Elder Cody Harris
A Missionary Serving in the Oklahoma City Mission and the Argentina Resistencia Mission
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Monday, February 2, 2015
The Best Two Years
Well,
just like the movie, it really has been the best two years.
I´m humbled to say
that this is going to be my last letter as a missionary that I will be able to
send home.
Over the past 2 years
I´ve grown a lot. Not in height, and I´ve lost a lot of weight, but I´ve grown
a lot spiritually. I´ve come to a knowledge of what the Lord expects of us. And
just like Elder Holland, Words can´t describe how much my mission means to me.
I´ve never been so grateful for the time to represent my family, my church, and
more importantly, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
It’s been a very high
bar to try to reach, but with the Atonement, I´ve seen my heart open to these
people of Argentina. I love this country, I love these people, even the weird
things that they do, I love all of it. There is something magical about being a
missionary. How we can be so involved in the world, yet so blind to everything
that really is happening. I´ve talked with people that I normally wouldn´t talk
to, I´ve associated with people that 2 years ago, I probably would´ve looked
the other way. I´ve sat and testified of our Savior in some of the poorest
places I´ve ever been, and I´ve seen smiles come to the faces of these people
as they are learning and accepting daily our Savior into their lives.
If I have learned
anything I´ve learned the importance of having a gospel centered home. Starting
with a mother and a father who love each other and are willing to lay
everything on the "altar of sacrifice" for the Lord.
I´ve also learned how
the Lord communicates with us, and the importance of not only listening, but
when we do hear, acting. I had a very special experience with President Heyman
back in January 2014 on this very subject.
I´ve seen the
Atonement change the hearts of people. I´ve seen the Savior personally take
people into his hands, mold them, and make them into better versions of
themselves. I´ve seen as it says in Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason
together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
I´ve truly seen the
Lord forgive sins and change them to be "as white as wool".
It’s really been a
great journey. If anyone that is reading this is even questioning of going on a
mission, or possibly thinking of not going - Go. Just take a leap of faith and
go. You will never regret it. There are few things in this world that I
will say are really important to me, but my mission has been one of them.
There´s nothing that
puts a smile on my face more than sitting on a chair, or a tree stump, or even
on the ground, and sharing the message of the Restoration with these beautiful
people. In Argentina, we have come to a conclusion that it’s a nation full of
religious confusion. The best part is that our message clears up ALL of that
confusion. It gives them a clear answer to all of their questions, yet, the
churches that teach the false or not complete doctrine are usually the ones
with more "followers".
Just this week, one of my favorite investigators decided to stop meeting with us. I was brought to tears that night but joy filled my heart knowing that I planted a good seed with these people. They will forever remember the kindness and love that they felt from the Mormon Missionaries.
It’s been a dream. I
can honestly say, just like Paul that I´ve fought a good fight. I might not
have baptized as many people as I had planned to, but I´ve kept the
faith.
I love you all,
You know what they
say.. "See you next week!"
Til we meet,
in Salt Lake City. :)
Elder Cody Harris
Monday, January 26, 2015
Big Storms, Interviews and Nemo
Hola querido
familia mio,
Well, it
looks like you´re all just peachy. This week was a normal week NOT. It went by
pretty quick, but it sure was full of its ups and downs.
I’m happy to
hear that Kenz loved Preference, in the letter she sent to me it seemed she
enjoyed herself. Luckily she has awesome parents that would prepare that much
food for those kids! :)
Since I’m a
litle short on time, I’m gonna give you a little run down of this week and tell
me if it wasn´t just as crazy as yours!
So, this
week it RAINED. We had 3 really big storms pass through. One of them it was
raining so hard against our tin roof we couldn´t sleep. It sure does make for
good stories though, right?
Then on
Tuesday, I gave the training to a sister that is coming home with me. You´ll
probably get to meet her in SLC because she lives in Utah too. But I let Hma
Lund give this training and she talked about the spirit and the importance of
the spirit not just in the mission but in our daily lives. Then gave us the
invitation to always look for the spirit in all that we do. It was really good.
