Fort Wayne~
Momma,
Everyone sounds like they are doing good. I'm really excited for Jon and everyone else too. things seem to be going good for the family. i just hope your not making everything sound better then they really are so i dont get worried. so you want to know in detail how my thanksgiving went!!! it was super super good. we shared the car with the English missionaries here so we went to a dinner with someone from their ward and then to a dinner with someone from our branch. it was so incredible to finally get a good American meal for the first time in my mission. they smoked their turkey and ham and oh my goodness it was good. you need to tell dad to learn how to smoke stuff. its probably the best turkey/ ham I've ever had..... besides yours and dads i mean :). and then the people from my branch we had what they called "a multi cutural Thanksgiving" in my branch we have people from 11 different countries or something so the ones who were invited to the dinner brought meals from their countries. it was super super good. someone made the best flan i have ever tasted in my life. it was like heaven. i cant wait till mine is that good. I'm getting better at making it tho. before all the dinners tho we woke up and played football for 4 hours straight. it was 37 degrees out and i was freezing. but it was so fun. i miss playing football a lot. there was some people that got pretty rough there so it was fun. some people ended up getting hurt, but none of the missionaries did so that was good. Thanksgiving was really good tho. it didnt really feel like Thanksgiving tho without the fam.
Julio is so stinkin solid. we taught him the day before Thanksgiving and he told us that the last couple days he had just been super irritated at work becasue he hasnt been able to smoke and everyone he worked with just tried to get him to smoke and he told everyone no. then when he is at home and feels an urge to smoke he just reads the BOM instead and it takes the temptation away. we didnt even tell him to read the BOM in place of smoking. he has really been converted by the book of mormon. its so amazing being able to see the power of it. we saw him Saturday and he said that his boss told him that he needed to work on Sunday and Julio told him he couldnt because he was going to church. it takes a lot of faith to tell that to a boss in these times i think because he could have very easily been fired. i love this guy a lot. we have started teaching his wife so i hope that things will get better with their marraige. him and his wife and kids came to church as well as another guy and another family. so total investigators we had at church was 7. That's the most I've ever had on my mission. this area is just doing really good right now.
On Saturday night we had a branch dinner another mutli cutural thing. man ill tell you, everyone who just thinks mexican food is the way to go, there is way more out there that is even more deliscious. but we had a lot of investigators come to that too so it was good. after, me, my comp, our mission leader, a member of the branch council, an ivestigator and another guy from the ward played basketball. we got whipped for a while, but dont worry, your boy ended up winning in the end. i even made the game winning shot. haha i only made like 3 points the whole game tho. the things missionaries will do for their investigators. we played in our church clothes. it was different but it worked out just fine.
So did i tell you that this branch hasnt had a baptism in almost 4 years? well for that, everyone is really really baptism hungry. so we get really really good fellowshipping and all but at times i think they are doing it for the wrong reasons. haha we have been told so many times to just teach them the lessons super fast and not worry about what they need in their lives. just teach them and baptise them. but we tell them we cant do that. so pray that we have success or we might have some mad members at us. things are going really good tho. we have been blessed so much here.
We have this guy, well this family who needs lots of extra prayers. ive talked a little about his wife before. they are meeting with the j dubs and she is very well a j dub. but he has a super super strong desire to know the truth. he reads and prayes and is super open to the spirit. but we feel like she is holding him back from being fully converted. we have been over there and talked to him and she will just flat out yell at him and tell him he cant meet with us and if he does he is going against everything they believe in and what she wants for the family. but he still meets with us and thats just a big slap in the face to her so she doesnt like it one bit. but just pray that she will have her heart softened and that he will recieve the witness he is waiting for please. its the familia Paniagua.( panyagua means bread and water hahahatruely appreciate the prayers and love that i recieve from my family. i will get permisison to call Beth and Harm.
