Fort Bragg/Fayetteville - Week 8

Hey everyone! 

Elder Hardy and I are having a blast! Last week was pretty hectic with Christmas, but it was a lot of fun. 

I got to go on exchanges with Elder Sheely on Wednesday and then I got to be with Elder Medrano for a couple hours on Thursday. 

Holidays partially exist in the mission, we typically just work through them. We still had things to do on Christmas but the Spirit that came in was extra special. It has been awesome to see how much more open people are during Christmas time. 

Sorry I don't really have a whole to say this week. Love y'all!

Love,

Elder Harper

Fort Bragg/Fayetteville - Week 7

Hey y'all! Merry Christmas!!!

This last week was a crazy week. We had transfers last Tuesday. Elder Kiddle got transferred and now I have a new companion, Elder Hardy.  He is from Pleasant Grove, Utah.  He is a blast! We get along really well and both of our sights are set on becoming the best people we can be. He goes home in 5 weeks, so we are set on making them count.

Wednesday we did exchanges. I was with Elder Jenks here in our area. We had a great time. We went on a Bro date to Olive Garden with some gift cards we had been given. The waitress asked us if we wanted some wine!

 Thursday was a good ol' work day. We ate a dog biscuit, just for the heck of it. I do not recommend it!!! They taste like cardboard and not the good kind!

Friday we had a leadership training meeting in Raleigh which took the majority of our day. I also started to get kinda sickish with a sore throat, pretty sure it had nothing to do with the dog biscuit.

Sundays we spend at the church pretty much all day because we cover two wards. Sunday night we went to see the Volavolas. They are Fijian, and they had this weird looking thing on their wall, turns out it's a whale's tooth. In Fiji when a man wants to marry a girl it is tradition to give the father a whale's tooth as a symbol of engagement (Mom tell Steve he needs a whale's tooth)! Then We had a coordination meeting with our ward mission leader and those are way too much fun. I'm shocked we get anything done. Because of my sore throat, my voice dropped what sounds like an octave, which made me sound like a smoker. Brother Ralston gave me some drugs and now I am doing better. I still sound like a smoker though.

Love y'all! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Harper

Merry Christmas from Elder Harper and Elder Hardy!

Fort Bragg/Fayetteville - Week 6

Hey everyone!

So last week was a lot of fun! We had a lot of stuff going on. We had a Zone meeting Wednesday. It was way good! Can't really remember what we talked about right now but I do remember the Spirit was super powerful.

I was with Elder Smith in his area which is coincidently our area so we weren't to far from home. Quick miracle story from exchange. I was with Elder Smith in his area and we found ourselves with spare time to tract at 8:30. I asked Elder Smith what our goal was in for the time we had and he said 2 new investigators, I'll be honest I thought we could only find one, but We put some faith into it and we went out and found a man in 2 minutes and taught him a 20 min restoration lesson. Then we only had a few minutes to find another person. So we started knocking doors with lights on hoping that was more likely to result in someone being home. At 8:59 we were running to the next door. We knocked and no one answered. Feeling deflated we started walking back to the apartment. Luckily we were only a minute walk from the apartment. Half way back we saw a man sitting outside so we talked to him, taught him a brief restoration lesson. So we found our two. It's crazy what faith can do.

Then on Friday we had a Tri-Zone Christmas Zone Conference. There was a story there that was shared that was super powerful. There was a lady that spoke named Nicole. She has a special needs son that had a lot of problems when he was born. The doctors said he would never be able to walk or do anything a normal kid would do because of the position his neck was in. She went on to explain all the trials they have been through and how they have overcome them. One trial was her son needed to develop his neck strength to balance himself, so that he could walk.  The way to do that was to crawl around on the floor, but it was super painful for him to crawl. So Nicole spent a month crawling around the apartment trying to get him to follow her so that he could get the strength needed to walk.

That story made me think a lot of our Savior Jesus Christ and all that he does to come down to our level to lift us up to a higher level.

Well that was last week. Love y'all!

Love,
Elder Harper

Fort Bragg/Fayetteville - Week 5

Hey Y'all!

Last week was way fun! On Tuesday I got to go on exchange with Elder Ben Pope, which was a blast! It feels like not too long ago we were sitting in chemistry class together, now we are both on missions in the same place, crazy stuff!

We found a really nice Spanish couple. Elder Pope taught them the Restoration because he is Spanish speaking. I got to use my high school Spanish to share my simple testimony. It was an awesome lesson.

After dinner we went to stop by a less active. He is a single father or at least he was. We showed up and he and his new wife had just got home that morning. They needed help unloading a
U-haul, so we spent some time doing that.

Afterwards, at 8:30 we had some spare time so we knocked on doors and found a new investigator! It was an awesome lesson. He was asking lots of questions about what is our purpose in life. He is also an interrogator in the Army.

We had so many people cancel appointments last week, so we ended up with a lot of gaps in our schedule. It was amazing to see how we were guided to where the Lord needed us to be.  It was very easy to see that with Elder Pope, he is awesome!

I gotta go but I hope y'all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Harper

 

Fort Bragg/Fayetteville - Week 4

Hello Everyone,

Hope y'all had a happy “National Fat Kid Day!” We spent Thanksgiving with a recent convert and his wife, and that is what they called Thanksgiving! 

Last week started off pretty smooth, but got hectic very quickly. Monday and Tuesday were pretty normal days. Wednesday we went on exchanges and I was with an interesting Elder. I can't tell you exactly what it was, but something about him was just kinda weird. He's a really nice person but something is just a little off. His area is an hour away, so we had plenty of time to sit in the car and listen to MoTab. It was kind of an awkward 24 hours! 

Thanksgiving was kind of awkward also. We went to the Cutler's house to eat like fat kids. They had some other people over.  Nobody that we really knew, and everyone else knew everyone,  so we mostly just ate and listened to everyone else talk.  There was this newlywed couple there being newlyweds and somehow Elder Kiddle and I ended up sitting right next to them. There was a man there from Nigeria that was really fun to talk to. We were able to give him a Book of Mormon. He had only been in the US for 5 days, so it was fun to talk to him about all the little things that are different from Nigeria. Our light switches apparently are the opposite of theirs. So he will go to turn the lights on or off and try to push the switch the wrong way.

