Seeing investigators at church is such a neat blessing!

Hello everybody!

This week was really good!  Thank you all for the letters/packages/Facebook messages that I was informed about. :)  Spending a birthday in the service of the Lord truly is a blessing.  It's so weird to think that I'm 19...wow.

This week we taught Yvonne (75 year old lady) about the Plan of Salvation as we read the pamphlet with her.  It all sunk in to her.  She said the closing prayer, and she cried!  We invited her to church, and she came yesterday!  They were short on deacons, and I was actually able to give the sacrament to her.  The Spirit was so strong.  I'll see if I can get a picture with her, she's so nice.

We also picked up a new investigator from the Hermanas named Jose.  He speaks perfect English, and he lives in our area so that's how we got him.  Our area is actually the biggest area in the entire mission.  It's about 150 miles from end to end, and it goes all the way over to the Bakersfield mission border!  We never really get to go out there, because we are only allotted so many miles a month in our car to use.

Anyways back to Jose.  He's had a rough past.  When he was younger he always had anxiety and was into drugs and felt like he's been possessed at times.  We would have never even thought because he's the calmest guy ever.  He's been reading the Book of Mormon, and has been praying to know if it's true.  He's recognizing questions of his that are being answered through the Book of Mormon!  He's been saying that it's hard for him to pray and that he feels too guilty to pray.  We explained that "the evil spirit teacheth a man not to pray" and that Heavenly Father wants you to pray when you feel guilty so He can help.  He's understanding really well and we're meeting with him tonight!  We are going to set him with a baptismal date too!  That's our plan!

Last Monday we almost died.  Elder Canzona almost got us in a car accident but we came out unscathed.  Thank goodness.  Thank you for the prayers.

I love you all so much!  Thank you for the support that you give me.  I'll send some pictures of the area next week!

Elder Harper

A-Town ain't finished with me yet!

Date: October 21, 2013

Area: Atascadero

Companion: Elder Canzona




Hello my dear family and friends,

I absolutely LOVE sitting down on the computer and emailing.  It's so great to see all the different pictures and hear from home.

This week went pretty well.  On Tuesday we had to drive all the way down to Oxnard to pick up our newish-used car: a 2011 Toyota Corolla.  It's about a 3 hour drive both ways, and honestly, it was one of the scariest drives of my life.  Elder Canzona, being from Montana, can't drive in traffic....I am thankful for angels that watch over and protect us. We needed every angel we could. :)

Well, now I can write home to say that I ate Vietnamese food on my mission.   We had dinner with a part-member family, and the nonmember wife was Vietnamese, so it was really cool.  We had Bon-Hoi (I think that's how you spell it).  It's nothing gross at all, just some white noodles, pork and cucumbers wrapped in a piece of lettuce dipped in fish sauce.  They told me how fish sauce was made, and I surprisingly held it together.  Try it out!  I'd be down to have that again when I get back!

Well, we also had some great service opportunities this week.  We helped a couple move out of their house into a new one, and on Saturday, we drove out to Creston and split some wood and cut down trees!  Just call me Elder Lumberjack.  It was pretty satisfying...we also had the chance to see the part-member family again there.

Well, the subject line says it all.  I'm staying in Atascadero, and Elder Canzona is as well.  Pray for us that we don't die in a car accident.  :)  Thank you in advance for all the things coming my way.  I love you all.

This past transfer, our district did something really cool.  Each week, the Zone Leaders would pick a color.  In our prayers, we would ask Heavenly Father to prompt those individuals whom he has prepared to be wearing this color, and that we would be able to see them and talk to them about the Gospel.  There have definitely been many miracles wrought from this method, and it was so cool to see all that came from it.  The zone leaders are going to give us a piece of paper with how many people were talked to that wore that color, and also all the names of the people who were invited to be baptized.  I'm so excited!

Yesterday at church was also really great.  Ward Council was better yesterday than it has been in a long time.  Our Ward Mission Leader, honestly, is kind of a pile.  He was chastened a little by the bishop yesterday, and we hope things will be better in the future.  

Well, I love you all so much.  Thank you for your love and letters.  I'm attaching pictures from the temple and the birthday party we had at the beginning of the month.

Love,
Elder Harper

Such a great week

Date: October 14, 2013 
Area: Atascadero 
Companion: Elder Canzona



€‹Hello everyone,
The title says it all.  This week was pretty cool.  Some downs, but some unexpected ups as well.  Obviously going to the LA temple on Tuesday was awesome!  The new SD card doesn't work with my card reader, so I'm going to have to buy a camera cable or something.   I'll send the pictures next week.  It was a 4+ hour drive from Atascadero to Los Angeles, depending on the traffic. We left at 6 o'clock in the morning and got there around 11.  We hit the distribution center and took some pictures.

