By the way, my Elder Crandall has a copy of the Book of Mormon in Italian and I'm reading from it. It's impressive how much you can learn when you already know a Latin-based language like Spanish. It's cool.
So! This week was so crazy because of Changes! And a lot has happened and changed because of the changes. Overall, there was great success, but with a lot of failure mixed in with it. But! The bitterness is what makes dark chocolate so much better, right? How rich would life be if we did everything right all of the time?
Here's some of the list of things that I've had to do. Some of them successes, some of them failures.
1. I finalized and sent out a document about fair taxi prices to save the mission a lot of money on the taxis that missionaries take to the Stake Center for the changes (it's also just really useful to just have at hand for when the Assistants call without the van and need to get somewhere in a Taxi).
2: 3 houses had contracts made for them and signed, they were furnished and we were moved in, and missionaries were sent off with the bags that contain their plates and other smaller house items.
3. Take care of 19 new missionaries in their very first day in the field, including setting out mattresses and helping them get to bed. Then wake them up, do exercises, get them fed, and in the office. That was super fun, because they are super awesome and excited and you can just help them to get pumped about the mission and being in Paraguay.
4. The normal fichero work of the week! Which this week includes a totally new mission reporting system.
That sounds like a huge bragging list, but in reality, this is really all the things that the Lord has enabled me to do. I couldn't have done any of it. I really most of the time just don't feel like I really know what to do and I sill have to really pray hard for the ability to face the work and challenges of each new day. I'm not good nor strong enough to accomplish all of these things, but God is strong enough to help me to do them. I've seen more miracles than I can count this week and I am almost disbelieving after having experienced them.
Proselyting has been tough, but there are two really big pieces of gold in this week. I was working in E'Valenzuela and E'Monzón's side of the Ward on Monday and we had a random lessons with an active family, an investigator who hasn't been moving really for a while, and we invited a member who recently moved there a little bit ago from super far away, and that lesson was an inspired miracle. We taught, and the investigator cried and told us about how she has felt that the Book of Mormon is God's word and how much she wants to continue and learn more. It was so beautiful. I felt inspired to invite her to be baptized on the 15th of November, and she accepted. She really wants to prepare herself and strive for that date and it was beautiful. She's the girlfriend of the family's current missionary, and something tells me that when he comes home, he's going to find her a lot stronger spiritually than when he left.
That was beautiful, and then last night, for the first time in like three weeks, we found a new investigator!!! It was super cool.
So, that's this week. Oh, and the Financiero, Elder Salazar, is now training his replacement, Elder Bronson (who came in my group!!!) And Elder Crandall, the Cartero, is training his, Elder Ramos (who came in Elder Gallegos' group!!!). It's super fun being with seven in that house now, but it's so crazy! So that's what's going on in Elder Harris's life.
I can bear testimony to all of you of God's incredible love for us. I know that He lives and He speaks today as in ancient days. I have no more doubts about Him, about His Divinity, His Son Jesus Christ, the mission of the Atonement, and the role of the Restoration in that great Redemptive work. We thank God above all for His wonderful plan and all of His support in following it. We thank the Christ for our salvation and redemption from death and hell. And we thank the modern-day prophets, especially Joseph Smith, for that we have the knowledge, the path, and the help to take them on in this day and age. Of course all of the work of the Restoration was God's through Jesus Christ, but we would be blind if we looked at the Carpenter's tools and not feel some of the warmth we feel upon thinking about Him. Never be embarrassed nor afraid to share these things and these feelings. You will find rejection, but God will consecrate your efforts into something greater than you imagine.
I know that these things are true.
And I say them in the name of Jesus Christ,
Amen.
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