I think I'm...the President of the Young Women…

The Combi Bus accident Baylor was in (found pic in an online news article)

What up peeps of the Harper Household!!! 

Well thank you all for the emails and for your loving, it definitely means a lot. This week was another Great week in Chongoyape. Being the priesthood leaders of our family group is some pretty hard work. We basically have to do everything like plan and direct the activities, direct Sacrament meeting and teach the classes. One of the first days I asked my comp if there are home teachers here, he just laughed and said ´´Yes, we are the home teachers´´. I think I'm the official teacher of the youth class on Sunday, which basically means I'm the President of the Young Women cuz there are only 2 youth males and they stay with the men. Already this area has been stretching me but it is difintely a blessing cuz I know I'll be able to progress much faster and hopefully be able to play a role in changing the lives of the People here. 

As far as the teaching and investigators go, it's been a little hard. I've noticed that there are a bunch of people we teach that the Elders have known for a while and just dont progress and go to church. We also work a lot with teaching the members and less actives so that the group will stay strong because the people here don't have a lot of knowledge or experience in the church. 

We are working really hard with a family that has a lot of potential, a couple and their 12 year old daughter. They always let us teach them and they come to church most of the time as well.  They are super grateful for what we have taught them and we also have done lots of service for them. They believe the Book of Mormon is true and what we teach is true but they don't feel prepared to be baptized. The father has really good desires.  I taught him the other day when we went on splits with some youth and he asked if it is possible if he could become like us one day and have the ability to teach the word of God. He asked what the preperation is like spiritually and written (not sure what he meant to say here). It made me think and kind of shocked me cuz I'm just a litte gringo that can barley speak Spanish and am not the best speaker, but we were able to explain to him that it all starts with desires. If we have the desires to serve God and our fellowman no matter what our wekanesses may be, God will strengthen us and mold us to fit this calling. If we keep the commandmetns, love the Lord and strive forward humbly we can do all.

Well thank you all for your concerns. I'm glad to be alive and loving life and the mish. I hope to speak to you all next week.

Elder Harper

To Dad:

Hey thanks for the concern and for the email Pops. I was sleeping before the whole thing happened and it happened so fast. Honestly I'm concerned that my adrenalin never kicked in. I was pretty calm the whole time, like that video of Elder Nelson and the plane crash ;) So I still have everything and Hermana Risso sent me new suitcases and a pillow. I hope everything  is going well Pops. I love you and miss you. Oh and I'm going to Lima tomorrow to work out my Visa stuff, pray that the plane doesn't crash hahaa. yeah love yuuuuuh

Here is the link to the Elder Nelson - plane crash video Baylor was referring to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMwKxmTLaCs

Pics of Baylor's  new area, Chongoyape

IT WAS an UGLY SCENE...SCREAMING and CRYING...LOTS OF BLOOD

Hello Family!

Well a lot has happened since I last wrote you guys and I just want to let you know I'm safe and sound in Chongoyape, which is my new area. Last week we had cambios and for that I'm no longer in Jaen and I didn't have time to write cuz I had to travel 8 hours to Chiclayo on Monday. Well it was pretty weird and sad saying goodbye to everyone in Jaen. There are a lot of members, conversos and investigators I'm gonna miss, a lot of people that I wanted to baptize that were so close but all is well. My last Sunday in Jaen I had to give a talk; I was pretty dang nervous but all turned out well.

I arrived in Chiclayo Monday night and stayed with Elder Oswald (CCM comp) in a room with some other elders and Tuesday in the morning was the meeting of cambios. I got to see Elder Jarmon and a bunch of people from my old district; it was pretty sweet. I was assigned to the zone Polmaca, area Chongoyape. It's about 2 hours away from Chiclayo. Well something crazy happened on the way to Chongoyape and before I tell the story I just want to reassure you guys that I am safe and happy. 

Well right after the meeting Tuesday I met my new comp and we got in a convi or a van were there's a bunch of people and it's super hot and uncomfortable. Well I was basically sleeping the whole ride but when we were 20 minutes away from my new area the back tire of the convi exploded, everyone started screaming and the driver lost control. It looked like we were gonna go over a drop off so the driver cranked the wheel hard and we started to roll.  I swear we rolled at least 3 or 4 times in this van.  My comp and I were in the very back row and we were able to escape out the back hatch. It was an ugly scene, everyone was screaming and crying, there were some people that were pretty badly messed up, lots of blood. We had to lift the van off of a woman. I gave her my pillow cuz she was badly bleeding in the head; it turns out that this woman died later that day in the hospital.

