Sunday, January 30, 2011

The last e-mail... :(‏

Hey you guys, looks like this is it for the e-mails.


This last week has been insane crazy. A lot different from last week. Michelle and David have taken a turn for the worst. It's really weird. Both are accusing the other of being abusive and not wanting David to move out. David says Michelle wants him to lie so they can stay together and she can still get baptized, and David says that it's not that big of a deal for them to lie because they're already breaking the law of chastity by living together, then why not just do it all...

I don't know who to believe. So needless to say I'm not sure if Michelle is getting baptized or not :( At least maybe not this weekend. It's sad too because she was so prepared, or so I thought.

At least we still have Regina going strong. She is the lady from Brazil and she's doing so awesome. She's really excited to be baptized and her date is for the 5th right now. We taught her the Word of Wisdom yesterday and she only has a problem with tea but as soon as we said it, in her head she made the decision to give it all up, then we told her herbal teas were fine and she just has to give up the green tea, she was totally fine with that. She's so awesome. She really was prepared to hear the gospel before we ever met her.

Well I guess I'll see you all soon!

Love ya

Elder Harris

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Finishing strong‏

So things are looking good right now in the Casas Adobes ward. This last week I taught more lessons than I've ever done my entire mission, and it's not often that I've had more Member Present Lessons than not. Things are going so good for me right now. Heavenly Father is really blessing me these last couple of weeks.

We had 11 people at church (also my mission record) and it was so good to see them all. Michelle Greco got her interview on Sunday and she's all good to go. All that needs to happen is for David to move out and she'll be all set. Now her son Grady who wasn't too motivated to learn really wants to get baptized before I leave. We're going to really start working with him to get him ready and hopefully his older brother Grant will follow suit.

I love being a missionary. This is so much fun. It'll be sad to leave it all. I know the e-mail is short but I'll be seeing you in a little bit anyways. Talk to you all later.

Elder Harris

1-10-11

This last week ended up being pretty good for us. Michelle was able to come to church with her family and they really enjoyed it. She is progressing so well right now and we set her baptismal date for Jan 29th. Her two sons Grady and Grant aren't too keen on the whole baptism idea but they are at least coming to mutual and really loving that. They'll come around one day, hopefully soon. Grant likes to claim that he's atheist but he's just trying to be different.

Valorie wasn't there at church yesterday which was a bummer. We had a great lesson with her on Sunday and she said that she was planning on coming. We're not sure what happened. We're going to be trying to see her today sometime to see whats up.

Rita and Robert have taken a turn for the worst it seems. Robert called us Saturday night to tell us that Rita had hurt her ankle and wouldn't be able to come to church. I was understandably devastated because that would mean her date would drop back to after I left and would mean that I wouldn't be able to baptize her like she asked me to. "That's not going to be a problem is it?" Robert asked"Well... to be baptized we like to see people come to church three times and..." I started"Well! Rita is offended about your lesson on Friday!......" And Robert just went off about how we offended Rita when we taught the word of wisdom. He said we were too pushy in asking to take their stuff and throw it away and that Rita didn't want to get baptized any more. He said he would talk to her and we should wait for a phone call. We're not so sure that I believe Robert. Rita had such a great testimony. I think it's more Robert not wanting to change and so he's stopping it all. Which is too bad for Rita. Hopefully she'll call us sometime and we'll be able to work this thing out.

Finally we got a phone call from Bro Mathis, who is the High Priest Group Leader, telling us that one of his home teaching families has an un-baptized child who wants to get baptized! We have an appointment tomorrow to start teaching her. We're super excited about that!

Well hope all is well on the home frontLove you guys.

Elder Harris

Monday, January 3, 2011

What a week‏

This week was pretty awesome! Elder Rangel and I found 6 new investigators and they are pretty awesome. Well almost all of them. One dropped us two days after we started teaching him, we dont' know why, he seemed really interested at first but we went to see him to make sure he was still coming to church and he handed us the Book of Mormon through the door and told us he wasn't interested anymore. Too bad, but the others are awesome.

First was a part member family, the Pratts. I told you a little of the story last week, but they are doing really well. They're progressing great! Unfortunately they were sick yesterday and weren't able to come to church :( but they're planning on coming this next week! We also started teaching a family of 3 that moved into our area. The other missionaries had taught them a little but they are awesome! Michelle, the mom, is excited to learn and loves the church. Her two sons Grant(14) and Grady(12) are pretty cool kids. They're still trying to figure out who they are and so they don't have a firm baptismal commitment like Michelle does but they'll come along. We have an appointment with them tonight.

Finally is a lady named Valorie. She was a former investigator that we found in our area book. I remember meeting her when I was with Elder Bliss and our first appointment with her was after transfers so I never got to actually teach her. We asked her what her experience with the missionaries was and she said that it was a good one. She said that she was at the point where they were going to come to church but they never did and the missionaries stopped going over. She then asked us what time church was, we showed her around the church the next day and she came on Sunday. She loved church! She is planning on coming back next week and is going to take her 14 year old son, Josh to mutual tomorrow night! She is awesome. She doesn't have a firm baptismal commitment because she doesn't want to just be flip flopping around religions, she wants to commit completely so she wants to study it a little more. We're seeing her tomorrow night as well. We're excited to have so many wonderful people to teach.

But thats not all. Elder Rangel and I met a few people tracting who had met missionaries in the past, have co-workers who gave them a book of Mormon, and are excited for us to come back and teach them again! The work is so good right now. God is just so good to us.

Well hope you all are doing well. See you guys soon.

Elder Harris