Testimony of the Book of Mormon

Here is the Video Sam asked us to watch last week:

Coventry is the Shiz

How are you guys doing!!

 This week was incredible. The work has never been so good! On Monday we taught Luke the Plan of Salvation, and when we attempted to commit him to baptism he says, "I know I need to be baptized, to be saved, but I need to be positive that it is by the priesthood, and the correct church." Although he didn't commit to a date, it's amazing to have an investigator with such intense real intent. I'm very confident that as he continues to read and pray he will come to the knowledge that nothing will bring him more happiness. Please pray for him! He came to church yesterday, and shaved, and wore a white shirt and tie! he's the best!

On Tuesday we accidentally got a new investigator, I know that sounds weird. We went to visit a lady named Joyce, who we thought was a less-active, so we committed her to have the lessons again, and to come to church for the 24th of November, and then after we looked at her records and found out she was a former investigator, so that was cool! haha we had the privledge of teaching a few lessons at the University this week which I loved so much!

Wednesday we put our investigator Aramaide on a baptismal date for the 7th of December, and she is amazing as well, one of the only English investigators we have.

On Thursday Elder Timothy J. Dyches of the second quorem of the seventy came to the mission and gave an excellent zone conference on managing time wisely, and goal setting, and the plans we need to make to make the goals happen! I learned a lot and am excited to apply what I've learned.

On Friday I went on exchange with my zone-leader named Elder Hansen. the guy is nuts! He only has a few weeks left of his mission, and he is just a work-horse! I look up to him a lot and hope to be able to have that kind of motivation all the way to the end of these 2 years. We taught this polish girl for the first time named nina! she is soo elect! she says, "my mom told me I need to find the church that feels right for me, so I guess I'm just looking," She totally understands the need for a prophet and a restoration of the church, and it exited about further investigating, shortly after we taught 2 more lessons, where we were able to gain another investigator named Emily. Later that night we visited a less-active part-member family who are going to start doing their family history at the Stake center which is close to their home, and the husband is now investigating as well!

On Saturday we played football with all of the missionaries and it was a blast, followed by a really good lesson with our investigator Gifty, she let us know this week that her baby has died 8 months ago, and we read Moroni 8 with her and the spirit was very strong! Shortly after we taught a first lesson to a boy named Boscol who is now on a date for the 14th of December!

Sunday was awesome! Luke was our only investigator at church which was a bummer, because 4 investigators committed to coming! but with faith and love they will come. Later that night we gained 3 more investigators, including 2 chinese girls that I love so much! It's amazing to see the faces of the chinese light up when the idea of a loving heavenly father finally clicks in their head! I love the chinese!

So.. with the help of the Lord, Elder DeBeikes and I were able to find 8 new investigators this week, it was absolutely unreal! Please pray especially for Luke, Margaret, Irene, Aramaide, Boscol, Nina, Gifty, and Michael. They are the most solid and have the most real intent. I am honestly loving my mission. I'm so grateful that I served In Eastwood first, because I get to see the best of both worlds when it comes to finding and teaching, I know we would not be as successful in coventry without the things I have learned in Eastwood, and the things Elder DeBeikes has learned from his previous companion. I've said this before, but it's impossible to express how I feel. I just love it! Because it's Thanksgiving/Christmas time, it's bizzare not being home, however, I feel like England is also home now, so I have this extreme desire to be in both places! I know the lord will bless my family as I work hard as a missionary, so if things aren't going good, you'll have to tell me to work a little harder ;) Love you guys so much!

Spiritual thought for this week is Doctrine and Covenants 59:21. We need to have Gratitude in everything we do! Also here is a cool story. When Elder Ballard was asked, "What is the worst sin??" his reply was, "The one you feel like you can get away with," WOW.

Love you!

Elder Samuel Harris

11-11

oy!! Guys... I love it here. As torn apart as I was to leave Eastwood, I think I love it here as much as I loved Eastwood, and I've only been here for a few days! Elder DeBeikes is the man, and we get along really well, and are very similar in so many ways! He is a sick kid! My District leader is Elder Packer, who is one of my best friends in the mission, and the city is still full of foreigners! We were able to get 6 new investigators this week, all through our finding efforts which was a huge blessing! So now, we have 2 investigators from England, and then 1 from India, Romania, China, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, and Poland. Pretty sweet! They are all Uni-students except for 1 of them is probably about 40. I love finding in Coventry, everyone has such a strong passion for their belief in God, and are so intrigued with our beliefs, and so humble in hearing our message. A night and day difference from my finding experiences in Eastwood. One of our new investigators didn't have time to talk when we tracted into him (Which is a common excuse for they just don't want anything to do with us) but he asked us where our church was. We were amazed when he showed up at church on Sunday and loved it! Another cool miracle was on wednesday when Elder DeBeikes and I were street contacting, we saw from Dominos pizza that said, "personal Pizza only £1, so we decided to take a break from street contacting to get a pizza, while the pizza was cooking, we had 5 minutes before it was finished, so we decided to contact for those 5 minutes, during those 5 minutes we found our investigator named Luke, who is 19, from Romania, and he basically said, "I've heard some weird things about your church, can I find out for myself if they are true or not" He came to church on sunday, and asked us what he can do to become a missionary! We have been blessed. We put our chinese investigator Ernie on a date for the 7th of December, and will be putting more on a date during this week. life is good! I love all of you so much! I love being a missionary and serving in a place that has been prepared for people to hear the message of the restoration of Jesus Christ's church. I'm so grateful for the Priesthood and for the blessings we receive as we forget ourselves and love god. I love the Book of Mormon so much, and I also love Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. When he speaks to us with his boldness and his incredible testimony of the savior and his teachings, I cannot deny that he is a man of god, and that he is a man inspired by god. attatched is his testimony of the Book of mormon with some cool video clips. I love you guys! Have an amazing week. Church is true, book is blue :) http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages, then type in "testimony of the book of mormon" and you'll see it. only takes about 5 minutes! Oh and I'm not sure if I included this in last email, but there are these 2 members in the ward that remind me so much of Preston and Jeremy! I love when we get to spend time with them, and we are probably going to spend our p-day messing around with them doing something nuts! anyways Cheers! Elder Samuel Joseph Harris

I am in Coventry!

