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Brian

Brian Email 9-8-05

Dear family,

Things are going great here. I've been a little sick, just with a sore
throat, headaches, that kind of thing. I'm feeling a lot better, but I
did lose my voice. It's a good chance for my greenie to practice his
Spanish a lot more. He's really making good progress, he doesn't think
he is, but he's doing fine. He gets frustrated sometimes because people
don't understand what he's trying to say, and a lot of times he thinks
English is right and anything different is wrong. But that's ok, every
missionary goes through that stage, at least for a little while. We had
the Spanish Zone Leaders over for exchanges Tuesday night and Wednesday.
One of them, Elder Oxborrow, was my old district leader from Charlotte,
and the other, Elder Marks, was my companion right before I got
transferred out of Charlotte. They are both great missionaries and it
was so cool to work with them again. It's always fun being on exchanges
anyway, it's just something new to break up the routine. Elder Marks
told me that President Noel wants to make me a zone leader before May,
but I don't know if I want to believe that.

Gas prices here are sitting just under $3 now. There were some rumors
that it would hit $5 but they never happened. 3.29 was about the
highest we ever saw, and you can get it for 2.91 now. Good enough for
me. Spanish Zone Conference is happening this weekend, since it was
cancelled last week. I'm excited. I have two Spanish missionaries I
haven't met yet, and I have some old companions and districts to talk
to. We used to have Spanish Zone Conferences all the time back when my
trainer was Zone Leader, but there hasn't been one since I got in the
mission. I'm excited.

Everything is going more or less well. One interesting thing... We had
one lady Elfi who had a baptismal commitment at one point, and we went
over to see her one night and she told us that her husband was in jail
for beating her. A few nights later we were going to follow up with
Juan Carlos, our investigator who came to church a few weeks back. He
told us he couldn't talk to us because he had to go get his nephew out
of jail. Turns out Juan Carlos's nephew is Elfi's husband. Hmmm. It
was really funny and wierd to find that out. It's an interesting
situation.

Nancy is planning on being baptized on October 1st, between sessions of
conference. Her son isn't progressing at all, he still won't really
talk to us again, it's pretty sad. Our other investigators have stopped
reading/praying/thinking about God/everything else. We're going to have
to start over with a new set of investigators. We started tracting a
really really nice trailer park. It's the most beautiful setting for
the awfulest homes I've ever seen. I would only live in a trailer park
if it was this one. It really looks nice, and it's really quiet and
calm, no dogs, no KKK, nothing. It's weird, I've never seen anything
quite like it.

It sounds like you're all doing well, I'm having trouble thinking of
much to say, I've got a lot going through my mind, but with my headache
this morning, I'm not really playing with a full deck. I'm taking
Acidopholous and Zinc supplements, don't worry. (Those are Sister
Noel's favorite things to give sick missionaries, and they are great, I
like 'em. Sister Noel is the best) But I'm going to wrap this up.
Have a good week, I still pray for y'all. Take care.

Love, Brian

Inspirational Words for a Future Missionary

Every missionary says when he comes home that those were the best two
years of his life, I can only say that the last 10 months have been
incredible, and the best 10 months of my life so far. I have met so
many people that are so cool. Everyone has a different story, and there
is so much that I have learned from them. It's not always fun 24/7, but
it's always worth it, and it's always exciting to meet people that care
enough about God to change their lives. Everyone is a convert, even
ourselves. I have changed a ton because I am learning how to care that
much more about God. It's really great to see my companions trying to
do the same thing. I love being able to bear my testimony so often too,
I never really did much of that at home, but I've grown a lot from it
here. I feel more deeply that the things I tell people are true, and I
love it. I'm excited to not be the only extended family member on a
mission, the more we have, the closer all our families will be. Best of
luck to you!

Brian Email 9-1-05

Hey fam,

Thanks for the email, I liked all the details. Tell Andy that Mr.
Lawrence is really and honestly the most boring teacher around, but his
personality will eventually make up for it. I've heard that he really
is nice and easy enough to put up with. He really has a good line-up of
teachers. A lot of people like Mrs. Norton a lot, and everyone likes
Bartlett, he's had him before hasn't he? I had Mrs. Alexander one year
for my second Algebra class. She was good, really nice if you're
obedient. I'm sure he'll like her more than I did... That's great also
about Michael's mile time, I never did make it under 6 minutes, he has a
lot more natural ability than I ever did. Keep running every day, even
when you don't have practice.

It's good to know also that the gold Accord is still around and still
alive. That car is older than I am, I hope it lasts a while longer.
How's the Taurus? How is mom feeling? Not quite ready for basketball
yet? I hope that all works out well.

I understand a lot better, dad, about how you grew up with one ward per
two schools. Our branch here covers about 2 hours if you drive fast on
the freeway, maybe more. It's a huge area, and all the youth get along
really well, even though they only see each other once or twice a week.
It's a lot different from anything I'd ever seen before. At the same
time, it was fun to go to tri-stake activities and know everyone there
too.

Our branch is doing really well, we keep getting referrals, and we are
expecting about 6-8 more this month, if the average holds up. We're
excited to be here, I've never been busier. We've been dropping a lot
of investigators though. It's always sad, but at the same time it's
really relieving that we don't have to waste our time there anymore. I
have some good/bad news from Charlotte, (our Spanish Zone leaders are
there, and they gave me an update when I called last night) Remember
Victor? He had a baptismal date, and the day was approaching, and he
had to move for his work. Bummer, he should be back though in a couple
of months. I'm sure he'll go through with it. Same exact story for
Luciano, another guy I taught with Elder Marks. The good news is that
Sebastian, one of my favorite investigators from there still talks about
me all the time. His family is not supportive at all, they are
JWs/Catholics, and they are all pretty anti, but he still remembers the
way he felt when I bore testimony to him the first time about Joseph
Smith and the Book of Mormon. He always asks how I'm doing, and that
means a ton to me. I hope he gets baptized someday. I was thinking a
while back that Sebastian was the reason I stayed in Charlotte for so
long, he was the only person I really felt really close to. Very cool
news to hear that even though his family threw away his pamphlets and
his copy of the Book of Mormon, he got more and is still reading all the
time. Woohoo!

Spanish Zone Conference was going to be this weekend, but they cancelled
it because of the gas prices. The hurricane (hmm, why hadn't I heard of
a hurricane??) broke a major gas line in Mississippi and so gas is
expected to hit $5 a gallon by this weekend. It hit 3 for the first
time yesterday. Bummer, eh? It's all good, we'll go see all our
Spanish companions next weekend.

Well, that's all I've got for now. Everything is going well, and
everyone is doing fine. Thanks for everything, and for your prayers,
they help a lot. I love you, have a great week.

Love, Brian Harris