December
17, 2012
Hey
:)
I
hope this week was full of wonderful Christmas preparations and celebrations,
and for those in school, you know who you are :), I hope that it wasn`t
too stressfull towards the end.
This
week was wonderful. Here is a gallery of the birthday party we threw for
Daniel our recent convert who turned 30, and the P-day trip to Cerro Santa
Lucia we took today.
On
Sunday, Danny prepared, blessed, and then cleaned up the Sacrement. It was
great to see him already participating with his Priesthood Authority.
Roberto is preparing to go through the temple. A great feat
considering his 3 months of membership, but necessary because of special
circumstances. He`s doing well spiritually.
I`m
loving being in this ward. While the sector is a little challenging,
we`re still having significant success, with a baptism planned next week.
In my free time I enjoy music, writing, and reading articles on doctrine.
We`re having wonderful success with the English class. I love
teaching it, and we have an average of 16 people coming.
Next
week will obviously be Christmas themed, and I could love if you could send me
your favorite christmas poem or holiday story.
Thanks
so much for your love and support.
Y
preparate para el Viajito Pascuero
Tu
Missionero
Elder
Parry Harrison
December
10, 2012
Hey :)
This week has been great. We`re helping
several in-actives to return to activity. Also we have a wonderful person
named Antonieta that is progressing towards her baptism. We`ve had some
wonderful family home evenings with her. Some interesting facts.
80% of the stake lidership comes from this ward. And if someone know
English and Spanish they can communicate with 80% of the church and with Portugese
90%. This week we had the amazing opportunity to have a tour of the
mission with Elder Zaballos. He`s the first counselor in the area
presidency and a member of the first quorm of the 70. It was an impactful
multi-zone conference. And, aftwards my district ate at his table with
him, his wife, and President and Sister Essig. He gave a talk in
conference this last year I believe, and gave us some interesting behind the
scenes. We`re planning a Christmas Celebration with all those in the ward
who live alone and don`t have any to celebrate the season with. It`ll
probably be in the chapel with the bishop`s family.
Great Speeches This Week:
Unless You're a Mormon
One Convert at a Time
There is nothing I have ever done to this point
of my life easier than missionary work. Physically and mentally it was
demanding—even draining at times. However, the process of conversion was the
easiest thing I have ever been associated with, and that is because I had
nothing to do with it. I did nothing. It was the Spirit which worked that great
change in the hearts of so many wonderful people. [Anthony Grover,
Missionary Homecoming Address, Grove Ward, Pleasant Grove Stake, June 1998]
This Nation Shall Endure
Said Webster, "They poured out their
generous blood like water before they knew whether it would fertilize the land
of freedom or of bondage."
But they aroused their fellow Americans. Within
one year John Adams faced the body of men who were deliberating on whether to
adopt the Declaration of Independence. With the inspiration of heaven resting
on him, Adams was said to have declared:
Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I
give my hand and my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that in the
beginning we aimed not at independence. But there's a Divinity which shapes our
ends. . . . Why, then, should we defer the Declaration? . . . You and I, indeed,
may rue it. We may not live to the time when this Declaration shall be made
good. We may die; die Colonists, die slaves, die, it may be, ignominiously and
on the scaffold.
Be it so. Be it so.
If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country
shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready. . . .
But while I do live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of a country,
and that a free country.
But whatever may be our fate, be assured . . .
that this Declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood;
but it will stand and it will richly compensate for both.
All that I have,
and all that I am, and all that I hope, in this life, I am now ready here to
stake upon it; and I leave off as I began, that live or die, survive or perish,
I am for the Declaration. It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God
it shall be my dying sentiment, Independence now, and Independence
forever. [The Works of Daniel Webster,4th ed., 1:133–:36]
As we consider technology and theology, it is
interesting that many of our Church leaders believe that technology has come as
a direct result of inspiration from the Lord. In general conference in October 1926,
Elder Joseph Fielding Smith stated the following:
I maintain that had there been no restoration of
the gospel, and no organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, there would have been no radio; there would have been no airplane, and
there would not have been the wonderful discoveries in medicine, chemistry,
electricity, and the many other things wherein the world has been benefited by
such discoveries. Under such conditions these blessings would have been
withheld, for they belong to the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times of which
the restoration of the gospel and the organization of the Church constitute the
central point, from which radiates the Spirit of the Lord throughout the world.
The inspiration of the Lord has gone out and takes hold of the minds of men,
though they know it not, and they are directed by the Lord. In this manner he
brings them into his service that his purposes and his righteousness, in due
time, may be supreme on the earth.
[CR, October 1926, 117]
Of course, doing and work require action and
application. We won't accomplish much by just thinking about it. President
Hinckley noted that "our pioneer forebears could never plow a field by
turning it over in their minds" (Standing, 80).
Photos from the last couple of things:
the end is from a christmas celebration with
Celia a wonderful convert from May. And the paintings I did.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/l147ctekrxaagtb/wzO2NUX1ssTu Missionero
Elder Parry Harrison
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