Service Week

Mother Dear!

My packages finally came! THANK YOU! Oh man, I wish I could just give you a great big hug :) Seriously, my companion and I were so excited.. like 2 little boys on Christmas morning :) I haven’t opened the presents yet though . . .  I’m waiting till Christmas.  :)  Haha!   I’ve been sharing all the stuff that I got with the other missionaries cause they probably won’t be getting anything from their families this year. It’s terrible and just makes me sick. So thank you :)  And the Nutella . . . ahhh. 

Anyways... as far as the skype goes, I can do it any day on Christmas week. Seriously I’m free whenever. What were you planning on doing? I know Ty and Kenz are in Arkansas... are they planning on skyping in as well? What about Cody?   It would be a lot easier for you to figure things out because you can contact us the easiest.  So let me know, just know that I’m free whenever.

Haha – don’t worry, I wouldn’t walk around without shoes if you paid me :) It’s dirty. Seriously, I haven’t taken my shoes off in the past 3 months. Speaking of, tomorrow is my 3 month mark :) 

Haha!  As for medicine... I’m pretty sure you packed me good for the next 5 years... like I’m fine mom :)  I get sick every once in a while, but nothing too big.

Ahh . . . I know I shouldn’t say this but I’m kind of happy it’s not snowing... in my own selfish way.  :)  I miss it so much.   I’m sorry to hear about your Christmas cards mom.... you must be devastated. :)

Sounds like you’ve been learning a ton at Institute! How come I never went before?? You guys went to temple square too? How come you guys all of sudden start doing fun things once I leave?? Monopoly AND temple square... come on.... 

This week was awesome though - a little slow but hey check it we had a service every day this week! 8 days in a row! Like were breaking missionary records here. My companion Elder Martinez and I are getting along so well. Seriously, we’re like best friends and because of that, we teach very well together. Like in unity. 

Anyways... we’ve been talking a ton about temples this week and how we all need to strive to end up there. Ahh I miss the temple so much. I definitely took it for granted. It’s so amazing that there’s 8 temples within an hour or two of us. Such a blessing. I guess you can add it to the list ....

Seriously though, I’m so grateful to wake up in the morning and just have water and power. At home, I wouldn’t of even though twice about it.  This week wasn’t too bad. Our water only shut off once and it was only for a day. As for power... we don’t have much. We don’t ever have it during the day and occasionally we have it at night.

Anyways, enough of that.  On Tuesday we painted the house of the family Olivares. Haha!  It’s so strange to me. I  don’t know who would trust 2, 18 year old boys to paint their house but whatever.  I mean it doesn’t look good, but they were happy :) 

On Wednesday, we broomed the dirt of this guys house (Gustavo Echeandia)  and broke up the bees nests. Haha! He gave me a fossil of a sea shell. It’s pretty dope. :)  Thursday. we did some more painting. #givingtrees #itmustbechristmas

All of them make us food as a reward, and on Thursday.. well... I guess you could say it’s the crazy food of the week.... haha squid! It was fine. Just imagine a chewy fish. I’m getting more used to the food and the culture here.. but some things are just ridiculous.  For example, when the people finish gutting their chickens or fish or whatever creature they’re about to eat, they throw the guts out on the street.. like what? I dunno I guess the dogs need to eat too.

Also on Thursday, IT RAINED! Oh my word, it was seriously the best day of my life!  I was so happy I just ran outside and embraced it. Don’t worry, I have a video :) Also on Thursday, Elder Martinez got made DL and guess what! I’m the new English Teacher in Talara... so I teach a class to the other Latino missionaries every week.

Friday was hilarious. a funny story. There was this guy, and he was drunk out of his MIND. We call them "borachos". Anyways.. these borachos always come over to us and talk to us and they will like grab our hands and they won’t let go.. or they will like grab our shoulders and get in our faces.. sometimes it’s a little scary, but it’s not to bad anymore. Anyways... so there was this one and we just decided that we were gonna give him a hard time. I know what you’re thinking... a horrible idea, I know. But we gotta entertain ourselves somehow :) Soo he grabbed me, and I just gave him this big smile and I pointed in the distance and I was like WOAHH LOOK!!  And he was like what?? And he starts spinning in circles!! Haha!  He couldn’t even stand up!  And I’m pointing and he’s trying to figure out what I’m looking at for like 2 minutes hahahah and he’s just SOO confused. It was pretty funny. 

Saturday, we fasted. We fasted for Hermana Blanca.. the one with the baptismal date because she has a problem. She can’t attend church every week cause she has a little market that she runs and her husband won’t let her off. Soo.. we’ve been trying everything... and we just fasted that his heart would be softened. To be continued...

Sundays are always great. I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting. We had a couple of our investigators come.. but not all.   It’s tough when that happens cause we were so stinkin hard all week and then they don’t keep their commitments...

Later that night, we watched that first presidency show. I don’t know what you call it in English. I’m sorry! Haha! It ended later than we had anticipated and when we walked to the car spot to drive us back to our area but all the cars had finished for the night.... so, we waited.. and waited.. anddd nothing. By this time it’s LATE and we had no idea what to do... so we just walked to the zone leaders room and slept there for the night. It wasn’t bad.. besides the fact I haven’t showered in a couple days :) It’s just like normal now.. I feel bad for my wife.

That’s about it this week.  I’ve been guiding just about everything these past 2 weeks.. and it’s tough, but I’m learning a ton so I can’t complain, right?:)  We’ve been contacting everyone we can find and it’s just not turning up. We only had 4 baptisms in the whole year in our area and 3 of them left to Piura and Lima - so 1 recent convert. But hey, were workin hard. Every day I’m exhausted.  I’m just trying to do my part, and I guess I just gotta be patient :)

Hope you guys have a great week! 

Love and miss you!

-Elder Harris