The Week of Lasagna

So we had transfer calls last night.  I'm staying in Guthrie South with E. Rumsey!  Apparently, there wasn't much change in the mission and there are only 3 new people coming into the zone and that's because they're all training!

I glad that you like your new car!  Are you going to put new tires on it? Send me a pic when you do.  :)  It sounds like homecoming was a success!  I loved both homecomings that I went to!  It was awesome!  Gotta love high school.  At time, I miss that place!

I can't believe that Brian is coming home and when does Tanner Larsen come home?  I feel like he's been out forever!!  Does it seem like those two have been out a long time?  Because I can't believe how fast 7 months has gone . . .

I'm excited about Conference!  I'm not sure where we'll be watching it - maybe the church or at a member's house.  I read somewhere that it's ideal to watch it with an investigator.  We have someone we'd like to invite so I guess we'll see how it goes!

This week:

Monday:  We had our normal p-day and actually played wall ball!  I haven't played that since elementary school but it was a blast!  We also played basketball and volleyball.  It's one of the perks of having a zone p-day every Monday. 

We had lasagna for dinner that night at the Hollingsworth's house and they're into quarter horses!  So I got to talk to them about the ponies for a while.  :)  He told me that Corona Cartel is in my area!  Yeah!  I think that's who AB is bred by right?  I'm not totally sure but he had a horse named PYC Paint Your Wagon that he just sold. 

Afterwards, we played basketball with our bishop and his brother.  The Wade brothers!  haha!  They are the coolest guys EVER!  And we seriously have the best ward in all of Oklahoma right here.  I don't care what anybody says!  We ended up finishing up the night played volleyball in Bro Wade's backyard again and he and Otuafi dominated . . . .   :)

Tuesday:  We were mountain biking on that dirt road in Forest Hills again and stumbled upon a little trailer park neighborhood so we decided that we'd go knock it.  We found this sweet little old lady who was still in her PJ's.  I think the has alzheimers because she told us the same 5 or 6 bits of information about 10 times.    We just gave her a Book of Mormon and left.

Funny story though - so we knocked this door and this really old guy answered.  I said, "Hey!  We're here to share a message about Jesus Christ with you."  He got all snipey and said, "No, you're not!"  so I said, "I'm pretty sure I know why I'm here . . . "  He got a little mad and told us to leave.  Then that night, we had lasagna at the Dysarts.  :)

Wednesday:  Like always is the day to serve.  We went to feed the homeless and then we went to Hands of Jesus to help with the groceries.  I got to sort the eggs again.  :)  E. Rumsey hurt his wrist somehow last week so he's been wrapping it with an ACE wrap.

That night, we had lasagna with the Morgan's and then got dropped by 2 potentials and 3 investigators.  Gotta love the work . . . .

Thursday:  We tracted.  Just like fishing in the desert - we caught nothing.  We had a take a survey for the area 70 that's coming here in November and that night, we had dinner with the Borgeson's.  You guessed it . . . LASAGNA.  It was fun to be at their house because their son served his mission in Argentina so we got to talk about how awesome it is down there and then we ate alfajores (like hostess in Argentina) and drank mate!  It made me super Argentina trunky.  But I know that I'm here for a reason!  (I'm getting a little sick of saying that btw.)

Later we stopped by Amy's house and her son was sick so she went inside and we talked with Randy on the porch for a while.  He told us how he came to believe in God.  He works from home and trains pigeons for a living.  He always has good religious questions for us like "Wouldn't it be cool to really know what happens after this life?"  So I told him "What if I told you that I knew?"  We got to talking about the Plan of Salvation.  He loves his pigeons and he's grateful for the map (the stars) that God gave them to deliver messages.

Friday: was an interesting day.  We had district meeting in Edmond and ate at a really bad Chinese Buffet.  In Oklahoma there are a ton of Chinese Buffets.  After . . . it was interesting and I'll just leave it at that.  :)

Saturday:  was the baptism of the WML son.  Sister Dickman asked us if we could sing at the baptism so we had Otuafi's uke and my killer voice and we sang "My Heavenly Father Loves Me".  It was pretty good and we honestly improvised the whole thing but nobody else knows that.  :)

After the baptism, we pretty much go rejected by everyone we tried to go see.  We finally found a family that are LA that we've been looking for.  It turns out that a few people that speak only Spanish were there.  I tried to talk to them a little bit, but it's hard when you don't practice the language every day!

