Merry Christmas!

So Christmas was fantastic! Got to talk to the fam - whoop whoop, see all the crew at our mission wide conference and eat fudge at Christmas time for the first time in five years (wrestling demanded healthy eating). I'd say it was a success;)

Christmas aside, we had a really fun adventure this week with an awesome lesson learned - it goes well with Emily's letter this week:) So on the 25th we had had some commotion and people were running every where all day trying to fit all our schedule in. One thing our president says is "Don't do stupid things" so one of the gals ended up kicking down their door to get inside to get their keys which they had locked inside and the car keys tambien. Fast forward to the next evening as we (Elder Moss and I and two of the sisters) left from our dinner appointment to head home for the evening the sisters received a call from the other sisters. We got home to receive a call ourselves to head over to their place. What had happened was someone had broken in to the apartment while they were out and of course that only required pushing on the door hard and when the other sisters had come home they had walked into it, turned around, and ran out screaming. So we had been called to the rescue armed with a golf club, a metal bar, two hands, and an elder with PVC pipe to the recue. To our heart break the robbers had left and no action ensued... Nothing was really taken just all messed up and a few small things gone. Members came over to help with the door and the whole thing was sorted out. Right about now I feel I should say mom don't call the mission office all is well ;)

The initial lesson learned is don't do stupid things. But after we talked about it a bit, a greater lesson was learned. There is no reason to fear! One, we are on the Lords errand and if we are doing what we are supposed to be doing, where we are supposed to be all will be just fine. And two, and also something that goes hand in hand with what I've been studding this week is our relationship with God. It is so crucial to know that God really is our literal Father, making us His children. In 1Nephi 21:14-16 it says "For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea they will forget yet I will not forget thee." and it goes on to talk about this more. God listens to all and sees all. He is always mindful of us and his hand is about us I know this to be absolutely true! So pray and look for his hand it is there. Love you all!

CCM district reunited!

Two Elder Harkers in the middle

Back with Elder Stewart again! (comp from CCM)

Making homemade egg nog.

Rousing game of golf on Christmas Day.

The San Benito missionaries.

Lesson Relearned

So there is a quote I love that says, "He who thinks he can and he who thinks he can't are both usually right". I've always loved this quote but it's the lesson that was relearned this week. 

Our mission President always says "Disfruten su mision no es para sufrir" meaning enjoy the mission, the mission is not to be endured. Likewise Christ commanded us to "be of good cheer". So if a door gets slammed in your face, it's the best doors that's ever been slammed in your face. If you get hit by a car, well it could have been a bus. If members cancel, well great now we can go share the gospel some more. It applies to all things in life. When we have this attitude we can progress far faster than if we are determined to be caught up on every small little thing that comes our way. This is a principle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

As a companionship this last week we tried to make it a focus. Any negative comment had to be resaid in the most positive light possible, we smiled more, we acted more outgoing. I would have to say this has been the best week of the mission so far and we've grown so much closer as companions!

But the greatest example of the light of Christ, the joy of the gospel and the simple choice just to follow the commandments and be happy has come this week from one of our investigators. His nic name is PePe and when Elder Moss and I first met him he was the most solemn person I've ever met. He wouldn't look us in the eye, or talk or anything! But he shook his head yes we could come back. Slowly he has changed over the last couple of weeks and he has changed completely. Now he reads, plays with his daughters, prays, invites us in for food, talks smiles and laughs, his eyes show that light! So choose to be happy and pray!

Enlightenment

This week has been a rather grand and enlightening week for me. During the zone meeting we had the opportunity to practice the whole process of teaching an investigator from beginning to end. Elder Moss and I worked with another companionship. As the role plays continued, I began to see some blatant problems from the younger causing the Spirit to be hindered and the lesson from being successful. Upon one of the later short role plays I began to give him some feedback that might help, like we do after each short one. As I expressed how I had dealt with these same problems at the beginning of coming here I realized what  I was doing! I was literally asking him to take the mote out of his eye while the beam still sat in mine! This was a very harsh realization for me. I began to see how prideful I have been from day one of the CCM and I didn't want to admit it to myself that this was true. How imperfect and far off from seeing the truth I have been! 

