Indianapolis~
Hello my mother,
Sorry about not emailing yesterday, we had to reschedual our prep day because of the holiday. Its been so hot here and I'm sweating soooo much. This will probably make Kade happy!!! I've lost 8 lbs since I've been here. I'm glad to here that Jess's graduation went good and that some of the family was able to come for it. I don't have a lot of time because we are running late right now but i want to share some stories that are sad, scary, and super spiritual.
First is the sad story, I'm still having a hard time understanding. But for what ever reason God made it so I could under stand this one story. We were teaching a lady called Apolonia and we have taught her a few times before but this time she decided to tell us that she didn't believe in God because of something that happened to her brother. He used to be such a hard worker and was just a super good kid but he got sick for a long time and it cause problems with him and the family and everything and because of that he is messing up his life a lot. But she said she doesn't believe in God because if there was a God and he did love us he wouldn't allowed that to happen to her brother. So I understood all of that and she was crying a lot and i wanted to help her so incredibly bad but because I don't know Spanish all I could do was sit there and try and not cry because of how bad i felt that I couldn't help her. It was quite for a long time because my comp didn't know what to say either. So I decided to just bare my testimony on how I know God loves us without a doubt in my mind and that all we need to do is have faith in him and he will help us with anything we go through. She said thank you and then we had to leave.
So I don't know if I have told you about my drug dealing investigetor. I wont tell you his name becuase I'm 100% positive he is a drug dealer. But one day in a lesson we were teaching him and this car pull up in front of his house and he runs over to it then runs inside then back out to the car and hands them something and they hand him a lot a lot alot of cash!!!! And then every time we try to teach him it just is super sketch so we might drop him... so we were tracking in a super super getto part of town I see this black guy with a gun just walking around with it and talking about hitting up some places and then this cop pulled up and told us that that place is super sketchy and there has to be a cop there 24/7 and he told us if we were going to be there we had to be very very careful cause we stand out because we are the only white guys.
Next. We have this investigator called Julio. He is super solid. The first time we met him we invited him to church and he came that Sunday then we have been teaching him a lot and he has a testimony of everything we teach him. He said that he knows that he came to this country for a reason and he feels like this is it. He is just super super solid. One lesson he told us that his wife has been telling him (she is still in South America) that he shouldn't be talking to us because they have been catholic their whole life and they were married into that church and that's where he needs to stay. So after that lesson he just fell of the planet. We couldn't get lessons or call him or anything. finnaly last night we were able to meet with him and he just told us that he has been thinking a lot about babtism and thinking if that's really what God wants him to do. And guess what? He told us that because he knows this gospel is true he is not going to listen to any of his friends or family or anyone telling him not to join. At the end of the lesson we asked him to pray and ask if God want him to get babtized on June 25th and he was like you want me to pray for that? yes Julio!!! well I have already asked God that and I know I have to get babtized on the 25th :) This work is truely amazing my family... truely truely amazing.
I wish I could tell you more, but I'm running out of time and i still need to email my mission president. But I want you to send my letters to the mission home please. Just so if I get transfered before i recieve a letter it will still get to me. A lot of the time elders won't forward the letters. So please send my letters to the mission home and packages to my physical address. Mission Home Address:
Elder Quinten Hardman
1980 E. 116th st. ste 200
Carmel, IN 46032
please ask Harm to put this on my FB. i love you all.
Elder Hardman
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Hi Dad.
I just wrote the president and I have a few minutes to write. When we email the president he personally reads every single one of the emails and he also emails them back. Something that I feel is very amazing of him. But in his email he said this:
Elder Hardman:
You are truly amazing. I love you so very much already. Your first e-mail was incredible. I would have expected it from a missionary that came out a year or so ago. You will be an asset wherever you serve. You and Elder Torgesen will be unstoppable.
Expect some opposition, but you can handle it with grace and faith. Your baptism goal is a demonstration of your hope and faith - two incredible virtues. It is a real honor to serve in this mission with you. You help make this the best mission in the world!
With love,
President Collins
I am so happy that I am here dad. Even if I had 5 hours to write I don't think I could express the joy and happiness i have being here. I'm sure i sound like a broken record because I say that all the time but it is truely how I feel. I hope you are keeping yourself healthy and not over working yourself. The last few days here have been in the 90's with 90+ humidity so that is really hard to get used to. I really feel like me and my companion will get either 4 or 5 babtisms this transfer. We have been working so hard. There had not been a babtism in this whole district for almost half a year and for some reason all the elders in this district are just turning things around. Its amazing how working with the spirit changes the work. Oh and something I forget to mention in moms email was that I had to give a talk at church. My first one in Spanish. I wrote it myself and I was told there was only one grammer error so I felt pretty good about my self. Well I love you and I hope all is well.
Elder Hardman
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