received 2/8/16

USS Lexington, Corpus side

So this last week has been pretty crazy! We had zone transfers and i got assigned with Elder Gifford (Who lived in the Laredo Apt. with me) and so he and I got to work on Flour Bluff and we even went to North Padre Island the first night,
 So we got to go to Padre Island(North) for ward coordination, Elders aren't allowed to Pros. in South Padre Island(It's iniquitous there) so that was cool, and so we worked over there.
 it was pretty fun going to a new place, and so now I'm back in Portland.

Portland's awesome we had a baptism last week and a confirmation yesterday and this family is super awesome! Their names are Victor and Marissa, and i found out that my investigators (Isabell and Elsa) in Laredo are getting baptized!!!! So this was an awesome week! We have had a bunch of southern food and bbq and one of our new investigators offered us Tickets to Talledega(NASCAR) and the opportunity to meet some big drivers and the owner of the track. Too bad Alabama is out of our mission area! But ya a whole bunch of people down here are from Idaho which is cool!

Ive been Studying The Book of Mormon in English and Spanish side by side and its super how simple it is in Spanish, the eloquence is lost in translation so its a bit different to understand it but its super cool and easy to comprehend!
I'll send a whole bunch of pics. everyone have an awesome week! -Elder HarKer.  

P.S. We are practicing using the word "Ya'all" when talking to people.

New Transfer (received 2/1/16)

So I've been sent to the "great white North" of the mission up to Corpus Christi Zone, in a town called Portland so if theres a hurricane me and Elder Packer and the sisters on North Padre Island will see it first, its cool cause we can see the bay from our apartment, and the USS Lexington is down the highway. We had a lesson with Bro. Evans who is a Vietnam vet, his office is my dream office, model planes everywhere, wwii/wwi and vietnam memorabilia everywhere, so it was super cool to meet him.

I don't have much time now but will send a better email with pics next week until then have a great week yall! 

THE STORY behind Elder Harker's first experience with transfers

so there is a video but I must tell you the story of the apostate transfer. 

So at transfers we were told Harker, Mason and Sis Christiansen were gunna get transferred, and they didn't tell us anything more which stunk.

So Monday night I packed and around 11pm they said I was getting picked up to go down to los presidentes in South Laredo for transfers at 2am and then on-wards.  I got ready showered and stuff and at 1am E. Mason picked me up and we met the sisters with Christiansen and with sister C in the truck and with all our stuff packed we went down to the South Laredo Chapel.  

Transfers get weird so its all not our fault. so we got lost on the way and eventually after a few calls got to the chapel at2:45am. Nobody was there so we called our Zone Leader, and he said call the south ZLs so we did and the conversation went 

"hey we're at the church I know were super late but where is everybody?"

"What? what are you doing at the church?"

"Transfers, we had transfers at 2 and its 2:45 and we just barely got here."

"Transfers are at 2 in the afternoon man"

"oh.... oopps"

so we all bust out laughing and then we realize. 

its 3am, we have two elders and a sister in a car in an empty parking lot at 3AM. which was authorized for 2pm but we realized that not only were we out past curfew but also Sis C. still had a companion, so we went back home to drop her off, well roads in Laredo are messed up BAD, we found the main road and we headed down it, a few minutes later we passed a sign that said "Now Leaving Laredo" so we did a movie style u turn and eventually found our way back to the correct road with the same name and dropped her off, but everyone laughed at us and the Zone leader was pretty embarrassed at his confusion of the times. so we never got to sleep really. so ya. 

ya. kinda been crazy whitewashin twice in a row as a greenie. been drawin ya Elder packers cool hes the apostles(late) Great,great nephew so he knew him. there is actually a lot more trees and we are in a van know so not as much biking. its a lot more like "second hand lions" Texas. 

we been trying to say "yall" with everyone. and we even had a baptism yesterday, a youngfamily too and we met with them and they were super ready, they got married last Friday which we got to go to and them and their fellowshippers(The Wier family) took us to Longhorn Steakhouse, they are super cool. sis Wier is a writer actually and i think ive seen one of her books even but I couldn't place where, its "Link" by Jennifer Wier. and then The Andersons,the Kinghorns,and the Egburt families are all from Poky!!!!!! What!!!!! 

and so ya no much work got done this week just gettin to know members so that was cool. we actually have food, there are so many members that we have food in the cupboards! we got the nicest apartment or one of them in the mission, its supposed to be a four-man but there is just the two of us.

Elder Harker, Victor and Marisa, Elder Packer

View of the Gulf from Jeshua's apartment in Portland, TX

Transferred!

Just found out from Sister Hewitt that Elder Harker is in Portland, Texas....near Corpus Christi.  Right on the Gulf.