This has been  really tough for me this week. It was like I was Alma seeing all my faults before the Lord! I realized the reason for us not having people at church or baptizing was not any fault other than me. I had been teaching how I wanted to teach with little regard to the Spirit or to my companion. I thought I was a good teacher and I was seeing progress but I was not seeing God's divine plan. And the whole time both Elder Moss and the Lord have been so patient with me. We had been doing really well on everything previous to this week but getting people to come to church has not been going so well. 

It is a goal to bring four people to church every week so they can be prepared to be baptized. This week after being humbled by the Lord and really trying to make every decision by the Spirit and do want He wants to be done, a great difference was seen at church. A family of four who were taught by missionaries over a year ago came to church out of nowhere, having not been invited by any missionaries or anything . I know the Lord prompted them to go to church this week. It is only after we humble ourselves and repent that the Lord can poor out blessing upon our heads. 

The Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. It forgives, it empowers and it gives us hope for the future! I am so grateful for our Heavenly Father's divine plan for each of us. That He loves us enough to bring us down in humility and raise us up in Him. We are not perfect and He knows this better than anyone else and He provides us with a way to become perfect like Him and rejoice in His love and glory:) I love you all, know that God is forever mindful of us and provides a way.

The District 

Our mission van

Seriously sweet Santa pinata!

The Lord's Protection

I was on an exchange with another Elder and we were biking along trying to get to an investigator’s house, then this lady blows through a stop sign barely missing my companion and plowing into me. :) So as we sat in the first lane with me on her hood the lady got out going crazy in a good way but losing it non the less. This was my big moment how do I react. Honestly it was the coolest thing ever. I've been waiting for someone to kidnap me or threaten us or something so I thought this was good lol. :) I tried to show this lady how Christ would act so we made sure she was ok assured her I was fine introduced ourselves and taught her a little bit. Then we got her contact info set up a time to come by and helped her on her way it was awesome!

Typical sign posted everywhere

Fun thing number two; I got bit by a dog this week! So there are dogs everywhere and this one which was actually a member’s dog which is normally nice but went all crazy on me when we came for dinner haha. That was awesome! I think it thought I tasted good. ;) Mom I'm fine no worries. But all teenage boyness aside, this was really a cool week to see that this is the Lord’s work and He watches out for us and protects His children.  

We were in Bentree (the place with the Mary). As missionaries every day we set goals for things that we will get done in the day; to hit out weekly goal, to hit our monthly goal, to hit out three month goal, to hit our yearly goals. We had a lot to do still and 30 minutes to make some miracles happen after a day of everything falling through. So we in essence split up with our members and went to work. Problem here is my member speaks zero English, and we are talking to people who also don't speak English, and you could say I don't exactly speak fluently yet. ;) So we go to find the brother of an less-active member who I've never met and I don't really know where he lives. I end up seeing the member from the street and he waves us in. There are some guys with him and I've met one but don't know the others so I start using the best Spanish I can muster and begin to find out who everyone is and teach. They take it slow to start but begin speaking faster and faster, over each other too, and I begin to get lost so I prayed that my comp would magically find us and save the day. Not one minute later Elder Moss shows up! Then the conversation goes crazy but Elder moss says nothing. The brother of the man we are looking for begins to bear a powerful testimony of why he knows his brother needs to be baptized. He had said he would in the past I guess. It was incredible. They all either became teary eyed from his testimony or straight up began crying. As we left from this house the oldest man stopped me and said 'Usted es nino... Keep it up!"

The Lord answers prayers and the power of a testimony is real! The Spirit knoweth all things and beareth record of all things. This work is not the work of man but of God. He truly has His hand in all parts of our lives. I know the lord is mindful and loves His children. He works in mysterious ways but He always comes through even when there is only a half an hour left. I love you all don't forget to pray!

Mary in a bathtub?