That night we got some Arby's and spent a little time talking about our transfer and how we can make the next one better.  We had a really deep conversation and I feel like I've failed this transfer.  But the Lord is giving me another chance, another 6 weeks to figure it out!  So I guess I haven't failed quite yet!

Sunday: we had another awesome day at church!  I love p-day eve!  :)  We had church, studied and then had dinner at the Skinner's house.  We then went to Brother Dickman's house and talked about the area for a while.  He went with us to see Randy.  He's so cool - I love that guy.

We had a pretty good week.  The weeks are starting to go by faster and faster.  I can't believe how fast these 7 months have gone by!  Don't blink.  Before you know it, I'll be home again.

I love you all!

Keep the Faith!

Love,
Elder Harris

I just love the Oklahoma skies!

Learning to be Content

Hey.  :)

It sounds like you guys are as busy as ever!  That's so weird that Kylan is home!  I remember talking to him outside his house the Sunday night before he left like it was just a few months ago . . .

As for the Visa situation, I'm starting to understand that it's a really weird process.  I guess that patience is the best attribute that I can work on now!  Or being content.  Although I would like to be in Argentina, Oklahoma is a very blessed land.  I love the people here and although I'm not speaking Spanish and talking to Argentinians every day, it's alright.  Prophets and Apostles have to develop a characteristic - and it's called - content.  So that's what I've been trying to develop.  To feel content with things that the Lord has given me, the opportunity that I've had to serve, even if I've only been out for 7 months.  :)

So, last week:

Monday:  We had our normal p-day activities and we had a dinner planned with the Wade family.  He told us to come over in our p-day clothes since we were going to be playing volleyball after we ate.  So on our way to his house, a huge thunderstorm rolled in and basically flooded his back yard.  So we had dinner and were sitting around when we finally decided just to play anyway!  So we went outside and played volleyball in the flooded backyard!  It was a blast!  Then after, we all slid in the grass.  It was seriously the best p-day I've ever had on my mission!  Plus - he sure knows how to cook briscut!!  haha

Tuesday:  We had to fix a lawn mower for this lady in Guthrie.  So we went to a member's shop in Edmond who had a take apart a different lawn mover to use those parts.  So I got to get all dirty and fix some stuff!!  We replaced the dock and the handles.  It was hilarious! 

Later that night we had a meeting with the ward mission leader.  He had us over for dinner and we discussed what he would like us to do over the next couple of weeks.  We have a roster of about 180 people that nobody knows so it's our job to find them!  It was also my 5 month mark in Oklahoma!  :)

Wednesday:  We did service at the Food Pantry.  I had to search through 6 HUGE boxes of eggs to find the ones that were broken and then divide the good eggs into little boxes of 12.  It was a pain!  I got egg yolk all over me and I smelled terrible for a solid day and a half!  I seriously checked about 1000 eggs!  It was a ton of fun though.  Then we got to help people load their groceries into their cars.  At least 100 people showed up and we were busy all day!

We had dinner and then an appointment fell through so we ended up walking down this long abandoned looking country road into this huge neighborhood!  There were these two kids that yelled at us and we talked to them about football for a while.  When their parents got home, we talked to them on the front porch for a while.  That is one thing that I LOVE about Oklahoma!  All of the open land, and the front porch sittin'.  I seriously wouldn't mind having a couple acres some day!  :)

Thursday: we got to help the Dickman's in their yard!  Their son is getting baptized this next Saturday so we helped them get their yard looking nice for the in-laws.  We shoveled sand, trimmed trees, cut the grass, laid mulch and pulled weeds.  With all 4 of us, we got it done pretty quick!  Sister Dickman bought us Ted's (a super good Mexican restaurant here) and we all ate fajitas.  :)  I was pretty tired so I was happy that we got to sit on the patio and talk with them for a while. 

Friday: was insane!!  We had district meeting and then a lady from one of the Edmond wards had us over for lunch.  She cooked us some burgers and had one of her non-member friends there too.  So all 10 of the Elders, this lady and her friend . . . hahaha!  We sat down and taught the first lesson to him - I think it was a little overwhelming to have that many Elders there testifying about the same thing but the spirit was super strong.  :)

Afterwards we loaded up our bikes and went mountain biking!  Just kidding.  But we had to ride our bikes 3 miles on this crazy dirt road!  We got to the trailer part looking for some of the members on the list.  We kept on biking and ended up going 8 or 9 miles all together.  We biked fast too because we had to meet the other Elders at the church at 4:45 to get to dinner on time.  We had dinner at the Johnson's and a huge tree had fallen down from the storm on Monday and then they asked us to help them cut it down.  Luckily we had our service clothes with us - so we changed and cut that bad boy down!  It was a ton of fun!

