There's No Growth in the Comfort Zone

This week was awesome!  We had some really awesome experiences and even better - we had miracles!

Last week when I said I was having mixed emotions - what I meant was that a mission makes me feel bi-polar sometimes!  :)  At one moment everything is going great and everyone is happy, feeling the spirit and things just seem to go well.  Then out of no where, the whole world flips against you!  This has been my hardest transfer so far - so I'm just adjusting.  I feel awkward sometimes, but like I once heard - "There is no comfort in the growth zone and no growth in the comfort zone."

I still haven't heard ANYTHING about my visa.  I know I'm in Oklahoma for a reason.  So, by the way, if I end up serving my whole mission here, I gonna go buy a new bike.  I'm not riding this one for 2 years - so just a heads up if I stay.  :)

This week was a good one!  You're going to be amazed at all the stuff we did:

Monday:  We had a normal p-day and the Sister missionaries from Elgin came up for a meeting.  There is a boarding school about 5 miles north of Anadarko and we're going to be doing FHE there every Monday night.  Yup, getting high school kids involved in the gospel!  But the meeting got cancelled so we went and got some dinner at the casino instead.  You wouldn't believe the lookswe got while walking in the casino!  Everyone just stared at us and didn't really know what to say since the "Jesus People" were at the casino.  We had some really good burgers and fries.  :)

Tuesday:  I got to go to Spanishland!  :)  So E. Corey had a lady who finally accepted baptism after a year of meeting with the missionaries and asked E. Corey to come back and baptize her!  So President finally gave him permission to go with E. Curry to Enid for the baptism.  E. Read, E. Benson and I worked in Norman SPANISH for the day!  Yes!  I got to work in Spanishland!!!  :)  We drove around the OU campus where we saw the football stadium and the campus.  It's an awesome place!

We went to go pick up E. Curry and Benson from a lesson and family invited us in - and forced us to eat with them.  It was delicious!  mmmmm  :)  I love Spanish food!

So E. Corey and Curry went up to Enid and we visited with another family.  We taught them the restoration in Spanish and it was impossible!  We awkwardly worked our way through it and it was a BIG wake-up call to me.  Now I'm only going to do my studying in Spanish!

We had a member with us who called me out in the middle of the lesson because of my conjugating.  (The spirit left really quickly.)  He later told E. Benson and me that we speak like 2 autistic kids trying to speak.  Trust me, it was a REAL boost to my confidence!  Honestly it was the wake up call I needed so I can get my Spanish back on track.

When Corey and Curry got back we shared stories from the past, about Anadarko and the rest of our missions and had a really good time.  It was great to see Papa Curry again!

Wednesday:  Since we live in a house, we have to maintain the yard and our lawn mower is terrible so we borrow the neighbor's.  So right when we get done with studies (11 a.m.) this member calls us and asks us if we would like to use the mower!  So of course we needed to get our lawn mowed, it was like 8 inches tall!  So I put my work boots on and mowed her lawn first and then I mowed ours.  It took like 3 hours in this Oklahoma heat but it was a blast!  My whole shirt looked like I was a part of a wet t-shirt contest.  :)  hahahahaha  

Afterwards, I got showered and we hopped on our bikes.  We met a new investigator and talked to some other people before going to dinner at Sister Chebotah's house.  We helped Natalia move and then helped Sister Chebotah clean up her yard.  So ya, I worked in the heat for about 5 hours.  I was exhausted and crashed at 10 . . . .

Thursday:  It was the best day.  We had Temple Conference up in Peidmont!  We drove up there and did a temple session.  If you haven't been lately - Go!  There's a new video. GO THIS WEEK!!!  I loved the temple and wish that we could go more often.

President gave us a training too about our personal conversion.  he had us evaluate how converted we are to the work, to the gospel and to everything else!  I was a good talk.  I did get to hang out with some of my best friends from the mission and I took a bunch of pictures.  :)  It was an awesome day.  We went home and had a really spiritual lesson with Matt and Isreal.

Friday:  We had exchanges.  Elder Charlesworth came down from Chickasha and spent the day with me while E. Corey went up.  We got to work!  We visited Cindy and taught her the Doctorine of Christ.  I love the new member discussions because we get to go more in depth.

We also set up some appointments for this upcoming week and did some solid missionary work!  When we were heading back home, we had an 8:50 miracle!  We were 2 blocks from home and 10 minutes before our curfew.  I thought that we should stop by and see Bill.  He's the guy that we helped lift the tree trunk into his truck about 2 months ago.  We went by to see how he was doing and his brother answered the door.  They let us in and we started talking religion!  He told us that he had a few questions about church and stuff - so we answered his questions!  It kinda led to us teaching him about the restoration and he accepted a Book of Mormon. 

Saturday:  We went to a Pow Wow!  Yes, a true Indian Pow Wow!!!  We were invited by some members so we drove out there with the Sisters and watched them dance and sing and do what they do!  I was too scared to take any pictures because one of them started cursing the cowboys - and since we stand out so much, I didn't want to draw any more attention to us!!

Sunday:  We had a super spiritual testimony meeting.  Something about this branch - these people are super spiritual!  Our classes were awesome and we just had a really good day at church.

Later that day we went and visited with some less active members with Brother Bateman (the Branch Mission Leader) and tried to help them get back to church.  We've got some big things happening here!  This area is like a great big ZIT!  It's ready to POP!  :)  Gross analogy, I know.  But it's true.  :)

Then we did a little planning and talked to a few other members.  We had a few appointments fall through, but we did meet with one of our investigators that we ran into at the casino.  We taught her the plan of salvation and it was hilarious!  While we were teaching her, she just kept saying how crazy it was that everything just seems to make sense!  She believes in all of it - now we just have to help her receive a testimony of Joseph Smith.  She's awesome.  I know that she'll be baptized too.  Good things are happening here!!

I love you!

Elder Harris