Last P-Day of 2016

Dear everyone,
Today we went to the city, so I don't have much time to write. Serving
in Washington DC is amazing! Christmas this past week was great and I
loved getting to talk to my family. The visitors' center has been
crazy to say the least...on Christmas night the visitor center sisters
all sang for the performance (there are performances every night
during December) and there were over 9,000 people there!!! Every seat
in the auditorium downstairs was full for both performances. We have
had so many non members come in to the VC and accept to learn more
from missionaries. December has been full of miracles, and I love
being able to see them with all of the sisters at the visitors center.
This week we were going to check up on a referral but couldn't find
the right apartment. We knocked on a door and there was an older lady
who answered. She said that she didn't know the person we were looking
for so we went to the next one. A couple minutes later the older lady
opened the door and told us to come inside. She wanted to know why we
were dressed up and what our name tags were for. We explained that we
were missionaries and she told us she was catholic. We sat down with
her and we talked about her family. She lost her husband almost 20
years ago and she was struggling with health/mental problems so she
can't ever get out of the house. She lives alone and doesn't really
ever get to talk to anyone. We prayed with her and she started crying.
We talked about how Heavenly knows her and Christ knows exactly how
she feels. We had to go to the visitors center but she didn't want us
to leave so we set up another appointment for next week. It made me so
grateful for what I have and I loved talking to her because we could
tell she needed someone to just simply talk to that afternoon. I love
being able to serve every day and I love being on a mission. There's
nowhere I'd rather be and I'm grateful I have the opportunity to be
here. It really is a blessing. I hope you all had a great Christmas!!
I love you all.
Love, Sister Haertling

Top picture: Washington DC North Missionaries
Middle picture:  Smithsonian Castle
Bottom picture:  Hirshhorn Museum

