Scripture

And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up. ~D&C 84:88

Monday, October 26, 2015

Happy Halloween!!

Hello everyone!!!


Thanks so much for the packages! Everything was perfect and we're all excited for the Halloween candy!!

My Spanish is doing well. I wish I could say I have the accent down but even though it's not a horrible accent you can still tell that I'm a gringa. The only thing I can't do for the life of me is trill the r's. It's rough. I can do it with my throat but you're supposed to do it with your tongue. But no one minds. I do speak Boricua though. PR has its own Spanish. When I get home and speak to other people in Spanish they aren't going to understand most of the words I'll use.

A spiritual experience from last week. Well the owner of our apartment came by to fix the fridge and he was asking us questions about death and everything. He's read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet and everything but still has a problem with it. I told him that if he wants to understand death he has to understand why we're here on earth. So the spiritual moment was when I asked him if he's prayed and asked Heavenly Father about it and that took him off guard and he said no, he's never thought about that. So I invited him to pray. We'll see how that goes.

Also we ended up teaching a member's non member husband because we went for a dinner appointment and somehow we got on the topic of the Gospel and the wife basically taught all of L1 to her husband and that was awesome. The only thing with him is that it just goes around in circles. He knows everything is true but is waiting to decide for himself to be baptized and leave his worldly side behind. 

We spoke about having his wife forever and he said that when he dies he'll find her in the next life. I then told him that if he isn't baptized here on earth when he has the chance, he won't make the decision in the next life and then if he doesn't get baptized he won't be able to find his wife because she'll be in a place where he can't go. That made him think and he said that means he has to be baptized on earth.


Looks like I've been pretty mouthy this week right?? haha, but it sure made them think. I promise that I said it all in a loving manner.

I am still playing for the ward. De hecho, yesterday the missionaries did a musical number and I played the piano while the three other sisters sang "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" in Spanish. It was pretty good.

Hna. Martita (RS Pres.) has a piano in her house and when we go to eat every Thursday she loves it when we play the piano for her. It makes me happy to see her so happy!!

Dia de los Muertos is mostly part of the Mexican culture, they don't do anything like that here. No one observes Halloween except for teenagers who dress up and go to parties and besides that Halloween is a REALLY bad time to be outside and it's apparently really dangerous because of the people doing maldades. We have to be inside by 7:00. 

Before that we have a Mission Conference with some General Authorities so most of Saturday we won't be proselyting. The ward isn't celebrating Halloween. Halloween here definitely isn't the same as it is in Utah...

When is Baby due???

It sounds like you all had an awesome week! Good job Hannah with your lesson! That's awesome.

On Saturday the ward had an Indexing Marathon. It was pretty cool! We went to go help set up!

Well that's about it! This week was a bit crazy, I've been a little sick but I'm feeling a bit better. My companion made chicken soup for me! It's a bit different from our chicken noodle soup because they actually make the chicken soup with water, chicken, potato, onion, carrots, etc. and then they serve it in a bowl with white rice! I really like it. It tasted so good and it felt good on my throat!

Today we have a zone activity and we are going bowling! It should be fun. I have lots of pictures to send you but they'll have to wait for next week. This is Sister Gallardo's last week! Crazy!!!

I hope you have a wonderful week! 


xoxo Hermana Hardy

Monday, October 19, 2015

Memorable Lessons

Hello Family!!


I haven't received the packages yet, but thanks for sending them! I think I will get them on Halloween. We have a mission conference that day, and Elder Cornish and Elder Christensen are coming. 

What can you do to help me be a better missionary? Well, I don't know! Prayers are always helpful. I think I need help having more confidence in myself now that Hna. Gallardo is leaving and I need to train a new STL. I am nervous about that.

My most memorable lesson last week was last night!! Haha. We visited a family of recent converts. A mother and her 17 year old son and 11 year old daughter. They are awesome and really faithful and strong. The son has some learning disabilities but we talked with Bishop and he says that the son can prepare to receive the Priesthood. He is pretty smart but we need to teach him differently with repetition. 

So we went to teach him last night with the new Young Men's president (a RM that got home four weeks ago) who is going to teach our recent convert everything he need to know. Well we used a Driver's License to show the importance of having permission to act in the name of God.

