Jo Aila (Joe EYE-lah)

That, my friends, is a native american tongue called Chamacoco, and it means I'm happy. (There were some random youth whose families were Chamacoco and they shared some of their language with us).

Do you know why I'm happy? Because we are about to complete a year of life once again, and this one is pretty special. It marks so many heights of progress, and so many new joys for the world, for the church, and for myself personally. Evil is being conquered in many hearts, and there are many new and beatiful things being brought into the world at this very moment, and the New Year is a time when we can take time to think about that for a while. Please, this New Years, reflect back on the good you have seen in yourself, those around you, the world. Please look ahead knowing that there awaits more than you realize waiting to be loosed. I hope you can all enjoy this time with great happiness. I hope you can look into yourselves and truly say with me, "Jo Aila."

Now, I have news! While all of you have been reading these emails, something grand and marvelous has been unfolding: changes! As I may or may not have described before, the mission is divided up into changes- periods of six weeks -at the beginning of which we find out if we personally are receiving any changes to our missionary life. Up until recently, changes to me passed with nothing to account for. I've stayed in the same place, and so has my trainer, Elder Yauney, however, it's that time of changes again and they prove to be different! 

My trainer is leaving me! 

Elder Yauney is going to a city that's part of the Greater Asunción area called Luque, and he's going over there to be Zone Leader, and he's training again. About this, I'm actually pretty sad and nostalgic in many respects. We have passed many a week and trial together, and I've been his longest comp so far on the mission- which means something because he only has another 4 changes (five and a half months) left on his mission.

In his place will come an Elder who is said to be simply amazing: Elder Brown!

I know nothing of him, save that many have said he is a great missionary, he is coming in as a Zone Leader, and to end this very change, I will murder the man in cold blood.

Allow me to explain: in the mission lingo which isn't actually supposed to exist, a missionary "dies," when they leave the mission (they end their mission life). The missionary who was their companion when they die, "kills," them. Therefore, I'm killing this Elder, because it is his last change. 

So, what I want to know from all of you guys, is how should I do the deed?

Cordially,

Elder Harris

Christmas Under The Southern Cross!

(From December 23)

Hello from the land of quickly spoiling milk and Guava Honey!

I kid you not, I have lost count of the number of times I have put bad milk into my mouth because of how the milk is here. It's all in bags, and will expire within at least 48 hours of opening, so you pretty much buy a liter and try to use it all the same day you open it. Otherwise, if the milk doesn't smell too bad, you just have to try it and see..... My companion always drinks straight out of the bag, and doesn't usually check, which has led to some..... unfortunate incidents. I, on very rare occasions, have also done so, and once or twice, there was more solid than liquid coming out of that bag directly into my mouth.....

I hope you all enjoyed that in this time of Christmas.

In any case! I have things (and especially pictures) to share with all of you! The work this week was difficult and frustrating. Very little success, and almost no interaction with our one progressing investigator, Sofía, except for.....

That's right! She came to our Christmas Activity on Friday and insisted on getting a picture!

 

Also, her daughter, Lucero, also really wanted a picture, but just with me because I was the angel. That actually made me popular with a lot of little girls..... Which is funny, because all human beings, adults included, over the age of 10 were running around calling me a "Mariposa," which means Butterfly, but has less savory connotations.....

The Activity itself was so much fun though. My companion gave his camera to a sister in the ward who is actually from the States, and she took like a hundred pictures of the thing! You guys will be getting some of them though, worry not. I'll actually just forward all of the emails to all of you. Do mind my Comp's snarky comments. I give all of you full permission to just send him random emails of mockery. In fact, I exhort you all to do so.

In any case, it was a huge success. We did a "Pesebre Viviente" which means living manger scene, but we'd probably call it a Christmas pageant. I was the Angel Gabriel and directed all of the music. There were burgers at the end, and we had an investigator present. That's all a missionary can ask for, isn't it?

The next day, we went caroling through a hospital for a zone activity (I'll forward you those pics too), and them came back to Viñas only to be called out to the chapel in Zeballos to clean up. They normally clean on Saturdays, but no one showed, and we did a lot of the night before's activity, so we took it upon ourselves to clean up. The result of those two things? We lose a solid few hours of work. It was sad.

Nonetheless, this week has been most fun, and we have gotten SOME work done. We'll see if any of it sticks in the next couple of weeks, so I'll keep you all posted.

Anyways, Christmas is an important time for everyone. Here, it's a really big party, and we're going from house to house on the 24th (which is Christmas here). But everywhere, we should focus what we do on the Saviour. I know everyone always says it, but it's just true. And maybe try doing it in new ways too.

When you give, receive, or enjoy time with family this year, just think about what Christ has made possible in each of you, how His sacrifice and His salvation gives you light and opens your life to the goodness of God. Think of the gratitude you feel to Him, for being the Way of happiness. Remember that He is the Way to God, that it is the Way that is happiness, not the end point, and that we all can live our lives upon it (keep happy) by keeping those basic commandments of temple worthiness, daily prayer and scripture study, and church attendance. I hope none of you feel that there is meaninglessness in your lives, or sense a lack of happiness. If any of you do, I exhort you to focus yourselves on Christ and His gospel. Look to the Lord for your joy and you will find a fount unending. The peace of the Spirit we feel is a direct product of Him, just like the song says, "His light, His life, and His gospel, is peace."

If any lack that peace, share it with them. If any of you find yourselves needy of it, take it up unto yourselves. He offers it freely. Let us speak as Job and say "He has also become my salvation," in both our temporal joy and our eternal condition. I pray that all of you may have a merry Christmas, and that you may keep its meaning in your hearts always.

Glory to God in the Highest!

Peace on earth, good will to men!

Sincerely,

Elder Harris

Missionary Work Builds Missionaries‏

(From December 16th)

A little known fact about Paraguay: It's almost summer right now. And hot. We came home at around 9:30  a couple of nights ago and my clock's thermometer read 94 F, and it was a humid heat trap inside of the apartment. While that does mean it was a solid five degrees cooler outside, lets consider that the true heat and force of summer has yet to commence. This will be awesome.

