God Be With You Till We Meet Again

Hello Everyone!

A lot of things happened this week! I think my favorite was that our part member family made it to church!! They came a bit late, but they loved it and I'm so happy they came. The wife has a baptismal date set for February.

I feel strange writing this email today... I am writing about investigators and people we teach and I feel like I'm going to be teaching them this week and helping them to read the Book of Mormon and come to church. This is so unreal!

My favorite moment from this week was Saturday. We went to the part member family and Dachira- the non member, has been reading the Book of Mormon. I have always said like the introduction, anyone who reads the Book of Mormon and prays sincerely will be converted. The trick here is getting the PRicans to read and pray specifically. Sometimes they just don't get it. 

But Dachira gets it! She read so much, she kept on texting us during the week to ask for more passages to read. She read it all and marked it. She told us her favorite parts. I asked her if she prayed to ask if it's true. She said yes. I asked if she feels that the Book of Mormon is true and she said yes! I am so happy for her!

Out of all the missionary work and teaching and everything we do, my favorite part has been and always will be the Book of Mormon. I have such a strong testimony of this book. I love inviting people to read. I love explaining where the Book of Mormon came from. I love promising people that their lives will change if they only open up and read. Because as I have told a lot of people lately, all of this is either true, or it's not. And the Book of Mormon is the key. Christ is our Savior, Joseph Smith was His prophet, and the Restored Gospel is true. Writing that just makes me so happy!

I want all of you to know that I know that Jesus is the Christ. I feel that I have come to know Him better in many ways. One of those ways was through the example of the pure love of Christ that I have seen in the members here in Puerto Rico. They have taught me so much. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to be His representative. 

I know that His Gospel has been restored by a living prophet. I will be sharing my testimony of this until the day I die! It's all true! The Gospel, the Church, the Book of Mormon, all of it! This message has made me so happy. I was already converted to Christ and this Gospel when I came on this mission. 

But little did I know how these 18 months would help my testimony grow into something a little bit more. I feel so much more sure in my testimony and my knowledge. I feel so much more prepared to face life head on. I can't imagine how I would pass through the rest of my life if I had not served. 

I have already shared this feeling with you before, but as I said several months ago I am sure of why Heavenly Father had me serve a mission. I feel that Heavenly Father kills three birds with one stone (or mission. About killing birds... see my second to last email :) ). 

He secures the conversion of the missionary, He converts and blesses others through this missionary, and He also prepares the conversion of this missionary's future family. I can't help but think that what a mission really is for the young youth of this Church is to not only bring others unto Christ and salvation, and not only teach selflessness to a generation living in a selfish world, but also to prepare our youth for the rest of their lives. 

I know that Heavenly Father did not just send me on a mission to bless the people here in Puerto Rico or just me. I can't help but feel that He sent me because He knows that my future children need me to be ready to teach them to live the Gospel and be prepared to be lights unto the world. So I may technically only have one convert up to date. But I know that my experiences in this mission will have a much longer and greater effect than I can see from where I am right now. 

I think the best and only way I can end this testimony is to say that I am grateful. I am grateful to my Heavenly Father, I am grateful to my Savior Jesus Christ, I am grateful for my wonderful parents who taught me everything I have taught the people of Puerto Rico, I am grateful for my loving family and their support, I am grateful for President Boucher and Hermana Boucher and what they've taught me, 

I'm grateful for each and every one of my companions who have also taught me something unique, I am grateful for the members and the people I have met here, and I am grateful for Puerto Rico, la Isla del Encanto. This isn't even half of what my testimony is and I know that I could not really give it justice here in an email. But I love you all very much. I love my Savior, and I this is my testimony of Him, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

xoxo Hermana Hardy

Be an Example and a Light

Hello Everyone! Second to last email!

So our week was pretty great as well! Not as statistically amazing as last week. We did walk 9 miles yesterday.... and it was worth it because we had a very spiritual first lesson with a woman who seems like she just got it! It was very nice! We put our feet in hot water when we got home to make the weekly Sunday night calls to all the sisters. As far as the sisters, we found more investigators than even last week! They all worked really hard this week.

