So for those of you that don't know or have forgotten, not so long ago I was a missionary in the beautiful country of El Salvador. After coming home because of the coronavirus, I was called to leave again -- this time to Las Vegas, Nevada!
So I came home. I loved seeing family again. I hit a huge bucket list item when I learned to lead climb (thanks cousin Devin). Then I got a job, and mountain biked all the down time. Except for when I was watching The Mandalorian and the new Star Wars. It was good.
But! Now we are back to where things make sense and are normal! On a mission!
Yesterday I felt pretty good saying goodbye once again, but there was a small, strange sort of hole in the gut as I got in the car and drove away. I put on some cologne from Uncle Dave called True Religion. I thought it was appropriate.
I got on a flight at about 10:20 and talked to an old Ukranian man. (First mission contact! Or first contact in round two?) With the time change I got to Las Vegas at about 10:40. There were a dozen or so other reassigned missionaries on the flight that were going to the same mission. It was fun to hear where everyone had been. Tonga to Vietnam to Brazil. Some senior missionaries were holding a sign for us like they do in airports. They were next to the guy holding a sign for the UFC. The airport was full of slot machines, which was a warm welcome, haha. They collected all of us safefly except for an Elder Hunt, who is in Taiwan. I don't know why. We put our suitcases in a trailer and drove in a nice van to the nearby mission office.
At the office everyone got there companions except for me because mine wasn't around to be gotten. President Youngblood sat down next to me and talked with me for a few minutes. He was very nice but is going home next week, so it was too bad I didn't get to know him better. But he told me that last transfer he got only a bunch of reassigned missionaries, and this transfer there was one MTC missionary and a bunch of reassigned ones. I think the mission is scheduled to double in size soon.
My companion did arrive after we ate lunch, and he is super cool! Elder Webber is his name. He has lived all over the world, but most recently in the DR, where he was on the national rugby team. I like him a lot and we get along really well. It is fun to just kind of click with a companion like that. And he is patient while I wander lost through this maze of quarantine and phones and things.
My area is called Paraiso, which you may note is a spanish name. That is because I am in a spanish area! I didn't even realize until my comp pulled out some spanish books, and I said "Wait, are we spanish-speaking!?" Most spanish missionaries in the mission spend a lot of time in english areas, but I am here in spanish, which is fun. My area has the airport -- and the Las Vegas strip! Which is a great segway into the one super serious mission rule: if you go to the strip, you go home! My area is also a biking area, which I am excited about.
So the situation here is that we can leave to go to appointments, but just not to find and knock doors. That will be good as soon as we figure out what appointments to go to, because we got whitewashed in and neither of us know anything. But let me say, the Area Book app is waaaaay better than using a binder. So much more organized. I love it. But we don't even have physical planners, which is weird.
We live in an apartment. It is like living in luxury compared to earlier mission conditions. We have things like carpet, a shower head, running water, heated running water, a full fridge, a kitchen, AND a washer and dryer! No more handwashing clothes or bucket showers for me! I did really enjoy the adventurous lifestyle of El Salvador and am so happy I was there doing those things, but some things are just nice every once in a while. Like feeling comfortable touching your own floor.
I also learned that there is usually one pair of missionaries in Havasupai. That would be cool for later on. I'll just put it on the backburner.
I only got here yesterday, and today is P-Day this week (usually it is Tuesday), so not much has happened. But we did have one lesson yesterday that was so awesome. The missionaries that were here before us called us at 7:10 and said, "Hey we have an appointment for you guys at 7:30!" It was this super cool African lady that saw them in the apartment complex and opened her window and said, "Hey, are you guys Mormons? When are you coming over?" So we went to teach the first lesson. First english lesson ever for me! But we just connected super well and it was so so cool. After we left we both just looked at each other and were like, "Elder! Have you ever seen someone so prepared for the Gospel!?" She just soaked everything up and had perfect questions and was taking notes and had read a lot in the Book of Mormon she had. She had just moved there and her young daughter was there too. It is hard to explain, but it was one of those things where you are just very thankful the Lord let you be a part of such a cool experience that obviously has little to do with anything you've actually done. But she speaks english, so we will pass her family to the english missionaries.
So, all is well. I am happy and trying to figure things out.
My feelings about leaving again are pretty well described by this scripture in Alma 17:13.
"And it came to pass that when they had arrived in the borders of the land of the Lamanites, that they separated themselves and departed one from another, trusting in the Lord that they should meet again at the close of their harvest; for they supposed that great was the work which they had undertaken."
See you on the flip side,
Elder Harris
Pictured is the coolest shower curtain in the world, my new comp, fellow missionary and long time adventure partner Noah Stuart, and the view out the window. Also pictured is our Book of Mormon collection, which includes English, Spanish, Tagalog, Amharic, Samoan, Korean, Portuguese, Arabic, Hungarian, Urudu, and Swahili!
