In the office another transfer...

Hey everyone! So this week was good. We had transfers this week so it was a little crazy but good nevertheless. Just like a normal transfer week we weren't able to do a whole lot of proselyting which was a bummer. But on the bright side we started off this week good. President took us out to lunch at the restaurant Sal e Brasa. It's the one that that missionary who came back to visit the mission took us to with her chinese aunt. Anyways, It was super good and I ate a ton. In fact I'm pretty sure I've gained about 10 pounds this week from all the junk that I've eaten! First that restaurant then we got Oreo milkshakes, then the next day we had dinner at the president's house with all of the new missionaries. Man I ate so much this week!
But yeah, the arrival of all the new missionaries was really fun as usual. Then the crazy part of the transfer started on wednesday. We were running around like no other trying to get all of the bus tickets bought and get all the right documents and in the middle of all of this I had to take a missionary to the Police Station to renew his Visa. But it all worked out and there were no major problems so I can't complain haha.
After that we just had all of the missionaries who were going home staying with us until thursday. Elder Wilson who I lived with in Cidade do Sol went home this week which was super weird. I remember joking around with him a while back when I had just barely gotten to the office and he said that I would still be in the office when he went home but I thought there was no way cuz that was about 7 months ago... But here I am still haha. And no i wasn't transferred so that means I'll be here until at least December haha. Whatever, I guess I'm just gonna have to make the most of it.
So like I said at the beginning, we didn't have a whole lot of time for teaching this week. We worked last night and a little bit on Thursday night. But we do have some progressing investigators. So we'll keep working with them. Last night we got a referral so we went to visit this person and when we got there this old man came out a little drunk, chewed us out and was cursing like crazy. Anyways, it was one of those things that's really annoying but I try not to let it get me down. Other than that everything was good this week haha. I hope you guys all have an awesome week! I love you all! Thank you guys for everything! A igreja é verdadeira!

Elder Harris

Me with Elder Wilson

Never Give Up on God!

Hey everyone! So this week was really good. On Sunday we were able to baptize a little girl named V. We have been teaching her family for a while now and she goes to church all the time with her friends. Anyways, she approached us on Sunday telling us she wanted to be baptized. So we talked to her mom and she was ok with it so she was baptized. Her mom came to watch too which was great. Hopefully it was some good inspiration for her to whip herself into shape and get baptized too haha.
Anyways, we were eating lunch on Monday at this restaurant when all of a sudden this old lady comes up to us and just starts preaching like no other. She went off for dayzzzzzz! Then afterwards she was like NEVER GIVE UP ON GOD! JUST HANG IN THERE! NEVER GIVE UP ON HIM! NOT EVEN FOR ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD!! And I was just like... Amen! Then we invited her to church and she said no because God doesn't have a religion.... Ok. Who knows, maybe one day haha. So then onmonday night we had a little going away party with the sisters in our district for Sister Lencini who finished up her mission this week. She was in my district for one transfer in my first area Currais Novos and for two transfers here in Alecrim. Anyways, she was super cool and we were pretty good friends so it was sad to see her go. But the work must go on haha.

So Thursday was another great day because we had another baptism! We were able to baptize a guy named J. To be honest I'm not sure if I've mentioned him before. We have been teaching him for a while but he hasn't necessarily been progressing very well until just recently. He is dating a recent convert and we taught him about baptism and he accepted. So we had his baptism and it was really great. His girlfriend was crying and he was so happy. It was a great experience.
But that just about sums it up for this week. I love you all, have a great week! A igreja é verdadeira!

Elder Harris

Pic 1 - We tried haha
Pic 2 - Natal started at this point.
Pic 3 - Our little district party haha

Fun P-Day with President Morais

Hey everyone! Sorry I'm emailing so late today, we had a pretty fun Pday with President Morais. I'll try to send some pics. Anyways, as for the big news, Durê was finally transferred on Monday after serving 8 months here in the office... It's been really weird adjusting I'm not gonna lie. I spent 6 months serving with him here in the office, a whole quarter of my mission. Man he was a good companion. But with Elder Mehl it's gonna be just as good.

