Colossal Cave/New Investigator

My companion and I just got back from Colossal Cave. It was a really fun time. A little overpriced but still pretty sweet. We took the more advanced tour and really got to climb around and got really dirty. I didn't have any pockets so I'll have to get the pictures from Elder Bertha's camera and then send them later.

Marta is still super excited about her baptism. She was interviewed this last week and she passed with flying colors. She called us that morning and told us that she had stayed up 'till midnight the night before reading the Book of Mormon and made it through 2 Nephi (she was about half way through at that point) She said she was going to call us that night but thought it might not be such a good idea because we were sleeping. She loves the Book of Mormon and is starting Mosiah today.

Our other progressing investigator is named Thelma. The sisters were teaching her but she had to move out because she had a couple of male roommates. She is way excited about her baptism and we're thinking about moving it up, to Sept. 25 instead of the Oct. 2. She's a real great lady.

This coming week we're having another general authority come to the mission. His name is Elder Johnson and he's the head of the CES department. He's doing the normal mission tour that happens once a year. The thing with Elder Christofferson was just kind of a special thing.

Not much else is going on right now. I hope all is well with you all.

Love you much

Elder Harris

Labor Day Weekend

Sorry I'm writing a little late but here I am! (holidays as a missionary are so lame)

Last week was a lot of the same stuff as usual. Marta is still doing awesome. This last week we taught her the Law of Tithing and she committed to live it even though she's struggling financially. She is so awesome.

Jen is still as volatile as ever. She got in a car crash this last week and was very adamant that night that she be baptized. Then she blew us off every night since then. Kind of lame, but oh well. You can't force anyone to do anything.

Not a whole lot else happened this last week. On Sunday we got a few referrals from Bishop Rustand and we're hoping that those play out. I'll let you know.

and finally a sad story

Yesterday my companion and I were planning on heading to Colossal Cave I've wanted to go to this cave for ever but not to many of my other companions wanted to :( Finally Elder Bertha was exicted to go too and we went. We drove about 30 miles from our place to Vail. (only reason it was 30 miles is there is no freeway system in Tucson... so annoying) When Elder Bertha and I were about 3 miles away from the park there was a sheriffs car parked in the middle of the road blocking access into the park. He said that the road was closed for a while and that we couldn't go up in. So we went back to Vail and hung out in Walgreens for about 45 min. While we were there we found out that someone had gotten into a car crash up near the park and had died, the passanger got out of the car and took off running and so they were searching for the passenger and that was why the road was closed... LAME! I was so mad. We drove the 30 miles back into Tucson and went back to the apartment. I ended up taking a 2 hour-long nap, which was nice but I would have rather gone hiking. We're going to try again this next week I think. We'll see.

Well love you lots. BYE!

Elder Harris

Another new Companion!‏

So I'm really good at getting rid of my companions real quick. I've run out of lines in my Preach My Gospel to write their names. :( Elder Stevens went home on Saturday morning for his knee, so now I have new companion. His name is Elder Bertha (no joke that is his real last name) and he's from San Diego California. He's a visa waiter on his way to Puebla Mexico. He's a funny kid. He's been in the field for only two weeks and he's been a lot of fun. This also means that I'll probably be getting another new companion next transfer when President will most likely put him back into a spanish area so he can get ready for Mexico. I'm glad he's here. It's nice to be able to run and gun again. Elder Stevens wasn't really able to move very fast at all.

Marta was able to come to church on Sunday and she really enjoyed it. She's got it set up where she can come for the first half of sacrament meeting on a lunch break until she gets her schedule changed. She really enjoyed church and is excited to get baptized on September 25th. I'm excited too. She's been a fun investigator to teach.
Her daughter Jen slept through church because she was out partying all Saturday night. I'm so confused about her. She's really excited some times and others she's just blah. It's kind of frustrating.

