December 12, 2016 The Lord works in his own time

Bonjour tout le Monde! What an amazing week. But like the subject of this email, the lord works in his own time! As you may have known, i have had Malaria, and with prayers, and even more prayers, i woke up thursday morning feeling so much better! And am happy to say that i am no longer sick! Thank you everyone for the prayers and support.

Ever since i got better, i have eaten so much! Seriously i dont think that i have ever eaten this much in my whole life! But as much as i have eaten, i lost a lot of weight too! Just over 10 pounds actually.. so there goes the little muscle that i had!

This week was also pretty strange because of the power.. Last monday at about 3 am the power in the whole city got shut off. And it didnt come back on until saturday afternoon!! I wish no light was the worst part, but the worst part is no fans! Sleeping is impossible, so we slept on our balcony for 5 straight nights! Also no power, means no fridge.. Which means all food ruined. But theres actually a lot of good things with the power being out! The best thing is the stars are unreal beautiful! I get to sleep outside, and look at billions of beautiful stars with no light poloution, so that might be worth it!

Last small thing; Last week we found a random rooster on our balcony.. hes huge! And he was my new alarm clock. We actually became pretty good friends too. I mean, i never touched him, or got close to him cause i didnt want to get even more sick. But i considered him a friend i guess! Saturday rolled around, and i didnt hear him.. so i went out to go check on him but by the time i got there, it was too late.. The African Elders had Killed and Skinned him.. R.I.P. Chuck the chicken.

Well, now for the best part of a mission. We have been working really hard on 2 people. Brother Jacque, and Sister Martine! And BOTH of them were able the enter the waters of baptism this week!! They were so great, and after, both of them gave amazing testimonies that i couldnt help but cry through.I was also able to baptise a little girl named Gracie. She is a friend of ours, and her parents let her get baptized!

I am so grateful for the people that the lord has put in my life. Here, and at home. If you are reading this, you have made an impact on my life, and i love you. I am so thankful for my amazing investigators here. The only sad thing about baptizing someone is i wont be able to teach them as much now! But they will always be my best friends.

I love you all, thank you for the prayers and support. The Lord and i love you so much.

Elder Harris

P.S. Congrats to Tosh for getting accpeted to go to Thailand!! Youre going to do amazing kiddo (;

December 5, 2016 Malaria. Part 2

Honestly not much happened this week. If you didnt know yet, last week i got Malaria, and i have had it for about 13 days now.. Ive been talking to my presidents wife a lot, taking new medicine. She told gave it to me last wednesday, and said it would take about a week to actually heal, so hopefully i can get back up on my feet this week!

Being sick on a mission is hard for a few reasons. Yeah fevers and throwing up is hard, but its very mentally hard also.. Sitting in bed, not being able to work a lot, is very hard. But i am doing the best i can, and not letting satan getting to me!

The other thing that happened this week, is there was an emergency transfer in our district. I wont say his name, But an elder in our district had to be let go off of the mission.. And he will be greatly missed because he was a very close friend to me, and i hope the best in life for him!

Okay, now to the stuff that actually matters.

Even though it wasnt much, we got to teach a little this week! Jacque is doing amazing. He Loves the gospel so much, and learns it faster than we can teach it! Hes loving the book of mormon, and has a million questions about it: His Baptism date is for this saturday, so i pray that everything works out well! 

Im sorry my email is so short this week! Kind of a really slow week for us.. But there was a few funny things that happened! 3 different times this week, i got calls from American Elders in the mission asking me to cut theyre hair! I had never even met 2 of them! And one of them lives almost an hour away! So, i dont know why everyone wants me to cut theyre hair all of the sudden, but i guess im the new Missionary barber!

The last funny thing this week, is i was laying in bed and there was a really loud chicken outside. Like really loud! So i went to go shut my window, and some how this huge Rooster got onto our balcony! We live in an apartment, on the 3rd story, about 35 feet off of the ground. How in the worlds did this huge rooster get there! Well nobody knows. But we named his Chuck, and we decided to keep him! One of the African Elders is planning on killing him and eating him, but i am not sure if i want to eat chuck..

