Week 2 change 2

Hello everyone again. Time for week two of my series of blogs from my mission. I hope things are going good for everyone. This keyboard is really hard to type on but I will try to make good time on it non the less. This week has been a pretty good and rough week for me. Good because we are having a lot of success finding people and I am developing a growing love for contacting with a greater understanding and comprehension of spanish. I must say that I know nothing because I know that I am only learning like I am with the help of the Lord. He has been blessing my companion and I abundantly to be able to find people in my area. My area is pretty tiny but surprising with the help of the Lord many people are listening. I am going to be praying this week to be able to help the people we found to develop a testimony of the work and to help the progressing investigators to be able to grow and become ready for baptism. I have only had one but I have another one set for this weekend with a girl named Cindy Cux. Pretty cool the blessings of success the Lord is blessing us with. I am finding a lot things in the scriptures I never knew before.

I have decided that I won´t speak of the rough parts haha no need focus in on the less feasible things of the week. Anyhow I have a growing testimony of this work. Each day I grow closer to the Lord as he guides my companion and I to the people that we need to work with. I am grateful for my companion and his great love for the people and knowledge of the scriptures. He reads Jesus the Christ everyday. Talk about smart haha but ya he knows a lot. I just want everyone to know that I have a testimony of this gospel and I know with no doubt in my mind and with all my heart that the Lord is guiding his work and that he loves his children. I know that as we try to come closer to him he blesses us more and as we are obedient we see miracles happening everyday in the lives of others. I know these things are true in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jarediah's Moday Blog

If only you knew haha nah nothing is really different with the idea that tomorrow I turn 21 because age has no real play here in Guatemala, still the same missionary just another year older is all. Things are pretty darn good here I am having unbelievable success as my district leader would say, but as always with much success comes problems. So lately I have been having problems with my companion because he hates gringos, he hates the capital, and he has a bad attitude about working really hard with numbers. I can understand why he thinks the way he does because I talk to a lot of the other latinos as to understand the sitution. My spanish is getting a lot better and with it the confidence in the Lord of all things being possible in his hands. To give you an idea; each morning I wake up and ask the lord to tell me where I need to go for the day and he shows me an image of an area in my area to go contacting and then I write it down and go there. Lately with just that I and my companion have been having incredible success finding people. I know my companion has his problems but I still love him and respect the hard worker he is. Even though he kind of has a bad attitude he is a really good guy and has a good heart and cares about the people
I just simply pray for patience and ask the lord for help and he helps me. So don´t worry about things with my companion because they will work themselves out in the end. I want you to thank the Women of the ward for their care package and tell them I will use everythinge they sent and have already been using part of it. I will try to send a picture next week for them to see. I forgot my camera again so not able to send pics this week sorry. Now as far as the weather its good a little rain here and there but not much. I like the rain and do not get discouraged so I don´t know what weather is coming that is supposed to get me down.
Each day I am more grateful for the lord and his many blessing because I realize that without him I would not only be home by now but I would probably be no better than zac. Without the lord it is easy to get caught up in the world and lost and confused about everything going on because the only good life is the eternal life. I am reminded everytime I see something on tv for the couple seconds I allow myself to be distracted that the world is only there to confuse and to captivate the attention of others and drag them down into the distracted fray of human imagination. The world is filled with pain because it fills the minds of its viewers with an idea that never can be atained and so we have people stealing from others, countries waring with each other to be able to gain the things of the world. It saddens me when lives are lost because of the things of the world and families ripped apart by the worldliness that we are surrounded by. I often wonder how I thought I was ever able to make myself believe that I could live my life without the need for god or the need to be a light in the eyes of the lifeless and convince myself that I was fine as you said in the letter you wrote me. The reason I have not set aside you first letter is because it is not complete yet. The first part about zac will not complete until after the second letter you sent me. Kind of interesting to me and yet a testimony of everything with its time and place.Each day is a constant reminder that if you are not with the lord you are against his work. I see this a lot when others start disobeying or thinking that they know better. It is difficult for me to hear the things people say about each other and about others who achieve much. I am starting to understand the idea of envy in the eyes of the disobedient. I noticed it this week when I was talking to my district about the success I was having and the many questions of my leaders and other people. Many thought I was making up numbers as my companion was doing the very same, but they soon came to the realization that this was not so when I showed them with every number there was a name and an address to the person that we were teaching. It is difficult for me at times to explain myself in spanish but alas as with everything the lord is teaching me that through patience and perserverance all things are possible and attainable and so I don´t get discouraged. It is really cool to feel the spirit all the time and to feel the blessings that come when we are doing what we are supposed to be.
I really am excited for the things to come and I look forward each monday to the loving and awesome letters from you and the fam. I love you and can´t wait to tell you more about the things to come. Love always,Elder Harmon

Good ol Guatemala

Hey everybody this is my first post but nontheless I am going to try to include pictures as the future comes and as I remember to bring my camera haha. Anyhow I have had one baptism and it was awesome! Guatemala is a really cool place filled with much adventure and excitement. It is also a world filled with danger around every corner and much religious confusion, but that is the best part of being a missionary is having the honor to be able to serve these people and learn to love them all in their different ways. I bear my solemn testimony that I know this is the work of God and as it says in Alma 26 we are bringing the gospel to our brothers the lamanites and helping them hear the whispers of those in the past. I know that god loves each and every one of us and through our faith we have the ability to see him in our lives maybe not in person, but in his many blessings for families and each individual person.

