January 5, 2015

Hello family!! :) I can't believe how fast this week went, but I really can't believe that it is already 2015!!! CRAZY!!!! I bought a Gatorade earlier this week and it expired AFTER I would be getting home. 156 days and counting. Well not really counting, just counted yesterday and felt like sharing! Today, Elder Christenson and I were talking in the car about how quick time is going and how we never imagined having to actually go home. It is a weird thought but kinda exciting too! He was saying that his parents were wanting to pick him up down here and stay for like a week to tour the mission. The one down side is he couldn't be released till he got home. So I think that if it were up to me, I'd like to come home on the plane, then we can take a trip down as a family not to long afterwards! How does that sound to y'all? I love the thought of coming home but I am super happy that I still have time out here to keep working hard!

Elder Deyarmond is great! We get along really really well and haven't had a single fight yet! Maybe I'm just getting more patient, maybe he's just super patient, or maybe I'm just being super blessed with good companions. It doesn't really matter how it's happening but I love that it is! Something I've learned, if I love my companion, I will love my area, the people will love me, and the area will flourish! I don't even have to like him, but I do need to love him. Luckily, I like him and love him so it works! :)

This week was pretty relaxed but full of awesome memories and experiences! I need to tell you about MUD day, Vinny's Hot Wing Challenge, and Texas Roadhouse. Let's start with the first. MUD was awesome!! MUD stands for Mission Unity Day. We totally partied it up with the whole mission! Instead of playing sports and such on Monday for P-Day, we were just supposed to email and shop then we would do our p-day activities as a mission on Thursday. You remember how I said I could dunk? Well, I proved it to the whole mission on Thursday!! I think that part of the reason why I was dunking so well was because of the adrenaline but I gotta brag about this. About 3 inches from the bottom of my wrist on the underside of my arm is a small scratch. Well, that is from the rim! That's right, I got that high!! :D I didn't even know that was possible but it happened!! I tried getting a few videos but it didn't work. We are going to try to use elder Deyarmond's Go-Pro and I'll ear it on a headband so you can see it too. :) There was lots of sports there: Volleyball, basketball, tennis, 4-square, and rugby! We had Sonoran Dogs for lunch which is basically just a hotdog wrapped in bacon with lots of toppings and delicious sauces. I love those! Feed those to the missionaries sometime if you don't have anything else to feed them. Say it is from the people in Arizona. :) There was also a small talent show and 3 HUGE piñata's! Some people slid into the candy but no one really rushed in to grab it. I think it's because all the missionaries are "candied" out from Christmas. I know I am! Plus all the candy from my birthday, I have a lot of candy and don't want to eat any of it... :P

We ate at Texas Roadhouse as a zone the other night. I was starving but knew that if I got something medium sized, I wouldn't have enough for left-overs and it would just get thrown away. So I ordered a full rack of ribs! Go big or go home, right? :) We all ordered pretty big because it was the beginning of the month which means we all got paid. :) So we were there for about an hour and a half then asked for our checks. Turns out, someone paid for us!! We calculated it out, $120 for just the meals, not counting tax or a tip. God bless the person or family that did that for us! Looks like you guys serving the missionaries back home is helping us out here too! :)

So do you remember when I did the Vinny's Hot Wing Challenge a few weeks ago and I was telling you about how my insides were about to burst into flames from the heat of the sauce? And the pain from it not staying in my intestines forever? Ya... those are my memories of that terrible experience. Well, as an elders quorum, they decided to do an elders unity activity. Can you guess what the activity was? Yup, the wing challenge. 6 people participated but we had probably 25 people there. That is like double or triple the amount I see every week at church!! Funny how that works out. Anyway, Elder Deyarmond wasn't going to do it. But once we got inside the restaurant, all the elders from the ward were poking fun at him for chickening out. He couldn't decide if he wanted to do it or not still. So I leaned over to him and said, "I'll pay for your food if you'll do it." He looked at me then put his head down and walked off saying "Fine! I'll do it!" And he actually did it!! And he didn't even cry!! I was bawling but he took it like a man! That is, except for the last bite. He pulled all the meat off all the bones and had it in a pile on his plate. He downed it like he hadn't eaten in 3 weeks! But once he got to the last bite, he couldn't get it down... 1 bite and he would be finished. he just sat there for about 30 minutes staring at his plate saying, "I can't do it. I'm too full..." I told that to all the other missionaries in the zone and they all showed up to cheer him on. It was awesome to see 4 or 5 more companionships of missionaries walk in together and cheer on one of their own to finish. And sure enough, it worked. ELDER DEYARMOND FINISHED THE CHALLENGE!!! :D It was spectacular!! Stupendous!! Wonderful! And he didn't have any after-effects at all. I don't understand, I was in bed because of the pain but he was just fine. And he doesn't even like hot stuff! Im glad that he finished though! :)

Out of time...

I am going to the Temple this week! Friday at 10 a.m. :) I'll let you know how it goes next week!

I love you! Thank you for the emails and thank you for your prayers!

~Elder Kyle Harris

p.s. we didn't get ipads. Imagine that! haha oh well, I don't need it, right? :)