great elder

so how are them monsoons been treatin ya? 8 inches of rain santa vaca thats just crazy! dad your keepin busy i take it? shoulda had the gopro...thats all i gotta say about the desert shot you saw...  so i hope im getting pictures of my truck today?? haha she better still be in one peice T ! the weather here ha estado bien fresco!!! past few days weve been in the 60s..just enjoying the nice weather while we have it. the snow is gonna be back before i know it.

 so this week no amazing miracles like last week but everyday has its own miracles out here on a mission. as you appreciate each experience you see the big picture and see miracles in every step you take. gets hard sometimes but they are there.

  im doin way good. health and all. ive overcome the wrath of the tortilla and have lost 15lbs! thats whats up. elder gibbs and i ride bikes all day and i cant complain. especially in the weather weve been having. BLESSING.

  this past week la familia ramirez were unable to meet with us as much as we had planned and they didnt come to church this week so we have to push back their dates to probably the 10th. they have a sincere desire but just dont do alot of their commintments. we are working hard with them and hope this week goes better.  it was a sad sunday here in green bay! orvalina on the other hand is doing so great!!! this wednesday luisito (her son aabout 7 months) had his second surgery for his stomach infection problem. its amazing how the lord works some times... his first operation brother rowley, elder jimenez, and i went to the hospital and sat down with orvalina and taught about the power of the preihstood. after that we gave a blessing to luisito... the first operation went great and luisito was able to go home 2 days early! when this week came around orvalinas first thought was to have someone give a blessing to luisito! so she called presidente day-gomez and hno arcos...its just amazing how shes leardned the power of the preihstood through this out of nowhere problem that happened to luisito. he had his surgery on wednesday and yesterday he went home 3 days before he was expected to.!

  we had a great lesson with the family maceda luna. we taught about the authority and baptism. we extended an invitation for the 27th of august they said they wanna be baptized!!! but wanna know exactly what they have to do before they promise a date. so our next lesson should go great. i realllly feel good about this family. they remaind me of the tecualts! BUT they did promise us they would come to church this week...we waited and waited outside the chapel but they never showed up:( i sat in the chapel in a great sacrament meeting. the spirit was so strong and i sat there thinking of how much these amazing familys that we are teaching would enjoy this amazing branch. I WISH THEY WOULD COME!

  mom you asked about george! we havnt seen him since...kinda our fault really. hes a busy guy and we have been really busy during the time of day that he sometimes has free. busses take so much time!!!!!!! 2 hours just one way to the ramirezes house... we will definently be seeing him this week though!

 

love you all!! keep those missionaries busy over there!

elder harper-smith

7 months!

