12/29/14 Merrrrry Christmasssss

A lady on the street randomly gave us a bunch of brown suits. We gave them to a kid in the ward thats going on a mission soon, but not before taking a picture in the light brown one with the soft background of the Christmas

tree, and showing off our awesome matching sunglasses haha.

Also.. Theres this red soup that all the sisters always give us.. And this morning I made it! It wasnt even gross. I could be a cook

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

So after we got off the call, I proceeded to down enourmous amounts of meat and talk to the family in spanish. Then I messed with my comp as he was talking to his family. Priceless.

Mom, I think my companions mom is going to send you an email! Because shes the first mom that you can actually talk to because the rest of them only speak spanish! haha.

Not much else happened this weekend, met some new people to teach, but they didnt come to church so  theres not much point of talking about them yet because... Well  Idont want to get all excited about an inestigator that isnt progressing yet.

We had the stake presidency´s 2nd counselor accompany us the other day! It was great, he explains things really well in a way that I cant because I dont have that kind of understanding that comes with age ha. Maybe when im old ill be able to acompany the missionaries and be awesome like that too.

sooooo yeah... Not much really happened. two investigators came to church (one for the first time) and we´re really working hard to get them to keep progressing.

Ive realized that what I really need is to be able to understand what it is like to be a convert to the gospel. To understand how it is to recieve the gospel for the first time in your life. Sometiems im jealous of the converts because they know how they felt and so they tend to be able to teach with more convincing power beacuse they werent always members of the church. So I guess what im working on now is to be more personally converted to the gospel so that I can help these people be more converted. I can only help others to be converted to my level of conversion, so I think thats something im going to be focusing on in the next few weeks.

Anyways  I love you guys alot!! How much is gas at?? My comps parents said it was at like less than 2 bucks in arizona!

Love

Elder Harrison

 

12/23/2014 fotoooos

Fotos de estas semanas pasadas. Si eso es, en verdad, una flauta.

Pictures from these last few weeks. Yes that is, in fact, a flute (or plastic recorder, whatever you want to call it)

Hace mas o menos un año y ahora con mi generacion del CCM

more or less a year ago, and now with my generation from the MTC

 

My kid, and the awesome pineapple he made for the white elephant gift exchange

Mi Hijo, y su super chido piña que el hizo para el intercambio de regalos

 

12/15/2014 weekz and weekz and weekz

So this week was aight. We didnt have that many lessons but we were able to have 2 investigating families in the chapel yesterday! So it was awesome. in total there were 10 people there, but only 6 are of baptizable age, but its aaaaall good. Someday they´ll be baptized too!

I went on splits with Elder Leavitt this week! we had a great time reminicing about washington and planning all the awesome things we´re gonna do when we get home. We actually had splits on the day that was exactly a year from the day we´ll both go home. So we were planning what we´ll do in the airport and stuff haha. Super fun. We´ll have a great day in a year!

We ate a ton of really greasy and meaty foods this week, so that means we will have to work harder to get the six packs going! haha but theyre getting there slowly but surely.

This week was a holiday for mexico celebrating the Virgin Guadelupe. We saw a bunch of street dancing and parades and stuff. It was cool. I was bumbed that I was not able to take pictures because we cant use our cameras outside of the house anymore unless its a special occasion. bummeeerrrrr...

WE had a great lesson with Raymundo, the Drunk that I chewed out a little bit last week. He told us that he was gonna start working harder to stop and we gave him a blessing. A member came with us to that lesson that used to drink and he helped alot. It was really powerful. Then his whole family came to church last sunday without us going to get them! It was a great surprise when they all showed up. then another family showed up too! So we had two families there. it was awesome.

Anywho... Besides that, not much cool went on this week. Next week I wont write until tuesday because we have our chirstmas party on tuesday so ill talk to yall then! and we can skype home on the 25th, so we´ll ahve to figure out times and stuff to do that.. But yeah! I gotta find a family that has a webcam to do the call ha. Or a family with internet in general ha.

Well thats all folks!

Love

Elder Harrison

 

12/08/2014 Helloooooo Family!!

Hey! so this week was a good one!

So first of all, the weather here is nutzo. One day its hot, the next its not, but your body is always uncomfortable haha. But at least its not as cold as Rexburg, but then again, in Rexburg I was almost always inside so it wasnt that big of a deal when it was cold. We had a heater in the walls of the house haha.

Right now its raining again.

So yeah.

This week we went out with the HNO Zavala and gave a christmas message to a bunch of people. It was exactly what alot of our investigators needed because in that day alone we were able to set 7 more baptismal dates with people, all being families!! We actually invited one lady to be baptized and she was kinda reluctant and finally told us that she had already been baptized like 16 years ago!! It was like... surprise! haha. But she wasnt confirmed soooo... She shall be dunked again!! Booyah.