Today we had a sisters activity!! I am so glad I did one before I left! We went to Maunabo Lighthouse and it was amazing! We had the sisters read Pte. Monson's talk from GC, Be an Example and a Light, and have them choose attributes they want to develop to strengthen their lights to help other people. We also had them write their testimonies down and we put them in bottles and threw them in the ocean!! I will try to send pictures from H. Helmick's camera because I forgot my cord today! It was so much fun!

This week we also taught our inv. with a baptismal date but she didn't come to church... so we'll work for her to come this Sunday! I think my biggest commitment helper will be telling people it's my last Sunday, haha.

We had exchanges with both sets of the Caguas sisters this week! I was with Hna. Tanner, this is her first transfer. She is rocking Spanish! She also has such a Spirit and excitement with her that it made me excited! I was also able to work with H. Garcia from Nicaragua for one last time too! She was my last exchange. I love the sisters in our Zone. Each and everyone of them are amazing. I loved working with them and seeing all their different personalities and talents in the obra del Senor. 

We also had my last Zone Meeting and I taught about our mission culture and somethings we can do to improve our culture even more! It went really well. Our mission is amazing and I have seen it progress so much since I have been here, all thanks to Pte. and Hna. Boucher. I'm so excited for the future of this mission! I'm sad that my journey in PR and in the mission is ending here and I won't get to see what more miracles this mission will see but I am so grateful that I came and I'm grateful for everything I have seen here.

I am sorry to here about Brother Cundick. He was such a wonderful friend. He always made me feel so special. Did you know that every time I played in Sacrament meeting he would call me over the phone that day or that week and thank me and tell me how wonderfully I played? That takes such a special person to do that and it made me feel so loved and appreciated. I am sad that I will not be able to see him one last time. 

But I know that it is all in the timing of the Lord. and I am positive that in the Lord's Second Coming that Brother Cundick will be leading the angels' chorus. Please tell Charlotte that I love her very dearly and she and her family are in my prayers. It sounds like his funeral was quite beautiful.

You don't have to worry about preparing too much for me to come home! If you could just wash my bed sheets. Really that's all! I can take care of organizing my closet and everything. If you could just bring me a coat to the airport! That would be wonderful haha:) One of my red coats would be great, but I also think my brown pea coat goes better with my outfit. I am worried that all my clothes and skirts and blouses and dresses are all summer colors. I'm going to have a funny time adjusting to wearing winter colors!

I love you all so much! I can't wait to see you NEXT WEEK! So this is my official last week in the mission. I won't have time next week to actually work... next Monday I will be packing, Tuesday I will be driving sisters all over the island, Wednesday I will be in the office having auto sufficiency classes, and Thursday I will be on a plane and home to you! I am determined to make this the best week ever and enjoy every moment of working in the sun and teaching the people here in Puerto Rico. 

I love this mission. I'm sad to leave but I decided to just be happy and positive about it. Many missionaries get depressed before they go home and I figure that I could be panicking or really sad that it's coming to an end, or I could just appreciate that all good things end and appreciate my last moments instead of wasting them being sad! So I promise to be positive and happy! No matter what I have to come home! And of course I am excited to come home! So I'll just focus on the positive things and enjoy every moment!

I love you! I'll try to send photos!!

xoxo Hermana Hardy

What I Have Learned

Hello Family!!

I think this past week was the best week of my mission as far as getting work done and finding people and teaching! Although, I will say my very best and favorite week was when Ana was baptized. But this week we hit and over hit a whole bunch of our goals!!

But wow! So we started out great this week by finding 5 new investigators on Tuesday. Wednesday we had MLC and it was wonderful.

I do have to admit something though...

