Another Week in Paradise‏

Hello All!

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

God Works In Totally Random, Unpredictable, And Beautiful Ways‏

I don't know how I feel about the whole saying of "God works in mysterious ways," because that doesn't seem to capture just the odd, quirky, fantastic nature of the bewildered human mind when it's involved in Divine will. I've had a number of experiences this week that just make me so grateful to God and give me strength to think about or reflect upon.

For the first two instances in my office life up until this point, I stayed late in the office to do administrative work instead of going out to proselyte, which is not what any missionary wants ever. The first time was on Monday, because we desperately had to gather together all of the information of all of the apartments and Chapels that we're renting out as a mission, and that just took a long time and was difficult (we have like 110 houses in the mission and I've never done that before). That one has no awesome story, but the other does!

The second time was on Thursday, and it was super cool just because it was my first Presidential Assignment as Fichero. I handle all of our data and reports as a mission and that means that if President needs a report of all of the recent converts in the last year and a summary of those that are active and inactive, he asks me for it. And he did. Is there any manual about how to do such a thing? No. I've come to realize that being an adult and working in an office is just people asking you to do a certain genre of task and you just figure out how to get it done. You are NEVER given how to do it, they just give you an end goal, and you're on your own to bring it into existence, and I really like that, but it also makes me really nervous. So, I did it! With the help of the trusty ex-fichero (I just had to ask him some things about how to use Excel because it's been quite a while), and it turned out really beautifully actually. However, it meant that we were in the office until 7:00, giving us only two hours to work.

BUT MIRACLES EXIST! At like 6:50 when I was finishing up, our Ward Mission Leader, Hno. Palomeque, who has vanished for a long while being a super busy successful businessman, just walked into the building for and impromptu Ward Mission Coordination Meeting! I couldn't believe it. He's a really awesome guy and just knows how to get things done. We set some very important goals and made some very important dates to meet with other Ward leaders to get things moving on the reactivation front (that's something we need help with).

So, I was left with the impression that when President walked out of his office at 4:15, when I'm seriously fifteen minutes away from shutting everything down and leaving, to tell me about that project, I seriously think that it was divinely inspired, because there was no other way that we would've had that meeting. Had we not been there, our tired leader would have turned in for the night, and had I not had that assignment, I'd never have stayed. It was something really special.

PROSELYTING:

This week, there were some difficulties actually getting into lessons, BUT THE LESSONS WERE AMAZING! Elder Billings and I are just learning how to work together really well and we're really just fighting for our investigators and less-active members in our lessons. It's really awesome. So, we couldn't get into a single lesson with our family that has a baptismal date, but there's this really cool rich lawyer we're teaching who all of the sudden got super interested. We'd taught him twice before, but he wasn't taking things super seriously because we had to move REALLY slowly with him due to his questioning nature, but all of the sudden in the third lesson we just threw down the First Vision and The Book of Mormon, and the whole process seems to have changed for him. It was so wonderful and he should be in one of the sessions today. I was so happy.

Basically, I love that God cares for us in such little ways, and I love that He blesses us with His Spirit to guide us in our lives and in blessing the lives of others. I've truly felt His love, and I've felt my love for Him grow. I may have mentioned this before, but a few months back, a pair of questions came into my mind. 1. When is one of the strongest moments in your life when you knew God loves you? We can all think of one time or another if we've searched Him out humbly and truly. We have all been saved by those angels He puts in our path.

2. When is one of the strongest moments that you knew that you love God?

Most of us can't think of specific moments when we just really felt it strongly, at least not in the same way that we can think of the first answer. One thing I've been praying for a lot and striving to attain is a much greater love for God. It is the first and greatest commandment, and I can testify that as we come to obey it, we will feel the difference in our hearts and in our lives.

I love you all, I'm so thankful for the things that many have written me and I want you to know that it's a wonderful strength. Also:

Enjoy the Pictures.

Love,

Elder Harris

Catching Up‏

This week, I have some catching up to do. The office is really just a crazy adventure. An office Elder who is diligent, who strives to be an example to the other missionaries, spends most of his time fighting being the exception to all of the rules, because the work of the office at some time or another will cause you to be an exception to many rules in many instances. For example, I've done three airport runs, that is, taking missionaries who're ending their missions to the airport, which is a small trip, but takes time because you have to wait for them to say goodbye to President and get through customs, and two of them meant that I had to wake up at 3:00 or 2:00 a.m. So, there's a fight about whether you get home at 5:30 and get back up at 6:30 again to follow the schedule or get up at 7:30 to get a little more sleep, and the answer for me was, yes the first time, but when the second time was only like four or five days later............ Difficult. BUT! You fight. It's about the effort and intent in reality. And if you strive, you can achieve a lot.

