This week has been awesome and a trial at the same time. We had some drama at church with a member, she's really old and not all there. But a member brought a friend with her to church. Her name's Veronica and she's sixteen. She came up to us after sacrament meeting and asked us if she could get baptized. We started teaching her and set a date with her for next weekend. Unfortunately last night when we saw her she told us that her parents didn't want us to teach her anymore and that she couldn't be baptized or go to church anymore. We're praying really hard for her and going to try and talk with her parents next week. We're still working on getting our other investigators married/divorced so we can baptize them. The Lord's definitely testing my faith, but I've gotta endure to the end. Everything will work out. I had my last zone conference yesterday. It was great but kinda sad that it was my last one. It's gonna be tough leaving. Well I love yall lots and hope all is well back home. Can't wait to see yall next month.
Elder Harber
Brett-January 21, 2010
Brett-January 14, 2010
Hey yall it's transfer week again. Last time I ever have to worry about it. Elder Kennedy and I are both staying here in Portales. I'm pretty excited to die here. We've got a lot going here. The only problem is that all of our progressing investigators need to get married before we can baptize them. We've got three right now, two of them need to get divorced first, then married and later baptized. It's pretty crazy. Well I've got my last zone conference coming up next week. I'm stoked for that. I can't believe I'm almost done. Well I love yall and hope that all is well back home. Have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-January 7, 2010
Next week is the start of my very last transfer. It still doesn't seem real to me that I'm going home so soon. I'm trying not to think about it too much and just stay focused on our investigators. The work here is great. The members are awesome and they help out a ton. We had eight investigators to church this last weekend. That's a record for me. We're working hard to get them all ready for baptism but each one of them has something that they need to overcome. I'm confident that we'll be having some baptisms here shortly though. The mission is doing big things. I'm pretty sure I've already told you this but last year we doubled the number of baptisms and we've set a goal this year to triple them. I wish I could be here to see it happen but I'm afraid I'll be heading home before it does. I love being out here and serving the Lord. There's nothing better. I love yall. Take care and have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-December 31, 2009
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I can't believe how fast 2009 went by. 2010 is going to be a good year. I've got a lot of goals that I've set, a lot of things to accomplish before I come home. And a lot of things I want to accomplish after I come home. I've only got two months left and I know it's going to fly by so I've gotta work hard and finish strong. The Lord has blessed us so much this past year, as a mission as well as our family. There are so many blessings awaiting us this coming year based on obedience and hard work. The work is going great here. We've got a ton of investigators coming to church, we've just got to get them ready for baptism. I'm grateful for the opportunity that I've had to serve the Lord all day everyday this year. The church is true, there's no doubt about it. The Lord blesses us as we obey the things he's asked us to do. Well I love yall. Have a happy new year, be safe, don't drink and drive. Just kidding... But seriously, don't. I look forward to seeing yall in 2010.
Elder Harber
Brett-December 24, 2009
MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Hey I don't have a ton to say because I'm going to talk to yall manana but I love yall and hope you're enjoying your white christmas up in utah. I sent your package to Vegas, I didn't know yall were gonna be up in Parowan or I would have sent it there. Sorry about that. It snowed here all last night so it looks like I'm gonna have a white christmas too. Well I love yall and am way excited to talk to yall.
Elder Harber
Brett-December 17, 2009
Well It's almost Christmas time, I can't believe it. I'm way excited. President hasn't really given us any specific directions for our phone call home so I'll probably give you a call Christmas Eve and we'll work out a time that I can call. We've had a lot of members invite us over and offer their phones. I'm way excited to talk to all of you. I can't believe it's the last time I'll hear yalls voices until I see you. The time keeps flying by. Well things are going good here. We had interviews yesterday. Interviews with President are always awesome. Well I don't have a whole lot to update yall on. We have quite a few investigators we're working with and a lot of them have come to church. Hopefully we'll be having some baptisms shortly. Well I hope everything is well back home. I love and miss yall. Have a great week. I'll talk to yall next week :)
Elder Harber
Brett-December 10, 2009
Hey yall it's kinda late and I don't have a whole lot of time so this will probably be kinda short. This week has been pretty hectic. We had a combined Christmas Zone Conference in Lubbock on Tuesday. It was awesome. And afterwards I went on exchanges with one of the Elders in Tucumcari to do a baptismal interview. We were in Tucumcari Tuesday night and Wednesday we had to go over to Fort Sumner. So Monday night I slept in Lubbock, Tuesday in Tucumcari and Wednesday in Fort Sumner. So it's nice to finally be home and be able to sleep in my own bed. Today we hung out in Clovis with the other Elders and I'm really exhausted. We have an appointment tonight at seven so hopefully I can stay awake lol We were supposed to be having a baptism this weekend but she ended up going out of town for a family emergency the day she was supposed to be interviewed so I'm pretty sure we're going to have to postpone the baptism until next week. Well I love yall and hope all is well back home. Christmas is coming way fast and I'm way excited. I love Christmas time, I hope yall are enjoying the Spirit of Christ(mas).
Elder Harber
Brett-December 3, 2009
Well I'm back in New Mexico. Portales. I'm going to be sending yall some pictures. It's really cold here. We got here yesterday morning and it was freezing. We live in a house owned by a member out in the middle of nowhere on a farm. It's crazy. Luckily he came over and lit our heater last night because we woke up this morning to snow. I feel like I'm at the old cabin in Parowan. I'm excited about the work here though. It seems like the last missionaries here had a lot going. My new comp is Elder Kennedy from Wyoming. He's a pretty cool kid, he's only been out for two transfers. We're both new to the area, we white washed in so it's going to be difficult again getting to know everybody. But we do have a car now so I'm excited to be driving again. Well I don't have a whole lot to update yall on cuz we just got here yesterday. We've got Zone Conference coming up next week. We're having a combined again. Half the mission will be in Lubbock and the other half in Midland. I'm way excited for that. Well I hope all is well back home. Take care and have a great week.
Elder Harber
PS My new address is :
PO Box 184
Portales NM, 88130
Brett-November 25, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving!! Well I hope everybody is enjoying their time off, I know I am. I definately I wish I could be there with yall but I will be soon enough. We've got some good plans for today and tomorrow so I'm pretty excited. Today is our P-day so the elders from dalhart came down last night and the elders from pampa are coming over in a little bit and we're gonna hang out and play some ball. It's been three months since I've been able to spend P-day with other missionaries so I'm way excited!! And tomorrow we're gonna go to Pampa and play some football in the morning, I'm way stoked for that!! And we've got a couple of dinner appointments set up. The Jenkins, they live here in Stinnett, they invited us to go to her brothers house in Pampa and the Pampa elders are coming too. As well were going to go eat later with the Mejia's. I'm way stoked for that!! I could eat carne asada everyday, man I love Mexican food. But then on Friday it's back to work. I've only got three more months so I've gotta finish strong. Transfers are next week and I'm hoping that there are some changes made here. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I'll let you know next week what happens. If I do leave you won't know until Thursday. I miss having P-day on Mondays. Oh well. Well everythings cool here. I hope yall have a great weekend and don't eat too much. I'm really grateful for yall and I miss ya tons. Love ya, take care.
