Called to Serve in the Peru Piura Mission

Monday, August 17, 2015

I'm a Cowboy Directing Cows



Family!

Okay so this week was great, like always :)

Things are great here in the office... I would stay here for the rest of my mission, or I would leave tomorrow... just whatever He wants me to do. :) I truly am enjoying it though... I was telling one of my good buds, Elder Soto (my 1st companion in Sullana) that the things I’ve learned in the office, I wouldn’t have been able to learn if I was working outside.  Almost as if there are 2 lines of learning (trust me it works better with hand motions) and one line is missionary work outside, and the other line is the work I’ve learned here.  Both good, just different :) 

Monday we got up early to help with the transfers . . . basically we just sit at the bus stations and tell people where to go.  I imagined it like this... the cows are the missionaries.  If no one is there, they just bunch up and look at each other waiting to be told where to go... now, this is where the cowboy comes in aka grandpa Dennie.  PS that’s me.. anyway that’s what we did, just directed the cows.





After that we got to go to CHILIS!!! AHHH amazing!  It was super fun though because like half of my group from the MTC came with us and we had a good time talking about good memories :)  The missionaries from my group are some of my best friends in the mission.

Tuesday was SUPER cool... I got to pick up my friend, Bradi Richan aka Hermana Richan from the airport.  It was really, really good to see someone that I knew from home.  We took a bus with all the new missionaries to the mission home and then had a few presentations. After that we had some "chill time" so I got to catch up with Sister Richan and get to hear about everything that was going on back in Alpine :)   Oh my word, it was like my favorite part of the week. haha.  Turns out too that were gonna be in the same zone! 



Later that night we helped the Lengua family (their son Ledwey served with Cody in Argentina) sand and paint their bars on their doors and windows.. not kidding, I love their family.  Every time I talk with Ledwey it’s almost as if I’m talking with Cody.. man I miss him.

Wednesday we had another training with the new missionaries.  We ate tacos and who doesn’t love tacos?  Later we had a lesson with one of our investigators, Oscar Cunya.  He had a baptismal date for the 29 of August but we don’t think its gonna work out..... we just don’t feel that he’s ready for baptism.  We had a great lesson with him though, we talked about the love of God and how immense it truly is.  Maybe if you have your scriptures right there you can look up one of my favorite scriptures Romans 8: 38-39.

Later we ate dinner with one of my favorite members, Hermano Hernandez.  I’ve talked about him before about being a great example of someone who shares and gives everything he posses, I don’t know if you remember? Anyway, he had his whole family over including his son in law from Spain and it was super cool to talk with him and understand his culture a little better. Really fun :)

Thursday........ more trainings............ haha not kidding this whole week was straight trainings and meetings.  We had a lesson with a recent convert, Raquel Madrid. We talked about fasting and the power that we receive when we fast with a real intent. My testimony of the fast has grown so much over this past year, it’s incredible.

Friday we had a zone meeting and I guess there’s going to be some changes in the mission. From now on, every day from 6 - 8 PM all were going to do is knock doors.  Quite strange and there’s been a lot of stress throughout the mission, but I guess it’s what we talked about last week with the wheat and the tares.  Sometimes we don’t know why, but I have a testimony that President Rasmussen receives revelation for this mission, so I promised myself, and God, that I would follow him.  It’s been tough, but hey were making it work :) "If we say we´re disciples of Christ, we MUST pay a token even as He did.  Suffer... even a portion, the way He suffered" - Jeffrey R Holland.

Friday night was tough. Our investigator Joao and his wife split.  You could see the pain in his eyes, almost as if we didn’t know what we could possibly to do help this man.  We testified of the Book of Mormon.... about the peace, and the happiness that we receive when we truly look for Him.  We invited Joao to read it from the beginning... I’ll keep you updated next week :)

Sunday we talked a whole lot about charity.  So I’ve made it a goal that in every day, EVERY MOMENT I’m going help someone. So Sunday night when we were super tired, I said hey I’m going to make some dinner for my companions. I whipped up some ARROZ CHAUFA and we had a good meal together :)



Earlier in the day we ate lunch with Bishop Melgar and his family.  We talked a lot about their descendants, the Incans.  And it hit me... hard.  I haven’t had something touch me this hard in a long time.  I feel like this past year I have only been worried about my personal learning and adapting to this culture.  And it hit me that I don’t really know who THEY are... and the more that they talked to me about where they came from, and their past, it hit me that it’s not supposed to be about me.  It’s about learning about them and their past and learning about their culture and why they are the people they are.  I feel like I’ve judged them the past year for not being like us... American.  But it’s because that they never had the opportunity to progress like we have.  The Spanish came and destroyed their whole empire. Burned every record and story they had... tortured and killed their people.  And from that point on, they continued to kill and diminish them. They aren’t like us because they never had a chance to grow like us.... and I think this lesson is bigger than just a nation.

Alright, sorry about rambling on and making it so long :)
Things are great here, hope you guys can feel my prayers and my love.  :)

Have a great week, love you!

-Elder Harris



Here are a couple of pictures from our pday a couple of weeks ago.  So we start on this hike and we see this house that is pretty isolated from EVERYTHING. Haha anyways, this girl was outside her house and Elder Soto waved at her and asked her if she wanted some Doritos. She was a little shy and quite confused what a "Dorito" was, but she decided to try one.  She put it in her mouth and not kidding about had a heart attack.. SHE LOVED THEM.  She stuck her hand back in the bag and grabbed a HUGE handful. Oh it was to die for.  We had to take a pic... excuse the bed sheet cape – it’s a long story.




This lady lives HOURS into the mountains - COMPLETELY ISOLATED from everything and everyone.  Not kidding, I don’t know how she’s still alive.  She had like her own well and her own crops.  We chased her chickens around and she gave us some water so we called her homie.  


The rest of the pictures are from the trip














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