Saturday:  The Elders Quorum went shotgun shooting and invited their non-member friends - they invited us to go too!  So we showed up at 9:30 and got to throw the pigeons with this little launcher since we can't shoot guns on the mission.  :( 

When we got back, we grilled up some corn and chicken.  When we got done, Brother Stansfield called us and told us that he was flying out to Japan on Sunday and that he needed some help getting a tree that had fallen over in his backyard.  So we got our service clothes back on and got to work!  We tore down the tree, had dinner with the Thackers and then knocked some doors!  We got rejected at every single door we knocked on.  We finally saw this guy fixing his lawn mower so we went over and talked with him about BBQing, cars and everything else.  He told us that his wife had passed away about a year ago and the he wasn't much of a religious guy.  We're going back on Monday.  :)

Sunday: was a total SPA day and one that was much needed!  Church was exactly what I needed to hear and we had a homecoming for the Stephenson's.  Their son served in Zimbabwae and was an AP there.  His homecoming talk was awesome and made me realize how much more I need to become over the next 18 months!  He told us how when we repent we can't change ourselves overnight - but when we mentally decide to change one little thing day by day we eventually become better!  So that's what I'm going to do!  Just pick one thing each day to work on and pray that I can get better at it.  I've got to get focused on reading a ton of Spanish and try to get some of the language back!  I feel like I'm losing it since I never get to speak it.  I do pray as much as I can in Spanish and try to think in Spanish as often as I can too - but it's definitely a challenge when I don't hear it back.  I also listened to a few talks by Jeffrey R. Holland and I'm super excited for Conference in a few weeks.!  :)

That was pretty much my week!  We spent time either getting rejected, doing service and studying.  Sometimes we just have weeks like that - God chastens us to help us grow.  I guess I just need to do some growing right now.  :)

Anyways, I love you all.  I pray for you daily.

Keep the Faith!
Be content!
Alma 29  :)

Love.
Elder Harris

It's Slowly Coming Along . . .

Things in Guthrie are good.  We've spent a lot of time tracting and a lot of doors slammed in our faces, we got yelled at a lot and even got told that the cops are going to come, people wanting to bible bash with us and even telling us how  Joseph Smith was a wicked man and deserved to die.  You name it . . . we heard it this week.  It was a long week.

Opening up an area is hard work, trying to learn a second language that I hardly use, and my companion is as new at this as I am.  But I figure I've got to put my cowboy boots on sometime and walk through the crap til I get to the daisies.  :)

Monday:  We stayed in Guthrie because we didn't have the miles to drive down to Edmond so we ended up emailing at the library.  The computers were awful.  We like the OCU college ones a lot better.  :)

Anyways after we played some basketball with our investigator Zack.  He's a ton of fun.  We had dinner with a family and then we helped another family clean up their backyard.  It was a pretty crazy day.

Tuesday:  We did some service for the food pantry again.  E. Rumsey had an ingrown fingernail and something wrong with his ear so we arranged for some doctor appointments and got him all fixed up!  The only problem was that it took all day.  We did get to meet this guy who worked with Mitt Romney last year during the presidential election.  He was in charge of the advertising for all of Oklahoma.  He was telling us about how he appreciates missionary service and that he just loved talking to Mitt Romney about it.

Wednesday:  It was the 12th anniversary of 9/11.  Can you believe it?  It feels like yesterday that I happened.  It's even crazier that 11 months ago I was filling out my mission papers and 7 months ago I left on my mission!  And now . . . I'm in Oklahoma!  :)  Trying to make a silk purse out of a pig's ear . . . .   :)

E. Otuafi was super sick and I wasn't feeling super good either so we stayed back while Spafford and Rumsey went back to the food bank to help out.  I took care of Otuafi and then Zack called and needed some help so we went over and helped him move some metal into his truck.

Later on we went down to our area and tried to find some more of those "unknown" addresses.  As we were finding one, we saw this little car pull into a driveway so we went over and asked this girl if she knew where the address was.  She laughed because she didn't know where it was either.  But we ended up asking if we could share a message with her.  Her twin brother and older sister both came outside and listened to the message too!  :)  We told them about the restoration and how we have  prophet on the earth today.  The original girl didn't seem to terribly interested - but not too many 17 year old girls are interested in God these days . . . .

