Things are still plugging along

You know how I said to expect more next week? Well I meant expect more this coming week. A lot of the awesome stuff that we had lined up got pushed back until this coming week but this time it's going to go through!

Davaunte is still doing really well. He's set to be interviewed this Saturday and then next Saturday he'll be baptized! It's really exciting to see him progress in the gospel. Because of him, his less-active family is coming to church as well, as is his brother-in-law who is not a member and is interested in meeting with us too!

We've also gotten a few really good referrals from some other missionaries and we're really excited to finally sit down and talk with these people. They've been busy and out of town for the past forever! But now we're finally going to be able to meet with them now.

Cool Story I heard in Ward Council yesterday:

All the temples built by the church follow a naming pattern. Example : Mesa Arizona Temple. With this one the offical name of the Temple is :The Gila Valley Temple. It's the only temple in the world with THE as part of the name. The reason being, whenever President Kimball would talk about The Valley. He never meant the Salt Lake valley but The Gila Valley. This temple is above and beyond anything you can imagine and President Kimball no doubt is happy it's here.




Well love you. Talk to you next week.

Elder Harris

Church Bulletin Comics

Andy sent me some pictures of a bulletin board at a ward he attended. I thought it was definitely funny enough to share! If you can't read the captions, I've typed them out below the pictures.

Enjoy!!

"High Priests are like old Jeeps. They can't carry much, but they're reliable and will never leave you stuck . . ."
"Relief Society women are like Lamborghinis. They are very beautiful, move really fast and are lots of fun, but you had better spend time and money maintaining them or you'll be sorry."

"Elder's Quorum brethren are like freight trains. They can carry a lot and work hard, but it takes a lot of energy to get them going."

"Young Men are like bullet bikes. They can go 200 miles/hour and are lots of fun, but one mistake and they'll wreck fast."

"Young Women are like Miata Clubs. Cute little cars that look like they're having fun, but they're always in tight packs and can't seem to figure out where they're going."

"And Primary . . . " (picture of a bunch of kids in bumper cars!!)

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!

I love you all, and hope everything is going awesome for you guys!

Elder Harris

Another week come and gone!

This last week went by super fast!

Gary and Jessy are still doing really well. It's so good to see them progressing as well as they are! They are going to be baptized this Saturday at 5:00 pm, I'm super excited!

Last night we were able to have another lesson with the Jurados. Lexi is making baby steps towards baptism. She is still very resistant. Mostly because of her mom and sister. She wants to be her own person and she doesn't want to be like them. She's getting there. The spirit is slowly breaking through to her heart. I just hope it will be within the time that I'm still here.

We've run into a lot of potentials this week and hopefully next week's letter will have more awesome stories in it.

Today though we went to a place called Red Knolls. It's a really fun place with lots of caves and such to explore around. We had alot of fun. In one of the caves, there were some bats, with a lot of bat poop all over the ground. It was pretty gross. The Gila valley is so much fun.

There is so much to do and so many people who are ready for the gospel! But the best part is the temple. On the way back we stopped at the temple and we took some pictures. They are almost done with the construction and they are to the point of furnishing it. The spirit is so strong there. I miss the temple so much. I'm so excited for it to be finished!

Well I love you all super duper mucho!

Elder Harris

More and more changes

With transfers this last week we saw a change. I'm still in Safford but suprisingly Elder CLark has left us :(. It was way hard to see him go. He has been my favorite companion so far. I'm going to miss him. He was called to open a new area though. Sells, Arizona. I told you about it probably the first week of my mission. It was a big rumor of who would open up Sells. Sells is an indian reservation with only one active member who drives 45 min to Tucson to go to church every week. Elder Clark is a great missionary and he'll do great things in Sells.

My new companion? Elder Palmer! I'm training again! He's fresh from the MTC. He reminds me a lot of Isaac Smith. Really quiet and pretty shy. The apartment is super quiet compared to when Elder Clark and I were there. He's opening up little by little. We'll see how this transfer goes.

