"There may be no better place on earth to understand Lehi's dream." Those were the words of President Rodarte as we took Elder Shepherd to the new missionary training meeting. We stood outside, and the whole Las Vegas Valley was like the great field. In front of us in brilliant white, was the 'tree of life' or the Las Vegas Temple. It was my first time seeing it, so I was really excited. Then, on our right, the 'great and spacious building' or all the tall buildings of the strip jutting up into the sky. It was the biggest object lesson I'd ever seen and was pretty awesome. And I think President was right; I can't think of anywhere in the world that could be more comparable to that powerful vision.
Later that same day we had my first exchange with the assistants to the president! It was pretty fun. They get to drive a red Toyota Tacoma, which is by far the coolest mission vehicle around. I enjoyed catching a ride with them. I think my favorite part was when one of the assistants and I went out to street contact. After all of COVID, most the mission is pretty rusty at it. So anyway, we drove to an apartment complex and parked and started walking around. It was only 6:00 but it was already dark. We walked all over, but there was just nobody outside. It was just empty. We tried asking two people if they needed help with their groceries, but they said no. We walked to another giant complex and it was more of nothing. We decided to drive to another one and prayed to be able to find someone to talk to. This one wasn't looking much better. We kept going, but the only person we found was an old Indian man that said, "Please don't try to sell me any religion!" By now we had been out for almost an hour, and it was a little depressing to be out so long and just not find anyone. We decided to take one last lap before going back for the night. As we rounded a corner, a teenager from the Pacific islands walked down some stairs and said, "Hey, wait up! What's the scripture of the day?" We got to know him, shared a scripture, and then got his contact information and gave him a Book of Mormon. He had met with missionaries before on Zoom and was super happy to talk to us. It was super awesome. There must be some lesson to be learned there. We were feeling pretty unsuccessful for a long time, and it wasn't until our very last lap that we were able to find someone to teach. I think we have lots of discouragements and trials in life, but if we hang in there, it always works out in the end.
We had our second english class this week! The first week we had four nonmembers, and this time we had nine! And there were four people that came after it was over because they didn't know when it started. We are super excited. The guy I was practicing with brought up by himself when we have our church meetings and said he would like to come. It is amazing how a little service really opens people up. Our english ads on Facebook have had more than a hundred responses and we have been hanging up flyers everywhere.
Last Sunday we decided to fast to find a family to teach. We fasted all that day. Then, on Wednesday, we were able to start teaching this super cool family! I had taught them several months ago, but this time they were just so much more open and humble. In our second lesson, we were able to invite the whole family to be baptized. It was kind of funny, because the dad was there with his two kids, and the youngest was zonked out on the other couch. After we invited them to be baptized, the dad said, "We'll break the news to him (pointing at the youngest kid). If we get baptized he's getting baptized too." Haha, no getting out of it for him. Hopefully we will be able to continue helping them have that peace and happiness they need.
We had a lesson with a less active family, and after the daughter prayed, she told us that that was the first time she had tried praying in six years. Little things like that make a mission worth it.
Anyways, there is always so much crazy work to do. I think as a kid I always just assumed you go on a mission and then you're just a perfect missionary, but the more I learn, the more I realize I need to work on! Maybe you never get to be a perfect missionary. And I think that's okay. It's all about the effort.
Till we meet,
Elder Harris
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