Provo MTC Zone Picture

VISA!!

Oi! Familia!!

Big News today i got my Visa!! I am heading to Brazil! I report to the travel office Tuesday morning and then go to the salt lake airport my flight leaves at 11:09 am and get to Atlanta Ga around 4:45 pm and then my fight to Brazil leaves at 7:38 pm and i should arrive in Sao Paulo around 8:15 am! I am so excited i cant believe i got my visa so quickly i thought i was going to get reassigned for a while but i guess the Lord has other plans for me. i hope you see this soon so i can write you back

Oi! Familia!

This week has been amazing! It has gone by so fast i can't believe that i am here writing you again. Not too much has happened this week just the normal MTC grind. One of my companions got his visa and left this morning for Brazil and 4 more missionaries in my zone left for the mission field, and we have 4 more leaving next week. Our zone is getting so small I hope we get new missionaries next Wednesday! Portuguese is coming along great there have been a couple of days that it just goes in one ear and out the other. hahah but i have learned so much these past two weeks its truly amazing. I have a strong testimony of the gift of tongues i know the lord is blessing me every time i open my mouth. Just the other day my companion and I came out of our lesson and I could not remember anything that i said i just remember what i wanted to say to him. At the end of the lesson my teacher came back to class and asked me how i knew some of the stuff i said because he hasn't taught us that stuff yet? i was just sitting there like uhh i don't even know what i said i could just feel what the spirit was telling me. Other than that nothing too special has happened. I was able to take a nap today which was amazing because i had to wake up at 3:30 to say goodbye to my companion which was hard because i have really grown to love him and we got along so well and always had a good time together. Oh yeah i almost forgot to tell you my companion and I were called as the Zone Leaders this week! Which is crazy because we had only been here for a week and a half and most zone leaders don't get called until they have been here for 4-5 weeks. When the Branch President called my companion and i into a room for our weekly interview and asked us to be the new zone leaders i was so surprised because there are a lot of missionaries who have been here a lot longer that us. He said that we are some of the youngest Zone Leaders to ever be called and wouldn't have it any other way. He said that his counselors and the old Zone Leaders took a lot of time to pray and think about who should be the next Zone Leaders and that none of the older missionaries felt right and when they said our names the spirit was so strong they were all smiling and knew that we were supposed to be called even though we are so new. i am so humbled that the Lord trusts us enough to be in charge of these missionaries and i hope that i can serve him well. i have a lot more responsibilities now and my Sundays that used to have a lot of time for personal study is now packed with meetings. i hope i will have the strength to preform all of my new duties and i hope i can be a good example to the missionaries in my zone. One thing that really stuck out to me in my training meeting was that as zone leaders we must become missionaries to missionaries and invite those we serve closer to Christ. I know that i will need the Lord with me every step of the way if I am able to help these missionaries be the best they can be so mom you better send me some knee pads because i am going to be praying a lot! One more thing i was also called as a district leader in my zone. I guess the Lord has big things planned for me while i am here and doesn't want me to have any spare time to just sit and relax, but I guess I don't have a choice because i am doing his work not mine. i just wanted to thank you all for the letter you have been writing me they have really helped me out this week and all that has been going on. I love you all and am praying for you.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Love Elder Harris

Thinking of you

Hello Everyone!