On the way up to Guaynabo for MLC I was driving and a pigeon landed in the middle of my lane just a few feet in front of me.... There was nothing I could do! It tried to fly away but it was too late and first it hit the front bumper and then the windshield in the left hand bottom corner.

It was just like the movies.... POOOF!! FEATHERS EVERYWHERE! I'm slightly traumatized, I feel so bad. But it was also a bit funny and we're definitely laughing about it now.

Okay, so the best part is.... or maybe worst.... is that we got to Guaynabo chapel and we looked at the front of the car and in the grill part where the bird hit first there were a whole bunch of feathers. See pictures. So sad.

So I think one of my favorite lessons this week was yesterday where we taught the wife of a less active member and she is looking for a church for their family and everything. We did L1 super sweet and simple and she is all set up to read and pray. She rocks, and is super spiritual, and already knows how to pray for an answer and everything. I decided to ask her to be baptized after the actual lesson- that seems to be a pretty effective way sometimes for some people because we finish the lesson and give them a break to think. 

While she gave us some dinner and we were eating I then asked her and she accepted and I gave her a date in February to prepare for when she knows it's all true and she accepted that too! so we're really excited. Hna. Helmick thought all was lost when we ended the lesson without inviting her but I surprised her. She was super excited. So yes, you can set a baptismal date while eating rice and beans.

I won't be here but that's okay:) what's important is that she and her family enter the gate and start the path.

I had a lot of neat experiences like that this week.... so I'm writing them in my journal and we can look back at them when I get home!

Sacrament meeting was wonderful yesterday. Our WML spoke and the ward has their baptismal goal for this year and they're excited. None of our inv. could come this week.... so next week!!

So today for PDAY, well we are having a sister's activity NEXT week so Hna. Helmick and I had to go check out where we're going to see if it works well. We're going to the lighthouse in Maunabo!!! Wahoo! Right in the left hand bottom corner of PR. It was really pretty! So we are excited getting ready for next week. The lighthouse is AWESOME!

My bucket list is going well! We are still working on finishing some. We are in the process with the sisters activity because that was one of them. I made Hna. Kirkland cookies. today we are getting fro-yo. alli vamos! We are having fun with it! I'm not sure if we will get to do ALL of them but just about!! We have a lot that will be done this week.

I definitely have some very good taste... that sounds like a great Baby Shower gift! Haha:)

MLC was wonderful, President taught us about declaring repentance and baptisma and focusing on those things. We need to be bolder in declaring that!

At the end of MLC all the missionaries going home share their testimonies and I was the first to share mine. I shared it and I didn't' get to really share all I had planned or thought about and I shared somethings I hadn't thought about. 

Part of it was sharing the gratitude I feel for my parents and how I have realized that everything I have taught to the people in the PR are the things that my parents taught me. I also shared that although I only have one convert up to today, I know that I will have more converts in my life because of everything I have learned here on my mission. I said that I will be diligent in teaching my children repentance and baptism and they will be my converts too and now I feel better prepared to go out into the world and start and raise a family thanks to everything I learned here.

I LOVE Lexie's pictures. She's so beautiful! Love to hear that Hannah is rocking everything!

Also, did you know?? Hna. Palacios is in Utah visiting her family and will be there until February!!! I think I'll be able to see her!

Well I'll send you pictures now! I love you all! See you soon! I promise to keep on working hard this week. I hope we have as much success as we did last week! Wahoo!

xoxo Hermana Hardy

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year!!! I hope you all enjoyed it! I'm super jealous of your Hogwarts 3d puzzle.

So, I have been extremely busy busy so I haven't had the time to make my Resolutions and the truth is all of them will have to do with normal not missionary life and I would rather not think about that until the time comes. Good news is that before I leave the office makes me put my life goals on paper and they give us a self sufficiency class. so Resolutions will start on my first Sunday home!

I think my Christlike attributes this year will be.... charity and virtue! I might re-evaluate that when I get home because those two came to my head right now and actually I was working these past couple of months on charity and other attributes. So we will see!

