May 13: GREEN BAY HERE HE COMES!

Elder Harper-Smith... pack your bags your headin to GREEN BAY!!! yes brother danielson that means i WILL wear that tie you gave me now ha!. but dang i am stoked! I heard there is a temple there too...have you heard of it? anyone?.... its known as lambeu feild ... gotta convert them all and get them to the real temple! my new companion is a native! im pretty excited about that. so im headin out of milwaukee.... sorry mom no more crazy stories i guess for a while. im sure you will be okay with that though!

  it was great to see you all yesterday! happy mothers day momma! 

this week was the longest week of my mission!  tuesday was zone conference. 2 hour bus ride there! had an amazing conference. and then 2 hours home. TOOK ALL DAY but we did meet some amazing people on the bus for all the english elders! on wednesday ity was back out on the streets! contacted alot of formers and set alot of appointments for this week. wednesday morning we had our second lesson with the hernandez family. there an amazing family that have an amazing spirit in their home. they are all so open to the spirit. wednesday we taught the restoration. it went great! they really opened to us about their concerns and really accepted the lesson. the spirit was their and they knew it. the fruits of the spirit... the spirit is our most powerful tool in this work and when our investigators except it into their lives ...you see a change in them. sometimes its immediatly sometimes it comes over time. with the hernandez family it is their. the lesson was amazing and as elder squires gave the amazing experience joseph smith had that morning in the sacred grove... the spirit hit everyone. hna. hernandez was crying and hno hernandez was holding back tears. they will be baptized the 22nd of june. it was an amazing lesson!! then that night we had a lesson with diego. bernadinas old boy friend who wants to change his life. hes one that has changed immediately. our first lesson with him was so powerful and on wednesday we taught the gospel of jesus christ. ive seen a change already in him haha but bernadina will not let him be part of the family till he shows real change in himself. bernadina is the best haha. but diego has changed. the spirit and the change in the tecualt family has touched him and he knows what he needs to do! diego is set to enter the waters of baptism and take that first step to being sealed with his family for eternity on june 8 th. 

  it has been such a blessing to be in milwaukee. i will always be greatful to my heavenly father for the opportunity he has given me to find those here that he has prepared for me. for trusting me with this part of his vineyard!!! the feild is white. whiter then ever. with this age change and with so many young man and young women enlisting in this great work of our heavenly father he is preparing people / familys more then ever! the feild is white!!!!  watch out green bay! haha

love you all!

Elder Harper-Smith

p.s send stuff to mission office till i know my new address! 

May 6th

What an amazing week! What a busy week! Everyday this week was full of meetings and trainings! Thankfully all the buses arrived on time and we were able to make it to all of them early! Busses are an adventure. Meet some awesome people.

Tuesday we had district meeting and president and sister jones were both there doing interviews. President Jones is the man. He really helped me find alot of answers through elder hollands talk "I Believe , Help Thou My Unbeleif". to build upon strengths that we do have rather then our weaknesses, to look on what we know rather then what we dont, to really focus our lives in the positive things.
Wednesday was specialized training and then thursday was 9 to 12 week training! Was with Elder Kanahele alll day! and we did all our role plays together too. Soo good to see him. He is the man.
After three days strait of meetings and then getting home just in time for planning because of the busses finally it was friday! We weekly palnned and visited with a less active family. Its crazy how many less actives their is here.. They all have strong testimonies but for some reason dont come to church! Our lesson went great and they want us to come over next week for dinner with the whole family.
Saturday was an amazing day. We had exchanges with the zone leaders. I stayed here in Milwaukee end Elder Squires left to parkway. It was such an amazing day. We worked and worked than worked some more just how me and Elder Kanahele did it. I love being out and finding ...meeting those and teaching those that god has prepared. Its simple, if your not outside doin what your supposed to do and waiting for things to happen...nothing is going to happen. We have to show our Heavenly Father that we are doing our part. I have the strongest testimony of this being the work of our loving Heavenly Father. He is in it every step I take. Elder Gnautuvi and I found so many people and filled our week with appointments! Spanish is so much better than it was. I love these people. I had a feeling we needed to go to Fidels house again this week... as we were walking up to his door step there he was cookin in his back yard!! Everyone was there. For some reason people like to party here for no reason haha hey i cant argue. His wife fed us some amazing food. Best Ive had out here!  We met all of his family and before we left Fidel gathered them all around and asked for us to bless his home. What a neat experience. Then as we were waiting to catch the bus home after a long day a car pulls over and says " ELDERS!!" they ended up just moving here from good ole Mesa AZ and were taking the lessons there and have been looking ever since they got here for us! Solid refferal for the english elders!!! Miracles happen everyday out here. Im so greatful for this opportunity god has given me to teach these people.