Well it was a little scary but literally nothing happened to me and my companion. We escaped from this horrific accident without a scratch and we probably could have died. I feel so blessed and protected and I know that I'm still needed in the mission and in this life and there is still work for me to do. Well we called the ZLs and they brought us to the hospital in Chiclayo to check us out just in case something had happened to us. Oh and by the way Elder Latin, Chandler's bro, is my new zone leader. The doctors said we were all good and gave us a shot in the butt for the road just in case. We met up with President Risso to explain the situation and afterward we spent the night with the ZLs. My suitcases were destroyed cuz they were on top of the van but Sister Risso already bought me some new ones along with a new pillow. Well we are famous in this city cuz the accident was in the news and everyone tells us that we are alive cuz God is with us and protects us.  It has been a great spiritual experience and a great way to get into houses. 

Well the cool thing about this area is that it is a little family branch. Our church is a small house and there are about 20 or 25 members here that attend church. The members have already been so nice to me and the investigators are great as well. The only leaders here are us, so we have to do everything. My first Sunday, I directed sacrament meeting and gave the class for the youth, Hahah. I already love it here and because of the situation it has been pushing me and helping me to grow as a missionary. My comp is Elder Macias from Ecuador and he only has a year. It's been a pretty sweet week and I think I'm gonna love this area. Good things are gonna go down here and I thinks that's why Satan tried to stop us from making it. Well don't freak out Mommy. I'm a missionary and we're basically immortal; we are a pretty big deal. Well I feel so blessed and I'm so grateful to be serving in this time in my life.  I love the mission and I'm thankful for all your support. Until the next monday my fam.

Besitos,

Elder Harper

MY HEART SANK.....

We are Family, Every body sing.

Well how goes it in California? The time here flies by super fast, and I'm pretty sure this is my last week here in Jaen, which is exciting and sad at the same time. I've learned and grown a lot here and I've came to love many of the peeps here. I'm definitely gonna miss them cuz the truth is, I'll probably never see them again until we meet in the Celestial Kingdom ;)

Well this week was the baptsism of Sabina! It really was a great experience. She's super shy and timid so she begged us not to invite very many people, but we had some Elders, Hermanas , and some members of the JAS (Young Single Adults) to support her. She was too scared to bear her testimony but we know that she has got a powerful one. The spirit was strong and it was great to finally see another child of God enter the path to His kingdom.

This week we had a sad and spirtual experience with our conversa Diana. Diana is 14 years old and for a while now her mother has been sick. Her family has been bringing her to doctors and whatnot but recently they found out it was cancer and it's terminal. We have been visiting her a lot and

Diana

uplifting her cuz she has been having a really hard time with it. Her family is superstitious and at this point very desperate as well. They have brought her to doctors , witches, churches where they do apostate healings, but nothing has worked. And yes, we gave her a priesthood blessing as well. Her mother right now is not living with Diana cuz she went to the jungle with a family member to rest and be away from the city for a while. When we visited Diana the other day, her aunt walked in crying and told Diana that her mama is very very ill and that it is not looking too good right now. My heart sank and Diana started bawling and explaining to us how she's been praying for a miracle and is not sure that God hears her prayers. This was a sad moment so see her like that but I felt the spirit strongly as we testified to her about the reality of the plan of salvation. How God has a plan for each and every one of us and that this life is only a small part of this plan. He knew we were going to have to suffer sicknesses, hardships and one day death, and for this he sent His son, Jesus Christ, so we can overcome these things and not have to suffer them alone. We can have happiness in this life but eternal happiness is found in the life to come. It's very hard for me to express my inner feelings in Spanish, and to be honest in English as well, but the spirit was super strong and we bore testimony how God will always answer our prayers but according to his will and not to ours. The Savior asked if it was possible if He could pass this trial he had to go through but He also said that He would do it according to His father's will, not his own.