Elder Harber
Brett-November 19, 2009
Hace frio!! I hate the weather here. It's warm one day and freezing the next day. It hailed last sunday, it was supposed to snow but it just hailed instead. Well the work's going good. I hope the move is going good. This week I got to do four baptismal interviews and I should be doing another one this weekend. Our district is doing awesome!! This weekend we're having a spanish fiesta and all the branches and wards pretty much in the panhandle are going to be coming down to borger for it. It's gonna be sweet. Hopefully we'll have some investigators there. Well thanksgiving is next week on our p-day and as far as I know we're still going to take P-day on thursday. So we'll probably have to email the day before or the day after because I'm sure nothing will be opened. Well not much else to update on. I hope all is well back home. I love yall!! Have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-November 12, 2009
Hey yall!! Well things are still going well out here in the TLM. The weather is crazy here. It's hot one day and freezing the next. What can you do?? Lawrence and Jennifer came to church this weekend and they both enjoyed it. She's worried about getting baptized so soon, she feels like we're rushing her so we might have to move her baptismal date back a little bit. I have no doubt that she'll get baptized though. She's awesome!! She's reading and praying everyday and is committed to coming to church every week. Lawrence on the other hand might take a while to get rebaptized. He hasn't started reading nor praying. We're just taking it slow with him. It's bishops call when he gets baptized anyways, not ours. We had a couple other investigators come to church as well. Nothing too exciting to report on. Just same old stuff. Sounds like things are pretty crazy back home with the move. I wish I could be there to help yall out. Good luck. Well I love yall tons and hope yall have a great week and aren't too worn out from it all. Well take care. Love ya.
Elder Harber
Brett-November 5, 2009
Wow this past week has been pretty crazy. Lubbock was awesome last week, Zone Conference was so sweet. Elder Christensen and his wife are awesome. I learned so much in the short time I got to be with them. Well last week I was sick at the beginning of the week and Elder Frederick got sick this weekend. This sunday was the first time I've missed church since I've been out. It was weird. But he's feeling better now so we're back working hard trying to apply everything we learned at Zone Conference. On Tuesday we had interviews with President Robison down in Amarillo. The Zone Leaders and the Assistants both did some training there so that was pretty sweet too. District meeting was tight!! 7 out of the 8 missionaries in my district our spanish speaking and the one that isn't understands just about everything in spanish. So we had our district meeting in spanish. It was way cool. There's not too much spanish in Borger so every opportunity I get I try and speak spanish. We started teaching some cool people this week. We started teaching an ex-communicated member and his girlfriend Monday night. He's a little bit nervous about coming back to church but Jennifer's way excited about it. We're going back to teach them again tonight and we're going to committ Jennifer to be baptized this month. Pray for us. Yesterday was a pretty exciting night. We taught three athiast kids...it was rough. And then we started teaching the son of our recent convert Lachelle. So things are starting to look up here in Borger. We're working hard and pretty soon we're going to start seeing the fruits of our labors. Well I love yall a ton and hope all is well back home. Take care and have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-October 29, 2009
Hey yall. Well this week has been pretty crazy. I got to go to Lubbock yesterday for a leadership training with Elder Christensen of the first quorom of the 70. It was amazing. Him and his wife both speak spanish so I got to talk to his wife a little bit in spanish at lunch. They're an awesome couple and I learned so much in the short time I got to spend with them. Tomorrow we're going back down to Lubbock for Zone conference with them. I'm way stoked. The weather here has been cold and raining. It kinda sucks not having a car anymore. I was feeling a little under the weather this week so I finally got to the doctor today now that I'm just about over it. My comp is starting to get it now too. The work has been slow this week with all the traveling and sicknesses but we're doing the best we can. We went to the trunk or treat last night at the church. I took some sweet pictures but I forgot to bring my cord so I'll have to send some pictures next week. Well there's not a whole lot more to report on, everythings cool out here. I hope yall have a great week. Love yall!!
Elder Harber
Brett-October 22, 2009
Hey yall!! Well it's a little weird having P-day on Thursday now. But I guess I'll get used to it. Well I've got a lot to update yall on. It got really warm last week but it dropped again yesterday and now it's freezing again. I did but some gloves though so that has helped. Unfortunately I am now on a bike. They did put missionaries up in Perryton this week and they took our car. Elder Coy, my MTC buddy, is up there with a greenie. I'm excited to be able to see him every week now. We've got some way cool Elder's in our District now, so I'm excited about that. Elder Frederick and I are still together here in Borger. The work is coming along slowly here. We're working hard but the members don't really help us out too much so it's a little more difficult. Church this past weekend was great, Aaron Young is leaving next week for Brazil so him and his dad and his brother all spoke. It was a great sacrament meeting. Sunday school and priesthood/relief society were cancelled due to the sicknesses going around. The bishop said we will be only holding sacrament meeting until it gets a little bit better. A lot of the school's around here have shut down temporarily because of it. It's crazy!! This week our water heater busted and leaked all over our apartment and our neighboors beneath us. So while they were cleaning it up and fixing it we had to sleep over at a members house. We stayed with Brother Jordan, he's 89 about to turn 90 and probably the coolest old guy I've ever met. He gets around way good still and comes out with us whenever. Last week he was climbing on the roof of his house to fix some stuff. I got after him and told him he has to call us next time. It was fun staying the night with him though. He's got some awesome stories. Last night at about 7:30 or 8 we went over to see this part member family and we told them a little while ago we would cut there lawn. We tried to make a deal with her that if we cut it she would come to church, but anyways we ended up mowing there lawn in the dark last night. It was pretty fun. Next week we're having a combined Zone Conference because Elder Christensen of the 70 is coming to visit the mission. I'm super stoked about that!! Half the mission will meet on Thursday and the other half will be meeting on Friday. On Wednesday I get to go down to Lubbock for a leadership training with him. That's gonna be sweet. Then that night we'll drive back to Borger, P-day on Thursday and then Friday its back to Lubbock for Zone Conference. Then Halloween Saturday night. It's gonna be a crazy week. Well everythings good out here. I hope all is well with yall back home. I love yall and you're always in my prayers. The church is true.
Elder Harber
Brett-October 12, 2009
WOW It was cold this week!! We've been trying to ride our bikes a lot to save up miles so we can keep going up to Perryton and Spearman and Saturday morning we went to get on our bikes and it was about 40 degrees and raining. I didn't have gloves or a beanie but we rode them anyways and I froze my tail off!! Our first stop after email this morning is the sporting good store so I can get me a beanie and some gloves. Later Saturday evening it snowed here!! I called Tell Me to find out about the weather in Vegas and it said it was about 80 degrees at 7:00PM. I'm definately jealous!! Well other than the cold it's been a pretty good week. When it gets cold nobody wants to talk to us so the past couple of days have been rough. Everybody here has the flu right now. We ran into one girl that had the swine flu...that was pretty crazy but everybody's making a big deal about it. There's a line all the way through Wal-Mart right now of people getting their flu shots. It's crazy. Well we did get to go up to Perryton and Spearman twice this week. We got a ride with a member yesterday after church so that was pretty sweet, we saved a lot of miles. There's a lot going up there. I talked to one of the assistants this week and he said that its almost for sure that they're going to put missionaries up there next transfer. President is switching things up next week. Our P-day is being changed to Thursday. So next week I'll be emailing on Thursday instead of Monday. Well I hope all is well back home and your enjoying the warm weather. Love yall!! Have a great week!!