We showed a real Driver's License and I showed my fake Puerto Rican License that I drew with a sharpie. He understood it all really well. But the funny part of the lesson was my companion when she finished the comparison and said that just like the license, the Priesthood Authority is Heavenly Father giving us permission to drive. 

We all started laughing and she realized what she had said and fixed it. It was funny.

We help the other missionaries by going on exchanges with them and helping them apply what they learn in Zone Meeting and whatnot. I've had a lot of experiences with some sick missionaries and helping them out. There was a sister last transfer that was feeling down and felt like she wasn't learning anything here or growing, and we talked to her and helped her out.

Our investigators are doing pretty well. The ones that are coming to church (there are two) are pretty good self-starters! One of them comes with her member friend every week and the other one we had to call to remind the first week in the morning and this Saturday we called and reminded her and she came all right. Usually it's a lot harder getting an investigator to church!! They always have their excuses. Working with members also makes their church experiences better,

I am happy that the new Sister Babcock shared Stephanie's love with you. What a wonderful woman! I love you so much mama!! The Ralphs moved? Where did they go?

Sorry my email is so short! Last week was pretty long though, right? All well!

Well familia!! I love you so much!!! I hope you have a wonderful week! 

xoxo Hermana Hardy

Monday, October 12, 2015

Listen Before Teaching

Hello Family!

Loved the photos from the pumpkin picking! I really like Jonny's pumpkin head, it made me laugh out loud here in the cyber library in the mall!

So transfers were three weeks ago, and we drove around the island (literally). Next transfers are the first week of November (November third in specific). I will be staying in Guayama for the rest of my mission unless President needs us to move to another area in Caguas Zone to whitewash. I anticipate staying here though. Hna. Gallardo is finishing her mission and will be leaving and I will be receiving a new companion.

So Hna. Gallardo is from Tijuana, Mexico, which borders with San Diego, right underneath California. She is 24 years old, her parents were converted to the church in their youth and she was born into the covenant. She has one older brother that is married. She likes to dance Mexican folk dances!! Pretty cool. She will be dancing in the Tijuana Temple dedication (well, cultural celebration, you know what I mean!). 

She used to play american flag football. She has almost finished her bachelors in psychology in Baja California university. Like all Mexicans she really really really likes anything with pique (I don't know how to translate that word correctly, but like hot sauce and anything that is spicy.) And now I like pique. She is really awesome. She taught me how to make a type of fried taco this week and they are yummy yummy. I promise to make them for you.

The lessons we had this week... well we taught a family with the members that gave them to us as a reference! They are pretty awesome! We are really excited to be teaching them. They are a close family of four- the wife's name is Emily! We taught them L1 yesterday with the members (they are neighbors) and it went well.The members shared a powerful testimony. They've been praying for this family for a long time! I am happy to be here to help them teach their neighbors. 

Afterwards our new investigators had refreshments all prepared for us! Haha, they will make good Mormons ;) We also have a woman that has been coming to church these past two months and she's reading and accepting everything except a baptismal date. 

Our baptismal date for this past Saturday hasn't been answering our phone calls for almost two weeks. I think he's doing that on purpose. On Saturday we wanted to call him (we knew he wasn't ready, and didn't have an interview) and ask him if he was ready for his baptism that day at 5:00. He didn't answer. But we will see if we're going to drop him or keep on trying. He knows everything is true but can't commit to a date. He's basically a dry mormon. 

We also have a pretty neat woman that came to church yesterday. She has a speaking disability and it's hard for us to understand her and teach her and I have to rely on the Spirit a lot to help me in the lessons. She does say Hardy really well though! She is pretty cool and WALKED to church... yeah. People don't normally do that in PR. It's too hot!

So my entire mission I have been working hard to learn how to listen before teaching, so the Spirit can teach through me. I think I am okay at it. The one investigator that can't speak well has been a challenge for me because I can only understand a part of what she says.

Guayama is a mix of campo, coast, and city. It has just about everything. It isn't too big but there are a lot of areas that we can't get to by foot. This week we walked eight miles one day- it's been a while since I've walked that much and Hna. Gallardo and I agreed that our bodies are breaking down. We were exhausted! 

