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

Great week!

what is up family! how you all doin?

another week has come and gone already it is mind blowing to me. the transfer is already almost over! ive already been here 6 weeks....thats absolutely mind blowing.

so this week ....full of great things! tuesday we contacted a refferal that weve had for the past month and a half but are never home...so tuesday we thought what the heck lets give it another shot..knocked on the door... opened right away! the navarro familia. its a young family mom and pop and then they have to young kids! they are all from honduras! lots of latinos here are from honduras. they are great people. but anyways this family is awesome! they both had amazing questions that we were able to answer through a great lesson on the restoration. the spirit was there and powerful. i felt it and i know they did. we didnt set dates but taught toward baptism. they said once they know of course they will get baptized so we will see! they were both really excited about the book of mormon. we have a lesson tomorrow with them!

sorry these few experiences are short...i wanna get to the highlight of the week...but ive been so blessed this week in so many ways. ive received so many answers through so many different people and ways. doors getting slammed in your face can drag ya down sometimes...walking down the street just saying good afternoon to a family and then to see the mom staring at us and yelling at her kids to get inside ...haha sometimes situations happen like this..we are normal people i promise! we are just here to help...this week so many people came up to elder jimenez and i and said thank you and god bless you and things like that...it has been a tender mercie of the lord. its picked us both up to know that we are noticed and are seen as representatives of our savior and not scary guys in white shirts!

  lots of tender mercies this week. ill share one more then i gotta tell ya about mission conference! ...earlier this week we were headin over to west side to bike and contact some refferals from the sisters haha refferals from sister missionaries never really work out...the people are hopin to see nice smiling faces of sister missionaries again but are sad when they open the door to smiling faces ...but elders. anyways im sure some of you know what im alking about. so we were on the bus and i sat behind a man who had downs syndrom(sorry if i misspelt it) but as i sat down he was looking at his feet then a while passed and he looked back at me and said "god is up there" he said looking up. then quickly he looked back at his feet. i looked at him and said" ya he is! and i know he loves you so much" he started to nod his head then rubbing his eyes..then with tears in his eyes he looked back up at me and said 3 words that hit me really hard "i miss him". i dont know why but for me that was so powerful. the sincerity he had in his voice and with the fullness of his heart he spoke those three words while looking me strait in the eyes. dang ill be honest...bout cryed!! the spirit was so strong in that bus at that moment for me. and brought so much comfort. do we miss our heavenly father? cause i know he misses us. i miss him. he has done so much for me and i know he is there each and every step we take. dan (name of the guy) is simply the man. we may never know how we will receive answers to our prayers...we must always be aware and open. thats something ive come to know...most answers come through others thats why at all times we must be open to the spirit!

  alright so saturday june 15th was mission conference! president and sister jones last time seein all of us:( sad but we are excited and have been very blessed by them as a mission. the whole mission met in neenah we were all sitting in the chapel waiting...the chapel doors opened and we all stood as an apostle of god and 4 members of the seventy walked into the chapel. the spirit engulfed the room and the feeling of pure peace and joy as Dallin H. Oaks entered the room and elder clayton of the presidency of the 70, elder gifford nielsen, elder randy funk, and elder ward.

  it was an amazing meeting! we all got to meet elder oaks as well. the feeling of the spirit as i shook his hand and he said "well good morning elder harper-smith! how are you doing?" heres an apostle of god asking me how im doing? ha well freakin great! i didnt say it like that of course but thats what was going through my head haha. the meeting was amazing. i am out of computer time though:( sad day!

i love you all and hope all is amazing!!

Elder Harper-Smith

good lookin elder!

Grandpa Eames! What a sweet story!

 dearest family friends and whoever reads this email!

   CRAZY WEEK. once again weather: tornado warnings practically all week!! weve had some intense weather here this past week. reminded me of them good ole mansoons back home! enjoy em for me! 110 degrees though? ill pass haha. ive never seen darker meaner lookin clouds than what ive seen here this week...SICK.

 theres a storm commin...thats for sure. not only in the weather but an amazing GOOD storm has hit us this week in this amazing work! we have been working so hard. so so so hard. really focusing on finding and getting this area rollin. its sad to say but orvelinas baptism didnt happen this week... luis her feounce in mexico and her need to get married first. the overall goal is for them to be sealed in the temple so the first step they need to make is marriage than they can make that first covenant with their heavenly father and continue to the temple as a family! the wedding will be soon though we are hoping!! so like i was sayin as a companionship weve been really praying specifically for a family to teach....and to be able to fullfill our purpose more in this area ..we know the feild is white so we have been working hard to find that area that family that is ready! weve gotten alot of doors slammed in our face along the way. but like i said ...we were blessed this week for sure!!!

