October 27, 2014

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 It just shows some of the roads but is super out of date.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!

October 20, 2014

Hello Muddah. Hello Foddah. Here I am in Arizona! It is very hot outside still, and they say we'll have some fun if it starts raining. I don't know whether this week went by super fast or oober slow... I couldn't believe that it was Sunday already and we were going to church. But then as I looked back at what happened this week, I could have sworn that it all happened last week, not this one. The days felt like weeks and the week felt like a day. It's weird how that happens. But it was a great week with lots of really cool experiences!

It looks like you guys had a blast last week! I can't believe you got to do so much fun stuff! I have been talking with a few missionaries and other people and they say we are all going to go to Lagoon when I get back home. We will see about that. ;) I will be sending home a small something for everyone in the next little bit. I have to finish it up then I'll send it home. Hopefully it will be this week! But we will see :)

Tuesday we went on splits. I went to Thatcher with Elder Matthew Cunningham. He is 20, about 6' 4", 200 lbs, and from Montana. There is a family in one of his wards, the Curley's, who are really good friends with a family out in Fort Thomas, the Miera's. The Miera's are old and can't do much on their own and recently have been having problems with people coming in and knocking down their fence and trying to steal their property. That doesn't happen in Lehi, not very often at least! So they needed some help putting up a new fence. I was expecting like a big, white, plastic fence or something. But instead, it was a wire fence with barbed-wire all over it. Not very many injuries occurred luckily, nothing serious at least. There was brother and sister Curley, Elder Cunninghim and myself, Elders Cooper and Gilson, Sisters Grange and Halle, and Sisters Blackford and Harrington. There were 10 of us working on this fence... We got to the Miera's house around 9 and left about 12:30 or so. It took 10 of us 3 hours to put up 300 yards of fence! It was pretty intense stuff. The wire for the fence came pre-(built?) into a fence shape thing.... It was like this....

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

|       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |      |                              -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

|       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |      |

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

|       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |      |

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

|       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |      |

(except the lines going up and down went through the whole fence making a bunch of squares. :p

 The wire comes wrapped up in a big cylinder and holds 300 yards of wire. We pounded t-posts into the ground and tied the wire fence to the t-ties with pieces of barbed-wire. About 2 hours into it, we were about half way done and thats when brother Curley got a great idea! He took the end of the wire fence and weaved a big metal stick through the end of the wire. Then he took some chains, hooked them to the big metal stick and to his truck, then drove forward a little bit to pull the fence tight. This got the wire to stand up straight and made the work A LOT easier! It kinda took a little while for him to get the wire unraveled and then the metal pole through it then hooked up to his truck. At first, I was kinda skeptic and didn't like having to stop working so he could "try" something new that might help us out. But once he did it, and I saw that it worked, I was thankful for him doing that for us! How often do we have a problem or project and feel like we know the best way to solve it? Especially when we just want to get it done and out of the way? Brother Curley was the one in charge of the project and so he was the one who decided what we were going to do and when. He had done this before and knew it would work, I just didn't want to sit around and wait for it to happen. I feel like sometimes we get into a rhythm or mode of thinking and sometimes forget that we are mortal and make mistakes. But there is a God who has done this before who is just waiting to tell us an easier way or show us how to get through our trials better. Some people don't know how to recognize answers very well (me included) and so it is hard for me to go to Him and then just sit around and wait for something to happen or a thought to come into my mind. But by brother Curley doing his idea, it made the work go twice as fast, even though I had to sit there and just watch for a few minutes. God won't let us down, He knows what's best. All we have to do is ask for help and wait for just a little bit and He will gladly help us!

