Kyle's First Letter from AZ

WWWHHHHOOOOAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What’s up everyone!!! I am in Phoenix AZ!!!!!yayayaya. I am serving in the Monte Vista Spanish Branch here in the North Phoenix Stake. My companion is Elder Manning from SLC and he is tiiight. Spanish is craaazy!!! The first day it was hard to understand their accent, but it is coming a lot. I love the Latino culture and the food is sooooo good!!! Wow. Everyone is willing to listen to our message (Everyone who is Latino). The only people who give us a hard time are the white people really, but everyone here respects the missionaries and knows we are good people. Latinos are so open to religion. Just about every Latino is willing to share their beliefs with us. Just about everyone is Catholic. It is so intense. I get sooo pumped doing this work! I just get sooo excited and want to talk to everyone!

A lot of times when I talk to people they ask "Why are you so happy?" I turn it right back to The Book of Mormon and the gospel of Jesus Christ, and God has given us a lot of success. Oh My Word, I cannot believe I am here! It feels soooo good!!!!! Wow. I am having o much fun being here and teaching!

I am in an apartment with just Elder Manning and me. We have a car and each have our own bathroom and showers. There are sooo many cucarachas!! More than Hawaii. We have been driving all week because I don’t have a bike yet but I’m going to get one today. I am so excited. I love talking to people so much!

My Mission President is amazing! He is so great and is such a good example. He made me feel welcome and loved real quick. The first few days it was kind of cold here but now it is starting to pick up. We have to wear suits is if gets below 65 degrees, which is pretty rare.

I am writing you all from the public library by the way.

The new law that passed is hard on every person we teach. Everyone is pretty open to us to let us know if they have papers of not, some do, and a lot don't, and everyone has friends who don't, so it's a big trial for the Latino people here. Our message to them is if they build their lives on the foundation of Jesus Christ, it can never fall, and God will take care of them. It has been hard to get investigators to come to church because they don't want to go outside, but we won’t accept that, we'll get them there anyway.

We have been tracting a lot in the Ghetto. We talk to a family yesterday who talked about how we were tracting in the middle of a gang warfare zone haha. Everyone likes us though and knows we are not looking for trouble. We just need to pay close attention to the spirit to guide us, and live right, and we have confidence that the Lord will protect us.

So I’m here! Life is great! I went to the driving range this morning and hit golf balls with the members in our branch. Our branch is kind of big, and it is my goal to make it a ward before I leave this area. I think I’ll stay awhile because Elder Manning has been here for about 6 months.

I feel like I’m in Mexico. There is no grass, just dirt and rocks, with chain link fences with all the Latino men sitting outside their house listening to Mexican music and drinking beer. I love it so much, and I love the people here more and more every day. Well I would love it if you could write me some letters; it’s really hard to go through all your emails because I only have so much time on the computer, though I did get through them all. I love you all and thanks for your prayers and support. Remember that missionary work is the most important work on the face of the earth at this time. This is eternal, and people cannot afford our pride to get in the way of sharing a message from their Father in heaven.

Love you all thanks for all you support and love!!!

Here is my address... Write me and let me know what is going on!!!!

Elder Kyle Harris
18001 N. 79th AVE Ste. C 50
Glendale, AZ 85308

Elder Harris is in AZ!!

We got a call from Kyle’s Mission President yesterday telling us he arrived safe and sound. He’s been assigned to serve in the Monte Vista Spanish Branch in the North Phoenix Stake.

The mission has a blog they use to keep families updated. It’s “CalledToServePhoenix.blogspot.com”. Looks like they post photos of the new greenies when they arrive, so hopefully we’ll see one of Kyle in a few days.

It’s sure gotten quiet around here….

Love you,

Dad

Kyle's Last Week in the MTC

Sorry I didn't get this posted earlier. I had finals all week and Adam went into the MTC today, so I am just getting to this. Kyle is now in Arizona. He called us from the airport yesterday and bore the most powerful testimony in Spanish. Honestly, I am so impressed with this Spanish. The Lord is really blessing him! He is excited to get to the field and get to work. We are proud of him!

Here is his letter from this last week. It is his last from the MTC:

Well... this is the last time I will be emailing you all from the Provo Missionary Training Center. I received my flight plans on Thursday. I was sooo exciting. I need to report to the MTC travel office at 6:00 am and my flight takes off at 9:52 a.m. that means I will probably call home around 9:00 at the latest (Mountain Time). MOM DAD BE READY!! Hahaha I have heard of missionaries just getting the answering machine lol. I am soo excited to talk to you. ADAM!! IM GONNA' MISS YOU BRO!!! Only by one day... crazy!! It was meant to be haha. See you in two years bro!! I am so excited for the field, and meeting my Missions Pres. and my new trainer. The Spanish is coming sooooo well. The gift of tongues is soo real in the MTC. I love it when I am in a lesson and I just go off non-stop. You can just feel the spirit giving you the words to say. I have never experienced something like that before. It is incredible!! ADAM!! You’re going to have a blast!!! It is sooo sick!! You will receive a blue bag your first day with all your German scriptures and PMG and stuff. Your bag just sits in the bookstore so I’ll try to slip some stuff in your bag before I leave. So now I guess you can start sending mail to my mission address until I send you my apartment address. The last day you can send Dear Elders for free to the MTC is Saturday before noon. Well anyway, we are having a fake baptismal service for our fake investigator. We are planning talks and hymns and everything. It is going to be sweet and a lot of the other Elder's investigators are bringing their investigators to our baptismal service. Hahaha this is sweet! We work so hard to get our investigator to come unto Christ. It is pretty sweet. I still have not received anything from the Battle Creek boys. hahah oh well... slackers haha. It is weird being the oldest district in the zone, and one of the oldest in the MTC. Though we are the oldest district, am only older than one person in my zone. Elder Aldave's b-day is Feb 28 and he is in the youngest district. Other than that everyone else is older than me. Weird huh?............. Well I’m going to miss the MTC. I really like it here. Oh! Adam... I guess they are remodeling the gymnasium starting next week so you won’t be able to use it like the whole time you are here. They are putting in new bleachers so they cannot fit everyone into devotionals. Crazy. Anyway, teaching the Gospel in Spanish is awesome!!! It is crazy how I am already leaving to the field. I feel like I just got here last week. Time really flies... really fast on the mission. I don’t like it. I am already 1/12 done with my mission... it's disgusting. Well thanks for all the love and support from you all! The next letter you receive will be from Phoenix Arizona!!! Adios, tenga una dia bien, los amo muchisimo, ciao.

