When Through The Deep Waters....‏

Everyone!

I don't know if any of you have ever taken it upon yourselves to memorize all seven verses to this beautiful hymn (recorded in our very first hymnbook), but the title of this email is from verse number four, and there's a reason. Just look at the pictures I'm including and you'll understand.

We did a service project to a place that got hit by a tornado, yes, a tornado (the first to hit in almost twenty years).

It flooded.

Now, I do not mean to diminished what happened our father Noah, but I'm pretty sure it was when the rain reached this level that people started to be like, "hey man, we were just joking..... Can you open up the ark again and we'll hop on in?"

We weren't aware that it was going to rain, but that's the beauty of rain, it just shows up without warning. No call to confirm the appointment needed.

It was awesome.

There were seriously places where it came above my knee. We were soaked to the bone anyways though, so sloshing through the streams that were once stone paved roads wasn't an issue. Except for the cold.

No one actually let us serve though. We just kinda ran around for a while divided into different groups. All the other groups found people to help, but we didn't. I did however, almost fall into a meter deep gutter, which would have been such a fun email to write you all from the hospital, but unfortunately, I was yelled at fiercely to not cross the road at that specific place.

So, that was pretty awesome.

Other than that, the work was slow. Still having issues managing myself and the area and I really, really wish I'd put more effort into the Personal Management merit badge in Boy Scouts, because now it's become crucial. But, we were able to find some really cool news who have definitely been prepared by God to receive us. I'm excited to see what happens and see who will be baptized in July!

The work goes on and we strive forward. This morning I read in 1 Kings 8 about the dedicatory prayer of Solomon's temple, and it's so powerful after having been through the temple! I haven't studied anything but the Book of Mormon, New Testament, and basic gospel principles for so long that the second we built on those principles with the temple it was like a volley of cannon fire opened up my mind and built on my understanding. My testimony has grown so much on the mission. I know so much more surely, I can say without a doubt that I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, who is our loving Heavenly Father. I understand who Jesus Christ is so much better and know His role in my life and in the Gospel so much better. I know He is my Savior. I know that His truth was placed on this earth by Joseph Smith and that it continues today by His divine hand. Because I know these basic things, I can tell all of you that our temples are sacred. They are the house of the Lord without a doubt. They are absolutely necessary and are one of the greatest gifts God has deigned to give us. I love them and I love Him.

I hope that all of you have a wonderful week and remember temple worship.

Love,

Elder Harris

PICTURES!

This is Elder Panaifo, of the jungle in Iquitos, Perú.

Then Baptism Pictures

And then our zone going to the service project

A Big Peruvian Family‏

Hello All!

It's wonderful to receive your emails and news! I love it.

This week has brought some rather crazy things. As I said last week, we have changes, Elder Yauney went home, and I'm training once again. Unfortunately, I left my SD card that actually has the pictures at home, so this week will not be a super happy picture week. Sorry. :(

But! I have crazy news! Every sixth Wednesday is changes day, and all who have or receive changes gather in the office, including those who are going home, so I got to see Elder Yauney for what I thought was the last time in my own mission lifetime. We said goodbye and I inherited an abdominal torture device that some people use to excercise. It's pure punishment.

Well, there were only five coming in, so instead of a big meeting, the five trainers go upstairs and have a couple of chats with the Assistants and the Sister Training Leaders. Just like the first time. Cool, right?

Well, then we go in and see our soon-to-be trainees, and as part of the slideshow, the President shows that I will be training...........

Elder Panaifo!

We're all happy and stuff and then the President looks at me and says, "And you guys will be sticking around for a while, because you're coming with us and the missionaries who are going home to the temple, so your companion can receive his endowments."

I was floored.

I was just super excited after that the whole day, and I got to accompany my companion through the temple for his first time. It was amazing and I won't forget it.

It also meant that I was with my trainer again and got to say goodbye just after having gone through the temple together with him. I have a unique mission.

I'm not going to lie, the work wasn't all that great this week. I realized that my work has been pretty sloppy and inefficient, and that was manifested very well with the brand new Elder Panaifo at my side. So, I've had to rededicate myself to finding problems and trying to think of solutions to these problems. The results have been good, and I've found some good solutions that I'm really excited to apply in the work this week.

One great thing did happen though. A man whose family was baptized less than a year ago listened to us for the second time. He got interested when in a Family Home Evening with his wife and some youth from the ward we talked about eternal families, and though he'd listened to the missionaries on various occasions, he finally was open to the promptings of the Spirit, and wanted to hear us again. So, this week we had the second visit, and we took a leap of faith and, rather than teach a safe, investigator lesson, we taught principles of a recent convert lesson to help fortify the faith of his wife and then help him maintain his vision. We taught about the Priesthood, which is a deep, difficult subject for investigators to understand, but the Lord blessed us with His Spirit and we were able to explain it in terms that he understood very, very well, and we were able to teach many of the doctrines and points of the first investigator lesson, and set a baptismal date for him. It was a wonderful lesson, and I'm so grateful that the Lord has blessed me to be have been able to be part of it. So! Hopefully we'll be hearing more about Hermano Montiel!

I love you all! If you have any questions or comments, let me know!

Love,

Elder Harris

Speechful

That is the word that will be used to describe how I feel about having to write this email this week......... Too much to say, and I'm only giving myself like ten minutes this time because I've got people to write!

So, last week.... I can't remember a whole bunch of what happened to write you guys about.... Sorry. It wasn't the most eventful.

THIS week however is enough to fill three, maybe ten emails!

So, I mentioned a guest star or two last email, ¿no cierto? Well, there are two! And I forgot my camera cord, so no pics this week.....

But can I get a drumroll please?

