Durham - Week 22

This last week was a BLAST!!!

We did a lot of good stuff this week,  but Christmas was definitely the highlight.

We spent Christmas eve at The Borries. They are a super fun family. They have two huge Malamutes. They kinda look like huskies or they are a special husky breed or something, I don't really know, but one is super playful and the other is super fluffy and looks like a small bear. If we get out to their house again I will get pictures and I am going to have one some day!!!  We decorated cookies and ate a ton of really good food. Then we watched Mr. Kreugers Christmas. Then we went home.

We woke up the next morning and opened presents. I got miniature scriptures, best present I have ever gotten. Then we proceeded back to our beds to take a nap!

We went to Sister Wood's house around Noon, where we spent  most of the day. We played Monopoly, Skyped our families, and ate a ton more food. Some of Sister Wood's family were there so we had a great time with them.

Also, it was 70 degrees here for Christmas, it was awesome but it didn't really feel like Christmas should.

Love y'all,
Elder Harper

North Carolina Christmas 2014

Durham - Week 21

Hey Everyone!

This last week was a lot of fun! Nothing super significant happened. We had our Christmas Zone Conference! Which included 3 zones getting together for some training, lunch, and a Christmas talent show. I'm pretty sure almost everyone sang. Even though there wasn't a ton of variety it was nice to have a break from the normal and just feel the Spirit. 

We also had exchanges, I went to the District Leader's area with his companion, Elder Medina. It was a lot of ,but everything was also in Spanish so I wasn't much help.... but I did learn a lot of things from Elder Medina, so it was good experience. 

It has been raining a lot lately, which has been a lot of fun! It hasn't really gotten all that cold here. We have had one day that was really cold but other than that it has been very nice weather. 

Love y'all and I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

Love,

Elder Harper

Durham - Week 20

Hey everyone!

Last week was a blast!

Elder Whatcott is a ton of fun and a phenomenal missionary. We did a lot of less active work this last week because we had a lot of appointments cancel, but we had a great  week.

Yesterday was probably the best day. We have an investigator, Brother Rosenthal, he has said he wanted to be baptized for a few months now but just a few weeks ago he became sincere about it. He has also developed several serious health problems over the last little while but he is holding to the rod. He hasn't been at church the last few weeks because of his health but yesterday he made it! He thinks his health problems got worse because he tried to quit smoking to fast so he is going to try again but a little slower this time and will hopefully be baptized sometime in February.

Then after church we went to see a less active, Brother Batterson. He was busy but said we could come back on Wednesday. So we started knocking doors in the area, found an amazing family but sadly they weren't interested, or at least not yet. Then we met another amazing single lady, Marilyn, she wasn't interested either, so we will probably give her to the Sisters. Then we had a feeling we should head back to the car to go to a different area. When we got back to the car Brother Batterson was taking out his trash and we started talking a little bit and he invited us in and we had a great lesson with him.

We finished out the night at the Harmon’s home for dinner and had a wonderful lesson and watched the “He is the Gift” video. Sister Harmon was crying and the Spirit was so powerful! Christmas is the best time of year!!!

Love you all!

Love,
Elder Harper

Durham - Week 19

Hello,

Yojham got baptized on Saturday! He asked me to baptize him. He asked us to make the water as cold as we could because he never wanted to forget it. I got into the font and I lost my breath it was so cold but as soon as he came up I felt warm. I wish I could always feel that way. After that we both had so much joy it crazy.

I got a new companion, Elder Whatcott from Pleasant Grove. He is a great Elder and I am excited to learn from him.

We went out contacting Sunday afternoon and started to talking to this man named Eric he is super funny and we taught him a little about the Plan of Salvation then as we were finishing he said we needed to take some sefies real quick. So we took some pictures with him and we are going to start  teaching him.

Those are the big highlights of the week. Hope y'all have a great week

Love,
Elder Harper

Elder Harper and Brother Yojham

Elder Harper, Brother Yojham and Elder Whatcott

Durham - Week 18

Hey everyone!

