WELL I DON'T KNOW WHY but just FORGIVE ME for NOW....

Hey Fam, 

Well I think I've started every letter, ever journal entry and every email with well. Well, I don't know why but just forgive me for now. 

Soo, this week was pretty good. We had a multizona, which was just like a meeting with many zones. President Williams talked for 5 hours;  he is the bomb and definitely fits the description of an inspirational speaker. One of his little talks he gave us had to do with the Lucas 9:23; in order to come unto Christ we have to forget ourselves and take up our cross daily. The way he explained it was very epic. I also did some further study on taking up our cross. It means keeping the commandments and living the fullness of the Gospel. He compared it to keeping the mission rules and used exercising in the morning as an example: like how exercising for every morning for 2 years sounds hard and sometimes it intimidates us and we don't do it but he focused on the word daily and how we need to tell ourselves to do it today, just today, and then tomorrow comes and turns into today. It's the same with the Gospel. I think when we think about following Christ, we worry too much about the future or about if we are going to be able to endure to the end, but the Lord only requires to take it one day at a time. 

Well it was a cool class and then that same day we went to go teach a less active who was close to being rescued. She came out of her house and she was just bawling. She didn't tell us what had happened but she said that she wasn't happy and had been passing through a lot of trials and that she felt like giving up and she couldn't do it anymore. She also said that she felt like God was angry at her and she seemed like she was a little angry at God for the trials she has faced in her life. Well it was cool cuz at first I listened and then the spirit prompted me to know what to say. I was able to calm her down a bit and then explain to her the purpose of this life and the love God had for her and how she needs to be more humble and thank God for the trials she has and ask for the strength to over come them. I've come to learn on my mish that if we are grateful and humble we can always be happy no matter what the circumstance is. Well we are having investigators who are assisting church now so we are excited to see how they progress. Well the time always runs out for me but thanks for the emails. You guys are inspirational..love you all.

Elder Harper  besitos

THEY are a BEAUTIFUL FAM and I ALREADY LOVE THEM...

Hello family, 

Thanks so much for the unexpected package. I think I'm the most spoiled Elder in the mish and everyone hates me for it, but I LOVE it, haha. I loved the pictures and the Temple Liahona is one of the sweetest Liahonas I've ever seen. It made me real temple trunky. I think the Newport temple will be the first thing I do when I get home so write that down Mother please. I also enjoyed the wedding pics and the cruz pics. You guys are babes and I miss you.

Well it has been an epic week. We have been teaching, finding and struggling to find progressing investigators for many weeks and this week we found some studs. We were just knocking doors in a really poor part and this young man opened the door. We contacted him and asked if we could pass to share a message. He looked at us, looked in his house, looked back at me, and then told us we could come in with a smile upon his face. We starting talking to him and noticed his wife was further back in the house. She saw us and came to listen as well. We shared the Family A Proclamation To The World (my favorite lesson) and they loved it. The spirit was felt and this week we taught them 3 other times, and they went to church for all three hours, and they invited us to eat lunch with them after church, and they made me my favorite plate. They are a beautiful fam and I already love them. Their little daughters always run to hug us when we go to teach them. This week we are gonna work with them so they can get married, so pray for them. 

We have another awesome investigator named Juan.  He reminds me of my days of working in the temple.  He's 90 years old. He loves to talk and tell us his army stories but he can't hear very well. He's in good shape for a 90-year-old cuz he walks just fine and understands everything. He looks more like he's 70. He was a reference and we just started teaching him. He wants to be baptized and this Sunday he went to church with us and even though he's not a member, he payed tithing to the bishop. He's a stud and says he wants to end his life serving the Lord with all his heart. He's a great example to all of us. 

Well I'm loving being a leader even though I dreaded it and never wanted to be one. I have a low maintenance district but it's helping me become more Christ-like as I worry about the needs of not only my investigators, but other missionaries and it's helped me to recognize and act on promptings from the Lord.  This past week I prepared a class for my district meeting. It was what-evs but two days before, I felt strong impressions to talk about another theme and I followed it and studying the theme helped me and I think the class was what the Lord wanted my district to hear. The spirit was strong and words were put into my mouth. Well I'm loving it here and hope to continue having success. Thanks for all the support. I'll be praying for you guys.

besitos

Elder Harper

WE are OFFICIALLY TEACHING the BIGGEST MAN in CHICLAYO....

Well another crazy but productive week here in Imperio.

