Mom, Dad, Brandon & Brooke - Brittany & Michael!
I was just writing in my journal & I couldn't help but smile at how amazing my family is and how kind & loving they all are! I honestly can say I have the most support anyone could ever ask for! You all have give me so much devotion and love and have poured out so many sacrifices in my behalf! I have felt your prayers and your fasts! All I want is every missionary to feel the love that you have shed on me! I know my brother Telu is feeling that amazing love! I can honestly say my home is a place of love and true joy! There is a work in Tonga it is Fk-lota (maybe you can have Telu Cruzer try to explain it to you) But I know people love to be around my family because they are so so loving! Aw, I love you all!
Dad, I love the website you made for me! Thank you! It's really a joy for me to see you care so much. It makes me feel like you are here with me and I'm not doing this alone!
I would like to talk to you about a couple of sweet things that happened this week! I can't remember if I have told you are not be we have been teaching a lady for the last couple of weeks that was married for a while but just recently got divorced. She is now dating a less active member in the church. She decided she wanted to know more, so she contacted us!
It has been so amazing to see her accept commitments and come closer to her Father in Heaven! She was baptized on the 15th of February! We talked to her after church and she said being baptized was the single most important choice sh has ever made in her life! Wow! For a missionary, words like these make me feel like I do when I get to eat some of mom's chocolate bunt cake! Recently after, we taught her two brothers! One is a year older than me and he was baptized the same day as her. Her other brother is going to be baptized today! My week has been literally full of these life changing and path changing decisions for so many of God's beautiful children!
This sister is now preparing with her fiance for a temple marriage. What a beautiful gift our Father in Heaven has given us to be sealed for all time and eternity!
I have been thinking a lot lately about one word in particular "tau ataina ke fili" (Freedom to Choose) or (Agency). This is the best gift that we were given from the beginning of time! And it is something we all have to learn to do well. All my life, I feel like I have had my agency, but I have been under the roof of my parents, so in a way, I have not been completely free to choose. Now that I have been out on my mission, I really see how we are all given the freedom to choose. One of the tings I know that I am supposed to learn on my mission is completely having control over making the right decisions. Growing up in Utah has already prepared me for the rough path I am on now. Growing up in Utah isn't the easiest thing to do, especially being a teenager and a Mormon. People might say that we have it so easy because everyone around us are Mormons and have the same standards. While there may be many of us with the same standards, a lot of times I have witnessed these standards not being kept by others. This has been one of the hardest things for me to experience growing up when I see my friends or people that I associate with and care about - fall for this false advertisement that it is okay to do bad things because they see other Mormons doing them. I know my Heavenly Father was preparing me for where I am today! I am on a mission with some missionaries that fail to see the big picture and are focused on the wrong image. It is truly some of the hardest things I know I will ever have to go through!
Obeying the Rules
There is something that is powerful about being exactly obedient! I have been told by so many it will bless my life! And not just mine, but my family back home!
As I have been out on the remote islands of Vava'u, I have seen a lot of Elder's that don't get this principle. I am so grateful for my upbringing and for the experiences I am having. I am realizing that here I am growing in a way that I could not grow anywhere else. I have also come to realize that often, I am left alone with only the help of my Savior to get through the hard times. Leaning on prayer completely is something that I needed to learn and develop. My patriarchal blessing said it would bless my life! It is incredible for me to see things take place in my life from my blessing! I am truly blessed!
Family, please pray for the missionaries here, not just the ones that are obedient and need strength, but also the disobedient Elder that they might see the big picture! I love you all and I always feel your arms wrapped around me and your amazing prayers in my behalf!
Love
Elder Blake Daniel Harmon
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