Anyways this week started off really great but got a little tougher towards the end... Remember B., the elect lady we found last week? Well she came to church with us on Sunday and loved it! She asked us if she could be baptized. So we marked her baptism for this Sunday. She immediately called her friends and invited them and it was all going so well. Well then we go to stop by her house and she is nowhere to be found. She called and told us those friends she invited are from another church and they started talking about how she shouldn't be baptized and started bad mouthing the church in all sorts of ways... Long story short, we haven't been able to reach her on the telephone and she has been staying somewhere else so we can't find her at home to try and help her. UGH!!! It's so frustrating! She was so good and so ready! But I guess some things happen and we just need to continue doing our best and leave it in the Lord's hands.

As for I., we stopped by every day this week to follow up with her and teach her but even after everything that we can do just isn't progressing... We told her that we couldn't continue stopping by if she won't make and keep her commits, wasting her time, our time, and The Lord's time. So we had to drop her. But who knows, maybe one day the seed that we planted will be harvested. We just have to have faith.

We have found some pretty great new people to teach so we're going to pretty much start from new next week. Anyways, for Pday today we went to the Parque das Dunas again and then we went to the town center and saw a bunch of historical sites and all sorts of stuff which was really cool! But that just about sums it up for this week. It's starting to get really hot again (hotter than usual haha) because summer is just starting up here. My comp and I are getting desperate to have some cold weather so we decided to bring hoodies to the office. I am wearing a hoodie for the first time in over a year! It's so nice haha. By the way that reminds me. Today is my 13 month mark. Man the time is flying by! I can't believe how fast it's going! But anywas, I love you all! Thank you all for the love and support you give me! Have a great week! A igreja é verdadeira!

Elder Harris
First pics - Our pday
Last pic - First time in forever wearing a hoodie!

General Conference really is the best time of the year for a missionary.

So first of all, sorry I didn't have time to send a big email to everyone last week. Since our Pday is on Saturday and Conference was last Saturday we were so busy running around the city trying to get investigators to come to Conference with us and the rest of the time was spent watching Conference. But anyways, I loved conference! General Conference really is the best time of the year for a missionary. I loved all of the talks. I'm so excited for the three new apostles. So just like the last conference we watched it in a little room with all of the Americans in English. I think I've said this before but we are so blessed to be able to speak the same language as our prophet and apostles. I was listening to a talk by Elder Holland the other day in the office and my comp turned to me and asked who was speaking. I looked at him surprisingly because who can't identify Elder Holland's powerful voice?? Then I realized he rarely hears his voice because it's always been translated for him. That's how it is here. I'm so thankful to be able to understand our leaders! Anyways, conference was just the spiritual boost that I needed. I think my favorite part was afterwards I talked with President Morais (The Stake President here) and he pretty much gave me my own personal General Conference talk. President Morais has to be one of the greatest men to have ever walked the earth. I love him so much! He's one of the most loving guys I've ever met and one of those people who can clearly be identified as one called of God.

Anyways, last week we had our Zone conference which was good but it was a little stressful to get everything ready for it but it all worked out. Then this week we had our leadership council which was good too. Things have been so crazy lately, I'm looking forward to hopefully resting a little bit in the coming weeks but that probably won’t happen... I took a few missionaries to the police station to renew their visas this week and it all went well.

So as for the teaching part, I. is still progressing well. We were walking down the street the other day when we felt like we should talk to and old couple that was sitting outside of their house so we started talking to them and they were nice but clearly not interested. All of a sudden a lady came out and we started talking to here. She's like 25 years old or so. Anyways, her name is B. and she was talking about how she has been needing God in her life and how she has always seen our church and wanted to enter but wasn't sure if she could enter without being invited. She was so happy that we stopped to talk to her and she even asked if the people would accept her as a member there. We were like.... ummm Yeah! So anyways, we went back the next day and taught her the restoration and left her with a Book of Mormon. We're going to go back today to see how she is doing with the reading. She told us that without a doubt she will go to church with us tomorrow so we're excited.

Yesterday was pretty cool. We were at lunch at a member’s house and I left a spiritual message about faith and afterwards he told me that I was definitely inspired to share that because it was exactly what he was needing at that moment. Yeah it was pretty cool. The church is true. Anyways, that's about it for now. I love you all! I hope you have an awesome week! Thank you all for everything! A igreja é verdadeira!

Elder Harris

Our zone at the Zone Conference

It's crazy how fast time is going by!

It's crazy how fast time is going by. It's already time for Taggart's birthday again?? I hope everything is going well for you. That's cool that Kierstin is going for her Associates degree. And you know I'm still being a perfect angel keeping my room clean here ;) I'll keep Mrs. Brown in my prayers and I'll write her a little letter too. So I don't have a lot of time to write today but if I have time I'll send a big email. If not, I'll try to get one sent on monday. Have an awesome Conference weekend and pay attention to the talks! ;) I love you!

