Ding, ding ding.... Good morning!
Ding ding ding... bua-da-da-dow! Dow! Rra-da-da-da GOOD MORNING!! This is what
we wake up to every...single...morning... I want to get up and just throw my
phone across the room. It gets me up but it definitely gets old after like a
thousand-million times! This is what it sounds like: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1I7D5MsSvU>. BLEH!!! haha I'm just too lazy to change it so I can't
really complain. :P
This week was just about as great as
every other normal week in the mission. We were pretty busy almost all week,
every hour. That is pretty good for us! I don't remember if I said this in my
last email but it is SUPER difficult to get the middle of our days filled up
because people are either working or the kids are in school. That really limits
the work we can do in the day and puts a lot of stress on the nights because we
are just packed every night trying to visit everyone that we can. We are going
to try to do splits pretty much every night this week. That way, we can both go
out and visit everyone we need to and either focus both on 1 of the wards, or
split and have one focus on Pima 1st and the other on Pima 4th. We are working
with about 27 families or individuals right now. Lots of those are in Bylas and
we only have enough miles to go out there like once every week or so. But there
is a lot of cool things happening out there right now! I am going to be jumping
around with my days a little bit but it will flow a little better.
On Wednesday we went out to Bylas.
Elder Gilson and I found a map in our apartment of Bylas that is about 10 years
old. It just shows some of the roads but is super out of date. Well, having a
map that is 4 feet tall and 4 feet wide of mostly just empty space (cause there
is one road into Bylas and one road out of Bylas), we needed another map that
we could carry around and give to our ward council in Fort Thomas Ward so they
knew who we were working with, where our investigators lived, and most
importantly, where some less-actives live. So we just drew out a copy of the
big map we have hanging on our wall and have been using that. Not super
effective... Every time we go to Bylas, we ask everyone we see if they know
where we can go to get a map of Bylas. No one has a clue!! Well, we finally are
told that we might be able to get a map from the Bylas Administration Building.
I didn't even know there was such a building!! Turns out, it is a little
trailer back behind all the other buildings that we tried going into. So we go
in there and sure enough, they have map! But it isn't just a map, it is a map
with all the houses on it so that we can circle where the people we are working
with live! So that was a miracle. Then the lady behind the desk asks us where
we are from. We said the normal, "Salt Lake, Utah" and "The big
Island of Hawaii". Of course they were amazed by Hawaii. Everyone always
is! She then says to us, "My brother lives up in Provo and is a
Mormon." I asked if she was a member and she said, "No. I went to
seminary and was part of the Lamanite program though and used to have
missionaries come over all the time but they just stopped for some
reason." WE FOUND A FORMER!!!! And she is a GOLDEN investigator. :) We are
going to start teaching her and seeing what she needs to get baptized!
On Tuesday was our Zone
Conference.... WE WATCHED "MEET THE MORMONS"!!! It was
absolutely one of the best movies that I have seen in a very very long time!!
The Spirit was super strong and it really cleared up so many misconceptions of
what the church and it's members believe. Have you guys had a chance to see it
yet? If not, GO!!!!!!!! It would be an awesome family night activity! Or any other
night works too but just go! Our zone also sang a song called "Come Unto
Christ". It is the 2014 Church Theme Song. Here is the link: <https://www.lds.org/youth/video/come-unto-christ-2014-theme-song?lang=eng> I love this song and the children's song
"Gethsemane". <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uSGSvKy6Io> Pretty amazing songs! Anyway, I got to sing a solo part in
"Come Unto Chirst". I sang the second line at the beginning of the
song. We had a returned sister missionary play for us on the piano and it was
just amazing! I didn't even freak out about singing in front of everyone! Looks
like I'm picking up a few new talents out here! And I'm learning to play the
Piano too (well, teaching myself kinda counts as learning I guess) and I can
play the song "Hallelujah" and sing it. It's pretty much amazing! I
might record it for you and send it home, but no promises. :)
Thursday we went to do the ASL class
again but no one was there.... No one showed up again for the second week in a
row. We got the information for the program people for all of the pima stake
but we need it for the Safford and Thatcher stakes now too. Hopefully this week
will turn out a little bit better than the first 2 weeks!
