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
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