Jacksonville - Week 5

Hey everyone!

Elder Barlow and I had a great experience yesterday. Sunday morning we had a meeting at 10 am, so we looked outside and it was all nice and sunny and we didn't have the car but that was okay, because it was a beautiful morning.  We jumped on our bikes and started riding.  It was only like a seven and a half minute ride.  Two minutes into our ride it started to sprinkle. We looked at each other in panic and we started to pedal as fast as we could but it didn't do much good because it started POURING.  It has been a long time either of us had laughed that hard. Pretty quick we were soaked and there was just nothing we could do, so we kept going.  A quarter mile from the church it completely stopped raining and it was back to sunshine for the rest of the day!

Then Sunday night was a party! There is a Senior couple in our ward named the Junckers. They are the best! Every Sunday they have a bunch of single marines over for dinner and we go and share a message and hopefully give them a chance to feel the Spirit. Usually there is like 10 - 15 people there, but last night there were 22 people there. Lots of new faces and a few guys brought some friends, so we had a good amount of non-members there. I don't really know how it started, but the gospel was brought up, and s lesson was started, and it was just crazy. There was one point where I was at one table with Elder Juncker teaching a lesson, and Elder Barlow was sitting at another table with an RM Marine and another member named Brooke, teaching a different lesson. To top the night off, one of the non-member friends taught us about the forgiveness of Christ and told us basically his entire life story. It was a pretty great night.

Then on Wednesday we were out knocking doors and we felt impressed to go to this one very specific area, so we went. The second door we knocked on we started talking to this lady and she was super nice, but not really interested. We invited her to church she was all like "you would have to talk to my husband about that, he is a professional MMA fighter." I don't know if she was trying to scare us or what, but we were super pumped to talk to him, so she went inside and he came out and we got to talking. He was super nice. He is a Christian fighter and gets a lot of crap for it when he goes to fights. Then after a little while a lady showed up and she was SUPER interested in getting her life straightened out. We told her that is exactly why we were there. The next day she met us at the church with the Junckers and we taught her about the addiction recovery class that the Junckers teach every week and about the gospel.  She was crying and feeling the Spirit and it was just great!

Hope y'all have a blessed week!

Elder Harper

Jacksonville - Week 4

Hey y'all!

This last week was great! It ended with me getting sick though, so I am only 70% mentally here right now.  Sorry if this sounds a little scattered.

Last Thursday we had a tri-zone conference with Elder Zwick of the Seventy. He is awesome! One line he used, I really liked, "Never limit yourself by what you consider to be your capacity." I thought that was just awesome, because we always do. We see and think what we can do and we leave it at that.  The Lord has much bigger plans for us.

Wednesday we went to see our investigator, Steven. We have been teaching him for a couple weeks and he has been going through a really hard time lately.  He is also dating a member. Wednesday we were planning on inviting him to be baptized. At the beginning of the lessons his girlfriend, Sister Leary, started talking about how much of a change she has seen in him and how people at work have been noticing a difference in him. Basically he wants to get baptized next month!

Monday we went to the beach with our district. It wasfun!  I learned how to do a backflip. That was pretty exciting.

This letter probably isn’t super exciting.

Love y'all!
Elder Harper

Mom requested a missionary badge picture!  She thinks this one is Awesome!!!

Elder Harper's first visit to the Atlantic Ocean!

Elder Harper's New Companion???

The Elder's of Jacksonville, NC

Jacksonville - Week 3

Hey y'all,

This last week we worked, and worked, and worked some more!

Last week was bike week and it was hot, and humid, and it rained, just like any good bike week. 

Elder Barlow and I met a ton of awesome people. One that we are super excited about is Michael. He is a 15 year old that loves basketball and wants to get baptized! 

We met some local rappers that really like the BoM!!!

We helped a man catch his dogs, then while he was taking them inside they almost pulled his pants off!

A lady in our ward made us some homemade bread, so we are living the good life. 

I broke our friends foot playing basketball on Saturday. Not really, she jumped up and landed on my foot and she only sprained her ankle.

Sorry this is soo short.

Love y'all!

Elder Harper

Jacksonville - Week 2

First off Happy Mother's Day y'all! 

Last week was a lot of fun. Elder Barlow is one of my favorite companions I have had, so we are having a great time. No crazy huge moths or any ridiculous foods. We just got to go out and work and it felt great! 

Miracle- Just a cool miracle, a little background first. I was really bummed to leave Garner especially after only being there for 1 transfer. So I was really trying to figure out why I'm here. Then yesterday I was talking to my family and they mentioned that my cousin was here and hadn't been to church in awhile so I got his contact info and we are going to meet up with him tonight. Pray that it goes well!

Sorry this is so short, but y'all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Harper

Jacksonville - Week 1

Hey y'all!

I got a whole lot to say about last week.

Tuesday was a blast!  I got transferred last week.  It was a two and a half hour drive to my new area in Jacksonville.  My new companions name is Elder Barlow.

Here is a little about Elder Barlow.
He has been out for 3 months
I am his second companion
He is from Queen Creek, Arizona
He did 1 semester of college at U of A
He played football at U of A
He is awesome

Wednesday we had district meeting. it was all about faith and expecting miracles and becoming the best person and missionary you can. Here is a bomb talk if you want to check it out...

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1979/04/following-christ-to-victory?lang=eng

Later on Wednesday, we went to visit a recent convert. Bro Proulx, he is missing both his legs and has lots of health problems. When he was younger, his dad made all these little wooden tinker toy mind game things. One of them was called the "idiot stick." Elder Barlow had a rough time with that one. :) Then later that day we ate dinner then we were out working. We stopped by this Hispanic woman named Aida. She was just eating dinner and offered us some pig ears! I ate them but that was one of two times, in my life, I have legitimately gagged from eating something nasty.

Thursday was a pretty normal day. We had dinner with a member and her non-member boyfriend. He has lots of questions so we are starting to teach him. Oh, and they gave us a ride to her house and on the way his tire blew! Elder Barlow thought it was a gun shot and I thought the car was gonna explode, but we just drove the half mile to the house and we were all fine.

Then after dinner, we went with the Bishop to teach a Philippino woman who wanted to drop us, but we talked her into having us over again. She fed us dinner too.... Apparently it is their custom to feed people when they come over.... SO MUCH FOOD. Then we had a lesson and she started to cry and said she was going through a hard time. She also said she would read the Book of Mormon. It's awesome how the Spirit works!

On Saturday we found this Beast Moth. That was just a fun moment. 

Then we got a call from Elder Junker saying he needed assistance with one of the Sister's investigators, Morris. He was having troubles with his pacemaker. The Spirit was so powerful, and in the blessing it said that everything would turn out alright, and it did!  But we sat in the ER for like 5 hours.

Well I think I got everything.

Love y'all!
Elder Harper