22 Jan 2015

Just a quick I LOVE YOU before I head out in the morning. I'm off to Orlando and Gainsville and then Atlanta. I get to see my High School friend Lourdes while I'm there! I get to do an EXPO for the first time in Orlando. I get to go to much more WARM....I am going to pray for a see the beach moment. So much for swearing I was going to put in more play days in my work travel trips...but I WILL the next one.

One of the highlights of my week was running into Bronson at Walmart. I love how is just a sweet a man as he was a boy. We will get to see him when Sam comes home. The other highlight was pretending to be grandmom to Owen, Ethan and Oliver. We're in LOVE. Chuck E Cheese so MISSED me...I am still a skee ball fanatic. And kids are still token fiends. The rest of the time has been filled full preparing for the Expo. Ginger is the most fantastic assistant in the entire world. And it is such a bonus that Ben comes with her.

I love you. Excited to hear from you as we all travel and change the world.
Mom
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

1GD bracelets

http://www.100gooddeeds.org/
This braclet has 100 beads w a slide marker that you move along as you do a deed till you get to 100.
I LOVE THIS IDEA!!!!!!
MISSION: Transforming communities by empowering vulnerable women and spreading kindness. xox

TraTransforming communities by empowering vulnerable women and spreading kindnessnsforming communities by empowering vulnerable women and spreading kindness

For you Sam...

Seattle Seahawks

Sunday, January 18, 1:05 PM

CenturyLink Field, Seattle, Washington

Green Bay Packers (13-5)

 

22 - 28

Final

Seattle Seahawks (14-4)

	1	2	3	4	OT		Total
Packers	13	3	0	6	0		22
Seahawks	0	0	7	15	6		28

Sun, Feb 1	vs	TBD		4:30 PM

Michael and Josh thrilled...Spencer a bit sad :)

Love from Sam 17 Jan 2015

Dear Family!

Another great week. 11 days and I am out of the office. I'm definitely excited! it's been really weird street contacting this past week because I know that I will hardly be able to teach any of these people; nevertheless I've still tried my best.  

the baptism of Simon last saturday was wonderful! the spirit was powerful and I'm sure it will be a day that he remembers for the rest of his life. the water was extremely hot. it hurt to even dip our feet in, so we had to get buckets of cold water and put it in, but it made for a good time. He is somebody I am sure will stay active for his life. His love for the gospel is special. 

Monday we saw some sweet miracles. The first was with a girl named Shara. We contacted her and she asked us what was different between our religion and most Christian religions. Usually when people ask me this question I mention something about a modern-day prophet, or the priesthood, but for some reason I said, " we believe that the god the father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are 3 seperate beings." she said that she was doing a study on that exact topic a few nights ago, and so she asked us if she could buy us some food and ask us more questions about our religion. so we walked to a cafe and sat down! it was great!  she is way cool. We are going to meet with her again in a couple of days and share the Plan of salvation with her. 

30 minutes later we saw an african lady carrying 2 large bags that looked really heavy. We asked if we could help her carry them and she actually accepted. We walked with her a ways until we got to her house, just talking to her about her family and stuff, and then she invited us into her house. We told her we only had a few minutes because we had an appointment, and she asked us if we could share with her what our church teaches in those few minutes. So we did, right then and there. We've seen her twice since. She has a bad back, and her doctor told her not to carry anything heavy. She walked a few steps our of the store, and prayed that someone would help her carry her bags home. not even 10 seconds later we asked if we could help.  God answers prayers. She is a single mother, not earning very much money. She is extremely humble! she's from Congo, and she speaks mainly french, but her english is just good enough so that we can teach her.  

Wednesday we had a new sister come into the mission, so we drove her to Nottingham where President Rasmussen was, so that she could be interviewed, and then we drove her from Nottingham to Cardiff, to her new area. we drove just as many hours as it would've taken us to get to Vegas from Lindon. the only difference is that the transmission is absolutely terrible in the van we drive. but it made me tired! 

Thursday was pretty solid. We've been working with a great investigator named Michael, I'm not sure how much I've mentioned about him. but Michael is from Lebanon. He developed different ideas than Islam, ,and when he was 35, he was brave enough to talk about. An extremist found out about it, and promised that if he didn't leave the  country in 3 days or less, than him and his group would kill him. He left to Algeria, where lived for several years until he moved to London. He's lived in the UK for 8 years and Birmingham for just a few weeks. He came to church this last week and loved it. He wants to be baptized. He said, " I've been waiting for this knowledge my entire life." After we shared with him the gospel of jesus christ, and the restoration, we told him that we were going to share with him god's plan for us, and what happens after we die. He said, " I believe after we die that our bodies stay here on earth, and our spirit goes to a place where we are instructed, and prepared for Jesus' second coming." haha he's pretty dead on. I'll keep you updated with his progress! 

