The Rock…

Hola!

Well I am happy that all of the family is well and that all of the people in the ward are ok. As an answer to your question about my glasses, they broke a while back.  I had to go get some new ones. I really like them a lot.  I have been using them a lot too.

So about the family that we baptized, Victoria and Isidro:

Well, Victoria and Isidro are two of my best friends in the whole world! We found them one day when we heard about the family that they live with that are LDS, but they weren’t. The first time that we met with them I can remember thinking that it was like teaching very small children. It was really hard because they don’t know how to read or how to write.  It made it a challenge for them to accept the book of Mormon. We had to focus on small things that they could understand. Can imagine a 65 year old woman, and a 55 year old man trying to learn the gospel without reading the pamphlets or the scriptures? I realized that it is super difficult to memorize and/or capture the message if you cannot read it for yourself. Some of the best lessons we had with them was us trying to teach them how to pray. We just kept repeating, and repeating, the different steps so that they could organize it all in their heads. The first prayer that Victoria said went a little something like this, ¨ Heavenly Father……… bless us with baptisms of bread and families… Jesus…. Amen.¨ I almost couldn’t hold in my laughter. I had told her that she should thank the Lord for the bread that she had, and for her family, and to ask about where or not she should be baptized. Well… she had the words right, at least which counts. Isidro was always really silly and like to say jokes but not when we ¨talked of God¨. He used to make me laugh so much because he can’t see very well, he has nervous habit of always looking up. What I mean is he doesn’t like to look people in the eyes. For some reason he just can’t do it. I loved hearing him share stories about when he was little and see the pictures of when he and Victoria were younger. I really don’t think that they will ever fully understand the gospel completely in this life, but I think they will gain more understanding of what we have taught them in the next.

I am getting really close here to 13 months in the mission. By my count I have 340 days left.  This last Thursday we had the opportunity to go to the temple.  I had the opportunity to do sealing ordinances. What a very spiritual moment I had. The temple worker only asked from our group for two missionaries to do the sealings.  I was chosen and another missionary from my zone named Elder Narvaez. We were there on behalf of children. I had some things running through my mind the entire time that I was in there. I was thinking that this is the first time that I have seen this ordnance and this is what I missed when Aubrei got married. That made me a little sad. I also thought about the future, that someday this is what I am going to do with my future wife and my children will be sealed to us. Yes, somewhere in the very near future… sometimes it hard for me to realize that I really am 20 years old and that half of my mission is over… that I have to go home to study, to work, to find an eternal companion. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All in all it was a very rewarding spiritual experience.

Pictures...Two of them are of the temple and one is of a really big rock that I was trying to move.  Let me just tell you I think that Hercules would had have problems with this one too!

The Rock…Imagine it like the story of the man that was commanded of the LORD to move the rock. I don’t know if you have ever heard this story, but there once was a man that was really obedient to the Lord. The Lord commands him to move a massive stone in the middle of the field. All day long he is there trying to move it but couldn’t because it is so big. His back starts to hurt and his arms start to ache, but he never gives up. After a few days of trying he starts to get upset, after a few weeks he starts to murmur.  He knows that he shouldn’t, so he kneels to pray.  He asks the lord why he can’t move the rock.  The Lord then says to him... good servant, I knew that you could never move the rock... I was just waiting for you to ask me how... what took you so long? 

What are we waiting for... do we want to do things our way or the Lords way? 

You know that I love you!!!!! All of you!!!!!  Elder Harris