BIG NEWS!

BIG NEWS!

We had a sudden transfer this past Saturday morning because they needed Hna. Gawrych as a STL. We found out Thursday night, while we were on exchanges, so Hna. Gawrych had the opportunity to say goodbye to everyone at the party on Friday. I am super sad to see my mom go, but at least I had her for 2 more weeks! I am a bit nervous to be handling this area and showing it to my new comp.

So now I have a new companion! Her name is Hna. Gomez and she is from the Dominican Republic! (I am sorry, I do not have a picture to send yet..) (I will fix the Christmas gifts to say Hna. Gomez)She is super sweet, funny, and happy! My Spanish has improved already in the past two days. She has been out on her mission for 1 year and has absolutely no fear to talk to people. I really admire that about her. We get along really well and I am super excited to learn more about her and from her. I will tell you guys more next week!

Well we had a lesson yesterday and we ate dinner first then went into the living room to start with a prayer. We started out talking about her reading in the Book of Mormon, and the conversation turned to prayer. She says that we all pray so beautiful and she wants to learn how to pray like that but she feels like she doesn't know how. A thought came into my mind to share my first experience having my personal prayer at night in Spanish.

That experience is still hard for me to put it into words but I tried my very hardest to share with Heavenly Father everything I wanted to with my very limited vocabulary. I was feeling very upset because I felt like I couldn't express myself properly when I felt the Spirit comforting me, telling me that even though my words and grammar are simple and even incorrect Heavenly Father knew what I was feeling and trying to say.

 

I likened this to her saying that the language of prayer is just like learning spanish or english- we need to practice and it becomes easier with time but always Heavenly Father knows what it is our hearts and minds no matter if our sentences are eloquent and fluid or not. I hope that she takes the Spirit she felt into her heart. She says she will practice and out of her own accord she said, Ï'll pray the next time you come!' she was very excited! So I am happy!

Rain in Puerto Rico. WELL, it rained a couple times this week, one time it was while we were driving from exchanges, not in our area. Last night at 3:00am it started POURING and it woke me up but I was able to fall asleep to the sound (I love the sound of rain).

We have plans for Christmas Eve, a woman invited all eight of us over for dinner. We had tentative plans for Christmas day and that fell through. I asked almost everyone I know who has internet and a tablet or ipad and everyone said no because they're busy having family over and whatnot. So I am in a bit of a panic because as of right now there is no one who can have us over for Christmas Day to skype with our families.

 

There is one last person I know of that I am going to call but I am nervous that she will be in a different part of the island with her fiance and his family. So we will be praying for a miracle for next week because I do not really know what to do or who can have us over. I am trying not to feel anxious about it.

No baptism this week. We are still working on people. We have some neat potentials however! We are being a bit pressed to have one before the year ends so we are working hard!

Is Hannah performing Christmas Eve? I hope she feels better! You will be in my prayers!! I am excited for the Christmas packages:) Hopefully I will be able to email you next week in this library... If not, Merry Christmas! I would have to talk to President about notifying you for our call time. We will have to see.

I am curious to know what Jonny's secret oasis of Christmas presents is hahaha, I promise to not open his until Christmas!

Take care! Have fun with your performances Mom and Hannah! and good luck with Finals everyone! I love you all SO MUCH! It doesn't feel like Christmas at all haha because there is no snow and no one is here. I feel like it is still August:)
 

 

Hermana Hardy

On The Mend...

Hello everyone!

My injuries are healing so fast that is really is quite the miracle. I am so grateful for that and for everyone's prayers because Í know that Heavenly Father is looking out for me. I have a lot of new skin! that part is healed up even though it still looks a bit funny. I was hoping that I would have a wicked big bruise but it does not look as hard core as I wished haha:) My leg is still tender and I cannot run or stomp on cockroaches with it (I accidently tried--ouch!) and the rest of me is okay!

 

Jonny told me to tell a funny story and lots of funny things happen but I think my favorite one this week was during a really good lesson with a woman and her son (this 8 year old who is awesome and straight up said that he wanted to be baptized before we invited him. Then he ran around his apartment saying "baptize me baptize me baptize me" and we told him that we have to teach him more and he said, "what are you going to teach me next" He also loves the BoM and reads it a lot.).

But I digress... So I have a habit of smiling and nodding while everyone else speaks and this kid totally called me out on it. He said, "she nods A LOT' and then during the lesson he would start nodding furiously at me to make fun of me. Then later he started COUNTING all the times I nodded. So he was counting on his fingers and held out five fingers and said, "she's nodded 5 times!" (and I did not realized that he was talking about me) so I nodded my head at him again because I didn't know what he was talking about and then he said "six!!!!' and yeah. My companion was dying and had to explain that part to me after. heheheh. I will work on that.

Thanksgiving was fun!! We ended up spending 4 hours at a new inv. house. She is the one that invited us over after she heard about the accident. So for the first little bit they had me play hymns on their piano and they showed us pictures of everything (including missionaries they met with 13 yes 13 years ago).

