I'd Call It First Week of Changes But.....‏

Hello all!

This week was the first week of the new change, but I feel like the word change is just losing meaning to me, because nothing actually changed. I'm in the same area, with the same companion, on the other side of the Ward, the same two other missionaries, etc. The only news is that I'm now in a tiny District. We're just the Del Maestro Crew! Lote Guasu uprising! Elder Walters, a very young missionary, is the District Leader, and he's doing really swell. He's a great guy and a wonderful missionary.

The work this week is stabilizing as I'm getting more stable internally. This are still rough in the companionship, but I realized that I need to be emotionally stable and strong for myself. I've been focused on keeping obedient for myself and keeping myself worthy, but I finally realized that I can also be happy or at least at peace for my own self, that that is not something that I can place on a circumstance or person outside of my control. I realized that last Monday doing some extra studies with P-day time, and the result let me to an understanding that the true peace, happiness, and emotional stability that we seek in our lives doesn't merely come from living the Gospel in the big outward facets. Living the Gospel in the big and important ways gives us security, often improves our situations, and lets us know where our future lay, but I had all of those things and yet could feel distress, sorrow, angst, or anxiety. Studying it out, I realized that the peace of mind and heart that the Gospel brings comes from having the Holy Spirit as our constant companion. There are some really wonderful talks about how to invite that Spirit into every second of our lives, and reviewing those, I was able to make some changes. The result has been fairly dramatic, and mainly resulted that I'm much less dramatic. I love this work and love the Lord. He is so kind and merciful and, though we cannot force the Spirit to be with us, He will always be there to guide us as we bring our thoughts, desires, and actions into His divine will. I love it so much.

Speaking of the work, we've continued to find people who seem quite prepared. Especially one family that we taught where the Mom of the family was really interested in what we had to share and is really Christian. We'll be seeing what'll happen with them this week. I have hopes!

The Montiel Orrego family is still coming to Church and they're ready to take the next step up to do vicarious work in the temple. I'm so grateful to God that He blessed us to help that family come back into activity. The Gospel is beautiful and when others come to see it for the second time, it rings deep within them. 

I feel a lot of hope for this change. Nothing is concrete so far, but I feel like this week we're going to have some solid baptismal dates and investigators.

Today, we had an awesome zone activity with crazy games. It was kind of a minute to win it obstacle course. Five stations, and two teams of five people. The first team to get everyone through every station wins. Station one: thread a needle (more people got stuck on that than you'd think....... It was by far the longest). Station two: pull a coin out of flour with your mouth. Station three: Eat two fruits as fast as you can (choose from a selection of bananas, pears, apples) Station four: Drink a bottle of soda as fast as you can. Station five: Blow a balloon, tie it, and sit on it.

The last man has to eat and drink everything the others left. I was the last man. I never ate two apples and one pear so fast in my life.... I finished off the apples in only three bites.....

It was great fun! I love zone activities and love spending time with good friends in the mission.

One thing I've missed in the Mission is cooking pizza from scratch, but tonight we have a gigantic Family Home Evening, and so I made pizza dough early this morning! It still turns out well. :)

That's this week! I hope that you area all doing well and can have an enjoyable week! Have lots of faith in God and keep worthy and inviting to His Spirit!

I love you all!

Sincerely,

Elder Harris

Another Change In Retrospect

Hello Everyone!

I hope that you have all had great weeks and that you feel happy with what you're doing. This week was the last week of the change for me, so I'll be finding out tomorrow what's going to become of me. I'm looking at the week and the change, and I feel pretty good about things. There are some obvious flaws, and it's been a roller coaster, but I feel good about my own efforts and the things that I've been trying to learn in my time here. I have so much to learn and lack so much growth, but I know that the Lord is with me, and He will not put me in a situation where happiness and peace are out of reach.

This week was a little crazy because we did two divisions in the same week again. But it was really good to do them. They definitely helped me to feel more confident and refocus my mind in good ways. The first was with Elder Àlvarez, who is one of my Zone leaders, and who is from Chile. It was really great, especially because we were in Capiatà again! But the other side of the Ward that wasn't my area.

During that division, we went to visit Hermana Adorno, who was Relief Society President when I was in the Ward (she isn't anymore). She and her sister were so distressed by a sickness that had come upon their nephew. We were able to bring the Spirit there and help them to feel that consolation, and then, when their nephew arrived, they invited us to give him a blessing of health. Elder Alvarez blessed him, and it was a moment of incredible power and Spirit. I was really glad that I was able to be there to participate in that blessing.

As far as the work goes in the area, Familia Montiel Orrego, the recent converts who'd gone inactive, came back to for the third Sunday! That makes them  active members now! That, and the fact that they're doing the other things, like reading their scriptures, praying, Family Home Evening, and just progressing spiritually. It's been a great blessing to help them return and grow in their testimonies, and we hope to continue seeing that progress and they put down deeper roots.

