De Jehová Es La Batalla‏

Good Morning America!

It's noon for me, but who cares!

This week was much better and I was happy to see some good progress being made. More than anything, we were just finding good people because of members and other things. The biggest news comes in here:

The entire Familia Benitez was in church for sacrament meeting!!! They could only come for sacrament meeting, but we weren't even able to visit them this week, and they came anyways! I was so happy to see them, and that means that the Hno. Benitez is two more away from being an active member and seeing his son be baptized. Looks like we will be having a baptism this change! Yes!

Also, a less active sister who hasn't been able to keep active for like eight years and who has been going through such a difficult, trying time, was in church as well! That was such a special moment to be coming down from blessing the sacrament and see her walk in. Beautiful moments in the mission!

There were three really good new investigators this week:

1. Hermana Baez. She's the wife of the 2nd counselor in the Bishopric who's received missionaries so many times over the past twenty years, but never gets baptized. We had a great lesson and I think she's finally ready. She was the person who wanted us to come too, so I think that it's just the right time this time.

2. Cristian Mendoza. He's a 15 year-old who just really sincerely wants to learn more about Jesus Christ and loves how he feels when he's in the church. We want to get him with his parents, but they're less interested seeing as they were investigators two years back and didn't make it to baptism. He's great and came to church this Sunday!

3. Mario Alum. Another youth who's going through a really difficult time right now. He needs a lot of help, and also doesn't really know anything about Christ or God, so we're having some good opportunities to just teach to some really unassuming, atent students. I love it. We're hoping to be able to help out a lot in these cases and strengthen them.

Hipólito wasn't doing well at all this week. We went to his house yesterday and he was totally bed-ridden. We gave him a blessing of health and he fell asleep soon after, so I hope he's doing better. But, I think I saw some functioning glasses next to his bed. ;)

And that was more or less our week. We had a lot of amazing lessons and I just learned that we need to rely wholly upon the Lord because He will prepare those we teach and prepare us to teach them. I was really nervous coming into a few lessons, but after a bit, I just calmed down. I realized that what David said when he fought Goliath "The battle is the Lord's," applies so directly to us. And so we fought. And the Lord does not lose His battles, so we were given what was needed to fight well. It was a much better week.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week! Enjoy some pictures of our big goodbye during District Meeting! Elder Jenson is a great friend from the mission and is going home. However, the crazy guy has his Dad coming to pick him up, and so they're touring all of Paraguay and on the way back they're stopping in Cuzco, Peru, to visit Macchu Picchu. Some people!

Love,

Elder Harris

Change Week!

Hello All!

It's change week again! Nothing happens to me and E Panaifo because we're in training and that's really important to not interrupt. So, we're chilling out here in Capiatá (because they changed the name from Piro'y to Capiatá. I don't remember if I informed you all.....).

But the one big change that will be happening is this: The District groweth! We were just two companionships, but now we'll be five as we're being combined with the Ward next to us. That'll be fun. I was actually feeling bad just because I kinda slacked my District Leader responsibilities at the close of this change, but I have good plans for this new day and this new District! Excelsior!

Anyways, this week was a difficult one as far as getting people to progress. That's really been my challenge. Find someone and after finding them, get them to stick. So far, we have Hipólito, who is still infirm and still cannot read for lack of glasses, but who is still excited and desirous to share with us, which is wonderful. We realized that he hasn't been asking in his prayers if these things are true. He's just kind of focused on the reading thinking that that's the only way to know, but we're going to help him out with that this week.

Familia Benitez wasn't in church this week. :( But, they had a legitimate reason why. Their son, Moisés, who they want to be baptized soon, cut open his foot SUPER bad and it was a messy, messy thing. So, he cannot walk and they were stuck with him. He actually won't even be going to school for a week straigth. It was a bad cut. But, we were losing hope in Nelson, the father of the family, until he showed that he still really really wants to make a change and meet with us. He's been asking us specifically, "You guys will visit me this week, right ?" I was so happy to hear that. So, we're still in the fight with them.

We had our big activity this Friday, but that kind of flopped. It was sad, but at the same time I was able to learn from it and I know how to do better in the future. But! The Sisters had an awesome baptism this Saturday! His name is Carlos and he had a long journey to getting baptized, but it's so great to see him there. I got to do his baptismal interview and I'm so grateful to have heard his testimony so personally. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera...... :(

Well, other than that, we found a really awesome new family this week and we'll see tonight if they shall be solid investigators! I really believe that they will because they were really good and we really connected in that night. But, I'll write more about that next week.

