The Blessings of the Lord

                                                                                                                       August 18, 2014

Hola mi familia maravillosa!!! Thank you for all of your letters this week. I can´t believe that time has passed so quickly. I think this is the last time I get to write you from the mission field as I am unsure what I will be doing next Monday.

It is so bitter-sweet right now, I can`t describe the feeling, I just want to cry and let it all out. I am so grateful for my mission and for everything I have experienced and learned while serving in Chile. The Lord knows what is best for us, and I am so grateful that He prompted me to serve a mission. I am also so grateful that I still have one more week in the mission field. This week I am going to work so hard and give my all. 

  
I have some sad news...Alejandro didn´t get baptized this week. But we are still working with him to help him change and be prepared to be baptized. I felt so sad, because I know that this is the best choice that he can make for himself and his family for all eternity, but he has his agency and I respect that. I know that Heavenly Father was strengthening him. Thank you for all of your prayers and faith, they really did make a difference because he has made so much progress and is changing. The Lord is working miracles right now and I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who helps us become the best that we can be. Please keep praying for him. 

 

We were able to visit Claudia and work with her and she was going to come to church, but sadly  wasn't able to come. We are going to visit her sometimes, but we are going to start focusing on finding new investigators to teach. We are always working to teach everyone but we need to find those who are prepared to listen, and accept this message from our Savior. Please pray that this week we will be able to find. Thank you so much!!!

 

We did better this week with working with the members. We are strengthening them and helping them, and we have received some references, but I know that as we continue to strengthen them and work together, we will be able to help them share the gospel with their friends. Mostly everyone here are converts, so they love missionary work! It is such a blessing!

On Sunday I was able to give my talk about the Savior. I spoke about how I came to love Him, and how He loved us first. I shared about His life and His Atonement and weaved a few things that I have learned on my mission about His Atonement. I also used a little from what I want to share in my homecoming talk, so we will save that for later. I felt a little bad because I went a little over my 10 minutes (got to learn to look at the clock) and the children were a little crazy so it was hard for the adults to listen. But today the zone leaders in our Ward told me that they went to lunch yesterday after church, and the Sister whom they ate with shared that she had really felt the Spirit during my talk. She had been feeling overwhelmed and was going to ask to be released from her church calling, but then she was strengthened by what I said, and was crying. I felt so good when they told me that because all I wanted was that the Spirit would be able to work through me to help those who were listening. I prepared and I did my best to deliver the message that I felt that Heavenly Father wanted me to share, and I know that the Spirit magnified what I had to offer so that Heavenly Father could help His children. The glory is His and I am so grateful for Him. We are all in His hands. 

 

This week I will get to do 2 exchanges as a sister training leader!! We were supposed to do about one a week, but with Alejandros baptism planned for last week, we postponed them. Now we will have two! That will be so exciting and help me work hard at all times. And we always see miracles when we have exchanges! 

 

Today for P-day(preparation day) we had another zone activity. We played the amazing race were we split into teams and did a picture scavenger hunt. The sisters won!!!! ha ha so fun! 

 

I am so grateful for all of the blessings of the Lord. I know that they come from obedience and diligence in living the gospel. Sometimes I feel so sad when we offer to teach people and they reject it for a number of reasons. They don´t know the blessings that they are missing. I just want everyone to have the blessings of the gospel. I know that we are called to be the Lord´s hands in blessing everyone. As we share the gospel, we will do His will, and help His children receive the blessings that He has for them. I am grateful for all of His blessings! I hope you all have an amazing week, and bask in the blessings that He has given you. But most importantly, I hope that you share those blessings with EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you all!!! Have an amazing week!!!
Hasta luego!!

 

Con todo mi amor, Hermana Harris  

La Guerra (The War)

                                                                                                          August 11, 2014

Hola mi familia!!! Thank you for your letters and for everything you are doing to live and share the gospel with everyone you know!!! I am striving to do the same!

 

This week I learned a lot about the war between good and evil. First off, we are still teaching Alejandro and he is faithfully preparing for his baptism on Saturday, but it has been a hard struggle with the Word of Wisdom. He needs your prayers now more than ever, so please keep him in your prayers every day. If this is the last baptism I can be a part of on my mission, I will be the happiest missionary ever. He has tried to prepare for baptism twice, but he kept falling, and then he didn't want to share with the missionaries after because he felt like he couldn`t do it, but he can! With the Savior`s help he can do anything! And this week we had an amazing lesson with him because he had fallen again and he felt so discouraged with himself, but he was able to feel God`s love and know that he can do it. He also received a blessing of comfort and strength to be able to withstand temptation. He is doing so well right now, but it is hard every time he works at night because all of his friends offer him cigarettes. But he is a changed man. We had seen how the Lord has prepared him and changed his heart even in the last week. I know that he will be prepared for Saturday because he is in the Lord`s hands, and the Lord always wins the war against evil. 

