His first marriage proposal!

Hey everyone! I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving this week! I sure missed it here haha. But I still wanted to have a special lunch so we went to a restaurant and me and my comp each ate a whole pizza... Pretty much the same thing as turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing right? ;) haha It was good. Plus that night President M. the stake president had an American Thanksgiving party with people from his English class and afterwards, he brought us some left over desserts... Cookies, chocolate cake, and... wait for it...... pumpkin pie! I almost cried. I'd never seen pumpkin pie here before, man it was so good haha. So that was my thanksgiving this year haha.

So this week was good, definitely a lot better than last week haha. Last Sunday we had stake conference and it was super good! We brought J. and his friend with us and they enjoyed it. But anyways, we were able to find quite a few new people to teach this week. We started working in a new part of the area which is more of the ghetto I guess you could say. The people are way more open and willing to listen to you there. There's always some weird random things that happens there haha. A woman asked me if I would marry her... Haha it was kinda funny. Anyways, we did find a really good family... well a 14 year old boy and his mom. we taught them and they both accepted to be baptized, the only problem is that the mom isn't married and is living with her boyfriend and he doesn't want to get married. So we'll keep working with them but the boy, A., is still super excited to be baptized here in a bit.

So earlier this week we were in Alecrim, a neighborhood here in Natal where they have a bunch of shops and stores and all that good stuff. There's this guy called Rambo of Alecrim. It's this guy who dresses up like Rambo with a big light up gun and stays by this one traffic light and every time the light goes green for the pedestrians to cross the road, he runs out into the middle of the road with a whistle and his big gun and starts yelling and acting like he's covering you as you cross the street. It's actually hilarious. We went to cross and he was like “LET’S GO MORMONS!!! I GOT YOUR BACK GO GO GO!!!” I was almost busting up so then we had to take a picture with him haha. We went to a guitar shop and I was looking at the guitars when all of a sudden one of the workers walks up to me and is like, you're a guitarist aren't you? And I was like uh... i guess so, I play a little bit... and he was like, I could tell by the way you were looking at that guitar... And was like whoah... that's pretty creepy but pretty neat haha. Anyways, I talked to him for a bit and he was really cool but he doesn't live in our area so I got his info and passed it to the missionaries who work there.

This morning we went with President M. and a bishop from one of the wards here to the sand dunes that sit pretty close to the ocean. It's the same place that Sister S. took us a little while back. It's so pretty there! Anyways, we left at 5:30 this morning and were back by 8. Definitely a good way to start the day. I'll send pics.

But anyways, that's just about it for this week. I love you all! Have a great week! Thanks for everything that you guys do for me! A igreja é verdadeira!

Elder Harris

Pics - Pday,and  Rambo de Alecrim

This week was just one of those weeks...

Well everyone, this week was.... well, it was just one of those weeks. On the mission you have the great weeks, the good weeks, and the not so good weeks. This one wasn't one of the better weeks we've had. First off, our investigator Z.’s baptism fell through. We went to pick him up to take him to his baptism and we found him with a huge black eye. We asked him what happened and it turns out he got himself into a little argument and ended up losing the day before his baptism. Well to make matters worse he also decided to move to another neighborhood which is really far from where we work. So we aren't able to visit him anymore. He said he would go to church on Sunday so fingers crossed, but I'm not too hopeful.

Also we went to talk with J's mom yesterday again about his baptism. This time we brought the ward young men's leader with us, Irmão D. He's one of those guys that is just super likable and all the young men love him. So we went there and after a little while she admitted that she really wants her son to go to her church instead of the church of Jesus Christ so even if it means she has to be disobedient to God she won't let him be baptized. I was like, “What?? Ugh!” Anyways, I walked away from both experiences a little disheartened... But we've just gotta press forward with faith doing everything within our power and the Lord will make up for the rest. It's one of those moments where you wish you could just force them to make the right decision that will help them but I guess that's why Heavenly Father gave us our agency. In a way I kinda feel like that's how Heavenly Father must feel sometimes. Sometimes the choice is so clear and I'm sure that God just wants to yell to us what we need to do and yet every once in a while we still make the wrong choices. Like Elder Holland said in one of his talks "imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with. That must be incredibly frustrating for Him but He deals with it; so should we."

So moral of the story, Choose the Right. Just do it.

So yesterday we had to help take all of the furniture and appliances out of a house where missionaries used to live and take it all to our house because that area closed. It was hot and I was sweating like no other but we got it taken care of. I again rode in the back of the moving truck and once again it felt like I was inside an oven haha. We passed through my old areas, Cidade do Sol, and Panatis on our way home and it was so weird seeing my old areas again. It feels like it was just last month that I was working there yet it's been about 8 months haha. Time flies when you're having fun haha.

