Ups and Downs

This week we had some great and not so great experiences.

Last Sunday we had a recent convert come with us on splits and when we visited Alice Jean he was telling her about how excited he was to be able to go to the temple and be sealed to his children and wife. Alice Jean completely misunderstood what he said and thought that "unless she was sealed to her daughters there was NO way she would be with them in the next life" We really didn't get to explain how it works when we had to leave and now she won't talk to us :( Kind of a bummer but thats how it goes I guess. Hopefully she'll come around.

Lisa and Taylor were doing well for a couple of days and then went into flaky mode and didn't come to church and blew us off for the last couple of days. It's been a real bummer. We'll keep on trying with them though.

Lacy is doing awesome. When we were talking to her she told us how she was cutting down on swearing and that she had stopped smoking... we haven't talked about any of that with her. She was also able to go to the church with us on Wednesday so we could show her around and she was ready to come yesterday. But satan, being the little booger that he is, she had to go to a funeral, conviently scheduled at the same time sacrament meeting was. She said she'll come next week though.
I was telling the story to our district leader Elder Jackson and he said "well, at least he can only die once!" We then discussed whether or not they'll have "funerals" for those who end us suffering at the second death, I imagine it will be a sad moment considering that they are our brothers and sisters.
Hopefully no one else dies between now and her baptism.
Unfortunatly because she didn't come to church we had to drop her date and we haven't seen her to reset it yet.

Yesterday we had an amazing experience finding a new investigator. Her name is Vanessa and she is a Native American from Sells. While we were riding around on our bikes on Saturday, we stopped at a bus stop to talk to a girl sitting there. I usually hate talking to people at bus stops because the bus always comes and interupts our conversation. But President Walker really emphasized talking to EVERYONE at zone conference on Friday, so we stopped and said Hi.

"Are you like church people?" she asked.
"Why, yes we are!"
"where is you church?"
"It's not too far down the street."
"Can I come to your church? I really want God in my life."

I'm sure you can guess our response. We tried to set up a lesson for that night but she said she was busy but would come to church. We found her a ride and SHE CAME! she brought her 5 year-old niece and so she left half way through the second talk but we went by that night and she loved it. She only left because Abigail was getting bored. We sat down and taught her about Heavenly Father's love for her and Jesus Christ's Atonement; about baptism, forgiveness and the restoration of the priesthood . It was sauch a great lesson and she accepted a baptism date for the 17th of July. We're so excited for her. She wants so badly to be born again and to have the spirit in her life. She told us that she hears people talk about feeling the spirit and that she wants to feel that so bad. When we described the Spirit using Galatians 5 she started crying when she realized that she WAS feeling the spirit. At that point the spirit engulfed the room and it was awesome! We are so blessed to have met her. It was a miracle from the Lord.

Well thats about all for this last week. Love you guys!

Elder Harris

It's getting Hot!‏

Holy cow it warmed up this last week! It was 107 the last couple of days... and I am exhausted after walking around in that heat all day.

But this last week was a pretty good one. We found a new investigator, her name is Lacy. She's 18 but she is still in high school so we get to teach her and not pass her off to the university Elders. She's way kool though, she's the only religious person in her family, When we sat down to teach her the first lesson her brother came in and asked if we wanted any heroine... he was just being dumb, the whole lesson he was blasting his music in the other room. She's pretty excited to learn though and really is enjoying the Book of Mormon. We scheduled her baptism for the 3rd of July!

Lisa and Taylor didn't come to church yesterday so their date dropped, they still seem interested, busy doing nothing. It's kind of frustrating.

Other than that, not a while lot going on. We have zone conference this next week and it looks like I'll need you to send me my Temple Clothes. The Gila Valley Temple is a small one and it doesn't have clothing rental. President said that he would be taking us about once a transfer so I should need them coming pretty soon.

Well love you guys and hope you have a great week.

Elder Harris

All is well in Sahuarita... But I'm no longer there :(‏

Monday we got the phone call that I would be leaving Sahuarita. In light of the conversation I had with President I guess he decided that it would be best if I moved on. Right now I'm in the Tucson East Stake serving in the Camino Principal and Hidden Valley Wards. Cool bit a trivia, the WML in the Hidden Valley Ward, Bro Call is actually the son-in-law to Elder Richard G Scott... yeah the apostle. That's my little claim to fame for the moment. My companion is Elder Larsen, he's from the Castle Dale 2nd ward (maybe grandma knows his family, he didn't recognize Wells at all), and he was Elder Burt's MTC companion. He's a good elder and he goes home at the end of next transfer.

