March 31, 2014

Hello Utah!!!! I can't believe it but March has come and gone and it feels like it should only be January here! Well, in every way except the weather! Its been in the 80's all week! You thought that Gavin was tan from his weekend in St. George? Wait till I come home! I will be black compared to him. ;) This week was full of ups and not very many downs luckily! Hurt myself again playing basketball but it isn't too bad! I will explain later!

I am so happy that Xander made a decision to get married! He and Mary are going to be SO happy together. Knowing Xander, he didn't care so much as what he was wearing as how special the day was and that he was with Mary. It looks like someone else made a cardboard cut out of me so it's a good thing that you guys didn't cause there would be two of me there! It sounds like it was the perfect reception for him and Mary. The two kids in Kilts were probably Hamish and his brother. They are part Irish or something like that so they like to show off their colors! They work at My Fast PC too.

I'm glad that you guys are busy. That means more time doing what you need to do and less time worrying about your son getting hit in the nose during a Basketball game! :) The Daddy Daughter dance sounds like it was a success! Did Syd come over and dance with Dad? That would have been awesome! Just like old times. Do you guys still do Dads and Doughnuts?? I loved that! And it was even better when Dad showed up cause it was always a surprise! Usually grandpa would come and that was fun too. But it isn't the same as dad. :)

I did get to listen to that song last week dad! I LOVED IT!!! I downloaded it and put it on my mp3 player so that i can keep listening to it.

This week was WONDERFUL!!!

Tuesday we received a referral from a less-active member. The referrals name is Amidah. She is in her 40's and just found out that she has cancer. The day that she found out, she also got laid off from her job. So she has been struggling... She also has a 16 year old daughter who is super smart and will probably graduate at 17. We had out first meeting with Amidah and she told us that she had been looking for a church to become a member of for the past 5 years. So we taught her about Joseph Smith and the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. We came back on Thursday and she read the first 7 chapters!! We set a baptismal date for the 3rd of May! She wasn't able to make it to church yesterday but she said she'd come next week! So keep her in your prayers please :)

Wednesday was a good day too. It started off pretty normal until that night... It was just before 9 when we got in. So Mora and I decided that we'd go to the Basketball court in out complex and play a quick game. The first 3 minutes were fine but then something went terribly wrong. I had the ball and drove in towards the hoop. Mora was playing great defense and stayed right on me as a ran to score. We were side by side and I decided that I'd cut back and juke him out cause I'm a much better basketball player than he is! ;) Well I cut back and Elder Mora couldn't stop fast enough. His arm was a little high from running and as I cut back, his elbow and my nose became great friends! As soon as I got hit, I bent over and cupped my hand under my nose to catch the blood that was gushing out of it. I felt my nose and the first words that came out of my mouth were, "I think that I just broke my nose..." Still spilling blood everywhere we ran over to the laundry room right next to the court and someone let us in. I got to the bathroom and washed up. My nose looked like a giant square because of how swollen it was! After getting the bleeding to stop, we cleaned up the blood from off the floor in the laundry room and called the Zone Leaders to come over to take me to insta-care. I also called sister Killpack and she told me not to go to the doctor yet but to go in the morning. In the mean-time I was supposed to just ice it, take some ibuprofen and sleep on it. I didn't have any ice so I went across the street and bought a 5 lb bag for $3. Ridiculous!! The Zone Leaders still came over and while they were here, they kept making dumb nose jokes and puns. I couldn't help but laugh but laughing hurt. Some of the ones they said were, "Is it broken Elder Harris? Who 'nose'!" and "Nose goes!" and "Remember, Jesus 'nose' what your going through." I woke up the next morning and the swelling had gone down a lot but it still hurt really bad. And I had 2 black eyes. My nose is still straight but I think its just cracked. They cant do anything to fix those though. Just suck it up! So I’m showing off my black eyes like a boss and telling everyone that Elder Mora couldn't keep up with me in Basketball and so he threw and elbow to stop me! I’m feeling much better and the swelling is pretty much gone. Still hurts a little but I'll be alright! If you want to send me some more Tylenol or ibuprofen that would be great! :)

Thursday we went to ASL class. I love learning Sign Language! I have learned how to pray, introduce myself as a missionary for the church, ask someone to learn more about Christ, how to bear my testimony, and now how to say the missionary purpose! The weird thing is that the sentence structure is much different than English. So instead of "Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement" it would be "Jesus Christ His Atonement Faith. Learning is tough but once you get it then its so much fun to have conversations from across the room with people!

On Friday I wanted to make brownies. I bought a mix on Monday but realized I didn't have an egg... So I thought about who in our complex I could ask and the name Maria came into my mind. Maria is about 60 and Mexican. She always waves at us and tells us to come over anytime. So we went over and explained why we were there and she invited us right in! We got to talking and were there for about 45 minutes before she got out the egg. But During the conversation we got onto the subject of church. She said, "I've always wondered what makes your church different than mine. Can you tell me?" We of course said yes! So we are now teaching her!! She gave me an egg as well as 6 tamales that she made and a block of cheese. So that was an awesome delicious miracle! And the brownies were good too. :)

Saturday was the best day this week by far. We got up at 6 and went to the church at 7. When we got there, we put up chairs and started filling up the baptismal font for Trey! He and his family, ALL his family, showed up at 7:30 and so we talked for half an hour as we waited for everyone else to get there. At approximately 8:21 Charles "Trey" Nicholson III was baptized a member of the church. At 8:28 he was confirmed a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! I have never seen Trey cried but I saw him cry right then. It was simply an amazing experience for me and Elder Mora but more so for Trey! I love him so much! Right after the Baptism, we helped him move out of his house. He is moving about an hour south to Sauarita. He is super happy to be moving but doesn't want to leave the ward. It will be good for him and his wife though!

Yesterday was so funny! Mora's recent convert, Greg, came to church. It was SOOO great to have him there! But he smelled like alcohol super strong. He was super drunk! In Sunday School, he kept saying, "I don't want this to be the 'Greg Show' but I have a problem and I need help with that." He kept saying "I'm only a little drunk but I need to quit." Our Zone Leaders were in there and texted us saying, "I love the Greg Show! #AlcoholAnonymous #NotAnymore!!" I couldn't stop laughing! It was such a funny meeting. But he said that he loved church and wanted to keep coming back. So I'm super happy he had a good experience! :)

Well that's my week! I love you all so much! I can't wait to Skype you all soon! Enjoy conference and feel free to write me a lot of letters during the sessions. :) I LOVE YOU!!!

~Elder Kyle Harris