Diana is a strong girl and matter what happens I know she's gonna stay strong in the church cuz that's just the person she is. But it made me realize and think about the will of God and how we need to be like the Savior. The Savior subjected Himself to the will of God, His will was God's will. How many things do I do according to my will and not God's? Becoming like Christ I realized is not gonna come in the mission, but slowly we can perfect ourselves through His atonement. Well nothing else really happened this week, these are just some of my random thoughts in my head that I had this week haha. I hope everything is well with you all and I'll see you on Mother's day...

besitos (little kisses),  

Elder Harper

THAT'S WHY SOMETIMES I FEEL WEAK, cuz I DON'T HAVE MY HAIR.

Well hey there Harper Family, 

Baylor with hair

Baylor without.  Lolz

This week went by super fast because it was basically all meetings. Wednesday we had zone training from 2 to 7 and Thursday we had Zone Conference with the President from 8 to 3. It was a lot of sitting and listening and not a whole lot of teaching. But it was the best honestly; I love being a missionary and teaching the word of God but I also love to be spiritually filled myself. I got to hear from a lot of elders with experience like the zone leaders and the assistants and the President of course. Their talks were pretty inspiring, a big theme was what it means to be a Preach My Gospel missionary and  how to be can be missionaries like the antiguos, like Pual and Ammon and the Sons of Mosiah. How they prayed, fasted and studied to obtain the word and even though they were week and humble, they preached with authority and the spirit and didn't fear to call people unto repentance because their testimony was soo strong.  Learned a lot about how necessary the spirit is while teaching. Because the truth is, the spirit is the teacher and the one who does the converting. It's so weird how you can tell so easily if the spirit is there or not. For me it's cuz I still struggle with Spanish and I can't teach at all when the spirit isn't there and when it is there, it feels like I really do have the gift of tongues. A lot of it has to do with obedience. Obedience brings blessings but exact obedience brings miracles. So I'm going to strive to be an missionary exactly obedient, cuz I wanna work miracles baby!

So Sabina's baptism is this week. She's excited and we are helping her to understand everything cuz she was a little worried about her knowledge before, even though she has a testimony. So last week Laura Recejoh, the sister of our convert Rony, said that she wants to be baptized. Well we went to teach her early this week and she wasn't there, only her mom and daughter were thereWe were teaching Clara and her Mom and then Laura came in right as we were leaving and told us that she found work and is not going to be able to go to church anymore cuz she will be working Monday through Sunday all day. It was a little disheartening and we prayed hard and prepared to teach her about the Dia de Reposo (day of rest). When we went the next time, she told us she is no longer working. Only when her work is short on staff she'll go.  So either way, we taught the Sabbath day with all our hearts and committed them to obey it and they accepted. They came to church on Sunday and loved it again. So we shall be seeing them baptized real soon!.

Well it looks like I only have 2 more weeks in Jaen! It's gonna be sad saying goodbye to all our investigators, members and converts but it's gonna be cool going somewhere where no one knows me again and I can strive hard to be a better missionary then the missionary I was in Jaen. I definitely have improved a lot since the beginings, but I got a long way to go! The mission is a great learning ground and progression just comes faster, my only fear is that my time will run out before I reach my potential. Well I love you all, don't have much time, sorry.  Thanks for all the letters and packages. Shout out to Camille! Congrats on the call. Peru Chiclayo is the best mission in the world, even ask Elder Jarmin, you are gonna love it here! Well gots to go.

Love,

Elder HARPER

Dad,

Thanks for the letter Pops!! Sean White cut his hair? Apostasy, how is he gonna snowboard? All the power of the Flying Tomato was in the hair. That's why sometimes I feel weak, cuz I don't have my hair. Well it's crazy Camille is coming here?  Here it's dirty, smelly and the people don't have much. But yet I love it here!  Hey my oil holder thing broke how can I get a new one? Ask Riley Harper if he can roll his Rs cuz it's bugging me that I can't. I think it's genetics. Well thanks for the loving and the updates. You better snowboard! but your priorities are surfing. Well love you bud..

Elder Harper

JUST A LITTLE RANDOM COOL STORY….

Hola Familia!

Well this week I got the Calendar, the letters and the Ensign! Thanks very much. Now I'm updated with all the events in the Harper household. Well Dad told me about the drout and the California fast! How sweet. The fast is a powerful thing and this will be a good story to uplift others. Fasting here is different because I eat so much, I look forward to the fast and enjoy every second of it so it's not much of a hardship haha. Here we fast from Saturday after lunch to Sunday lunch so we get a full 24 hours.  

