Ready for some interesting statistics?
I recently learned something about the number of people baptized in the Nevada Las Vegas Mission. This year included COVID, virtual teaching, and an entire month where baptisms were not allowed to happen. Many people say and think, "Wow, how rough to be a missionary right now, nothing is happening!" That is where you might be wrong. With the virus, the number of people found to teach dropped significantly. However, up to this point, our mission has baptized more people than it did last year, which was full of 'normal' missionary work. This means that even though we generally found far fewer people, those we did find were more ready to hear the gospel. It is amazing how nothing can stop the work of God. Despite shutdowns, quarantines, limited contact, and fewer people to teach, more became converted to him!
We had transfers last week, and pretty much everything is the same! I get to continue training Elder Parker, which we are both really happy about. He's great. Our whole district is exactly the same except for one sister that went home, and a new one that came in from the good old online MTC. The only change is that we are moved from an English zone to a brand new Spanish zone, so now all our meetings and phone calls and everything is in Spanish, which I enjoy.
We had a delightful experience at the grocery store today. First, we were just walking on the side of the road in the parking lot and some truck is behind us driving slowly. He had the entire road open, and we were just walking on the curb. He must have been having a bad day, because he honks and angrily yells, "If you're going to cross then cross already!" Then, while we were in the store somebody seemed nice and was talking to us, but then totally started Bible bashing and going on and on about how the Bible says this and the Bible says that and how we offend God because our apostles don't have beards and wear tassels. That was actually the first time that that has happened to me. Perhaps not coincidence that right after that, as I opened up to my scriptures for personal study I read in 3 Nephi 12:10-12:
10 And blessed are all they who are persecuted for my name’s sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 And blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake;
12 For ye shall have great joy and be exceedingly glad, for great shall be your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you.
That is of some comfort. Not a coincidence, I think.
You may remember how my little office chair has five wheels, but one is missing. All that is left is a plastic shard sharpened and positioned to torment your ankles. I have had several close calls before, but the other day during companion study was officially the first time I leaned back, found nothing, and fell out of my chair. I need a certificate of achievement or something.
Three weeks ago, our district hit our finding record. We tied it the next week, and this last week we topped it! We found half of our district's people, mostly due to this awesome family we came across. We got a referral who was found on Facebook through some missionaries in the West mission. We called and set up a time to come by. When we went over, we met the father, who told us that he knew when those other missionaries messaged him, it was inspired of God. He was just this awesome, sincere man. We told him how our message centers on the family and asked if his family would want to listen as well. His wife was at work, but all six of his kids came and joined! There was even this adorable little one-year old that just sat there and smiled the whole time. The spirit was just there and you could tell they were a very good, loving, family. It warms my heart. We shared the Book of Mormon and they all seemed very interested. After long days of dozens and dozens of phone calls and limited success, one little good thing like that makes up for everything.
One last interesting thing that happened was that I got a call from one of the assistants to the president. He said, "We've heard there's been some talk of changing the area boundaries in your district." I said yes, thinking that he was about to confirm the rumored changes. Instead, he said, "President would like you to create a proposal for the new district boundaries." That was a large surprise. It felt like a pretty big responsibility, but with lots of prayer and studying, we wrote up and diagrammed a plan for new boundaries and turned it in. We will see what he thinks! He is guided by the Spirit and won't lead us astray, so whatever happens will be good.
I suppose that is it for now.
Onward and forward,
Elder Harris
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