(This letter came Monday morning at 11 am - long before the tornado hit Moore, OK. I think he's about 30ish miles from there)
Hi Mom, I'm alive! :)
I've got some big news for you! Elder Beach, my MTC companion, got his VISA!! He's leaving for Argentina today and told me that he's traveling alone. I might be leaving soon too - because my missionary portal changed from OKC mission to the ARG RES mission sometime during this week. Maybe when transfers come on the 29th I'll be going?
The tornados never did touch down here in Anadarko, but we did have some hail and crazy lightening/thunder/wind storms the last couple of nights. It's really strange because in the early afternoon it's literally like 100 degrees - humid as can be - then around 6 or 7 a cold front will roll in and slap us in the face. That's when the rain, hail, and crazy winds come in. They say that the hotter it is and then how much the temperature drops - that's how bad the storm will be. If you think that Utah has crazy weather? Oklahoma is bi-polar!
We had a storm on Saturday night, a tiny one last night, and we're supposed to get another one tonight. I doubt it will be that bad because it seems like most of the storms have been on the east side of OKC and I'm on the west side. Did you see about that entire city that got mauled? Some of the tornadoes are crazy! I've heard that Anadarko usually doesn't get "HIT" because apparently we're in enough of a valley that the tornadoes just go over us. But there was that one storm a couple of weeks ago that took the roof off the house. :)
I really wish you could just see the weather here. These lightening storms are just incredible. The entire sky lights up with what I call a spider web of lightening. The sky is this dark, pinkish, bright color. It's hard to explain - it's just really beautiful though. I'll try to snap a pic for you so you can put it on Insta. :)
If you could send me those recipies, some pictures and hmmm . . . some of your cake? Haha! I'm honestly pretty good. We have a weird money system here so I'll probably just use my Visa for now it that's ok. I also withdrew an extra $20 from Wal-mart earlier today - thus the largish transaction. We're gonna cut back on eating out. We ate out a TON last week . . . you would love the biscuits they cook here. SO GOOD.
So I have a couple of questions: Did Nick Emery already leave for his mission? Where are Stout and Toolson going? Tell Anderson and Bailey congrats for me - they'll do great! :). I'm also so sad about my LAX boys - tough loss. I hope that Fjeldsted didn't have any injuries this season??
We really had a blessed week here in Anadarko. I'm talking about doubling records here. Yeah, this trio is killing it! We saw a lot of miracles this week.
Last Monday, we played some ball, had some food, and played some more ball. Remember we got that trophy to take up there with us? Well we had some teams lined up bu then some kids droped and didn't want to play so we ended up playing speed for the trophy. A kid from anothe district won it, but when we played 5 v 5 - my team won. We even beat Curry, Peterson and Traasdahl (3 of the 10 best players in the mission). Pretty soon my name will be up there in the 10 best - mark my words! haha
E Curry and I were talking about the word diligence. The dictionary sums it up perfectly - "persistent and energetic application to a task." So if we're being persistent and energetic while doing the work - it gonna be great! So I'm trying to be the most diligent missionary possible.
On Tuesday we visited a less active member. He reminds me a lot of Grandma Ray. So was telling us how he had been praying for us to come and visit him today. We had decided the night before that we were going to go out and visit him. We really feel like the Lord directed us to him. One of his grandsons were in a car accident and he's been going through a hard time. Plus he's trying to quit smoking so we're going to help him take care of that. On Sunday he told us that he really want to get to the temple to recieve his endowments. So we're setting a goal for him to get to the temple by August or so. We also visited this super old Indian man who only has like 4 or 5 teeth. He lost his wife and few years ago and is having a really hard time. He reminds me a lot of Brother Adams and just loves it when people come to visit him - so we're going to go back and "visit" him again this week.
So here's a funny story - at least I thought it was funny. So the other day, I heard this Indian guy say - "We're going to have to sit Indian style today." I don't know why, but I just lost it! E Curry thought that it was hilarious too! Ok, one more funny story. So there's this girl and her name is DeeDee and she has a lazy eye. So she told us this story about how one day she was in class and her teacher told everyone to shake their heads side to side really fast. He told them that while they do this, with eyes will stay in the same place and if they don't then they have brain damage. So she raised her hand and asked him is she had brain damage. I thought is was about the funniest story I've ever heard. haha
On Wednesday, we helped Sister Mumford with her ceiling. She is remodeling her house and we helped put this cardboard stuff on the roof. She measureed it wrong, so we had to move some of the ceiling beams to make it fit. It took us about 2 hours to get one piece up . . .
Thursday we had weekly planning - which means companion inventory. That's about all I'm going to say, but it did take us about an hour and a half to resolve a couple of issues.
On Friday we had district meeting in Blanchard. Nelson and I went on exchanges with Tuttle. Then during out district meeting I talked a little bit about diligence and to be the companion that you wish you could have. I then talked about how important it is to keep your reputation because it can be destroyed so quickly.
On Saturday I got my hair cut and then we carried this water filter out of a storm shelter. It weighed like 500 lbs. No joke. Later that night we had dinner with Sister Mumford. She cooked us some cow tongue. Yummy. It was alright - not awful - but definately not my favorite. :)
We also met some kids while we were walking back home and they were talking smack on us. So we figured we had 10 minutes so we balled them up! We won 3 games in a row. Can't stop the boys in white shirts and ties! haha
On Sunday at church we had branch council. We, the missionaries, asked about one of the families here. One of them responded that they were a hornets nest and that we shouldn't get involved with them. So Curry responds back and says, 'Aren't we a church of forgiveness? Of repentance? Don't you think that Jesus Christ atoned for our sins and wrong doings so that we could forgive these people?" I thought that was pretty good and something that we all need to do. To learn to forgive people, no matter how serious the sin or wrong that they committed. Nobody is too fat away from the gospel for Christ, so why should it matter to us?
I've got to sun. I love it here, but I'll keep you updated on the Visa situation!
Love you! Keep the faith.
-Elder Harris
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