42 days left

Well the end is nearer…

My companion is ending his mission today. I will now be receiving my new companion. 

THE LAST COMPANION OF MY MISSION!!!!!!

This last month I am just going to have to put all of my effort in the work so that I can have a great last month of my mission. It is so hard to believe that I am already in the last month of my mission. I feel like I am just getting closer and closer to jumping off the slough box cliff again and this time, just like last time, I am a little bit timid and nervous. I guess that’s what I should feel. 

I guess I will be the first to admit that these last three months have been a little bit difficult. It hasn’t been difficult because I haven’t been having success, it is because I have had problems with my companion the entire time. I guess that’s just the way things go. I hope that my new companion will help me out a lot this last month. The companion that is going home right now at the end of our time together we finally were starting to get along. I guess there are sometimes in the mission when the lesson is hidden behind the leaves. I know that I have had the opportunity to teach and to help a lot of people out here in the mission, but I still know that the person that I have helped the most is well… Myself. 

Here begins the last 6 weeks of my mission…. I don’t know if anyone is counting but that means I have 1 month and a half… 42 days left, or in other words 1008 hours left, or in smaller still 60480 minutes or just for kicks 3628800 seconds. Ha, ha, ha no I am not “trunkie!!!!!!!”

I have to look at it like a big giant number so that I don’t start to slack off.  I need to work hard all the way to the last day. I feel like I am trying to give myself a pep talk, and to be honest ,it is working. I think writing to you all at home has given me a better understanding of patience and love for those that I miss the most.

I feel like my mind right now is scattered about like Easter eggs on Easter Sunday. I am having a hard time concentrating on what I am writing because I have a lot of things that I need to do today.
I missed your letter today I am sure that you all just had a rough day yesterday or something like that…. But don’t worry I know that you all love me. 

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

And Then Lots of Cake

Hey family,

Well, it was pretty weird this last week with the passing of my birthday in the mission. I felt like it was any other day of the week until the very end of the day. My plan was just to not tell anyone, just let it all go by without a single word.  Someone found out and then in the house of one of my recent converts, we had a little party. Ok, it was a party without being a party, because it was Sunday. We started out as a little gathering with a hymn and a prayer. Then we just ate chicken, French fries, and then lots of cake.

My pension was really great too. She bought me a big cake that was super delicious.  Then she gave me a bottle of men’s cologne. It really smells super good. So I was pretty happy with her for that. She loves us a ton and helps us. I am always thinking that it must be impossible to be her.  She lives a life that is so difficult.  Her husband leaves for work at 7:00 in the morning and doesn’t get back until about 9:00 at night. So she is raising her three little kids by herself and they are a handful.  Then on top of that she has to cook every day for the missionaries. 

How has been this last year of my mission since my last birthday? I think that this has been the time that I have learned most on my mission how to be a good teacher of the gospel. I know that I am not the best teacher in the whole world. I know that I still have a lot of room to improve. I do feel like I can really get the message across to the people that we are teaching. I have learned that the Lord really does bless those that are obedient to his commandments. I have learned that revelation from God often times comes in the most unexpected forms and often times it is not what I was thinking at all. I have learned that there is no limit to the love that we should show to our neighbors. They are in great need of the truths that we have.  Why not just give them the light of the gospel?

I have thought about it many times in my mission, what is it that I am looking forward to? It’s funny that you would ask me that Mom. I think that the biggest thing that I am looking forward to is the look in your faces when I walk through the airport. I expect Dad and Mom to start to cry. I look forward to you all commenting on my features… like if I am taller than you all thought, or if I have gotten even more devilishly handsome. I look forward to hugging all of you but most definitely mom first of all. I look forward to the many stories that I expect to hear and tell about what has happened in these last two years. I look forward to going out to eat with the family not because of the food but more because I miss the company of you all at home. I look forward to going to Disney Land a lot because I just want to spend my time with the family doing things that we all love to do. I am really, really looking forward to sharing spiritual knowledge with the family, talking about the gospel,  and reading the scriptures as a family. I am worried, however, that I will be reading the scriptures in Spanish while you guys are reading in English, but I guess that does matter all that much. 

