bomb lesson with Eric, we are still teaching with the YSA elders. AND THE CLOUDS YESTERDAY WERE SO FREAKING COOL!!!

ALSO I THINK I FOUND OUT WHAT MY FAVORITE COLOR IS!! ive gone through this identity crisis and I haven't had a favorite color in years. but just the other night I opened up some glow sticks my mom sent us and I gave half to rob. I noticed she had a really pretty color. it was a red/magenta one. it was so cool. I dropped the ones I had and asked if I could have hers. she gave it to me and I slept with it in my hand that night. guys, it was such a cool color. I kept it in my bag with me the next day. I like red. then I carved a small pumpkin and put "RED" engraven into it. I like the color red.

ok im done. thanks. bye!

THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!

love, Hermana kiara harker

Happy Halloween!!!

syd will be 21 tomorroww....ooooooollllddddddd

today started off going to ihop and eating pumpkin pancakes. gotta be festive. 

tis the season

too many things happened this week:

-my mom hates my crocs

-we picked pumpkins

-had 3 exchanges

-went up to the Mountain! Palomar mountain. i want to live there... we had to bring socks and crocs to help feed pigs and walk around a la's farm. so a pic is down of our outfits. no shame.

-i finished reading all of PMG and now i can focus on the LdM

-my parents met sister Rob's parents and my WML brother Tanner

-got a bunch more Persimmons

-We taught Debra and Rob. Rob (fingers crossed) went to the Meridian Temple open house. Debra wants us to come over on a regular basis...yay!!!!!!!!

-The church is true and i know that God loves me 

-i love Halloween . im sure it might be my favorite. we are in the library and there was a wee parade of kids with their costumes walking through just for us (bc we are the only ones in here...) walking to graveyard smash. "oh Darla, oh Christmas!"

-my rc Ramon from oceanside sent me this huge duffle bag of stuff he bought be! 3 pairs of shoes, hats, a scarf, a watch, coloring books, socks, candy corn footballs, and so much more. it has been amazing to see the change from when we first found him, fast forward almost a year and here he is! so successful an happy. i love him.

today on the agenda is an all day P day! ive got my halloween gettup, glue on nails for my costume today (pictures attached next week), we are gonna get crafty with the sisters and have some spooky good fun, carve a gigantic pumpkin, and play some wiffle ball and volley ball, with some donuts on strings, and zombie nerf war? maybe? theres no rest here. 

be safe out there! we will be in a safe church bc halloween gets crazy out here i guess. 

enjoy!

love hermana kiara harker

r

No group email this week:(

We are super busy today and i cant write a weekly email.

Sometimes it hits 50-60 degrees and im freezing. i might get hypothermia when i come home. i have to put socks and a cardigan and turn on the heater to be comfortable.! its nutz! 

Pday will be Tuesday next week bc Halloween. we have been planning something for our sisters for halloween and im super excited to tell you about it and send you pictures. its going to be so fun. you would be so proud. 

Please enjoy these pictures for now. 

our zone

exchanges

a selfie

grapes

4 more months to go!

14 months ago today i left for Mexico. 14 months ago yesterday i was set apart as the Lord's missionary. I was just thinking about that this morning. i tend to think about that every "anniversary" i come across. I think about the time and who and where i was before my mission and when i got set apart. and holy mole i am so glad it is in the past. And i have loved the company of the Holy Ghost so strong every day of my mission. That and the Book of Mormon have helped me through everything. I have been having many experiences like Ammon in the book of Alma, where "i cannot express the least amount of what im feeling". those inexpressible feelings have been with me since the beginning of last week. 

Last monday we had a lesson with our gator Hunter. we set him on date for baptism for the 4th of November. he has such a huge and great team of members cheering him on and supporting him through all of it. We are literally just there (for now) to teach the lessons. and we are barely doing that at all! the old ward mission leader in the ward knows him and has been teaching him more than we have! its great!

And then Manuel got baptized just the day after! and let me tell you, filling the font was probably one of the most spiritual feelings ive ever had. back in February when Ramon got baptized, the ward mission leader or the elders filled the font for us. But this last Tuesday was just amazing. Such a spirit filled service. and it was so sweet! our bishop that doesnt speak a lick of spanish gave him a welcome by having someone translate his talk into spanish. so great. 

picked up a solid potential that came to the baptism as well. things are poppin here!

then right after, we had a meeting with our new Zone leaders and we introduced the idea of the Cleanse. Its the thing  weve been doing for a few weeks now of straight MoTab, clean apartment, clean car, clean language, clean thoughts etc. And we have been seeing sooooo many miracles. and they accepted it and now its our zone theme. now the zone is seeing many miracles. BEING A MISSIONARY IS AWESOME!!!

 then last thing is the Christmas initiative!! its coming so soon! missionaries near you are preparing for it already! we have a specialized training meeting this tuesday that Sister Robinson and i are leading and its going to be so choice. we are so pumped for this. we are pumped practically all the time. i love her. 

this is a long email. so many good things are happening. 

pics:

manuel

i ate a passion fruit. it was weird.

i may or may not have peed my pants laughing...

a craft my mom sent me. we mimicked the faces...

filling the font​

gee dang!! this week, especially this weekend was one of the most stressful time of the mission so far!

MANUEL IS GETTING BAPTIZED TOMORROW!!!!!!! holy biscuits and gravy. we were supposed to have our last lesson and interview with him on saturday but he had to work later and wasnt able to come! we were panicking!! we called him and talked to him for 20 minutes and just got to talk to him and get to know him more and that gave us more reassurance for where we are at right now. yesterday before church, manuel met with someone in the bishopric, we filled out his baptism record, and taught him his last lesson. all under an hour. after church he left and told us he would let us know when we could come over. but he never called nor texted us! he ignored our texts and calls. we were stressing and praying like crazy. it is so difficult to deal with people that use their agency different that what you need to happen. eventually we had the interview! he passed! baptism is tomorrow at 7!! yay!!!! we are so pumped!!! so many prayers are being answered!!

yesterday was cananda's thanksgiving! go canada!

