Aug. 26, 2019 -- The Airport Security Heist

Phew!

It has been a little crazy, let me tell you. So we leave the MTC Sunday night at 8:00 and jump on a bus to head to the airport. It was very surreal just to be in the outside world and see things like billboards and freeway signs I recognized. We got to the airport for our 11:00 flight when the following story occurred:

So, I being a foolish young man who has flown very few times packed not one, but THREE leatherman tools with knife blades in my carry-on. You might see where this is heading. We went through security and the alarm goes off on my bag. I realize my mistake by now and am kicking myself but cannot do anything. The security guard calls me over and opens up the suitcase and asks if anything sharp or dangerous is inside. I had to give a reluctant yes and was very frustrated about losing the leatherman tools. They were kind of special and I wanted to have them for later. Two from Dad and one from Devin. The guard looks around a gives a little "Whoah!" and tells me I can´t have the knives. Or my toothpaste. He said I could normally mail them home, but it was almost midnight so the mail place was closed. My options were have them confisticated or pay to have the bag as checked luggage. I went back downstairs to try and check my bag, but I only find out that I can´t check any more. So I return to security and wait in line again. I waited for the alarm to go off, but my bag goes through without a sound. They hand it to me and I am a little stunned and look around to see if anyone is going to stop me. Nope. So I head on over to my plane. That was a cool little experience for me. I felt like it was a tender mercy and Heavenly Father watching out for me. They never checked me again at our layover in Atlanta or arriving in El Salvador, so I smuggled three knives and a tube of toothpaste on an international flight in my carry on. Beat that, haha.

Also, four apostles got off the plane we got on in SLC! I didn´t actually see them, but one of the guys in our district waved to Elder Renlund. Would have been cool to see. Another guy sat next to a Catholic minister in full ministerial garb the whole flight. A little funny. I love the feeling of take off in a plane and had a perfect view. I couldn´t help but feel a little like Walter Mitty taking off on a big adventure and not really knowing what´s in store. 15 hours of sleepless travel later I felt a little less so.

After leaving Sunday night at 8, we finally arrived at about noon in El Salvador. Phew. A little crazy. We circled out over the ocean and pulled in above a jungle of trees onto the runway. It´s sooo pretty here. 10 gringos navigating through baggage claim, customs, and immigration in a Spanish airport was a little crazy, let me tell you. We finally got outside though. We then climbed in a rickety old van with all our stuff and a ton of missionaries driven by the bishop and drive for about another two hours to Soyapongo, where we have the mission headquarters. That was my home for the first two days. Supposedly it is one of the more dangerous parts of our mission, but I think El Salvador´s new president has done a lot of work cleaning things up, which is good for us. Man I was tired, though. I think I went about 30 hours without sleep,

I´ll insert my little bit about El Salvador now, but it has been garnered from arrival until now. It is so crazy green here. The jungle is really everywhere a house is not. I love it. Crazy plants and trees everywhere. Another thing I love is the buildings. Everything is painted crazy, bright colors and is super chaotic and fun. Every spare wall is painted with some sort of mural or picture. Also, all the houses have a little locked off front porch part outside with the house behind. Hard to explain, but kind of interesting. It is crazy hot here. Well maybe just normal hot, but there isn´t air conditioning everywhere, so you just never really cool off. The chapels usually have pretty good fans, which is nice. The streets are crazy too. There are lots of normal residential sized roads but with the houses right up next to the sidewalk. The roads twist and turn everywhere and are full of semi trucks, crazy painted buses with spoilers, pedestrians, bikes, bikes with laundry basket things on front loaded up with bread, three wheeled moto-taxis, cattle carts, normal cars, old crazy beat up cars, trucks loaded up with coconuts and people lying on top, etc etc. If there are traffic laws here, I have no idea what they are. It is kind of fend for yourself no matter what type of road you are on. Also, there´s normal sort of cement roads, dirt roads, cobblestone roads, and actual stone roads. There are also stray dogs everywhere. Loads and loads of them. Also chickens and ducks and what have you wandering around. The food is very different. I do looove pupusas though. Very very good. The week one pupusa count is 14. Other than that lots of rice and lots of other stuff. I have probably eaten more vegetables this week than every other time in my life combined. Not a joke. Dead serious. They talk about the gift of tongues, but I think the gift of stomachs is real too. Luckily, though, we aren´t allowed to eat the cabbage stuff they sometimes put on pupusas! We get parasites if we do. Oh, here is one thing I loooove about El Salvador, the fruit juices! At home, apple and orange juices were good. Here they are heaven though. De La Valle orange juice or Cascado Piña y Coco, oh man. So good. I also love Kolashanpan! Just like the kind we had back home when dad made Empanadas. Very good. Too many generous Latino women are trying to feed me. The other thing that is super great is when we see a familiar food. They have fanta soda and Chips Ahoy sometimes. I´ve also had Cheetos Puffs, which was great. The puffs were like the size of a normal cheeto though, so a little different. People here live in very humble circumstances. We are very blessed in the states. Most people have tile floors, but we have taught lots of people with dirt floors too. Everyone has hammocks everywhere. Also, somehow everyone has crazy cool motorcycles. Also, people point with there lips, not fingers.

