Changes and Humility

Good Afternoon Everyone!!!

This week has been pretty crazy! I've gotten to know the area so much better and there are a lot of great people around here. I'd love to show you guys some pictures of my companion and all, but it'll have to wait until next week. I think that I'll be staying here for the rest of my mission furthermore! We'll see though.

There are some cool members that help us out as missionaries, and a lot of solid, active, sealed families. Like: Familia García and then the Bishop, some recent converts who are working on getting into the temple (Familia Cantero), and then there's Famlia Dominguez who actually also has a son on his mission in Perú! It's great.

We're working with some less-actives right now, and one family did attend Church yesterday!!! César and María Galeano! It was nice to see them and I hope that they will be able to progress. I might need some ideas though. César can't read, and they don't have any sort of CD player, so we need a dependable way in which he can independently study and gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon..... I'm open to suggestions.

As far as I'm doing: well. This has been somewhat a trying point on my mission to see if I'll handle something I've never actually gone up against. So as to not mar anyone's image, I'll refrain from saying why it's been a trial, but I can say that the strength I gained in the office and the words of Prophets and Apostles, ancient and modern, can really give us refuge when we are totally alone. I testify of President Monson's call for us to be brave and to stand up for what it right, while I also testify of our need to be loving, understanding, and to reserve judgement. It's a difficult balance to achieve, but it's worth a lifetime of peace if you can achieve it.

I've been studying a lot about how to have a love that is truly Christlike, and I realized that all too often we fall in the trap of becoming bitter by the disappointment that we receive from others. But, I have learned some great lessons from the talks "Remember which way you face," in this last conference and "The Merciful Will Obtain Mercy" from April of 2012, as well as a beautiful scripture in Ephesians 4 that commands us to remove from ourselves all bitterness, all anger, and then invites us to be merciful with our fellowmen.

I know that having a Christlike love is possible in spite of our imperfections. I know that it is difficult when there are so many who do not want to forgive or who seek to harm and destroy us, but I know that with God, we can receive a mighty change in our hearts and grow humble and be filled with Christ's pure love. I testify of that as HIs representative.

I'm grateful to all of you for all that you do for me in your emails and I hope that you have a wonderful week. This week should be full of work and other activities, and then next week will already be change week again! How crazy!

Love,

Elder Harris

Changes

Everyone!

I have less than five minutes to write all of this!

I'm now serving in Barrio Del Maestro, Capiatà Stake again! I'm with a Bolivian Elder named Elder Huarachi! I absolutely love being a missionary and serving the Lord and that's exactly what I'm doing a lot more of! However, there are some difficult situations in this Ward and this area that have caused this place to be struggling. But! I've been praying hard and God is granting strength. I'm so thankful for all of your emails and support and I'll tell you all so much more about it next week! 

I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Harris

Hope And Repentance‏

Good Day to Everyone!

This week has been a really solid fight to get better, to grow, and to change some things, for myself and the companionship, but also for a lot of other people with whom we are working. I've seen a lot of hope grow in a lot of hearts, and that hope slowly activates until it becomes a fruitful repentance. We just have to nourish it until it can bring forth blossoms.

We have one Recent Convert in the area, named Heriberto Gomez, who has been inactive ever since the four months following his baptism. His life has grown very difficult and he fights almost constantly agains forces that seek to bring him down and into a darker depression than that which he often feels. In the past with him, I've striven to help him to see that there's a way out and commit himself to keep to that path, but he cannot seem to see that God really will give him the miracle of being able to keep all the commandments and fulfill his work and familial obligations, so what we share comes off harsh. So, this time, we just shared a scripture about hope: Ether 12:4

It's one of my absolute favorites from the Book of Mormon, but he responded so well, and he wants to read his Book of Mormon now. We just realized that he needs greater hope and faith in the Lord, and we can help him cultivate that even if right now he cannot commit to repentance. And so that's our goal for now. Help him study in the Book of Mormon and pray so that he can someday (hopefully soon) have the hope and the faith necessary to act and repent. He has actually begun to read.

