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....
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(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
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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
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