Anyway, now I will continue chronologically. We slept the first night with the secretaries. They had a room with like 6 bunkbeds all pushed together and you had to crawl in from the side. I took my first bucket shower! That was an adventure. I have since taken a couple more, but usually we have water. (With an on or off knob, no temperature control, haha. No showerhead either, just a pipe out the wall. It is pretty good though.) We mostly messed around the first day and then went and tried handing out pass along cards. The second day we met the mission president. I like him a lot. He is funny and he and his wife care about us a lot. No english though. The mosquitos are not actually too bad. We do have mosquito nets over our beds, which helps. I enjoy the little lizards that run around, but there are these tiny, harmless bugs that run around that drive me crazy. Anyways, day three we met our comps and went to our areas. I am in a little town in oriente (means far, not the big city parts) called Jucuapa. I like it a lot. A little slower than Soyapango and the people are very nice. My comp is Elder Peck. He is also from Texas, like my last comp, so it must be destiny that I am with Texans, haha. He is very nice and I like him. 

Spanish is hard. I am doing okay, but people just slam all the words together and don´t annunciate like your teachers in the MTC. Very fast. The first day I literally understood just about nothing. However, every day gets a little better. The people tell me I can speak well, which is nice. Just have to practice understanding so I know what to say. Usually I understand when people say things like he´s tall, a gringo, or does he speak spanish. Then I say yes and they ask a follow up question that I don´t understand. Thankfully my comp speaks very well. 

Also, we have what is called a pila. A cement box with water that we use for washing clothes and hands and whatever else. We have a fish that lives in it to eat mosquitos. I like it. We named it Flojo, because it does nada, if you catch the joke, haha. 

Sorry, I have a million unread emails and have no more time. Love you all and see you later. Pictured are me with my first El Salvadoranean haircut, volcano, and some more. Also, almost all our water is in bags! Kind of fun. We just drink little ziploc bag things of water. Also had a bag of juice the other day.

Elder Harris

Aug. 19, 2019 -- Hola

Well, I am here in El Salvador safely! It is a little surreal. We got here at about 2, so we have been traveling for like 15 hours. I am suuuper tired but I like it here. It is very cool. We fly in and the plane was just skimming the trees and then we landed in the airport. We are in the middle of the jungle, which is awesome! It feels like a big adventure. Lots of stray dogs. Super hot. We drove down the road in a rickety old van with seats that faced each other and saw regular looking American cars along with things like people sitting in truck beds full of coconuts or police with shotguns. I think I will like it here. I hope my picky eating will not kill me! Got to go! Bye!

Abe

(The following pictures were posted on his mission president's facebook page.)

 

 

Aug. 17, 2019 -- Tattoos, Gummy Bears, and Present Subjunctive

Greetings one and all,

Oh man, one more day until El Salvador! I am way excited. I enjoyed the MTC but am ready for something new. Get to fly out at 11:30 at night and get to El Salvador 11:30 the next day! Crazy.

