Sept. 23, 2019 -- They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard

Hello hello,

Some of you may remember the scene at the beginning of The Return of the King in The Lord of the Rings where Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn are running down the orc pack with Pippin and Merry. Anyways, we do a lot of walking and there's loads of hills, so I sometimes feel like Gimli when they're running forever and he says, "We dwarves are really quite great over short distances! Very dangerous!" Hence the subject line.

I ran out of Aunt Kathy's great shoe-shine wipes so I gave my shoes a real shoe-shining the other day. Very satisfying to look down and think "those shoes look really good!"

Let me say, one thing that is very different here is the names. For example, at home, there is Brother Jones of the Jones family. However, here everyone goes by their first name, so everyone in the same family is different instead of the same. To make matters worse, everyone has two last names, one from each parent, and then the wife also can go by her husband's last name as in so-and-so "de Hernandez." Anyways. Everyone has like 5 names and a nickname, so I have a hard time keeping track of it all.

We are working hard to teach people. We are trying to get some of our investigators to church but haven't had too much luck yet. One guy came to Stake Conference with us, so that was good. Very good people, though, and they are feeling the Spirit, I think. There is one inactive man and one family that I would like to think we had some small part to play in reactivating. Anyways, we are going to keep at it.

I got a nice compliment the other day when some guy on the street we were talking to took a break from smoking to tell me in broken english, "you very happy, he is very happy." That felt nice, and I enjoy just smiling and saying hello to everyone.

Hermano Morales showed us President Nelson's birthday celebration and the first of the new BOM videos! That was way fun.

Hey crazy story that is not even mine, but I read it in a Liahone magazine and thought it was both hilarious and awesome. A seventy gave this talk in 1953 and had the following story. He was in New Zealand and they came upon a viewing before a funeral for a member of the church who had died. Some relief society sisters were preparing the body. Then, the brother of the dead man runs out and yells "administer to him!" Everyone else says, "you can't do that, he's dead!" Anyway, this old old New Zealand native agrees to give the blessing to the dead man. He blesses him and commands him to rise. The story then says "You should have seen the relief society sisters scatter. The man sat up and yelled 'Send for the Elders! I don't feel well.'" They told him he had been dead and he said, "Oh, so that's it." Miracles are real.

Pictured is a letter from a little girl named Michelle. "The Mormons in Paradise." Also some other random ones from out and about.

See you all later,

Elder Harris