 I love you all!!!
- Elder Harper-Smith

April 29: sorry so late

hola is kinda getting repetative...haha if i knew elder margaritis' language id throw that out there but i have no idea how to even say his new language! get em elder!

Hola familia!
   haha hey everybody! last week was awesome! dang is time flying!! this week i have interviews tomorrow! specialized training wednesday, and 12 week on thursday! get to see kanahele! pretty stoked.

this week was yet again a great week in this amazing work! tuesday we had an amazing district meeting. Elder squires had brother wheeler (hes over all the institutes and seminarys of the northeastern states) he came and went deep docterine on the power of faith! dang it helped me so much i received so many answers. there is two kinds of faith.. the willingness to do what god requires no matter what (obedeince) and then the power of faith that we receive when we are obedient and do his will! God will test your faith ..then give you power through your obedience!

  After district meeting i headed out on exchanges to waukasha! with elder jordan from napa idaho..hes been out 3 weeks now. it was an awesome exchange AND I GOT A CAR soo that kinda put the iceing on the cake you could say! we did alot of conatacting and service in the morning at a food bank which made my week. it was at the food bank and it was so fun to talk with so many different people for three hours strait! all the people working with us were so awesome too. when latinos came through and found out i spoke spanish they were so stoked. here in wisconsin there are so many different cultures and people. ive taught puerto ricans, cubans, latinos from all over mexico, chileans, dominicans, guatamalans, el salvadorians, and a lady from madrid! everyone has different ways of saying things so the language can sometimes be a struggle of understanding what they are saying haha but each day is getting better! speaking of days getting better rockin the short sleeves now. so im happy to say spring is finally here in beautiful milwaukee!

   Elder Squires had to go to the doctor on friday and we had alot of work to be done in our area! the next day was our ward party dia de los ninos so we had alot of inviting to do with our investigators and everyone we saw... the city elders had all there appointments fall through so elder squires and a city elder went to the doctor while me and elder schvandavelt took over our area. it was an awesome growing experience for me! since the weather is amazing rightnow here everybody was outside. its hard to beleive but my area is probably 70 to 80 percent latino.. so elder schvandavelt(english elder)  and i walked the streets contacting everyone we saw! it was a growing experience to have to rely on my own spanish. we met so many people. so many families! we had over 10 lessons on friday it was awesome.  when we would invite people to the party after sharing a message the only word Elder schvandavelt knew was "fiesta" and he would say it a the perfect moment! crack up.
  the party on saturday was suppost to be this amazing missionary opportunity. we were so ready to meet and help so many people! we had the hernandez family there they loved it!  so many less actives came also and it was great to see there faces the next day at church.
 well another great week! an amazing week. tonight we are goin to the tecualts for fhe! im so excited to go see them haha. they remind me so much of all of you back home!  the mission is amazing and i am so greatful for the opportunity i have to be in wisconsin. im so greatful to my heavenly father for letting me serve the people here.
  love y'all!! les quiero mucho!
Elder Harper-Smith

pictures

April 15, 2013

how is life?? well mission is sick. strait up amazing!

