Christ Never Taught Comfortable Doctrine

Hey everyone! So this week was good. So turns out that Labor Day is actually Brazil's Independence Day so they have some pretty cool celebrations. Nothing like the 4th of July in America though haha. On Monday the priesthood of the stake had a big activity where they had a bunch of games and a barbeque which was good. One of the games there was ping pong. It's been awhile since I've played but I haven't lost my killer skills. I pretty much whooped everybody. Except for one kid who had to have been at least half Asian to have the kind of ping pong skills that he had. It was pretty crazy. Haha so we found out this week that Elder Durê will be leaving the office to go back to the field here in a couple weeks. It's gonna be kinda weird without him haha. We've been companions for about 5 months now so when he finally leaves we'll have been together for a whole fourth of the mission. But it will be good. The new financial secretary/ my new companion got here on Tuesday. His name is Elder Mehl from Paraná, Brazil. It's a state in the south of Brazil. The same state that Elder Durê is from. Anyways, he's awesome, we get along super well. Plus he's an awesome teacher, obedient and hardworking, so it's gonna be a good couple of months with him. We still have Elder Moura with us with a broken foot so while Durê is training Elder Mehl there are 4 of us here in the office which makes it a lot easier to go out proselyte. Instead of having to arrange a member to go with us we can just leave an elder with Elder Moura and we can go work.

So this week I've been working everyday with Elder Mehl and it’s been awesome. B. is going to be baptized tomorrow! His mom and his Grandma will go to watch it. He was so excited! It's gonna be great. We did end up having to drop J. because she just wasn't progressing which was upsetting but you can only do so much.

I don't know if you guys remember R. from a while back but we have started teaching her again and she is way more accepting and is progressing much faster. The only problem is that she is really comfortable in her church so she doesn't want to leave. Ugh these people just don't seem to understand that the Gospel isn't about being comfortable. It's about progression. I think the only times that I have actually been "comfortable" in this past year that I've been serving were the times when I wasn't necessarily progressing or doing all that I should have been doing. I was listening to a talk from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and he hit the nail on the head. He said that if people these days want any gods at all, they want them to be smooth gods that don't require much; god's that not only don't rock the boat but that don't even row it. Christ never taught comfortable doctrine. I just wish people could see that. It would make our job a lot easier but I guess it's all just part of being a missionary. I love it even when it's not easy, like yesterday. Yesterday we had one decent lesson and the rest of the time was spent talking to people and having them reject us. Then talking to more people, and having them reject us. Then talking to more people. Then... yep you guessed it... having them reject us. But like I said, it's all a part of being a missionary and I wouldn't trade it for anything. As long as we're doing our part the Lord will make up for the rest.

I hope you guys have an awesome week. Thank you guys for the support. I love you all! A igreja é verdadeira!!

Elder Harris

Here are a few more pics from last week and some of my companions, new and old.