Wednesday, July 22, 2020

July 21, 2020 -- 20 Hour Quarantine

The cicadas buzz in the trees as another week goes by in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

This week I was put in quarantine for the third time in my life. I was not really enthused. This week was going to be our first week back in church, so we went to a meeting with the ward leadership on how it was going to work. A couple days after the meeting we got news that church was cancelled because the first counselor that was in the meeting with us had the virus. This announcement led the mission leadership to put us in quarantine, "until further notice." That sounded like it was going to be terrible, but the next day we found out that the counselor had been exposed to someone that had the virus, but hadn't actually been confirmed as having it. We got let out again, so that was a relief. 

This week we went over to a giant pre-school that had been shut down because of the quarantine. I guess the owners just decided to sell the property and were donating all of the stuff inside. But it was a huge place. It probably had 16 classrooms and several other rooms. So we had a ton of missionaries (maybe 30?) go over the first day and box up everything and prep everything for shipping. Then the next day they brought in a huge semi-truck and a giant industrial dumpster and we tossed some things and loaded all the furniture, toys, supplies, and things into the semi to ship. It was a lot of fun, and the people that we did the service for are being taught by the missionaries now!

The work goes on. We enjoy every chance we get to have an appointment and leave the house. Elder Webber and I speed around on those bikes. The other day we overtook someone on a fancy road bike and had a nice conversation. We have been slowly increasing the number of people we have to teach. The other day we also taught our first english class because someone had requested one through Facebook! We were not great teachers because we had never done it before and didn't know if they already knew a lot or didn't know anything.

This week we suddenly looked out the window and said, "is it raining?" So it was. For about 10 minutes there was a light drizzle. Crazy. I will certainly be happy to see some good old Utah snow.

I forgot to even mention it last week, but I have officially been out for over a year! It feels a little like cheating since I was just at home like a month ago, so my celebration basically consisted of me realizing it at 6:00 that night and saying, "Huh, I've been out for a year today." That was as exciting as it got. Thinking about that, though, I realize how incredibly glad I am to have come on a mission. There are just so many spiritual experiences, special people, and incredible memories. It is kind of a different way of life, but it is so rewarding. It just feels good. I am very happy. It is interesting how no matter how much you grow, there is still so much room to improve. God doesn't let us get comfortable for too long, but I think that's a good thing. Keeps you stretching. I know more than anything that the gospel of Jesus Christ is really what makes us happy. We are in so much debt to God, but the more we give Him, the more he gives right back to us. It is so mind-blowing and beautiful that God - who has power to do ANYTHING and knows EVERYTHING - is our Father. He really loves us and wants what's best.

See you around,

Elder Harris

Also, pictured is a shed cicada skin, some sweet track spikes I got at Ross for $3, a spot-the-difference we made for a Facebook thing, the rain and a plastic spork.

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