Then on the night the Black Friday sales started, we went to the mall and passed out cards. Which was again super awkward! No one would stop and talk to us so we would just give people cards without really being able to say anything to them.

There was a lot of awkwardness going on last week. Highlight of the week was Sunday night. Sunday night at 8:15 we still needed a New Investigator to achieve our goal for the week. Elder Kiddle looked at me and said that we wouldn't find one until 8:55 (because success never comes till the end). We started knocking on doors, and we found 2 potentials but no one to teach on the spot. Sure enough we knocked one last door at 8:55 and a man named Travis stepped out and started talking to us. We shared the Book of Mormon and a brief restoration lesson, had him read Moroni 10:3-7 and he said he really liked the book and that we could come back this Wednesday. If you ask in faith, you shall receive.

Love y'all!
Love,
Elder Harper

Fort Bragg/Fayetteville - Week 3

Hey y'all!

Not a lot happened last week but we had a good time!

We went on exchanges with the Assistants on Tuesday. I went to their area. We drove pretty much all day delivering stuff to other missionaries and all kinds of administrative stuff. Not the fun stuff!

Wednesday we had our Zone Training. That was fun! :) The theme was conversion, and how we need to be constantly strengthening our own conversion. It was really interesting. 

Most of the week we spent knocking on peoples doors. Not a whole lot of highlights there, but we had Stake Conference over the weekend and there was an area seventy there, Elder Bluth.  He shared this story... (it is trimmed due to lack of time)

When Elder Bluth was young his Dad had lots of sheep. One year there was a late frost after all the sheep had been sheared and that killed a lot of the sheep.  It left 350 baby lambs without their mothers. Without theirs moms they had no way to eat because they were too young to eat the grass because they didn't have teeth. So, the Dad went to Elder Bluth and his brother and told them if they helped him care for the baby lambs he would split the profit with them in the fall. They got right to work. They built a feeding trough and put some milk in it and herded the sheep to the trough but they wouldn't eat. After trying and trying they came to the conclusion that they would need to take each lamb in their arms and feed each one with a bottle or the lambs would starve to death. At night coyotes would sit on the hill and howl.  In the mornings they would come and find their handiwork, 3 - 4 dead lambs here and there. When their Father was home, he would go out and fire his rifle into the air to scare off any coyotes. They were safe while Father was home. With all their efforts some still starved and passed on. Over time they got used to disposing of the dead lambs. Until they named one. It had a black spot on his nose and would stay at their feet while they worked. He knew their voice and would come when they called. Then one morning they came to find him under a tree. Elder Bluth picked up the dead lamb and carried him in his arms to his Father and said, "is there anyone to help us feed our sheep?" His Father held him while he cried, then they dug a grave and buried the lamb. Then his Father reminded him of when the Savior said "Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep."

I really liked this story. I pulled a lot of symbolism out of it. Hopefully y'all enjoy it! Love y'all!

Love,
Elder Harper

Fort Bragg/Fayetteville - Week 2

Hey everyone!

Last week felt really long but I can't really remember a whole lot that happened so I'll focus on the highlights.

I went on exchanges with Elder Conteh, in Pembroke, on Wednesday. He is originally from the UK but he moved to somewhere in Utah. He has a British accent which is always fun to imitate. They live in a trailer. I wish I would have taken a picture of it because for some reason it is pretty hilarious.

We got to bike a good ten ,which is always fun, and I got to meet, James. He is a recent convert, used to be a drug dealer, has one leg, is in a wheel chair, black, and awesome. He was baptized around April and he has already read the BOM twice. He cooked us some deep fried fish and some fries.

On Friday we went to teach Brian and Tristen. Brian is our investigator, I think I mentioned him last week. The Spirit was super strong and he said he wanted to get baptized.  Hopefully we will be able to set a date this Tuesday.

Sorry I don't have a whole lot to say this week.

Love y'all!
Elder Harper

Fort Bragg/Fayetteville - Week 1

Hey everyone! This last week was a whole lot of fun!

On Tuesday I got transferred to the Fort Bragg Ward and the Fayetteville YSA Branch. Covering two units is lots of fun! We get to meet a lot more people!

Tuesday we got to our area and went to see some people. Wednesday, we went on exchanges with some other Elders, so I wasn't even with my new companion, Elder Kiddle, or in my own area for my first day here. Thursday I don't even remember what we did. Friday we had a meeting in Raleigh and Saturday we spent most of the day knocking on doors.

The Highlight from last week was a referral we got. We went to contact the referral and it was a married couple (they are both 19 (younger than me)). She is a member and he isn't, but he said he knows the Book of Mormon is true and he feels really good when he is at church. So we are pretty excited to teach him.

Well not much else for this week. Love y'all!

Love,
Elder Harper

Wake Forest - Week 19 (Training Week 12)

Hey y'all! Last week was nuts!!!

On Monday we had a zone activity in Raleigh. There were about 30 missionaries at the activity.  We were all playing baseball, tennis, volleyball, football, etc. and having a great time!

We had a pile with all our stuff in it and our keys apparently ended up on top of the pile.  Someone picked up our keys while we were off playing games and drove our car away.  After we finished our games we went to get back in our car and I thought another missionary had the keys, and they didn't, and they thought I had the keys, but I didn't, and then we realized our car was gone.

Luckily our mission President was at the activity and he called the police.  We also called the vehicle coordinator and he pulled up the GPS tracking information for the car.

Elder Bleckner, myself, and President James all jumped in his car to go track it down, but the thief ripped the GPS out of the car and smashed it. Then on Friday we got a call telling us they found the car and that it was in an accident and it was no longer driveable. That was a rough day!

I gotta get going, but I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Harper

Elder Harper and his Companion, Elder Bleckner

Elders in good spirits after their car was stolen!!!

Elder Harper knitted himself a scripture case, since his scriptures and case were stolen with their car last week!!!

