I've been out for 6 months now! Sooo . . . that officially means that I'm NOT A GREENIE! Yay! :)
I'm also being transferred!!! I will be serving in the northern part of the city in a town called Guthrie. My new companion is Elder Rumsey. He came out with me and his family is die-hard military. I know that he wants to serve in the Marines (post mission) - other than that, I don't know much about him. I excited that I get to serve with him as we will be opening a new area! I also hear that there are some Spanish families in this area - sooo who knows? I might just get to speak some Espanol! I leave Wednesday morning.
As for Anadarko, there are some HUGE things happening here in the next few weeks. The latter part of this week there will be an Indian Fair. We usually get to set up a booth and give out a ton of Books of Mormon! We are also getting a Senior Couple here! They are coming on September 7th. I hear that they are Sioux Indians and that he used to be a Bishop! I'm not sure where they are from, but they are going to be here for 18 whole months. Having them help with the work here is just going to be phenomenal!!! Also we have been working on starting up this FHE program at the boarding school here every Monday night - and it starts next Monday - so I'm going to be missing out on all this exciting missionary work that will be happening here! :( It's okay though!
Yes! I did see Uncle Charles' brother Garrick! He and his wife Debbie both bore their testimonies. They're awesome and he's a BIG guy. I bet that he's bigger than Charles! Anadarko is totally how Uncle Charles described it and I'm actually going to miss this place a ton. Maybe we can take a trip here someday? :)
It does sound like you all are doing good! Your new calling will be perfect for ya'll! Just keep working hard. That's the one thing that I'm SO GRATEFUL that you two taught me - to work hard! I've seen a lot of missionaries struggle to learn how to work hard and they have to know how because it just makes everything we do a ton easier.
Monday: We played basketball as a district and visited Cindy. She's doing really well and is still super excited about the church and wants to share it with her mom and friends. We also saw Sister Wright (my okey mom). It was just a good night!
Tuesday: That morning I tried to help E. Read make a lesson plan for a less active man and it went down hill . . . fast. Long story short, we were all frustrated and he walked out. I found him on the back porch with his hand in his face a couple tears in his eyes. So didn't really know what to do, so I just went and sat next to him and said a prayer out loud. I just prayed for him. I prayed that he would feel that he IS good enough to be a missionary and that we would be able to do this together. Afterwards, we talked for a little while and then I forced him to close our talk with a prayer. :)
It was also Cindy's birthday and we wanted to get her a present so we went to print some pictures and got a frame. We put of pictures of the 3 of us, one of Christ and then one of the Book of Mormon in the other spot. It looked good and we planned to take it to her later that night.
We decided to go walking during the afternoon and see who was out there. We ended up at a member's house and helped her move some furniture around. It was a funny experience and I'll just leave it at that. :)
That night we took Sister Rodriguez with us to visit Cindy and help fellowship her into the branch. We read some scriptures with her including Alma 5 which is one of the most rebuking chapters in the Book of Mormon! It was interesting, but it all worked out.
Wednesday: We went to the Poolaw's house and they fed us Indian Tacos! They tacos were amazing and I love that family and especially those little kids. We dropped by to see Matt and read some scriptures with him. That night we did some work on the Riverside FHE project. It was a solid day.
Thursday: We went into the City and drove up to Moore for the new missionary meeting. We heard some awesome talks/teachings by President Walkenhorst and his two assistants. A few things that I learned kind of shook me:
1. Love! How much new missionaries just LOVE everyone we see! And then how the trainers are like "no - you can't love them! I love them!!! and that's kind of how I feel. I just didn't realize it until someone told me!
2. How we continually learn things. Regardless if we've been out 23 1/2 months or 3! We read the same doctrine and keep learning because the gospel will continue to teach us things.
3. President told us that we need to "struggle for the spirit". It's crazy how we all need to dig for the spirit each day! That's something I've really been trying to do lately and it helps!
On the way back from the meeting, I started to feel very humble. I felt like this transfer was a waste because I just didn't love my companions enough. Someone said something that I thought was interesting. He suggested that we might have known each other in the spirit world and promised that we would serve missions and that God would make us companions. So who knows! But it's awesome to think that we could have all known each other before!
After we got back, we went to see Charlie and Trashelle. Charlie has a new job up at the casino as a security guard that he's really excited about. I'm so happy for him and for their family that they have 2 paychecks now. Life is good.
Friday: Oh what a beautiful day! I did my entire study in Spanish! It was awesome! We had a district meeting in Darko and it was awesome too! Afterwards, we made a bunch of posters for that Riverside thing, visited with Cindy and then had dinner at the Bateman's. Jake Bateman and his mom worked at Schofield this summer with Ky Berrett! You should ask him if he knows Jake!
Saturday: Oh, well we had some companion inventory. It was very open, honest and I think resolved a few things. I mowed the lawn and then we went to work. We visited a less active member who told us straight up why he doesn't come to church. It was like a gift from heaven! We addressed all of his concerns and then he took us out to dinner! We went to get burgers at the casino again and they were sooo good! I especially love walking into the casino and literally everyone stops what they're doing and stares at us! Talk about the Walk of Pride! :) It's just so hilarious!
Later we saw a lady who hasn't been to church in years. We talked to her for a while about church and the gospel then we prayed for her to make it to church.
Sunday: Blessed, Holy Sunday! I woke up feeling like crap so I went back to sleep for another 45 minutes. When we got to church, E. Read told me that he didn't feel too good either but we had some awesome talks and two of our investigators came to church! I loved it!
After church, we visited with Nola and dropped the Law of Chastity bomb on her! She told us that she had been thinking about how living with her boyfriend was probably a sin so when we told her it made sense! Something weird about the Law of Chastity is that we really just have to man up and tell people like it is. We need to keep this commandment because when you start to realize how many relationships are broken up by cheating you realize how much it matters! (Jacob 2:35)
We also visited with a family with 2 youth aged boys. We had 0 youth come to church for the past couple of weeks and the branch is getting a little nervous. So we went over and straight up asked them why they don't come to church! Their mom gave us two crappy answers - so take notes and never use them if you decide to go inactive! haha
1. When they were kids a teacher duct taped another little boys mouth shut and since then they've been scared to go back.
2. My motto with my kids is that when they feel like they need to go to church they will. (What? The only problem is that the mom isn't going either so they have no example of what to do! So if I understand this right: By not pushing them to go to church because you're afraid it will push them away from church?)
Sometimes I just have to keep my mouth shut. :)
And that . . . is a wrap! :)
Anyways, I love ya'll to death.
Keep the Faith.
Expect Miracles
Elder Harris
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