holy cow another week! crazy. it just continues to blow my mind on how fast time is goin. elder gibbs and i are really workin hard out here. we are finding true joy in this amazing journey of a mission. havin so much fun and working hard at the same time. we have seen miracles because of it! we are having so much fun. but i promise we are working working and working ...and working. its the only way to do missionary work...to work. thats when your the happiest and thats when miracles happen. thats the secret to missionary work...its to work. if your not happy work harder eh?
 elder gibbs and i teach really good together. my teaching skills have really increased and i enjoy teaching so much! especially spanish!!! dang i love this language. i drempt? dreamed..i dunno how to say it but i had a dream in spanish this week pretty sick. spanish is really coming along. probably about 6 weeks ago or maybe less i dont remember perfectly i realized that i cant do it on my own... so i asked for help and heavenly father has blessed me in so many ways since! tuesday was zone training. and i received alot of revelation from it. while president and sister jones served here they lifted the mission. and boy has it come a long way (so ive heard) now with president cutler he is gonna take it to even a higher level. hes an awesome president and the spirit is so powerful in his presence. you know hes a servent of god. his main focus is of course pmg but also on the book of mormon. so thats what the zone leaders focus was on. president cutler wants us to help others have "soul changing" experiences like hes had. he wants us all to have them for ourselves and help others to really feel the power of the book of mormon.  so hes challenged all of us to begin a serious study of the book of mormon... a sacred study. the book of mormon is the word of god i know it is. i know it is because ive got down on my knees and prayed to our heavenly father and asked him. recently thats something ive really learned questions always arise as i read and the best way to find the answer is to pray. even with the smallest questions. ive started to really study the book of mormon. i have before..well my whole mission...but there is also room for improvement. when your anxiously engaged in the word of god its amazing what things you learn.
  weve been pretty busy over here! its been nice to have our planners full of things to do besides TRACKTING.our teching pool is pretty great and is getting better each week. wednesday we had breakfast with orvalina (waiting to be married) we taught after she fed us some dang good pancakes, repentance. every lesson we have with orvalina a member comes with us ..its always brother rowley! the funniest most spiritual old man ive ever met. the guy is a crackup! served his mission in argentina back in the day when that mission was just starting! hes got some amazing stories. and has been there since the begining with orvalina! after our morning lesson we came home and headed out to the west side. after 2 hours of buses we got to the ramirez's casa. the lesson went great taught the story of enos, about repentance, did a killer analogy that blew their minds. it was a very strong spiritual lesson. elder gibbs and i really focused in on the spirit as we taught. we could definently feel its guidance as we spoke. long story short the ramirez family will be being baptized onthe 3rd of august!!! the elders before that taught them...well the ramirez family didnt feel ready or prepared... right when we asked them the mom laticia and her two kids victor and julio looked at eachother and then told us they felt really good about august third! they come to church more then thier father who is a member...so through this we hope to re activate him and get them all on the path to the temple where they can be sealed for all eternity! awsm family!!on our way home from the ramirez we stoped at a couple different transportation centers to catch and wait for different buses. at one point we had to wait for a while and there was a nice airconditioned sears right across the parking lot so we thought.."why not?" we were in sears esperando por the bus and a worker comes up to us and starts talking to us asking all these great questions...real humble guy thats searching for true happiness and knows that none of that can be found in the things of the world. we ended up talking to him for 30+ minutes... about so many things. it was sick. he wants us to come over and teach him! but he doesnt speak spanish...soooo we have to give him to the sisters probably:( we meet amazing people on the daily over here in green bay...and alot of crazies to. people really think us latter day saints are crazy. so many people have so many misconseptions about our religion its crazy. and honestly annoying! so ... something i learned...even if your not wearin white shirts a tie and slacks and a name tag...people should still know who you are by how you act. be an example in all tht you do and opportunities to bring this true joy into others lives will come. heck it brings so much joy into your life as you share what you know and live it...so do it!
 went through almost the whole area book loading formers into the gps this week. weve contacted quite a bit and have received alot of success through it! things take time alot of the time. some people just need the right missionaries and the right timing. everyday elder gibbs and i pray to be those missionarys. weve been working hard with the members also to try and get them goin...its working!! members are really starting to talk to us about prospects and people they have been talking too. we have one solid refferal from a member rightnow who we should be meeting with soon! almost all of our 13 refferals are contacted finally... its been a process. out of the 13 refferals we have met great people...awesome familys!! but none really interested. but have found a few!ive never had 13 refferals before haha. thats more then ive had my whole mission! OH FLIP i gotta tell ya about george! hes a refferal from the sisters... works 14 hours everyday at a chinese resturaunt and some other place so at his lunch break he trys to visit with us... i dont know if i told you about the refferal that wants to be baptized..but george is him. so we have been tryin for the past month to meet with him during his 30 minute break time... finally worked out this week. he is the man thats all i gotta say. he was so excited about the book of mormon we didnt have much time to teach but we really got to know him. busy busy but wants this in his life.
  its crazy that ive already been in green bay almost 3 months!things are really starting to unfold for elder gibbs and i in this work! we are so stoked! i hit my 7 month mark this week!!!!! holy dang. im loving my mission more and more everyday! love ya all!!

