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