Today is my first Pday and i am super excited because i actually have so time to slow down and relax a little bit. My week has been crazy! we have 3 hours of Portuguese a day and i love every minute of it. The language is coming a long great! i have learned to pray and bear my testimony in Portuguese and i can do it without looking at any material. i have also memorized my purpose in Portuguese and i am now working on the first vision and hope to have it done before Halloween. The second day i tough my first lesson in Portuguese! it was really hard and i had to keep looking at my notes to remember what i wanted to say, and i am sure i said a lot of things that didn't make sense. haha. the third lesson we taught we asked him if he had been reading the book of Mormon and the scriptures we asked. he said that he read them and was reading everyday when my companion heard this he said nos estamos muito triste which means we are real sad ahahah the look on the investigators face was priceless. he was like "what you guys are said i read the book of Mormon?" the investigator and i had a good laugh about it and so did our Portuguese teacher when we told him. I loved reading all of your emails and hearing about how hard your lives have all become since i have been gone! hehe. So my Pdays are on Tuesday and i only have a little time to write so i will try to get everything thing in the short amount of time. my companions are great! and i have grown to love them all in this past week. we started out with 4 elder and 4 sisters but yesterday one of the elders got his visa yesterday and left this morning to Brazil. it was super exciting and really fun for him but also sad because i had really grown to love him and look up to him. now i have a threesome companionship and it is working out great we all get along and have a really good time together. i have seen a lot of people i know here which has been really cool! i saw Ryan Cantera on Sunday and i also say him at the temple this morning. the temple was amazing this morning. we have the morning session so it was kinda hard to stay awake during the video but it was such an amazing experience to go with so many missionaries, the spirit was so strong i didn't want to leave. i saw one of hunters friends that i met in California and we were able to talk for a little and i have also seen a couple people from school which was exciting. 

now for some of the spiritual stuff. the spirit is so strong here it is amazing! everyone that is here is here to serve the lord and you call tell that they are here for the right reason. they all have an amazing spirit about them you can see it in there eyes and all that they do. my first Sunday was an amazing experience. our sacrament was so amazing and the spirit was so strong. one of the presidents wife spoke about the saviors atonement and it was one of my favorite talks i have ever heard i was amazing! that night we went to a devotional and we had brother Steven Allen talk to us and it was really great. after that we watched a talk given by Elder Bednar and it blew my mind! it was so amazing i wanted to change my life and be a better missionary and human being after that. so much more has happened and i wish i could tell you everything but my time on the computer is over. I love you all and hope you are all doing well.

                                                                                                                                                                                       Love Elder Harris

First Letter!

Hello Everyone!

Today is my second day in the MTC and it has been an amazing experience! The first day was a blur, First they showed me to my room and dropped off my stuff, then i went to my class and the teacher only talked in Portuguese! It was crazy and hard to follow but surprisingly i could understand a lot of what he was saying because it is so similar to Spanish. During that first class we were introduced to our companions! My companion is great! and we have a lot in common. His name is Elder Showalter and he is from Miami Florida and loves being in the water and swimming. There are 8 people in my district. 4 Elders and 4 Sisters, they are all from the states and my companion and two of the Sister are all going to Curitiba south which is exciting. After the first class we went to a huge meeting with all the new missionaries and it was great we all sang "Called to Serve" and it was awesome! After that meeting we went to our rooms to unpack and get settled. Once we unpacked everything we went to our first teaching experience. We went to 3 different rooms with an investigator in each room and were able to teach them about the Gospel. It was hard at first and we had a hard time teaching them but after a while it started to get easier. When we were struggling talking to the investigator they gave us some amazing advice. They said we needed to stop trying to teach the same lesson to each person and really listen to each person and tailor your lesson to fit that person. We needed to listen to what they were saying and find the best way to help that person. The second day has gone by pretty fast and i am really enjoying it but I still have a long way to go. I just found out that I am going to be teaching my first lesson tomorrow to an investigator from Brazil and i will have to do it in Portuguese! I am really nervous for this because i have no idea how to speak Portuguese yet and I know it is going to be extremely hard and there is going to be a lot of awkward silences, but I know that the Lord does not expect me to give a perfect lesson on my third day and i know that it is going to take a lot of time and effort before i can speak at all, but I am hopeful and i know the Lord will help me with whatever I need.  

My P day is Tuesday and I'm really excited to have some time to get everything organized and prepare for my next week. I am running out of time and I just want you to know that I love all of you and hope you are all doing well without me. I miss you all and I will keep you in my thought and prayers.

         Love: Elder Harris

p.s. if you could send me some hangers in the next couple of days that would be great!!