Wake Forest: P-day (10/26/2015)

On P-day this week, Drake and some of the missionaries planned on playing baseball, during a zone activity.  A very kind ward member, Sister Howell, helped them gather up baseball equipment from many of the ward members, so they could play a baseball game.

I am told they were playing baseball in a very safe area of town, next to a library even, and during their baseball game, Elder Harper and Elder Bleckner's car was stolen.  This is what I know so far, I will update this post if I get additional information.

Elder Harper and Elder Bleckner had their mission bags in the trunk of the car.  Elder Harper's wallet was inside the car.  Their car keys ended up on a pile of stuff next to them while they were playing baseball.  Someone picked up their keys and took off in their car.  I received a phone call (after receiving a few calls from the mission office, I have decided that phone calls are always bad news!!!) around 3 pm on that day from the mission office telling me the Elder's car had been stolen and I needed to cancel Elder Harper's personal debit card.  I did cancel it.  I had many more questions...what else was stolen?  Driver's license?  Scriptures?  Camera?

I sent a message to Sister Howell, who is such a kind person.  She was able to get in touch with the Elders by going to their apartment that evening.  She was unable to contact them by cell phone, since that had been stolen with the car.  She told me that somehow they had recovered Elder Harper's wallet.  I guess whoever stole the car decided they didn't need it since there was no money in the wallet and he must know missionaries are poor, so he threw it out the window of the car!!!  Thank heavens I didn't have to try and replace Elder Harper's driver's license.  Drake lost his bag, scriptures, camera (with all of his mission pictures), and some other personal items.  Most things can be replaced...except his pictures and the markings in his scriptures!  This makes me so sad!  I am very thankful that none of the baseball equipment that they borrowed was stolen.  That would have been very sad too!!!

I am anxiously awaiting his email this next Monday, so hopefully I can get more information from him.  Through the whole experience, Sister Howell said these Elders had the best attitude.  They stayed positive and were smiling!!! 

Thanks for taking the time to get caught up on Elder Harper's mission experiences, good and bad!

Love to you all,
Elder Harper's Mom

Wake Forest - Week 18 (Training Week 11)

Hey y'all!

Last week was way good but it was super exhausting! It was week 11 of training, that is the week when the trainee is supposed to completely take over the area (planning, teaching, finding, etc). Elder Bleckner did great! At the start of the week he was really struggling with having the confidence to lead and now he is solid. We had a lot of conversations that went like this:

Bleckner "Elder Harper what should we do?"

Harper "Elder I have no idea."

Bleckner "No really, I have no idea what to do."

Harper "You say that like I am supposed to know."

Bleckner "Okay, does ____ sound like a good plan?

Harper "....................... :) ......................."

It was way fun because he knew what to do the whole time, he just needed to trust himself.

We had a miracle come to pass this last week. There is a medically less active in this ward named Bro. Larson. He has been sick for almost 5 years now. He is one of the most spiritual people I have ever met and he loves to do missionary stuff, but because he is sick he isn't able to do much. On Monday we got a referral from some other missionaries and we went to contact the referral on Tuesday. Turns out it was right across the street from Bro. Larson. After we talked to the referral, whose name is Joe, we went to tell Bro. Larson and sent up a lesson at his house for Thursday. It went really well and Joe is a very open minded person and said he would read the Book of Mormon. During the story Brother Larson shared this story about Faith.

There was a man who had climbed to the top of a mountain. As he overlooked a large cliff at all the beauties of the world, a strong wind gust caught him off guard and blew him over the edge. As he fell he was able to catch on to a tree root. As he held on for his life and not knowing what else to do he pleaded with God to save him. As he prayed a voice came to him and asked, "Do you believe that I created all things?" He responded, "yea, Lord, I believe." Then the voice asked, "Do you believe that I created all things that thou canst see?" He responded, "yea, Lord, I believe." "Do you believe that I created the mountain that you climbed and the wind gust that blew you over the cliff?" He responded, "yea, Lord, I believe." "Do you believe that I can create a wind gust strong enough to blow you back to the top of the cliff?" With a little hesitation, he responded, "yea, Lord, I believe." Then the voice came to him again, "then let go."


I loved this story because it illustrates how, I'm sure a lot of people have felt in their lives. Everything seems to be going just right, then some trial or hardship comes and we feel like nothing can save us.  As we trust God he will always catch us, often in ways that may feel like we are being carried by the wind. Love y'all!

Love,
Elder Harper

Wake Forest - Week 17 (Training Week 10)

Hey Everyone,

Last week was a blast!

We knocked on a lot of doors and were told some not so nice things, but it's okay because they don't understand...yet!!!

So, I don't know if I have mentioned it before, but we have a Baptist Seminary in our area.  Sometimes we have a run in with some of the students.  They are all studying to become pastors, so they think they are real smart. We went to see one on Tuesday because we get a referral for him. He was actually super polite and wasn't familiar with what we believed. It ended up being a good visit.

On Wednesday we had a Zone Conference in Raleigh. While we were all sitting in the conference and people were putting black boxes in all the missionary cars. Black boxes are used to monitor peoples driving... Luckily I am a good driver! :) If you speed excessively or drive aggressively or forget to log in with your card or don't buckle your seat belt, it tells you what you are doing or not doing, in a really scary sounding voice. It only talked to me once the whole week! 

On Thursday we were out tracting and we found a Baptist Pastor that I am pretty sure would come to our church if we offered him a paid position!!!  He is one of my favorite people we have met.

On Friday and Saturday some other missionaries had some baptisms and we were able to get Christian to one both nights and Andrew to the one on Saturday. Their Mom is against the church so it was a wonderful miracle that she let them come. Their older brother told them that the baptism would be done wrong because it wouldn't be done in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost. After the ordinance Christian turned to us with a big smile on his face and told us about what his brother said. Then on Sunday I got to Confirm Shamia and Shamona, they were the two people that got baptized on Friday. Giving blessings is always a lot of fun and the Spirit is so powerful

My ponderizing scripture this week is Romans 8:24-25:

 "For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."
Love y'all!

Love,
Elder Harper

Wake Forest - Week 16 (Training Week 9)

Hey Everyone!

