Weekend O' Service!

Hello my amazing, wonderful, awesome (Insert positive adjective here) family and friends!

​This week has been pretty good!  To start, Elder Rasband and I have been doing great!  He's from Draper, but his family moved to Virginia while he's been out, so he'll be going home there.  He's pretty soft-spoken, but he has a spirit of calmness and meekness about him, and I like that a lot about Elder Rasband.  He's a great last companion for me on my mission.

As far as the investigators and the teaching pool is going, we are still trying to get more.  We have been putting a much greater emphasis on working with the members.  We had five member lessons this week, and we have been asking them about who they're "working" with to share the Gospel.  We will not let those members forget their duty!

Stake conference was this weekend, and Elder Call of the Seventy came.  He held a meeting before the Sunday session, and all investigators, less-actives and recent converts were invited.  A couple of recent converts from our ward came, and it was great!  After the session, I had the opportunity to stand in the circle of to confer the Melchizedek Priesthood upon a fairly recent convert.  It was a great experience!  Definitely a first for me; I've given the Aaronic, but not the Melchizedek until now.

On Saturday, there was a "Mormon Helping Hands" project that we and the stake attended.  There were several groups doing different projects, but the YSA Ward went along a riverbed and picked up trash.  It was surprisingly pretty fun!  There was some pretty cool graffiti along the underside of the bridge too, so that was sweet.

Today has been a pretty good day so far.  I'll be honest.  Mom, I took your gift card that you gave me and spent it on clothing that I could take home.  We live right next to some outlet malls, and I just couldn't resist.  Two years ago, I never thought I would voluntarily go to a mall on P-day, but now I love it!  (That was probably just very dangerous of me to say...)

I love you all, and I want to say "Happy 2nd Birthday to Lincoln this week!"  I'll talk to you soon!

Love,
Elder Harper

There's a street in Oxnard called "Elder Street".  It's a famous missionary landmark, and I couldn't resist.

Here's also me right next to the beach.  Probably the closest I will ever get as a missionary.  One of the members lives right along next to it.

'Twas Glorious

​Hello my wonderful family and friends!

Wow, this week, especially Sunday, was fantastic!  First of all, for transfers, I will be staying here and finishing my mission in the Camarillo YSA Ward.  Elder Gerber is leaving to go home in 2 days, and my new companion's name is Elder Rasband.  I've talked to him a couple of times, but I've never served around him before.  From what I've heard, he's a great missionary and other people say that we have similar personalities.  Should go well then!  I'll keep you posted.

SO.  Sunday was amazing.  Laura came to church for the first time!  She absolutely loved it.  She is definitely progressing in the Gospel.  It's kind of a slow progression, but it's a progression nonetheless.  Personally, this is what I believe.  She knows that the Book of Mormon is true and that the church is true, but she's afraid to act on that belief.  She knows baptism is necessary and essential, but she seems to lack the faith to pray for whether or not she should be baptized.  She will keep moving along I'm sure, and I really want to help her with that. 

I think I mentioned it, but she has been bringing her friend Jennifer to the lessons too and we've been teaching her.  She's pretty shy and doesn't speak much unless we ask her a question, but she has been liking the lessons so far too.  They both have great fellowship as well.  I love the YSA Ward because people are just awesome fellowshippers!

So this lady in the picture I sent is Karen Crawford:  the second person that I have been privileged to interview for baptism!  The other missionaries we live with taught her, and Karen is a great lady.  She has a strong desire to serve others, and after a lifelong search for God and Christ, she feels that she has found Them with this church, despite her husband's lack of interest and some less-than-supportive friends.