 

The woman also took photos of me and Hna. Gawrych at the piano and posted them on FB with a "had the mormon missionaries over for Thanksgiving!' where a member saw them and was so excited haha. (The inv's name is María Castillo if you want to look her up and try to find the pictures mom)

Then we ate and it was rice (no beans this time) and it was basically the same normal dish they make with chicken and some potatoes that they cook in a pot with spices and whatnot and sauce except they used turkey haha. Then we had pumpkin spice flavored flan! strange! Then they insisted on taking all these pictures with us haha, so many pictures. THEN the woman's sister came over and we had an AMAZING lesson with her and her sister. The husband left and worked on other stuff but it was really neat to teach them.

Then a member (the woman who loves me so) picked us up for Thanksgiving at her house where there were 18 people total and rice with grandules, turkey, bread, more rice, and really tasty postre. Then we had what they call a "Paranda" where everyone has a musical instrument and sings together.

 

 

They gave me this strange instrument which is a hollowed out gourd (long) with lines cut into it and you scrape a giant fork thing against it. It is kinda like a washboard sounding thing but with a gourd and fork. horrible sounding thing but with the other instruments it sounds cool. It is surprisingly hard to play. The members think I am slightly rythmically challenged now but they laughed and helped me out. Hna. Gawrych has pictures but she forgot her cord. We were invited to another paranda this week so I will take more pictures then!!

 

We are still preparing people to be baptized and no one came to church yesterday, it was very sad, but we are trying to stay positive!

So transfers are tomorrow!! AND I am staying with Hna. Gawrych here in Cabo Rojo!! Wahoo! We are so happy to have Christmas together here!!

Happy Birthday to Alexis and Geoff! Your cards will be late, I am sorry. But I will send them this week! Have so much fun!

Everyone make sure that they go to christmas.mormon.org and watch the video, it is so special and neat! Make sure you share it with EVERYONE!!!

Love Hermana Hardy

Turn That Frown Upside Down :)

Hello Family!

 

 

We had one investigator come to church! She is slowly progressing.

Something really funny I haven't told you guys yet is about a sister in our ward. When I first got here she was not interested in helping us and all of that. Slowly we convinced her to drive us to her less active daughter's family.

 

HOWEVER, she was supposed to pick us up in the plaza and we were walking there when some other kind of investigator started talking to us and would not stop talking. (this was in Sept. or something) so this member was waiting forever for us and when she found us we got in the car and she was so mad and chewing us out. I didn't really understand what she was saying but I could tell she was unhappy and I didn't know what to do. I was in the back seat and she looked in the rearview mirror at me and my very first reaction was to smile really big and sweetly at her.

 

She gave me a funny look then said to my companion, "She doesn't understand what I'm saying does she?" and Hna. Gawrych said, "No she doesn't really understand spanish yet." That made the member laugh. Then we had a super spiritual lesson with her daughter and family.

Since then she has warmed up a LOT to us and is more willing to help us. It has been neat seeing her change and she absolutely loves me. Whenever she says something to me and I don't know what's going on I just smile. Then she laughs REALLY hard and grabs my shoulder and shakes me around and says "'OH, HARDY!!! HAHAHAHAHA.''

This happens a lot. She is also in Primary and was super happy to have me play the piano. At one point in our saludos she took my face in her hands and squished and wiggled my cheeks together and said something in Spanish and hugged me.

 

This past week we were visiting with her and before we went to go see her daughter she would see people in their houses or on the street and would stop the car and have us contact them, haha. She also likes to bring us taco maker and juice and treats when she visits with us and it is just so neat to see how much she has changed over the past few months where before she didn't want anything to do with us and now she treats us like her children.

 

She just thinks I am super funny with my smiles and not knowing what's going on. I think she thinks I am a bit of a ditz... but she loves me anyways. I told her the story in Spanish of how when I was little I thought Jonny ate the moon. She thought it was really funny and just says, ÖH HARDY! My favorite part is how she just laughs and laughs at me. I don't really know why, but as long as she is happy and willing to help us out I am happy!

 

 

Apparently I have a really expressive face now... Which is good and bad. One bad funny story is how one woman (who only speaks English) was going on about bills and whatnot and I was TRYING to make a concerned face and she thought I was judging her and called me out on it and I had to explain that I was just worried for her and not judging at all. Hna. Gawrych and all the sisters think that it's really funny haha.

I am going to practice my "concerned" face in the mirror this week.

 

Relief Society is in Spanish. They all talk at once. I am naughty and zone out sometimes but I will try to be better. The past four weeks I have been in Primary anyways to play piano and practice for their program, but now that's all over and we are back in Relief Society. Here Relief society is first and then sunday school then Sacrament. I will tell you more once I start understanding more. We did have our service project on Saturday, the men and young adults served in a school, cleaning out all this old stuff and whatnot abandoned whatnot. Women served in el hogar de ancianos, and we sang and shared scriptures. Older people are even harder to understand in Spanish and they didn't understand me either so that was fun. There was one old man who LOVED the Spanish Christmas songs they sang. He was tapping his feet and waving his hands and he was so excited.

