Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Monday, August 22, 2011; Week 23

Indianapolis~Momma!!!

  Good email this week. super long tho so it took me a long time to read and think about the things i want to say so if i dont get to write very much I'm sorry. sounds like the whole family is doing really good. good thing too because fasting for you guys is making me lose a lot of energy. glad to here dad got a lot of work.   oh i miss the temple so much.  i really hope they finish the temple here soon. have you heard anything about that?  oh, have you heard about the I'm Mormon website or whatever its called. well they are doing a great big thing with it here in indy so that means there are gonna be lots of billboards everywhere that say I'm a Mormon. its going to be exciting i feel.
   Things this week have been good. starting to pick up again and we are starting to find new people. i was struggling really bad with having faith in tracting and finding people but we had a training on it and i just started looking at it a completly different way and i feel like my faith in it has really growen. we were able to find a few cool people this week so hopefully we can hold on to them.  oh ya. something super crazy happened Monday night last week.  i was on exchanges with the district leader and we were in his area and we were teaching a guy that has a baptismal date and all the sudden some big giant black lady bangs on the door and starts yelling at the guy and getting up in his face and saying super super naughty words and was yelling for like 5 minutes and the whole time i was like. he doesnt speak english. and then she would yell at me and then start at the guy again and me and the district leader were kinda freaking out a little. well finally her daughter got her out and got her settled down. come to find out she was super high. but i said we need to say a prayer to invite the spirit and while we were prayig we both felt like we need to teach the word of wisdom. so we did and it was a super spiritual lesson  and it was just amazing. we werent planning on teaching that at all yet so its super cool how the lord works.
   Hermana Marcos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! well we hit a little snag with her. ever since we talked about about how she needs to get married she has been acting super weird. canceled our last cita and didnt come to church so we are a little worried about her. we have a cita tomorrow with her so we will get to the bottom of it.  oh. this week we have a GA coming for our zone conference. guess who it is??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! the PROPHET !!!!!! wooohooooo!!!!!!! just kidding. its Elder Robbins from the presidency of the 70. he gave the talk on being instead of doing or something like that. I'm super excited for it.
    Not much else happened this week. we have just been tracting a lot trying to find new people to teach. there was a few people who let us in right then and had really good lessons with them. we'll see if they are there for the next cita.  latinos just love listening to the word of God. but they only like it once are twice so hopefully we blasted them with the spirit so hard that they will be there on our next cita. 
   This week we had interviews with the president and his wife. they both just love me so much. i dont know if i told you how the first night went but we go to the mission home and have a training and then have a testimony meeting. well when i was with Sister Collins she told me that she has been here for 14 months and she has never had a testimony change her as much as mine did. so that was pretty cool.  this week I'm studying humility :) haha they just always tell me how much they love me and how they cant wait to see what i do here so its a little stressfull because i dont want to let them down.
   well Ive got to end this here i only got 20 minutes left and i need to write dad and the president so I'm sorry. i hope all continues to go good with the family this week. ill make sure to read fast next week. i love you. oh and ps. look up MARY ANN EVERTON on face book and be friends with her and talk with her all the time.

your son Elder Hardman


Hey dad. i have only 6 minutes to write. I'm sorry I'm always running so low on time when i write, sounds like everything is going good for you and for the family. mom said that you recieved a lot of work from sun river. I'm so happy about that. how is your health. i feel so bad that i can be there working in your place and i pray every day that god is giving you strength and that your not killing yourself. hows glens baby doing?  how is glen doing?
thats something that i never realized or noticed before the mission. God really does love his children and he is going to all he can to help. even if its just sending a missionary to help you feel the spirit.
  well I'm out of time again. i love you so much dad. thank you for all you do for me. i hope that someday i can be the man that you are. i look up to you so much

elder hardman

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Monday, August 15, 2011; Week 22

