Celebrating a Birthday in Cayman!

Yo what's up?! So this week has been a pretty good one! It sounds like you and I are having almost the same weather, which can't be a good thing at all!  Hopefully some snow starts falling soon! (on your side of the world, not mine!) So this week we had a baptism!  Da. was baptized on Saturday! It was a really good baptismal service.  Da. who is 6'9", was baptized by De. who is like 5'4"! It was awesome! Da. got on his knees in the font to be baptized, and he was still taller than De.!  So I need to be careful what I say about De. because he says that he reads these letters when you put them on Facebook, so this is a Shout Out to De. D. C.!! :) So Da. wears size 16 shoes too! It is going to be so good for his wife too, she is a member from the Philippines, so now they can work towards the temple!

So yesterday at church a record was set for attendance!! We had 151 people! Our entre overflow room was filled and they were lined down the hall.  Too bad there were only like 80 Caymanian members here still tho, the rest were tourists! So one lady that was visiting from Utah, Sister M., heard about how E. and R. B., and J. were planning on going to the temple soon.  E. and R. were the ones I talked about right before Christmas. J. is a recent convert from Cuba. Both of them are struggling financially really bad.  Somehow she heard that they have been wanting to go to the temple, but just haven't been able to cuz of money.  She then asked the branch president if she could pay all 3 of their ways to the temple! Holy cow, what a blessing to them!  She is such a nice lady for doing that. They are so happy!! It is going to be such a blessing to them!

So not too much else went on this week, just normal stuff.  

So the branch is having a branch FHE tonight, and I have to get to it right now, I hope that you guys start to get some moisture! Have a good week! Thanks for the birthday wishes too! There is no better place to have a birthday than Grand Cayman! Love you guys!

Love Elder Harris

Disney Cruise and True Dedication!

Well my weeks are quickly winding down in Cayman! I only have like 20 days left, man it is crazy!! I don't want to leave this place! There is no doubt that this is the best area in the world for any missionary to serve!! I have no idea how I lucked out with it!

So there is a quick story that I forgot to say last week.  So last week we had our usual PEC meeting before church and it gets over a half hour before church starts so that people there can go home and pick up their families.  So Bro A., who is our branch mission leader, was on his way back to the church and he saw a family of 5 walking dressed up like they were going to church.  He stopped and asked if they needed a ride somewhere.  He said that she almost apologetically said "Yeah we are going to the Mormon Church." He obviously was like, “Get in we are going there”, but the story behind it is this family got off of their Disney Cruise in their church clothes, thought they could walk to church with their 3 little kids, (they didn't know it was a 2.5 hour walk from the docks to get here), and then walk back afterwards.  They actually took a wrong street that is why they ended up close to where Bro A. lives.  They would have never made it if he didn't see them. After church he took them for a drive around the island to see all the cool things. Man it was dedication for them to get off that cruise ship and want to walk to church! 

Anyways the week started out pretty good.  On Monday we had an FHE with 2 families.  One was a member family and the other was a non member family.  Bro H. coaches his son’s soccer team and so he always has his 9 year old son invite his friends to church.  Every week about 4 or 5 of them come with him each week, it is actually pretty cool.  Even during the primary Christmas program during sacrament meeting in December there were like 4 of these kids who wanted to participate in it even tho they haven't practiced it so that was cool to get them involved.  So one of the kids his name is Z.. Every week he asks when he can be baptized.  We tell him well it doesn't really work like that.  He asks his mom the same question tho throughout the week so that has sparked curiosity in her.  W. H. asked her if we could have an FHE at her house and she said ya.  So we did.  We had a really awesome lesson on faith. Afterwards the mom was still really interested so she asked if she could come to church and if we could come back and teaches the family.  We of course were able to squeeze her into our week.  We went back on Saturday and had a HTBT (How to begin Teaching) lesson with them and then taught the restoration. The dad was very, very closed minded.  He will be the one to hold the whole family back, which is sad. They didn't show up to church like she said they would and I think he had something to do with it.  Hopefully we can continue working with them.

D. is getting baptized on Saturday! We are excited about that.  He wants to do it in the font at the church.  The font at the church is tiny tho and D. is 6'9".  He is perfect for the ocean but he doesn't want to.  The ocean doesn't impress locals like it does us!!

I did some baptism interviews for Turks and Caicos and Nassau this week.  The candidates from Turks were from Haiti and we had to have an interpreter. That was pretty cool.  I am expounding my culturalization from just Beaver lol.

Oh I got my toenail removed again this week.  It was pretty bad.  I got a fourth of the nail removed and a bunch of skin around it.  He said he had to remove the skin or it would grow in again just like it did last time. I can tell you this, that I love 1st world hospitals so much more then 3rd world!! Man it was a night and day difference.  Speaking of hospitals I have heard that Elder Martin is doing very well.  (Elder Martin is a missionary serving in Jamaica who was hit by a car earlier in the month.)  It is a miracle that he is recovering this fast, let alone even being alive still.  Elder Walker (area medical adviser) said that at one point he had one foot in the grave and the other foot on a banana peel.  Truly a miracle in every form! He is planning on being released from the hospital within 10 days probably and then he will have to stay in Jamaica for a while longer before they will allow him to fly. Well I don't have my camera cord to send pics, sorry. Next week.  Hope you guys have a good week! Love ya!

Love Elder Harris

P.S. I read this talk this week and it is very good, everyone should read it!

The Inconvenient Messiah By Elder Holland

Best News Since the Restoration of the Gospel!

What's up!! This week has been good!! I can't believe that I have less than a month left in Cayman, it is so sad!! Well this week we ate the iguanas that we caught on Monday.  They were pretty good. I can't compare it to any other meat, but chicken would be the closest that I can think of.  Friday we had an awesome youth activity on the beach.  We had a really good turn out. We played beach volley, football, and had pizza and cookies so that was really fun! 

We have only been staying in George Town this week so we have been talking with a lot of new people that we hope to start teaching! BTW,, pres Brown just sent us a purchase order for a new car!! Best news I have heard since the restoration of the  Gospel!!! Man I hope we can get this thing quick, the heat is so brutal in Cayman!! The devotional was also very good last night! Man I wish that everyone in the world could have heard that!! Sorry it is short again. Gotta hit the bike again! Keep it real!! Love you all! 

Iguana!

On a bike in Cayman!

Iguana Hunting!

Alright well I have to be quick today.  This week was good. New Years was good as well. We hung out with our neighbors for awhile, they are members and invited over a couple other families in the branch for a while.  Had a pretty good time. The beginning of this week was really really slow as far as teaching is concerned.  Tuesday the sisters got here, took our car away from us! That was not cool at all. I do not like being on a bike here. I never realized how big Cayman actually is until I saw it from the vantage point of a bicycle! We stay in a lot smaller area then we thought we could take cuz it is impossible to cover that whole area.  It is so slow getting around as well. Bikes aren't very effective out here but whatever I guess. The bikes we got were the cheapest on the whole island. They were brought brand new but they broke a couple times the first half hour we were on them. Yeah they are terrible.  The work should have been picking up right now but it is still slow for us cuz of these bikes.  Anyways today we went iguana hunting again. We caught 4 pretty good sized ones. We went out in the bush and went crocodile hunter for a couple hours. We are going to cook them up and eat them tomorrow. G., who is a member here from Honduras took us.  They eat them a lot where he is from I guess. So I do have only a short time to email today.  Glad you guys had fun in California!!! Hope you guys have a good week!! Love you guys! And happy new year!!