This week we worked really hard to find, but we only found one new investigator. She only had time for a five minute lesson and so we explained a little and asked for a return visit, and we will teach her again on wed.

 

We have been trying new things this week. We didn't get to do the face painting, but on Saturday we went to the beach and we drew the plan of salvation on the sidewalk in chalk, and then we taught little lessons to people that were passing by. We were able to write down their addresses, but almost all of them were references for the elders ha ha. oh well.

 

We have a new game plan now. We chose 5 member families that we are going to visit and strengthen and work with them to help them invite their friends to receive the gospel. I know that this will work because when we work with the members it is so much better because the investigators have friends they can trust and ask questions. We are going to work so hard this week to be able to find. 

This week we played street soccer at the church on Wed, and we invited a ton of investigators. We are going to do this every week, and it is a great way to find new people to teach.

 

 

 

 

Speaking of activities, today for p-day we played paintball!! Can you believe that I did that in the mission? I had never played in my life, and I played in my mission. My teammates all died, but in the two rounds, I never got killed!!! And I fought a good fight!  It was awesome! 

I learned more this week about how real the war is between good and evil. We must always be prepared to fight, and when we are prepared and we fight with our Heavenly Father and our Savior, we will always win. We must prepare by faithfully reading the scriptures everyday, by praying constantly, and by always going to church. We must live the commandments and be worthy to have the Spirit. If we do all of these things, we will never fall, we will always win because with Him we can win, without HIM, we cannot. I know that this is true, so my invitation this week is that we can all reflect and think about one thing we can do better to be more prepared to fight on the Lord`s side. I know He will help us change and improve and we will conquer with Him. 

Funny moment this week. I was walking with some people trying to contact them, and I bumped into a car parked in the street and the alarm went off.. goodbye contact... so embarrassing! haha I love you all so much! Keep being amazing and keep staying strong! Please do everything you can to protect yourselves and others in this war. teach them that they can do all things with the Savior on their side. I love you! Have a great week! Hasta luego!!!

 

Love, Hermana Harris

Invitar a Todos!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                                                               August 4, 2014

 

Hola! Hola!! How are you all doing?? I am doing fantastic and I am so happy!!!!!!!!!!

 

This week was amazing! It rained all week, and we were soaked every day, but on Sunday morning it was still pouring and we were praying for a miracle so that people could come to church, and right before we were going to leave, we realized that it was bright and sunny outside, and that the rain had stopped. I love the Lord`s miracles!! He answered our prayer and it was perfect because Alejandro was able to go to church with his wife, Giselle, and Claudia was also able to go with one of her 4 daughters. These are are two investigators that we are focusing on and they are progressing so well. Alejandro has a baptismal date for the 16th, and Claudia will have one hopefully for the 23rd. We are working hard to find more people and this week we have some creative ideas, especially because Sunday is el día del niño (kid´s day) and on Sat. we are going to try to do face painting or something for the kids, while contacting their parents! 

 

We are applying a lot new ways to find, and we hope that they will work. We have plans every half hour in our mission, so we decided that everytime our plans fall through, we are going to each contact 3 people. It will help us talk to everyone and find those who are prepared to receive the Lord`s restored gospel. Until we find more, we are praying and working with Alejandro and Claudia. Please pray for Alejandro, because he struggles with the word of wisdom, and he wants to know if Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God. It was awesome because on Sunday, the class in Relief Society was exactly what Claudia needed to hear, and the class in Gospel Principles was exactly what Alejandro needed to hear. They are both doing great and we feel that they are so prepared. But we know that there are a lot more people waiting for us to find them, so we will keep working with members, and talking to everyone! 

Funny story. While we talk to everyone, sometimes we have to knock on a random door and ask to use their bathroom. Well, this week my companion knocked on a door, and a middle-aged man open the door and said "Hola, pasen." That means, hey come in... We thought, hmmm it must be a less active member that we don´t know, but we couldn't go in if he was alone. But then he yelled to his daughter upstairs to come down, so we entered the house. She came down, and hugged my confused companion and I, and as she hugged me she said, um I think there is a confusion here. I was waiting for my friends to come over and I think my dad thought you were them. haha it was so awkward, we all started to laugh and then Hermana Baturité asked to use their bathroom, and left me to talk to them. So, I got to know them a little and I explained what we do as missionaries and we set up an appointment to visit them tonight. It´s a good way to find!!!  