Hope is doing very well. She has lots
of energy and has been praying every day. We talked about the Book of Mormon
and she mentioned that she had read part of it in the past. She loved the
testimony of the 3 witnesses and said that it really touched her because she
saw that it wasn't just Joseph Smith that said it was true and that saw an
angel, it was more than that! And with more witnesses comes more evidence and
that is exactly what she needs right now. I have a very strong feeling that
she, Faith (her mother) and her little sister are going to get baptized before
the end of the year! :) I don't think that I'm going to be here when it happens
unfortunately but I just can't wait hear when it finally happens! Hope wasn't
going to come to church yesterday. She said that she didn't feel very good and
didn't think she would like it. We showed up on Sunday for Sacrament meeting
and SHE WAS THERE sitting with Faith and hopes little sister!! (I feel bad
cause I don't know her name... I've only met her twice...) But she actually
came! And both of the talks were exactly what they needed to hear. The first
one was about overcoming our trials and the second one was about obedience. Hope
said that she really loved it and would be coming back next week too.
SWEET!!!!!!! :) :)
The best part of the week though was
on Saturday. There was a 7 stake youth conference held at Eastern Arizona
College this weekend. It was all day Saturday and started from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Well, they were going around to classes and Elder Gilson and I were asked to
teach 3 lessons that were 25 minutes each. We said that we would love to! We
talked about examples and how through our examples, we can inspire others. We
were told to have an object lesson so the kids would stay interested. So for
our object lesson, we had 3 tennis balls and a big bag of flour. The tennis
balls were the talking balls, you couldn't talk if you didn't have the ball.
But to make things more interesting, we would put the ball into the big bag of
flour and then as we'd throw it, the flour would trail behind the ball, leaving
flour EVERYWHERE!!! After talking about how we can share the Gospel through
inviting people to mutual or through social media, we asked who had a chance to
catch the flour-covered ball. About 1/3 to 1/2 of the class raised their hands.
We then asked how many people had flour on them from the cloud of flour that
came off the ball. Almost all the hands were raised. We then talked about how
the ball represents us and the flour represents our examples. A quote I heard
once says " Preach the gospel. If you have to, use words." Our
examples are SOO powerful. Even though we may not talk to everyone in the hall
at school or be friends with everyone around us, our examples and our lives
being centered around Jesus Christ and His Gospel will effect everyone around
us. (We were told that flour glows under a black light. At this point we were
going to turn off the lights and show everyone how even though they didn't all
touch the ball, all of them had a little bit of flour on them from the trail.
But it doesn't glow so that part didn't work. But it was still super great!!)
We also read the scripture in 1 Tim 4:12 I think that says "Be thou and
example of the believers". We then read the next part of the verse and
explained that it doesn't say to be an example when surrounded by other members
or surrounded by our friends, but to be an example all the time. The lesson was
a very powerful one and the kids all left from the class covered in flour and
having learned how important living the Gospel everywhere all the time is. :)
All in all, this was a pretty
fantastic week! I can't believe that I am over 16 months old in the mission...
Time is flying by! If I was a sister missionary, I would be coming home in
December!! Now that's a scary thought.... Good thing I still have 7 1/2 more
months to go! :) I love you guys! Sorry I haven't sent that package yet... It
is still on it's way, eventually... Lol. I will do my best to get it there this
week! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!
~Elder Kyle Harris
p.s. Dear Thomas Family, thank you
for the Halloween package you sent us. (Please say the words in the "
" in a sarcastic tone of voice) We "definitely needed" more candy.
Haha But we seriously do appreciate it and love you guys. We hope and pray all
is going well for you all and that everyone is healthy and happy!