We have a mall right next to our house- they have Marshall's, a whole bunch of the regular Puerto Rican clothes and different stores. Guayama isn't much of a tourist spot. there are only one or two tourist shops in the plaza. The plaza is pretty far away from us- maybe three miles? so we don't go there often because there aren't as many proselyting opportunities there. But I will go looking there one day. There are more or less a lot of little shops here or there, some clothing. 

Mostly we just work off of two main streets that run parallel to each other. All the urbanizations we go to are inbetween or on the other sides of them. We are trying to branch out a bit and we are looking for areas we've found in the area book.

Does that answer your questions? Hope so! You can ask for more descriptions and I will pay more attention this week as I go around and I can look for more things to tell you!

Next week I will send you a picture of the meal calendar that the RS passes around every week. The members here take such good care of us. This week the calendar is FULLER than FULL! The problem is that we don't have a scale so I don't know how much I'm gaining. Please send cardio ideas! Haha. I have found that eating so much is a gift of the Spirit because there's no natural way that I can eat that much all by myself.

Hope you all have a wonderful week. Good luck Mama in your reactivation efforts! Here in the PRSJ Mission reactivating is equally important as baptizing because it means the same thing: someone working towards their salvation. Here in Guayama we have been doing really well at reactivating recently. The Bishop here is amazing at helping us.

Tomorrow we are teaching Zone Conference. I will be speaking about our responsibilities as missionaries to establish the Church where we serve- it's something we don't usually think about.

I love you so much! Have a wonderful week!

xoxo Hermana Hardy

Monday, October 5, 2015

Ponderizing

Hello Family!

AWESOME job on your marathon!!! I am so proud of you! Way to meet your goal to run the St. George marathon!! That is so cool. What is your new goal??!

I loved conference. We watched it in our chapel here in Guayama, I was able to see it in English.

My favorite conference talk.... That's a hard one. I loved President Nelson's, Pres. Uchtdorf's, Elder Holland's, and so many more!

Listening to the new Apostles bear their testimonies was also a really powerful spiritual experience for me. I can testify that they are the Lord's chosen Apostles and they have been called to help us in these times.

Conference also answered all of my questions. That was also a neat experience as I went back through all my notes from conference with the questions I had written before. Every question was answered in different ways from several different talks. That was really neat for me. I wish I had brought my notebook... I would have expounded on my favorite talks and what I learned!

I also loved the one that spoke about prayer and asking the Lord what we lack, and how the Spirit will answer us and we must act on that impression. 

I have really seen a difference in what I get out of conference as a missionary. Before I would just listen to conference and sometimes I would feel good things and sometimes I was just staring at the T.V. without paying much attention to what was being said. Man has that changed!!! 

I think what's made the difference is that now I am watching with the specific purpose of finding the answers to my questions and also knowing how I need to improve. Some of my questions were also rather urgent. I had had them before but this past week magnified the importance of some of them and the attributes that I need to develop. Conference was so much more important to me this time because I desperately searching for the counsel I needed. I hope that I always remember how I prepared and watched this conference and that I can always aprovechar conference for the rest of my life!! 

Are you all going to start ponderizing??? Haha, what a great idea! I am trying to think if memorizing a paragraph of the Living Christ every week counts in ponderizing or if it needs to be a verse from the standard works... I will think about that. I think I should probably choose a verse! I loved Alexis and Geoff's scripture.

Hannah: I am so proud of you. I remember something from conference that said that once we have had strong spiritual experiences we should remember them often and refer back to them. They are proof that Heavenly Father loves us, knows us, and will answer our prayers and help us. Remembering that will help us receive revelation in the future. 

When I think about my relationship with Heavenly Father I think about how well my Dad and Mom know me and how much they love me. Heavenly Father knows us just like Mom and Dad know us, and He knows what's best for us just like they do, and He is ready and willing to help us become who we need to be. 

I also think that recognizing our Divine Nature is central to successfully living in this "state of probation". If we understand that we are children of God, we will more willingly live and love the Gospel and Heavenly Father's commandments. We will not just obey because that's what we have to do. We will obey Him because we love Him and we submit our will to His- and that is the very best and most important type of obedience. We will be so much happier too! It qualifies us for the Spirit as well. I am glad that you are enjoying seminary!

Love you all so much! I hope you all have a wonderful week!!

xoxo Hermana Hardy