Monday, July 30, 2012

Monday, July 30, 2012

Man well i just got done looking at all the pictures of dylan, wow he is a lot skinnier, haha his skin looks so tight on him, probably cause he looks older. He also looks a lot taller, if I’m not wrong, has he grown? So cool to see him and hear how much he’s grown spiritually.
Well last sunday i felt a little sick and I threw up but it went away on tuesday which was good but my head is still a little dizzy for some reason, I’m waiting to hear back from the mission doctor.
We also had to give bro A. our mission leader a blessing cause he said he was having the same kind of symptoms as me, weird! but it was good and he is feeling a lot better now. we met a cool girl this week named (K) she is engaged and she’s 23 i think but we taught her about the restoration and she liked it she said you are very convincing so it was cool, but it was a weird lesson cause she was doing her sisters hair the whole time. Another cool thing this week we went to see an investigator couple and only( F.) was home but we taught him the plan of salvation and he really liked what we taught but when he heard nobody gets paid, he was like this is the church, this is the one I’ve been looking for, so that’s pretty awesome I’m excited to keep teaching him.
(S.) is still cool we talked to him for a long time on saturday and he has so much potential and righteous desire to help people so we just have to get him to church. He was supposed to come but didn’t.
 
Well that’s all i can write love you guys
kelly!!
 

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Monday July 23, 2012


 Baptism Bonanza,
Wooow first thing i have to say is I can’t believe that my favorite missionary of all time is home and that my favorite cousin ( Eric your my favorite too, couple
of, oh your all my favorites) also comes home tomorrow, that just means I only have very little time left and it has gone by so fast. It’s weird but pretty cool to see elder law with you guys haha yeah we had the best time using those sunglasses while role playing with STEVE, hahahaha good times.  I wish I could have been there to hear his talk. Well, just a quick re cap of the week of course the best thing was saturday we had the baptism for N., haha his jumpsuit was a little tight on him but that’s okay he is a skinny kid so it worked, that baptism was awesome, N’s sister, K. gave the opening prayer and it was awesome cause she just got back from youth conference and she mentioned covenants, haha so smart for a 14 year old.  I don’t even think I knew what that word meant when I was 14. Elder cranford baptized him and since N’s mom had to work on Sunday,  we just did the confirmation right there and I confirmed him.  I still think its cool how when you bless someone or confirm someone that you don’t know what your gonna say but once you start it just flows and the words just come out and things just come to your mind and you can feel the spirit working through you. We also taught this F. and C, we watched the restoration video and they loved it and said they really want to come to church to find out more about what we are like, AWESOME. I had the opportunity to interview a guy for baptism for the sisters this week it was great.

Dad I love the, 10 things the not like romney hahaha, that’s awesome, seriously who can say he is not the man to be the president.
Again send the stuff for the absentee ballot for me.

Hey, grandma harper just writing a quick note, I do get your letters and i like reading about the families you help.

Grant keep it up with football.
Alli, I love your skweez  for elder law.

Well that’s all I have time to write this week but tell dylan I FREAKING LOVE HIM and give him a big hug for me
Love Elder Harper:)

Monday, July 16, 2012

Monday, July 16 2012


Monday, July 16, 2012
Hello everyone, well this week was great it really was ha and i wish i could remember it all cause my mind has gone a little blank but its coming back. so the biggest thing that happend this week was that N. our 13 year old part member investigator who we have been trying to get to go to bed early and wake up to come to church got his baptismal interview on saturday and he came to church YAYYY! SUCCESS so he will be baptized next saturday at 6pm.  I’m super excited and can’t wait for him to eventually get the priesthood, he is also my first male baptism finally haha. On wednesday we had interviews/ trainings from the assistants plus elder law and elder riddle who are the special assignment guys, basically assistants, lots of good stuff. I had a great interview with president and he complimented me on how we are doing and told me how elder cranford is learning a lot from me he told me about something he said that was cool but i cant remember what it was hahah sorry maybe I will later. After all that we had a couple hours before our special fireside meeting with president and sister Holm called the No More Stangers fireside where less actives investigators could come and meet president and hear from him and some other speakers, it was awesome cause one of our recent converts bro D. who used to be a pentacostal preacher gave his testimony, it was powerful. I also got to spend some more time with Elder law before the fireside, me and him drove the mission van to go get some little cesers pizza cause we hadn’t eaten dinner.  We went and sat in the piggly wiggly parking lot eating pizza while we were waiting to show one of our recent converts how to get to the stake center haha we had a good time talking about our mission like how he has been on exchanges with me in each of my areas haha, even cooler at the end of the night as we were leaving the building after locking up there was a guy sitting under the light pole in the parking lot so we went over and talked to him, he is from wyoming and is working selling security systems door to door, he told us that all the guys he worked with are mormon return missionaries,(as he is sitting in an LDS chapel parking lot) we taught him a little about our beliefs he asked us how we are saved and stuff like that then the guy who came to pick him up was a member of the church, we gave the guy a book of mormon so hopefully his co-worker told him more.  Transfers came and we are both staying in marion, only elder oliver who is in the district also our zone leader is leaving he has been there for 7 months in Florence.

