WEEK 34 - loving the new area

Monday March 19, 2012

Alright well I think I have a lot of things to say today, so let’s get it started. 

My area is awesome I love it so much! as well as my comp!!! He’s the greatest guy ever, and something that I think is just hilarious is that he reminds me so much of Tyler G, oh my gosh like the way he moves and talks and plays games, even eats!!! It is like I am with Tyler on the mission just in a different body and name!!! Its soo nuts I think it’s hilarious. One thing about my comps though I have had them all from North America except 1 who is from Chile. I think so far he was the closest I’ve been too, but we’ll see what happens after this transfer. I’ve learned something from all of them but I have a feeling I’m going to learn a lot this transfer from what I’m experiencing so far. Anyway I love Elder R and so far things are great!! 

My area is just on the other side of Cordoba, before I was on the east side but now I’m on the west side in the other most dangerous ghetto in Cordoba. So it seems like I just move from ghetto to ghetto. But I love it!!! it’s a different zone and district but it’s all good and all new missionaries that I don’t know. The ward is way cool too and the Bishop and just everyone is way sweet. 

So sounds like everything over there is going just great, I’m glad to hear that you’re going to Vegas...... WITHOUT ME!!!! baaaaaahhhhh what great news. But no I’m happy for you guys and hope you have some fun. I’m happy for you and Erin that she is going to SLC for Conference. We are starting to invite people here to Conference so it should be a pretty good next 2 weeks with that going on. 

That’s way cool that Sara is playing rugby. I know you don’t know too much right now but I hope she makes it and will have a good time with that. She just seems to be going from sport to sport haha, She must be in way good shape. 

Sounds like everyone else is doing good back home too. Especially Ryan I’m proud of that boy and send him my love. 

I love it here just so you know, just today me and Elder Rwere talking and it’s just way sick to have someone to be able to have complete trust in. There’s lots of things we both need to work on and can help each other out. One thing that I’ve said before is talking about pride. and the other day I was reading the talk by Pres Ezra Taft Benson about “beware of pride” and really that’s what I think a lot of the troubles we have come down too, or at least I see a lot of things that happen in my life stem from pride. Really it’s something that seems so small but is present in all of our lives. Just like in the Book of Mormon it was always so present and it seems so hard to understand it at times. It’s something that is really on my mind a lot and really also humility obviously. How I can be more humble cause it’s not really spelled out for us. Just things to work on and things to improve. I’m still learning as I go and I know I have sooooooo many more things to learn that I can’t even learn them all in the time I have here. But it’s a start and I’ll let you know how things go next week. I’m super glad for all your love and all your help in everything. 

I know this Church is true, I’m so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here and that I am here to serve the people. It’s such a great experience and nothing else can compare to it. I really just want to have it last a lot longer, but unfortunately I have only the time given to me. I know that all we share is true, that really the gospel is restored and it’s here to help us live with our Father again. I hope you all know that I love you and can always use advice and your help. Until the next time.

your big red headed baby boy

Kent

WEEK 33 - transfer day!

Monday March 12, 2012

Well well, well, guess what today was, TRANSFER DAY!!!!!!!!!! and guess what I’m transferred!!!

So I have now left Elder C and now have entered into the world of 20 de Junio or also known as La Madrid. I also have a new comp named Elder R and he’s a pretty cool guy. Just way chill and we seem to get along great from what I can tell. It should be a great transfer and I think we will have a lot of success. This area has a bunch of potential and so I’m pretty pumped to get to work. I kind of feel a little bit like I’m starting all over again because it’s a new comp, new area, and I don’t know where anything is but I’m sure I’ll learn fast and it will be alright in the end!!! So that’s kinda what’s happening with me now.

It was super hard to say good bye to all the people in my old area, Yesterday I had to say all of my goodbyes. It was pretty hard but that’s life. I’ll try and send some photos today but this computer kinda sucks so I don’t know if I’ll be able to. The people are way good and I am going to miss them. I hope they all continue doing everything they are supposed to.  It was really hard to say good bye to certain families like to A and A and their whole family cause I’ve known them for so long and baptized their entire family. Also another kid that we are baptizing or I guess the Elders that are there are going to baptize this week so it was tough but life moves on.

Here I am ready to work and I’m in a new pension so it’s a little different.  We do have a winding staircase which is cool haha.  I’m here ready to work no more no less. Sounds like you guys are all having tons of fun though!!! With all your teaching, games and conferences sounds like a blast!! All I gotta say is just keep moving forward and all will be alright so keep going family. I know the times get tough, I’ve defs felt it this last transfer but hey there are times to change and its now, not waiting till you get transferred or something happens just do it no matter what.

