Monday, June 18, 2018

Libertadores - Week 11


Until the Last Moment


Yesterday, immediately after the Sunday meetings at church, we had a baptismal service. Ten days ago we were searching for former investigators and we found Ericka. And yesterday she was able to make a sacred covenant with God to keep His commandments until the end. It was the most spiritual baptismal service I have had until now in my mission.

But it wont be the last!

I have loved my mission. This is my last week, but my commitment is to work harder until the last moment.

Love you guys.

Elder Harris
Ericka's Baptism



Last Zone Conference


Last P Day

Monday, June 11, 2018

Libertadores - Week 10


Follow Assignments

I've learned that no matter how much we think we know, we keep on learning everyday, for example this week I learned two new words in Spanish.

to shred - deshilachar
to blackmail - chantajear

One experience we had was the ward had given us an assignment to visit the Mori family. This is the second time they have asked us to visit them, so I honestly wasn't that excited about visiting them again. But we went, and when we got there we noticed that the mom of the family was talking to a young man. When she saw us she said Elders this is my nephew, he has come from Huanuco and he will be living with us now. Wow. We taught him right then and he was very receptive. My companion shared Mosiah 13 about the Atonement and asked him how he felt by reading it. He responded that he felt like Christ did a whole lot for him, but he wasn't doing much for Christ. It was a really humble answer.

We also had a huge miracle. Last week we were looking for former investigators and we found a part member family. One of the daughters is member, the parents are not married, and there is one daughter of 19 years named Erika. We taught them and put a baptismal date with Erika for the 23rd of June. We have visited them also with the Young Single Adult Leaders and she is really excited to be baptized.

Our Kitchen

Selfie with the Bricks

Our ward mission leader let us borrow his guitar



Monday, June 4, 2018

Libertadores - Week 9


Enjoying the Mission

I don't know if anyone remembers, but when I was in the MTC I wrote about how I hated the huge, purple, acid tasting olives they have here, and about how they always hide them in the food so you don't know you are eating them until the taste already fills your mouth. Yes, those olives. Well noooooow my companion and I go through a packet every other week. They're so good.


So a few weeks ago we received a referral to visit a part member family, the only one who lacks baptism is the oldest son of 26 years. We have tried looking for him a ton but he is never home. But on Wednesday we were out in the street contacting with a huge cardboard Book of Mormon that we painted and we saw him walking his dog heading toward his house, so we thought THIS IS OUR CHANCE. We started walking with him and talking about soccer (it's the best break the ice subject here) when we got to his house he let us in and we taught him the Restoration. He had the Book of Mormon in his hand and he said he would read and pray to know if it was true, then he paused for a moment, looked up and said, "But you know what, I feel that it IS true." It was awesome.

Yesterday we were walking down the street singing hymns to people and we sang a hymn to a lady who was heading to work. She told us where her house was and she told us to go their right now because her son was there and he wanted to talk to us. So we went and a middle aged man let us in his house, he is a former investigator with church attendances. Right off the bat he told us that baptism was the way that we needed to follow Christ and he accepted a baptismal date without blinking. But we asked him what he felt he lacked in his life and he said the ability to make decisions. It seems like he was ready to be baptized beforehand but he lacked the will to make the decision. It was a real miracle finding him.

Saturday morning we were filling the baptismal font (there is nothing better than filling the baptismal font when you are a missionary) and we received a text message from the zone leaders saying President wants us all to move our schedule so that we can all be out working right now, the studies should be postponed until after lunch. And they promised us that we would have success by following these instructions. So we quickly finished filling and went to visit a recent convert. As we were walking we saw a guy standing on a street corner with a bunch of suitcases, so we went to talk with him. He addressed us as "Elderes" and told us that he had just barely arrived from Venezuela and was looking for an apartment. He also told us that his daughter had been baptized Mormon last week and that his wife and all his kids are members of the church. I asked him what he lacked to be member of the church and he said "I need to read more." We gave him our number and we are going to look for him to teach him once he gets settled in and finds work. It was a huge miracle and I know that it came by following President's inspiration.