It's amazing how soundproof the temple is.  Outside there is so many horns blaring and sirens, but as soon as you step inside, wow.  Can't hear a sound.  It was so peaceful to go to the temple. The first session a Japanese lady was there, so it was the old movie, but I didn't realize she was there until halfway through so I kept trying to see the difference, but I couldn't.  It was kinda funny.  So, we went through again, and I did get to see the new movie, it was AMAZING.  I'm definitely going to go to the temple so many times when I get home now.  We got back at 9:30 that night, it was such a great day.

Another cool experience to tell!  So Wednesday, we were running a little bit ahead of schedule, so we decided to go to the local park and talk to some people.  When we got there, Elder Canzona had to go the bathroom.  As we were heading that way, I spotted a lady sitting on a bench with her mom.  I felt horrible for doing it, since he had to go--but I said hi.  She said something back, and I pretended to not hear what she said so I could step closer and start talking.  Well, that simple "Hello" turned into a 45 minute lesson with this lady.  All we asked her to start off with was, "What do you know about Mormons?"  She kept telling us things that weren't true, (polygamy, etc.) and we corrected some of her thoughts.  We taught her about the Restoration, and a little bit about the Plan of Salvation, because she told us her father recently passed away.  We gave her a Book of Mormon, invited her to read it, and asked her if she would be baptized if she found out it was true.  We got her address, and set up a time for us to meet with her.  Time certainly went fast, and before we knew it, we were late for dinner.  We found out she lives in the other Elder's ward, and we told them about it.  They went by, continued to teach her about the Restoration and Plan of Salvation, and set up another appointment to meet with them tomorrow.  She is now a new investigator of their's.  And how did all of that happen? A simple "hello"!  I may never see Vivian again, but I will remember this simple experience that helped build my testimony.  This Gospel is true, and it is such a blessing to be able to share that with others!

This week is the last week in the transfer, so if any of you decide to send letters please send it to the address in Oxnard.  Thank you!

Well, time is getting short, but I just want all of you to know that I know that this Church is true, and God really calls people in their weakness and qualifies them for His work.  I've changed so much already by being out here on this mission, I can already tell.  Thank you all so much for your examples to me.  I love you all!

Elder Harper

General Conference was awesome!

Date: October 07, 2013
Area: Atascadero
Companion: Elder Canzona

Hello everyone!

 

It's great to be here in the Family History Center writing this email. I love preparation days for many reasons...

So yeah, this week went pretty good. We were able to meet with Mike and Robin at Burger King on Thursday and go over the last things they needed to: ten commandments, law of chastity, and review the baptismal interview questions. They have such a strong desire to be baptized!

General Conference was so good! I have never taken so many notes in a general conference before. All the missionaries in my district watched general conference in the stake center here in Atascadero. General Conference is like Christmas morning. Although I must admit, Sunday morning I was thinking a lot about crepes... It was so great to be able to hear the voice of the prophets and apostles, especially with uninterrupted times. I'm lucky that it's just an hour earlier here...Mike and Robin have such a strong desire to be baptized, but it's hard to get them to come to church. Since they are homeless, they are really hard to get a hold of, and all we have is their cell phone number, which was not helpful because it was turned off the entire time. They absolutely HAVE to come to church this Sunday. If they do, they will be baptized October 19th! (An early birthday present, might I add... :))

 

It's so crazy that Brittany's getting married tomorrow. Take lots of pictures for me! Get a cardboard cutout of me or something so I can stand in the line... :) It just so happens that Elder Canzona and I get to go to the Los Angeles temple tomorrow! I am soooo excited! General conference, preparation day, and a temple day; nothing better. I will take pictures when I get there and send some home.

 

There is a member who recently got the Melchizedek priesthood who has a friend who is not a member. Her mother is going to die very soon, and so we have been teaching her the Plan of Salvation. We didn't get to finish the lesson, and the next day she was nagging us about it. We take that as a sign that she's ready to take the lessons. I have been on 3 exchanges in the past week, and all three of the other elders couldn't believe she was not baptized, so we are going to be working on her soon, and she is a goal for baptism next transfer. Well anyways she held a triple birthday party for her mom, Elder Canzona and I this last week, and it was so nice of her to do. I can't believe I'm turning 19 soon...geez.

I love you all so much! Mom, thank you for the package! I will not starve this week. That's a really good thing....

