January 12, 2015

Hello Hello Hello!!! What a great morning! Well for the most part! It is raining pretty hard down here which is kinda a pain but we really need it so I can't complain!

I can't believe that happened to our old house!! How did it happen?? Was it from a broken pipe or did it just rain too much or what? Would that have still happened if we still lived there? Looks like an amazing miracle!! :) It is really unfortunate because of all the memories we have there but we need to look on the bright side and count our blessings! And we definitely have a lot of them!!

Dad, that slideshow was amazing! All except for one thing... You made me cry... All the elders that are emailing too were making sure that I was alright and that everything was alright at home. I didn't know Danny very well but I do know that he was a very good man with a very loving heart! There were a lot of people there to support him and his family! What an amazing man and family.

Uncle Jim is moving in huh? I think that will be good for him! And a good missionary opportunity! If I remember correctly he isn't a member, right? Just start off with small invitations like ward activities and soon invite him to church and so on! I know you guys are doing things like family prayer, family scripture study, and Family Home Evening so invite him to join you for those things and include him! Have him give the opening prayer or lead the music or something! I don't know what kind of experiences he's had with the church or what his beliefs are at all. But I do know that turning to the Lord can help out with EVERY struggle we have and trial we are going through. Whether it's looking for a job or overcoming addictions, turning to the Lord and opening your heart to Him works every time!! Don't forget one thing, always bear your testimony! Especially through your actions. When you have the opportunity to bear your testimony out loud, short and powerful statements seem to act like a Spirit-bazooka and it just blasts him with good feelings! The more spiritual experiences someone has, the more open their hearts usually are and the more likely they are to accept the glorious message that we have!

This week was AMAZING!!! Only a little bit of bad news but it has it's blessings from it too. And it's only temporary bad news so lets go ahead and start with that part. I wasn't going to tell you cause I didn't want you to worry about it but I figure I can't tell you about the blessings that came without telling you the bad part too. So recently when I play any sports, especially when we play in the mornings or if I play harder, my left knee keels like someone is pushing in the back of my kneecap and is trying to take off just the kneecap. So that's not very good... Last Monday it got super bad and I sat on the stage with ice on it and struggled to hold back tears. I figured that that would be a good time to share the news with Sister Passey, my mission president’s wife. So I called her and told her what I was feeling and what hurt and when and where and she told me that it sounded like "Kneecap Bursitis". So a "bursa is a closed, fluid-filled sac that functions as a cushion and provides a gliding surface to reduce friction between tissues of the body around joints. Essentially, a bursa provides a slick surface so that tendons and ligaments can 'slide' across a bondy prominence so it doesn't catch or rub against the bone. Once a bursa becomes inflamed, the condition is known as bursitis. Once a bursa becomes irritated and inflamed, recovery time can be a surprisingly long process requiring a reduction in activity for a long period to allow the bursa to heal. It can be next to impossible at times to keep from re-injuring the bursa because it's just not possible to stop everything and immobilize the joint properly. Everyone has demands on them that keep them going and in the process a bursitis injury can be prevented from healing." (http://www.aidmybursa.com/?REF=MSB_Pa) I guess that Sister Passey's daughter had this same injury and it took between 6-8 weeks to heal. So she told me that she was going to give me some stretches to do to increase the blood flow without irritating it even more. So we show up for our trainer/trainee meeting on Tuesday which is a meeting for missionaries that are training new missionaries. The meeting was about 4 hours long with a short break in the middle. During the break, Sister Passey printed some stretches for me to do onto a sheet of paper and was talking me through them and how they'd help. President Passey came up while she was talking and he said. "We are working on your car situation too." I guess I had a puzzled look on my face because he said "We told you we were going to be getting you a car didn't we?" Nope! They forgot to mention that part! So on Friday after we went to the Temple, we drove down to Tucson and picked up a 2014 Jeep Compass! They say I'm not allowed to ride bikes for a while and that any p-day sports or early morning sports are completely out of the question. I wasn't sure if I was going to follow that one completely but I promised some missionaries that I would. Good thing I have friends that want to make sure that I'm healthy and healed instead of ones that just want to play me in basketball! I think that I got the bursitis from basketball though, dunking in particular. I jump off of just my left leg and land on that one first usually too. I will still be able to dunk and stuff when I get home. I just need to be more careful while I'm out here, you know?