Pictures: Baptism of the sisters in our district, they are from Venezuela. Drying the white clothes on our roof

Elder Harris



Monday, May 28, 2018

Libertadores - Week 8


Conviction and Sincerity


Fun fact about my mission is there are only two Mexicans in our mission and they are companions haha. They are also in our zone and today as a zone we ate COMPLETOS.

Saturday was one of those days where we were walking all day long talking with everyone but there were a ton of rejects. At 8:00 we looked at our planners and saw that we had an appointment on the other side of our area. At least 10 minutes walking. We were so tired, but we remembered that it was a good contact so we went for it, and we were able to find a married couple to teach. They weren't that receptive, they actually didn't accept a baptismal date, but after we left I felt like wow that was a lot of work just to have two nuevos. But it was worth it, nothing is better than teaching the Restoration.

Yesterday one of our recent converts gave a talk in sacrament meeting about prayer and fasting, and I'm not lying I felt like I was listening to general conference. It was so good, I felt so happy that he had taken time to prepare his talk so well, and the room was filled with the spirit when he bore his firm testimony with conviction and with sincerity.

It's the only picture I took this week.

Elder Harris

Congrats to Abby for graduating from High School and
Congrats to Chandler for being assigned to the PERU LIMA SOUTH MISSION



Monday, May 14, 2018

Libertadores - Week 6

Sprint to the End

The best thing that happened this week was the baptism we had. It was a cool experience because Joao (the convert of Elder Chalampuento, my trainer) baptized his sister Alicia. It was amazing to see the changes that Alicia had made in her conversion. Actually she had made all the changes before I got here, I just arrived and we found her ready. She is getting along well with the JAS and we are hoping to see more progress with her and her family.

I had some good pictures to send but my camera isn't working, sorry.

It was good talking to my family. I think the best part of the week was asking my mom to say the opening prayer and the signal was cut off, so I didn't hear a thing. But they told me afterward that she cried through the whole prayer. So I'm sure it was a spiritual experience for everyone who was there. But I'm really grateful for my mom, she has helped me through a lot of struggles in my life. I'm pretty sure if she was a missionary she would baptize more than Ammon. She showed me the example of how to do the work of salvation before my mission and I often find myself sharing experiences of things that my mom has done here on the mission. She is the best. LOVE YOU MOM.

Until next week,

Elder Harris

Monday, May 7, 2018

Libertadores - Week 5


Pollada o Apollada?

This week we taught a lot of interesting people with lots of diverse beliefs. It's a little harder helping those kind of people but we are striving. But of all the few people we taught I think the best experience was going with the former bishop to one of his referrals. Her husband had passed away a few years ago, and she still felt pained because of his absence. We testified of the blessings of the restoration, the knowledge we have of the plan of salvation, and at the end the member suggested that we sing God Be With You Until We Meet Again, and it was really spiritual. It was actually a lot of work getting that referral, and then getting the member to accompany us to visit her was another story. But all that work paid off when we were able to teach her, and we are praying that she will progress.

One goal we made for this week was to not waste time when we are leaving the apartment, because a few times we left late to proselyte, and the next day I read this stripture.

Alma 60:22 "Yea, will ye sit in idleness while ye are surrounded with thousands of those, yea, and tens of thousands, who do also sit in idleness, while there are thousands round about in the borders of the land who are falling by the sword, yea, wounded and bleeding?"

Reading this helped me repent and now we are leaving the apartment earlier and with more fire.

We also had zone conference this week and President Stauffer instructed us about how we minister as missionaries. How we minister to investigators, members, and other missionaries.

One teaching of President Stauffer that is always emphasized in every meeting is THE LORD BLESSES MISSIONARIES WHO WORK. President Stauffer always tells us all the blessings he has had in his life and says that all of it was thanks to the work that he dedicated as a missionary.