This week we really felt God`s love and His support in everything we did. We were able to help someone move, and serve more. We were also able to go around and really help those who were suffering. I love that part of the mission because as we teach the gospel, we help those that have broken hearts, or are struggling, to feel the love that God has for them. Something I have been trying to apply every day is giving everyone the opportunity to feel God`s love. That is why I strive to talk to and invite everyone, because everyone needs to feel His love. We must invite everyone we know, whether they are family members, close friends, or people we have just met. We never know who is prepared, but God does, and as we do our part in inviting everyone, He will help us recognize who is prepared. We can`t say, no, I don`t think he/she will accept the gospel. If we say that, we never give them the chance to accept it. Everyone needs the opportunity, and if we do our part in giving that opportunity to them, they will be blessed and we will be blessed. They may not accept right away, but they will in the future as long as we are good examples and friends. And if they don`t accept, we still did our part in fulfilling God`s commandment to share the gospel. So this week, INVITE EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pray to know what to say and how to do it, but invite everyone. I promise that you will feel so happy as you do! 

I love you all! Have an amazing week! I am praying for you always!!! Hasta luego!!

Con amor, Hermana Harris

Fé y Esperanza! (Faith and Hope)

                                                                                                          July 28, 2014
 Hola mi familia y amigos!!!!!! I am so excited to write you this week because so much has happened here!!! I absolutely love my mission!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so happy to read all about your amazing experiences at girl`s camp. It truly is a time to walk with the Savior. I love our Savior so much and those times are so special when we can walk with Him! I am grateful that I have learned that we can walk with Him daily if we let ourselves. He walks with us, all we need to do is walk with Him. 

 

I want to share a little bit about something I learned today. Today we had Leadership counsel as a mission. This was my first and my last one... but I loved it. It has some great perks, like we get all day p-day today, and papa johns for lunch! But I mostly loved it because I learned so much!

 

There was one part that I really needed to hear today. Elder Scholes, who is a senior missionary here serving with his wife, gave a lesson about Faith and Hope. He used the scriptures to help us to learn about these two qualities. In the scriptures we learn that we cannot have faith without hope, and that we cannot have hope if we do not have faith, so we need both of them. Our faith is based in Jesus Christ, that He lives and that He can help us become who Heavenly Father wants us to be, and can help us return to live with Heavenly Father and our families in the Celestial Kingdom. Sometimes we get hope and faith confused. Hope is really based in ourselves, that we have great potential and we will be able to become like the Savior and receive eternal life. We must have both faith in our Savior, and hope in ourselves that we can do it with His help. God works to increase our faith and hope. In Moses 1 God appears unto Moses and says in verse 3, "Behold, I am the Lord God Almighty, and Endless is my name; for I am without beginning of days or end of years, and is not this endless." First He strengthens our faith, and then He strengthens our hope saying,"And, behold, thou art my son...And I have a work for thee, Moses, my son; and thou art in the similitude of mine Only Begotten; and mine Only Begotten is and shall be the Savior, for He is full of grace and truth." God always helps us see who we are,and He always tells us that He loves us and is proud of us, On the other hand, satan works to attack our faith and our hope, usually he attacks our hope first. He lies to us, telling us that we aren´t good enough, or we will never be able to change. We can see this through the experience of Moses because after he had this vision, satan came to tempt him to worship him instead of God. In Moses 1:12 satan said, "Moses, son of man, worship me." He sometimes calls us sons or daughters of man, and makes us think that we have no potential to improve or change, or he makes us think we should just give up. But Moses had faith and hope, he responded in verse 13 and said, "Who art thou? For behold, I am a son of God, in the similitude of His Only Begotten, and where is thy glory, that I should worship thee?" When we work to have faith, and hope we can be strong even when the adversary attacks us with lies. We will have the ability to respond to these lies that satan puts into our minds. We may have weaknesses, but we can say with Hope that we are sons and daughters of God, and we can become like Him through the Atonement of Christ. We can do all things with Him. I know that as we pray for greater faith and hope, we will recognize the lies of the adversary when they enter our minds, and we can respond like Moses and say, " Get thee hence, Satan; deceive me not; for God said unto me: Thou art after the similitude of mine Only Begotten." 