The best part of the week happened last night though.  All the missionaries in the mission met in Ventura for a meeting, but it was a mystery who was going to be there.  We gathered and waited, and to our surprise, David Archuleta walked into the chapel.  Apparently he was going to be in Los Angeles that weekend, and he wanted to speak to the missionaries on the way down.  We were the lucky ones (being the mission right above LA).  He talked to us for a good 2 hours and sang great hymns such as "Come Come Ye Saints", "Be Still My Soul", "Amazing Grace", "I Believe in Christ", and "Glorious"--a 2012 EFY song.  He shared stories with us about his mission and he also talked a lot about grace, and the experiences that he had on American Idol.  He said that even though he never got a lot of sleep while he was on the show, he always made the time to read the scriptures, and it made all the difference in the world for him.  He has a great voice!  He doesn't need any computer touch-up programs.  He is legit!

I'll be honest, he was a lot more humble, genuine and spiritual than I thought.  He really is a great person and he chose to speak to us out of the goodness of his heart.  I really gained a lot more respect for David Archuleta yesterday.  We got pictures with him as zones, and I'll send those next week or whenever President Felix sends them to us.  It was great!

Well, that's about it for me.  I hope that everybody has a great week, and I will talk to you soon!

Love,
Elder Harper

Paperwork....

There's not ever enough time!  ​Hello everybody! 

This week was pretty good, we did a lot of paperwork though.  We had to collect a lot of information for the monthly stake report and then an evaluation for all the members of the zone.  It took up a lot of our time this week, but we were still able to do some missionary work!

This week, we met with Laura again.  We had a lesson about prophets and their role.  Just as with just every other YSA/teenager that I have taught on my mission, Laura's parents are pretty against her meeting with us also.  It's kinda unfortunate, but we know that she can pull through it.  Other than a few lessons a week, we have spent some of our time at Cal. St. University Channel Islands doing a few tabling events to "advertise" the Institute of Religion that is there.  There are very few members, and so we have been going there trying to invite others to join.  By campus rules, we need to have another student with us there also, but it hasn't really worked out very well that way.  We are trying to coordinate better with the students/teachers, but it's still in the blueprints.  Hopefully it will come around soon!

I DO love that we have various activities throughout the week that we go to.  On Monday nights, we go to our ward's FHE, and on Tuesday, a few of us get together and play soccer and then go to Institute afterwards at the church building.  (I have gotten much better at soccer, even though I don't like it as much as other sports... :) )

There's really not enough time to email...pretty much ever.  But I love you all and I hope you are doing great!

Elder Harper

P.S.  Here's a picture of the FHE bonfire and the Hungry Hungry Hippos activity!  I have a video of it too but it's too big to send home...

My last General Conference as a Missionary. :(

​Hello my amazing family and friends!

Wow what a fantastic week it has been!  There have been quite a few awesome things that have happened!  Let me tell you!

I have a testimony of the principle that, "when one door closes, another door opens".  Sadly, this week, we lost Cole, one of our investigators, and to make it even worse, one of the recent converts that was baptized in February said that he didn't need religion in his life... o.O
BUT!  I say that this week was fantastic because we were blessed with a new investigator named Laura!  She was found by the other missionaries that we share the ward with, but lives on our side.  She has been meeting with them for about 4-5 weeks now, and loves it.   The YSA's broadcasted general conference from the Institute building, and we went there and saw it.  Laura came and saw the last bit of the Saturday morning session and watched the whole Saturday afternoon session, and she loved it!  She even brought a friend along that we have also been keeping in contact with. 

Laura is super friendly and has made a lot of friends with members from our ward.  (Pretty much all of the guys in the ward have been hitting on her...NOT US!)  She really enjoyed conference, and we are going to be having a lesson with her on Tuesday.  It should be great!  I'll let you know how that goes.

General conference!  I REALLY enjoyed it.  I was really surprised when somebody opposed the sustaining vote, but other than that, I thought it was pure revelation from God.  Specifically Elder M. Russell Ballard's talk.  Holy cow!   I can't wait to study those talks more thoroughly.  It was amazing the difference I felt as I went into conference with a specific question in mind versus when I have just gone to "enjoy the show".  I really feel like I have been better able to understand and discern the feelings of the Spirit on my mission.  Granted, I'm not a master yet, but being able to feel promptings and knowing that it's from the Holy Ghost has made quite the difference.  For all of us that watched conference, there really not a better thing we could have done at that time.  It's great to hear and understand the words of modern-day prophets.

