Brian Email 7-28-05

Hey family,

Well, the bad news should come first... our baptisms didn't show up for
Sacrament Meeting, so obviously, we couldn't baptize them afterward.
Edwin the 21 year old son, has bipolar disease pretty bad, apparently it
kicked in again Saturday night, and he can get pretty scary sometimes.
When he doesn't want to do something, he doesn't. We'll have to keep
him on his medication, that's what is holding him back more than
anything. His mom, Nancy, is ready, so I think we'll baptize her and
then just wait a few weeks more to make sure Edwin can make it to church
regularly first.

As far as my companionship goes, I have great news. We are doing
wonderful. We are getting along great still, and we are working so
hard. We are currently leading the mission in total lessons taught each
week, and President Noel said at interviews on Tuesday that he felt
really strongly to put Elder Mitchell and me together. Elder Mitchell
is like a mule, he never gets tired, he never complains, and he just
pushes hard until the end of every day. We can hardly stay awake past
10:00 anymore, we finish planning, report to our District Leader, and
then we're out like a lamp. I've never worked so hard in my whole
mission, and I thought I was doing so well with Elder Marks last
transfer. Just goes to show there's always something else to be done.
We have already taught 19 lessons this week, the mission goal is 20. :)
I think we can hit 30 lessons this week, that was our companionship
goal. We are also tracting a lot more, we did 5 hours yesterday and 3
hours the day before. It doesn't seem as long as it really is, we've
been getting in a lot of doors lately.

Oh, I just remembered some more bad news. I dream every night about
going tracting or teaching people. It's really tiring. I wake up
drained, and I usually wake up several times a night speaking Spanish.
I don't think it's healthy, but I don't know how to stop it.

It's good to hear Andy is getting better at racquetball. I'm excited to
have that YMCA membership so I can play him before he leaves on his
mission. That's crazy that he's so tall. I bet he'll be taller than me
when I come home. Michael's going to be about 5' 9" too. That's wild.
When was the last time y'all have played with Steven? Tell Michael to
not slow down in Scouts, he's just flying through the merit badges it
sounds like. Keep it up!

How's the croquet season going? Have y'all been playing much lately?
Did you end up buying that nicer set that Michael wanted? I called up a
1-800 weather number just to get a forecast for the next few days, and
then just for kicks I asked about Boise, and the temperatures are about
the same. In Raleigh though, the heat index is above 115, so they are
telling everyone to stay inside all the time. I guess it's pretty warm
then. We've been having a lot of sunshine this week, but we're supposed
to have some thunderstorms soon. I love the storms here, the lightning
is so much better, and the thunder lasts a lot longer, and it's louder.
The rain is so warm too, we don't get cold until we go inside. I'm
excited.

A lot of members here are asking for potato recipes (just because we're
both from Idaho) and we don't have any. What are some of your
favorites?

Also, have you found my sunglasses yet? If you send them, you can pack
the box with some of the ties I left home. I kinda wish I'd taken more
than 6 with me. :)

Well, that's all I can come up with for now. Have a great week, I love
you all.

Love, Elder Harris