E-mail (Dated: 1/29/18) LOOK, SEE, FIND

I got a couple messages over the past couple of weeks about my year mark, first of all, thank you all so much for your love and support. Second of all, my dad gave me a good laugh when I saw the HUMP DAY photo of a camel. So just a quick shout out to him.

But WOW! What a time to reflect. I have absolutely loved my time here in Querétaro, Mexico. I´d just like to share my testimony about the work and place that I have had the privilege to take a part of. I started out in a small city called Silao. If you go there you will find a city that is pretty calm and a little dirty, and also has some pretty random festivities. Full of a lot of people that would normally seem pretty scary and a language most of you wouldn´t understand. I was blessed to be able to go to this little town and make it my home. HOME not by definition but as many say, HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS. As I walked those miles every day to talk to complete strangers, to serve others who I couldn´t understand and as I shed tears and cried to my father I found something. I found a LOVE. A CHANGE in myself. I came to find what the word HOPE really means. There were days that I literally walked until my feet were blistered, I was assaulted, I was screamed at, ridiculed. But I´ve seen miracles. Gangsters who literally rob and kill, who´d stop to listen to a quick message. Good men who have fallen into temptation of drugs and alcohol who have found God. I have seen the gift of healing of persons in more than just the physical.

I have also served in a city called Cimatario. I have felt rejection, I have had heartache, moments of agony for others. However, I have seen leaders of other religious beliefs who have been brought to the truth and brought to the right path. I have witnessed lost hearts found. I have heard testimony from those that thought they had none.

I could go on.. but do I need to? There is a pattern, what is it?

I´d say that the word to be used is SEARCHING, Now, I will make the pattern - Look, See, Find.

We all look at first and this is where judgment comes in, whether good or bad. Then as time comes we put on our glasses and we start seeing what´s really in front of us and this brings change. That is where I would say the last word FIND comes in because this is where we find what we have been searching and brings our final outcome.

I have been able to go through this pattern throughout my mission as well as my life, as I am sure many other missionaries that have given their hearts to the mission, in fact even to those that simply go throughout this life as well. WE CAN ALL SEE THIS. The question is what will we do knowing this?

Me? I want to serve the Lord. I want to love those around me. I want to bring change.

What a great gospel we live in that allows us to have all of this in one.

I love my Father in Heaven, and his son Jesus Christ. I love the chance for growth and the amount of compassion that I receive from them. I thank them for humbling me in times of need, for calming my troubled heart, and for their open arms that bring me in.

This is the true church. We are led and guided by a living prophet. The message we as missionaries share is a message of relief and love and an invitation and a welcoming to Salvation. We will be taken up. We will be judged. But we will have our Brother there to care for us and save us, but only if we repent and follow him. COME BACK LITTLE LAMBS, YOUR SHEPARD IS LOOKING FOR YOU, JUST AS YOU ARE FOR HIM, THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THAT HE HASN´T TURNED AWAY FROM YOU.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.


Have a fantastic week I love you guys!

E-mail (Dated: 1/22/18) ARE YOU COMMITTED?

COMMITMENT - the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause.

What is the cause? The answer is salvation.

How do we share with people that this is something worth fighting for? Well, I like to think that most people already know that it is important. In fact, a lot of people I have come in contact with know that it´s important, enough to the point that they stress themselves out about it, and then there are those that just give up. Then there are others that believe that we are automatically saved. Part of that is true. All will receive the resurrection. However, salvation is something different. That is something we have to earn. We have a work to do here and a duty to ourselves to find our Father in Heaven. We teach that salvation is very personal. We aren´t saved as groups but rather, as individuals. We are taught to grow closer to Jesus Christ. He is the only person that will be next to us in the judgment seat. But this is where commitment comes in. We are to commit ourselves to finding a relationship with God and his son, to commit to serving others and to fulfill the plan that he has for us.

How we help others know this? That answer is simple as well. It´s to love them. To show them that their life is important, that they mean something to you and to God. A line similar to that of Jeffery R Holland is, at least we can measure our worth in the sight of Gods eyes for each and every one of us, because we can say at least he loved us enough to send us his perfect son. THAT IS A LOVE THAT WE WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND. But we can begin by showing our gratefulness for our lives and for the lives that are all around us.

This week we had a chance to visit a lot of people I haven´t seen for quite some time. One of them is a member that is in a wheelchair his name is Alberto and suffers from some health problems. We passed by with a member yesterday and just talked with him. He broke down crying describing how lonely he has felt. How hard it is that he hasn´t been able to attend church. How he can´t leave the house and nobody ever goes and visits him. He was so beyond grateful that we were able to just pass by and see how he was doing. He had felt forgotten, but we had the chance to be part of God's work to remind him that he is still loved and cared about.