Well, it's really cool to read all the other Elder and Sister emails that are out in the field from our ward. I read Kenz's and it instantly made me feel better about the language haha. Wow, Chinese has got to be hard, but Kenz is a champ. And I liked Ab's birthday coment about how many people during this time in their life are partying and what not and drinking cuz they are 21, when members of the church devote these years to the Lord. Well, good thing I'll turn 21 in mi casa ! ;) haha jk. 

Well this week was just an average normal week in the mission to be honest. We have the same investigators, same members and same comp. But I'm trying to keep changing so it's not always the same thing. In our district meeting I got to teach the class. The night before, I prepared it all with quotes and scriptures and questions in my head. I'm pretty sure I prepared it all in English in my head cuz it didn't come out so pretty in Spanish haha. But that I was able to do it is all that matters!!!  I taught about how we can work harder with the members and how we can convert them so they will have the desires to share the gospel. 

Well we did another intercambio this week and for one day I was with Elder Muhun, my zone leader from Guatemala. He's a quiet guy but he taught me a lot about following the spirit. The ZLs don't have a lot of time to proselyte. They do set apart this day to have it free but they didn't have citas (lessons) planned. But it was awesome to see that at times we would pass a house and he would stop and be like, we need to go back and knock on this door and the person would let us in and be like ohhh, I was a member 5 years ago but not anymore and we would teach them. This one guy was like ohh, I'm best friends with your pastor or bishop and then we taught them. He's well intune with the spirit and I wanna strive to be able to have that gift.

This week L told us she wants to be baptized!! But she's in the process of divorcing her husband. She wants to wait til her problem is over. But we are gonna teach her the next lesson that during our hard times and problems we need the Lord the most and we need this gosple the most, and that she will have the holy spirit to guide her and help her make wise decisions.

Just a little random cool story. We have been teaching this guy Cesar who is real chill and always listens to us and has questions and reads the Book of Mormon too. But when it comes to church, he never goes. He always says he is sick so he will ¨si o si¨, but he never does. One time recently, his friend was there when we taught him and he didn't seem to be interested but we invited him to church and he told us yeah, that maybe one day he'll check it out. Well Sunday came and Cesar didn't go but his friend Manuel came haha. He said that his friends invited him to drink and usually he does but he said he felt like he should go to  church instead. So there he was and stayed for 3 hours and loved it. This was yesterday so we will see what comes of it. But it goes to show you that by small and simple things great things come to pass. It was just a little invitation that he didn't even accept but it planted a seed and led him to the truth..amen bother amen.. 

Well I LOVE you all; I truly do.  I only have a sister mision left wich is scary so I'll see you all soon haha.

Con Queso,

Elder Harper

WELL THIS MONTH HAS BEEN SUPER TOUGH FOR US....

Family!!

Well I was real trunky the other day cuz I heard the voice of my father and mother but couldn't speak to them haha. Yeah, Hermana Sanders had to call her mom for medical reasons. Their telephone was broken so they called outside of our room, and the hermana didn't know how the 147 card worked so I lent her the paper Mom wrote me before I left.  I guess she wasn't thinking so she dialed all the numbers haha, and she recalled to make sure that you guys weren't freaking out.  (Note from Baylor's dad: On Saturday morning we awoke early to our phone ringing a little after 5 am, 8am Peru time.  Michelle answered and a female voice said "sorry wrong number".  Michelle saw on caller ID that it was a call from Peru and we became worried.  Less then an hour later the phone rang again.  My dreams, as a seminary teacher, of getting to sleep-in on the weekend now shattered.  This time I answered.  It was the same young lady.  She introduced herself as a sister missionary serving in the same area as our son Baylor and just wanted to let us know that she was the first call and not to worry, all was well in Peru.  Baylor had just loaned her instructions he had on how to call home and she dialed our number by accident. So Bay was in the room and heard our voices but was being obedient and did not say a word.)

Well I honestly don't have much time cuz we got back late from a chacra (small farm) of a member where we ate empenadas and a bunch of fruit. Well this month has been super tough for us. We are gonna end January without a baptism which is real sad. We are teaching many good people that I know will be baptized this next month and that they just weren't ready before. Alex, Luis and Nicole all want to ba baptized but their dad wont let them (pray for the dad's heart to be softened). We finally met Saturday and he was real chill. We did some smooth talking and he's gonna think about it. And before he knows it, he will probably find himself in the baptismal font as well. That is the hope we have for this family.

