My name is Kristina Clarene Jensen Harris, better known in the branch
as Zeng Jiemei. I was called to serve as a full-time missionary for the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Washington DC North
mission at the Washington DC Temple Visitor's Center from December 2005
to June 2007, during which time I was blessed to serve for six months as
companion to Sister Ouyang in the Montgomery Chinese Branch.
I
absolutely love the members of the branch. As a missionary I was
overcome by the love and kindness, the generosity, hospitality, and
Christ-like service of so many of the members. Missionaries were treated
like gold and respected as true servants of the Lord here more than
anywhere else I can remember. I was inspired by the dedication and faith
of branch members in reaching out to share the gospel with their
families and friends. I knew that I had been called to serve in a very
special place in the Lord's vineyard, and it is.
From the day
we became companions, Sister Ouyang and I used to pray every night that we
could be transferred into the Chinese branch. We petitioned our mission president, President Price, continually with this desire in our weekly
letters. When the call finally came we were ecstatic with joy, knew it
was a miracle, and worked each day with our all our might mind heart and
strength to thank the Lord for the blessing. If only every person we
met could have truly understood the immediate and eternal impact of the
message of our Savior Jesus Christ which we so passionately shared; we
dreamed of the branch doubling in just those few months we were there.
We had such high hopes and such great aspirations, but the Lord had
another plan in mind. He taught us the worth of the soul, which is great
in His sight, and just one soul, Gu Shixuan, came into the fold during
all of our labors. We spent countless hours visiting the less-active,
teaching people in their homes, in the Asian markets, or in the streets.
Of course in mortality we may never know all of the lives that were
touched or the seeds that were planted, but perhaps the life that
changed the most was my own.
While serving in the branch I
developed a deep love and respect for all of God's children of the
Orient, and for their culture. After returning from my mission I had a
strong desire to follow Elder Holland's counsel to master my mission
language. I changed my major from dance to Mandarin and graduated in
April 2011 from Brigham Young University with my BA in Chinese. I feel
that learning Chinese and finishing this degree is the hardest thing I
have ever strived to accomplish thus far. As many may remember, the
language has not come easy for me. Continuing to study Mandarin will
continue to humble me for the rest of my life, but I find strength in
knowing that this is the Lord's will.
I was sealed for time and
all eternity in the St. George LDS Temple on April 6th 2009 to Jacob
Michel Harris, the love of my life. Jacob took two semesters of Mandarin
at BYU, he says it was to impress me and help win me over. The night we
met I was writing characters on a white board preparing for a final
when he jumped in and wrote his own three characters on the board asking
if I knew what "Kai mi chu" meant. He said it meant "can I meet you?" I
wrote him an answer back in characters which he obviously could not
read; he was in way over his head. He had to use his cell phone to take a
picture of the characters and use some sort of a translation device to
decipher the message. Attempting to learn this language has been a fun
part of our relationship, but on a more serious note we both strongly
feel that the Lord has a plan for us that involves learning to more
eloquently communicate in Mandarin; we plan and prepare to serve
together as missionaries in China one day. We currently have a two year
old son named Joseph who is the darling little light of our lives. I am
teaching Joseph to speak in English and Mandarin simultaneously. I also
volunteer to help out with the Chinese immersion program at the local
elementary school near our home in Riverton, Utah. In addition I tutor
four 2nd grade students in Chinese from our ward.
I love the
gospel. I know this church is true. I know that the Lord knows and
loves each of us individually. I am grateful to be a part of His great
work. We are preparing the world for the Second Coming of the Messiah.
Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ.
God bless,
Zeng Jiemei