Are y'all ponderizeing? Mine for this week is In Eccl. 12:8.

Last week was fantastic and eventful! To start off, two Fridays ago our phone stopped wanting to charge, then our phone finally died on Sunday night. We have been scrambling to get everything back together in our phone. Then on Wednesday we had exchanges with our Zone Leaders. I went with Elder Owens in their area (it's a Spanish area) and Elder Bleckner stayed in our area with Elder Chandler.

Elder Owens is awesome! He is 25 and he is really good at building his relationships with people quickly, which is super helpful in missionary work. With four years of high school Spanish under my belt I got to pray twice in Spanish, it was rough, and I understood very little of what was going on, but the Spirit was there and that is what was important.

When I got back Elder Bleckner told me that 2 of our investigators, Kevin and Wendy, that we have been working with forever, want to get baptized in February,  because they are going on vacation to El Salvador. Even though it is far away, at least the desire is there.

Then Thursday we got to see Harold and he said he wanted to get baptized as well. So our week was going really well. I didn't think it could get any better then Friday Happened. We had a lesson scheduled with Christian and Andrew at a members home, two brothers that want to learn about the gospel, but their mom doesn't want them to. As we prepared our lesson we felt like we needed to teach them about daily prayer and scripture study, which wasn't the "next lesson" but we went with it. Andrew was a little quieter and Christian was a lot more into it, usually it is the other way. It was a great lesson and people were sharing lots of powerful personal experiences. After we got home we got a 12 page text from Andrew telling us all about the terrible day he had had and how he had been praying all day for help and guidance and he said that our lesson was the answer he was looking for and he knew that God had answered his prayer through us.

Last week was just awesome. Hope y'all have a great week! Love y'all!

Love,
Elder Harper

Wake Forest - Week 15 (Training Week 8)

Hey y'all!

I can't believe it is already October! The more time I am out, the more my motivation builds, because I know how short time is.

I absolutely loved conference this past weekend! For some reason it is just better on your mission. One central theme stood out to me, "Have Faith."  Simple as that. Faith is like a muscle, the more we use it, the stronger it gets, while if we neglect it, it becomes weaker.

I hope y'all will take the invitation to Ponderize a verse or two of scripture each week. I am excited to start. This week I chose 2 Tim. 1:7-9. It starts by saying, "For God hath not given us the Spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind..." I think it's ponder worthy! :) I would love to hear about y'all's experiences and what ponderings you have!

Last week was a fun week. We caught the edge of a hurricane, and I was not impressed. Hurricanes are supposed to be crazy, but this one wasn't bad at all, just really wet.  I also got my cast off on Friday.  Life wasn't fun with one hand, but it's all better now.

Love y'all! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Harper

Wake Forest - Week 14 (Training Week 7)

Happy Fall y'all!

Fall time here is the best! The leaves are just about to start changing and all the colors will be beautiful!

Last week was pretty rough for the majority of the week.  We saw very little success, and it seemed like everything we tried to do failed, and no one wanted to listen to what we had to say.  We were on bike and it was raining for most of the week, so it was a good character building week!

Saturday was easily our best day. We went to contact a potential investigator, Valerie. We met her on Friday and she said we could come back. We had a nice visit and she said she would read from the Book of Mormon and pray about it.

Then we went to see another potential investigator, but that fell through.  We were back to tracting. We knocked down one street and started to head to the next, but we felt like we needed to be somewhere else.  We decided to go to another area. We got to the front of a neighborhood, and we felt that it was where we needed to be but not yet, for some odd reason, so we didn't enter the neighborhood yet. After we had knocked on a few more houses around the area, we went into the neighborhood. 

We hit a few more houses and ended up in someone's driveway. We could see someone in the garage, so we waved, and they met us at the garage entrance. We introduced ourselves and they were so amazed that we had showed up when we did. They went on to explain to us that their father was having a rough day and his wife suggested that he read John 3:16. They went on to say that the Father hadn't opened a bible in years and the moment they finished reading the verse, we showed up in their driveway. They want us to come back this week. 1 NEP 4:6 and Hebrews 10:31, has been in my head a lot and Ether 12:6 fits with it perfectly because to me it sums up the path we are all on, and if we can learn to walk by faith, everything will work out in the end.
Love y'all!

Love,
Elder Harper

Wake Forest - Week 13 (Training Week 6)

Good morning everyone!

Last week was a lot of fun. I had a great birthday last Monday! The Howell family took us to a trampoline park and we had a great time jumping on stuff.

We worked super hard this last week.  We did a whole lot of knocking on doors and met a lot of fun people, a few not so nice people, but mostly nice people. I found out that Elder Bleckner (my companion) is fearful of large dogs, which makes knocking on doors that much more fun!

My favorite experience of last week was when we went to see a family we had been trying to start teaching. On Friday we decided to just stop by.  We had made several return appointments that had fallen through, we figured they were just trying to be polite, but we tried this one last time.  They let us in! They are a great family! They have two little kids and they are curious if the LDS church would be the best fit for their family.

I have a strong testimony that the Lord prepares people to find the gospel and often times it takes the faithful act of someone else to bring them into it. Love y'all!

Love,
Elder Harper

Wake Forest - Week 12 (Training Week 5)

Happy Birthday Elder Harper!!!  #20!!!

Hey Everyone! Last week was a tough one, but a really fun one too. We biked a whole lot and met some really interesting people.

We met one man who is 81, but still loves to play basketball like he is a teenager. He told us story after story and he had some funny opinions.

One of the highlights of the week, was last Monday. There is a man in our ward that owns a big laser tag place and he lets the missionaries play for free so we got the whole zone together and played football, and laser tag, and had a great time.

We also met Caleb.  He is 20, and he is awesome. He told us the gospel is "rad." We explained the Plan of Salvation to him last night and after we explained baptisms for the dead to him he asked, "why don't other churches have some thing like this?" haha He is a lot of fun and really likes the gospel because it makes sense.

We caught a possum!

Laser tag!

Love y'all! have a great week!

Love,
Elder Harper

Mr. Possum

Laser Tag with the Elders!