Then we
found out that one of our new missionaries who is from Paraguay had to go to
Cordoba to do some paperwork. So, that put Elder Smith (From AF) with Elder
Brough and I from Wednesday to Saturday afternoon. We ended up working in the
two areas and we didn’t get a chance to see a lot of the people we had hoped to
see. But Elder Zabala brought us some alfajores from Cordoba that were pretty
good!
And finally,
we got to have our interviews with President Franco. We ended up drinking
chocolate milk and eating donuts (they´re not Krispy Kreme or even Kohler´s
worthy) but they were great! We had a good time helping the assistants give a
training on finding people, and we used “Finding Nemo” as an example. :)
Just to help
the missionaries understand, you know. ;)
Who doesn´t wanna find Nemo?
But I did
think it was pretty funny, during my interview with President, he said
"So, Elder Harris you have, what? Like
18 days left?" And I just blurted out "I don´t know! I’m not
counting!"
See you
soon.
Love you!
Elder Harris
Monday, January 19, 2015
I'm Still in South America
Well
Mom, it´s Monday again, and I´m here to tell you that I’m still in South
America. :)
It’s hot, but
we don´t complain.
Braeden also
told me that he´s doing good. I´m happy to hear that he´s happy and healthy.
I´m doing well too. I´m just so beyond blessed that I’ve never really gotten
sick or hurt on my mission. It’s definitely been a blessing.
So, as for
this week, we worked our tails off. But we also had a few funny stories.
First off,
Elder Brough told me while sitting at the bus stop that Taylor Swift only has 6
types of songs:
1. He´s too
good for me.
2. I´m too
good for him.
3. I´m over
him.
4. He doesn´t
notice me
5. I´m 15.
6. I´m 22.
I thought
you´d get a good laugh out of that.
Also, a
sister told me this one - Why did the hipster burn his tongue on his hot
chocolate? Because he drank it before it was cool.
So, there´s
my 2 jokes for the week. :)
Well, I did
divisions this week with someone named Elder Smith who was in the AF Marching
Band! Can you believe it?! He lived over by the temple! We had a good little
division working in his area.
But, I´ve
just gotta tell you. I´ve met some of the best people that I’ve ever met in my
entire life these past few weeks.
This week,
the sisters Hna Lund and Beecher had a baptism of a man named Hugo. He´s an
awesome convert! In Priesthood, he said how the BoM has formed a part of his
life and is his "best friend". He´s such a good guy, and continually
apologized for interrupting the classes.
We also found
another couple named Fransisco and Catalina this week. We left them the BoM,
and as we came back for the second lesson, Catalina was sitting outside READING
the BoM as we came up. It was great!
We´ve been
putting a ton of emphasis on the Book of Mormon and helping people receive an
answer that the Book is true. It´s really changed the way we teach.
As we keep
working, I´ve seen that I just forget about all the things that once were
important and focus on the needs of others. And as of right now, I´m down to 1
pair of shoes, and 2 pairs of pants. Some people need things more than I
do.
As for
Sunday, none of our investigators came to church. But the reason is (and this
is a HUGE miracle that I¨ll share with you in more detail in a few weeks) that
the bus got robbed and the bus driver was knocked unconscious, so the cops had
to come and investigate. It´s a good thing the spirit told us not to get on
that bus, right? :)
We also had a
really good lesson with Johanna last night. So, I don’t know how much I´ve told
you about them. So, Christian and Johanna live in this little house made out of
cardboard. They´re super humble and they´re always laughing and smiling with
their 3 cute little kids. So, I asked Johanna if there was anything we could do
to help them, and she just looked at me with the biggest smile and said
"No, I´ve got everything a poor person could ask for." I just thanked
her for her love toward her children and for always being so optimistic. She
then said something that went like this "Well, if I act sad that I don’t
have anything then my kids will too". She is just a great, caring mother, just like
you, mom. Thanks for showing me what the Savior´s love is like. A lot of
people don´t get a chance to feel that love in their lives, but I´ve got a
whole loving family that shows me that, even when I´m a little stinker.
This week has
definitely been a good one. I love being a missionary. I´m not ready for this
dream to end. It’s come and gone way to fast.
Love you all.
Study Jacob 5
this week.
