Friday, December 23, 2011

One Night on the Bus


Well how fun was that!!!!!!
I was pretty happy to hear your voices. I thought that you sounded a little raspy if that makes sense mom. Just as a funny side note… about the I am starting to be more like dad thing, I think that it is going to be really different when we see each other again. We will have a fun time finding all of the differences. I don’t think that I have grown but maybe just a little bit. I can’t tell. I have been told that I look pretty skinny that I am getting skinner but I feel like I am fat so whatever.
I have this great new family that I am teaching. They are called the Tito Lazo family. We have been teaching them for quite some time now and I really like teaching them. We have been spending a good amount of time exploring my area. It is just so stinking big… One night on the bus we just were sitting there and I decided to contact this lady that was sitting right behind me. Well she turned out to be totally awesome and now I think that pretty soon here we might be seeing a baptism.  We have been teaching them a lot and they love us. There 9 year old son one day asks us when we are going to come back and if we could come back tomorrow. We had to tell him that we can’t come every day because his mom doesn’t want us there every day. That’s when the mom (named Rosa) chimes in and says ¨and why can’t you just come over every day? ¨ I looked at my companion and he says ¨wait Elder Harris why can’t we come over every day¨. That’s when I say, looking to Hermana Rosa….¨how about we come over tomorrow!¨ We have been visiting them almost every day… They came to church this Sunday and they are just loving the Book of Mormon right now.  They have had a lot of doubts about the Catholic Church that they attend… we have been helping them to see the simple truths and now we are really starting to see them fly.  I am pretty excited to see them progress even more. 
Well I am super tired. I have been sleeping on the floor lately in the house of Elder DIvis from my district because they are redoing the floor of my house. That’s been pretty dang tough … but I like being with my entire district because we have had the opportunity to help our Elder that doesn’t like to work. We have been doing practices and we have been trying to get him pumped up so that he works harder. I don’t know what else to do than to just love him… so I am just letting that out.
Side note…. I found out that Noe got into a fight and got banged up pretty bad… from what I have heard is that he was flirting with the wrong man’s ex-girlfriend. NOT A GOOD PLAN. I will let you in on more news.
Did you guys see the Christmas conference? I thought that it was totally cool that they are giving out all these new videos about Christ. I want to see them all just as bad as I want to see Planet of the Apes and Transformers 3… SERIOUSLY…. I can’t wait to see those video clips.
Well my Zone Leaders are telling me that my package didn’t come that it is not in the offices. Hmmmmmmmmmm I don’t know what to think?
The first photo is of the Christmas special then the next is the dinner we had with Marco my convert and the last is the picture of that service.


Elder Harris

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Q & A Elder Harris Style


Question and Answer ELDER HARRIS Style
How goes the district leader? Any progress with the companionship you talked about? 
Everything is going better. The companionship that was not really working out all that well has still been giving me some trouble but I have found that with a little patience and a lot of love anything is possible
 Where are you spending Christmas this year?  What are your plans?  Did you happen to get your Christmas package?
 Well for this Christmas we are going to work. We really don’t get time off like the normal world. I think that we are going to go to a member’s house so they can feed us that day. She has invited us so that we aren’t just working all day long like normal. And I have yet to get the Christmas package because my leaders have yet to go to the offices.
 How are things holding up?  What do you need?  I thinking ahead for Valentine’s Day… socks? Shirt?  What are you craving?
 Well things are holding in there right now. If you know what I mean; a little more bluntly I look pretty beat in my cloths. Not because I don’t treat my clothing right… it’s more because of the wear and tear on a white shirt. Just imagine it goes through dirt and sweat and being washed by hand and all that not so normal stuff. So what ends up happening that the shirts come out stained or they come out ripped? But that’s ok because I have just been saying that it is my battle cloths. Though I have had to repair a few of my shirts, not all of them are that bad. If you are going to send me shirts send me the lightest weight, short sleeve shirts that you can find. I don’t want long sleeve… it’s too hot… and I don’t want heavy winter wear shirts made of pure 100% cotton. The light weight stuff is the best.  Whatever you do don’t send me heavy clothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well the socks are a different story. If you are going to send me sock… send me the toughest, beefiest and meanest socks that you can send. If you can don’t send the light weight, you can see the skin because they are so thin.
 Have you made any personal goals for the coming year?
 Well, yes lots of Goals... one of the major goals that I have made is that I want to be cleaner and more organized. I have decided that I need to start to become super organized. I have decided that what I want to do is become a doctor. I have yet to decided in what field that I would like to go into but that I want to be prepared for all that studying. I need to become more organized literally in all the ways that are possible… wish me luck. Another goal that I have made is become a master in Spanish. I want to know and study so well that I can go home and be a teacher, if I want to. I want to know how to speak perfectly…. So that I can take the Spanish test at BYU. So, I am going to study harder. One of my other big goals, I want to be a super doctrine master. This will come through much diligence and study…. and a lot of patience.  I have lots of other smaller goals that I will give you the heads up on my Christmas call.
 Tell us some of the customs that may be different tell us how they celebrate Christmas.  Tell us your feelings of Christmas?
Christmas is a little bit different. Here on the 24th of December they get together about 11:45 and then they wait for 12. At 12 they light, what seems to be thousands of fireworks and then they party until the next morning. They open their presents and all that stuff in the late night party. The next day they sleep. The same happens New Years.
What are my feelings about Christmas? Well I have two feelings… one I miss the Christmas that we have at home. I miss all of the traditions that we have. I miss the cold and I miss always making cookies. I miss getting new pajamas.
The other feeling that I have here is that Christmas is not so special here. I feel like for us as missionaries, time just passes super fast and we don’t have any of it to waste. That’s why we just work and work and work. I am not upset with that at all I like working, but the feeling of Christmas is not there.
 What is the spirit of Christmas but what someone can find in themselves. I have the spirit of Christmas!  I know and love Christmas because I always spent that time with my family. Just like the First Christmas, I will just have to make the best of it, and be very excited for the Christmas when I get back.