Elder Harper's Birthday Celebration with the Howells and his Companion  "Got Air?"

Happy 20th Birthday Elder Harper!!!

Wake Forest - Week 11 (Training Week 4)

Hey everyone! So last week I fractured my wrist so this will be kinda short because typing  isn't my strong point at the moment. Most of last week was messed up because I was in a splint, that restricted the use of my elbow.   We were limited in what we were able to do but we still got things done. One thing that has really helped me lately is my scripture study. I put a few scriptures together and they have given me a little extra motivation despite my struggles:

"...wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." (Ether 12:6)

"...receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only..." (James 1:21-22)

"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men..." (Galatians 6:9-10)

Biking in a cast isn't fun but I know that understanding comes after we trust Him to lead us in the right direction and just because I have a limitation doesn't mean I am limited in what I can do in this work. Love y'all!

Love,
Elder Harper

Wake Forest: P-day (9/4/2015)

Hi, This is Elder Harper's Mom. I just wanted to give everyone an update on Elder Harper.  

On Friday, September 4th I got a text from a member in Drake's ward.  They let me know that Elder Harper had broken his arm while playing basketball on his P-day, on Monday August 31st.  He collided with another player.  His arm was hurting, but he thought it was just sprained really bad.  He walked around for 4 days and decided on Friday he better go to the doctor.  They said it was a trapezium fracture, no surgery necessary.  He is doing fine, and still smiling!!!  

Elder Harper - Still Smiling!!!

Wake Forest - Week 10 (Training Week 3)

Hey y'all!

There was a lot going on this last week. We had a Zone Conference with Elder Dubé of the Seventy. Had has an awesome accent. The thing that stood out most to me was what he taught about the Book of Mormon. He told us to never give away a closed Book of Mormon. If we give one away we share a story or a scripture or something that will get them to open it. Along with that he shared his conversion story of how someone gave him a Book of Mormon and it took him two years to open it.

Our Mission President, President James, taught us as well. He shared a story of how a young man was killed by a train. His mother was distraught by his death and one day soon after his funeral he appeared to her in a dream and explained the accident and told her to tell his dad that he was okay and he was in a good place. He went on to say that he had been trying to reach his dad but his dad was too busy in his office and dealing with all his responsibilities to hear his son. Then President James taught us about taking enough time to be sensitive to the Spirit.

Love y'all!

Love,
Elder Harper

Wake Forest - Week 9 (Training Week 2)

Hey Everyone!

Last week was a lot of fun.  It was long and exhausting, but it was fun!

We are back to switching off weeks with the car,  with the Sisters. That means every other week we are on our bikes. Our area is really spread out so we get to do a significant amount of biking, which has actually been a lot better than I thought it would be. For example, we felt like we needed to go to visit a less active that lived around 10 - 15 miles away.  We planned several places we could knock on doors and try to contact people along the way. After 4 hours of nothing, we finally got to this less active person's house. We walked up the door and knocked and asked for the person and they weren't there... But it just happened that their son is also living there, who is also less active!!  We were able to have a good visit with him and talked about the power of prayer. Not a whole lot has come of it yet, but we definitely felt the Spirit that day.

"And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." -Ether 12:6

I know this scripture to be true and that if we can hold out hopeful through our hard days in life,  I know we will see more of the picture and understand a bit more of why we are here. Love y'all!

Love,
Elder Harper

Wake Forest - Week 8 (Training week 1)

Hi Everyone!

Last week was crazy fun! I started training a new missionary last Tuesday. His name is Elder Bleckner and he is 18, from Riverton, Utah, and he is awesome.

We got straight to work and we were able to get a lot done even with an abnormally busy week. I had a leadership training meeting I had to go to and after that we did exchanges with the assistants who are also in our district. I was with Elder Parker. We put a big focus on prayer throughout our exchange and we were able to see some wonderful blessings.

Our new mission president, President James, is starting to make some changes to things and it has been really good. He is big on hard diligent work and I have really enjoyed the changes thus far.  We have already started to see the blessings that come from obedience.

I was also able to learn a powerful lesson from the Stripling Warriors, as well.  In Alma 57:25 it reads "And it came to pass that there were two hundred, out of my two thousand and sixty, who had fainted because of the loss of blood; nevertheless, according to the goodness of God, and to our great astonishment, and also the joy of our whole army, there was not one soul of them who did perish; yea, and neither was there one soul among them who had not received many wounds."

This verse made me think about trials. Sometimes we end up wounded or we may even faint from the loss of blood but if we faithfully endure and "obey with exactness" (Alma 57:21) we will be taken care of in the end.

Have a Great Week!
Love y'all!

Elder Harper

Wake Forest - Week 7

Hey everyone!

Last week was a lot of fun! I am running a little short on time so I will just share a quick experience.

Last night we went to see Josh, our investigator getting baptized this Saturday, and we started to talk about the importance of a testimony and the importance of sharing that testimony. While we were talking we came to the realization that without a testimony, nothing else really matters. The temple, prophets, priesthood, it doesn't matter without the hope or a knowledge that it is true or that it can help you. 

The Book of Mormon is at the center of everything!  Over the last week I have spent a lot of time in the Book of Mormon.  I know that it is true, and it can bring happiness into the life of anyone that reads it, at any moment, any day of the week, no matter how you are feeling.

Love y'all!

Elder Drake Harper

Wake Forest - Week 6

Hey Everyone!

Last week was a good tough week and I loved it! I finally chopped down a big tree so I felt fulfilled. Oh, and we did a lot of good missionary work as well! We spent a lot of time knocking on doors, so we got to talk to a lot of people last week. 

One thing that seems to be coming up more and more to me, is the importance of humility. In Luke 18:10-14 there is a parable that in a very condensed version reads: there was a prideful Pharisee that prayed in the temple and was grateful that he was better than other people.  Afar off there was a humble publican that prayed and asked for mercy because he was a sinner. In verse 14, Christ says that the Pharisee must be humbled, and because the Publican was humble, he could be exalted.

