Holy Cow! Sounds like ya'll are having a great summer! I will admit that I do wish I could have been home this past weekend. I would have loved to see all you guys, go to the homecomings and of course watch the pig wrestling! :) We're going to an Indian Fair in a few weeks. We're going to be setting up a booth and telling the Lamanites about their past. :)
I can't believe that so many people came home this week! Russ, Parker, and Brayden! All 3 of them are like my older brothers - I miss them. I also got a picture from Carson of the amazing city where he's serving in Taiwan - we would be the best companions!
Monday!
We had a Zone p-day in Lawton where we went bowling and it was really fun! I didn't do too good, but we played basketball afterwards which was fun. I like hanging out with the guys in my zone. We have some awesome missionaries in this mission!
Tuesday!
We rode our bikes across town and went to see Cindy. It's about a mile and a half over to her house. While we were visiting, one of her friends came in and started talking with us (Ruby) and another friend of hers named Caroline. Caroline lives by us and a few months ago during the El Reno tornado, she and her daughters were in the storm shelter with us - so I clearly recognized her!
While we were there, we taught them about the Restoration. Caroline was curious about what we do so we shared this message with her. I just love teaching about the restoration because people just look so confused. Talk about confounding the wise! haha! Then we asked if they have any questions - and you know that they do - but nobody dares ask!
We then went and talked to a less active guy and his mom. It's amazing how people just tell us their whole life stories.
Wednesday!
Like always, nothing went according to plan! :) We tried to see an investigator but she wasn't home. So as we were walking away from their house a bunch of little kids came up and started talking to us. They talked and talked and talked! Then we saw a little boy who just moved into the branch so we talked to him for a little while and before we knew it - Joanne and her husband came home! So we set up an appointment to meet with them later.
That night we ended up in Fletcher to do some service. We helped a family clean up the side of their house and you can thank dad for me. I wouldn't let us leave until we had it looking good! It's funny how picky I am now with yards. I won't let our grass get too long! So I feel like all I do is mow the lawn!
Thursday!
We had to do weekly planning and we just got new whiteboards in the house so we had to re-do everything! It took about 4 hours. Ya, kill me.
We then went and visited a family and while we were talking to them we heard this funny story. So apparently they have a brother who is 17 and dropped out of high school to live with his 23 year old girlfriend. So the other day, they got into a fight and the girl called him "IMMATURE!" hahahaha! I laughed so hard! I thought that was so funny because he IS 17 and she's 23! IMMATURE??? hahahahaha!
Then we visited with the Eckiwaudah family. The Dad always questions the new elders and asks them a questions concerning the Creation vs. the Big Bang Theory. I when first answered the question back in April, I told him that the concept of time could have been different. That although the book of Genesis say that it's a "day" that it wasn't literally 24 hours. It very well could have been thousands of years that was called a "day". That was my answer, but when he asked E. Read - he just looked at him and said "Faith"! It was so profound - I loved it because most questions can be answered in that one word. Faith.
Friday!
We had district meeting in Chickasha and I fell asleep. I guess it wasn't too exciting. On the bright side, we went to a thrift store where I got a DOPE new skinny tie! E. Salmon came to Anadarko with us to go on splits. So E. Read and I went one way and E. Salmon with with Corey.
E. Read and I tried everyone and struck out all afternoon. We tried an area that we don't usually go because they're usually pretty drunk. We met this guy who stated to talk to us and told us that he was just sick of his life. He told us this story about how he watched his mom had killed his step dad, his dad shot himself and stuff like that. He's just had a super hard life and was feeling a little suicidal himself. It was a very humbling experience for me. It made me very grateful for my life, for my awesome family and for my amazing friends. We talked to him and he told us that he needs Christ in his life. I just shake my head sometime how people go through soo much and then they FINALLY decide that they need Christ in their life.
Later that night we stopped in to see Ranae, Cody and Nola. They told us that they were moving up to the city and ended up leaving before I even had a chance to say good-bye. They are seriously some of my favorite people here. They did ask us to send some new Elders their way so we'll be sure to do that.
Saturday!
We got up and play some football on Anadarko's field which made me miss football a little bit. Afterwards, E Salmon and Corey drove up to Verden to pick up E White (he's the other ZL who was in Chickasha for the night). While they were doing that, I mowed the lawn again.
Later that night we met with Trashelle and she told us that she'd been bitten by a brown recluse spider! It looked really painful! We also ran into another sister and convinced her to come back to church since she hasn't been there in about 3 years!
Sunday!
WHAT A DAY! Like always, I stayed up on Saturday night trying to write my talk and I just couldn't get it down to what I wanted to talk about. So I ended up getting about 3 hours of sleep. I was dying when I had to get up and get ready, write a progress report, and finish my talk. And like always, I ended up re-writing it that morning!
I focused my talk on a talk given by Elder Cook called "Hope you know, we had a hard time." And it was good! I told a few stories and then shared D&C 121 - where Joseph Smith is in Liberty Jail. I talked about how I've seen so many people go through hard times - and where if people could just ask God: "Where art thou?" and we would all get the same response as he did and God will tell us "Be of good comfort. Thine afflictions will be but a small moment." :) I was crying during this part and I had a hard time getting the words out. I was feeling the spirit so strong and like always I just felt comfortable speaking.
After my talk, this little 5 year old girl named Madi came up to me and hugged me and gave me a picture that she had colored. On it, it said "I'm sorry you had a hard day." It was the sweetest thing ever! Her mom later explained to me that she understood enough of my talk to know that I was talking about sad things and when I was crying during the part about Joseph Smith she thought that I was personally having a hard time. It was seriously just the sweetest thing!
I love you! The work is moving slowly - we've just got to keep our feet going.
Keep the Faith.
Expect Miracles!
Elder Harris
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