Elder Harber
Brett-October 5, 2009
Howdy yall!! Well this past week was great. We had interviews on Tuesday with President Robison, that was awesome, I love that man so much!! We headed up to Spearman and Perryton again afterwards which went really well. We found some sweet new investigators. We went up there again last night after conference to teach a referral from some members up there. It went awesome!! We were planning on just teaching a 10-year-old boy but we ended up teaching the whole family and committed them to baptism. It was an amazing lesson. Conference was amazing as usual. I can't believe it was my last one as missionary though. I thought conference was great though. I got to watch half of it in Spanish because we had some investigators come. Things are going really well here. It's starting to get cold here though and it's officially suit season. I got pulled over again this week. That was my second time since I've been here in Borger and probably the 5th or 6th time on my mission. Once again I got off with a warning. I think they usually let me off because I'm a missionary but this last one thought it was way cool that I was from Vegas. He was heading down there this week for vacation so if you see him tell him thanks lol Well I hope all is well still back home. I love and miss yall a ton. I pray for yall everyday. Remember to put into practice what we learned from conference this weekend. I know that daily prayer and scripture study, especially as a family, changes lives and keeps us on the straight and narrow. Have a great week!! Love yall!!
Elder Harber
Brett-September 28, 2009
Hey yall. Well this past week was pretty sweet. It's been really cold and it rained a couple of times but it heated back up this weekend. Suit season starts conference weekend. I'm not sure how excited I am about that. I've gotta go take those bad boys to the dry cleaner. Tuesday this week we had district meeting up in Dumas and afterwards we headed out to Spearman and Perryton. It was pretty cool. I think there's a good chance President will be putting missionaries up there next transfer. We got a phone call yesterday from one of the members in Spearman saying that they have a friend who wants to be baptized so we should be heading up there again this week. I'm pretty stoked for that!! Speaking of baptisms...Lachelle was baptized this weekend by her father. It was great. He had to do it about 4 times because he couldn't get her all the way under, he was way nervous. He's a recent convert of 2 months!! He did great though!! His family has made a lot of progress in the past few months. Saturday night after the baptism Elder Frederick and I and Aaron Young(who's leaving for Brazil in November) went to the Pizza Duo and did the Pizza Duo challenge. You have to eat an 18 inch pizza with 3 toppings in 45 minutes. If you do it's free, if not it's 20$. I thought I was going to be a tough guy and order pepporoni, sausage and jalapenos for my toppings and I failed miserably. I got half of it down lol But Elder Frederick pounded his!! He was the first person since the store has been open to do it. So they took his picture and are going to put it up on the wall. It was way sweet. He didn't feel too hot the next day though. Lachelle had asked him to confirm her and as bishop announced during sacrament that we were going to do the confirmation, I started walking up to the front of the chapel and as I looked around I couldn't find Elder Frederick. I had to run and get him out of the bathroom so he could do the confirmation lol It was classic!! Well everything else is cool here. I'm super stoked about conference this weekend. I can't believe it's my last one as a missionary...that's crazy!! The time is still flying!! Well I love yall lots and hope all is well. Have a great week and enjoy conference.
Elder Harber
Brett-September 21, 2009
Hey yall. Well things are going well here in Borger. We're starting to get to know the members and the area. We had stake conference this weekend in amarillo. The stake presidency was reorganized so two general authorities came and spoke and President and Sister Robison spoke as well. It was an amazing meeting!! I'm way excited for General Conference next weekend. It's going to be awesome. Well I think I told yall last week that we were helping a few people here stop smoking. Lachele, has stopped smoking completely and will be getting baptized this Saturday by her father Sherman who is a convert of two months. I'm so excited for them and their family. Joey and Annete Chesser have been doing great as well. Annette smoked one cigarrette the day after she quit but hasn't smoked another one since. Joey is at 0 :) Bishop wants him to wait two months to baptize the kids so in November Levi and Carol should be getting baptized if everything goes well. They've got the cutest kids!! I love that family a lot. Levi is 10 and he reminds me a lot of Brandon. He's a stud. We had Zone Conference as well last week and that was amazing as usual. That's always my spiritual boost for the transfer. Tomorrow we're heading to Dumas for District Meeting and after we're going to head way up north by Oklahoma and visit Spearman and Perryton, a couple of small towns that don't have missionaries. President is thinking about putting missionaries up in Perryton so he wants us to check it out for him. I'm excited to road trip haha Well things are great. The mission's awesome. The church is true. I hope all is well back home. I love yall a ton. Thanks for all your love and support.
Elder Harber
Brett-September 14, 2009
One week down in Borger, TX. Borger is an awesome podunk little town. I love it!! It's fixin to be a cold winter for me. They say it snows quite a bit and with the wind chill factor it gets super cold. I'm not super excited about that but what can you do. The ward here is pretty cool. It's a way tiny ward. There were about as many people at church yesterday as we were getting to the Spanish Branch in San Angelo. The members are pretty cool here though. It kinda reminded me of going to church in Parawon...everybody's wearing jeans and cowboy boots with cowboy cut suits. Man I love Texas lol We've got a few sweet investigators right now. We're working with a lot of them to quit smoking. It's really tough for a lot of people here. There's a 10 year old boy and an 8 year old girl whose parents just started coming back to church and they want to get baptized. We're working with the father to quit smoking so that he can baptize them. The bishop wants us to wait for him to quit smoking for 2 months...which I think is way too long!! Maybe 2 weeks would be reasonable but 2 months is a long time. The bishop here is a little bit different and not too many people get along with him but I'm sure it'll all work out. My comp is a little different too. We don't have too much in common but we'll work through it. I've definately got my work cut out for me here in Borger. We'll get things going though. We've got Zone Conference tomorrow so I'm pretty excited about that. Well I hope all is well back home. I love yall. Have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-September 9, 2009
Well first things first...Happy Birthday Blake and Andrew!! Well I hope everyone gets this email this week and hopefully it doesn't take to long to get to yall. It's Wednesday September 9, about 12o'clock and I'm sitting in the Library in Borger, TX. Last week was amazing!! Zally, Xiomara and Ashley were all baptized on Thursday and Vickie was baptized on Saturday. What a privilege it was to work with them and to be able to see them enter into the waters of baptism. It was really hard to say goodbye to everybody this weekend. I was in San Angelo for a long time and I really love the people there, both members and investigators alike. To be honest it sucked saying goodbye. I had to say bye to one of my best friends Elder Tripp too. He went home today. Well I'm in Borger now, I went from just about as far south as you can go in the mission to almost as far north as you can get. It's going to be a cold winter. Well my new companion is Elder Frederick. He's kinda goofy but I think we'll get along alright. He just came from Roswell so we're both new to the area. It's hard because we don't know any of the investigators nor the members nor anybody. So we're going to have to bust our butts. I don't really know too much about this place so I don't know what to tell you. I know that the gospel is true and that this is where the Lord needs my right now...out in the middle of nowhere. lol I definately miss San Angelo and Elder Jenkins but I'm excited to meet the people here in Borger. I'm sure they're way cool. Well I love yall a ton. Hopefully you get this email pretty soon. I don't know whats going on with myldsmail. But I love yall, have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-August 31, 2009
