July 27, 2019

Hello once again,

Well, Spanish is going pretty well. See enclosed diagram:

Actually this week we taught our first full-blown lessons in entire Spanish. We had to teach a lesson for 25 minutes to a native Spanish speaker, so it was a little crazy. Most of the time they're already members of the church and are just acting, but I was still pretty nervous before that we just wouldn't be able to understand them in our lesson or that we wouldn't be able to get our point across. However, we said a prayer before and went for it, and it was amazing! We didn't speak perfectly by any means, but we could understand the things that our investigator told us. We taught him a little bit about God and Jesus Christ and how to pray. When we were bearing our testimonies at the end he started to tear up just a little bit. The Spirit was really strong and we were just so happy afterwards. The Gift of Tongues is definitely real, and God will help you out when you are doing His work. It made me think too that even though sometimes the mission is boring or hard or tiring, all it takes is one day like that to make everything worth it.

Let's see...in other news, we were just walking past the room of some of the other guys in our district on the way to our room and we found this:

A picture's worth a thousand words. We didn't do it, but we thought that whoever did was pretty clever. Made us laugh a lot. The other Elders are also about to lose their minds because our rooms look pretty much the same, but we keep getting perfect room inspection scores while they get "needs work."

On Sunday we also got to watch a talk given by Elder Bednar that they only show at the MTC called Character of Christ. It is a super good and powerful talk about how the defining element of Christ's character is that he turns outward when the natural man in us would turn inward. Thinking about that is powerful. It was a super good talk and supposedly everyone that goes to the MTC remembers it.

In other good news, we were playing basketball and I did a between-the legs layup on a 6' 8" elder! Not that I am that great at basketball, it was probably a lot of luck. But I think I earned some basketball respect. I want that on my end of life highlight reel.

Anyways, they keep us pretty busy here. Lots of studying and lesson planning. The first couple days are really long, but after that, time flies. Things that normally aren't that entertaining become incredibly fun. My companion's new favorite thing is using his zip-zip (badge reel) to drop his badge or a pen or something in front of someone and then suck it up when they go to pick it up.

The Church is true. Maybe someday I'll figure out how to make the lighting in my pictures normal.

Elder Harris

 (Below: Abe with his close friend Chipper.)

July 20, 2019 -- Desarrollando

Querido familia y amigos,

That subject line is my new favorite Spanish word to say. If my Spanish has not failed me, I believe it means "Developing."

Not so much is new after that crazy first week, so maybe we should just jump into some amusing stories? We were joking that our days are mostly the same and the only thing that is different is our conversations, and those are mostly the same because we know so little Spanish. Anyway, onward with some stories:

So the other day they talked to us (among other things) about page 33 of the handbook, which basically says "No Flirting," so now anytime someone in our district even says anything to an Hermana we tease them relentlessly (not in a mean way, we just all think it's funny and enjoy a good jest). So the other day Elder Redford (tall roommate with glasses) was standing in the lunch line and his comp Elder Ireland (the British one) had gone to grab a drink of water nearby and Elder Redford was just talking to some Sisters about where they were from and going. Part of the rule is that if your companion isn't part of the conversation with the opposite gender, it is probably a bad idea. So Elder Ireland comes back and says "Hey! I wasn't part of the conversation!" and then other guys in our district were joking about page 33. But the funny part of the story is that when Elder Redford was explaining the story to us later that night in our apartment, he said how the Sisters were right there during the anti-flirting campaign, so he was "Muy embarasado." If you don't understand, ask a Spanish speaker. We were dying of laughter. He thought it was hilarious as well once I said what it meant. We always laugh at ourselves really easily and love nothing more than a good joke because we mess up sort of frequently.

Another similar story happened to Elder Garvin, a fellow Salutatorian. Some hermanas happened to sit by his comp and him at dinner, and they talked for a minute. When the sisters got up to leave, Elder Garvin said "Encontado a conocerle!" which means "nice to meet you." The sisters did not speak Spanish and did not understand, so he tried again with what he thought was "mucho gusto" (also "nice to meet you") but accidentally said "me gusta." Unfortunately, the sisters understood this bit of Spanish and one of them said, "Doesn't that mean you like me?" Elder Garvin realized his mistake only too late and all his apologies and explanations fell on deaf ears as the sisters walked away. Good old Spanish.

One last story that was at least funny to me. At the end of the night the elevators for the teaching building are often packed (we're on the third floor) because everyone is going back to their rooms. We were waiting for the elevator to get from the sixth floor to us and I told Elder Gunderson, "We're getting on the elevator no matter what." The elevator door opens and there are probably twenty people on it. They immediately start pressing the door close button, but Elder Gunderson is undeterred by their shouts of "No!" and the horror in their eyes. He throws his arms in the air proclaiming "perfecto!" in a really long drawn out way. We got on the elevator. I don't know if they appreciated it, but we thought it was great. Now "perfecto" is one of the words we use all the time. Our other go-to is "Alla" (with accent over last "a," pronounced ah-yah) which means "way over there." We pretty much just point places we want to go or at objects and things. "Alla? Alla!" It's great.

Thanks by the way for the emails and mail! We pretty much live for those. Makes my day every time.

Elder Gunderson and I have been pumping iron a lot. Unfortunately, the gym doesn't have any barbells so you can't lift very heavy, but we still get some good workouts in. Lots of push-ups, jump-rope, curls, and core. We also played basketball for the first time. They were redoing the finish on it so we couldn't until now. It was super crowded. There are a couple guys here that are playing college ball. Proud to say that I held my own though and got a super solid block.

