April 10, 2014
What and incredible General Conference Weekend!
Hello Family and Friends!
Thank you so much for your kindness and letters and emails! It's so good to hear from you often and to see how everyone is doing. Things are going great here in the mission and it is certainly warming up, the sun is shining more often and I'm getting warmer and warmer every afternoon. But it's all good. :D I'm super excited though for my short sleeve shirts coming soon! :D It will be much appreciated. :) Overall it's been a good but crazy week, we still don't have a cell phone which is making things difficult but not impossible, some how we are still making it every day. Well, here we go! :D
April 1: April Fools Day! So guess what, the first joke that was played on me was that my rear tire popped! Again! 3rd time these two transfers! Crazy! Fortunately I have not yet been injured. Thankfully though we were able to get to our appointments on time after moving a couple of things around. We went to dinner with a member family to a Mongolian Grill Buffet, it was really cool and I had never eaten somewhere like that before! :) Basically all you do is put together all that you want to eat in a bowl, then they cook it all for you and add seasoning, then they put it on a plate and you eat it! Really a fun concept! :)
April 2: Our awesome zone leaders were able to help me get a new bike tube for my rear tire and while I was pumping up my tire, there was a knock at our apartment door. I opened it and it turned out to be a Jehovah's Witness lady handing out invitations to an event they were having. It was rather unexpected but she was kind and happy and we talked for a minute or two about missionary work and then she went on her way. I respect everyone and their beliefs and I only wish that there were more people who would unite together in this world for a good cause and uplift those around them. :)
April 3: Today was kind of a strange but really short day, we met with a few members who hadn't been to church in a while, and a few potential investigators. But over all it was a pretty good day being a missionary, another member family took us to the Mongolian Gill again, which was tasty, but I put to much in my bowl and was stuffed! :D Gotta love buffets. :)
April 4: Today we had a great Zone Training meeting, we learned how we can be come better missionaries by working on our character. When we think something, those thoughts are turned into actions, which turn
into habits, which turn into characteristics, which in turn lead to more thoughts and so on. It was really interesting to me to think about because I want to make sure that I have good missionary thoughts as often as possible that lead to good missionary characteristics that lead to success in the mission. I know I'm not perfect and I hope that what I've learned will help me improve every day. :) It was an incredible meeting. Later in the evening we had dinner at the same members home where they cooked authentic Chinese food. It was so awesome in the fact that the local Chinese Elders also came to dinner, I felt so authentic if you know what I mean. :)
April 5-6: General Conference weekend! Loved it! Email me what you're favorite parts were because I would love to hear from you on that! I thought i was interesting that President Monson announced that there won't be any temple announcements till 2015, but by the end of the year we should have 170 or so temples dedicated and functioning! That's miraculous! I'm so excited for that! I loved Elder Hollands opening remarks, Elder Bednar gave a great object lesson, Elder Oaks gave a great Priesthood Authority talk, and Elder Balllard talked about Invite, Commit and Following Up. Did you know that Elder Ballard was my mission president's mission president? Pretty awesome right? :D We had a wonderful time watching conference at members homes, the Church, and investigator homes to learn more about the church. :) I love conference weekend, but it went by waaay to fast. :)
April 7: Yep, I've got news for today. Guess What?! My Bike Tire Popped! AGAIN! 4 times within two transfers (12 weeks) That's got to be a new record or something. Fortunately though we were able to visit a local bike store and get it fixed up, and hopefully it won't pop for a while.
Well, that's all for this week. Thank you for being awesome and keeping in touch. Do share fun experiences and stories and favorite conference messages! I love you all so so much!
All the best,
Elder Harper
Thank you so much for your kindness and letters and emails! It's so good to hear from you often and to see how everyone is doing. Things are going great here in the mission and it is certainly warming up, the sun is shining more often and I'm getting warmer and warmer every afternoon. But it's all good. :D I'm super excited though for my short sleeve shirts coming soon! :D It will be much appreciated. :) Overall it's been a good but crazy week, we still don't have a cell phone which is making things difficult but not impossible, some how we are still making it every day. Well, here we go! :D
April 1: April Fools Day! So guess what, the first joke that was played on me was that my rear tire popped! Again! 3rd time these two transfers! Crazy! Fortunately I have not yet been injured. Thankfully though we were able to get to our appointments on time after moving a couple of things around. We went to dinner with a member family to a Mongolian Grill Buffet, it was really cool and I had never eaten somewhere like that before! :) Basically all you do is put together all that you want to eat in a bowl, then they cook it all for you and add seasoning, then they put it on a plate and you eat it! Really a fun concept! :)
April 2: Our awesome zone leaders were able to help me get a new bike tube for my rear tire and while I was pumping up my tire, there was a knock at our apartment door. I opened it and it turned out to be a Jehovah's Witness lady handing out invitations to an event they were having. It was rather unexpected but she was kind and happy and we talked for a minute or two about missionary work and then she went on her way. I respect everyone and their beliefs and I only wish that there were more people who would unite together in this world for a good cause and uplift those around them. :)
April 3: Today was kind of a strange but really short day, we met with a few members who hadn't been to church in a while, and a few potential investigators. But over all it was a pretty good day being a missionary, another member family took us to the Mongolian Gill again, which was tasty, but I put to much in my bowl and was stuffed! :D Gotta love buffets. :)
April 4: Today we had a great Zone Training meeting, we learned how we can be come better missionaries by working on our character. When we think something, those thoughts are turned into actions, which turn
into habits, which turn into characteristics, which in turn lead to more thoughts and so on. It was really interesting to me to think about because I want to make sure that I have good missionary thoughts as often as possible that lead to good missionary characteristics that lead to success in the mission. I know I'm not perfect and I hope that what I've learned will help me improve every day. :) It was an incredible meeting. Later in the evening we had dinner at the same members home where they cooked authentic Chinese food. It was so awesome in the fact that the local Chinese Elders also came to dinner, I felt so authentic if you know what I mean. :)
April 5-6: General Conference weekend! Loved it! Email me what you're favorite parts were because I would love to hear from you on that! I thought i was interesting that President Monson announced that there won't be any temple announcements till 2015, but by the end of the year we should have 170 or so temples dedicated and functioning! That's miraculous! I'm so excited for that! I loved Elder Hollands opening remarks, Elder Bednar gave a great object lesson, Elder Oaks gave a great Priesthood Authority talk, and Elder Balllard talked about Invite, Commit and Following Up. Did you know that Elder Ballard was my mission president's mission president? Pretty awesome right? :D We had a wonderful time watching conference at members homes, the Church, and investigator homes to learn more about the church. :) I love conference weekend, but it went by waaay to fast. :)
April 7: Yep, I've got news for today. Guess What?! My Bike Tire Popped! AGAIN! 4 times within two transfers (12 weeks) That's got to be a new record or something. Fortunately though we were able to visit a local bike store and get it fixed up, and hopefully it won't pop for a while.
Well, that's all for this week. Thank you for being awesome and keeping in touch. Do share fun experiences and stories and favorite conference messages! I love you all so so much!
All the best,
Elder Harper