Well I hope everybody gets this email this week. Things are going great here in San Angelo. We had stake conference yesterday and we had a really good turn out. I think I told yall about the Honduran family that we've been teaching. Out of nine, five of them are baptismal age and three of the five are getting baptised on Thursday. The other two aren't living the law of chastity right now. They're such a cool family. Zally, Xiomara and Ashley are the ones getting baptised. I'm so excited for them. We went over there on Saturday for Xiomara's birthday and made them dinner and had a lesson, it was a blast. She loved it!! On Saturday Elder Root and Elder Wakefield are going to be having a baptism as well. They're baptizing a lady named Vicki that Elder Jenkins and I found but passed her over to them because she speaks English. Well she wants me to baptise her. I'm super stoked for that!! I was kinda shocked when they told me actually because I've only seen her like three or four times and taught her twice. I'm excited. We had something pretty amazing happen to us this past week. We're teaching this lady named Isabel right now. Her husband is working in Dallas right now and for some reason her two kids aren't living with her. Well they just moved here to San Angelo and found an apartment but didn't have any furniture at all and she had no money at all. In order to get her kids back her apartment had to be in good conditions with some furniture and food and everything and the lady was supposed to come on Friday to inspect her apartment and tell her if she could have her kids back or not. She's working at Diego's but wasn't going to get her paycheck until Friday. Anyways to make a long story short, the day after she told us all this Elder Jenkins and I were riding our bikes back home for lunch and we passed in front of this house with a bunch of furniture just sitting in the front yard with a sign that said Free Furniture. We were both in shock!! The Lord provided a way for her to get her kids back and we were able to get her all the furniture she needed. It was amazing and a huge blessing. The Lord is looking out for us and our investigators and blesses all of his children when we do what he asks. Well the church is true. God lives and loves all his children. I love yall too and hope all is well back home. Have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-August 24, 2009
Hey yall. Well this week has been great!! We got to go to Lubbock on Friday and take a picture in front of the temple with the whole mission. It was awesome!! It was so cool to see all my old companions and mission buddies again. It was a blast!! The work is going great here in San Angelo right now. I forgot to tell yall last week that we had to take our car into the shop to get it fixed, somebody hit us. So we've been on bikes a lot this week and we've had to rely on the members a lot to help us out. We taught a ton of lessons with members this week and all of our investigators that we taught with members are progressing a ton because of it. On Thursday we drove down to Brady with Mario and Fred to see the Muniz family. They're still unsure if they're ready to be baptized. They drove all the way to San Angelo for church this sunday so that was cool. I think they'll go down it just might take some time. We had a total of 10 investigators at church this sunday. The chapel was almost full. I've never seen that many people at church in a branch before. It was awesome!! We're still working with our Honduran family. Five out of the seven came to church this weekend and they loved it!! We're going to set some baptismal dates with them tomorrow night so pray for us. We started teaching a girl named Isabel this week. She's from Puerto Vallarta. She was staying with the Fernandez family. Her and her husband and two kids are moving here to San Angelo. She's way cool, we had some great lessons with her this week and she committed to being baptized and came to church yesterday. We still haven't met the husband yet though. We're teaching a couple named Juan and Julia. They couldn't make it to church because Julia works on sundays but we set some bap dates with them and they committed to living the word of wisdom last night. They handed over all their coffee and tea. They're so legit. The only thing that is going to be hard is getting her Sundays off from work. Well thats about it here in San Angelo. I hope all is well back home. I love yall lots. Have a great week. The church is true!!
Elder Harber
Brett-August 17, 2009
Howdy yall. Well things are going great here in San Angelo. We had an awesome week and a great turn out to church. We've been teaching this Honduran family for a while now and they haven't been able to make it to church because they're completely remodeling their house and on the weekends they are always working. We've gone a few times to help them out and do service but this weekend we made a deal with them. We told them we would go help them out for three hours on Saturday so that they could come to church for three hours on Sunday. They absolutely loved church and are planning on coming again next week. I love this family so much!! They're all black but speak awesome spanish. They showed up about 15 minutes late to sacrament meeting so the speaker when he saw them come in decided he would give his talk in English and Spanish. It was nice cuz I didn't have to translate but it was kinda annoying hearing the same thing twice lol but it was cool. Everything worked out well As well, Sister Hernandez brought her brother and sister-in-law to church and they loved church as well so we set up an appointment to start teaching them this week. Things are going good here.Well we're heading to Lubbock on Friday to take a picture in front of the temple. I'm so stoked!! Well I hope all is well back home. I love yall. Have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-August 10, 2009
Hey yall. I hope all went well in Hawaii. Things here in Texas have been kinda rough this week. Helen, who was planning on being baptized this Saturday, has been having some problems with the law of chastity and word of wisdom so we're going to have to post-pone her baptism again. It's been a rough week. But on the bright side, tomorrow is zone conference, the branch is doing really well and helping us out a ton, and we've found a lot of awesome new investigators this week. So far though nothing too exciting to report on. We're going to Lubbock on the 21st, I'm pretty stoked for that. Well sorry that this email is short I don't really have a whole lot say. I love yall, take care and have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-August 3, 2009
Hey yall how are things in Hawaii?! It sounds like yall are having a blast. I'm way jealous that yall got to see Elder Lords!! Well I've got some good news from the TLM. This past month we officially doubled the baptisms. We had exactly 40 baptisms in the month of July. So the whole mission is going to be getting together in Lubbock to celebrate. It'll be the first time the whole mission has been together since I've been out here. I'm way excited about it. The Lord has blessed us a lot. We've got a lot to be grateful for. Well things are going great here in San Angelo. It's way hot though!! It's rained quite a bit this past week and cooled off a little bit. The work is still progressing here. We set a new baptismal date with Helen. She's way excited about it. She's going to be baptized on the 15th of August. She's had to make some big changes in her life and she's come a long way but I think she's ready. We're working with some way cool families right now. One of them is from Honduras so they're black but they're way cool!! We're planning on going to a park sometime this week and playing some basketball and soccer with them. Pati just had a baby this week. She's way cute. Her and Henry aren't married so they can't get baptized yet but we're working on it. Well thats about it for now. I hope all is well in Hawaii and Indy. Love yall. Have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-July 27, 2009
Hey yall well I just had this big long email written and the computer logged me off. The library is packed right now. Everybody and their mom is on myspace right now so I'm using the 15 minute express computer and it didn't give me any warnings that I was running out of time. SO I'm sorry if this one is a little bit shorter. Well its transfer week and Elder Jenkins and I are going to be together for another 6 weeks. Things are going really well. Although we didn't have any baptisms this month, next month is looking really promising. Our mission right now is 2 baptisms shy of doubling baptisms. Things are going great. The mission's great. I hope life back home is still good and yall are enjoying your summer. I love yall a ton. Have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-July 20, 2009
