May 24, 2021 -- One Last Journey

So. The final six weeks. Here we are. 

I got a nice, very personal email that said, "Dear Elder or Sister Harris." That is how you know they care. It was just some business email about an online course they have you do toward the end of your mission, but it made me laugh.

Also, here is a miracle that happened about 20 minutes ago: we were doing some chores and I was packing (Wait, what? Not so subtle foreshadowing? Hmmm...) and we got a call over Facebook from someone we had never met but had accepted a Facebook friend request. He told us that he had lost his job, his car broke down, and his girlfriend left -- all today. He said he didn't know us, but he was wondering if we could share some godly words. We talked a little and shared some scriptures and will be calling again tonight. I think if you just make it clear who you are and that you're there to help, people will turn to you when something goes wrong (and something always goes wrong). 

This week we had Elder Kyle S. McKay come to our mission! Sister McKay has the heavenly glow of an angel and told some amazing stories. Then Elder McKay stood up and thunder rolled from the pulpit with some actual pulpit pounding. He was the most powerful speaker ever. I think he has everything memorized. Like, if you can think of a scripture or a book or a poem, he probably has it memorized. He was really funny too. He said, "We came here to shake the very foundations of the Nevada Las Vegas Mission so that hell would have no power and all hell's demons will want to leave! They probably already do, anyway. It's hotter here than it is there. I look at the weather map on my phone and it says, 'Las Vegas, 106.' Then I swipe over and it says, 'Hell, 102.'" He taught us a lot, especially about having fire in the bones and completely dedicating yourself to the work. On his first morning here was when he interviewed Elder Gastelum and I. I was admittedly a little nervous not knowing what to expect. However, as he and his wife came in, they just emanated so much love and warmth. Any worries immediately went away. It is pretty cool to see someone so powerful and capable who is so kind and uplifting. 

We went with him as we visited different parts of the mission. The last day, everything went wrong with technology that could. On our way there, we realized the chapel we were going to didn't have a camera you could hook to a laptop and use with Zoom, so we got someone to temporarily steal the camera from another building. Then, when we got there, we turned on the church sound system, and a horrible screaming came from all the speakers. We hurried and unplugged everything and figured out that something had blown in the speakers, and not even the church microphone on the podium would work without making deafening shrieking noises. Then we couldn't get the speaker to hook to the computer to play the sound from online meeting participants. It was the worst. In the end, we made some improvisations, and had the meeting with Elder McKay, the mission president, and 12 stake presidents preaching (in Elder McKay's words) "like Brigham and Joseph had to." 

It was all a very uplifting experience. I liked one thing he said about change, which was that "if you do it, and it fades away after I'm gone, you did it for me. If it lasts forever, you did it for Jesus." He also said that, "nobody is called to maintain the status quo." 

On the way back from one of the meetings, we picked up some sandwiches in a small town called Needles, California, which we discovered is the home town of Spike, Snoopy's brother from the Peanut comics. Small world.

This week we also had the best end of the transfer that I could imagine with two baptisms. There is a girl named Dyl'n whose family had not been attending church, but started coming back. We were the first missionaries to teach them. They are now in a different ward, but they asked if I would come and baptize Dyl'n. Her mom is a member, but her dad, who is not a member, also came to her baptism! It was just a beautiful and happy experience. I also realized that I have never baptized someone in English until that day. 

A student from our English class also came to the baptism. We just invited him, and he said, "Sure! I've never been to one." He smelled a little like smoke. A scent of smoke in your church meetings is always just a great sign that missionary work is happening. After the baptism, he said, "So, what is a covenant?" We explained, and he nodded. He then looked at the picture of Christ being baptized and said, "When she got baptized, you all had your hands and everything just like they are in this picture." We talked about Christ's example. He then asked, "Why do you think that Catholics baptize babies? Wouldn't it make more sense for it to be someone's own decision?" You could just see all the wheels racing in his head. It was so cool. They say the best way to baptize is to baptize. Or, in other words, when you can get someone to go to a baptism, a lot of them want to be baptized as well. Anyway. We are teaching him and are very excited for what comes next.