Goodbye to The Streets of Laredo (received 1/25/16)

***side note: had some issues with our emails from Jesh this week.  I found out from other parents that the email system was operating a little screwy down in McAllen on Monday.


Well transfers are here and everyone said, "oh your not going anywhere your so new!" 

Little did they know I'm the only one leaving out of my district (Which I called by the way) and I have no idea who my next companion will be, generally you find out but the Zone leaders just said my companion is TBA which is just soooo lovely. 


Kinda bummed cause I kinda like Laredo and working here is super fun! But oh well.  I don't get to keep working with Elder Acosta which stinks because were super good friends. 

me and Elder Padron 

But ya, this week we worked with Ernesto and his family.  His dad just died and he's wanted to start coming back to church.  His dad was 71 and his little sister is 15 so its a pretty cool family.  His dad was a lawyer and politician for the Republican Party, and he married Ernesto's mom who only speaks Spanish.  So ya we've helped that family a whole bunch since.  Ernesto was in charge of the funeral which was on Friday. 

We have also been working with Marisa our new convert and trying to get her daughter to find time to meet with us but everyone super busy down here. 

Well I'll try and upload some pics and I'll let everyone know where I am next week!
-Elder HarKer

Weekly email (received 1/19/16)

Hello everybody sorry email didnt get out til today, so this week we worked super hard talked to some of our investigators up untill church started and we had a less active member come to church and a part member family came to the English ward/branch. Its pretty awesome to get to know them they are super cool but right now things haven't been going well cause their dad has recently passed so we have been helping them out a whole lot, P-day was pretty fun we played football and rugby with President Lavulavu and then we all went out to eat, go grocery shopping etc. but this week was super fun even though some days we were so busy with other stuff we didnt get work done. we do get to hang with our mission President on Thursday, and tomorrow we have a small inetercambio going on and for tomorrow ill be working with Elder Young my District Leader. well till next week 

-Elder HarKer

A picture of the humidity here in Texas

pictures of some giant candy i bought, a waterfoul of somekind we found dead, and a pic of us in Sheila the Van (a.k.a.) The Mormon Assault Vehicle   

Texas week 4. Received 1/11/16

so we had transferes this week for two days, i went with Elder Gifford who lives in the apartment. hes cool but was way different than acosta, We never have any referalls to people who may benefit from our message because when we ask people if there is they never know any of their neighbors, its frustrating but oh well, after that we found two families who seemed interested so we set up appointments to meet with them later today, we confirmed Johnathan a member of the church this sunday, Acosta wondered if i wanted to do the confirmation so he asked me and i said yes, So i did it, in spanish which was super hard. We had dinner last night at President Lavu-Lavus house and we learned i went to school with his cousin Candice Manu, the Manu family in Poky are his cousins so that was cool to know. I found a cool buck knife on sale that i am thinkin about buying but idk its 80bucks but buck knives are expensive. But ya the week went by super fast though, we never rerally go to teach a whole lot of people but we did find a guy named Adam and he was playing some Rush songs in his garage so we went over and talked to him and he was like super excited to talk with us. we noticed he had a big brick wall around his house and he said that he had a dream that before Christ came on the earth again that a flood of terrists and cartel mexicans came over the border and started wreaking havok and he said that after that he stated getting ready for the second coming so we decided to schedual an appointment with him later this week. it was a cool week but i left my camera at the house so no pictures this week and next week ill be emailing on tuesday or something so till then -Elder HarKer 

Week of The rain (sent 1/4/16)

So I learned this week that south Texans are wimps when it comes to a little cold weather and rain. Nobody comes to church, doors are locked tight, and the packed streets are empty.  No matter though, the New Years Eve party was fun, we went to Pres. Solis' house and watched "The Polar Express" in his trophy room.  

We found a friend(Laredo el perrito) in the mud Saturday night and brought him home and gave him to a family with a whole bunch of kids.  Sunday none of the investigators we invited to church showed up but nobody was hardly at church so it wasn't surprising.  Culture is different when it comes to weather that is for sure.  

I did acuire out of a junk tie box at $100 or so $. 
I saw the words "Bond Street" and I was like "it's mine!" Our mission is very big on ties.  I know next to nothing but I'm learning. 
Our convert Johnathin is getting confirmed this next Sunday, he came late this Sunday and so missed his confirmation but with the times for the branches changing a lot of people came late. I got kinda freaked cause Acosta said I was to confirm him... in Spanish. I mean I am getting Spanish down and I got the baptismal prayer down obviously, but it'll take time to practice how to do a confirmation prayer. Oh well, the down sides of a bilingual mission, gotta speak English, Spanish, and Tex/Mex. 
Well hopefully the weather will be nicer this week hope all ya have a good week and a happy new year.  
-Elder HarKer

My companion was not feeling well on Friday so we stayed home and I drew this.