Wow!! Today marks my 17th month as a missionary...CRAZY!! The time just keeps on flying by. You're probably wondering why I'm emailing so late. Sorry about that. We had set some appointments this morning cuz some people couldn't meet with us in the evening so we just worked this morning and are doing all our preparing now. Well this week has been pretty exciting. The other day we were out finding and we walked in this gate to knock on this door. It had a no trespassing sign but didn't say anything about dogs. Anyways I knocked on the door but I didn't notice the doggy door right next to it. As soon as I knocked you could hear two humongous dogs barking and running towards the door. I didn't think anything of it because they were inside but my comp took off running and before I knew it this huge half pitbull half something comes flying out the dog door and comes at me like its gonna bite me but you know what they say...perro que ladra no muerde. So I jumped off the patio and jumped over the fence and cut my hand up on the fence...man it was the scariest thing ever. I know that God protected me and closed that dogs mouth. The owner came out and said that the dog had just bitten somebody the other day. She was shocked that I didn't get bit. It was pretty crazy. As if that weren't enough the very next day we were going to an appointment and this lady has two big pitbulls chained up in her yard so I was still kinda scared. Her dogs and the neighbors dogs all started barking but none of them tried to attack me this time. But her neighbor came out and started yelling at us and told us we were disrupting the neighborhood. He asked to see our door to door license(which we don't need) Anyways to make a long story short he called the police on us haha That's a first for me. The police were really nice and just told us not to knock on his door. Satan has been working really hard against us this week. But I know that we are going to double the baptisms here in our mission. We've got two baptisms coming up next weekend. We were supposed to be having two more but unfortunately one of the ladies that was gonna be baptized went out partying Saturday night and didn't show up to church on Sunday. But If everything goes good Emery and Blanca are going to be baptized. Pray for them for us. We played some soccer today for P-day with a member and his friends. We've been playing the last few weeks. Its way fun. I'm getting a lot better. Next p-day we're probably going to go help this guy fly his glider. I'll tell you about it next week. Well I love yall lots. I hope all is well back home. I pray for yall everyday. Thanks for all your support. I know that the church is true. Heavenly Father truly does look out for his servants. Thanks for all your prayers. Have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-July 13, 2009
Hey yall. Well this week was a little bit slow. All of the people that we planned on getting to church didn't show up. Man there is this "brotha" here at the library right now talking with all us missionaries and he is a riot. I'm having a hard time focusing. On thursday we all drove out to Midland to party with the Midland and Odessa Zones. It was a blast. We got to play some football and basketball and I got to see some of my buddies that I haven't seen for a long time. I got to see Elder Zambrana again, I haven't seen him since Roswell. I love that kid. Well this week looks really promising. We've got 2 FHE's set up tonight and we've got a couple member present lesson's already set up for this week. We're planning on setting a few more baptismal dates. Hopefully those go through. I'll keep you posted. Well I love yall lots and hope all is well back home. Take care and have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-July 6, 2009
Hey yall. Well I hope yall had a fun and safe fourth of July. This week has been pretty good. We've been working hard and teaching lots of lessons but only one person came to church. The members are starting to get really excited about missionary work so things are going to pick up here. On the fourth we had a pancake breakfast at the church and a flag ceremony. It was pretty cool. They had us serving everybody pancakes.We got a couple investigators out and gave a them a tour of the church. We got to go in at 6 instead of 9 and hang out with the other Elders here in San Angelo. We just had dinner and played some games. It was pretty cool. We had zone conference this week. Zone conferences are always rejuvenating. I love them!! We got to play some soccer last P-day out in the rain. We got some less-actives and some investigators out there with us. The rain was nice cuz it's been way hot here. It rained again all last night and it's nice and overcast today. It looks like it'll probably rain on us again. We're gonna go play again at 3. I'm way excited. Well we're road tripping it this Thursday out to Midland to play some games. President is really excited about all the baptisms we're having so we're gonna party it up lol. Oh I almost forgot...somebody backed into our car the other night while we were eating dinner with the Canos so we're probably going to be carless for a few days this week. It's probably gonna be hot again. Well I hope yall have a great week. I love yall take care.
Elder Harber
Brett-June 29, 2009
Hey y'all how's everyone doing?? I hope y'all aren't partying too hard without me back in LV with all these birthdays coming up...We're going to be partying out here in the TLM with all these baptisms we're having. Elder Jenkins and I had 2 baptisms this Saturday and for the month of June, as a mission we had 38 baptisms, which is only 2 shy of doubling the baptisms!! I'm way excited. President has promised us that when we do double baptisms all of us are going to Lubbock to take a picture in front of the temple...It will be the only time all the missionaries in our mission are together. But this next week we are having a combined zone conference in Midland and the other half of the mission is going to Lubbock. I just got an email from President about it this morning. He's so cool!! I guess we're going to do a combined Zone Conference to celebrate the success we're having. The only other time that ever happens is during Christmas. So It'll be fun to see some of my mission buddies that I haven't seen for a while. Well as for our baptisms this weekend, it was amazing!! It was an awesome baptismal service and the branch is so supportive right now and so excited about missionary work...we're going to turn this branch into a ward. Ovidio's baptism was the first one that I've had to dunk someone more than once haha He has bad knees so he insisted on going forward rather than backwards so I tried it and he didn't make it all the way under so I just told him that we should try it backwards. He's kind of a big guy but I told him that I'm a strung dude and I could support all his weight so he was kinda hesitant but said ok and I got him all the way under haha he said it was a lot easier than he had expected. Ovidio's wife came down from Dallas for the baptism on Saturday and the confirmation on Sunday as well. She's way cool. She's going to be baptized pretty soon here as well. If she lived here it would be a lot easier but we'll figure something out. Zuli's dad came to the baptism as well which was really cool because he's not a member and we got a chance to talk to him afterwards. It was a great week. The best part about it was afterwards I asked them both how they felt and Zuli, after Elder Jenkins confirmed her on Sunday she came and sat down next to me and she just goes, "Wow!! I feel good." and Ovidio said that he felt like a new person. And he truly is. He's made so many changes since I've started teaching him and he just seems so much happier now. Before he was always way serious and now he's always smiling and happy. It's amazing!! This week we found a ton of new investigators as well. Two of them I'm really excited about. The first is Joel, he's a Puerto Rican guy that is in the Military. He's way cool and he's come to church for the last two weeks and we're going on the base tomorrow night to teach him. It will be fun. We're going to have to take our name tags off to get onto the base, that will be weird. Also we started teaching a girl named Kim. Her boyfriend is a less active member who just started coming back to church last week. They are both 18 and just had a baby together. They're not married yet so we're going to work on that and try and get her baptized. Well i hope things are going well for y'all back home as well. I love y'all lots and I pray for y'all everyday. Thanks for all your love and support. The church is true. Christ is the reason, baptism is the way, joy is the reward. Love y'all.
