Trick or Treat!

Wow Mom. That was definitely not the news I was expecting to hear. I think it’s funny that Dad told me that in 2 years nothing changes. Do you want me to start on the list? Well, Ty got married, almost all of his buddies are married, my uncles are having babies, cousins leaving on missions, I don’t know if it’s the same. I know just like you all have changed, that I’ve changed a lot too. I feel good with who I am right now. Elder Simmons is by far my favorite companion of my mission. I will never forget this kid. Sadly, I don’t think we´re going be staying together for another transfer. So, were going live it up for the last 3 weeks we’ve got! 

And no, we´re not going be celebrating Halloween, but Elder Simmons and  I might make up some more Banana Pancakes and take turns knocking on our own door saying "Trick or treat!"

Well wow! You had a full week of marriages and homecomings. I’m happy to hear that Brayden and Maddi got married the same week! They both look great. I miss those two a lot. It feels I haven’t seen Brayden in a LONG time. 

Both missions have had different roles in my life. I know the Lord sent me to Oklahoma for a reason - and one day I will understand. I will say that Argentina has helped me to grow up a lot more. I’ve learnd to trust the Lord more in the past year than I have ever in my life. Can you believe it? I’ve officially been in Argentina for a year this week. :)

But wow mom! Things in Clorinda are great. We are teaching 6 or 7 families (complete with a dad, mom and kids) which is really different than before in my mission where we would only teach like 1 person at a lesson. All of the families are great. They´re so different, each and every one of them, and I just love being able to see what works in a family so that one day I can do it in mine... I’ve already come to a conclusion - those that not only have the gospel, but LIVE the gospel as a family are the happiest.

I really am doing great. I’m happy, healthy, and starting to pull a few pranks on my comp. Gosh I love Elder Simmons. He’s so funny. He told me some stories from before his mission... he’s a riot. Shout out to his parents btw! You two did a good job. :)

The biggest thing I learned this week is how to say "I´m sorry". We had interviews with President Franco in Formosa. And I’m not sure what happened, but before we have always had lunch as a zone with President. But this time nobody brought food and we were all super hungry, and a little cranky from sleeping on the floor from the night before. I complained a little to the assistant that there wasn’t food... so I had to call him up the next day and say sorry for how I acted. 

Even though I’m not perfect, I just have learned to say sorry through that experience and a few others this week to help me realize that sometimes we need to just say sorry because nobody is perfect... 

We also started our English Class this week. I kinda took it upon myself and another companionship to teach it. So we´re teaching and it will be a great time. This week we taught them how to say "Hello, My name is..." and things like that. Super super basic. Like Braeden says its hilarious to see Latinos trying to pronounce the words in English. I don’t know how the people don’t just laugh at me all the time. 

So a week ago, we met this little kid named Waquín (11) and we told him we are going pass by when his mom is there, and we passed by and started talking to his family. They are great. The mom is named Estela. She’s great. She’s catholic, but doesn’t practice her religion and she tells us that her religion just doesn’t "fill her". Like, it doesn’t satisfy her. So she came to the English class and we had a really good time teaching her, Waquín, Doris (little sister 8 ) and her boyfriend Isidrio. We also showed them the church right after the class, and it was awesome! When we entered the chapel.. someone had left the AC on, so it was super cool, and we were all hit with the spirit when we entered in. It was awesome. Estela still has a lot of questions but is reading the Book of Mormon at night before she goes to bed with her kids. So that’s a plus! 

We also got Oscar to go to church again. I’m so pumped for him. He’s only 21 and he finally wants to get out of that pattern of life of drinking and smoking. He is super quiet, but is slowly getting better.

We´re honestly teaching a lot of people and I’m sorry I never have enough time to explain all the great stories and spiritual experiences I´m having here. 

Love you guys!

Helaman 7:16-18

Keep the Faith!

Elder Harris III

Snapbacks & Barrio Toba

Well, the name of this weekly letter is gonna be "Snapbacks and Barrio Toba"

I know you love me mom.  I’m trying my best to make you and dad be proud of me. 

I´ll try to hit the stories I told you last night, but for real. I love talking to you guys – you’re the best.

The Scripture was D&C 78:17 

17 Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you;
18 And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of goodcheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.
19 And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more.

It just got me to think about how we really don’t understand all the blessings that our Father has waiting for us, but we just need to be happy and follow in The Path. The Kingdom is ours, if we want and those that follow this path, with gratitude toward our Heavenly Father will be made even as He is. 

I love the scriptures. Sometimes, they just talk to me.