I love this service more then anything in the world and I'm eternally greatful for a Father in heaven who allows second chances. i know that this was all possible because of the atonment of Christ. i know that god is watching over my family while I'm here. i know that the BOM is super super true. i love reading it every day. I've almost finished it 3 times on my mission. i love it. i love you and the family and pray always that things will go well.
con amor
tu hijo
Elder Hardman
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011; Week 36
Fort Wayne~
Momma,
What a week.... its been really good and i feel very blessed. first, my studies have been slacking a lot just because I've been so tired lately so i wasnt able to get a lot out of my studies but this week it all changed and i feel like a brand new missionary. i have learned so much this week and i love it. all i ever want to do now is read the scriptures. so wanna hear something sad? we didnt get an invite to Thanksgiving :( but i was super happy to get your package today. my comp has been waiting on one for a couple weeks so when we opened the mail box and saw the package slip he was super excited only to have his spirits crushed to find out that my momma loves me more :) hahaha it was so funny. super sad tho. Thank you for the mission call. i read it again and the spirit of God told me that it came from him and i really am where i need to be. it was nice to read it again. and thanks for the bread and tie (i really like that) and the letters. i wonder if the other return missionaries get jealous for how many letters i get from the fam :) thanks mom. but all is well here. we found out that this area has not had a baptism in almost 4 years so all the members tell us that they are counting on us. the branch here really wants new members so they are all doing really good at fellowshipping and coming to lessons and stuff. something in my last area the branch really stuggled with.
Earlier this week we had a lesson with Julio. we went and sat with him at his table and we were talking to him and he told us that his wife told him she doesnt love him anymore and wants him to leave. it was just tearing him up super bad. i felt so sad for him. so we talked to him a little about it and tried to help him feel better and then we talked about the book of mormon and asked if he had prayed about it and he said he has and that he knows its true. he said that even tho things are going wrong with his family he isnt going to stop moving forward with this because he knows the book of mormon is true and he cant lie to himself. then he told us that to him the B of M is like good food. once you eat a little you just want more and more. he said that he cant just read a vs or a page. he just reads and reads. its so amazing to see the power of the book of mormon change peoples lives. fast forward a few days. yesterday at church... our ride was late picking us up so we didnt get to church untill 9:15. but we walked in and guess who we saw? Julio and his WIFE and their two kids. it was so amazing :) i dont think i had a happier moment. well thats up there with happy moments on my mission. after church we had a lesson with Julio again and we taught the word of wisdom. we asked him if he had problems with any of it and he said just with smoking so we had him give us all his cigarets and then we gave him just one back and told him to break it and think of it as breaking the habit. so he broke it and threw it on the ground and stepped on it and said that he did that to show god he his going to change his life and keep his commandment. another of my favorite moments. then that night we had Why i Believe (i was asked to bare my testimony) and guess who Julio brought again? his wife and kids. at the end i was talking to his wife and she asked if we could bring her a book of mormon. so now she is intrested :) the gospel blesses families.
So remember last week i told you about the people that i really dont like? well last night i learned a very valuable lesson. there is this lady who just does not fall well with us at all and she has been studying with the j dubs and they give her anti. and she uses it a lot. well we were over there last night and she told us that she treats us the way that she does to see if we are true disciples of Christ. if we got mad at her it would prove to her that we are not she is testing us in every way possible. it really opened my eyes. i really need to just love her and be patient like Christ would. i repented so dont worry. God teaches us lessons in ways that we would never expect. i love it.
Things are going really good here. oh i should tell you... at the lst minute yesterday someone invited us to dinner. but it was more of like we were fishing for an invite so they were forced to invite us. haha but at least we are going somewhere. i love spanish so much. last night at Why i Believe i bore my testimony in spanish in front of heaps of white people to show them that the spirit is the same and lots of people came up to me and told me they hadnt felt the spirit that strong in a long time. i think i have it stronger with me when i speak spanishspanish. well there is so much i want to tell you but I'm out of time so i will end with my simple testimony. i love the church. i know its true and that god prepared the way for all of us from the beginning to recieve it. the book of mormon is the word of god and it was written for us in our day. Mormon saw us and our trials and put the things that would help us in this time. Christ is my best friend and he has never failed me. and he will never fail anyone who needs help. i love you and i love this work. in the name of Jesus Christ amen.