Elder Harper-Smith
 the mission home address changed... sorry i didnt tellyall that earlier! anddd i dont know it rightnow but will get it to you all next week or sometime soon:)

"the spanish is coming!!" July 9

well first off i gotta say...spanish is coming!! improving so much everyday. second....its been yet again one great week in this amazing work!

 

   green bay spanish elders at the beginning of this week had 13 refferals...tuesday we worked hard to try and contact as much as we could! we were only able to contact 4 but found an amzing family with one of them. with tons of potential. we talked on their porch for about an hour about what we do as missionarys and just really got to know them. aweome people with amazing questions...BUT they are leaving to mexico for a month this wednesday :( any ways we continued to contact ...it being 4th of july the next day almost everybody had family over and woulnt let us in.That night we had dinner with one of my favorite familys here! la familia gonzalez. they fed us some amazing dominican food and sounds like they are working hard for us and opening there mouths ! weve got some solid refferals in the works and have appointments with them this week!

 friday we decided to continue contacting our gazillion refferals and some that told us to come back later...the first door we knocked on was juan! we sat down on his couch and he just started telling us how hes made so many mistakes in his life and just wants to be free from them. he told us he wants joy in his life...elder gibbs and i looked at eachother did a high five in our mind and started teaching out of the book of mormon about repentance. we shared mosiah 4 9-12 and as juan read he started to cry. i love verse 12 we are promised so many blessings as we repent. and that was exactly what juan needed. those exact words in verse 12. haha after we read that verse he looked up at us and said "ya know...i think i wanna do this missionary thing"  after sharing mosiah we talked about baptism and shared 2nephi 31 9 -13 and invited him to be baptized on agust 3rd... he said he already had been baptized...we ran out of time right after that BUT set up an appointment for tuesday! definently will be teaching the restoration. we are stoked!

  our district meeting this week was focused on teaching people not lessons. meaning following the spirit and asking inspired questions...and teaching to their needs. last night we had an amazing lesson with the aranda family(one of the familys we have been teaching) they are absolutely amazing. they werent able to make it to church yesterday because alex there youngest son got pretty sick...but we set an appointment with them for that night. our plan was to teach el dia de reposo. hna aranda alex and almost all of the kids were able to read 2nephi2, the chapter we left with them last week, but do to a crazy couple days for cesar (hno aranda) he wasnt able to read. of course we were "devestated" like elder holland teaches us to be in pmg when our investigators dont read.... but we were able to read and teach,with the whole family together ,2nephi chapter 2. taught about the fall and agency how its one of the greatest gifts dios nos ha dado. the spirit was so strong as the whole family asked questions and were involved in the reading. the spirit was so strong in that little living room of their apartment as we read the word of god as another gift god has given us...familys. elder gibbs and i both felt the guidance of the spirit as we taught. its an undescribable feeling... we finished the cahpter...the spirit was there...and i was trying to listen. all i asked was "for you as a family..what does the book of mormon mean to you?"  the room went silent as they all sat there pondering. hermano aranda looked up and said one simple word...TRUTH.

  the aranda family have received an answer from there heavenly father through his holy spirit that the book of mormon is true. nights like last night, the spirit that was there, the feelings of joy as this amazing family testified to us that they know the book of mormon is true..that they feel so much peace as they read the words inside. they know it is the word of god. man....i wanted to get up and scream HALELUYA!!! nights/lessons like that make every hard day worth while.

  amazing things are happening! i love this work! i know that we have a loving heavenly father that wants the best for all of us... he loves us. and always will. he is a god of miracles as we pray to him with a sincere heart and act in faith he will help us with each step we take. keep those missionarys bussy over there in az.

 

con amor

  elder Harper-Smith

 

i love this work!!!!!

