Paramonga - Week 15

Hermanos y Hermanas

One thing that I was thinking about this week is the fact that we are all spiritual children of one Heavenly Father, so we are all brothers and sisters. One of the missionary commandments is we always address other people with the title Brother or Sister followed by their name, but in Spanish its more excessive. Because even if we don't know their name yet we still say Hermano or Hermana. For example a contact in the street translated in English would be.

Elder Harris: Hello Brother! Good afternoon! How are you, brother? Brother, we want to share a message with you that will help you be happier and feel more peace in your life. What is your name, brother?

I don't know if I'm just forgetting English but that sounds really weird when you put it in English. And anyway I was just thinking that if we are all really brothers and sisters, why don't we treat others with the same amount of love, understanding, and trust as our literal brothers and sisters. I tried applying that this week with my companion, with my investigators and with other missionaries and I was able to see the relationship that we had get better. I think it's an important principle that maybe we forget sometimes.

This week we taught Steven during the second hour of sacrament meeting, he just turned 18 and he has come to church off and on for 3 years. We taught him the plan of salvation and we really felt the spirit when my companion and I testified of the Atonement. He understood everything and even said that he felt prepared to be baptized, but his doubt is whether this is God's church or not. But we have plans to help him gain that testimony this week.

The sisters in Limoncillo had a baptism this week and the sister that got baptized asked me to baptize them.

We explored a little of area today and went to the anexos lejanos of our area.

Love you all

Elder Harris

Paramonga - Week 14

Blanco es Bonito

This week was Walter's baptism, we contacted him in the street in the first weeks of December and we started to visit and teach him. What really impacted him was a very spiritual lesson we had one day with our ward mission leader where we talked about the blessings of the restoration of the gospel and the next appointment he decided that he wanted to get baptized and naturally we asked our ward mission leader, Miguel, if he would do the ordinance. Afterward Walter was telling us about the peace and calmness that he felt and how he felt different than before.

A scripture that really impacted me this week was 3 Nephi 22:10 and 17. They are strong promises that we can always rely on and depend on when we need them.

Elder Harris

Zona Barranca

Paramonga - Week 13

¿Que de nuevo?

Well this last week was transfers, I'm staying here in Paramonga with Elder Quispe, the only thing they changed was they divided our district in half so now our district is just our companionship and the sisters in Limoncillo (one of the three wards in Barranca). I think the whole mission now only has districts of 2 or 3 companionships.

This week we taught an interesting guy named Santiago who is Evangelical (there are a ton of evangelical churches in Peru and they are kind of extremists, like it's against their rules to play sports or dance) and I was kind of thinking that the lesson wasn't going to go anywhere, but my companion used an awesome example explaining the authority of the priesthood. He compared baptism to an ID card. Only the government can give out authorized ID cards. If you buy an ID card from someone on the street, and then the police pull you over and ask for your ID card, they are going to tell you it's not authentic. And it's the same with baptism. When my comp explained it like that, Santiago said well I guess it's possible that I have a false baptism, I'm going to ask God and I know that he will tell me if it's false or not. Elder Quispe teaches with simpleness and clarity, he´s awesome.

Another experience we had was with an investigator that had her baptismal date for last Saturday, but she called us on Thursday and said she changed her mind and didn't want to be baptized anymore because of a lame excuse. We went to her house and listened to what she had to say and we were there for like 2 hours listening to her and trying to help her see reason, but at the end she just lost her desire to follow Christ, well she said that she will follow Christ IN HER OWN WAY but her way doesn't include baptism. But we are going to keep encouraging her, maybe she will do it this week.

This week we also had a skype call with President Stauffer where he talked to the Barranca and Huacho zones. We did it in the stake center and he gave us a training about prayer which has changed the way I say my personal prayers.

I didn't have a picture to send this week so I took this one while we were walking to the internet cafe. No me quemen.

Elder Harris, el Paramonguino

Paramonga - Week 12

Reconciliación

I would just like to remember the last general conference talk of President Monson.

He said:

"I maintain that a strong testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and of His Gospel will help see us through to safety. If you are not reading the Book of Mormon each day, please do so. If you will read it prayerfully and with a sincere desire to know the truth, the Holy Ghost will manifest its truth to you. If it is true—and I solemnly testify that it is—then Joseph Smith was a prophet who saw God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.

Because the Book of Mormon is true, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s Church on the earth, and the holy priesthood of God has been restored for the benefit and blessing of His children.

If you do not have a firm testimony of these things, do that which is necessary to obtain one."

My new years resolution is above↑

Today we went to the replica of Christ the Redeemer in Barranca. The real one is in Brazil but the one here is still pretty epic.

Paramonga - Week 11

Año Nuevo

Mission Christmas Party

MPLO - Misión Perú Lima Oeste

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