But, those last two weren't fun, because it's seeing people go home early, and that just doesn't leave you with a good feeling, but you make it fun trying to do a contact when it's four in the morning and a sleepy person of a possibly foreign nation is approached by an overly cheery young man with a black name badge and weird hair to be spoken to about Jesus Christ and what He has to offer them in their lives. In reality, I've found people extremely open in airports. They seem to have seen so many movies where airport encounters change their lives, and they go in search of something to happen. So, we happen. :)

Also, I'm price negotiating like crazy. All of these landlords have this crazy tradition that when we want to renew a contract, they try to raise the rent, and we just don't abide by that tradition. And, we've had a few emergency houses to obtain, and that all just falls on my shoulders. Nevertheless, today, two Elders are moving from a hovel that was obtained last minute because there was nowhere else into a second story beauty for a manageable price. Epic house deal #1 checked off of the list!

The work is pretty crazy. The Ward seems to have gotten a similar syndrome to the missionaries that are here for a long time. Because the missionaries are in the office for so long, and aren't normal, they can't work so much and they start to feel a little bit useless, and that kind of spreads over to the Ward. They feel like there's a lot of disappointment and they don't have a real vision of what they can achieve. That was something I loved about Capiatá. They said "We can do great things." And it's not that the people here think that they can't, it's just that they don't consider it. So, my goal is to come and give hope to missionaries, members, and those whom the Lord has prepared. We have some prospective investigators here. One man had never felt anything about God. He believes, because that's just the only way to be here (they really haven't considered atheism as an extant thing), but he told us he never really felt God or felt anything religious. So, we shared with him, and he felt so strongly the Spirit. I am so grateful that I was able to strengthen and bless someone to give them their very first interaction with our Father in Heaven. The man's name is Vidal Garcete, and we have another lesson with him tomorrow (and the second counselor of the Bishopric said he'd be there!!!!! Yes!!!)

So, that's my life. Enjoy epic pictures of the chair museum. :)

Setting Expectations‏

This week's letter is a message of hope.

I want to start off with my testimony of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't have as much time as I would like, but I would like to say some things about what I know to be true. 

I know that Jesus Christ is the only way. Our only path, bridge, connection, to the very source of all that is good. I know so without a doubt within me. Do we want anything good in our lives? Do we desire love to abound in our hearts? Families? Do we seek peace, hope, joy, order, support, establishment, firmness, charity, diligence, belonging, or any other good thing? Do we desire these things for ourselves? Our familes? Friends? Strangers? God is the only Source, and His Son is the only channel to attain it. It is the most beautiful Truth I have found and the only certainty in this world. 

I testify solemnly that Christ lives, and we may in him. Life and death are actually choices, and it just so happens that it's a life and death decision. I testify that that can only be true if they are both available to us. Death is presented by the cunning plan of one who opposes God, whose servants we are and can be in wrongdoing and in the example or works we push forth. Life is presented by Christ, who in order, calls His servants here on the earth, to train us to be His legion of angels upon the earth. I testify that He has called a prophet, and that that line started with Joseph Smith. I know by God Himself because He sent His Spirit to me to show me that He has set His only way here upon the earth by the hands of modern prophets, and, as such, we have access to Living Water. Please, by way of invitation to those that have not accepted these truths, come unto Christ. Be perfected in Him. Start the road by baptism. For those who have accepted this by baptism, but struggle to apply it, by way of commandment, I warn and forewarn you return to Christ, whom you had made your master once. And by way of aid to those who are striving to apply His teachings in their lives, I invite you to come together and apply the prophetic counsel for yourselves and more importantly, for your families. I cannot stress the urgency of this. How can we waste one more moment in unbelief? Happiness, goodness, hope, and all that is good is all around us in a world that is increasingly dark. Not merely that, but this is a timed test, and we do not know when the time is up. Please, search the scriptures. God will testify of the truth of these words and I know that all families that apply this will be blessed.

Thank you all for your letters this week. They were an immense support. I spent way too much time reading them, and for that, I am out of time. But, I'd like to say that the office is wonderful. It's so frustrating and is so full of twists and turns. I know that the Gospel has taken greater root in me now than ever because in spite of the shifting circumstances, I'm so much more steady. I love my companion. He is a strength and an encouragement to me. We support each other in righteous living and welldoing. I love being here in this area: an incredibly old Ward (one of the first in Paraguay) with incredibly wealthy houses, so all door to door approaches in the wealthy neighborhoods are thwarted (we can at least talk to security guards though). I love learning and I love the challenge. It keeps being exciting, and brilliant, and the Gospel is true.

