Hola familia
Well its been another week and I can´t believe it at all. Alex wrote me and said it felt like forever, but I honestly feel like I just got here. But hey guess what? That really isn´t true at all. As of Saturday, I have been in Nicaragua two whole months, been a missionary four whole months, and been alive 19 and a half years. I cannot believe it at all. And to celebrate I ate Captain Crunch that I found in the only store in our zone. It says US Import on it and everything. It really was a sweet day as far as breakfast goes. I felt very American I can assure you. And that was really good seeing as yesterday was the fourth of July. So my Guatemalan comp had to put up with my singing the National Anthem and every American song I could think of. But it´s all good. He hasn´t killed me yet.
But speaking of the fourth of July, I really got thinking about how much I love our country. First off I love the weather. I don´t die from heat exhaustion every single day... or at least didn´t. I also love the fact that we have democracy. I´m not exactly sure what Nicaragua is, but it definitely doesn´t benefit from the same democracy we do. Also, we have a ton of opportunity. I know I´ve said it before but I know kids who have life dreams of working in a call center in Managua. They practice really broken rough English just for the hope of one day having that glorious position. Also, the other day I traded out two bucks for fourty two cordobas. I could probably eat for three days on that if I had to. I could go into our Constitution, Declaration of Independence, National Ideals, etc but I think you get the picture. We are drop dead lucky to live in the states. I don´t care if you´re living in a trailer park, we are the luckiest people in the world.
All right, this week wasn´t about quantity but I do have one really cool quality story that you all get to hear. So Wednesday, we went out of the main part of Sábana Grande again to the Familia Hernandez. The mom had recently had surgery and the dad works so we went up to clear out the garbage out of their yard. (People just throw garbage on the ground wherever here.) Anyways, we cleaned it all up and then it started to rain so we headed inside their little tin house. We were about to leave a short lesson on eternal marriage when the nephew, Sebastian, showed up. Anyways, the family was all excited that we teach him and of course we were too, so we did. Anyways, Sebastian is this pretty cool 21 year old kid. And at first, he wasn´t really paying much attention to us, but we kept going. We were teaching about how families could be eternal. I had the thought to ask him about his family, and so I asked him if he had a family. He said he had a family. Past tense. His family had all died and was living with his Aunt and Uncle while going to school. I didn´t really know what to say, but I asked him how it would be to live with his family again. He just stared at me, stared at the floor, and didn´t say anything for what seemed like five minutes. And then just started to cry. This tough 21 year old kid just started to cry in front of me. I couldn´t hear the words between the tears and Spanish of what he said next, but I understood it perfectly. Marvelous. I told him that he could live with his family again and that families are forever. Elder Lopez then taught about following Jesus Christ and how we can do that. Sebastian ended up saying he wanted to be baptized. It really was wonderful. I heard a lady call us angels this week. Now I don´t know about being an angel or anything, but I do know that the message we carry is from our Heavenly Father. I know that it is true. And I am eternally grateful for it. I know the Church of Jesus Christ is on the earth again and that a Prophet leads and guides it. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know these things and all of Nicaragua will know I know it if I have anything to say about it.
I love you and love hearing from you. I hope everything is just wonderful up there and that you all had a good week and have an even better one coming up.
Con amor, su misionero,
Elder Harris
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