 Well I guess I should address the belt holes question too, I have I think its 8 or 9 holes now and so  I`m getting pretty much all my pants and hopefully my shirts taken in cause now they are all huge on me. Especially the pants if not for my belt they fall down. Even some basket ball shorts don’t stay up. I’ve lost about 50 pounds and so I’m coming home with a smaller less lovable version of Kent. I know it`s sad but that part of me has been left here.

All is good with me. I keep pushing forward. It’s tough at times but hey its life and it’s not meant to be easy or there’s no point in being here. I love you all soo much and I’m so grateful for every one of your letters and advice. I’ll talk to you soon so until then

I LOVE YOU

Elder HARKER

WEEK 32 - A really familiar face - ELDER HENRY!!

Kent and Tyler Henry - a great surprise!

Monday March 5, 2012

Well hey there Fam!!!!!

It is true it is true, I see Elder Henry finally!!!!!!! Well you might know by now that he’s in Cordoba, and the way we saw each other is that once a transfer you can go to Centro aka down town and its pretty much where they sell all the sweet stuff. In my zone which includes Centro, in the zone I can go as many times as I want in a transfer but only on pdays obviously. Anyway so ya I walk into a cyber to say hi my old comp and cause they are in the same pension Elder Henry was there!!!!! bahahaha how tight is that. It was soo weird to see that guy I was shell shocked and was lost for words I don’t even know what to say, but I have to say it was pretty awesome to see someone that I actually knew well before the mission!!! I hope you enjoy the photos.

Anyway sounds like your week was very busy and on the go with all the basketball, baby adoptions, teaching and driving lessons. Also with Erin and work sounds very exciting for sure. I hope all is well and it sounds like it might just be a Harker thing this time of year that we all get sick because unfortunately here too half way around the world I was sick yesterday. Me and my comp think it was something we ate because he had a rough night and woke up with a fever on Thursday morning so we were in the pension for the day and then he was ok for a couple days after, but then yesterday morning I woke up with a fever too, and for the last like 3 days or so we have both had "d" or however you spell it. So it was not the funnest of times. All is well now and we are feeling fine with the energy back in us to work. One thing though is one of the other Elders started to clean the bathroom this morning before we had the chance to, so I kind of feel bad for him with us two just destroying the toilet the whole week!!!!! I’m sure he had a fun time!! That was kind of my week it was a hard one not being able to work for more than half of the week, and it sucked that I was sick on Sunday. I did just tough it out so we could go to sacrament meeting and see if we had any investigators in church but unfortunately we didn’t and its cause we couldn’t look for them in the morning. Anyway that’s life when you’re sick. 

I was really grateful for your emails today though, and it’s great that I can learn a lot from what you guys are experiencing back home. It’s always amazing to learn new things and just keep pushing onward.  I’m thankful for your support and strength that you give me and I guess I don’t really have too much to write today. It was a great start to the week with some good success but then it just went downhill so we are gunna have to hike back up and just power through the next week. I pray for you all, hope everything continues well in the next week and good luck to all!!! Sara good luck in your games this week!!! Well till next time my loves

Love 

KentyBoi

WEEK 31

Monday Feb. 27, 2012

Well hey Fam, What’s shakin baby???

So sounds like this was a very good week for you guys, lots of experiences and lots of learning for the most part, which is always awesome to hear about. I’m so glad that you are all having many opportunities to learn, grow and share this knowledge that is so precious and we all have. It’s something that I’ve been thinking about lately, that really we out here in the mission field, or even at home are the only ones that can help people achieve salvation. In my mission there are about 200 missionaries and in my zone about 18, and in the limits of my zone there are these 18 people these 18 missionaries to help people achieve salvation and we are the only ones that can do it. The Catholics, Evangelists, Jehovah Witness’, Baptist or whoever can help people grow closer to Christ but we are the only ones to help them achieve salvation. It’s a big responsibility and all those that have this knowledge should share it to help those that don’t know. Just something I was thinking this last week and something to help keep me going when things get a little rough. 

But on the business side of the letter, if you could give a huge thanks to the Whitsitt’s whom I got a package from as well as the Fibke;s and the Lethaby’s, I got letters from them all and a little sort of package, and you guys too!!! I got all the packages that you sent me, which was 3 I think and it was way exciting to get them and now I don’t have to do laundry as often!!! yay!!!! but ya it was a pleasant surprise for me.

