What a week. Let me jump in with some awesome stories.
We are currently teaching one guy that requested a Book of Mormon after seeing an ad on Facebook. At first we thought he was not interested at all because he was pretty evasive when we tried to get in contact to deliver the book. Eventually we decided to send him a link to the app. A week or so later we checked in to see how he was doing and he was in 1 Nephi 18! That was so awesome because very rarely do people have the willpower to just get going themselves. We set up an appointment and had a solid lesson. Then we had a second lesson and gave him a chapel tour with the Elders quorum president, and the guy we're teaching gave us a ride to his own lesson! We did the tour and invited him to be baptized, and he said yes! He is in 2 Nephi now and is super cool. Very excited to keep working with him.
We got to go to church for my first time in six weeks this week. I loved it so much. Just felt like going home. Kind of reminded me of the American prisoners of war in WWII that just wanted to hold an American flag. I just wanted to go to church. Random funny thing is that the Elders quorum president gave us a ride in his fancy customized truck, and we asked what a device on the dash was. It was his police radar detector to avoid them. He also had an incredibly powerful speaker system. With giant subs.
One other cool guy we are teaching is a master chef. Just insane. Won all sorts of awards and things. He showed us how he cut one carrot into an intricate tropical bird. He got interested in the church when he was living on the street and found a Book of Mormon in the trash can. He would read it, and eventually got it stolen from his backpack. Then, much later, he saw on Facebook that he could request one, and so he did. He is so cool and has had a tough life, but it is crazy to me that God could have some missionary feel prompted to give a Book of Mormon to someone on the street, knowing that that person might not care, but that they would toss it in the trash at just the right time that our guy could find it and change his life. The conversion power of the Book of Mormon is crazy. So so powerful.
Last night we got a call super late and they said they had transfer news for us. Elder Webber and I were a little nervous because we'd been enjoying things together. They read mine first and said I would be staying here . . . and training a new missionary fresh out of the home MTC! I would also be the new district leader. I was immediately super excited to train but also a little terrified. I still feel so new, so this'll be exciting. My companion is moving and training in another area. I am now in charge of the four sets of missionaries in our Spanish ward and have no real idea how to be a district leader, so this is some uncharted territory. I kept teasing Elder Webber because for some reason the stake presidency, bishop, and mission president are coming to the next district meeting. He had to plan it, and now suddenly roles have been switched and my first ever district meeting has all these people coming. Careful teasing people, haha.
So anyway, this morning we picked up my first son, and I am so excited! Big shoutout to cousin CONNER TORMAN because that is pretty much exactly who my companion is. I even checked his nametag to make sure it wasn't him and I wasn't being pranked. Looks exactly like him and is just a super solid and cool dude. I am crazy excited to be here with him. Elder Parker is from Cedar Hills and we graduated the same year. He did distance running.
So anyway, we are on our way back to the apartment in a mini van, and then we pull up to an intersection and . . . the van dies. Totally out of gas. It wouldn't even shift into neutral to push it, and there we are stuck in a three lane road unable to move. My companion is getting a great start at mission life. We had a great idea to run to a nearby gas station and fill up three water bottles with gas. There we are in the middle of the road hand pouring gas into the tank, and it has those crazy double seals so you have to reach your fingers way back in to let the gas flow down. It is like one shot glass of gas at a time and it is splashing everywhere and all over our hands. A total gangster pulls up and just says, "bro," hands us a funnel, and walks back to his car and drives away. We filled it with all three water bottles, and it still didn't start. Then we had to buy a gas can and buy more gas and then fill the car. So a 20 minute drive home took about 2 hours. Super fun though.
Now we're here waiting to see what fate brings our way.
Elder Harris
One thing I forgot to mention is that we went to Denny's for lunch one time and someone anonymously paid for all of us! People are so nice.
We also talked to a cool old guy in his garage that showed us his trial bike motorcycle and all his machining tools. We just talked to him in the street and he showed us all his stuff. He pulls the motorcycle with his smart car and rides it in competitions. So many cool people in Las Vegas.
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