  thursday night we had a dinner appointment! SCORE. free homemade mexican food. during dinner i got a text message from some number i had never seen.. it said "Hey this is jonathan. i go to school at uwgb and am staying here for the whole summer. im looking to become more involved in the church."  best text ive ever received! so we shared a message at the members house and headed over to see jonathan! jonathan is the man.we met him at a park over looking the bay with one heck of a view of the storm and the lake(had to add tht in sorry). the view would of blown your mind haha. he told us that he was having a pretty rough day and felt like he needed to contact us. he had some amazing questions and his faith was definently strengthened! it was a blessing to have someone we didnt even know text us and tell us to come over and teach him. he was so greatful that we were able too. the effect we have on people amazes me.the spirit was so strong as we sat there overlooking the bay and talked about our amazing heavenly father. crazy clouds,awesome view, amazing spirit as we testified and taught!

  also our investigator ricardo who comments more then members at church is getting baptized this week(8th)! he had his interview with president this week so as he was having his interview sister jones and i had to chat it up of course!...somehow we started talking about rupert idaho haha...SHE GREW UP IN GOOD OLE RUPERT...then she started talking about her stake president and how much she looked up to him and how powerful of a speaker he was. as a little girl she always looked forward to his talks...i asked her his name... sure enough it was gandpa! president garth eames. it was amazing to hear all these amazing things about grandpa...he was an amazing man.  juddith hyde is sister jones' name! she said she knows most of all yall down there!! small world...

   so back to this storm that hit us in this amazing work this week. we have been praying for a family....saturday night after getting stuck on westside and taking the 6 mile walk home (forgot the buses stopped at 5..) we were dead tired..we got to our apartment around 9 but felt we should knock one more door. a father who is amazing. great guy but him and his family are always working...so we thought what the heck..ONE more door. we knock on it and there is cesar(hes like 4 ft tall) and immediately tells us to come in. we sat down with his whole family...and taught an amazing lesson on the restoration. the first question cesar asked us is "porque ay muchas iglesias en el mundo" well....we can answer that!

the lord blessed us this week. it was amazing to be teaching again! and our prayers were answered.

although there were crazy storms this week that hit the wonderful land of green bay wisconsin...heavenly father provided a storm of blessings for us missionarys. he answered our prayers and guided us in this amazing work!

i love you all!!! keep those missionarys busy over there!

May 29

pops! im afraid i wont have too many more crazy stories.. my milwaukee days are over. but ive got a list of some good ones that are gonna have to wait two years!!  elder jimenez is awesome we are really working well together..and get a long great. we are working so diligently...not much fruits yet but they will come. Green Bay is awesome though! the work is harder but challenges mean your growing! and ready to take on more! its sure great to have my wheels back! first time this week ive riddin a bike in 5 months...no...i didnt need training wheels ! haha. the work here is hard but its pretty great too... it has its ups and downs! there is lots ..tons of spanish work!! weve been trackting trailer parks and apartments all week. the first thing we do when we get to apartments is go strait to the mailboxes, look at the last names, write down the apartments that seem to be hispanic, then start knocking!! its been working really good lately! we were at some apartments this week and were walking out the door back outside and there was a family! next thing we know we are in there living room teaching the restoration! they had some amazing questions and are really intrested! especially interested in the book of mormon!  as a companionship this week one of our main goals was to be more bold and teach every lesson towards baptism. everyday we have prayerfully seeked days for each investigator that we were going to teach that day for a date we knew they could be ready to be baptized by. the power that brought into our lessons  was immense. fransisco is an amazing guy we are teaching rightnow... our first lesson was last week we teached the restoration and baptism...he said he wants to but only wen he is ready. our last lesson this week was amazing. we went in with a date that we knew he could be ready by. he didnt read 2nephi 2 so thats what we ended up doing! we read with him that amazing powerful chapter. the spirit was so strong. and elder jimenez and i were really unified. something ive leardned this week is that the spirit has no language barrier. as we sat in his old rundown trailer... the spirit filled the room. i received so many promptings as we taught. wether it was just a thougt or an experience or being able to address a need of his the spirit guided me it guided both of us in that lesson! and we both knew it. another thing ive come to know is that when we follow promptings that firs one we do follow opens the door to so many more! this week , like i said before, our goal was to be bold and to always teach to baptism...and to prayerfully seek a date. in our lesson with fransisco i had a a very strong feeling to invite him to be baptized again. so i did. and then we were both able to testify that we both knew he could be ready by the 22nd of june because we had prayerfully seeked to know! fransisco was really touched by the spirtit saturdaynight as we taught. he told us that thats exactly how he wants to feel. he wants to change. he told us that he will pour out his soul to his heavenly father and ask if this is the path he needs to take.our lesson with fransisco was so powerful. the power of two, the power of teaching through the spirit (the only way), and the power that comes through following promptings.  last night we were able to teach how to have family home evening to a young family in the branch! haha it was so fun and the lesson went great. i had an anology with when we trust in god and have faith he will always lift us up! i dont know if you have ever heard or seen the fire and tea bag analogy ...but what happens is you empty all the tea out and set the bag on the persons hand light it on fire and right before the fire gets to the persons hand (Hno aranda) the bag flys into the air meaning if we have faith and put our trust in the lord through what ever comes in life he will always ...lift us up.  note to self...dont use the lipton kind....it doesnt do the most important part....lift off. haha in other words haha hno aranda got a little burnt!! dang. it was a crack up though...we were all laughing! now ,i have to get him to trust me again !

