Mountain Miracles

December 19, 2016

[Week of December 12-18]

Dear Mom, Dad & Sam:

Monday - Well, like I said last week, it was a chill p-day. I got my haircut. We wrote emails. I took a nap. That was about it. After p-day we went and helped that guy named Julio move some stuff around at his house. Then we had a lesson with Paul. We tried making a financial plan with him to help him set a date for his wedding. Well, the problem is he doesn't have a job, and his wife works selling lighters and trinkets to tourists. Needless to say, they are living day to day, and as of right now it's not going to be possible to save up 1500€ to pay for a wedding. He's a great guy and we are doing everything we can to maybe help him find a job.

Town of Castillo

Tuesday - Today was a great day! So, we actually have a recent convert in our branch named Milton. He's a professional golfer and up until today i had never met him. We went to the pueblo where he lives which is about a 30 minute bus ride from where we live. Then we had to walk/hike 45 minutes up the side of a mountain to get to where he lives. Then we get up there and my companion says he doesn't know where he lives and that we don't have an address for him anywhere. So, I'm like great, we just came up here and now it's just gonna be a huge waste of time. Then, my companion says hey wait, I think this may be his house. So we decided to knock on the door. From the upstairs doorway a guy peeks out, looking super surprised to see the Elders on the doorstep, and says hey guys I'll be down in a minute. It was Milton! Haha! What "luck" we had in that moment. We ended up being able to catch up with him about everything and see how he was doing. We shared the Christmas Initiative and committed him to come to church Christmas Day. (This weekend he's playing in a golf tournament.) 

We hiked back down the mountain and went to another less actives house. This guy is named Jose. He's never home because he works a crazy schedule. Well, all we were thinking is that we had already had one miracle how hard can it be to have a second. We walked another hour or so to get closer to his house. We arrived and knocked on the door. An old man answered. We asked if Jose was there and he said "yes, let me go get him for you." WOW! What are the odds?! So anyways we talked to him for a little bit, he didn't want us to share a message because his parents were in town visiting for vacation and they aren't members. But, he did offer to pick us up the next day and drive us to the airport which was super cool of him. We contacted for the night and didn't have to much success in that way. We were super happy with our pair of miracles today though!

Elder Harris & Elder Perez

Wednesday - So today was a good day. We started by having a lesson with Paul. The Romanian Elders Skyped in and taught him about the one and only church of God. He liked it and decided he won't be going to his old church anymore. Then we had a lesson right afterwards with Patricia, our new investigator. She's really great! She was an investigator about 2 years ago and has heard all of the major lessons. The problem was the first time she was investigating all she was doing was looking for the flaws in our religion. So today we taught her lesson 2, the plan of salvation. She really enjoyed it. We had two members at the lesson with us and they played an instrumental part in the lesson. She had some questions that they were able to answer for her in a better way than we could. Then we helped set up our building for the Christmas Party we are having on Friday. Later on we ended up getting a ride with Jose to the airport. We flew to Gran Canaria for our zone conference tomorrow. We had the luck to stay at the matrimony couple's piso. It was super nice and I slept like a baby on their couch. They also fed us this amazing homemade bean dip for dinner. Woah! It was so good!

Thursday - So we woke up this morning and the Rogers made us a breakfast casserole for breakfast. It was super good. We also had chocolate croissants. Then we got ready for the conference. The conference went from about 10 to about 6:30. We talked about obedience and faith, about how our mission has lots of room to grow in the way that we can have faith for better things to happen. I've coined a phrase which is "we don't hope for miracles, we expect them." We've had a couple of years with low numbers overall and President Pack is confident that this coming year if we increase our faith and rely more on the Lord, everything will work out. We will baptize. We will see conversions. We will have success. Every time he speaks I know more and more that he is my mission President and that I'm here to work with him. I seriously love that man! 

Anyways we had a great conference, we ate lunch afterwards which was delicious Canarian food. (Look up Ropa Vieja, Pata de Cerdo, Patatas agujador maybe I don't know what they are called, as well we had legit brownies and ice cream with hot fudge!) Then we did a white elephant gift exchange. Everyone bought a gift that cost less than 5 euros and we all wrapped them and fought over which ones were the best. Haha! I got a basketball goal that you attach to a persons head and play that way, it is very fun. My companion got glasses that are also a straw. Then as a group we went and sang in a central part of the town and gave out Books of Mormon. We ended up giving out around 50-75 and it was a pretty huge success. Then my companion and I flew home. It was a short trip full of the Spirit and of fun and good times. I love this area and the mission.

Friday and Saturday - Well Friday we had English class. As well afterwards we had our branch Christmas party. It was fun and we ate super good food. I loved it. Not so cool part about these two days. I've had the worst migraine of my life and could hardly look out the window and see the light. It was difficult for me to move around and I felt as if I've been hit by a truck.

Sunday - Well, today has been a little bit better but, I can still improve a lot. Church was really good and my companion actually spoke and talked about charity. It was really good. I loved it. Then we ate with Zenon and Elena like always. For the lesson with them today we did something different. We had them to teach us the Restoration each of them taking a part that they were going to teach. It was really good. Then we went to do some pass bys. Afterwards we had dinner with Yolanda and Nacho. It was this really good Lasagna stuff. I really enjoyed it. Hopefully tomorrow I will be better. I hate this headache I've had because it's just not going away. I've taken medicine and slept a ton, but, it persists being a nuisance.

Monday - Well today for Pday we've pretty much just chilled because I am still sick. It's fine I'm sure I'll be better tomorrow or soon. Mom, the pano photo I did by running around behind the camera every time. We were just being goofballs that day. Haha! Oh and btw the Gentri video was super cool. We watched that last week and we both really enjoyed it. Dad, island life is super laid back, people don't really care about anything. Haha! As well we do get baked goods every once in a while but they are always from Zenon. Look up rosquetas. Those are our current addiction. Haha!

I love you guys so much,

Elder Harris