Paramonga - Week 10

Prospero año y felicidad

Well it's Christmas day and I'm sitting here sweating because it's summer here! But anyways this week was awesome because as part of Light the World President Stauffer instructed us to meet together as zones every morning this week to go out and polish shoes in different parts of the city. We did polishing in Barranca, Supe, Pativilca, and Paramonga and it was awesome brighting the day of the people that passed by to get their shoes polished. They were mostly elderly people.

Also this week we had Heidi's baptism and she got baptized with one of her best friends from Primary who just turned 8 (while Heidi is 9). There are so many part member families here in Peru it's crazy.

Yesterday we also sang christmas carols in the big plaza in Barranca for Christmas Eve. And as always the people set off the fireworks at midnight. Unfortunately in my area there were a lot of people really busy this week. Most of them said that we could pass by to visit them but it would have to be after new years.

It was good talking to the family earlier today, I hope you all have a great Christmas.

Elder Harris

Paramonga - Week 9

El Intento de una Carta más Largo

Yeah so one thing that I've learned here in my time in the mission field is the importance of setting goals and making plans to achieve those goals. When I started my mission I thought it was such a waste of time, but now I feel like I wouldn't be able to achieve anything without those two important tools: goals and plans. Because the truth is we all have desires to do good things in our lives, but if we specify those good visions into specific achievable things, we will be able to achieve a lot more.

My mission president always says that numbers represent souls. And when we see more souls live the gospel of Jesus Christ we come to feel joy. But not just joy. The fullness of joy. And our fullness of joy increases every time that we help one more person live the gospel of Christ through repentance and baptism.

In our mission we have a yearly baptismal goal. One year ago President Stauffer said it's time that we have a larger vision, and he raised the goal of 2016 by 100 for 2017. We all thought wow that is a super high goal, but we worked with faith and yesterday the mission achieved that goal of 100 more souls than last year. And I'm sure that he is going to raise the goal even more for 2018.

But I have felt my faith increase as I have learned to set high goals and confide in the Spirit to guide me in how I can reach those goals. And I have also come to realize that after it is all over, the success that we have isn't always necessarily if we achieve the goal or not, but success is if I have become more spiritually mature by carrying out my plans.

And well I think this time of year is a good time to analyze our spiritual progress and formulate some good goals and plans so that we can keep showing our efforts in becoming more like Jesus Christ. I know that He lives and He loves us. We celebrate His birth because we understand and we have FELT the power of His sacrifice in our lives.

Thanks everyone,

Elder Harris

Work visit with Elder Ethan Pond from Washington

Baptism of Stefany

Evidence that Elder Quispe always has a smile on his face, even when he is camera shy

Paramonga - Week 8

Imañoya kekanki

Yesterday in the evening we found a good family that talked a ton, and as we were teaching them the Restoration, in the part where Joseph Smith goes to pray in the grove, all of the lights in the house went out. It was really weird, we went outside and all of the neighbors had power, it was just the house where we were at. But anyway, the mom took out some candles and we finished the lesson candle light style, and it actually invited the Spirit enough for them to accept the baptismal invitation.

One thing we did for Light the World this week was we teamed up with the President of the Relief Society and brought hot chocolate and panetón (traditional christmas Peruvian amazing bread) to a part member family and we had a family home evening. It was awesome and they said they all were going to come to church. 

My pensionista is teaching me Quechua, the native language of the people that live in the mountain region of Peru. It's a slow process.

This week I read a scripture in the Book of Mormon that said as we repent, we will start to prosper, and it touched my soul. I think it's so important to take time to think about what else we can change or what more we can do to be like Christ. We all lack something, and if we want to prosper we have to start with one small necessary change.

Elder Harris

Windy picture with the Fortress of Paramonga in the background

The sign coming into town

This house was a referral 30 minutes away from Paramonga that we contacted

Paramonga - Week 7

Se va Camacho, viene Quispe

My comp Elder Camacho got sent to Lima this week, and I got a new companion Elder Quispe who is from Tarija, Bolivia. He is my third Bolivian companion.

Other than that we have been doing the Light the Word thing, looking for service everyday. This week in the third hour of church we showed the video and the members filled out referral cards of people that they want us to show the video to, so this whole month we are going to be contacting these referrals that we received.

My week was actually a lot more exciting than this letter.

Elder Harris

Elder Camacho

Elder Quispe