Right now we have lots of goals for my last month! We are working really hard.

We send emails in a cyber library run by the city and it is in the mall that is right by our house. It's great because it's open the days the mall is open so we can always write! Remember last year when the libraries were all closed for three weeks around Christmas?? Yeah, that doesn't happen here. We are blessed, although it is really busy sometimes and we have to wait a long time to write.

Our discussions this week went pretty well. We did 2 exchanges, one with Humacao and the other with Aguas Buenas. Sadly, most of our plans and appointments fell during those and we contacted a LOT.

An awesome lesson we had was yesterday with Familia Cruz and we took a member with us who is leaving on his mission in two weeks. It was pretty good! We watched Joseph Smith, the Prophet of the Restoration and it was so powerful with them. At first our DVD didn't work, and the laptop they had didn't have good internet, so our member took out is iPhone 6+ and we watched it on youtube.... his phone only had 20% battery at the beginning but it lasted the entire 1 hour movie and it was so powerful. 

In short, the father knows that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet all though he keeps on saying his church is very similar to ours. I whipped out Mosiah 18 and asked him the soul question from Alma, "Que os impide ser bautizados?" or... "What is impeding you to be baptized" (Bad Spanish to English translation but I can't remember what it is in English, I've only read the LdM in Spanish on my mission). But that was fun! We were super direct with them. 

Then we talked about what our church has that no other church has. 1. The BoM (Felix brought that one up and said it himself. 2. Authority and 3. Temples and the ability to be sealed to our families for eternity. Success! They still say they want to read more before they're baptized...

So alli vamos. I hope they decide to be baptized before I go but I'm not very confident and I'm just willing to accept the Lord's will and I prefer that they are baptized when they are ready even after I go!

I hope all of you feel better! I got a little head cold so that's been fun but it isn't too bad.

Something that keeps me smiling this week is that Hna. Helmick and I got a really strong missionary fire and we put motivational quotes all over to keep me going this past month and we are fighting to get the standards of excellence. Also, I smile because our sisters are awesome. And I can't stop smiling about our lesson with familia Cruz yesterday.

My best spiritual experience this week... well our lesson. And when I was very direct with familia Cruz. After the movie I told them first thing that all of it is either true, or it isn't. It can't be both. It's true or it's not. and we spoke to them clearly and we could feel the Spirit very strongly as we shared our testimonies.

Another experience I had was with an investigator who almost got baptized but doesn't want to pray about Joseph Smith or anything. So I shared with her when I was 13 and I prayed and asked if it was true and I explained where I was and how I felt and that now I know with a surety that Joseph Smith is a prophet and this is the true Church of Christ. So I really enjoyed feeling the Spirit as I shared that and He testified to me again that it is true. So I really liked that experience as well.

Well I love you so much! Please take care and know that I love you! Have a wonderful year!

xoxo Hermana Hardy

100 Houses in 1 Day

Hello Family!

It sounds like you really enjoyed Christmas! Yay!! I loved seeing you all and talking to you! 

The rest of Christmas day we tried to work, we were only able to visit a couple of people, but that's okay. We went to family Perez's house and ate with them- yum yum yum. It was pretty rainy that night so it was almost like it snowed!

Our investigators are doing alright. We visited with Familia Cruz with an RM from the ward. We invited them to be baptized the 24 of January and they didn't exactly accept it but they also didn't say no.

The problem is that they just have a hard time coming to church because it's the same hour as their church and everything.... But they understand the idea of that there is only one true church and they know they need to attend to be able to know for themselves. (along with praying- but we receive answers to our prayers by acting.) So they didn't come to church this week... but we'll keep trying with them.

So we will have them in our prayers every day. They have so much potential! As of right now all of our other investigators haven't been able to meet with us because of Christmas... and we have plenty of people with potential but yeah.

We found a new family yesterday contacting. They are awesome! We are going back this week to teach them.