One of our progressing investigators, Raymundo, tried to come to church drunk again yesterday, so we told him that it would be best for him to stay home and next week when he was sober he could come.

Oh baby did that upset him.

He started going off about how the Word of God is free and cant be contained or prohibited and he just got really upset. I literally got so mad. Like he knew he was in the wrong, and was just trying to make everything our fault. Then he went off saying that he was never going to change church and wasnt going to give up his ´´San Juditas´´ and blah blah blah. I was like. Hermano. Youre just mad right now. We´ll come back later when youre dry. He had been telling us for weeks that he was stoked about his baptism and that the saints were all bad and was all up for it, but he was jsut drunk and mad when he said those things. But yeah I kinda chewed him out a bit too because he was saying that he´ll does things in ¨his way¨ so I asked him what was his way, and he said that he asks God for forgiveness and help to stop drinking and hopes that he´ll help him, when said hermano isnt willing to do anything to help himself. So I told him that jsut asking God for help isnt enough, he only helps us when we have done all that we can to help ourselves.

So we left and we´ll go back later this week with one of the brothers in the ward thats friends with Raymundo and see if he can help him out.

All the other families that we invited didnt come either, but a random guy that we taught this week did come! and he was asking about baptism, saying that he´s rather be baptised by going head first in the water than backwards, so I know its something that he´s been thinking about! If he keeps coming, we should have baptism in four weeks!

Anyways, Im about out of time sooo... I love you all alot! Talk to you at Christmas!

Love

Elder Harrison

ps. in exactly one year, ill be in my last day in the field!

 

12/01/2014 My first Born Son!!! and Turkey Day

Yup. I have a son now. His name is Elder Haymond. Hes from Arizona. and hes awesome. We are having just too good of a time.

I forgot to say what BOSS means haha.

Baptize

On

Sixth

Saturday.

Like we met him, and from the point we met him he was baptized as soon as he could be baptized. It was cool.

Are you guys going to send me fudge?

cuz I want fudge.

Or you can send me the recipe because we have a stove and I think thats all we need to make it right? I wanna give my son a good Christmas.

So we couldnt find a turkey.. So we bought a whole chicken instead! and 4 tacos de sibera! Which are like tacos with cheese, chicken, and guacamole. So we went pretty hard on the chicken haha.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Elder Harrison

 

 

Yup.

Im a father now.

Its pretty sweet haha.

My newbies name is Elder Haymond and he is awesome! Hes from Arizona, 18, and graduated in 2014! which is 2 years after I graduated haha. Which is toootally wierd!

But yeah It was awesome to be in the trainers meeting before we got our companions, because all the other trainers were like ex zone leaders and assistants to the president, and it made me feel awesome to be there with all of them. Since President realized that putting everyone as a trainer for fun wasnt a good idea because alot of missionaries werent getting trained, hes been putting like all the zone leaders down to train. and other trainers that have trained like a bunch of times already. It was cool. I feel special haha

Anyways my comp had a super intersting first week! haha

So the family of the grandma that I planched the other day was a tad upset and said they werent going to let Renata come to church for the moment because she had been acting out and being disrespectful to her grandma. So that kinda ticked me off because theyre members and they like dont understand the importance of going to church and theyre using it as a punishment. But then we saw Renata a few days later and she said that her mom was really sick. So we went and grabbed a member and gave her a blessing. She said it was the first blessing that she has recived in her whole life. The spirit was soooo powerful. It was awesome. Her attitude changed and Im thinking that this following sunday theyre going to come again. We passed the family off to the bishop saying that there wasnt really anything else that we could do to help them, but that wed be around if there was. He said hed start sending people from the ward and see if they have more progress than us.

After we gave the blessing the cranky grandma from last week was outside the house so I went and talked to her and apologized for my attitude and she said that after this sunday they wouldnt miss any more church sooo... Im pretty sure my words got to her. 

More than that, yesterday was a funny day. We went to pick up an investigator to take him to church, and there he was sitting out front of his house, and he was drunk as a skunk. I asked if he had drunk and he said no, but as he got up he had a bottle hidden behind his back. I was surpised with how functional he was after all the beer. Because the bottles are pretty big bottles here haha.