And, our great friend, Miss Nancy also got baptized! She met the missionaries who were helping direct traffic flow when she got her COVID vaccine, who then introduced her to us. She was a little distant at first, but then as she went through some difficult personal trials, she felt a lot of peace through the scriptures. When we ask her about her feelings of the church, she often says, "I just know the Book of Mormon is true! It is God's word!" She takes pages of notes as she reads and was ready to be baptized from day one. She met some great members, like a family whose little kids would draw her a picture when she came to visit church. Our ward organist--who plays piano like nobody's business--played at her baptism. She wanted to play something Nancy would recognize, so she played an incredible version of Amazing Grace and Nancy hugged the member sitting next to her and cried through it all. She has incredible faith. Right after, we went over to a ward party and introduced her to even more members. It was a really happy day.

All in all, it was a very happy week. And then, last night President called us in to his office and let me know that I would be finishing my mission in another area. I am off to a Spanish ward in North Las Vegas for my final six weeks. It is a bike area, and I will just be a normal missionary with nothing to do but find and teach. I am excited to see what the future holds. 

'Til we meet,

Elder Harris

May 17, 2021 -- The Manner of Happiness

So, one downside of living in Las Vegas when you are trying to find people to teach on Facebook is that occasionally you message someone whose profile says they are from Vegas, but they actually live somewhere else and just think that Las Vegas is cool. Thus it was that we messaged someone and started a conversation about volleyball, and before you know it, it is a group chat with us and 26 young men from Ghana titled "Volleyball Players Only." They mostly just say things like, "Hey," "cool," "how r u," and the thumbs up emoji. I think we started a sensation. 

In other news, we no longer have to wear masks if we are vaccinated! We wore them at church yesterday, but from now on we don't need to wear them visiting people or at church, and most stores don't even require it. It is a small change, but it feels exciting. Things are looking up!

We had met and started teaching a family with a mom who is a member but the dad is not. The mom has a ten year old daughter that wanted more experience with church, and so with some help from the relief society president, the mom decided to come back to church after a long time without coming! We helped them come to church several times, and then it turned out they actually lived in the ward next door, so we helped transition them over, but stayed in touch. The daughter had committed to be baptized in one of the lessons we were in, and now she is taking that step on Saturday! Their ward has sister missionaries, so they asked if we would come and baptize the daughter. It is such a beautiful thing to see a family come back to church and grow closer together. 

Also, Nancy, our super sweet southern grandma is getting baptized on Saturday! We reviewed all the interview questions with her, and she passed with flying colors. When we talked about the law of chastity, she told us a story about one time when she went to a restaurant with some friends who began to use some vulgar language. She told us that she said (in her mind, not out loud) "Ok, you grannies!" and got up to use the bathroom and then just left without telling anyone. Her little insult just made us laugh a bunch because she is the sweetest woman I've ever met and is just so amazingly strong in her convictions. She has a pretty tough family life, but I think it has been very meaningful for her to find like minded people and extra family at church.  

Shortly after making sure Nancy was ready for her interview, we did a videocall with one of our English class students who has lived here in the US for about six months. At the end of our last call, he asked us what made our church different than the Catholic church, and we set up this visit to talk more about it. As we began talking, it became evident that after several weeks of attending our English class and a branch party, he got curious and started looking up what our church was all about online, and now he wanted to hear it from us. We taught the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ (which is hands down my favorite thing to teach). When we started explaining Joseph's dilemma of being around so many churches and not knowing where to go, he exclaimed, "That's my question! That's my question too!" He was very excited and had seen something about the first vision online, so he really connected and enjoyed it. At the end he asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon and decided to start coming to church. A very sweet spirit was present. 