I find that most of the time I forget that I am coming home in two months because I am so occupied with all of the other things that I need to do. I have seen being a zone leader as a blessing and a well…………….. Lesson. I think that the Lord wanted me to be a zone leader so that I could help out not just the people of Peru but also the missionaries. I was thinking about it the other day.  When I finish my mission I will have been a zone leader for almost one whole year of my mission, I think just short one months and a half. The life as a leader is really hard but I think I do better under pressure, maybe for that reason, the Lord placed me in this position for so long. I just hope and pray that these last two months goes by quickly but with a ton of success and baptisms. I will work up to the very last day. I can’t stop until they take away my plaque, and I fall to the earth tired and exhausted. Alright maybe not that bad, but still figuratively speaking it sounds cooler like that.

Dad you know you are the man! I miss you too but hold off a little longer Papito, don’t worry when I get back the moment it will be biblical.

  Suyo Atentamente
  Elder Captain America

Home in 81 Days

THE MISSION HERE DO NOT TELL ME ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!! 16th de October is the only thing that they tell me… nothing more and nothing less. They don’t want the missionaries to get all trunkie and want to go home faster, so they don’t tell them anything. So I officially don’t know anything about my itinerary.

I am sorry about not really answering a lot of the questions that you guys at home ask me all the time. To be honest, it is because most of the time, I don’t know the answers to the questions.

About the visit with the president, he had to cancel it. He had just gotten back of the jungle after visiting Tarapoto. He needed to get a bunch of things done, so he was unable to visit with us. Now about baptisms and other such things, we are kicking butt and taking names. This week we are going to baptize 4 people, next week 5 more people and the next week after that we hope that everything goes well and we baptize 7 people. My companion and I are still having problems, but we are trying to get them all worked out. He is not a bad guy. It’s  just that we have very different views on things. It’s like the difference between a republican and a democrat.

I had a strange conversation this week with one of my best friends here in the mission, whose name is Elder Divis. Elder Divis is ending his mission TODAY.  He has been one of my best friends throughout my mission and now he is going home. In my mind he is par with Elder Emett. So anyway, we all went to the same marriage for our couples that we are helping to get baptized. (that I will talk about in just a second)  I had a super miraculous opportunity to talk to him again, after not seeing him for 6 months. As we began to talk, we got around to the conversation about what we are going to be and what we are going to do with our lives. For quite some time now I have been in indecision, I just don’t know what I want to do. I asked him well what I should do just as a joke, and he said… ¨Elder Harris I give you a prophecy, that your name will be known throughout the whole world,¨ we both started laughing.  I said to him, “well I guess that means that I am going to have to be the President of the United States of America.”  THAT’S WHEN THE LAUGHING SUDDENLY STOPPED. I looked at him and he looked at me. We both thought the same thing… WHY NOT? I am not saying that I now want to try to be the President of the United States, that would be very absurd. Yet on the other hand what stops me of being a great politician, or a governor or a senator… someone that makes the difference. I have some of the talents required. I like to speak in public, and I like to help people better their lives, I consider myself a hard worker… I have been thinking about it a lot lately, you could call it I have been playing the ¨what if game¨. Hmmmmm, something to think about for the furture... So to answer Grandma Harris´s question this week, well grandma, I just don’t know… yet!?!