So we took him to church anyways haha. Sat him down in the back and just let him sit there. It wasnt as bad as I thought it was gonna be, and he brought one of his kids with him so that was good. We said that we´d go by later to talk to him after church, with a brother from the ward named Hermano Zavala. Who is the ward mission leader. He brought his guitar and we went around giving a christmas message to evryone! It was super powerful! He sang a song and then we read out of Luke when christ was born and then we explained the spirit and christmas and the atonement and it was just awesome! We went to our drunk friends house and he wasnt there but his wife was and we talked to her and she let us come in and give our message to her. The spirit was super strong and even when Drunk Raymundo came in (our investigator) the spirit wasnt completely abolished and we were able to invite her and her niece to baptism and she said yes! and she said that shes going to help her husband stop drinking so that he can be baptised too!! It was like the first time ive seen interest from her and she wants to be baptized now! It was like the most awesome lesson ever!

For thanksgiving we bought a chicken, that was awesome. and 4 chicken tacos. so we went hard on the chicken that day haha.

So yeah it was an awesome week!

Anyways thats the highlights from the week!

I love you all and hope you have a good week!

Love

Elder Harrison

 

11/24/2014 Awkward

That awkward moment when you get to the Ciber on monday and your family hasnt written you...

Ha its ok. Forgiveness is granted.

Anywho, this past weekend was good. Not much went on we just did alot of good walking. I weighed myself the other day, 74 kilos. 163 pounds haha. I must have a worm or something. Or all the ab excersice is finally paying off! Six packs for christmas!! haha

I got into a fight with a grandma the yesterday. We were going to an investigators to take them to church, and they werent there, so we went out looking for them ans ran into the parents of a recent convert that lived by there. They said they werent going to be able to go to church because one of their moms (grandma1) got sick and they were going to sell like all of their electronics to go pay for the medical bills, and then they were going to take care of her. But they said that Renata was home and we could take her to church, just go and tell her to change really fast and come with us.

So we knock on the door and grandma2 opens the door. 

I told her that we came for Renata so she could come to church with us. 

Grandma 2 says that no she wasnt going to go because she was going to spend the day with Renata.

I said no because we literally had just talked to her parents outside of the house and they to tell her to change and come with us. 

She goes on a random tangent saying that they were gone because grandma1 was sick.

I said I know we just talked to them, they told us to come get Renata.

She says that she comes from really far away and shes leaving at 4 and needs to spend the day with Renata.

I know where the grandma2 lives, and its not that far away. Like 20 minutes in a bus.

Then she goes on a tangent saying that last weekend Renata and Jorje (the other kid living there) got stranded at her house because she took them there (without consulting mom first) and didnt have enough money to send them back home, so they were there from friday until monday. 

I said I already knew, because I was the one that gave Renatas parents the money to go and get her and bring her back. 

She was like.. oh haha

Then she went on a rant about how she needed Renata there and how they didnt need to go to church because they read the Bible. (Grandma2 is a member of our church)

After 5 weeks of Renata not coming to church because of ridiculous stunts like this by this very Grandma2, I was a tad frustrated, so I decided to not be passive and lay down some straight condemnation on that old lady.

I told her that it was great that they read the bible, but if she didnt want to sanctify the sabbath day and follow the commandments of God that she didnt have to. She doesnt have to go to heaven, she doesnt have to be happy. She can be condemed forever, I didnt care. But to please let her Granddaughter come to church to preserve the covenants that she has made with God and not be condemned. 

That poor old lady haha.

She got all high and mighty, but my words pierced her and she told her daughter to go to church with us.

1 Nephi 16:1-3

 1 And now it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had made an end ofspeaking to my brethren,

 behold they said unto me: Thou hast declared unto us hard things,  

more than we are able to bear.

 2 And it came to pass that I said unto them that I knew that I hadspoken hard things 

against the wicked, according to the truth; andthe righteous have I justified, and testified 

 that they should belifted up at the last day; wherefore, the guilty taketh the truth tobe hard, 

 for it cutteth them to the very center.

 3 And now my brethren, if ye were righteous and were willing tohearken to the truth, and 

 give heed unto it, that ye might walkuprightly before God, then ye would not murmur 

 because of thetruth, and say: Thou speakest hard things against us.

If they get peeved by me saying the truth, its because theyre sinners.

Elder Harrison wins! haha

Is that bad to glory in that?

I dont really know.

All I know is that Renata came to church, and that made me happy.

I love you all alot!

Elder Harrison

11/20/2014 MAS!!!

So this past week was great! We had a baptism and it was a super good and cool experience! Adrian asked me to baptize him as well, sooo that was sweet. He told me that he wanted me to hold him under for a bit longer and let him enjoy the water, so I did and he came out all smiley and it was great.

I want you all to know that the pants I wore were size 30 pants! Which is cray because i was at like 34 when I was in the MTC. and my temple pants are size 36 soo... Yeah.. Ive lost alot of weight here. 