Thursday we went to visit Monroe (Pork Chop).  He loves to tell stores and we showed up he was giving us council on our needs and wants.  While we were there, one of his friends showed up.  She's a 35 year old woman who's had a really rough year.  Her husband and her mother both passed away and she's feeling very angry with the world, God, just everyone.  So we tried to show her how she can be happy - but she told us that she was atheist and had studied every religion from A-Z.  It was good just to let her vent all of her problems.  We let them talk until dinner and then we left to get to another appointment.

We visited that family that lives next to her parents.  They were out in their front yard and were pumped to see us again!  We even got to meet their kids who were playing outside and they were still wearing their uniforms that they wear to their little catholic school.  They had 3 boys that were just so cool.  They're a non-denominational family but believe in a TON of the things that we do.  We all shared some miracles from our past and it was just good to sit and talk on the porch again!  That's one thing that I miss about Anadarko!

Friday was the 13th!   We had district meeting in Edmond and then decided that we should grill up some food.  After district meeting I was talking to another Elder who was having a hard time opening up a new area too.  He told me that we can learn something from each of our areas and each of our companions.  It's got me thinking about what I've learned in Anadarko and what I've learned from Beach, Curry, Nelson, Tripp, Corey, Read, and Rumsey.  We grilled up some peppers, steak, chicken, and corn and it was good.  I'm getting pretty good at grilling if I do say so myself. 

I'm coming to realize that Bishop Collins was right - All of our trials are tailored to us.  I'm know that I'm going to have plenty of more difficult times ahead of me, so all I can do is put my boots on and keep going until I get to stepping on the daisies. 

Saturday was a long day.  We loaded up our bikes and headed down to our area.  We had just unloaded the bikes, got saddled up and started pedaling - we were no more than 50 feet away from our car when my bike chain literally snapped in half!  So I kicked the chain to the side of the road and spent the rest of the day scootering on my bike.  It was definitely faster than walking.  We had absolutely no success for about 3 hours.  One lady told us that she was going to call the cops and another opened her door and told us "I'm not a Mormon" and then shut the door.  (I think that was my favorite denial yet!)  Then we knocked on a minister for the Church of Christ.  And he basically told us that everything about our religion was wrong and that we weren't allowed to call ourselves Elders.  blah blah blah - and things went downhill from there.  I just he just wasn't prepared to hear about the restored gospel yet.  :)

We had an appointment with our Spanish investigator but he ended up not being home but we did meet some other people.  Jim restores cars for a living and had a really cool 71 Chevelle that he showed us.  Gloria is from Mexico and doesn't speak a lick of English but we talked with her for about 45 minutes and taught her about the Book of Mormon and it was way good!  We ended up walking another 5 miles and didn't meet a soul.  Go team, go!

Sunday was crazy.  Church was awesome as always. We took Brother Larson with us to teach a Spanish lesson but we realized that the closest Spanish branch is about 45 minutes from Edmond.  We're not sure what the best option is for our Spanish speaking investigators be we're still going to try to teach them.  We tried to visit with all 3 of them but no body was home.  We ended up going back to our apartment and finished up some studies.  We had dinner with the Bailey's and then went out with the youth for the rest of the night.

It's been a little frustrating this week but it's slowly coming along.  :)

I love and miss you all a ton!

Keep praying . . .
Keep the Faith . . .

Love,
Elder Harris

Called To Serve: Lone Peak High School Class of 2012

A Long Week of Tracting . . . .

It sounds like you guys had a blast at Lake Powell!  I wish I could have joined you all. 

Last Monday we had a normal p-day.  We played some basketball and then ended up doing some service for some members.  We helped them cut down trees in their backyard and then burn them in a pit.  Since they live in the country they can do those kinds of things.  :)

Tuesday:  We had a meeting in the city and then we got to email.  The STM was on loving our companions and how when we do, we can have the spirit with us.  We went on exchanges that night and saw a family that the North Elders usually talk to and it was awesome!

Wednesday:  We helped out at the Food Bank.  It ended up taking a lot longer than we thought.  It seems like all we did was service at the beginning of the week - but we kinda did!  haha!  At the Food Bank we helped distribute food to the people who needed some necessities.  The lady that runs the place decided to be nice to the Elders and she hooked us up with some food!  So we were very grateful for her.  :)  She gave us some hamburger, so we went home and grilled up some burgers!  I got to cook them on a charcoal fire and by the way, I LOVE TO COOK!  I don't know why I never did it before, but it's SO FUN!

