So, it turns out, once upon a time, someone bought the London Bridge, took it apart, shipped it to the United States, and rebuilt it entirely in Lake Havasu, Arizona, which is in our mission. Who knew?
The other day we were joking that Andres, who got baptized just a couple weeks ago, is now more active in the church than we are. His Facebook profile has his CTR ring and a Light The World banner. He also went to a member's house for a family home evening without us yesterday. On Sunday, we asked if he wanted to watch the Christmas devotional with us and said we would come over at 8:00 to watch it with him. He texted us a couple hours early and said that he was already watching it live without us. We didn't even tell him how to find it, haha. He also was able to get the priesthood this Sunday, so we are so excited for him. He came with us to help in a lesson, and when somebody asked him how he knew the church was true, I was interested to hear that he said it was when we took him to visit different families in the ward. He could see that they had something special.
The other day our trainee Elder Shepherd told us that several times he has woken up in the night to hear Elder Gastelum and I sleep talking in Spanish to each other. Man, we're some weird roommates.
Most people are so nice here, but there are still those people that drive by and yell about those "(bad word) Mormons." It is so ridiculous. How crazy would it be if someone did the same thing to, like, some nuns walking down the road? Haha, it makes me laugh thinking about it.
This week to keep the zone excited during the last week of transfers, we started a Book of Mormon challenge to see who could hand out the most from last Wednesday through Monday. The three districts ended up handing out over 200 copies. It was a ton of fun! We all tried different creative things. We set up a table in a park with Christmas music, hot cocoa, Christmas videos, and the Book of Mormon. It was a lot of fun, but only medium successful. Next time we're thinking about trying a busy street corner. It was kind of funny, though, because we set up next to a little walking trail, so people would pass us several times. I accidentally offered the same lady cocoa more than once after she had already given a firm no.
After that, we got creative and tied a Book of Mormon and nativity DVD together with ribbon and a candy-cane and gave out as many as we could carry. We jumped on the bikes and would give them out to everyone we saw. It was awesome how a little presentation made people just so much happier to accept it. Just felt like spreading Christmas spirit everywhere.
One other cool experience was with a family we are teaching. The dad was talking about how he wants to change his life. He said that he always notices the discipline the missionaries have. He mentioned that he could always see that we have our hair combed and clean socks, and you could tell we'd showered that day. He also mentioned our strict schedule that we follow. Little things like that made him want to change his life to have more of that. It is pretty amazing how even those really little things can have a big influence on someone.
There is another guy we are teaching that is an older fellow, but he is just so cool. He was in the military and showed us a clip where he was filmed when he was 19 by a war photographer decades ago. He also studied thermo-nuclear physics and visited Chernobyl before it all went south. We had invited him to be baptized in his second lesson, and he accepted, but had a question about why we don't drink coffee. We only had time to give a very brief explanation, so we came back the next time ready to teach the Word of Wisdom in all its glory. When we were done and we invited him to live it, he said, "Oh, you see my coffee machine back there? I washed it out after last time, and I don't use it anymore." He just quit without us even asking him to directly after drinking it every day for years! It was an awesome experience. I love seeing how many people there are that are just so ready for the gospel, and just don't know where to find it.
We got our transfer calls today, and we will all stay here in our trio! It'll be my fifth transfer here, which will put me at about seven and a half months here in Paraiso! It will definitely be the area I've been in the longest.
One last cool thing that happened was when we were passing out our Book of Mormon DVD combos. We went past a park, and a guy running around the track stopped and talked to us. He told us that he had been a missionary and asked if we had anywhere to eat that night. We asked what ward he was in, and he said he actually hadn't gone to church in a long time. But anyway, he gave us his address, and we went over. He was just the kindest man ever, and it was easy to see that he had just been terribly lonely. He only had one big plate, because he never has visitors. All he has for company is two cats. But he bought us a bunch of pizza and ice cream. We ate and watched President Nelson's gratitude message. Afterwards, he asked if it would be okay to have a blessing. We could tell that the visit was very meaningful to this lonely man that had not had any contact with the church for years. It was another testimony to me of how awesome God's plan is. If we had gotten to the park even thirty seconds earlier or later, we wouldn't have seen that guy. He really does put us where we need to be when we are about His business.
Anyway, life is good, and God takes care of his children.
Till we meet again,
Elder Harris
And the pictures!
Including an awesome Christmas package from Aunt Kathy! Thanks so much!
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