Making this Blog Private...

Within the next week or two, I will be making Colton's blog private which means it will only be viewable to those who are invited.  If you would like to be able to continue to view his blog, please send me an email and I will make sure to include you!  Thanks for all your support of Colton!

Cayman Gets Better and Better!

Dear everyone!

Well just when you think that your area can't get any better, Cayman goes and proves ya wrong and you end up having a week like we had!! Thursday we had Mission Leader Council and it was really good!! We talked about a lot of awesome stuff that is coming up, at least for everyone in Jamaica.  The mission is organizing a huge Christmas celebration, i don't even know really , but they are expecting a combined amount of people, missionaries, members, less actives, and investigators of almost 1,000 people to attend this. It is going to be a huge production, meant for families to bring their less active and non member friends to.  it sounds really fun.  We were sad we were going to miss it so Sis Brown brought up the idea to broadcast it to all the off island areas, so we get to watch it now, same idea out here is to get a lot of people to come and watch it.  Pres Brown also brought up the idea of flash mobbing some malls in Kingston with missionaries singing hymns and handing out flyers for it.  Flash mobbing isn't in preach my gospel about ways to find people but hey whatever gets the job done.  I love having a young mission president.

This week was Pirates Week here and man so many people come for this! We went to the fireworks out over the ocean on Friday with some members, that was really fun, they were really good.  On Saturday I probably ate more food then I ever have in my life.  We went to a brunch party thing for a senior missionary couple that used to serve here, some people in the branch did that for them. Then we went to lunch at the R's house. That's always good on Saturdays.  We then went to the Pirates Week parade. Wow that was an experience.  It was not a 24th of July parade in Beaver, and I will tell you I like the 24th parade better. There was only 8 floats, but the parade took and hour and a half cuz they would drive for ten seconds, park for 15 minutes.  Every single float was who could put the biggest speaker system on a semi trailer and put one or two logos of your company on it somewhere, and just have a lot of people dressed up as pirates.  Anyways, we had a baptism on Saturday!! E. got baptized by her dad. The baptism was in the ocean and it was beautiful!! There was a rainbow directly out over the ocean the whole time!! E. loved that! I loved having it at the ocean, it was so pretty and peaceful! We have another baptism there this Saturday, R. already passed his interview! Yay! 

Have a good week. Love you all.

Love Elder Colton Harris

 

Rainbow where the baptism was held

Colton's caption for this picture was

"I told you all I'd be famous in Cayman!"

Some of the speakers on a float

 

Mormon Helping Hands and Iguana Hunting!

Hello once again.  Well it looks like everything is going really good at home and that you had a good week! So this week has been a freaking good week here.  It has also been a really busy week.  So this week we have been focusing a lot on R., R., and E.  We have had some really awesome lessons with them.  We just realized that we haven't been putting a focus on finding a lot of other people to teach tho so our teaching pool is a little low which isn't good, but we will find people. The members got a big boost to do missionary work last week while pres was here so that will be good for us.  We have already seen a huge difference in them, the key is to keep fanning that flame so it doesn't die out like it usually does.  We'll try, easier said then done. But we should have 2 baptisms for sure this week granted that they pass their interviews, but most likely 3 baptisms for us. The work is progressing here and it is fun to be apart of!

Anyways, this weekend was super busy for us.  We trick-or-treated one house on Halloween (our landlord's family who lives right below us who are also members). That was fun, so I didn't go totally candyless this Halloween!  Elder Runyan and I bought these masks a couple weeks ago and were going to use them to scare people but we never did so we thought that using them to trick or treat in was a good idea.

On Friday night our branch had a 50's theme branch party/dance.  It was really fun. This branch knows how to have fun, and they like to do it as often as they can so it's good for us.  We also had 4 investigators show up to that so it was good all around.

On Saturday we had a big service project in the branch.  It was an area wide day of service, so Hatti, Cuba, Jamaica, etc all did service that day. It was a 'Mormon Helping Hands' service project so we got the T-shirts and everything.  We basically went Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on this old guy in a wheel chairs' house! It was really neat.  His little old home got completely flooded to the ceiling with about 10 feet of water 10 years ago by a hurricane and hasn't been good since.  He was able to get it livable by some government grants but it still needed a lot of help!! There were bout 50 members from the branch show up, which is outstanding!! We put in new light fixtures, painted inside and out, fixed electrical wiring problem, cleaned everything, cleared a huge pile of stacked up trees and stuff, and so much more. It was an awesome day.  We got a lot of publicity too because it was right on a pretty busy road.  There was this couple from Idaho that was stopped on the cruise ship and rented a scooter to drive around the island, and when they saw the Tshirts they stopped to talk to us. They were members and they stopped and helped paint for like 2 hours.  Some recent converts were like, in what other religion would someone that is stopped in Cayman on a cruise for only a couple hours, stop and do service for someone they don't even know.  It touched them a lot, they know now that these members of this church really are different than most of the other world. It was cool.  So the local newspaper was there and did a story on it and took pictures, so what I am saying is that I will be famous in Cayman soon.  I know I'm a big deal. And the house was across the street from a 7th day church, and after their service the pastor came over and just thanked us so much.  He knows the guy pretty well and was just blown away. He said he has always wanted to come visit our church and so we told him the times.  He also said that he would like to team up with his congregation and ours for a service project in the future. This was an amazing missionary tool!!