Miracles Everywhere

So this week has definitely been a week for miracles! We were walking down a street in "lil Mexico" and we had been having little success for the first couple hours of the day. Then this teen age boy I'd never seen in there before gave us a little gesture to come closer. Not sure if that was the best idea or not, but we went because hey why not?! The first thing he asks us is if we can give him help to know God? Turns out this young man, who by the way is the most respectful person I’ve met the whole time being here, is a long lost member of the church. He had been suffering with being in a gang and wanted out. He wanted to change! We told him God has answered his prayers. We bore testimony of the changing power and redemptive power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I shared with him I know how it feels to be alone and feeling helpless, like everything just seems to becoming worse and worse, like you've let everyone you care about down and that hope is lost. Well it is not lost! God has given us a light and a way to become better and be who He needs us to be! I could see the light in his eyes and tears pouring out. This teenage kid could feel the Spirit and God’s love for him, it was truly incredible!

We also this week met with our 10 person family again also in the same place. They had no food for Thanksgiving and asked if we could help. They had asked a pastor next door who shunned her and forcefully told her he could not help! This humble mother told us she was left her feeling stupid on his doorstep. I told her of course we could help! The branch quickly came together and made it happen. She was sooo incredibly grateful! The kids gave us the biggest hugs and were so excited! We hadn't planned to see them that day but just felt a prompting from the spirit that we should stop by. We only caught them on their way out. God has a plan for each of us and always supplies a way! Sometimes miracles come in ways never expected and sometimes they seem great and sometimes they seem small but they are all around us and God’s loving hand is always out reached for us!

We saw so many more miracles this week but these topped off some of my personal favorites. It is truly a great blessing to be allowed to be a part of this work and see the hand of God is so many lives. Don't forget to count your blessings and look for the miracles this week, they are there. Read, pray, and go to church. This is the best way to start to feel the atonement and peace of Jesus Christ in our lives. I love you all and I love him, until next week … 

PS: it is absolutely freezing here and I need to get a sweater some gloves maybe a scarf and hat. Apparently it gets that way every year - yeah 70 as a low, total lie! LOL The humidity makes it feel like the top of Mt. Timp with the wind too lol:)

Puppy belonging to our of our investigators

Alvarado twins who are both RMs in our branch 

After knocking three doors with a bloody face from a tree branch
that attacked me on my bike through my helmet

Brownies bunt style that I ate for breakfast - happens when you're low on food 

Love it Here!

So the weather turned cold! I didn't think that happens in TX! So I had my short sleeve on one day and it got really windy and after five hours knocking doors and having appointments fall through being outside for all of it I was chilled to the bone. The humidity doesn't help. So we saw a man who had a BBQ going because it was dark and we could see the flame from a ways off. So we got excited because: 1) it smelled good, 2) it would be warm, and 3) it probably wouldn't run away if we came close. ;) So we started talking and the man invited us to come closer, he let us talk, fed us and invited us to come back. This surely is a modern day good Samaritan. The people are so nice its incredible!

For a while we've been working in an area you might describe as "Little Mexico" my favorite part. (Oh side note, my area covers right down to the border yeah!) There is a group of boys we like to play ball with in the street and one of them is kind of the leader. Because of him we've been able to reach three different families because after each game the boys sit down for a message. One day they even told us to wait one sec while they went for their bibles only to come back with 12 copies of the Book of Mormon. So we invited them to our branch Thanksgiving dinner this last week because they have almost nothing but they ended up not being able to come. Since then it's been hard to get in contact with them again. But last night one was across the street by a fire staying warm (I was once again rocking the short sleeve hoping maybe with the cold they'd let me in haha) and he ran inside for us and his mom came out! So we found out that things have gotten worse and they've fallen into even harder times. We shared a scripture from D&C 59 talking about when we attend church the Lord promises to help us with all of our temporal needs. As we talked and the Perez family (our rock star mission leader) shared their testimonies, she began to cry and said yes they will come because they need to come and make it happen. The Spirit was soooo strong it was incredible. This is really an answer to her prayers and needs and the Lord had directed us to her to make it possible.

Additional moment this week to add to my thought. We were walking down the street, nothing was working out the way the day had been planned and we stopped to talk to a man who was chilling with his buddy. We were just saying hi when he said "Hey can you guys do me a favor?" Umm what kind of question is that of course we can?!! He asked if we could pray for him. Immediately I said yes knowing that the Lord had directed us to this man through the "change in plan" He said he was looking for help and we were able to offer it. The details are many but the point is that the Lord provided a way for this man to receive an answer. The Lord loves us so He sent His Son. He really truly answers all His children'
s prayers when we ask, knock, and receive. All requires action on our part, all require faith, and all require sincerity but when we do, we receive greater blessing than we can hold.