weeks are just flyin by! i already hit my 4 month mark this friday! crazy! i always heard the whole weeks feel like days thing but never beleived it till now. i feel like each week goes by faster and faster. spring WAS on its way here...then it decided to snow this week and be freezing again haha its a crack up. mom dont you know gloves are for sissys! i like my hands to be purple! colors are starting to come...i think spring will be here soon!
this week was yet again amazing. lots of great things happened on wednesday we had a lesson with the lopez familia.. hno. garcia from the arama came with us to teach. members are the secret weapon! they help so much! our lesson was on the book of mormon. the lopez family and the reyes family were both there! (reyes live above them) the lesson went so good the spirit was there and was powerful! we broke down the introduction with them paragraph by paragraph. hno. garcia was amazing! he brought so much to the table as we taught. as hno garcia was bearing testimony a scripture popped into my head and when it did i was so stoked to share it haha. its pretty cool when that happens. so i bore my testimony and taught for a good while ! elder squires face was priceless as i kept just goin and goin...so spanish...its commin! and im lovin it! teaching is so fun when ya know whats goin on haha. the lesson went so good. it was probably one of our best lessons as a companionship..one of those lessons you just walk out smiling because you know it was good and you know they felt the spirit.spanished happened on wednesday. that was a powerful lesson all three of us were united as we taught which i know helped a lot!
thursday we went to the meza family! david there son is way into editng and loves my edits haha he tells me all about how nra3 just blows his mind.. so you can see why i love talkin to him. this family is amazing as well! we taught them about the importance of church. hna. meza is actually a member... she was baptized when she was 11 and she really wanted to serve a mission. she knows it is true. but works sooooo much. she loves the church though . the whole family does. they love it when we come over to teach. next weekend they are all goin to ohio for hna. mezas cousins son baptism!!! there all members! its gonna be an awesome experience for them i know it! but anyways our lesson went great and right as we were ending it...ANOTHER family walks in sits down and hna. meza starts tellin them how amazing our church is and just bears her testimony to them! bam!!! so then we teach them the restoration!! right there! they loved it and felt really good about it! so we have an appt with them this week!! pretty excited!
then we had exchanges and i was here in milwaukee all by myself with the zone leader that knows NO spanish! it was an awesome day!! went to angels! and just shared a short message of how we get peace and joy! he wants to get baptized...i told him thats exactly why we are here! to help him make those steps! hes awesome! he might be moving to puerto rico though! hes still unsure i hope he doesnt...
this weekend was amazing...haha everything is amazing. this weekend bernadina, tanith, and jackeline were baptized. to see them all dressed in white and watch them enter the font was amazing.. this family has been such a blessing. i have learned so much from them. this family is an example of what all rm's talk about...they were prepared.  sunday we were able to go to racine for there confirmation! i will always be greatful for the opportunity heavenly father gave me to teach the tecualts. bernadina bore her testimony yesterday in sacrament... she called us her angels! this work is amazing!
this week i ran into an amazing scripture D&C 88:78-80 
78 Teach ye diligently and my ^agrace shall attend you, that you may be ^binstructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand;
79 Of things both in ^aheaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must ^bshortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the ^cnations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a ^dknowledge also of countries and of kingdoms—
80 That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to ^amagnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the ^bmission with which I have commissioned you.
now more than ever people are being prepared. BUT we have alll also been prepared. everything that has happened in my life has shaped me into the servant that i am for the lord. it has perfected me to be here. to be able to teach those that heavenly father has prepared for me.
i love you all!!!! wanted to write so much more haha but time is up till next week!!!
to all my pals out servin and are leaving next week and the weeks to come!! da les cielo!
con amor,
Elder Harper-Smith

"I know that He lives!!!!"

Hola familia!!!

  this week was amazing! it started with an amazing lesson with the Tecualt family! they are so prepared its just blowin my mind! haha. i cant wait for them to enter the waters of baptism. The lesson...was amazing . the spirit was there and it was strong. it was on the plan of salvation. bernadine had received an answer the night before from our heavenly father that the everything we have been teaching is true...she shared her experience with us and it was amazing.when she got down and  prayed the night before she was overwhelmed by a feeling of warmth and comfort...she told us that it was like a burning feeling.  that night she had a dream... in her dream her mom came to her (she passed away awhile back) came up to her and told her that she was in a happier place! she also told us about another dream..before we came and taught her and her family she had a dream awhile back with our savior in it...she couldnt see his face but saw his hands and feet. in her dream he told her to prepare herself and her kids for something...  the amazing thing about teaching this family is bernadine is so prepared she bares testimony to us. she knew from the day we had started teaching her that we were what would help her prepare them. she knew that the gospel was that thing. words cant describe the true happiness a mission brings! we did run into a little obstacle when we taught the word of wisdom last night....... they wanna move there baptism dates...to the 13th instead of the 20th!!!
  we have been really focusing on finding this week...and we have been blessed! we spent a day contacting formers and potentials this week ! not alot of doors were opened. we went to a house hoping that we would be able to get in and teach...the former ended up not living there bit a really nice old lady answered the door and her face lit up when she saw us! elena lives with all of her children (except one daughter) and all there families. we set up an appointment for i think wednesday! tuesday was district meeting and we get a call...ends up being elenas daughter that lives in utah! shes a member and was so excited to here that we found her mom!! our first lesson went really good with her!
  weve been finding alot this week! !! its amazing! when we walk streets and see a bright colored house..a dish 500 ..and other things we always knock there! we found the meza familia! there amazing! we walk in sit on the couch and hermana meza is asking us if we are hungry or thirsty...before we could answer she was already in the kitchen!... hermana meza's familia en mexico son miembros! we were so stoked when we heard that! our lesson went really good. we taught just about the book of mormon. the whole family was just there sittin around us and listening! it was an awesome experience! there gonna be fun to teach! they were so excited to teach us!
  we were able to contact the lopez family!!! the family me and elder kanahele found! they thought we forgot about them! sad to hear that...we had to explain that its just been a crazy couple weeks with stuff happening! they were all so excited to see us... we have an appointment on wednesday with them!!

  mission is a beautiful thing!! what an amazing time of the year to really reflect on the power of the atonement and all that our savior jesus chist did for all of us. im greatful for my savior... i know that he lives!!!!
love you all!!
-Elder Harper-Smith