I am so grateful that I was able to learn that, now I will always apply it! We truly are sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father and with Him and our Savior we can do all things!!! 

This week was amazing because we worked really hard. We weren't able to help the Mejias Family, I taught them, but they didn´t come to church and aren't progressing, so we are going to have to teach others. Claudia's progression is slow, but we know that as we keep working hard, the Lord will bless us to find those that are prepared. Last night we started teaching the husband of a member, his name is Alejandro. He has prepared for baptism before, but has some difficulties with drugs and wasn't able to be baptized before. He also doesn't believe that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God, so we are going to work with him on that. It was a miracle that we were able to teach him because before, he wouldn´t even enter the room when we were over. Please pray for him, we feel strongly that it is his time now, and that he is prepared, but he needs your prayers and faith, because he needs Heavenly Father`s help and the help of our Savior in order to change and be ready. He has a baptismal date for the 16th of August! Also, please pray that we can keep finding people this week! 

Other news!!! I had my first mini cambio this week, or exchange as a leader! It was awesome!

 

I am so excited to keep helping these amazing sisters! I love you all!!! Thank you for your prayers and your love! I hope you have an amazing week!!!! Hasta luego!

Love, Hermana Harris

Week Number One

                                                                                                           July 21, 2014

Hola a todos! Estoy muy feliz para escribirles hoy día! This week was amazing and I am so grateful for all of God`s blessings! I am so happy to hear that you all had a fabulous week!!! This gospel blesses us every minute of every day and I am so grateful for our loving Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

 

So first off, my companion is amazing! She is from Brasil, so I am going to start learning Portuguese too! She has been a sister training leader for a while, and she is teaching me everything. She loves to work and has always wanted to serve a mission. She is such a great example and I am excited to work with her. We have been able to teach with unity and love for the people, while enjoying our missions!

 

Penco is amazing! I am in the same stake as Frutillares so this week I got to see a ton of members from my old branch. The area here is a little bit more difficult, because it is harder to enter into doors and teach, but we are talking to everyone and inviting them all to learn about the gospel and be blessed. I know the Lord will bless us for our diligence and obedience. We weren`t able to have investigators come to church because we don`t have very many. We are working with a family of 3. They are the familia Mejias, and we are teaching Hermana Mejias and her two daugthers. The husband doesn`t like to listen to the missionaries. Their biggest struggle is that they have not received an answer that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that if they read the Book of Mormon and sincerly and earnestly pray, God will answer them. They will come to know that the Book of Mormon is true, that it testifies of Jesus Christ our Savior, that Joseph Smith was His prophet, that this is the Church of Jesus Christ and He guides it, and gives His authority to baptize. They will know that baptism in this church is necessary so that they can be baptized by water and by the Spirit by someone who has the authority to do so. It will not only bless them spiritually, but temporally as well, and it will help them in their family. I invite all to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it is true. I know that God will answer because He answered me! 

 

Please pray for this sweet family so that they will be able to receive an answer, and recognize it, and prepare for a baptismal date. Thank you!!! This week our stake had an amazing activity. They did an Youth Olympics with 2 other stakes. One day was with youth only, and the next day they had a marathon race on the beach, and zumba and other activities. As missionaries, we got to go to make sure everyone stayed on the running course. It was amazing to see how the members helped others realize that we can all have fun and enjoy life without having to be doing things that the world promotes, like drinking, and smoking and such. A lot of non-members were able to participate and enjoy the race and zumba and win prizes. I enjoyed cheering them all on!!! It was such an awesome experience, and the church worked with the town leaders to pull if off. Such a great example!!! 

Another cool thing we did this week is we had a sister study just as sisters in the zone. Hermana Baturitè and I are in charge of helping 6 other sisters. We felt like we needed to have a study to get to know them better. We began by playing some get to know you games and eating delicious cinamon rolls that a sister made. They were so good!!! ITs been so long since I had a cinamon roll! Then we taught an amazing lesson about having confidence in the Lord and learning to rely on Him. I know that is what God wanted us to share with them. He loves them and He is so proud of them for their efforts. I am so grateful to be His voice and hands in helping them feel His love. It reminds me so much of Girl´s camp! I know that Girl`s camp really prepared me to serve a mission and love everyone. Please pray that Hermana Baturité and I will be able to help the sisters here. Thank you for all of your prayers and your love! I love you all so much!! Have an amazing week!

Love,

Hermana Harris