Oct. 29, 2013

Hello Family and Friends!

This week was transfer week! Sorry for not letting you know. So we have p-day today instead of yesterday :)

Elder Flake and I are still in the same area and we are still companions! I love this kid and the area is on fire! So I am happy with staying another 6 weeks. However, most of the zone has changed and we have a TON of new missionaries to the area. I just met one who came from Tahiti. He learned English and Spanish in the MTC in 3 weeks. He also speaks French and Tahitian. He is a spanish missionary but he was huge! I thought he was like 20 months out. But he's onle 3 weeks. ha! At the end of this transfer, I will be 10 days away from 6 months out. I cant believe how fast time is flying! That is 1/4 of my mission finished! Is time flying for you? I hope it is!

I can't believe that Gavin FINALLY got his eagle! I love the second picture of him modeling with the bushes and trees in the background. I would love that picture and any others you would like to send me! Also we don't have the conference talks yet but I would love those as well. I would love ALL of them that you could get me :)

This last week was full of some great experiences and not so great experiences. I went on exchanges and went down to Sells which is an indian reservation down here. I was with Elder Barlocker. He was super quite and really awkward to talk to. I thought he'd been out like 2 months but he'd been out 18... The entire ride to the trailer he lived in took about 45 minutes and he maybe said 5 words and I'm not exagerating. In 1 day, we taught 4 lessons which is how many they normally teach in a week. We drove 176 miles in 1 day! It was fun to get out of Tucson but I don't think I could last 3 hours in a car EVERY day.

We have that GIANT list of people from our ward that are less-active and we have just been trying to visit everyone on it. But that wasn't really getting us anywhere. So we decided that we would focus on 10 people and try to get to know everything about them. Like if they moved, where they moved to, why they went less-active, etc. This would take the place of tracting as well because we would just contact the new person that lived there if the less-active moved out and we would box-knock (knock on the surrounding doors). We stopped by this one house and she wasn't home. So we went to the neighbors house to see if she still lived there. She doesn't unfortunately but we ran into Benjamin. Ben is in his late 20's or early 30's. He is a less-active as well but never got his records transferred from where he previously lived because he hasn't been to church since 2004. He is married and has 3 girls. One is 6, the next is 3, and the last is 1. His wife isn't a member but said that she wasn't to start taking the lessons. We have the ward "TRUNK-OR-TREAT" tomorrow and so we invited them to that. They accepted and we got them all a ride already for that and to church! WE ARE TEACHING A FAMILY!!!!!! This is my first family we are teaching so I am super excited!

We then went to the next less-actives house but a man has lived there now for about 6 months. He quickly shut the door on us so we went to the neighbors house to see if there was a leasing office or a manager somewhere. We got ahold of his number and called him up. I introduced myself as a missinoary and he said, "I know you are! I have this number saved in my phone!" It turns out he is in the Stake Presidency up in one of the North Stakes! He owns a bunch of apartment complexes in our area and said to call him today and he would give us some referrals!

THEN we were riding away from that apartment and was stopped on the street by a lady. You could smell the alcohol in her breath and the smoke from her clothes. She said she wanted to turn her life around and get out of her habits. We got her number and her address. When we looked at the address, it was for the home of the less-active we had previously tried to contact at the complex where Steve (the stake presidency guy) owns! The EXACT same apartment! It was awesome! So we are going back to meet with her and with Benjamin and his family later tonight.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! Keep reading your scriptures and keep making me proud!

~Elder Harris