Merry Christmas

Dear all,
Merry Christmas!! I can't believe it's Christmas THIS Sunday already..
this week has been very busy, but we have seen so many miracles. Sorry
I wasn't able to send a big email last week, I've been sick and our
pday was cut short. One experience that I had though last week was one
that I will always remember. It was last Saturday night I had been
sick for a week and none of the doctors were able to help me so I was
frustrated. I hadn't been able to eat for that week because the sores
in my mouth and I just wanted to get back to normal missionary work. I
had been praying for that whole week so hard that I could just be
healthy and everything was just getting worse..so we were at the
emergency room on Saturday and the doctor was doing a lot of tests to
try and figure out what was wrong with me and at this point I was
really wanting my mom there next to me and just felt really alone. I
was confused why I was so sick as a missionary and felt like Heavenly
Father wasn't answering me. They were taking some blood, when I looked
down and saw that drop of blood I had a very, VERY direct and clear
thought that I know wasn't my own. The words I heard were, "I bled
from every pore". It was so strong and I knew right then that Jesus
Christ knew what I was feeling and Heavenly Father was aware of my
struggles. It was an experience I will never forget, and I am so
thankful we have a savior who knows exactly what we are going through
all the time. This Tuesday a nice lady in our ward invited us over
because she was making seafood for us since she heard I had been sick
the last week and needed to "boost my immune system" haha. She is
Chinese and so it was a mix of Chinese food and seafood. It was so
sweet of her because she had been preparing it all day long and was so
excited to feed it to us. A lot of the fish I wasn't even sure what I
was eating and the texture was really different but I had to just keep
thinking of Cayden in Zimbabwe and the things he has to eat haha. It
didn't help when I was eating some ball of fish/eggs/something else
and she told us that almost all of what we were eating had been
crawling or swimming earlier that morning...haha. But I'm grateful for
amazing members who always invite us over. On Wednesday I was standing
in the visitors center and had just gotten done teaching a man. Right
when you walk into the visitors center there is a big statue of
Christ. I was standing there when a little girl around the age of 4
walked by holding her moms hand. I could tell they weren't members of
the church. They were walking past the statue in a hurry trying to get
out the door when I saw the little girl look up at Christ and say,
"mommy, He was holding me in heaven". It completely caught the mother
off guard and she just stopped and looked at her daughter. Right then
one of the senior missionaries walked up to me and needed my help
finding more pamphlets so I'm not sure what ever happened, but I felt
the spirit so strong from that innocent little girl. I love when the
little kids come in and just want to be by the big statue of Christ.
They are so drawn to Him and it is amazing to see how much they love
Him. Every night now there are sisters from the Baltimore mission or
the Washington DC South mission that come in to help with the Festival
of Lights because it is so busy and so we go on exchanges with them
every night. It's fun having a different companion every night for a
couple of hours in the VC. On Friday night it was about 9:45 and we
were getting ready to close. I was standing in one of the rooms with
the nativities from all over the world and started talking to a man
from Guatemala who had a sleeping daughter on his shoulder. I was
asking him about his family and their beliefs for a while when elder
Fowler (our VC director) walked up to us, put his hand on the man's
daughter and said, "She's yours right? Well do you want to live with
her forever?" The man answered yes and elder Fowler said, "Well that's
why we have temples, you can be sealed to your family for time and all
eternity". The man asked if we had anything he could read to know more
about our religion and I explained to him about he Book of Mormon. He
asked where he could find one and I told him we had a whole room in
the back filled with them in every language he could think of. I asked
if he would like to learn more from local missionaries and he said he
would like that a lot. It was such a great example to me about how
lots of people are just waiting and so prepared to hear more about the
restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Sometimes I get scared that people
are going to think I am too pushy or they will say no, but really it's
not like that and it's ok if they say no! At least they are being
given the opportunity and later down the road they may be more open to
learning more. I was able to meet quite a few people from Pasco this
week that came into the VC which was really fun. I didn't know them,
but we knew mutual people. There was a family that came into the
Festival of Lights about a week ago and they moved here from India
about 5 years ago. They have a little baby and just came to see the
lights. Sister missionaries taught them while they were there and they
eventually said they would be willing to meet with missionaries. So
since they live in the Bethesda area, we are the missionaries who get
to teach them. We went over to their house on Saturday and were able
to teach them the first lesson. Before we were even able to ask them
anything they asked us if they could come to church with us. We are so
excited and they told us they had started to read the Book of Mormon.
Another great teaching opportunity we have had is with an older lady
named Mary. She also came to the VC for the Festival of Lights and she
was interested in meeting with missionaries too. We got to teach her
there and found out that she lives in our same apartment complex. We
went over last night and got to teach her about the restoration and
the priesthood power. She was so sweet and told us she had the Mormon
tabernacle choir recorded if we wanted to watch it and was dressed up
really nice in a dress since we were coming over. She told us she
would be interested in coming to church on Sunday for Christmas and
asked us to come over again to teach her more. It was amazing. I love
being able to serve at the visitors center. There are so many miracles
that happen there on dedicated ground and I know people can feel the
spirit there. I hope you all have a great Christmas, I love and
appreciate you all so much!
Love, Sister Haertling

Festival of Lights begins!