For New Years... well we don't have anything planned. I don't think anyone will have us over at night at night. So if we have something to go to we have to be home by 9:30, if not we have to be home at 8:00 to work on the area book etc.

The BEST bucket list that we have done we did yesterday! Contact 100 Houses In 1 Day!!!

So yesterday we contacted 100 houses! (well... 103 houses) and the statistics are interesting. 27 people actually talked to us. Only about 15 or so would take a card. One man said we could come back, We found a STELLAR family that has potential, and Hna. Helmick found 12 cents on the ground. 

We had 2 cups of pure orange juice (it's been a while since I've had that...), The best excuse someone gave us was that their dog was in labor at the moment and the woman couldn't talk to us or take the Ha Nacido card. 

Another woman was blow drying her dog and couldn't talk to us much. We accidentally crashed a B-day party. We also had a great time and I wasn't badly sunburned. In all, the stellar family made it all worth it! We're excited to go back and teach them.

For every bucket list accomplishment we take a picture with a checkmark. I am excited to make a cute album of this! haha :) I love Hna Helmick, she is so creative! We had a really good time yesterday!

Oh! And I want to thank all of you for your Christmas gifts and letters! I received the letters from the ward! I loved the packages too, thank you so much! The pajamas are SO cute! Please tell the Roberts family thank you for me! I will be sending them a card this week if I can get to it!

Tell Gentry thank you! I would LOVE her help for the baby shower! yay!

Well I hope you all enjoy Starwars........... Promise to take me? Haha!

Well I am out of time but I love you all! I hope you have a great week! Enjoy all of the photos! If I forgot to mention anything... sorry! Lots of experiences and not very much time to write them!

Take care!

xoxo Hermana Hardy

The True Gift of Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Hello my beautiful family! I want to wish you all a VERY Merry Christmas :)

Mom and I both spoke in Church yesterday!

Yesterday I was able to speak in church about "Llevar el Regalo de la Navidad a través del Evangelio." My final message for the members at the end was that Christ is the true gift of Christmas and unlike other Christmas gifts or cards that only last for a season, sharing the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ with our loved ones is a gift that will last for eternity. I'm so grateful that Christ was born and that we have the wonderful responsibility to share the good news of His birth and His restored Gospel.

I will be calling you this Friday between 11am-12 Puerto Rico time. It will probably be at 11:45am. Sorry it's so early! It was the only time any of the members could do it. So I think we're three hours apart, so probably 8:45am your time. :D

Our Christmas party in the Mission home will be tomorrow! I will take lots of pictures and let you know how it goes! I also think I'll be getting your package that you sent. I haven't received it and Hna. Lee says that they hide a package per missionary so I can get one at the Christmas party. So it's probably a good thing you didn't send a real tree! It would be a little parched....

My new companion is Hermana Camille Helmick! She is from Virginia! I lived with her for one transfer in San Sebastian. I LOVE being her companion!

She is determined to help me really enjoy my last transfer so she made a bucket list called "The Best 6 Weeks" with fun things that we want to do before I go!

So we had a blast this week decorating the house and coming up with ideas.

But don't think that was the only thing we worked on! On the contrary, we got a LOT of work done too:) we found two new teenagers to teach and her mom wants them to listen to us and they are GOLDEN!!! So excited!!

We also had the ward Christmas activity this week. It was awesome! We ended up having 4 investigators come- one is a brother of a returning member, and the three are our awesome Familia Cruz. I will tell you how we got them to come.... so we visited them Wednesday with Familia Marrero to teach them but we only had a few minutes to share so we shared the Christmas video and everything. Hno. Marrero also answered some of the questions that the father had and they shared their testimonies and everything. Mary Sue invited them to the activity, and they seemed really uncertain about coming.

So we went back the day of to invite them again and they let us in to share with them. They still seemed not really decided to come. And the wife gave us a bag with some clothing. Then they gave us a ride and dropped us off and everything and I accidentally left the bag in their car. It really was an accident! 