Elder Hardman
Momma,
What a week.... its been really good and i feel very blessed. first, my studies have been slacking a lot just because I've been so tired lately so i wasnt able to get a lot out of my studies but this week it all changed and i feel like a brand new missionary. i have learned so much this week and i love it. all i ever want to do now is read the scriptures. so wanna hear something sad? we didnt get an invite to Thanksgiving :( but i was super happy to get your package today. my comp has been waiting on one for a couple weeks so when we opened the mail box and saw the package slip he was super excited only to have his spirits crushed to find out that my momma loves me more :) hahaha it was so funny. super sad tho. Thank you for the mission call. i read it again and the spirit of God told me that it came from him and i really am where i need to be. it was nice to read it again. and thanks for the bread and tie (i really like that) and the letters. i wonder if the other return missionaries get jealous for how many letters i get from the fam :) thanks mom. but all is well here. we found out that this area has not had a baptism in almost 4 years so all the members tell us that they are counting on us. the branch here really wants new members so they are all doing really good at fellowshipping and coming to lessons and stuff. something in my last area the branch really stuggled with.
Earlier this week we had a lesson with Julio. we went and sat with him at his table and we were talking to him and he told us that his wife told him she doesnt love him anymore and wants him to leave. it was just tearing him up super bad. i felt so sad for him. so we talked to him a little about it and tried to help him feel better and then we talked about the book of mormon and asked if he had prayed about it and he said he has and that he knows its true. he said that even tho things are going wrong with his family he isnt going to stop moving forward with this because he knows the book of mormon is true and he cant lie to himself. then he told us that to him the B of M is like good food. once you eat a little you just want more and more. he said that he cant just read a vs or a page. he just reads and reads. its so amazing to see the power of the book of mormon change peoples lives. fast forward a few days. yesterday at church... our ride was late picking us up so we didnt get to church untill 9:15. but we walked in and guess who we saw? Julio and his WIFE and their two kids. it was so amazing :) i dont think i had a happier moment. well thats up there with happy moments on my mission. after church we had a lesson with Julio again and we taught the word of wisdom. we asked him if he had problems with any of it and he said just with smoking so we had him give us all his cigarets and then we gave him just one back and told him to break it and think of it as breaking the habit. so he broke it and threw it on the ground and stepped on it and said that he did that to show god he his going to change his life and keep his commandment. another of my favorite moments. then that night we had Why i Believe (i was asked to bare my testimony) and guess who Julio brought again? his wife and kids. at the end i was talking to his wife and she asked if we could bring her a book of mormon. so now she is intrested :) the gospel blesses families.
So remember last week i told you about the people that i really dont like? well last night i learned a very valuable lesson. there is this lady who just does not fall well with us at all and she has been studying with the j dubs and they give her anti. and she uses it a lot. well we were over there last night and she told us that she treats us the way that she does to see if we are true disciples of Christ. if we got mad at her it would prove to her that we are not she is testing us in every way possible. it really opened my eyes. i really need to just love her and be patient like Christ would. i repented so dont worry. God teaches us lessons in ways that we would never expect. i love it.
Things are going really good here. oh i should tell you... at the lst minute yesterday someone invited us to dinner. but it was more of like we were fishing for an invite so they were forced to invite us. haha but at least we are going somewhere. i love spanish so much. last night at Why i Believe i bore my testimony in spanish in front of heaps of white people to show them that the spirit is the same and lots of people came up to me and told me they hadnt felt the spirit that strong in a long time. i think i have it stronger with me when i speak spanishspanish. well there is so much i want to tell you but I'm out of time so i will end with my simple testimony. i love the church. i know its true and that god prepared the way for all of us from the beginning to recieve it. the book of mormon is the word of god and it was written for us in our day. Mormon saw us and our trials and put the things that would help us in this time. Christ is my best friend and he has never failed me. and he will never fail anyone who needs help. i love you and i love this work. in the name of Jesus Christ amen.
