Friday, August 19, 2011

I Love being here in Peru


Hola,
Well I can really say that I am super happy right now. I had a fantastic week, I spent a lot of time working and we are starting to see a lot of results. I am super happy that the family is  happy. How fun that we are going to get a Cafe Rio. I am super excited to eat there when I get back. It will be really nice because by the time I get back it won’t be one of the main attractions in Great Falls. Well I do have two things of news… I am just going to tell you straight up, I Love being here in Peru.  I realized that I just don’t take enough pictures and that I am always missing opportunities so… I have made it my personal goal to take nicer pictures. Second thing… the camera that I bought in Iquitos to be honest was one that was really cheap… and not very good. I felt really bad when I was taking those pictures in my suit coat because I couldn’t get a picture really awesome.  I went out looking today because we had a little bit of time and I bought a new camera. What I did was a type of trade. I trade in my old camera and paid a little bit more money and bought another. This was my birthday present to me. Just know that better pictures are coming.
  I received the package… I love all of you so much. I got it three days after my birthday. That’s ok though, because I was working really hard that day anyway. I got everything and the new memory card does work for my camera… so no problems there. The most surprising thing  was there was all that peanut butter (in the care package). Let me just say that I have been having this craving for peanut butter lately and to see all that deliciousness there, I just about started to cry tears of joy.  So thank you!!!!!! Another thing that I think was awesome was those sour dots… holy smokes those are really good. I was very excited for the new ties too, I really like the paisley tie.
Cool thing that happened this week.  Something that I don’t think that you aware of about South America or maybe you do … is that all of the movies and the video games are pirated here really early. We were walking through an open market when I saw a man selling videos.  There before my unexpecting eyes was a big TV screen and on the screen was Transformers 3. I want you all to know that I was tough… I could have spent two seconds and watched a little bit, but right there on the spot I knew that I had to 1.) Be firm in my deal with Dad and 2.) Be firm in my deal with God.  To be honest thoughts of the deal with Dad came first… Dad you know I love ya so stinking much and I respect you more than you can comprehend for keeping strong on our deal. You will always be ¨the man¨. (Dad made a deal not to go to the movies while Jaren served his two year mission)
The Spiritual Experience.
This week we had one of our baptismal dates fall. I was pretty sad… but herein lay the story. We have a wonderful lady named Silvia that we are teaching.  She loves her family.  She is a single mother of four daughters. Her daughters are 24,  20 and the other two are 7 and 2 years old. This sweet lady is of very humble birth.  She was born in the jungle in a little place outside of where I served in Iquitos. That was our starter point… my companion and I have both been to Iquitos and she knows that place very well. As we have been teaching her ,she has been doing everything that we tell her. We say read and she reads; we say pray and she practically falls to her knees right there and prays. She is super prepared for us.  She has one of the most powerful testimonies of the gospel that I have ever experienced in someone so new. She latched on to the gospel like ¨a fat man running to eat some cake¨. I love this woman, and her desires to help her family and to give to her children the way to return to our Heavenly father.  This week we entered her house and she was very upset, very sad. We began to talk to her and she explained to us that no matter how much she wanted she couldn’t be baptized. She really believes in the church… and she knows that to be baptized is to receive the true remission of your sins. She explained to us that for her to get baptized she needs to leave a lot of bad things that she has going on in her life. Namely this… She doesn’t work, so to pay for her house she depends upon the father of her littlest child. The foul man lives in another part of Lima with his other wife and kids. He uses her, as a means to escape his other family when he is upset with them. She tried to talk to him about this whole life style and he got all upset and told her that if she didn’t do what he wants when he comes to the house, he would stop paying for all her things. If he does that she won’t be able to pay for food and water and light for her kids. She is so sad… and what I have learned from her is one of the things that I will never forget. She told us that in this time of pure low and depression… she just needs to stop doing things her way and start depending on God.  The love that this woman possesses seriously is bar none the highest level of dedication I have ever seen. Instead of just giving up on this whole problem… she fights everyday day to keep all of the commandments so that God can give her thr relief that she seeks.
She is one of my Heroes.
Con Amor Elder Harris
Pictures
1. A really big dog attacked me playfully in the street
2. On my birthday they smashed my face in my cake lol
3. A cool picture




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