That’s about all for the technical side of things but hey sounds like you all are doing very well back home, keeping busy and doing some fun things. It’s always great to hear that you’re doing ok and that you can still have fun without me. Nothing too big happened this week. Today I ate McDonalds for the first time in over 6 months so that was new and the feeling of feeling disgusting afterwards is still the same, so same old same old. 

But this week has been a real eye opener in the things that I can be doing to become better. There are a lot of things that I’ve noticed that I can do better but as always we can notice them and we can put them into practice, and that’s something I’m really trying to do. I’ve always seemed to be able to see my faults but it's harder to change them and that’s really the key to becoming better changing the way you work, changing your attitude whatever it is you need to be constantly changing. Things to work on for sure. 

So the work in our area is improving. We have some very promising people to be baptized this month and so we are working hard to get them prepared and ready to make these covenants with the Lord. Something that I’ve seen is really it’s not that hard to baptize and this is just not for my mission or my area it’s not hard to baptize it’s just we need to put the appropriate amount of work in for it to happen. As long as we are doing all we can the Lord will bless us because truly that is what he wants. He wants people to come unto him, he wants people to be baptized but like the investigator we need to do our part first before he will bless us. That’s something I’m trying to do, is not wait for blessings cause they will never come, but I have to be doing my part first and I have his promise that he will bless me. 

Well that’s about all I have to say for today. I hope all is well at home and everything continues smoothly and I guess its bye for now until next week.

Love you all soo much

Love you little boy

Kenty

WEEK 30

Monday, Feb 20,2012

Well Hey Guys

Sounds like your week was very short and not too too busy, but still a good one I hope. So for me it has been about the same. Well it was still the same length but not too  much happened either. I hate to say it but it has been another hard week for us. But I did really learn somethings and what I need to do to help the work move forward. Every day is its own battle, and like dad had said ya we need to really look at each day on its own. If we can make one day after another a great one it turns out to be a great week. It’s always a battle in the mission, but when things are rough you just got to push it into over drive because a normal week’s work is not gunna cut it. I know that it’s a tough time but it’s only going to continue like that until something is done about it.

For me this week has been a very humbling experience, and I’ve really had to seek advice from many different sources, and I’m ready to go back at it and see what comes of it. But one thing that has really opened my eyes is that concept of setting goals. That is really one thing that the mission comes down to. Setting reasonable goals that you know will push you even just a little but then by the end of the day the goal is not an option. If you have set a goal, you need to reach it. No exceptions. Without this mentality you won’t grow, and you will always set goals that you might never achieve. So that’s something that I’m still working on, and I can’t say I’m a master at goal setting yet but maybe in 2 years I will be.

But really not too much of anything exciting happened this week. Today we got up cleaned and then went to the chapel to play some bball for like 3 hours so it was way fun and super sweaty cause its soo humid outside. But ya then got some lunch took a quick nap and got a haircut and we were on our way. So just been super chill and trying to prep and get into gear for this next week.

That’s way cool that Erin took that trip to see Tanner, and I hope he’s doing alright. Sara keep working on that guitar and ukulele (however it’s spelt) and we’ll jam when I get home. Mom and Dad just stay the sweet parents that you are. I hope that all is well, you keep seguiendo in the ways of the Lord, and well for now I guess its nos vemos.

I LOVE YOU ALL SOO MUCH

su chanchito peludo

Elder Harker

Pday to the soccer stadium

WEEK 29 - tough week

Monday February 13, 2012

Wow, I really enjoyed your letters today.

They were very inspiring for me and really helped me a lot. It’s weird to see how what other people say by coincidence can be exactly what you need to hear at this point in time. So I really thank you for writing to me every week and putting in the thought that you do.

But this week for me was one of the hardest weeks that I have had here out in the field. We have been trying to work as hard as we can and it was disappointing to see that we didn’t have too much success. It’s hard to have that happen, where you work very hard and not many things go the way you want, but that’s the life out here. It’s all the Lord’s will and everything happens for a reason and we need to accept it and move on. The only thing we can do is better ourselves as missionaries because there is always something that we can improve on. It’s amazing and scary to think that we can eternally progress. We will almost never be perfect at anything, so we still have a lot of work to do in this life and in the one after. But this week I really did feel and started to understand the power of Satan. It was a very hard week as I said and it seemed like every day many temptations were thrown at both me and my companion. It is a hard work and it gets even harder when you know Satan is trying to destroy the work and trying to destroy you. It is something to be conscious about but it will all work out in the end because we have the greater force on our side.