I love you all thank you for all the letters and the support and all the love! Stay great!

Attitude is Everything!

So first off a little about Texas. Navigating is hard! It’s all flat so I can’t use mountains to get my direction straight. It’s not too hot but it’s soooo humid! And the mosquitos are ridiculous! I had a massive circle of bites on my calf and on one arm I counted 19 bites in one day! They are from the devil I know it!

The people here are super, super nice! They feed us every night and the first three days here I ate double dinners and could barely handle it! Since I can barely speak to some of them, they are so kind with being patient and letting me mess up a ton. Like trying to say my sister is speaking Mongolian and ending up saying she has a mental handicap or saying shoulders instead of men, but hey it’s all in the process. ;)

Sundays are the best thing ever! We get to go to church, take the santa cena, ayunar, and see the branch members. We meet in a super small building that is in the downtown type area. I think it used to be a lawyers office, but it’s been fixed up for church. Crazy-ish story … some people we talk to don't like us and one guy saw us, opens the door to let his pit bull out and closes it while his CRAZY dog is trying to bite us, lol like an attack dog is going to stop me. ;) Our mission president is the bomb.com!! He might be the most inspired man I've ever met. Our zone is super tight too and the district as well. We like to meet up a couple times a week in the mornings at 5:50 and play ultimate frisbee until 7. It’s the best thing ever, especially when we do it in the mud!

Spiritual experience/thought this week:  So when I got here we had two people on date for baptism and now neither one is being taught. So we focused a lot on finding new people to teach and right now the member missionary effort needs help, so we are working hard on that as well. But that left us having to find people by door contacting and referrals. We found a ton of people and I was super excited because when this happened it was all really early on in the week and I thought we'd be able to help people out for sure. However, when we came back to most of these lessons we got stood up by one person after another - it was awesome. ;) But this led us to find people who wouldn't have been home or found without our appointments falling through and it led to us being able to find lots of new people.

Lessons I learned this week: Sometimes we can get discouraged because our plan doesn't turn out. On the mission this happens a lot! But what we don't see, that the Lord does, is that perspective. School might be hard, the team might not be coming together, work could have orders backing up all over the place and it can seem like a disaster, but when this happens it’s an opportunity for blessings. We can show our hope and exercise faith in the Lord and receive many blessings we could never think of, if we just trust in the Lord. He did not send us here to fail He wants us to succeed, we just need to trust in Him, pray and act!

I love you all and God loves you too. Be a champ, see ya next week!

Texas famous fast food!

Arrived Safely

Ok so the field is the most wonderful thing in the world! No photos this week super sorry but I want to leave with a spiritual thought. We talk a lot about goals here and setting goals then making a plan to get there. One question was have you made a plan to get into heaven? Well no I just kinda thought do the right stuff and it all works out right? But no we need to make a plan and make it purposeful! Often here they give us what seems to be an impossible goal but they expect it done nonetheless. Well there is always a way provided and like the Lord says, He will provide a way. This is true and He never fails us. He makes all things possible.

I love you all. Have a great week!

ADDITIONAL INFO COURTESY OF THE GREAT MEMBERS OF THE TMM: David is serving with another Oregonian, Elder Moss, in San Benito. These photos courtesy of thoughtful members on the mission!

Greenie and his trainer.

Drat those bike racks!

Leaving the MTC, Headin' to Texas!

Some last minute photos before leaving the disctrict in Mexico.

Last Week to Come in the CCM

Fooseball update: we played another tourney today still holding the crown. ;) This week my Mexican amigos left which was really sad but cool to see them leave to serve. This week we found a massive spider that was the size of the bottom of my pringles can. It was on my towel and crawled over my foot when I got out of the shower. I caught it and some fun out with it with the Hermanas, haha, I'll just leave that story there... ;) My roommate was sick one day this week so I skipped eating breakfast and got to sleep in - that was glorious! 