Yesterday we had the follow up trainers meeting and then a great dinner appointment with the Hastings, the part-member family that were working with, the people who's house I used to skype home. They are slowly and surely coming along! I feel really pleased with the way things are going in the area, because I feel like I at one point we were really struggling to teach people, and finding was difficult, but when I leave this area the next assistant should be happy to find a big teaching pool. Even though I won't be able to see these investigatos progression the whole way through, I'm extremely satisfied and grateful for the miracles we've seen!

I hope all is well with everyone. I'm trying my best not to panic with the knowledge that home isn't too far away. I'm going to try my best to smell the roses as dad and spencer always tell me. I love you so much! have a great week, and I'm so excited to hear from you again soon! 

Elder Sam Harris

54 days and counting....

 Michael is, as always....LIVING THE LIFE!!! He got to see this turtle laying her eggs....

 Costa Rica!!!!!!!

Well lovies...another week of slurping up this gorgeous world with all its remarkable people!
More life lessons :) I was given a bracelet of 100 good deeds...you move this marker along the beads as a place holder....i LOVE the idea of reminding myself to do/BE more good.

Megs is playing this weekend in Vegas. Josh is working...ever working. Spencer is toying with life financial support options. I am having Do Terra training's and hopefully going to a movie, maybe country dancing.

The highlight of my week was being introduced to  Bentinho Massuro....I would love for each of you to got to BentinhoMassuroLIVE.com and watch his latest share. So young for a world philosopher. AND he's just out of Colorado.

Loving all of you...excited for our New Year and all its gonna bring. SEND THE MOMMA PICS!!!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Preferring

News

 Tanner is adjusting just fine :)

Austin engaged!

Love from Sam 10 Jan 2015

Dear Family!

This week was pretty solid! 

On Monday we spent all day sweeping the car park, preparing stake presidency reports and key indicators for the mission, in preparation for Mission Leadership Council, we started at 7:20 a.m. and finished at10:00 p.m, with one meal in between. it was fun :).........

Tuesday we had MLC, it was a great meeting. President Rasmussen got super bold with the Zone Leaders which was great and it really helped them realize how important their role is in the mission. We focused on the talk, "Lord, Is it I?" Given by President Uchtdorf in the last General Conference.  After MLC, I got to go on exchange to Nottingham with Elder Debeikes! It was amazing to work with him, teach with him, and we stayed up pretty late talking. which was way good to catch up with him. I would totally live with him at BYU if I chose to go there when I get home! 

Wednesday we went to a chinese buffet with some of their chinese investigators.. it's absolutely unreal how much love I have for chinese people. they are so easy to love! it makes me want to finish my mission in a university area so badly! Wednesday night Elder Lu made chinese food for the part-member family that we're working with. It was loads of fun to cook together and share a relatively normal experience with them, for them to see us when we're not teaching them the gospel. One of the people in the family, Steve, really opened up to us. He let us know all of the concerns he has with the church. Sometimes investigators are afraid to tell us what they have struggle believing in, or why they don't want to join the church, because they are afraid that they will offend us. Really though, when they tell us their concerns it helps us like crazy so that we can teach for their needs. We were extremely grateful that he felt comfortable enough to open up to us about his concerns. Most of them are about Joseph Smith, which is good, because I feel that's where my testimony is strongest. 

Thursday we were able to teach Simon again. He's getting baptized tonight! we're really excited for him. He's asked me to baptize him, so I'm looking forward to that as well.  It's ridiculous how much we've been blessed this transfer. we've had hardly any time to work, but each week we've had at least 3-4 new investigators in our teaching pool, and these people are sticking around! they're not "1 and done's" as well call people in the mission who hear one lesson and then avoid the missionaries. I'm not sure what the difference has been, but I'm grateful for it none the less. 

Yesterday was a great day. A few weeks back, Elder Lu and I found a really nice lady named Deborah, but unfortunately she didn't live in our area, so the missionaries from another ward taught her. She moved into our area this week! so she is now our investigator again! that was  a big blessing. She is also doing very well, she's on a baptism date, she's been to church, she's working on quitting smoking, and she believes the church is true. Another miracle! 

