Testify What is in Your Heart!

                                                                                                  Sept. 23, 2015
Wow, time flies here in the CTM!!!! I cannot believe I only have two
more full weeks before I head out to the field!!

First of all, I just want to say that I love you all!!! You are all in my prayers every day,
and I am grateful for your prayers in behalf of me!!!

So, I have some experiences that I keep forgetting to share!!!
This past Friday I had the opportunity to go the Center of São Paulo and
share the gospel!! My district had an hour and a half to hand out six books of
mormon (three each) to random people in a small market-like area that
was really crowded. Before the experience I was honestly freaking out
because I still hadn´t learned enough portuguese to keep up a
sufficient conversation with Brasilians (they speak REALLY fast), and
I didn´t want to make a fool of myself when trying to share my
testimony with them. But I soon realized that it wasn´t as bad as I
thought. Brasilians are really accepting people, and they will take
the time to actually listen to you, and express their gratitude for
your gift to them (the Book of Mormon) if you are confident and
friendly with them as well. Before the experience, I prayed that
everything would go according to God´s will, and that I would learn a
lot from that experience, and that´s exactly what happened. My
companion and I first encountered a couple, and asked them if they
believed in Jesus Christ. They said yes, and then we talked a little
bit with them about the Book of Mormon, and gave them one. The
husband wholeheartedly accepted the Book, and then told us that his wife was
very Catholic, and very religious. Lucky for me, I got to speak with
his wife about the priesthood because she had an interest in it, and I
continued to explain the restoration of the priesthood after the Great
Apostasy, and a little bit of the First Vision with her. At the end of
our what seemed to be 10 minute conversation, I asked her and her
husband if they were going to read the Book, and she said no, and
handed it back to me. I honestly didn´t know how to respond. I kept
going over the experience in my mind, and thought that I might have
shared too much during our conversation. I felt that I had failed
myself, failed my Heavenly Father, and honestly did not speak
Portuguese well enough to convey the importance of the need for a
restoration. But, I continued to press forward. I prayed for strength
to have enough faith to share my testimony with others, and to share
the other books of mormon with others, and I did just that. I had to
keep going. Even though I wanted to break into tears, I had to
represent the Savior Jesus Christ, and proclaim the gospel
confidently. We handed out the rest of our books of mormon pretty
quickly, and the people we gave them to were really sweet and
accepting of our message. My testimony was more genuine after that
first encounter with the couple, and I realized that you just need to
testify what is in your heart about the gospel, and the details about
the history of the church, and the history of the Book of Mormon will
come later.

I want to share another really quick experience!!! This
past week I had a lesson with an investigator Luis who is having
trouble keeping his commitments with reading the Book of Mormon, and I
honestly prayed for strength to understand his needs, and to teach
what the Savior would teach him. During a recent lesson, I received a
strong spiritual impression to share a personal experience with him
concerning finding rest in the scriptures. Luis works a lot, and
doesn´t find any time in his life to read the word of God, but I
strongly testified to him of the importance of the Book of Mormon as
the central focus in your life amidst a life of chaos, and I probably
testified stronger than I ever have in the CTM. It was amazing!!! I
felt so much love in my heart for Luis, an investigator that was just
a member acting like a real investigator in the past, but it felt SO
REAL.

I know that Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways. I know
that the Spirit is real, and I know that the Spirit is what changes
hearts, if you just listen to the needs of investigators through the
Spirit.

I love you all!! Have a beautiful week!!!!
TCHAU!!!!

Sister Harris