I ran into a ton of people this week, which was super fun! Chip, Adam Budge, Ryker Simmons, Zach Durbano, and Ian Swenson all got here Wednesday. Super fun to see a familiar face.

Another interesting thing is that they've been doing lots of construction taking down old buildings and putting up new ones. We'll walk to lunch and there is a nice covering over the sidewalk and then we walk out and it's gone. Crazy.

You can pay like $1.50 to have your patriarchal blessing laminated and shrunk down to fit in your scriptures or your pocket, so I did that. It's kind of fun to have it more accessible.

We like seeing all the crazy flags. There's a bunch of them.

Also, Elder Ireland always gets us going on these stories that he totally makes up. He had us convinced that he played piano for the queen and that later he went through an emo phase where he painted is fingernails black and dyed his hair. Both of these are false. Never trust an Englishman.

Maybe I will end here on a spiritual note. I thought I was good at scripture study, but we are focusing on really slowing down and taking meaning from each sentence or phrase. It makes the scriptures much more enjoyable. We have some good insights with each other going over it like that.

Also, one of our teachers, Hermano Gillman, told Elder Gunderson and I when we came into class a little early that in his two years of teaching that he has never seen anyone work as hard on memorizing Spanish as we are. That felt good. Se bautizara, anyone?

Anyway, I can't think of any other random details right now. Things are good.

Hasta luego,

Elder Harris

Also, here are some pictures. Us with Elder Cannon in the apartment, poorly lit picture of us on third floor balcony, and me with Adam Budge.

July 13, 2019 -- Chocolate Milk

Hola from Provo everybody!

The short version:

I am doing good and drinking lots of chocolate milk and like my comp. We speak Spanish. There are pictures if you don’t like to read.

The long version:

Things are super great down here. Saturday is our p-day, which is why I am writing. I probably won’t call home because the El Salvador missionaries are just about the only missionaries without phones at the entire MTC and in the mission field (which I do not mind at all).

So right from the get-go they had us go from table to table and pick up a bunch of stuff like maps and schedules and room keys and name tags and our MTC ID which gets $8 a week for supplies or laundry or snacks. Speaking of the ID cards, you can use the card to get a little thing that hooks to your pocket or belt loop and has like am elastic that you can pull your ID out on and it zips back in like an automatic yo-yo. We call them zip-zips or zzz-zzzzs and they are so fun. Best $2.08 I ever spent.

Haha, so anyway, from that we went to drop off our bags and then to class where we met our companion. My first companion went to the bathroom every half an hour and dug a tunnel with a spoon he stole from the cafeteria and then ran away. But after that I got my real companion. I got suuuper lucky in the companion lottery. My comp’s Elder Gunderson and he’s from Houston Texas. He’s going to play center for BYU football after the mission and is a solid guy. He talks to people really easily and has some really profound spiritual insight. The 12 people in our Spanish class make up our district and we do pretty much everything together and our rooms are all right next to each other’s. Except the hermanas. 6 of the Elders are going to El Salvador in the same mission, 4 are going to Barcelona, and the two sisters are going to Chile. So far the MTC has just been a lot of fun and I haven’t been homesick at all just because everyone in our district is so cool and we have so much fun together. Elder Gunderson’s a beast and I love the guy. There are some seriously cool people here. My comp and two other guys in our district are both taller than me by a long shot (6’7” and 6’8”), so there’ll be a bunch of big white guys in El Salvador, which is kind of funny.

So in room, it is me and Elder Gunderson along with Elder Redford and Elder Ireland. The only ironing board on our half of the floor is right next to our door, so that’s great. Elder Redford is from Austin and is super tall and funny. He reminds me a lot of Brandon Jascowiak. Elder Ireland is from England has a legitimate British accent that is just awesome. He says lots of things like jelly for jello and rubbish and half past six for 6:30 and today when we said it was sprinkling outside he said it was spitting. He brought a bunch of European chocolate that he shared that was very good. Anyway we laugh a lot and have fun.

I enjoy Spanish class and my high-school Spanish is starting to come back pretty well. Starting yesterday we are supposed to pretty much only speak Spanish all day even if we are not in class and ask permission to speak English, which is a little crazy but kind of fun. We have like three hours of class in the morning and then studying during the day and then another three hours of class before we get ready for bed. So far we’ve learned how to meet people and talk to them, reviewed pronunciation, and learned how to pray.

I also really enjoy the cafeteria. Lots of food and BYU chocolate milk for every meal. And you can eat creamies or ice cream sandwiches while you stand in line.

We got exercise time for an hour for the first time yesterday and get it every day but Sunday from here on out. We played soccer with our district even though it was blazing hot outside.

So far I have run into Ben Pobanz from school and Jared Nielsen from WHS hurdles, so that was fun to see a familiar.

Our group from Wednesday was the second biggest group that will enter the MTC the entire year. We all feel like we’ve been missionaries forever because our days are so packed it just feels like a long time. The buildings and campus are all pretty cool and much bigger than I realized.

The Spirit is super strong here. Not like overwhelming or crazy, but it is just very constant everywhere, like the force in Star Wars connecting everything, haha. One thing I thought about during study was when Nephi prayed to know about whether leaving Jerusalem was really the right plan and he said that the Lord softened his heart that he might believe. Sometimes I think the Spirit speaks to you that way. Not with thunder and lightning, but just by helping you believe.

The pictures are of my roommates in our room, some of our district in a meeting, and our whole district in the teaching building.

Anyway, I hope the email wasn’t so long that everyone is bored to death. If there is anyone that is not on the email list and wants to be, feel free to email me the address and I’ll add you. Conversely, if you would like to unsubscribe to Elder Harris’s emails, just let me know and I won’t cry too much.

See you later!

Elder Harris