Just want to say thanks to my ward fam for sending me the card with all  the notes on it.  There is nothing more motivating then feeling the love and support from family, friends and the ward family. So thank you very much. 

Well tomorrow is going to be the start of a new change. Changes are always sad and different at first but I've come to learn on the mish that they are necessary for our progression. There's not much change in my  district actually. Elder Anderson and I will be  destroying the streets of Imperio for at least one more change together, but we are getting a new zone leader and the era of the pure white district has come to an end, but it was fun while  it lasted. As a missionary you come to love those you teach and serve and it's the same with any type of calling or assignment in the church if we magnify it and do it with true intention. 

We are officially teaching the biggest man in Chiclayo. It's a pretty great accomplishment if you ask me. He's a 17 year old kid. My comp thinks he's 7 ft but I'm not sure he's that tall. He's super skinny and he's from a family of tiny normal Peruvians. We always just admired him as he walked by but we got the nerve to contact him and he ended up being super cool and super interested in the gospel. We taught him the restoration and he loved it.  He said he was going to pray and he wanted the church website to read more about our church. When we talked to his Grandma, she was super happy that we came. She told us that his dad left him and that his mom died and that he's a good nice kid but starting to hang with the wrong crowd and  she  wants us to come often to visit him. We  have actually found many new investigators this week but the only problem is that they love to  hear us but haven't attended church or haven't read, but we are praying hard for them and will be patient as well. 

We'll I've got more to say for once but little time so forgive me and stay tuned for next week..  love you all                       

Elder HARPER besitos

WELL WE HAD some other EXPERIENCES with CRAZY PEOPLE.....

Hello Fam,

Well this week has been another great week. I love that there are always cool spiritual experiences. We had a meeting with President; he is just the coolest guy and really helps me feel confident and capable. He trusts me a lot and he's very inspirational. I'm really liking this district leader thing. 2 sisters in my district had a baptism and I got to do the interview. It was a pretty cool and intense moment. This guy has been receiving the missionary lessons for almost a year and over time, with patience, has gained a solid testimony of this gospel and he's really someone who has been converted. Whenever I would ask him a question, he would teach me the topic in depth like I was an investigator or something. He's and old man and is truly humble and willing to follow the Savior. 

Well we had some other experiences with crazy people. There are a lot of crazy people in La Victoria. We were walking to a lesson with a member and all of a sudden a guy sees us across the street, starts yelling and runs at us. My comp was just like crap, not this guy again and took off. I was confused but we just took off running and he was pretty close behind us. We finally lost him crossing a freeway and never saw him again. 

There was this other old crazy guy. We went to teach an investigator and we knocked on their door. An old man that always sits on the curb outside of the house yelled to us that she wasn't there, but we ignored him and kept knocking. Then he stood up and starting cussing at us. My Spanish vocabulary was expanded to say the least. He picked up like a mini log of wood and just chucked it at us. He missed but it creeped us out cuz he could of had knife or something as well. 

Besides that, we are teaching like we have never taught before. We are meeting a lot new people and have found a lot of new families and investigators that have the potential to progress. It really is an area full of humble people that also have faith in the Lord. 

We were exploring and contacting in one of our sketch parts of the area and a lady called us over and asked us to come in to teach and heal her uncle who was sick. It was cool that she was able to recognize us as representatives of Christ and that she had the faith to ask us for a blessing even though she didn't know us or the church. We went in, gave a blessing to the uncle and taught the fam. They were super grateful and want us to keep visiting them. The uncle was super sick as a result of too much drink but he's in the repentance process and hopefully will be healed according to his faith and desire to change. 

I've been trying to be guided by the spirit in every moment and I've felt its presence as I've made key decisions and as I've taught the gospel. It really is a key factor to be happy and to make the best decisions, and if we are obedient and faithful, we can be guided by it. Well I love you all and I'll try to send some pics.

Elder Harper besitos

IT IS the ONLY WAY to a HAPPY LIFE....

Familia,

Well like usual, your in a new area for a week and usually it goes by a little slow cuz everything is new but you close your eyes and almost a month passes by. Seriously, I can't believe I've already been here for like over a month. It's a good area. The members are sweet and there's lots of RMs who are super cool and are always down to come with us to visit. We are still struggling finding progressing investigators but we are teaching a lot. I've never taught so much in my mission before. It's awesome cuz it's the best part of the mission, sharing my testimony and inviting others to come unto Christ. There's nothing better and the spirit is always super strong. 

