December 8, 2014

Hello everyone!! Welcome to day number 544 of my mission! In 4 days, I will be out 18 months... I guess I could count it in like 2 days cause my proselyting license expires on June 10th. I think that means that that is the day that I will be coming home! 6 months... I don't know where the time went these last 18 months but it's disappearing somewhere faster than the lines on the freeway going 100 MPH!! (Not that I would know what that's like at all....) But I am definitely trying to make the best of the time that I have left and make sure that I don't come home with any regrets! That reminds me of a story that I need to tell you about Elder McKenna and I making up raps! :) I mine as well tell you now then.

So our area is pretty big. To bike from one side to the other, corner to corner, it takes us about 30 minutes. Its all basically one big hill here in Sierra Vista with little ups and downs that people call "bumps". Psh, those are big bumps! We've found that it's actually better for us contacting-wise if we just walk around. This allows us to talk to people on the street without being creepers and stopping on our bikes to talk to them. We have a new method of contacting for this month using new pass-along cards. They are for the "He is The Gift" video on mormon.org. If you haven't had a chance to see it yet, DO IT!!! It's amazing!! So we go around and ask people if we can give them Christmas cards and most people gladly accept them. We then say something like "On the front is says 'He is The Gift' cause he is our ultimate gift from God. We just want to help everyone remember Him this Christmas and try to build up their relationships with him better. On the back there is a little website (christmas.mormon.org) that shows a video on Christ's humble birth. If you get a chance, I think you would really like it!" or something like that! And most people are really receptive to it! It also gives us an in to to talk to them about their beliefs and ask them more questions to get them to open up to us! We have had a lot of success with this and have had 3 people, without us asking first, say "You guys can stop by anytime! Here is my number and address." And all 3 of them live in our boundaries!! Miracle, I think so! :) Anyway, so we using this to contact people but sometimes we are just walking to an appointment with no one there to talk to. We know quite a bit about each other and can't think of questions to ask anymore, so instead we make up raps (or you can call them rhymes with a beat if you'd like) about what's around us, our thoughts, our desires, etc. Just anything really! It is awesome! We get a lot of kicks and giggles out of it. Recently, our songs have been about girls and we say like

"I miss girls, you know its true and Its hard for me to describe,

the feelings that they give to me, it make me feel so fly!"

or something lame like that! We even have "Rapper Names"! His is M.C.Kenna and mine is Sirrah or K.Bastian. :) It makes for good memories and laughs!

This week wasn't all that exciting or active unfortunately. We tried to do a lot of work but it was mostly just service and random appointments here and there. We did service for a less-active guy, Glen. Glen is a single father, his wife passed away about 3 years ago leaving him with her little girl she had from a previous marriage. Both he and his wife got baptized and then she passed away about a year later... He isn't active in the church (hence why I said he was less-active) but has very strong morals and a testimony of the church. He just doesn't have the motivation to get up and get going, plus he's very forgetful. We were over on Tuesday doing service for him, helping him clean up his yard and chopping down some bamboo and dead branches that are dangling over his tin roof. Funny story, I was using a hatchet to cut the branches in the tree. I set the hatchet down in a safe spot where it wouldn't fall, well where I thought it wouldn't fall. I was shaking a branch loose that I had just cut from some other dead branches and I guess I was shaking too hard cause the whole tree was shaking. This caused my hatchet to fall out of the tree and land in the dirt about 10 feet away from Elder McKenna. He got worried about me being up in the tree and that I was going to drop my hatchet on him as he was standing under me. So to ease his worries, I got down and we broke up the branches into smaller pieces that I had already cut down. Sorry, tangent. Well it turns out that Glen's daughter, Gracie, is 9 years old and not baptized but she really wants to be! So we are going to go over this week and do more service and teach her and him both the lessons cause he doesn't remember them a whole lot! Part member families are awesome tools! Are there very many of them in the ward you live in now? Who are the missionaries over there? Do you see them in the congregation often? See if you can find some and befriend them! Or invite them to a party in the ward or something like that! :)

We also did some service for the Froehlich's. She is the one who sent you the picture mom of us making gingerbread cookies. We went over and put up Christmas lights on Tuesday after we helped out Glen. She had a brilliant idea on how to put up the Christmas lights on stucko though! Instead of buying clips and trying to find somewhere to put them, you use a hot glue gun and just glue the lights to the house! Then, when it's time to take them off, you use a blow dryer to warm the glue back up and then it just peals right off! Simple, cheap, but hot glue is dangerous on your skin, just an FYI. I only got a few blisters, like 5 or 6. No big deal. But it was really fun! :) We also went over on Thursday to put up the rest of the lights but IT WAS RAINING!!! So we didn't dare get onto her roof. Instead, she asked us to help her make gingerbread cookies. So we made cookies for about 2 hours while listening and singing to Christmas Music! My favorite artists for Christmas music are still Male: Frank Sinatra; Female: Kelly Clarkson. They are just fantastic! And now I can make gingerbread cookies :)

Update on peoples!

