Our Prayers Are Heard‏

Good Afternoon Everyone Out There!

I think I'll jump right to the point without further delay:

Ismael Ramirez came to Church yesterday! He was well-dressed and just ready to go, and it was so good to see him there. He fit in so well with the members, he participated in the classes, he looked just so happy. I was so happy also. So! As long as he keeps up his progress, he'll be baptized two weeks from Saturday!

I say that our prayers are heard because a lot of you have written me this week saying that you've been praying for Ismael, and I'm so grateful for it. Your prayers have blessed him and strenghtened him and God has heard them. Thank you!

Ismael is still definitely the strong point of this week. Other than him, we're still really struggling to find new investigators. I'm wanting to try some changes in the work to see if we can't involve the members a little better, though we do work with members (it's just not turning up many results....). We did have a random miracle happen this week though:

We were walking in the street just going about our day, heading to a plan we had, when a random woman just stops us and says, "I have someone I need you to visit that said she wants to receive the missionaries." I'd never seen this woman before, and when we asked, she told us that she's an inactive member from the other Ward (that lies in the South Mission), but her friend lives here within our boundaries. So, we went to visit her. It turned out to be a 19 year-old girl, so we're for sure taking male, adult members with us to avoid any possible awkward situations, but she turned out to be someone who's genuinely interested and feels a need to grow closer to Christ in this moment. Sadly, we haven't been able to find her again due to the fact that her sister is in the hospital and they go there very frequently to visit her. But I have faith! I think she'll be the next Ismael.

The Lord is very merciful. with us and He knows better than any other what we need. We're going into the last week before changes and I'm just preparing to do whatever He asks me to do. This is His work and His mission, and I'm just a piece in it. I know that if I serve my best in the circumstance He's put me in, that there will be results.

Today was a good day to get together with some other Elders and play some hardcore soccer. And eat super delicious lunch. 

I guess that's all for this week. Keep the faith!

I love you all.

Sincerely,

Elder Harris

Saving By Degrees‏

Hello Everyone!

This week has been a solid work week with no interruption! Actually, I guess there was one interruption, but it wasn't that big and was pretty productive. But I like getting out to work a lot. :)

I can't wait to tell you all about Ismael Ramirez! He's progressed beautifully this week! He just didn't go to Church. :(

We've had a few lessons, and he's been reading the Book of Mormon and all of the pamphlets. He learns very well, but he's a really humble learner, and that's what I love the most about teaching him. I've been trying to ask him lots of questions when we verify the commitments we extend, because he'd been pretty shy with us, but he's opened up so much this week. On Saturday, when we visited him, I asked him how he feels about his preparation for his baptismal date (which was the 4th of July but is now changed to be the 11th). He told us out of nowhere that since he started to share with us, he's quit drugs, alcohol, and is almost done quitting cigarettes (he's down to one a day instead of a pack a day). We didn't even know he had problems with any of those things! That was so cool! At the end of that lesson, we were walking out, and he asked us if he'd be eligible to someday serve a mission (he's 19 years old). We told him yes and explained the process of becoming a missionary, and he's excited for it! This guy is soooo great!

He wasn't in Church for something exceptional. But he says he will be there for certain next Sunday.

Other than that, we're still on the hunt for new investigators and looking out for unexpected inactive members. We've kept much more unified this week as a companionship and though we still hit turbulence every once in a while, we're doing a lot better. I think that my companion is feeling stronger now.

We had our first big Ward Night Activity on Wednesday this week! I called up some contacts I have from the office days and we scrambled together some popcorn and juice and had a movie night! We had a big projector and got someone in the Ward to bring 17 Miracles (which I had never seen before). We had a good turn out for a first time deal, and there were two investigators present (from the other side of the Ward), so it was a good success. I love that movie so much! It really is so sad and just rends your soul at some points, but has a wonderful message and ends really beautifully. I recommend it to everyone. Just watch it trying to get something out of it though, and you will. 

So, the week was a success in most respects. There's still so much to learn though, and I know that up until my very last day on the mission, I'll still have more to learn about how to find, teach, baptize, reactivate, and retain people. The beauty of this work is in the constant progress we give.

I was thinking about that, and I realized that even when I feel good about myself, I still view my situation or my area as dire in many ways, and that's pretty much always been true. I started to think about why and what I feel I could change about my outside circumstances to feel better about things and not feel like I'm hanging on a precipice, and I realized that so much is out of my control. I think the key to having a right perspective about our lives and situations is a work of salvation by degrees. Little by little, as we study the scirptures, the words of living prophets, as we pray and look to other resources our Father has given us, we adjust our perspective, and we humbly change. Little by little, we also take hold of our situation and change the things that we can. If we work with faith, never desparing, we'll see and be sure that what we have is not a desperate situation, but rather a blessing and an opportunity, that God planned out our success and progress in it and through it and over it.  I'm grateful for the challenges I experience, but I must recognize that I'm not in dire straits nor failing, but that there is work to be done, responsibility to assume, and blessings to be poured out upon those around me. If there were no pressure, no capacity to fail, none of those things would come to fruition. I cannot let my fear of failure chase me into corners or dead-ends in the laberynth of daily decision making, and that's something that I've been changing bit by bit. I love this Gospel because it teaches me how to learn these lessons.

Thank you all for your wonderful emails! You uplift and strengthen me. Pray for Ismael!

I love you so much!

Sincerely.

Elder Harris

A Matter of Choice‏

Bom Dia meus amigos!

That's Portuguese, for no reason! This week has been eventful, and I feel good about it after all that's been going on.