Indianapolis~
Momma,

First before i forget, that story about Jacob was such a good one. god must love him so much for how much he helps and cares about the missionaries. Everything happens for a reason thats for sure. That's one thing I'm learning more and more of as i am out here. The Lord truely does know what every single person in the world is going through and it doesnt matter what it is, if your doing the best you can in life he is going to find someway to bless you.  Second, hahahahahahahahaha so you remember how i recieved that calling last week? well this week i got released :( hahahahaha half way through a song the piano had a malfunction and started playing a christmas song. so my cover got blowen and now i dont have a calling. it was so incredibly funny tho. everyone gave me crap for it at church. 
    Sounds like the family is really doing good and you all are enjoying yourself.  That makes me happy to hear and it makes me not have to lose sleep from worrying about whats going on. ( oh and before i forget, one of our investigators told me to tell you and dad thank you for raising me.)  as much as i love being here and wouldnt trade it for the world i worry about you guys a lot and sometimes i wish i could be there to make sure everything is going alright. but i know God is watching over you and is taking care of you.
    I have a new comp. he is named Elder Lyman and he is 23 and from Delta Utah. he served in the mariens before this so thats why he is older and he seems pretty cool but a little different. haha i guess what person isnt different.  but i think we will get a long well enough.  he has been out for 9 months but his spanish is not at all better then mine so i think I'm going to learn a lot this transfer because i am having to talk a lot more and explain a lot more. but i like speaking spanish so thats all good.  oh!!! so Hermana Marcos. i love her so much just a good good lady. we gave her the baptismal interview ?'s to look over and then next time she had some ?'s like... stuff about the homosexual question. so that was interesting trying to explain that in spanish. but she was just wondering if our church kinda turns our back on people like that.  then we taught her tithing and the word of wisdom.  she said that she has no problem paying tithing and then we asked if she had problems with the wow and she got a sad look on her face and said yes. then we said well we are here to help you so what is it? haha she only drinks coffee twice a week at most and she just felt like a horrible person for it. i kinda couldnt help but chuckle. but she is so ready to be baptised. all she needs it to get married and we are probably going to set a date this week so pray for that please.
      Other then that me and my comp are just trying to find more people to teach so if you could pray for that that would be awesome.  oh and one last thing i wanted to share. the second week of every month we have a meeting called why i believe and its when recent converts share their testimonies about why they believe. its so amazingly spiritual and some of the people who talk just lived the worst lives that you could possibly think of and they just changed and its so amazing for me to be able to hear these testimonies they have about how the gospel saved their lives. well after those meetings i always make it a point to go and tell the people thank you for their testimonies (because they have all touched my life and strengthened my testimony) so i went and told them thanks and every single one of them said "thank you for letting me be apart of you"  or something a long those lines. how incredible is that? " thank you for letting me be apart of you" this is just one big family and i have a testimony of that. you are never alone in this church no matter what you are going through someone is always there to help you. i know this church to be the only true church in the world. i know that the book of Mormon is truely a gift form god and i know that Joseph Smith saw God our Father and our brother Jesus Christ and i give thanks to god every day for the opportunity i have to testify that to people as a representative of Jesucristo. i love you so much and i love the family. thank you for everything.  oh and congrats to uncle glen

your son
Elder Hardman

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Monday, August 8, 2011; Week 21

Indianapolis~
Momma,

  Transfer calls came first thing this morning and................................................................ I'm staying here so i am so happy about that. we have had some heart felt moments with some of our investigators this week and it made me not want to leave yet. i will tell you about some of them.  first,  Hermana Reyes. she is an excommunicated member. but we have been teaching her for about a month and a half.   our last lesson with her we were talking about what we needed to do to get her baptized again and it was going really good and the spirit was really strong.  and then she just started bawling and she told us that she doesnt think she can get baptized again because she thinks her "husband" is still married to a woman in mexico.  it was so sad. then on top of that we had to tell her that we were having transfers this week and might be leaving and then she started crying again and told us how much she loves us and how she knows god loves her because he sent her two angels into her life right when she needed it most.  then she said a lot of other things that was nice.
    Then we had a lesson with hermana Lara who is a less active lady. we baptized her son Arturo. we told her that we might be leaving and she started crying too and told us that she considers us part of her family and she says that we saved her family and saved her life.  it was really really sweet of her.
    Then,,,,, almost a month ago we met this family and we taught them and they seemed really really sweet, but after that first time they just didnt seem at all interested so we dropped them. fast forward a couple weeks. we met a guy who just barley got over the border from mexico and set a return appointment for the next week. fast forward to this last Friday.  we went to teach him and he wasnt home so we were like, lets go knock on those peoples door that we dropped.  they answered and let us in. had a super spiritual lesson and at the end of it the mom of the house told us that that morning she prayed to god and said sorry to him for not praying in so long and that if he was really there and really cared to send her a sign to help her know what to do with her life and how to help her family. then guessed who showed up that day. the MISSIONARIES.  i love how god works sometimes.
        Me and the other elder from St. George, the one that me and him kissed the same girl! well me and him went on exchanges this week and taught hermana Marcos and was able to answer her questions about the church and clear up her doubts. we were able to make her feel at peace with it. so she came to church yesterday and loved it so much.  i think that if she comes a couple more times then we can set a baptismal date with her because she will like it so much. well thats the plan anyways. you never know whats going to happen with this branch.  oh speaking of this branch. guess who got a calling? me!!! guess what my calling is? i now have to play the piano in sacrament meeting!!!! haha i wish i was joking but I'm not. well I'm kinda not. they have an electric piano that plays all the hymns so they just told me i have to sit up there and act like I'm playing it so that no one knows its fake. i got so many compliments after sacrament tho:)
 I'm out of time. i have to write dad. as for my package that you want to send. whatever is fine. and for pictures,,, i will try and send some soon. and i think thats all.
  I love you and i hope all is well.  i love this work and i love the things I'm learning. love you
con amor



