Last Transfer . . .

Well, I just got out of an interview with President Rasmussen... that’s why I’m emailing you so late.  I did get transferred.. I’m not in Chulucanas anymore.  Now I’m with Elder Buenning (St. George - Desert Hills) and we are the new traveling assistants.  Our new assignment is basically to help with supervising the work and do all that we can to help and train the other missionaries. I will be coming home with Elder Buenning since we’re from the same group.

Last week for the 4th of July, my comp and I celebrated with chicken that we bought and ate it on the top of our roof as we looked at the stars and chatted.  It was nice and a great way to relieve all the stress that we built up. 

On Tuesday we had interviews with Pres. Rasmussen.  It was an "obedience interview" and he made a list of questions that he asked to every missionary to see how obedient they actually were.  We started chatting and chatting, and I was waiting for him to ask me the questions, but he never did. He just looked at me and says "I know you’re doing what you’re supposed to." He thanked me and then said "can we end with a prayer?"  I was a little stunned but didn’t question it. Haha.

I also had a baptismal interview that day in Tambo Grande.  It was tough, the first baptism that I’ve rejected. He answered the questions perfectly, and his testimony of of the restored Gospel was powerful, but he just wasn’t ready to take the step to be baptized. He wasn’t fulfilling all of the commandments. It about ripped my heart out, but we set some goals together, and I know that one day he will enter into the waters of baptism.

I also got to see one of my buddies that returned home about 8 months ago. He just showed up randomly to a recent convert family we were visiting with his wife!

We’ve been helping a ton a less active RM. He returned from his mission about 6 years ago and hasn’t gone to church in a long time.  After talking about the restoration of the Gospel, he looked at us and said "I know Joseph Smith was called by God", he then expressed his feelings that he was ready to change.  That night he called the President of the branch and asked for a interview.  Everything went great, he went to the activity we had on Friday night and church on Sunday!!

Oh yeah, we had a super awesome activity on Friday night.. boys vs girls, we called it the competition of Adam and Eve, clever, right? :) We played all sorts of games, like dragontail, stomp your neighbors balloon, grapes in water, human knot, etc... a ton of people showed up and we were super pleased with it :) 

Saturday night we received the transfers.  They just told me that I was gonna have a special assignment.  As for my companion, he’s staying in Chulucanas and is gonna train a new missionary. I’m happy for him :) 

I felt absolutely devastated when I heard the news, I thought for sure that I would end my mission there because I had such little time left... but God has other plans for me.  Saying goodbye about tore me apart, I even cried if you can believe that.  We had about 8 dinners with members.  I truly grew to love them like my family.. as I laid down in my bed for the last time, I was happy. Extraordinary happy because I felt like I had given that area all I had, even if we didn’t have the most success in the world.  I will never forget that place.

I have millions and millions of pics, I’ll send you a few right now and I’ll show you the rest when I get home :) 

I love you guys. 

-Elder Harris

WE HAVE THE BOOK!!!

Hey, guess what?  I ate at Chili´s last week!  :)  It was the best food I’ve eaten in 2 years! I was so happy :)

Monday night we had an appointment with these awesome investigators and we walked like 2 miles to get to their house. They weren’t there and it ended up falling through.. we were a little bummed out, trying to think about what we should do next. We stop and offer a quick prayer and right as we finished, a voice called out to us and told us to come... We presented ourselves and ended up finding a really awesome couple that wanted to hear our message. They didn’t have light in their house so it was hard to see, but we could feel it.  I know that God send us to them...

Oh so get this, we enter into this house, and this guy is there with his family and he says, okay if you can answer me one question, I will let you stay. We smiled and said "okay go ahead." :) This was his question: If we are all God´s children, why did he only send Christ to the Middle East and not to the Americas? Oh my word, we about died. We were smiling from ear to ear, because WE HAVE THE BOOK!!!!!! We presented it to him and then we gave him a copy of The Book of Mormon and told him to read it.  He´s already read a ton of chapters and he came to church to us this week with his daughter... haha! What a miracle! :) And the best part, he even told an Evangelist preacher that he was "dumb" for not believing in the Book of Mormon! Hahaha!  This guy is the man.

Wednesday we helped this sister weed her backyard – it was more like a forest. It’s a good thing I’ve had a lot of practice :) 

Thursday, oh my word, we literally traveled all day long. We had to pick up some documents in Tambo Grande and bring them to Piura and it was quite the adventure.  We left at 8 AM and didn’t get back to Chulucanas til like 4 PM.  On the bright side, I ended up sitting to a less active member of the church on the ride there and we had a nice chat and she even said she was gonna go to church this past week for the first time in 8 years! On the way back, I found myself sitting by a nun from Cincinnati so we had a good chat.... NUNS ARE CRAZY!!!

It was my companion’s birthday this week so we did the famous egg throw on his head... :) 

We started our fast on Saturday afternoon.  We were fasting for some progression here in Chulucanas, and as we were fasting, we pass by the house of this member to see how he’s doing.  He told us to wait for a minute to call his friend and he then made a lesson for that same night for us to meet up and it turned out really well.

Sunday was testimony meeting. I felt the spirit so strong as the members were sharing their testimonies and I felt prompted to share mine... sometimes as missionaries I feel like we’re always testifying of the restoration and the Book of Mormon and we forgot to testify of Him... I know that He lives. He is my Savior, and He has healed me.  I love Him, and I serve Him.

After I sat down, my buddy Ricarte who is a RM from Bolivia stood up for the first time in 2 years.  He told me that he felt impressed to stand up after he heard my testimony.  I guess God works in mysterious ways.. He prompted me to stand up so that Ricarte would have the opportunity to share his.

I love the mission, Mom. I don’t want to come home. I don’t want to come home. I don’t want to come home.

-Elder Harris

love you guys