Monday, May 30, 2016

Rooming with Jimmy Fallon's Twin and I'm a Little Lost This Week

Hey everyone! So this week has been super eventful. I was transferred to a city called Parnamirim which is like 15 minutes from Natal. I was called as one of the Zone Leaders here with Elder Shakespear. I don't know if you guys remember but I lived with Elder Shakespear last year when I was in Panatis. We're also in a threesome with Elder Melo from Brazil. They're both so much fun! We get work done together and we're always having fun so I'm super excited for this transfer. I think this will be my last area. It was hard leaving Mossoró and all the members and missionaries. I miss my district from Bom Jardim so much but here is awesome too so I guess it's all good.

So we got here on Thursday and we started organizing the apartment, which is SUPER small, to fit 5 missionaries. We live with two other elders, Elder D. Lima from Brazil and Elder Cabral from Argentina. Elder Cabral is pretty much Jimmy Fallon's twin... they look exactly alike! I'll try to send pictures but this internet café is horrible so it might have to wait until next week. Anyways, Elder Shakespear, Elder Melo, and I all just barely got to the area so we were all a little lost this week trying to get to know the investigators, members, recent converts, and the area, but it's been really good. We had a baptism this week of a lady named M... She was an investigator of the last Elders so we showed up just to reap the benefits haha. But we also have a bunch of people to work with so it's gonna be awesome.

Anyways, last night was pretty crazy. Elder Shakespear woke me up at about 1 in the morning saying he could hardly breathe. So we called some members with a car and luckily they answered. They came and got us and took us to the hospital to get him taken care of. Anyways, to make a long story short, after about an hour and a half he was feeling better and we were able to come home. looks like it was some kind of cold/allergy. Idk anways, he's better now haha, but that just about sums it up for this week. I love you all! Thanks for everything! A igreja é verdadeira!

Elder Harris

Looks like the pictures aren't gonna work... :/

Monday, May 23, 2016

Renting to a family of mice!

Hey everyone! So this week was awesome! It's kinda weird, this week we worked so hard but it seemed like I had almost no time to follow up with all of our investigators or anything like that. I guess it's because time is just flying by so fast now. So you guys remember Ca. and Ga., the two sisters who were baptized a bit ago right? So this week we were able to baptized their brother J.. The baptism was so good. Now all the kids in their family are baptized and we just need to get the mom baptized but she's on a trip down in Southern Brazil and we have no idea when she'll be coming home :/ But the whole family is so awesome!
Anyways, this week was Elder Chacón's last week on the mission. Tomorrow he's heading to Natal and then home. It's really weird to think that here in a bit that's gonna be me. To be honest I still feel like a greenie on the mission haha. It was kinda funny, the other day my companion and I were talking and I told him that I left for the mission in 2014 and he got a surprised look on his face like what?? You've been serving since 2014? I was just barely starting my senior year in 2014! Idk i guess it kinda put it into perspective. But it definitely doesn't feel like that much time has passed.
So I had a nice surprise yesterday. My two suitcases are stacked one on top of the other in one of the rooms of our house and yesterday I wanted something out of my suitcase that was on bottom so when I took of the top one guess what was there waiting for me... yes a family of little mice. The mom took off running and luckily the babies were so little that they couldn't run otherwise we would've had a problem. But man, those things are ugly. I'll send some pictures. So I flushed them down the toilet and that was that. We never did find the mom... Haha it was super nasty but I survived haha.
That's about it for this week! I love you all! Thanks for everything! Have a good last week of school for everyone who's still in school haha. Have an awesome week! A igreja é verdadeira!

Elder Harris

Pic 1 - The ugly baby mice
The rest are just pics of random things haha.





Monday, May 16, 2016

Baptism and Wayne's!

Hey everyone! So this week was really good. Cl. was baptized this week! Cl. is one of Ca.'s (the recent convert) cousins. It was so good and her whole family came to the baptism which was a miracle because it is almost impossible to get them to church! Unfortunately her parents didn't go on Sunday to watch her be confirmed :/ But we'll keep trying with them. I don't think I told you guys last week but last Sunday when we were getting investigators to go to church a couple called us from the other side of the road so we went to talk to them. They said they met missionaries in a another city and loved them but had to move and wanted to know if we could go visit them this week. So we were like for sure! We went there and they progressed super fast the whole week. They need to get married legally and they committed to do so. they accepted baptism too but we got there yesterday morning to take them to church and no one was home :/ I was super bummed. We tried calling and calling and calling but no one answered. so I guess we'll see what happened this week.
Today for Pday we went with the district to Wayne's. Which if you guys remember from Natal is super american burger place. It's pretty expensive but one of the missionaries we live with, Elder Chacón, is going home next week so it was kind of his farewell haha. It was so good. A huge burger, fries, barbeque sauce, ranch, and a strawberry smoothie. Man it was good. But that's about it for this week. I love you all! Thanks for everything! A igreja é verdadeira!