Wednesday I had the opportunity to give a blessing to one of our investigators daughters named Hope. Hope is 22 and very sweet. She is Jewish but loves talking to us about her religion and about ours. Hope has a failing heart. She has had 2 open heart surgeries and has to go in for another one is about 2 weeks. He mother asked us to give Hope a blessing and Hope wasn't super big into thought. We talked about what a blessing is and how it can bless her life and the life of her mother. After about 30 minutes of talking, she finally agreed and asked us to give her a blessing. Elder Gilson anointed her with the oil and I gave the blessing. I remember telling her that she was loved by both God the Father and Jesus Christ, who suffered and died for her. There was a pause as I asked what to say. The words came to me and I asked the Spirit not to have me say the words I was asked to cause I was nervous of the outcome. The prompting came again and I said the words "To show you that our Heavenly Father loves you and wants you to be baptized, you will be completely healed of your heart problems and when the doctors and surgeons look for the things that are going wrong, they will find nothing wrong. This, He is doing to show you that the Priesthood is again here on the earth and only in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." I don't think I have ever commanded someone to be completely healed of something they've dealt with their whole lives. And it kinda scared me to say it cause I didn't want it not to come true and her not see God's hand in this church. But every night since then I have prayed for that blessing to come true. I have told Heavenly Father that the blessing was given in the name of Jesus Christ and through the Melchezidek Priesthood. And that because I am worthy, I know the blessing will come true. I have asked my Mission President to pray for her as well and every night for district prayer, we include her in our prayers. This is what I ask of you to do too. Please pray for Hope Young by name and that she will be completely healed. I know the blessing will come true and a miracle will happen as we all show our faith through prayer! We saw Hope yesterday and she says that she has been praying for that blessing to come true too. Her whole life she has never had a whole lot of energy and it is always hard to get up and going and motivated. But these last few days she says she's had more energy than ever! She gets up in the morning easily and feeling rested. She even helped her mother build a dog kennel outside for a few hours and came inside hardly feeling tired at all! So it is working, but we need to continue showing our faith and continue praying for her! :)

Thursday we were supposed to have an American Sign Language class for all 3 stakes in the Gila Valley. This class is going to be every Thursday at 7 p.m. in Thatcher. This last Thursday, including Elder Gilson and Myself, there were 2 of us that showed up... No one came... So this week we are going to try harder to get the word out there and get people to show up. Well we were really bummed last Thursday and so we decided to get some comfort food! Dairy Queen and a large fry from McDonalds! On our way home, we saw a homeless couple walking down the street. As we drove past, I wanted to help them but all we had was a large fry. I tried to push the feeling away but couldn't. So we turned around and asked the couple if they wanted the fries. The man quickly jumped over the fence and grabbed it saying thank you. We could tell that they were actually homeless and we wanted to help. So we turned around and went to the gas station and got them some drinks and some snacks. They were at the church when we found them again. We gave them the food and drinks and started talking with them for about an hour or so. Their names are Matt and Ember. They were trying to get to California for some reason and got stuck here in Arizona. We explained who we were and what we were in Arizona for and eventually we gave them our number and 2 copies of the Book of Mormon. As we drove off, Elder Gilson said, "Man, that was a miracle! I wish they lived in Pima so we could teach them!" The very next day, all our plans fell through... We were sitting in the parking lot of the Pima Church building when we decided to get out and walk around a little bit to find someone to teach. Right as we stepped out of the car, who should walk past but Matt and Ember! Thatcher is about a 10 minute drive from central Pima and takes about an hour or so to walk. But they walked all the way here! Turns out, the land owner where they were staying didn't want them there anymore. They were just camping on his property and in return, they were the guards for the property and his stuff. But they got kicked off and had to leave. They saw lights in the distance and decided to start walking towards them. That's how they ended up in Pima. They said they were leaving on Saturday morning though. They found a ride to Phoenix. We asked them if they had read any of the Book of Mormon and they said they did and then asked us a few questions about things they read. It was really cool to see evidence of someone reading the Book of Mormon! What a miracle!