I´ve also been thinking about what Dad asked me and I just want to repeat what Elder Simmons said - for all those preparing to serve missions, go and have mission experiences. Pray and ask Heavenly Father to have some experience every day to help you become a missionary. Mom, you can do this too. There’s a video on lds.org on the Hastening the Work of Salvation that talks about it. I feel that sometimes we are so busy or so worried about going to this place, or getting that thing done, that we forget to stop and help Gods children on our side. The worth of every soul is great in the eyes of the Lord. 

Melissa is home? Wow. Didn’t I help show her into the MTC? ;)  How great for her though. I know what she feels like - even though I’m in Clorinda, half of my heart is still in Goya. Always will be...

Well, I might want start eating some meat and doing more than 30 minutes of exercise. It looks like the Cougs need me! Put in a good word with Bronco for me... I’m gonna get home screaming "Put me in Coach! I’m ready to play!"

So this week, we had some good experiences. For starters, I got some crocodile skins. Just a gift, really. We walked a lot, so my legs are getting ready for the kickoff squad, and well, we kicked some rocks. Man, I’m telling you – I’m getting goood at kicking rocks. I can kick a pebble like half a block!So really, we had some good experiences. We also had the BIGGEST miracle. So there is this less active boy named Oscar, he´s 21 and every weekend, well everyday he drinks and smokes and does drugs, and ya.. so the other day, we had this super spiritual lesson with him and his brother who is also less active, and we invited them to prepare to receive the priesthood. No joke, we came by a few days later and Oscar was completely clean. Has not even picked up a cigarette in 2 days. His nose would bleed for hours on end, but we gave him a blessing and he´ll be okay. It was such a great week. I’m gonna miss the spirit of being a missionary for sure... And now Nelson´s girlfriend Mariela has a baptismal date for November - the plan is that Nelson can baptize his soon to be wife! :)

I also got to do a baptismal interview with a lady named Andrea. That was fun! She was really prepared and the spirit was super strong during the interview, so she was baptized on Friday! It was a great baptism and a lot of people came out to support her. 

We also had a super great experience! So, we have this family that was just baptized in another area, but their entire family lives in my area... and he came out with us in 110 degree weather to show us his family! It was so great. We got to meet a ton of people with him and we invited them all to come to church! Since it was mother´s day, they didn’t come but we have next week!

I’m sorry, I don’t have any more time to write, but I love you guys a ton!
Have fun this week!
I’m not gonna come home with my shoes on!
Elder Harris III

Power in the Book of Mormon

No milk? Mom, no milk? (I told him that I never go to the store and that never buy milk anymore since no one drinks it!)  Don’t worry - here we don’t drink much either. We have resorted to boxed milk, and we usually drink about half a gallon a week. I’m not really sure what we eat, but we´re still living, so I guess we must be eating enough. ;)

But everything is good. Yes, I’m still here with Elder Simmons, my little boy. Gosh, he´s so much fun. We decided to put our study desks in our bedroom so we could use the AC unit during our study hours, so we had to make ourselves some bunk beds. You wouldn’t believe how much more room we have for activities - such as planning, praying, reading the scriptures, etc.

The best thing that happened to me... well, since we had transfers, and we also had another area open in the zone, we split the district, and I became the district leader of 2 groups of sister missoinaries. So Im the DL of my area, and 2 companionships of sisters. You can call me the Relief Society President. It’s cool, just different. I know for a fact that sisters work a little different than Elders, so it will be a change of pace. I’m glad to be able to serve the other missionaries though. It will be fun. 

  

And looks like Kenzie had ANOTHER great birthday. I’m a little sad that this is the second one I´ve missed. It really doesn’t feel that I’ve been gone that long. Right? But I guess I have. I think she had the same cake for her last birthday too...

Anyways, this week was an adventure. Just like every week.  So we went to Laguna Blanca for District Meeting, and we enjoyed a variety of foods from corn dogs to tacos to celebrate our culture. It was pretty cool, and we enjoyed ourselves. I’m super sad that I won’t be able to go there anymore with the change in the district, but we can still buy bananas here in Clorinda. 

My son also gave his very first blessing in Spanish. I have converted my "hold to the rod" necklace into a vial holder (I have the oil around my neck now) because we´ve given so many blessings recently. I love giving blessings. They´re just so spiritual. But yeah! Elder Simmons got to give his first, I was so proud! #prouddadface

On Wednesday, we also had super good day. We got to give a handful of blessings, and I’ve really learned the power of using the BoM in our teachings. So this week we read the story of Christ coming to the Americas with a few people and it was very powerful. It helps them understand how Christ established HIS way especially in verse 28 when he says that there’s no more need to fight over what is right, because I just taught you.  We also used the example of the 2000 Stripling Warriors. It fit perfectly to a family we are teaching, and it was great to just sit and feel the spirit in their home. 

