6/19/14 This week and transfers :(

 

Two of my besties got transferred out of the zone last week :(

And my comp and I took a bunch of frito pics.. this is just one of the many we took haha.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sooooo this week....

Yeah not really that much went down the past week. We just walked alot.. Felt stressed alot... and prayed alot. Our president asked the mission to do a mission wide fast for more love, obedience, and a stronger conversion to the gospel. Let me tell ya, fasting in Monterrey Mexico, when its like 105 degrees, walking all day without water.. thats tough stuff haha. I legitely stopped sweating. But then to break the fast I chugged 1.5 liters of lemonade. Woot I was sweatin lemons haha.

But I had a great talk with my comp the night after the fast, and I realized what ive been missing in my lessons and why they havent felt that effective. I need to stop focusing on the points, or the spanish, and love the people more and let that and the spirit help me to teach them. 

So thats what ive been doing, and Ive felt the quality of my teaching improve alot. With more spirit, which is goooood.

Today we got to go to the temple! I love the temple in spanish! Its awesome! Spanish makes me pay way more attention to everything, which helps me to learn more from each session I go to.

Honestly. this week tired me out. Hopefully the nap im going to take today will help me out with the tiredness haha.

Our ward mission leader, who was going inactive, recieved a visit from one of the youth in the ward who asked why he hadnt gone to church and that he needed to start comnig-. His words penetrate right into our ward mission leaders heart and he told us that hes going to be better and he apologized for his attitude towards us and he told us he was going to work harder in his calling and start coming back to church. Booyah!

So yeah that was the highlights from the past week! I love you all alot! and I hope that you keep firm in the gospel!

Love you fam!

Elder Harrison

6-9-14 Tough Week,,,, Topped off with campechizzas... ;)

Well this week was a tough one! We walked a toooon! but the bright side is... Ive lost like 25 pounds here haha. I feel like I might have said that last week... But I dont remember so Ill say it again because its a big deal! haha.

We did have to opportunity to meet some great new investigators though! One of which is a family from a reference from my old companion and his old companion, that they never contacted. Theyre like super ready. We walked up to the door and she said, Oh Elders! finally youve found me! She had been waiting six months for the missionaries to show up. 

Shes sooooo prepared! She actually reminds me alot of sister Garcia from richland, same personality and everything. First visit she asked us when shes going to feel ready to be baptized and maaan! Im just amazed at how prepared she is haha.

I told her when she has faith that Christ is the Son of God, thats when she will know that she will be baptized. Nailed it haha.

Unfortunately none of them came to church... But thats ok! Well get them to come next week!

A bit of a sad bit that happened this week is that our ward mission leader told us he didnt want to work with the missionaries anymore and was going to inactivate from the church. He kept giving us some crap excuse when Im pretty sure that he just wants to go back to being the guy he was before he was baptized. Which is sad but he has his agency so theres not much we can do.

Also I had intercambios with Elder Bravo again. The guy that I bought 16 campechanas with. This time we bought a pizza and 8 campechanas and put the campechanas on the pizza ;) we called it Campechizza. it was delicious :D

But the bathroom the morning after... Woof haha.

Anywho thats all that happened this week! Ill love you all and Ill talk to you next week!

love Elder Harrison

Btw we had transfers and im staying for a 4th transfer in my first area.. 6 months in my first area. yaaay... haha

 

 

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We called these.. campechizzas... ;)

 

 

 

6-2-14 Wet Feet (continued)

I had two baptisms!

The little kid is named Emilio and is 10 years old and part of a PF family. His Brother Baptized him

The old Guy is named Gorgonio, and he told us like thursday that he wanted to be baptized that sunday, so we made it happen! I got to baptize him and it was awesome. Super funny because he did not want to go all the way under the water! I basically had to jump on him to get him all the way under! But I totally nailed it haha.

The other pic is my reliving my childhood with a Carls Jr chicken nuggets and ice cream after a service project. The Hawaiian shirt is my service shirt haha

Love you all! Stay awesome!

Elder Harrison

 

 

6-2-14 Wet Feet

Heeeelloooooooo Family!!

This week was a killer haha.

We only had like 7 lessons all week, which means we walked alot! But we had a bunch of fun service projects with the zone and district and the few lessons we had were good ones. 

yesterday and the day before we had 0 lessons. But! we had like 50 something contacts in those two days, so we should start seeing more lessons...

I hope haha.

But I have faith that we will have a good week this week and get things done!

We taught one of our old investigators named Gorgonio, who is super old, but awesome and has been to church a bunch of times. We went over the baptismal questions for the baptism interview to see if he was ready, and he totally nailed it, which was awesome because he was like never able to understand us before haha.

We set the date for the 7th of june to be baptized, and when we went back to visit him on thursday he told us that he wanted to be baptized this weekend! And as missionaries... we were totally down with helping him to reach that goal haha. 

He had his interviews on friady and we picked on of the hermanos from the ward to do the dunkin. Hno Cano, who is our ward mission leader. 

