FELIZ NAVIDAD

¡Hola! i hope everyone had a great Christmas this week and are gearing up for a great new year. This week has been a great one here in the mission. We had a great Christmas! We spent Christmas Eve with familia Gonzales it was a nice very homely feeling it was great. Also, Christmas day I got to skype home which was great. Other than that its really been a normal good working week.

Things are harder now around the holiday times cause everyone is coming and going often. For an update on our investigators, first and for most, is that Jacob is going to be baptized on the 4th of January and I am so excited. I have seen the hand of the lord for him getting him to this point where he is ready to go. Through all his problems, in his job, and the problems with his uncle, nothing has damaged his faith or made him doubt. He has fought through all of it with faith in our savior. Just recently he was thrown out of his house by his uncle because of his meeting with us. Now he is with his cousin. He is living in another part of the city but he still makes the now almost 1 hour trip to come meet with us and to go to church. Nothing can damage his faith it only builds it. 

Andreas and Magerita are doing good to their progress has been slower cause we are still waiting on an answer about the marriage problem but something really cool that happened lately. Andreas has a niece that comes and visits him a lot.  2 Sundays ago she was there and Magerita brought her to church. Her name is Elizabeth and she is 12 years old. After church, 2 weeks ago, we had a noche de hogar and she asked for a Book of Mormon- so we gave her one. We found out yesterday that in 2 weeks, she read the whole thing. ALL OF IT. And when they talked about it in Young Women’s, she acted as if it was the most normal thing in the world. It was embarrassing for the other girls when she asked if they had read it too. Not only that but when they talked about mutual she asked if she could bring friends and now she is going to try and bring all her friends to mutual. She is really a gold child.  Sadly, she lives in a different area then us.  We are going to try and get missionaries sent over to her house. 

Carlos is doing good. He came to church this week but really seems to have lost alot of his intrest in the gospel. He is still meeting with us. We are trying to get him more involved with the members, but things with him right now are slow.

I don’t know much what else to say this week. Things are good. Its super hot. Super hot. I’m looking forward to winter for sure. I hope everyone has a great week and a great navidad.

-Elder Harrison

CHRISTMAS WEEK

!FELIZ NAVIDAD¡ this week was such a great week so great to start off we had a mission activity for Christmas on Friday the whole day we were down in san bernardo we played sports had lunch did a gift exchange and everything it was awesome and then we watched a classic Christmas movie can you guess which one? yep that’s right remember the titans :) ya it’s a classic Christmas movie. After the movie we had a Christmas dinner and then a devotional. it was a great day I got to see and spend the day with some of the missionaries in my district from the CCM. we all may be far from home but that’s almost the best part is that we all are far away so we all know the feeling and really felt like a family Christmas a mission family Christmas. 

then also this week I took a big step out of my comfort zone. so here in Santiago there is a subway system that runs though all the city well my zone this week decided to go down and sing in the subway. as much as I love singing in public. well we went down and I thought that we were going to be singing out in front of the entry way but no we went down got on the train dawned our Christmas hats when the doors sealed and starting singing. it was really awesome at first it was nerve racking  but the people loved it there where many people recording it and when we got of the people gave an applause. one person even started asking about who we where and why we were singing in the subway it was awesome. below is a picture of my zone when we finished. 

Also for an update of our investigators first and foremost is Jacob for Haiti. he is doing so well he was blessed this week to have a change in his job so now he is free Saturdays and Sundays he only works in the night so he can attend church which is so awesome. its and answer to our prayers cause it was getting really hard to meet with him. he now has a for sure date of the 4 of January. he is such a great guy and he is so excited for his baptism. during our last meeting with him we just finished teaching the word of wisdom when he says he needs to talk to us about his baptism and my first thought was that he was going to cancel or something but he looks at us and cracks a smile and says when we do my baptism can I have hot water? we all laughed and promised him hot water it was great.

our other really good one is Magerita who right now is progressing well the only problem is that she is living with Andres and they are not married. this week we talked a lot about marriage and invited them to pray about marriage to which they agreed. I can tell that she wants to get married but Andres (her partner) is not so into it he is really on the fence about it and could go either way really. We are hoping with the help of prayer he goes to the marriage side. 