What a grand thing it is to know that God has a relationship with each of us that is personal to each person. Each person is different and so the way that God has his relationship with each of us is on a personal level. I love the people here and I love serving them. I love the work of the Lord and I know through him we are experience much success. Success that can only be obtained through a faith in him. I am so very happy for this experience that I have and I look forward to each day. I know these things are true. I know that we have a prophet that leads and guides us in our latters days through the Lord and I know the Book of Mormon is a book filled with the testimony of the prophets and the words of God. I know these things are true and I testify that they truly are the words of Christ as in 2 Nephi 33, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

4/12/2010

Well as you can imagine I will start with the joy, I am sending you some pictures of a surprise I know you are going to love. Lol your going to wish you had been having those tune in moments but alas I will leave the joy for you to express in your next letter haha. Well that was a joy kill. I actually have more pictures but at the moment I cannot access them don´t ask me why. So I will just explain dang it right? Lol anyhow this last saturday we had a baptism in our area in the picture it is the woman on the left. Her name is Sylvia and I got to baptize her. I can´t tell you mother how excited I was or how nervous I was but boy it was awesome. I am seeing so many changes in her as well. That and her daughter wants to get baptized as well. I have a new companion as well his name is Elder Vindel and he is a latino from El Salvador. I don´t know much about him yet as I have only had him as my companion for a couple of hours but he is pretty cool so far. We have a lot of possibilities for baptisms in my areas that is if things work out right. Right now I have two families lined up for baptism as soon as they attend church and a couple of other people so I will keep you tuned in for how that all goes if at all. Other than that things have been pretty normal around here at least for Guatemala lol. It´s funny to me how time goes by so fast, I can scarcely believe that already I have three months into my mission it seems as though time is just a flying and my journal is suffering from that fact lol imagine that right? I try to write in it everyday but it is really hard when you come home and are really tired that and I have been working on memorizing a scripture everyday of the week and because of the help of the lord I am becoming successful at that. Also my spanish is coming along also another blessing of the lord.

Oh that I were an angel and could declare repentance to shake the foundations of the hearts of the wicked and bring them to a rememberence of their God and his mighty glory for he comes in a time we least expect him to and should we not keep our watchmen about we will so easily fall to the temptations that do bestow him in his very life. Oh that I could have set a better example and done more good then harm. Alas I am very grieved, but alas I know the Lord, full of mercy and love, will bring me out of this state and focus on the importance of his work as he already at this very moment is doing to raise my joy for the wonderous majesty of his awesome work. I am so happy to be here mother and I cannot tell you enough of the joy that I feel for being here to help these people come to a knowledge of their lord and savior. There are so many lost and its wonderous how some people can wrap themselves up into a world so filthy and dirty of crimes of all natures. I have heard many stories of those who claim themselves to be prophets, the incarnate of joseph, moses, and other such forms of trickery and wickedness and it doth sadden my heart.

There was a man that we were teaching that read and denied that book of mormon as a doctrine of truth right there in front of us. How is it that people can be so blind to see the words of god, so deaf to hear of his voice, so hard that they do not feel the truth. I stand in disbelief of the world around me. My heart is filled with joy for I do know of a surety that God is there and loves us. I do not remember if I told you but I had a dream where I saw Christ and he told me that I was wasting time. At the time I wasn´t getting out of bed in time or excersising, and making my studying effective and indeed he was correct. I do know mother without a shadow of a doubt in my mind that this is the gospel of God and that he works mighty miracles through our faith. I am trying each day to build mine so I can be an instrument in bringing light to the Lamanites to a knowledge of the truth as said in Alma 26:3. This truly is a great work and I enjoy every moment of it. There are times where its hot, times where we are tired, times where there seems to be no progress, but always without fail the Lord blesses us with strength, with temperance, and with a greater vision of the work we have to do.I know without a shadow of a doubt that the book of mormon is true and that I am indeed teaching the lamanites in their time of confusion and mass religious instability. I never knew people could be so closed minded and so hard hearted like I am seeing here in Guatemala, but even with the blindness and hardness the Lord is blessing us to be able to have success and teach those who need to hear his message.

I am not perfect, but through the Lord I am growing and learning things I never thought I ever would and receiving blessings beyond imagination. I love you and hope to hear from you soon. Love always your missionary son,Elder Harmon