The Temple was AMAZING!!!! It is probably tied with my first time going to the Gila Valley Temple as my favorite session! I received so many answers and felt the Spirit so strong! One of those answers was that I should not go back to BYU-Idaho. That means that I am going to need to figure out where I want to go instead. But I got a strong impression to go to UVU for a little while. It is close enough that I could live at home until I get myself on my feet. I don't play on that happening like super soon so don't worry about that mom. :) I'll still be at home and will get to spend time with everyone! I want to start looking for a job as soon as I get home though at a local pharmacy. A job would be preferable instead of just an internship but I will take anything I can get! Feel free to ask around and talk to some pharmacists there and see if anyone has an opening they would be willing to hold onto or something like that. I know I still have a little while but I want to set with stuff to do when I get home so I'm not just sitting around. :) Im not too worried though! Friday was when we went to the Temple but it was a long day! We drove for almost 2 hours to get there, 2 hours to get back, an hour and a half to get our car in Tucson, and another hour and a half driving back. So it was a long day but I loved it. :)

The best thing that happened this week though was with our investigator Debbie. We met with her and were talking about the Restoration. At the beginning though, we started off by talking about the priesthood and that was perfect cause she already has a strong testimony of that Priesthood. She asked me to find some random scripture in the Bible, so I started looking. While I was looking Elder Deyarmond looks at her and asks "Debbie, I'm sure that other missionaries have talked to you about baptism. But what are your thoughts about it?" She said that she was baptized before but didn't know why she needed to be baptized again. He brought up the Priesthood and how important it is for those saving ordinances. Before I knew it, he was inviting her to be baptized! AND SHE ACCEPTED!!!! WE HAVE A BAPTISM DATE SET FOR FEBRUARY 21ST!!!! :) Keep her in your prayers please! She is going through a lot and will need some help overcoming her Word of Wisdom issues.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! Thank you for your prayers in my behalf and those we are working with!

~Elder Kyle Harris

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? :)

December 29, 2014

Hello my favorite and most amazing family in the whole world!! (And the best friends too!) Welcome to this weeks email! :)

I don't really know what to say to start off. My mind is a little frazzled right now. It's weird for me to think that it is already my birthday... Christmas has come and gone and in 3 days it will be 2015!! I just bought a PowerAde at the gas station and it expires after I get home from my mission!

#weirdthought...

But this week was a great one! Elder Deyarmond is coming up to be one of my favorite companions! He's super funny and outgoing and loves to get out and work! We haven't been super busy though because the people we are working with were out of town for the Christmas holiday. Debbie is about 65 and loves to talk to missionaries! She was talking to missionaries at one point in the past but then dropped them cause she didn't believe it. Not long after she dropped them, she had an aneurysm and was in the hospital for a long time. When she got out, she called us up and said that she wanted to start listening to us and that it was a sign from God. She has been pretty sick this last week with a major headache and other things I guess so she hasn't been available to meet but we will be meeting on Wednesday with her and will start with the first lesson.

We are also working with a part member family. I told you about them last week. Jared Taylor is a single father raising 3 little girls. Vanessa is 9 (almost 10), Alessandra is 8, and Mira Bell is 6. They are the cutest little girls, especially Mira Bell! Their mother passed away less than 2 months ago. As we were praying to know what to talk to them about, I was thinking "The Plan of Salvation" the whole time but Elder Deyarmond felt like we should to the Restoration. So we taught the Restoration this week and we wanted to help them understand why Joseph Smith was needed and why the Gospel needed to be restored. So we played the game "Telephone" where you whisper one thing into someone's ear then it gets passed around and when it gets to the end, it's changed! Sometimes it's not a major difference but sometimes it was a very major change! The girls LOVED it and totally understood the point we were getting across. They liked it so much, they wanted to play another 4 or 5 times. :P They all came to church too so that's great! :) Next week we will be teaching the Plan of Salvation!

Christmas was FANTASTIC!!!! Talking to you all was absolutely amazing!! :) That was my favorite Christmas present!! Sister Froehlich let us use her phones to make the calls so if you want to text her and tell her thank you, I think that would be very appropriate. She is also throwing me a birthday party tonight! I didn't ask her to, she just took it upon herself being the amazing person that she is. She invited the McKnights, a great family in the ward, to join us as well. I am very, VERY thankful for the garments you sent me! Those were very much needed. :) We received LOTS of snacks and candy from members as well as 2 ties each! They are great ties too so that's always a plus! ;)

