Monumento Week 13

Hola!

Quote of the week:"No entiendo las otras personas--caminen solo para caminar. No entienden su propósito en la vida!" Ximena

"I don´t get other people--they just walk around to walk. They don´t understando their purpose in life."

This week was hard to say goodbye to Elder Rackham, but I am happy for him at the same time. We were so close and understood each other so well that it feels like a part of me just left. I love the guy, in a platonic not romantic sense obviously. However, it will be good to get to know another companion and learn new things. I am excited and tomorrow I will know who my companion is. I will fill you all in next week:)

So as you must have figured out, there was an earthquake here in Chile. Well actually theres been a lot lately, but apart from the big one on Wednesday, they have been quite minor. In the area I am in there has been no damage, but I heard that in the north there was quite a bit of destruction.

This Friday was the 18th, or national Independence day! It  was fun and we were able spend time with lots of great investigators. Two of them invited us to a cookout in their backyard. Her husband was a dentist and died about ten years ago. He aparently was loaded and bought the backyards of everyone of his neigbors. He had two pools, a gym, a real well, and a mini dentist office for when he was on vacation. It was really neat and they are so excited to come to church. They went last week, but couldn´t come this week because their cousin died.

I want to publicly thank Brad Bascom (through becky Erickson) for his genius idea of doing a survey instead of the traditional tracting aproach. Usually the 18th is a very hard day to have lessons and find people because no one wants to take time from their family or party and listen. Elder Rackham and I decided that we wanted to find ten new investigators (unheard of on a regular day, let alone the 18th) and we were talking about what we could do to reach the goal in companionship study, and I remembered the survey idea. We decided to give it a try with a notebook and pen( to make it look official)....It worked! We found 11 new investigators!!! Here are the questions we formed:

1. Do you believe in God?

2. What role does prayer play in your life?

3. What does the word repentance mean to you?

4. How can you protect your family from evil influences?

5. How can you know what God expects of you?

We would then offer to share a prayer and small message in their home

It was so powerful to see people who would normally not even talk to us, decide to take a two minute survey, and then feel the Spirit and let us in!

I know that this work is true and brings true happiness into our life! I know that Jesus Christ lives and loves us! I love you all and you are in my prayers!!!!!

Love,

Elder Harries

Monumento Week 12.5

Hola!

I am writing to tell you that I am safe:) I´m not sure if you all heard, but there was an Earthquake here last night. We were in a house just about to leave a lesson and everything began to shake--it lasted about a minute or two. As far as I know there wasn´t any serious damage or deaths. President wanted us all to write to pacify the worried parents:) Hope you all are having a great week and I love you all! 

Love,

Elder Harries

Monumento Week 12

Hola!!!

Quote of the Week: "It´s weird. I know who I am, but I have no idea what I am doing" -Elder Rackham

Thanks again for your emails and the love and concern you show towards me! I love you all and pray for you daily! I have had a great week and hope to share some more details with you:) I´m trying mom:)

This will be the last week together with Elder Rackham. I would be lying if I didn´t say I will miss him. I have learned so much from his example, but more than anything he and I are so similar. It was fun to spend time together, and get to the point where we basically know whats going on inside the other´s head the whole time. He will be attending BYU as well, so I think we might end up rooming together. We´ll see. 

Unfortunately Paola who was planning on a baptism this week will not be able to. We haven´t given up completely on her, but she hasn´t shown great desires to go to church and keep other commitments. I have learned so much about the importance of a commitments here in the mission and being true to our word. Those who keep commitments are usually those who are the happiest and accomplish more. 

We had a Stake activity on Saturday to celebrate the National Independence Day, which will be the 18th. It was a huge success. We had about 8 investigators there, but unfortunately only 3 ended up going to church. I guess the activity lasted long at night and they were tired:) However, two of the investigators, Luisa and Rolando, came to all three hours on Sunday and loved it. We actually found them about a week ago. Rolando opened the door drunk, and told us to come in. Usually we never do, but I looked at Elder Rackham and we felt we should. They loved the activity and Luisa, who is about 68 and mother of Rolando, made tons of friends in the Relief Society. I feel that they will be our next baptism!

This week was a bit difficult in finding people to teach. We were recieving rejection after rejection and finally we talked to this man who was sweeping his patio. He told us to enter and just broke down. His wife had just been rushed off to the hospital. He said he was praying that he could recieve some help. He said he shared with the missionaries about 20 years ago, but lost contact with them, but that he wants to go to church and find out if this is the true church. 

I love this work. I know that it is true. Anyone who reads the Book of Mormon sincerely and asks God to know of its veracity will come to know by the Holy Ghost that it is of God. Ximena is already in 3 nephi!!! I love hearing new converts explain the feeling of the Holy Ghost. Each one has shared it in such a unique but unmistakable way as to give me complete confidence that God will respond. I know this is God´s Kingdom and no one will stop it. I love you all and miss you too!

Love,

Elder Harries

Monumento Week 11

It rained a bit this week!

Hola!

Quote of the week: "Orgullo es la negación de Dios." Hermana Pacheco 

"Pride is the denial of God."

How great it is to hear from you all!! I love you so much and your emails always inspire me to be such a  better person. I have to say that I do have the world´s best family! I would love to thank you mom for asking if I had been sick in the last email, because until then, no I hadn´t:) But on Saturday night I woke up four times to vomit and diareah;) I think they call it the double headed dragon here ahaha. I am much better now though. 