Elder Hardman
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011; Week 35
Fort Wayne~
Momma,
Things this week have been going good. in this area there arent as many hispanics so its harder to find them and we end up traveling a long way to find them but we are being diligent with it and god is blessing us. we are the only spanish elders in this zone so we cover a giant part of Indiana but we usually just stay around here. its hard but I'm learning a lot and I'm being pushed to the very limits in every aspect and i love it. I've never been so tired and hurt so bad in my life but I'm finally feeling like a missionary. oh and before i forget, would you send me a copy of my mission call? maybe get it shrunk and lamenated? if thats too big of a hassel dont worry about it but i think its something i would like so that i could remember those feelings i had when i read it for the first time.
So... me and my comp are working good together. we share something together that strengthens us greatly. our dislike for a certain religion who seems to be behind us or one step ahead of us everyday. we've lost so many investigators to them. one night we were talking to an investigator who has been studying with them and she told us that she cant meet with us anymore because they have been telling her stuff that we do in our church and she cant be part of that. and she wouldnt let us talk at all and she kept on bringing up Emma Smith and how she didnt follow Joseph so therefor he cant be a prophet and i was just getting soooooo mad and i couldnt listen to it any more so i just told her that she doesnt know Emma and she doesnt know anything about our church and if she did she would know that it was true but instead she is blinded and have no desire to find the truth and then we left. and the whole way home i was soooo mad and i was thinking about why our church is true and what happened was just another testament of the truthfullness of this church. every church talks bad about us to try and bring us down and we never talk bad about other churches. we openly say how much we love our BROTHERS and SISTERS of other religions and everyone else doesnt even consider us brothers. then i felt bad about getting so angry becuase i really need to be a representative of Jesus Christ and an disciple of him and a true disciple of Christ would not let stuff like that get the best of them. its hard but I'm trying. what gives them the right to talk crap on our church? hahaha sorry I'll get off my soapbox now.
So we had a nice run in to a vet from vietnam. oh my gosh it wasnt good. he was telling us some not good stuff that they had to do over there and was just swearing so bad and we asked him to stop swearing and he got angry and then started swearing more and then we talked about the atonement and how he can be forgiving and then he started crying because i didnt know if the stuff he did was wrong. he just did what the government told him to do. it was sad but then he started swearing again so we just left. now we see him everywhere hahaha he is a scary guy. I've met so many weirdos here. more here then in Indianapolis.
At a training president gave he compared the sun and the moon to missionaries and said that we need to be suns and give off light and energy and not moons that only reflect light and there is a lot more into it but i dont have time to go into it. but i realized that i am a moon. actually a black hole at times. but i really want to be better and so I prayed and asked how i can be a sun and i recieved about 30 things that i could be doing better. it was just a testimony to me that no matter how good we think we are doing there is always room to improve and better yourself to be an instrument in gods hands. it might sound dumb, but that is really what i want. i know every missionary says that but there are only a handful that actually get to that point. I'm far from it but I'm trying. i know my weaknesses and i rely on god to help me. well I'm out of time. and I'm rambling about stuff so I'll go. the investigators here are solid and I'm happy to be here. hope all continues to go good back home. love you.
Elder Hardman
Momma,
Things this week have been going good. in this area there arent as many hispanics so its harder to find them and we end up traveling a long way to find them but we are being diligent with it and god is blessing us. we are the only spanish elders in this zone so we cover a giant part of Indiana but we usually just stay around here. its hard but I'm learning a lot and I'm being pushed to the very limits in every aspect and i love it. I've never been so tired and hurt so bad in my life but I'm finally feeling like a missionary. oh and before i forget, would you send me a copy of my mission call? maybe get it shrunk and lamenated? if thats too big of a hassel dont worry about it but i think its something i would like so that i could remember those feelings i had when i read it for the first time.