Adrian told us that hes going to another city called Pachuca to work for a couple months with his family, and he asked us where he copuld find a chapel and then how he could share the gospel with his family! He really wants his family to be baptized as well! My companion couldnt really think of anything, so we asked Adrian to say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father for help to know what to do. As he was saying the prayer, ´´Family History´´ popped into my mind and as soon as he ended the prayer We talked about that. The spirit was really strong and I promised him that if he would study all he could about Family History and share it with his parents and get them involved in it, they would accept the Gospel. It was really cool and I know that it will come true.

I bought him a really nice pair of scriptures from the temple store as well so that he can have his own set to study and share with his family.

We went to the temple today and during the video it really hit me how happy we all must have been there in the spirit world to see Adam and Eve on the earth. It was the garuntee that we too would someday have bodies and be able to become like our father in heaven. I can only imagine our rejoicing as it all began when Adam and Eve were expulsed from the Garden of Edin and started having Children. The anticipation we all must have felt as we watched our brothers and sisters descend to the Earth! Our spiritual family were all going to have the opportunity to come and have a body, repent, be sanctified by the spirit, and come to live with our father again. We knew it was just a short time and so we committed to do our best. and we will have the eternities to remember how we did so we better do the best we can now so that we dont regret this life in the life to come!

Anyways. It was a good week. I tried making empanadas one day wih hotdog and tuna. But it ended up just being a hotdog with a burnt bready helmet on it haha. I still have lots to learn about cooking.

Love you all!

Elder Harrison

11/20/2014 Temple Trip

We also got to go to the temple today. Theres a new rule in the mission that we cant take our cameras outside of the house unless we have baptisms or go to the temple soo... Yeah. Gotta take advantage of all the camera time we get.

 

 

11/20/2014 My first BOSS Baptism! (Baptise On Sixth Saturday)

Soooo This week we had a Baptism! His name is Adrian and he is AWESOME!! He showed up to the chapel 5 weeks ago trying to find the answer to why he couldnt find happiness in his life. Now he has found the answer and is so much happier than when we met him. He loves the gospel! He told us that he´s going to Pachuca in a week and he´s going to take all him family that lives there to church with him. He actually asked us for help with a plan on how to get them interested. My companion and I were trying to figure out what to do when we decided to say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father. Before the prayer ended, ´´family history´´ popped into my mind and I knew that would be the In for Adrians family. So we studied family history and hes going to share that with his parents when he goes to Pachuca. Im super stoked to see what happens with that!

Anywho, enjoy the pics of the baptism

11/10/14 This Week

So this week was a bit uneventful. It rained alot. until like saturday. Then it got like really hot haha. Weather here is nutz.

SO I got to go on splits on friday with the zone leaders. ONe of them is younger than me haha. andis super awesome. We had a few good lessons and had a great time. He showed me the importance of umbrelas haha. Also he told me that BYUHawaii gives free tuition to RMs on their first semester, which means that im totally gonna hit that up... but just for one semester haha. Ill go try to sell tacos there on the beach or something haha.

We taught a less active family, nd my companion got awesome revelation and knew that they hadnt been sealed yet, and so we talked about eternal families and they siad they want to get sealed and are going to talk to the bishop to start getting all that ready. SO that was awesome!! The family was super excited about it.

Adrian passed his baptismal interview so he´ll be baptized this saturday!! Im super stoked about that! He´s so ready.

More than that.. Not much really happened this week. Not much work because of the rain and we just kinda walked around looking for stuff to do. BUt it was still a good week!

Love you all! sorry this letter is so short!

Elder Harrison

11/03/14 This Week

So this week was good! We did alot of walking and exploring of areas that we didnt know in our area! We walked like soooo much looking for the new neighborhoods in our area! Theyre like hidden in the woods and connected to back roads, and we found them all by accident haha.

My spanish continues to improve. I now forget lots of words in English and when I talk in english I try to use spanish words. one of the prominents being ´´ya´´ which means like now or already. I think Ya should be made an english word as well haha.

I totally cut my finger on a broken mirror this morning, looks like my 7 years of bad luck already started haha.

My comp and I went to buy tacos this morning and couple showed up after we ordered and when we tried to pay when we left the couple said that they were going to pay for us! I have no idea who they were but it made me feel nice inside. Thanks random taco buying couple!! 

Its interesting because I decided to give a bit more in my fast offering this week, and I the couple payed for our food the very next day, which happened to be more or less what I gave extra in the fast offerings. Heavenly Father is awesome like that :)

So my comp and I worked really hard and were able to meet and teach 12 new investigators this week! It was awesome! some of them were duds but some of them were really great and already accepted baptismal dates and everything. We´ll see how that goes in the coming weeks!

Im coming up on 11 months this month. Almost to the peak of the mission and then im on the downhill. The time goes by way too fast in the mission.

Anyways, nothing more happened this week! Just lots of walking!

Love you all so much!

Elder Harrison