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

Devin’s Mission Call

My companion and I have been thinking a lot this week about what it really means to be missionary, and for me to read about Devin’s mission call , I realized, I now know why we talked about it so much this week. What better time in my life to testify to my cousin about the great work that the lord has called us to do.  If I can say one thing about missionary work is that it truly is inspiring. The many experiences that we have in this time of the mission prepare us for something much more difficult… the rest of our lives. I have often thought many times since I have left for my mission what if I had been called to another place… what if I had served in China like I had always wanted? What if I had served in the United States and had to battle with all of the temptations of the modern world? As I have pondered these questions I came to my personal conclusion. The conclusion being… the Lord knows us… a simple answer yet eternally significant. Devin has been called into a mission where he will find his greatest potential, if he is willing to show obedience and diligence before God. I am so happy for him… because he has been chosen to fulfill a mission that I know that I am not capable of doing. That’s why the Lord sent me to South America. I know that he will have great successes on his mission because from what I have heard is that those missions in Utah are some of the highest baptizing missions because there is a lot of help from the wards. I would also suppose that because he will be speaking Spanish that he will be talking with the humblest people in that part of Utah… meaning another source of success found in people that are prepared spiritually for the message of the Restoration. What a great opportunity and learning experience he is going to have.

Our true worth in this life is measured by our obedience and diligence in keeping the commandments of God. We know that they Lord does not give commandments that we cannot keep. Every commandment is a spiritual treasure that we could enjoy and appreciate. The power we hold to choose our daily actions gives us the means to show our love for God and his children. I know that this choice that Devin made was stimulated by the Holy Ghost and the mission call that he received was brought by that same member of the God Head to a prophet of this day. The Lord teaches us this lesson with love in Amos 3:7… ¨Porque no hará nada jehová el señor sin que revele sus secretos, a sus siervos los profetas.¨ I really don’t know very many scriptures in English any more. I have tons of scriptures memorized in Spanish but not in English, weird. Anyway felt like I need to say these things so that maybe if Devin reads this he will know that the Lord knows best and his thoughts are not our thoughts… and that this is very good because the Lord only thinks to bless us and to help us grow.

We had another baptism this week… a great kid named Edgar Felipe. What a power house. We found him living in the house of an active member. We began to teach him the gospel and now his greatest desire to serve a mission for the lord and to give back what the Lord has given to him. In reality is almost an orphan because his mom left when he was little and his dad lives in another place that he occasionally visits, but he doesn’t live with them. I know super crazy, but I have learned however that they lord does bless those that listen to the message of the gospel. He had a girl friend from another faith and she told him that he shouldn’t do it that it was right, he told her that he was set and that he knew it was true and then left his house to get away from her. Later that same day he got baptized. Yahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!! THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!

Con Amor

Elder Harris

One day I hope to be a loving husband

Another day in paradise!!!

My companion and I have been working super hard this week and we had another baptism.

WHQAHAHJAHAHAHAHSALKJLHJLKSJLSKLSKHKLSHSKH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well everything is really great this week.  We have been having a lot of rain but not a ton just a little bit every day. This week was carnival here in Iquitos. I don’t remember if you guys remember but this last year I was here in Iquitos the exact same time. Which means this was my second Carnival. Carnival is a really big party with water and mud that everyone plays at the same time about 4:00 in the afternoon. It’s a lot of fun…. if you aren’t a missionary. We can’t play in the games that they play because we have to work 1 and 2 I don’t want my white shirts to get stained. I did have a lot of fun seeing other people take water balloons to the head and large mud clogs to the back and all other horrible water fight activities that you can think of. The little kids run around super dirty throwing water balloons at grandmas and grandpa and then the grandmas and grandpa fill water tubs and dump them on the little kids’ heads. I think if you guys saw all of the things happen, you would be shocked. It was kind of like pure chaos in the street… little kids crying and running and laughing, fully grown people throwing water balloons at passing motorcycles, and dancing around large poles that they erect for the day. They have a strange tradition here in Iquitos, well not just here but in all of Peru, they cut down a palm tree and then using the leaves they braid them in a way that after they can tie them down in a circle. Then they place lots of little goodies and Tupperware of food and other stuff like that and tie it to the tree. In the morning of Carnival they lift it up and then they dance around it all day long playing music and drinking. Then at night they bring it down… almost like a giant piñata, and all of the little kids and the moms and dads of the entire neighborhood try to get something from the tree. It’s really crazy because all of the adult are drunk and they are pushing and shoving, well in other wards there are lots of accidents.