I hope that everyone can enjoy those same truths this week and I hope that my testimony did something to help. Stories and such will have to wait for next week, but thank you for all of your support.

Love,

Elder Harris

Absolutely No One Is Expecting What's Happening Right Now

Ahem,

I feel like the title of this email is significantly self-explanatory. I really doubt that any of you were ready for this. This is happening for a very specific, unforeseen change that has gone on.

I'm a filing cabinet.

Literally, the term for what I have been made in the mission is the "fichero," which  means filing cabinet in Spanish. I take care of all kinds of files and reports for the mission and take care of all of the houses. It's what's being called an office elder, where I work from 10:00 to (if we're lucky!) 4:30 Monday through Friday in the Mission Office  Therefore, P-days cannot be Mondays, so they have to be Saturdays! Yay!

That means we get to go to the zoo at some point! Woo hoo!

So, to finish things up about last week, I'm now in the office, I am in a super ridiculously chuchi Ward called Campo Grande, back in Asunción Norte where I began! I'm seriously right close to where I began my mission, which means I'm back close to SOFÍA!!!! That's going to be awesome. She still hasn't come by to pay me a visit, but it is going to be great.

The office is pretty much awesome. At this point in life, there are two poles to me:

1. The ridiculously goofy sarcastic nerd

2. The more serious leadership get stuff done kinda guy.

Here in the office the two are extremely aggrandized into being perfected. The office life with the other Elders is immensely goofy and filled with nerdliness, whereas negotiating house contracts with super mean landlords who try to rip you off is bringing out the leadership guy. And, the time that we get to work is super awesome. Super difficult to have ANY investigators or lessons, but we're managing and trying to find some people. This week we were actually able to get out and work every day after change day (or rather, the last two days), and I'm enjoying it. There's the temptation to be like the Customer Service people I worked with at Sears and Shopko and just hate everyone, but that's not really my thing and we're definitely keeping charity a part of the office. My companion in these adventures is Elder Billings, who is training me on how to be a filing cabinet. The office itself is full of ridiculousness that I enjoy IMMENSELY. For example, the four different office Elders have some competitiveness, but none greater than the Fichero, who is KOTO- King Of The Office, who has a special rolley chair (better than all the rest) called the Throne, and access to things like the pig (it's oinks sound oddly real). I sit next to the Cartero, Elder Crandall, who gets mail and many other things, when Elder Billings leaves, I'll be companion with the Secretario, Elder Valenzuela (who's sister I knew before the mission from Highschool), and then inside of a glass cubicle we have the Financiero, Elder Salazar, who will be finishing his mission from within the confines of his crystal vacuole.

Such is life! Enjoy pictures of the despedida with Capiatá!

Love,

Elder Harris

 The other one is my very own despedida in Capiatá, the youth all got together to say goodbye to me. It was fun. :)

1st one is saying goodbye to Hna. Pelicó of Guatemala, she went home.

 The second is with Pablina Cañete, whose family we began to teach. She's the only member in her family and was inactive, I hope she's well now. :)

No. ! is with Hno. Gil, who is the Ward Mission Leader over there, crazy Argentine!

In the Dark

A picture of Elder Ninja Harris

The subject line this week is entirely dedicated to my annoyance at the fact that they refuse to tell us what our changes are until tomorrow. I want to know what's going to happen! It's possible that I'll be hundreds of kilometers away in two days and I don't even know it! Also, everyone's really anxious to know what's going to happen this change, but, as I said, we will have no word on the matter until tomorrow, so none of you will have word until next week. Feel free to imagine for yourselves that I've been transferred to far off paradises or jungle adventures or that I'm staying and my companion will be Batman. Who knows!

This week we had a pretty good week with helping people out, but not as much fruits as I would've liked. Half of the Familia Ughelli-Ayala came to church, the mother, and one of the highschool age sons, and the little two year-old. That was wonderful. We also had our....... talk with the parents about the Law of Chastity and left them smiling thinking about on what date they would like to be married. The unfortunate thing is that if they don't have a date today, we're actually going to have to set one with them then and there, but I'm happy that they continue happy and willing to listen and progress in the Gospel. If I don't stay, I hope that Elder Panaifo does and gets to see them baptized.