Dear all,
Where do I begin, this week has been absolutely crazy!! On Tuesday we
had ambassador night at the VC which is a big event closed to the
public where ambassadors from countries around the world come. The
Marriotts host the event and the visitors center puts on a big
lighting ceremony. It's such an amazing experience but it is different
because as missionaries we aren't allowed to talk about the church
with the people there even if they ask us questions about the church.
If they do ask us we are supposed to let someone from the public
affairs talk to them more. It is a really formal event so we got
dressed up for it and they even told us to take more time getting
ready and look our best. It felt so weird because as missionaries we
don't have much time to get ready in the morning and usually are told
to always look professional but not take much time or effort into
outward appearance.. so that was different. Some of the things we did
at ambassador night and diplomat night were greeting them, passing out
programs/ushering, taking all the fancy coats, and handing out gift
bags. Being a missionary here in the VC feels a little strange
sometimes, just because of the events that go on and things we do but
I love it and there are so many neat experiences. There is usually
always a general authority at ambassador night and this year Elder
Stevenson was the one to come. He spoke about bringing hope to the
world through our examples. It was really cool because the ambassador
that helped turn on the Christmas lights was from Japan and elder
Stevenson served his mission in Japan as well as serving as a mission
president there. They had a choir come and sing as well as Sandra
Turley who is an amazing singer in our stake who performs on broadway.
After brother Marriott spoke and Elder Stevenson, they pressed the big
button that turns on the 800,000 lights. It's so amazing. When elder
Stevenson first came in I didn't see him but all of the sudden he was
right in front of me and shaking my hand. He asked me a couple of
questions about my mission and then left. After the ceremony he came
over to all the VC sisters and talked to us again. He got some
pictures with all of us (I only have one, but hopefully next week I'll
be able to get the rest). On Wednesday we had diplomat night which is
just like ambassador night but more people come from different
embassies and they hold the ceremony in the big theater downstairs.
They have a reception outside afterwards but it was pouring rain so
people didn't stay very long. On Thursday we finally could get back to
the normal missionary schedule and Festival of Lights finally started.
The VC is open now from 10am-10pm which means most nights we don't get
home until 10:45 or 11. Luckily we get an extra hour to sleep in the
morning. I had heard that Festival of Lights is crazy...but I didn't
realize how crazy..we had over 6,000 people in the VC just in the
first two nights. I was talking to one of the sisters who was here
last year at Festival of Lights and she laughed and said that in the
next week and a half we will have over 6,000 people in just one night!
There are so many non members that come into the VC that just love
coming to see the lights and the shows every night. On Thursday night
as I was walking around in the front of the VC I saw 2 guys that
looked familiar and realized it was Studio C! They had been at the
stake center next door for #lighttheworld collecting donations of
clothes and visiting with everyone there. I got a picture with them
and a sister I was with asked one of them to do his "lobster bisque"
thing from one of their skits. If you've never watched the studio C
skit with the lobster bisque then it's probably not very funny, but he
said "lobster bisque with sister Haertling and sister Stephan at the
Washington DC temple visitors center". We thought it was pretty funny.
So one of the rooms in the visitors center is filled with amazing
nativities from different countries around the world. Besides the
lights and performances, that room is why so many people come. I was
walking around talking to people on Friday night when a man came up to
me and asked me what the room was. His name is Pavell and he's about
60 years old. He barely spoke any English, so it was hard to
understand him. I could tell he spoke Russian and so since I know a
few things in Russian I introduced myself in his language. His face
lit up and started speaking Russian super fast. I told him that was
about all I knew and he was surprised because he told me he thought I
looked Russian. We ended up talking (or at least trying to understand
each other) for about an hour. He loved the new Christmas video and
after he watched it he wiped a tear from his eye. We both felt the
spirit so strong. I asked him if he would be interested in meeting
with missionaries and that they could give him a Russian Book of
Mormon. He said he would and wrote down his information so I could
send it to the missionaries. Later on that night I was walking around
and saw Pavell again but he was talking to some of his friends that he
came with. He waved for me to come over and said to them, "guys this
is my new friend I want you to meet her". It was so sweet! On Sunday
night a family of 3 came into the VC. They had a couple of questions
but the dad was just making little sarcastic comments about Joseph
smith and other things. We ended up talking for an hour and a half and
were able to clear up so many misconceptions they had about the
church. They said it made so much sense and that we had a lot of
similarities with their beliefs. We watched the new Christmas video
and the wife was crying at the end. I could tell they all felt the
spirit. They were so interested in the Book of Mormon and all wanted a
copy. We got their information and they said it would be okay for the
missionaries to bring it by and talk to them. The parents live in
North Carolina, but the daughter who lives here actually lives in the
Bethesda area so we get to teach her!! I have seen so many miracles
already with Festival and even though the nights are long and our feet
feel like they are going to fall off by the end of each night, it is
so so SO worth it to see how many peoples lives can be changed and see
the spirit work in them. I am so lucky and thankful to get to serve in
the VC and love being here in Washington DC!! Thank you for your love
and prayers!
Love, Sister Haertling

Top picture:  meeting Elder Gary E. Stevenson
Middle picture:  ambassador night
Bottom picture:  beautiful temple in the rain