Sister Robinson and i will be staying together another 6 weeks!! yay!!! we are so pumped and happy. we love each other. 

for the first time in my life, i decided to share my testimony on my own free will yesterday for fast sunday. in past areas they have asked the leaving missionaries to share your testimony with the ward. but no one asked me to. the spirit told me to and i did it. i was shaking so bad. i was more comfortable to do it simply in spanish. thats strange. im more comfortable speaking in spanish...huh. but i did it in spanish so that the members of the spanish group could understand and know that i was talking directly to them. it was hard. its easier talking to people face to face than in front of all them at once. 

the mission is still changing me and i love it. you guys are all amazing and important to your loving Father in Heaven. have a great week!! and do as my family does and read the Book of Mormon every. day. 

byeeee!!:) 

--

Hermana Kiara Harker

So many things...

so much has happened. so little time to explain. heart so full yet words non existent. 

back2back exchanges with our lovely sisters. had to deal with some Christlike confrontations. corrections were made. tears were shed. lives being changed.  

we are trying to do and be better so we are doing a cleanse. both temporarily and spiritually. already seeing the fruits and miracles. 

MLC missionary leadership council.  love it. that morning we got a call from a former in spanish. she wanted us to come back over to her house and teach her and her 10 yr old daughter. juana y josefa are their names. her dad passed away and she didnt want the missionaries to come over anymore. so when we went over, we taught the plan of salvation. we also did a soft baptismal invitation. they are on the road to salvation!

Manuel is still working towards his baptism for next tuesday!!! we set up his interview and last few lessons. we are so excited. this gospel is so great. God is good. 

we also were able to finally meet up with our investigator and her 2 less active sons. we read 1 nefi 4 with them, but it was so late we invited them to finish it on their own. it was tricky bc she only understands spanish but her kids cant understand and read in spanish. we will have to have 2 lessons at one time next time. 

General Conference!! got to hear what Heavenly Father needs me to do. i love these times of the year. last one on  the mission...

met with paige another gator. she is great. she already practically knows its true. she was going to the church before we began teaching.

MIRACLE!!! we got a member referral text DURING conference!! we called the ref: Debra and Rob and they had found a BoM in their house and started reading it. loved it so much Debra bought one for her husband! they read it and found conference online and watched ALL THE SESSIONS!!!! we have a meeting with them scheduled for tuesday.

I know that i am truly involved in God's work. I see His hands in all things. 

READ THE BOOK OF MORMON. please. :) 

love you all!! and so does your Father in Heaven!!!

sister during (exchanges)

hermana wilhelmsen (exchanges) goats behind our house.

sister rob in her mermaid tail for conf

nature pic in the car with rc camden

What do you call a dog w/o legs?  It doesn't matter what you call it...  It still won't come!

hehehehe!

wowzers this week was great and this next one is going to be crazy.  weve got back to back exchanges starting tonight and it will be my first time leading out our area...im nervous but super excited. im going to drive the truck around vc. yea baby!;)

last monday was awesome! we organized a sister's lunch and totally had a blast! we bought a red and white checked picnic cloth and a basket with our sack lunches and juice boxes. it was a success. only 4 sisters couldnt make it:( and then we did a 3 legged race with our comps and it was so funny and so much fun! we laughed the entire time! i got some footage. we were exhausted by the end of it from running and laughing the whole time. and then we went to a member's house and watched ephriams rescue. we cried a lot. such a good movie. 

manuel is still on date for baptism!! we are planning on the 10th or the saturday before!!

kinda got bashed by our member's husband at our dinner message. 

had zone conf! we realized that that was my last one before i give my dying testimony in january. because in november we arent bc we are having a visit from a general authority. december is christmas when we have our devotional as a mission. january i give my testimony at zone conf. february im in a plane. that was weird...

we did car checks at a zone conf and i saw my daughter hermana osburn! she's killin it!

went to temecula and i got a re-alignment at a chiropractor. that was weird but i survived it!  i was scared i might die. 

i boiled eggs for an egg salad. eggs were from a member. i peeled them and my last one i noticed the insides were dark. i thought: rotten egg. ilooked more and it had veins! after further inspection, we discovered it was a chicken fetus that i had just boiled!!! we felt sick all day. we put it in vinegar to preserve it. named him jimmy. ended up doing weekly planning outside bc we couldnt focus. then later we went to buy a cookie at at deli to clear our minds of chicken fetus. and at the deli we found our cute investigator Paige with her volleyball team there! shes so cute! we got her numba!

we played football this morning and it was so much fun! im still learning, but it was fun. im out of shape. but im still happy! 

so excited for general conf. i dont know how to spell the whole word for conf...

The Book of Mormon is true. I know my Savior lives. i see miracles happen every day. I love my Redeemer. I love the feeling i get when i put my fears to the side and just serve and talk to God's children. its a feeling i thrive on. i love finding out who i am and who i can become. i know that being truly happy only comes though the Savior and His gospel. He changes people. He changed me. through His eternal love and atoning sacrifice! i love you all so much. i encourage all to look deep inside yourselves and turn to the Savior. He won't let you down. you won't be disappointed in what happens. Give yourself to Him. Only good things come out of it. i know it because its happened and is happening to me. 

Love, Hermana Kiara Harker 

pictures: