Elder Devin Harris' Mission in Natal Brazil: It Rained!

So remember how I said last week that it hasn´t rained here in over 3 years? Well we fasted on Sunday and on Tuesday it rained! And by rained I mean poured! We were walking and it was about 5 o´clock at night and my comp and I saw some clouds rolling in and he was lie “Vai Chover!” (It´s Gonna rain!) And so I sarcastically am like, “Vai chover muitos entao as ruas vai ser rios!” (It´s going to rain so much that the streets will be rivers) I know you guys are impressed with my vast knowledge of the Portuguese language ;) We started feeling some rain drops and we were freaking out and then it came. It poured for over an hour and my comp and I were like running down the middle of the road while everyone was huddled under things trying to stay dry. It was the first time my companion had seen rain in the 6 months he´s been on his mission. It was so great! And the streets actually were rivers! Called it ;) That´s what the spirit of revelation will do for you ;) Haha! So earlier that day we were walking to an investigators house on the other side of town when we saw this broken mirror on the side of the road and we don´t have a mirror in our house but we didn´t have time to get it so we kept going. Then later on that night during the rainstorm we had nothing else to do so I´m like “Nós devemos pegar o espelho!” (We should go get the mirror!) So we´re like let´s do it so we walked about a half hour in the rain and got the mirror and that´s when it hit me... We forgot to shut the windows in our apartment.... We were still like a half hour walk from our house and it had already been raining for about an hour so we took off for home. It was so funny because there we were, these two missionaries carrying pieces of a broken mirror through the pouring rain and having the time of our lives. We got home and found that our house was pretty much flooded haha. My bed, which is right next to the window, got soaked! It´s still drying right now. We got everything cleaned up and by that time it was time for bed. haha my comp was kind enough to let me borrow his mattress because his didn´t get that wet because his isn´t next to the window and he slept on the box of his bed. He´s a good guy. But I can´t complain too much because the Lord answered our prayers! It´s funny how when you turn to the Lord, he´s actually there to help. I´ve been thinking lately and I remember when I submitted my mission papers, I said to myself, The only two things I want in my mission is I don´t want to go anywhere too cold and I don´t want to be stuck in the city my whole mission. And here I am in the wide open fields of Brazil complaining about the heat. I´m really glad we have a Heavenly Father who is patient because that´s how we all are sometimes, No matter how much He does for us we can always find something to complain about. So I´ve been trying to focus on the blessings I have been given rather than the bad. Just a random thought for you guys out there... And as for all the walking, don´t worry because we entered a drawing for a motor cycle so when we win that we´ll be set ;)

So earlier this week we were teaching U. He´s the one that I talked about last week that was having car troubles and doesn´t really believe in God. So we were teaching him and he´s really receptive to what we have to say there´s just something holding him back you can tell. And he talks so fast and it´s so hard to understand him so I just bore my testimony and told him about all I left back home to come to a random place where I have no idea how to speak the language all because I know it´s true and the next thing I know he starts to cry and you could tell that the spirit was there with him. It was awesome but he has a girlfriend who doesn´t want anything to do with the Mormons because she´s Catholic and every time we show up he says to his girlfriend, “Hey come sit in here and listen to the word of God with me.“ And then she storms out because she doesn´t want to hear anything so I think that could be one of the things holding him back which is so frustrating! We couldn´t get him to come to church with us yesterday either but you can tell that he´s not really atheist he just has had some trials in his life with his wife passing away and he´s just lost. You can tell that he wants to believe so we´re gonna try really hard with him these next few weeks.

I´ve started reading O Livro de Mórmon outloud because I´m to the point where I can understand just about everything besides a few words here and there but it has helped with my language so much! It´s crazy to see the improvement just since I´ve started reading. Haha, the other night my comp and I were walking down the street when all of a sudden we hear this super loud music and a bunch of people coming towards us. It was this Catholic parade thing and it seemed like the whole town was with them and then here are me and my companion walking against the flow of people with our Livro de Mórmons in hand. All the people were looking at us weird and I felt kind of awkward but at the same time I felt blessed because we were the only two that knew the whole truth of the gospel haha. I´m definitely starting to see my purpose out here more and more each day. I love you all, Have a wonderful week, you guys are all in my prayers.

Elder Harris

P.S. I laughed so hard when I saw Colton´s picture of him in the rain with like the exact same picture haha.