IT has BEEN yet but ANOTHER GREAT WEEK in the MISSION...

Our visit with Elder Waddell

Well family and friends, it has been yet but another great week in the mission. We are still on the search for the Lord's elect, knocking door-to-door. We still aren't having too much success but hopefully I'll at least leave my son with someone that is prepared to be baptized and a strong convert in the church.

This week we had a 5 hour conference with Elder Waddell, which was really awesome. He is an inspirational man and taught us a lot of doctrine. He focused on baptizing converts and forever families. A favorite quote of the day would be we want kneeled families and not just wet families. It makes more sense in Spanish but he was saying that there are a lot of people who skip steps in the gospel before getting baptizing. That faith and repentance come first but many don't understand or fulfill with the steps and then go inactive soon after. A family that kneels down every night to pray and study the scriptures is a family that is gonna build faith and are going to have true desires to repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins and with the hopes of one day to be sealed in the temple and arrive together in the Celestial Kingdom.

Well we are teaching Mariza. She has known the church for 15 years but hasn't been baptized cuz she's not married. All of her kids are baptized and less active. She moved away for awhile and recently has come back to live in Las Brisas. We found her and her husband one day and committed them to be married. They both agreed and the mother was super excited because she finally will be baptized. The only problem is with her husband's paperwork but if everything goes well, they will be married and she will be baptized in November. 

We live in the third story of a three-story house and recently we found out the family who lives below us are all members, less-actives. They have lived there for years and so have the Elders but recently we have made the connection. It is pretty sweet cuz they are from Jaen and I know all his family and even baptized one of his nephews. It was a cool connection and hopefully we will be able to teach them soon cuz they live real close.

I've got more to say but no time. I love you guys so much. Thanks Dad for making me trunky with your epic surf trip story. love it. You guys are awesome.

besitos 

Elder Harper

IT'S AS SIMPLE AS THAT MY DEAR FRIENDS....

This week has been pretty epic. Nothing new really happened like I always say, but it was epic. I

don't remember the people I wrote about last time but right now we are working real hard with 2 couples. Both couples kind of have the same case. We are teaching David and Sandra. David is a member and has been his whole life. He almost went on a mission but he messed up and has been inactive ever since. But now that he's living with someone and has kids, he wants to change and come back and he wants his fam to have the gospel as well. It's a super sweet fam! They always invite us over for dinner and family nights and they are really progressing. We just need to get them married as well so they can move forward.

We are also teaching Auri and Oner. Auri is the less active in this case and her boyfriend is Oner, a nonmember. This family is super kind and loving as well. They are having a hard time cuz their baby is sick and they don't have money to pay for all the meds and sometimes it leads to arguments and stuff. Auri wants to get married but Oner is a little harder. Even though he's super chill and our good friend, sometimes he has a hard time accepting our message but it's also a beautiful fam that has the potential to become an eternal family. 

In church, Antoni and Jeffrey showed up. They are ancient investigators we found a week or two ago. They said that with other Elders, they had baptismal dates but they never came to have the certainty that it was all true. I asked them if they ever went to church and they said that they hadn't.  I then told them that if they want to know if the church is the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ, they need to attend it. If they want to know if the Book of Mormon is true, they have to read it and pray to know. If they want to know if the commandments are necessary, they have to live them. It's as simple as that my dear friends. Like it says in John, if we want to know if a doctrine is true, we have to pray and live it and then we will have a manifestation through the spirit that it is true and we will have desires to keep living it and want more of it cuz we will be so blessed from the joy and happiness that comes from obedience. 

Elder Wadell is coming this week to train us a bit so that will be exciting. Well I don't got anything else to say. Ask me some questions next time and I'll answer them haha. Love you guys with all my heart.

Besitos

Elder Harper

HE STARTED THREATENING to HURT ME & PULLED out a KNIFE....

Well I have very little time to write but this week was very epic! Conference was amazing! I got to watch all of it in English with my shewbie, Elder Bailey, except for the last sesh. It was cool hearing the speakers that spoke their native language, especially when they spoke Spanish.