Elder seaver is just a cool guys i don’t know how to explain his personality he is laid back, loves the gospel and is a hard worker

Dad i like that quote by Abe Lincoln its so perfect, i think our government should read that, it might inspire them.
 Also could you guys send me the forms for absentee voting when they are available, we got a letter this morning saying we are allowed to do that. 

I put the return address on duncan’s letter so it should be fine.
Bummed to hear about the harris's moving to gilbert :(
 the picture of me by the trailer is not me hahaha it is elder holyoak he looks exactly like me from behind plus that suit he has on is not mine either i have a slit in the middle of my jacket.
i will try to send the memory card soon.
When does dylan get home this week or next week?

Grant i hope your working out hard for football that’s how you will beat people is preparing in practice.
Alli it would be cool to win that house in SC
I think that’s all i have time for this week and i hope i answered all your questions
Love Elder Harper ;)

Monday, July 9, 2012

Full of the Spirit


Monday, July 09, 2012
Well this week was a busy one wooo, first of all i guess to start off about RR he called us last night saying that he talked to his pastor and he decided to stay with his church but we kept talking to him and he decided to give us one more chance to see if what we believe is true or not and so we are going over tonight and teaching him the restoration. Satan is a poo face. Then we talked to some referrals from the BRP program that we are doing and one of them is a less active , me and elder law were on an exchange and we went to see him and he let us in, he had some questions about the church since he had been away for basically 50 years of his life and we shared the first vision and had him pray and he knelt and prayed with us and he just started to cry as he was praying cause of the joy that he felt because we were there and how he is trying to do the best he can and be the best father that he can be to his kids, hah it was like the most spiritual prayer I’ve ever heard and been apart of, the spirit was just pounding the room ( not really) but it felt like the spirit was just hugging all of us it was AWESOME   

Grant keep up the hard work in football give it all your heart, might, mind, and strength

Alli be happy stay strong and have a great summer keep working on the violin, say hi to elder jackson law for me in 2 weeks

mom if you get the chance to talk to coach more maybe you could ask him if he knows anything about the church, but i don’t know i might just do that when i run with them in march and the summer and try to talk to him about the gospel so that’s my plan.

Man im sad to hear that Nash is gone but even more mad that he went to the LAKERS! I heard about the guy from North Carolina, but did they get anyone from the lakers for him?
Also sad to hear about shadow but i know he is in heaven he had a good fat house cat life haha.
Man why is it that grandma  is doing well and some one has to total her car AHHHH, tell her I love her and im praying for her. Now i can’t drive the camero haha

Oh mom in the box you sent me there was an envelope that i opened that had a bunch of my emails and it was addressed to grandma smith in Idaho, what were you planning on doing with that? or was that not supposed to go to me?

I miss going to kotijas and knotts berry farm we are gonna have to do it when i get back.

Well that’s all i can write this week sorry it’s not much but i love you all and miss you guys
Love Elder Harper :)

Monday, July 2, 2012

Pictures from the MTC, that I just had to share! We found these cool pictures on Elder Berenyi's facebook.





Monday, July 2, 2012

Hot, Hot, Hot in the South!

Wooow it has been hot the past 4 days, a big heat wave has just come through and its supposed to stay the same all next week, our car thermometer said 105 but the index said it was 117 either way the second you walk out side you start to glisten cause of the humidity and then at like 7 at night it cools of a little, but it stays more humid so you keep sweating. It’s basically like sitting in a sauna all day, and the car gets really hot too. haha. This week was pretty good even though nobody came to church for us. It was still a good testimony meeting, it was awesome with  so many great testimonies i wish our investigators would have come ahhhh! Tuesday I went on an exchange with elder Wilkinson who is in our district and we worked in Florence. We had a great time he is such a cool guy. He came out a transfer after me with elder north, he told me he actually graduated in 2008 and worked for 2 years before he left on his mission it was weird to know he was older then me, but anyway we taught one of the less actives in their ward and he is so cool he is staring to come back and he is only 17 but he loves learning about the gospel again and its making sense. We also had something really cool happen we went to contact a media referral named robbie who had been contacted back in december and we learned that he was having lots of health issues so it was hard to meet with them so they stopped coming, but we talked to him more and he has both of his legs amputated below his knees and he wears artificial legs and he says he feels like he has real legs cause they are so high tech.  We taught him the plan of salvation and he loved  it a lot he accepted to be baptized on july 21 so we are excited to meet with him more.  We live in an apartment and it is a little bit outside and south of marion city. We do get fed well here so that is good. I am doing good on clothes still, and cooking is okay haha its so hard here to keep things from going bad because of the humidity things mold so fast.  People give us lots of vegetables from their gardens especially squash for some reason, but they don’t stay good for a long time.