July 1

Elder Holland said, "God is anxiously waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as He always has. But He can't if you don't pray, and He can't if you don't dream. In short, He can't if you don't believe." 

  i just got an email from my mtc teacher with this quote. it applys so much to this work that we all are anxiously engaged in! if we don't believe in having hope..believing that there are good things to come. if we don't act in faith through trials, struggles, and tribulations such as praying to our heavenly father...those dreams ..those questions and maybe those expectations we have for ourselves will never come true...those dreams will never be fulfilled and those struggles will never become our strengths if we don't believe. if we don't have faith and ask our heavenly father to help us...i know he is anxiously waiting to help us all. he loves us and he wants us all to be successful in this amazing life. turn to him and believe.

  well this week has been amazing. i say that almost every week but its true. its doctrine. everyday is a great day as a missionary. sometimes its hard to say that some days but ...even then at the end of the day...their is nowhere else that i would rather be. my new companion elder gibbs is the man! we have practically served before (we have been on 6 exchanges with eachother when the emergency transfer happened) least to say we are havin a good time!!! workin hard and enjoying each step!!!

  we had several appointments this week ... over the past couple weeks we have found some amazing familys. the maceda-luna family (the ones that were all sitting on the couch with their arms folded last week) are progressing great! our lessons fell through this week BUT we were able to do a couple lightning visits with Hermana maceda and she and her whole family prays perfect and so sincerely! they didn't come to church this week but have been reading in the book of Mormon and are still excited for our next visit. hermano maceda just got a new job so his hours are a little on the crazy side rightnow bummmmmmer. i hate jobs.... siempre dijiron pues todo de nuestro investigadores." estamos bien ocupados hermanos" but they are always apologetic...ive never had investigators call us and ask questions and be so involved like the two progressing familys that we have rightnow...(maceda and aranda family) normally if they aren't making time for us then we set them aside but they call us and set up appointments with us so they are great! last night we got a call from cesar (aranda) and he told us to come over and teach his family about 3nephi11....so we did.! the arandas have so much respect for what we do and are so surprised on how fast we are learning or have learned Spanish. when two white boys are sitting on your couch and teaching you in your native language i think it really shows how much it means to us personally! and it is such a blessing when people respect you for it. the arandas are great they live right across the street from us so constantly we are in touch with them. its a family of 5! they have 3 amazing kids. all of them are so involved in lessons and the spirit is always so strong in their apartment. they are progressing so well...and i have personally seen a change in all of them. alex and well i forgot the other kids name but they love reading and are really involved in lessons for only being 8 and 11. alex is a champ. he reads the book of Mormon by himself and with his family!  last night our lesson went really great for not being able to plan much... we taught strait to baptism... at the end we invited them all to be baptized...they wanna learn more first but they thought about it for a long time. we sat their in silence...and the spirit i know touched all their hearts. they are gonna pray about it!!! i know they will receive an answer!

  so great things are happening here in green bay we have 17 refferals at the moment :) that's whats up. and have been blessed with familys! elder gibbs and i have both seen miracles everyday! Friday we were trackting in the trailers and rode our bike past the basketball courts and saw 2 teenagers playin ball shooting hoops. ya know jimmers dad was converted  through a basketball game...so we thought lets play some ball! we put our bikes down and walked over asked if they would like to play some two on two. their first reaction was ..."in those clothes..are you sure?" clothes do not matter! so we ended up playing!...pretty soon elder gibbs and i looked around and we had a crowd watching us!! little kids adults familys! haha it was great! everyone was cheering. so here are us two dressed in white shirts and ties playing basketball with these two neighbor hood kids with familys and kids who know us as the weird guys that ride bikes around and knock on doors... well the turn out..we have some appointments this next week!! met some great people that thought we weren't normal and i know some doors will open now that wouldn't have before... it was awesome! we have appointments with those two kids ( brenden and Osvaldo) and their familys this week!

  well if their is one thing ive learned on my mission so far is to believe in great things to come and enjoy the journey on the way. the lord will bless you as you do your part. believe and have hope. and ask heavenly father for help..i know he is anxiously waiting! keep dreaming!