okay one last this that just barley happened not two hours ago so me and 5  other missionaries decided today we wanted to but a farthen of ties which basically is a big bag of ties How big???? well about 100 pounds!!!! that’s how big easily 2000+ ties. IT WAS AMAZING fantastic we brought it back to the church though the subway ( not an easy task) but we did and opened it up and started sorting though just taking turns of five seconds to find five ties. it was like kids in a candy shop we were so happy. There where a lot of really ugly ties but I think I came out with anywhere form 200-300 ties and how much did it cost 40 bucks which with 5 elders is only 8 dollars a person and we all came out with 200 or so ties it was amazing. below is a pic of me holding that huge 100 pound bag of ties down in the sub way and elder Bishoff sitting on it and then finally my portion which is about 3 grocery bags stuffed to over flowing I had so many.

this week truly was a great one I hope you all have a merry Christmas and can feel the love of the savior in this special season. I feel it here its different being a missionary on Christmas much more focused on the savior then the gifts it’s so awesome. 

-Elder Harrison

BIG WEEK

It was a great week here and sounds like a pretty crazy one back at home too. My mail was flooded this week. If I didn’t get to your email this week, sorry, I will try to get to it the next week. 

So, this week was great here, too. For starts, this week I tried leading the sector.  Which meant I had the phone. I made the calls citas (appointments) all that fun stuff. It was a great experience for sure. Learning to understand Spanish over the phone, is hard for sure. Over all though it was not bad. Me and my comp work pretty evenly, so even with me ´´leading´´ the sector it was a lot the same. Just a little easier to not have to ask to call someone. 

Our investigators are kind of split. Some are doing great and some not so well. First off, we got to meet with Jacob this week. We have been out of contact with him for a while and it was so great to see him. He told us that he really wants a new job so that he can come to church again on Sundays. Also he told us about how he had to stand up and defend his delfies with his uncle. His uncle came to him one day and started telling him how we are not his brothers and how we (me and my comp) are crazy and Jacob defended us saying that we where brothers in Christ and in the church(so true). Then when his uncle tried to tell him that he is crazy and that Christ died and doesn´t live, he stood up for what he believes and told him that Christ does live. We were not there for any of this, he told us about it later. I was so surprised at his testimony and his firmness. He never ceases to surprise me with his testimony. After that we talked to him about the word of wisdom. He had a bit of a problem understanding why no coffee and tea, but we told him to pray and ask for a confirmation. Which I know he will do. Honestly, the only thing that is holding Jacob back is his work. And me and my comp are really praying he can find a new job.

Margarita and Andréa’s are doing really good. They have been receiving all kinds of strength and support from the ward. It’s amazing. The ward is falling in love with them and everyone wants to have family home evenings or do activities with them. More than anything else I know the love that the ward is showing, is going to be what carries them thought this conversion process.

For Carlos things have been rough. He couldn’t make it to church this Sunday and then our appointment with him fell as well. He had a baptism planned for this Saturday but now it looks like we are going to have to wait and let him devolpe more of a testimony of the church. What we really need is to get him infused in this ward. That’s what we are going to try and do. 

Wow like I said it was such a good week this week and a crazy day for emails. I wish you all the best and that you all have a very merry Christmas 

-Elder Harrison

ITS A GOOD DAY TO BE A MISSIONARY

¡Hola! This week was such a great week. I’m now in the second half of my training (one more chance to go) and it is so awesome. We got a new wave of missionaries into the mission and I think 4 or 5 of the new missionaries came to our zone. I feel so much older with the new one here but it’s weird to think that just 6 weeks ago I was in that same position. This week was so great for me and my comp. So lately we have been struggling with planning it just didn’t feel like we were doing it right, then one night it just clicked and it was amazing and we have been planning like that ever since. It amazing to see the blessings of the lord like that. During the week was pretty normal. We had some days, we just had nothing. Things were so slow and all our appointments just feel though. And other days where we have more appointments then we can hit. It’s so amazing to see the people respond to missionary work here.

