Monday, May 29, 2017

Los Alamos - Week 16


Nada viene a mi mente

This week our zone went to the offices in Los Olivos to have a little training with President Stauffer and interviews. He talked about becoming a mission of miracles. One of his favorite scriptures is D&C 123:17. In Spanish the phrase "good cheer" translates to "buen animo" and sorry but it sounds a lot better in Spanish. He talked about how the phrase "doing all things that lie in our power" that basically is diligence and working hard. Doing everything possible to bring souls to Christ. "Then may we stand still" He talked about how if we do everything possible and work as hard as we can in this Work, we will be able to be still. We will have peace. We will be able to live without regret or weight, knowing that we could have done more. 

I have really seen that in my mission. When I have had buen animo it has always been when I've been working hard and doing everything in my power to see the salvation of God work in these people. When I get discouraged, normally its because I've been doing something wrong, or I haven't worked as hard as I should have. Having buen animo is so important. We work more efficiently when we have buen animo. The people around us feel happier when we have buen animo. But to have buen animo we have to be living the commandments, even the little ones like prayer and scripture study. Wow this training was the best! I learned so much and I had a lot of thoughts come to my mind of how I can improve the work in my area.

In my area we have a lot of work to do for June. We have the More family for the 17th that are a young couple with little kids. They came to church once, but couldn't the other Sunday because of work. They have a testimony of the Book of Mormon so I feel confident that they will continue progressing, we just need to get them a good fellowship. Then we have the Salvador family that is a single mother, her daughter, and son. They live in Las Minas, it's an area really far away in my area where the people are a little more humble. And they told us all week that they were going to go to church and when we knocked on their door Sunday morning they weren't there. I guess I need to learn patience.

My experience this week was in the baptism of Margarita Juarez and her son. I felt strongly the power of the Atonement when she gave her testimony. She is a woman who has had to make a lot of changes in her lifestyle, and she said in her testimony that when she came up out of the water she felt that all the things that she had done in the past were gone, and that now she had a new life. My companion and I have worked so hard with her, and we have learned a lot of patience. Her conversion story is really long, but I'm so grateful that I could participate in it and see her change. Those experiences are why I'm here. The reward of all the planning, finding, teaching, and making daily contact is when the convert shares their testimony. It makes it all worth it.

Love you all

West is the Best!

Blanco es Bonito!

Vamos a cambiar el mundo!

...con BUEN ANIMO!!!

-Elder Harris - Misión Perú Lima Oeste


Bautismo de Margarita Juarez y su hijo Leonardo, un miembro que se llama George Castillo les bautizó. Les encontramos por medio de enseñar inglés en la capilla, y su amiga que es miembro le trajo. Hemos estado trabajando con ellos por mucho tiempo, pero por fin tomaron la decision a seguir a Cristo.


P-Day de Distrito

No bake cookies

Monday, May 22, 2017

Los Alamos - Week 15


Mi Semanita

Well this week was excellent. We had the baptism of Bikeissi who moved here from Iquitos, and he is 16. But from the picture it doesn't look like he is 16 because he got ran over by a motorcycle taxi when he was little, and on top of that he has a disease that impedes his growth. But he is awesome.

One experience that I had was when an appointment with an investigator fell, and we started looking for the address of our contact that we had as plan B. And we were with a member which made it even better. And the address ended up being exactly across the street from our investigator. And we got there and a young guy of 20 years was there waiting for us. He let us in and told us that when we talked to him in the street he felt like it was for something (salvation in 60 seconds). He told us that he used to be atheist, but now he feels like God exists and he wants to learn more about God. He accepted the baptismal date and everything. Every time that we find people who accept a baptismal date I always leave their house walking on sunshine. Because I'm excited to work with them and teach them until they are ready for baptism. To be honest I didn't have that desire when I started my mission. When I started my mission I secretly hoped that the appointments would fall so that I wouldn't have to teach. But now it's the opposite. Not teaching is suffering, teaching is joy.

Love yu familia

Elder Harris


El bautismo de Bikeissi Cotrina, quien es de Iquitos. Le encontramos porque están quedando con su familia que son miembros de la iglesia. Bikeissi conoció los misioneros en Iquitos en diciembre antes que venir aca.