There is an app available for missionaries called the EdApp which provides some really great training on doing missionary work digitally. Our mission president re-emphasized how badly he wanted everyone to complete all the courses on it, so we thought that we had better hurry and finish it too. We did one during dinner about responding to people who go online and request a personalized study session with the missionaries on a topic of their choice. It was interesting training, but neither Elder Gastelum nor I had ever before received such a request. 

We got to the end of the day and were sitting together around 9:30 filling out some records and reports, when we suddenly got the double email and text notification combo that means we received an online referral! And do you know what the person referring herself requested? A personalized study session about the purpose of life. This was the same exact thing we had studied for a few hours earlier! We knew exactly what to do and what resources to send their way. We were able to start a text conversation that went on for about 40 minutes and set up a time to meet and share more. I guess God gives us whatever we are ready for. I heard a quote recently that goes something like, "If we care enough to improve ourselves, God will enlarge our effective circle of influence." Maybe it was a coincidence, but I don't believe in coincidences.

As we sat there that night, I was just blown away by how happy I felt. Nothing huge had happened that day, but we were able to witness so many people have their lives touched by God. We were lucky enough to be part of it, the kids on 'take your child to work day' as we go about the Father's business. I was trying to think when in my life I had ever felt this happy and had a really hard time thinking of any other specific day that had been as good. There might be a few I could count on one hand. But I am just so humbled and grateful that I got to be here. I don't even have words to really explain how much heart and soul is put into missionary work, but neither can I explain how it feels when you see God's hand do something you could never do on your own. 

One last story. So, on one of my last weeks with Elder Stewart, we had a missionary stay overnight with us because he was going home early. We weren't sure why, but he was a nice missionary that had only been out for a few weeks. We finished a couple things we had to do, and then we were driving in our area near the airport. We were a little early, so we weren't sure if we should just drop him off at the airport 40 minutes early, or if we should do something else. We decided to park the car and walk around a residential neighborhood we had never been in before. We got our pass-along cards ready with our new missionary who had never street contacted before in his life. We talked to several people who showed little interest, and then we saw one lady walking into her garage. We flagged her down and said hi, and she smiled and said she was already a member. We didn't have her records, but we wrote down her number and went on our way. And that was the end of the story. Until several days later we went back to visit their family, and they fed us dinner. We found out that she is the only member of the church in her family! It was pretty amazing to me that in the literal very last moments of a missionary's mission, we were blessed with a miracle like that. In his twilight hour, we found an incredible family looking for some gospel light. Miracles must be real.

'Til we meet,

Elder Harris

May 10, 2021 -- Party Crashers

Little kids are super funny. There is a family that we don't really know but that we have tried to talk to a few times that lives in the apartment building across the street. As we were walking out to our car the other day one of the kids (who is probably about kindergarten age) yells, "Look! There are those GUYS again!"

Another thing about kids in apartment complexes is that they seem to form gangs. There'll just be a pack of a dozen kids running around in the evenings. We walked past one such gang while out trying to find someone to teach, and two of the kids happened to be in our ward. They saw us and yelled, "Those are the MISSIONARIES! They came to my house today!" and waved a lot. Some of the other kids waved too. Sharing the gospel is that easy, I guess!

This week was our second week back to two-hour church! It is pretty exciting, but also kind of crazy when you have both a branch and a ward. You can end up in church for a long time. It is really exciting to see all the progress, though. 

On Saturday, we were out on the bikes, looking for people to talk to. It's been starting to heat up outside, so we made sure to keep a couple water bottles in our bags. We were just going through a residential neighborhood, and we saw a man working on something in his garage. We tried to say hi, and he said "No thanks." But then, he said, "Do you want some water, though?" One rule of missionary work is never turn down water, so we said yes, and he brought us each two bottles. He told us that his father is a pastor and you don't see young people doing what we are doing, so he appreciated what we represent. We continued on our way, and about 30 seconds later found a couple that appeared to be from India cooking in their garage. They also respectfully said they were not interested. They said, "Would you like some water, though?" And once again, we said yes. I think at this point I already had three water bottles in my bag, but the man kindly gave us another bottle and wished us well.