So... me and my comp are working good together. we share something together that strengthens us greatly. our dislike for a certain religion who seems to be behind us or one step ahead of us everyday. we've lost so many investigators to them. one night we were talking to an investigator who has been studying with them and she told us that she cant meet with us anymore because they have been telling her stuff that we do in our church and she cant be part of that. and she wouldnt let us talk at all and she kept on bringing up Emma Smith and how she didnt follow Joseph so therefor he cant be a prophet and i was just getting soooooo mad and i couldnt listen to it any more so i just told her that she doesnt know Emma and she doesnt know anything about our church and if she did she would know that it was true but instead she is blinded and have no desire to find the truth and then we left. and the whole way home i was soooo mad and i was thinking about why our church is true and what happened was just another testament of the truthfullness of this church. every church talks bad about us to try and bring us down and we never talk bad about other churches. we openly say how much we love our BROTHERS and SISTERS of other religions and everyone else doesnt even consider us brothers. then i felt bad about getting so angry becuase i really need to be a representative of Jesus Christ and an disciple of him and a true disciple of Christ would not let stuff like that get the best of them. its hard but I'm trying. what gives them the right to talk crap on our church? hahaha sorry I'll get off my soapbox now.
So we had a nice run in to a vet from vietnam. oh my gosh it wasnt good. he was telling us some not good stuff that they had to do over there and was just swearing so bad and we asked him to stop swearing and he got angry and then started swearing more and then we talked about the atonement and how he can be forgiving and then he started crying because i didnt know if the stuff he did was wrong. he just did what the government told him to do. it was sad but then he started swearing again so we just left. now we see him everywhere hahaha he is a scary guy. I've met so many weirdos here. more here then in Indianapolis.
At a training president gave he compared the sun and the moon to missionaries and said that we need to be suns and give off light and energy and not moons that only reflect light and there is a lot more into it but i dont have time to go into it. but i realized that i am a moon. actually a black hole at times. but i really want to be better and so I prayed and asked how i can be a sun and i recieved about 30 things that i could be doing better. it was just a testimony to me that no matter how good we think we are doing there is always room to improve and better yourself to be an instrument in gods hands. it might sound dumb, but that is really what i want. i know every missionary says that but there are only a handful that actually get to that point. I'm far from it but I'm trying. i know my weaknesses and i rely on god to help me. well I'm out of time. and I'm rambling about stuff so I'll go. the investigators here are solid and I'm happy to be here. hope all continues to go good back home. love you.
Elder Hardman
Monday, November 7, 2011; Week 34
Fort Wayne~
Momma,
Oh man what a week i just had. well, like i told you last week, i was transfered and i am now in a city called Fort Wayne. its super different. its still a good sized city but i was in culture shock for the first couple days of being here. not near as many black people and hispanics so its different. (just read your email. you already knew where i was going :P tell the family my address please) But the hardest thing for my to get used to was not hearing sirens about 50 times a day. haha it makes me feel like the cops are doing thier jobs when i hear them. other then that i didnt have to adjust, i knew what needed to be done and i went to work. i was doubled transfered into this area. the hardest thing i have ever done on my mission. me and my comp dont know where anything is, we dont know the members or the investigators. every single night we have had to stay up till almost midnight trying to plan. its just so incredibly hard. but we have been given the opportunity to really rely on the spirit with everything that we have done and we have been so blessed for it. being in an area for 6 months you just start relying on your own knowledge and just go to people who are close by or just work in areas that you know. well this time we have been going to people who the spirit told us to. in turn, we have riding over 80 miles since Wednesday. been lost probably a dozen times had a few flat tires. but got 5 new investigators. one guy we set a baptismal date with for the 10 of Dec. and he is working on that. we have just been so blessed. i cant even describe to you this experience I'm having. its simply incredible.
So Iindiana has the worst roads and side walks in the world. last night i was riding on a side walk and looked behind me to talk to my comp (Elder Vellinga, he is a super solid missionary and we get along great. we have both grown so much this last week) and when i looked back forward my face ran right into a tree branch and cut it up and it hurt super bad. then not 2 minutes later and hit a pot hole and flipped right over my handle bars. for those of you who are wondering.... god does have a sense of humor. sometimes even at others expense. all is well tho. I'll give it to him for how much he has blessed us this week. so we ate with these members a couple days ago. they are hispanic. and they have a million dollar home. oh my heck it was nice. haha who would have thought that the nicest home i would go to on my mission would be hispanic. something just came to me. for everyone who doesnt know missionaries, it would be so weird seeing 2 young men wearing nice suits riding down the street on bikes. hahaha funny.
