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

E-mail (Dated: 4/24/2017)

Hola Hola, Familia!

Wow, this past week was pretty difficult, but that´s the way it should be right?

The first half of the week actually went really well. In fact on Tuesday we were in Leon for a zone conference and that was cool to just be able to spend some time with some of the other missionaries! It turns out to that there is a Elder (Heywood) here and he is taller than me! Sister Williamson took a picture and I hope you guys received it from her.

Then Wednesday we had one of the assistants to the president spend the day with us and this is actually his last change. It was really cool to be with him and I learned a lot from him in just those short hours and he helped me a little with my Spanish as well! It turns out he knows Jake and Conner Anderson too, because he went to school with them! So just cool ties to people here.

The rest of the week is when it started getting interesting. We got two new investigators this week who are both 15 so that is really cool. They are actually very interested in our message and one already started attending church this week. Then with Maribel we set up a date for her baptismal, but we might have to move it a week bad, because she needs to start coming to church. But that is exciting for us. We are also still working with Francisco. We tried again for his baptism this last week, but he just wasn´t home when we went to confirm. But this week we are really pushing for it. But it´s a progress. We were very direct with him this last time, but man is he stubborn. But we are pretty sure we will have it this week, but we are trying to have patience but it´s difficult.

It was sad this last week because we had our days full with plans, but more than half of them fell through. So we are trying to figure out what we can do and we actually are implementing a few different methods.

Another thing this last week we had the chance to visit a woman who was baptized over 5 years ago and she actually hasn´t been to church in for 4 years and so we visited them and it turns out the husband is probably the problem. He believes in God, but he doesn´t believe he is here, and he doesn´t believe in life after death. Much of our conversation was spent teaching and trying to help him understand and he was like that´s great and I love this message, but I too have tried to get answers about this before, but I never receive and answer, then I stopped him and I took the opportunity to bare testimony and to share an experience in my life when I have felt what he is feeling and I really felt the spirit in the room. and what was cool is the entire time he kept eye contact with me and when I was finished he goes, wow I will be honest, with you two I felt something today, and that something is what I have been looking for. and so we are actually going back to teach this week as well, so we might have him as an investigator as well. But that was just a really cool special moment for us, and I know we couldn´t have done it without Gods help and with the spirit in the room.

But those are the moments we are here for right? To help people find out how they can find that good feeling inside! So I´m feeling grateful!  and I am excited to hear from you all. Please let me know if you have questions!

Oh and it´s my third month!!! WOOT WOOT!!!

Audio File

Zone Conference Pictures

E-mail (Dated: 4/17/2017)

Can I just start by saying that I´m grateful that we live in Utah hahah!

I have seen some interesting traditions around the Easter holiday here. I woke up one morning to  a parade kind of thing outside where people were walking the streets shouting scriptures! I was like wow!!!

Anyways Hola Hola Familia!!!! Hope you´re all doing great and I´m so very excited to hear from you all to know how your weeks were! I´d like to share about mine a little if that´s okay haha!

So I will admit that the BYU orchestra concert was an amazing experience, and it was so cool to be able to talk to them in English and Spanish haha! Plus, just having the big BYU-I sign just brought a lot of home too me! Also, the orchestra was in the University of Guanajuato and is in this like castle looking building it was way cool!

Also, this week I got my first haircut, I think it looks pretty good and only 50 pesos which is like 2.50 so that´s sweet!

I will admit this week was tough. A lot of our investigators just aren´t progressing. We visit, we teach and you feel the spirit, but then they just don´t change and it´s so sad. But we are working and we are trying. I actually found out this week that our area used to be a dead zone in the mission and they actually took missionaries out of here for awhile. Also, when it was open before, they had four missionaries here. So we are here trying to get work started again. But I will tell you that every day this past week was very big here for the people here, and we were actually told to be careful about proselyting this week.

This week I had all sorts of encounters. I talked with many different types of people. I gave a  Book of Mormon to a Jehovah Witness, talked with a few people from the states who were actually high on drugs, got called racist because my companion isn´t black, got stopped by a man telling us the name Mormon is evil, talked with a man Freddie from the states who is a Jehovah Witness, and a few guys that are ex-convicts. Funny thing is, we are going to try to teach them this next week. It´s crazy all these people actually found me because I´m tall and white and they just love trying to see what I´m doing here and so that´s awesome!

Um this last week, we didn´t have Francisco's baptism because he had the excuse again that he needs to talk with his wife. We tried to help him understand that he needs to make a decision for himself. So, we are helping him and are plannning for this next week. We are praying and could use your prayers too.

We had a branch activity with the members here on Saturday and that was so fun. I will try to get some photos from that to you all. It was so fun and lots of laughter and bonding with the people here. It felt like a little family, because I´ll be honest it´s only about 25 people.

Also, on Sunday we had a lot of church attendance from the less active members we have been working with and that was awesome. In fact, fact almost all the people we have been visiting showed up! I´m so grateful!

Overall, i'm doing good. My Spanish is gettting better and I´m working on talking more and more everyday. Elder Paez and I had a few conflicts this week, but what can we say, we have been with each other 24x7 for 6 weeks :) Other than that, we are good.