Another inactive member repentance story: LIdia Cazal. My last Saturday in the trio with Elder Monzón and Elder Aldaraca, we taught an inactive single mother who lives with her active mother and active children. She also struggles to believe that she can repent and be forgiven now, or perhaps she believes that repentance is within reach, but she doesn't feel that sign or pull or whatever it may be to lead her to it. We bore heartfelt testimony in that visit, and in subsequent visits, we've seen her open up bit by bit. She wants to change and feels that need, and so she has accepted almost every step we've put before her. She reads, and prays, and I feel that she's growing, but when we invited her to Church this Sunday, she said that she still cannot do so. Sometimes it's frustrating when we cannot even know the deeper issue or anything, but what I have felt on the mission is that if we are patient and show them our love and nurturing, they will take strength from the Lord and He will win their battles. And so, we're still visiting her, and praying so hard that she'll believe in His promises for her, that she can have and deserves to have as a daughter of the Living God true, and lasting happiness.

It's been a common theme this week, and I have one more story to share about it:

Rubén. He was an investigator of the Hermana missionaries in the Ward. They passed him to us, because they couldn't certify his motives; if he was investigating for desires to know the Gospel or if it was because to young Sisters were visiting him, an old unmarried man. So, we visited him for the first time on Sunday, ready for anything.

He is in his seventies I believe, and has a nervous disorder that causes his neck to constantly stick and make him look up and to the left, and jerk around/shake in small ways uncontrollably, so it was a little uncomfortable there. I felt like we were hurting him just making him sit with us. I wasn't sure what to think. 

But, I knew that I could not judge this man, and I know that he is a child of God, and that the worth of his soul is so precious in the sight of my Father. So, we taught him.

His intentions are true. He wants to repent and change his life. He feels a need to grow in faith. He claims to be atheist, but has a very apparent belief in God. We asked him further, and in saying atheist, it's because he utterly lacks faith. He does not believe in anything that he cannot see. I'm sure in the length and breadth of his life, he has seen many things to bring him to that state. However, he's now ready, and quite changed. It's beautiful to visit him and help him to gain real faith. He has a baptismal date for April 11th! We're really excited to see him grow, and he said (without even being invited) that he'd be coming to Church on Sunday.

Those are the wonderful people that the Lord has blessed us to be working with! I'm so happy to have had this amazing blessing, and I'm so blessed to have Elder Milton as such a supportive companion, and really a good friend. I'm going to miss him for sure.

It's also been a good time to work on my own repentance. The gift of repentance is such an amazing one. I know, very personally, how bitter it can be to drink that cup. To sit down in front of it, consider how bitter and painful it will be, and then make the conscious decision to lift up the cup and start to swallow, 

and again, 

and again, 

and again.

But, the Savior's promise to us is so, so true. He promises us that we must merely drain that cup. Over the course of our lives, we will order plates that end with that dreaded drink many times. What I have learned as a missionary and in my entire life, however, is that Christ's promise is that, when we repent fully for a sin, we will never have to partake of that same level of bitterness again, and if we endure to the end, there will come a day when bitterness shall end. Each time we drink, it becomes surprising to us that the cup does have an end, and it becomes so much more glorious to see that joy, and the sweetness of the Gospel, are incapable of being depleted. The goodness of the Gospel is a fountain, continually flooding the earth with its sweet waters. The momentary suffering of repentance becomes so much more worth it as we bring into perspective the eternity of joy that awaits us.

I testify of the truth of the Savior's promise. I have not reached the day when bitterness ends, and I still have and know the truth of the bitter side of repentance, but I have felt that Holy Spirit of promise, that deposit on a celestial mansion, and I have faith in that which I have felt. I love the Lord, and invite all to do what they can to humble themselves, and repent, and serve God with all of their mind, might, strength, heart, and with all of their soul. I know that what awaits is greater than whatever you may expect.

I love this mission and hope that all of you have been able to enjoy your weeks. Thank you all for the strength that you send me. 

I love you all.

Sincerely,

Elder Harris

Review

Hello All,

I'm writing this first thing today to make sure that everything gets updated from all that I lacked last time. So, lets start with last week and work into this one.