In any case, I thank you all for your wonderful emails and encouragement! Hearing from you guys every once in a whie makes me happy. I hope things are going well and I hope that you guys take the opportunity to ENJOY the cold and the snow instead of suffering! I know I'm going to enjoy the summer and the heat!

This week's work has been tough though. For a long while, we've just been doing A LOT of what's called "contacting" which just translates to clapping outside of gates to try and get lessons to try and get investigators. The problem is, while we get plenty of lessons, they lie to us about return visits or they just won't progress or things just keep coming up such that no one actually sticks around as an investigator. Therefore, when there are no plans nor people to visit, you contact. A few years back, this place was the second most baptizing missions in the world. They came to find that the missionaries were baptizing poorly though, just getting people into the water without actually helping them gain testimonies, and they put a fairly solid stop to that. The result? Better missionary work, but plummeting baptisms. In our branch, we had six from July of 2012 to July of 2013. We're hoping to change that, but it's tough because of the situation before described. Nevertheless, we keep going and it's fun to do lots of contacting and meet tons of people.

The most important developments of the week are these: Sofía came to church again! And we had some really cool lessons with her! She has had a life of Catholicism, as a teacher of Catechism and she almost went through Opus Dei, which is apparently some really deep crazy level of learning in the Catholic Church, but she is super afraid of baptism because she doesn't just want to abandon that and leave it all behind. Regardless, she believes the Book of Mormon to be true, and she feels what she describes as peace when she is with us, when she goes to church, and she even just WANTS to go to "our" church in the future (which really baffles her, because she never expected that in all of her life).

So, what do you do when your investigator has all the testimony they need to get baptized but still struggles? You testify and you talk about the restoration like you never have before. We bore powerful witnesses of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and we read throught 3 Ne. 11 with her to talk to her about baptism, and just Jesus Christ in general. The Spirit was so strong. We finally left her with an ultimatum to just find her answer by Friday, when we'll be seeing each other next. She says okay and you can just tell that there is this schism inside of her that has her teetering on the edge of baptism. 

One of the most important things about our lesson last night was the effect it had on us. The realization that these moments when we feel the spirit are those moments that make us one with God and all the prophets or those to whom we look as examples. It IS God working within us, and we find ourselves in the uniquely sweet position of being therefore tied to EVERYTHING, because God ties us to that. Right now, Sofía is finding these blips on the radar of times when she really synchs up to that deeper flow of truth, but we are promising the gift of the Holy Ghost, which ties us so permanently to Him.

After that lesson, we realized the connection we make and how important that is, how it is, in the end, the purpose of all that we do. We inscribe ourselves more deeply into God when we do His will, or rather, keep all the commandments He's given us and follow His direction for our lives, and therefore tie ourselves to everything and everyone that is good. It is happiness. It is purpose. It is ancestry and progeny and the beauty that only the prophets come close to actually seeing. 

I know that this church is more than "church." More than religion or culture or words or tangibility. It is truth, which is a principle of Godliness. Joseph Smith WAS a prophet of God who was instrumental in the restoration of His power and guidance. The Book of Mormon IS absolutely true and is the instrument of conversion in all our lives. It's tangibility is the intangible fact that we can KNOW of a surety of its truthfulness, and therefore know so many other things. I exhort everyone to do as Christ asks and try Him, feel the marks in the hands and feet of "....the God of the whole earth." You can do this by reading to Book of Mormon, praying to God if it is true, and attending church regularly. Doing so, you will receive testimony of the Spirit and you will know.

I bear this witness in the name of Jesus Christ, as His representative.

Amen.

You Win Some, You Win Some More‏

(From December 9th)

Hello Family!

I have pictures! So, lets get to business on those first and we'll guide this email by that, shall we?

Exhibit A: 

Chocolate covered popcorn. This is winning. I like to call it "refusing to believe that there are snack food combinations that you can't do in third world countries."

 

Exhibit B:

Tempura! It's actually Korean and called Ottogi, but we just called it tempura and it was good. We just found a random bag of ottogi mix in the supermarket, which was written entirely in Korean, and we had no idea what the instructions said other than 500 grams and 800 milliliters, with which we made ottogi!!!! Yes. We are that cool. We won that one.

Concerning more important things, I received just WAY TOO MANY CHRISTMAS PACKAGES. I'm incredibly grateful, rest assured, but I picked them all up during a conference, so there were lots of other missionaries, and when you're walking out of the office dwarfed by six packages when most other missionaries feel super lucky to get one small one..... You tend to get a false sense of pride that causes you to eat way too much candy in the subsequent days. Also, have you guys ever ridden to different buses back home while carrying several kilo boxes of things? People look at you funny. I must say though, it's kind of hard to notice the wariness of others when you're so overwhelmed with gratitude at the love of family. Thank you all so much! I'm throwing in some pics for everyone to prove that the packages were epically giant.

 

 

All gift packages and non-food items will be opened up on christmas day, unless you guys tell me otherwise.

Another Christmas note: I'm going to be able to make two 20 minute skype calls back home. We think we'll do it on Christmas Day (Dec. 25) at 4:00 our time (12:00 in Utah). How do we all feel about that? All in favor, email aye when convenient.

 

As far as the work goes,

Dec. 8 was the day of the Virgin of Caacupe (Cah-ah-coo-PAY), and that meant bad business for us. Our one progressing investigator didn't go to church and her extreme Catholicism is coming out in greater force. She keeps emphasizing the virgin in her Book of Mormon readings! It's crazy! Interestingly enough though, the thing that ended up being the strangest to me was when she compared Mary, her example and model of goodness, with Eve, who to her was weak and guided easily to evil. It really ate at me that so many people accross the world have that perception, but I am comforted always by the restored light of the gospel. In the Bible Dictionary under Eve, it specifically refers to her nobleness in partaking of the fruit being stated in Moses 5:11, and I can't deny the plan of God, its greatness and contrasting that with the misperceptions of it just really fortified my testimony this week. 

We're struggling to find people or help them progress, but we fight on! I hope all is well at home. Feel free to ask anything about Paraguay, language, gospel, me, or anything.

I love all of you! 

Have a wonderful day.

Elder Harris

Still No Pics Available

(From December 2nd)

I have so much I want to show all of you! But, I can't upload pictures from the computer I'm at. It's just a wee bit archaic....