Until next week,

Elder Harper G

God speed the right!

Date: October 03, 2013
Area: Atascadero
Companion: Elder Canzona 



Hello everyone!

It is so good to talk to you all again!  This week was a great one!
 I'm a little bit short on time, but I would like to talk about this
past Saturday.

This past Saturday
I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder Hill, a missionary
that I came out with in the MTC.  He came into my area, and so I had to
step it up and plan the day because he didn't know any of the people in
my area.  As you know, I have not been here for very long myself, and so
I was a little bit nervous about how the day would plan out.  We looked
in our area book and we wrote down some names that we saw in there and
planned to visit them.  When we left, I felt very lost, confused, and
inadequate.  I was convinced that that day would not be very good.

At lunch, we came back and I was thumbing through some things in my
manila envelopes, and I stumbled across the talk that Mom gave me a
little bit ago.  It was Jeffrey R. Holland's talk, "Cast Not Away
Therefore Your Confidence".  I didn't have much time to read it the day I
got it, so I put it into my envelope.  I read the talk, and I was
filled with hope.  This talk gave me the confidence I needed to go out
and finish the day.

We went out.  We knocked on some potential investigator's doors.
 We were bold.  We brought the Spirit.  We exercised our faith.  We were
trackting down a street, and I jokingly cast an imaginary fishing line
on a house and got pulled in.  We knocked on the door, and a sweet old
lady named Julia answered the door.  She told us that she was baptized
Catholic, but a while back she went to a big Christian meeting with a
lot of different churches, and she said that she was really impressed
with the LDS church.  We talked with her and bore testimony of simple
truths, and now we are going to be going back there soon!  We did the
Lord's work that day and had some pretty good numbers to report.

I gained a testimony that the Lord blesses his missionaries for
their planning efforts.  Although we didn't fully know what we were
going to go out there and do, we exercised our faith and went out the
door.  In return, we were blessed with the confidence to do His work.  I
learned that day that I CAN be a senior companion.  I CAN lead out, and
I know that the Lord has blessed me with the abilities that He
requires.  I have learned so much on my mission, and I have acquired
skills and abilities that I will use the rest of my life.  I wrote in my
journal that night to NEVER forget the feelings that I had that day.
 Thank you Mom for sending that talk, for without it I would have never
been able to accomplish the work the Lord required.

I love you all so much!  The Lord works His miracles and he gives
His children the skills and talents that they may need to bring to pass
this most important work.

Elder Harper

"And ye shall receive no witness until after the trial of your faith"

Date: September 23, 2013
Area: Atascadero
Companion:  Elder Canzona


Hello Family and Friends!

It is good to speak with you all again. It is so weird how the weeks just continue to whiz by. So I guess my email didn't go through until 5 o'clock last time? That's odd, I sent it off at the usual time. Oh well, you still got it.

This--I just heard BYU lost to the Utes. Dang. --Anyways, this week went pretty well. This week we gained an investigator for a baptismal date, and lost another one. We now have two investigators who have a baptismal date. Mike and Robin are a homeless couple currently looking for an apartment. They are GOLDEN. When I came into Atascadero, Mike was the only one with a date. When we met with them on Friday, we felt prompted to ask Robin if she wanted to be baptized too. She said yes! What was really cool was that halfway through our lesson about prophets, their friends came up to them and gave Mike 2 cigarettes, but he refused! He's been keeping the Word of Wisdom for about a month now! They are ready to be baptized, and things may be looking up for them regarding a place to live.

In the California Ventura Mission, it is a rule that the investigators have to go to church at least 3 times before they can be baptized. They have been to church twice, and we were hoping that they would come yesterday so that they could be baptized on Saturday. Since they are homeless, it is really hard to find them because they are constantly moving, but they do have usual places where they like to hang out. We did everything in our power to get them to church, but it just didn't happen. Although we were discouraged, we know that it will happen very soon and we will be meeting with them as much as possible this week.

Jalisa is another investigator who we are really making progress with. I don't remember if I told you much about her, but she's been studying a lot of religions lately. She's been everything from a Buddhist to a Muslim to a Christian, and now she is studying with us! We're really working the Book of Mormon with her. This week, we read Alma 7 and we stressed the connection between the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, to Joseph Smith being a true prophet, to the Word of Wisdom being a true commandment. She struggles with smoking marijuana, and she told us that she's not ready to be a member of our church yet, but she'll be baptized soon. She's going to church every week. Yesterday, this ward had their primary program, and she absolutely LOVED it. The way the children taught the basic gospel truths so simply really helped her I think. She is also getting a lot of member support. We taught the Gospel principles class yesterday on a last minute notice, and the members of the ward helped her a lot.

