Patience

What a week.

We just got done with an appointment with Israel's probation officer and it looks like we're waiting for a while longer, maybe not until December. It's kind of frustrating since we've been working with him since July and he's been ready since August, but oh well, all in the Lord's time.

It's really cool to see that Lord's hand in a lot of little things. For a while we've been teaching a man named Johnny Garcia. His ex-wife and all his kids are members of the church but he never joined because his mother-in-law got mad at him for not dressing up for church. Johnny has had three strokes in the past few years so teaching him hasn't really been effective. We were able to sit down with his kids, who have been less-active since their teenage years, and come to find out that they want their kids to be taught and baptized! We're excited to help them come back to church and help their kids to experience the joy of the gospel.

Adrianna, Tyrel Andreason's (the less-active son of President Andreason) girlfriend is also doing well. Tyrel even came to church this week which is a huge improvment. He moved in with his older brother, Monty who is a big influence on him and I think Adrianna learning is a big help too :)

Not much else to report other than I Love you tons
Elder Harris

PS. transfer calls are next week and I'm 99.9% sure I'll be staying. The only way I'd leave is if President wants me to be a Zone Leader somewhere.

PPS. Here in the southwest we run into alot of spanish people and I hate not being able to communicate with them. I've been trying to remember some of my spanish and I've been reading the Book of Mormon in spanish, and I'm to the point where I can explain who I am, bear my testimony of "El Libro de Mormon" and give them a pass along card but I want to improve. I was wondering if you could send my/a 501 spanish verbs book, and/or anything they gave Sam in the MTC. President told me that I should try and pursue this and I feel it's something the Lord wants me to do also.

New Investigator

This last week was alot of fun. I went on a couple of exchanges and got to go up to Cloudcroft. It was way nice up there and for the first time on my mission I was cold outside.

We found a new investigator this last week. Her name is Adrianna. She is the girlfriend of the Andreason's "Alma-the-younger" son. She is way cool and really wants to know and to learn. She agreed to baptism on the 7th of November but we might be moving that up with how well she is progressing.

Israel is still doing well and we're looking forward to this Saturday, when, if all goes well, he'll be baptized!

Also something cool. Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi of the Seventy is coming to the mission next transfer to do a mission tour.

Well, I love you all.

Elder Harris

Conference?

Hey everybody!

I loved how your e-mail was entitled conference but there really wasn't much from conference in it :D

Well Conference was amazing. Not only was it spiritually uplifting, we also had a baptism on Sunday in between sessions.

Marcy Gullett, Israel's Grandma had a converting experience and so we scheduled her baptism... not a moment too soon either, she is going in to have knee replacement surgery tomorrow.

Israel unfortunatly has to wait a little while longer, but he should be baptized within the coming weeks!

Other than that, all is well here in Las Cruces I especially loved Elder Anderson's talk on repentance and it being a representation of God's love. That, I feel was the overwhelming lesson of this last conference is that God loves us!

And I love you guys too!

Elder Harris

Crazy Fun Week

This last week we had dinner with the Andreasons 5 out of the 7 days of the week. A few weeks ago when we were passing around a new dinner calendar, I saw President Andreason (1st counselor in Stake Presidency) up on the stand and took the calendar up to him because I hadn't eaten dinner with him the 3 months I had been here. To our suprise he signed up for a whole week. He informed us that we'd be having grilled cheese and Tomato soup all week. We talked to his wife and she said, "If that's what he said thats what we'll do!" Our first night they spared us with a good Sunday ham and funeral potatoes. I spilled my second helping all over my pants trying to cut my ham while my plate was hanging half way off the table. The next night when we had the tomato soup and grilled cheese, they put a rubber mat under my bowl so it wouldn't slide and outfitted me with an apron just in case. The next night we had tomato soup and grilled cheese again but that was the last night. I loved going over to the Andreasons, it felt just like home.