Hno Cano decided to take the baptism into his own hands and changed the times and was rude to us and then decided that he wasnt going to go to the baptism and wasnt going to baptize Gorgonio. Which really ticked me off because he changed the baptism time to 8 in the morning before church.. and he changed the time on saturday.. in the afternoon. So we didnt have much time to invite people and I was only able to talk to 2 families in the ward to invite them.

So I was pretty ticked about that, and Hno Cano was Gorgonios Fellowshipper... and he wasnt even going to come.

But we went on ahead with the baptism, and the awesome thing about Heavenly Father is that he loves us and always helps us out when we need help! Randomly like 3 families from the ward showed up and all came to support Gorgonio! I got to baptize him too! Funny side note, im pretty sure I know the prayer for baptism better in spanish than in English.

Baptizing him was funny because he like went forward in the water instead of backwards, and im trying to tell him to bend his knees, but i didnt know the word for Bend (fraccionarse) and he didnt go all under so I had to do it again. This time his shirt kept popping up or part of his body was sticking out, so I basically had to jump on him to get him all in the water.

But hey. I did what I had to do haha.

So yeah that was awesome! Things are starting to pick up here in the area and I know that the Lord has a plan for this ward and for us.

I love you all so much! Thanks for your support always!

Love Elder Harrison

Ps included are the photos from the two baptisms ive had so far. Enjoy!

 

 

5-26-14 I have a new companion!

Sooooo big news! I have a new companion! President called us in for interviews on monday and we had special transfers!

He interviewed my comp and my comp tried to lie to his face about the phone he had, and president didnt believe him, so he called me in and we talked, and I told him everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. like the injections he gave to a little 10 year old girl in her bare rear end and his weird relationship with her and her family and how he like wants to live with them and like wants to marry the 10 year old and just... yeah. everything. It felt gooood to let it out. President called the comp back in, asked him about the phone, my comp said he didnt have it, and President had awesome revelation and said he knew he had a phone but gave it to a family in the ward that had originally given it to him, the family of the 10 year old. They gave it to him so that he could communicate with them and their daughter because I never let my companion go to their house anymore.

So President said the facts and he broke down and told him everything. We had emergency transfers and now I have a new companion! Elder Guzman. and he is freaking awesome! Hes from the Dominican Republic and speaks really fast, but Im starting to understand his spanish more too, his accent is weird, they dont pronounce S in his accent. We just goof around all day, but we work really hard too, ive never been so tired in my life haha. Its awesome though because I finally feel like im doing some good work! 

Everynight we sit and talk and sing songs and its just an awesome time everyday haha. He goes home in about 4 months so he knows how to do like everything which is awesome because that means I have an awesome learning opportunity.

He has gone through alot in his life, he told me his story and like, he lives by the beach, and some rich people wanted his property, and so they payed off the cops and the cops came at like 6 in the morning and pulled them out of their houses with all their stuff, and destroyed their houses right in front of their eyes. So that was nutzo haha. He said a bunch of morenos came out and started shooting at the cops and his family just kinda peaced out, that was like right before he left on his mission. and since hes been on his mission things have just worked out for his family. Like his mom had a friend in the governent that decided to build a house for them, so its like bigger and nicer than before and his other siblings that werent members are starting to get baptized and maan! He just has an awesome testimony and is awesome! I dont know if I would have been able to leave at a time like that.

So yeah hes awesome!

So this week we just worked alot and contacted alot, and I think this week well start seeing more of the fruits of our labors.

Im tired, im sweaty, but darn it, im happy.

Love you all!

Elder Harrison

 

5-19-14 The New beginning

hey so this week was a bit stressful.

I told president about everything that had gone down with the comp on monday and on thursday we had a training with the assistants to the president and the president, and there President told me that he was going to take care of everything on monday, and we were going to have interviews on monday. Also thursday was my birthday and im 20 now. My comp didnt even say happy birthday.

For my birthday... I did... nothing haha. My comp was being a jerk and didnt even say anything about my birthday. The best part of the day was when the family that was supposed to feed us, (that hates me) decided that because they hate me they werent going to feed us. So we went and got chinese food, which was awesome. I love the chinese food here haha.

I had splits with the ZLs on friday, and I got the opportunity to learn from a seriously awesome missionary. Elder Quevedo is his name, and he kicks butt. He showed me some new ways to teach and helped me with my confidence. Also that night to celebrate my birthday we bought tacos de trompo y bistek. I have no Idea what that is in english sooo.... yeah haha. I told him that night everything that went down with the comp and he told me I definitely needed to tell president everything in the interview on monday.

Sorry this letter is jumbeled, we only get to write for 30 mins today.

I also bought strawberries this week... which was weird but I craved them and enjoyed them.

So yeah last night the assistants called us and told my comp to pack his bags and come to the offices, so he did, and tried to get all sentimental with me, but I was like, you didnt even say happy birthday, I dont care if you leave haha. so we went to the offices and had interviews and I told president about all the disobedience and stuff and he talked to Elder Aguilar, and through an awesome moment Ill describe next week, extracted the truth from my companion about the phone that he did in fact have and everything. So we had emergency transfers and now im with Elder Guzman from the Dominican Republic. Hes almost done with his mission and is a hard worker, so itll be good for me to have a comp like him. Im excited to learn from him.

