Harold Lester -

Good thing each of us have different qualities, looks and abilities. It would be boring if we all looked, acted and did the same things. I had a lot of great companions on my mission – each of them was completely different than the rest. One of them was by far the smartest of them all; I think he had a photographic memory of sorts. He knew just about every scripture and where it was found – this was great when someone tried to show us we were wrong in the scriptures, good luck, you better know them pretty good to keep up with this guy. Then after we were done tracking an apartment complex and he would never know where the car was parked. I got along with all of them most of the time. But every once in a while a couple of us just didn’t click. Most people would say I’m pretty easy to get alone with - at least I like myself. It’s easy to get alone with someone that you have everything in common with: family, sports, schools - I just had a hard time with those that didn’t want to work. One of my favorite companions came out the same day I did so we helped each other in the MTC and then we later server together as Zone Leaders in Santa Fe New Mexico. We clicked almost to well, not only did we work hard but we had a lot of fun and success. While we were together there was a new missionary, Elder Brown that was assigned to our zone. He was from the Bear Lake area, which is only an hour or so from home. If you were to pick a complete opposite person from myself this would be him. I loved sports – I don’t think he has played any kind of sport, he was short and stocky – I was tall and slender, I didn’t wear glasses and his were about an inch thick. Personality wise I was very out going and he was reserved and quite. We were his leaders so we tried to make him feel at home as much as possible. I learned later that his mother had just passed away a few months before he came on a mission and that those first few months were very hard for him. A few months later I was transferred south to El Paso, Texas. At that time I was given one of my hardest companions – we just didn’t click. We were teaching a lot of people but no one seemed to be committing to the challenges we were giving. A couple of months later there was another transfer my new companion was – that’s right Elder Brown. At this time he had been out almost a year and I was close to going home. He hadn’t had the opportunity to see anyone baptized and was having a difficult time. This may seem like a formula for disaster – but it was the complete opposite. He was excited to be with me and was willing to work as hard as I would go. Apparently I wasn’t the only one that had a problem with my previous companion, all the people we were teaching started to commit to baptism. It seemed everyone we taught wanted to join the church. Elder Brown was like a kid at Christmas, eight people from three different families set dates for their baptisms in our first week together. These were some of the greatest weeks of my mission – the odd couple per says was clicking and changing the world one person at a time. There were some motivational tapes that we would lessen too on occasion - on one tape there was a man named Paul and his friend Harold Lester Brown. My companions name was Bruce – but the rest of it worked so I started calling his Harold Lester since my name is Paul. He liked his new nickname – but with what was going on he would have liked being called anything. While we were together – Elder Browns father happened to be in the Logan Temple and came across my father with his nametag on. He stopped my dad and asked him if he had a son on a mission in New Mexico – when he said yes my dad said he almost knocked him over to give him a hug. Elder Browns father wrote and told him they had met, he also told him he had met someone he wanted to marry. That made Harold excited and they had permission to visit him on their honeymoon – which happen to be right after I was transferred out of the area. I loved Elder Brown and will cherish our time together.