We explained this week to Clara and Laura that Rony will be able to baptize them when they are ready. When they heard this, they were super surprised and excited.  We are hoping they will be baptized the 8th. The Hermana Sabina returned from the Jungle where her fam lives and we were able to reconnect with her and teach her.  The last time we taught her she wanted to be baptized but not until afther she returned. When we recently saw her she was a little cold cuz it had been over a month since she went to church and read the scrips but we were able to recharge her animos and she wants to be baptized the 15th of February.

Reina y Britza still haven't returned from their vacation but as for me, this week was awesome. I've really had some awesome spiritual experiences while teaching. As missionaries sometimes we get in the rut of teaching the lessons how we are and not according to what the spirit directs. A lot of the times I do this cuz of my lack of language skill but this week I was able to see how when I didn't think about what I was going to say but only about the person and their needs, the words just came and the spirit was there. I'm teaching a lot more cuz my comp caught on but I love him don't worry. He's a good guy. Well gots to go folks; it was nice hearing your voices and reading your letters!!

Love,  Elder Harper

THAT IS THE MISH AND THE LIFE, BEAUTIFUL STUFF…...

Dear Mi Hermosa Familia,

Well, it has been quite some time since I've seen y'all.  People keep telling me that I almost have 6 months in the miss, which makes me real nervous cuz at times I don't feel like I'm up to par and I should be.  But that is mish and the vida, beautiful stuff.

Well, this week has been a little stressful for todos because the zone has a big goal and there hasn't been baptisms.  And we have had some trouble with permiso de padres.  Alex, Luis, Nicole (siblings) and their cousin Zach all want to be baptized.  There  mom is a less active member who is awesome and is coming back to church and bringing her kids but the hubby is hard core Catholic and lets them attend church but won't let them get baptized.  Haha, we taught little Inisito to bless the food with his family and ask for his Dad to let him be baptized in the prayer in front of the father (if that makes sense).  He did it and told us his dad said he's gonna think about it.

We are also teaching Clara, the mom of Rony and her daughter Laura.  They still won't accept  a date to be baptized but they are reading the Book of Mormon and are coming to church.  My comp loves to teach with the Bible, especially the Old Testament.  Everyone here believes the Bible is the word of God and I guess sometimes we are a little reluctant or hesitant to teach from the Book of Mormon cuz we fear that they may reject it.  But we have also found that a few of our investigators aren't progressing cuz of a lack of testimony they have in the restoration and the Book of Mormon.  Clara has been super religious her whole life and is really familiar with the Bible.  She knows it very well but had some trouble accepting LDM.  Well this week we have been teaching her with pure LDM and showed them  2 Nephi 29 where it testifies that the testimony of 2 nations is a witness that God exists and loves all his children.  The spirit touched their hearts for sure and Laura said, "I want to read this book because it is super clear".  With a testimony of this book we know Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, Jesus Christ is our savior and the church of Jesus Christ is the true church on the the earth today.  It has the fulness of the gospel and brings all to Christ.

We have been teaching a girl namer Britza and her mother Reina.  They have been super receptive and the times when we can't find them or we don't have time to visit them, they call us to set up an appointment.  The other day we were in the park and Britza came up to us and said, "Hermanos, I want to be baptized but how do I repent so I can be?" She also said her mom wants to be baptized but to not tell her that she said that, haha.  They traveled to Chiclayo for a week but we are gonna get a date with them when they get back.

Well this month has been slow but I'm certain that we are in the process of converting true converts.  Well, we aren't, the Lord is, but you know what I mean : )  Well a scripture that has been inspiring me is 2 Nephi 2:14.  I'm not sure exactly what it says in English but basically God has created in the world things that act and things that are acted upon.  This has helped me cuz naturally I'm shy and timid but I want to be the one to act and not wait for it to come to me.  This has given me confidence when teaching and talking to people in the street.

Well I think that is all for this week.  It's raining in Jaen every day almost, haha.  Well I love you all.  Thanks for the support and inspiration you give me.  I hope everything is alright down in the woods of California and them beaches aren't missing me too much. Well, love you all.

Elder Harper