Elder Harber
Brett-June 22, 2009
Well I hope y'all have had as good of a week as I have. It sounds like y'all have. I guess first things first...my new comp is Elder Jenkins from the one and only sin city, Las Vegas. He has one transfer out and was trained by the Zone Leaders up in Amarillo. He's a stud. He's 6'2" about 215, loves sports, played volleyball and football at Silverado HS. But best of all he's excited about the work and is ready to work hard!! The Lord is blessing us for our hard work. This Saturday we will be having the baptisms of Ovidio Reyes and Zuli Ramoz. Ovidio has been an investigator for years and finally turned his faith into action, started reading and praying and coming to church, and is finally ready to get baptized. I guess he almost got baptized a couple of years ago but bailed at the last minute so PLEASE pray for him this week. I know its going to happen this time. Zuli Ramoz is a 10-year-old girl, she lives with her adopted parents so Sis Ramoz had to get the papers this week saying that she is the legal guardian so that we can go ahead with the baptism. So Sis Ramoz told us Saturday that she got them so were going to be having her baptism with Ovidio's. It's going to be a great week. Sunday was a pretty fun day this week. In the morning we went over to Ovidio's and cooked breakfast for him and his wife and made sure that he was coming to church. He brought his wife with him to church which is a miracle as well and she said that she is going to come down for the baptism next weekend. She lives in Dallas...its a long story. We also made some cookies for some of our investigators and members of the branch for Fathers day. That was pretty cool they loved that. Things are going good here in San Angelo. We've got a lot of new investigators and we're going to do quite a bit of finding the next couple weeks so that the work isn't dead after the baptisms this weekend. I know there was more I wanted to tell you about but I can't remember right now...I hate when that happens. Well I hope all is well back home and y'all had a happy Father's Day. Have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-June 15, 2009
Transfer week!! I'm sure y'all are dying to know whats happening. I got the scoop early on in the week from Elder Trost the ZL so I've been able to relax and not worry about it. I'm staying in San Angelo another transfer. Elder Nielsen is going to Hobbs, New Mexico. He leaves early Tuesday morning. My new companion will be coming down from Amarillo and will get here late Wednesday night, just in time for our English class. So I'll have a two day exchange, I'm not sure with who yet. My new comp is pretty new. He was just trained by the ZL's up in Amarillo and only has one transfer out in the field. His name is Elder Jenkins but that's all I know about him. I guess I'll give you more details on him next week. Well enough about transfers, this week has been kinda crazy but it was a good week. On Tuesday I went down to Brady again to teach the Muniz family. Marielena(the mother) is so awesome, she's ready to be baptized!! But Miguel(her husband) might need a little more time. They've had some marital problems in the past so they've decided that if they do it they're going to do it as a family. They're still reading and praying. I know that they're going to be baptized pretty soon here. I got to go again to Brady on Saturday for a baptism. A guy named Sam was baptized in Brady lake. I got to teach him a few times in the last couple weeks so that was way cool to see him baptized. He's an awesome guy!! That was the first baptism I've been to at a lake. It was an amazing experience. I've got lots of pics but I forgot my cord again. Next week. Kiara was baptized as well on Friday. It was a great service and her dad confirmed her in church this Sunday. Sunday we had a great sacrament meeting. President Cluff of the temple presidency and his wife came and spoke. I love temple's so much. I can't wait until I'm close to Lubbock and get to go. Well this week has been exciting. I'm excited for whats to come. This is going to be a great transfer!! I love y'all and hope you're enjoying your summer. Have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-June 8, 2009
Hey y'all well it sounds like my emails made it last week. I was kinda worried that it hadn't worked again. But it sounds like things are going well back home. Things are going well for me as well out here in San Angelo. Transfers are coming up next week and they've been keeping it pretty tight lately. They're not letting anything leak. But my guess is that Elder Nielsen will be taking off and getting his senior call and I'll probably get a young missionary, maybe one of the green beans that just got trained this transfer. But we'll see what happens next week. Well this week has been really good. I went to Brady on Wednesday to teach the Muniz family. They're way awesome and totally ready to be baptized. I'm going to be going down again tomorrow to teach them some more. I set a baptismal date with them for the 11th of July. I wish it could be sooner but its just too hard for the Elders down there to communicate with them and I can't go down there too often. It will all work out there. I have faith that they will be baptized next month. Speaking of baptisms...Friday, Kiara is going to be baptized. We got her taught and interviewed last weekend and she's ready to go. Also there is another 10-year-old girl in the branch, Zully. I think I told y'all a little about her last week. I talked with her mom and it looks like everything's going to work out. We're fixin to start teaching her this week and she should be getting baptized pretty soon here. Possibly this month. This weekend the branch had a fathers day party at the church. It was way fun. There were a lot of less-active members that came and even a few investigators. And this weekend at church we had a baby blessing of a young girl in the branch that just had a baby. Her and her family were baptized about a year or two ago. They don't come to church too much because of the dad's work schedule but it looks like they're going to be able to come next weekend too. And Ovidio finally came to church for the first time. He was the guy that we went to the hospital to give him a blessing and we set a baptismal date with him. He finally came to church and he started reading the Book of Mormon this week. The Lord is blessing us so much right now. The work is great. I love being out here and serving the Lord. There's nowhere in the world I'd rather be, not even the Grand Canyon. Haha but someday we'll go dad. I love y'all. You're in my prayers. I hope you have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-June 1, 2009
Well I'm not sure what happened last week. I was really frustrated when I got here today and everyone is complaining about me not writing last week. I emailed all of you but I don't know what happened. I sent them all again so I hope that you've already received them. Anyways sorry about that. I'm still alive and still love yall. Well this past week was pretty exciting. There is a family that just moved here this week from Italy, It's our branch president's sister. They all speak English, Spanish and Italian. Its way sweet. They've been less active for the last few years over there in Italy but the mom and the daughter are going to be living here for the next year and want to go to church. The dad is going to be moving to Honduras for a little(he's in the military). The little girl Kiara wants to be baptized. She has already been taught everything in Italy so we reviewed everything with her on Saturday and she was interviewed by Elder Shumway yesterday and will be getting baptized by her dad on the 13th. I'm way excited. There is another 10-year-old girl named Zully in our branch that we just found out isn't baptized either. I talked with the mom at church yesterday and the reason she hasn't been baptized is because of the dad. So she's going to talk with him this week and get back to us. There's a good chance she'll be gettin baptized pretty soon here too. Everything else is going good here. We've got interviews with President coming up tomorrow and afterwards I'm going on exchanges to Brady or Brownwood to teach a spanish family, since we're the only spanish elders in the zone. I'm way excited. I'll let yall know how it goes next week. Well I hope this email goes through this week. I hope you're enjoying your summer. Love yall
Elder Harber
Brett-May 26, 2009
Hey y'all, well this has been a pretty eventful week. We worked hard and found a lot of new investigators and had some good numbers. Unfortunately none of those people came to church. We got to do some service last weekend. We were chopping down some trees for some members. It wouldn't have been too bad but the only tool that they had was one hand saw. It was pretty intense and I was definitely exhausted after. We were talking to somebody later in the week about how hard it would be to make it to the celestial kingdom without the right tools. It would be possible but it would just be a lot more difficult. We've got all the tools we need. We've got the scriptures, the restored gospel, a living prophet, etc. All these awesome tools that make it so much easier for us to return to Our Heavenly Father. There are so many people out there with only a hand saw. We've got to take them the chain saw and make things a little bit easier on them. Well yesterday was probably my first memorial day without a BBQ. I'm not gonna lie it felt kind of incomplete. This morning Sister Roberts, the lady who we live with, gave us some left over meat from the barbecue she had last night. So as soon as I finish here I'm gonna go grill me a hamburger. Yesterday was still fun, it just wasn't the same. All the missionaries got together and we played basketball at the church like we do every P-day. Its always a good time. Later in the night we had planned to play soccer with a less-active family. So I was a little worn out going into that but it was a lot of fun. Our recent convert Cristina and some of the members from the branch were at the park as well so they came and played with us. Cristina's doing awesome. She got a calling last Sunday, I'm not sure if I told y'all last week. But she was called to the Primary. She's loving it. Well every things good here in the TLM. I hope all is well back home. School gets out this week here. I'm assuming y'all get out this week too. Try not to party too hard without me. Haha love y'all.