I saw one of the best things ever so far in my mission. Sean Connolly is a man that I've talked a little bit about in previous emails. But I talk about a lot of people so a refresher is probably in order. Sean Connolly is a 23 year old gent that I used to work with in East Tucson. He was less-active and dating a non-member who wasn't bringing him any closer to the church. He had so many questions and theories and they were all very interesting and pretty amazing actually that someone could notice the stars movement and relate it to the Gospel like he did. It was awesome to hear though! Anyway, not long after I got transferred, he moved down into Elfrida. Never heard of it? Neither has anyone else. He described it saying, "If you are driving and drop something on the floorboards of your truck and bend down to pick it up, you'll drive right through without even noticing." Talk about small town. Anyway, I've been hearing really good things are happening with him and he called me yesterday saying he was in Sierra Vista and wanted to see how I was doing. So we met up. Sean used to be 5'9" or so and weigh about 230 lbs or so along with a big ole', grungy beard. When I saw him, he had dropped about 30 lbs and clean shaven so close, it was "smoother than a baby's bottom. And smelled better too!" (The Little Rascals) He looked GREAT!! He said that he just gave his first talk in church and had moved from the dinky apartment in east Tucson that was smaller than the place we were living in over there, to a very nice 4 bedroom home in Elfrida! He had his mother move in with him and since then had brought both her and his aunt back to the church too! And best of all, he, his mother, and his aunt are all in the Temple Prep class and only have 2 more classes before they'll be ready to go to the Temple for their endowments!! Then he said this "Elder Harris, do you want to know what got me coming back to church? While I was in east Tucson, a missionary burned me a cd with 2 talks on it." I smiled and had to hold back tears as he continued. "Those 2 conversion stories you gave me, especially the Glen Beck one, is what made me want to go back to church. That cd and those talks that you gave me, saved me." Then he grabbed me with his huge bear arms and hugged me. I don't know how I didn't cry but I didn't, not in front of him at least. He says that he got his Patriarchal Blessing and in it, it talks about how his testimony can and will bless many lives, especially if he serves a full time mission. The old Sean Connolly I once knew in east Tucson changed into and is continuing to change into the Sean Connolly the Lord wants him to become. This is one of, it not the greatest miracle I have ever seen my whole mission. I absolutely love this man and I know that we will be friends for all time and eternity!!

I know this is the true church of Jesus Christ because if it wasn't, people like Sean, like me, couldn't have come as far as we have and as close as we have to our Savior and Redeemer. It is through His Atonement and the Priesthood authority that we are all able to change our lives around and become the people our Heavenly Father knows we can be. WE ARE CHILDREN OF GOD AND JOINT HEIRS WITH CHRIST!! This is the greatest blessing we can receive if we stay strong and true to the things we have been taught. I know this to be true.

I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week!

~Elder Kyle Harris

December 22, 2013

Hello Everyone!! I think I got everyone on here. We have to email at a different library this week because the main one is closed for Christmas Break till January 12th! That's a long break! So it isn't loading everyone I normally email automatically. If I missed someone, Im sorry!

This week has been one of the best ones in a long time! And it is all because of my new companion, Elder Deyarmond! I didn't tell you a whole lot about him but I have time now. Elder Derrick Dale Deyarmond is 18 and from Dorr, Michigan. He just graduated this year from high school. He actually has a very interesting story. Elder Deyarmond was born in Russia. Vladivostok, Russia to be exact. He was put into an orphanage at birth and was there till he was about 1.5 years old. Both he and his older sister were adopted from Russia. They aren't biological and only about 10 months apart in age. Elder Deyarmond's name used to be Anatoli Vladaviramich Dragon! But when he was adopted, they changed his name. I thought it would have been cool to keep his middle name "Dragon". It still would have fit the pattern of his name! He is a swimmer and has gone to state for that. He loves to mess around and joke but is definitely a hard worker. Our 2nd day together, we had planned to go see one of our potential investigators and teach The Restoration. As soon as the alarm went off at 6:30, his head lifted off the pillow and said "So we are going to be teaching the Restoration today, right?" I laughed and said yes but explained that we have a schedule that we have every morning and that we had time to prepare for the day. It was so cute! It is really helping the work out here though!

We have seen a lot of really cool miracles come out of just getting up on time and getting our studies done and getting out of the apartment on time. It is the small and simple things that really play the big difference! We got in touch with quite a few less active families that we have been trying to contact for a few weeks! One of them is the Taylors. Brother Taylor is a single father that is raising 3 daughters: Victoria (10), Alessandra (I think)(8), and Mira Bell (6). Sister Taylor passed away just over a month ago... It has been very hard on them all obviously but they are making a com-back. His 2 oldest daughters aren't baptized but they both want to be. We are gonna have to work with them to make sure that they understand everything but I am super excited to help this family grow and make these covenants!