We also go a little bit of rejection this week. We knocked a door, and this lady opened up her door and said "No me gusta los Mormones" (I don’t like Mormons), I said "well, it’s a pleasure to meet you too!" She didn’t think it was funny. So we took off.  Maybe another day. :)

As for investigators, we have this part member family that we´re working with. They just moved back here from Buenos Aires and he is now preparing to receive the priesthood and she is planning on being baptized! They need to get married first, but hey! We´ll keep you posted!

Love you all,

Keep laughing.

NO WORDS.

Elder Harris III

Some Good Stories

Hi.

I watched conference. :) In english. It was great. Like peaches on ice cream.

Yes mom, I bought a new camera. I've also taken more than 100 photos this
week, but this internet is slower than something that is super super
slow. So I think that's about it for photos for the week. I'll show you
all of them in a few months. 

Anyways, Im glad to see the family still has your crazy traditions
with Priesthood, shoe shopping, screaming at the TV, etc. I´ve picked
up a few of my own traditions on the mission like waking up at 6:30,
reading the scriptures for at least an hour a day, and walking a lot.

Big news! Prez Franco went to the summer schedule early, so now we´re
walking up at 7 and going to sleep at 11. The best schedule ever!

Anyways, im gonna cut to the chase. This week was somewhat productive,
but man. We got some good stories.

So, you know - Tuesday was our Pday. After we had a few super solid lessons 

and we thought that everyone was gonna come to conference
after these lessons. We set appointments with the same people for
Thursday to make sure they were gonna go. So we went back to visit the
Simbrom´s and I don't know how much I've told you about them... but they
were actualy married by the missionaries about 10 years ago, but
before they got baptized, the missionaries got taken out of the area.
So.. they lost contact with the church (you would think even if the
missionaries aren´t there that people would still go to church... come
visit Argentina)  Anyways, the dad drinks now and were trying to help the wholefamily but the dad never talks to us... its a long story. I'll tell you after.

So we also met with this guy Aliviano . He's gold. Never been introduced to 

religion, we were SO excited for him. We had 2 super spiritual lessons with him and he was asking questions and wanting to know, he was reading the 

pamphlets, and on Sunday when we passed by his house to go with him to 

conference he was actually not dressed in his church clothes, but rather in a fight. Yes, literally, a fist fight. His nose was all busted up, he had blood running down his face and he had a big bottle of wine in his hand from the night before. He
was swinging at another fat drunk man while his overly drunk 18 year old son, with 2 boxes of wine in his hands and an empty bottle in his
back pocket, was trying to break up the fight.  It just shattered my universe. I was so sad to see him like that. I know that Christ knows what it feels like to bedisappointed, but wow.. I felt super let down after the lessons and everything else. But hey! We´re not working with tigers, we´re working with men. And men
can change their stripes.

But let´s see here... so Wednesday we went to Resistencia. I prayed before we 

left that I could have an opportunity to share the gospel.  While waiting in line, 

this lady said "Hola Elder". Or in English that means "Hi, I'm a member of your 

church, most likely less active, can I tell you why I´m not going to church and 

the other problems of my life?" So, I took the bait. And she reeled me in like a 

sucker fish.  Anyways, she was baptized about 40 years ago. Stopped going to 

church when she was 17 and ws "too cool" for things like that and never went

back. So we talked for a while then she got a phone call. So after she hung up I was already back talking to the other elders, but the thought came to my mind 

that I need to give her the BoM that I brought with me. I had just barely read inAlma 37 and I gave her the copy and invited her to return to church.  It was a 

good answer to my prayer :)

I didnt go to Laguna Blanca on Thursday, but we had a great day.

Conference was great too. I wish I had more time to te you all my stories.. but Idon't.

Love you all!
Keep the faith!
Im not coming home with my shoes on!!!!

Elder Harris III

Surprise!

Well, surprise! Today is Tuesday and we decided to change our P-Day due
to a holiday here. So we worked yesterday, today is P day and we´re heading toRESISTENCIA tomorrow and I´m going to Laguna Blanca again this week!! So I´ll be having some nice naps on the collectivos!