 

love you all! your all amazing!!!

-elder Harper-Smith

 

"I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The dye has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made; I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow down, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I'm finished and done with low living, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tinted visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need pre-eminence, positions, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be right, first recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk with patience, am lifted up in prayer, and labor with power. My face is set, my goal is heaven. My road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, divided or delayed, will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table with the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won't give up, shut up, or let up until I have stayed up, stored up, and paid up for the case of Christ. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me. When He returns for His own He will have no problem recognizing me, my banner is clear”. -henry b. eyring

 

get em ivie!!!!!

May 20

last week i got an email from one of my best buds that had 6 words. a quote that he had found the last week in some book or something . these 6 simple words were this "If your not happy, work harder" its the truth. when you loose yourself in this great work you find yourself. you "become" that person that heavenly father designed you to become! ive seen it in my mission. the harder i work the happier i am even when the occasional door gets slammed in my face! the harder i work the closer i feel to my heavenly father. the harder i work ...the harder we work as missionaries to bring others closer to him ...we lift ourselves up as well. we grow closer to heavenly father and our savior as we help others come unto him.

WELCOME TO PACKER LAND. im here in green bay! and let me tell ya its amazing! open feilds smell of the good old farm life in idaho! wild flowers everywhere haha the sun!. gettin humid though! and the people...there amazing. as always! there is alot of spanish work here...im really excited! my new companion is from pachuka hidalgo mexico! he is learning english. safe to say hes crankin up my spanish! alot of english phrases he doesnt understand so im helping him with that but we usually just speak in spanish. its been helping me alot. my spanish has gotten so much better in the past 4 or 5 days! im stoked for these next 6 weeks. we both get along great and are working really hard. really hard. im loving it. hes one heck of a missionary. saturday night we got a call from the 1st councilor in the branch presidency....yesterday i gave a 12 minute talk in sacrament meeting sobre el dia de reposo. (sabath day) it was awesome!!!

the work is amazing over here. thursday morning we had a lesson with orvalina. she has a baptisimal date for the 31st. her story is really interesting and really shows that the lord works in crazy ways sometimes. she has been receiving the lessons for over a year now. goes to church love it. keeps all of her compromisos. but one thing was stopping her from making that first step. to make that first covenant with her heavenly father...marriage. her boyfriend luis (lives with her) also loves church loves everything keeps all the commitments but marriage was holding them both back from the waters of baptism. a month or so ago emmigration office took luis and sent him back to mexico... prettyu harsh. but because of that the way is now [paved and orvelina will be baptized on the 31st!  since luis has been gone away from his family his wife and his kid he has realized what it would be like after he dies... he wont be able to be with them forever unless the get married and are both able to make that first step. so... crazy how the lord works sometimes!! it shows how perfect his plan is for each and everyone of us.
  this week we had alot of fall through appointments but were still able to find some new investigators! we are hoping to tech them all this week! buses buses and more buses! haha yes im in another bus area! i love the buses though. friday night we had a dinner appointment with a member family..the gonzalez familia! they are amazing. hno gonzalez is puerto rican and hna gonzalez is from the dr! haha there hilarious and have tons of youg kids that love the missionarys!! the branch here is so strong..not very big but the members are amazing.
 saw my first wild beaver this week ha cool fact...i really wish i had more time but im such a slow typer ... ive had some amazing experiences this week. im loving green bay!!

 i love you all!! Find joy in the journey!!

Elder Harper-Smith

730 Abrams ST. Apt.#14
Green Bay ,WI 54302

-thanks elder skylar margaritis!


love you all have a great week!

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