January 16, 2015

Dear Family!

Another great week. 11 days and I am out of the office. I'm definitely excited! it's been really weird street contacting this past week because I know that I will hardly be able to teach any of these people; nevertheless I've still tried my best.  

the baptism of Simon last saturday was wonderful! the spirit was powerful and I'm sure it will be a day that he remembers for the rest of his life. the water was extremely hot. it hurt to even dip our feet in, so we had to get buckets of cold water and put it in, but it made for a good time. He is somebody I am sure will stay active for his life. His love for the gospel is special. 

Monday we saw some sweet miracles. The first was with a girl named Shara. We contacted her and she asked us what was different between our religion and most Christian religions. Usually when people ask me this question I mention something about a modern-day prophet, or the priesthood, but for some reason I said, " we believe that God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are 3 seperate beings." she said that she was doing a study on that exact topic a few nights ago, and so she asked us if she could buy us some food and ask us more questions about our religion. so we walked to a cafe and sat down! it was great!  she is way cool. We are going to meet with her again in a couple of days and share the Plan of Salvation with her. 

30 minutes later we saw an African lady carrying 2 large bags that looked really heavy. We asked if we could help her carry them and she actually accepted. We walked with her a ways until we got to her house, just talking to her about her family and stuff, and then she invited us into her house. We told her we only had a few minutes because we had an appointment, and she asked us if we could share with her what our church teaches in those few minutes. So we did, right then and there. We've seen her twice since. She has a bad back, and her doctor told her not to carry anything heavy. She walked a few steps our of the store, and prayed that someone would help her carry her bags home. not even 10 seconds later we asked if we could help.  God answers prayers. She is a single mother, not earning very much money. She is extremely humble! She's from Congo, and she speaks mainly French, but her English is just good enough so that we can teach her.  

Wednesday we had a new sister come into the mission, so we drove her to Nottingham where President Rasmussen was, so that she could be interviewed, and then we drove her from Nottingham to Cardiff, to her new area. we drove just as many hours as it would've taken us to get to Vegas from Lindon. the only difference is that the transmission is absolutely terrible in the van we drive. but it made me tired! 

Thursday was pretty solid. We've been working with a great investigator named Michael, I'm not sure how much I've mentioned about him. but Michael is from Lebanon. He developed different ideas than Islam, ,and when he was 35, he was brave enough to talk about it. An extremist found out about it, and promised that if he didn't leave the  country in 3 days or less, then him and his group would kill him. He left to Algeria, where he lived for several years until he moved to London. He's lived in the UK for 8 years and Birmingham for just a few weeks. He came to church this last week and loved it. He wants to be baptized. He said, " I've been waiting for this knowledge my entire life." After we shared with him the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the restoration, we told him that we were going to share with him God's plan for us, and what happens after we die. He said, " I believe after we die that our bodies stay here on earth, and our spirit goes to a place where we are instructed, and prepared for Jesus' second coming." haha he's pretty dead on. I'll keep you updated with his progress! 

Yesterday we had the follow up trainers meeting and then a great dinner appointment with the Hastings, the part-member family that were working with, the people who's house I used to skype home. They are slowly and surely coming along! I feel really pleased with the way things are going in the area, because I feel like I at one point we were really struggling to teach people, and finding was difficult, but when I leave this area the next assistant should be happy to find a big teaching pool. Even though I won't be able to see these investigatos progression the whole way through, I'm extremely satisfied and grateful for the miracles we've seen!

I hope all is well with everyone. I'm trying my best not to panic with the knowledge that home isn't too far away. I'm going to try my best to smell the roses as Dad and Spencer always tell me. I love you so much!  Have a great week, and I'm so excited to hear from you again soon! 

Elder Sam Harris

January 10, 2015

Dear Family!

This week was pretty solid! 

On Monday we spent all day sweeping the car park, preparing stake presidency reports and key indicators for the mission, in preparation for Mission Leadership Council, we started at 7:20 a.m. and finished at 10:00 p.m, with one meal in between. it was fun :).........

Tuesday we had MLC, it was a great meeting. President Rasmussen got super bold with the Zone Leaders which was great and it really helped them realize how important their role is in the mission. We focused on the talk, "Lord, Is it I?" Given by President Uchtdorf in the last General Conference.  After MLC, I got to go on exchange to Nottingham with Elder Debeikes! It was amazing to work with him, teach with him, and we stayed up pretty late talking. which was way good to catch up with him. I would totally live with him at BYU if I chose to go there when I get home! 