I would like to share just a very small testimony really quick. I read this week in 3 Nephi and in chapter 19 verse 28 it talks about Jesus praying for the people. And i love that so much because that is proof that the Living Christ prays for us! He knows you, and he prays for you. By name. He only wants the best for you!

I love you all. Thank you for the support and prayers, i couldnt do this without you.

Elder Harris

November 28, 2016 Lots of ups, and little downs

Well, this week had a lot of good things, but some hard things too.. I will start out with the hard things first to get them over with. Tuesday night i couldnt sleep.. I had a high fever, so we went to the doctor the next day and sadly its Malaria.. i dont know how! i take medecine every single day to prevent it, and i even sleep under a net every night.. But, somehow i have it now! It basically means that im always cold; even when we walk around in the blazing heat, i feel freezing! I also have never sweat so much in my life.. i have head aches, thrown up a few times, and most of all i get really tired really fast.. But, it doesnt mean that i cant work! I just had to take things easy this week, and hopefully it can fade away this week..

One thing that has made these past few weeks is the missionaries that we live with..  I wish That the fact that they're dirty was the worst if it,  but it got serious this week..  The American Elder and my companion got into a yelling fight. The American Elder almost punched out my companion,  but luckily it was just yelling.  He said some very very rude things to my companion. Things I couldn't ever imagine a missionary saying!  But,  it is what it is.  Me and Elder Malala pray for them every morning and night,  so hopefully the lord can help them have the spirit in they're companionship..  Even though I disagree with most choices the other companionship makes,  I hope they Can learn to feel the spirit in theyre missions, and in theyre lives!

Okay! Even though w have had hardships, this week was so amazing! Me and my companion got invited to go to another church on friday night, so we went and it was so fun! We sang and danced, and yelled AMEN and HALLELUJAH at random times! I will never ever forget that experience!

This last week was also thanksgiving! So we left the sector just a little bit early so we could cook a huge dinner! We picked a bunch of chicken, and as we were walking to our house, our neighbor stopped us and asked why we had so much chicken! I went on to explain that it was a big day in america, and we wanted to eat a big dinner! He asked if he could come over to Celebrate with us and of course we said yes. But when he showed up, he had a 24 pack of some good ol Bud Lite.. We laughed, and began to explain that we dont drink alcohol, and while we cooked dinner, we taught him the Word of Wisdom! Now, him and his brother our now our newest investigators! They ended up leaving before dinner was even ready, so me and my companion ate way more than we should have that night! It was truly a night that i was grateful for everything i have..

Sunday was also a great day! We have been teaching this Mama in our area, andshe was ready for baptism! So after church on sunday i got the opportunity to do that! But we also had to do it 3 times... She was so scared to go all the way under the water! The first and second time i put her under the water, she flailed he body and we had to do it a third.. But its okay, i am so glad that it was finally done right!

This whole week me and my companion have been erally good at praying together as soon as we wake up, and right before we go to bed. We had some problems in the past, but we have been having so much fun working together! He has also been very good at Mothering me while i have been sick! Hes truly my best friend, and i hope we can work so hard for the last 4 weeks that we have together.

I just want to end off with a small testimony. I was able to give a talk on sunday about the book of mormon. i shared a quote that Elde Holland said "No wicked man could write such a book as this, and no good man would write it; unless it was true and he were comanded of God to do it"I hope everyone that reads this knows that i know with my whole heart that the Book of Mormon is true. I hope you do too.

Thank you all for the prayers. I couldnt do this without you! I love you all!

Elder Harris

November 21, 2016 Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! One really sad thing about Africa is i feel like they dont have holidays.. so we will just have to make the best of this thanksgiving! They do have christmas though, its very small, and not much happens but thats okay! Christmas in french is Noel, so thats kind of cool!

