Feliz Navidad!!!

                                                                                                           Dec. 19, 2016

Hi Everybody! Thanks so much for your emails--I loved hearing from everyone!

 

This week was a really special week and we have seen so much progress with our investigators!

 

First of all, thanks for all of your prayers because Sonia came to church yesterday! She came with us to sacrament meeting and made friends with some of the members of the Ward. After sacrament meeting we didn´t see her for a few minutes. We went to the Relief Society room and she wasn't in there. I freaked out like someone had stolen my child, haha. I whipped out the phone and we ran outside the chapel to find her! She was walking home and said she had to give the keys to her pharmacy to someone, but we encouraged her to stay so she could meet her baptismal date! She decided to stay for the second hour and we were so happy! She will be baptized either the 6 or 13 of January!

 

Also almost all of the familia Vaca Mendez went to church and the kids stayed all three hours! The Ward helped us out a lot  and I was so happy that they came!

 

Unfortunately, we couldn´t do our booth in the caminata because the assistants didn't give us permission. Bummer.

 

Quick side note before I forget but lately I have been complaining that we never eat anything weird and telling my companion how I thought I was going to eat dog and guinea pig and stuff. Well, yesterday we finally got to eat something semi-weird: cow heart! Some of our investigators from Peru fed us cow heart, haha. I freaked out when I heard it, but it was pretty good.

 

This week I felt our Heavenly Father´s love so powerfully and I just wanted to share two experiences.

 

On Wednesday we visited Hermana Carabajal. She is a member that lives by the Bishop.

Remember the picture (above) I sent of the service we did recently was for her. On Tuesday she was robbed and they stole everything of value she had. Her husband who lives in Paraguay recently took the children so she is alone. She was so sad and I decided to share Doctrine and Covenants section 122 with her, one of my favorite scriptures. It describes all of the trials the prophet Joseph Smith would have to endure, and then says "Know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good" I felt so much of His love as I testified to the Hermana that He will never allow anything to happen to us that is not for our eternal well-being! He loves us and that is all we need to remember when things get hard!

 

Last night we visited Selbi and her family (we are now teaching her brother and dad which is super exciting!)

Picture of Selbi's family at her baptism.

We didn't have much time so we decided to watch, the "Light the World" video with them. I love that video so much! As we watched I was brought to tears because I felt so strongly the Savior´s love. I love watching the scenes from His life as He lifted others up and held them in his hands. Until he comes again, we are His hands. What an amazing opportunity we have this week and throughout the year to pick up our brothers and sisters and lift them to new heights! We can help them feel of His love with each thing that we do!

 

Thank you all for sharing your light. I hope everyone has a great Christmas and can´t wait to talk on Sunday! Light the world!

 

Love,

Elder Harris

He is the Light!!

                                                                                                                 Dec. 12, 2016

Hi Everyone! Hope you had a great week! Loved hearing from all of you!

 

This week was really good! We are struggling to find new people to teach, but we are continuing to learn and improve in our finding and teaching! It is so fun being two new missionaries because we both recognize that we don´t know how to do a lot of things, learn from preach my gospel how they should be done, and then try our best to put it in practice! I'm so grateful for my companion and his humility! He is a great friend and source of strength to me. 

This week on Wednesday our Ward mission leader told us there was going to be a big caminata, or walk, on the highway near our house. The purpose was to show faith in the Virgin of Cotoca so it was practically all Catholics, but we decided to go anyway to check it out.

 There were thousands of people walking down the highway (they walk from Santa Cruz to the catholic church in Cotoca, more than 10 miles) Anyway we were able to contact a lot of the venders and find a few new people to teach! They are going to do the same exact thing again on Wednesday of this week so we are teaming up with the Elders of La Pampa to have a booth there! Hopefully it will be really good for finding people! I also bought cotton candy there which was so good and brought be back to my childhood haha.

 

Sadly, Sonia didn't come to church yesterday! Her brother got sick and she had to take care of him. It was really frustrating but we are not giving up on her! Please keep praying, this week she will go for 3 hours for sure! Yesterday was our primary program and it was so good! My favorite part was when they sang I love to see the temple! I miss the temple so much. The covenants we make there are so special and it truly is the house of god.

 

We had to leave a few investigators this week and don´t have many people to teach. We are going to focus on finding this week and I know the Lord will provide a way!

 

One of my favorite experiences from this week was teaching an older man named Miguel. We found him in the street and sat down with him to talk. He told us about how his wife had died and we taught him a little about the plan of salvation, especially the atonement. I shared one of my favorite scriptures with him:

 

7 And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection.

8 But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.

9 He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death. 

 

It may sound a little cheesy, but as I read this last verse to him, the sunlight came through the clouds and it was such a warm light! He is the light of the world and I am so grateful to know that because of him, death has no sting, and the grave no victory! I hope that we can keep sharing this light with people in so many ways this week!

 

Love you all, and light the world!!

Love,
  

Elder Harris

He hears our prayers!

                                                                                                            Dec. 5, 2016

Hi Family! So good to hear from everyone and glad to hear Collage and the Christkindl Markt went well!

We are excited to take part in this month's "Light the World Service Challenge," (lds.org) and have been working each day on an act of service.

Although this week has been a tough one because a lot of our lessons have fallen through, we still had some amazing experiences and I know our efforts are making a difference!










This week we helped the Familia Carrabajal clean up their yard. It was a fun service with the legendary Hermano Peña at our side.

 

 

On Tuesday we thought we found a baby horse in the street, (which would not have been too out of the ordinary) but as we got closer we realized it was a gazelle, so we cautiously took pictures.

 

 

Here we are eating bananas with the crew...

 

 

We also helped the Bishop cut brillos for his clothing business.

 

On Wednesday we taught a less active family, Juan Carlos and his wife, the message of the restoration. We decided to watch the restoration video with them (I love watching the videos haha I think i have a problem because sometimes I'd rather just watch the video instead of teaching but they are so powerful!) Anyway, so as we were teaching about the apostasy before we watched the video, they expressed to us some serious doubts about the church and the Bible and Book of Mormon. We talked about them and I realized that all of their questions were the same questions Joseph Smith had. We then watched the video with them and it was so powerful!

 

My favorite part is when Joseph Smiths father is carving a wooden toy for his son and it quotes 3 Nephi 14: "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" I know that this is true! Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers!

  

Yesterday we fasted with our ward mission leader. As we prayed with him to begin the fast, the impression came to me "The Lord hears the prayers of his servants" The Spirit confirmed this truth to me and I know that he is going to help us find some new families to teach this week!

 

Sonia is progressing well and came to church yesterday! Sadly, she chose to leave after the first hour so she can't be baptized for another three weeks! Please pray that she can come this Sunday and stay all three hours!

 

Last night we had an awesome family home evening with the familia Vaca Mendez and a part member family, the familia Mercado. We talked about family prayer, played a fun game, and ate soda and cookies.  

 

The familia Vaca Mendez also came to sacrament meeting yesterday which was so great! The members are helping us so much and we are starting to discover more and more the secrets of working with members!

 

Yesterday we found two families who are so prepared to hear the gospel! One we met while we were getting haircuts a few weeks ago and another we contacted in the street! We were able to teach them finally yesterday and we are excited to see their progress this week.

 

I love you all and hope you have a great week! Light the World!

 

Elder Harris