1. Sofía Ortiz!

2. Elder Yauney!

Just imagine the three of us and our two companions sitting in a way too chuchi sushi restaurant and enjoying it wildly (except my smile is awkwardly false and I'm turned funny). You have just more or less pictured the image I will send you all next week. 

Elder Yauney finishes his mission (dies) this Thursday, so he wanted to say goodbye.

That wasn't the only goodbye, however. On Wednesday, he came to Capiatá (our companions went to his area) and we did a full day division so that we could then GO TO BAPTISMS FOR THE DEAD WITH SOFÍA FOR HER OWN FAMILY NAMES!!! 

It was brilliant.

Your fantastic missionary is also so smart to have forgotten his temple recommend. But guess who was in the endowment session at that same time who was interrupted to be asked of one of his oh so special missionaries could come and do baptisms with a convert; yes, President Mcmullin. It turned out so wonderfully. Sofía was baptized by the Temple President himself for her grandmother and it was so special. I felt the Spirit so strong. She cried lots.

She's doing crazy well! 

Other news, Elder Yauney will be back in Sandy ,Utah on Thursday late at night. Anyone who wants to go to his homecoming..... I cannot for the life of me remember his ward or address or anything like that, so..... You can visit him later. Well, he does live in a part called Pepperwood and it's ridiculously fancy, so if you can locate his ward just from that, fantastic!

But that was intersting.

Other news: Paola was baptized! This Saturday. For the second time in my mission, some feminine problems arose the morning of the baptism, and having learned from the first time, we decided to postpone a week. But it happened! It was so awesome and Bishop Gimenez is so gosh dang inspired! The words he spoke at the baptism were so beautiful and wise and it was amazing. You guys will love the pictures.

Elder Gallegos baptized her, but we both got to participate in her confirmation, which was excellent.

Other news: The change is ending this Wednesday! We finished up E' Gallegos' training last night, and this morning they gave us the news of what changes are going on.

Second drumroll!

I'm staying! And training again. That actually makes me feel really good that I'll be doing so, because I get a second shot to do even better, and it's really cool helping a missionary start from nothing (not to mention the fact that this is the greatest Ward ever to start in).

Elder Gallegos is leaving and will be companions with Elder Bonzo in a place called Limpio! I couldn't believe that. They guy knows like 10 people in the mission and who should be his companion but someone that he not only knows but has actually worked with on divisions! However, it really helped him out because he was stressed and afraid of having a difficult companion.

So, look forward to another three months from Piro'y! This round will be a lot of Recent Convert work, and a lot of trying to find investigators.

Questions, comments, concerns, please send them. 

I love you all, have a wonderful week!

City of the Dead

Well Folks,

Another week has passed and we remain here in Capiatá. This week was interesting because we were able to explore quite a bit more of the area that we inherited from the sister missionaries who were here before us. We've found some interesting things, but nothing really reportable yet... This week was pretty chill to be honest and there were a lot of rejections, so we're starting to look at how we can start working with members to get some better investigators who are genuinely interested in receiving us and not just willing to sit and listen.

I have some fun things to report and then spiritual, so we're going to do fun first! We visited a cemetery today! And the cemeteries here are totally different. They make houses or shrines and I'm not sure that there's always a body associated with the shrine or house. But we took loads of pics, so enjoy!

Walking around in there helps you to understand just how epic a Paraguayan zombie apocalypse movie would be. ;)

 

Due to strong Catholic roots, there are crosses EVERYWHERE that bear an inscription, INRI, which I believe to be what was inscribed above Christ's head (hear is Jesus, king of the Jews). It was really cool and interesting to see. But it's also kind of creepy walking by there at night, especially after seeing how extensive it is and how many bodies there really are.

But there's more! There are two other cemeteries, that makes three, and they are one after the other. So I've got more to show! Yes, that second one is a full sized Paraguayan house for a family of deceased. 

Also, we found one with a coffin still there. Kinda eerie.....

And then one of the cemeteries was a Korean cemetery, which was more similar to one of our own. All in all, it was an interesting morning.

In other news, I'm kinda sick today and have been since Friday. This week was pretty tough to keep focused, but we persevered and found strengths. It's when you're weak that you get the chance to show where you're strong, and we did a number of things well and actually ended up with better numbers as far as number of lessons goes. 

This week we found out that Natalia Castellani's "boyfriend" who prohibited her baptism is actually her CURRENT husband whom we've never met and who continues being staunchly Catholic. She hasn't told him she's been meeting with us and this whole moment was a pretty big surprise. But, a better surprise is that she remembers and has a testimony of EVERYTHING. It's been seven years since she investigated the first time, but she's still retained it all it's crazy! She even has a goal of being one day sealed in the temple to her husband. I couldn't believe it! So, when she saw that we had some pamphlets that she never saw the first time around, she demanded something new from us, and we took the opportunity to leave her a copy of The Family, a Proclamation to the World and invited her to read it with her husband. She accepted. Fingers Crossed!

We haven't gotten much work done this week, but we had two cool things happen this week:

Lesson with Brother Benitez

After our lesson with Natalia, we stopped by a less active member family, to see if she was there with her husband who is never there but needs help. He was! We taught him about the word of wisdom and he confessed to difficulties with drugs and alcohol, but he totally wants to change! He really does! Although they promised to be in church but weren't there, we made some real progress in that visit, and I think we're getting him on a track to being in the church. Furthermore, he admits his need for help and was really just humble. We're coming back for a visit today.

Paola

She's getting baptized this week! This Saturday! Yeah!

So, we did have a number of good things going this week and I'm happy. I know that the Lord has been very kind to us and blessed us in so many ways. I invite all of us to have, as President Uchtdorf invited, a spirit of gratitude in all that we do. I love you all!

Have a wonderful week!

Elder Harris