This parable has been on my mind a lot lately. I have asked myself what can I do to be more humble. As we talked about this parable with a medically less active we got on the topic of covenants, specifically the priesthood covenant. As a priesthood holder,  we covenant with God that we will serve His Children.  Our focus for the last few days and this week is "pull an Ammon." I am super happy and I feel really optimistic. Anything hard or bad that happens just seems to get better, or will work itself out, as we focus on being humble and serving those around us.

We'll see what happens this week and I'll let y'all know next week! Love y'all!

Love,
Elder Harper

Elder Harper and his Tree!

Wake Forest - Week 5

Hey everyone!

This week I wanted to write about love.  It is the best thing we can have in our lives.

As missionaries we teach about how the Atonement is the central point of the gospel, which it is, but the Atonement, more than anything else, was an act of love.  It was a planned by our loving Father in Heaven and carried out by our loving older brother so that we could all live together as a family "in a state of never ending happiness" (Mosiah 2:41).

Over the last  week I have had a lot of opportunities to work on charity and love for those around me. Last week was one of the more frustrating weeks I have had,  but it was all for the best. The talk "Lord, is it I?" by President Uchtdorf, came to mind. As I turned inward and searched deeply and honestly I found things I need to work on. As I tried to be more like the Savior in all that I did nothing really changed.  Each day was just as frustrating as the day before. I was still exhausted, the situations were still frustrating, the work was still hard, people kept slamming doors in our face, but for whatever reason, I was different (totally the Spirit's fault).  Because I was more willing to set aside my pride we were able teach a powerful lesson to an investigator that now wants to be baptized on the 15th of next month. Love y'all!

Love,
Elder Harper

These top 2 pictures were sent by Brother Siemens, on the left.  He was visiting NC from Idaho, and knows Elder Stephens Father.

Elder Harper hit his 1 year mission mark on July 16, 2015.  A kind family in their ward, The Howells, took them out for Ice Cream to celebrate!!!

Elder Harper's Haircut!!!

Wake Forest - Week 4

Hey everyone!

Last week was a blur. We worked super hard and it went way to fast!

One of my favorite parts of the week was Wednesday,  when we went to do some service.  I got to chop a couple of trees down with an axe.  I really miss doing hard labor stuff like that, so that was kind of a tender mercy for me =D.

Now for the spiritual highlights. On Saturday we went to do some service for a less active member, who has some medical problems. He has been sick for the last 4 years and has been confined to his house for the most part. We shared a message with him before we started about the Atonement. He immediately started to tear up and told us that it meant everything to him. Then he opened to Matthew 11 and read versus 28 - 30:

"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Then he told us that his whole life he had read it and understood it that when we cast our burdens on Christ he takes them from us but he came to the realization that Christ is saying "take MY yoke upon YOU," and then we find rest for our souls." It was an extremely powerful lesson and reminder for me that our heart, might, mind, and strength need to be focused on him and as we take on his yoke we find that our own yoke is lighter and easier to carry.

Another Highlight was Sunday night. Our mission president held a fireside that we could bring our recent converts, less actives, and investigators to. We took our investigator Josh. He is 16 and a total stud! A family in the ward has been fellow shipping him for awhile now and he has been coming to church for a couple months.  Recently he has started to have a desire to meet with the missionaries. We haven't been able to meet with him because of some scheduling conflicts. But he was able to come to the fireside with us. It was kind of a testimony meeting so whoever wanted could stand up and say something. Half way through he stood up and said he knew the Book of Mormon is true and that he wanted to get baptized.  He is thinking about a date sometime in August.

The gospel is true and the confirming witness that comes from the spirit is undeniable. Love Y'all!

Love,
Elder Harper

This is one of the trees we cut down, it's not very big but I am proud of it!!!

Wake Forest - Week 3

Hey everyone!

Sorry I didn't get an email out last week, my companion got really sick and we couldn't really do anything... but this is a good summary of the last two weeks.

The Doctor told us Elder Stephens had Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease and was highly contagious.  He told us we shouldn’t go out to see people because it spreads really easily. We were told that we needed to stay inside away from people but that people could bring stuff to the door. In this ward we get fed pretty much every night which is amazing! So we had members bringing us dinner every night.  I asked a super awesome sister in the ward, Sister Howell if she could bring over some crafting supplies or some stuff I could play around with. She brought SO MUCH STUFF, I didn't know what to do with most of it, so I just built stuff out of cardboard.

I didn't get sick.  which was a miracle, but we were both starting to get really depressed because we had been stuck inside for so long.  We asked the Howells if we could go to their house and sit in their front yard for the day. After a day or two of that, I was getting way to sick of just sitting around, so I asked Sister Howell what I could help her with in her yard.  I had a lot of fun with that. I helped set up a chicken coup, climbed some trees and had a really good time.
Then Sunday happened. After being stuck in the apartment for a week we saw some awesome miracles. Elder Bednar came to speak to the youth (not the missionaries). He spoke at the Apex Stake Center.  Everyone who was going had to be there by 5:45 pm to be seated. We were pretty sad we couldn't go. Then at 4:45 we got a call from the Sister missionaries in our  ward asking if we were going. We asked if we were even allowed to go. They said we could go if we had an investigator going with us. Our investigator Shawn, had left at 4 with the youth in the ward. So we could go,  but we needed to leave immediately.   We called the Howells, and asked their son Ronnie, who just got back from his mission a month ago, if he would take us down. He said yes. So we jumped in the car and drove very, very fast,  and we got there right on time.

It was an awesome Q and A session. The entire time he just took questions and answered them. The "main theme" was listening to the spirit to learn and ask inspired questions. It was so amazing! Then afterward we met up with Shawn and he said he wanted to talk to us that night and he would give us a call. On the drive home we got a text from him saying "I have no doubts about the church, and I want to know what I need to do to be baptized." Ronnie, Elder Stephens, and I lost it! We instantly got super excited and were having our own little celebration on the way home.

It was a huge testimony builder for me. It was amazing to see that just by Shawn listening to an apostle speak for a couple hours all his concerns and questions were resolved.

Love Y'all!
Elder Harper

Wake Forest - Week 2

Dear Family and Friends,

We didn't get an official email from Elder Harper this week.  

