Oct. 28, 2019

Welcome to your weekly glimpse of El Salvador, everyone.

Here often times to do a fist-bump it is a double-bump. Also, people beckon with their hands palm down. If you want to show how tall someone is, usually we say, "He is like this tall..." and have our hand horizontally at their height. Here you have to have to have your hand vertical up and down or you are showing the height of livestock. Also, cans of soda, bottles of soda, or drinks of whatever type they almost always drink with straws. Now you know. Everyone out there enjoy your washing machines. Washing clothes by hand is the definition of "elbow grease."

The week of parties continues here in Jucuapa. We'll pass like 6 different stages of music set up with walls of speakers taller than us. A parade went past our house with a marching band at four in the morning one night. Another night the traveling party was right outside our house. We fell asleep at about midnight, but I think the music continued until 2 or so. They like their parties. 

I also saw someone with a BYU shirt! He had no idea what or where BYU is, but that was cool. The classic cougar logo. Also a truck drove by blasting "50 tomatoes, one dollar!" You can find some good deals down here. 

The other day we got stuck in traffic on the highway in the bus for like 3 hours. I was standing too, so that was fun, haha. Never fear, though, even though it was a two-lane road we had people going 4 lanes wide. Sometimes two both ways, sometimes one one way and three the other. We also celebrated Elder Peck's 20th birthday! He has 23 months in the mission now. Sadly, birthdays do not seem quite as fun on the mission.

We were laughing the other day because President Duran always gives us weekly studies with questions to answer in an email to him. He wanted us to read for part of it this week about when Emma Smith is called an "elect lady" in the D&C. However, the question to answer was "Who is the elect spouse for you?" Not what is she like or anything, but we were wondering if he's looking for names or what. Kind of funny.

We also had to sort of babysit a drunk guy while his spouse was getting a baptismal interview. He was very nice but very drunk. But by the end he was saying that me and him were friends forever. He also thought I was Mexican, which is a first for someone with a pale complexion such as I, haha.

I just want to testify of the Book of Mormon. Before my mission I faithfully read it every day, but now I sit down with my scripture markers and don't worry about getting through a chapter, but just try to understand everything (even though it's in Spanish). Sometimes I only get through a couple verses because I'm chasing down footnotes and the Bible Dictionary and things. However, I LOVE the Book of Mormon. I can't believe I didn't just want to read it all day every day before my mission. It has so many treasures just waiting to be found. Read the Book of Mormon!

Pictured are me and Elder Peck celebrating his birthday a little late with some cake and ice cream, the view from our bedroom window, me in front of a Catholic church, and me in Jucuapa. The little three-wheeled red thing is a mototaxi. Loads of them everywhere. Also me with some fake flowers I got for free on the bus. Taped them to my little cardboard shelf to liven up the space. They sometimes hand things out for free and then try to guilt you into paying if you want to, but not me! Hahaha. 

Adios,

Elder Harris

P.S. - Hypothetical question: If a member offers us a ride but they don't have a driver's license, can we still accept the ride? And what if we already got the ride before he told us? Just hypothetical... Also you can use a US driver's license here, which is cool.

Oct. 21, 2019 -- 100 Days and the Power of Faith (in progress)

Hello everybody!

Just yesterday I passed up my hundred day mark. Kind of crazy. I have only eaten 82 pupusas, though, so I will have to eat more if I want to pass 1000 by the time I'm done. 

The other day I saw someone with a BYU hat, so that was pretty great. We also took a taxi and the guy's gear shift was a ninja sword hilt. Pretty sweet. Also, the people here love Crocs. Everybody is always wearing them for whatever occasion. There is also just crazy fruit here. Sometimes I look up and see what looks like big green balloons in the trees, but it's just fruit. Other times crazy spiky or hairy fruits. Our house has very poor phone signal because we live super close to the prison, where they somehow block phone signal. Good times. They always have the prisoners in the white shorts and shirts (and white crocs) outside painting things or stuff like that, though.

I am here living the high life with my scripture markers that I got from Aunt Lisa clear back when I was baptized and my fancy cologne from Uncle Dave.