Elder Harris

I love to see the excitement and determination of the new missionaries when they get here!

Hey everyone! So this week has been pretty hectic. We had transfers so as usual things were a little crazy in the office. But anyway, last Sunday was Elder Mehl's birthday so we had a little party with cake and cuscuz (a super popular food here) with some of the members here which was pretty fun. So this Tuesday all of the new missionaries got here and it was really fun as usual. I always love to see the excitement and determination of the new missionaries when they get here. It's always a good little boost for us. Anyways, we had a good zone meeting on Wednesday to get to know the new zone... This might come as a surprise to all of you but no, I wasn't transferred ;) Pres. told me that I'll be here for at least two more transfers. So I'm planning on being here until December or so. Anyways, this week has been pretty slow, teaching-wise. We weren't able to leave to see our investigators until Thursday this week because of the transfers. Also B. went out of town with his mom last week so he didn't go to church but tomorrow he will get the Holy Ghost. We weren't able to get in touch with S. this week, which is a bummer, because last week she said she couldn't go to church with us because her aunt doesn't know the church very well. She just hears the rumors and she wouldn't let S. come with us. So we wanted to go by and talk to them both but it didn't work out. But anyways, sorry for the extremely short letter this week, I'm running a little short on time. But I love you all! Have an awesome week! A igreja é verdadeira!

Elder Harris

Pics 1, 2 - Dinner at the Mission home
Pic 3 - A scorpion that we found in our shower a while back but I forgot to send a picture

Peace Comes When We Realize Christ Really Did Restore His Gospel to the Earth Once More

So this week was a bit crazy but really good. First of all, we were able to baptize B. last Sunday! It was awesome! He was so excited and we even got his mom to come and she seemed to enjoy it. We have been following up with him a ton this week and he is so excited to receive the Holy Ghost tomorrow! He says prayers and asks Heavenly Father to make Sunday come quicker so that he can get the Holy Ghost haha. He's awesome. We have found a bunch of awesome people to work with this week.

We found one girl named S. who had a Mormon friend but she served a mission and lost contact with her. She has been to some family nights and activities with members but never to church. So we were teaching her about the restoration and about the peace that comes when we realize that Christ truly did restore his Gospel to the earth once more. And she said that she has always noticed that about the members...that even though there aren't a ton of members here they always seem to have a certain calmness or peacefulness about them, like a different perspective on life. So we explained and gave her a Book of Mormon to start reading. The only problem is that she is studying in college hardcore right now so it's really hard to find a good time to meet with her. So hopefully we'll be able to get her to church with us tomorrow.

We found another awesome investigator I. She showed up one day when we were teaching a lesson at R.'s house and we taught her a little bit and gave her a Book of Mormon. When we went back two days later she had read quite a few chapters of it. She says she doesn't know why but when she starts reading it she just doesn't want to put it down. We explained why and we are going to start working with her a ton. As for R.,... she got baptized.... into the Universal Church of God. I was so sad when I found out... There's not much else we can do. We've already explained everything to her but she doesn't want to listen so we had to drop her.

So the other day I was working with Elder Mehl and we went to the house of a guy who we had talked to a couple days ago on the street. We get there and he's not there but his grandma answers the door and she is crying hardcore. So I ask if there is anything we could do for her. I soon realized that she was insane. Elder Mehl, in his extremely limited knowledge of English, was trying to warn me by saying in an urgent but hushed tone... CRAZY!!!!! Haha I got the idea and went to leave and she grabbed my hand and wouldn't let go. She was a strong old lady. She started kissing my hand and smelling it, and yelling, “I need a blessing from the Lord!” This all went down through a window/top part that opens on her door. She all of a sudden started trying to pry the door open even without using the doorknob. The doors here aren't very sturdy so she succeeded and we took off out of there. I'm still not sure whether I should laugh about that experience or cry haha.

So, I bought Elder Moura's plane ticket and he took off for home this week. Hopefully his foot will heal up and he can get back out here. So now we're just in a trio. Elder Mehl, Durê, and I. Anyways, that's about it for this week. I love you all, thank you for everything! A igreja é verdadeira!

Elder Harris

Pic - A super hot pepper I ate at a members house the other day haha. (I almost sweat to death)