Feb 16, 2015

Hey family!

I don't really know what to write! This week was quite good. Our most progressing investigator is a newer Chinese investigator named Alan. He is way solid. He loves the church, as we invited him to be baptized on the 7th of March his reply was, "do I have to quit smoking by then?" we replied that of course he did, and he said, "No problem, 2015 is my year!" haha It was great. HE's really awesome. 

I love Swansea. I am gutted to the core that I only have 6 weeks here because of how much I am enjoying the area. This morning I woke up and as I was putting on my badge I realized that I only have 3 more weeks as a missionary. I was devastated. I will be fine, but I've never had to deal with anything so emotionally challenging! haha I'm pathetic I know.  

One of the highlights this week was teaching all of the people from the born-again church that we attended last week. None of them will even open the book of mormon, but besides that they are great, and I hope that we will develop a relationship that will last beyond the mission. 

I got to go to the mission office this week for a district leader training meeting, where I got to see some of my good mission friends... some of them for the last time ever as they live in various parts of Europe and the U.S. It was especially good to see Elder Costigan- he's serving as a district leader in Coventry and is experiencing very similar things to me as I served there. He loves it! 

  

tomorrow is Zone Conference, and I've been asked to give my departing testimony! I never thought that day would come, but it will be great! 

This week I will focus on focusing! haha I need to completely forget that there is a time limit and just smell the roses and soak in all I can. I love you all so much! thanks for being such an excellent support for me. Keep me and Elder Magda, as well as our investigators in your prayers. Love you!

Elder Harris. 

Feb 9, 2015

Good morning family!

It has been a solid week! 

On monday we were able to add another chinese investigator to our teaching pool. He's way cool, his name is Johnny, he loves snowboarding, and we talked about snowboarding for ages and were able to connect on that level.  During P-day, we were just walking to the shops and we felt prompted to stop a guy, the only guy we stopped during p-day. His name is Martin. He's been in Swansea only about 2 months. He prayed before he left his house that god would give him direction in his next step in life, and he ran into us 30 minutes later. He came to church yesterday and really enjoyed it! we're hoping that he is someone that we can help be baptized during the course of this transfer. I know that god knows exactly where his children are that are seeking for the truth. As President Rasmussen once explained to us, when the university in Loughborough closed down for proselyting and we had no idea what to do he said, "If  Jesus asked the apostles to cast their nets and they were filled with fish, won't he make it possible for you to cast your nets on a different side of the boat?" 

On Tuesday we had a feast at a less-active's house, his name is Helder. He's from Portugal. He game to church this week, and gave our investigator a lift! he is becoming really excited about the gospel, and I think he will be back in full activity in no time. 

The hills of Swansea are killing me! from being in a car for a year straight, to biking up these crazy hills is quite the dramatic change! ha I am definitely struggling sometimes, but at the same time it's helping me to get into good shape so that's good. I always heard the missionaries talk about the infamous "hills of wales" and I always thought they were over-exaggerating big time. They weren't. It takes us about 30 minutes to bike to church and about 7 minutes to get back haha. 

I am getting used to being a district leader. I really like it! I really wish I had the opportunity to serve as a district leader earlier on my mission, because of how closely we're able to work with the missionaries. I think it's the most important leadership responsibility in the mission. If all of the district leaders were extremely sharp, there would be no need for the other callings except for the administration. 

We went to an appointment with our investigator, Jean, and she asked if we could meet her at a community center. We met here there, and it was actually a born-again christian church service. They were simultaneously yelling prayers, speaking in tongues, and doing other things that I'd never previously been a part of, and it freaked me out. There was definitely a spirit that it brought, but not THE spirit.  I did love when they broke into singing though. that was good. 

This week we are going to find and find and find. I love finding in city center's! we have found that in the afternoon's the students are in the city-center, so every day from 2-5 we will be contacting. I can't wait! This week will be the last week that we can find people that can be baptized during this transfer, so it's going to be absolutely crucial! please pray for our success that we will find someone who can be baptized on the 7th of March! 

I love you so much! I love this work. I love Swansea! I love Elder Magda! I love Jesus Christ. 

Take care!

Elder Sam Harris

Feb 2, 2015

Family!!

As I'm sure dad has told you, I'm finally in Wales! I'm serving in Swansea in South Wales. It's on the beach, it's absolutely beautiful! it's also freezing cold, but that's not too much of a difference :) I forgot how much I love the ocean. I could just sit and watch the ocean for hours and hours and never get tired of it! Every single day since I've been here it has rained, hailed, and snowed, and been perfectly clear sky's. I've never had more bi-polar weather! it makes for interesting days though so it's all good. 

Dealing with transfers for the last time was bittersweet. One of my favorite things as a missionary has been working with President Rasmussen and especially when it comes time for transfers. I will forever be in debt to President and Sister Rasmussen by teaching me so much from their example in their selfless service. They work so hard, hardly get any sleep, deal with loads of complaining missionaries, and they never take a second to have a pity party, or to complain about their efforts. 

