Elder Andy Harris' Adventures: Another fun week in the Gila Valley!‏

I love it here so much!

Last night was a fireside that we, as missionaries with the stake president came up with, to get people ready for the open house. It was way awesome! They had a floor plan of the temple there and President Herrington (former stake president of Safford stake) told us a little about what it looked like inside. Blue and gold, murals everywhere, including in the baptistry. It's going be a session where you move through it like the older temples and I can only imagine how beautiful it looks inside. I need to stay one more transfer to be able to go through the open house and be there for the dedication. Transfers are the Wednesday right after the dedication so chances of getting to go inside and do work are slim to none so I would have to stay another transfer to be able to actually do work inside. I would love to be able to participate in the ordinances of the temple again. Kiana asked me to be baptized for her dad and I would love to do that, but just to go through and feel the spirit inside would be enough for me. You feel the spirit just passing by the temple. It is so beautiful. I never really appreciated the temple when I could go but now that I can't... I miss it so much.

I'm just praying that i'll be here at least one more. Elder Davis, our zone leader thinks that i'm going to step up and be a Zone leader this next transfer. I really don't want to, i just want to stay in the Gila. It's so awesome here.
On Saturday was Gary and Jessy's baptism! Sitting in my white clothes didn't help the Temple desires any, but it was still a great baptismal service. The spirit was way strong! I baptized Jessy and then Gary was baptized by a friend from Orem who came down for the baptism. When I went into the water with Jessy I started the prayer but accidentaly called him Jessy Wayne Harris instead of Herrin. Thankfully I caught myself and redid it but it was still kind of funny. I'm glad they were baptized, it was a good experience to teach them.

As for new investigators, in the Safford 6th ward the deacons quorum president started to fellowship an unbaptized kid in the ward. 7 years ago his dad was accused of not sustaining the branch president in the spanish branch and he said "forget that" and left. Took about half of the branch with him too. Well his son Davaunte started coming to church and wanted to help with the sacrament but couldn't... for obvious reasons. So bishop Taylor went over to their house and talked with his dad and set it up for us to go over and teach him. We scheduled his date for April 10th! He's a way kool kid. He has some learning disabilities but he's excited to learn. His dad even came to church yesterday which was awesome to see!

Our other investigators are still in the same boat as before but we've got some great things in the works! Expect more next week!

Today we just got back from a hike in Box Canyon. The Gila Valley has so many great places to hike it's great! It was so green and covered in little orange poppys. Inside we found beehives and honey comb, a sweet natural arch that we climbed up on top of, and then a crazy slot canyon that was a blast to hike up in. Over all a really fun P-day activity. So many fun things to do here, the best of course being missionary work!