Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Guerra familia is Going to get Baptized


Well the world goes on… but that’s ok.

Brooke is going to get married. I find it extremely exciting, and I am very, very happy for her. I know that she will be very happy and that she will have the opportunity to grow even more in the gospel by going to the temple.
Well, we are super excited because this week we are going to have another family enter the waters of baptism. I am super happy to report that the Guerra familia is going to get baptized this Saturday. What a blast! I have loved teaching them from day one and this week I am going to take a ton of pictures of the baptism.
I am sorry, I haven’t been taking very many pictures. I am super bad at taking pictures. I need to make a special effort to take more pictures.
I have been wondering a lot about what I can do to be a better person and a better missionary. I was thinking a lot about the Sunday school class that I taught back in the day, and I realized that I could have taught that class what it really means to be a member of the church. I would love to be a Sunday school teaching in the future just because to be blunt about it, I really like to teach. I am overly excited to come home and share with the family and in any other opportunity I may have about the gospel. I think that true intelligence is found when we apply our knowledge. The gospel of Christ gives the people of this earth peace and comfort. This concept pertains to our ability to apply what we learn to our daily lives. How can we expect the Lord to bless our week if we don’t keep the Sabbath day? How do we financially survive if we don’t want to pay tithing? The Lord blesses those that keep the commandments with the real intention of applying faith. I can very well go to church every Sunday but that doesn’t mean that I will be blessed. The Lord teaches us in every commandment that there are blessings both spiritual and temporal. (Mosiah 2:41) Therein lies our motivation to complete the Lords will. The Lord knows that if we cannot see the reward we will not seek to achieve our trophy. I have been finding a lot of people these last few days that have fallen away from the church and the real reason for the inactivity is the pride the stays in their hearts.  They took of the fruit of the tree, but were later embarrassed or offended by the people in the spacious building. Amazing to me is the power the Satan has to make us forget the promises that we have made. He wants us to wade in the slime of pride; in that sticky gloom so that we can never be happy. How do we change the reality that we face? I spent a lot of time studying what it really means to be humble, the topic is extensive, and I felt extremely prideful after learning so much about what it means to be humble. Someone that is humble seeks to serve in every moment, someone that is humble never complains about their problems. Someone that is humble never says mean jokes or puts down other people.  Someone that is humble accepts the authority of their leaders, someone that is humble knows how and when to follow. Someone that is humble loves unconditionally, without price or fee. Someone that is humble never lets others bring them down but in turn brings other people up. Someone that is humble puts all of their trust in the Lord summiting his or her will to the WILL OF GOD.
I found out that I have a long way to go before I can be more like my savior. That that does not mean that I cannot give it my ALL, to try to be like Him. TINY EXPLOSIONS!
Elder Harris




Go Back and Knock on a Door


Well the work goes on.
We had a neat spiritual experience this week that I would like to share.
We were walking in the street going from one appointment to another when my companion feels like he should go back and knock on a door that we had recently passed. I thought nothing of it because it is a very common occurrence to feel the need to go back to the house that you just passed to see what can turn up there. As we knocked on the door we had a man in his late 40s answer and invite us in without us ever asking if we could share a message. Of course we quickly accepted his invitation to enter house and we began to talk to him. His name is Jose.  He has been a evangelist ever since he married his wife. As we began to talk to him we were slowly coming to the conclusion that he just wants to argue about religion, but his arguments were not very well thought out.  After showing him some scriptures about the points there we were making his attitude changed a lot. He began to ask more questions about things that he didn’t understand and that he was unable to explain. We gradually began to win over his confidence. Now the house that we were teaching this man in was not very big and the rooms that he had were just pieces of ply wood that were connected with curtains.  What I am saying is that from any spot in the house our conversation could be over heard. Well without us knowing, the wife of this man was washing her dishes in the other room listening to our conversation. As we were reaching a climatic point of sharing the reason why there are many churches in this day and age she entered the room. From what the Brother evangelist was telling us… she is the reason why he has chosen to follow the religion he currently involved in. I have discussed the gospel with many evangelists and to be honest they become very frustrated and upset when we start to talk about prophets and the church that Christ established. Just like the man reacted in the beginning… I expected worse from his wife. Luckily, I was really wrong, as we began to talk with them both the wife told us that she had been listening to the conversation, and that something in her had said that we were teaching the word of God. She then BLASTED us with questions… she began to ask about how someone gets the authority of God to baptize, why is it that Sunday is the Sabbath day, how do we know if someone is a prophet, what is it that we can do to be saved in the last days… and many,  many more questions. I felt like a ton had lifted… like Nephi in this moment when he said ¨for when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost, the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men.¨” 2nd Nephi 33:1 After we had responded to many of her questions she said something that made me feel real good. She said that when she was listening to us through the curtains, that she ¨felt¨ more than she heard, that what we were teaching was the word of God, and that as we spoke to her she felt more and more peace.  My companion and I were quick to explain that what she was feeling was the power of the Holy Ghost given to those that have been called by a modern prophet. As we explained more, her husband came to be accepting more and more of what we were teaching, and talking to us about the errors that they have found. What a great lesson we had, seriously.
Well I am excited to talk to them more, because well, they are super great! We have a lesson with them today so I hope that everything goes really well.
LOVE AND HUGS
Elder Harris  