We had another baptism this week. That was way fun. Her name is Melissa.  She is the daughter of a less active lady that just got reactivated and we baptized her daughter. It has been nice to teach her because she never really had any problem accepting the gospel. She had read a little of the book of Mormon and when her mom was receiving the lessons from the other missionaries she was always there to listen… just the missionaries never took advantage of the situation to talk to her and help her too. SO WE DID!!!

Well the cooking goes great. I have yet to get my package… but that’s ok no worries it will come when it comes. I think I haven’t gotten it yet because the office is a little bit slow in getting us packages here in the jungle, because they only come here once a month. I don’t know but I think that maybe I will get it in March. Ohhhhhh I have wanted to tell you this for ages but I keep forgetting but now I remembered. I GOT THE FAMOUS DAVES BBQ sauce. I ate it all up and I loved every spicy explosion that I made with it. I almost cryed when it first entered my mouth because my tongue almost couldn’t handle so much AMERICA in one bottle. THANKYOU, I love that you send me packages it makes me feel really loved from you guys at home, and I have loved everything that you have sent me…. But this was THE BEST THING OUT OF ALL. I loved cooking with it. We made burritos and sandwiches and eggs and really anything that I could eat it with. Thank you for being THE BEST.

Well this week I did learn a lot about what it means to be humble. I have been trying to apply the things that I have been learning here on my mission in my life so that I can someday come home as a better person. I think that what I learned this week about being humble is that the best way to show someone else that you care for them and that you want the best for them is to communicate it. Sometimes we let little flaws that we find in others add up and add up and we don’t say anything about it. Then when we finally explode a whole mess of dirty things come out. If we could just talk about the problems face to face dropping our pride, we can progress spiritually, and we can have a lasting relationship. Sometimes I feel like what I learn here between my companion and I are things that I need to apply with my future wife. I guess I am just thankful that I have been able to identify some of these learning experiences and that I have been able to find solutions. One day I hope to be a loving husband. I know that sounds really cheesy and fruity but I know that all things are possible with a little practice and a lot of help from God.

LOVE YA AND MISS YA

ELDER HARRIS

Elder Harris likes eating rice!

Wow, I cannot believe that I have only 8 months left.

Today is a special day because every 13th I complete another month in the mission. Literally as of today I have 16 months in the mission. Wow, I am starting to feel a little old and cranky…. just kidding. Well I am happy that the family is doing better. Sorry mom about your cold and I am pretty sure you need to go into the doctor for your shoulder because I remember you having problems before I left. I think it is about time. I think it will be nice one day to have free health care for the entire family… it’s one of the reasons I want to be a doctor… so that I can have the family live in the same city and everyone can have free medicine.

Well a little bit about the mission right now. I am learning a valuable lesson… how to cook. In my zone we don’t have a single pensionista. Which I kind of like because it gives me a chance to cook what I want to cook and it helps me to learn how to make new things. I am pretty excited. I have made French toast, amulets, macaroni and cheese, and lots of other stuff…. We don’t have an oven all we have is an electric frying pan… like a skillet. I like using it because it is really easy. I can make pancakes and top roman, and warm up RICE, lol. Well it is official…. a giant day in the history of the World… Elder Harris likes eating rice! I know that we joked about it for years and years and years that I would go somewhere on my mission that the people only eat rice. To be honest, I thought that I had you guys when I got my call to South America, but the Lord works in mysterious ways. I have become very accustomed to eating rice in lots of different ways, plain, chifa, fried rice, with beans, with mashed potatoes, in soup, in chicken ( that was strange) with pig and chicken and cow, and in large sticky balls, and served like tiny pyramids. Rice mixed with onions and lemon juice, with hot sauce, mustard, ketchup, and with liver and heart, with fish, mixed with rancid creams and cocktails. Rice that is eaten with spaghetti noodles, and with lots of potato chunks and green boogers, and rice that we eat with small cut up pieces of cow intestines and raw carrots. Well just to be honest there are tons of different ways that we can eat rice, and I am starting to get really used to it, and well I got tired of eating it just about 15 months ago, hahahaha.