Thursday:  We had an awesome day.  We did our weekly planning and afterwards we went and contacted in a neighborhood.  The same neighborhood where President Bowman lives!  (He's the one in the lds.org video)  We had dinner at the ward mission leader's home and then tracted in that neighborhood. 

Anyway, we ended up running into this neighborhood party and it reminded me a ton of home.  There were probably 7 families there all enjoying their drinks and each others company.  So walked up and asked if we could say a prayer with them.  We ended up talking to this older guy and his family for about an hour.  His daughter and her family lives next door to him.  I guess she didn't try very hard to move away from her parents.  :)  But, I'm still planning on living next door to you, Mom!  :)

Friday:  We had our district meeting and E Beus came and did exchanges with me.  We WORKED in our are and had a really LONG day!  We planned to tract this area for about an hour and ended up being there for 3.  We biked around the neighborhood forever and met a few people, but they all told us that they weren't interested.  So we're okay with that - at least they're not wasting our time . . .

We were about 2 miles from the car when the tire on E Bues'  bike popped!  So we spent about an hour walking back to the car pushing our bikes.  We tried to talk to a few people, but they weren't interested in our message either.

We actually had dinner with someone from the Edmond 3rd Ward (where E. Bues serves) and it was cool.  They have a MASSIVE home.  Seriously, one of the biggest houses I've ever been in.  Their family room alone could house 6 families!

Afterwards, we knocked a few more doors but nobody was home.  I remembered that President Bowman's wife had given us a referral.  We knocked that door and the woman kindly told us that she was born Baptist, raised Baptist, and plans on dying as a Baptist.  (My personal favorite excuse why they won't talk to us.)  She did accept a Book of Mormon and we told her that some of her neighbors were Mormons and could answer her questions. 

We stopped by the Bowman's and we saw President wearing a t-shirt and shorts watching the BYU football game!  It as crazy!  It's like seeing President Gottfredson in shorts, or Grandpa Dennie or Grandpa Ray in shorts!  Heck, even Kenny in shorts!  You just don't see it often!  hahaha

But he let us in and we talked to him for awhile about what he was going to share at Stake Conference.  He's just an awesome man.  He literally just glows and I love being around him.

Saturday:  We spend the WHOLE DAY TRACTING.  I've never been so exhausted in my entire life.  Plus I think it was 104 outside.  I think that we knocked on probably 100 doors and walked 12 miles.  I think that I completely sweated through my shirt 3 or 4 times.

The other day Bishop Wade asked us to go through the list and see which members on our roster have moved or are just inactive.  So we chose and same and went with it.  We walked to the first house and found that they had moved.  We were so exhausted when we knocked on the door we asked for some water because we were DYING.  This lady got some water for us and we just sat on her porch and talked to her for a bit.  She ended up telling us her entire life story about how when she was a kid that a preacher told her that "God didn't love her because she was a sinner" and that she hasn't been to church since.  We left a Book of Mormon with her and are planning on seeing her again sometime this week.  She just has the sweetest heart!

Later we tried another name and when we pulled into the neighborhood we found the address in a trailer park.  I was so shocked to find a trailer park in Edmond!  We finally found this lady and realized that she was VERY inactive.  We didn't know it but found out that she no longer wanted to even be contacted by the church - so fearing that she might shoot us, we left!  As we were walking away, we saw this guy about 5 houses down so I yelled out to him and asked if we could pray with him.  He didn't understand my English because guess what?!?!?!  He speaks SPANISH!!!

We talked with him for a while and found out that his name is Juan and he lays tile for a pool company.  His son speaks both languages for he's my little interpreter.  We ended up setting up a return appointment with him and we're super excited!  :)

As we walked around we realized that we were in an area that was the jackpot of Spanish speakers!  I was so excited because I could speak to all of them!  We met another guy and had a prayer with him and told him that we would come back again on Sunday night.

We also went by a wedding reception that night for one of the Borgerson's sons.  Their other son just got back from his mission in Buenos Aries and he told me all about Argentina!  It was fun to talk to so many people - family, neighbors and ward members.