I´d like to challenge you all to recommit yourselves to Gods work, which is a work of service and of love. Every single one of us knows that there is somebody in our ward, or a neighbor, or a friend that could be feeling lonely, depressed, or down in a state of turmoil. VISIT THEM.

I can testify that it is because of others and the love I have received and the mercy of my Father in Heaven that I am in the mission. Don´t forget that you all can make a change in the life of another person. Salvation may be personal, but God's work is as a whole.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now just to let you know about my investigators.

• Victoria is now baptized and still attending and continuing to progress! 
• Blanca is still receiving us and would like us to teach her daughter, this last week she had to cancel on us, but we have another appointment with them this week. 
• The twins and Josefina we will be visiting with tonight, we are excited. We will be inviting them to baptism. 
• Cristo ended up moving back to the DF in Mexico
• We have a new one named Rocio and she is so sweet and she is basically prepared. All we need to do is gain more confidence, we are excited to teach her. 
• Javier is receiving us but got busy all week, but we will be visiting with him on Thursday! 
• Carlos Hernandez (member) with his two boys Ivan and Maurri are wanting to be baptized, we just are trying to figure out time to be able to teach them, because he gets off of work in the nights at like 10. 
• Jose Angelos. He is new but is attending. He is a friend of a member and we will have our second appointment with him this week!

Anyways I love you guys! Let me know if you want more!

Love, Elder Harmon

E-mail (Dated: 1/15/2018) TRUST THAT YOU WILL BE WRAPPED IN THE ARMS OF OUR SAVIOR

Hi Everyone,

I was just reading some messages that I received today and saw some quotes sent to me by my mom. There is one with the picture of a dad tossing his baby into the air. I´d like to relate this to life. Sometimes we are tossed and for just a brief second we feel fear, anxiety, and far away from our Savior and our Father in Heaven. It´s in these moments that we as humans begin to fall into the hands of the satan. Why? Because we forget that Gods hands are still there to help us. He is guiding us into a safe landing. He gives us these tosses not to punish us, but so we can find him and so that we can truly recognize the true joy of life. Think about when a baby is tossed up into the air, at first you see their eyes fill with fear and get as big as a guinea pig's eyes. However, when they are caught, they get the biggest smile on their face. They do this because they start to realize the love their father has for them, the trust they can put in him, and that he is always there.

I want to share how this has played into my week. I have been here in my area for the past 6 months. I have taught some of the same people over this period of time, we have put several baptism dates for pretty much all of them. However, something has kept going wrong every time, and it would get postponed. For a while, I just thought God wasn´t able to get them back into his arms because of their stubbornness and excuses. But I found something new with the way I am now going to view things in the mission. I am learning that Gods timing does not just come in his time, but with the desire of those searching. He knows all and knows who's ready, but something very important in his plan is agency.  It´s not for me to get impatient, but to keep giving my love and helping them. This past week on Tuesday I was able to go and talk to Victoria and her family and I walked in and the first thing they said to me was, ¨When are you going to baptize my daughter?¨ I was surprised by this but immediately said, "Well, we feel that she is ready and we would like to put her baptism date for this Saturday." So.... Brothers and Sisters, we welcomed a new member of our Family into Gods pathway this weekend. Victoria Robledo Rodriguez.

Another experience that I´d like to share is about a man named Javier. My companion and I had been checking some references that turned out to be fake. Feeling a little upset and unmotivated we started making our way back to the bus stop. On the way down a long street, I saw a man walking his dog. I felt this need to talk to him, but I was a little nervous. I said, Good afternoon and almost at the same time he said in broken English, "Are you those Mormons?" A little confused I said, "Yes we are!" He said, "I have been looking for your church for almost a year now, but I haven´t been able to find any missionaries." He then asked if we could teach him something. We agreed to go to his house and share something. Once at his home he shared with us that the path he took home that night was not the normal path he takes. But as he began walking home his dog started pulling him another way, and after fighting for a moment, he just gave in and followed the dog. He said, "It turned out that the dog found you two and got really happy when he saw the two of you."

I like to take these two experiences to show how God brings his children back into his arms, I like to say that God puts a plan into motion, but sometimes we are the key to completing it. However, he still puts that constant guide to help us.

Remember that we have been ever so blessed with the promise that he will never leave us.

I am great and I love you all. Have a fantastic week!

Elder Brandon Dean Harmon (Remember Who You Are!)

Fun Missionary Video

We were sent this video from one of the missionary mom's.

Click to watch

E-mail (Dated: 1/8/2018) THE LIVING WORD

Hello my loved ones,

One thing I have been thinking about for the past couple weeks is ¨GODS WORD¨ I think it´s something that we hear a lot. But what is the message? The phrase in itself is perfect. The message which brings God's word is perfect. But how do we get this beautiful word? We receive it in many different ways. One of them happens to be prophets. Prophet - is a seer, and revelator. Someone that is a humble servant of the Lord, that acts in the example of our Savior Jesus Christ to lead and guide the church. Who has received the correct keys, who worthily receives revelation from our Father in Heaven.

