It's the afternoon for me, hence the greeting for the afternoon instead of the morning. The subject of the email is how to say Thanksgiving Day in Spanish, for those of us who are among the Spanish-impaired ;)
But this email is to tell you all that I am well down here! The work is moving along, though this week was doing so in an INCREDIBLY slow way. There was a LOT of office work to get done around here. Why? Because not only is it about to be change week, but it's also the very end of the month, which means that all the rent money for every missionary needs to be sent out, all baptismal records from November must be finished, and I have to make an epic movie featuring all of the baptisms, reactivations, and retention successes that we have had as a mission in November while getting mission records prepared for the Leadership Council that's happening on Monday. All of that on top of finding, making and signing contracts for, furnishing, and moving into five different houses! And on top of the regular weekly tasks! That sounds overwhelming, but this time it was calm and just fun. You just do your absolute best and I feel like the Lord really has provided some amazing miracles for me, and I cannot in any way take credit for the fact that the mission is running right now. This is the Lord's mission, and He's running it.
So, this week was indeed Thanksgiving, and that means pretty much nothing for us missionaries down here, but being in the office has special privileges: the mission paid for us to have a big Thanksgiving lunch here in the office with all of the people who help out the mission (an Hermana named Vilma, who trains the missionaries on cleaning, Julio Sanchez who cooks occasionally but is the mission electrician and repairman, Willy, who is a gardener, and others). Also, President, the Hermana McMullin, their two kids and a nonmember friend of their daughter's were all there! It was a big thank you to everyone who helps to make the mission run and puts in a chunk of the work so that we can have an army of youth here in this country opening their mouths and proclaiming the Gospel of Peace. It's wonderful and the workforce is so tiny to be managing so many, but it happens.
The food was delicious! My pickiness is all destroyed and so I just ate all that was there. Unfortunately, Turkey costs like 16 $ per kilo, so if you wanted a turkey for dinner, you'd spend waaaaayyy too much money, so we just ate chicken. I had some good old-fashioned gravy over my potatoes for the first time ever, and it was amazing.
Also: Pumpkin Pie is definitely a favorite.
Also: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies are more favorite.
The office keeps on rolling, and the District here is progressing in a lot of ways I feel, but we're also failing in a lot of things. It's sometimes tough to see any progress through the thicket of daily ups and downs, you mostly just feel like you're not moving, but I know that God giveth increase as we strive to do what's right, so we just need to fight harder and refine our efforts and I'm sure fruits will soon come of it.
And the most important part: The Work.
Well, if you all remember, two weeks ago, someone was prepared to be baptized, and that person will finally be baptized this Monday! She needed her parents to be there, and so that couldn't happen at all on a Saturday, and so it's moved to this Monday. I have to tell you about the last lesson we had with her! It was Thursday night, and we couldn't have it with the family we usually teach with, so she had to come to the Chapel/office for the lesson. But! No men in the Ward were willing to come! We were calling around frantically to get a hold of someone of the male gender so that we could actually have the lesson, but no one could!!!! So, we were so desperate that we called the American man who works int he Embassy here, Brother Craner. I personally felt bad to ask on Thanksgiving Day, which was why we weren't going to call, but he came and wanted to bring his wife. We said that that was fine, even though his wife still is a little shy to speak Spanish, and the lesson turned out beautifully.
I was so stressed out because we had to teach a lot of material to get everything ready for the baptism, going from tithing to chastity to word of wisdom, and then teach almost all of Lesson 5 (which used to just be for Recent Converts and covers things like what temples and family history work are, eternal marriage, learning and teaching in the church, service and callings, endure to the end, etc.). But, the Spirit was with us. We taught with power and she understood better than we were even teaching things. And then we kept asking Brother Craner to bear his testimony, and when we hit Eternal Marriage, he gave an incredibly powerful and sincere testimony and you could just see his love for his wife and their dedication to the Gospel. It's such a wonderful example to see them, because though they're all the way in Paraguay, they haven't skipped a beat in Church activity.
Anyways, it made me tear up. Then, we went over all of the questions in the Baptismal interview together, and she's sooooooooooooooo prepared. Her testimony is so strong in so little time, and it was just wonderful. Her closing prayer made me tear up again because it showed a huge difference between when she was starting and now. Now she has a real and tangible relationship with her Heavenly Father and it's something that I find so beautiful. It'll be awesome.
That's this week's message from Paradise! Let me know it there's anything I can do to make your days better!
¡Buen Provecho!
Love,
Elder Harris
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