We got a call from a Nurse in his mission Sunday night, July 5.  She wanted to let us know that Elder Harper and his companion had been quarantined in their apartment since the last Thursday.  Elder Harper's companion had contracted Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease and they wanted to make sure they did not spread it to anyone else.  They also wanted to keep an eye on Elder Harper and make sure he didn't get the virus also.  

Elder Harper was able to send us an email on Thursday after they had been confined to their apartment for a week.  Drake said he was doing good and his companion was feeling a lot better. 

Elder Harper said he painted a little while Elder Stephens was sick. He also built a model of the Tabernacle from the Old Testament and a model of Lehi's dream.  I guess he had to think of things to fill his time!!!

I don't think Elder Harper mentioned this in any of his emails, he was called to be a District Leader last month!!!

Wake Forest - Week 1

Hey Y'all!

This last week was transfer week.  I was transferred to Wake Forest First Ward.  It has been way too much fun!

The members here are all very actively involved in missionary work and love the missionaries! They feed us pretty much every night,  and it is sooo nice! I think I might put some weight on here!!! 

My new companion is Elder Stephens. He is from Pocatello, Idaho. He is really good at having a good time. We are laughing and cracking jokes all the time.  When it is time to teach the gospel, the spirit is so strong it is crazy.

There is an RM named Ronnie,  who comes out with us a lot and he has been a big help to us.

I'll have more to write next week. Love y'all!

Love,
Elder Harper

Lumberton - Week 23

Hey!

I had one really exciting experience that I wanted to share from this past week.

I was on exchanges with Elder Smith last Friday.  We planned to go to an area to find some new people to teach and to follow up with some people we had already talked to. It was a few miles away so we jumped on our bikes and started off. We got about a mile down the road and Elder Smith's chain broke. We thought of a few other things we could do but felt like we needed to go that area. So we walked, it was only 100 degrees, so it was a lot of fun!

While we were walking a lady stopped and told us we needed a car or a bike or something. Haha, but we kept going. We got to the first house, sat down, and had a good conversation.  We followed up with another lady and set up a time to come back.

As we walked into the street I felt like we should just stop, So we did. About 20 Seconds later, the same lady that had stopped us earlier called out to us and asked what we were doing. We told her, "We teach about Jesus."  She yelled to us, "Come teach MY family about Jesus!" So we walked over and went inside her house. When we got inside, her family just started asking all kinds of questions, like "why are there so many churches?  Why is it so confusing?" or "why does God let bad things happen to good people?" All questions that the scriptures have answers for. We had a wonderful lesson with them, and I know everything worked out just so we could find them, even Elder Smith's chain breaking!

"Now  ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise."  - Alma 37:6

Love Y'all!

Elder Drake Harper

Lumberton - Week 22

Mangliba!

There was a lot that happened last week! So, I have a little more to say this week.

On Monday we stopped by a less active member named Joey. We sat and talked with him a little bit and learned that he just happens to be an expert knife thrower! He asked us if we wanted to learn how to throw knives. We said yes.  He grabbed some old kitchen knives that he had collected over the years and we went out back to a tree and started throwing knives at the tree. Joey was really good. He could stick it pretty much every time, 3 at a time, and some other fun stuff. Elder Gallgher and I got to be alright, we could stick it sometimes and that was good enough for us. After that we had a good lesson about how Faith is a lot like throwing a knife. We read from Alma 32 and he understood perfectly and was pulling out symbolism and relating it to himself, without us having to prompt the thought.

Thursday I went on exchanges with Elder Brown, our Zone Leader, and the craziest thing happened. Our entire day went pretty much according to plan. That almost never happens =D! We got a referral awhile ago that hadn't really gone anywhere.  I had the thought to go back and try again, so  we did.  There was this older lady there that just wanted to preach to us, and young man named Ray Ray.  He was sitting on the front steps because he had had a heat seizure.  After he was taken care of,  we said we would come back at a time when there was less going on. Then Ray Ray said "no don't leave I was really enjoying listening to ya'll talk!" So we stayed for a few minutes and had a interesting little lesson with him.

Friday, Elder Gallagher and I had some time to look for new contacts.  We had no idea where to go,  so we just left our apartment and did our best to follow the spirit.  The spirit took us right to a house in the middle of no where.  We knocked on the door and we found an awesome investigator. They said that there were just too many religions and they were confused about who was right and so we started talking about the restoration and they loved it!

Hope y'all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Harper

Lumberton - Week 21

Hey everyone!

Last week was a fun week. We had interviews and a fun exchange. Not  a whole lot of exciting experiences to share this week so I thought I would share one of my favorite scriptures that has helped me a lot lately.

Philippians 4:7
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Many a times we get thrown into tense, awkward, scary, and sometimes dangerous situations as missionaries. For whatever reason the spirit might lead us through not so good parts of town and to not so nice of people, but we are able to stay totally calm. I know it is because we are doing what we are supposed to be doing. I know the same principle works for non-full-time-missionaries too.

As we strive to keep the commandments, do what the Lord needs us to do, and put him and his work first in our lives, we will be blessed with the peace that we so desperately need to make it through our mortal experience. Love y'all!

Love,
Elder Harper

Lumberton - Week 20

Hello Everyone,

Last week was crazy. =D  I don't know how time is going so fast, last week was like a blink.

On Wednesday I was on exchanges with Elder Smith and we had a really good time. He showed me how to make this weird milkshake that one of his companions showed him how to make. You make it by blending milk, vanilla ice cream, and a Bo-Berry biscuit together. (Bo-Berry biscuits are really good blue berry biscuits we get from a fast food restaurant called Bojangles). It was the best milkshake I have ever had in my life!

On Thursday Elder Gallagher and I drove to Raeford and I spent the night with Elder Luffgreen. He has only been in that area for a week, so he is still figuring out his way around.  On Friday he used his companions GPS to plan where we should go. So we spent 5 hours contacting people and biking almost 30 miles.

On Saturday the ward had a pig pickin’. We ate some good food and played the most intense game of kick ball I have ever played in my life. Love Y'all!

