Hello Dear Family and Friends!

It is so good to hear from all of you each week! I love reading your letters and emails! I will hopefully be able to write some more letters later today, it's been kind of crazy today because of transfers! But it's been good. :) I am so excited for this next transfer because I'm officially going to be training! :D That's right! Only two transfers in the mission and I'm training! I'm so nervous but excited! I am going to hold myself to my commitments and standards of missionary work and do my best to be an example to the new missionary. :) Well, here we go on this great past week! :D

April 15: Today is when I first saw the new Because of Him video that the church put out and it is really good. Pretty inspiring and uplifting during this time of Easter. We met with one our investigators today and shared with them a conference address given by Elder Uchtdorf on how we can overcome temptations, addictions, and not sleep walk through important moments of our lives. It was a great message and our investigator really enjoyed it and applied everything that was taught. It was incredible. We also had a crazy experience today too. We were dropped off to walk back to our area by the Zone Leaders because they had an appointment they had to be at, and so as we were walking we talked to three different people before we ended up by a house that just had a Uhaul truck pull in that there was a man there saying, "Oh good! The Elders are here, now we've got some muscle!" Turns out that he was not a member, but is marrying someone who is and was needing help moving a desk that he bought from someone near by and so we pulled off our bags and jackets and started helping out! It was great! We had a good conversation with him and the people who gave him the desk. I know that Heavenly Father works on a very specific time table, and that he had us dropped off, talk to these three people, and meet with this man whose wife is a member and the missionaries have already visited them where he lives! It was awesome! :)

April 16: Today I went on exchanges with another Elder in our area and I was able to take him around our proselyting area. In mid afternoon we were walking to visit a few more people before dinner, and we saw someone honk and wave at us, and it turned out to be someone that the other Elders were teaching and they asked if they could buy us an Ice Cream Cone and Dairy Queen! :) It was great to visit with them and share with them why we are out here on our missions serving The Lord. :)

April 17: Today we had our last weekly planning session for this transfer and after wards we visited with another one of our investigators and shared with them The Restoration video that is about 20 min, where it talks about Joseph Smith and how he was called by God to be His prophet in the Latter-days and restore the church that Jesus Christ originally setup when He was one the earth. It's just been a really good week visiting with our investigators. :D I love this! :)

April 18: Today was my last day for having New Missionary Training in the Mornings. Haha! This is crazy that time has gone by so quickly! Today we also visited with a member who hasn't been able to come to church recently and they were super kind in giving us an Easter card, eggs, and ties! :D They were so awesome! We also met with an investigator and talked with them about The Book of Mormon and shared with them the Vision of the Tree of Life that talks about how if we heed the words of the Prophets and hold fast to the Iron Rob of the Scriptures and Gospel Doctrine, we will know the goodness and love of our Heavenly Father. :) They really liked learning about that today! :) We also had our Missionary Dodgeball activity tonight and we had lots of people show up! More kids than adults but it was fun! :) I got pelted a couple of times! Haha! :)

April 19-20: Today we got our transfer calls and I was kind of expecting what was going to happen, but we found out that Elder Thompson is going back to Roseburg and I am staying in Springfield while training this next transfer. :) So we still were able to visit most of the people we were teaching but we also cleaned up the apartment a little and Elder Thompson packed his bags. We also have "Transfer Books" they are sort of like a yearbook when you sign a little note and your name saying goodbye.

April 21: Well, today is transfer day. We woke up at 5:30, finished packing and headed off to Eugene to the transfer site. They brought over a few loading vans a uhauls to pack every thing, it was pretty efficient on how they move people in and out. I will dearly miss my companion, his trainer was my Zone Leader for these past two transfers, and so it was great to have the line of posterity. I wish I had a picture with all three of us, but we didn't get a chance before Elder Thompson left. But here is a picture of me with Elder Bethea and me and Elder Thompson.



Currently I am with Elder Madsen as my temporary companion till my trainee comes in on Wednesday. It's so different being the only one that knows that area and I have to lead out on planning sessions for a while on who we will be visiting. This will be an awesome transfer and I am looking forward to the things I will learn from training. :)

Well, Thank you all so much for your love, kindness, prayers, and support. It means the world to me and I hope you have an awesome day! :)

All the very best,

Elder Harper