Today, our zone is going to be playing life-sized Hungry Hungry Hippos.  I'll send pictures!

I love you all!  I hope your week is great!

Elder Harper

Revelation! (With Another Broken Toe)

​Hello my wonderful family and friends!  This week has been pretty good, especially Friday. 


As far as the missionary work is going, it's almost run into a dead halt unfortunately.  We have "investigators", most of which are people that I haven't met yet.  It's definitely time for finding.  Elder Gerber and I are working super hard and putting a lot of effort in, but unfortunately the area isn't really responding; we counted, and we've had 20 cancelled appointments within the last 3 weeks.  But we're doing our best!

Anyways, I want to talk about the best part of the week:  Elder Brent H. Nielsen!  As I mentioned last week, we were able to have a special Mission Leadership Council with him, and it was great!  Before he came, he asked each of us to study two talks about the Atonement by Elder David A. Bednar.  A big portion of the meeting was focused on the Atonement, and we especially learned about the enabling power; how it strengthens us and allows us to move forward.  He talked about trials and how they are opportunities for us to change.  Instead of praying for the trial or challenge to go away, we need to instead pray for the strength to adapt to and learn from the challenge or trial.  It was super revelatory, and I literally walked out of the meeting with the mindset that trials are blessings (knock on wood). :)  I took about 5 pages of notes throughout the whole thing.  P.S. Elder Nielsen will be speaking in General Conference on Sunday morning right before Elder Holland--he said, "Yep, I'm the warm-up act for Elder Holland!"  It was funny.  We then had a question/answer session and he talked about the 8 quorums of seventy, how GA's are supported, polygamy, and how we can invite the Spirit into our studies.  It was definitely the highlight of the week.

In case you're wondering, on Saturday, I was getting ready for the day, and I spun in my spinny chair too fast and hit my toe against my desk and broke it.  Same toe, opposite foot!  That's 2 broken toes on mission!  What the heck!  It's not even really hurting anymore; I hope it will just heal on its own.

I'm SO excited for General Conference this weekend!  It will be a great opportunity to gain some revelation for the area and for my life.  I challenge all of you to bring a question to GC and look for an answer!  Love you all!

Elder Harper

Hello Everyone!

Good afternoon everybody!

Wow, it's been a good week.  First of all, I don't have much time today, but here I go! 

We have a few awesome investigators here.  One of them is Cole Knapp.  He's 28, and just moved from the Bakersfield area.  When he was there, he took all the missionary discussions, but never was baptized.  He was even interviewed!  So, right now, we are continuing to teach him.  He struggles with the Word of Wisdom also, but he's coming along.  Yesterday, he came to church.  We are continuing to invite him to activities and other fun things. :)  He's a real sincere guy, and he desires to follow God.

Also, another one is Natalia.  She's 20 years old, and Natalia was born in Hawaii.  She is currently living with her mom, after her dad became really violent due to his alcoholism.  Natalia feels really good when she helps others and serves.  We talked with her mom on Saturday as well, and she burst into tears as she began to talk with us.  Her mom has relationship issues with her current boyfriend as well, and she told us all about it.  As missionaries, sometimes we feel like therapists, but I think it just shows that they trust us(?) ;P

The last one is Conner.  Conner is originally from Washington, but he moved to Oxnard after meeting a girl through online gaming.  He moved in with her, and her parents just kicked him out of the house (thank goodness!)  He lived there for about a year, and he works at Target and met Guadalupe, a recent convert, and that's how he came in contact with the church.  He's really sincere, and desires to know if the Book of Mormon is true.  Unfortunately, with his eviction, he's going to be moving back to Washington at the beginning of April.  He is fine with meeting with missionaries once he gets back up there though.