Hope is doing great! He pain meds are still giving her a few problems but not as much as before. She is recovering very quickly actually and even though she wont be at full strength for about 4 months or so, that is still better than the 6-8 months they told her! She is giving all the credit to God and know's that He is watching out for her. She also says that when she feels sad or down, that as she reads her Book of Mormon, it really helps her out. That is the power of the Scriptures!! :)

Terrick... Terrick Terrick Terrick... It has been over 2 weeks since we've heard from him. We just recently found out that he did make his way down to Texas and lost his phone down there. That's why he hasn't been answering his calls or texts. He does have an app on his ipod though that can text and one of the McKnight boys, his closest friends in the ward, was able to get in touch with him there. But he is keeping very distant for some reason... We are definitely worried about him but we know that he isn't going to make too dumb of decisions. Before he left, he was hanging out with some of his old friends here in Vista. They are from his old gang that he used to be apart of. It was like 2 in the morning and they were driving somewhere. On the way to their destination, they handed him a gun and said that they were going to rob some lady and he was going to have to hold her at gun point while they did their business. He dropped the gun and said no and asked to be dropped off right then and there. So they pulled over after some debate and finally let him out. He called the McKnights and asked for a ride home. This shows me he isn't going to make super dumb decisions! But I just hope that that sticks with him in Texas. Please keep praying for him!

Well, I think that pretty much sums up everything. Oh! I did get the little envelope in the mail! Thank you!! I haven't got the other one yet but thank you for sending it!

Gavin, I hate that you have such amazing facial hair!! You are such a stud, I can't even believe it! How does every girl in the school not just bow at your feet and beg you to only look upon them and tell them they are beautiful! Haha but seriously, all of the Elders here are asking if you are a model or not, I tell them you were going to be but turned down the company :) You're welcome!

Well I love you all! Have a great week and know that no matter what, God is watching over you! :)

~Elder Kyle Harris

December 1, 2014

I can't believe it... December already... Only 4 weeks till I turn 22... and 2 till I turn 18 months... I don't know how else to say this but HOLY COW!!!!!! I met 2 recently returned missionaries this week: 1 had been home for 3 months and the other for 2 weeks. Both of them said that their missions are more like surreal memories or a dream than reality. That means I better make the best of it while I still can! :) Not that I haven't already but you know, I can always improve!

Hello and Hello my adorable family and a few friends that are lucky enough to hear from me! ;) Last week I told you about the hardest thing I've had to see someone else go through, this week I experienced the hardest physical thing I've ever had to go through! And it was all because of my own stupidity.. Haha! I'll get to that in a bit though. :)

Thanksgiving was pretty great! We had dinner with a single mother named Balbina. She is from Mexico and has 3 girls all over the age of 15. Plus her mother and her niece live with her in a small single wide trailer. Balbina is a manager at Wendy's and has been there for I think either 3 or 8 years (I know that is a big difference but it's one or the other, I just don't remember which...). So there isn't a lot of income for that house cause Balbina's mother doesn't work either. But she insisted that we and the Zone Leaders come over for Thanksgiving dinner. Elder McKenna and myself showed up at 3 to help cook or clean or anything else we could do to help before we ate at 4. But there was nothing for us to do there except keep the kids out of the kitchen. Balbina said that the best way we could help would be to play a game with the girls and keep them preoccupied. So we played Monopoly. About 45 minutes into the game, everyone was super bored of it and so we threw all the money into the air and pretended like we were super rich and had money to spare! It was pretty sweet! :) The Zone Leaders showed up and we sat down to eat. There was Turkey and Mexican mashed potatoes (it looked like and had the consistency of vanilla pudding but was really good), stuffing and 2 different kinds of green beans. One was just a normal cut green beans and the other was a Mexican style with green beans, cactus and red chili. I really liked the Mexican green beans but no one else liked them. Balbina kept apologizing cause it wasn't as fancy or nice as what we would get at other peoples houses but all of us kept telling her not to apologize. She had done so much for us with the little amount that she had and it brought a few tears to my eyes knowing that she was sacrificing a lot for us. That is true charity right there. It reminds me of the story I think in Kings 17 where the Prophet asks a woman to make him food. She only had enough to make one serving and that was going to be used for her son. But she prepared it and gave it to the Prophet because she knew he was a servant of God. Because of that, there was always enough oil and flour to make bread to eat. I know that because of Balbina's sacrifice, and anyone else that feeds us missionaries, will be blessed with the things they stand in need of! :)

