E-mail (Dated: 5/29/2017)

REMEMBER TO SMILE

This last week was a lot different then my four months here in Silao! But a good as well. Elder Morales is a lot different than Elder Paez for sure and I am learning stuff I never knew I didn't know!

This past week we spent a lot of time repairing relationships and making new relationships with the ward members and with less active families and other people here in Silao. This week we kind of just, well I will call it a "get to know you" week. It feels like we have really gained the trust of people here this past week. I have also seen more in this past week of Silao than I ever have before.

I will tell you a little bit about how I am feeling. Truth be told, I am a little overwhelmed but in a good way. I am definitely learning so much from Elder Morales. We are different, but we are beginning to see things eye to eye and he helps me a lot with the language and with learning the lessons in Spanish. He doesn't speak english but he understands it a little, which leaves our talking to solo spanish which is good. I need that and we are doing good.

Right now we have four people that we found just this past week who we think may eventually accept to be baptized this change, so we are excited for this! We don´t have very many others that are progressing so we will see what we can do to change that. It has been a struggle to get investigators to attend church, but we can and will change this so I am very excited for this!

This past week I had my first tacos ever in Silao and other Mexican food! I know...first time! It´s because with Paez he loved American food haha! But also I went to these stores here that are basically in the streets and you can pretty much buy anything that you´d like. In one of them, a little boy was trying to pick pocket me which was hilarious haha because I felt him feeling my pocket and then put his hand inside. I caught him in the act. We also went into a catholic church this last P-day and my comp showed me around and was my teacher for what they do in there! This week, we had to search for a new house because we have to move. While out doing that and trying to also search for people to teach, we were followed by a man for 30 minutes, I thought it was funny, because my comp was a little freaked out!

That's the week fam! I love you all! I have definitely found peace and love from your prayers thank you!

E-mail (Dated: 5/22/2017)

Keep Pushing Forward

The week was good, but a learning moment!

This last week was a little tough for me, but lots of learning moments as well. We had a lot of things fall through and more problems with that one family in our ward, not with me but only with Elder Paez. We don't quite understand, but it´s all past and we are moving forward.

This week we met with Ericka and with another investigators who´s name is Manuel! Both meetings went good, and this week we are hoping to invite them to baptism. I know that they are ready and that they want this, because they are searching right now to receive peace and love, which I know that they can find through the atonement. But we will see how it goes!

Today we had changes and actually a lot changed. Silao is now apart of Leon and so now I will be going there every Tuesday while I am here in Silao. It looks like I will have about one more change here. I did receive a new companion and he is a good guy. We are very different and he is a little spunky haha. Just kind of a funny personality but he is good. His name is Elder Morales and I think he is going to teach me a lot. He talks really fast and makes me feel like I don´t know any Spanish because I can´t understand a lot of what he says, but I will learn.

We have a lot of work to do together, but he is ready to work and so am I. We will see what we can do this week to help the people here.

I´m feeling all of your prayers everyday, thank you and love you all!

E-mail (Dated: 5/15/2017)

Wow, I hope that you all had an absolutely wonderful mother´s day week! From me I say HAPPY Mother´s day to all of you moms! You have no idea the kind of influence on the affect you have on your kids lives!

For my Momma! I love you forever and I will never be able to repay the amount of forgiveness, teachings, love, and endless conversations that we have had together. You have shown me what it means to be a child of God and to have charity and love for every one and everything. I miss you!

Now, this last week we had quite the week. We had some internal problems with our Zone Leaders and members in the ward. Which problems were caused by our Zone Leader that was here before me for six months. So we were dealing with some of the aftermath of his actions, but we have started to resolve things so that is good.

Most of our appointments didn't go through this last week which was really tough and so a lot of the time we just talked together as a companionship on how we can improve ourselves and the work here. Elder Paez is a good missionary and good guy. He had problems growing up with not being about to walk until he was 12 and for this he was bullied by everyone, and this is why a lot of the time he is very serious and more that is not my place to share. and so I got a lot better understanding of him and why he is the way he is and I have come much closer with him and our companionship works so much better. But I made him make me a promise that I would like to make with everyone! Which is to write in a Journal. I can´t express the different perspective that you can gain from it and how amazing it is to look back on, and I can say from experience that it can help you change yourself and to be better, because you can literally see the change in yourself.

Now, we did have a really good lesson this last week with Ericka! We talked about the Savior and the Holy Ghost and a bit more about prayer and then both received confirmation that we needed to invite her to baptism. I could tell she was excited for the question, but feeling of doubts swept over her and you could see it made her a bit nervous. As we later understood from talking with her friend who gave us the referral. She is nervous of the rejection of her family and her husband, and she needs the strength and help to make the decision. So this week we hope to be able to bring her that peace.

So this week is my last week with Elder Paez, so we plan to work hard this week and to hopefully get some baptismal dates together so stay posted next week to see our big changes we hope to have!

Audio File

E-mail (Dated: 5/8/2017)

Another week of miracles!

This last week was awesome can I just start by saying that! Not too much happened but the things that did filled my soul!