So, that's our investigators.  We are doing our best to find.  (Oh yes, the finding stage, how I missed you.)  To do this, we meet with members, and are doing our best to establish relations with Oxnard College and Cal. St. University of Channel Islands.  Again, our area is big.  We cover Oxnard and Camarillo, but the ward extends to Ventura, Ojai, Fillmore and Santa Paula.  It's the biggest YSA ward in the mission.  I absolutely LOVE it here.  Camarillo is perhaps the most beautiful city that I have ever been into.  Oxnard has it's good parts too, but for the most part, Oxnard is just as beautiful as the name sounds.  Camarillo has about 62,000 people, and Oxnard has about 180,000 people.  It's pretty urbanized, with a few fields and agriculture here and there.  But yes, Mom, I'm safe!

We had our Mission Leadership Council this week, and we have ANOTHER one on Friday, except this one is special.  Elder Brent H. Nielson of the 1st Quorum of Seventy is coming, and he will be presiding at our MLC.  No pressure.  Other than that, it's been a great week!

I love you all!  This church is true, and it brings happiness beyond measure when we live the commandments of God.  Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Harper

Camarillo YSA Ward Rocks!

Hello my amazing family and friends!

First of all, I'm sorry that my last email didn't go through...it says that it sent on my account.  Oh well. I guess y'all get two this week!

First of all, this week has been quite a good one.  We have been running around like chickens with our heads cut off!  I got here on Tuesday, and IMMEDIATELY I was thrown into the strenuous work of zone leadering-ing​. ;)  We had to make sure that everyone arrived safely and stuff like that.  Plus, we had to start thinking about zone goals!  Zone goals are goals, obviously, that each zone comes up with that help the missionaries in the zone become united.  We receive ideas and suggestions from the district leaders in the zone, and we make the final decision about what the goals will be.  Then, tomorrow, in MLC (Mission Leadership Council), we report those goals and they go directly to the mission president.  So that's that in a brief nutshell. (Not enough time to do a good email...)

Next, my companion, Elder Gerber.  He is from West Jordan, is 21, and is on his last transfer.  He's the oldest of 3, and it's kind of sad because his siblings are less-active. :(  He's a great missionary.  Honestly, he's one of the more "straight laced" missionaries that I have had on my mission, but we've been able to laugh and joke around a little bit.  It's been a little bit of an adjustment getting used to it, because that's pretty opposite of me haha.  We have the same goal, just different means of achieving the goal.  It's been great though, because we have been able to mold our different personalities together and balance out.  I think that we have both been out on missions long enough to communicate and compromise our individual personalities to coexist.  <--Wow, that was a lot of pretty big words in one sentence.  Go me! :D

Then, the ward.  Serving in the YSA Ward has been great so far!  I think it is great preparation for me for when I return home.  Everyone has been really nice and friendly, and it's been great to be able to talk to recently returned missionaries and get their advice, as well as to help and encourage those that are almost ready to go.  It's cool because tonight we have dinner with a RM who got home 2 days ago!  We saw her as we walked in the Library today and she is doing her "personal study". :)  I love the overall enthusiasm for sharing the Gospel.  It's great because there are so many people that are ward missionaries, and we can basically call on anyone to help with a lesson  (they're all mostly RM's!)

How it works is this:  We cover all the young single adults in both Camarillo and Oxnard (The Camarillo Stake).  The whole ward is composed of the YSA's in the Ventura Stake too, and the assistants cover that part of the ward (we share the ward and go to church with the assistants.  My church building is the mission office in Oxnard on Gonzales Rd.)  There is over 1,000 YSA aged people in the 2 stakes, and our goal as a ward is to fill the chapel up so much that we will have to split the ward. 

There are so many more things that I could talk about, but my time is running short.  I'll be sure to explain things more next week too, and send pictures!  I love you all!

Elder Harper

Here's a picture of me and Elder Gerber.