 

love you all! keep pressin forward!

Elder Harper-Smith

June 24

holy awesome week thats all i got to say!

 how bout that broadcast last night? holy army of missionaries. the work is hastening. its a blessing to be part of the work in such an amazing time of change. The field is now more white than ever. the lord is preparing more people ...more families! and i can testify of that. this week has been absolutely amazing.

  tuesday i had exchanges with my district leader elder green. gotta tell ya he is the man. had one great exchange. i was out in the small town of chilton wisconsin! farms farms and more farms. and no wheel lines...what tha heck. but being there definently brought back some memories from idaho! so elder oaks when he was here last weekend talked about power approaches.... aproaches that will spark intrest and be personable and spiritual. so.....our goal for the exchange was to make some power aproaches...and that we did. we had several appointments that day but they ended up falling through so...trackting it was!!! chose a street and started knocking. door after door after door people slammed the door in our face. but we kept at it. we got to the end of the street and there were two kids outside immedieatly they started asking us who are you why are you dressed funny haha they wanted us to come in but of course we needed their parents permission...so they went running inside and told their mom somebodys at the door. the kids came sprinting back outside and the mom came around the corner..opened the door...saw it was us...screemed at the kids to come back inside...told us to never come back... and then slammed the door. "what the heck " elder green and i were thinkin as we walked away. we are really nice people i promise!! we walked away and saw the little girl waving at us through the window...

 despite rejection after rejection we really got some door aproach practice... thats a good way to look at it and maybe next time missionarys knock on the door they will give them a chance! we hope! later that night elder green used my spanish capabilities to his advantage and we went and contacted his investigators over there that struggle with english! met some amazing families and was able to roll with some really great aproaches! white people are a little more mean when you knock on there door haha. so wednesday afternoon i returned back to green bay spanish! elder jimenez and i had a first appointment set up for 6. (you will get a crack up out of this) we knocked on the door and before we were even done knocking hno maceda opened the door ...the house was silent. we looked into the family room and there was the whole family, kids and all, sitting reverently with their arms folded waiting for us! prepared? man... one amazing lesson to an amazing family. we didnt set any dates but accepted the invitation! tonight we have our second lesson and will definently be setting some dates.! pretty excited.

   so friday ... we got a call from the sisters the were excited to give us a refferal that they had gotten that morning at the park! they said he wanted to be baptized? man thats a good start. so we had an appointment with him at 3 on saturday he was gonna come see us during his lunch break at work but got really busy and couldnt... well that took up a good part of our day so we ended up just trackting the rest of the day at the trailers. went and saw some formers set up some appointments. the busses end at 5 on saturdays so we had to walk home... by this time those who have served missions understand how your feelin after a long day of trackting and not much success...so we were walking home almost there and i turn around and see elder jimenez just standing there..."hey elder we need to go down this street i think" i looked at my watch 8:40.."elder its about time to be in" i said. he insisted to walk this street though...so we did. we turned the corner and there was a family outside talking just having a good time enjoying the nice weather. belen and demetrio! ends up ten years ago her mom would have the elders over every week. but she would be leaving to work so she never really got to sit in on lessons. they are an amazing hispanc family!!! so prepared. we taught about the book of mormon and they were so excited. the spirit was so strong as we stood out on their driveway and taught through the book of mormon this great gospel of our savior. it was amazing...and because my switch was almost turned off for the day...we almost missed it....its moments like what happened saturday night that makes a day full of fall throughs and not to much success... worth every second. we have an apointment with them tonight as well!!

well i love you all! your the greatest. been blessed with miracles this week....everyday ive seen miracles in my mission...but this week was an amazing week. hard, but so rewarding. this work is amazing!!

-Elder Harper-Smith