The week before this most recent one was a big rush of things like I'd indicated. So many things happened and I couldn't even process everything that was going on. But, I can say that it brings such great joy to see and hear of those whom I have helped continuing in their progress and fighting hard to not only have Eternal Life themselves, but also that the Gospel has caused them to leave their own minds and serve those around them. The temple will be such a beautiful blessing next week. Though I haven't been able to visit Victor, Elder Monzón and Elder Aldaraca tell me that he's bought a white shirt and shoes and everything so that he can pass the sacrament tomorrow. It's going to be amazing to see him administer in a Priesthood Ordinance after so many years of a dormant Priesthood.

Changes were good. We received a really good group of new missionaries, and I actually knew one of them before the mission! It was so weird, because I didn't recognize him. His name is Elder Ryan Llewelyn, and he recognized me first thing. He asked if I remembered working with him when I was landscaping and saving up some money for the mission, and I couldn't believe that he was called to the very same mission! Super cool. I hope he's doing well.

Elder Milton is doing amazingly. I could be booted out of this office on like Wednesday and he'd be handling himself great already. He's also a great missionary and reminds me to be humble and lean not unto mine own understanding. We've been working well together and I hope that he can enjoy his time here with me, and feel prepared for his time hereon out.

We made some really good plans of things to do last week and ways to work with members and have progress in the area that have shaped out in various ways, but have also been challenged in others. The office always puts up barriers. But last Saturday was a baptism of a child in the Ward, which we capitalized on and were able to contact a nonmember friend of the family who actually accepted our visit yesterday in his house. It was awesome to see some fruits come from all of the member work that we've been doing. Today we have a big Ward activity with a lot of hot dogs and a lot of games, so we'll be working a lot to set that up and try and get some good references in a few hours.

This week was quite a bit of office work. There are two Hermanas that have been living like forty minutes outside of their area because of a sticky housing situation and because we had to open up the area that will belong to our part-time proselyting mission nurse who'll arrive on the twenty-sixth of this month. So, in the meantime, Elder MIlton and I have been fully in charge of finding this new house, and it just so happens to be in pretty much the most expensive part of the mission, with a very limited area because it must have easy access to the Temple where the Chapel is located and easy access to the mission office because that'll be the work location of the new Nurse. 

But, we've been praying hard every time we go out, and it really looks like Heaven has sent us some good blessings. I hope that what we've found will turn out, because these Sisters really need a new place already.

On Sunday I officially made the very last success video of my office career. I took up the responsibility of, for one last time, putting together all of the pictures of all the success events (i.e. baptisms, reactivations, temple trips, converts who finish the Book of Mormon for the first time, etc) and setting it to music with inspirational words and scriptures. I don't know why, but that was always one of my favorite contributions to the office, and so I felt a little sentimental about doing it one last time.

But this week hasn't been the best for getting out and doing missionary work... Which is frustrating. I don't know if I've expressed well enough in all of these emails the deep, profound desires I have to be an excellent missionary, but even more than that, to do the work and bring about miracles in the lives of many. It's something for which I always seek and wish constantly to be more consecrated. 

I want to thank everyone for their support, and especially the Spiritual things that they share and the personal progress that you share with me as well. I've come to realize that it's not the candy or the letters that say how much anyone misses me that bring me joy and make me feel someone's love out here. I think I've really felt love most from the moments when you have encouraged me to be more dedicated, to be firmer in the work and stand stronger and closer to Christ. I think of a song that we listen to out here in the mission of a mother who is praying for her son. She doesn't just pray that he'll be safe and that he'll bear difficulties well; she prays for him every day to be an amazing missionary, to change lives, to bring about good and to have the Spirit. So many of you have given me that encouragement and that support and I feel your prayers behind me. I'm so grateful to all of you and I hope that you may feel my support from here.

I know that this work is real, that God is just and loving, and that He will fight for our best no matter what. I also know that He will do that through us, so I would invite everyone to never give up, on themselves, nor on those they know. Miracles are wrought every day and our eternal salvation is grown by our daily care.

I love you all.

Elder Harris