Extreme Makeover: Home Edition #missionarystyle

Hey Mom!  I loved the title of your email - #confessions.  I've got some replies:

#confession #1:  I'm happy that you think of me but I've got to be honest, I don't think about you guys as much as you would think I might.  :)  I just get my mind going on about 2000 different things I've got to do - so I just don't have that kind of time.

#confession #2:  I'm starting to see a lot of progress in myself.  I can see now more than ever how I've grown, where I'm weak, and where I need to improve.  It's actually a lot of fun to see these changes!  I feel like I'm really in the groove of missionary work and I love it!  We're starting to really make a change here!

#confession #3:  As a missionary, I seem to judge myself by how many lessons or new investigators we have.  But I love your thought and I'm going to start to measure how good of a missionary I am by how happy I am.  Thanks for that.

President Franco got here - and he's here to stay!  I'm super excited to learn from another set of eyes.  It's been so great to have 4 mission presidents.  Each one has taught me something different that I can focus on and apply to my life.

President Taylor:  How the basics of the gospel (Doctrine of Christ) is the answer to every question.

President Walkenhorst:  The importance of obedience.

President Heyman:  PLAN. PLAN. PLAN.  Set goals, make plans, and do everything you can to achieve them.

And now President Franco:  Can't wait to see what he's got . . . .

As for Cade, I'm proud of him.  Nothing will change his life more than putting his life in the hands of the Lord.  It's not just being in the mission field that changes your life, but rather striving to be a missionary that changes your life.  And don't worry, Satan is just as strong if not stronger while in the field.  It's a preparation - so for all you young kids who are preparing to serve:  prepare to be tempted.  We're here to master our desires.

I've been thinking a lot lately about our personal relationship with the Father.  How important is my relationship with my Heavenly Father?  What does this relationship mean to me?  What can I do to make that relationship better?

Honestly, this week FLEW by.  We destroyed a house and rebuilt it for this super, super poor man.  He was living in a wooden house and his roof had a huge hole in it.  He has slept in a spider, roach, and snake infested cot with a tarp over him for a long time.  To make things worse, when it rains everything gets soaked so we decided to destroy his house one day while he was at work and built it up again.  It was super cool - we burned everything and then got to watch this man cry tears of joy when he returned and saw his brand new home.  Extreme Makeover:  Home Edition  #missionarystyle

We also had a few sad experiences this week.  Our family that we've been teaching had to move to the other side of Goya because of some family problems.  This means that they no longer live in our area but we do have plans to go find them this week while we're on divisions!  :)

All in all, we're doing good!  Elder Morrin gave our district meeting this week and referenced a talk called "A Fourth Missionary" and talked about how we can be more consecrated to the work.  He shared a letter that his older brother, Steve, sent him.  Steve recently got back from his mission and said how "the mission helps us set our priorities in line.  I've been home 2 weeks and still don't think I've turned on the TV."  E Morrin share a few more stories about his brother and how we can come to be a more consecrated missionary - not just to the work, but to the Lord.  I thought it was a pretty good message.

Love you guys!
Keep your heads up, you know I love you!  :)

Elder Harris

PS:  I totally got prayed over by some evangelical pastor this week!  He wanted to bless us.  :)