Hi Family!
Thanks to everyone for your emails, glad Father's Day was great! Shout out to two special fathers in my life, Dad, my own father, and Theo, the father of my niece and nephew.
Hope your day was great!
This week there was a lot happening here in Alianza.
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| Church with Sebastian, Aracely, and Ayleen Tejerina |
One memorable moment this week was a conversation we had with a drunk man.
We were waiting for someone on a park bench when a drunk man approached us
asking for money. Instead I gave him a plan of salvation pamphlet and as we
talked he told me I had beautiful eyes, which is usually a flattering compliment
but not when it comes from a 47 year old drunk Bolivian man who you have never
met. So he told us it is okay if we visit him in his house someday and as he
said goodbye he grabbed my head and gave me a rather forceful kiss on the cheek.
What a day to be alive.
In terms of investigators, Abraham and Pablo didn't go to church yesterday
so their baptismal date for this weekend fell. But, Familia Tejerina went and
they are on track for the first of July! They are doing really well. Please
pray that they can gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon this week!
The greatest lesson I learned this week is the importance of seeing people
for who they CAN be. There is a man in our area named Lorenzo. When I was serving with Elder Wirthlin, we always saw him drunk on the streets. One time he spoke to us and
began crying, but instead of trying to help him I just tried to end the
conversation and walk away because to me, he was just another drunk man. But a
couple weeks ago we found Lorenzo in his house and he was sober. We taught him a
lesson and found out he is a loving father of two teenage kids. He expressed his
desires to stop drinking and told us he felt great being sober! He even wanted
to go to church.
Well this week on Friday, we were walking and found Lorenzo walking in the
street drunk. He approached us crying and told us that he lost his daughter. He
had been looking for her for days and no one knew where she was. I thought of
the loving, sober man we had taught and his desires to change And this time I
listened sincerely and felt desires to help him. I wanted to hug him and tell
him everything was going to work out.
To serve people effectively, we have to separate their character from their
condition. We have to see people not for what they are, but for what they can
become. We have to remember their potential and remember how they are at their
best. This is the only way we will truly be able to love and serve the people
around us!
Abrazos,
Elder Harris
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