Elder Harris :)
Monday, January 12, 2015
Pigeon Soup and People in the Woodwork
So, things on
this side of the world might be a little different than yours. It´s currently
about 100 degrees. It´s been getting to
a low of about 93 this week, with clouds, and humidity. It´s been a good week.
I´ve also discovered a new diet - and it’s not the "starve yourself with
only rice" diet like I tried last year, or the HGH diet I tried with Elder
Valdez. It´s this awesome diet called the "Walk around in the sun all day
in pants diet" It seems to work great. The hardest part is leaving the
shade.
You know,
it´s funny you ask what life is like here at 2 in the afternoon. I´d like to
know what everyone else is doing too.. but I DO! They´re all taking a nap.
EVERYONE sleeps a siesta. So from about 1:30-4 everyone sleeps and we study. :)
So, just imagine missionaries inside
studying and there you go. :) Maybe I’ll take a picture this week to show
you.
Christian and
Johanna are good. They were sick on Friday when we visited them and Christian
said they´re good to come to church but we haven´t been able to see them. We
will be visiting them tonight since they didn´t make it to church this week.
Johanna is still reading in the Book of Mormon and Christian is every once and
a while.
But we did
have Consejo de Lideres this week. So, the elders from Ibaretta came down on
Monday night and we cooked up some pizza and enjoyed some outdoor pizza with
coke. Then on the way back!! The elders from Clorinda had to stay with us (you
know, I think they just like us the best) so we cooked up some choripancitos!
oh it was soo good.
Consejo was
really good too. The area presidency has made some changes and now we only
report 1. number of baptisms and confirmations 2. assistance in our ward/branch
3. less actives reactivated. It´s a
really different way to do missionary work. The idea is that they want to focus
on results and not as much on how we get the results.
I also gave
Elder Valdez the goodbye hug. I´m not gonna lie... it was weird. It´s strange
to think that I won´t see that kid until we´re both back in the states. But don´t worry. He´ll come to visit
sometime. He´s one of my best friends in the mission.
As for this
week, it was HOT! But, it sure was a fulfilling week. I feel content with
everything that we got done. We taught a lot of lessons, visited a lot of
people, and we´re starting to see multiple families progress toward
reactivation or baptisms. It’s a good life.
So, we ate
pigeon soup.
This weekend
also has been the best weekend of my mission. Well, second behind the week that
Jorge was baptized. But, I just feel content. I remember very distinctly
walking to the bus stop at the end of the night and having the spirit come over
me. It was a good feeling, almost like someone was saying "good
work". I got that feeling on Saturday and Sunday night. It really was a
testimony builder to me especially if I could explain ALL of the things that
happened those 2 days. They were days full of lessons on all parts of the
spectrum. From first contacts or investigators taking their first steps,
inactive members with a ton of problems looking for solutions or recent
converts asking themselves why it´s so hard to endure to the end. A little bit
of everything we had mixed into those two short days. But, we taught to their
needs and helped them understand how important the gospel is in their lives.
So, I don´t
know if you remember, but we were teaching a Family Laviosa a while back. Aldo
and Laura? Well, we went by the other day and were talking to their dad
Seferino who was super against talking to us. Well, we talked to him a few
times then finally gave him a BoM and invited him to read it. We set a time to
talk and when we came back, he had read all of 3 Nephi 11, and went off for 5
minutes EXPLAINING EVERYTHING that happened in the chapter. He even caught the
part where everyone came up to Christ. It was awesome. We taught the first
lesson, and I asked him "So, do you want to know if this message is
true?" And he just paused, then humbly said "Si." So we started
throwing ALL the commitments at him! Will you read? Will you pray? Will you
come to church? Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized..?
(before I finished my question he said yes) He replied Yes to every single
commitment. And you know, it´s not rare here to find people that say yes. It’s
another thing to have people actually keep their commitments. But the way he
said it was so determined that I knew he was going to do it. He showed up to
church as we were helping prepare the Sacrament and he kinda got on us and said
"Hey! I thought you were gonna be here waiting at the door!" But he
stayed for Sacrament Meeting and then had to go. I even got him singing the
hymns with us!
We also had
another investigator at church. Her name´s Sofia, she´s 16 and the sister of a
super active new convert. We hadn´t even taught her yet, and she came to
church, but Sunday afternoon we had a lesson with her and her sister Selva and
another friend named Lorena and they all want to read. They all want to come to
church. Honestly, God is just dumping blessings on us.