The jello cake that my pensionista Sister Vicky gave me for my birthday.

King of the party!


Monday, May 15, 2017

Los Alamos - Week 14


Estoy feliz que existe el lunes

This week has been kind of hard for me to be honest. It's been hard keeping up the positive attitude and the faith that we are going to find new investigators and help our investigators to become converts. But one important part of the Plan of Salvation is that it's necessary to pass through difficult times in order to progress. If you have to go through it you have to grow through it. All day today I've been analyzing my week and the things I did wrong. And now I know what I need to change.

Yesterday I said a prayer at night, and I felt the power of the Atonement. I felt the pure love of Jesus Christ. I know He lives and He loves me. He understands every hard moment that I have to pass through in this life. Because of His Atonement, the things that are hard will make me become better. Growth exists because of Him. If he didn't suffer the Atonement we would be living in endless misery, but thanks to Him we can find joy and peace even when things don't turn out like we want them too. I know that this is true. We just have to understand how to apply the Atonement in our life and immediately our perspective on life changes.

This Saturday we are going to have a baptism. He is a 16 year old young man named Bickeissi. But it's not just a baptism. It's a conversion. It's another soul that will be saved in the Celestial Kingdom.

I invite you all to read Mosiah 14 and let it change your life.

This gospel is real.

Elder Harris
Work visit with my Zone Leader Elder Maldonado from Bogota Colombia

Our Food


Monday, May 8, 2017

Los Alamos - Week 13


Mayo My

This week has been interesting. No I didn't have transfers and my companion didn't have transfers either. The Lord has things the we still need to learn from one another, and we have more work to do here in this area before we leave.

During the week we were contacting like crazy and the coming day we always had a ton of appointments all planned out. But for some reason every appointment fell for like 3 days straight. It was a trial. We woke up Saturday morning with 0 nuevos. I felt like a failure, I felt stress, I felt like I was doing something wrong but I didn't know what it was. We found one of our investigators drunk one morning as we were going to teach her the word of wisdom, another investigator suddenly traveled to Chiclayo for a week, and with another we had a 2 hour lesson and after teaching him all the commandments (and he accepted them all) told us that we will not be baptized for personal reasons and he refuses to tell us what they are. But Saturday in the morning, Elder Viera (before we started planning) wrote in my agenda the goal of 5 nuevos. I know that he was told by the Spirit to do that because Saturday we found two families that are so prepared and are going to make June a good month. We ended the day with 5 nuevos.

Then we had a miracle happen on Sunday. There was a woman with her son that attended church and they said they were visiting from Iquitos (the jungle part of Peru). They were visiting their sister that is a member of the church and staying with her. We went to their house and they told us that they were listening to the missionaries in Iquitos and they were just about to be baptized when they had to come to Lima. We felt like they were prepared so we invited them to be baptized this Saturday. And they accepted. I know that miracles happen for a reason, and I'm happy knowing that the Lord trusted in us to give us this miracle. I know He lives and that He loves us more than we can imagine.

Thanks guys have a good week.

Read the Book of Mormon everyday.

Elder Harris

Third transfer together in LOS ALAMOS

Monday, May 1, 2017

Los Alamos - Week 12


Whoa imposible que ya es mayo

April was an amazing month for me. My companion and I were able to see the conversion of a lot of people. I feel really thankful to the Lord. I feel blessed to be his servant and his instrument.

Sorry for not writing a letter last week, the computer I was using turned off by itself and then we had to leave.

Today for P-Day we climbed a hill. The hills in my area are awesome. 

We had a really good experience this week with an investigator of 20 years who has been assisting church on and off for like 2 years and has talked with 6 different pairs of missionaries. He came to church and we asked if we could visit him later, we talked for a long time with him, about all his problems and all his doubts. And finally I asked him if he will exercise his faith and prepare to be baptized the 13 of May and he said yes. I felt the spirit so strong in that moment. I feel that he needed to talk to us. There were things that my companion said, and that I said, that he needed to hear.

I love being a missionary. I hope I am taking advantage of the time here that I have to give all my time to the Lord and to the people that live here. I love the people here.

Have a great week guys.

ELDER HARRIS


Ventanilla and 




This is a little walkway that is one of the greenest parts of my area so we took a picture



Los Alamos - Ventanilla