Not much happned this week.. On thursday it was pouring rain, but we had lessons, so we taught all day soaked! It was actually really fun, and felt soo good! But it gets super hot when it rains, becuase the clouds trap in all of the heat.. but no one could notice the sweat because i was already soaked! 

The one thing that is really hard for me here is the other missionaries.. They are just so crazy sometimes! But i like the people that i live with. I live with an elder from the Congo, and his companion is american! Theyre nice and i like them, but they re hard to live with sometimes.. i feel like i cant trust them most of the time. All of my food is stored in my closet becuase otherwise it gets stolen.. and we always have to lock our door when we leave just in case. its sad that i cant even trust missionaries sometimes.. But its okay! Maybe they just have a diferent dream of what a mission should be! Im learning to look past peoples differences, and accept them. Even though most of these missionaries arent even worthy to be here, im glad that they are here. I dont agree with a lot of the stuff they have done, and do every day here, but i am glad that they are out here serving! 

Teaching english is hard.. Im starting to realize how dumb english is! But its fun teaching the people, they want to learn so bad and i love it! 

The one really hard lesson to teach people here is tithing.. Because they are all so poor! We had a lesson with Jacque about tithing, and he had such a hard time understanding.. But we shared lots of scriptures, and both bore very strong testimonies, and the spirit testified to him that it was true! And by the end of the lesson; he was okay with tithing! Jacque is my favorite! I wish i could talk with him all day.. 

Even though tithing here is hard to teach, i love talking about it because it takes true faith to accept it. If you pay your 10 percent, whether its 1 dollar or 10,000 dollars, god will bless you the same! People here ask why.. why is tithing so important.. and i always ask them if they think god needs money! and obviously not, so why.. I think, that tithing is an obedience test. Heavenly father wants to know if you will give 10 percent for him! So if you dont know why we do things in the church, like drinking tea or coffee, or tattoos, or whatever it is, just be obedient. Do what the lord has commanded and he will bless you. I also love in Helaman 14 verses 29 and 30, it eplains that if we believ in christ, and love him we will be saved! Its all your choice 

If you really want to return back with Heavenly Father, then follow him! And if for some reason you dont, then you have no one else to blame but yourself. Choose to follow christ and you can have never ending happiness! Your salvation is in your hands. 

Im Thankful for you all this thanksgiving. Thank you all for the support, and love! 

Elder Harris 

1&2 This is Jacque, we are in front of his little store that he runs!

November 14, 2016 Finally, a calm week in Africa.

This week we didn't have anything crazy happen.  Finally!!  Just some good ol missionary work! This week actually was so much fun,  and we got so much done!  This week was also transfer week which is really stressful..  And being the new missionary,  I had a lot of people play jokes on me telling me I was being transferred!  But I'm very very grateful to say that I will be staying with Elder Ranjiamalala for another 6 weeks! He's a great companion.  Yes we have definitely had our hard times..  But,  we have gotten over that,  and have started to work very hard!  We have a lot of investigator right now too.  We had a very promising investor named Benoit,  but he just left on a trip for 3 weeks.. So we can keep up with him after that!  Our other very promising investigator,  is named Jacque! He is sooooo nice and so happy!!  I love teaching him because he has a million questions,  and is just overly happy when we answer them! In our lesson this week,  I recited the Joseph Smith first vision,  that I had memorized.  And he freaked out because he was so happy that I did that!  He is very very nice,  and very happy. Yet,  Jacque lives in his store that he runs..  It's about 12x12 feet.  With a bed,  desk,  and table where he fixes pants and sells them..  After seeing that,  it's very very hard for me to complain about not having power sometimes,  or having to walk a lot..  It gives me so much respect for the amazing people here in Benin. But I love Jacque!!  Hopefully we can Baptize him soon!  

So our apartment is pretty close to this huge lake,  and For P-day this week we walked down to this really cool place!  You can just get on a boat,  pay about 1 dollar and They will take you to the "villages on water"! But,  we didn't go. Yet!  We just looked at the boats,  and got some great pictures!  

