August 4, 2014

Hello Family!! I don't like how fast these weeks are going. It is really going too fast for me! I had a dream the other night that I was in the Mazda with you guys and I asked you if I had finished my mission. I remember starting to cry because you said I had finished all 24 months but I could only remember up to 14 months.... It was really sad because I hadn't met anyone new or changed in the last 10 months or anything. When I woke up, I decided I wouldn't let that happen and will just make everyday the best day out here so I remember it. :)

So unfortunately, this letter is going to be a little shorter. Normally we email at Eastern Arizona College. But for some reason, the Library over there is closed.. So we are at Grandma Despains house emailing on her laptop. The only problem is we only have like 1 hour before we have house inspections and both Elder Gilson and I need to email in that hour. So I'm going to type super fast so that I can get the most in 30 minutes that I can!

On Tuesday we were on exchanges. I was with Elder George again because he needed a break from his companion. So we were out visiting people and one of the members told us where we could go to get fresh milk and cheese and eggs from a member! So we booked it out there. Here were the directions we were given, "Turn onto Fort Thomas River Road. Go straight past the 'Road Closed' sign and over the skinny, old, rickety bridge. Keep going till you reach forever. Then at the fork in the road, turn left and drive till you reach the sun. It is about 10 miles down that dirt road so just keep going." It was a blast to drive down that dirt road cause it was full of hills and turns and we were going like 50 on it. Elder George jokingly said, "Wouldn't it suck if we got a flat tire out here?" I agreed and told him it would really suck cause we don't have a spare! (Elder Wardell said that they got a flat tire and replaced the flat with the spare meaning we didn't have one...) Elder George's face turned white as he said, "We better be super careful then..." well we finally pull up to the gate and we see that it's closed. Elder George goes out to open it and while he does that, I push on the brake with my left foot and lean across his seat and out the window to see how our tires were holding up (I know I should have put it in park to be safe but we didn't crash so it's okay!). Sure enough... Our front passenger tire was dead flat... And the worst part was, we didn't even call to see if we could come over or to see if they were even home! So we call and they luckily are home. They tell us to pull on in so we pulled in just past the gate. Brother Squires (the member we went to see) came up the hill with his giant tractor and I thought he was just going to lift our truck up with that! But he brought up a jack instead so he didn't have to haul it. We checked and found the old tire under our truck. But when we lowered it, it wasn't flat at all! WE HAD A SPARE!!! We switched the tires, then brother Squires told us to drive down with the flat in the bed of the truck and he would fix it for us. These were by far some of the nicest members I have ever met. On top of fixing our flat tire, helping us change it with the spare, and letting us have a glass of fresh milk, they gave us a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs!! Then yesterday, they brought us 2 more gallons of milk and 2 blocks of cheese that she made! And that cheese is AMAZING!!!! I mean like, wow... It was good. As was the milk! So that was the big miracle of my week! :)

Speaking of yesterday, we attended Fort Thomas Ward and Pima 4th ward. Fort Thomas was great! For Elder's quorum, it seemed like usually it would be really quite and that no one would talk. But at the start of the lesson, instead of going right into it, the teacher said that he wanted to do what the relief society did and have whoever wants to bear their testimony. We went in a circle and everyone bore their testimonies. It was the most powerful and spiritual Elders Quorum that I have ever been to! Well after Fort Thomas, we went to Pima 4th Ward. After Sacrament meeting, we realized that we had a lot of people we told we would try to see that day and we didn't have enough time to visit them all. So we were going to skip Sunday school and priesthood classes to go visit these people. But the Lord didn't want us to leave. Right after sacrament meeting, the young men's president came up to us and asked if we would teach the priests about how to do missionary work and show them how it was done. We couldn't say no so we accepted. When he left, we were about to sit down and plan out that lesson when one of the Sunday school teachers for the 16 and 17 year olds asked us if we would come into her class and teach them about Eternal Marriages. We accepted that as well and she told us to come into the class in about 10 minutes. 10 minutes to prepare 2 lessons isn't going to work.... So we turned to the Lord. And both lessons went really well. The one on marriage wasn't great but it worked! The one on missionary work was great though! We taught them about how they could do missionary work now, especially with school starting. We even did role plays! We lined up into 2 lines facing each other and did a practice street contact with some random person. And they did awesome! Each boy was not only able to establish a friendship, but was also able to get their name, number and set up a return appointment! They are going to be great missionaries in a year!

Well I'm sorry this one is so short... I wish that I had more time to keep emailing you but I need to get going. I promise that next weeks email will be better! I want you to know that I love you very much. Keep on keepin' on!

~Elder Kyle Harris