Atascadero has sooooooo many hills. My pants are starting to get really tight because my legs are getting huge! Hahah it's a blessing and a curse....

Well, that's about all I have to report this week. The Church is true, the book is blue, and Moroni's on the ball. :)

Elder Harper

Huge Tarantula

Ripped his pants while getting onto his bike

A-Town!

Date: September 17, 2013
Area: Atascadero
Companion: Elder Canzona

Hello my dear family and friends!

Here I am in Atascadero, everything's going great!  After transfer
meeting we all got in the car and it was about a 2 hour drive from the
Ventura stake center.  The area is pretty nice, a little cooler than
Simi Valley from what I've seen, and there's some really nice people
that live here.  The ward in which we cover is HUGE!  It's about an
hour's drive from one end to the other.

Elder Canzona is my new companion.  He's a lot different from Elder
Hall, and it's going pretty good.  The apartment I moved into is a LOT
bigger, which is nice.  He's from Boulder, Montana, really shy, and he
has a great heart.  He shows genuine love for our investigators.  I've
attached a picture of him.

Speaking of investigators, there are 2 investigators that are on
track with a baptismal date.  Week 1 of every transfer is a little
hectic; we haven't had much time to meet with them.  We are going to see
an investigator of ours tonight, David.  He's in his early 20s and he's
agnostic.  He wanted to meet with us tonight solely to answer his
questions, which I am very excited about.  It is very easy to lead any
question into a gospel principle.

There's a member from our ward that's a barber, and he always
plays Jehova's Witness whenever he meets a new elder.  Luckily, another
elder that was in Simi told me about him so he didn't get me!  He and
his wife are so politically red it's unbelievable.  We were in the
barber shot one day and they gave me a pocket Constitution.  She said,
"Study this every day, and when you get home, you'll be Constitutional
missionaries!"  Oh they're funny... :)

Ever since I've been in Atascadero, I've felt a new wave of
confidence spread over me.  When I was with Elder Hall, I sort of felt
like I couldn't be to my fullest potential because, he being the
trainer, felt like he had to take the lead more and stuff like that.
 Now that I am no longer with a trainer, I feel like we're more on an
equal level, and I've been powerful and bold in my lessons and
declarations.  It's cool to be with a companion that's only a couple of
transfers older than you, because you're more on an equal level.

I have an experience that I would like to tell y'all about.  On Saturday,
we went to see one of our investigators with a baptismal date, but she
wasn't home.  As we were going down the stairs, a little chihuahua
jumped up on a patio flower garden and started barking at us.  It caught
us a little off guard, but we went over, let it smell our hands, and
pet it.  A lady there was outside smoking a cigarette, and we talked
with her a little bit about her dog and got to know her a little.  I
asked her, "Out of all the times you've seen the missionaries go
upstairs to your neighbor, and all the other times you've seen
missionaries, what is it that you think we do?"  She thought a little
bit about the question and she said that she thought we went around and
talked with people about Jesus Christ.  We enthusiastically responded
that that was exactly what we did!  We talked with her a little more and
the subject of baptism came up.  She said that she had been baptized
twice, and she nailed the definition of what baptism was!  She said that
she was raised a Presbyterian, but hadn't been to church in years.  I
asked her another question.  I said, "In those years when you attended
church, how did you feel knowing you had Jesus Christ to turn to?"  She
then told us a personal story of how she had leukemia and the doctors
said she wouldn't live, but miraculously her fever broke and she
survived, and now she runs an agency that helps Afghanistan veterans.
 By this point, she was very emotional, and we told her that we felt the
Holy Ghost speak to us as we heard her story.  We found out that she
doesn't have a Bible, and so we offered to give one to her.  She gave us
her contact info and we are going to stop by soon!  It's amazing how
the Lord works.  Who would have thought that a little chihuahua would've
started all this??  Like I said before, the confidence that I have been
blessed with to teach with power and authority has been wonderful.  I
feel like I am becoming the missionary God wants me to be more and more.

And there's my spiritual thought for the day. :)

I love you all.  "Always be willing to give an answer for the hope
that is in you."  Recognize how the Lord uses you, and take note of it.
 It's such a blessing.

Elder Harper

Elder Harper and the sister missionaries

Elder Harpers cousin Kevin's best friend Elder Bostrom

Elder Harper and Elder Canzona

Elder Harper and Doug

Good-bye Elder Hall!