Showing posts with label Jacksonville. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jacksonville. Show all posts

Monday, July 18, 2016

Jacksonville - Week 12

See y'all in two days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

πŸ˜²πŸπŸ˜†πŸ˜„πŸ˜‚πŸ˜“πŸ˜€πŸ™ˆπŸ™‰πŸ˜±πŸ˜΅πŸ˜¬πŸ™ŠπŸ˜–πŸ˜―πŸ˜”πŸ˜ΆπŸ˜‰πŸ˜¨πŸ˜°πŸ˜€πŸ˜²πŸπŸ˜†πŸ™ˆπŸ™‰πŸ˜±πŸ˜΅πŸ˜¬πŸ™ŠπŸ˜–πŸ˜―πŸ˜”πŸ˜Ά

Love y'all! πŸ’™πŸ’šπŸ’›πŸ’œ

Elder Harper πŸ

Monday, July 11, 2016

Jacksonville - Week 11

Hey y'all!

Last week, HOT! We were blessed to be on bikes too, with a lot of door knocking time. We got a nice tan, and the Lord led us to some really nice people.

One highlight, we were just about to get on our bikes and leave the area but we decided to talk to one last person, and there was a lady in the parking lot. We asked if we could give her a card and started to try having a conversation with her. She said she was going through a hard time and tried to leave, but we asked if we could just share a scripture with her. We shared Ether 12:6 and testified that Christ would help her and that he loves her. Then she started to cry and we are going back this week.  The Spirit is amazing!!!

I have always loved a quote in “Preach My Gospel” it says, "This message of the Restoration is either true or it is not. We can know that it is true by the Holy Ghost..." In my mind I add, "if we are willing to act." That's really it. That is the magic formula. Just be willing to do what Heavenly Father wants you to do and have the faith that he will prepare a way.

Love y'all!
Elder Harper

Monday, July 4, 2016

Jacksonville - Week 10

Hey y'all!

Last Monday we went to the beach as a district and played some Kan-Jam. It's probably one of my favorite games now.

So highlights from last week....

#1 We got a call last Monday from a Less Active man.  He we in the hospital with his 1 month old baby that is really sick.  We got to go and give the baby a blessing and talk with them about eternal families.  The spirit was there in high voltage!!!

#2 I got to baptize this guy. He is the Sister missionaries investigator, and the spirit again was awesome!

#3 From today, our ward beat the other ward in a softball game! It was 3-7 in the bottom of the inning and we were losing.  We were up to bat and we came back and won it. It was great!

Love y'all!

Elder Harper

Monday, June 27, 2016

Jacksonville - Week 9

Hey y'all? 

How was your week? Please tell me! This last week was awesome! Steven and Will got baptized which was pretty awesome to be a part of. It has been really fun to see how they have changed through their teaching process. They have both had very different experiences, but you can see the light growing in them both.  They are becoming happier and more joyful about life. 

People kinda just liked talking to us last week. It was really nice. It seemed everywhere we went, we found people that wanted to listen. We must be following the Spirit or something! My favorite one was Carlos. He came hard out of the gate, bringing up all kinds of points, antagonistic points, and we had scriptures come to our minds like crazy to back up everything we were teaching him.  He wants to meet with us tomorrow. That was pretty fun!

Well I gotta get going, love y'all!

Elder Harper
 

 

Monday, June 20, 2016

Jacksonville - Week 8

Hey y'all!


This email will be kinda short, sorry, but last week was pretty simple. We knocked on doors. It was great! We had a lot of people make fun of us and one guy very seriously threatened to shoot us (most people just kinda throw out that threat but this guy seemed pretty legit). It didn't really even phase us though, we're use to it.

These scriptures basically sum up what I learned from last week:
James 1:2-4
"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."

1 Chr 29:17
"I know also, my God, that thou triest the heart, and hast pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of mine heart I have willingly offered all these things"

Ether 12:6
"for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith"

2 Timothy 2:3
"Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ"

1 Cor 9:24-27
"Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway"

Ether 12:27
"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them"

Matthew 16:25-26
"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

1 Peter 1:7
"That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ"

Trials are to teach us. They rarely feel good, but that is what we signed up for, to receive a better reward.

Love y'all!
Elder Harper

Monday, June 13, 2016

Jacksonville - Week 7

Hey y'all!

Elder Barlow got transferred and I am with Elder Mcneil now. He is a super good missionary. He has been out 5 months. He is from Highland, Utah and he played soccer at Lone Peak High School.

This quote pretty much sums up our week, "I have had missionaries report, “President, we put in the contacting hours. We didn’t get the contacts from tracting, but they came to us from completely unexpected sources. It’s almost as though they fell out of the trees or the sky.” Surely they came from the Lord. Look to the Lord for your blessings. He alone is the giver of every good and perfect gift (see James 1:17)."

We knocked on doors for 2 days straight, we got in some doors but no one seemed to want to act on the message or even learn more. Sunday at the Juncker's dinner there was an RM there, Cameron. He told us one of his friends is just finishing up a training course in California and his friend had started taking the lessons there and wanted to be baptized.  He is getting moved here to Camp Lejune and he wants Cameron to baptize him. So we put in the work and the Lord blessed us in completely unexpected ways.

That's mostly it for last week. We knocked on doors that pretty much sums it up. Haha, it was great. We're getting a good tan!

Love y'all,

Elder Harper
Saying Good-Bye to Elder Barlow!

Elder Harper and Elder McNeil




Monday, June 6, 2016

Jacksonville - Week 6

Hey y'all!

So I'll just start with last Monday. Well really last Sunday. We tracted into this guy who challenged us to a game of Kan Jam. It is kinda like horse shoe. There are two can looking things, it is two on two, one person from each team stands by each can, each can is 50 feet apart, and each team has a frisbee, The object of the game is to get the frisbee in the can. So, we went back on Monday and played him and his wife. Right before we started he said, "let's put a little bet on this, if y'all win we'll come to church." Of course we won after that, but they didn't end up coming to church..... but now we are teaching a couple of their friends and they actually seemed legitimately interested.

Then on Wednesday or maybe it was Thursday. We found a dead squirrel so we put it on the hood of our car and drove it to the other Elder's apartment, and left it on their doorstep. They got freaked out. It was pretty great!

The biggest highlight of the week, was Saturday night. I taught two brothers Christian and Andrew and they got baptized on Saturday! It was way fun to see everyone from Wake Forest again. It was awesome to see how some of the other people I taught have progressed.

Have a great week!

Love y'all,
Elder Harper

Monday, May 30, 2016

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


Monday, May 23, 2016

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

Monday, May 16, 2016

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

Monday, May 9, 2016

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

Monday, May 2, 2016

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