keep struggling and fighting

Elder Harris is getting a little bit “trunkie” but not enough to stop my rampage of victory!!!!!!!!!!

I will be honest the Lord loves hard workers. I just keep working and I know that the lord just keeps blessing us. We just lost a great family this last week. We had been teaching a family of 7 people. One of the biggest families that I have ever taught in my mission, and they all were preparing to get baptized. We had been teaching them for just about 2 months when they just started to go downhill. We were trying to rescue the problems but they basically decided that it wasn’t the time for them to become converted to the gospel and they asked us to leave.  I had been felling very upset because I had given to these people all of my heart. I loved going to the house and teaching this family but they decided to go on a different route and I couldn’t convince them to not go. Like I said, I had been feeling pretty down thinking why is it that the Lord wanted me to have this type of experience? What does the Lord want me to learn? I just kept going on my way this last week teaching people and making contacts and helping more people come to the gospel of Christ. Then yesterday the Lord answered my question! This Sunday before last I had been contacting and I had knocked on a door. It was a young guy that asked me about which of all the churches is the right one. I laughed a little.  I explained that we could teach him but he didn’t have any time then. So we asked for his name and his address and we decided to come back. Well the day that we planned to come back in the week he wasn’t there, this usually happens, so I thought nothing of it. We tried a few times in that week to go back and see if he was there. We found him on Friday. We decided that we were going to meet with his Dad and this mom and the rest of the family. Judging from the house I thought that it was going to be a very small family. Seriously the house was a total wreck. It was beaten down and almost without a door. The door was just barely hanging on the hinge, is what I mean. So any way this last Sunday we went to the house.  When we arrived there his father didn’t want to talk to us because he was busy.  I started to use my persuasion skills and I finally achieved getting into the house… he gave me 5 minutes.  

I WAS IN TOTAL SHOCK.

Here’s what happened: We started to teach him about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and everything started to change. As we began to explain to him what our message really was all about he began to ask questions.  He  began to like what we were teaching.  He invited his son to come in and then his wife and then his other daughter and then his other son and then HIS OTHER SON AND OTHER SON…………. Until we had a family of 10!!!!!!!!!!  They want to know more, the father of the family wants us to come back to teach the family and to teach specifically his kids. He said more than one time in the lesson ¨I feel like I have already heard this before,¨ ¨you are explaining what I had been thinking for years,¨ ¨where have you been,¨¨this is what i am looking for,¨ and much, much more.

The lesson is this: The Lord knows that we work hard and sacrifice for people, and he knows that sometimes the things that we teach leave our control when people choose to use their agency for evil. Yet in the greatest moments of sadness and doubt, if we just keep struggling and fighting with unwavering faith, the Lord will offer unto you blessings that are miracles. This is how miracles happen… look at what it says in Ether 12:12 and then tell me I’m wrong.  Just kidding, but it does provide some clear evidence that what I am saying is true.

We must always remember Mathew 7:7.  Ask and ye shall receive,  look and ye shall find,  knock and it shall be open unto you.

When we need some help from God, I feel like we are timid in asking what we want. We shouldn’t feel that way if we were asking for something that could help other people. I think that most of the time we feel bad because we are selfish and we only ask for ourselves.  The Lord blesses those that remember to serve other people and gives to them a pure happiness that lasts for more than this life time.

What am I looking forward to when I get home?    Serving my family and Serving God.

 Elder Harris