Today we are going into Birmingham because an Elder left his backpack at the train station there, so we'll need to drive it back to his area in Peterborough. Then we have the baptism! we'll send pics next week. I hope that you all have an incredible week! talk to you soon!

Love you SO MUCH!!!!

Elder Harris

New LOVES in our life...

So Bammer...these little guys have single handedly stole our hearts. See the blue money cake? Megs is following right along in family tradition in sharing our favorite things...this is her on New Years eve creating a WE LOVE LIFE event for Dan's boys. They loved the hot tub as much as I do!  In the bottom pic you can see Oliver, then Owen and Ethan  . I can't wait for all of you to meet them. Just look at those faces...

I have Dawn here from England for Do Terra training. Christine from Florida is here trying to find work and an apartment. My condo is buzzing and full. Spencer and I are taking the Rich Dad Poor Dad seminar together these few days...I love that he loves Real Estate as I do. I am going to put down most of my real estate and just focus on Do Terra this year...I hope to hit Blue Diamond in April and Presidential in December. There I put it in black in white. I want to quit holding so many balls. I'm not good at being so divided. Learning lessons. I am trying to not be SO BUSY. I really can't figure out that part of myself. The other day someone said "You are so high strung". So NOT who I want to be. If I was independently wealthy I would so just read and yoga and run and play and RELAX. (I think).

Michael leaves for Costa Rica in a few days....lets all live vicariously through him...

I LOVE YOU. See post below. Sweet week working out my separated state from you

This may have been the fastest week for me since Sam's been gone. HOME IN 60 days...yeeeeee haaaawwww! Some highlights:
*I watched a sweet ted talk by another SAM....Sam Bern's this week...an adorable boy who spoke at 17, shortly before his death, having had a degenerative disease from birth and spoke about his philosophy of a Happy Life. Take a minute and have a listen? Just a quick quote..." Sometimes I have to be brave. Surround yourself with people you want to be with. Never miss a party if you can help it" :) LOVE IT...ALL OF IT...never miss a party if you can help it.
*I was reintroduced to the GOO GOO DOLLS and have a new favorite play over and over song-COME TO ME.
*Owen---up above, had a talk with his Dad about marrying Megan...Dan was mindful enough to record it, and it will be a treasure in my chest no matter what happens between them.
* Google this....was introduced to this guy and can't quit thinking about  it. Becoming a Manifestation Powerhouse - Bentinho Massaro LIVE (1.5.15)
* Choose my word for the year:

au·da·cious

ôˈdāSHəs/

adjective

1. 1.

   showing a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks.

   "a series of audacious takeovers"

   synonyms:

   bold, daring, fearless, intrepid, brave, courageous, valiant, heroic,plucky;

2. 
   

Fun AND appropriate word considering the creations I am creating. AUDACIOUS!!!!You can borrow it if you like.
Maybe think about a word YOU will hold as a theme for awhile and share with the rest of us?
Closing with a sign at the Rich Dad Poor Dad presentation:
Don't wish it were easier--wish you were better.
Don't wish for less problems, wish for more skill.
Don't wish for less challenge, wish for more wisdom.
It's my hope that we don't WISH at all...but that we just freaking GET IN THERE and be about the BEING better, developing more skill and listening and acknowledging the wisdom....wherever the source may be.
This is the HAPPY MOMMA...SOOO HAPPY and content on this early Saturday morning. Not missing you...holding you already in LOVE and LIGHT.

A momma morning...I just want you IN MY ARMS

63 days till Sam is home. Then Michael will be back and Josh will come.  Megan is creating the love of a lifetime with Dan. Spencer is exploring all he might possibly create. Living our lives apart is a transformation I knew I would struggle with almost from Megan's birth. I miss you. I MISS the physicalness of you living in OUR house, hugs every day, eating dinner together, growing and learning together, looking at the world together, your friends coming in and out, sharing our day to day living real lives under the same roof. I miss you. I miss THAT "us". I LOVE YOU! I LOVE US!!!!

This morning I am so grateful for how remarkable our lives have been...together and apart. 5 WHOLE lives of love and creation still to be shared with me. I am not lonely...just lonely for the old US sometimes when we are so separated. This Momma just LIKED it so much when every morning you were in my house...to hold and snug and kiss.  Now I just hold you in the mornings in my meditations.  Today I choose to continue to figure out---to claim-- life JOY-- without each of you in my physical day to day doings. I know I've had time to practice. Hard things take me longer. Knowing, FEELING you in my world is a new love place I get to embrace. As I get still, and know that I am going to get better at being IN this space--I can't help but look forward to that time in 63 days when you will BE HERE.