We had church yesterday. to tell you the truth, the last couple days i was super worried about this area and having member support and what not because our second night we had a meeting with our branch mission leader and he told us not to expect much from the branch because they are getting sick of double tranfers (this area hasn't had one in a super long time so i have no idea what he was talking about) and just said stuff like that. he doesnt like us. but yesterday at church, it was amazing. everyone is soooo nice and welcomed us and just loved us. i have never had so many nice people talk to me on my mission. but after yesterday i feel so good about this branch/area. yesterday we ate with some members who are guatamalens. oh my goodness. i didnt know what i have been missing only eating mexican food my whole life. food from guatamala is sooooooo amazing.
My time is up. sorry. just know everything is going amazing and I'm doing good. i finally figured out why it was so important for me to fight and serve a mission. deep down inside me i think i always knew that the salvation of many people would depend on my decision to serve a mission or not and i didnt want to do that to people. it was really important to me to be able to help the people that i was supposed to help. and i feel like i am doing that. this gospel is true and the spirit is amazing. i love being here and i would never change it for anything. can you send me my blanket please :) i miss it and i cant sleep at all here.
love you momma
Elder Hardman
Momma,
Oh man what a week i just had. well, like i told you last week, i was transfered and i am now in a city called Fort Wayne. its super different. its still a good sized city but i was in culture shock for the first couple days of being here. not near as many black people and hispanics so its different. (just read your email. you already knew where i was going :P tell the family my address please) But the hardest thing for my to get used to was not hearing sirens about 50 times a day. haha it makes me feel like the cops are doing thier jobs when i hear them. other then that i didnt have to adjust, i knew what needed to be done and i went to work. i was doubled transfered into this area. the hardest thing i have ever done on my mission. me and my comp dont know where anything is, we dont know the members or the investigators. every single night we have had to stay up till almost midnight trying to plan. its just so incredibly hard. but we have been given the opportunity to really rely on the spirit with everything that we have done and we have been so blessed for it. being in an area for 6 months you just start relying on your own knowledge and just go to people who are close by or just work in areas that you know. well this time we have been going to people who the spirit told us to. in turn, we have riding over 80 miles since Wednesday. been lost probably a dozen times had a few flat tires. but got 5 new investigators. one guy we set a baptismal date with for the 10 of Dec. and he is working on that. we have just been so blessed. i cant even describe to you this experience I'm having. its simply incredible.
So Iindiana has the worst roads and side walks in the world. last night i was riding on a side walk and looked behind me to talk to my comp (Elder Vellinga, he is a super solid missionary and we get along great. we have both grown so much this last week) and when i looked back forward my face ran right into a tree branch and cut it up and it hurt super bad. then not 2 minutes later and hit a pot hole and flipped right over my handle bars. for those of you who are wondering.... god does have a sense of humor. sometimes even at others expense. all is well tho. I'll give it to him for how much he has blessed us this week. so we ate with these members a couple days ago. they are hispanic. and they have a million dollar home. oh my heck it was nice. haha who would have thought that the nicest home i would go to on my mission would be hispanic. something just came to me. for everyone who doesnt know missionaries, it would be so weird seeing 2 young men wearing nice suits riding down the street on bikes. hahaha funny.
We had church yesterday. to tell you the truth, the last couple days i was super worried about this area and having member support and what not because our second night we had a meeting with our branch mission leader and he told us not to expect much from the branch because they are getting sick of double tranfers (this area hasn't had one in a super long time so i have no idea what he was talking about) and just said stuff like that. he doesnt like us. but yesterday at church, it was amazing. everyone is soooo nice and welcomed us and just loved us. i have never had so many nice people talk to me on my mission. but after yesterday i feel so good about this branch/area. yesterday we ate with some members who are guatamalens. oh my goodness. i didnt know what i have been missing only eating mexican food my whole life. food from guatamala is sooooooo amazing.