Last week was really good!

For Thanksgiving we went to Sister Franklin's parent's house. It was a lot of fun! We ate lots of food and met a lot of really good people. It was a little awkward at first because we didn't really know anyone. Sister Franklin is an institute teacher at Duke University and she invited a couple of her students over for Thanksgiving also.  We talked to them a little bit,  but mostly we talked to Sister Franklin's parents because we can't play games as missionaries, and her parents weren't up to playing, so we spent a lot of the time talking with them.

The other big highlight was Sunday night. We had a lesson with Yojham and his girlfriend Caroline (she is a member) at the Matern's house. Sister Matern is the best! She made Cafe Rio for us which is something Elder Guymon and I have been missing a lot. Then we had an incredible lesson about tithing and fast offerings. Yojham said that he thought tithing should be more than 10%!!! He is so incredible.  At the end he shared his testimony, Caroline was crying and the Materns were grinning from ear to ear.  He is so ready for his baptism on Saturday! (I will send pictures next week)

Love you all!

Love,
Elder Harper

Durham - Week 17

Hey everybody! I'll make this update quick!

Yojham is doing amazing! He has a baptismal date for Dec. 6. We taught him the Plan of Salvation last night and he loved every bit of it!

The Rosenthals set their own baptismal date, which is huge because they have been investigators for a really long time and have had several dates.

Elder Guymon and I are doing really well! We had interviews with President and Sister Bernhisel last Wednesday, and we are trying to eat healthy but people love to give us goodies.... :)

Well, not a lot really happened this last week. Love you all!

Love,
Elder Harper

Durham - Week 16

Good morning everybody! This last week was full of tender mercies and interesting experiences.

On Wednesday we went on exchanges, I went to the District Leader's area (which is a Spanish area), and I was with his companion Elder Swinney. Elder Swinney is a ton of fun to be around because he loves to joke around.

At the end of the night we went to see a potential investigator  with a member, but when we got there nobody answered the door.  We left,  and when we got in to the parking lot walking toward our car this man started yelling at us saying "Hey! Seriously just come here! I'm about to blow a blood vessel just get over here!" We were really confused and a little bit scared, but we started walking toward him and as we got closer he said, still shouting, " Just pray with me! I really just need someone to pray with me!" So we said a prayer with him and taught him a little about Christ and we went on our way. It was a good reminder of the peace that a knowledge of what Christ can bring.

We taught Yojham 3 times last week. He is still doing really well and has such a powerful desire to learn more about the gospel. He has said he feels like it is true and he wants the gospel in his life but before he gets baptized he wants to know more about the history of the church. So that is a big focus of what we have been teaching him. I love going to see him! Every time we leave I feel so happy because he is so happy and all that happiness comes to us because we are all trying to come closer to Christ.

Sunday was probably the best day of the week. We taught the man that stopped us while he was jogging last Saturday. So we taught him, his wife Emily, and they invited their friend Tommy. They are all very religious and the religion they believe in is very similar to ours.  They are very easy to teach because they have a really good foundation that we are building off of. We taught them the Restoration and by the end of the lesson you could see these little changes start to happen inside of them.  It was really interesting to see how at first they were a little skeptical and just trying to learn more of what we believed, then at the end they were saying that it could be true.

After we left there we had this feeling that we needed to visit a less active family. So, that is what we did. We knocked on the door and they let us in and we talked to them about  hope. The family is an older lady who is the mom and her 35ish year old son. The son has had a really hard time lately.  At first talking about the gospel made him a little uncomfortable but by the end he seemed a little more open to it.

Then we left there and a member wanted to take us to see one of his home teaching families that is less active. So we showed up and talked to them about Christmas and asked them if they needed help with anything.  We talked to them about why they weren't coming to church and they said that they had been offended by someone and they were really hurt about it so they didn't want to have to see that person at church, so they don't come. We shared our testimonies and hopefully we can help them get back to church.

Well those were just a few of the exciting points of this last week. Hope y'all have great week!

Love,
Elder Harper