On Tuesday my mind was set at ease about the whole blog thing. After talking to Bishop and Bro Bell they both said not to worry, "they need to get stirred up, maybe that'll get them thinking and praying" Brother bell said, and Bishop told me to call him in 10 years and he'll tell me what good came from the whole thing. Rhonda wasn't too upset either, she found it kind of funny. A similar thing happened the her once up on the ranch too and so she was fine with it, though she was pretty upset that I had to leave because of it. She had to cancel our appointment on Monday night because the ranch was having a big meeting about the blog. Really only a few people saw it, one of them being like the "ranch matron" and she was really pissed off. Tristan, Rhonda's husband, really respects her and so the missionaries are no longer welcome at his house but they can still teach Rhonda! yay! She's still getting baptized on the 12th!

I was telling the story to the Cluff's, a family in 2nd Ward and Sister Cluff was the RS president before 2nd and 4th wards split from each other. She knows all about the ranch and she found it quite funny. I told her I was leaving and she said "Oh man! You just got here!" and the she added, "all right so what did you do?". I went a little red and she laughed as I told her the story about the blog. After talking for a little bit her husband mentioned "well maybe thats why you came to Sahuarita, to get them fired up. The Lord needed someone with the blog and someone who could shrug it off and keep working, We'll miss you but you'll do great in the east stake, don't worry about it." Sahuarita is going to keep going good.

Right now in our area things are going great. They had a baptism on Saturday which was a great experience. The pianist didn't show up so I stumbled through I am a Child of God for them. It was pretty fun. Right now we're teaching quite a few people all of them with their own unique challenges.

Vianney (V-en-A) is from Somalia and really wants to get baptized. The only problem is he needs to be married and to get married he needs to pay a dowry of around 4 - 6 thousand dollars to his wife's parents so they can. His wife and her parents are both members and they will be fine if he gets married so he can get baptized but they'll basically think he's trash if he does, so he's trying to support a family, go to school and save for the dowry all at the same time... long process :(

Alice-Jean is a hillarious girl who also is in a tight situation. She really wants to get baptized but is living with a man. They aren't romantically involved in any way but she can't move out because CPS has her children and to get them back she needs to prove that she is stable and if she moves again she will be "unstable" and won't be able to get he kids back anytime soon. Really a bummer. She's looking for a job and so we'll hope that all works out.

Lincoln Lenox is getting baptized on the 26th on June and he is from a part member family.

Then Lisa and Taylor, a mother and 9 year-old daughter that we're teaching. They're really poor but are really loving the gospel. They are also getting baptized on the 26th of June.

There are a few others but they really aren't progressing yet.

Other than that everything is the same old same old.

Still love you guys and still can't believe how fast time is flying right on by.

Elder Harris

Tough Week

Well I feel like a total turd now.

Yesterday Bro. Harris in the 4th ward ripped into me a good one because apparently some of the ranch people who belong to the church up there stumbled across my blog. It really offended them and especially offended Bro Harris, being a convert from there and trying to help his family along too. No more blog, as for damage who knows. I might have shut the doors for some people but I know God is merciful and it'll take a lot more than sticking my foot in my mouth to keep someone out of the Kingdom of God. I'm writing a letter of apology to Bro. Harris and I hope that he shares it with his family.

I let President Walker know how upset Bro. harris was. He was planning on keeping me in Sahuarita but now he's not so sure, he's going to pray about it. We'll find out what will happen tonight. I really don't want to stay, being here is kind of awkward, knowing how fast news travels, especially in the church. But at the same time I don't want to just run away from a mess that I started, although I don't know how much I can fix at this point.

Well there ya go, I'm now offically one of those missionaries that everyone will be talking about in the years to come about how I pissed off the ranch people. I have been approached by a few members who aren't, well at least don't seem to be too upset with me and want to help make it right, so hopefully this won't make it hard for missionaries who are coming in.

Anyways, nothing really has happened this week. Amy is still awol. The McGees had to cancel their appointment on Tuesday and we haven't seen them since and who knows how friendly Tristan is going to be now because news travels faster on the ranch than it does in the church, so who knows how that one is going to turn out now.

The one good thing that happened this week was we met James Hughes. He's an awesome guy from England who moved to Texas at 16. He believes in God and Jesus but doesn't have a real religious base. His wife is Catholic but he doesn't like the Catholic Church. He was very accepting of the gospel and has been reading all the things we leave for him. We taught him the Restoration on Tuesday, Plan of Salvation on Wednesday, and a follow-up nourishment visit on Thursday and he went out of town on Friday, all in all kind of a bummer because he's in Texas for the next two weeks and so we won't be able to really teach him at all. We are keeping in contact with him via telephone though which is good.

Well, pray for me that I don't get hanged when I go back up to the ranch.

Love you guys, hope you're all enjoying life.

Talk to you next week.

Elder Harris

Yay the McGees are back on track!‏

We finally got back in contact with them!!!!