The other day I met my first El Salvadoreño that does not believe in God. That was weird, I think I took for granted before that pretty much everyone here already believes in God and Christ and prayer. It made me think that living without that hope is sure just a sad sad way to waste away your days. No hope, not thinking that anything matters. 

This week started the founder's day celebration of Jucuapa. It started off with the loud fireworks that don't have the fancy lights but are just loud explosions at about 4 in the morning, so that was great, haha. Random fireworks go off about every half an hour or so and the park is full of carnival things and food stands and the streets are full of people and music blasting crazy loud. The party sort of travels around and is scheduled to be right outside our house tomorrow, and they go late, so that will be exciting. 

Here is the spiritual part. A while back Elder Peck and I were just having a harder time than normal. We were trying to be obedient and working hard, but a lot of appointments were falling through and the numbers just weren't very good. We read a talk about faith that talked about steps to success. We have to have faith, commit, pray, and work, and then wait for first trials of faith and then to see the hand of God. It was a very good talk that I can't summarize real well. Anyways, Elder Peck and I set a goal, not just on paper, but one written in our hearts for what we wanted to achieve and what we were going to do. We then fasted (even though that made two fast Sundays in a row, haha) and prayed super hard. And we went to work. For a while, things just seemed worse. More appointments fell through, things just didn't immediately start working out. However, lately, I think we are entering the "See God's Hand" help you stage. We were able to get 5 baptisms scheduled in November this week with some super great investigators. I am very excited and have grown to care about them a lot. One is named Ronald, a super serious, solid guy that is very reliable. He watched General Conference with us and always has questions and sincerely wants to know, but accepts our answers very readily. We also met a great family in an outskirt area called El Nispero and they came to church with us after we met them! They are super good. Hermana Isabel and her son Elvis, as well as twins Debra and Michelle. We found another good family in San Buenaventura that we are excited to work with, Dora, with her sons Alberto and Henry. The last guy we have a baptism scheduled with is named Asael. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and that it was written by ancient prophets on this continente. We told him that Christ came to the Americas and he was just blown away. He read our reading assignment in the Book of Mormon and when we went to follow up, he started explaining to US why it was important to be baptised and starting asking what else we had that he could read about Christ. Anyways, not everyone is prepared, but God is really preparing people to hear the message of the Gospel. Hopefully these baptisms will work out. Faith and prayer really make anything possible. I am blown away to see how much of our success just depends on how much we rely on the Lord. 

I will see you all later. 

Pictured is a bat that has been hanging out (haha, no pun intended) with us in our house lately. It likes the smoke detector a lot. 

Elder Harris

Oct. 14, 2019 -- The Work AND the Glory

Hello again one and all,

Officially have been on my mission for over 3 months! Time flies like crazy. I'm 1/8 done. Crazy. Things are going good here. Just for fun, here is a list of things I haven't done in several months now:

- Slept with a blanket

- Used a seatbelt

- Felt carpet

Haha. Even with all these crazy things, one thing that is more crazy to me than anything is how NORMAL everything feels. It's weird. I wake up and get out of my mosquito net and sometimes take a bucket shower. Our little house with two desks, a folding table and four chairs as the only furniture besides our mattresses feels comfortable and home-y. Eating fried bananas and tortillas and things all the time is just normal. Everything feels normal. I don't know how to explain how surreal that is. I like it here a lot. 

The other day I left my box of cereal out of the fridge for like half an hour and the bugs got into it. Got to watch out for them. Dang bugs.

In interviews with the Pres. they passed out pills to take to kill intestinal parasites. I don't think I have any but they had us take them anyway, so hopefully all is good, haha.

One thing I love stumbling upon is giant jungle trees. Sometimes you find ones that are just crazy huge, 100 feet tall with branches going out 50 feet on each side. Looks like something straight from the Jungle Book. There are also random soccer fields everywhere, sometimes in the middle of the jungle with bamboo goals or other times nice grass ones right off the highway. Lots of fun. 

The other day I was just having a great day. First of all, I found a place that sold a good sized scoop of ice cream for a quarter and it tasted super good. I was going out of my way to talk to everyone possible. It was work and sometimes it's a little stressful not knowing if you'll understand them, but it was just a lot of fun. It made me think that the more devoted we are to the work, the more blessed and happy we really are. Be all in. There is the famous scripture in Moses 1:39 about God's work and glory. My branch president in the MTC shared a cool thought with me that our mission can be our work AND our glory. It doesn't just have to be work, but we can glory in it and enjoy the work, not just wait it out until the work is over.