But when we arrived at the activity they called us and asked if we wanted them to drop it off and I said of course and that they could stay for the party! And that's what they did!! Who knew my forgetfulness could have quite wonderful consequences! They loved the program and everything, and met a lot of members. wonderful!

It is the best. This week we spoke with an inactive who has had a hard life and although we gave her the opportunity to try to learn the Gospel again and change the way she feels about life she refused to. It made me sad to see that she refused the hope we were offering her. It allowed me to see a very sharp contrast of a life filled with Christ and a life filled with doubt and broken faith. I wish she could see it as I can. But I am grateful to understand this difference so I can live the Gospel and help other people live the Gospel.

Mama: So did you receive my "trunky" papers? I can't believe I get in at 2:30! Wow, that seems super early! I would not mind going to the temple to take pictures with the family while still a missionary. But I suppose I will be released when President Newbold says, so I'm not sure if that would be okay. Also... that would be really cold.... and the dress I want to wear isn't really winter colored... I don't know. We can worry about that later!

I will also inform you that while I did send a card to you, I am planning on giving you your Christmas presents in January with my arrival!! We can have Christmas again!

So that's all! I will see you all Thursday! I will send you photos now:)

I love you all SO much! I hope you have a wonderful week and enjoy Christmas!

xoxo Hermana Hardy

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Birthday Mama!!

I will be sending a letter today! I hope you get it in time!!

So for Thanksgiving we have a couple appointments with the members. Everyone wanted us over so we went with the two that invited us first and everyone else put themselves down for other days in the week!

Some interesting experiences this week....

Well we found a couple people with lots of interest! One man that we contacted and taught once this week came to church!!! Another one that we met really needs the Gospel and our testimony of Christ really touched his heart and he wants to hear more.

This saturday we had the visiting teaching convention and it was wonderful. Our investigator Nilsa came and everything was really beautiful. It made me excited to be a visiting teacher again!

The other sisters had a baptism this weekend and it was really beautiful! I got to play the piano. Our inv. also came and she loved it.

The sad news is that our investigator Nilsa was supposed to be baptized this weekend but she called us yesterday saying that she doesn't want to and she isn't ready. We are praying to see what she needs and when she will be ready to be baptized. 

We had zone conference this week. It was alright! We are starting the new initiative: A Savior Is Born. I loved the video- it's coming out next week. I love contacting at Christmas time. It is so much more special.

So this week we weren't able to do splits because of zone conference and everything was crazy this weekend but we are planning on doing two this week and two the next. So technically we should be able to do one a week but things get crazy with conferences and some of the sisters have been sick and we had to cancel exchanges. So we will be doing two this week and two the next. If one falls through we still have another week to do them!

I hope Mama starts feeling better this week- especially for her birthday and Thanksgiving!

Also- Hannah- don't be stressed or worried! Enjoy every moment of Molly Mouse! Send me pictures! You will do wonderful like always!!!

Well I had lots of other spiritual experiences too but I have run out of time! I am really grateful for my companion Hna. Palacios- she is the best! Also, her niece was born this week!

I am grateful for all of you and I hope you have a wonderful week. Please take care! 

Love you! 

xoxo Hermana Hardy

Tastes Like Sofrito

Hello!

Last week we contacted and contacted and contacted to find new investigators. Also, we went back to contacts from the week before and we have a new family to teach! Yay! 

What does and doesn't work: well, it's hard to teach someone you contact at night, but making appointments for the next couple days worked pretty well. But contacting at night is often difficult but it's hard to find other things to do at 8:00 because people are starting to close up house earlier because the electricity here in PR is got more expensive about 2 weeks ago. We prefer finding people by members and references but it's not like we can have one of those EVERY day so we have to work to find inv. 

But the members here are amazing and they feel bad that we are always walking around and they want to help us find people to teach- but it's also hard for them to find their friends or family who are actually interested or who haven't already listened and didn't accept the Gospel. 