So, apparently the apostates up on the ranch have been doing a pretty good job of keeping Rhonda away from coming to church. Now that we're back in contact with her, she is all fired up about the gospel. Her daughter Sherrodin is also coming along great. Shelby is in Phoenix and we haven't seen here since that first lesson, and Cheyenne really isn't too interested. Tristan quoted some scripture in the New Testament about not stirring the water with your spouse, so he's still ok with us teaching. He even sits in and contributes to the lessons... He'll get baptized eventually. We're working with some members to help to bring Tristan around. But it was exciting to see Rhonda at church this last week.

We're super excited because this coming sunday is the temple dedication! I'm so excited to be apart of it. It's going to be awesome.

We keep finding new investigators but they don't progress very far. We're still working with Amy, she's coming around. Right now she can't come to church because she has her son, Cody these next two weekends. Her divorce calls for mutual aggreement on all religious training and she's sure that if she took Cody to church, her ex-husband would take her to court over it. It's really sad to see how people can make a law against a mans belief....

I'm not too sure what else to tell you, life is still good and it's getting warmer! I love it here in Arizona!

Well hope you all have a great week. Love you guys!

Elder Harris

Little by Little‏

Little by little the work moves forward.

This last week we saw the baptism of Alexis. It was a great baptism, I was glad to be a part of it. The best part was that her real mom (she's a foster child, whose foster parents got guardianship so she could be baptized) came to the baptism and really enjoyed it. We talked to her a little bit and was able to get her information for the other Elders. We'll see how that works out.

We had kind of a bad week as far as teaching this week though. Amy's psychiatrist works for Satan and told her that she needed to back off with the religion thing for a while to relieve some stress in her life, or at least thats what she told us. She might just be trying to drop us but I don't think so. We're working with her member friends to try and see whats up. Well visit her every so often as well.

We also found three new investigators this week. One dropped us on the return appointment, one has cancer and kidney problems and is still recuperating from surgery and the other, a part member family, works every sunday and the next chance of her changing her schedule isn't until next January :( We're going to keep on working with her and hopefully help her get to the point where she'll have the faith the quit her job for the gospel.

Other than that not a whole lot going on. We did get in contact with a less-active recent convert named Idiela Alarcon and are working with her to get her coming back to church. I can see her progressing in the gospel again.

Well hope you all are enjoying life.

We'll talk to you later!

Elder Harris

An Unusually Cool Spring‏

It's been really nice here the last couple of weeks. Last year at this time it was already in the 100's but the last little bit it's barely reached above 90. This week is supposed to get up there in temperature though :(

Anyways, Sister Morris of 4th ward came up to me at church on Sunday and asked "Do your parents ride Motorcycles?" I said yes and she told me that she had met you and had a message for me. The message... "Happy Birthday Al?" When did you change my name to Al? and I thought my birthday was in December... From the dumbfounded look on my face she realized that it wasn't the right message and said that my parents had something to tell me but she couldn't remember, but she knew it was something good. So whatever it was you'll have to send me the message yourselves because that route didn't work.

As for the Work. Alexis was interviewed yesterday and she passed so she's all set for baptism this coming Friday at 5:00. We're really excited for her, it's going to be a great baptism.

We were able to teach Amy Kirkman a lot this week and she was progressing really well until her son got pink eye on Friday which transmitted itself to her on Saturday and so she didn't come to church. Which means we had to drop her date. :( To make it even more fun because of the Temple dedication there will be no normal church services on the 23rd which means we need to set her date out even farther to accommodate her being able to come to church a few more times. :( Satan is real Jerk sometimes

As for the McGee family we're not too sure whats going on there. It seems like they've been avoiding us lately. We stopped by on Saturday night and Tristan invited us in and told us the girls were gone but invited us over for steaks the next day, we called to confirm and they cancelled on us :( We're not sure whats up. We're hoping it's not the crazy church up there.

We had another interesting experience up there with Bro. Bell who is actually one of the first 8 people to settle McGee Ranch (he's like 87 but he's sharp as a man in his 50's) He's a strong member of the church who had to overcome a lot of the false teachings to get back into the church. He's served 3 missions and loves the church. Well, he took us to visit his bro-in-law Jerry, who was also one of the original 8. When we went over Jerry told us he knew who we were and there wasn't much we could do but he wanted to ask us about baptism for the remission of sins. Bro Bell and I both explained it simply and with tears in his eyes he said he "just can't join the church." It was really sad to see. These people up on the ranch would all join the church if it wasn't for the false teachings of their little church. Amazing what one mans false prophesies can do to lead astray so many people. It's another reason why I wonder if we're related to any of these people up there (there are a lot of Harris's) This might be one of the reasons I'm here in Sahuarita, not that every other missionary who has ever served here hasn't tried but who knows, we'll see. We'll be working with Bro Bell and if Jerry joins the church who knows what might happen.

Other than that, the work is kind of slow right now but we've got some good things in the works.

We'll talk to you all later!

Elder Harris