Anyways though, this week was interesting. Thanksgiving Day passed by without note, but we did have a solid lesson with our only investigator, Sofìa Ortiz. Unfortunately, she had to go to a family member's birthday which was far away on Sunday, so she couldn't come to church. That was frustrating. Especially since she didn't read the Book of Mormon or pray to know if it's true all weekend! That is the source of testimony! It, and church attendance, is what keeps us going! Note to all: Study the scriptures every day. Pray about them every day. Attend church every week. This is how we feed ourselves spiritually. If it's been a while since you read the Book of Mormon, read it, and every time you do, ask God if what's in there is His word. It's probably one of the best things you can do for your spiritual well-being. It's like the spiritual equivalent of a bodily health cleanse. Do it.

Anyways, this week was fairly uneventful. I have officially finished being trained though! I am now only a Junior Comp, not a trainee. We were frustrated by a lack of attendance in church, even though we're still inviting at least twenty different people every single week. Sigh.

This week, I took too long on some personal emails, so next week, I'm going to write an extra big update and include pics, but this is all the time I have this week! I'm so sorry everyone! But keep on keeping on! Two Christmas packages await me in the office! Thank you so much!

I love you all.

Elder Harris

The Coolest of Activities

(From November 18th)

I don't have a lot to write about this week, except for what we did today! Today was a day to be remembered for all eternity because of this:

 

And also this!

 

That's right! We went biking through the Botanical Gardens of Asunciòn Paraguay! It was really cool.

 

So, the first part, as you can see, was mostly this cool area that had really dense groupings of bamboo plants all together along the trail. After that, we found this:

That's right, someone had built up little dirt mounds and stuff for mountain bikers to go over. I caught some pretty good air too. Pictured there is Elder Sorenson, who is actually serving in the like 3rd or 4th chuchiest area in the mission, the only area that contains the temple of Paraguay.

Anyways, we went up the trail a little further, but we were surrounded by so many cool trees, and I am a huge dork who had loved climbing since before the womb, so.....

 

My trainer says I look like a koala in that shot.... But physical excercise is really paying off. ;)

Anyways, it was really cool for a while, and an Elder from Chile (Elder Jimenez) and I took the lead for a our first loop, which ended with a long downhill slope that had lots of trenches. I've never actually done mountainbiking before, but you adjust quickly to the realization that if you don't yank up on your front handlebars, you will go on a headfirst collision with the ground as soon as your front tires collide with the trench wall. Funny story, this can also happen if you push too hard on the front wheel brake when going to fast, as our good friend Elder Huancollo (Peruano) learned:

Here's the photo of Elder Huancollo's epic fail:

 

It was actually quite scary because he had just barely gotten his cast off the week before... He's fine, but it was really funny to see someone literally go 90 degrees for a second, until the bike just goes back to where it was and the person flips the other 90.

Well, to finish off, we actually biked into the jungle. I kid you not. Jungle. A path was carved through it, but it was absolutely awesome. I was way happy. 

 

Yeah, that Elder in the red is Elder Beus from Farmington Utah. He's actually a really cool person and he's come to be a friend. I came on a special change (changes are periods of six weeks into which the mission is divided), meaning that I just entered two weeks after the change had already started. What does this mean though? Well, everyone else in my group was American and didn't speak spanish already, except for one Elder, and so they all came here the change after I did, and they have a lot more unity and friendship than I ever could have just because they were in the MTC together so much longer. Elder Beus got here one change earlier than my group, which means he had already been in Paraguay two weeks by the time I arrived, and he and I have just grown up here together at pretty much the same stages. He's just an awesome guy.

This week was crazy though. I lied about not having anything to say about it. We did lots of service actually, for example, setting up the Branch President's brand new computer and printer, and this thing:

 

That's right. The member there is a recent convert named Marcelino Benitez. We literlly made that concrete from scratch and were building a floor for the new room he added onto his house. It was fun, odd work. Interesting though.

Along with that, we received a visit from D. Todd Christofferson! He was amazing. He actually had every single missionary come up so he could greet them individually, and it was amazing. The spirit was so strong. He really stressed the use of the book of Mormon in our teaching, and made us some pretty cool promises. I was floored. His Spirit is so powerful, and the biggest thing that I'll always remember is that he looked right out to all of us and with power and great authority told us all personally (literally, he switched from the ustedes pronoun to the tù pronoun) that we were worthy and our offering is accepted. I'd been having doubts of whether or not I'd been working hard enough, was obedient enough, or even good at all, but all of that stopped when the Spirit carried his words directly into my heart. It was something very special.

Well, that'll be all for this week. Do stay tuned and keep doing what's right! I'll start including some spiritual thought in these one of these days....

Happy Thanksgiving!

¡Buenas Tardes!

As many of you may have found out, this week is the very week of Thanksgiving. That's a pretty important holiday for those of us "Estadounidense" persuasion, and a pretty much unkown or not cared for holiday everywhere else. Something about it being a U.S. national holiday or some nonsense like that.

Well, my companion really likes to do fun and exciting P-day activities, so he really, really wanted to do Thanksgiving with some other companionships. However, he is also Zone Leader, meaning that he pretty much ends up having to invite the entire Zone (26 people in our zone) to his fun activities. What does this mean? This means we had a real Thanksgiving. More mashed potatoes than all of those missionaries could eat, lots of veggies, good gravy, and for the entree, we made two giant chicken pies. We couldn't do turkey (it costs about 10 dollars a kilo and our budget was set for less than one hundred dollars), and everything else just looked like it'd take too long, so I had the brilliant idea of doing chicken pies because it's cheaper, quicker, and you can involve EVERYONE in the cooking process. Unfortunately, I was the only one who knew anything about making pie crusts, and even then I had to look up some ratios, and still messed it up! In any case, my mistakes just meant it wasn't all flaky and delicious, but it was definitely still good and we all ate way too much (I came close to throwing up on the bus ride home).

This computer hasn't any good USB plug-ins where I might actually be able to upload pictures, so you guys will just have to wait.

That's really unfortunate because we did another service project on Friday in which my companion and I and one other member (El Hermano Èscobar) dismantled a house. I say dismantled, because that's what it was; there was no demolishing. We had to take out all nails and just take it apart to move all the pieces elsewhere. It was really fun and we got to meet the new Hermana in the other area. Did I forget to mention something......?