My time is up. sorry. just know everything is going amazing and I'm doing good. i finally figured out why it was so important for me to fight and serve a mission. deep down inside me i think i always knew that the salvation of many people would depend on my decision to serve a mission or not and i didnt want to do that to people. it was really important to me to be able to help the people that i was supposed to help. and i feel like i am doing that. this gospel is true and the spirit is amazing. i love being here and i would never change it for anything. can you send me my blanket please :) i miss it and i cant sleep at all here.
love you momma
Elder Hardman
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Monday, October 31, 2011; Week 33
Indianapolis~
Momma,
So its official, I'm leaving my birthing place. i got the call this morning that told me to pack up all my things. so now ill be doing the same thing somewhere else. trying to fulfill my purpose and help others come unto Christ. I'm excited to see what the lord has in store for me. the family seems to be doing good. Beth's baby and Harm's and Summer's babys are so big and look so different. they are super cute tho. its going to be weird having them be two when i get home and have probably 10 new babies (the way this family reproduces) when i get home. thats one thing i hate being about being out here is not being with the babies. worth it tho!!!! so Christmas is coming up.... remind the kids and everyone that I'm in Indiana and not Mongolia and everything here isnt supper cheap so dont be expecting anything super cool. oh and you never told me who i have for Christmas?
So pretty much ever cool thing that happens, happens on Monday night after preperation day and then i have to wait a whole week to tell you. so last Monday. we had another run in with some pretty satanic stuff that scared me to death. in fact i was so scared that i cried a little. i have never been so scared in my entire life. this story will have to be one that i share after my mission. with this experience and the first one, it just goes to show how much power satan and his followers have ever people and how real his power is. but, the priesthood is the power of god and nothing beats that. thank goodness for that. i said a lot of prayers when i got back to the apartment that night. i didnt even sleep good for about 3 nights because of it. but all is well now.
So i dont know if i told you, but we had a wedding this last Friday (few days ago) so that our investigator could get baptized. well me and my comp decided to make them a wedding cake. so we took pretty much all of our break times to plan the 3 layer wedding cake. we ended up making it out of ricecrispies with i nice chocolate glaze on top. then we fancied some pillars out of..... well youll see the picture when i send it to you. but pretty much it was the coolest thing in the world. No one believed that we did it without outside help from a women. we were tryig to find a dora and diego toy to put on top but we couldnt find one so we found instead a mexican wrestler and some other brown girl toy and put it on top. hahahahaha i cant wait for you to see the pictures. youll be impressed i think. it was super racist of us kinda so i feel bad but the memory was worth it and they loved it.
So going along with the wedding so that that guy could get baptised thing. this guy was super super super catholic and his whole family is sooooo catholic. and.... welll..... when he told him he was going to get married and baptised in our church everyone just flipped and it wasnt very pretty. so one Friday, the wedding day, one 2 members of his family came and guess who wasnt there? his mother. He ended up being an hour late because he was fighting trying to get her to come and she wouldnt so he finally just gave up on her. well that made me so mad that she wouldnt support him. it made me love my family more, because ALWAYS!!! no matter what happens, we support eachother. thats what families do for one another. thank you mom for always being there for us even when you didnt agree with what we were doing. it means the world to me and I'm sure it means a lot to everyone else as well.
This guy who got married is named Enelio. I've mentioned him a couple times i think. his testimony is the most solid thing in the entire world. yesterday at church they had him bare his testimony and he blew everyone away with how strong it was. then he called up his new bride and put his arm around her and said that he cant wait to follow the commandents of god with her. then kissed her right on the mouth and said amen. haha it was so solid. we went and taught him one last time this moring and he just made me so mad at him. he said every answer that was perfect and then he even had the nerve to make us a deliscious omlet for breakfast. haha he has only been a member of the church for one day and is already more solid then i am.