tu hijo
Elder Hardman

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Monday, August 1, 2011; Week 20

Indianapolis~
Momma,


   First of all you need to know how bad i feel for getting upset last week at you. after i left the library and was driving home i was just rebuking myself the whole time because i was just thinking about how much you and the family do for me and and how selfish i was to be getting upset about an email. i was just having a tuff week because a lot of stuff had been going on. a lot of our investigators are deciding that this gospel is to hard for them to live so they have been dropping us and we have been trying our hardest to find new people and no one seems to be interested and it was just hard on me so i was looking forward to read some uplifting things that you always write and i didnt get anything so i just felt super bad. so i am sorry.
   I'm very glad to hear that every thing went good with the trip.  it would have been fun to go with you but this work is more important for us right now.  i am recieving mail now so all seems to be better with the post office.  are you going to start going up there every year or are you changing the place every year now?  well things are here like i said are a little bit harder but thats ok. its helping me rely on the lord more and grow more personally.  we were able to do a big service project in the ghetto where we clean up a home for troubled kids. it was really cool.  some 15 year old black kid thought he could beat me in curb ball ( kids in the ghetto play curb ball where they stand on opposite sides of the street and try to hit the curb with a ball, they do this because not very many people can afford basketball hoops)  but i represented for the church and for my family and i beat him pretty good. but then he asked to play again for money and i figured he was just hussling me so i thought it would be bad to play again.  but the service project was good. it was super super hot and hard work but it made me feel good. i love serving people.
     I went on exchanges with the zone leader again who doesnt speak spanish and i felt really good about how much i could do. my spanish does seem like it is coming along so I'm happy about that.  this is the last week of the transfer so we made a lot of goals to find new people so that next transfer we will have some new solid investigators.  Hermana Marcos like i said come to church last week and said that she had a lot of questions about it and we have to keep canceling our apt. because lots of other things come up. we have a lesson with her tomorrow so i hope it works out to where we can meet with her and answer the questions and remove and concerns.  she is a really good lady and she has told us that she wants to be baptized but wont do it without her husband. but her husband still wants nothing to do with us. how do we change his mind?
    Hermana Figaroa is still being stubburn but last night we found out what exactly happened to make her so offended so now we are meeting with her on Wednesday so hopefully we will be able to help her. i was talking to Hermano Figaroa on Saturday night and he says that he wants to be baptized so bad but he just cant untill his wife is reactivated.  i used to think that he was just scared that he would go inactive to but now i really feel like he is just not getting baptized because he wants to help her re activate. maybe he is trying to guilt trip her into it kinda. well whatever it is we will get to the bottom of it this week. 
    Not much else have happened this week. oh we had one lady make us some chicken tacos with homemade tortillas. it was probably my favorite meal that i have had out here.  she is one of our investigators too and she seems to be progressing too. she is having a lot of problems with her husband though so we dont know how soon she will be able to get baptized.  i heard that Daniel Reed got his mission call. i was so happy about that. i think he is probably my last friend to get it. when does Payden leave again?
     Well that is going to have to be it today. but i want you to know how much i love you and how grateful i am to be your son and to be in this family. i know this church is true and i know that god answers prayers. prayer is so powerful and i love being able to bare my testimony to our investigators.  i know that god is blessing my family right now and i know that he is watching over you.  i pray for you everynight and hope all will continue to go well.


your son
Elder Hardman