Wow.... I mean Hello everyone! But
wow... That was very surprising to me. Moving... Weird! I don't really know
what to think. I mean I always wanted to move around just for kicks and giggles
but it is going to be so weird coming home to a new ward and not knowing very
many people. How do the boys feel about it? I know it will be a good move, it
just kinda caught me off guard. I was so confused when dad said that I would
never get to know our new stake president because he is moving. I didn't even
finish his email until I read moms because I wanted to know what you were
talking about. I mean, wow. This will be a good change I think though. The only
absolute thing in life is change so why try to run from it? I am happy that you
guys are excited but you might need to cry some tears for me because I don't
have time to cry out here. :P
3 days... I hit a year in 3
days!!!!!! I don't even know what to do to celebrate... I will be burning a
shirt for sure! It's just missionary tradition. But a previous elder left a
shirt in the trailer so that is the one I will be burning, not one of my own.
:) Also, we live next to some goats and there is a small one that always gets
his head stuck in the fence. It is just wide enough for him to get his head and
horns through but it is like the pot-gut traps: When the door swings closed,
the door hits against the hook. But because of the curvature of the hook, the
door is able to push it down slightly and get past it. This is what happens
with the goats horns. It is able to push against the fence and because of the
curvature of his horns, it moves the fence till his head gets past but then he
can't get his head out! I go out at lease twice a day or sometimes more and get
his head un-stuck. Well he is in one pen but there is another one right next to
it that has a smaller fence so he can't get his head stuck in it and there are
more weeds in there that he can eat which will save our bishop some hay so he
doesn't have to feed that goat. So he asked us to go throw him over the fence
and get him in the other pen. That is something we are going to do on my
birthday just so I can say I celebrated somehow... :P
I emailed a picture of my pants and
new suit coat to missionary mall cause they were completely different colors
due to the sun bleaching them. Missionary mall said that they would love to
replace them. That was about 2 weeks ago. I got the package on Saturday and
opened it up. Along with 2 new pairs of suit pants, I got a new suit coat and
an awesome bluish-whitish tie! There was also a letter that basically
said they were sorry for the time it took to get me my new pants and to make it
up to me they sent me a new suit coat and a new tie! I think that totally
makes up for time I had to wait... :P I completely forgot about the pants until
I got the package but that is customer service! I really like missionary mall.
:)
So last Monday night, Elder Wardell
and I went scorpion hunting. We didn't find much except for this short, fat
stick. We had turned over everything else to find some scorpions so Elder
Wardell got down to flip this stick over. But the weird thing was the ground
under it was wet and there was juices coming out of the stick. Elder Wardell
stepped on it and more juices came out! As we stepped back and took a good look
at it, it wasn't a stick.... It was a pigs leg.... and just 5 feet away was
another one.... We both started to get a little freaked out and so we ran back
inside and just stayed in the rest of the night. Well the next night we went
walking around the property again and saw a pile of something in the middle of
the property. Monday we just stayed around the edge of the property but Tuesday
we went venturing into the middle. As we approached this pile, it started to
smell really bad. Sure enough, it was the rest of the pig!! We called the
bishop (it is his property that we are staying on) and told him what we found
and were kinda freaking out a little bit. He just laughed as we told him and
then explained that he was the one that had killed the pig for a ward camp out
the week previous and had just forgotten to bury the pig. That was comforting!
But we both decided that we never wanted to be on like CSI or BONES cause we
don't want to find a dead body. It would just smell too bad and freak us out
too much! Also on Tuesday we found a HUGE scorpion!!! Well huge as in like 2
inches when he has his tail spread out. But he is at least twice the size of
any of the other scorpions we've sound so we needed a cool name for him. After
trying some names, my eyes lit up as I said, "MUFASA!!!" It was
settled, Mufasa it was. We eventually let Lawrence the Spider go about a mile
away from our house but kept the scorpions in the container. We had to go to
the church for like an hour on Saturday and when we came out, the scorpions are
all dead... But I got the great idea to do one of the ice cube things from
clear creek to one of them! Do you think it would work?? I think it would be
SOOO cool!