Hope Young is doing very well! I have been keeping in contact with her and she was scheduled to be released today. But yesterday she was having some problems with the pain meds. In order for her to be released, she has to be able to take pain pills and keep them down. But her body was rejecting the pills and making her really sick. Also, Saturday night to Sunday morning, her I.V. stopped working and that was how she was getting her pain meds so she was struggling all night instead of asking for help from the nurses or doctors. I haven't heard from her today about how shes doing but I'll keep trying. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and decided to get her life in order. She realized that at home, she can't focus on herself cause she feels the need to take care of all her siblings and parents even though she is one of the youngest in the house. She hasn't gone to any college and hasn't had a job for a very long time. But she wants to get that fixed and get started on her future. She says that once she heals up she wants to go back to Oregon where she used to live and go to a Junior College and from there transfer to a University. She really wants to do something for children who have grown up in broken homes like she was. This is, just like you were saying mom, another example of either letting your past make you or break you. Jasmine (from last week's email) is letting her experiences make her a better person and stronger in the Gospel. This is exactly what Hope is doing. She knows the pains and struggles of living in a broken home and wants to help out those kids who are living in the same kind of situations! What an inspiration! I will keep you up to date when I find out when she heads home.

Terrick, our investigator, had his baptism date dropped this week. We have been trying all week to get in touch with him but he isn't answering our calls, texts, or even his door at his home. We stopped by again last night and his brother and a bunch of friends were watching a movie. They said that Terrick went to Texas to spend time with his family. It's great that he gets to be there with them but his brother said that Terrick would drop everything and anything for them just to make them happy. He has a testimony of the truthfulness of the Church and the divinity of the Book of Mormon, I just pray that he won't drop that testimony... His grandparents are very devote Catholics and that might be a problem if they find out he's getting baptized into the Church. So far we still haven't had any contact with him. Please pray that he will remember the feelings he's had concerning the Book of Mormon and the Church and that the Spirit will guide him and strengthen him through all his trials. He really needs the help...