We were also able to contact 2 more less-actives through another less-active! It was quite the miracle! We were asked to help our ward mission leader move some furniture out of some trailers and into a less-actives home, the Salazar's. So we show up and it turns out that the people we are getting the furniture from is a less-active family too! And they have a 10 year old son that has a lot of potential and wanted to get baptized at one point! So we were able to contact them through this service. Then we went over to the Salazar's to bring the furniture over and we were able to build up a friendship there too. In fact, we have been over there 3 more times just this week to help put some bunk beds and bed frames together for them. AND we are eating dinner with them tonight! So it is going to be super awesome!! :)

We were also asked to contact a less-active family, the Heckman's, about getting some furniture from the trailers. They said they needed some cribs and I can now see why. Sister Heckman has 6 kids and 2 more that are they for foster care! 8 kids is a lot to handle, not to mention her husband works 6 days a week from early in the morning to late at night. It's gotta be tough but somehow she manages! Some people just have that knack I guess! Anyway, we brought over the cribs and put them together for her. She invited us back anytime after the holidays so we will be going back either later this week or next week.

That is 3 less-active families we have been able to come in contact with in just one day! And on top of that, we got our own little reward! Actually, not just one and it's not very little. There were 2 queen mattresses and box's for the mattresses that were gonna be thrown away if no body took them. So, WE GOT QUEEN BEDS!!! AND we got a really cool coffee table that lights up underneath it. So we rewired it and hooked up Christmas lights to it instead and taped them to the inside of the table. So at just the click of a button, our coffee table lights up with Christmas lights! AAANNNDDD this week we will get getting a really nice "L-shaped" couch that will be cleaned very thoroughly and will be very nice! This allowed us to give our 2 twin sized beds to the Heckman's who also needed those too. Service works miracles!!

We had a really funny, kinda dumb experience this week. Elder Deyarmond thinks that he has a great memory but sometimes it is a little off. It's never a bad thing, it's just funny! So this week we got some fresh fruits and vegetables from a member. For lunch one day, Elder Deyarmond wanted a tomato sandwich and it turned out very well. He had some left over tomato slices and asked if I wanted to have some with sugar.... Tomatoes and sugar?? That sounds like something dad would try! ;) He reassured me that it was delicious and even ate a big piece covered in sugar. So I tried it... and I didn't really like it... at all actually. To get the taste out of my mouth, I grabbed the salt and another tomato slice and ate those together. He just looked at me and said, "Oh... salt... Maybe it was salt instead of sugar..." As he was saying this, he had a big ole' tomato slice with a mountain of sugar on top of it up to his mouth. He just shrugged and ate it like it was no big deal! So now we tell people that we love tomatoes and sugar just to see what reactions we get!

I am loving it out here! I don't think that I really need anything. I love music still! And I still love food (even though I'm down to 160 or 165)!! Snacks are great cause that means that I don't have to buy them at the store on p-days. Other than that, I will take pretty much anything! I just got a new toothbrush and toothpaste from a member along with some of those floss-stick things. The members truly love us out here and I love them too!

That is something I've really come to realize is so important, LOVE EVERYONE!! Every person on the street is a candidate for God-hood, yes even the man you see walking down the street with gages in his ears and spiked, technicolored hair! He is a son of God and at one point chose to follow Jesus Christ, he just doesn't remember that. And so it is up to us to make sure that he understands his potential by showing him the same love that God shows us each day. This includes within the family. Gavin and Connor, I don't know why I feel inclined to tell you this but fighting over a game of ping-pong really isn't worth the fight. The next day, you'll wake up and not even remember what you were fighting about but you will sure remember how you made each other feel. A quote I heard Elder Oaks I think say went something like "Should you disagree, do not be disagreeable." You can have different opinions and even voice them if you really feel that it is wrong. But don't fight about dumb little things and let that get in the way of your friendship, and even more important, your brotherhood. Gavin, do you remember when we used to fight all the time. The same with you Connor. We all used to fight a lot and there was yelling and crying and frankly, I hate those memories. But the ones of us going out and playing soccer or tennis or riding dad's scooter around or staying up late talking about life, those are the ones I love to think about! Remember how much you really love each other and don't worry about little disputations that you think are life changing but really aren't. Instead realize that your actions and decisions can be life changing, either for the better or worse. Look at me go, like I'm dad or something. You guys are big boys now. You can make your own decisions. But one lesson you need to learn now is that dumb little things don't matter when you have to be with someone 24/7. You will have companions on your mission that just drive you bonkers! But as you focus on the good and how much you love them, everything else works itself out!

Well, now that I've done that tangent, I just want to tell you all that I love you very much! I can't wait to call home in 3 days! I have absolutely no idea when I will be calling you guys though. We will just be calling from our cell phone I believe unless we can get a member to let us borrow their phone so we can talk a little longer! It will probably be closer to the morning when everyone is up and presents have been opened and such! I will text you on Wednesday to let you know what time exactly. :) I can't wait!!! I LOVE YOU!!! 

~Elder Kyle "Sebastian" Harris