Cool thing from Sunday. First I was blessed with the opportunity to bless the sacrament in Spanish, which was super cool! But the greater blessing was later. Elder Stewart and I were called out of the meeting to go check on some rouge members of the zone. When we returned, the branch presidency called on me to talk. Well this would make three weeks in a row I've done so which wasn't supposed to happen since others hadn't spoke. Well we had been so sure I wouldn't be called on this week that myself and Hermana Smith didn't prepare talks.... I will never do that again! I quickly grabbed my companion's talk. His talk was in his writing, in Spanish (they all are) and I'd never even glanced at it before. Well I stood up and delivered the best talk I´ve ever given in the MTC and bore testimony at the end and it was wonderful! I could read it, speak it, and understand all of it perfectly and speak beyond the talk itself. Let me assure you I am not anywhere near good enough to go for 5-10 minutes like that on my own in Spanish. It was clearly the gift of tongues and Heavenly Father was blessing me big time! It was a super cool experience! 

We´re also working with a less active member and helping her to return to church. It is so amazing how the Spirit can touch someone who is so against coming back to the church she once loved and helping her to find more love and purpose in her life! We watched a devotional by Elder Bednar and he told us "Get over yourselves" and "Christ always turned outwards and never inwards" so those are my two new motos and how I plan on going about everything, especially as I go into the field next week! Love you all and please keep the love and letters coming I love them! 

Ode to The Beatles

Our classroom building

District fun

Beautiful Mexican skies

Start of Week 5

Hola! This week has been pretty great. The week feels so long here! Ok fun thought: we have one elder who always replies "mas o menos" for when he is asked how he is doing. Well our teacher this week said when you get to the judgement bar and God asks you did you obey the commandments are you going to say "mas o menos" because I don't think that will count for an answer. It was the funniest thing! 

Ok so today is p-day and I drew up a bracket for our district and some others and we held a fuzzball tourney will pig tails and the whole thing it was so great!! Hermana Smith and I have yet to be defeated - it is great. Our team name is Alpha and Omega it's pretty fun. The key is to wear my Roseburg Wrestling t-shirt and the competition runs screaming. ;) 

This week our teachers have been riding us hard about solo Espanol so it has begun they just say huh? if we use English. haha It makes you slow down for sure but it's all going well. Also all our investigators are on date to be baptized now which is sweet!!! Definitely cool to watch Jorge who has been so skeptical and against the message but the spirit has touched him and the change is amazing to watch! This last Sunday we watched "Meet the Mormons" which was cool because I had not seen it before and it was amazing! But for the first time I was homesick for a wee bit with the son leaving and the mom's story - seems like one I've heard before ya? The best part was that everyone was so different and had different testimonies but all said this gospel changed their lives and makes them have so much joy! 

Sorry for the shortness of my email, we had some tech probs again, Love everybody see you next week for the last p-day in the CCM! 

Comps ready to head out to McAllen, TX

Women = danger?

Best to stick with the pringles.

Half Way!

So this week feels like it has been a month long! The biggest news is that I scored the goal of a life time on the Latino team in cage ball this week!;) They call me "Greengoa"l and every game is more entertaining than the last. The Mexican people are so funny; I have never met a people that smile more or laugh so much! 

It was so great getting letters this week they make life soooooo wonderful! I feel bad though for the rest of the district. So far everyday we come into the mail room and they crowd around it and it ends up being for me. One guy got a package this week so that was sweet! I think they will get more this week. 

Yesterday was hump day so that was the half way mark to our time here. The oldest district in our zone left which was sad and weird and it's quiet here. We get a full zone again on Wednesday some time. We'll probably bring them each some Mexican candy to help them settle in. 

