Family of Thrillville

Family of Thrillville!

It's good to hear that everyone is doing good. Thanks for the pictures of Sunday, I enjoyed them except you guys are so immature. And Dad... I can't get homesick very easily, pictures and letters and email just boosts my confidence in the Lord that all is well.

So I got Taylor for Christmas, eh? Ok that works. I'm just gonna need some money in order to buy her something sweet from Texas. And I will look for Katie as well. It won't be hard to find it here because they are die hard UT/Texas A&M fans and so they have like a huge section in Wal-mart in their apparel section.

I love hearing about MC. That's good that they might go all the way. I'm thrilled, let me know how it goes. It's funny as a missionary you still hear all about sports and everything. Especially about UT, and the Dallas Cowboys. Like last night... we were knocking and people are watching the game and everybody comments on how they will probably lose because they are terrible this year. We just laugh and then try to talk to them and they reject us, but it's all good.

So this week... a very good week. We are having success! It has been tough the last few weeks as you know but because of our diligence and our hard work we have had success this last week. I'll go through the week.

Monday night... we found a guy. We EBP'd him and taught him the Restoration. He asked a lot of questions about what we believe - he is Baptist of course, but it was a very good lesson. We gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to read it and pray and ask Our Father in Heaven if it is true and he accepted. We are going back this week to see how it went. It was a great day.

Also on Monday... we met with that family that I've been talking about. We only met with the husband though because, come to find out, his wife isn't very religious. But we met with him and had an awesome lesson of why the Book of Mormon is so critical in what we share and also how he can come to know it is true. It was powerful and he accepted to find out if it is true. Funny thing is that at the end of the lesson we asked when we could come back and he hesitated and said, "Give me a month." So the first thing that ran into our heads was, "He is going to read the whole thing?" But we told him that we would call him tonight and set something up for this week. He is going to receive an answer and find out it is true. We're praying hard for him.

Tuesday we woke up at 4 in the morning and went to San Antonio. We had a Zone Conference with Elder Maynes of the Seventy. It was amazing. He put it plain and simple of what we are doing wrong in this mission. He said that he received revelation of what we needed and that it was finding. I think a lot of missionaries HATE finding in this mission -knocking, and all that stuff. But he said it has to be done because that is where it begins. It was great for me, especially in this area because we have resorted to no knocking and trying to visit less actives. He also said that our purpose as missionaries is to not re-activate. It is to baptize! And so it was very good for us. We applied what he said and it paid off this week.

Wednesday nothing much happened except that we found 3 potentials that we are visiting in 2 weeks and we gave them all copies of the Book of Mormon.

Thursday same thing - found 3 potentials that we gave copies of the Book of Mormon to and are going back this week. Two of them are Pastors and so we will see what they say and if they just want to bash with us or are sincere. Elder Roland and I have gotten really good at avoiding bashing with people and just testifying and inviting them to find out if what we share is true. That is what the Lord wants us to do and so we are pleased with that. Also we are calling people to repentance. It is a great feeling to say to someone that is lost "We invite you to repent and humble yourself before God and pray." Because that is our purpose - to declare repentance.

Friday we found a guy named Charles. We taught him the Plan of Salvation mixed with the Restoration. And gave him a pamphlet of Joseph Smith to read and pray about. We believe he is a very humble guy and is searching for the truth and so we are going to show it to him.

Saturday was an amazing day. From about 12:00-5:00 nothing happened, but what made it so amazing was that we took our long time investigator on a Church tour with a member. The most powerful part was when we were in the chapel talking about what happens and Elder Roland sang a hymn and the spirit just rushed in and touched us all. The Spirit testified of the truth because that is His role as the Holy Ghost. It was amazing. Doug was surprised and touched as well. I'm beginning to love that guy. He is like a friend and I know he will be baptized soon. He has great faith. We just have got to get him to church and he has to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. Two priests and I (we were on splits) last night went and taught him about prayer and how to pray correctly. When he prayed he prays to the Lord, which is not correct. So we taught him, by using Christ's words in 3 Nephi 18. He was stunned, and now when he prays he prays like that. That was a huge step for Doug. We are super hopeful for him to be coming to church next week and in the future to be baptized.

I've seen a big change in myself the last couple of weeks. I'm being guided by the Spirit a lot more and my whole countenance has changed. It's a wonderful feeling to recognize. I still have a long ways to go but I will get there. That is about our week. As you can read it was a happy, wonderful week for us here in Serenada. Cuidase!

Love you all!

Elder Harvey