Saturday we got chocolate!! But not just any chocolate :) We got GERMAN chocolate!! Ashley Lansing is a member who married a non-member named Patrick. We have been working with the Lansings for about 4 months now. They love us! To show us their love, they got us a present. :) Ashley works for Coke and went to Germany for some business thing. She brought us back chocolate and boy... it is amazing... I can't believe that we don't have anything that good here! It is the most amazing stuff! I love them so much :) I also heard a quote that I loved:

"If you want to talk to God, pray. If you want God to talk to you, read your scriptures!" - John Bytheway

Oh how true this is! If only we understood how often God answers our prayers through the scriptures! This shows me that sometimes, God won't just give us an answer because we want it. If we don't work for it, He won't give it to us. So as we show Him we want an answer by reading, we get our answer!

I am super excited for tomorrow! It is Zone Conference and........................................................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................................................................

WE GET TO WATCH "MEET THE MORMONS"!!!!  It is going to be super sweet! have you guys seen it yet? If not, try to see it soon and bring someone who's not a member or not active that would benefit from it!

Well I had best be off, it's time for sports! :) I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! Remember who you are, what you stand for and don't forget to pray for Hope Young that she will be Healed!!

~Elder Kyle Harris

October 13, 2014

NO!!!! I knew that people were going to make some signs about having my "strength faithened" but I didn't think it would be that fast! Darn... Haha that's alright, I got a great idea for something else I want to do when i get home!

First and foremost, I am happy and well, (since this letter is all about me, I figure that is most important!) I don't really know how to say this, but I think I have amnesia. Or short term memory loss... For the life of me, I cannot remember what happened this week...!! It was a mixture of busy nights with lots of work and dead nights with nothing to do but make calls to set up appointments for the rest of the week. I can tell that I'm growing out here though because I feel like I learn something new or find a cool insight every day that I can use in my teaching or to improve myself, or both! Some cool things that I picked up on were...

I have a book called Prophecies of Joseph Smith. It is a book all about the Prophet and the revelations about him and that he made and how they were fulfilled or how they will be fulfilled. It was talking in one of the chapters about the 3 witnesses and the 8 witnesses. There was a little table list thing that told about each of the witnesses. It just told thing about where they were born, when they were baptized, if they were excommunicated, when they came back, when they died and such. Well, there was a column that had just 1 or 2 sentences about each of them. With Hyrum Smith, it said something to the point of "He was a man with the same body build as his brother, Joseph. He was a man that even the most slanderous of men could not find any fault." What a statement!! Even the most slanderous of men could not find any fault. My question that I've been thinking about for a long time is how does someone even get to that point and when they do get there, how do they stay there?! Even with our Prophets and Apostles on the earth today, it seems like someone can find fault (or thinks they can) with each of them. Whether it is the way they talk, the way they walk, or their personality. We all have faults. The only perfect person that has ever lived on this earth is Jesus Christ. And I'm not saying that Hyrum didn't have any faults cause he had to have some. But the fact that he was able to please pretty much everyone around him and never change his character or ideals, that is amazing. This shows me that we can live our testimonies and still be able to get along with everyone. That doesn't mean we have to be best friends and hang out with everyone, but we can have that Christ-like love and receive that same love back from everyone as we live our testimonies. When we don't do so, it isn't possible.