Other than that it was a good week, just tried our best to do everything we can to help the people in our area. We are still struggling with investigators to teach but we have a few ideas to really get the work moving along and how we can really start to work with the members. But you asked about my companion, and I think I told you his name is Elder C. He is from Utah and we knew each other before being comps and we are way good buds. So when the call came we were both way excited to get to work together. He’s a great Elder and we work very hard and work very well together. He has a year in the mission and hit a year just this last week on Feb. 9, so we had a little celebration for him on that day, with another fire burning ceremony. I’m way glad to work with him and I hope that this transfer we will see some success.

But to answer your question about pdays. Today we had a way good time with one of our investigators, or I guess old investigator, he is the son of A and A and I don’t know if I’ve told you this before but he plays professional futbol for a team called the Talleres. So today we went to go visit the stadium where they play and it was sooo sick!!! We took some sweet photos and I’ll try to send some but I don’t know if I can from this computer. It was way cool to go there. We spent the day with him and his sister, as well as his family. It was so great cause really their family is like my family here in Cordoba. They are like my parents I love them. It was way cool to be able to go and see them too cause really I’m not working in that area anymore, so I was super grateful for that. I was able to see some of the growth of their family in the gospel and it is amazing to see this family. They will all be baptized for sure one day and I’m way excited to see it. It was super funny too cause while we were in Centro some lady came up to us and just started accusing me and my comp about a bunch of things and N and D just started defending us. Then they said after if your mom was here she would have exploded on that lady to defend us or something like that I can’t exactly remember. But it was a super cool day and I’m grateful to know that family.

Well I think that’s about all for today, and I hope everything is well with everyone back home. I pray for you all every day, I miss you and love you long time!!!!

Love you little boy

Kenty

WEEK 28 - lots of contacting

Well it’s that time of the week again

But honestly not too many stories to tell. This week was the first with my new comp and so far we don’t really have anyone in the area to work with, so we made a goal to find one new person to teach a day.  First off we just went contacting like no other it was nuts!! We probably knocked about 300 or more doors this week and we were able to meet our goal by finding more than one person a day. So right now things are kinda slow and we really need to find at least one person to baptize this month. We are doing many things to make that possible and I know that with the help of the Lord we will be able to baptize this month for sure. It’s a work in progress that’s for sure, and you just got to give it your all every day or the Lord can’t bless you.

In other news, we now have 4 people living in our pension again, and now we have a Brazilian living with us!! so 'way cool. We get to learn a little bit of Portuguese,  it’s a bonus cause he already knows Spanish pretty good and he also knows quite a bit of English, so by the end of the mission he will be trilingual which is sweet. Me and Elder C thought we would give him a nice welcoming present and so we filled the shower head with strawberry juice powder and when they got back in the night he decided to take a shower. His name is Elder R by the way, and so he goes in and about 3 min later he sticks his head out and in like broken Spanish ¨does anyone want juice???¨ then  Elder C went in, and he ratted me out!!!!!!! Just straight up told him it was all me!!!! ahhhh the injustice!!! But it was all good and no hard feelings. Speaking of new elders also in our zone there is a new Elder named Elder H!!! How weird is that. All is well with them.

So sounds like you guys are all busy again with exams being over and it's all back to hard work for all of you. That is good to hear, and there are lots of opportunities to learn and grow. But PETER!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!!  MAN I AM SO HAPPY FOR THAT BOY!!!!  Wow that’s amazing to hear that he got his call and he is leaving pretty soon I guess, that was so great to hear  please send him my congratulations. That’s so awesome to hear that you are all doing so well and keeping busy. I love to hear that you are all doing so well it brightens my day.

But with me like I said we are working hard and at this time especially I am learning a lot more about myself than I ever have. It is going to be a  hard month I know but truly with the help of the Lord all is possible. It always is going to take a lot more work on our part to receive blessings but it is all worth it because any blessing is better than any amount of work. I am very scared I guess for this next month ahead of me but am excited for the challenge. It will be a great time to grow closer to my Heavenly Father.

But I guess that’s about all I have to say for now,. Like always I hope all is well with you guys. I hope you all know how much I love all of you and I pray for you always. Well stay safe until next week and I’ll talk to you then.

Later Family

Little Kentis