This Sunday was very awesome!  I got the opportunity to baptize a kid named Michael!  Michael is the son of a member,  and just never got baptized.. He's 16 years old,  and we taught him a few times and he was ready!  So,  branch president gave us permission to baptize him on Sunday right after church.  Which was stressful for me,  because it was my first baptism of the mission,  first baptism I've ever performed in my life!  And there were probably 50 people surrounding the baptismal font outside.. But it went well!  He was very happy,  and so was I (: 

I really don't have too much to say this week other than the work is great, I love the people, it's still hot here,  and I Absolutely love the people!! But I did want to bare a short testimony. Mostly about repentance! My father was a very very smart man,  and this week I have really realized that..  He always told me that repentance isn't just a change of action,  but it's a change of heart!  And this week I was reading in Alma,  and in chapter 60, verse 23 it says "the inward vessel shall be cleansed first, and then shall the outer vessel be cleansed also". I think what he is trying to say is there Is absolutely no way that someone can repent of they're sins, if they don't have a change of heart!  You must change your heart. If you repent,  and don't have a change of heart,  then you didn't repent!  Repentance means change,  and you absolutely have to change your heart AND your actions.  

Repentance is hard sometimes,  but we are so blessed to have the opportunity to repent!  Without it,  we would never be able to get back with Heavenly Father. Whoever is reading this,  Jesus Christ died for you.  He knew that you would need the repentance process and he literally gave his life for you!  So change your heart,  and always strive to be better.. (: 

I love this church more than I can explain.  It brings me happiness beyond measure! 

Thank you for the love,  support, and prayers.  I love you all so so much.  

Elder Harris 

this is Elder Jensen and I at the boat Doc! 

The boat doc

a beautiful African sunset 

the baptism, and me because i am really happy!

November 7, 2016 Nothing works in africa

My favorite investigator named Benoit!!

This week had a lot of ups, and a lot of downs. You know that point in life,  when bad things just keep happening to you,  and you just laugh because things keep happening??  Well that was us this week.  Tuesday night I was cleaning the dishes,  and our of no where,  the whole faucet just falls off of the wall and water sprays everywhere! I put my hand infront of the spraying water,  and yell for Elder Malala! He came running in and got under the sink to shut off the water.  But by the time,  we were both soaked, and our kitchen was flooded..  So we just sat in the water and laughed for 5 minutes or so! After that we mopped up,  and cleaned everything off.  The worst part about this,  is we had no sink this week.  And that means no clean dishes,  and that means no filtered water!  So we drank from sinks for the most part.. We just asked Heavenly Father that we wouldn't get sick because of drinking that water!  On Saturday we finally someone to come and fix it for us. I've never been so grateful for a sink! 

Also this week,  I got my first terrible haircut of the mission!!  My companion said "I promise I'm good at cutting hair" so I let him..  10 minutes later,  I look like I'm in the Army..  It's so short!!

Everything is good here!  Me and my companion usually get along pretty well.  We work really hard in our area, and we have fun!  Every companionship has problems,  but I still love him! French is difficult,  but it's actually coming along! I still make lots of mistakes,  and have lots of words to learn. But I can understand most things,  and I usually respond to them!

Crazy story for the week: 

So Thursday night,  my companion and I were walking along the road.  And we were walking past this man who was fixing a car tire.  He somehow had got the car jacked up,  and he put all of the weight on just 2 bricks..  (isn't that just asking for trouble?)  he was sitting up right,  with his legs under the car,  and he was working on the car where the tire would be.  Well,  sure enough right as we walk by,  one of the bricks broke. Which made the other one break,  which made the whole car fall on this man's legs!  He starts yelling for help,  and so we run to help!  Well,  us,  and about 5 other people lifted this car up,  and the man got out!  He had very minor injuries.  Just some bruises,  and some sore legs! We tried talking to him, but he seemed pretty distraught,  so we let him be. 

I love that this experience happened for a few reasons.  I believe that the natural man is very very nice.  As soon as this man started yelling, lots of people came to help!  It just makes me love everyone here so much more,  because I know that if I were ever in need of help that they would come running to help me. 

