Formosa: Week 1

Hey Family! How´s everything going?!

I just want to start off and tell you that I sure do love you. I wish I could just keep saying it, but I really do love you guys. You’re the best!

A good part about Formosa is that I´m in a ward. We get fed a lot. We have lunch with members from Tuesday to Sunday every week, so we are eating well. We also have a sister that washes our clothes and you´ll never believe it - my shirts aren´t yellow anymore! She´s a little magician with her washing machine because my shirts are white again!! I think that hand washing them in Clorinda did some work on them...

As for the area, it’s great. Humble like always, but I still think that Braeden´s area might be more humble. Most of the people in my area live off of the government. They receive their little casitas from the government and also get a little bit from the government each month. Its super funny though, our area is the turn around point of the bus route and there is only 1 bus that goes out that direction if that helps you see that I’m serving in the boonies of the city. :)

But wow, as for this week, it was a great week. None of our investigators came to church, but just like always, give me a few weeks and we will have a solid teaching pool , people getting ready to be baptized then I’ll be home. :) #storyofmylife

We also had a Multi-Zone conference with all the zones here in Formosa. Clorinda, Ibaretta, Formosa 1, 2 and 3. It was good to see some good friends again like Elder Hulme, Elder Simmons, Elder Zivic, etc. It´s always a good time to get together. President Franco did a great job on teaching too. He talked about consecration and how we can be more consecrated to the work and to the Lord. One thing that he said was super interesting that "We came to the mission to be in the mission" not to find a wife, make friends, or anything like that... It was a good reminder of what is my purpose here and to help me think about how I am doing as a missionary and what MORE I can do for the people. Most of the time it comes back to opening my mouth 24/7 - talking to people on the bus, in stores, everywhere. I’m working on it. :)

As for Thanksgiving... can I just say we had a day full of miracles?

So, to start off we said a prayer as we were leaving our pench. The morning was hard. I don’t know why but Elder Brough and I both didn’t have a lot of energy leaving the apartment, so as we knelt to pray right before we left I prayed that right as we got downstairs and to the corner that we could get on the bus, get to our area and work diligently all day long. So as we walked out of our pench, we looked around the corner, and the bus was a half a block away....I just thought to myself "Oh, REAL FUNNY big guy!" Since we were like 2 blocks from the bus stop, we sprinted to get on the bus on time. So we got on just laughing at what had just happened.

Right as we got off the bus we went to a set lesson we had but the lady that we had it set wasn´t there, but her 3 daughters and another girl with a guy were all sitting outside and they let us right in to talk to them. So, it's long story but we did explain how we can receive forgiveness of our sins and change. I studied Grace this week and it honestly is very interesting.

It’s kinda like Laman and Lemuel - they didn’t understand the atonement (1 N 2:12) whereas Nephi did (1 Nephi 1:1). So, Nephi could be faithful to the Lord even though he wasn´t perfect, he understood that the Lord just wanted him to do his best and the Lord would make up the rest. If we´re ever feeling down, we just need to trust in the Lord and His grace.

GAHH I have so much to tell you guys, I just don’t have time. The area is great, we are finding a lot of really great people. One guy named Aldo is super awesome. I’ll tell you about him next week.

One little spiritual thought - Lehi and his family upon leaving Jerusalem left everything behind, then when they got to the wilderness they offered another sacrifice... 1 Nephi 2:7 I think...

But it’s always a good question - what more can I sacrifice? What more can I do?
Our bishop said yesterday that we shouldn´t ever let a Sunday pass by without making someone else´s day better.

I sure do love you, sadly I don’t have enough time. Have a great week. We´ll talk next week. :)

1 Nephi 21:14-16 The Scripture of the Week.

Keep the Faith, we are in His hands.

Elder Harris III