Elder Harber
Brett-May 18, 2009
Hey y'all. Sorry I didn't get a chance to write y'all last week. I just figured since we had just talked I didn't have a whole lot to say anyways. It was awesome to hear from y'all. I'm glad things are going good back home. The work is still moving here. A little bit slower but its going. We didn't have any investigators at church this week which is a bummer but things will pick up. Last night we had a musical fireside. It was pretty cool. A couple of young members in the military here, one of them played the piano and the other sang. They both got degrees from BYU and some other schools in music. They were way legit. It was awesome. Well not a whole lot new has changed. There is a recent convert here that we work with named Jorge and he was ordained a priest yesterday. That was way cool. He really wants to serve a mission so were going to be getting him ready for that. There are two members of the branch that have their mission calls now. Pedro is going to Pocatello Idaho and Ezra is going to Paraguay. They're both way good kids I'm excited for both of them!! JR Sparkman in Pecos got a mission call a few months back to Portugal. I believe he just went into the MTC. I love these kids and I'm way excited that they've all decided to serve missions. The mission is awesome and I've learned so much. I love it but I've definitely got a lot more to learn. Well I love y'all lots and pray for y'all every day. Have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-May 4, 2009
Hey yall. Well this week is transfer week and nothing is changing in our District which is pretty crazy. Elder Nielsen and I are staying together for another six weeks. This will be my second three transfer companion. I'm excited though. President has been talking a lot about consecration and were on our way to doubling baptisms. I'm confident that this is going to be a great transfer and we're going to have a lot of success. This week was fast sunday, fast and testimony meetings are always fun...But Cristina fasted this weekend which was way sweet!! And she's being interviewed on Wednesday to go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead on Saturday. I'm excited for her she's awesome!! Overall it's been a pretty good week. The weather was pretty crazy. It's been either raining or really hot and humid. It's going to be a warm summer!! Thats for sure. Oh I almost forgot. We had a branch mothers day party on Saturday night. It was way sweet. They had it catered and one of the members is a DJ so they had a little dance after and people sang. It was pretty fun. I kinda wanted to dance even though I'm not much of a dancer. I think when I get home I'm going to learn how to dance to Spanish music. Well that's about it here in San Angelo. I hope things are still good back home. I love yall and pray for yall every day. Have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-April 27, 2009
Hey y'all, wow what a week its been. Well I'm attaching a few pictures. The first two are from the baptism. The baptism was awesome!! There was a little bit of confusion with the talks and somehow Cristina's Aunt thought she was supposed to be talking on repentance, so Elder Nielsen ended up speaking on the Holy Ghost. He did a good job. It turned out really great. I've been waiting my whole mission for this day, to baptize someone in Spanish. And it was everything I thought it would be and more lol that's way cheesy but its true. Also this week we set a baptismal date with Ovidio Reyes. He's that guy who called us in the hospital and wanted us to come give him a blessing. We set a date for the 23rd of May. There is also a child of a part member family who we are teaching that will be getting baptized that same day. Its a child of record so it doesn't count for us but its still way exciting. Oh and supposedly the branch president's brother is supposed to be moving here from Italy next month and his son who just turned nine has been taking the lesson's from the missionaries over there and wants to get baptized here in San Angelo. So that's a huge blessing. The Lord is blessing us a ton right now. Well the weather has been kinda crazy here lately. There was a huge storm last night. I woke up at about 4:30 this morning, it was raining so hard and the thunder and lighting were crazy!! Elder Nielsen woke up too and neither of us could fall back to sleep. So at about 5:30 this morning I went outside and saw the water flowing down the street like a river. It was crazy!! Well to say the least, Elder Nielsen and I decided to go for a little swim haha it was a good time. Transfers are coming up next week and I've been trying to get an inside scoop from Elder Tripp(AP) but i haven't been able to get anything out of him yet. Elder Nielsen has been here for six months and he's pretty set on leaving. There are five new Spanish missionaries coming out next transfer. We'll see what happens. Well the work is progressing, the weather is crazy and the church is true. I love being out here and serving the Lord. It's the best time of my life. I love y'all. Thanks for all the love and support. I love hearing from y'all and I pray for y'all daily. Have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-April 20, 2009
Today marks 14 months as a missionary and tomorrow it will have been one whole year in Texas/New Mexico. It continues to fly by. I don't really like how fast its going. I think about how quick the first 10 months went by and I know these next 10 are probably going to go even faster. I'm kinda of dreading it to be honest with y'all because I love being out here. Don't get me wrong I definitely miss y'all but it's going to go too fast. This past week has been a blast. Cristina is fixing to get baptized on Saturday. I don't know how much I've told y'all about her. I'm sorry I'm not very good about giving lots of details in my emails but I'm repenting and I'll try and do better. Well Cristina is living here in the states for about six months with her aunt and uncle who are members of our branch. When we first met her she didn't really want to be taught. She told us she was Catholic and that was it. But she came to church a couple of times and wanted to learn a little bit more so she asked if we would start teaching her. The more we taught her the more she wanted to learn and she began to gain a testimony. She's read quite a bit out of the Book of Mormon and loves the gospel. She told us last night that when she has kids she definitely wants to raise them in the church. She had a few concerns about the Word of Wisdom and about what her family and friends would think of her but she knows its true and she's prayed about it and is ready to go for Saturday. I'm way excited for her. True doctrine understood truly does change peoples lives. We've found some other sweet investigators this week. Clementina and her son Claudio had been taught about five years ago. Well see what happens with them. I'll give y'all more details next week. The Lord is blessing us a ton. Well I love y'all. Have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-April 13, 2009
Hey y'all. Well this past week has been great. Zone Conference was awesome, like always. This week one of our former investigators, Ovidio Reyes, called us. He was in the hospital and asked us if we could come give him a blessing. We went over there and gave him a blessing and he told us that he was ready to be baptized. This guy has been taught by missionaries for years. We went back on Sunday to the hospital to see him but he had been released early. So we're going to see him tonight and start preparing him to be baptized. I'm way excited. Well not a whole lot else is new. The church is still true.
Love y'all. Have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-April 6, 2009
Wow conference was amazing this weekend!! I'm really jealous of all you that got to go to the conference center and hear the prophets and apostles live. They gave us some great advise. It seemed to me like one of the big focuses this conference was temples. I definitely envy all of you that have a temple 10-15 minutes away. I still haven't been able to go yet out here in Texas. So take advantage of that opportunity that you have. There is nothing that will bless your lives and your families more than attending the temple. I loved Jeffrey R Holland's talk on the Atonement. WOW!! I think I'm going to start studying the Atonement more in my personal study. Once we more fully understand the atonement our desire to keep all of God's commandments will automatically increase. I'm so grateful for it. Well other than conference our week wasn't too bad. Our English class went well. It was kinda rough at first because we didn't really know what we were doing but now we kinda have a feel for it and can better prepare for this week. I'm way excited. Tomorrow we have Zone Conference so I'm way excited for that. I love being out here in Texas and I love serving the Lord. I love y'all. Have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-March 30, 2009
It seems like yesterday I was in here emailing y'all. The time is definitely flying. This week was a lot of fun. We've been going out to the park during our dinner's and playing basketball. It's way funny cuz all these kids think they're way good and they see these two kids in shirts and ties asking if they can play ball with them and they usually just laugh at us. But we always dominate!! There's a Mexican kid that goes out there and plays pretty often, he's way cool. He's about 25 and move here to the states not to long ago. He's speaks pretty good English though. We're going to try teaching him and his family this week. Our investigator Cristina is progressing a lot. We're going to try and set a baptismal date with her this week. The work is going good. I'm way excited for conference this weekend!! I've only got two conferences left on my mission, that's pretty crazy. A lot of the missionaries out here are into leather working. Elder Nielsen has a bunch of leather working tools and was making a case for his scriptures so this week I split my mini quad and made it into a hardback and covered it in some sweet blue leather. I was gonna send some pictures but I forgot my camera. maybe next week. We start our English class on Wednesday. I hope some people show up. It should be a good week. I'm excited for conference and we've got three meal appointments scheduled this week. Well I hope all is well back home. Love y'all
Elder Harber
Brett-March 23, 2009
Well another week down and the time keeps on flying. This week being spring break a lot of our investigators were out of town so things were a little bit slow again but its all good. Transfers are tomorrow and Elder Nielsen and I are both staying. I love it here in San Angelo so I'm definitely excited for another transfer here. Elder Tripp my Zl in Roswell was just made assistant. He's one of my best mission buddies out here so I'm way excited to get to see him at Zone Conference. President Robison ordered us a book so that we can start our English class. So we'll be getting that going next week. Last week at church the Branch Presidency had asked Elder Nielsen and I to speak at church yesterday on missionary work. So I was pretty excited about that. They told us each to prepare a 10 min talk. So we show up to church and I looked at the program and it was just Elder Nielsen and I speaking. No youth speakers, no members, nothing!! And I was the concluding speaker. Well Elder Nielsen spoke for just over five minutes and I had to get up there and I spoke for the remaining 35 minutes haha It's definitely a lot harder to make stuff up on the spot in Spanish. Luckily I had prepared more than ten minutes worth of stuff. It was a good experience. Hopefully the members of the branch will get going and help this work progress a little bit. Well I love y'all and hope everything is good back home. And I would hope that y'all love your friends enough to share the gospel with them. There is nothing in this world that will bless families more than the gospel of Jesus Christ. Have a good week.
