The Wonders of Spring

Will the wonders of Spring never cease? Hope not. This little guy was all by himself by our back fence until Mom finally showed up to claim him. Unfortunately, we didn't get a photo of the baby ducks lined up along a retaining wall in our backyard. And, sorry I forgot about doing the "Fridays around Franklin". I'll have to get out and take some pictures to post next Friday. There's a baby horse on the farm behind us, too, but he hasn't been close enough to take a picture of yet.

Wet horses and pig

One rainy day we had lots of visitors. See if you can find the eyes on the pig. It's really fun to feed him apples. He's very delicate despite his appearance.

A short recent SPUD

Dear Mom and Dad,
I'm packing to leave the MTC! It's pretty exciting to think that I'll be in the field in less than 24 hours. This will be my last letter from the MTC, so send yours to this address for now:
Elder Kyle Harris
Idaho Pocatello Mission
1246 Yellowstone Ave. Ste F3
Pocatello, ID 83201-4374
I'm afraid this will just have to be a short note, but I'll write more when I get to Pokey. I hear P-day is Wed., so that is in 2 days. I'll tell you everything about my last few days. Anyway, I have to pack. I love you all! All is well, and the Church is true. Love, Elder Harris

Texas can be beautiful, too.

Yes, Tennessee is very beautiful but Texas could be beautiful also. I remember taking these pictures around our house in Boerne right before we sold it and then discovering there was a fingerprint on the lens. Our house is now a women's treatment center: www.pachills.com You can see pictures of the house on their website under "accommodations." This is a bit of a painful post to blog so I probably won't go here again.

Free flowers

Spring around here is amazing. Just look at all these flowers around our house here in Tennessee. And to think I didn't have to do a thing to get them!

Elder Harris's letter continued

"The next 2 days followed slowly but they were amazing. The Spirit was so strong all the time and we all felt the importance of The Work. We met our teachers, Bro. Lovejoy, and Bro. George. they are both great. Bro. Lovejoy is an odd mix between being intense and really casual. He's the more cynical of the two, but it's a good cynical. He always makes jokes and things and it's fun when he teaches. Bro. George is the embodiment of Gospel enthusiasm. I have never seen him without a toothy smile from ear to ear, with his eyebrows lost in his hairline somewhere. You can tell that smile goes all the way to the back of his head. Both served in Brazil and when I told them I did capoeira Bro. George said "no way!" and Bro. Lovejoy rolled his eyes. It was hilarious.
I've been waking up at 6 every day and I feel fine. It's hard for me to sleep, but the Lord blesses me by lifting me up and carrying me through the day. The Lord has answered all my prayers, and whatever I ask for he blesses me with. So don't worry, I'm in good hands."

SPUD #2

Well, here are some excepts from our second letter from Elder Harris.
"I can't believe it has nearly been a week since I've been here. Today is preparation day finally, and it's nice to have a chance to catch my breath. It has been non-stop go go go since last Thursday, but it has been wonderful. I'm really excited because all I have to do today (besides laundry [this is encouraging], study, temple, choir, food, more study) is write this letter! Well, here's the blow by blow. After we parted ways, we went to our room and unpacked and I waited for my companion to show up. During that time I met the other companionship in our room: E. Pike and E. Poppleton. After a while E. Turner showed, and we all got acquainted. E. Pop asked how old everyone was, and I was thinking "already?" I said, "Well, you can just call me Eldest Harris." They asked, "how old are you?" When I told them that I was 25, E. Pop said, "no kidding! When's your birthday?" I said that it was yesterday and he said, "well, then that makes me Eldest Poppleton." I was shocked to learn he was 25, and his comp. is 21 (E. Pike). Elder Turner is 19 (just a child). Everyone in my room is wonderful and we are all getting very close. Later that evening we met in our class room for the first time, with the other 2 companionships and to meet our branch presidency. Elder Little, who is by far the tallest elder in our district (the Zone even) is paired with Elder Anderson who is one of the shortest. Elder Harper (23) is with Elder Bischoff. A counselor in the Br. Presidency, Bro. Bergoff, is from South Africa and has a great accent. Pres. Boyer called me in and asked me a few questions, I told him why I was here and things. Afterwards we all bore testimony and after a while Pres. Boyer said, "Elder Harris, I'd like to meet with you again." I wasn't very surprised. Something told me that I was going to be the District Leader as soon as Pres. Boyer said that one of us would be. This was before the interviews. Tune in tomorrow for more of Kyle's long letter. Seems he was economizing on the use of capital letters so I'm adding those here and there.

OUR FIRST "SPUD"

Well, we got our first letter from The Missionary. Mailed his second day, May 1st. Dad's parents called his mission letters "Chacos" -that was one of his areas in Argentina. We called Scott's letters "Skippies" from the Albanian name for their country: Shkiperia -I spelled that phonetically. Sorry Scott. So Dad thought we should call Elder Harris's letters "spuds" for his mission's sake. Well, here it is if you want to read it:
Dear Mom and Dad,
This is just a quick note to let you know that all is well and that I'm getting accustomed to the MTC. So far so good! My companion is Elder Turner from Richfield, UT [Dad's first comp in Argentina was also from there]. He's is a nice young kid and he is my Senior Companion because...I was made District Leader! What a humbling calling. It's not like I'm already dizzy from all the changes I'm experiencing. We met our Zone Leaders and our Branch President. His name is Pres. Boyer. Everyone is overwhelmingly nice and the food is good. [Dad wonders if they told him to say that.] For dinner we had chicken cordon bleu! Also, it turns out I'm not Eldest Harris. One of the other Elders in our room is 25 as well! what are the odds? Same mission and all! well, the Church is true, if for no other reason than the fact that it is so well organized and designed. Nothing short of inspiration from the Spirit could produce something like this. That, and of course the overwhelming Spirit bearing witness of the truth of this work. Well, I'll write more on Tuesday since that is the proscribed day for letter writing. Today being the exception. Just now two Elders knocked on our door and bore their testimony in Laotian. What a wonder! Well, I'll write again on Tuesday. I Love you both very much!!! Elder Harris

Some more missionary pictures

Here are some more pictures of Elder Harris at the MTC. Check out the flowers at the SL Temple! Beautiful signs of Spring and then it snowed on us when we were leaving the Residence Inn up on the bench near Cottonwood. Gotta love that Utah weather! The pictures should be in reverse order but haven't figured out how to do that.

The Many Moods of our Missionary

Here a some pictures of Elder Harris the morning he entered the MTC on April, 30th.

Our First Post

I'm on the phone with Emily trying to set this thing up. But it's harder than people say!