Changes! In Baxter's mission, they were called transfers, and it's the six week period in which we work as missionaries. If we are moved to a new area, it'll almost always happen on the first day of a new change. My companion and I have been kept together in the same area, but one of the Hermanas in the other area of our Branch was traded out with a brand new Hermana! Hermana Johnson from Texas. The Hermana who is training her is one from Peru who has been in the other area since I got here, Hermana Villcahuman, so no changes there. The work goes on here.

The only other relevant change made is this: the other Zone Leader, Elder Hulsey, was traded out for Elder Jensen. So, you guys will probably be seeing a lot more of him in pictures and stories and the like. He was just serving in Pedro Juan Caballero, a city half in Paraguay and half in Brazil, so he sometimes slips into Portuguese because he had to learn so much of it there. He's a cool guy.

The work:

I do have one exciting thing to report about actual missionary work this week: an investigator actually came to church! Her name is Sofìa Ortiz, a highly intelligent divorced Catholic who just really loves learning about the church and just seems fascinated with what we believe and such. BUT! This week, we had three different lessons with her, and over the course of those, we finally were able to help her understand that she needs to gain a testimony, and that finding out if this is true or not is something she actually wants to do, AND that the way to do that is by reading the Book of Mormon, asking God if it's true, and attending church. She just gets it. So, that makes me really confident that she will continue progressing and that she'll be able to feel the power of the restored gospel in her life, which she could really use. We have a baptismal date set for her on the 14th of December, so I will be sure to write you two days later and let you all know how it turns out!

Things are moving along here! I hope you all have wonderful Thanksgivings! Please send me lots of pictures of everything and everyone always!

Love, 

Elder Harris

Big News

That's right, we have big news being dropped! Actually, I've known it for a long time, and some of you had the opportunity to be informed of this event for a while. Are you all ready? We'll find out.

Christmas is coming.

Yes, it is. In fact, it's only a month and some more away, which means, primarily, that the land here will turn to riot as the summer begins (fireworks, late nights, alcohol, I'm excited), but more importantly, we are being asked to help the Branch in any way that we can to organize giant, "To The Rescue," activities (the rescue, of course, being reactivation efforts of less active and inactive members). We have high hopes and great expectations for what's coming up. I'm really excited, but it also means that we're probably going to have a lot of work to do, because no one here has any theater, choir, or really any kind of artistic/performance experience, which means that if they decide anything that should have an element of that in it, we are going to be relied on heavily. I consider that a blessing, but that's just me.

Oh yeah, the mission is getting a picture of all missionaries in it in front of the temple tomorrow. We all have to get there before 12:45 and go into a chapel and sit down. We'll be in the chapel for a few hours (I can't remember why), but then we'll be coming out at like 3:30 to get a giant picture right in front of the temple. Oh yeah, I remembered why we're going to have to sit in the chapel for a few hours. Elder D. Todd Christofferson is coming to talk to us.

So, that's what we have to look forward to this week. Hopefully, some of you guys were thrown off by the roundabout way of saying that. ;)

This last week was a lot of not working.... For various reasons. On Friday, we had Zone Training, after which Elder Yauney and I had the final interviews with President McMullin (our interviews ended up happening at like 8:15). We were in the office from 11:00 to 8:00 at night. No work, other than some random contacting that morning, was done. There were some other things that got in the way of work too, but it means this week I'm kind of restless to get into it. Zone Training was really good though! We talked a lot about how to improve our teaching of dispensations when we teach The Restoration. Do you guys realize how logical the Restoration is? You just look at the cycle! God's church has always had a prophet at the head, until eveyone rejects God's prophet, and church, at which time the prophets, and power of God, are taken from the earth. They are later restored when the people are ready again to receieve it. If we can teach this format really well, then we'll be able to teach The Great Apostasy, and ask the investigator, "What will God do to take the world out of the Apostasy?" And, if you've taught well, then they'll get it. Hard in practice, but it's exciting.

So, thank you all for all of your love and support! Keep writing! I love you all!

Elder Harris

I think it's really obvious these posts are very behind.......  ~Taylor

A Summary: Reforging the Blade that was Broken‏

Post for week 11/04/13

Huddle up close kids! I got some stuff to tell you all about.

So, I don't have a lot of stuff going on this week, but I thought I'd tell you all about the Branch, the Zeballos Cué Branch (mine). It's really old, and has 1400 members on record. We usually get 73 people in church every Sunday. Honestly, if even half of these people were active church members, we would have at least two branches (possibly three) and probably another church building. This means that there is a lot of work to be done with Less Active and Inactive members. 

BUT, there are all of these crazy issues. Within the leadership, not a lot gets done and we're really struggling to get member support, even in spite of the leadership actually wanting to improve things. Within the congregation, there are a lot of cultural problems and difficulties with understanding doctrine. Some members still have their little shrines from back when they were catholic (yes, they build full-on shrines to different saints to whom they give worship. One saint is actually the Baby Jesus, to whom you pray and give worship differently from the adult Jesus). Many members think my companion and I are haso (hah-SO Guarani word meaning someone overly strict and just kind of a kill joy) because we won't play sports with them or drink Tereré (a cold drink drunk in Guampas with Bombas that mixes Yerba Mate with a lot of other things like Mint and Lemon), both of which other missionaries have done over the past five years, both of which are extremely against the rules and always have been in the Paraguay Asunción North Mission (which has existed for a lot longer than five years). 

But this lack of doctrinal understanding means that, to a pretty big extent, our church just kind of turns into Catholicism. People don't understand that it's actually a commandment from Jesus Christ personally to go to church and partake of the sacrament (3 Ne. 18), they don't know about doing missionary work, they don't know modesty rules, temple work, temple worthiness, or even a lot of basic doctrines (like the Plan of Salvation). This means that pretty much anyone at any time can just go inactive for really poor reasons, because they don't see the importance of church participation. 

