Week 73

Hi Everyone!

Yeah I got my Christmas!! It cost an arm and a leg to get out of customs but it was worth it for the Smarties, Seeds, and Chulula!!!! In two days worth of personal study I mowed through the 1 pound bag of sunflower seeds and loved every second of it!! But the New year in Curasao was great! Here in the islands its custom for everybody and their dog to shoot off tons of fireworks for the New year. We live up on a big hill there (the biggest on the island) and so we could see the ENTIRE island. It was the coolest thing ever!! Fireworks everywhere!! Also we saw like 3 fields on fire because these islands are really dry so that was funny. There is an Elder In Curasao from a rough city in Mexico and every time somebody shot off a firework from behind us he would cover his head and duck down and he finally couldn't take it anymore and had to go inside. It honestly seemed like he had PTSD and it was so sad. Something I have really learned on my mission is just how incredible it is to live in Utah.  Also  this week we had something freaky happen. I was in Curacao with two other elders and we were walking down the street and this guy pulls up in a truck and starts talking Papiamento to us. The other two elders were really new and didn't speak Papiamento but I was talking to him and in Papiamento the word for "bad" and "sick" is the same. So he told us his daughter was "malu" and I assumed that meant sick and he wanted to know if we could give her a blessing. We said of course but we get there and she was sprawled out on the floor. So we put her in the chair and everything started to go downhill.... she was possessed by 3 spirits and trying to deal with that was terrifying! It honestly scared the crap out of me but very long story short after a while we blessed her and commanded them to leave in the name of Jesus Christ and it all ended all right, but it really shook us all up, especially the two newbies that were with me. It really helped us learn that there really is an adversary against us and that we need to do everything we can to protect ourselves from that. I had kinda thought that that kind of stuff didn't really exist and maybe that’s why it freaked me out so much, but it all ended well.

Then we came back to Aruba and had a pretty successful week considering we only got to work 2 and a half days in Ostad. But this week Pres. Cornish of the 70 is coming to talk to all the Zone Leaders in Trinidad so yep you guessed it! I'm flying again and this time to Trinidad! Sometimes I feel like I fly more than I teach....But the airplane is a great place to contact!! On the way back here I met this really nice Venezuelan who is dating a U.S. Marine who has family that is Mormon. It was great to talk to her about it and I gave her a book of Mormon I just happened to have in my bag :)

Today we went with a member and played Beach tennis! It’s like Volleyball and tennis mixed and was tons of fun! We also had pizza and it was delicious. All in all, it was a pretty good week. Me and E. Walker had a war council while I was with him to set goals for our zone to try and get these Islands blooming!! Well that’s about it but I'm pumped to go to Trinidad to see what that is like!!

Love,

Elder Harsh