Well like I always say, the mission is sooo dang hard but that is why I love it so much, cuz it brings me happiness, really the most worth while things in life are the things that we have to work for.  They can be super difficult to achieve but they are the things that bring us true happiness.  Following the commandments can be hard as well but as we live the Gospel and are obedient with exactness we receive blessings, lots of happiness, and eternal life.  I feel like a lot of the conference talks were about sustaining the Prophets, personal revelation, and the difference between today's standards and the Lord's standards and the courage we need to stay on this path. 

Well I've never knocked more doors in my life then we have recently and I've never been so rejected so many times. It just makes my comp and I want to work even harder. We are trying to find the elects and they are worth the time, the rejection, and the pain.  This week, in between conference sessions we were knocking doors and this guy opened his door and started telling us he was from another church and that he didn't have time for us. Well we were super persistent and out of nowhere he let us inato his house, sat us down, and admitted to us that he has been a member of the church for 10 years but that he hasn't gone in 5 years.  He told us that no one had visited him before now.  His heart was softened and he was grateful for our visit this week.  We have an appointment to teach all of his family.   

I had a crazy experience this week that reminded me of how we should follow the spirit in all times and not doubt it.  I was trying to find a house of a less active with my comp and we were a little lost. I needed to call the bishop because he knows all but a thought came to my mind that I should not call at this time.  Even though there was nobody around and it seemed safe, people could see we have a cell phone and jump us later. We were in a dangerous part of the area. I told my comp the thought I had and he agreed with me that we shouldn't call.  Frustrated that I could not find the house, I pulled the cell out anyways and called the bishop.  As I was hanging up the phone some strange hooded man approached me, grabbed me from behind, and tried to grab the phone.  I pulled my hand free and shoved the phone in my pocket then shoved him off of me.  He started threatening to hurt me and pulled out a knife.  For some reason I felt calm.  He was drunk and I felt like he could just be bluffing with his threats.  I started speaking in English and he asked us where we were from.  I told him I did understand and I speak Spanish also.  He kind of got scared but ended up showing us the house we were looking for....weird story but officially I still haven't been robbed and he ended up helping us so... yeah..

Well that's all I got. My time is up but I love you guys. Keep it strong out there. 

Besitos

Elder Harper   

LIFE is COMPLICATED...the GOSPEL is SIMPLE & JOYFUL....

Family and Friends, 

Well this week was another epic week with my good pal Elder Bailey. We did not get to watch conference this week, in fact nobody in Peru watched conference and we didn't even have church on Sunday because of the Peruvian elections. (Peruvian law does not allow church and other meetings to be held on election days) So next Saturday and Sunday we are going to watch a recording of conference with all the members. 

Well, there aren't too many investigators who are progressing right now so we basically just knock doors all day every day. The people here are a lot different then in Jaen. They are still pretty nice but no one really wants to hear us haha. But we definitely have seen the blessing of talking to everyone we can. We have met many good people and we have found many hidden inactives as well. We have an investigator named Johnny and he wants to be baptized but he has to divorce his ex wife first so he can get married and get baptized. We always teach him about the importance of sharing the Gospel. He was talking to a friend from work and his friend agreed to come over and listen to us. Well halfway through the lesson, he admitted that he was a member and that he is just inactive. He has since formed a family and he has the desire to return to church and he wants us to come teach his family as well.

Another crazy story is that one day this week we were walking down the street and my comp stopped and asked me if I was hearing what he was hearing and we looked down on the dusty road and found a potato sack that had 3 abandoned kittens in it. To be honest, I kind of wanted to ditch them but my companion couldn't. So we went door-to-door, contacting to try to find an owner haah. Well nobody wanted them but we ended up leaving them in a park bench in the richest part of our area. When we went back to check on them, they were gone...We're are pretty sure they were exalted. 

Well I feel blessed and humbled to have this opportunity to be a missionary and a representative of Jesus Christ. Sometimes it's hard but like I always say, I'm the happiest I've ever been cuz I can see the happiness that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings to the lives of others when they strive to live the commandments and when they apply Christ's Atonement in their lives. Sometimes life is complicated and unhappy but the Gospel is simple and joyful. We just have to be strong enough and humble enough to endure to the end. I love My Savior and what He did for me, for the people of Peru and for all of you. I'm grateful for the support you give me and I pray for you all everyday. 

LOVe

besitos,  Elder Harper

old photo from last transfer