My companion is Elder Magda. He is awesome! He is from Hungary, he's been out for about a year, and he's ready to work! we've already seem some great miracles since we've been here. 

One of my favorite things about the area has been the fact that we are once again working with Chinese investigators. That is something that I have always loved and I forgot how much I really love them. We were able to pick up 2 new chinese investigators since I've been here on Thursday and I think that they will be really solid! Another investigator that we are working with is named Stephen. Stephen has severe social disabilities, but he is incredibly intelligent. He reads everything that we give him, and he asks questions that people would only ask if they were sincerely pondering about the gospel.  He texted us on Friday saying that he didn't want anything to do with the church anymore, because there were too many commandments. We asked if we could visit him just one more time that night. He agreed, so we did. We had a powerful lesson with him where we resolved his concerns, spent 90% of the time just listening to what he was saying, and more importantly what he was feeling. By the end we were inspired to share various principles that really helped him, and he came to church yesterday. Hopefully we will be able to put him on a baptismal date this week as he's been hesitant since this week.  Please keep Stephen in your prayers! 

On Friday evening we also had a ward activity, it was great to meet the new ward. Unfortunately it's really sad that I'll only be in Swansea for 6 weeks total, because it's an area with good members, good proselyting, good chapel location, etc. It's hard to be motivated to work with the members closely when I know that working with members doesn't produce instant results in less than 6 weeks, but I know that it's the right thing, so we will have to find a good balance.  

I'm sincerely getting anxious about coming home. I'm trying hard not to think about it, but it freaks me out to think that I won't be a missionary! I forgot how to be normal. I think I will be fine once I start playing golf, but other than that I'm going to be a lot of help. I will try my best to focus on the work for these last 5 weeks and leave it all on the field. 

I love and miss you all so much! I am grateful for an incredible family who has supported me all of this time, and that will continue to support me in my last transfer. I'll be excited to tell you about more new investigators next week. We are going to be finding our butts off. love you! have a great week :) 

Elder Harris. 

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. 

December 20, 2014

Hey family! this was a crazy week. actually it was a really emotional one, but overall is was great!

We worked on transfers for most of the day- all day for sunday and monday, it's been a great experience both times. On Sunday we found out that Elder Higham would be going to Birmingham City Center for his new area, called Harborne, and that my new companion would be Elder Lu. Elder Lu is great! he's from Provo, he went to Timpview. Both of his parents are Chinese so he speaks it perfectly. unfortunately, there are no chinese students or chinese people at all in our area, but it's still cool.  I've really been impressed with him so far. 

On Tuesday we gathered all of the departing missionaries from the train station and had our last night with them. definitely my best friends in the mission, elders and sisters, were in this group departing, which made for a really bittersweet moment. One of the sad things is as much as we like to think we'll hang out after the mission, with missionaries from all over the world, and going to different universities, etc. It will be so hard for us to stay close! Taking them to the airport was especially hard and seeing them leave, but all of these changes will be for the better. 

Transfers week is always a bit hectic with our sleep schedule. Monday to Tuesday we got 2 hours of sleep, and we got about an hour and a half from Tuesday to Wednesday. I didn't mind because we were so busy the whole time dealing with the new missionaries incoming Wednesday morning, but we had a fun surpriseon Wednesday night. We had assigned for 3 sister missionaries to drive to Wales, 3 hours away, to get to their new areas. President decided that because one of them had never driven in the U.K, he didn't want her first experience to be on the free-way, the other sister didn't have her license, and the third has just gotten off of 21 hours of flying from Provo without any sleep, so Elder Lu and I got to drive to Wales on Wednesday evening. Every 45 minutes or so we made a trip to a gas station to fuel up on snacks and drinks to keep us awake and going. In the end there was no real problems drowsy driving or anything, and it was actually way fun! let's just say I had no problem falling asleep that night, or any of the nights proceeding. 

Thursday we got exciting news about a member referral named Simon. So a recent convert named Brett who's been baptized since June brought a friend to churh, and now were teaching him! He is a really great guy with a lot of real-intent. He loves the Book of Mormon and church, so that makes for a great opportunity for us.  We'll keep you posted with how he is doing.  

For P-day today, we are going to buy loads and loads of chinese food. Elder Lu is basically a chef. I have been SHOCKED by the quality of food he has made for us already in just a few days. He's also on a very strict diet, that he's asked me if I'll do to help him, I was already doing one anyways so it will work out really well.  

So... for Christmas, I will call you sometime between 10-11 a.m. your time! I hope that is ok. Please let me know if that's not ok. if anything changes, I'll let you know immediately. we will be skyping at a part-member family house. THey are great and were more than happy to let us use their computers!  

Well, the church is true. It still will be for the next 2 transfers but I'll probably keep reminding you all :) Especially in this amazing season, I am grateful for Jesus Christ. For his example, for his love, for his atonement, and for him reaching out in love to us, his brothers and sisters, and restoring the truth to the earth today. Have a great week!! 

Love, 

Elder Harris. 

P.S. I have received all of the Christmas packages, thank you so much! I'm waiting until Christmas to open them :)