Other than that, the work is still somewhat stalled here in the area. I get frustrated a lot, but I'm excited to see what happens with changes, and if it's me and the same companion in the same area, I'll be excited to set some new goals and see some real growth here.

I love the Lord and know that He blesses us in afflictions and in good times. I hope that everyone is able to grow and to see their personal progress in this week and remember that you are all in my prayers.

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Harris

A For Effort!‏

Good Morning All!

This is an email about another crazy week on the mission. So much stuff happens with so many different people that it's hard to keep up with all the time. When I think about it on a week to week basis or on a long-term scale, it really seems incredible that we get through it all or that we do all the things that we do. It's here that I'm learning a lot about how to plan for the future and live in the present in such a way to acheive what you've  planned, but really just focus and worry and feel anxiety for the bite-sized chunk of life we usually call a day (sometimes less). The mission has taught me a simple art form of pleading with the Lord the strength to do what He wants me to do just enough for that day, and sometimes just enough for the next couple of hours or the next task. The miracle is this: it works.

In talking about the work, it's been interesting. I'm really trying to unify with my companion more, because we don't really share a vision for the work or what we should be doing or even being here in the area. There have been some good successes in this week. Other things still need to improve.

Celia Mereles was finally there for another visit on Wednesday, which went super long, was super great, but in the end, we weren't able to find her again and she didn't come to Church! It's frustrating.... When we can't teach someone, and they can't find the will to take the invitations that we make them to be able to come unto Christ and rejoice in a firm and fruitful repentance, we have to start looking at the option of leaving them. I don't want to leave Celia, because I know that she needs help, but I feel that she might not be letting us help her.

The only people we visited in the week who in the end came to Church on Sunday were the couple: Diego and Rossana Montiel Orrego. They're doing quite well! They had their first ever family home evening last week and are progressing in the Gospel. Their testimonies are growing and they're finding themselves strengthened by the Book of Mormon. It's not perfect, but it's good progress.

It was also so wonderful to get to talk with the family on Saturday! That always brings strength and consolation and brings the sights higher to remember that what I'm doing here has longer lasting repurcussions than what's in the field.

We've been looking for new people this week, and we've had some good first lessons, but nothing really solid so far. We're going to follow-up with those whom we've visited this week, but we need to keep searching for more new investigators. There must be some way to find them, and I have that faith that there are people prepared to receive us.

I love this work and know it's true! I hope that you all have a wonderful week and can feel your own testimonies grow!

Love,

Elder Harris

Never A Dull Moment‏

Good Morning Everyone!

I'm finally writing a little earlier today! It's been a crazy week, as ever, and had a lot of random, unexpected highlights. In the work however, it's been a little slow..... Almost feels like it's not moving.

The best thing that happened was that I FINALLY GOT TO SEE MEET THE MORMONS! Everyone has written me about the movie, when I was in the office, I regularly watched the trailer in anticipation, and I've just been anxious to see it, and the chance finally came. As I've said before, President McMullin has a special copy, and so he and the Stake organized an activity for missionaries and members that if they would bring a friend or other nonmember, they could come see it in the Stake Center. We weren't going to have anyone come. We'd made some sincere efforts, but our investigator, Celia Mereles, couldn't come, and then no one else could. But we had an ace in the hole, and it was a member family that we visit every week to talk about participating in missionary work, and they came through! So, we got to go.

It's a great movie, and even though I had to see it in Spanish, I was impressed by many parts of it. No one talked about it like a documentary, so I didn't think that it'd be done documentary style, so that was a surprise. But nevertheless, it was captivating and well done.

As you can see in the pictures, we also did some unexpected service this week at the Elders Quorum's President's house, which went well and helped us gain his confidence. We actually have a family home evening tonight with them, so lets hope that they'll have some good references ready. ;)

But I can now definitively say that I'm ready for a job in construction work, as long as we're using South American techniques and there are no power tools involved...

The other picture is of our house yesterday morning. There was a half-inch of water all over the house, because it rained BIG TIME Saturday night. The water you see there is literally what came spouting up out of the ground over that part of the house. So, rainy day. That brought with it the real Paraguayan fall-winter, which is always cool. So today we're enjoying the weather, with a nice sun and refreshing breeze.

As for me, I'm moving forward. I talked last week about how I've been lacking a bit of charity, and it was funny because it's not something that I was able to study well or really look into during the week (except for reading the epic talk "The Merciful Obtain Mercy" By President Uchtdorf), and then Sunday, in Gospel Principles, I had to teach the class. About charity. You know the scripture that talks about how when we teach by the Spirit, both the teacher and the student are equally edified? That described the moment perfectly. Gospel Principles gives four ways to develop charity:

Study Christs life, because He is the supreme example.

Ask for charity in fervent prayer.