As many of you know, this last week on Tuesday at 10 pm our Father took home one of his loved and precious children. Someone that took every moment of his life and calling to make others feel loved. He is someone whose words have changed my life, and many of yours. His beloved name is Thomas S. Monson

Many of his famous quotes:

• Choose your love, Love your choice.
• Choose your friends with caution; plan your future with purpose, and frame your life with faith.
• The principles of living greatly include the capacity to face trouble with courage, disappointment with cheerfulness, and trial with humility.
• Faith and doubt cannot exist in the same mind at the same time, for one will dispel the other.
• Courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God's approval.
• Work will win when wishy washy wishing won t.
• Amidst the confusion of the times, the conflicts of conscience, and the turmoil of daily living, an abiding faith becomes an anchor to our lives.
• Perhaps the surest test of an individual's integrity is his refusal to do or say anything that would damage his self-respect.
• I wasn't with Joseph, but I believe him. My faith did not come to me through science, and I will not permit so-called science to destroy it.
• We must not let our passions destroy our dreams. 

He was a just man, he wasn´t perfect, but he showed the perfect example of trying to be like Christ. May his family be blessed during this hard loss, but rejoice because of  the wonderful plan that he spent his life teaching and that lets us know that all will be okay and that we will all rise again.
I love him. I love his example. I love what he taught us.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My week went well; however, we are still just trying to find more people to teach. Almost all of our contacts this week have been from different states on visits. Our investigators are starting to come back from their trips. We actually had one teach with Blanca this last week. She has told us that she will be baptized this month, so that made me really excited. She is just waiting to put down her baptism date. She also told me that she would like for us to start teaching her daughter that is 17. This week we will get to meet with her.

Also, something really cool happened. Do you all remember Ricardo? He called us the other day to set an appointment with us. He wants to be baptized and he wants his family to be taught. Tonight we have an appointment with him at 8pm.

I am starting to see some tender blessings.

Training is going well. We have three white boys in the house so we speak a lot of English😬 But my companion would really like to learn English, so he kind of likes it. But these three are actually all working good with me to fix my grammar and pronunciation with my words in Spanish. But yeah, all is good that way. It has been tough to train though with all of these holidays because we don´t get too much practice.

As for being district leader, it is well and I am learning a lot. I have been good to bring my district together. We actually have an activity planned today to play table games and make crepes and to go out to eat together. I do get stressed with having to report numbers because I don´t like only thinking about numbers. So, I am trying to help find goals that are reasonable and meaningful.

I loved a quote that my mom shared from Gordon B. Hinkley. We have had some tough couple weeks here with the holidays, but the quote says:

It isn’t as bad as you sometimes think it is.

It all works out. Don’t worry.

I say that to myself every morning.

It will all work out.

Put your trust in God,

and move forward with faith

and confidence in the future.

The Lord will not forsake us.

He will not forsake us.

If we will put our trust in Him,

if we will pray to Him,

if we will live worthy of His blessings,

He will hear our prayers.

I think it´s a message we can all take in.

I love you all and have a great week.

E-mail (Dated: 1/2/2018) REFLECTION

This year has been what I´d call a never-ending growing experience. My goal this year is to make it the same. I have had a lot of time to reflect and to become more of the man our Father in Heaven wants me to become. However, I know that there is a lot more growth there. One thing I love about the message we share is that we never know everything. We are on a path of never-ending education. We fall we hurt, we smile we laugh, we scream we cry, we have happiness we have joy. The thing is we have every one of these things to gain a new experience. We go through an experience to progress. Without progression, we fall, and we lose what true joy really is.

The other thing that I´ve realized is that people matter. Yesterday I was with my companions at a plaza and we came across one of my buddies that I had made with Elder Macias. We began to chat with him and he is just torn apart. He loves his family, but his decisions and other experiences have led him to drugs. He tells us about how his old girlfriend won´t let him see his daughter, and how his mom hates him. He was totally beside himself crying because he was so alone. He knows what´s important, but he let something take him away from all that happiness.

That´s like us. I know it´s like me. There are moments that we let other things come before family. However, that is the opposite of what our father has planned for us. God has foreordained families. We came to this earth to become like him, we have come to experience his full joy, well if you think about it. We are his full joy, so the best way to become like him is to love all and serve all.

So. As you are all making your new years resolutions, why don´t we all take a moment to realize how we can make a goal to show more love to others.

I realize that I don´t baptize converts, I baptize my family. I don´t teach strangers, I teach my best friends. It´s a progress but I have come to love those that I have met. People are converted when they find love and joy.

I love you all, and hope you all had a great Christmas and New Years!

- Love Elder Harmon