Love,
Elder Harper

Lumberton - Week 19

Hi everyone!

 Last week was a tougher week.

Elder Persé, our District Leader, got transferred last week.  The Elders we have now are Elder Kallas and Elder Smith.  I am still with Elder Gallagher,  who is now the District Leader. A lot of changes last week, but all for good things to come.

It seemed like nobody wanted to meet with us last week, but were able to find a good few people who were willing to listen.

We are teaching a single Mother, J, with five little kids. Every time we leave we ask what we can pray for, for her and she always says "what I really need right now is peace and patience." That is what we have been trying to help her find. She really likes the idea of Eternal Families. Last week we went to try and teach her more about the temple and the things she would need to do to get her family there, when we showed up her friend was there. We started talking and teaching and every thing we said she, of course, knew more about than we did, and we were wrong in pretty much everything we said. But it was interesting to see that the points we have already taught J, were the points she disagreed with her friend about.

That was just a small tender mercy from last week that I really enjoyed.

Love y'all!

Elder Harper

Lumberton - Week 18

Hey y'all!

I don't have a ton of time today, so I will just share a quick experience we had last week.  

Two weeks ago a lady came up to us and asked if we could come teach her family. She and her husband have a lot of health problems. We went to teach them on Thursday. We showed up and she wasn't feeling well. So we offered her a Priesthood blessing and she accepted. After the blessing she started to feel a lot better. Then, as we sat and taught and listened, we helped her to better understand the Priesthood and the feelings she was having.  We invited her to be baptized and she said "Yes, you don't even have to ask twice." 

We went over yesterday to see them again. Without even inviting her to church, she said her and her family would hopefully be there every week.  We invited her husband and son to be baptized, and it is something they want to work toward as a family.

Love y'all!

Love,
Elder Harper

Lumberton - Week 17

Happy Mothers Day!!!

Hey everyone!

Last week was a lot of crazy fun, and it is starting to look like this week will be similar!

We were able to find five new investigators last week, 2 or 3 of them actually contacted us and asked if we could come teach them. I wish missionary work was always that way.

One of my favorite parts of the last week was when I was on exchanges with Elder Smith. We were in his area and he had planned to go and visit a recent convert that is also less active. She is a single mother, paralyzed from the waist down, and has three young daughters.  They are all filled with energy. When we showed up, there wasn't a man home so we couldn't go inside.  We decided to sit on the back porch to teach her and her family. As we walked around to the back of the house we saw that the younger two daughters had made a huge mess and everything looked like a storm had blown through. We could tell that their Mom felt frustrated and under appreciated. The kids had no attention span and just wanted to play games and do everything except listen. Their Mom kept telling them to be quiet, sit down, listen, behave, stop fighting, etc. While all this was going on I felt a feeling of peace fill me up.  The oldest daughter asked if we could read a story out of the children's "New Testament Stories" book. We read the story and then taught about how important families are and how much their Mom loves them. After our simple lesson, the spirit came in, their Mom was able to relax, the misbehaving stopped, and all of us started to laugh and have a good time.

It has been emphasized and re-emphasized over the last week that families are forever. The crown blessing of living this gospel and enduring to the end, is to live in a state of never ending happiness with our Father in Heaven and our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ.  The crown jewel of that magnificent crown is the blessing of our families being sealed together.

I hope y'all were able to show your mothers how much you love them yesterday, and I hope that y'all will find time to show everyone else in your family your love for them as well.

Love y'all,
Elder Harper

Lumberton - Week 16

Good Morning Everyone!

Last week was a lot of fun! Even though we had a lot of appointments fall through. Everyone was just not home when they were supposed to be.  But, it also gave us more opportunities to see Heavenly Father work in our lives.

After several appointments fell through,  we were able to have a very powerful visit with Michael. This week Michael decided to pick up his bible and start reading.  We were able to talk with him and share scriptures and have great visit.

Also,  because of Elder Gallagher's sprained ankle we can't bike so we have to walk most places. While we were out waking some man yelled to us and we started talking to him. A younger kid was with him and someone came up to the other man and started talking with him and we started talking to the kid.  We gave him a Book of Mormon, and now we are teaching him.  His Mom is showing interest as well.

So, because of all these "bad" things that happen I have learned that Heavenly Father does a whole lot of work behind the scenes, so we just need to be patient and wait for the right time, when his masterpiece is put on the stage.

Love y'all!
Hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Harper

Elder Harper and his Buddies!

Reunited with first companion - Elder Guymon

Lumberton - Week 15

Hey y'all!

Last week was nuts!

Elder Gallagher twisted his ankle really bad last Monday playing basketball.  We couldn't go anywhere unless we had a car,  and since we don't have one of those,  it was hard to get a whole lot done.

On Friday we had exchanges and I was with Elder Smith and we just went crazy!  Friday was my favorite part of the whole week.  Elder Smith, Aor, and I went to teach a less active, Michael. He was baptized years ago, he gave up cigarettes and alcohol,  and now after a few bumps in the road is back to doing those same things again. He knows the gospel is true, loves the church and the missionaries, but doesn't act on his faith.  We stopped by his house two weeks ago, on a Friday, to check on him.  He was busy, but his daughter was visiting, she is also less active and she also smokes and drinks. We were able to read a few short scriptures with her and then she had to go. Fast forward to this Friday,  we stopped by again, Michael’s daughter was back home in Washington and Michael had some time to talk with us. He jokingly called us seed planters and told us that the scriptures we shared with his daughter really impacted her.  She went home and talked to her grandma (who is a very active member) about them.  That was a plus. Then as we continued to talk, Michael told us about how he came to know the church was true.  You could see a little light start to turn on inside him and you could tell that his faith is still there. At the end of the lesson Aor asked if he could share his favorite scripture, 2 Nephi 31 (haha the whole chapter is his favorite!).  Michael quickly read the whole chapter.  As he read it, you could see that the spirit was working on him.  Aor invited him to come to church and testified that he and his family would be blessed. Aor is so young in the gospel but has such powerful faith, it is amazing.

Love y'all and hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Harper