This Week Was Great, En Serio

This week was great, en serio.

I cannot tell you guys how much I’ve learned this week.  It seems as if every week in my mission, I learn more and more.  There are so many people that I associate with every day that are just such good examples. We have a recent convert named Raquel.  She was baptized last month and she literally is the nicest. I think I told you guys a little bit about her but she reminds me of Grandma Kris.  Their personalities are identical! We walk in her house and she was like oh my word you guys need some food don’t you.. sit here, I’m going to go cook something.  We were like uhhh okay yeah we´d like some food.

A less active member named Francesca... we talked about repentance and it reminded me a lot of Skyler’s talk that he gave.. I loved what he said that we shouldn’t think of repentance as wickedness.. but rather as humility and strength.  What a great gift we have to be clean. If you haven’t seen the Mormon Message  "LIFT", go watch it.  It’s amazing. Tell me what you think after :)  "That’s what service does,... it heals us"

OH MY WORD - WE MET A CRAZY LADY THIS WEEK.. We just knocked on her door and she let us in and then she started talking.. and talking.. and talking.. literally like 20 minutes straight.  She kept repeating.. "LOOK AT THIS DOOR.. THIS DOOR IS MADE OF WOOD... WOOD COMES FROM THE EARTH." Like what?

She was like hey pass me your Mormon bible and then she starts like this chant to God, opens to a random scripture, looks at me and was like "READ IT!  Let’s see what God wants us to hear".   Iwas like oh my word, you’re nuts and I closed the Book of Mormon and she about had a heart attack. She was yelling at us telling we "rejected the word of God from our own bible".  Then she kicked us out.  So . . . 

We have this family... Nestor and Patricia and they’re amazing.  Seriously, I wish you guys could be here. I am witnessing a miracle.  I am watching them change their lives.  They’ve come to church the last 2 Sundays and it’s amazing to see how big of a difference it has made in their relationship and in their family. 

I heard a quote this week that sometimes we take the Gospel for granted.  It’s true.  As a missionary, I’m always thinking about how everything was taken from me.. my family, my friends, my house, all the good things that I had in Utah.. but then I realized, how grateful that I am, and we are, that we have the Gospel.  How grateful I am that we have knowledge of our Savior and how to become clean. That we have the knowledge that we can live forever with our families in His presence.. It truly is a wonderful gift.

This week was great... but... yes, we did have some problems.  So Saturday, one of the Elders here in the office had some pain in his stomach.  We told him to drink some water and he would be fine.. but it got worse, and worse and by the afternoon, he couldn’t even stand up.  We ended up rushing him to the emergency room and apparently his appendix has ruptured and was poisoning his blood and he needed an emergency operation.  It was a little scary, but everything turned out well and yes, he’s still alive :) haha!  Saturday night was a little hectic, we were at the Hospital until like 11:30 and we had church the next morning.  He´s still in the hospital recovering, but he’s doing a lot better.  We´ve been taking rotations as missionaries staying with him so he’s not alone. haha :) 

Anyways, I’ve got get going.  We’re going to have a party because it’s my companions birthday. :) 

Love you guys, hope you have a great week!

- Elder Harris