Love yourself. Understand that you have inherent value as a child of God. Loving yourself means that you will be obedient because you see yourself as being worth the effort necessary to gain eternal life. You see Christ's sacrifice as a gift and instead of feeling ashamed for making him pay for you, you feel grateful and understand that if He says you  were worth it, then you really must be.

And finally avoid thinking that you are better than anyone. When we receive a blessing or improve, we become grateful to God instead of proud in ourselves.

These were things that I needed to hear. I've made some changes, and God has blessed me more than I could have imagined, and so I feel much better in these last two days than I have in a while. I'm so far from perfect, and I want to badly to be a perfect missionary, but I can be patient and I know that the Lord is pleased with what we're doing in the area. Because of how I felt, my companion, who is going through a difficult time on his mission, was suffering and falling into self-doubt and questioning his presence here in the field. But as soon as I humbled myself, prayed fervently, tried to love my own self more, and the Lord granted me greater charity, I could see a change in him as well. We bless others so much more when we are okay with ourselves. We almost always have to repent of something or other in order to be okay with ourselves, but if we can retain that feeling, we can be a great strength to everyone around us.

I know this is all true! I hope that you all have a wonderful week, and a happy Mother's Day!

Love,

Elder Harris

Shortest Week Ever‏

I'm so sorry everyone!!!! There's only an hour this week and on top of that I lost like almost thirty minutes of time to a survey. But! Some amazing things have been going on this week!

The big, awesome things that are going on are the following:

Yesterday, we had a total of 12 less-active members in Church. That was amazing. One family is a couple of recent converts who were baptized in September but haven't come to Church since early January. They came yesterday and we have such great hopes for them! It was after a lot of striving and visits, but this week they just up and started to keep the commitments we extended them throughout the week, and then came to Church on Sunday.

There was a new Less-active man who came and was very sincere. It was Ward Conference, so the Stake President was very involved in all of the meetings, and he pulled forward this middle-aged man (named Eudelio) who sincerely confessed that he feels empty as he's not been in Church for so long, and that he came that day to be filled. It was beautiful to hear without eloquence but with so much sincerity.

I was able to play piano for a youth choir that sang during Sacrament meeting, and it went very well. We were happy.

This week has been good, as I said, but I find that I've been losing slowly the Charity that I was learning to obtain. Negativity has a way of finding footholds and creeping into our minds and hearts, and I think I've been kind of hard on my companion for lack of the merciful perspective that we take when we love sincerely. So, this week's focus is on being kind, merciful, and have a pure love and charity in my heart.

And that's the invitation for everyone! It's a busy time of year for anyone who's studying, but I hope that everyone can find some way to serve those around them this week.

Also! To the family:

The Mother's Day call is next week! I can do it Friday May 8th, Saturday May 9th, or Sunday May 10th. I think that Saturday or Sunday would be best for all of you guys, but let me know what you think! I'll take all responses privately and write next Monday to let you all know the day and the time that I'll be logged in to see everyone and wish you all my love!

With Love,

Elder Harris

Work, And Hopefully Diligence

Good Afternoon All!

Paraguay is going nuts with the weather here. It's sometimes cool and nice, then the temperature drops and it gets way rainy, and then the sun jumps out and it's hot and humid. The result is a lot of carrying an umbrella when there's absolutely no apparent need for one, and then immense gratitude that I brought an umbrella a couple of hours later when it's raining cats and dogs. ;)

This week has been good. It's been the first week since I've been out in the field with substantial uninterrupted work (although there were still a couple of interruptions). The only things that stood in the way were the Tuesday Zone Temple Trip!!!! It was so great! Also, awesome to get to go to the temple twice in five days. I have such a testimony of the temple and what we do there. It's absolutely straight from Heaven and I know that those are real covenants and ordinances of the Gospel that we do there. After the temple, we had a beautiful testimony meeting, where some Nivaclé youth who will be leaving on missions soon bore testimonies. Oh yeah, remember me emailing about Nivaclé youth? Those same youth have had their calls for a while and will be heading to the Buenos Aires MTC in early May. So cool! 

After the testimony meeting, we ate pizza and watched the success video and a video that Elder Milton made about house maintenance. It was funny to see these things and not have had anything to do with them. Nice work Elder Milton. :)

And then there was the work. :)

We were able to find a couple of new investigators this week! One of them had a really good, spiritual experience with the video: "Because He Lives" and we shared quite a bit about baptism and the Restoration. She accepted everything wonderfully. Her only real trial is that she's now with a man who does not like religion at all. But she's married to another man with whom she's separated but never divorced, so things there will probably have to end anyways..... We'll see. That's something to worry about AFTER she has a firm testimiony of the Restored Gospel.