We had a super great lesson with Bro. Benitez this week in which both the Ward Mission Leader (Hermano Gil, yes, those of you who speak Spanish, Gil really is his last name) and his assistant (Hermano Bustos) were present. Hermano Gil is a crazy Argentine and was super addicted to cigarettes, but now is going on 25 years since he gave up smoking and that was a big help to Bro. Benitez. That was so awesome! But...... They didn't come to church I don't know why still, but I will find out.

Last night, the last lesson was so epic! This week, we found an inactive Sister by way of a super awesome Brother here, Brother César Fernandez (his name is Julio César and we play with that a lot).  She has an awesome testimony, but has been inhibited her entire life by her once abusive husband. She says that he's now calmed down a lot, so we're hoping that things happen. Anways, we had our second lesson with her last night, and her fully grown son was there too, and so we started to talk with him and find out what his history with God and the Church is and he was actually a really good guy. So, we shift gears and decide to share with him the lesson of the Restoration, because that'll help his mom out as well, and it was super awesome. He didn't really get where we were going at first, but accepted it all as truth because we backed it all up with the Bible, and then we got to the Great Apostasy and he, as a Catholic, started to think about things. And then he was a little lost thinking about where the truth was until we hit him hard with the Restoration and he was just overwhelmed. He was so happy. He literally asked us, "What can we do to let the world know about this?" That was my favorite question that I have ever been asked by an investigator. And so, we'll be seeing more of him.... Or maybe not. I hate not knowing if I'm staying or not..... :(

But, that was this week! The work goes on and I keep fighting to find and teach and bring people to the waters of baptism, or the warm re-welcome into the active membership of the Church. Elder Panaifo has become a fully finished and furbished Elder ready for his next challenge and we shall see what becometh of him in the future. My other "son," Elder Gallegos fares well and is working hard, so we keep on. 

Have an amazing week!

Love,

Elder Harris

The Second To Last???

So, this last week was possibly the second to last week of my time here in Capiatá. I really don't know because they won't tell me what happens with changes until next week, but I keep thinking about how it's quite possible that I go this next change. If I stay, there will be immense blessings that follow here! If I leave, I'll be happy to go where the Lord asks. But, it fills me with slight anxiety not knowing which it will be, and so that's just been a huge motivation to push hard and work to either leave something behind or help these seeds grow to be here for their harvest.

After writing y'all, we went to the mythological museum of Capiatá, with all of the Guaraní myths (which lots of people believe in ignorantly, seeing as they still call them myths but believe myths to be the name of those supernatural beings that actually do exist). Super awesome! They're pretty much all malevolent and will do bad things to you if you disturb them. I think my favorite is the Mbói Tu'i, the weird snake bird.

Then, the work this week was really great in some ways and then just frustrating in others. We had some wonderful lessons, including having the Bishop present in our Monday night lesson with the Familia Ughelli-Ayala, which was really a powerful lesson and left them all just ready for more. They really committed themselves more than ever to come to church. 

We were able to find a whole bunch of new people to teach this week, which was awesome. We're going to see in these next few days how many of them really stick and really begin to investigate our message, but it really fills me with hope to see that and some of them were really cool. 

We finally had another lesson with the Hermano Benitez, who was alone this week and who's been struggling with his smoking addiction, so I gave him a call Saturday night to make sure that he's alright and strengthen him to not smoke, but when I called he told me to call back in like thirty minutes to talk, and I forgot to call! He wasn't in church Sunday, and that made me really sad. I hope that there's repentance for failing him there.....

We had a really good lesson with Derlis Medina, the inactive man with a fairly troubled life. It was really uplifting and we shared the first five principles and ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it really filled him with hope. He feels towards us that we are close friends, and so just really wanted to share with us a little mini cake he'd made (he's a baker by profession) and it was so delicious. I'm definitely going to help him to get reactivated and from now on, whenever I have a baptism near Asunción, we're asking for the cake from him. It was soooooooooooooo delicious.

Then, the two sons of the Familia Ughelli-Ayala came to our Wednesday night Soccer games! IT was awesome. They got to know the chapel and the youth and it was successful.

Well, those are the biggest things that happened this week. Today, My companion and I almost singlehandedly organized a big missionary farewell for a well-known missoinary and friend: Elder Balseca. It meant that I was pretty stressed the whole time trying to cook Peruvian-style chinese friend rice and chicken for like 20 people and then got stuck with cleaning it all up, but it was still really nice to perform that service and to see some old faces. Elder Gallegos is so awesome and I miss him a bunch.

No one came to church in the end and that's really a downer. It makes us missionaries feel like our work was for naught, but I know that the Lord is make some movement happen and I look forward to another strong week here in Capiatá.

I'm doing well for all who wish to know and keep you in my prayers! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Harris