Alright, let me tell you about the worst physical thing I've ever experienced... It all started off with not having dinners this week. Everyone is pretty much out of town and so we had dinner on Thursday and Sunday. Every other day we fed ourselves, which is fine with me cause I made that Mac and Cheese casserole that I love so very very much! Well, there is a pizza and wing place called Vinny's here in Sierra Vista. It is super good! There are 2 other missionaries out here, Elders Keinitz and Coesens (Like Peanuts but with a "K" and Cousins) who didn't have a dinner on Saturday. They were told about a hot wing challenge at Vinny's and if you do it, you get your picture on the wall and a free t-shirt. So Elders Keinitz, Coesens and myself decided to do the hot wing challenge while Elder McKenna decided to just get a small pizza cause he was too chicken to do challenge. There are like 6 different sauces and the 3 hottest are "Hot", "Suicidal", and "Homicidal". The challenge is you have to eat 20 Homicidal wings. You can take as much time as you want but you can't leave the table and not one else can touch your wings or you get disqualified. As soon as they bring the wings out, the smell of them makes my eyes water and nose runny. They are hot..... It took us about 5 minutes of them just sitting in front of us before we got the courage to start eating them. Do you remember me saying they were hot? I think that is the biggest understatement of the year!!! THEY WERE HOT!!!!!!! After my first bite, my throat tightened up and my stomach told my brain, "Don't you dare put another one of those into me or I will cause you immense pain for the next week!" I got the hick-ups immediately and felt like all my insides wanted to be on my outside, and I had only taken 1 bite!! But I had already paid for them and there was no way I was going to take them home with me, so I just kept eating. About 3 bites in, I was crying from the pain of the hot sauce. We were told to bring gloves because the sauce will burn your skin. We didn't bring gloves... Sure enough, it burnt! My hands were shaking and my mouth was on fire and it hurt to breathe out my nose cause it would blow on my lips and cause them to burn even more! Just thinking about it makes my lips hurt again! About an hour and a half in, I only have 6 wings left, Elder Coesens has 4 left, and Elder Keinitz has like 15. I get the idea to pull the meat off the bones and stack it in a pile on my plate so I can just eat it with a fork. By now, the intensity of the heat caused my mouth to go numb. It was the weirdest feeling though cause my insides were burning but I felt freezing! I was shivering cause I was so cold. And both the other Elders were cold too. So Vinny's was nice enough to turn up the heater for us. Since my mouth was numb, the heat didn't bother me anymore, but I was STUFFED!! I couldn't eat anymore and I still had 6 wings to put down. Elder Coesens put down the last of his wings and the manager came and checked to make sure he got enough meat off the bones and that he didn't hide any wings or anything anywhere. He passed the check and got his t-shirt. They asked if he wanted to take his picture now or wait for me. He looked at me and said "He's gonna finish. I'll wait." I couldn't back out now. I looked at my plate and separated it into 4 big bites. I grabbed my lemonade and took big bites, chewed, then used the lemonade to help me swallow. It only took me 5 minutes and I FINISHED THE CHALLENGE!!! We got our t-shirts and our picture taken and we hung it up on the wall next to all the other missionaries who had finished it in the past.......But the challenge wasn't over.... The real challenge was when it came back out. We went to sacrament meeting, well the first 20 minutes of it, then I headed strait to the restroom and didn't come out for about 30 minutes. It was hotter coming out than it was going in!! Momma-mia, I hated life for the next 12+ hours! We were given permission to go home so I could cry in peace. And I did, all the way up until dinner. Luckily I was feeling better for dinner and was able to eat! But man oh man.... I cried more during the after effects than I did during it! I got a t-shirt and memories and that is good enough for me. I am never doing that dumb challenge again... But It makes for a great story! :)

I JUST GOT AN EMAIL FROM HOPE!!! She is being released from the Hospital today! :) But she has to stay in Phoenix where the hospital is cause the hospital in Thatcher (Gila Valley) won't deal with her health problems so they just life flight her to Phoenix anyways. But she is being released today! :) Our prayers are being answered!! Keep it up!

Well I love you very much! Time to get off to sports! :) Be safe and don't do dumb things like a hot wing challenge!

~Elder Kyle Harris

November 24, 2014

Hello My Favorite Family in the Whole Entire World!! So much has happened this week and I'm worried that I'm not going to have enough time to write about it all and answer all your questions but I will do my best! :) Lets do the questions first!

Elder McKenna are like brothers out here! Except we don't fight like brothers.. ;) He is AMAZING!!! His testimony is SOOO strong and the Spirit is always there as he testifies of truth! I also noticed that he bears his testimony frequently throughout the lesson, not just at the end like I'm used to doing. And boy does it play a difference! I can honestly see the effect bearing testimony frequently has on the people we are working with, especially those who are less-active or not active in the church at all. It allows them to ponder throughout the entire lesson or discussion on what they believe or what they used to believe and then the Spirit can touch their hearts easier and testify that what we are testifying and teaching about is true too. So, ya, he's fantastic! The work here is going pretty well! We have seen a lot of progress with the people that we are working with and have like 5 new potential investigators we are going to try to get in touch with this week! And the members are very helpful with that! I really like this ward a lot! The members are very willing to serve and help us serve! It's pretty different though than most wards, it's kinds like the Palo Verde Ward in East Tucson. The reason why is because most of the people in our ward are in the Army and the base is like 5 minutes away from our area. So people move in and out pretty frequently and most of the families are pretty young still. So getting members to come out with us at nights is kinda hard sometimes but they are all very nice and love making us food and such so it works out! Our ward mission leader is Brother Eagan. I don't know him very well still. He is very active in the church luckily (I have to say this cause some of the ward mission leaders in other wards are pretty less-active actually...) and even teaches the Gospel Principles class. That's great for us cause he knows how to teach simply and effectively and knows how to ask questions that make the audience think. That is going to be very helpful for us when we bring him out to lessons! Most people don't realize they are speaking in big words or using words the teachee's don't know and that can be very difficult for them and even a turn off to the Gospel sometimes. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't use Gospel related words that only we use in the church, just make sure you know how to explain those terms simply and quickly so you can explain if someone does get confused. Our bishop is Bishop Williams. He is young too! His oldest is only 14! They have 6 kids and are a very happy and energetic family! We've spent a few hours over there with them and that was a great time to talk about people he wants us to visit and what we can do to help out the ward. That is pretty much all the questions I think. Oh, I love my bike now! It's fixed so it actually rides smoothly and shifts easily! I'm still in great shape too (somehow! That's a miracle!) so he doesn't go a lot faster than me, but he could if he wanted to! Luckily he is a nice guy and knows I'm getting old! ;)