We have really been struggling to
find people to teach... We have been given lots of names from the people we eat
dinner with but they are either active members or less-active members. I mean
missionary work is missionary work whether it is to non-members or less-active
members. So we've been visiting lots of them but most of them just turn us away
nicely anyways. Well on Saturday, Elder Netane (one of our Zone Leaders) and
Elder Blyel (One of our Assistants to the President) said they were going to
come blitz our area. They were on exchanges for the day and decided we needed
the most help, and we do. Elder Netane asked if we could go out to Bylas which
is about 45 minutes North-West of us. It is in our area but it is really far
away so we don't go out there very often. I had never been out there myself so
I was totally up for it. Turns out, Bylas is an Apache Indian Reservation. So
we drive out there and I am put with Elder Netane and Elder Wardell is with
Elder Blyel. Neither Elder Netane nor I have been to Bylas before so we decide
we are going to kill it out there and go crazy with finding! We drive around till
we feel like we should turn. The first house we knock, we are invited inside
and talk with him for about 20 minutes. His name is James and told us he is an
alcoholic but wants to stop drinking. We told him that we could do our best to
help him but the real Person that will help him the most is Jesus Christ. He
stood up and walked over to a closet and pulled something out. It was a cross
that was made out of purple yarn with a white yarn for the border. It is
actually really nice. After Elder Netane looked at it, he handed it to me then
I handed it back to James. He shook it head and told me to keep it! So I have a
purple cross now and that is our first new investigator! :)
The next few houses told us to come
back on Tuesday so we will be going back there around then. We drove further
down the road and turned again but both of us lost the Spirit as soon as we
saw 6 big guys with beers in their hands staring us down from the porch.
We turned around and drove off both just laughing about how messed up they
would be if we got into a fight! Elder Netane is from Tonga and so he is a big
guy but he's a big teddy bear! That is, until he gets mad, I wouldn't want to
see him when he gets mad... :P We found a neighborhood and decided to knock
some more doors. But this part of town was super sketchy... We parked the car
and grabbed some copies of the Book of Mormon and some pamphlets and headed
off. The first door we knocked here was to an old, rickety trailer but no one
answered. As we walked away, we saw the cooler in their window that was being
held up by a pile of junk. This is what we saw: on the ground was the
hitch that you would hook up to a truck. On top of that hitch was a table
turned on it's top. There was board on top of that to make a flat surface then
a piece of wood lying on top of the board. Next was a cage with a
rock in it and finally a brick. On top of the brick was the cooler. Talk
about ghetto! We walked to the next house and it was smaller than any house I'd
seen before. It was just a one room shack really. It was just a frame of a
house with some flat boards nailed to the 2x4's to make walls with more flat
boards just laid on top for the roof. It was kind of sad to see actually.
Anyways, we met this guy named Leo and his nephew Joey. Leo wasn't interested
but Joey was very touched with what we had to say. He has been married for 8
months and has a kid. He too is an alcoholic but wants to be better because it
is ruining his relationship with his wife. As we talked with him, he started to
cry and asked us to come back and tell him more about our church and what we
believed. We will be going back on Tuesday! That is our second investigator!!
We talked to a few more people out
there but they were all drunk and not interested in what we had to say. Elder
Wardell and Elder Blyel talked to a bunch of drunk people too. And I think the
reason why they are all drunk is because they are actually paid to live on the
reservation, which means they don't have to have a job. So they get bored of
doing the same things every day and alcohol gives them a way to make life
interesting. But its kinda funny because there is no alcohol allowed on the
reservation! So they are all doing this illegally but I don't think the cops
really care too much. :P
Sunday was good. They talked about
girls camp in all 3 of our church meetings cause it was a stake girls camp. I
think it is every year though so that's not very surprising. We had 2 ward
councils to go to so we were in meetings from 7-4 with about an hour total of
driving time to get to the meetings. So this is what it is like to be in the
bishop brick huh? ;) Just kidding, well kinda. I don't think I would like to be
there for that long every Sunday and away from my family for that long.
Luckily, I don't have to worry about that! OH DAD: Do you remember a man
by the name of Evan Neilson from when you were a boy? There was a farewell in
one of the sacrament meetings and when we went to shake the new elder's hand,
he asked us where we were from. I said Lehi, Utah and a man jumped in and said
that he lived in Lehi about 30 years ago. We got to talking and he said that
Grandma and Grandpa Harris used to ask him to come over and Baby-Sit for them!
So I think I met one of your Baby Sitters! Weird huh??
Well I think that about sums up
everything from this week. I just realized this is a super long email and it
only took me about 45 minutes to write it! :) Well I love you all so much!!
Thank you for your prayers and for being the greatest family I could ever ask
for!!!
~Elder Harris
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