This might sound like complaining; it's not. I'm explaining why there are so many less active members, and why so few people have gone through the temple. But that's what we're working in right now. Can you guys imagine it? Church every week is a battle, and we meet new less active members every single day, all of whom we invite to church, with whom we share spiritual experiences, and even so nothing comes of it. It means we've been learning to work in new and different ways, and it means that we do just as much of that as we do actual work with investigators. 

In order to really bring people back into the gospel, however, we need a place to bring them back into. That means we need a Branch that is active, where people have callings, there are home teaching assignments, information gets entered into the computer and recorded, and this is where I draw epic ties to the Lord of the Rings. We are now trying to focus on reinforcing this ward. Making it something that can sustain growth, rather than being crippled and broken by it. And even though there is so much trial, I believe we are finding success. Our church attendance has been over 110 for the past two weeks, we have new callings extended, and the Branch actually looks like it's growing well.

So, to conclude, the work goes on here. I just thought I'd give everyone a small ideological glimpse into my little corner of things here. I hope it wasn't bad... I mean, things aren't bad here. In reality, it's amazing. I get to learn how to make a Branch function and grow, I get the opportunity to grow in love and understanding of other people, and it's in a really awesome place too with good people.

Speaking of people! I think there's room in the day for a spouting off of quirks and fun bits of information!

-The people here fully believe that if you consume Watermelon (called Sandia here) and milk together in somewhat large quantities, you will sí o sí die within the hour. I was privileged enough to drink lots of milk the first time I ever tried watermelon. Telling people this pretty much turns them pale and they just end up telling me I'm super lucky to be alive.

-There's fruit everywhere! The most common tree here is actually a mango tree, and the season hasn't hit yet, but kids are already walking around eating some pre-season mangos (they apparently taste different when they aren't in season).

-Piqui Vole: I think that's how you spell it (It's pronounced peeky volley). It's a Paraguayan only sport played on a Volleyball court with a full volleyball net, but you use a somewhat deflated soccer ball and you cannot use hands. I have seen some Paraguayan guys jump ridiculously high and rocket a ball over to the other side using only a chest bump. This stuff is awesome.

-Weather! The weather can be pretty crazy. The rain is fun (in my opinion). It floods things and will utterly shut other things down (school gets cancelled for just a little rain, no one goes to church, colectivos- buses -don't run). A normal day of Spring will be in the 80s and 90s, and a normal hot day in the springtime will get up around 100. My comp says that there are times in the Summer where 90 feels so good, because that's literally the coldest it will get for a week. But the weather also fluctuates quite a bit, which means a really badly rainy day could be just before a really hot day, which turns into terrible amounts of humidity. For some reason though, the more extreme the weather, the more we missionaries seem to like it. Not in the moment, but I think it makes us feel all cool and tough and manly. No one is allowed to complain about heat when your summer comes though!

 

 

Triumph in the Midst

Hello World!

This week was... something else. I suppose that spending last P-day in/near the temple required that the Adversary make daily life feel as far from perfect as possible, and he tried really, really hard. Let me break this down:

The mother (Hna. Rolòn) of our 10 year-old Investigator (Yanina) bore a testimony the week before last in our fast and testimony meeting, and during that testimony, she said that her daughter would be baptized this Friday, which we had planned, but at the same time, we thought maybe it wouldn't happen because we still had a LOT to teach her before that day, and we still had to do a baptismal interview, AND Hna. Rolòn is practically never at home, so we figured we wouldn't see each other every day. Well, our beliefs concerning all of that changed of necessity when she bore such a testimony.

That was actually a cool moment, and I realized that the Spirit works through others quite often.

Well, we had to meet EVERY DAY after that. Lesson on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then a baptismal interview on Thursday, and then the baptism on Friday, and we also had to bake ourselves a cake for the baptism, find baptismal clothes, and fill the font. Sound impossible? It gets better.

Miraculously, all the lessons go through, she has the baptismal interview, we promise her a banana cake, and bake it. Done, done, and done. But, upon having baked the cakes (yes plural, we made two) and arrived at the chapel to fill the font, we discovered something wholly unholy: no one drained the font since the last baptism (which was at least four months ago). It was fetid, disgusting water... So, we had to drain it all, clean it, and then fill the font. No biggie, right? Wrong!

The pump to drain the font needs to be full of water in order to actually pump water out, and whoever screwed in the bolt where water is put in did it with a wrench, which means we can't unscrew it to put water in without a wrench. We don't carry wrenches on us.... Nor did the chapel have one... That was an awkward moment.

Well, that was solved eventually when the Branch President just so happened to show up with his car fixing tools, which include wrenches. We felt blessed. Nevertheless, the baptism was to be held at 8:00 sharp, and we finally got the pump working at like 6:00. So, we then play the waiting game; or so we thought!

I was asked to play the piano for the Primary Program which was held yesterday, and I'd accepted, which means that I also accepted to practice with them on Friday, at 6:00... So, I'm playing all of these different primary songs for the very first time while a choir of kids backs me up, and I can't even swat the mosquitos that are feasting upon the me. That was very stressful.

Finally, the font drains and we clean it out, but now we have to fill it, and it's already 7:15.... So, we scramble together a hose to help fill the font faster, and then we wait some more, but members are getting anxious as we get closer, and some families leave once 8:15 rolls around and we're just screaming that we're only ten minutes away. Not only this, but the Branch President, who was the only other priesthood holder there at the time and therefore absolutely needed to be one of the witnesses, starts to leave...

Nevertheless,

Yanina was baptized! We had everyone seated and ready to go at 8:30, and we had ourselves a lovely little baptism. In the midst of so much trial and difficulty, the work of God moved on. That built my testimony a lot, and Yanina was confirmed the following Sunday as her mother made the last Sacrament Meeting attendance necessary to officially be considered Active status. 

It just goes to show that although the work may move slowly at times, and although there may appear no possible way for it to be accomplished, if we show faith by putting in all our efforts towards success, God will help us and everything will turn out as it should.

Speaking of the primary program though, it went incredibly well! Lots of little ones came to church to help out, and they really sang loudly for all of the songs. I was really praying for help on the whole piano side of things, and that went well also. So, on the whole, we have success!

Look forward to some emails of Photos!

Tiny Post

Just kidding.

