Willow Wood Ward Missionaries: Elder Riley Harris

Sorry it has taken me so long to get you something from Riley. He is doing awesome and loves what he is doing. I still miss him like crazy, but I am proud of him for the decision he has made to serve our Heavenly Father. He has become a great young man that has grown in ways I didn't know possible. Anyway, this is a just a little bit from him.

October 14, 2013

Wow all the things that will have too happen when I finish my mission. Luckily that's only... 9 months away... Wow I'll be down too one hand in no time. I'm actually really excited for this holiday season. I've been wanting too call ya'll really bad lately. That's why the second break in phone calls stinks. Instead of waiting 5 months we wait 7 between Mothers day and Christmas. That's real close now though. This transfer we have Thanksgiving and then the next we have CHRISTMAS! It's gonna get crazy from there I can just feel it.

So we got transfer calls on Saturday. I'm getting transfered again. I'll leave Wednesday and probably go back to 'bama. I'm thinking that I will have a total of 10 areas during my mission. That means I've got 3... well after Wednesday 2 more. Then with 6 transfers after that... Maybe I'll have 11. We'll have to see. I'm a little sick of moving but this move will be nice. I'll get away from some of the trials here. I'll admit, I've been a little worn down here in West Point. In case you couldn't tell with the meme that Haley posted on stream. It's been a struggle but I've done everything I know how to do and some stuff that I hadn't thought of before that The Spirit helped me do. All in all it will be a nice change of pace. I really wouldn't want to go back to a city though. I'm fine in the rural areas. I've just become too country I guess ;) haha right. I'm still a city boy. Just got a little country in him.

This week was definitely interesting. We went to that Halloween house on Wednesday. She canceled on us because she was sick but we still took pictures. She really likes too bash with us, so we were going to testify of the Restoration and see where things went from there. I wasn't even going too try and talk about the whole, "As man is God once was, and as God is man may become thing." It's too hard to explain unless you understand EVERYTHING else about the gospel. It's one thing that's hard to put into words but it just makes sense.

We had dinner with the Huking family. She is 18 fixin' to be 19 in Nov. and she's been married for 3 years... yeah I know how that sounds. She's been married since she was 15. They are an awesome couple though. We had pizza with them and then burned some twigs in their backyard that they needed too get rid of. They're the family that we washed their dogs. Well I told them that I was leaving and they gave me their phone numbers and address. Told me to keep in touch. That made my night. I will have too come back and visit them when I can.

Oh we also got to mow Pauline's lawn this week. I've learned that a riding lawnmower isn't all it's cracked up too be. It's hard to guide it. It really doesn't turn very well at all. It was fun though. We flew through her lawn since we needed to be somewhere right after. I didn't do too bad of a job for how fast I went. Cranked that thing up as fast as it would go and flew. I think she had me cut it way too short though.

October 7, 2013

Mom,

Conference was awesome! They really focused on the family and women which is always awesome! Not that I'm looking to be married anytime soon but I'm taking notes for the day that happens. But that's far out in the future so I'm not stressin' too much about that. I didn't know about the women's liberation thing. It's crazy! Don't they have the Relief Society thing that men aren't allowed in? I don't know I'm still young and stuff like that but the responsability of the Priesthood is big. It's so us guys are kept in line. Also the revelation from that session is to help us as priesthood holders be better priesthood holders. They can also watch it later so it's not like there's anything that they really miss out on. Whatever, they can throw their fit and I'll just live my life.

This week I got to go on an exchange again. I went up to Columbus and helped out there a little more. It was filled with moving stuff and service. We enjoyed ourselves because one of the guys we moved was straight redneck. He had his slurred speech from bein' southern, all his toys and mowers, and he taught us how too break into a door when we lock our keys in. It was fun and we put a lot of time into it. Later we moved a couple of Piano's to a couple of houses. Like some big upright grand Piano's. Bigger than ours at home. It took a little bit of effort trying to load them into a moving van. Then getting them from there into the house. It was fun and we got dinner after that. We had people who bought us a lot of things that day. A lady bought us a coke, then Bro. Oja, the guy we moved piano's with, bought us a drink at Sonic and then we had dinner at his house. Then the next day Marty, the guy we helped move the day before, took us out to breakfast. We have been extreamly blessed.

So yesterday was an interesting day as well. So the pictures of the boys in our suits were Jacob Maloney, our branch mission leaders son, and Jonathen Edwards, our 9 yr old investigator who's mom has been holding him back from baptism. They were having fun and enjoying themselves. They wanted to wear our jackets so we told them that they could if we could get a picture. They agreed. Then the drumsticks actually weren't mine. They were Brandon Edwards, Jonathen's older brother. He's in drumline at the high school, so I don't have my drumsticks from home. I borrow his every now and then though. Well we messed around with them between sessions and had a good ol time. After conference though, was the interesting part. So we had an appointment with a potential investigator. We were invited for dinner (can you say score?). Well they called and said since it was raining they really didn't want too cook so they wanted too know if we would mind eating out... Yeah as a missionary we both were thinking no. However, we both felt that we should go because this was an appointment with someone who could potenitally go somewhere. So we ate out on a Sunday... Well I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to hell for that one so someone was a little wrong... I think you know who I'm reffering to. Anyway dinner went extreamly well and after we went and washed their dogs with them. It was so awesome being able to spend some time with dogs again and to play with puppies! I'm not sure what kind of puppies they were but they were adorable.

So this couple we ate out with are Carrie and Lance Huking. Their story is really intersting. She had cancer at a young age and she was given 30 days to live, and had lost all of her hair. Well she decided too pray to God and ask him to heal her. She said that she read in the Bible that pork is unclean in the sight of God. She promised never to eat pork again and to do what he asked of her if she could live and get her hair back. Well guess what she lived! Her husband is a guy she met at church who was going to donate his kidney to her and bone marrow. Basically they are a perfect match when it comes to donating things to each other and for each other period. Well she graduated high school at 13 and obtained her associates at 15. She then got married 3 months after that. She is now 18 and her husband of three years is 24. Can you say wowzers? It's one of those fairy tale stories but It's really cool. They are super prepared too, so we are going to friendship them. Oh Carrie is also addicted too coke like you and I. She gave me 5 cans and wouldn't take no for an answer.

Another fun story is we went to a wedding this week. It was for Sam Luke's daughter. It was like a movie. She was FREAKING out. Those movies where the bride is so stressed about everything and even the smallest thing would set her off. Well that was what we witnessed. It made me laugh, which I felt bad for, and that only added to the problem. I just couldn't help myself. It's like, Holy crap this is actually real? It made me think I can wait too help with Haley's wedding... haha Hopefully she won't freak out like this girl did.

That's really all the stories that I've got for this week. I sure enjoyed it though. We were fed a lot by people too. It was a really good week. We pushed back a baptism and are hoping to get it too go through here soon. Nothing has really progressed with that sadly.