Yesterday at church was good as well!
This morning we went iguana hunting with a member! It was so fun! We only caught a baby one, (Still about 2 and a half feet long) so we let it go cuz it wouldn't have fed all of us. Oh yeah we were going to cook it up and eat it too!  We are going hunting again so we will get some to eat next time.  Iguanas are EVERYWHERE here.  They are honestly like jack rabbits in Utah, if not more.  They are dead on the streets all over.

Well have a good week guys, enjoy the snow!!! Love ya!

Love, Elder Colton Harris

 

I Have the Best Mission President!

Wow it has been another week.  The weeks are flying by here, and it hit me how fast they are flying by this week. So when we get to Cayman we are here on a 3 month work permit and when we get her we have to apply for a one year work permit.  It takes about 6 weeks for the government to process the paperwork and I thought I had plenty of time.  Well it has almost been 2 months that I have been out here and so now I need to rush. I guess some things never change! #procrastination!!  So this week has been amazing!! Tuesday I was kind of sick, I felt like crap but was still out all day.  At least we got free Wendy's that day. There is a member of the branch that works there so every Tuesday she hooks up with free Wendy's so that is always good! So we had zone conference on Friday. It was really, really good. I love learning from Pres B!  We skyped into Nassau and Turks skyped as well so since we had 3 cameras we could only have audio not video, it was still good tho.  Then on Saturday Prez and his wife flew out here.  I felt like the mission president as we waited for him at the airport and he walked off the plane.  Then we loaded them up in our car and took them to their condo. Btw (By-the-way) we hooked presy up with a condo right on 7 mile beach, usually about $800 a night, yeah we got it for free for him. We are cool like that.  So he was busy the whole time. I have so much respect for him.  He is so consecrated.  Imma big him up (Patois for brag) for a second cuz I have the best mission president.  So he had to quite his job at age 36, sell his house and cars, move his family. He has 4 kids between 2 and 13.  He has all the normal mission president stuff to do plus he has to do it on 5 different islands and 4 different countries. On top of that he is the ecclesiastical leader of about 28 branches. There is no one else that can interview for temple recommends or certain callings so he has to do that for every member who needs one of those. He doesn't have any councilors that are authorized to do that like stake presidents have, it has to be him.  His travel schedule is crazy. This week him and his wife spent a couple day in the Bahamas, then a couple days here in Cayman, got back home late last night, they then flew to Santa Domingo early this morning and will be there for a week, then he will be home for just a few days then he is going to Cuba for a few days. That is typical for him and his wife.  Plus his branch presidents and their councilors, most are either first generation members and new members as well so he has so much training to do with them.  I cannot believe how amazing they are. Anyways, the branch loved them this weekend and we did too. It was really fun. So we are working with a lot of cool people still.  We have 4 baptisms scheduled for the 9th of November, I think 3 of them will make that date so we are excited! :) Church was amazing because pres and his wife spoke.  We had so many people at church.  Pres talked about how he was here 10 years ago for his job and they met in a little rented space and didn't even fill that up.  Now we have our own building and it is completely full, actually overflowing. They are making plans to expand the building. The work in progressing!! So many tourists are here on the island since it is fall break, and they say it will only get more busy for the next 4 months. We had a member take us to Margaritaville this morning with her grand kids. Margaritaville is the best place on the island by far! You know you are doing good when you get meal appointments at Margaritaville! :) We have another planned this week as well!! We also went to Hell (a group of limestone rock formations that is a tourist attraction)this morning.  Anyways have a good week! Good luck in football! Happy birthday Taggart and happy Halloween!! Love you guys!

Love Elder Colton Harris

Walking on water...

It has been another week! I can't believe that it is almost the end of October already!  Well this week has been a really good week! So not too much has been going on. Same old same old things around here. So a cool experience yesterday.  At church I walked out of priesthood to go and get more books from the library and when I walked out I saw 3 people walking in in street clothes.  I went over and talked to them.  They were members from Utah (not suprising, tourist members are always from Utah) but they said that they were here on a cruise on Thursday and while they were here they went snorkeling and their husband/father/or father-in-law depending on which of the 3 you were talking to lol was in a near drowning accident.  He was unconscious on the beach for a while and they were doing CPR on him. The son in law did a blessing real quick right on the beach.  After they got him to the hospital and things calmed down they started looking for the missionaries.  The numbers and addresses online that they were looking at were wrong so they couldnt get a hold of us.  They tried finding us and driving around town to look for the building. When they had given up and were on the way back to the hospital on Sunday they saw our church builing on the road when they were driving past.  It took them a long time but they finally found it, and it wasn't a coincidence.  They walked in and told me the story and said that they would like to stay for the last half hour of church then we could go by the hospital with them to give him a blessing with oil since he didnt have any the first time.  It was a neat experience.  The guy's name was R. and he was a funny guy even though he was in a lot of pain we could tell.  Thank goodness for the priesthood!! So this week we also gave E. a baptism date, she is the 10 year old daughter of the recent converts, K and T.  R. and R. the following week. We are excited.  Well have a good week! Love you all!