On Sunday, Elder Gilson and I were asked to give a little 5 or so minute message on why gratitude is so important and some examples we've seen of gratitude and the role it has played on us and the people we meet. I was just fine with doing so. It wasn't until we were at church did I realize that it wasn't for the priesthood and it wasn't for sacrament meeting, it was for the young women's class... I can say with both excitement and nervousness that I have become awkward in front of a room full of just girls. I had mixed feelings about that before and at the beginning of my mission. At first, I didn't want to change myself to the point where I was awkward and my personality was completely different. I liked, for the most part, who I was and the way I could make all the girls go "ooooo" and "ahhhhh" like what we used to do when we'd drive around and look at the Christmas lights as a family. "Oooooooo", "Ahhhh". ;) But about 6 months into my mission, I realized that if I was holding back anything from the Lord, I couldn't say I gave it my all. I couldn't say the scripture that says, "He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it" applied to me. I wold fall under the first part "He that findeth his life shall lose it". I couldn't serve with all my heart, might, mind and strength if I held back things from the Lord. He will turn my weak things into strong things and will use my talents to help those I teach and meet to come closer to Him. That talent of making people go "oooo" and "ahhh" isn't a bad trait, it just wasn't being used for the right purpose. I have since then given that to the Lord and allowed Him to help me use it for missionary work, and it works! The point I'm getting at is I was SOOOO nervous! I would rather have spoken at the Priesthood Session of General Conference than spoke to that room full of young women. I don't even know why I was so scared! I love talking and I love being in front of crowds, but when it's just girls, something changes inside and it's hard to focus. Just talking about it is screwing up my typing! This one paragraph has taken me like 10 minutes to write, ridiculous!

Anyway, It went great I guess, at least that's what the leaders told us. We started off with a little question, "Let's say that A=1, B=2, C=3, etc. And you are trying to reach 100 on the dot. Just like on the 'Price is Right', too high means your over and it doesn't count. You can be under 100 and be fine but there is a special bonus if you get 100 right on the mark. So now we take attributes or traits that are good and add the letters (you convert them into the numbers they equal) and see what number you get. So what attribute or trait is the best?" When we were talking about it, I was thinking things like Knowledge, Charity and Wisdom. Those are great traits that will help us in life and to get to Heaven. Well, Charity is like 84, Wisdom is about 85, and Knowledge is I think 96 or 97. Close, but not 100. The only word I've found so far that makes 100 is..... Attitude. An Attitude of Gratitude Brings Blessings! So those special bonus's for getting 100 on the game show are the blessings that come from having a great attitude! That was what we were trying to get at. But one girl in the back decided to throw out the word "Attitude" as the very....first....word.... It completely ruined the whole thing! That's about how I felt the whole lesson went. It was... fun.... I guess. haha! I talked about how Elder Hickenlooper always said "Attitude Determines Altitude." In a talk I recently heard by Brother John Bytheway, he was talking about how he used to fly planes. His instructor turned off the plane and told him to land the plane safely. So brother Bytheway started doing so. When you land a plane, you are supposed to start your decent at 1000 ft about the ground. As he started landing at this time, he was only 800 ft. He didn't see any big deal with it cause he could see the runway and had landed many times before. "I know what I'm doing. Just a little bit off isn't a big deal." Well, as he was making his last turn to go towards the runway, keep in mind the engine is off at this point, he saw some trees right at the beginning of the runway. Planes are great when you fly them over trees. Planes are not so great when you try to fly them through the trees. I guess the owner of the plane doesn't like people trying to fly through trees or something like that, weird.... Well these tree's had never been a problem until now. As he was looking out his windshield, he couldn't see most of the runway because the trees were in the way... He was way too low... He didn't know what to do but luckily his instructor was in the plane and said "My Plane" which means that John Lets go of everything and the instructor takes over in his passenger seat (there are the same controls in the passenger seat so he could fly the plane from there). He turned the plane back on flew up and over the trees. We can't go through life with a good attitude every once in a while. If we don't have a good attitude, it is like having a low altitude. And that can be dangerous.... The scriptures tell us to be grateful and thankful in all things. ALL THINGS. Elder Jorg Klebingat in conference gave us 6 ways to improve our spiritual confidence. Number 6 was "Accept trials, set-backs, and surprises with gratitude." The Lord doesn't except us to be grateful only when things are going good, He expects us to be grateful all the time. What a hard thing to ask. Is it possible? Yes. It is hard? Yes. It is worth it? Is the pope catholic? Are right handed people better than left handed people? The answer to all of these is yes! ;) I haven't found out how to be grateful all the time and have a good attitude about everything but one of the young women leaders suggested that we say a prayer every day of just gratitude. Don't ask for blessings, just say thanks. That is a start and will help us on our way to reaching that good attitude always!

