Lessons On Lessons On Lessons

Yo how's it going everyone we had another great two weeks here and I'm so excited to tell you all about it!!

Lots of Lessons!!

Okay so so far while I've been here, something that I've noticed is that we rotate through people very quickly here. We get a ton of referrals, and we're always constantly calling all the time all day every second that we get. And so we have been getting like 5 million lessons in every week and it has been such a blessing to see people progress, and to also put faith in the Lord in dropping people that may be too busy. We have had some amazing first contacts, we are trying really hard to focus on promised blessings in the name of Jesus Christ, and it really seems to be making a massive difference with the people that we contact, and the desire that they have to keep meeting with us and to keep the invitations we give them. This last Sunday we had a few great friends at church. And so we are super happy with that, and super excited to help them progress!!!

An example of a first Contact that was really amazing was when there was a referral that came in that wanted to hear a message about christ. We talked to him and got to know him and asked some good questions, and you opened up about situations in his life and how he wants to change. We instantly felt like introducing baptism, and so we brought up baptism in the importance of it, and how it is a way for us to change our lives and to start a life full of blessings and the path of God. He really loved the idea and was all for it, and we put him on date for May 25th. It was a super powerful and Spirit-filled conversation, even though it was through the phone. Fast forward to a couple days later, we found out that he actually lives in the sisters area, so we really sadly had to pass him off to them. But we are excited to see him at church and to become good friends with him.

Fabian

We have a friend named Fabian that was a referral a couple weeks ago that ended up coming to church right off the bat. He's from Columbia so I instantly connected with him LOL. It's pretty hard to meet with him throughout the week, because he is super busy with work (like every person here in Hialeah😅) however this lesson he came to church again, but had to leave before the second hour sadly. He really loved it and we are going to try to get him to come to this week with the members. We are super excited for him, he really loves coming to church, feeling the spirit and partaking of the sacrament

Bashers

This is the first time in my entire mission that I'm running into a lot of bashers. There are actual Latins here that are really dedicated to a religion. For the most part they say that they are catholic, but they don't go to church or know the doctrine, they have just been baptized when they were a kid for example. However me and my companion have done some deep diving into gospel topics, and so it's really interesting to have conversations with people that have deep questions for us. Even though sometimes it may be difficult, as they come off kind of rude or attacking. And so at that point we just better testimony and leave a book of Mormon with them if they accept it

Ward

We've been trying super hard recently to focus on members, and connecting with them to engage them more in the work. It has been super great, because we have had lots of family home evenings, and lots of dinners, there were a couple problems with some past missionaries in this Ward. So we are trying to mend relationships and build trust with them again, which is proving a little difficult LOL. We're just going to continue to love and serve the amazing people that we have in this Ward!!

You might see a lot of weird pictures / selfies in this email, because in this Zone we take a morning picture with our companion to show the zone that we are up and awake. And also when we leave the house at 10:00 a.m., because that is a goal that we have as a mission to leave right after personal study to be in contact with more people. It's pretty fun to do and to see the funny pictures of other missionaries.

Spiritual thought

Sorry for the short email, I don't have a lot of time. But I wanted to share a Short scripture with all of you!!

Mosiah 3:20

20 And moreover, I say unto you, that the time shall come when the knowledge of a Savior shall spread throughout every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.

Just a friendly reminder to all of you out there, that it is our responsibility and privilege to spread the knowledge of the savior, as well as the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to all those around us. It is the most important work and priority we should have. Bringing others into Christ not only helps others to be United with their families for eternity, but also strengthens our testimony and the savior of Jesus Christ. We learn, grow and become more like him, so let's help others do the same!!!

1. Tracting

2. Cheap Bread!

3. District Lunch

4-5. Bikes

6. Gender Reveal with my Sis & Bryt

7. Kena & Bryt, ITS A GIRL

6 Months Left

A good amount of stuff has gone down and so hyped to get into this.

Kenia

Kenia, Danger's Mom, has been progressing incredibly well. Me and Elder Ball went over there and we were talking with her and she talked about how she had starting reading the Book of Mormon out of the blue!! We were so surprised and she told us she had read the first 5 chapters of Nephi!!! We hyped her up so much and she talked about it for a while. She mentioned that she has a surgery coming up for these migraines and something with her eye that has been causing them which is pretty wild. She told us how she has been super stressed about it and with her kids with it coming up. So right then and there we talked about priesthood blessings and gave her a blessing of comfort. Danger and Patricia were there and were a little distracted but It went great!!