Thanks everyone

Elder Harris

Monday, April 30, 2018

Libertadores - Week 4

Venezuela
Dear Family,

This week I was reading in Alma 44 and it's when Moroni traps Zerahemna with his army and tries to make him swear an oath to never come back to battle against the Nephites again. Zerahemna refuses because he didn't want to make an oath that he knew he was going to break. So they started fighting again until Zerahemna realized that he had two choices: make the oath or die. He chose to make the oath. And I think it's the same with investigators, there are a lot of them that think they will not be able to keep the commandments and that's why they don't want to make any promises, but the baptismal covenant includes promises on our part. Our goal is helping them to have the faith to make those promises with God. 

One spiritual experience we had this week was we went to visit a Venezuelan family that just moved here, they are active members. It was obvious that they had once been somewhat wealthy people for the way that they behaved and spoke, but now they are living in a small rented apartment, looking for work. We read Alma 26 that talks about being patient in afflictions and receiving success. Their eyes were filled with tears, and we hope we were able to help them at least with having more spiritual strength.

Have a great week, sorry I didnt take this pictures this week :/

Elder Harris

Monday, April 23, 2018

Libertadores - Week 3


La sagrada silla de ruedas

Alma 38:8 I did cry unto him and I did find peace to my soul.

This week I have found a lot of comfort through personal prayer. It is the source of peace. One good experience we had this week is we were talking to one friend that we have who is Venezuelan. He is working to be able to bring his wife and kids here as well, but as we were in the street talking to him we saw a lady in a wheel chair trying to get off the curb but it was obvious that she was going to face plant it. So we hurried over there to help her and as we were helping her get to where she needed to go, my companion asked her where she got her wheelchair and I looked down and noticed that the chair had a logo that said the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I guess the church had donated the chair. So the next day we went to teach her with our ward mission leader and she has a ton of problems, but she showed desires to learn more about the gospel. Sadly, on the second visit she confessed that she participates in another church and didn't want us to visit her again and she gave back the Book of Bormon we had given her.

I love Peru and I love the mission, I hope everyone is striving to gain a closer relationship with the Savior.

Elder Harris

Fotos from the motertaxi ride to internet cafe




Monday, April 16, 2018

Libertadores - Week 2


I found a cello in Peru :D

So this week was excellent. I'm starting to get to know my area, I think it's the smallest of my 5 areas, but it's still big. We are pretty close to the airport so we see airplanes flying low all the time..... The ward here is a lot different from Paramonga, the church is better established here in Lima because the members are really strong in the gospel. Our ward mission leader is a recent RM who served in Colombia and it's cool because he always comes with us with important appointments.

This week we had planned to leave with a member of the ward who has had a lot of time here and knows a lot of people. Our focus was to go out and have him show us the houses of former investigators that the missionaries had stopped teaching. He was really excited about it, so we went to his house to pick him up at the indicated time. When we got there he asked if we could wait 15 minutes because he was washing his clothes. We agreed, but I remember feeling a little impatient and bothered that we were going to waste time waiting for him. When he finished we stepped out of the house right when an elderly man was passing by. The member stopped the man and introduced him to us. An hour later we were leaving the members house again, but this time with a new investigator with a baptismal goal. That experience really made me think about my attitude. Patience is important, but more important is doing what the Lord wants us to do in the precise moment when we need to do it.

There is a member in our area that plays the cello and she let me play it.

The other picture is of our district.

Elder Harris






Monday, April 9, 2018

Libertadores - Week 1

Back in the Labyrinth

Well I was transferred. My six months in Paramonga were fantastic. I think I grew a little bit in that area and I learned a lot about how to conquer my weaknesses. I honestly felt sad leaving because of the relationships that we had made with the members and converts. But now I'm in a new chapter of the mission. I am now in the Libertadores Ward, El Trebol Stake. This is the zone closest to the center of Lima in our mission so I went from one end of the mission to the other. My area is similar to Naranjal (my third area) but it's a little smaller here and a little more developed. My area is part of the district San Martin de Porres.

