1st week in Milwaukee!!

FAMILIA!!!
  como estan? im proud to say i made it to milwaukee safely! loved all the pictures you sent me! jaxon is off...so awesome excited for him to see miracles every day! you saw my best pal elder seymour?? tristen stop growing...haha so good to see all my friends!
  IM HERE. so we got to milwaukee they drove us to the mission home we had orientation..which doesnt make sense cause im definently lost here haha ! then that night we had testimony meeting with all the new elders and sisters... elder shipp and i are the only new spanish elders.. went to our hotel that night and zonked out ! it was a pretty dang long day!
  the next morning we headed to the stake center..(president and sister jones say hello to the pierces!) we got to the stake center, walked into the chapel to see elders  and sisters standing and singing called to serve to all of us newbies... it was sick. then i got my trainer ELDER KANAHELE! haha when i walked in i had a feeling we were gonna be companions! he grew up in new zealand till he was 11 then his family decided it would be chill to move to hawaii...no big deal. elder kanahele is the man! every day he would go surf pipeline twice a day... surfs like a boss! lives right by the temple! haha im lovin it out here! Elder Kanahele is the most positive person ive ever met he always is sayin "thats beautiful"..haha we have alot in common and get along real well! so we got called to south milwaukee..opening up a new area! so we are both practically newbies..we take buses and walk everywhere! we get lost all the time but yet again elder kanahele always is reminding me there is no such thing as gettin lost on your mission ... the lord is always guiding you to those that are ready.
 well first off i gotta tell ya this im litterally in a freezing cold mexico! im immersed in the language! of course the kids know english and some of the parents do but they love spanish way more! so back to the first day! get here and we go to the diaz family for dinner...had strait up pig skin tacos! hahah i didnt ask what it was till after...i downed it quick. wierdest texture of my life! grossss. haha. its been an amazing first week! ( i have 11minutes left sorry) weve taught 11 lessons in the three days of proselyting weve had and have 6 investigators now! the spanish people are amazing. so humble and so loving. religion is so important to them all. im loving it here...i thought i knew spanish but  the lord quickly humbled me in that aspect! !  !  i love you allllll so much!
  Elder Harper-Smith

4976 W. Oklahoma Ave. Apt#6
Milwaukee
Wi
53219

LAST LETTER FROM THE MTC!

i dont even know what week it is anymore! haha! last pday here in the mtc! come 5 days and ill be in some nice hot weather in wisconsin! so ready!

hola! how is everyone?  im doin great out here absolutely lovin it. finally the time has come to leave to good ole milwaukee i am so excited and so ready to get out there! i feel more prepared than ever...definently always room for improvement though! Got my flight plans last saturday!! i was so stoked! elder shipp and i were jumpin for joy...it was funny. i absolutely have loved the mtc...ive never felt the spirit so strong and the guidance of the spirit so strong in my life. i will always be greatful for the amazing things ive learned...the friends ive made...and the family that ive made. the elders that i have met here ... i have created such unity with all of them. i know it was and is because of one common thread we all have..the spirit. its been a rough experience at times but who cares about the bad!! those experiences are the things that have helped me grow the most.! i have learned so much. ive grown so much in so many ways already and its only been 9 weeks! in 5 days ill be breakin out of these gates in a BUS! hahaha and get to see more people and then fly to milwaukee to another unknown! im so excited!

FAMILY..all of you...1 year ago we were sitting in the eames living room...it was either christmas eve or christmas night (by the way ivie CONGRATS on your call!!!) we were all havin our always amazing christmas party with EVERYONE... that night Aunt carrie and grandpa harman (hello!!) gave us all a challenge and handed out a book of mormon to all of us... for the past year i have had a prompting.. ive known exactly who it was for... a couple weeks ago that prompting came again. its been an awesome experience to do this for someone i care so much for... i know it will bless there life! i have such a good feeling about it!

 

everyone thank you so much for todas las cosas! ive been truly blessed and i know you alll will be also! thankyou for your prayers i have felt the blessings unfold in my life! estoy muy agredecido por este oportunidad estar un missionero. yo siento el espiritu cada dia. yo amo ustedes! gracias gracias gracias!  (i am very agredecido by this opportunity to be a Missionero. i feel the spirit every day. I love you! Thank you thank you thank you!) 

tristen! how are ya! happy birthday sis!!! 20?  

NO picture this week, just travel arrangments!

2 more weeks at the MTC

Hola! como estan!
  another week is in the books! learnin learnin learnin!! lovin it lovin it lovin it!!!
2 more full weeks in here! so stoked to get out in that hot weather that wisconsin has to offer ...its so cold here. im gonna die in wisconsin!! haha...
   so this week! saturday was felipe's baptism! so we started a new investigator on monday!! edgar...loves learning and felt that it was the right thing for him to do to keep learning. our last lesson we taught him the plan of salvation.. and committed him to be bautizado! but then he told us he is a strait up gangster in a gang...so we got some work to do haha
   in class we are completely done with all the grammar and new language activities soooo now we are constantly reviewing! which is AWESOME. lovin spanish! gift of tongues is real! its amazing how much planning can bless your teaching as a missionary...we can even apply it to real life!  the more we prepare the more the spirit guids us. ive been studying what faith is alot this week and how important it is! we need to have faith that we will receive an answer ....and when we do receive answers we need to have faith that that was the right answer!! we need to have faith in the spirit! faith that it will be our own liahona our guia in life wether its while teaching a lesson and the investigator needs a different message than what was prepared (happens alot) its important to have faith that the spirit will help you,as long as you diligently prepared, the spirit will put words in your mouth! i learned somethin pretty dang important this week...how important it is to follow even the smallest of promptings..this week while teaching one of our investigators elder shipp and i were doin great weve learned alot this week about teaching so we applied it and because of that our lesson was just flowwin and the spirit was definently there...i had a small prompting to just ask moteo how he was feeling... he said he could feel joy and peace... he needed to learn how to recognize the spirit and through that simple question we were able to testify that what he was feeling was infact the spirit testifying the truth unto him! through that we committed him to baptism!
  i wish i had some funny stories to tell! haha elder shipp is a crack up...every night ill be tryin to sleep and he will pop out of nowhere and scare the crap out of me...18 year olds... brings up another subject we are the new zone leaders!! pretty stoked! our zone has grown from 14 3 weeks ago to over 40! by march its suppost to be over 75! tells ya how much missionary work is exploding! its awesome to see first hand!
  anybody watched the new mormon message?(reminds me of all my amazing summers in idaho i think you will understand why) its great. we all have a father in heaven who loves us! i know it. ive felt it! im so greatful to be enlisted in his army! i ask everyday what i can do more so that i may be a more valiant soldier for him!
 CANNOT wait to get to milwaukee and freeze my butt off! i hope those baptismal fonts are warm haha love you all!!!!

-Elder Harper-Smith