Elder Harber
Brett-March 16, 2009
The weather this week has been pretty crazy. The week started out in the 90's and ended with four days in the 30's and three of those days it rained all day. Luckily it's nice and warm again this week. This week was pretty successful. The rain and the cold slowed up our finding efforts a little bit but we worked through it. We still had a couple investigators at church. Hopefully we're going to see some baptisms pretty soon here. The niece of one of the families in our branch came with them to church. She's catholic and from Mexico and doesn't really speak any English. We're going to start teaching her tonight. She's going to be staying with them for about 6 months so I'm really excited about that. A lot of the members in our branch don't speak English so this week we're fixing to start an English class. A lot of the members and some of their friends are wanting to learn. Hopefully we'll be able to pick up some investigators from it. The MTC is supposed to be sending us some materials today so that we can start teaching. I'm way excited!! Well the time is still flying by. It's week six of the transfer already. I can't believe that transfers are coming up next week already. I guess time flys when you're having fun. Well I love y'all. Hope you're having a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-March 9, 2009
Hey y'all, well this week was great. Probably one of the best weeks of my mission. Elder Bringhurst, one of the assistants, came on exchanges with us on Tuesday. We had a blast and I learned a ton from him. On Wednesday we had District Meeting and as a District we fasted that we would be able to find new legit investigators. Right after District Meeting Elder Nielsen and I went out and set 2 baptismal dates. One with a ten year old girl named Angelica whose family is going to hopefully start coming back to church. And the other was with a lady named Alice who we found. We taught her about the Restoration and she felt the spirit way strong so we committed her to baptism right there. She came to the other Elders baptism on Friday night and loved it. She said there was something different about that baptism and our church. If everything goes according to plan we'll be baptizing both of them at the end of the month. God answers our prayers. The power of fasting is real. I love being out here and serving the Lord. We're having a blast here in San Angelo. I love y'all. I hope everyone has a good time back home. Say hi to TP for me.
Elder Harber
Brett-March 2. 2009
Hey y'all. Well this week was kinda rough. We did a lot of finding and not a ton of teaching. We did find one sweet lady this week though!! Her name is Gloria Hernandez and she just moved here from Mexico 2 months ago so she doesn't speak any English yet. She was studying to be a lawyer in Mexico so she's way smart and she said that her boss was LDS and would always invite her to church but she just never had time. Now she doesn't have a job so she's got a lot of free time. She was way excited to read the Book of Mormon. We're going back to see her tomorrow. I'll let you know next week how it goes. Zone Conference was this week. That's always a good time. We are no longer allowed to have dinner appointments unless there is a teaching opportunity. So it looks like I'm fixing to lose a few lbs haha I already lost a few this weekend. I got sick Saturday night and I've had the runs for the past couple days. I'm sorry, you probably didn't want to hear that did you? lol Well what else has happened????? Oh my missionary credit card got canceled this week. I guess someone stole my identity or something, I'm not really sure what happened. It's the beginning of the month and I was supposed to get 125 dollars but now I have to wait til they send me a new card and who knows when that will be. Well that's about it for the week. I hope everyone has a great week. Love y'all. The church is still true.
Elder Harber
Brett-February 23, 2009
Hey y'all another week down in San Angelo and it's just flying by. This past week we did a lot of finding and we spent probably four or five hours just about every day knocking on doors. But we saw some good results from it. We picked up nine new investigators which is way good, the average in our mission right now is four a week. Four of those new investigators are a sweet family that is good friends with a couple of our members. They're way awesome and I just know that good things are going to come out of it. On Wednesday we taught them with Ezra, it was probably one of the most spiritual lessons I've taught since I've been out here. I felt the spirit way strong and I know they did too. Well zone conference is tomorrow and that's always exciting. Well I had so much more to say but I didn't write it all down so I know I'm forgetting a lot. I'll try and write stuff down so I don't forget next week. Love y'all have a great week.
Elder Harber
Brett-February 17, 2009
Hey everybody, well yesterday was president's day so the library was closed and I know everybody is anxious to find out where I'm at right now. Sorry you had to wait an extra day. I'm in San Angelo Texas. Its way awesome here!! San Angelo is definitely the biggest city that I've been in yet. I'm still having trouble finding my way around town. We're in a Spanish branch and we only teach people that speak Spanish. Its awesome!! My Spanish is going to improve so much here. I haven't even been here a week but I've already had to translate for a funeral and sacrament meeting. I was way scared but I think I did a pretty good job. I'm for sure going to have to start studying Spanish a lot more than I have been. Well the apartment that we are living in is pretty small...No I take that back its REALLY small. I'm over it though. I've got a way soft mattress(definitely the best bed I've slept on in almost a year) and we've got a bench press in our apartment. Our apartment is actually the back of a member's home. It's way tiny but she's a really nice lady. My new comp is Elder Nielsen from Riverton, UT. He's way cool. He flew out on the plane to Lubbock with me as an English missionary but after his first transfer they made him a Spanish missionary. So he's only one transfer behind me. He's about 6 ft 260 lbs...he's a big dude. But he likes to work out in the morning with me and we've gone running 3 times already. This transfer is going to be a blast. There are six other missionaries here in San Angelo and P-days are way fun, we played some good basketball yesterday. Well as for missionary work here, we cover the whole city because we're Spanish speaking so we're still in a car but we're expected to ride our bikes for a couple hours a day. As of right now we don't have really any progressing investigators. We've definitely got our work cut out for us. But we met a sweet less-active family on Sunday night. They've got 5 kids, 3 of which are baptismal age, and only two of the three have been baptized. We're gonna work with them and get them re-activated and get her baptized. Other than that we don't have a whole lot going. We're going to have to knock on a lot of doors in the upcoming weeks but we're going to turn things around here. Well on Friday I will have been out here for a year. I can't believe how fast its going. No more regrets though, it's time to DO WORK!! I'm half way there and I don't want to come back with any regrets or think that I could have worked harder. Well the church is true. My testimony is growing each and every day as we talk with people and hear their opinions and beliefs, some of which are a little bit more out there than others. But it reaffirms to me how perfect the church really is and how much God truly loves us and truly wants us to be happy. I love y'all and hope everything's good back home. Have a great week.
Elder Harber