I Destroyed My Card


Well.. what a poopy day,
I just wrote about half of my letter and the computer lost power for a minute and I lost everything that I wrote to you guys. ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well recap. I did receive the package that you sent me.  I really liked everything that was inside of it, specially the socks.  I loved the socks a lot and the beef jerky.
Now something that I wanted to share with you guys that I just wrote about and now I am writing about again is that I have just a little tiny favor to ask of you. I know that at this time of the year there are lots of little delicious Easter jelly beans. PLEASE SEND ME A TON OF THE EASTER SWEET TART JELLY BEANS.  I am in love with them ever since this last year when you sent them to me. I have been patiently waiting all of this time so that Easter would come around again.  I have been looking forward to having this moment to ask you….. I really do understand however that when you send packages they are a big sacrifice and I want to thank all of you at home for always sending me a package that brightens up my day, week, and month. I really am super happy that you spend the time to send me packages and that you never forget to write me. I think that I would feel a little bit lonely if I never received a single thing from you guys.
Now I need to admit something. I am sure that you have noticed that I have spent way too much of my personal money here on the mission. Now about three months ago I decided that the temptation was just too much and then I destroyed my card. One of the biggest lessons that I have yet to learn here on my mission is the lesson of finances. I have always been a spender and not a saver, and I need to learn this lesson. Just so that you know I have experienced hunger in these last few days because I have yet to learn this lesson. Now my plan of action is this: I know that if I can figure out how to spend my money wisely now I will be a much happier man in the future, so in other wards… I am learned my lesson the hard way.
Well about the mission today. Today is going to be a really big day in the life of Elder Harris. I am going to go back to Quista Cocha to eat Suri today. Ever since our phone call and I heard you all making fun of me,  playfully,  for not being able to eat the worm,  I have decided that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. I must eat the nasty worm again to prove my manliness. Very shortly, I will send you another CD with my latest videos and pictures and I will be sending it this next week so I hope that you can enjoy seeing me eat the foul beast again.
Well, I really had a great time reading about some of the experiences that dad had on his mission it really makes me think about the success that I have had and that he had and how the Lord prepares the people for the places that they are called to serve. To be honest I think that I have wasted a lot of time  and that gets me scared.  I realize that I need to kick my butt into gear… I daily think about what I should be doing in this very moment to help other people receive the gospel. I try to think less about the past and more about the present so that I am not wasting my time here or the Lord’s time. I am very interested in knowing more about the experiences that dad had on his mission and to learn more about you and dad when you were younger, because it gets me all pumped up.
This week I am going to go back to Lima on Tuesday for another zone conference. It will be the 13th and the 14th time that I have been in a plane. I can remember always saying and thinking “WHY HAVENT I BEEN ON A PLANE?.. ALL OF MY FRIENDS HAVE BEEN ON PLANES.. WHATS WRONG WITH ME.” Well, planes are really boring and uncomfortable… it’s about the same as sitting in the car for an extended period of time, just that you go a lot faster and travel more distance. I remember dad saying when I went to Vegas that going on the plane would be a good way to prepare me for the mission. HE WAS RIGHT!
I hope that the girls are all really happy right now and that they don’t have anything bad happen or anything like that. I just want to invite them to read the scriptures daily for at least 5 minutes on the IPod. I promise that if they do that they will be prepared to go to the temple with me after the mission to do baptisms for the dead. I am super excited to go and do that with them.
Tell Aubrei that she needs to read the talk about having children from this last general conference from ELDER ANDERSON.  I WANT TO BE AN UNCLE ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey I will be sending pictures next week.  I left my memory in the HOUSE. I really, really,  really feel bad.
Elder Harris