My companion is Elder Zevallos, he is from Moquegua, Peru (it's in the south part of Peru). And he just finished his training or in other words he has been on his mission 3 months. But he is 24 years old. He is really excited about the work.

My whole mission I've heard that the Trebol Zone is just full of rich people and it's difficult to help them accept the restored gospel, but in the last few months the area where I'm at has had exceptional success thanks to member referrals. 

Picture of my pensionista and her husband in Paramonga eating soup.

There is nothing better than arriving to an area on Wednesday and having a baptism on Saturday.

Elder Harris





Monday, April 2, 2018

Paramonga - Week 24


El Profeta tiene REVELACIÓN

I think we all felt something special in general conference this weekend. Now we need to specifically remember what we felt, and live it.

This week we got in a car to take us back to Paramonga after being in Barranca all morning in the district meeting. The driver seemed like a normal everyday Peruvian, but after exchanging a few words we realized that not only was he a member of the church but he was also a councilor in the stake presidency. One of the aspects of the restored church that I love is that local leaders are everyday normal people who work, have families, and have many personal responsibilities, but on top of that they direct the work and the church of God. It's amazing. That councilor told us a cool phrase that doesn't sound that cool in English but it does in Castellano El que no vive para servir, no sirve para vivir. He that doesn't live to serve, doesn't act to live.

I am very happy that there is now a South American in the Quorum of the Twelve. I echo the words of Elder Soares that when the Lord wants something to happen he will work miracles to make it happen. But the miracles come as a result of our faith. 



Baptism of the Reyes Family (Limoncillo)


Watching general conference with the North Americans


Fruit salad with ice cream - breakfast


Monday, March 26, 2018

Paramonga - Week 23


Tuvimos un BAUTISMO esta semana

Remember a few weeks ago when I said that a lady in the street told me I looked like Leonardo Decaprio? Well she got baptized this week, along with her two teenage kids.

One scripture that I've used a lot this week is Mosiah 23:

21 Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith.

22 Nevertheless—whosoever putteth his trust in him the same shall be lifted up at the last day. Yea, and thus it was with this people.

Everyday there are trials of patience and faith. But our trust and our FAITH that he put in Christ is what brings us out of those trials with success.

This week we were teaching an investigator who is 19, we were about to say the opening prayer to start the lesson and we asked him if there were anything that we could ask for him in the prayer. His answer was a 10 minute vent about how he wanted to break up with his girlfriend but he didn't know how.

Pres Stauffer shared this quote in the last zone conference and I liked it.

Consider the following statement by Elder Dallin H. Oaks:

“[A person may have] a strong desire to be led by the Spirit of the Lord but … unwisely extends that desire to the point of wanting to be led in all things. A desire to be led by the Lord is a strength, but it needs to be accompanied by an understanding that our Heavenly Father leaves many decisions for our personal choices. Personal decision making is one of the sources of the growth we are meant to experience in mortality. Persons who try to shift all decision making to the Lord and plead for revelation in every choice will soon find circumstances in which they pray for guidance and don’t receive it. For example, this is likely to occur in those numerous circumstances in which the choices are trivial or either choice is acceptable.

“We should study things out in our minds, using the reasoning powers our Creator has placed within us. Then we should pray for guidance and act upon it if we receive it. If we do not receive guidance, we should act upon our best judgment. Persons who persist in seeking revelatory guidance on subjects on which the Lord has not chosen to direct us may concoct an answer out of their own fantasy or bias, or they may even receive an answer through the medium of false revelation” (“Our Strengths Can Become Our Downfall”  Ensign, Oct. 1994, 13–14).

Get ready for GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!