Elder Harris

Pic 1 - Elder Zylks, Sister Weatherford, and Sister Stadler
Pics 2, 3,and 4 Wayne's 






Monday, May 9, 2016

Happy Mother's Day!

Hey everyone! Happy Mother's Day mom! It was so good to talk with the family! I can't believe it was my fourth and final Skype of the mission! So this week was pretty good. I was in Natal until Tuesday when we came back to Mossoró. Natal was awesome. It was so good to see a bunch of the members there. Anyways, so I got back and Elder Zylks and I got right back to work. This week has had its fair share of both blessings and trials. We've been working closely with a few families but all of the parents need to get married. It's so hard to find an actually legally married couple here! They were all progressing really well until Sunday when pretty much nobody wanted to go to church. That's one of the most frustrating things here. Every Sunday we leave the house at about 7:00-7:30 (the sun is already beating down at 7:00) to go get investigators to take to church. We literally stopped by the houses of every one of our investigators and they were either sick, not home, or just too lazy. Well after about 2 hours with no success we finally made it to church. Church was good, then we went to lunch, and afterwards we went to Skype the family. The members whose house we went to are so nice! they are always so excited to help the missionaries with just about everything! But anyways, that's just about it for this week. I'm gonna try to get you guys some pictures this week haha. It's about time. I love you all! Thanks for everything! A igreja é verdadeira!

Elder Harris

Pic1 - Elder Mehl
Pic 2 - Elder Petter
Pic 3 - 2 generations of secretaries haha
Pic 4 - The district
Pic 5 - Elder Andrade
Pic 6 - Remember the twins Marcos and Matheus from Alecrim?
Pic 7 - Elder Carpenter
Pic 8 - Roosevelt!
Pic 9 - I forgot to tell you guys but we have a pet spider at our house haha. 









Monday, May 2, 2016

News so good that she couldn't wait!

Hey everyone! So this week was freaking awesome! To be honest I don't really remember too much about what happened earlier this week. I'm horrible at this stuff. All I remember is the really good stuff or the really bad stuff. But this week was just good stuff. So I think I told you guys about the family that we have been teaching right? The daughter was baptized a few months ago and we have been teaching her grandma, mom, sister, and cousin. Anyways they were progressing really well. On Thursday morning I was writing in my journal and it was funny because I was literally writing about this family and the potential that I saw in them when all of a sudden the phone rang. I answered it and it was the girl who was baptized a while back. She said she had some news so good that she couldn't wait. Then she asked if there was any way for her sister, G., is her name, to be baptized this week. We were like heck yeah! So we worked really close with her and this Sunday she was baptized. The whole family went to the baptism and it was awesome! Now we just have to keep working with the rest of them. It's cool to see their progress because when The first daughter was baptized the family wanted nothing to do with the church because they had heard a bunch of people talking bad about the church. But now that they actually know the church and the missionaries they are so much more open. I'm stoked for them all!
Anyways, last night I got on a bus and made the 5 hour trip yet again to Natal to renew my visa. The trip was good but the bus stunk so bad! But I made it alive so I wont complain. That night we chilled for a bit in the office and I went next door to the church where there were a few members. I felt right at home there, like I never even left. It was awesome to see everyone from Alecrim again. Especially R. and his family, and President Morais. Anyways, this morning we went to the police station to get the visa business worked out. It was different being accompanied rather than accompanying haha. The workers there were stoked to see me again. haha. Afterwards I went with Elder Carpenter who was also renewing his visa and we went with R. who took us to lunch and to do some fun things for Pday. It was so much fun! Then we came back and right now we are at President Morais's house sending emails and that pretty much sums it up for this week. I'm sorry I'll try and send pics but I won't promise that it will work. I haven't received photos of G.'s baptism yet because it was a member that took the picture cuz I forgot my camera. But anyways, I love you all! Have a great week! A igreja é verdadeira!


Elder Harris