But we do have a neat family that we're teaching who were a reference from some members! We also have 4 new investigators from last week that all came from contacting. One of them we can only teach in English so that was interesting for me!

Church yesterday was great! The Bishop's talk was pretty good- he talked about how we have a physical nutrition guide called myplate right? and he turned it into a spiritual metaphor of how our vegetables, etc are things such as faith and prayer, repentance, etc. I really liked it!

Speaking of nutrition! So the week BEFORE this past week we had a nutrition activity for RS. A nutritionist came and explained to everyone myplate and she also weighed all of us and gave us our BMI. 

She also gave us a long list of all the common Puerto Rican foods that we should avoid.... I laughed because I've eaten every single thing on that list in the past month and I usually eat two or more of those foods every day. But I'm not complaining because the members love us and they feed us and I only have a given amount of time to be here in Puerto Rico to eat all of these delicious foods.

The bad news is that I have gained almost 10 lbs (The scale showed 9 lbs more but she weighed us and didn't subtract for my clothes and my heavy walking shoes... which is all pretty heavy) but the good news is that my BMI is still very healthy! So my answer to how my health is.... I've been doing pretty well because I'm exercising every day and I try to eat healthy at home. 

Sometimes I feel like I have a bit of a cold but it comes and goes. It turns out that I am particularly allergic to garlic and it gives me really bad headaches but only if they feed me a lot of garlic. So that hasn't happened to me in a couple of weeks, and at least it's not a migraine! So in the end I am doing alright and I might be a little round in the face when I come home. :D

The differences in the food from different areas... Well here there are a couple of members who cook different things than just rice and beans! I forgot to tell you last week that I ate what was basically lasagna but instead of pasta it was layered eggplant with cheese and marinara sauce. That was interesting! I also had some fish last week but it's not very common to eat fish here because it's expensive even though we're on an island. But pretty much the food is the same as my other areas. 

All Puerto Rican food tastes almost the same because everyone uses the same GOYA seasoning and sofrito (which are things like peppers, onions, garlic, etc, all grinded up together) they use sofrito as a base for pretty much everything- rice, beans, meat, anything. 

Last week we ate a REALLY tasty sancocho- which is pretty much like a stew that had meat (it also had pigs feet but I didn't serve that to myself... I've tried it before and it's all fat and weird texture) and it had potato, platanos verdes, dumplings made of flour, corn on the cob chunks, and things like that. You serve it over a bowl of rice with lots of broth and it's quite tasty!

Also- The other day I realized that I totally eat like the Puerto Ricans. It's really uncommon to use a table knife to eat. They usually just put out forks. At the beginning I was really careful how I ate using only a fork and sometimes a knife if they gave me one. 

But the truth is that when they eat meat they use their left hand to hold the meat in place and a fork to rip it apart. or they pick up the meat with their left hand and bite out of it. It took me awhile to get used to that- but without a knife there is no other way to cut the meat because it's too difficult to do it with just a fork, so everyone uses their left hand- not all the fingers, just the thumb and pointer finger. 

I mean, not everywhere is like that, but just about! so I learned to just watch the host and copy how they eat. And almost everyone eats with two fingers on their left hand depending on the food they serve. With the sancocho stew you pick up the corn on the cob and you eat it with your hands. because there is no other way! Here we eat a lot of fried chicken... every now and then chuletas- which are essentially pork chops (I think...) but they're different from the ones mom makes because they are thinner and look a bit like a T-bone steak, and they usually cook them in a frying pan on the stove with different ingredients with sofrito. 

Also, we eat a ton of tostones which are 2 fried platanos verdes, or made out of pana- a funny round looking thing that comes from a tree and is pretty starchy. Also, there are amarillos which are fried platanos maduros. But yeah.

OH! in a couple weeks I will be cooking for a member family a typical dish from home... I am not sure what to make them. What do you think? I am thinking Mama's poppy seed chicken or something like that. Can you send me a recipe and other ideas? I will probably have to double or triple it...