Sunday:  We had Stake Conference and it was awesome.  Some of the speakers were this couple who had served as the Temple President and then another couple who served a mission in Columbia.  There was also this 14 year old boy who did an amazing job.  He told everyone how excited he was to serve a mission.  He shared all of his beliefs and I wish that I could have spoken like that when I was 14!!!

Afterwards, we had a meeting with the ward mission leader and he has some high hopes for the area.  Bishop Wade also came by for a minute and talked with us.  He's just such an awesome guy - have I told you that I just LOVE Bishop Wade?  I just think it's so cool that he's friends with Paul Gifford.

Anyways, the WML, Brother Dickman drove us around the area and showed us where a lot of the members live.  It was really good to figure this out so we know where we're going.  We had dinner that night with the Smith's.  They are related to Aleia and were really nice to us and have a really nice home.  We sang a song and shared a spiritual message with them.  In Alma 36:24-26 it talks a little about missionary work and we labor diligently!  So we told them to pray for us and that we promised to work our tails off and hopefully we can have a miracle!

Later we went to that appointment with Sylvestre but as we drove up to his house there were 2 huge dogs.  I seriously thought that they were going to kill me!  I think they had rabies or something.  :)  But we saw this man outside and of course, he only speaks Spanish.  He said that he didn't know where Sylvestre lived - so while hiding from the dogs, we snuck up to one of the trailers and knocked on the wrong door.  The people inside told us to come in - I was a little hesitant but walked in anyway.  It was these 2 guys and they told us that they had met with and talked with the missionaries when they were kids and lived in Mexico.  They agreed to let us sit down and teach them a lesson - which we did in SPANISH!!  When we sat down, we talked like we do in English - I've never felt the spirit guide my tongue so much!  But I was able to teach the entire first lesson to these 2 in Spanish.  They accepted the Book of Mormon and set up a time for us to come back and teach them some more.  I LOVE speaking in Spanish!  It's just soo fun!!!

This computer is super slow so I won't be sending pictures.  I will send some next week when we're back down in Edmond.

That's pretty much it for this week.

Love you!  :)

Elder Harris

Things are Kinda Slow . . .

Sometimes emailing is like taking a deep breath of fresh air.  I can just relax and tell you what's on my mind.

I think I have 7 long sleeve and 5 short sleeve shirts.  In this humidity I sweat a lot . . . so the short sleeves are looking okay, but who knows after 3 summers!  :)  My socks are holding up fine and my shoes are great - actually a lot better than some of the other missionaries.

If it's Bishop Mendenhall, he might be in another Edmond ward -  but I'll look for him!  I go to the Guthrie building and our Bishop is Bishop Wade and he's good friends with Paul Gifford.  I think that Levi and his son are roommates.  He's a really awesome guy.

Just so you know, I still have to have my MFS money put onto my companion's card and so I'm waiting patiently for the money to be put on this month, so if you see some charges to Wal-Mart, it's just me!  I'll try not to spend too much!  :)

Things in Guthrie are okay.  Our area is about 10 miles away from our apartment so we have to drive there.  Then it's mainly country and tiny suburbs.  The suburbs there are incredible.  Take the Loveland's house and make a hundred copies and that's the neighborhood.  Some of these houses are ridiculously huge!  Or maybe being in Anadarko so long made me see that you just don't need that much space.  :)

 

We have absolutely no work down there and it's very slow so we've been doing a lot of service these past few days.  I don't mind doing yard work.  :)

We had a special training meeting about an hour ago and the AP's came.  They shared a message that I really needed to hear and at lunch told me that they put me with E. Rumsey this transfer to help him smile a little more.  He's really quiet and doesn't like to talk a lot so I'm learning to keep my mouth shut.  Silence isn't so bad sometimes, you know?

I pray that I get my Visa soon.  E. Beach emailed and told me about how he got to eat pig head!  Yeah!  Eyeballs, tongue, brain and everything!  I'm so jealous!  haha  As nice as our shower might be, a pig head sounds tasty.

As for this week:

Monday:  E. Rumsey woke up at 5:30 to start our laundry.  While we were at the other Elder's apartment we were so tired that we fell asleep.  E. Rumsey decided to make us some eggs for when we woke up which was really nice, but there wasn't any cooking spray so he put butter in the pan - on high.  Before we knew it, the entire apartment was full of smoke, the smoke alarm was going off, and we woke up scared to death!  So we aired the apartment out and then had to jump start the truck because the battery was dead before we drove to Edmond to email.  We played basketball for a couple of hours and then had dinner at the Larson's house.  He's the Elder's quorum president and they LOVE Utah.  They even had a huge picture of Lake Powell in their house which made me a little sad.  But I'm sure that lake will still be there when I get back!