This week has been a very interesting week.  We have been doing a lot of work so that we will have the opportunity to baptize a few families. I truly believe that the prayers at home have been helping me find a lot of success.  I truly believe in the miracles that the Lord gives through our obedience. It’s funny that you guys at home are finding out some of the many blessings that someone can receive from following the Word of Wisdom. (At home we are eating healthy, fruits, grains, vegetables and meat very sparingly) As we begin to follow the Lord in all aspects we will find blessings that are temporal blessing and spiritual blessing. For example, if we read in Mosiah chapter 2, verse 41, the Lord blesses those that are willing to obey with specific blessings, and then invites us to marvel at their state. After that he invites us to do the same so that we can receive the same joy. I also love the fact that King Benjamin says that they will live with God in a never ending state of happiness… super cool beans right?

So anyway, I am Super ready to see you guys at home in 81 days, but you will all just have to wait so that I can return with honor from Peru in three months. I know that these next three months are going to blast …. But don’t worry… I always end things with a BANG.

Love you guys and miss you guys…. Always,

        Elder Harris A.K.A. SUPER MAN 

Q and A

Hola!

Wow this week just kicked me in the butt.

To start I will give answers to the questions.

1.    Yes I have received the pants and the shirts; I got it all, so you guys don’t need to worry about that stuff.  Send the card normally too with the contacts. I don’t have any so I have to wear my glasses everyday but that’s alright because my glasses make me look like SUPER MAN. So you know how that is.

2.    Well I am not having a very good time with my companion. We are having a lot of problems adjusting right now to the styles that we like to teach in. I am trying to find solutions. On the zone leader side of things, I am trying to get my zone to launch off the ground, but it is difficult fighting against laziness and the overall feeling of not being excited to work for the Lord. My goal is to lead by example and to start baptizing more and more and more people.

3.    The baptisms that I had this last week. We had a great week last week but it’s been a lot more difficult this week. We have a few families that we are helping so that they can get to the waters of baptism. We are looking at having least 10 more baptisms in these next few weeks.  I am hoping that we are going to be able to pull through this next month, August, and in September so that I can come home with my hands held high.

4.    Well I have now mastered more than 8 different types of whistles. So to be honest, I think it is going to be very difficult for me to adjust to an environment that doesn’t whistle at all. I just whistle for everything now. I am practically Jiminy Cricket… I am excited to show all of the little talents that I have collected here and there though out my entire mission.  However here in Lima we do more knocking than whistling.

  
5.    My new area is big and covered with Mountains but we are mostly sticking close to the church. I have found that this is one of the keys to success here in the mission. The people that live the closest to the church are the people most likely to go to church. And YES, mom, there is a ton of dust. There is lots and lots, and lots and lots, and lots of dust.

6.    I do have a new pension, she is the best one that I have had in my entire mission… that includes when I was my own pension.lol  She cooks up everything that I love to eat here in Peru and she is always super happy and laughing. My pension and her husband are a younger couple that has three kids. They are both coverts to the church and they love the gospel a ton. My pension’s husband is our ward mission leader. The members still feed me the same things that I have been eating my entire mission………….rice and rice and rice and rice and rice and rice and chicken and rice and rice and rice and rice.

7.    Well my new apartment is really cool beans; I will be sending a picture of the apartment here in the next few weeks. Don’t worry… be happy.

Ok that is the entire list of questions.

Now I just want you all to know that I had a terrible week.lol well not that bad.  I am super nervous right now. Tomorrow President Blunck, my mission president, is going to come to my area and have a work visit with me. Wish me luck.

Elder Harris

I HAD A BIG GRINGO DAY!!!!!

Hello Family!

What a totally crazy week I have been having. I am pretty sure that this next week we are going to have just about…. 8 baptisms. I don’t know if we are going to be able to pull it off.  One of the families has to get married and they are having a lot of trials right now that are slowly driving them apart. I am, however, very happy with the progress that I have been having here with many of the investigators that I am teaching.