Also we have Zone Conference this week and we'll be teaching, wish me luck.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!! Good luck to the new Bishopric and send my love to Bishop Miner and his counselors! I'm really grateful for everything they have done to help me and our family and ward.

Good luck this week with everything, I hope you feel better Mama!!

xoxo Hermana Hardy

When It Rains... It Pours!!!

Hello Family!

My email will be relatively short because I took more time on sending lots of photos! I hope you like them!

So Hna. Palacios will be finishing her mission on December 15 and I will have a new companion for Christmas. I'm not sure who it will be!

But our lessons this week although they were few were pretty good! I love teaching with Hna. Palacios. This week was super busy during the first part and in the second part we spent contacting contacting contacting. Not too many people who wanted to listen to us though. That's okay!

Funny Story... I am trying to think. Well it rained a WHOLE lot this week. We had a lesson in a really far away place and when we came back to the house it was pouring rain and we wanted to change into our plastic flats and everything. But I had left the keys inside and we were locked out!! 

At that moment the rain got 100x worse and we were getting soaked so we ran to our car and waited inside, studying, until the rain let up enough for us to start walking. so we went to work like normal and our feet and shoes were soaked the rest of the day. that was crazy. It rained a bunch yesterday too! All week really. It's good though- PR needs the water right now.

Another funny story is how I contacted a house. literally. I thought someone had called out to us from the window so I started introducing our names and who we represent.... it turns out that the person had gone back inside the house and was avoiding us and I was talking to a house. Hna. Palacios died laughing!

So our Mission Conference with Elder Cornish and Elder Christensen was awesome! Very spiritual and uplifting. I loved it. Elder Christensen spoke mainly about recognizing and following the Spirit and that helped me a lot. We also had a special MLC with them before the conference and they just asked us about the mission and what we as leaders think we need to improve on and what the missionaries needed to hear in the conference. That was really neat. 

I really like your theme for RS mom!! It's awesome!

Good luck Hannah with Dance!! Send me pictures of Molly Mouse?

This past week was crazy crazy crazy. Remember how last week you wrote and said that you felt that I needed hugs and felt like I had had a rough week? Well it turns out my week before you wrote wasn't that rough but this past week was and I really appreciated all of your words and thoughts and dream hugs! You truly did receive revelation and knew that my week would be difficult before it even happened. All of your love helped me through and now all is well! I love you all!

Hope you all have a great week! Love you!!

xoxo Hermana Hardy

A New Compañera!

Hello my beautiful family!!

I don't have much time this week, please excuse me!

But first off: BIG NEWS!!!!

Well as you all know Hna. Gallardo will be returning home this week and we got transfer calls last night. 

You will never believe who my new companion is!

Hermana Palacios!!!!

I am so excited and I'm sure she is too!

So tomorrow we have transfers and we have lots of changes again with the sisters in our zone. We will have Hna. Palacios. Then Wednesday we drop Hna. Gallardo off in the office.

Are you sure that the girl in aunt Debbie's ward leaves in November?? does she already know Spanish? the transfers are this week and then in the middle of December... So she probably already know Spanish and will only be in the MTC 2 weeks to arrive in the PR December 15.

Anyways. My advice would be for her to bring everything the call packet says. Ha.

But really, and then if there are things she doesn't want she can leave them behind or send to the office. Bring more clothes than it suggests. If there is anything she didn't bring it's usually easy to find things here.

My release date is January 28 (that's the day I'll be flying home). Sister Lee from the office already asked me for your email address so she'll be sending the information about my flight in a few weeks.

I've been helping my companion pack. Not to be prideful but I think I have a talent! 

I don't have a lot of time. Saturday we had a mission conference with elder Cornish and Elder Christensen! It was wonderful, super powerful- remind me to tell you what it was about next time.

I love you all!! Sorry for the short email. Lots to do today. Today Hna. Gallardo took her english test and we just got back from the office.... crazy day.

love you!

xoxo Hermana Hardy

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

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

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