We also had a family night the other night with a couple of families from the ward. Man there was so much food! Sometimes it's hard being a missionary because you just have to eat so much stinking food! Like they just expect that from you haha. #missionaryprobs hahaha. But it was good. I love the members here they're great. But that just about sums it up for this week. I love you all! Try not to freeze to death in all of the snow there! Man I'm jealous! I'm still soaking in the sun for all of you guys haha so when you're all freezing to death just try to remember Elder Harris sweating to death haha. jk not really cuz I'm in the office all day ;) Haha Have a great week! A igreja é verdadeira!

Elder Harris

Pics of the staff (I didn't take any pictures this week so here are a few from a little while back)

Nobody was injured so that's always a plus!

So this week was good. We had the monthly Leadership council on Tuesday which went well. Nobody was injured so that's always a plus haha. So anyways, after that we were trying to get all of the missionaries back to their areas so I was at the bus station when a Hispanic elder came up to me saying that the workers there needed my help. So anyways, I was a little skeptical but I walked back into this little room with this Hispanic elder, a worker, and this other dude from Argentina who didn't speak any Portuguese haha. So the other Elder was translating his Spanish for us. Anyways, turns out that this guy needed to buy a flight ticket to get him from Natal to another city in southern Brazil called Foz do Iguaçu, which is actually where my last comp is from. But anyways they figured that with my secretary skills I would be able to help them because I'm always buying plane tickets hahaha. It was pretty funny but I showed them a few sites and helped them out a bit and it got all worked out haha. Just a random funny experience haha.

So I told you guys last week about Z., the guy we talked to because we were afraid he would assault us. Well anyways, he's been progressing really well and will be baptized tomorrow! He's 23 and the bishop wants to start preparing him as soon as possible so that he can have the opportunity to maybe serve a mission. Anyways, we're excited. He had his baptismal interview yesterday and it all went well. We're still working with J. and his mom and haven't been having much success with her... We stopped by his house last Sunday to take him to church and he answered the door and told us that his mom wouldn't let him go to church with us. So we asked to talk to her and she started denying it saying that he could go he's a grown boy he needs to choose for himself which path he wants to choose. So we brought up baptism. He's constantly talking about how badly he wants to be baptized but his mom still won’t let him even though he's a "grown boy who needs to choose his own path" she thinks it's too early. Ugh, people... but we aren't gonna lose faith haha.

So guess who we ran into yesterday... Remember B. from a few weeks ago, our "Elect" investigator who was progressing super-fast until her friends started talking bad about the church. Well anyways, we saw her yesterday. Apparently she's living in a beach house with a bunch of friends and has lost all interest in the church. I walked away feeling extremely sad. It's hard to believe that someone can make such a big turn for the worse in such a short amount of time.

But on a happier note, we started teaching a 17 year old kid named T. He looks really promising. We went to his house and taught him about the restoration and he loved it. The lesson started off a little shaky because his step dad was there drunk making all sorts of unnecessary comments but then his mom showed up and took him away. Haha it was actually pretty funny. She showed up like "Hey! You can't be hearing the word of God, you've been drinking! You're not allowed to listen to these things of God!" Idk, you just had to be there I guess haha.

But that's just about it for this week. I love you all! Thank you for everything that you guys do for me! Have a great week! A igreja é verdadeira!

Elder Harris

The Leadership Council

'Cuz we're losers like that!

Hey everyone! This week was pretty good. Our zone had a zone wide Pday on Monday and we got permission to participate even though our Pdays are on Saturdays cuz we're just losers like that haha. But it was super fun.

We were even able to get a little bit of time in for teaching haha. J. is still progressing really well and even wants to be baptized but his mom won't let him. His mom is a member of another church here and she says in order for him to be baptized he needs to go to church for at least two months or so to be able to be baptized. But we'll keep working with her. We met this other guy this week. His name is Z. To be honest the way we found him was kinda funny. We were at the doorstep of some of our investigators talking them when we noticed some guy walk behind us and he was checking us out like he wanted to mug us or something like that. So we figured it would be better to approach him instead of going away from him. Well we walked up to him and invited him to church and we got into a good conversation. Well we went back the other day and taught him the restoration and he loved it. He's super excited to go to church with us on Sunday. We've been back to talk with him a few times and he's doing really well. We also got a referral from the bishop of another ward here to teach his friend and co-worker. So we went there with the Bishop and we had a good lesson. The guy has a strong Baptist background and had some pretty good questions but promised that he would read the book of Mormon and pray about it. Plus he'll have the bishop there to help him out so I'll let you know how it all plays out next week.

So the other day we went with two other elders to a super nice restaurant called Camarões. The two elders said that they wanted to take us there and pay for us so we didn't ask questions. Anyways, it was super nice. In fact, almost a little too nice haha. I felt a little out of place there haha. I was lookin at the menu like, where's the dollar menu?? Haha but anyways, that just about sums it up for my week. I love you all! Thank you for everything! Have a great week! A igreja é verdadeira!

Elder Harris

Pics 1-2 - Some random pics and a random guy who as you can tell was really excited to be there.
Pic 3 - Camarões