Hasta luego amigos

Elder Harris




Monday, March 19, 2018

Paramonga - Week 22

Regaton

In the last year and 8 months my taste of music has really adapted. As missionaries we aren't allowed to listen to worldly music but sometimes it just happens. For example, right now I am in an internet cafe and the guy 3 computers to the right is blasting some good regaton. The music they listen to here is awesome, from combia to salsa. I don't get why we don't listen to it much in the states.

Yesterday we passed by a family that is investigating the church and they said they were busy because the sons were doing homework, we offered to help and for the next half hour I was sweating trying to remember all the math that I forgot in the last year and 8 months. I'm excited to get back to studying, I'm sure I will study either civil or electrical engineering. I'm torn between the two, but don't worry I'm not thinking about it too much ;)

This week we had a baptism of Juliano. It was great seeing him really be able to understand faith and repentance. And he asked the gringo to baptize him ha.  He was really nervous to share his feelings after the baptism but he managed to say a few things, then he said in a loud voice Yo sé que la salvación viene por Jesucristo. (I know that salvation is only possible through Jesus Christ). When he said that I really felt the spirit. I'm grateful we were able to progress and show true charity to this man. I know that it's because of those changes that we have been able to help him become a convert.

This week one recent convert in our ward returned from traveling to Italy for work. We hadn't known him before so it was cool hearing his story about he found the missionaries and how he came to live the gospel. He asked us if we could teach his 19 year old brother. The next day we came back and found Moshei, his brother. And the lesson with him was awesome. He was so excited about everything we taught from Jose Smith to the Book of Mormon. He came to church with his brother this week as well.

This week we also saw some people carrying bricks up a hill to a house that they were constructing so we helped them. By the time we ended our white shirts were orange, but they thanked us by giving us dinner! And they also said that we were true Christians and real disciple of Christ.

Es Todo

Gracias

Elder Harris

Misión Perú Lima Oeste





Monday, March 12, 2018

Paramonga - Week 21


Corto y dulce

Today I completed 20 months in the mission but I still feel like there's a lot of things I need to improve. I have a lot left to learn still. I feel a huge desire to give more and help more people come to know how it feels to live the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

Next week I will send a better letter.

Elder Harris


Work visit with Elder Maldonado



Monday, March 5, 2018

Paramonga - Week 20

Torta

My phrase of the soul this week is from 2 Nefi 33:10  "If ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ." The Book of Mormon is the word of Christ. This week we were teaching Juliano, our investigator, when two lady's from another church knocked on the door. Juliano innocently let them in (he lets everyone in his house that speaks of God). They sat down with us and we just kept teaching the lesson normally, until the lady started arguing with every point of doctrine that we taught. She had a lot to say about the church and the Book of Mormon, but my companion and I we felt calm. We just let her talk. We just listened. When she finally gave us a moment to respond we just testified of the divinity of the Book of Mormon. She tried to prove to us that it was false but after several minutes, she got up and left, obviously a little frustrated. I'm so grateful for the shield that is the Book of Mormon, in those moments when the woman was trying to destroy everything we believe and telling us that all our doctrine was a lie, I just thought in this scripture and I realized that I will never be able to deny that the Book of Mormon is true and that it comes from Christ. It is HIS word.

This week was Alexis´s baptism, he was baptized on Saturday, confirmed on Sunday and Sunday in the afternoon he moved to Santiago, Chile. So we are going to transfer his member record and everything. He is 13 and his dad was able to baptize him. Because of errors of the baptismal prayer he was baptized 4 times, but he said afterward that he loved it because he felt cleaner with every dunk.

This week we were knocking on a door asking for directions and a lady came out with two huge pieces of birthday cake! And she gave them to us without even asking who we were. A few days later we taught her and her husband and they accepted a baptismal date.

I love this work, I feel like the time is slipping away quickly.

Elder Harris





Monday, February 26, 2018

Paramonga - Week 19


Sé que es verdadero

There were transfers this week but I'm staying where I'm at with Elder Quispe.

Remember last week that I said a lady in the street told me I looked like Leonardo Decaprio??? Well we ended up teaching her with her 16 year old son and they came to church this week. The son also prayed about the Book of Mormon and received an answer to his prayer, he says he knows it's true.