A couple days later we talked with her about the Book of Mormon and she again said that she had been reading and is at chapter 12 and we were basically freaking out because this came out of nowhere. We talked about baptism with her and she said that she truly believes the church is true and she would like to be baptized. But she wants there to be a Spanish group or something because she would basically be the only Latin attending church. Which is a valid concern. So we are trying to work a lot more with her to help her progress. She also said that the blessing we gave her really helped a ton so that was a great little miracle for her and I.

Danger

We just kept meeting with Danger and playing basketball, throwing the football sometimes, and teaching him. He was able to get the priesthood and he passed the sacrament. Something that's super nice is that we can use him as MPLs (member participating lessons) now which is super helpful. We do calls with him and have him share Scriptures and testimonies which helps our friends a lot. He also speaks English and Spanish which is super lit.

Lewis Family

We have been working with a semi-inactive family a lot. The dad, Cory, is the Second Counselor but his job is storm chasing or taking people out on fishing trips which is cool N all, but that means he isn't here a lot and doesn't come to church, and so neither does his family. But we have been working with them and both of his sons and they got the priesthood the other week and they passed the sacrament for the first time with Danger as well. Amazing things are happening in Marathon!!!

Jeikel

We met Jeikel outside of his apartment and got to know him a bit. He is a grade above danger and knows him!! We talked about his baptism and he said he wants to be baptized too!! So we have been working with him tons, he is super chill and has literally zero experience with religion, which is nice because we can teach him the correct stuff, but it takes a lot longer because he has no prior knowledge of anything like that. But we talked with him the other week and we brought up baptism again and we put him on date for May 5th which we are super excited for!!! We got to meet him mom and his younger sister who is super funny. We don't see any problems that can arise with him because he's just a super chill and down to earth kinda guy. 

Katelyn

We got this referral a little bit ago about Katelyn wanting to meet up and have a Bible study which we love. We met up with her at the Marathon Park and she brought her little boy. She is super awesome and super religious. We talked about life and got to know her and we talked about the gospel of Jesus christ which she absolutely ate up. She invited us to a Bible study that she attends every Wednesday, and so we told her that we would go!! We pulled up there that Wednesday and it was a great experience. The pastor came straight up to us and talked about how here, there's no right or wrong answers, as if we were going to bash or something lol. But we sat with Katelyn and the pastor and read a chapter and talked about it and it went great!! Everyone shared good questions and insights which was cool. Katelyn really appreciated us going and we set a time to meet again!!

Senior Missionaries

We have been working a ton with the senior missionaries here. The streams are the most amazing people and help us tons!! They do so much for the branch and for the community that just makes our job so much easier!! So just a shout out to them :)

Transfers.......... :(

So after all those updates, last week we had transfers...... And well, both Elder Ball and I are being transferred out, which we were so surprised about. We literally both thought we were going to stay, but hey, if it's what the Lord needs then it's what the Lord needs. So last Friday we spent all day saying goodbye to the amazing members and friends we have made. It was super sad, but they understood and were excited for us!! Elder Harrison is going there so iykyk. We got shirts from Cece, who teaches 1st grade in key west, she's a super awesome member in marathon. She got us shirts to wear so we took a picture with them and she signed it!! Brother Goll made us a bird holding a fish made out of leaves and it's the coolest thing ever!! We got lunch with members and I talked with Brother Conover, who is a member here on assignment from the police department. We always had battle in pickleball and I told him I'm coming back to put him in his place again >:)

So now I'm  currently in Hialeah South, which is basically Miami. There is a 95% Latin to non Latin percentage here which is so sick. My Spanish is already improving so much just from being here for a few days. It's gotten kinda rusty being in Marathon but I'm hyped to improve it. I'm now with Elder Smith, and it's going good so far. We are grinding super hard. We have someone on date that we taught a super FIRE lesson over the phone!! He's in Kentucky for the moment because of work but he's super committed and wants to go to church and to continue to progress. So we just picked up the ball on him and gonna run with it. I got to introduce myself yesterday in sacrament and meet a ton of amazing members!! I'm super excited to work with them. I'm also in a Sistrict... It's me and my comp, with a trio of sisters and another companionship of sisters, and they are all from different places and almost all are Latin so we are speaking a ton of Spanish amongst each other so that's super lit.

We have been doing a lot of cleaning of records while trying to find teach and baptize. Cuz there is over 600 records in this ward and about 80 attend church. So we have a big task ahead of us that we are working hard on as well. 

It's going good here and I'm excited for the future. Also I have 6 months left and all the Sisters I came in with just left so that kinda hit me, lol. But it's okay, the work never stops

Ya boy Elder Harbs