Okay everyone, ready for the five minute wonder? I hope you are:

• Last week:
• We had 40 different lessons and found over 10 people we legitimately expect to baptize within the coming months.
• We set a baptismal date for this upcoming Friday.
• We created the single greatest Noche de Rama activity that there has yet been over the face of the earth. It was great.
• We discovered some great things about the poorest area of our area and just met some interesting people.
• This Week: (Including today)
• We expect to have a baptism Friday!!! Yay! (Of a 9 year-old named Yanina. Her mom is reactivating).
• I'm hoping to cook something awesome (I'll keep you posted).
• I cleaned and then stood on the top of the Asunción Paraguay temple! It was awesome.
• We hope to have another few investigators with a baptismal date.
• I'm going to play the piano in a Primary Program.
• Good things will happen!

That's pretty much what's going on thus far. I'm going to write a real email next week though, so worry not. I actually got attacked this week with family emails (which is a very, very good thing. Just don't expect a response until the week after.....). I love you all!

-Elder Harris

Extra!

I just thought I'd show you my entire Zone! This is all of us (except for four of us, but they are office workers, so they're just different). This was just today at a restaurant called El Peruano! I hope you enjoy it!

 

 

Posted by Taylor from email in which Shelby asked to add this.

 





 

Another Post

Hey guys, I'm so sorry I didn't post anything last week! But, lots of stuff has happened since then, so I'll have a lot to talk about (especially since I can't upload pictures right now). Also, I want to share some Guarani with you this week!

General Conference! It was simply amazing as many of you know. I loved it, and it has such a different perspective if you're a missionary. There were a lot of talks this round about member involvement in missionary work, but not just missionary work, in Home Teaching and in working with Less Active Members or Inactive Members. They were things I really wished my Branch leaders had heard so that they would get really involved with the work, because things are going slow with the Branch and what we really want is to pick things up.

Before I go back to General Conference, let me talk a little about my Area. It's a little sort of suburb-ish thing in Ciudad Asunciòn Norte, but it's really poor. Most people lump it together with another area nearby and call all of it Zeballos Cuè, but it's actually locally known as Viñas Cuè, and it's fairly close to the center of Asunciòn Norte (20 minute colectivo- that means bus -ride away). 

Anyways, within our Branch boundaries, we have on record about 1,500 members, but our weekly church attendance lays somewhere around 75 or  85. That's a huge problem. So, we changed all of our goals to mean increasing number of people attending sacrament meeting, because over the past two decades really, the baptisms have been rolling in, but the Branch hasn't grown. Ever. So, since they started the kick to focus more on helping inactive members reactivate, baptisms have gone way down, and I'm kind of glad about that just because some of the people who are active weren't baptized under the best conditions as far as having a real, tangible testimony goes. And one reason why so few remain active for long, as far as they say, is because no one visits and so they grow to feel like no one cares. Which brings up the issue of Home Teaching, Visiting Teaching, and visiting Inactive members. Those things don't exist super well here, but when we finally got out and visited some inactive members with the Branch President, they wanted to reactivate. It was really cool.

Anyways, it means that Conference felt really inspired for my situation, but no one goes to sessions other than Sunday morning because it's all in the Stake Center and it's not part of the culture. So, it was just a bunch of missionaries and a few small youth (not a single soul from our Branch) up until Priesthood session when  few people come or Sunday Morning when a good chunk of the Branch comes. So, the moral of the story is for all of you Utahns, you have easy access to all sessions and a pretty strong culture of actually watching it! Don't take that for granted. I still love you all though!

Other than General Conference, we also had Stake Conference, which was important because the Area Authority, Elder DiGiovanni, came to speak to us, and he asked that we gather all less active and inactive members into the Stake Center. They even printed invitations for us to give and arranged for a free colectivo to pass by a certain spot in Viñas Cuè so that everyone could have an easy time going. We didn't have one single Investigator or Less Active Member with whom we're working show up. That was a really frustrating day just yesterday. The work has been really slow this past week. We have three Investigators that have been taught everything necessary for baptism, but can't be baptized for various reasons (two need to get married and one needs parental permission). It's also become hard to find a new solid investigator, and so everything just slammed into a standstill in the way of Investigators. But, the fact that a lot of less active members didn't come either just makes me feel like I did nothing for a week. It's frustrating.

However, God will provide, and I am doing my part. I need to improve in a lot of ways, but Elder Yauney and I really are working hard and trying to make progress. There's the giant hand of Agency though that continually is giving us sweets and then turning around and slapping us in the face continually. It gets fun after a while!

Okay, this sounds way too hopeless. In reality, I fully believe that this Branch will grow and become more than it now is and that I will get to be a part of that process. I'm happy over here even though it an emotional rollercoaster and my comp and I are having just tons of fun. So, please don't worry about us over here!

I have something very important to tell all of you though, so litsen up!

You can all send me things! The missionaries have all gotten all of their packages, so there's not a worry there. However, my telling you this so late means that you would need to send a Christmas package soon, so I thought I'd take all of the work out of it and send you a list of stuff I either miss or actually need! Send it all to the address I posted in the first post! Here's the list:

The only candies I really want are these, and I care not how many I receive, so if all of you just so happen to send me some, that's wonderful. ;)

-Skittles

-Starburst

-Rolos (Possible Resse's Peanut Butter Cups, but the other three are more important).

If it will keep, I want some canned Tomato Sauce. The stuff they have here mostly looks brown and just doesn't taste right... If you think it can last a plane right and 6-8 weeks of travel, send me some! Not too much, but a couple of cans.

Pens! I'm running out fast. Mostly crappy ones, but if one or two of you has found a cool pen you want to give me, I'd love that too. If you can find any, it'd also be cool to have a few color changing pens that include the colors blue, green, orange, and purple. I need those colors specifically.

Small Amounts of Money..... It's kind of dumb, but if you could slip it into a package... I just realized I don't have much money for cool recuerdos, like buying anaconda and crocodile skins and then getting people to make me stuff out of them (that's popular amongst missionaries here).

100% Cocoa Powder, the highest they have here is 50%. Also, if anyone could send me some holiday-cooking spices (nutmeg, cloves, cream of tartar, ginger, etc.) Not brown sugar, we've actually started making our own. But I want to make myself holiday goodies!