And yes I have some stories for you all!!! I always have stories to tell. My companions have given me the "Old man Jenkins" award, because they say I can justtell stories upon stories upon stories... And we just laugh.
I love it. I already know that when I´m like 90, I´m gonna talk
people´s ears off.

I can't believe I´m on top of the ward missionary list!  I´ll be home with
Micah and the rest in a few weeks. I emailed Micah the other week and
maybe we can plan to get our homecomings the same day?

I´m happy that you´re so grateful for what you have. It's something I¨m
trying to learn too. I will admit, it's sometimes hard to be very grateful
when we have so little. I see some of the families in my area who
literally have nothing and live off of less than 100 dollars a month,
and they still make it. It's just an interesting point of view, no?

But we did have an awesome week! We haven´t seen that lady that we
gave a blessing too. She has been internado (staying in the hospital)
for a few days, but one of the neighbors who is also an investegator
told us that she might have AIDS, so I don´t really know what the
problem is.

We had an awesome P-Day last week. Some futbol and asado. What more can
I ask for? We had an asado with a family thats gonna get married this
next week. So i´m excited for them! We´ll take pics :)  

We also went to Laguna Blanca for District meeting on Tuesday. It was
about an hour and a half on a bus, and on the way, it was so funny -
there was these banana plantatinos that were just massive. thousands
and thousands of bananas! In laguna Blanca I just had to try some, so
we bought 16 bananas for $1 dollar (10 pesos).. The bananas here btw,
are like the best I've ever tried in my entire life.

On Wednesday, we played volleyball with a few members after a rain storm.
So we played in the mud and we didn't bring our cameras, so we don't have
pics, but it was a lot of fun!

We also did a service project to help a less active member clean up
his yard... while there, we noticed that a huge part of his yard was
covered in poison ivy... so we got a Machete and went HAM! Elder
Taylor took a video of Elder Simmons going "ZELDA" on this plant. It
was ridiculous. So huge. So funny. Such good memories.

I also celebrated my 19 months mark with Elder Taylor. He was my first ZL here in Argentina, and also he is going home this Monday. We had a super good division. We got to talk a lot and we had some great lessons with a lot of people. In one of the lessons with a less active member, she told us how she won't go back to church because of a list of problems, and then she said how nobody is going to obligate her to
do anything. So recently, I´ve been studying and more than anything
thinking in what I can do to stay active in the church throughout my
life. I´ve just seen missionaries that return from their missions and
then go inactive and I got to thinking about every person that I´ve
told that I know this church is true, and how hypocritical of me it
would be to fall away after telling and testifying as a Representative
of Jesus Christ. So I stumbled upon a scripture in D&C 52:15, and in
spanish it makes sense that God will hear our prayers if we are
obedient to his ordinances such as the sacrament. So I shared that
with her after E Taylor shared how Captain Moroni undertsood the
covenant he made with the Lord in Alma 60:12 or 13..
How he was obligated to be obedient because of this covenant.
So it is nt just our duty, but our obligation to go to church and keep
the commandments because we told God ourselves that´s what we´re gonna
do.

It was a super good lesson, spirital, and I don´t know: I just felt
at peace. Although she didnt come to church again, I feel what we did
is starting to help (D&C 64:33)

It was funny, as we laid down to go to sleep, Elder Taylor told me
that there´s something that he likes about me - he said "I love how
you have that attitude of: Ya! Lets go do it! without even thinking,
you just wanna go DO". I thought of what Dad said one time how Tyler
is someone who would dip his toes in the water,  and I'm the one who would jump
head first into the water. He then reminded me of when we were invited
to go to an asado. And DUH! Im gonna go to the asado before I wash my
clothes ;) I guess I'm starting to figure out who I am ;)

Love you family! You´re the best!
My prayers are heading up to heaven, to go down to you.
Keep the Faith!

Elder Harris III (Elder Biggie Smalls)

p.s. My camera broke - so no pics today. :)

Long Story Short

Well, family, I just wrote basically my entire letter, then it deleted and now I don't have a ton of time to write it all again...

So anyways!

How´s that iPhone 6? Whats new about it?

Elder Simmons is doing great. Super excited. We´re still working super hard, and they didn't cut his whole toe off like he told his mom #sillythingsthatmissionariestelltheiroverlyprotectiveparents

but.. he can run and play soccer again, so he´s doing better! I do think that little break we took was good for his toes-

As for the week, it was pretty tranquilo. We had a multi zone conference where Elder Gonzalez from the 70 came and talked to us about the importance of the BoM in our work. Then showed us how Ammon used the scriptures to convert all the lamanites that he converted. 