This last week, we had the opportunity to have our zone leaders come and to help us with a few lessons. As I was planning for the day with my companion, he had the idea to go to a ranch that I wasn´t too sure about, so I stopped and said a short prayer to myself to help me know where we should go. Then I got the feeling that we needed to go to Romita where Francisco and Edgar live. I thought it strange because we were just there this past week two or three times and each time it didn´t go too well. But I was like okay God I´m trusting in you and so I told Elder Paez and he was like really? and I said yes! and so we did! When we arrived you could tell Francisco was a little bugged but he let us talk and share a short message with him. It ended up going really well and it really helped to have our zone leaders there with us. In fact, Francisco prayed with us and that´s the first time he ever has with us there! It was such a big step for him and that made us feel great and like we are beginning to make progress with him.

Afterwards, we had the opportunity to also visit with Edgar, but this time we asked if his Mom would like to join as well and it turns out she did, as well as his little brother. We just simply taught about prayer, and the love of our Heavenly Father and you could tell it really caught their attention! And then, they accepted and invitation for us to come back again and teach, which we did two days later. This time the father joined in as well and we gave them two Books of Mormon to begin reading. They are very interested and I just hope we can be inspired to say what they need to hear in order for them to feel the spirit and feel the truth of our words!

Also, this week we woke up one morning (Friday I believe) and were exhausted and just kind of lost as what to do. However, we had received a reference just the day before to visit a friend of one of our members here. We decided to go even though it was a 40 minute walk to get there. Once we arrived to the house we were a little nervous to go knock because it´s not the safest area. But we did and it was a younger woman no more than probably late twenties and her face lit up with a smile as we said, Hola somos misioneros de la iglesia de Jesucristo, in that moment she says I know, I´ve been waiting for you! In that moment I was filled with the spirit with confirmation that she needed to hear our message. She let us in and we began talking. She has had one tough life, everything from abuse and being kicked out of her home and losing sight in one eye and more I won´t share. And she has been looking for a church, looking for answers and looking for why these bad things have happened in her life and how she can find joy and peace. During our conversation we shared personal struggles of our own and how we have been able to come to know God's love for us and the peace we can feel through Christ's atonement. During this lesson this spirit was so strong and many tears were shed and she was filled with hope. We are going back this next week and are hoping to invite her to baptism because we both (Paez and I) got the confirmation that it´s what she needs. I´m so blessed I had the opportunity to come into contact with her, she reminded me of why I´m here and the peace and love I have felt from God and Christ.

Also, this week we visited with the husband of a member...his name is Adam. This time we got to know him a lot better and the problems he is having. It turns out 7 years ago the state took away his daughter, due to circumstances I didn´t quite understand. But he has been struggling to find peace with that, because he has two sons and his wife but they are missing someone in their family. It wasn't something we could exactly relate to, but we shared how God and Jesus know exactly how to help him and to find the peace and the ability to change. He also suffers with a bit of challenges of his own and we tried our best to comfort him. At the end of our discussion, he asked us to tell him a little bit about family home evening and when we could come back again to teach them. This was awesome and I can tell that they need this gospel. I´m hoping we can keep helping them.

So many wonderful experiences this last week, but also some sad.  I´m happy and just pushing forward! I had a quote I wanted to share with you all that helped me throughout this past week but I forgot my Liahona in my casa! But it´s at the end of my voice recording I hope you guys have the chance to listen to it!

Love you!

Audio Letter Link

E-mail (Dated: 5/1/2017)

Hello Hello Family!

I went into this week a little differently! I have noticed my perspective has usually gone directly to things that I need to do or things I need to improve on! But this week, I turned it onto things that are going well and things I´m improving in! So this week was awesome and we had a good day pretty much everyday! I would love to share some of these wonderful experiences with you guys!

So this week we spent a lot of time just checking up on our investigators and working to get them to progressing. We also spent time on visiting less actives and checking out some of the areas missionaries have never visited in our area!

This week I have done everything from given blessings, blessed chickens, accidentally trespassed the Beverly Hills of Silao, shed some tears, grown closer to my companion, chased by some pitbulls, almost got my hand bitten off by a german shepard, danced around a little bit out of happiness, had some great lessons, felt the spirit, dropped to my knees in prayer, walked over 30 miles in search for investigators, taught the law of chasity to a 9 year old, and a lot of studying in all sorts of different materials! So I am feeling great!

We weren´t able to get Francisco baptized and we are kind of seeing that maybe it just isn´t his time, but we will continue to work with him. We also met with several of our new investigators and we think this week we will invite Edgar, Manual, and Alex to baptism this week! Cool thing...there is a new rule that now for a investigator to be baptized they only need to attend church 3 times instead of 5. So we might have three baptisms for this change, but we will just have to see how they progress!

I had some cool moments as I´ve been studying lately and I would like to invite you all to do a couple things! First, if you don´t have your patriarchal blessing, please work to get it. If have it, read it. Doing so has never failed to help me out of feelings of loss or failure. Also, the blessings pertain only to you ... all you have to do is find them! Second, start looking at things with real intent! I read an amazing talk in a Liahona this last week that talks about making all your decisions with real intent, and to start looking at things with an eternal perspective. As you do this, you will start to see your trials as just a thing, a wall you might say, and all you have to do is use the atonement and it will be as if the wall disappeared. You will also start to appreciate and respect the relationships you have with people. I know that as I have done this this past week I have felt so much more peace and love! I love you all hope all is well!!!

p.s go search the mormon message (Lift) and watch the whole thing, and then think about how you can be more like these people in the video and change your perspective of service!


Love,

ELDER HARMON AKA SUPERMAN BRINGING AS MUCH LIGHT AS I CAN TO THE PEOPLE HERE

Video to Family
Audio to Family