And we had
another investigator at church. Her name is Mikaela, she’s 12 and is the niece
of a convert of 2 months. We´re gonna keep teaching all of them, and see if
those white pants still fit. ;)
I was
thinking last night about how great this last year of my mission has been. From
Elder Zivic, Elder Suarez, Elder Valdez, Elder Simmons and Elder Brough.
They´ve been some of the best companions that I could´ve ever asked for.
They´ve helped me in millions of ways. I feel this last year of my mission
really has been the turning point of my life.
I love being
a missionary, I just want to keep living in this dream that I´m living.
Love you all.
Elder Harris III
Elder Harris III
Monday, January 5, 2015
Moments I'm Going to Miss
Hola Familia!
Nuevo año,
nuevo momentos para poner las pilas y hacer un poco mas!
First off,
I´m a little bummed. I feel that I´m just barely starting to figure out what
being a missionary is all about. I´m starting to understand what I need to do
to be effective as a missionary. I feel that this life is a dream, and I really
don´t want it to end.
The work is
progressing. After a few weeks, we finally had a family come to church.
Christian, Johanna and their 3 kids all came. They came all dressed up too. I
was super excited to see them all come in and enjoy the fast and testimony
meeting we had. I, also bore my testimony about how great 2014 was. I remember
a year ago, I gave a training to a few missionaries in Comandante Fontana about
how 2014 will be the only year in our lives where we can say that we were
missionaries for the entire year of 2014. It was a good year. I can say that I
was obedient, we worked hard, and had a GREAT time doing it. I bore my
testimony of the Savior, and of the Book of Mormon. How in this year, my
testimony grew a lot. I came to understand my role as a child of God, and what
I am supposed to do as a Priesthood holder to help others. I´ve seen good
examples and bad throughout my life and this year has given me a good
opportunity to put my head on straight and know what type of man I want
be.
I did make
some resolutions. President Heyman will be proud to know that he taught me one
thing - PLANS PLANS PLANS: so I set some good goals. :) And just like President Heyman taught us, now
I´ve just got to go out and achieve my
goals.
As for this
week, we had a GREAT week. On the 30th, 31st and the 1st, we had to be in the
pench at 7PM, so we didn’t get a ton of work in, but wow. It sure was a week to
remember!
So first off,
on the 30th, I gave a district meeting. I gave it on goals and I kind of
cheated because I used the same training I did a year ago in Fontana. It turned
out great. We then played Jeopordy! to help the missionaries use Preach My
Gospel. We had them study Chapter 3 all
week then we had some decently hard questions to see how well they
studied.
We then got
the transfer doctrine. We had a whitewash in the zone, and now we´ve got
another set of elders here. So, we´re excited for that!
Then on
Transfer day... we spent the ENTIRE day in the terminal. We had to wait for
missionaries and help them come and go. And to top it off, New Years eve might
be the busiest travel day in the entire world..so getting bus tickets was near
impossible and there were 20000000 people in the terminal. It was a
madhouse.
But all the
missionaries got to where they needed to be, except one. :) The one that didn´t
make it is a "mini missionary" he´s a convert of 7 months. He is
AWESOME too. He was going up to Ibaretta to serve with Elder Cannon and Elder
Hulme for the transfer and he had to stay the night with us on New Years Eve.
We totally cooked up a HUGE ASADO. A full chicken (gizzards and all), sausage
and meat! It was SOOOO GOOD. I´m a pro at cooking asados now too, so I¨ll cook
one for you when I get home. Elder Bustos was his name. He´s so excited
to serve a mission too.
As for this
week... let´s see. I had another one of those super cool "I felt like a
bishop" moments. We found this man named Carlos, and as we left his house
another man across the street called us over, told us he was a member, but has
been inactive for a while. He told us about all the things that was going wrong
in his life, and what he shouldn´t be doing... and Elder Brough kinda threw me
into the lion´s den when he said "Oh, and my companion has a scripture to
share with you..." So, I was franctically thinking of what I could share
with this man that was just so broken... I thought about the scriptures in Alma
37:41 where the Words of Christ will tell you all things you must do, then I
thought of the importance of keeping our families following the prophet like
the story of King Benjamin in Mosiah 2:5. Then a thought hit me - The doctrine
of Christ helps people change.