So sorry this letter is a bit confusing but I didnt have much time to write it! Ill write more next week! love you all

Elder Harrison

 

 

5-12-14 Post Mothers Day #1 and "Hats and Pants" (Picts)

Hey It was great talking to you all yesterday!

Last night after we talked we had a lesson with the parents of a family that weve been teaching a bit.

They got issues haha.

We sat there for like an hour and a half while they argued, till I sat up, told them both to shut up, (just kidding I didnt say that, but I did silence them) and told them both exactly what their problems were and proscribed that every night they tell each other 5 things that they liked about the other from that day, and one thing that they could better, and then I told them to, on the next day, verify if they had bettered and do tell them 5 other things, and I told them to do it every night for the rest of their lives, which they agreed to haha.

Totes just saved a marriage.

Also today I wrote my mission president everything that had happened in this area with the comp. because I dont feel like dealing with it on my own anymore ha. Im sure we´ll get a call from him this week when he reads it.

Anywho... NOt really much else. I forgot to say that i gave a talk on sunday! I ironed out the members with it, basically telling them that if they dont try to share the gospel with all their friends and neighbors, all their friends and neighbors that havent been baptized... are basically going to hell haha. and it will be their fault for not sharing. Boom. Ironed out. Like nobody wanted to look me in the eyes after that or mention my talk, so hopefully I made them all feel really bad, or nobody understood what I said haha.

Oooh we will probably have a baptism this weekend! a 10 year old from a part member family! pictures to follow!

So yeah thats all! I´ll talk to yall next week I guess! cuz I kinda already said everything that I needed to say yesterday soo...  yeah haha.

Love you all!

Elder Harrison

 

 

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So first. Look at that awesome pair of pants I found in a street shop! theres like knitted on colors on the pockets!

second, just a hat that one the families we eat with had. It was pretty awesome.

 

 

 

 

 

5-5-14 This Week...

Hey so this week was... Dificult.

I still have to kick the comp in the butt all day to be obedient. Im gonna talk to my leaders about him, I think he has a phone that hes been hiding. Only one of the investigators that we invited to church showed up. Even after I rememded one family the night before at like 8:30 and they said they would come. Thaaaat was frustrating. Been having lots of arguments with the comp at night. Hes been starting to act weird and try to be sneaky and hide things from me, and hes been lying to me alot too. soooooo thats alot of fun. I still havent had like any success, and im not going to lie, im really frustrated. I have no idea what we can do to have success. I think it might be because my comp doesnt want to be obedient, because he was obedient all saturday, and we had people say they want to come to church, then he was talking on the phone all night until I came upstairs and took it away because were only supposed to use the phone for well... work and he was just talking to people, and he was like deleting all his calls and stuff as I was reaching for the phone. So he was being disobedient, and surprise surprise, all the people that said they would come... didnt.

Sooo yeah. Sorry this week has just been a bit frustrating! We got a new DL tyhis week and his awesome, From canada. Hes has a super good attitude, so I think that things are gonna pick up in this district and were gonna be able to change the ward.

Anywho... Not much really happened. Ill tell you all more on sunday! 5 my time, 4 utah time, and 3 oregon time! Make sure you¨re all ready for it!

Love you all lots! thanks for the support always!

Elder Harrison

4-28-14 Hi there (Pikturz)

So not much went on this week. Took some pics. Talked to some people. Went on splits again. Told off my comp for being disobedient (if you want to know more, mom has the whole story) aaaand planched some investigators.

We had a lesson last night with a family that is always super tough to teach. One because the dad is super ignorant of the scirptures and just spouts what his pastor says, and then when we showw him what the bible says he starts yelling and getting all crazy.

His wife is nice though, and she listens to us.

So we were teaching and the husband went off on a crazy person rant, and I was just like, man, its time to just teach these peeps a truth. So I cut in and said, Yo soy Elder Harrison, fui llamado por Dios para estar aqui y enseñar el Evangelio, y yo voy a enseñar ustedes. Im Elder Harrison, I was called by God to be here and teach the Gospel, and Im going to teach you.

That shut them all up.

So I went on a huge scriptures chase about faith in the Bible. Started in epfesians 2:8, went to Hebrews 11:1, James 2:17, then went on to baptism with a bunch of scriptures in Acts that I dont remember, that talk about the imposition of hands for the holy ghost and baptism, and John where it says one cannot enter the kingdom of god unless they were first baptized by water and the spirit. Then I just kinda sat there and let them saok it all in. I went so hard with all the right scriptures, that the husband had to leave because he didnt want to believe all the truth I was spittin. Which was all straight from the bible, which he said that he believes. So I got them with faith to be saved, faith = works and belief, saved by works, works=baptism and holy ghost, saved by baptism and holy ghost.

Booyah. I love the bible.

So yeah, besides that nothing big happened. Im going to skype home on the 11th by the way. I get 45 minutes to talk. So yall should work out some kind of conference call for that so we can all talk.

Anywho I love you all! Have a good week!

Elder Harrison

The Mac and cheese... Defs not as good with the nasty milk here haha.

Also one of my best friends from the mission got transfered out of my district today... Which is a super bummer. #byeelderkeith