Thursday, November 21, 2013

November 18, 2013

Hello Family and Friends! I can't believe that it is Monday already! It seems like just yesterday I was on here emailing you all! But I don't mind! That is just less time that I feel like I have to wait to talk to you guys!

GAVIN: I cannot believe that you are up to 185! Honestly... You can bench more than me... I think I hit 150 just the other day... So my goal before I leave this area is I will hit 185. Let me know when you hit 200!  You are getting so BIG!!! I cannot believe it! Soon you will be able to beat me up, Maybe! ;) Don't crash my truck please! That is my baby from home and I want to be able to drive it around a little when I finish things here. I know you like rap music so here is a suggestion that I think you might like that would make mom and dad happy too. There is an artist named Lacre I think. His album is called Gravity. LOOK IT UP! It is Christian rap so it doesn't swear or talk about anything bad but it would pound the bass in the truck!

Connor: How have you been doing buddy?? I brag to everyone that you are a drummer and we even had a member trying to look up your videos on facebook! But we couldn't find it... How has school been? I hope its going well! No girls yet, right? ;) You play in St. George for thanksgiving huh? Hey, let me give you some advice... Are you listening? Don't let the other team score and you might win. Tell that to your team and convince them you are a genious! ;D

Mom: So the girl that called is named Becky. She is so cool! She is 20 and went to chile' on her mission. But after 6 months out, she had some heart problems and so she had to come home for surgery. She wants to go back out but the mission headquarters doesn't think she will... Sad day.... Anyway, her sister is 35 and lives in our ward. So the two of them took Elder Flake and I out to a Chinese Buffet. It was so great! Untill Elder Flake and I decided that we would eat the most disgusting looking thing we could find. We chose oysters. It was about 3 inches long and the part you eat looked like someone took their spit, mixed it with their mucas then put it into a shell. It smelled like cat urine.... We counted to 3 and I dumped it into my mouth. Elder Flake spit his out immediately and i just let it sit in my mouth. My gag reflex wouldn't let me swallow it. Finally after like 5 seconds of holding it in, I forced it down and kept it down! But I was drinking Dr Pepper so everytime I burped in my throat, it tasted like oysters.... I didn't eat anything else for dinner... But it was still so much fun! After dinner, she asked for your number so she could call you and tell you about me. Right as you guys were finishing, she put the phone on speaker and I heard you say through your tears, "Thank you so much." I admittedly broke down and started to cry too. But it was just perfect! It helped me realize that I will be home soon and this mission here isn't forever! I don't want to come home but I can't wait till I do!

Dad: I am writing in my journal every night and trying to put a lot of detail into it for the future! On youtube there is a channel that I believe is called "After Ever After". It is basically songs about disney movies and what happened after happily ever after. It is SO funny! I think you might like it :)

We had such a scary experience because of a dumb choice we made. We were on exchanges and I was with my District Leader Elder Smith in our area. We were visiting less actives and we had this one we were visiting that no one had heard from since they read the records in 15 years before. So we showed up and the gate was locked. It was only like 4 feet high. We didn't have a number to contact her and we didn't know what to do. Admittedly I wanted to show my DL that I wasn't scared to make decisions so I said, "Lets jump the fence! We have to find out!" We walked up to the door timidly and knocked on it. A man opened it immediately. He was big and had a really long scruffy beard. The first words that come out of his mouth were, "How the [heck] did you get into my yard?!" We explained who we were and tryed to explain our reason but he interupted and asked again "How the [heck] did you get into my yard?!" Without being about to really answer his question he pointed at the ground, stared into each of our eyes, and said, "Don't move from that spot." Then he turned around and walked inside. I thought 2 things were gonna happen. 1) he was gonna shoot us. Or 2) He was gonna call the cops. Luckily, neither happened. He walked us out the gate, opened it up and explained that we had come to the right house but the member we were looking for has been really sick and that she was sleeping for the first time in a few weeks. He said the only reason the cops weren't there was because we didn't wake her up. We apologized over and over and he said that it was fine but never to come back. We agreed and walked away. Boy... That was super scary.... Elder Smith said we were never jumping fences again! I agree. :)

I heard two things that I would like to share with you.

"When reading the Book of Mormon, we should never turn the page until we've learned something from that page." How true this is! The Book of Mormon is meant for us and everything in there is meant to be applied for each and every one of us. I have been trying to learn something from every page and i realized that a lot of the lessons I learn are a repeat of ones I've previously come up with. That is because the Lord works with repitition. So maybe that is a sign to me about what I need to change.

"The best things to do with downward moving escalators is go up them! Well, think of this analogy. We are like faith and the world is like a downward moving excalator. If we stop moving up, we will always go down." It is so true to! If we don't progress, we will degress. Faith isn't meant to linger. It is like the seed analogy in Alma 32. If a seeds just sits on the counter, it will die. You have to nourish it, plant it, and take care of it! So it is with our faith. If we just let it sit around, it will diminish and die.

I challenge you guys to look for the simple ways that you feel like you can strengthen your faith and then DO THEM! That is the part I have a hard time with.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

Love,


~Elder Harris

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