"Christ is the Holy One of Israel; wherefore ye must bow down before him, and worship him with all your might, mind, and strength, and your whole soul." 2 Nephi 25:29        

This Phrase of the Soul helped me to improve my personal prayers this week. A prayer is different when we pray bowed down and with our might, mind, strength, and soul.

This week we got a new zone leader, he is from Guatemala and he is 27 years old.

So we eat lunch everyday with a family of members that live across the street from our apartment. They live there, but it's also the only pizza place in Paramonga. I asked Jorge (the member that makes the pizzas) for the recipe to make pizza dough. The next day we made the dough and cooked it in our microwave and we made pizzas. The only downer was they don't sell pepperoni here so we put hot dogs on it :D

Today we played soccer for P-day like SIEMPRE. Have a great week everyone.

Que Dios les bendiga,

Elder Harris

Waiting in the street in Barranca to play fútbol

Moto cuyi (the best form of transporation in Peru, it will take you to any part of the city for only 2 new suns (70 cents)


Monday, February 19, 2018

Paramonga - Week 18


No hay mucho tiempo mis amigos


This week we contacted a guy and after talking for a bit we realized he was a soccer coach. He didn't have any desire to listen to the message of the Restoration but he must have been lacking players because he did ask us if we wanted to come join his team. We kindly told him we couldn't...

In another contact this week a lady told me I looked like Leonardo DeCaprio!

We had a good week full of great experiences. We found a new investigator this week working with a recent convert, although it wasn't exactly what we were expecting. We called Stefany, our convert to coordinate an appointment to visit her and ask her for referrals, she told us that she was at her grandfathers house, that her grandfather was named Rufino, she explained where he lived, and said we could pass by there the next day. When we got there, Stefany, the convert, wasn't there but we were able to teach her grandpa Rufino who ended up accepting a baptismal date. The thing that I like about these maneras that have to do with working with members is there is always an opportunity to find, even if its not how we had planned out.

“I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” - Joseph Smith Jr.

Elder Harris

Monday, February 12, 2018

Paramonga - Week 17


Las llaves del sacerdocio

One thing I've learned on the mission is the importance of priesthood keys. Every one of us has priesthood leaders who hold priesthood keys. Those keys are real rights to revelation and authority. A priesthood leader with keys has the right to receive revelation for those who are in his mayordomía (you'll have to google translate it, I don't remember the word in English guys). Anyways, as a missionary the person that has keys is the mission president. I can do this work how I want to do it or I can do it following ALL of the suggestions and revelations of my mission president. That is the way to have success. I feel that if we could all maybe understand more of that concept we would be more united as families, quorums, wards, stakes, and missions.

One phrase of the soul this week was 1 Nefi 22:17 ''los justos no tienen por qué temer.'' That phrase hit me because it made me realize that as long as I am striving to be obedient, repenting often, and striving to fulfill my purpose I won't need to have fear. I will never need to be scared of what my leaders tell me, I won't need to be scared that my investigators might not progress. Instead of having fear for those things, the righteous look at everything with faith centered in Christ. So that's what I'm going to do this week. I'm not going to have fear that we will end February without baptizing, I'm just going to trust in Christ and work hard to make it happen. Our plan is we have a list of 7 investigators with 3 insacs, and 4 potential casos especiales, we are going to pass for all of them today and tomorrow and, with a lot of faith, teach them the doctrine of Christ, resolve their doubts and invite them to be baptized the 24th of February.

One experience we had yesterday was we found and taught Ruben, when we sat down we noticed he was working on his laptop and the inspiration came right then about how we should share the first vision. We watched the 6 minute video Ask of God. We also read the page in the Restoration pamphlet about the Book of Mormon and Ruben understood perfectly what he needed to do to find out if our message was true. He committed to go to church and talk to his pair about marriage.

Sorry no pictures,

Elder Harris