All you need is Love...

We FINALLY went to the Temple again. I could stay there all day. We also had a Conference with our new mission President. I love him and his wife so much!! They are so happy and full of faith. It is impossible to be around them and not smile, I love it. I've been striving and praying hard to have that kind of love for everyone. And I am really coming to love all the people here.

We're teaching an older gentleman Rafael. He live alone and is from Columbia. Which is where Luz is from, from my last area. I'm thinking about hooking them up, but I haven't devised the plan yet. But we had a lesson with him the other day and as we were leaving he gave us hugs and told us that he loves us. It wasn't weird at all.

Moroni 7:46-47

46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

  47 But ^acharity is the pure ^blove of Christ, and it endureth ^cforever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

The gospel is built on the foundation of love. The very reason we are here right now is because we have a Father in Heaven who loves us. I want to serve my mission, live my life, and always be full of love for everyone. And I hope that as I love those around me that they will be able to catch a glimpse of our Saviors love for them.

We are working hard. Elder Graf is very creative and he thinks of all of these fun ways to teach and help our investigators. We gave the Alvarez family cups and seeds and told them to plant the seeds and to water them everyday that they read the scriptures. Our lesson with them last week went very well. I know that they are going to be baptized and I'm pretty sure they know it as well. Right now the biggest road block is her family. She doesn't want to disappoint her parents or family by changing religions. But she comes to church every week and is already basically a member. We are going to have a "Noche de Hogar" of "Family Night" tonight at there home and basically the whole branch is invited. So we are excited for that.

Have a great week everyone!!

Elder Harmon

1019 Marquis Way

Morrow, GA 30260

Power of Testimony and the Book of Mormon

We had interviews with President Foote this week. He is a very loving and humble man. We also were able to talk with his wife one-on-one and meet her. She is wonderful as well.

We had a dinner apt. with a member at 6 o'clock Friday night. We arrived at the trailer park around 5 o'clock and to knock on some doors and meet some people. We went to the neighbor of the member and approached her door. I tried to pull out the screen door but it got stuck so I fiddled around with it a bit and finally pulled it out. Elder Graf went to knock on the door the same time as Gaby opened it and her scared her half to deaf. It was a great way to break the ice. She apologized for some of the words she had said but we don't know any of the Spanish swear words so it was ok. She invited us in, but we aren't allowed to enter a home if there is not a man inside. So we went for the member.

We asked Brother Rangel if he could come and he was so-so, but said ok after dinner. We ate dinner and talked with him. He expressed to us how he feels like he is trying so hard and nothing is coming of it. He said his faith was running low and he felt like he didn't have the spirit with him. He didn't even want to come out with us because he didn't feel like he would be able to testify. I think we all feel like that sometimes. We have to understand that we aren't perfect and keep doing our very best. We talked with him for over an hour and then gave him a blessing. We then took him to his neighbors home and he testified of the Gospel so beautifully. He testified for nearly 40 min straight and Gaby related to all of it.

When we feel like our faith is low and we aren't seeing the blessing that are coming one of the best ways to lift our spirits is to help others and to bear your testimony to them.

Sorry this email is long, you don't have to read it all. But here is something from my studies. 

2 Nephi 30: 3-6:
 
 3 And now, I would prophesy somewhat more concerning the Jews and the Gentiles. For after the book of which I have spoken shall come forth, and be written unto the Gentiles, and sealed up again unto the Lord, there shall be many which shall believe the words which are written; and they shall carry them forth unto the remnant of our seed.

 4 And then shall the remnant of our seed know concerning us, how that we came out from Jerusalem, and that they are descendants of the Jews.

 5 And the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be declared among them; wherefore, they shall be restored unto the knowledge of their fathers, and also to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, which was had among their fathers.

 6 And then shall they rejoice; for they shall know that it is a blessing unto them from the hand of God; and their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a pure and a delightsome people.

These verses were powerful to me because I realized that I was a part of them. That over 2000 years ago Nephi was prophesying of missionaries who would declare the gospel of Jesus Christ unto the seed of his brethren and that that is exactly what I and my companion are doing right now in our lives.

I'm very grateful to be a missionary. I'm grateful to declare the gospel to the Lamanites here in Georgia. And I do it because I know "that it is a blessing unto them from the hand of God." And that those who receive it will have great cause to rejoice.

I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. It's prophecies are unfolding before our eyes. When we use it and abide by it's principle we become a "pure and delightsome people".

 

Elder Harmon

1019 Marquis Way

Morrow, GA 30260

Cleaning and such

I consider myself a clean person. I like things to be neat and organized and have tried to keep things clean my whole mission. I'm very grateful to have a companion that likes to be clean as well.

Ever since Elder Graf has gotten into the apartment he has been cleaning like crazy. I didn't realize that our apartment was so dirty. It looked clean, but Elder Graf wanted it deep cleaned! As we've deep cleaned our apartment I've realized how easy it had become for me to get a little lazy. Not just in cleaning but in my life. I've had to do some inner searching and begin to deep clean my-self. Sometimes we feel like we have to just keep driving and driving and driving but if we never take time to check the engine and make sure it has all the fluids it needs and is running clean, then we are going to break down.

Oh, I almost forgot. We met the new mission president this week. President Foote. He is so loving and kind! I'm very excited to serve under him. His words of advice, "see the good in the world and in yourself."

 

Elder Harmon

1019 Marquis Way

Morrow, GA 30260

Elder Graf!