Anyway, one unusual event was when for some reason we got emails early this week that we would have to move rooms. I am glad it happened now and not earlier, though, because we are close enough to leaving that we just aren't unpacking and are living out of our suitcases for a few days. We bid farewell to R5 and moved to the next building over, R3. They moved a bunch of Sisters out of R3, so all our bathrooms have "Women's" signs on them. Our new room is larger, though, and only has four beds! We lost Elders Madson and Cannon to another room, but I am enjoying the extra space. And we have our own desks and bigger closets! Kind of nice. Let it be known that some Elders are more organized than others, haha. I enjoy the organized lifestyle, but doesn't always work out with a big group. Here's a bunch of guys in our zone before the R5 move. There's some good guys in the MTC.

Anyways, we moved to our new room and immediately checked the outlet boxes like any good missionaries would do. First one: empty. Vents: empty. Second outlet box: score! We found a cough drop, some rocks, a Hi-Chew, an old Tide Pod, and, best of all, a tattoo sleeve! I have no idea why someone would have that in the MTC, but it is ours now until we leave it for the next elders. It is strange the things you do for fun in the MTC, though. Things like eating your cereal with chocolate milk instead of normal milk, seeing who can jump and hit their head on the ceiling, etc. I can finally dunk pretty consistently, but we are not allowed to grab the rim in the gym, so that is sad. Also, before my mission I never once used a shirt pocket. Now they are like the most useful things ever.

One of my favorite parts of the MTC is seeing people from back home. Andrew Anderson and Braedon Iverson both got here this week. Also got to talk to Jason Lawson today. Here's us hanging out in the laundry room.

Spanish is pretty good. We are learning all sorts of crazy things like present subjunctive, conditional, and imperfect tenses. Subjunctive is supposedly one the most difficult things in Spanish, so it is kind of cool that we are learning it. Not that we are that great at knowing when to use it or speaking without long pauses for thinking, but we do alright. They say that by the time you leave the MTC, the world or the government would consider you fluent in Spanish. It is way fun to be able to carry a conversation. I am 100% sure that the speed will be insanely fast compared to what we hear here, though, so hopefully we will survive. Grant Knight taught me a game that I taught my Spanish class called "Guess the Latino." Before class we choose a "Latino" that is only allowed to speak Spanish. At the end of class the teacher tries to guess who the Latino was. The strategy for us is for everyone to speak Spanish so the teacher can't guess. We got pretty good at it and would go our entire 3 hour class block without a word of English. We even learn new Spanish in Spanish. Anyways. The deal was that if we win, our teacher has to tell us a mission story, so we earned quite a few that way.

Anyways. Not too much more to write right now. Probably a bunch next week with arriving in El Salvador. The last of the old MTC buildings are being torn down as we speak. We decided the coolest thing ever would be getting two of the track-hoes they use and making them fight. They have different attachments like the classic bucket, wrecking ball, or a hole punching thing. Someday if I am incredibly lucky I'm definitely making this happen. Battle bots on steroids.

Oh, one last thing of a sort of spiritual note. We had our final practice lesson in Spanish the other day. Lately they'd been a little rough. You may remember the "bored and confused" lesson from last week. That was followed by the "uncomfortable" lesson and the "I didn't really feel anything lesson." The uncomfortable lesson was when we shared a scripture that started with a phrase like "Wo unto you for your unbelief." The part we were talking about was later in the verse where Christ talks about how with faith, anything is possible. They just thought we were calling her out for unbelief, though, so that was very awkward. Be careful with scriptures everyone. We were kind of despairing because we were really trying our best and felt like our Spanish was better than ever, so we just didn't know what to do. Anyways, we went into our last lesson a little afraid. We got there though, and talked and really connected with our person. It was great! We just felt happy and thought they did too. We crossed our fingers as we went to check our survey results. Lo and behold, she had marked EVERY GOOD FEELING AVAILABLE! Happiness, love, comfort, positive new thoughts, you name it. I'm not sure what changed, but it was amazing! I guess the lesson is that if you want people to get anything from your lesson, you really have to connect with them and show them that you care and are a real person, not just a badge. Tender mercy that we were finally able to nail another lesson. Best one yet, I think. I think she forgave us for the unbeliever thing too. We clarified that that part wasn't about her, haha, and I think she understood that we just don't know what we're doing.