Kiana did get baptized on Saturday! She was pretty heart broken when Elder Clark had to leave. She was set on him baptizing her but she said it would be allright if I baptized her. The baptism was way powerful. She plugs her nose really wierd with her elbow sticking out funny so I had to hold her under a little longer so that she went all the way under. She accused me of trying to drown her. It was pretty funny. After ward, she bore her testimony about how she was glad that she did even though most of her family was against it. Her sister Lexi didn't even come. The mom, Lorie is kind of a pain sometimes and when Lexi is pushed she pushes back. Especially against her mom. I'm afraid that we've lost some ground with her but we're not giving up.

The Herrins are still doing awesome and we're excited for their baptism coming up. They both passed their interviews and we're looking forward to their baptisms.

Hope everybody is doing well.

Love you all!

Bro Cox (Ward mission leader) in a rocking chair made out of a wheel they keep telephone wire on.

Me making a chocolate pie at a members house!

Another transfer come and gone :(

Tonight are the dreaded transfer calls. We'll see what happens.

This last week was a really exciting one though.

Gary and Jesse are still progressing really well and are excited for their baptism on the 20th. We talked to them about moving it up but they had already planned a whole bunch of stuff around it so we're sticking with the 20th. It's going to be hard coming up with things to teach them here pretty soon.

Kiana passed her baptism interview and is all set for Saturday. She'll be baptized at 10:00am. Her sister Lexi is still being a little booger though. On Wednesday we had a really good lesson with just her because Kiana had gone to mutual. She opened up to us a little bit more and we were able to commit to praying about baptism. She said that she prayed for 30 min and nothing. I think she was expecting a Joseph Smith experience and missed the small impressions of the spirit. We had a lesson about the spirit and she understands and recognizes the spirit now but she still is stuck on wanting to be Catholic. It's very frustrating! We keep on praying for her so we'll see what happens.

My Testimony this week was also strengthened in the fact that the Lord puts us in the best place for us to succeed. We met someone this week named Steve. He called us over and he talked to us for a while. You could tell he had fried his brains with drugs and was a little drunk but he agreed to listen to us and our message. The next night we took Brother Villa with us, a recent convert who lived right down the street from him. Bro. Villas past is almost identical to Steve's, drugs and gangs and all. He bore a powerful testimony about how God helped him out and he was forgiven and so could he (Steve). I'm so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who is aware of all of his children and provided for Steve so that he could come into the gospel. Steve can't get baptized right now because of probation and because of his past he's going to need some clearance from some pretty high up people before he can get baptized. I'll never see it happen but I hope and pray that it will.

That pretty much covers last week. We just got done coming back from Rock Hound Park again, this time with the whole district plus the zone leaders. It was a lot of fun and tonight Elder Clark and I are teaching the lesson at FHE over at our Stake President's house. He invites all the investigators in the stake to his house the first monday of every month. It's so awesome!

Hope you all are having a great week

Love you all!

Elder Harris

Another Crazy Week‏

Things are still going great with the Herrins. Bro Herrin cancelled an extra shift he picked up after we taught him Keep the Sabbath Day Holy which was awesome! He and Jesse are still excited to be baptized.

Lexi is still not wanting anything to do with the church which stinks but what makes it worse, shes now telling Kiana not to be baptized. Kiana is also getting alot of smack from some of her Catholic friends about how they don't want her to be baptized. It's so sad to see the prejudice that has been passed on through generations. At only 13 and 14 and people are already hell-bent against the church and are trying to convince Kiana not to be baptized.

The only other thing to report is that my bike got stolen. Elder Clark and I had to leave our bikes out side and normally we take to seats off to prevent people from stealing them. The one time we don't, someone comes and steals my bike. I have no idea why my bike. Elder Clark's is much newer but for some reason they took mine. It'll be ok though. Here in Thatcher there is a shed full of bikes that missionaries have left. I'm just going to pick up one of them.


Love you all hope all is well!