My room is really nice right now… the nicest room that I have had in my entire mission… sorry about the lack of pictures I just have been so busy this week getting so many different things done I haven’t taken a single new picture and I have been slacking on my journal. I need to make up about three 3 days!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! My room is the best part of my life right now…. I really consider it a refuge from the world. It was recently made so it still has that new stuff smell and it was made by US designs, so it is pretty much super awesome.

I have a favor to ask, I don’t know if you can help me with this but it would be super cool if I could have the email address of Carson… he sent me a letter recently that I just got like 3 months after he sent it. In the letter he told me that he wrote another letter months earlier…. I never got it. I think that it would be a whole lot easier if I could just write to him via email.  I will ask the president if I can have permission to write him. I can’t see why not. He´s Family!

A spiritual Experience this week… we flew back to Lima this week for another zone conference. Crazy right in the night we leave and the next day in the night we come back. I am starting to get used to using planes. I like traveling…. I kind of have a side dream to come back to Iquitos a month or two after I get back. But returning to the spiritual experience I was talking to Elder Bonilla this week because he too is a zone leader now… any way so we was telling me a little bit about Noe right now… that he is falling away from the church a little bit…. The best part of it all is that his sister Janeth is trying to pull him back. I just love that because she was a lot harder to baptize and now she is the stronger of the two. Elder Bonilla was telling me that Noe wants to study to be a bar tender, and that he personally called Noe to talk him out of it. I laughed when he told me that he could hear Janeth´s voice in his head yelling at Noe that he need to change, when before her baptism he was yelling at her to change, funny how things work out.

Elder Harris

Sorry for the lack of pictures I really do feel bad………..

We talked and talked and talked about Christ

Family Family Where are you!!!!!

Well we had another baptism this week of a 25 year old single mother. She is best friends with the lady that we baptized the week before. We began to teach her more and more as she listened in on our conversations with Bertha. Her name is Paola. At first it was really hard for her to understand the importance of the gospel. We struggled explaining it to her in a way that was simple enough for her to understand, and for her to get excited enough to do. We did finally get her to come to church… when she started to come with us there was a change in her character and she began to accept everything a whole lot easier. In reality it is a great blessing to have people in the church that are ready to fellowship our investigators. We have been focusing on this dilemma in our ward counsels and in our classes that we teach on Sundays. We need to have a ward that focuses on how to help an investigator stay in the church and not just come to church for one week. Paola really likes the church a lot now and she is going to all of the activities that we have and she loves being in the class with all of the young people that we have in my ward so…. She is happy.

I have been doing a lot of thinking in these last few days and I can say that I have learned a lot of really valuable lesson, a lot of really valuable concepts, that I hope and pray I can apply in my life. One of the biggest lessons that I am learning, because it is a process, is how to show love. I think that best way to show love to someone else is through service. I have talked to many people here in Peru, many less actives, many nonmembers that for their reasons and for their misplaced judgments fall away for the church or don’t accept its teachings.  This last week we were talking with a less active member that is a about 25 years old… about the reason for not going back to the church… he gave us a lot of different excuses and we really didn’t arrive at any certain conclusion. About half way through the lesson he had a knock on his door and in enter a very tall, very white person. What I mean to say is one of the very first Gringos that I have had the opportunity to talk to in my mission. She was a girl in her late 20s from Norway. As we began to talk to them both we thought to try to take advantage of the opportunity and explain the gospel… as we asked some basic question to get to know her and him…. We arrived at a startling conclusion. She blatantly told us that God doesn’t exist. My companion and I quickly realized why he wasn’t going to church. To explain what happened briefly we talked and talked and talked about Christ. We told her that he lives, that he loves us, and that he wants us to return. We asked her to pray to know if God existed, and she told us no.

Love is the glue that keeps us all together. I hope that when I come home from my mission that you all, at home, can identify a changed man. Someone with more determination, someone that just doesn’t act but thinks about the repercussions, someone that shows more love for those that love him. I realized in that lesson that we did everything in our power to show HIS love to that person, but it will always be in their hands to make a righteous decision. Likewise it will be in my hands to show a change, a spiritual and intellectual progression, when I come home this October. Know that I am resolute in my objective and firm in my vision. I will go and do the things that the Lord commands…. 

Fighting the good fight (kicking butt and taking names)

ELDER HARRIS