The Gospel Puts Your Life in Order

Family! :) Como estan uds!

Espero que todo esta bien! And mom! You´re right, this week is gonna be a crazy one. We´ve been hearing from the Assistants that these transfers are gonna be CRAZY! We´re expecting a few whitewashes in all of the mission... so who knows! I might be starting clean with a new companion in a few hours!

As for that lady - that's super sad. I wrote a letter to myself today in my journal.. so in 10 years I can remember how I felt and I had a thought this week of how the Gospel, if nothing else - puts your life in order. So for anyone that is reading this - live the gospel and its principles, and you´re life will change. :)

Mason is home?! Wow! He´s the last of that group, right? So the next on the list is.. me? NO! :( Who is the next elder to come home?

As for the less actives - occasionally. I have met a majority of them here in my area, and to be honest about half of them aren´t planning on coming back to church. So, when they start to rag on the church (and occasionally at us) I just say something like, well, it seems to me that right now you´re not planning on coming back, so would it be okay if we offer a prayer for you and your family? It usually works, and helps them at least feel the spirit. Plus, they don't waste a ton of our time :) 

How sweet is that car! Good work. :)

But.. I do have some good stories this week! So prepare yourselves!

So, we went to Resistencia for a conference on Tuesday. So we went up and had the conference, which Elder Valdez and I earned the award of "The Defensive Lineman Companionship". We got flags.. the bad part is.. we lost our necks. ;)

We had a super good conference. Pres Franco gave an awesome teaching on how its not just baptism, or not just faith that is going to save us... but faith, repentance, baptism, the receiving of the holy ghost, receiving the priesthood, going to the temple, and also being sealed... AND THEN enjoying to the end. its a lot more than just 1 covenant, its many! And covenants are great! :)   He also shared with us, that if we want to be saved, all we have to do is go to church every week. just constantly serving, loving, and partaking of the sacrament will do enough for us.

Right after the conference, I went to Bella Vista to do a baptismal interview with a boy named Diego. His little brother was baptized a few weeks ago (Franco) and I met Diego. He was super sweet. We had the interview in the dark on the beach of a lake. One of the coolest atmosphere to have an interview. He passed the interview and was baptized this week. He was a little down that I could not have been there for his baptism, but he´ll be a great member. :)

While in Bella Vista, we also had this lesson with a lady that lives right in front of the church. Literally, across the street. It was a super solid lesson! She understood everything great, especially WHY the restoration was necessary (usually is the part people don't understand) and the importance of a prophet! We invited her to be baptized and she accepted and she went to church this week! essssaaaaa!!!

We met these 2 boys looking for work - Juan and Aldo. They asked us to pray that they could find work, so we taught them the restoration and prayed they could find work, at the end of the lesson, Juan also prayed that he could find work. The next day (Thursday) Elder Burnett (DL in Bella Vista) told me that they passed by their house, and they both found jobs to help them get some money together to go to Mar del Plata.  #milagroswag

We also had a super good moment. So here, people don´t say "Thank G..", but they say "Gracias a Dios" (Thanks to God), but sometimes it really makes sense, and most of the time, they are breaking the 3rd commandment... well, we met someone who said "I´m an athiest, gracias a Dios". 

I don't know if its as funny to you as it was to us, maybe because they said "Gracias a Dios" for everything. Anyways....

Argentine's always yell at their dogs. They yell "Fuera" (out) and everyone has their "fuera voice" so they will be talking in their nice voice and then their dog misbehaves and "FUERA" with the voice of the devil himself. Its so funny! So, E. Valdez and I make fun of the people a little and when we see a dog we say "FUERA" in the most disgusting voice we can conjure up. So, we were at a house sitting outside in the dark, and E Valdez had his bag under the chair. The faimly we were talking to thought itw as a dog and yelled "FUERA" at the bag. Don´t worry, we made fun of them. :)

Love you guys!

I´ll talk to you guys next week... hopefully in Goya!

Elder Harris

PS - Here's some pictures from Filomena's baptism!

Push Ups & Celebrating 1 Year!

Hey family!

Im happy you finally got a taste of the Argentina Resistencia mission! :) Its probably a little bit hotter here though... in the summer, 110% humidity with 100 degrees Faraheit. No biggie, but Im super excited to drop 15 lbs:) 

Whats new in South America... hmm... not much. Still walking on dirt roads, carrying a BoM in hand, and laughing at the little miracles I see everyday. (Laughter of joy)  But really not much has changed. We´re starting to see progress in the branch, and we reactivated a super inactive family! I'll tell the story in a minute :)

As for Braeden - I have a missionary in my district that is from the mission right beneath where he´s going, and he says yes its hot, but its a dry heat.. so i imagine its like Arizona. :) Enjoy!