Lovin' It

Hello everyone!!!! Thanks for all the mail and packages I have received lately. I think I got like 3 letters on Monday and a package from Chris and Allie. Thanks you guys so much!! Meg, thanks for getting me the things I need. Family, thanks for sending me my balla' shoes. Dad, thanks for the letter, it was really nice. Thanks for the letter Meg and Mom. I feel so blessed to get all of these things this week! It’s awesome! I must say, I LOVE THE MTC!!!! I am going to miss it. Everyone talks about how the MTC is the worst part of their mission, but I love it! The food is really good and the spirit is always present. I am sooo happy here, I love it! However, I am very excited to go to Arizona. I am not even sure if I will be serving in Phoenix. They are changing up the missions in Arizona and they might put me somewhere else. Does anyone know anything about the missions in Arizona? Are they making any other changes other than the Farmington New Mexico Mission??? Write me and let me know!! McKeen Family!!!!! You’re going to New York!!!YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!! That is sooo freaking awesome!! I went to the church there and it was way sweet. It is in the same building as the temple, just on a different floor. It is sooo sweet. Chris, Columbia is an awesome school!!! That is awesome that you’re going there. Allie NYU!!! Craziness. NY is perfect for you two. You both are going to love it. I wanna come visit!!! lol. Anyway, Joe!! That is awesome you got a job. I must say I loved the story about the undercover cops hahah. Anyway, it is really nice and humbling to know that you all are being blessed and doing well. I am glad the Lord is taking care of you, and I love hearing good news about you all. I LOVE YOU ALL SOO MUCH!!!...........So this week was awesome. We had so much success with our fake-investigators. We have been teaching them for the past month and a half and one of them is way excited for baptism!! I know its fake, but I have put so much time and effort in teaching them that they feel like real investigators. After our appointment with him, Elder Neubert and I were jumping around in the class saying "THAT WAS SOOOOOO AWESOME!!!" We felt like we had fire in our bones and wanted to get to work so the Lord can bless us even more. Spanish is truckin' right along. Reading the scriptures is getting easier and easier. I am trying to prepare myself the best I can for the field. I am starting to not use my English scriptures anymore, and I stopped using my English Preach my Gospel a long time ago. Things are going really well, and I love every second of it. I want to get super rich, then retire early and serve missions for the rest of my life. That would be awesome!! I do not want this to end. I feel like it is going by so fast and it is only the second month haha. But seriously, I have never enjoyed something so much in my life than being on a mission. I never thought I would love it this much..............Adam I’m going to write you a letter today and talk to you about the MTC and stuff. I’ll be sending one to the McKeen family as well. RYKEN!!! SEND ME A LETTER!!!! haha. I got a picture with Elder Whynn. I see him just about every day. I get my travel plans next week and someone said something like they might delay my flight so I can see Adam, but I’m not sure. That would be sweet. Once again, Thanks for the Cookies Flager's and thanks for the Candies :) McKeen family!! Mail is a bigger deal than I thought it would be and I really appreciate it when I get it. Can someone get me the addresses of the Battlecreek boys?!?! That would be sweet. Anyway... Utah is soooo cold!!!!!! Peace out, have a good week, and READ YOUR SCRIPTURES AND SAY YOUR PRAYERS EVERY DAY!!!! Will you all commit to that?! Thank you :) Ciao… Love you all

March 31, 2010

Wow! This was a crazy week! Yesterday we had an Elder from our district go home. That makes our district now with just 5 elders. We have had two elders leave. It is really too bad. The elder that left was Elder Hamburg and he left a sticky note in my journal saying "I’m sorry I was not strong enough. I love you tons man! Stay strong!" It was really hard having him leave. He was Dear Johned the day before. It really just tore my heart out. Our district is a so close and to see someone give up like that is really hard. Anyway, we had a large group meeting with a bunch of zones, and our speaker turned out to be this guy whom I hitch-hiked with in Hawaii. I remember being picked up by an RM and we just talked about his mission. He said the same thing in the meeting and I knew he looked familiar. I didn’t get a chance to talk to him, but I’ll find him and he will be surprised. He was a nice man for picking me up ha-ha. Anyway, the MTC is going so fast. This week I have mostly been focusing on serving people, and making that the purpose of all my activities. I’m not doing this to try to impress my family, or whoever, I am working hard because I love Jesus Christ and God and I want people to come to the gospel of Jesus Christ and enjoy of the blessings. That is the focus for every single activity I do. I am growing so much. I cannot believe it. My planning skills and being organized will help me so much in my later life, as well as setting goals and doing all I can to achieve those goals. I should be receiving my flight plans any day. I have not received a letter from anyone except my family members. What is up with that guys?!?! ha-ha just kidding.. I know you are all busy with school and stuff. Anyway, love you all. Elder Kyle Harris.