Prez and Hermana Franco also shared super great messages with us. They truly taught by the spirit and taught me a few things. I'm super excited to listen to Prez Franco again this Sunday at District Conference. I decided that I love the way that Prez Franco is a mission president. He´s a mix of my previous presidents, and I´m really enjoying seeing him learn and teach us at the same time.

Hermana Franco shared a great line "I love rainy days" because the missionaries knocked on her door for the first time while it was pouring rain. I wish I had more time to share the whole story..

Anyways, Thursday when we got back we went out for a few hours and had a super spiritual night.  Probably the most spiritual night of my time in Clorinda.  Long story short, we met a lady who was deathly sick and we gave her a blessing. She weighed probably 80 pounds? and later on we heard that she had mold growing in her mouth from the excessive amounts of throw up, but we gave her a blessing. I´ve gotta run so I cant explain it all. Sorry. 

We are having a great time. I'm sorry this letter doesn't say anything, but know that I¨m happy, healthy, learning, and loving my life. I wouldn´t trade what I´m doing now for anything. I love this work, and I´m learning more here than in any other area. I love it. Elder Simmons is the best. I´m gonna miss him for sure! I hope we stay together until November!!!

Keep the Faith!

Love you guys!

Big Thug

(Elder Harris III)

Braeden, Doctor Visit & Baptism

Famiyl

 

I imagine you´ve had a crazy week, and let me tell you! We have too.

 

I can´t believe that Braeden left. It feels like yesterday that I left, and now he´s gone too. I´m super glad that he decided to serve though. It will be the best decision of his entire life. I know that without a doubt!! Although it was a little hard, I too thought that the first few steps were the hardest. I on the other hand, I decided to do it just like I seem to do everything else in life and just "jump off the cliff" and not "dip my toes in the water" maybe it's not a good thing?  But, I remember how hard those few steps are with your suitcases going into the MTC.  I'm just happy he´s gone, and off to start "his adventure".

 

As for the Harris family, I don´t know anything cooler than the fact that we´re gonna have 5 missionaries out from one side of the family. I even sent G&G Harris a letter and told them that our "our Christmas present" to them was 5 missionaries in the field. Maybe we can work it out and get all of us on the same Skype chat! I´m not sure how you would work it out, but it´s worth a shot!

 

Anyways, this week was insane, and I¨m gonna tell you all about it this time:)

 

So... my new baby, with his tender feet, got 2 in-grown toenails. 2 pretty bad ones on his big toes. We went to the Doctor here on Tuesday right after our Zone Meeting, and we ended up waiting there for about 2 hours since they have something like "Obamacare" as their medical system here. (It's terrible and I hate going to the doctor´s here...)

Anyways, that's another subject. So, we went to the doctor, and they said that he would need to take an antibiotic, so we went to buy it, and we asked the doctor of the mission if it was okay and all that jazz... so he took his meds and he had an appointment scheduled for Thursday.  But after talking to a few people here... well, we decided the public hospital wasn´t gonna be the best route. A few people told us that "ohh el hospital es muy bruto con las personas"... Bruto... or brute... or... rough. :) So we decided to go to a special clinic on Thursday to get it treated and the doctor sent us around the corner to buy the needles, syringe and anesthesia for the toes. Yup. We went and bought our own needles. :)

He told us it would be cheaper if we went and bought our own... But after applying the meds, he cut about 1/4 of the toenail and we went on our way. He did tell us that we need to rest for a few days, so we sat around for a while. But it gave us some good time to think, read the scriptures, and everything else! It was a good few days of rest, but we´re ready to get back on the horse and go to work. During our days of rest, we took taxis everywhere we went, so we had to spend a litte bit of cash, but other than that, it was fine!  Plus, I got to help out with a "service project" where we cleared a path for a man´s house. We basically took down bamboo with machetes. Since E Simmons and I got there first, I got to work for about an hour before the other elders showed up. It was a lot of fun to work with my hands again. I have this strange longing for getting my hands dirty...

 

Anyways, we´ve had a good week. Carolina was baptized, and it was great! We had 3 baptisms and a wedding in the same weekend, and it was all super great. It was awesome to see the support of everyone there. :) But we´re having a great time. This week I did learn a super cool lesson.. That in the scriptures, the Lord will always keep his end of the deal. Alma 19:22-23.

I do need to run because of lack of time at the beginning. The stupid computer wouldn´t connect to the internet!

Nos vemos!!!

Elder Harris