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 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
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