It is also really cool how God just puts cool people in your path. We've taught a couple lessons to some professional soccer players who gave us a ride through the rain. There's an inactive member we've been visiting that is a carpenter who makes really nice guitars and violins. I think Grandpa Harris would be very interested in seeing that and meeting him. There's also a member who was excommunicated and later rebaptized that is super cool and sometimes comes to teaching appointments with us. People are really the same wherever you go. 

Anyways, hasta luego everybody. Pictured are a scorpion on our wall, a random Utah Jazz license plate cover that I found, and a jungle road to some people we were teaching. Also tested out the underwater capabilities of my camera in one picture and the camera still works, so that is good. Good stuff.

Elder Harris

Oct. 7, 2019 -- Two Guys on a Scooter

Hello hello family and friends.

Life down here often reminds me of the Studio C, "Two Guys on a Scooter." Definitely would recommend. Often three or four people on a motorcycle or two people and some chickens or something. Another kind of funny thing is that lots of people have english shirts. I don't know where they get them or if they know what they mean, because sometimes members will have shirts with alcohol things on them. Once we saw a kid with an old EFY shirt. Lots of funny things like that. Another different thing is people's daily schedules. Everyone is out and about when we are up at 6:30. But almost everything is closed up by 5 or 6, so that is interesting. Luckily there are a couple pupuserias in town that stay open later, so that is good when we need some dinner. Almost everything closes early, though. I also think that you cannot be a true El Salvadoreño if you don't have at least one hammock hanging in the middle of your house. Everyone has these super colorful hammocks made out of rope. Super cool.

The other day I tried to touch my toes for fun and discovered that I could do it! That's crazy. Never happened before. Another crazy thing is that there are missionaries newer than me out here now! The other day for a couple hours I was in charge of going to some appointments with a brand new missionary of 5 days. A little crazy but kind of fun because we had to speak spanish because neither of us know it well, haha. There are also fireworks all the time here. Not with lights, but just a loud "Boom Boom." Kind of fun. We also have the power go out for a minute or two almost every day. Another different thing is that there are no directions here. We just have to find houses based off the name of a neighborhood, maybe a landmark, and asking around. A little tricky but fun.

We got to watch general conference this week! The new missionary and I watched it in english on a TV cart in the kitchen, and I loaded up with some conference snacks, so that was good. I do admit that I might prefer watching in a t-shirt on a couch. Is there any combination better than General conference, Elder Uchtdorf, and the HOBBIT? I think not. That was amazingly great. I wanted to stand up and cheer when he started that. So good.

Out here on the mission it feels like we are on the front lines of the gospel. We are here in the trenches, crawling through mud with dirt in our teeth. It is a little hard and super crazy. However, up close to the battle, two things are cast into perfect clarity. One is that everyone has problems and challenges. Lots of different kinds. Some are things we never have to worry about in the states. However, Christ and his gospel is the solution for it all. It fixes everything. Like a Rubix cube with millions of possible combinations, but one method that solves it every time. That is the gospel of Christ. Another thing that becomes very clear is that nothing else really matters. We are here on Earth for a very brief time and have this time to work and prepare to meet God. There are good things in life, but it is so easy to see out here that the only thing that really matters for everyone is if they are living the Gospel. It is the way we can be happy in this life and the only way to have happiness in the next.

Anyway. I'll cut it off here. Pictured are a fine meal of pupusas, a giant moth I found, and me getting crafty and making a cardboard scripture case out of a Cheez-its box. Also a fancy home-made barbell with cement filled cans.

See you later!

Elder Harris

(Mom note: A friend in TX had been messaging that her good friend's son was headed down to Abe's mission. I didn't think much of it as there are A LOT of elders there -- spread all over El Salvador. But then she sent me the picture below. Turns out her friend's son [far right] was the "new elder" Abe mentioned going on splits with and watching conference with in his email!)

 (Mom note: more candy bars with Sister Nicholls candy bar money.)