These last couple pictures include me performing my favorite physical feat of balance. By the way, my other hidden talent is my Gollum impression. Everyone was very impressed with that. "My looovely, my sweeeeet, my precious!" Haha. We also have the Belt of Truth from the PV 10 priests quorum! Love that belt. If you are familiar with the armor of righteousness scriptures, one part is "Gird up your loins with truth." Thus, the belt of truth was born. The guys at home engraved it up for me and it is way cool. Thanks so much guys! The last picture is me with a gummy bear that has literally (I kid you not) been stuck to a lamppost here for over a week. I have no idea how it is still there. It's like magic.

Elder Harris

Aug. 10, 2019 -- The Defeat of the Iron Thieves

Let's jump right in...

So there we were, locked in what looked like might be eternal conflict. There are two irons on the floor, one next to our door and one on the opposite corner. For a while, all was peaceful. Then the Portuguese missionaries arrived. Our iron is obviously superior to theirs, but in an extreme show of disrespect the other missionaries stole our iron and switched it with theirs. We recovered what was rightfully ours, but they would steal it back. The iron changed hands multiple times every day. We knew that something had to be done. Finally our ingenuity prevailed and we padlocked the iron to our ironing board. That was the end of that. We emerged victorious. See Figure A:

I love hearing BYU’s bell tower whenever we’re outside. The bells play hymns and stuff every hour. Also, they are taking down the last old buildings of the MTC! Lots of construction. They’ve just been smashing one of the buildings with track-hoes, which is kind of awesome to watch. Also loud for studying.

Also, kind of crazy news, I am officially 1/24 of the way done with my mission! Kind of crazy. Also, I am going to El Salvador in eight days! I feel like I just got here, but I guess I’m just about done. A bunch of my English speaking friends that got here after me are gone, but this week I saw Jackson Allred, Jason Lawson, and a couple other people I recognize like Koby Pack. Always like seeing familiar faces. They're some good guys. And, small world, because I met someone who had Sam Allred as their HEFY counselor. Somehow I know lots of people that had him and they all think he's the coolest guy they've ever met. With all these new missionaries, though, the lines for meals and things are crazy long. We're talking wrap around the lunchroom and out the door, 45 minute kind of lines. I won't miss that in El Salvador.

Elder Gunderson got some Nerf guns and Noah sent me a hacky-sack, so we have some fun during our limited free time, haha. Elder Redford had his birthday the other day and some of the guys put balloons and streamers all over his bed and closet.

Also, very proud of myself, part of my running shoe on the top edge right where you put your foot in started pulling apart, and I sewed it back together! Looks pretty good if I say so myself. After 45 minutes of trying to get the thread into the needle, it was smooth sailing. (Why don't they just make the holes bigger? I don't know.) Look how self-sufficient I'm getting. It's ridiculous.

I hope somebody out there enjoys my stories. Lots of kind of strange or funny things just to keep it interesting. That’s kind of the fun stuff in the MTC, but just so people don't think we mess around all day, we have a lot of spiritual and meaningful things too.

For example, last week we decided to jump in with the MTC choir. They said things like “bases on the right and tenors in the middle,” which we did not understand, but we went and sat with the bases. We sang “Praise to the Man.” Choir is cool because we don’t just sing, but the director tells stuff about the song, and since this was Praise to the Man he told about Joseph Smith. The director is really cool. Reminds me of Uncle Mark for some reason. My favorite thing was when he was talking about Joseph taking breaks from translating to wrestle and he said “Can you image President Nelson standing up, stretching, and saying, ‘Come on, Dallin!’” Not sure if that is as funny in email form, but we thought it was great. Anyways, we sang it with a choir of 1100 people, and it was very powerful. Just felt a lot of love for Joseph Smith. He was a prophet. He was a good guy. Some people get upset because he wasn't always perfect, but I think it is really comforting. If God can restore His perfect Gospel through an imperfect man, surely he can help us have success in our little endeavors as we try to be better. We need to do our best, but God knows we'll make mistakes and fall short, and He can help us overcome that.