I'm out of time... but someone this morning told me that i was gong to hell and that he hopes god will bless me. nice huh? haha got to love members of different churches. oh and someone also told me that i sound like a mexican and kept asking me who taught me spanish because i sound like a mexican. she didnt belive I've been teaching myself. well. time is up. i love you and the family and i am so happy with this opportunity i have to be on a mission. I'm gratefull for what I'm learning and the people I'm helping and for the people who are helping me. the church is true and the book of mormon is awesome.
Elder Hardman
Momma,
So its official, I'm leaving my birthing place. i got the call this morning that told me to pack up all my things. so now ill be doing the same thing somewhere else. trying to fulfill my purpose and help others come unto Christ. I'm excited to see what the lord has in store for me. the family seems to be doing good. Beth's baby and Harm's and Summer's babys are so big and look so different. they are super cute tho. its going to be weird having them be two when i get home and have probably 10 new babies (the way this family reproduces) when i get home. thats one thing i hate being about being out here is not being with the babies. worth it tho!!!! so Christmas is coming up.... remind the kids and everyone that I'm in Indiana and not Mongolia and everything here isnt supper cheap so dont be expecting anything super cool. oh and you never told me who i have for Christmas?
So pretty much ever cool thing that happens, happens on Monday night after preperation day and then i have to wait a whole week to tell you. so last Monday. we had another run in with some pretty satanic stuff that scared me to death. in fact i was so scared that i cried a little. i have never been so scared in my entire life. this story will have to be one that i share after my mission. with this experience and the first one, it just goes to show how much power satan and his followers have ever people and how real his power is. but, the priesthood is the power of god and nothing beats that. thank goodness for that. i said a lot of prayers when i got back to the apartment that night. i didnt even sleep good for about 3 nights because of it. but all is well now.
So i dont know if i told you, but we had a wedding this last Friday (few days ago) so that our investigator could get baptized. well me and my comp decided to make them a wedding cake. so we took pretty much all of our break times to plan the 3 layer wedding cake. we ended up making it out of ricecrispies with i nice chocolate glaze on top. then we fancied some pillars out of..... well youll see the picture when i send it to you. but pretty much it was the coolest thing in the world. No one believed that we did it without outside help from a women. we were tryig to find a dora and diego toy to put on top but we couldnt find one so we found instead a mexican wrestler and some other brown girl toy and put it on top. hahahahaha i cant wait for you to see the pictures. youll be impressed i think. it was super racist of us kinda so i feel bad but the memory was worth it and they loved it.
So going along with the wedding so that that guy could get baptised thing. this guy was super super super catholic and his whole family is sooooo catholic. and.... welll..... when he told him he was going to get married and baptised in our church everyone just flipped and it wasnt very pretty. so one Friday, the wedding day, one 2 members of his family came and guess who wasnt there? his mother. He ended up being an hour late because he was fighting trying to get her to come and she wouldnt so he finally just gave up on her. well that made me so mad that she wouldnt support him. it made me love my family more, because ALWAYS!!! no matter what happens, we support eachother. thats what families do for one another. thank you mom for always being there for us even when you didnt agree with what we were doing. it means the world to me and I'm sure it means a lot to everyone else as well.
This guy who got married is named Enelio. I've mentioned him a couple times i think. his testimony is the most solid thing in the entire world. yesterday at church they had him bare his testimony and he blew everyone away with how strong it was. then he called up his new bride and put his arm around her and said that he cant wait to follow the commandents of god with her. then kissed her right on the mouth and said amen. haha it was so solid. we went and taught him one last time this moring and he just made me so mad at him. he said every answer that was perfect and then he even had the nerve to make us a deliscious omlet for breakfast. haha he has only been a member of the church for one day and is already more solid then i am.
I'm out of time... but someone this morning told me that i was gong to hell and that he hopes god will bless me. nice huh? haha got to love members of different churches. oh and someone also told me that i sound like a mexican and kept asking me who taught me spanish because i sound like a mexican. she didnt belive I've been teaching myself. well. time is up. i love you and the family and i am so happy with this opportunity i have to be on a mission. I'm gratefull for what I'm learning and the people I'm helping and for the people who are helping me. the church is true and the book of mormon is awesome.
Elder Hardman
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