Tuesday:  It was pretty quiet.  We did some service where we unloaded a truck load of food for the food shelter.  After that we got to finish digging that trench for the Morgan family.  I love digging - it was very relaxing.  Then we went to work on my bike - it's somewhat working and then headed off to Walmart for some groceries.  We went home and I cooked up some Chicken Alfredo for the 4 of us for dinner and it was really good.  We went to see a few members that night and found that the family we were looking for had moved but we did find a new potential.

Wednesday:  I met a man named Monroe.  He's 70 years old and his friends call him Pork Chop.  I'm not sure why but he loves women and fighting and anything involving the two.  We got around to asking him some questions about religion and told him that we would come back to tell him why there are so many churches.  We had dinner with the Foreman's and then went to find a referral that the Edmond Elders gave us.  When we showed up, the woman was nursing her baby . . . so we told her we'd come back another day.

Thursday:  We started the day with some basketball (our exercise), cooked up some pancakes, did our weekly planning and went to work!  We drove to a neighborhood to visit a member but they weren't home so we decided to walk the neighborhood for awhile.  We got lost and ended up walking around for about 2 hours trying to find some people to teach and also our car!  Haha! We did end up finding one person - her name is Monica and she's awesome.  She was out doing yard work (IN EDMOND!  Shocker!  I know!) and we set up a time to come back and talk with her later in the week.  I'm pretty excited about it!

Friday:  We had a DM in Edmond.  Elder Beus is awesome and taught a very inspired lesson - exactly what I needed to hear.  We ate lunch at a place called Cow Café.  It's a burger joint - and it was GOOOOOD!  Probably one of the best burgers I've had in a while.  The waitress recommended the one that I got and she was right!  :)

We went by to see Monroe again and he wasn't home so we tried to tract his neighborhood.  We walked up to knock on this door and saw this pitbull jump up and start freaking out.  We also noticed it didn't have a leash or a chain - so we started freaking out and ran away from the DOG!  I don't think we're going to knock THAT door.  :)

Then we met with Kyle and Jennifer.  They're awesome!  They asked us some really great questions about the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith and the church.  It led right into a discussion about the Joseph Smith story.  Jennifer wants the "closeness" of the church - I think she used to go to church but was never actually baptized.  I think that she already kinda knows it's true - but they told us to come back in a few weeks.  Kyle wanted some time to read the Book of Mormon and do some research. 

We had dinner at Braum's (Oklahoma burger joint) and then went to try to meet with David.  He and his wife both sat down and agreed to listen to us but in the end kindly declined a Book of Mormon and "suggested" that we don't come back.   Honestly, I thought it was a super spiritual lesson but I guess they just aren't prepared . . .

Saturday:  We tracted a neighborhood on our bikes.  We visited a few members and got about 50 doors slammed in our faces.  Seriously.  Every house we knocked on either didn't even let us introduce ourselves or just looked through the window and ignored us.  All of the members were really awesome and let us in, gave us some water, and introduced themselves to us!  It was a super slow day.  That night we had dinner at Guthrie's finest - Stables.  And it was GOOD!  I ordered ribs and it was probably the best BBQ I've had since being in Oklahoma!

After dinner we drove over to meet the Dysart family.  Earlier that day they were out doing yard work and Brother Dysart cut his leg with a chainsaw so he had to go get it stitched up.  We helped him move and burn some trees.  A little miracle from that day was that Sister White was over with her little girl who needed a blessing - so we got to give her a blessing!  :) 

Sunday:  It was my 7th Fast Sunday on my mission!  Time is flying!  After Church we cooked up some food and then went a visited a neighborhood where a few of the members live.  They either weren't home, or we couldn't find their houses so we ended up visiting our only investigator - Kili.  We had an awesome lesson with her and her son.  She told us that the first time we met with her the only thing that she didn't agree with was Joseph Smith.  We thought that she was going to talk about Joseph seeing God and Christ in the grove but it turns out that it was about the plates.  She was previously told that Joseph "lost" the plates after he translated the Book of Mormon.  But now she totally accepts that an angel took the plates.  It was just a great lesson.

I love and miss you.
Keep the Faith.
Expect Miracles.

Elder Harris

A Little Missionary Fun