Heavenly Father is there same way with his children.  Whenever you need help,  just yell for help!  All we have to do is ask,  and have faith that he will help.  I love Alma chapter 32! If you have the time,  please please read it!  It talks about faith a lot,  and I love the way that he words that chapter.

i love this gospel, and i cant wait to see what the next 22 months brings! Thank you all so much for the prayers and support!

Elder Harris

Our Broken Sink

October 31, 2016 Happy Halloween!

First of all,  I'm glad they don't have Halloween in Africa. It would be crazy here! Anyway,  what a hard,  and amazing week it was.  One of the hardest things is the power and water situation.. I'd say the power is out at least 15/24 hours every day!  And if it's our during the night its impossible to sleep! Usually when it goes out,  we just go sit on the roof. We take flash lights and make hand puppets on the side of a wall it's kinda fun!
It's hard when we have no water too..  That means we have a huge pile of dishes in our sink,  it means it's super hot and we have no water!  It means no showers after walking all day..  It's so hard!  Never ever in my life have I had this problem,  and it's rough..  But it's okay!  These people have done this all there lives,  and they are happy!  So,  I'll be happy too!

We were in a lesson this week,  and they had about 9 dogs.  Well,  in the middle of our lesson, all of the dogs just started howling! Literally out of nowhere!  It was like on Zootopia, with "the howl". It was pretty funny!

So I don't know if it's just Benin,  but here if you say hi to an lady who's over the age of 40, you call them Mama!  So there are a lot of of Mama's that live the missionaries around here! it's funny because they are so nice to us,  but it seems like they are so mean to they're kids..  A lot of Mama's here cut their toenails so they are sharp.  And they kick the kids when they do something bad!  It's kind of weird,  but it gets the kids to do what they want..  Haha! 

So they don't really have a garbage system here..  So they just throw it out in the streets,  or in huge piles all around the city!  Once the piles get big,  they just put it in a big pile in the road and burn it!  Well on Tuesday,  it was late and we had just finished our last lesson.  Well we walked past this huge fire in the road!  And as we walked past,  the wind had blown it,  and it caught this house on fire!  So me and my comp,  and the people who owned the house, and 2 other guys,  just got buckets of dirt, and threw it on the fire!  (there was no water..)  We did this for about 15 minutes until the fire had been smothered! There wasn't any serious damage to the house!  But the roof might need to be replaced a little bit.  And maybe one of the walls of the house.  But over all everything was okay and no one was hurt!  The family was very grateful,  and they are now our new investigators!  Haha hidden blessings maybe? I think maybe your house getting caught on fire is worth your salvation right?? 

But the work is great!  Me and my companion are working really well together!  We made up a language one on Thursday!  It's basically just gibberish,  plus some French,  and English.  It makes no sense.  But it's kinda fun! 

The work is hard but great!  Last week I mentioned that we had 8 baptisms. Well,  sadly we couldn't baptise any of them because there was NO WATER!!  So we pray that we can make that happen this week! 

Friday was an interesting day. We had a full day of lessons scheduled,  and every single one of them fell through..  

So,  we went Tracting.  All day.  And we were pretty sad because all of our plans fell through..  As we walked,  I said a prayer in my head,  pleading that we could find someone to help! Well,  the lord Delivered!  By the end of that day,  we had found 2 families,  and 4 other people!  12 new investigators! We couldn't believe how much the lord had blessed us with!  I prayed for one person,  and he let us help 12. I think this just goes to show how much the lord cares about his children! And if you just pray,  with a sincere heart,  with real intent,  then the lord will answer your prayers!!  (Moroni 10: 4-5)

I love you all so much! 

Elder Harris

PICS 

this an awesome mask i found for haloween!

This is Moe Moe the monkey!

(Side note from sister Syd-- we're trying to figure out a better way for Gavin to share his pictures with us. I'll be posting the pictures as soon as we can get it worked out!)