We kept going, laden with all our water, and passed a park. There were a lot of people under the pavilion. We biked past, and suddenly someone calls out, "Elders!" We turned around, and there was a nice Hawaiian man who is in the bishopric in his ward in Hawaii. His mom lives here in Las Vegas and was celebrating her 83rd birthday. His whole extended family came from all over to celebrate. So there was this huge Polynesian family with Hawaiian music and a bunch of food and they all talked to us and loaded us up with a bunch of food. They were so nice. We ate for a minute and then continued on our way. 

Later that same night, we had a party with our Spanish branch. Our building has a little grass field with a pavilion out back, and we grilled a bunch of carne asada. The branch loved it, and we got more people there than we do at church, I believe. We also had two of the students from our English class come, and they each brought friends and family! That was pretty exciting. There were 6 total nonmembers, plus two of their kids. After all the food, they had a piñata for the kids. I was the tallest person there, so they had me stand on a table and hang it up. Our ward mission leader announced how it would work, and he explained, "We will go shortest to tallest. So, that means Elder Harris is last. But, thanks to him, we were able to hang up the piñata! It was just a really fun and uplifting atmosphere.

The sweet older lady we are teaching that is really excited to be baptized was visiting another member's home with us, and we asked her how things had gone reading 1 Nephi 1. She said, "Hang on a second, let me get my notebook." She opened up a notebook and had two pages of notes written down! She started reading: "Nephi was always faithful, so he was blessed and favored of the Lord. He always remembered to offer thanks..." She kept going with all sorts of amazing insights about her reading. It was really powerful. 

We had another amazing experience when we called someone that had requested to talk to the missionaries through the Come Unto Christ website. We called and started talking to a younger woman. She is probably in her mid 20s. We introduced ourselves and asked what questions she had. She said she wanted to know about how we can be completely saved. She also said, "I was also wondering about baptism. Like, I haven't been baptized. Is just accepting Christ enough? Or do you actually have to get dipped?" It was pretty funny and we were really excited, but we managed to contain ourselves. We started walking her through some scriptures and texted her screen shots so she could follow along. We talked about faith, and then talked about repentance, and how it allows us to be clean and is positive and healing. She seemed really touched by it. When we got to a scripture about following Christ's example by being baptized, she said, "Oh, so you do have to be baptized to follow Christ." She then asked if we have church services and said, "Do I have to come to church every week? Or just for the baptism?" We hadn't even invited her to be baptized yet, so she pretty much beat us to the punch. She is super cool. Since that first call, we have learned that she has a lot of social anxiety that makes it so she really has to work up her courage to even do a phone call. She definitely still has some hurdles to overcome. But as we sat in the car, you could just feel the Spirit. We were just so grateful that we had been part of something so amazing and special that had pretty much nothing to do with us and our abilities.

Another time we were at the film studio to make our English class that we put out on the internet. The guy who films it hadn't gotten there yet, so we were waiting. Some people came in and we waved and said hi. The guy finally got there, and we started getting ready to film the video. While we did, and elderly Hispanic couple came into the studio. They are psychologists and were going to film something about Mother's Day and creating strong family relationships. They weren't members of the church. As we talked with them for a minute, the camera man told them that we do this English broadcast as a community service and that our church does lots of things like that. The wife nodded and said, "That's good. Besides, they radiate a lot of peace." I thought that was really cool. Our only interaction with these people was to smile and wave when they walked past us, and they could still feel something. Our smallest interactions really seem to have an effect on people.

There are lots of things that make being a missionary really special. Like running up to someone who is walking away from you and asking if we can pray with them, and having them say yes. Or hearing somebody say, "I needed to hear that." They are certainly experiences never to be forgotten.