There's one family of incorrigibly inactive recent converts who never have a reason to not go and always seem desirous to change and come into activity when we visit. I don't know what we're doing wrong to not be able to gain their confidence. One night, when we didn't have time to share anything, but I had all the ingredients to make some good ol' American holiday hot chocolate (just means it's flavored up with nutmeg and cloves and other deliciousness), we even sat down and made them all cocoa and then just up and left. Result: they love us to death, and respect us a lot as missionaries, but still don't trust us enough to tell us what impedes them from coming to Church. I'm puzzled.

However, the parents of the mom are starting to listen to us, and there's hope that if we can get the WHOLE FAMILY to start coming, they'll all stay active.... But, we'll be praying and fighting a lot for that to happen, and proceeding with caution.

As a missionary, we try and work a lot, but I often feel a little self-conscious about how much I'm able to work. I'm always looking at how much we could work and comparing it to how much we do, or even how effective and strong the work we put out is. It's so easy to see imperfections and weaknesses, and I personally have a tendency to view these mistakes as sins. But I was reminded to read an article in the April Liahona (Ensign) about the difference between weakness and sin, and understanding how to overcome weaknesses helps me not to be so hard on myself for not serving perfectly. I know that we all have weaknesses and that we all choose incorrectly at times, but I know that God's grace uplifts us and strengthens us to overcome. It often doesn't come as we think it would. I always thought that God would help me and make eating difficult foods easy for me, but I still feel the exact same amount of anxiety as I used to when someone puts a plate in front of me. God more often than not strengthens us to be able to overcome the weakness instead of taking it away. So, I'm hoping for greater diligence this week, and praying for even more results.

I love this work though! This is a wonderful place with wonderful people and we're starting to scratch the surface! I hope that everyone can participate in the glory of this work and enjoy it thoroughly.

I love you all!

Sincerely,

Elder Harris

P.S. There was a wedding in the Ward, and we got permission to stay out a little later to see it. :)

The first picure is of the ceremony (only ever done by a judge, oddly enough).

The second is of Gustavo Cantero, the coolest Recent Convert ever (alongside Sofía) who worked the night as proffessional bussboy (I think that's how it's spelled.....).

Possibly the Greatest Week of My Mission‏

Good Afternoon Everyone!

Che Avy'a!

Means I'm happy.

Why?

This week was what might very well be the single greatest week in my entire mission. There have been so many incredible blessings that have occurred in this week that I cannot contain my joy when I think about it. I think I'll go in order of greatest in joy and incredibility.

First: 

Temple trip.

With Sofía Ortiz.

To Receive her endowments.

And Elder Brown and his entire family were there!

I couldn't believe that it actually happened! This internet shop here is being weird and not letting me send pictures wel, but I have a wonderful picture. Elder Brown has been off of his mission a whole year now, so I guess at some point I'll have to start referring to him as Caiden, but we'll see about that...... In any case, it was the most spiritual experience I have ever had. The happiest I've ever felt in one single moment up until now in my life. Being with Sofía in the Celestial Room of the temple was so amazing. And then being there with her and with Elder Brown.... It kind of just felt like being in Heaven and bumping into all of these amazing people who've changed my life and whom I've been able to help. I loved that moment.

Second:

I have a new companion! I'm still here in Del Maestro A, but now my companion is Elder Requelme, from Cajamarca, Perú! That's way up in the mountains. I'm really grateful for the opportunity to serve with him, because he's really excited to get out and work and wants to learn so many things. So, we're working hard and trying to do what's right out here in the Ward.

Third:

We have had some small Retention success with one family: The Familia Cantero. They are solid in the Church, but the mom of the family was going through some difficulties with her testimony. She hadn't read in The Book of Mormon since her baptism about seven months ago, and so she was starting to fall away into not really believing in the Book at all. So, we invited her to start reading again and to really seek revelation in General Conference, and she's now halfway through Second Nephi. She just sought out the time to read when there's peace and quiet in the house, and when she reads like that and really understands what she's reading, it fills her with the Spirit and enlightens her mind. She knows the doctrine so much better and feels invigorated with the Gospel every day that she gets a solid chunk of time to read. I loved hearing that so much and I testify to everyone out there, be they missionary or parent or teacher in the Gospel, that the invitations that you extend to help people repent and be firmer in the Gospel are valuable and do a lot to bless the lives of those you teach. It was a beatiful blessing.

Other than that, we're looking for people to teach and trying to do things well. We have a lot of faith and a lot of prayers, and so I know that the Lord will guide us to those people who will be ready to receive this Gospel and come unto the waters of Baptism or the light of activity.

I love this work and testify of its fruits. There is no greater joy than in this Gospel, and that joy is manifest when our love for another helps them come closer to God by making covenants. That is why missionary work is so special and so unique. It is all our work.

I love you all, and wish you a great week also!

Love, 

Elder Harris

By the way, today was a biz Zone Activity. The first picture is of my companion, the the others show what we were up to today. ;)