Best moment of the week came with TRC this week. TRC is once a week and we get to have a real lesson with a real person that we haven't met yet. So Elder Stewart and I had the opportunity to teach a non member!! It was super cool because we really had to rely on the Lord because 1) she doesn't know English like the people here. 2) It's for real and is not a training run anymore. 3) she is a native so lets just say her Spanish is not the Spanish we learn here at the CCM. ;) So we started off just getting to know her. She was such a sweet lady I loved her! As we went from basic stuff about her we started asking more about her religious background to get to know her. She had one friend who is Mormon and tried out our church once last week. I asked her if she'd prayed before and she told me everything concerning prayer with her. It quickly became evident her relationship with God was zero. She even told us she would not be praying and we didn't even ask. I felt prompted to ask if we could share a message with a song and she said yes. So we sang to her in Spanish the first and last verse of I Need Thee Every Hour (hear it here) and it was amazing!! We don't usually sound good but this time it was like having angels in the room singing with us! I've never felt the spirit that strong in a lesson before. It turned the whole thing around. She ended up praying at the end and asking God if He loved her. She said she felt an answer and she felt feliz y paz y mucho (happy & much peace) She said other things with teary eyes and a smile that I don't understand yet. She wants to know more now and can pray any time she likes! I love that lady it was such an amazing moment!  

Otherwise I got a haircut today in here and it turned out petty good which was lucky because some come out reallllly rough! This place is tough and way more emotionally challenging than I ever realized but the blessings are amazing when we do what is right! Love you all!!

Literally climbing the walls - a Harker misionary tradition.

Typical fare in the CCM.

Practicing my bicycling skills.

Me & my comp after a day of service.

A Day in the Life

Today is my p-day (preparation day) and the only day photos are allowed to be taken. A basic day here goes like this: wake up at 6, get ready by 6:45,study till 7:30,eat breakfast, study till 9 on our own again, then we do language study and Book of Mormon study and coaching with our teachers until noon. Lunch, work out, shower, back to the books or teach our investigators, more language, dinner,  TALL (language program online), then daily planning for tomorrow and more studying until 9:30. Go back to casa verde and change, more personal study and lights out at 10:30 and repeat. A quality 16 hr day every day, LOL. We get to mix it up with a service project on Mondays and church on Sundays and Tuesday is pday so we have part of the day to clean do laundry shop or take pics or whatever else we can come up with.

The food at breakfast is normally a no go so cereal usually reigns supreme. Lunch is the big meal of the day which sucks because we need to eat the majority then but we work out right after so there is kind of an art to it. ;) Dinner usually they try and give us a gringo food every once and a while to make us feel at home, like pizza Tuesdays or when they feed us burgers instead of Mexican food which is great - a burger never tasted so good! There is a mini soccer court in a cage called cage ball and we get to play the Latinos every day if we want - they are soooooo good!!! The two best feelings are: 1) getting passed to by them and being called hermano and not gringo and 2) scoring on a Latino keeper. LOL

My companion for the CCM is Elder Stewart and he is great. He was called as district leader (DL) and I’m the senior companion so we`re the district leaders and basically are in charge of each other pretty equally.  I love him. I got really lucky with him and my roommates and my district – they’re great. We have me and Elder Stewart rooming with Elder Shearer (queen B) and Elder Jacobson, who I love! Elder Swinehart (I wrestled him when I won free style state and he won a title this last year, he’s super cool but they won’t let us wrestle on p-day). His comp is Elder Child who is the funniest guy I’ve ever met. Elder Spencer who helps me out mad time on my Spanish and (my twin) Elder Nelson may just be the other funniest guy I’ve ever met - he is so fun! There’s also Hermanas Smith and Homer who have us do a challenge every day like a fashion walk or best tie or best first impression or best high kick etc. I’ve got the most wins right now at 2 no big deal. ;) We all know "hermanas are perfect" our branch president told us that.

So life in the district is pretty great! The first week was awful but now it’s all turning around and I’m learning a lot and God is helping us each out like crazy on speaking Spanish. I’ve been struggling with feeling inadequate as a missionary but this last weekend was General Conference - I hope everyone watched every session it was so wonderful!  I was really in the dumps about the language and struggling with lots of different things but what I got most from the conference was that one apostle said God qualifies those he calls and the spirit hit me hard with that and I knew that God was and is looking out for me and is right by my side in all of this as I obey. In Moroni 10 it says we must have both faith and hope so not just in ourselves but in God, so with that I have been living each day and it is going so much better! I love this place and all the people and couldn’t be happier!