Wednesday we went to a chinese buffet with some of their chinese investigators.. it's absolutely unreal how much love I have for chinese people. they are so easy to love! it makes me want to finish my mission in a university area so badly! Wednesday night Elder Lu made chinese food for the part-member family that we're working with. It was loads of fun to cook together and share a relatively normal experience with them, for them to see us when we're not teaching them the gospel. One of the people in the family, Steve, really opened up to us. He let us know all of the concerns he has with the church. Sometimes investigators are afraid to tell us what they have struggle believing in, or why they don't want to join the church, because they are afraid that they will offend us. Really though, when they tell us their concerns it helps us like crazy so that we can teach for their needs. We were extremely grateful that he felt comfortable enough to open up to us about his concerns. Most of them are about Joseph Smith, which is good, because I feel that's where my testimony is strongest. 

Thursday we were able to teach Simon again. He's getting baptized tonight! we're really excited for him. He's asked me to baptize him, so I'm looking forward to that as well.  It's ridiculous how much we've been blessed this transfer. we've had hardly any time to work, but each week we've had at least 3-4 new investigators in our teaching pool, and these people are sticking around! they're not "1 and done's" as well call people in the mission who hear one lesson and then avoid the missionaries. I'm not sure what the difference has been, but I'm grateful for it none the less. 

Yesterday was a great day. A few weeks back, Elder Lu and I found a really nice lady named Deborah, but unfortunately she didn't live in our area, so the missionaries from another ward taught her. She moved into our area this week! so she is now our investigator again! that was  a big blessing. She is also doing very well, she's on a baptism date, she's been to church, she's working on quitting smoking, and she believes the church is true. Another miracle! 

Today we are going into Birmingham because an Elder left his backpack at the train station there, so we'll need to drive it back to his area in Peterborough. Then we have the baptism! we'll send pics next week. I hope that you all have an incredible week! talk to you soon!

Love you SO MUCH!!!!

Elder Harris

January 3, 2015

Fam bam! 

this week was excellent, and I  know I say this often, but it's probably been the fastest week of my mission! 

I'll start out with Simon- our progressing investigator, he will definitely be baptized next Saturday! we're really excited! He loves the church so much and is going to hopefully bring some friends with him eventually.  

Sunday I spoke at church, giving a talk on changing through the atonement of Jesus Christ. talked about how King Lamoni's father had to have real intent to change- he was willing to forsake his power, his kingdom, and all that he possessed just because he felt the possibility of there being a savior. Because of his real-intent, as he prayed he got an answer the first time, and he was a solid convert. 

On monday we met with our investigator Jane. She is in her 70's, and she is like a grandmother to us! she is so lovely, and she really likes the church so far, unfortunately she is a chain smoker, but that has never really been a big problem in the past for people who put their minds to quitting.  

For some reasons we're really getting lucky with the senior citizen's which is STRANGE. Another old black lady named pat has become one of our most solid investigators. She is from Jamaica and has lived here for 50 years. She loves the bible more than I've met anyone, so she's having a hard time accepting the book of mormon, but I'm sure all will work out.  

For New Year's Eve, we had to be in our flat at 6 because of all the parties, so Elder Lu and I made a chinese feast, and then spent the rest of the night deep-cleaning our flat. 

Thursday was one of my favorite days of my mission so far. I got to go on exchange with Elder Unice. We went to see my recent convert Ivy from Loughborough who they are now teaching and that was such a blast. Elder Unice told her we were coming at 1:30, and we didn't come until 5. She was excited to see me, and so she was waiting at the bottom of the flat complex (she lives on the 4th floor) for us to come. Right when she walked in the door she jumped into my arms and it was so good. If she was the only person I met my whole mission, it would have been worth 2 years of getting rejected all-day everyday. Thankfully it hasn't been like that :) She made us some really good chinese food like normal, and we got to catch up which was great, and then we taught her husband, Jeff.  He is struggling with the thought of god being real, but they are working through it, and I know that some day he will join the church.  Later that evening we did some street contacting, and then went around Birmingham City Center. Holy cow that place is MASSIVE!! It's the biggest city center I've been to in my life besides Time Square and Chicago.. but it's different, there is so much packed in a smaller place, and SO MANY PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. we stayed up until 3 or 4 just talking in our beds, catching up on the last year of our missions. What was so sweet about that exchange was that it was exactly a year ago that we were serving together, and it's been ridiculous to see how we've both changed and how fast the time has gone. 

We've seen some more miracles this week with finding new investigators. We were able to pick up a few new people in our teaching pool just from being prompted to stop and knock a door, or stop and drop by someone we know who had a friend around, and that's been a real testimony builder of how god knows exactly who and where his children are that are ready to listen to the gospel.  

I really love the church so much. It's crazy, the more I learn about it, the more I realize there's not enough time in a life-time to learn everything about the gospel. I can't wait to read and read and read when I get home! 

anyways, I love you all so much! I'm finally starting to love Wylde Green as a proselyting area, and I'm grateful for your prayers and thoughts. Have a great week!!

Elder Sam Harris.