Hey! Well, as you guys already know,I am in Coventry! It has been amazing so far. It is so much different than Eastwood, honestly, it feels like an entirely different part of the world. In Eastw. ood I'd be lucky to see one person a day who wasn't english, and in Coventry, EVERYONE is from different parts of the world. Let me just say that finding people in Coventry is probably going to be 5x easier than it was in Eastwood, basically everyone will stop and chat! and guess what... THE UNIVERSITY IS IN OUR AREA! tons of Uni students everywhere and it's paradise. Monday was my last p-day, we spent it in derby just kickin it and eating kebabs and chillin' with the derby elders and helping out sister wengert because she got hit by a car! but she's ok so don't worry, Some antio-biotics that I was taking were making me really sick, so we didn't have much of a proscelyting post-p-day. We found out that I am obviously in Coventry, and that I will be serving with Elder DeBeikes. He is a really cool kid from California. He is super humble and a hard worker, and we have gotten along great so far! He has a full-ride scholarship to BYU playing american football, so that will be really run to watch him play for the Y when we get back from our missions. HE's been out as long as Elder Pogue, so about 3 months.I know that we will have loads of success together! Tuesday I said goodbye to everyone and it was just way sad and I hated it haha but I think that just shows how much I have loved my mission up to this point, and how much the people I have come to love have served me. I packed a lot and had all you can eat sunday-dinner (basically thanksgiving dinner) with some awesome members and even a non-member who I love sooo much named Nigel. Wednesday was basically transferrs most of the day, It was weird saying goodbye to Elder Pogue, he was one of the best friends I've ever had, and it didn't feel real that all of the sudden we just weren't going to be with each other all of the time, but his new companion is an incredible missionary and I know that he will be perfect for Eastwood. A massive coach took us to Coventry, where I met Elder DeBeikes and we walked to our new flat. On the walk there I was amazed at Coventry. HOnestly all of the different cultures was amazing, and the citycenter is huge! I'm just gonna love it here. The flat is nice, bigger than my flat in Eastwood, and the beds are still unbelievably comfy. The very first guy we talked to on the street in Coventry, we got a return appointment with, and I could not have been more exited. I didn't even want to go to bed because I knew that we could just find people to teach! Thursday, we decided to go by a former investigator, and they weren't in, so we decided to knock 10 doors on the street. most golden street in England! we got some really solid return apointments, and loads of people we're so intrigued of our message, 2 people even invited us in! That never has happened to me on my mission. Not only were the people golden, but the people who weren't were hilarious! There was this one guy who was telling us about his religion, which is basically all about thor, and unfortunately, Elder DeBeikes and I weren't able to refrain ourselves from laughing, and were laughing uncontrolably at his doorstep, we felt absolutely terrible. It was one of those moments when it's definitely NOT OK to laugh, but you can't help it and then you don't even know why you're laughing. anyways hard to exxplain, and you kind of had to be there, but it was a great day. Friday we had weekly planning, talked to a lot of people, and I got hit by a car as I was talking to Elder Pogue asking him how things were going in Eastwood, but It honestly hurt less than if someone were to kick me, so it was fine. and it was maybe going a few miles an hour, much more funny than it was painful or serious so no wories! Saturday we had stake conference, and got to teach one of the people we found on Thursday from that awesome street. His name is Shiv and he's from India. THe lesson was going terribly because Elder DeBeikes and I haven't practiced teaching together yet, but at the end of the lesson, he offered the prayer and it was amazing! the spirit was so powerful and he felt it so strongly. Sunday was also stake conference and it was great, all about member missionary work! that is how the work of salvation is going to come forth, when the missionaries and members have the same purpose! to invite people tocome unto christ by helping them receive the restored gospel! We volunteered giving food out for the homeless in Coventry and it was amazing! The North-point church or something like that is the church that is in charge, and they are just some amazing people who love serving! It was humbling to see how grateful some of them were for the food we were passing out and the things we were helping them out with! We are so blessed to have what we have! We taught Lisa, who was another lady from elect street, and she is a really cool asian girl studying at the university. She said she didn't feel anything as she was reading the book of mormon about King-Lamoni's father's conversion, and then she told us that she couldn't pray because no one in China prays. so we committed her to pray and I'm actually really exited to teach her again because she has real intent. So there are these two members in coventry named James and Griffo and they are so sick! One night James just called us and was like "Let's make taco's" so he picked us up and we made some way good taco's, and he's came out teaching with us twice, and loves serving us! I'm really exited to be in Coventry, and I know that as we work hard we will have success, whether it's people being baptized, or simply just making someones day a little bit better. Spiritual thought is Exodus 18: Moses is just a really great example of someone with humility. He is doing way too much for everyone and it's making him nuts, and someone is giving him critisism and he takes it so constructively, which is something that everyone could improve on! I love y'all so much! Please continue to keep me in your prayers, as I do with you in mine! Have an amazing week, and remember, Nothing is impossible for our savior. yolo swagger hoodrat Jerry nation Elder Harris