As for this week, we did WORK! Monday night, we have a family home evening that was the BEST thing ever!!!  We talked about the Atonement, and we used little candies. So I was acting as the Savior, and for every person that wanted a piece of candy, I had to do 10 push ups... So as we started giving them out to the little kids, they were so pumped and screaming as I pumped out the push ups..... the only problem, is that I´m not like I used to be, and after handing out about 15 pieces of candy... these 18 months caught up to me... and well, doing 10 push ups started to get a little more difficult. So because kids are kids, they kept asking for more and more candy, BUT i had to do 10 push ups. But being the "loving Savior", I did the push ups happily. Up until the point that my arms started to tremble and the parents noticed so they rejected a piece of candy... but since the Atonement is also for those that refuse to use it, I did the push ups even though it was near impossible for my skinny little arms. This made them think about how great the gift of the atonement really is. 

I ended up doing almost 300 push ups in 20 minutes. No biggie ;)

My chest still hurts. ;)

Another notable event, it was Elder Valdez´s year mark, and he celebrated by eating a kilo of ice cream in one sitting... We took pictures, and it took about 40 minutes:) SO funny. :)

I also went on divisions with Elder Pacheco - who is from Chile and one of my favorite elders in the mission. He´s been in the same district as me since Fontana! (January) and so we´ve gotten pretty close:)

We had a good time and had some solid lessons. 

I also got to visit Alicia and Valentine Fernandez, and they even came to church on Sunday!! :) We took pictures. Its super sad - her husband doesn't want her to go to church, but she is still reading the BoM and wants to go to church every week! SOO cool

We also are planning on having a baptism this weekend! Her name is Filomela, she´s 10, and she´s motivating her family to go to church! Her mom wants to get baptized too, but she needs to get married. Shes 33, and her boyfriend is younger than Elder Valdez... weird, no? hah! Some of the relationships here are just insane. I'm sorry, but for everyone that is more than 15 years older than me... I'm sorry, I don't think it will work. :)

But we´re excited for the baptism, and to see the family progress.

We are working with a few other families too, and a handful of them will probably be baptized in September! I hope I'm here for it! :)

 If I stay one more transfer.. guess what! My LAST CONFERENCE IN GOYA!!! :)

Love you guys!

Keep smiling, and keep the faith!

Elder Harris

Feeling a Little Trunky

Family! + Kenzie Sage

First off, Kenzie, welcome to the family! I hope Tyler and Kenzie enjoyed their wedding, from the pictures it seems that you all had a good time. I hope you enjoyed taking funny pictures with my cardboard self, I know that´s what I would´ve done. But I´ve been dying to know.. did anyone ask me to dance? 

Everything here in Goya is great! Absolutely great! We´re loving our time and still working hard. Lately, the weather has been off and on, sometimes it gets super cold, and then warm. Right now, it's probably 75 degrees or so... So it's in the middle. I'm kinda dreading the summer. I'm not ready to drink 3 gallons of water a day and walk in 120 degree heat, but on the plus side, Im probably gonna lose a few more pounds! #thebiggestloser:missionaryedition

So, I will admit it. I got feeling a little trunky today. With all of the excitement from hiking Timp, home run derby at Burgess, Braeden going to the temple, receiving the Melchezedic priesthood, Ty getting married - I think I have the right to be a little trunky. Like Argentine´s have the right to take a nap during the middle of the day. (Some guy chewed me out when we knocked on his door during the siesta and said that haha!)

But for real, seems to me that you all had the best week of your lives! :) I hope you all enjoyed it!

But you know, we did have a pretty good week. We had Consejo de Lideres in Resistencia on Tuesday, which was a whole day event. We learned a lot from Prez and Hma Franco. We talked a lot about unity, and the way to recieve revelation. So, we´re working on that. :) 

Tuesday, we had the Zone meeting, and it was great! I got to teach a majority of it with Elder Valdez and we did a prety good job. Not nearly as good as Prez Franco, but we did pretty well. I think thats one of the biggest blessings that I have as being a ZL here. To receive these teachings directly from Prez Franco and not through a ZL. 