Love Elder Colton Harris

Our whole zone is going to Nassau, Bahamas! Wait, except for us...the zone leaders!?!

Well it sounds like you guys have a crazy week at home!, but also a
good one.  So this week was good again.  We got the news about where
zone conference is going to be held! Our whole zone is going to
Nassau, Bahamas!!!!...except for us... don't ask me why.  One of the
AP's used to serve in Cayman so he weaseled his way into coming out
here to visit.  So that news sucked.  A zone conference without the
zone leaders, tell me how that one works out!? Whatever I guess, we
are just going to have a very one on one zone conference the Pres. and
Sis. B. and the Assistants.  So onto other news.  Not much has
happened this week.  We had a pretty good zone meeting this week on
Wednesday.  We also had a branch movie night on Friday.  That was
really fun, a whole lot of candy, pocorn and soda! We watched Ephraim's
Rescue and it was a really good movie!! IDK if it actually was a
really good movie or if I was just so excited that it wasn't Joseph
Smith: Prophet of the Restoration again!!! JK..it was a good movie. So
R. came to church yesterday.  He is the one who has been having to
work on Sundays so he couldn't come to church but he switched jobs
this week and is on date for the 26th of this month.  Ro. is also
doing really well.  He came to the movie night and to church this
Sunday.  He is the one who came to 3 sessions of GC and took notes
even! He is getting so involved in the branch.  It's awesome.  He even
knows a couple people really well too here.  So there is also this
inactive lady that we found who came to church yesterday.  She was
baptized when she was 8 in Brazil.  Her family is really solid.  Her dad
used to be a stake president and everything.  She moved out here 19
years ago and hasn't been to church once.  She came yesterday and the
spirit just hit her like a ton of bricks.  I'm pretty sure she won't
be missing another Sunday for awhile.  She realized what has been
missing for so long from her life! She has a son that's of baptismal
age too.  She is like best friends with 4 families in the branch and
none of them knew that each other were members, which blows my mind.
That shouldn't ever happen.  But she was fellowshiped good lol.
That's about it.  I love you all. Have a good week :)
Love Elder Colton Harris

Just go out of your comfort zone a little bit...

One more week is in the books! Crazy to think about! Actually it has
been another transfer! Transfer calls were this Saturday, it's crazy to
think that it has been 1 whole month since I got the news about
Cayman, and that today actually marks one month since I flew into this
island! Time is going fast! Well this week was a good week. General
Conference was really good. I got to watch all 5 sessions, and stayed
awake for them all!! A lot of really good talks were given this
weekend, even on some topics that don't normally get emphasized too
much.  But it was perfect! I really liked S. Gifford Neilson, he had a
really good message, but I think I liked it because he threw some
football into it. Yeah maybe that was why I liked it?! Well I don't
need a conference ensign sent to me mom, we get those out here.  So we
had a couple investigators show up this weekend to conference, but one
showed a lot of desire.  His name is R.  He came to a session on
Saturday and both sessions on Sunday.  He was so interested.  All he
did was get invited to church by a member here in Cayman who is a
returned missionary who works as a waitress and she just invites
everyone I guess. So he was just one of her customers and he took her
up on the offer and now he has a baptism date foe November 2! Great
things can happen if we just put forth a little bit of effort and
just go out of our comfort zone a little bit.  This week we had MLC
(Mission Leader Council) with Pres and Sis B. and other mission
leaders. It was really good.  Everything that I felt was a theme at
conference he felt were important issues right now in the mission.
Everything from miracles, to stress management, to keeping covenant...
let’s just say he is inspired.  Well not too much other news happening
out here.  Glad to hear the football team is doing good! So I forgot
to mention in my last email, but last Thursday was the annual Branch
Talent show.  Every year they make the missionaries do something in it
as well.  Well surprise surprise neither one of us have any talent so we
pondered long and hard about what to do. Then inspiration happened, a
little kid in the branch named L. said "Let’s do the Harlem
Shake!" We were like well that takes no talent at all so that's a
perfect thing to do!! So we did the Harlem Shake for the branch with
the 10 year old as the lead guy or whatever you want to call him.
Super cheesy but I don't care, it's over with lol.  It ended up pretty
good.  Well have a good week everyone! Love you all!
Love Elder Harris

Colton ran into two LDS families last P-day.  One texted us a picture of them with Colton and his companion.  The other sent me an email today with a couple of pictures.  It is nice to know that church members worldwide are looking out for our missionaries!  Thank you from an appreciative mom!