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