My new companion is Elder Graf. He is the best!! He is 20 yrs. old and went to a year of college at BYU-I before the mission. He has been on his mission for 8 months, all of which have been in the same area. He is from Washington. I've only had 1 companion from Utah my whole mission which is pretty cool. This is the first time I have had a companion that has been younger then me in the mission. He is the most sincere companion I have had so far and he really cares for others. I'm so excited to serve with him, he's super funny as well.

I've never been so lost in the work. I'm dead tired. But we are teaching a lot of really great people and seeing a lot of success.

Sevilla Family Update- Elder Graf speaks sign language!!!! He took three years of it and he's pretty good at it. It was so fun to see the face of Alexis when Elder Graf started talking to him. He was so excited! Elder Graf translated the song we sang, the prayers and everything. It was a miracle.

Our cars battery was super old and dying. So if we left our car outside in the heat too long the battery would drain and the car wouldn't start. Needless to say we had to get jumped four times this weekend. The first time it happened was Friday. So we went and talked a guy named Carlos and he helped us out. I literally didn't understand what his dad was saying. Talk about a southern accent, it's a good thing I just have to speak Spanish. The church has a deal with Pep boys, so we put in pep boys on the GPS and drove to it. But it wasn't there. So I searched the next closest one and it was in the opposite direction. We went, it wasn't there. So I didn't worry about it because we were wasting miles and time. Saturday it died again. Elder Graf called some info number and found out where Pep Boys was. We went there and they took about an our to tell us that nothing is wrong. Sunday it died again. Today it took 5 hours for us to get a new battery.

Sometimes things happen that you don't plan and you can't control. Don't worry about it. I'm learning to be content in doing my best. I know that as long as I give the Lord my best, even though it isn't perfect, I can be satisfied and happy with the results.

Elder Harmon

1019 Marquis Way

Morrow, GA 30260

The Sabbath Day!

We had the last Zone Conference this week with President Harding. He will be leaving in two weeks and we will have a new Mission President. It was really really good! The main theme of the Zone Conference was keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. I'm not sure if you have all heard of it yet, and if you haven't you will, but the First Presidency and the Apostles had a meeting this past April and have decided that something we need to do as a world is Keep the Sabbath Day Holy. We watched a video that had a portion of each Apostle talking about the importance of this. It is amazing.

So we as missionaries are using this great opportunity to really testify of our living day Prophet and to invite others to come to church. 2 cool experiences:

Christian. He was baptized about 15-20 years ago in Mexico when he was only a teenager. Shortly afterward his family moved to the United States and he hadn't been to the church since. Right now he is living in the same house as one of our recent converts Ricardo who is his cousin. We've talked to him a couple times and he is really nice, but he never seemed interested in coming back to church. On Friday we were looking for Ricardo and Christian was the only one home. We pulled up some chairs and talked with him about when he was baptized and a little bit of his history. The conversation slowly turned to church and we asked him if he wanted to come. He said Ricardo had invited him many times and he wanted to go but something always came up. So we shared with him the fact that the Prophet and Apostles had received specific revelation for the entire world that we need to do a better job at keeping the Sabbath day holy. Of course this is a short version of the conversation but the spirit was very strong. I felt it and I knew exactly what to say and how to say it. I could literally see in his reactions that the spirit was testifying to him that he needed to come to church. Yesterday he came to church for the first time in a very long time. Hopefully he never misses another week.

Branch President. He brought a couple people to church but we never saw him. Sacrament is the last hour and at the beginning of the meeting he wasn't there. His wife didn't even know where he was. So we quickly drove to his house which is about 2 min away and found him there lying on the couch. He wasn't feeling very well and had a bad migraine. So we gave him a blessing by the power of the priesthood and told him we had to hurry and get to church so that he could partake of the sacrament. We made it just in time. He stayed the rest of the meeting and a correlation meeting afterward. As well he went to a stake priesthood meeting later that night.

Partaking of the Sacrament is very important. It's great to be a missionary right now and to be able to testify and proclaim that to everyone.

I love you all! Have a great week :)

Elder Harmon

1019 Marquis Way

Morrow, GA 30260

Lake Jodeco

This week feels like a blur. It's all just going by so fast. I'm getting to know Elder Jones a little better. That's one of the great things about being on a mission. You have to learn how to get along and live with someone. So that's been great :) At the beginning of my mission when my companion did something I didn't like then I would just try to ignore it. But when that happens I just get super quiet and distracted from everything and I can't focus at all. But Elder Jones and I are working harder together then I've worked in any other companionship. I love it.

We finally were able to see the Sevilla Family. They have a boy, I think he is 11, that is deaf. It's a lot of fun to try and talk to him. He gets so happy. I wish I knew ASL, someday I will learn it. I'm really impressed with the parents. They are both really smart and understand everything so well.

The branch is amazing. We had a "linger longer" yesterday and it was really good. Since it was fast sunday everyone brought food and we all broke our fast together after church.

The treck was this last week for the youth and they all bore their testimonies about it.

All is well.

Elder Harmon

1019 Marquis Way

Morrow, GA 30260

Rain

It feels like I just wrote yesturday. Everythings still good and it's basically the same. We are teaching a lot of really great people. I love to teach about the gospel. It encompasses everything and answers so many questions. I don't know what I would do if I wasn't able to teach people. I just love it.

Nobody showed up to the eng class. Hopefully it goes better this week. We think no one came because of the rain.

Sounds like it's been raining pretty good across the whole country. We've received some good rain as well. I found this picture on Elder Jones's camera from mexico and I thought it would go good with all the rain.

Elder Harmon

1019 Marquis Way

Morrow, GA 30260