We just had some changes here in the district. Because they closed Truth or Consequences and put spanish elders in Hatch (Chile captial of the World!) They put Hatch in the spanish district and put Alamagordo in our district. Interestingly enough in Alamagordo is Elder Lybbert, my first District Leader. It's kind of weird being his District Leader now. But I'm way excited to get to go on exchanges with him again. I'm going to Alamagordo tonight so that should be a lot of fun.

As for the work, we're waiting on word if Israel can be baptized this weekend or not. I'm not sure how much I've told you but I'll give a brief summary. Israel is 17 and is awesome. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people and was charged with a felony. As such he has been on probation and as a rule can't be baptized until he is off parole or has 1st Presidency aproval. He originally would be off probation if he paid a fine and waited until the end of September. We found him work and he was able to pay the fine but his probation officer changed and now we're not sure if he will get off in a couple of days. If so, he'll be getting baptized in between sessions of conference on Sunday. If not probably not for another month at least...:( We're praying hard for him and we would appreciate your prayers on his behalf as well.

Love you all and hope all is well back home

Elder Andrew Harris

(8 months already!?!?!?!?!?!)

Busy Day‏

Hey mom and dad, not too much time today.

Not a whole lot to report other than I'm still here in Las Cruces and probably will be until mid December, late January... Elder Vermillion is still my companion.

A member here wants to start a New Mexico division of the Temple Riders and wants info. Dad, his name is Randy Andreason

Also if the next time any package comes this way if you could throw a couple of rolls of magic tape in that would be awesome. Elder Vermillion and I have had a couple of scrapes from bike accidents... don't worry nothing too big :)

Love you guys

Elder Harris

Weekly Update

Hey Everybody!

Any BYU football fans out there? Well yesterday in one of our wards we had a new Elder's Quorom presidency set apart and the President it Jesse Sowards, former kicker for BYU. I don't know who he is but I thought maybe you might.

Anyways, so this week we got a referral for a man who visited Temple Square and asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon. We visited him and he is way kool. He's a Messianic Jew, which means he believes that Jesus Christ is the Messiah but he doesn't believe in Christianity... yeah, he's way kool though. He'll be baptized but when we invited him to set a date he told us that his decision to be baptized into a church is like getting married to God and he didn't think a month was a long enough courtship with God. The biggest downside is that his job has him traveling all over the place and so we really can't sit down and meet with him too often.

Israel is also doing really well, so is his grandmother Marcy. Israel is set to be baptized this coming Saturday and Marcy coming up on the 10th of October. We're really excited for them.

But with the passing of time comes transfers again. Tonight we're going to be getting calls and find out whos going and who's staying. It's hard to say whether I'll go or stay. I've been here for 3 months and my companion 4 1/2, which would say that I'm going, but my companions last transfer is this next one so he could stay, and I go, or we both could stay... who knows. We'll find out soon.


Well I love you all and I'll talk to you next week.

Elder Andrew Harris

Another Transfer Come and Gone‏

Hey everybody-

This last week was definitly an interesting one. I got to spend a couple of days in the tiny town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. It's alot different that working in a big city but the gospel is true no matter where you go.

The transfer is coming to an end and we should be getting transfer calls this coming monday. I'm pretty sure I'll be staying here in Las Cruces, and I hope so, because we have a couple of investigators who should be getting baptized in the first couple of weeks after transfers. But if I go, I go. What ever happens the Lord is in it.

Not a whole lot to report this week. Things are moving forward as usual and there is nothing better than being a missionary.

Love you all, thanks for all the letters, sorry I can't get back to you but the missionaries in Las Cruces love basketball so we usually spend a good 3 hours playing every P-day. Doesn't leave much time to write back but I'll get there. See ya next week!

A cool recipe a member gave us: Cake Balls!Bake a cake, turn it into crumbs. mix in can of frosting. roll into balls. cover with melting chocolate and then chill. They are delicious!

The blazing challenge was rediculous but well worth it. I have my shirt hanging up in my room, so I can see it when I go to sleep. I'm leaning more towards green but I do like red. Chilies are probably the best peppers ever!

Elder Andrew Harris