So, we
started talking about faith.. then we moved onto repentance. And we stayed
there because it felt right. The more we started talking about repentance and
the atonement, the stronger the spirit got and by the end of this lesson, this
man was wiping tears from his eyes. We gave him a big hug and told him we love
him and want the best for him. We also left him with the invitation to come to
church. He didn´t come, but I do know that we did our job - create a spiritual
enviornment and let them choose to follow the Savior or no. I´ve come to learn
that´s really what the Lord wants us to do. Have the spirit in the lessons –
that’s why we´re obedient, that’s why we study, that’s why we try to keep our
thoughts pure, that´s why we pray so much!
For those maybe 5 minutes we get maybe once or twice a week, where the
spirit is so strong that anyone that walks into the room knows that the Lord´s
spirit is there. Those are the moments that make this work so special. Those
are the moments that I´m going to miss.
I just love
you guys so much.
You´re the
best.
Keep the
Faith.
Ether 12.
Elder Harris III
Monday, December 29, 2014
Feliz Navidad!!
Hola
Feliz
Navidad!!
Que sea un
año de prosperidad!
As for this
week, Elder Brough and I have been absolute disasters. Either he or I have been
sick everyday (including today). I don’t know what’s going on! So we had a
weird schedule this week, but I think with all the time we spent in the pench
I´ll be able to give a rundown of the whole week.
So Monday, we
had the Zone Christmas party. We did the White Elephant, and it was a riot. I
got this silly hat, and Elder Brough got this super itchy, neck-brace
turtleneck. It was hilarious. We watched the Christmas Devotional and enjoyed
some cookies that the sisters made.
As for
Tuesday, we had a super good work day. The only problem, was that about 6 at
night, I started feeling a little sick. I remembered what Prez Butler told me
and I didn’t want to go to the pench early. So, we kept working. To make a long
story short, my body couldn´t do it anymore. We had tried a few more houses but
about 8:45 I finally threw in the towel. We took a bus and as the second we got
home, I passed out. I think it was heat exhaustion. I just needed to drink a
little more water. So since I´ve been drinking more and I feel fine!
Wednesday, la
Noche Buena. Oh, and it was a GOOD NIGHT. So, Christmas here is celebrated on
Christmas Eve. Everyone gets a ton of meat cooked up, a lot of drinks ready and
wait until midnight to shoot off their fireworks and their guns. We also cooked
up a little chicken and enjoyed some homemade bowling with some bottles we
found. :)
We had to be
in the pench at 7, and it was near impossible to sleep.. so we just pressed
on.
As for the
morning, we went Christmas caroling as a zone! It was way fun. We sang for a
few families who haven´t come to church in a while and tried to lift some
spirits through song. It was funny. There´s nothing like showing up at
someone´s door with an ARMY of missionaries.
As for Christmas,
we woke up, missed our bus and while waiting there was this lady sitting
outside named Lorena that wouldn´t stop crying. While waiting for the bus we
started talking to her (although she might have been a little tipsy,) I felt
bad for her because her drunk boyfriend kicked her out on Christmas eve and she
kept saying how she felt like a dog on Christmas. We ended up at the Flores´
house to have a little lunch then we came back to talk to you guys! We went to
the terminal to take out a box for the zone, but the place was closed, so we
wasted some time there...
Friday and
Saturday we got to work normally. We had a few lessons that were amazing.
Christian and Johanna are still progressing. I´m not sure why they didn´t come
to church because we talked to them on Sunday morning and they said they were
good to go. Johanna is reading the Book of Mormon every day. She´s learned a
lot! She keeps asking questions and is very fascinated by everything we´ve been
teaching.
We also met a
guy named Enrique that´s from Bartolome de las Casas! But he moved away from
there as a kid, but he knew Saul, Ernesto Flores and everyone else in the
colony! It brought back some good memories to be able to talk to him.
I´m sorry,
I´m doing a million things now and I´ve gotta run!
Love you all!
Elder
Harris III
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)