So, this week was pretty crazy because of a lot of changes that happened. Or rather, one change that had a lot of ripple effects. The change? Elder Billings is no longer here! He finished training me and has now left for Santaní, which is pretty far away (it's way farther away than anywhere I've gone to on my mission) at a 3-4 hour bus ride away from here. He is a really wonderful missionary and I'm really hoping to see him well in the future. The work moves on without him, but he's going to be missed around here.
Then, because of that, I get all of the fichero work! Which isn't that big of a deal, because he wasn't really doing anything in the last couple of weeks, but at the same time it was nice to have him to ask. I have lots of projects and other things to do and more than anything I'm just trying to get all of our houses ready for changes! That's going to be the most stressful thing, because we have to open up four houses and that means buying all the furniture, appliances and etc. Fortunately, Pres. had personally commissioned Elder Billings with that task up until he left, so it's mostly done. Negotiating with landlords gets interesting when you know what you need to demand and what not to. It's also interesting to take a contract that you think is just fine in to President and have him find a big loophole that just kind of leaves you feeling bad about your work, but we all make mistakes. All in all, the work moves a long.
So! General Conference was last week and it was so awesome! I left the Saturday sessions feeling so incredibly strengthened and built up for the for the coming weeks. I loved the talks. I also absolutely loved that, of all the languages it could've been, the very first Conference talk ever given in a language other than English was done in Cantonese. My money had been all on Spanish or Portuguese, but I was pleasantly surprised. The talks were so powerful, and being a missionary, it's all become so much more real to me. It's as Pres. Uchtdorf said in his talk, when we begin to be firmer disciples of Christ, we start to ask, "Lord, is it I?" and when that discipleship turns into conversion we answer every time "Sí Señor, yo te seguiré," or rather, "Yeah Lord, I will follow thee."
I also just want to get this shout out: Elder Gavarret, the very first person to give a talk in Spanish, is number one from Uruguay, and number two, lived a block from my current house. He moved to Paraguay at some point, was Bishop of the neighboring Ward, and I've passed his old house every single day. A member told us about that and it was super awesome. I love that.
Then, the fact that I'm now without Elder Billings means that I'm now in a trio with Elder Valenzuela and Elder Monzón, which is really, really interesting. it's difficult, but strengthening. You just have to be REALLY polite in lessons and let everyone take their turns to teach. It also makes planning and such more complicated because, well, as a bunch of young guys, we get distracted on every hand. So, needless to say, we have some hurdles. But, these are good Elders, and we're going to strengthen each other to bless the lives of so many here. I have so much faith in these investigators and people with whom we are working.
NOT ONE lesson with our investigators this week. They've all been busy and have cancelled, which is really, really frightening and depressing. But, the mission has taught me patience if anything, so we will continue waiting for their progress.
I love this work so much. I love the Lord and wish to serve Him more than anything. If there's anything I can ask of any of you, it's that you look up this video: https://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=eng
we watched it during Zone Conference, and I love it so much. It reminds me that I'm here for Him, and because of Him, we all have the hope of newer light. That light has been extinguished by the world's iniquity so many times, but it's here on the earth once more. Don't be confused. Christ was never extinguished, but people's access to that pure sun of the Son was stripped of them. Thanks to modern prophets, it is here, and that is my message to all.
May we all delight in it with equal strength and pleasure.
I love you all.
Elder Harris
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