And yeah! Send it to the address I first posted! You guys can coordinate with who's buying what in the comments section..... I feel selfish posting this, but if it so be that I am, then I am! I love you all. The gospel is true; I see it every moment of every day. I'm so glad to be here.

Eat Your Heart Out

I'd like to apologize for last week's lack of post. I loaded the email with way too many photos, so it didn't send and I couldn't do anything about it.... Sorry. But this week will be exciting! For example:

My CCM District! The short guy right in the middle was our night time teacher, and he was our favorite. Hermano Riveros. And missionaries? Tons! Let me introduce you all:

(Left to Right) Elder Sanchez (Argentino), Elder Huillca (Peruano), Hermana Pilliza (seated, Española), Elder Inca (Peruano) Elder Harris (Americano-Uruguayo!), Hermano Riveros, Elder Matìas (Argentino), Elder Bretòn (Americano-Mexicano), Hermana Landeo (seated, Peruana), Elder Gerber (Brasileiro), Elder Garcia (above, Argentino and my companion), Elder Mejìa (below, Peruano).

That's us, I had some really good times with all of them. Elder Bretòn is now serving in an area of Asunciòn called Luque I believe. I actually saw him last week, which was really abnormal because Luque is pretty far away from our area, but whatever.

This is just a photo of me and my companion at the Buenos Aires temple. Below is a  drama shot of myself and some Elder-friends at the temple, and then another of myself. I love me, don't all of you?

Yeah, the BA temple is great, and I wish I could show you all more pictures, but I have another like twenty minutes of actual emailing I can do right now, so I have to keep going!

¡Mi Compa! This is Elder Yauney! Sitting on his bed, with his backpack, and a smile. He's half Peruvian on his mother's side, but she never taught him Spanish (or Guaranì for that matter, some people just don't prepare their kids well. Sheesh), so he had to learn both here. Well, he's crazily intelligent, he's been out in the field for a year now, and he's a really solid missionary. We tend to get caught up in conversation though, so that kind of wrecks things like nightly planning when we're cooking delicious things like snickerdoodles or Locrillo con leche or homemade popcorn (note: I might get really, really fat. We made the best chocolate chip cookie dough the other day, but it was almost just straight margarine surrounded by homemade brown sugar and flour. I ate a 1/4 kilogram of margarine; we calculated).

These things! So, there's a Guaranì art form called Ñandutì (nyan-doo-TEE), which literally means "spider-web" but it's a really intricate weaving thing. And we went Recuerdo shopping for it last P-day! I didn't buy those ones, but I was sorely tempted to. I bought some tiny ones as gifts, and two ties made from another Guaranì weaving style whose name escapes me at the moment.... But yeah it was cool. Anyways, that day, we went out to a big lunch and stuffed our faces with Empanada, or Milanesa Rellena, and sweet breads, and the two Elder's who are leaving next week did something awesome:

They bought Ponchos! They were so, so unbelievably awesome. So awesome, in fact that.......

The guy wearing the red poncho, yeah, that's the mission president (President McMullin). Not even the president could resist the cozy draw of an intricately woven poncho. It costed 185 Mil Guaranì (Guaranì is also the currency here, and it's measured by the thousands), which translates to roughly 42$. Most things here are ridiculously cheap when you transfer it over to dollars, but that was fairly normally priced. Weirdly enough. My ties were like 5$ and were hand-woven. See? That's what I call bargaining. You just have to go 5,700 miles away to get it.

Anyways, wanna see what we did today?

Yeah, that's cow heart roasting on the grill there. It's not a Paraguayan dish though, Hermana Villca from Perù made it for us and we had a nice little lunch up on the roof top. I have to say, cow heart is absolutely delicious when it's done right. We made our own contributions of really delicious tomato-onion-locote pepper-garlic rice that turned out really well and some bread (which always has Anise seed here). It was super delicious. And that's about all I've done today. Now on to the supermarket, clean the house, and then out to work some more!

Okay, so I know I haven't talked much about the missionary work this week, but there's a lot of business and back work to take care of, and I might need to do something like this again next week. Sorry, but that's just kind of the nature of things. I'm also sorry for the lack of personal emails this week, but there will be plenty next time. 

Anyways, I need to run some vocab by you all! We use spanglish like crazy, so it'll be easier for me to just give you guys some words right off the bat right now:

Asistencia: it means attendance in Castellano (spanish). It's the number of people who attend church one week).

Ja Mongru: It's a Guaranì word, so it's pronounced juh mon-ga-ROO, and it's kind of in place of a congratulatory high five, but the action paired with it is way different. We only use it when someone really does well at something.

Justo: It's Castellano for just, and can mean just like justice, or just as in "just at that moment," like, "I was walking down the street and checked the time on the phone and justo received a call right there."

There are a few more that I think I'll have to add, and I might teach you guys the random words and phrases of Guaranì I know, but I'm out of time! Stay tuned for next week's episode!

Heart Attack!

Okay everyone! I know it's been a while, but boy do I have a lot to talk about! The CCM in Argentina was pretty crazy, and my companion was really interesting there, but the second I stepped off the plane onto Paraguayan earth, it was like the entirety of the idea of truth and right filled my being and poured out into an overwhelming sense that I was where I should be. The first day I spent partially with the Mission President and went around the Asunción Temple, which is actually in our Mission. Then I went out with an Elder who was not my companion, because my companion was afar off and we wouldn't meet until early the next day. So, next day comes and my companion turns out to be Elder Yauney, a 1/2 Peruvian Elder from Sandy who is pretty much awesome. I'll include a picture (and many, many other pictures) next week. But yeah, he's cool, and he took me to the whole apartment we have and we went around the area quite a bit. He's a good teacher, but he's also Zone Leader, which isn't normal [except in some Missions: love, Baxter :)]. In every Zone of the Mission, there are two Zone Leaders, who are almost always companions, but in this strange case, they were separated so I could be trained by someone awesome. So we have a lot of added pressure and weirdness. But, let me define a Zone:

Two Elders= One Companionship

Two (or generally a lot more than two) Companionships = One District

Two (or more) Districts = One Zone

And each companionship works in an area with their own pool of investigators and workload. Our Zone has like 22 or so Missionaries with a good mix of Elders and Hermanas, but I don't know how many Districts there are at all... I'm kind of a weird thing that this Mission has never seen before by being the companion of a Zone Leader.