Okay the thing though that I really want to talk about is Sunday cause it was just fantastic. Amazing. Remember last Sunday? Ya this one was better. So to start it was fairly normal we went and picked up Margarita and walked with her to the chapel. Then after that with the help of some members, we split up and went to go get Carlos (investigator) and Adda (less active).  I went to get Adda and she was good and ready to go. We got back and Carlos sadly couldn’t come. So we go in and sit down with Hermana Adda and Magerita. 15 or so minutes before the meeting starts, in walks none other than Hermana Silvia, and Manuel. I don’t know if I have talked about them very much, but they are an older couple that we have been working with for awhile. We had been praying this week that they could sleep better and have the energy to come to church. We talked to them about getting a ride with a member but they didn’t seem to in to it. But in they come.  They walked all the way from their house. When she came in she said to me ´´ you have been praying haven’t you´´ normally they couldn’t do that walk because of the heat but this morning in was overcast and cool. I know that heavenly father was listening to our prayers and their prayers too. Then the ward was so nice and so kind to the all four everyone greeted them so warmly. We went through the rest church normal ( well mostly normal our teacher for Sunday school didn’t show up so I taught the lesson) and then after went on a day like normal. 

Then about 8:00 things really got awesome. So we had planned a family home evening with Andres and Margarita (actually was their idea we just helped plan it). We were really counting on Hermano Altembrano (excuse the spelling) and his wife to come- they have been building a great relationship with Andres and Magerita. But, we pass by his house and sadly he is not there. A bit down by this, we head to Andres’ and to our great surprise there is Hermano Altembrano and his wife. We then proceed to have an amazing family home evening and a lot of fun a lot of laughs it was great. 

Then the cherry on top was the Christmas devotional that night.We went as a group after the family home evening and the spirit was so strong. The music as so inspiring. I could see it affect Adreas and Magerita I just can’t wait to see them start progressing and finding the happiness of the gospel.

As for Jacob things were hard this week with his job. Chileans are the only people who literally work all the time every day its crazy. His new job is like this. We have a member in the ward who might be able to set Jacob up with another job, but that will have to wait and see. 

This week is so good the Christmas spirit is starting to show. Embrace the Christmas time and never lose sight of the purpose of it.

Feliz Navidad

Elder Harrison

ONE GREAT SUNDAY

¡hola! This week was great hard but great and it ended super great too. To start it was fairly normal we made good progress with our investigators. We found out for sure this week that our investigator Andres was baptized a long time ago but his girlfriend is not and the last couple lesson she has been participating more and more. They both have a great desire to learn and they are starting to see what blessings this gospel can bring. Saturday was a big day we had a lesson with Jacob that day and he told us that he has been sick for a while and has been having a problem with his job but he was offered another job that is better in pay and the work is better but the problem is that it requires him to work every Sunday and this Sunday especially if he did go to work on Sunday he would lose the job. so we talked to him about faith and the guidance of the lord and promised him that if he prayed and did what the spirit told him the lord would provide what he lacked. he left that night with a firm determination to do just that. 

Well Sunday came and Carlos called and said he couldn´t come to church today. Then we went by Andres’ house to get Margarita and she told us she would just meet us there. So we head to church and wait but no one comes then the meeting starts and goes like normal. Once it ended I stood up and looked around and in the very back was Margarita waving to me. She had snuck in without me and my comp knowing, and not only that, but she brought Andres’ 12 year old niece too. it was awesome they both stayed the whole time and loved every second of it.

Then to top it all off after Sunday school I walked out of class to find none other than Jacob standing in the hall. Never in my life had I been so happy to see someone at church. he told us that he prayed and felt that he should go to work he did and instantly asked if he could get Sundays of. his boss said no but gave him permission to have this Sunday off. What faith what determination he has because after we had a lesson with him and he said that he knows god can provide a way for him to come to church every Sunday and I know it to I know the lord will provide a way for him. What faith to act like he does.

Then if that wasn´t enough that night we had a family home evening in the home of famlia altembra( ignore the spelling its hard) who are both returned missionaries. We invited Andres, Margarita and they bought Elisabeth. The family taught and bore powerful testimony about the book of Mormon and the spirit was so strong. Even little Elisabeth after that wanted a book of Mormon and we gave her one. THEN it still got better so after the lesson Andres’ starting asking the couple about there marriage about eternal families and things like how they knew it was right. This is big because Andres and Margarita are living together but not married, but there was something there that night something special. I think there is a desire there, he wants an eternal family.

Over all it was just such a great Sunday super awesome I felt the spirit so strong. I know for sure that we have a heavenly father who loves each and every one of us and is setting up the path for us to return to live with him. 

I hope you all have a great week}

con mucho amor

Elder Harrison