We met a new friend this last week. Her name is Betty Yellowhair.... She's native American. She seems really interested but she seems to be YES! person. Says she agrees to everything and commits to everything but then hardly follows through. We'll see how it goes though.

A small miracle we had this week was with the McDaniel family. The McDaniels are a part-member family who have been taught by the missionaries for the last 2-3 years or so. They've never actually come to church though. They were in Texas for the summer and we met back up with them this last week. We talked for a little while and told them of our desire to help them go to the temple to be sealed as a fmaily. They didn't seem to commited but said they'd try to come to church. They weren't there for our next appointment, but Leah(she's the non-member) called the Bishop's office yesterday morning to find out when church was and came all by herself! It was so awesome. Her son was being fussy so she ended up leaving part way through which was a bummer, and we weren't able to meet up with them after church but the fact that they came is a miracle! I was excited.

Anyways. I hope all is well with everyone at home. Send my love and a big hug to Mel and tell her I'm sad I can't be there.

Love you guys

Elder Harris

Another week come and gone‏

Well the work keeps on moving forward.

Mata is still doing really well, even though she didn't come to church yesterday. We were sad but we reset her date and she's committed to come. Her date has now been reset for the 25th of September. We're excited for her. Her Daughter Jen didn't come to church either but she really didn't have any reason. She has been to church once and so she can still make her date for the 11th but we're not sure if she will or not. She isn't progressing too well right now.

Other than that our investigator pool is kind of slim. We're trying to find some news and trying to help the wards with Activation and praying some good experiences follow.

This last weekend we were blessed to have Elder Christofferson(Apostle), Elder Rasband(Senior President of the 7 Presidents of the 70), Elder Quiron(Newly called member of the 70), and Elder Pickard(Area 70 from Phoenix) come to our mission and speak to us. It was a great meeting and we were blessed to have them there.

Good luck to everyone with the new school year and hope all is well with everyone. We'll talk to you all later.

Love you guys

I just can't keep 'em‏

So it seems I just can't keep a companion for more than a transfer. Elder Burke is getting shipped out and he's going to Safford (Lucky dog). He wasn't too excited to go and not get to work anymore with our invertigators but I know he'll do well.

My new companion is Elder Stevens. He's from Orem and he seems like a pretty kool guy. He has knee problems right now and he's thinking he might have to go home... hopefully not but we'll see. He had an MRI earlier today and we'll find out next week.

Other than that things are going good.
Hope life on your end is good

Sorry for the short letter, not much more to report.

Love you guys

Elder Harris

Some Good and Some Bad

Hey everybody.

This last week has been kind of crazy

Denise K Higgins our awesome investigator went Jekyll and Hyde on us. We saw her on Thursday morning and tried to reset her baptismal date. She was really excited and even picked the date herself. We went over the next day and she dropped us hardcore. It was lame. That's number 3 on the mission of people/families that were going really strong that dropped us for no reason. Makes me sad :(

But our other investigators, the 4 generation family are doing great. The were sick yesterday and weren't able to come to church :( But when we went over last night they were really excited about getting baptized. Before they've been unsure but now they really want to do it. The two girls are even signing up for seminary! Things are going great with them. They're even having us over for dinner tonight.

Not a while lot else to report. President is taking us to the temple this week so that's really exciting. We're going on Friday! It'll be so good to go back to the temple again.

Hope all is well with you. Keep in touch. Love you guys

~Elder Harris

Not a lot of time‏

So I don't have a lot of time but here's the basics.

Denise is still nervious and she didn't come to church because she was taking care of a friend who just got out of the hospital.

Others we were teaching aren't too awesome but we're still trying.

We also found a few new investigators this week. The Relief Society president asked us to go and visit a less-active sister named Marta Kellemen. She's a sweet lady who is 80 years old. In the house is her daughter, granddaughter, and 2 great-grand daughters. None of them are members of the church and we were able to start teaching them this last week. We're hoping that it will turn out well with them.

Not much else to report other that I love you guys.

We'll talk to you later.

Elder Harris