I love you and hope to hear for you, let me know if there is something you want to know!

Summary Audio File

E-mail (Dated: 4/10/2017)

I named the title of this email Romita because a lot of time was spent there this last week!

Just to give a gist of what happened this last week! Okay so this whole last week I was pretty sick, but I didn´t let that stop me. I received a blessing from my zone leader on Monday night and the next day I was feeling even worse, but I was able to make it through the day! On Tuesday was my first divisions with the zone leaders and that was really cool. I stayed in my area and the other Elder Harmon came here with me. He was actually in Silao for his first 6 months and so he knows the area really well and is very close with the members and I learned a lot from him and the cool thing is that when we arrived he says, hey this is your area now so you´re leading everything. Hahah I was like wow alrighty then! That day we were able to get 16 contacts and 9 future investigators and 2 new investigators, and that was all within 3 hours and also we able to teach a few less active members and to get some to come back to church, so we had a very successful day!

Um however, for the rest of the week we didn´t have too much success! I changed back with Elder Paez the next day and we had a full week filled up, but most of our appointments fell through and we didn´t have anyone to teach and we tried to contact, but one example is that we were at one house and the lady was very interested and she was like I want my husband to hear this and so she goes in to grab him and he came out and basically said, we are catholic and we don´t need your help or you bible and gave us back the BOM and then asked us not to come back. So just lots of fun, so that was interesting.

Also, that same day we were walking through the courtyard just about to go to Franciscos house and a family of Testigos de Jehova were there and they came up to me and were like are you from the states and do you speak english and I was like yeah I am, and it turns out they are from Detroit and have been living here in Romita for a year and they don´t speak a lick of Spanish, but they had a translator and so they tried inviting Paez and I to and event which was hilarious. Elder Paez right after tried inviting them to an event that is today, and the man was like we don´t speak Spanish, so I translated haha. But yeah just kind of random moments and other religions we talk with everyday.

Also, this week we set up Franciscos baptism date for this Saturday so we are praying a lot for him! So that is very exciting! Also, we have a new investigator who is another Francisco and I think that he´s really going to progress, he has a tough life and I know we are going to be able to help him and I think he could really use what we have to say!

As for how I´m feeling, I´m no longer sick as a dog, and I´m struggling a little bit with just the emotions of the mission, but I´m doing good and excited for these next 6 weeks! I can understand pretty much what everyone says, but I have realized I need to expand my vocabulary with foods and with everyday activities hahah! But I´m doing good and I love you all!

OH also today I´m going to a BYU-Idaho orchestra concert tonight with our ward and an investigator and her family so that´s why I´m on a little earlier!

Other e-mail replies from today
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I love that about being the tools for God, because when I was in the CCM we had Elder Nelson come and he shared how Christ uses the unlikely instruments in his army.

Oh that is soo good to hear about Elder Rubio and thanks for checking in with my package. Um I just took some money out of my account to be worried its because I need a haircut and I also needed money for the orchestra tonight!

Yes I agree our family is so very blessed and I feel grateful every single day, my eyes have been opened!

Language is still hard, but its coming and I see it coming!

I love you too dad!

E-mail (Dated: 4/3/2017)

Hello My Beautiful Family and Friends!

Another week passes in the mission field with many great memories made!

This last week was really good and definitely had its moments. A little earlier in the week we visited with Francisco and talked with him and he was supposed to be baptized this weekend, but he again said that he wasn't ready and that was difficult, in fact afterwards I was filled with a lot of uneasiness. However, he has promised that on the 15 of April he will choose a date for his baptism. So we will pray for that.

The rest of the week until about Thursday was a little rough because Elder Paez and I were a little sick. Elder Paez was more sick that I was but we had to stay in for half the day. On Friday we went to Los Rodriguez which is a ranch that is about half an hour away to visit an investigator of ours and his name is Jaime! We planned for his baptism for this past Saturday and I was asked to do the baptizing! Wow! It was so amazing and ah just the look on his face. He is only 9 years old but the joy and the light he had was so amazing! If you want to hear more, I did a voice message about it that I will send to all of you. Also, I will send some pictures from the baptism!

When we were at the ranch we also stopped by a house which is the house of a two members. I didn´t exactly know why, but Elder Paez had a feeling to stop by and we were invited in. I didn´t understand all, but I did start to understand that this man was suffering with a drug addiction and he humbled himself before us and asked us for help. I want to say more, but I´d rather you hear from my voice, so please listen to my voice messages they are for all of you.

I´m not writing too much in my big email today because I have the worst headache and feel a little sick! I still have many voice messages that I made last night and within the week that I´d love for you all to listen to and I hope you can feel what I was feeling in those spécial remarkable moments!

I love you all!

Audio Recordings
Weekly Summary (27 min) - Tender Experiences at 8 min, 17 min
First Baptism (4 min)
Food and Francesco (5 min)
Tender Experience with Inactive Member (6 min)
March 18, 2017 Letter - Audio (6 min)
Message to Family (7 min)
Elder Paez Testimony in Spanish (4 min)