We have a great new family that we are teaching right now. It is a family of 8 people. The Mom and Dad have been coming to church for quite some time now. We just need that the kids to start coming to church. It has been a difficult battle because teaching so many at the same time.  All with different needs really makes us teach in a new and exciting way that allows them to learn as a family. In the family they have 5 kids one boy that is 8 years old and 4 girls that have 14, 17, 20, and 22. It’s practically our family but they have an extra kid and the boy is the youngest of all of the family.  So anyway we are teaching them a lot. Their names are Jorge (46), Margarita (40), Katy (22), Sandra (20), Brigitte (17), Mirella (14) and Luis (8). We are hoping that this family is going to get married in August, right on my birthday.  

There is a lot of stuff going on right now in my life here in Peru. I have been having a tough time with my companion. I know that patience is one of the great lessons that God feels I still need to work on.

I have been excited, however, as I can see the time going by faster and faster. I can’t help but think a little bit about what it is going to be like to come home in three months. These next three months are going to pass by super quick… I know… that’s why I need to work my butt off in these next three months. My official goal is to leave my mission with 80 baptisms. I am going to do my best so that I can get there, and when I mean my best… I mean my best. I am not going to let myself get trunkie like the other missionaries that have my time usually become. If I get lazy my zone will find that as an excuse to get lazy too so…. I can’t let that happen. Salvation depends on my willingness to fight to the end.  I do have a tendency to leave things with a BANG! So I can’t make this time any different. 

So today I had a pretty strange prep day. I had to travel 2 hours in bus to get back to the offices of the mission to pick up some documents that are going to help me marry these people that I am teaching. Last night my companion said that he didn’t want to go all that much, so I called up my super great friend, Elder Woolstenhulme… I HAD A BIG GRINGO DAY!!!!! We went to McDonalds and we ate some super greasy burgers. I will be honest, I am kind of fat right now but I don’t even care!!!!  The best part was that we had a small adventure afterward we ended up going on the wrong bus to another part of Lima that was really super far away from where we needed to be. SUPER FUNNY. We were lost in Lima for about 30 minutes. We had to start asking people where to go. We ended up finding the bus that we needed to take us back to our areas.  It was super funny, silly and sort of scary at the same time. I am never going to live in a really big city because 1.the city is always changing 2. It’s super dangerous and 3. It is super smelly. Now I understand why we have been living my Montana for so many years. I have been having a lot of fun talking with another white guy all day. Elder Woolstenhulme has like 3 months in the mission. I am pretty sure I am going to have to track down his sister and pop her THE QUESTION. WOW she is a fashion designer and she is a hunka-hunka mama giraffe if you know what that means. I would just have to know her personality wise so that I can find my exaltation.  That’s what I am talking about. Hmmmm I think that I am thinking about this stuff too early.

So I am pretty much super happy with everything that’s been going on. I love my room, and my pension and, my investigators… I am slowly working through the companion problems but we’re getting better.

I just want to say something the grandma Murphy… I LOVE YOU. I love every single one of your letters and I read all of them. I feel really special when I am the only person that gets dear elder mail just about every week. I love you so much grandma! I want you to know that I am going to come down to California to see you some time. I don’t know when yet but one of this chances that I get to escape I am going to spend a week in your house. 

I can’t wait to see all of you…..

            Will you all wait for me????

                                                Elder Harris

P.S. Words of Wisdom

“Life is like a bus ride, if you get on the wrong bus, don’t worry… Just get on the next one. “

Next Week

Well, I had a ton of stuff written but now I have to start all over again.  I accidentally hit the cable that connects the computer with the energy.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I promise that I had 2 pages of stuff that I had written and now I am out of time. I think that what I can do is write a short summary of what happened this week.

We had three baptisms they were a great because we helped a Mom, her daughter and a little girl from a different family get baptized. Their names are Mirella (the mom) and her daughter that is in the picture with her Julia.  Then the little girl that is all by herself is Grace.  I will have to explain more about them this next week.  We found these families from a reference that the grandmother gave to us. The grandmother is really great she has been a member for years but now she has the rest of her family in the church YAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a really great week because we are working really had because I want to help a lot of people.

I will write a ton this next week. I promise

Elder Harris