To write a bit about what we have been doing, we've been working all this time with a lot of recent converts, trying to help them stay active. Sometimes that's such a fight and a lot of them are young men who just kind of like drive and we've finally started to make som progress this week. One recent convert family will be moving very soon and we're so sad to see them go. But I'll tell you more next week. Cliffhangers!

And, we have a really really awesome new Ward Mission Leader who wants to get to work, and so work we shall! I'm excited.

Thank you for your prayers and well wishes. 

I love you all.

Elder Harris

Making Up

Hello All!

This week is to make up for the past two, so let's get started shall we?

I'm going to start with P-day fun.

Two weeks ago was 4th of July, and you guys already heard about that and will finaly get to see pictures! Yay! Elder Gallegos was the guest star!

Last week was the birthday of Hna. Minks who's in our Ward and just turned 21! Yay!!!! It was great because Elder Gallegos came again! Yes! It's so good to see him. I realized that we came to be really good friends and there's really nothing quite like training to bind two people together (I send a shout out to my recently deceased Elder Yauney. Rest In Laziness until school begins my friendly Kaiguei). 

In any case, it was fun and we were able to take lots of good pictures. When in the store looking for fun party articles, we found that Paraguayan supermarkets get super, super random. Including having clown noses. Expect to see those come back for the rest of my mission. The best part of it all is one of the Elders there was Elder Bonzo. I feel like we helped him get in touch with the missionary he was always meant to be.

This P-day we just did business. So, not terribly much.

The work! It's been rough these weeks. A lot of people falling through and a lot of disappointments on all sides, but we push on. I think we need to work this week on talking to everyone all the time and not just when plans fall through and working on having better, set plans, because we just had a lot of empty days where we set plans that aren't actually any appointments, and because of that, more appointments fall, and we just go house to house for lack of something better to do. We're resolving that slowyly but surely and I'd definitely say that each week has shown improvement in one way or another. This week that improvement was definitely in our companionship. We grew much closer together and stronger. Also, on a totally non-mission related note, I improved my cooking skills quite a bit this week. However, if anyone has any additional instructions about how to make a good risotto, I'm all ears, because I'm pretty sure you don't just do what I did (throw rice in a pan, then water, and when the water's gone, milk, add flavors and cheese and all of that). I didn't even get the rice all the way cooked. :(

But, there were plenty of other successes.

I have to tell everyone about Hipólito Oviedo, because a blessing disguised heavily as a serious medical emergency gave him more time to see us this week. Though he lives thirty minutes away from the nearest useful thing to do, I love going out to visit him because he's been so prepared to receive us. He was in the hospital on Thursday and had a rough weekend, but we helped him through and he's starting to do better. He also was able to get his glasses repaired today so he'll finally be able to read the Book of Mormon! Yes! This man is amazing and he's suffered so much. His wife left him and he's had to repent of a lot of things, but now he's made some changes and wants to make so many more. God sent us out one day to a far off place that made little sense to go to find him, but he was there waiting for us, and we've been able to strengthen him since then. You will hear more about him!

Other things:

This week, you will all read of the baptism of the Sister's investigator, Carlos Figueredo, who has won a really difficult battle against a smoking addiction and alcohol to come to this moment. He's getting baptized this Saturday.

We've also been working to prepare a Fireside for all families about Eternal Families this Friday in which we can get some new investigators. That should go wonderfully.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and do wonderful things! Enjoy a flurry of pictures!

The Last Short Week

I promise that this is the last time that I send basically nothing. I'm so so so so sorry that I've done this twice in a row and next week you guys will receive an explosion of events from the weeks. We've been going out and finding so many people who need our help and I'm so grateful to God for the grace He has shown us.

God's promises are so real and He loves us so much. I'm so grateful to be part of His mercy towards the children of men.

I love you all.

Elder Harris

Once Again, A Lack of Time‏

I'm so sorry that you guys are only getting every other week so often! But I'll tell you some of the good things that happened:

Brother Benitez came to church with his whole family on Sunday! It was so awesome and now they're progressing towards becoming an eternal family someday! 

We didn't actually do anything for the fourth of July on the fourth, but today we cooked up some fried chicken with some guest stars (feel free to take your guesses as to who they are), and celebrated that way. Btw, fried chicken takes forever to make when you have to take the skin off of chicken and everything. I do not recommend it if you just want to cook something in an hour and have very limited cooking supplies.

I will write you all next week so much more!

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