We basically had many experiences like my one last week. We knocked one door, a teenage girl looked out the window, then closed it and left. We knocked again. She came out and told us no but we convinced her to call her mom. Her mom came out with a grumpy face but after saying a few words, her heart softened and she opened the door and let us in. We shared a message about the family. It touched her cuz she said she was having problems with her hubby and her kids earlier and she said that she felt super peaceful throughout the lesson. She told us we can come back to teach the whole family and it's a big fam so I'm stoked. There is nothing better then teaching big families. 

We had another tender experience when teaching a less active fam. We showed them the video, Together Forever and they were touched cuz they have lost a few children. They were all crying and were motivated to strive harder to live the gospel to achieve a forever family.  The next day almost the whole fam was in church.

Well every day there are great experiences. I wish I had time to tell and testify more but I just want to let you all know that I love you and that our Father and our Savior love us even more.  They want to bless us and they will and do as we obey with exactness, as we forget about our will, leave our worldly desires behind and subject ourselves to His will.  It is the only way to a happy life and to a life eternal. Thanks for teaching me that fam.

besitos,

Elder Harper

WE just WENT HARD-CORE KNOCKING DOORS...

Well Congrats Riley and Haley! You guys are just too cute. Welcome to the fam sis. I was debating all week wether his wedding was gonna be this week or next week. Thanks for the invite..not. But it looked like it was a good time. 

Well I'm just as happy as ever. We have been working are booties off this week and I guess that's why I'm happy. There's a few quotes in Preach My Gospel that say the key to success is hard work and if we work, we will have the spirit and if we have the spirit, we will be happy, obviously. Gotta love that spirit. 

Well it has been a really good week but kind of a hard one. My comp and I were getting a little discouraged cuz we've got a lot of cool fams and people we are teaching but no one is progressing and it seems like no one wants to go to church. Well we've been praying hard and have fasted that we would find some new progressing investigators and that the others will go to church. Towards the ends of this week all of our appointments fell through so we just went hard-core knocking doors and surprisingly we got into a bunch of doors and met lots of peeps that have potential to progress. We knocked one door yesterday and some old guy came out and said that he was busy and that he didn't live there. We kept persisting and testified a bit and he agreed to let us in. During the lesson I think the spirit touched him cuz he opened up to us and he said he had drinking problems and he wants to stop and get closer to God and that he actually lived there and he wants us to come visit him a lot to help him with his prob. Tomorrow we are gonna go see him. It was a cool moment that shows how persistence and the spirit are a powerful team. Oh and obviously fervent fast and prayer. 

Well I just realized that I wrote Thursday so I'll stop bugging you guys..guess this is all I have to say.. love you guys. Thanks for your support and thanks for being great examples for me.

besitos 

Elder Harper

I HOPE to MAYBE DIE HERE.....

Well, it's New Years Day and Pday so this is why I'm  writing for the first time in like a year.  

I'm just loving life here in my new area. It was hard to say goodbye to my old crew in Las Brisas but I'm now  here  in La Zona La Victoria Area Imperio 2.  My comp is Elder Anderson from Lago Salado (Salt Lake).  He's got the same time as Elder Bailey and he's  super chill. We are already the bestest of friends. I hope we  will have a lot of time together. I'm a District leader as well.  I wasn't too excited at first  but I'm loving it. It's helping me be a little more responsible. My district is super chill though. It's my comp, 2  sisters and the Zls  and we are all  gringos so it's pretty tight cuz I just quote in English all the time. 

Well this Saturday was  super sweet. A couple that my comp has been teaching for a while and that I recently met were baptized, Herbert and Maria. They were married in the morning and baptized in the afternoon. Even though I haven't known them for that long I got to  baptize the hubby and my comp baptized Maria. But honestly they are an amazing couple. They both have hard pasts and are still struggling with many problems (aren't we all?) But they are definitely choice people. They were contacted by 2 Elders 2 months ago. Ever since that moment, they accepted to hear the lessons and attend church every Sunday and were baptized 2 months later. They are the  first ones at church every Sunday, the only ones who go to clean the church and the only thing they want to talk about when we teach them is the temple.  Just proof that God does really prepare the hearts of  the people and the field is white already harvest. We just need to invite all to come unto Christ. 

Well I already love the area and love the people here and hope to maybe die here.  Like Ammon  says  to Lamoni in the Book of Mormon. Well I love you all an appreciate your emails and greetings this Monday. I'll write more and send  loooooots of pics.

Elder  Harper     besitos    feliz año nuevo