Okay, where to start this week... Oh, I experienced the hardest thing I've ever had to witness before... It didn't happen to me personally but I was there to support the girl that it did happen to. I've been asked not to give too much detail so I'm going to try to not to. Jasmine is 17 and a senior in high school. She is a cheer leader and super happy and perky! We have been working with her, her mother, her mother's potential fiance' and her little sister. All 4 people were inactive members but are making a lot of progress on making it back to activity! So we've built up a pretty good friendship with them all over the past 2 weeks and broke a lot of barriers that they've kept up for years. There are still walls to climb over and break down but that will come with time and love. Anyway, because we've got close to this family and they can see we truly care about them, they asked us for some support for Jasmine... When Jasmine was 15, almost 16, she was sexually abused by a close family friend... for 2 years she has been battling with this, including therapy and lots of lawyers to get this guy behind bars where he belongs. Friday was one of the final hearings for the case. The guy had accepted a plea bargain and so Friday was the day they would shackle him up and take him away. Jasmine told her mother that she felt peaceful and calm when we were around and wanted that while she was at the hearing. The hearing was scheduled for 1:30. We showed up at about 1:15 laughing and joking and having a jolly good time. Things started to calm down and get a little quieter as we walked up the steps to the court house. As soon as we walked in, Jasmine saw "the guy" and immediately broke down into tears. The bailiff invited us into the court room and then told us the court was behind about 45 minutes to an hour. When her case finally came up, it was 3 p.m. For the last hour and a half, she had been trying to calm down and stop crying and finally succeeded at about 2:45. The hearing started at 3:00 and ended at 3:30. For all 30 minutes, I watched one of my friends who I'd never even seen seriously frown or sad before in tears and shaking on her mothers shoulder. And there was nothing that I could do to help her except pray for her. "The guy" was taken into custody and was escorted out in handcuffs by 2 officers. I don't think I've ever seen so much sadness in anyone's eyes or face as I saw with Jasmine. And it broke my heart... But just because he's in prison now, that doesn't mean everything is suddenly better and she's just fine. She has to live with that knowledge for the rest of her life. She doesn't have to have the pain or be hurt by it if she gives it to Christ but the memories will always be there... The reason I'm telling you this is because I learned something that day: everything we do, every little action or word or deed or thought effects someone around us, that even includes ourselves. No matter how small or insignificant we think it is, someone is watching us and is effected by our choices. This goes back to the tennis ball analogy I told you before. We are like tennis balls covered in flour. As you throw a tennis ball around that's covered in flour, it doesn't have to touch every spot in the room to cover it with flour. It just comes off as you throw it. As we are going around, doing our every day activities, we don't have to talk to everyone in order to effect them in some way. We have to be living our testimonies every day and showing everyone around us that we have taken upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ and therefore are His representatives in every aspect. Yes we are only one person individually but even one voice can be heard in a crowd of voices or noises if we speak up loud enough. That's why missionaries are asked to wear white shirts and ties everywhere they go, we stand out in a crowd and people notice us. As we live our testimonies, we will stand out too with everyone around us. A less-active showed us a song that was kinda interesting. It was called "Rebel". The first words were "Jesus was a rebel!" It caught me off guard but as I listened, it was true. He didn't do the same things as everyone around Him did or told Him that He needed to do. Then a preacher guy started talking in the song and basically said "In the past, people were rebellious by smoking or drinking or partying and sinning. Everyone around us is doing these things so it's no longer "rebellious" to sin. If we really want to be rebellious then we need to read our Bible (including the BoM), go to church, and follow Jesus Christ. That's the only kind of rebellion left!" Im not saying we need to be rebellious per say, but the message behind it is true. If we live our testimonies of the church, we won't ever leave people hurting the way Jasmine was hurt. In fact, we will be the ones there comforting them when they are hurt by those not living the way Christ wants them to live!

Wow.... I don't know exactly where all that came from... I kinda spaced out there for a second or two and when I came to, I had a page long paragraph as you can see up above. I don't know why I felt like I needed to write all that but It's there and I don't feel like I should take anything out.