I've realized that I have a problem admitting when i'm wrong and putting my opinion out there when I feel that someone else is wrong. But from conference we learn "Should we disagree, we should not be disagreeable (Elder Dallin H. Oaks)." This has stuck with me since I heard it. And so I've been trying to do better at it. Elder Gilson and I get into dumb little debates and arguments and sometimes they get kinda heated. The other day for example we were getting the seeds out of some pomegranates. We learned a cool way where you take a mixing bowl and fill it up with water and then you take a strainer and stick inside the bowl of water. This is where you will put all the seeds when you get them out cause the seeds will sink to the bottom and the bad white stuff floats to the top so you can get it clean easier. We also learned that if you cut the pomegranate in half, you can hold the seeds facing your palm and then you hit the skin part on the back with a wooden spoon. This makes all of the seeds fall out and gets very little white stuff! It's very convenient. We got like 6 or 7 done in the time it took Elder Gilson and I both to hand pick each of the seeds out of 1 pomegranate. Anyway, we were doing that at our apartment one night and I finished my pomegranate. I put my wooden spoon down and walked over to go grab another pomegranate. In that time, Elder Gilson took my big wooden spoon and handed the dinky one he was using. I wasn't going to let him get away with that! So I grabbed the spoon from him and we kinda wrestled over it for a bit. Then he dumped my water out of my mixing bowl into the sink. He missed most of the sink though and it got all over the counter and ground. So I filled up my hands with water from the sink and got him a little wet. It got to the point where he took his water bottle and dumped it on me! So I ran over and jumped onto his bed and started drying off with his sheets. He started doing the same thing and basically all we did was make a mess. Looking back now, (This was before I heard the quote from Elder Oaks so it's okay, I asked for forgiveness) I should have just let him take that dumb spoon. It was a waste of time and a pretty big mess we had to clean up. Since conference, I've tried so hard not to get mad or argue. Instead of fighting or bickering, I just stop and say "You're right Elder Gilson. Let's do it your way." It cuts it off instantly. No more arguing, no more contention. It has been awesome cause it makes me less irritable, helps me see Elder Gilson's point, and completely changes the mood and helps us invite the Spirit back in. I don't know what it is like back home with the family, but I know there is almost always some sort of contention here or there. Try this method and see what changes. I promise that it will cause less fighting and bring the Spirit into the home more fully.

Speaking of the Spirit, I gave a training the other day on companionship unity. We talked about what comp unity is, why is important and how to get more unity with our comp. We talked about examples of comp unity to give us an idea of what comp unity should look and be like. Some examples we used were:

1) Alma and Amulek - Alma 8:30; 12:1

2) Book of Mormon and Bible - DB: Stick of Ephraim and Judah

3) God the Father and Jesus Christ - The Great Intercessory Prayer

4) Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith - D&C 135:3,6

Then we said there is one more very important companionship that we need to have and always be mindful of. That is each of us individually and the Holy Ghost. There is a difference though between our unity with others around us. With our spouses, our kids, and our friends, we can meet them halfway with whatever our argument or disagreement is. But with the Holy Ghost, it is all or nothing. It is His way of the high way. But by building our companionship unity with the Holy Ghost, ALL of our other relationships will be strengthened as well! So focus on getting to know the Spirit and having Him with us always, and everything else will fall into place.

The sisters were teaching this kid, John, and he moved into one of our wards like 2 weeks before his scheduled date for baptism. So he got baptized into one of our wards, which is sweet for us! Anyway, John is 18 and pretty popular. I didn't know how popular until his baptism... There were over 100 people there!!! We had to go into the chapel for the service to get everyone a seat! And most of the people there were under 20. He had a lot of support and that is a day he will not soon forget! Neither will I. :)

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! Please remember to say your prayers, keep your covenants, and be grateful in ALL THINGS!!! I LOVE YOU!!!

~Elder Kyle Harris