Monday, September 23, 2013

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


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