As you probably inferred from the pictures, we had a one year lunch with all the missionaries from my group. It was so fun to go to Presidents house with them and catch up and see how far everyone has come. We are all pretty close and our group has many strong missionaries, which is good. In the lunch President revealed to us that we would be going home a few days before him, and that we would actually end up going home a few weeks early to make it easier on the new president...so I will get home on June 27th. Which is kind of lame, but thats how it goes:)

We had a Stake conference on Sunday. It was very good! President and Hermana Barreiros both spoke, and an Area Sevety and his wife as well. They all talked about the importance of the Family and faith. they were great talks, although I could barely focus due to my stomach and head. Unfortunately the family didn´t come this week. They said that they would but didn´t show up. They had a lot of doubts about the Word of Wisdom, and we are trying to help strenghten their testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith as a prophet. They are such a great family and we aren´t giving up on them!

Yesterday it rained a ton! The most that I have seen here in Chile. I am safe and healthy though! I love you all and things are great here! I am praying for you all. Please pray for our investigators!!!!!

Love,

Elder Harries

Monumento Week 10

Hola!

Quote of the Week: "En la vida siempre hay dos puertas: la de reacción y la de acción. Reacción es del diablo. Acción es de Dios."

"In life there are always two doors: reaction and action. Reaction is the Devil´s and Accion is God´s." -A man we are teaching named Enrique.

We had a wonderful week! I will try to be more detailed in this email:) We went to the temple with Ximena this week! She was so excited to do baptisms for the dead and was baptized for her mother! She was crying and so happy. It is so important that the new members have a chance to go right after their baptisms. She is very strong and is already in Alma 5! In just two weeks of being a member! 

On Saturday Ruben got baptized! He had been investigating the church for over a year! His brother and cousin are members, but he stuggled so much to stop smoking. We were on the verge so many times of dropping him, but one day in a prayer we felt the sincerity of his desire to obey this commandment. Since he had already recieved all the teaching like three times, we decided to go and read from the Book of Mormon every day for a few minutes. It took about three weeks, but it worked!!! There is such power in that book!

We found an incredible family of four last Sunday night. They all came to church! They are named Jorge, Ximena, Belen and Valentina. Another Ximena!!! We took the recent convert Ximena to visit them and they talked so much and are now pretty good friends. Please pray for them. They are really nice and loving, but have doubts about the apostasy and priesthood power as they both grew up very Catholic. I know that they can know for themselves if they just pray with sincerity to know. Please pray that they will do that.

Yesterday I saw the gift of tongues! Elder Rackham and I found a family of 4! The parents are both deaf, and the dad was a member as a little kid, but left because no one knew sign language. His daughter of 11 translated for us. He also told us that he wants to teach us. We learned so much so quickly! It really is very simple and easy. They are very humble and an incredible family. 

I love you all and feel your prayers! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Harries

Monumento Week 9

Hola!

Quote of the week: "No importa lo que sea la cosa atractiva, no hay nada más importante que nuestra propia salvación"-Obispo Montalba

"No matter how appealing something is, there is nothing more important than our personal salvation"

I have decided that I will share a quote each week from the people with whom I talk. I have learned so much from these people and want to share some of their wisdom with you all. This was a quote from our ward´s bishop in the baptism of Ximena. 

Ruben wasn´t baptized this past week because he didn´t feel ready yet and hadn´t completely stopped smoking, but for sure he will be baptized this weekend!! Please continue to pray for him. He is a very great guy who has a lot of conflicting opinions at home. I know that he will be strong and endure to the end. 

I bet that it was awesome to have those two mission presidents share with all the youth! I love our mission president and his wife! They are incredible. They came to speak in our ward! They did a great job and as always taught exactly what our ward needed. The next day, we had a leadership council with them and the other zone-leaders. In these meetings we usually talk about tactics and how to help our missionaries be successful, but yesterday they wanted to teach about doctrine, as it is what changes us(Alma 31:5). We had a question and answer with them about the Plan of Salvation for about an hour and a half...we could ask anything, and I learned some incredible things that I don´t want to write in this email. Let it suffice to say that they have studdied the scriptures a lot....a lot...a lot.

I love you all and pray for you daily. Have a great week and be safe! 

Love,

Elder Harries

Monumento Week 8

Hola!!!

It sounds like Dad and Nathan are having fun in Spain! I loved the pictures!! I am definitely jealous! But I hope that they have a great time and get to practice their spanish with the Spanish flaire. They´re in Barcelona right? They use vosotros there..and also another language Catalan. There is a missionary who was in my district from Barcelona. He spoke so cool!!!

Well the baptism of Ximena went very well!!! She is so excited and has already started filling out her family history to go to the temple this month. She has read all the way through 2 Nephi in about three weeks. She was crying so much in her baptism and was so happy. She is all alone in her house now, so her friend gave her a puppy to keep her company. She will be a great member!!

Elder Rackham had to go to an employment workshop today, so I am with another Elder from the Zone. I am very happy and safe. We plan to have another baptism this Saturday with a young man named Ruben. He is trying to stop smoking and drinking tea..could you please pray for him!!! I apologize for how short this email is...I recieved a lot of emails today haha. I promise mom that the emails will get better! 

We were contacting late on Sunday night, because we hadn´t met our goal of 10 new investigators. We decided to knock one more door and found a family of 4!!! I know the Lord helps us as we strive to reach our righteous desires...we just have to knock one more door:) I love you all and am praying for you!!!

Con cariño,

Elder Harries