That’s way cool to hear about Duncan’s mission call to the SOUTH, tell him hi for me, cant wait for him to join me down here.
yeah I got the package all good, we email at the library cause we have a branch here and there is no family history center to do it in, but yeah elder cranford is weird with his p-day schedule so its always different, elder cranford reminds me a lot of joel, its kind of weird i have to admit.
 yes i do know where harper rd is that was like the first thing i noticed when I got here.

Man, im sad to hear about shadow I really hoped I would get home by the time he would die, but its time for him, he has had a good life.

Man. thats cool to hear who’s getting married do you know who all they are marrying?
Who is coy dating?

 I have given a couple talks i think 3 and i should be speaking at the end of July, president harvey our branch president asked me yesterday.
and I have born my testimony a couple times but we are asked not to do it a lot so that we let the members have their chances.

Well dad, I don’t root for UofA, no matter what, GO GAMECOCKS!! i am mad that arizona won though.

Oh yeah, i got stung by a wasp the other day and the swelling has gone down, its almost better, but yeah we were sitting under a porch and it flew and dive bombed my arm

It’s crazy to think that Dylan goes home in like less then a month, man so fast 
Well, that’s all i get to write this week it was great to hear from you guys
Love Elder Harper :)



Sunday, July 1, 2012

June 25, 2012

June 25, 2012
What’s up fam!
 Man, so this week was hectic we have been traveling a lot. We went and had a special multi zone conference in sumter and got to meet elder William R Walker of the seventy, he is in charge of all the temples around the world and everything that goes on with them he gave us lots of cool information, he told us 6 things to do on your mission and they were like keep a journal and some other stuff I don’t remember exactly what they were and don’t have my notes with me so i cant tell you haha, but when i shook his hand he asked where i was from and he said what stake and i told him scottsdale north and he said he went to a stake conference of ours like 3 years ago and he remembered president Rizley so that was cool.  Then on friday we went to columbia and went to the temple for wanda  to get her endowments it was such a cool thing, its a 2 hour drive from where we are and so it lasted all day and we got back at like 11:30 at night, but when we got there they ended up changing the session to an hour later and so me and elder cranford went and were witnesses for some proxy sealings, it was really cool I didn’t know we could do that and the guy who was doing the sealings ended up being the uncle to one of elder cranfords brothers wife’s so that was pretty cool. Anyway wanda just looked so happy she looks healthier and cleaner too, her sister who was with us when we taught her everything came and brother libby who is from the boiling springs ward also came, it was so good to see him and we got to talk for a while before the session.  He said that the greenville east stake is getting 2 new units added to it so the boundaries of all the wards will be effected, I also found out that wanda moved out of her trailer and into a house that is up by brother libby’s house which is kind of a little ways out of town, I‘m glad she moved cause her old place smelled really bad but at the same time i wanted her to still be in that house cause i wanted to take you back to the same house that we taught her in, but oh well.  wanda cried the whole time and me and elder law got a picture with her outside afterwards, best day of mission by far. Afterwards we went with our ride brother allen who is our ward mission leader and we went to zaxbys for dinner, it was just such a happy peaceful day being able to be around the temple.
 There was some crazy storm the other day with lots of lightning and on our way home it was about 8:55 we saw a couple on the side of the road in downtown marion and so we pulled over and tried to help them with their car as it was raining and lightning everywhere and they were so grateful, even though we couldn’t really do much cause the problem was kind of unfixable but we were able to give them a card and a police officer helped them out the rest of the time. We found a family of 5 on saturday, we went to contact an old media referral and they let us in and we taught the whole family the restoration lesson and they all commited to be baptized on july14 so we are gonna go back again soon. We are still working with a couple investigators it’s been really hard to get in contact with a couple of them, betty & willy, and antonio  have been hard to contact but we are seeing nick  tonight they didn’t come to church yesterday :( so we are gonna have to reset his baptism date. Everybody in the branch has been giving us a bunch of fresh vegetables from their gardens, actually too much cause some of it goes bad really fast before we even get a chance to use it. Ooh, haha we also went and helped a recent convert chris  do some yard work, he is a really cool guy and knows a lot about the bible, so does the rest of his family but they are super redneck haha which makes it funny, anyway we ran into a cottonmouth snake in the back yard and he had to kill it but it was still moving after it was dead cause of its nerves he also was telling us about these things called "carolina bays" they are like natural swamps but there are hundreds of them and they are all egg shaped and they all point in the same direction, you can see them on like google maps and stuff, interesting stuff.
 
Man grant that’s great to here that you had an awesome time at efy, i love meeting new people, definitely try and hang out with the friends that you made especially if some of them were from az, I will have to look up your counselor when i get back, that would be cool to hang out with him and jackson and dylan, that’s how i felt about my counselor he was from az also. i am so jealous that you get to see the midnight batman returns.   
 
We are mostly in the car most of the time because our area is really big and spread out its mostly country not really any developments, we do have a crock pot and we just found out today that we had one, hahaha.
 
Hey so everybody is talking about the college world series between south carolina and arizona, is it really U of A or is it ASU cause everyone gets them mixed up
 
Well, anyway i got to go love you guys
Elder Harper :)