December 23, 2013

Hello Family!! I am so happy to hear that everyone is safe! I hate driving in the snow honestly... But it rained a little here but if you weren't driving in it, you would never have known! The only reason we knew is cause after a while, we had to use our windshield wipers just once so we could see a little clearer.  Sounds like y'all had a busy week! That really helps the week go by faster. It didn't go by super fast for me but it wasn't bad. I am just living life day by day and looking at the good things that I have! I have a lot to tell you about though so lets get started, yes? :)

We don't have any super solid investigators as of yet but we had such a great miracle happen yesterday! So for the past week we have been praying for investigators or at least potentials. And we have been tracting at least an hour a day. We were trying for 2 but 2 straight hours of tracting isn't very time efficient and gets old pretty quickly. But we have been tracting A LOT and haven't had much success. We ran into a lady named Mary. She is in her 70's and said that she wasn't really interested in hearing our message. We just got to talking about life and Christmas and we agreed on a lot of stuff! She mentioned that her husband passed away about 2 months ago and that had been affecting her a little bit so that gave me the perfect in to talk about the Plan of Salvation. She liked the idea of it but she wasn't sure if it was true or not. We then asked if she believed in the Bible, which she did. I asked "If there were people here in America when Christ came to the Earth, do you think that he would want his gospel established here as well or just over in Jerusalem?" She responded here as well and we agreed obviously! We talked about the Book of Mormon and explained what it was. She said that at one point she was reading into the Mormon church but something turned her off to it. But that was a LONG time ago and she couldn't remember what it was so she said that she would read some of the book and pray about it. We weren't able to set up a return appointment with her cause she said she didn't want company right now but we will definitely be contacting her after the Holiday! Anyway, that wasn't the miracle, just a side story. The Miracle happened while we were at Elder's Stocks and Collins apartment waiting for them to get ready for our meeting at 2. We received a call from an unknown number so Jones let me answer it. I put it on speaker so everyone could hear. She introduced herself as Jane Sun and said that she called the Mormon Temple looking for information and they gave her our number. We talked for a little about her schedule so we could find out when she could meet. We agreed on this Thursday at 1. She will call or text us by Thursday to let us know where she lives! But WE HAVE A POTENTIAL INVESTIGATOR!!! :) :) I am super stoked!

Next, I had a dream Saturday Night/Sunday Morning. I woke up and it stayed in my mind very clearly for a while. I remembered that you (dad) advised me to write down my dreams in my journal, so I did! I dreamed that I was in the conference center in Salt Lake. It was PACKED full of people. I wasn't sitting down in the crowd though, I was on the side standing next to the stage. I was wearing all white (white shoes, shirt, tie, suit coat... you know what I mean). Elder Jones was there next to me and he was in all white too except he was in a wheel chair. I don't know how I knew what was happening but I knew that I would be coming onto the stage to confirm someone a member of the church then Elder Jones would confirm someone else. I also had the job of running into the back to get a big bouquets of roses for the speaker that night. I was motioned by someone on the stage to go get the flowers so I took off running into the hallways in the back behind the stage. As I turned a corner, I ran into 3 people. President Killpack, Someone I don't remember, and President Thomas S. Monson. I walked up to the prophet and shook his hand in complete awe. I remember being filled with the most amazing feeling and when he spoke to me, it was the most peaceful noise I had ever heard. I don't know if I am remembering correctly but I think he said "Don't look so amazed Elder Harris. This won't be the last time you shake a prophets hand." Then I ran into the back and got the flowers. That is all I really remember. So the cool thing about this dream is I told Elder Jones about it as we were getting ready for church. THEN I went to Sunday School. Guess what we were talking about in class... PROPHETS!!! I was able to share my dream and my testimony. It was such a great experience! I don't really know what the dream means or if it means anything at all. But I loved it!

Elder Jones is a very forgetful person.... I mean VERY!!! He doesn't remember my name a lot of the time and has to look at my nametag when we are teaching. It is kinda embarrassing actually. I poke at him for it and he pokes back at me for being so hyper and ADHD-like. I laid in bed on Thursday and thought about him and his memory and came to the conclusion that it isn't his fault. Not at all! I think that it has to do with some connection in our brains that allows us to recall things easier. For an hour I thought about if I could help him out at all. I came up with the idea to find out what part of your brain helps you recall things then figure out how to stimulate that particular lobe, maybe with some sort of pill? It would take FOREVER to do and even longer to test and make sure it won't kill people but I think finding cures for things would be such a rewarding job! I don't know if it is fun per-say but it would make me feel good knowing I was helping a lot of people.

I had the coolest insight while I was responding to the Muhlestein’s Christmas card. I was talking about how we can find peace in a world full of hate and strife. My suggestion and what the apostles suggest too is to implement the "Primary Answers" into our lives. Of course we associate this answer with the primary class. But for some reason, my mind thought about the game Call of Duty. I remembered that when I would make my character, I would also choose a primary weapon and secondary weapon. My primary weapon was usually the most powerful resource I had. In the game we know that we are going to be facing challenges and trials but we don't know what they are going to be. They could be dogs or bombs or terrorists. So we choose what weapon works best for us and press forward no matter what comes in front of us. When relating that to the term "Primary Answers", I realized that it is the same concept. In life, we don't know what is going to come against us. It could be bible-bashers or disease or even just angry thoughts towards someone else. All of these things are keeping us away from our goal. So we need to choose what "primary" weapon we are going to arm ourselves with in these last days to fight against Satan and his army. May I suggest the "primary answers"? They are all so simple but yet so powerful! Reading our scriptures daily, praying constantly, attending church regularly, paying tithing. All of these things are so simple but they have the most amazing effects on us and on those around us. Just as Alma 37:6-7 says, "By small and simple things are GREAT things brought to pass." I just thought that was a really cool mental connection I made! :)

I have set up Wednesday for Skyping! We are going to a members house at 1 o clock and have till about 4 or so, maybe later. There are 4 of us going there. They have 4 computers and an ipad but we aren't sure if their internet can handle 4 skype calls going at the same time. I can't wait to talk to you guys!!! I don't even know what to skype about but I know that it will be great! I love you!!

~Elder Harris