I have surrounded myself with people I love. But you loves, there is no replacement for YOU... I am not lonely. Just lonely for days past SOMETIMES. This morning is one of those times. Just wanted you to know. And to THANK YOU for coming to me xxooxx.

You have to be brave to come and do life. You have to have courage. I love to look around and see how many people there are here with me--- all with the same courage and bravery. All seeking the JOY!!!! I am here as Momma to say that HUGS and LOVES and SHARING make the life DOING so much sweeter...so lets get all of ours on all of theirs...and most especially on EACH OTHER. HUGS AND LOVES TO YOU!!! Happy Wednesday January 7th.

FUN FUN FUN!!!!

 last night Megs and Dan and Pam and Cherie and Danielle and I went to this dueling piano bar in downtown Salt Lake.....Oh MY!!!! HOW FUN WAS THAT?????? Another experience to OH SO HAPPILY put in my JAR!!! If you are free on a weekend...might I suggest you thrill yourself? GO!!!

Love from Sam 3 January 2014

Fam bam! 

this week was excellent, and I  know I say this often, but it's probably been the fastest week of my mission! 

I'll start out with Simon- our progressing investigator, he will definitely be baptized next Saturday! we're really excited! He loves the church so much and is going to hopefully bring some friends with him eventually.  

Sunday I spoke at church, giving a talk on changing through the atonement of Jesus Christ. talked about how King Lamoni's father had to have real intent to change- he was willing to forsake his power, his kingdom, and all that he possessed just because he felt the possibility of there being a savior. Because of his real-intent, as he prayed he got an answer the first time, and he was a solid convert. 

On monday we met with our investigator Jane. She is in her 70's, and she is like a grandmother to us! she is so lovely, and she really likes the church so far, unfortunately she is a chain smoker, but that has never really been a big problem in the past for people who put their minds to quitting.  

For some reasons we're really getting lucky with the senior citizen's which is STRANGE. Another old black lady named pat has become one of our most solid investigators. She is from Jamaica and has lived here for 50 years. She loves the bible more than I've met anyone, so she's having a hard time accepting the book of mormon, but I'm sure all will work out.  

For New Year's Eve, we had to be in our flat at 6 because of all the parties, so Elder Lu and I made a chinese feast, and then spent the rest of the night deep-cleaning our flat. 

Thursday was one of my favorite days of my mission so far. I got to go on exchange with Elder Unice. We went to see my recent convert Ivy from Loughborough who they are now teaching and that was such a blast. Elder Unice told her we were coming at 1:30, and we didn't come until 5. She was excited to see me, and so she was waiting at the bottom of the flat complex (she lives on the 4th floor) for us to come. Right when she walked in the door she jumped into my arms and it was so good. If she was the only person I met my whole mission, it would have been worth 2 years of getting rejected all-day everyday. Thankfully it hasn't been like that :) She made us some really good chinese food like normal, and we got to catch up which was great, and then we taught her husband, Jeff.  He is struggling with the thought of god being real, but they are working through it, and I know that some day he will join the church.  Later that evening we did some street contacting, and then went around Birmingham City Center. Holy cow that place is MASSIVE!! It's the biggest city center I've been to in my life besides Time Square and Chicago.. but it's different, there is so much packed in a smaller place, and SO MANY PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. we stayed up until 3 or 4 just talking in our beds, catching up on the last year of our missions. What was so sweet about that exchange was that it was exactly a year ago that we were serving together, and it's been ridiculous to see how we've both changed and how fast the time has gone. 

We've seen some more miracles this week with finding new investigators. We were able to pick up a few new people in our teaching pool just from being prompted to stop and knock a door, or stop and drop by someone we know who had a friend around, and that's been a real testimony builder of how god knows exactly who and where his children are that are ready to listen to the gospel.  

I really love the church so much. It's crazy, the more I learn about it, the more I realize there's not enough time in a life-time to learn everything about the gospel. I can't wait to read and read and read when I get home! 

anyways, I love you all so much! I'm finally starting to love Wylde Green as a proselyting area, and I'm grateful for your prayers and thoughts. Have a great week!!

Elder Sam Harris.