Can you tell I want more information?? :-)  
I think that if you stopped asking me so many questions Mom I would be a little troubled. I love you so much Mom and I know that I don’t do a very good job in writing all of the details… forgive me.

Elder Harris

Monday, December 5, 2011

Brotherly Love


What´s up!!! 
I am super happy for Saydi!!! How awesome is that… that she gets to be a Varsity Cheerleader!  I cannot wait to come back this next year and see a varsity game with my two sisters, kickin´ butt and takin´ names. I am just super excited to have the opportunity see how much the two of them will have grown up during this short period of time that I have been gone. What can I say; I think you guys are kind of a big deal?!

So about our Christmas call! Don’t worry about it too much. Just know that I want you all to write down one question that you want to ask me and that way everyone can hear me talk and I can hear everyone talk to me. Just treat the whole thing with a lot of Love and I know that everyone will understand.  Just think this is the last Christmas before I come home so… the next one we will be talking face to face!

 Well we had another baptism this week. His name is Marcoantonio Castillo Tejeda, crazy big name right?! That first name is joined together like that; it is not a space mistake. He was really great to teach. One day he just shows up at the church… and says ¨Hi my name is Marcos and well, a little while back I was investigating the church. Now I want to get baptized.¨ That’s when a massive smile hits my face and I say ¨Well how about in two weeks?¨  He says ¨Great! When can you come to my house to teach me? ¨   Then I say ¨How about today? ¨ He says ¨At 3? ¨And I say ¨No problem how do I get to your house? ¨.  Two weeks later he gets baptized.  


HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, I LOVE THE LORD!!!  I feel like he was just gift wrapped to us for Christmas. A present directly from God that came pre-taught, and he already had a testimony. How cool is that right? Well it was really easy teaching him because he already knew everything and we focused on teaching what he wanted to learn. He was asking us great questions about some doctrinal points that I had a blast trying to figure out; through the Spirit we can answer any question!

Now that I am thinking about it.. I just want to say something to Saydi. Saydi, I know that you have been putting a lot of work into being a cheerleader and now you are starting to see the fruits of your labor. Please remember that all that we receive in this world comes from the LORD. You need to thank him and stay humble. I have been reading again the war chapters in the Book of Mormon because I have a goal to finish the Book of Mormon before the end of the year.  I have been learning more about pride and humility. The biggest problems came to the Nephites when they were in the time of happiness, because they started to forget about the blessings from God. They thought that they could do everything on their own but the Lord is our Strength. Please always listen and respect Haleigh. She has the experience and please always support her in all of her decisions on your team. Don’t ever go against her.  She may be wrong or she may be right, it doesn’t matter, always stick up for her.

Haleigh, I know that you too are working really hard on being the best you can be. Work with your sister in all that you do now. Share the spot light for a little bit longer. I know that it will make you much happier to have you little sister with you all the time, but don’t treat her like your little sister anymore. She is your best friend and should never be below you in power. The most difficult, tricky part about being a leader is balancing out your personal pride and your love for the people that you serve. To be a leader we must serve… that even includes your sister. Know that I love you a lot and I know that I really do miss you.

I love and miss all of you, but I AM A MISSIONARY OF GOD, I have been called… and I will serve.

ELDER HARRIS