'Til we meet,

Elder Harris

May 3, 2021 -- Cookies Open Hearts

Here is my most terrifying moment of the week: we were talking to our mission president last night, and he mentioned how we have a general authority coming to visit our mission in person later in May. It is Elder Kyle McKay, who is a very powerful speaker and who accompanied Elder Christofferson when he Zoom called our mission. Then, President Rodarte mentions, "By the way, the morning of the first day he gets here, he is interviewing both of you for 20 minutes each." I thought my soul might have left my body for a second. I don't think I have ever had an interview with my mission president for over 10 minutes, and now I'll be sitting across a table from a member of the Quorum of the 70! Joking aside, I am very humbled and excited.

So, missions are definitely hard. We don't sleep a lot, there are plenty of people who don't like you without even meeting you, and you live a very different lifestyle from most of the world. I have sometimes thought how funny it would be if someone broke into a missionary apartment. "We're in! ...huh, no TV. Or couch. Just some mismatched desks and lots of scriptures." But, despite all the difficulties, the moments of good are just so good. And you learn to love things that used to be hard. Waking up early is hard, but certainly feels very productive and rewarding. Talking to strangers has moved from something I dreaded to something I love. And it is really easy to choose what clothes to wear each day with a closet of white shirts. So anyway, I hope a story or two I share -- little glimpses into part of a missionary's life -- might just show you that God has a plan and His work moves forward. I am always amazed by how little we have to do with what happens in missionary work as long as we are just available. 

There was a man that Elder Stewart and I found on Facebook (which just means that we sent him a friend request and started messaging him) that was really cool and who watched the online church broadcast several times. We taught him a little and then referred him to the missionaries in his area of Las Vegas. This week I found out that he was invited to be baptized and he said yes! Miracles certainly exist. We just started up a conversation with a total stranger on Facebook. 

There is a guy we met out walking around a few weeks ago who we called to see if we could visit. He said it was not a good time because he works two jobs, gets home late, and takes care of his young baby while his wife goes to visit her mom in the hospital who just got diagnosed with cancer. This poor family was going through a lot. We asked if we could just bring some cookies by instead, which they agreed to. We went over, and they invited us in. We shared a short message about prayer and gave them their cookies. Sweetest family ever. Since then, he kept texting us and seemed very curious. One day we asked how he was doing, and he said he was good. Then he responded asking if we had visited anyone today. We told him that, yes, we do it every day! He said, "Thanks so much for all the good you spread among people. May good reward you with double!" We then visited them again, and his wife had all sorts of good questions. She said she used to go to another church, and they sometimes studied "Mormons" and what to do when you met them. She asked about why we need the Book of Mormon, prophets, and life after death. We were able to bear testimony of the restoration of the gospel, which is probably hands down my favorite thing to do as a missionary. 

There is a member who moved into our ward a week or two ago who hadn't gone to church in many years. She is a young mom, and her husband is not a member. We were having a really hard time setting up a visit, but then one day we offered to bring cookies, and they said yes! They were impressed with the fact that they were still warm and gave us a tour of their new apartment. We seemed to have won them over, and now they want to feed us dinner! There are just good people out there.

I also love teaching English. We had one student come for the first time this week, and he seemed to enjoy it. We did a videocall a few days later to practice with him, and before we even started, he asked us if we have weekly church services, and said he wanted to come! There are definitely people out there that are just looking for an invitation. 

Another favorite experience of the week happened with a member of our ward whose family we had visited a few times several weeks ago to talk about sharing the gospel. She said, "Elder, I just have to tell you, my Sister lives in Massachusetts and wants nothing to do with the church, but because of your visits, I worked up the courage to ask if she wanted to watch general conference. And she did!" She was so excited about how she had been able to share the gospel, and it was so fun for us to see. 

Here are two final thoughts for this week, both from Elder Uchtdorf. 

"The number of prayers we say may influence our level of happiness, but the number of prayers we answer may be even more important."

And, "leadership is less about directing others, and more about receiving direction from God." 

So anyway. There are lives out there to be touched. 

'Til we meet.

Elder Harris