Confusion
My companion Elder Hulterstrom and I white washed into the area, and it's been pretty difficult in the beginning to figure out who's who and how we can help our friends. For example, Eduardo Simon is someone who was baptized the week before we got there on a Saturday, but never showed up on Sunday to be confirmed. We have been trying really hard to figure out what's going on and how we can help him, but he just refuses to come to church for some reason. There are a lot of other friends who are coming to church every week and going to activities, and are friends with members, but just won't get baptized. We are trying to figure out who's a member and who's not at church every week, lol. We are starting to get it down pretty well, but there's a ton of work to do here so we are going crazy
Miracles
We've seen some amazing miracles in this area, so I'm going to rapid fire a couple off.
We are always trying to be out of the house in almost everything we do so we can be in contact with more people and always look for opportunities to talk to people. We went to a park to do some studies, and when we sat on this bench, this lady came up to us and asked if we were missionaries and we said yes of course. She sits on the ground right in front of us, and begins telling us how she has been going through something extremely difficult and was doubting her faith in God and she had been praying for a sign from God. That morning she offered a prayer and started her walk and instantly saw us. We talked to her about the love the lord has for her, and we called our relief society president (She's a beast), and they connected super well, and she ended up coming to church.
We went dot hoping (visits) to people who used to have been taught by past missionaries, we got to this apartment complex, and went to knock on this person's door, but for some reason, we knocked on the wrong door. We went to the correct door a ways away, and knocked, this guy opens up and he's on the phone. He said he literally just walked in the door, and invited us in. We chatted for a while and got to know him really well and he remembered the older missionaries. We invited him to come to church and he was super down. He pulled up and got SUPER connected with the members and it was amazing!!
I've been sending out invites to all of our Grey dots (past taught people) and inviting them to the choir concert, and I sent an invite to someone named Duan. He reached back out saying he was interested. We told him he can get his tickets at the chapel on Sunday at church. He came and all the members ate him up. Apparently he's been to church a ton and hasn't been for a long time but the members remembered him. We had a break the fast after church (it was yesterday), and he was standing in the hall. We asked if he's gonna eat and he said that he wanted to see the bishop, we asked why and he said he wanted to get baptized. We said aight bet let's meet tn, and we put him on date for this Saturday!!!
That's just a few of the many experiences I've had recently.
Key West
Last week I ended up going back down to the keys, our zone had what's called an R&R (Return & Report), where the whole zone meets together and goes on exchanges with a specific focus for that day, setting high goals with our new companion. I ended up going down into Key West, I got to stop by and say hi to Danger and his family which was soooo fun!!! I was with Elder Call who is a Creole missionary. Key West is a Zebra area, where there is one Spanish and one Creole missionary so they can teach anyone and everyone in the small islands. Anyway we had the goal of handing out 200 invites to the tabernacle choir concert. And let me tell you, we went CRAZYYY!!!!! We walked everywhere that day talking to every single Haitian on the island lol. We also had an English class of around 30 people which was wild. We invited them to come to the concert and they all said that they wanted tickets! We told them to clear their schedule for the next class and we will reserve them all tickets!!! Me and Elder call ended up inviting over 250 people, it was insane full of miracles!! Then in the afternoon Elder Call looked at his phone and he had a missed call from President Cluff (our Mission President). We called him back and he told us that we needed to evacuate because a tropical storm was going to hit the following day and we had to drive all the way up to the mainland that night. So we went home and prepped the house, then drove until midnight when we reached the mainland it was a super amazing experience and so fun to see old friends.
Update on Duan
So I started writing this email last week, and I'm finishing it today, lol We ended up meeting with Dwayne almost every single day before his baptism, and he learned so fast and kept all of the invites we gave him. We invited him to an FHE with the Bishop and his family, to celebrate his birthday! He absolutely loved it and we had a little party for him. He ended up getting baptized and confirmed last Sunday, and getting interviewed to receive the priesthood and go to the temple here pretty soon so we are hyped!! We ended up giving him the Book of Mormon my Mom sent us, and he didn't have words to express how grateful he was! He's such a sweet guy and has such a nice spirit with him.
We have been having quite a lot of success with a couple friends recently, they have been coming to church and keeping commitments! I'll send you an update on them next week if anything big happens. We also have transfers this week lol sorry for the super late email
Choir Tickets
I know I've been talking so much about the Tabernacle Choir recently, but it has been such a big Focus for a mission and everyone is working so hard to get friends to go. This last weekend was the last few days to use the codes we have as missionaries to invite people to reserve the tickets. The mission as a whole in the beginning of last week had a grand total of about 300 people reserved. And this last weekend everyone went crazy, we were working extremely hard to find more people and get them reserved. In the past few days, the mission's number of confirmed tickets skyrocketed to over 3,000!!! We have been running out of tickets, then given more, then run out again lol.
Just some other side things that happened, we had another temple trip which was fun to be able to see everyone again. We have been able to get in contact, pass by, and teach several part members and active families! We are working really hard on them to reactivate and help unite their family. A member who we went by and gave a blessing to named Christiam has been coming to church every single week and has been very involved in the Relief Society. She has been inactive for most of her life, and to see her come back has been amazing!!!! The Lord has been helping you so much as we work harder and harder and relying more and more upon him.
Spiritual Thought
This is a scripture that I've heard a lot throughout my mission. It came to my line recently as I was writing this email. I have come to absolutely love the atonement of Jesus Christ. It has blessed me everyday of my mission, it has helped me learn and grow and become more like Him. Here's the scripture
Alma 13:27
27 And now, my brethren, I wish from the inmost part of my heart, yea, with great anxiety even unto pain, that ye would hearken unto my words, and cast off your sins, and not procrastinate the day of your repentance;
The scripture is so true, I feel the exact same. I want to help everyone around me feel the same joy and happiness that I have felt when I cast off my sins and transgressions, and started repenting daily. It has been so fulfilling and such a spiritual experience as I reevaluate and set new goals for myself. I love how much the mission has taught me to lean on the Lord and to rely on him and all that I do. I would invite you all to act now into begin bettering yourselves and to become more like Jesus Christ. Everyday is a decision, we need to decide to follow Christ everyday. I love you all, and pray for you daily
Have an amazing week,
Elder Harbs
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