I think that the biggest even on which I can comment is the quarterly interview/zone training meeting, that lasted WAY TOO LONG! We got there at 11:30 am and left at 7:30. It's normally supposed to last like three hours, but interviews never take that short of time, so it was kind of inevitable. But I think that there were a lot of missionaries that were needing some strengthening. I hope that last week I didn't cause you all to worry about the difficulties that I've been facing. Life just needs to be difficult sometimes, but I'm going to write more about that later on. I wanted to tell you all now that those difficulties and discouragements are passed, and that my companion and I are working together with a great deal more harmony and peace. It was all a matter of choice really, and thanks to our wonderful Mission President, my companion was able to make a choice that has resulted incredibly profitable for his spiritual and general well-being.

We continue in our hunt for investigators! Until now, we have two, but a bunch of possibilities. One of the two that we have used to have a baptismal date for June 27th, but that fell because she didn't attend Church yesterday. She's Luciana Cristaldo de Guzmán. She's gone through a lot, and used to attend an evangelical church called CFA. Her husband has a degenerative disease called Multiple Sclerosis and is mostly confined to a special bed, and she lost one of her 22 year-old sons a few years back. But, she has lots of faith in God, and we weren't sure if she was really actually interested, because we couldn't find her all of last week. All of the sudden, two nights ago, we had a lesson with her, and she'd read in the Book of Momon! She understands well and now understands why pray about it. We're excited to teach her the Plan of Salvation today and see if it doesn't give her more incentive to attend church and keep up with us.

The other we just had our second lesson with last night. His name is Ismael Ramirez, who's young, and has an older brother that lives in a different city who is a firm member of our Church. He (Ismael) wants to change his life, and he read the pamphlet that we gave him like ten times. It was so cool to teach him and see his understanding. He's just a little nervous when we're there, so we hope that he can relax and we can talk a little better.

In my interview with President, we mostly just talked about how to strengthen my companion and what I need to do to build him up. But I did share one thing. I talked about how emotionally unstable I often am. One day I'll feel great, but the next I'll get depressed. I always come back up, but I've always felt that there must be a way to not dip down so much or so frequently. And the answer is as it always has been: it's a matter of choice. I have realized so many times that happiness, true and lasting, should not depend on anything external. It doesn't matter what's going on around me, what all of the results of all my efforts are, or how my companion (or in the future, friends and family) are doing or treating me. My happiness must depend solely upon my decisions to follow the Savior and give my best. In reality, it should be centered on Him, who does never change. Therefore, in any given moment, we can be happy, or at least stable emotionally, because if we are doing something that isn't in accordance with our own happiness, then we can choose to change that and be happy knowing that through sincere repentance we will be forgiven. All of how we feel and react to the world around us is a matter of choice. It's this internal self-sufficiency. This isn't to be confused with indifference. We cannot just not care about what goes on. But we cannot let external things affect internal attributes. We must keep the external on the outside, and the internal where it should be. The Savior told us to weep with those that weep and mourn with those that mourn, not fall into the same despair that they might be feeling or give up as they may have. We can react and have the full array of emotions without compromising our own eternal hope and faith. That is the lesson that I've been learning, and it's something I hope we can all achieve. Have the Fount of Living Water within ourselves and not seek any other.

I love you all! I hope that this week goes wonderfully for everyone!

Love,

Elder Harris

Faith Through It All‏

Good Afternoon Everyone!

The Paraguayan Fall continues! We're supposed to be developing into Winter this month, but I have my doubts. Last year, the Winter was much warmer than Fall.

Proselyting this week:

Was a rough one. This is the part where one trial gets stacked up on top of another. We read in the Book of Mormon about how often the Lord is merciful to His people, but we sometimes overlook HOW MUCH they suffered before they were delivered. On one division this week, I was with our Zone leader, and when we clapped outside of the house of one of our only investigators, her husband walked out with the Book of Mormon and all of the pamphlets in hand. He handed them back to me, and very politely, with lots of love and friendship, told us that he and his family cannot continue receiving the missionaries, and that while he respects our beliefs, he differs on several accounts, especially that of baptism. That was a difficult one to take.

Then another one fell. She even told us that she'd love to continue and even follow Jesus Christ unto baptism, but that she cannot continue progressing in the Gospel path for now due to various circumstances in her life at this moment. We tried to help her see that those things are just obstacles and that she must overcome them, but it was in vain. So, we've had to leave her there.

And then we're having to drop Celia Mereles just because she doesn't progress well.

So we still have one investigator hanging in there, but we're needing to go and find a bunch more. This week was tough finding as well, not a lot of people were so interested.

But through it all, I know that it's just another week. I feel such great desires and such great frustration that I haven't baptized in six months, but I know that if I keep looking up and working with faith, trying to find things to improve and actually going out and improving them, God will grant us with His blessings. I've been thinking about it a lot. I feel like He does have success planned. I feel like there are baptisms to be had in the area, but I feel even more deeply that even if not, I will continue with just as much force, faith, and diligence. I love the words of Shadrac, Meshac, and Abed-nego who told king Nebuchadnezzar that God would deliver them, but that even if He did not, they would not bow down. That's how I feel. I feel that God will deliver us out of this difficult time, but even if there is no deliverance, it is worth it to serve Him and love His children.

On happier things, my companion and I are working better together. I don't feel any anxiety about that or depression ensuing. I feel calm and strong. Just anxious to have some success here.

I'd also like to include in the e-mail a reminder to remember the recently passed Elder Perry, and look up his biography on line. May he rest in peace.

I love you all! I hope that you're keeping strong and finding your own ways to have faith through it all.

Love,

Elder Harris

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