Anyways, Paraguay!
This place is absolutely crazy! Our area, which is in a part of Asunciòn called Viñas Cuè, is poor, like most of Paraguay and Asunciòn. The people live in these run down shacks mostly, which are made from corrugated sheets of metal or wood or whatever's lying around, but there are a lot of other types of buildings mixed in, and there's not a whole lot of severe socioeconomic distinction just based on geography. Case in point, a man we contacted named Juan lived in a two story house with a gate, several vehicles, and seemed to have a lot. He lived across the street from a family of like six who lived in a house the size of a child's room (no not even a master bedroom size).

 Guaranì is a crazy Native American language that is really common among the common people of Paraguay, but no one is just this fluent Guaranì speaker, so if I were to get good enough to read the Book of Mormon in Guaranì, I'd know more than just about everyone here (except for some older folks). Guaranì is more just the language of colloquialisms and severe emotional expression (when someone says leave in Guaranì, you leave. That still hasn't happened to me though).

 Food is mostly pasta, but the weekends are all about the Asada, when they just take an entire half torso of a cow and just grill it up whole without any real seasoning, which doesn't seem to have caught on here either. Other traditional foods: Sopa Paraguaya (cornbread with onions and cheeses baked into it), Chipa (bread maybe? It's just weird), Empanadas, Milanesas, and a lot of fried things. They even make the Empanadas by frying them here, which is kinda weird because I thought they were always baked, but people just do things differently in Paraguay. Another case in point, Adìos here is a greeting. You say it to pass people on the street, but you NEVER say it when you say goodbye.

Other things about Paraguay: Everyone I've met has received little to no education, so that kind of perpetuates poverty with poor money management and lack of educated work, but it also means that the work of the gospel moves pretty slowly here. You have to work really hard to get things done, but in the end it can be really fruitful because it means that people are more willing to trust the feeling of the Spirit. That doesn't actually make it easier to then try and get people to commit to things like going to church or quitting smoking or marrying their partner with whom they live, but that's always kind of done one step at a time. We have really big problems with the church attendance though, so we're trying to figure out a way to really get to people here, and we are met with varied success. The weather here seemed not to be in our favor this week. We're in the middle of the Winter to Summer transition here, so some days get blazingly hot, but others (like today) are sooooo cold and just really wet. It is really humid here, and rather like a jungle (the roads here are mostly not roads: just their orange sandy/claylike stuff), and since yesterday was like today, no one we committed showed up to church. That kind of devastated me, but you really just have faith and know that if you are obedient, if you really care for the people, then things will work out the way God wills and people allow. I definitely have been putting in my effort.

So, in my area, we are part of the Zeballos Cuè Branch, which is weird because most of the other missionaries are part of wards. But the branch had a meeting of like fifty three yesterday, and I'm told that there are generally more, so this is just kind of a preview. But remember the whole lack of schooling thing I talked about? It makes all the classes really, really, really odd, because, if you think about it, if you just had to teach a class, you might know what to do just because you've had teachers in school your whole life, but when you don't have much of that, then what would you do? Well, I got to find out yesterday, and it was mostly just quirky and gave me opportunities to share a lot. The area is interesting too. I feel like our investigators might be going stagnant, but I'll tell you more about them in a second.

 So, it's mostly really poor, which means you have like no front doors, and all the properties have some sort of barrier around them (from barbed wire fences to brick walls with shattered glass covering the tops of them), so you just have to clap outside of an entrance or say hi to whomever might be sitting outside the house and then talk to them. The people here are oddly believing and receptive to missionaries, and they kind of have this weird belief that we're all sent from God, no matter what church we belong too, but at the same time, we occupy a void in their society where you can feel free to lie to us and treat us disrespectfully. That gets frustrating, but even then, it's not too bad. No one has ever chased me away or threatened me and I always really feel safe. The whole receptiveness is awesome though, and we actually find new possible investigators just about every day. It's really cool to be part of the work progressing.

I almost forgot! The main meal of the day is lunch (El Almuerzo), so that's when we have our appointments with members and people, never at dinner. That's just another little quirk that I thought I'd let everyone know about.
Investigators:

Luz Còlmann:

A sweet little 15 year old girl who actually makes me think Kassi a ton! The reason Elder Yauney and his companion started teaching her before I got here is because she's dating the son of the Branch President. But yeah, I think she must be of German descent because she's whiter than everyone and has blond hair... It's kind of unnatural here. Anyways, I've taught her one lesson, and it was actually almost the last thing she needs to learn before baptism, and she's been awesome and kept all commitments and really just believes, but her parents need to give her permission to baptize, and they're just kind of being difficult about it. But, we're planning for this Saturday, and we're teaching her on Thursday all of the remaining things about the Gospel needed to know to be baptized, so please hope and pray that her parents give her permission!!

Leticia Gonzalez:

She's like 19 I think. Everyone here looks way older than they are, so I really thought she was in her late 20s, especially since she has three kids running around. Her boyfriend/roommate/father of her children is named Alfredo and he's actually a Menos Activo (Less Active) member of the church. She's progressed with lessons, but just cannot seem to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know that it's true, so we really don't want to baptize her just as soon as possible. She needs to really know the truth of the church, but it's really frustrating when the family won't keep commitments! I say the family because Alfredo is in on this too. That's because, in order for her to be baptized, they need to be married, which is actually going to happen (they informed us), but it'll be a little while, so this is more of a long-term investigator. I really hope she's held up on other commitments, because the gospel could be such a help to her, and if she only knew all that I've had the blessing to learn, she would be so helped and could be so strong.

Those are our only two really solid investigators who have plans of getting baptized. There are about two or three other possibles, and this next week we'll find out about getting even more (a lot, lot more). But the work is amazing, and I've been teaching and testifying so much every day. God is with us, and I can bear witness of that. Every day of Personal Study is amazing, and I'm so happy to be out here.

But this is week one! Next week, I'll have more time to tell you about random quirks and things about actually living here. I love you all! Thank you for your emails and support! I'm going to respond as much as I can!

God be with you,
Elder Harris