We had a great week honestly. I met a baby Carpincho (thats what we ate) and during that lesson we had with the family Mazuchini and our invetegator Patricia and her family it was way good! So I´ve passed by this house off and on since February, but we never saw any progress, but one day Patricia was in the backyard when we stopped to talk to them and when she saw us she said "Do you really talk to these type of people?" When Marta (Mazuchini mom) totally stood up for us even though she´s not a member yet! And now Patricia and her family have been to church twice and have a baptismal date set for a few weeks down the road!

And I'm out of time, I had a few more stories, but they can wait!

I love you guys, enjoy Mena!

and the other reception! :)

Tell Ty to save me a piece of cake.

Elder Harris

I LOVE THE MISSION LIFE

Family!

How is everyone doing? I have had a little crazy week, but I can honestly say that I am officially in LOVE with the mission life. I´ve never enjoyed doing something more than this ever! If anyone is doubting on going and thinks there are better things to do, just go. You´ll never regret it after.

I bet your stomach is just full of butterflies right now, ain´t it ma? But don´t worry, just give it 2 months and everything will be more relaxed. As for Brae - thats awesome. Im so excite for him. Im gonna be expecting a LOT of pics this next week. So, send them my way!

And I havn´t gotten the wedding invitation yet, maybe while I'm in Resistencia.

So this week was honestly a little interesting... We started out the week with a 2 day divisions with Elder Gonzalez and Elder Guajardo. I went to their area to work for Tuesday and Wednesday. While we were there we found a few people and had a few lessons. You´ll never believe this - but Braeden and my convert Jorge have the same birthday, and since I was in the other area on Tuesday I didn't get to celebrate it with him, but you´ll never guess! He's still wearing the hold to the rod necklace. Such a stud! I don´t know if I ever mentioned that.. I gave it to him a few months ago!

As for the divisions, we had a good time. Elder Guajardo and I ate a super good pizza. During divisions, I´ll usually pick up a little something for us to eat at night :) There is a place here called Pizza Uno that delivers and they know us by name. We´re pretty much regulars :)

On Thursday Elder Valdez and I got to work together! We visited Lucy, and she´s still progressing. She got so upset at herself because for the past 3 weeks something has come up so she can´t come to church, and she told us "Hey, we´re gonna walk to church together (15 blocks and she´s 67) so I can go, si o si!" so we walked with her this sunday. And when we got there, we had to go find her a few glasses of water :) She´s great :)

We also had planned to eat Tacos at her house, like a family home evening, and we cooked up tacos. You should´ve seen their faces! So great! They are in love with them. So we did all that with Lucy this week, if she can just quit smoking, she will be baptized, she already told us that she wants to make it to church alone this week, so she can show herself that she can do it on her own. So, we´re not gonna call her or stop by in the morning. :) We´re hoping the Lord can give her the strength to come to church!

Then on Friday, President Franco had Lavalle come and stay with us for a few days (hence the multiple photos of us together) so we could teach, and help them out. We split my area, and we switched off between the two elders - Elder Hulme and Elder Morrin every other day since we worked Friday until Sunday together. 

We enjoyed our time. I can say I absolutely love those 2 elders with all of my heart. They´re definitely 2 of the best missionaries in the zone, and of all the elders to be with for a few days - I'm happy it was them! They´re great .  :) And a #shoutout to Mama Morrin! Because Ryan told me you read my blog. #imblushing ;)

And your boy is a great missionary! One of the most obedient in the zone, so I'm super grateful for him and the example that he gives to the other elders. And Elder Hulme is the same. They´re both POWER HOUSE missionaries. I love teaching with both of them.  The day that Elder Morrin and I worked together, we had this super awesome lesson using mormon.org. I never thought that my time in the states would pay off... until now :) So we enjoyed that. :)

This Sunday, we had 6 of our investegators come to church. It was a miracle. 3 diferent families we´re working with! We´ve been waiting and working with them patiently for a while and they´re all starting this journey! 

One of the moms named Patricia while I was introducing her to a member here told this member that "We helped her to find the truth", she has a date for the 23rd, and Im super excited to see if it really comes to pass! Her daughters also have a date, so we´re hoping for the entire family! And the best part - they live right in front of a house of members. #blessings

But family! I hope you enjoy the temple, the wedding, and everything else this week. Im sorry I can´t be with you, but DWAI. :)

Love you!

Elder Harris