Also, we taught our first not-so-good lesson. We thought it was okay, but they do surveys after, and they marked bored and confused as their emotions. Too bad. Most of our other lessons have been pretty good though, so I guess it just shows that every missionary has his down day. It was a little frustrating, but prayer is a big help and I know Christ will comfort us even if he doesn’t take away our hard times. He has helped me to feel peace.

Here is a spanish joke to end, you know you're a pro if you can figure it out. (can't figure out how to get the accents, though)
Que hace el pez perezoso? Nada.

See you later,

Elder Harris 

 

Aug. 3, 2019 -- Gathering of Israel -- Another Episode in the Adventures of Abraham Harris

Hello hello,

Start with a story maybe?

So last week my roommates and I all went to shower after our exercise hour. I got out first and went back to the room to get dressed, but when I get to the door it is shut. Usually we just leave our door open, but somehow it closed and we were locked out with all our keys left in the room. So there we were standing around in our towels trying to figure out what to do. We decided to use the emergency phone to call the front desk and ask for a key, but it turns out you have to pick up the spare key yourself. This was good news, but was problematic because you aren’t supposed to go into that building without church clothes, so you can probably imagine that going in without any clothes would likely be frowned upon. Luckily Elder Ireland (who says “aluminium” and “care-a-mel,” along with “zed” for z) had some gym clothes with him, so he was able to go get the key, although without his companion. Close call, but after 15 minutes or so we got back in. It was kind of funny.

This Sunday my companion and I were asked to be the Sacrament coordinators, so we set up the Sacrament for our branch now.

We also for whatever reason have started a game in our room where we hide plastic spoons where the other companionship will unexpectedly stumble upon them. Our best one yet is when we put one inside Elder Redford’s body wash. He won’t find it until it starts to run low and the spoon rattles around, so hopefully we have the last laugh.

Also, bad news, it turns out I snore. Who knew? Not me. Anyway, I’m certainly not the only one, but my roommates confirm that I do indeed snore. Too bad.

The other day I finally had enough of putting my soap bar in the cardboard box it came in because the box would get all wet and the cardboard would get soggy or the soap would fall out, so I hatched a brilliant plan. I took a Lay’s Stacks can (thanks Cox cousins) and cut off the top and the bottom and then duck-taped them together so I had a handy little soap-sized container. This may be the greatest achievement of my life so far, so here is a picture:

This week was a little crazy because of all our assignments. We were ushers for the devotionals on Sunday and Tuesday, but we got some good seats from it. Every Tuesday we get up extra early and clean an entire residence building with the 8 other  guys in our district. My comp and I cleaned 80 sinks between the two of us, along with the counters they were in. Much respect for cleaning people. This Wednesday we were also hosts for new missionaries. It was weird that that was just us so recently. But at the same time we are over halfway done with the MTC! It’s surreal. We are like the old men of the MTC. At least middle-aged. Anyone, we got 720 new missionaries on Wednesday, so everything is crazy crowded. It was raining like crazy while we got them situated.

So speaking of the gathering of Israel, we got a knock on our door and opened it to have Elder Madsen and Elder Cannon walk right in with their suitcases and hangers of shirts. Apparently with all the new missionaries we had to combine rooms, so now there are 6 of us in a little room and Israel has been gathered. It’s a little crowded but it’s fun. We set up Nerf basketball hoops on both ends of the room.

Cameron Hunter and Kameron Scott are here! They are some solid dudes and I enjoy seeing them.

We taught our last lesson with our first guy. It was a lot of fun and it is so cool to feel a little bit of God’s love for others and see the Spirit direct lessons. At first we were really worried about holding a conversation for 25 minutes, but the time just flies. I am really confident that when you are living in a way that invites the Spirit, life is so much better. Another thought is that it is really easy to make the Gospel complicated, but it's really very simple. God loves us and gave us the commandments so we can progress and return to him and become like him. This is possible through Jesus Christ and repentance. It really is the Gospel of happiness. If we do what Christ asks, we will be happier in this life and in the life to come.

Anyway, just living the life here. Two and a half weeks left.

See you later,

Elder Harris