Let's change subjects though to something happier! This Sunday, we had the opportunity to go to 3 churches!! Not wards, churches! :) We went to an Evangelical Lutheran Church at 8:00 a.m. to start off our Sabbath. It was awesome!! The pasture saw us 4 missionaries in the back along with a few other new faces and invited us all to stand and introduce ourselves if we felt comfortable. No one else stood up after like 10 seconds so I thought "They already know we're here, let's let them know who we are!" So I stood up and introduced myself and then the other missionaries followed after me. As soon as we all sat down, these 2 people came from the back and gave us a handmade hot-pad and a small, wooden, hand-carved cross attached to a string. Everyone came up to us afterwards and greeted us with smiles and warm welcomes! It was great!! They were so nice to us! :) The preacher said something kinda profound though. In Matthew 25 it talks about serving the Lord by serving His brethren. He pointed out that when Christ thanked all of those who served His brethren, they didn't understand when they were serving Him. Then the preacher said, "These people served because of their love towards their fellow brethren, not because they were expecting something to come out of it. They didn't realize they were serving the Lord, just that they were serving their brothers and sisters." This is an example for us on true charity and love! How often do we serve people cause other people are watching or because we know that we will be blessed for it if we do it? We need to serve everyone around us cause we love them and because we love our Father and His Son, our Redeemer. Then we went to our ward at 11 and I was asked just before sacrament meeting started to give my testimony because their youth speaker wasn't going to show up. So I got to be a youth again for like 5 minutes! WOOT! Haha anyway I talked about the "tennis ball" analogy there as well and that was great! I realized though how much I am like dad! They way I speak, my short little laughs as I think of something or say something while I'm speaking, the way I raise my eyebrows at different points when I'm talking, I'm just like you pops! :) After church, we went to a Catholic Mass at a HUGE church next to our church building. It was beautiful inside! But there was most definitely a difference in the Spirit between all 3 churches. The Spirit was at the Lutheran church occasionally and could be felt here and there throughout the meeting. At the catholic church though, I couldn't hardly feel the Spirit at all... The people we nice and they talked about Matthew 25 too actually but the Spirit just wasn't as strong throughout the whole meeting. But at my ward, the Sierra Vista 1st ward, I could feel the Spirit the whole meeting!! All 3 hours were guided and inspired by the Spirit! It just confirms my testimony of the truth of the Restoration and that this is the true church against established on the earth! :)

We are working with a few people out here. Terrick is struggling a little bit. Not spiritually, but emotionally I guess. He lost his job and is fighting with his girl friend who he's been with for over 2 years. He hates being at home because of the temptations and trials that are there and to top it all off, the McKnights (his second family who are his biggest fellowshipper's and friends in the church) are out of town for the next week and a half. So he's been struggling quite a bit unfortunately. We talked to him yesterday and I asked him why he felt all of this was happening right now. He responded by saying "I know why. The McKnights are like my crutch right now but they are gone for a little while. I'm supposed to be baptized on the 6th and satan knows that. The devil doesn't want me to get baptized because the church is true and he knows I'm going to change my life for the better. I've been reading and praying every day and I just need to meet up with you guys so I can have the Spirit of the Lord with me stronger to fight off satan." What an answer!! Terrick never ceases to amaze me! I know that he is ready for baptism, I just pray that he will stay away from the temptations that are put in front of him and that he will continue to read and pray daily!

Also, Jasmine came to church this week! She stayed for the first 2 meetings but had to get home to start cooking turkey for her mothers work party. She said that she really felt the Spirit today and knew that this was where she needed to be! :)

I also talked to Elder Gilson this morning. Hope Young is currently in the hospital in Tucson. Her surgery is scheduled for tomorrow but today they have to check up on her to find out how bad whatever is going wrong actually is and what action needs to be taken. I don't know what they doctors have seen or what they haven't seen but I do know that she received a second blessing for her for during the surgery. I don't know what the outcome is going to be or if she is going to have to go into surgery but I know the Lord is watching over her and that if she needs surgery that she will heal quickly and not have to worry about it anymore. Thank you for praying for her and please continue to do so! They need all the prayers they can get!

Well my time is pretty much up so I got to get going. But I love you all so much! Thank you for the emails and helping me keep my mind focused on the work instead of reminding me that I only have like 6 months left. ;) LOVE YOU ALL!

~Elder Kyle Harris