 

 

They do not really have carpet here at all. Some people have rugs, but I haven't seen that very often. Pretty much every place in the pueblo has the exact same laminate flooring, haha. As far as funny manerisms I cannot think of any right now. I think it's because I've gotten used to them. They really do talk a whole awful lot here. It's hard sometimes to teach and get stuff done. They are very dramatic here. they exxagerate a lot haha. If someone waits for you for 5 minutes, they say they've been there for half an hour or more.

 

That makes me laugh that Hermana Boucher thought I was talking about Dad. I sent them a text saying that the package was from my AUNT, I didn't say anything about dad or uncles haha, we have a zone conference this week so I will clarify then:)

I did receive the medicine! Thank you so much! I also found gummy vitamins in Walgreens. I didn't buy them because they seemed expensive but I might today because it is probably the same price that you guys would have to pay to send it down here!
 

Penelope looks like Perry! Is she a black cayuga too? she even has white feathers! Is she cuddly?

The Rhapsody of Hymns is my favorite and I would LOVE those other ones you mentioned. The yellow christmas book should be in the bench, it is a skinny one, really simple songs. I used it for What Child is This and Silent Night (they are the last two songs.) The very first song is Have yourself a very merry christmas or whatever it's called.

 

 

I loved the Puerto Rican pumpkin!! Beautiful work! Good luck with your test this week Jonny and with the job you want! You will ROCK it! There should be a bulletin with all the music performances going on at the U and in the community. Right now is a great time to find a Jazz performance because I bet everyone is doing their senior recitals around this time. It shouldn't be too hard to find one to go

to.

 

 

I am carving a ring out of a coconut shell! I had my first real coconut this week and the elders opened it with a machete for me.

This week someone gave us 100% juice! MIRACLE!

I love you all! Take care and remember to SMILE!

 

 

xoxo Hermana Hardy

The Waving Campaign

Hello Family!!!
 

 

Transfers were last Tuesday. They tell us the Sunday night before. Next transfers are December 2 and I will probably stay here because Cabo Rojo is the furthest you can get from San Juan and people usually stay here for a long time. (random thought, if you haven't sent my one book of arrangements yet, can you also send the yellow christmas arrangement book as well?)

I played the piano for the Primary Program yesterday! It went very well. I learned a lot of new songs the past few weeks and it was great. Now the Primary President is a lot more willing to go out on visits with us :)

As far as toys or games I haven't seen anything different here than in Utah. Sports, video games, smart phones, etc. I played hopscotch with a little girl last week when her mom's car broke down (we were all on our way to a lesson) so we didn't have a lesson that night but we did draw with chalk in the plaza! I will try to send a picture. There is a hand sing song game that some girls taught us and is funny. It took me a while to pick up the words but they are pretty much nonsense anyways.

I think the best thing I have had was lasagna that a member made for us!! haha, it really was the best lasagna I have ever had. But lasagna is also a rarity here. Umm, I think I really love fried plantains. Any fried fruit like that is called a tostone, so yesterday I had tostone de pana, which is a pretty starchy fruit like everything else. I liked it just fine, but the elders had gone on about how good it is so when I actually tried it it wasn't as good as they had led me to believe haha. I LO VE aguacate though too. AND last night they gave us APPLEJUICE!!! wahoo! I was so excited, no one drinks apple juice here!

I do receive all of Grandma's letters! They make me so happy:) It only takes 3 days for letters to get to me! Pretty awesome!

An interesting event and a spiritual message! Yesterday NOTHING worked out. We ran all over town for all these lessons that were supposed to be member presents but all the member's cars broke down this week (seriously, a whole bunch of them) so we were going to have normal lessons but no one was home. The only thing that worked out was a half active family (husband active, wife not).

 

That lesson was pretty amazing and simple. If we had had all those other lessons we may not have been able to have that lesson. We think that everything fell through just so we could visit that family and give them the lesson they needed to get comfortable with us so we can help them get back to church and progress to the temple (people LOVE the picture of our family and of mom and dad on their wedding day outside the temple). They were the ones that had apple juice too! And doughnuts from Krispy Kremes! They have doughnuts here but they aren't the same as Krispy Kremes (which is in Mayaguez). So my message is that sometimes things fall apart because Heavenly Father really does have another, much bigger, purpose for us.

This weekend President and Hermana Boucher dropped off something for me! Haha, apparently Hermana Boucher ordered something from the LDS art store and aunt Joann saw the order and called Hermana to ask to send something to me with the package of art! So I received goldfish and the most beautiful bookmarks to give out! Tell Joann and Grant I say hello and thank you so much!

 

 

I am so grateful for all of you and your prayers for me! There are lots of ups and downs but I am loving it here! Waking up in the morning is pretty easy (most of the time) because it is so light outside early in the morning.

Did I already tell you guys about The Waving Campaign? Well, I realized a month ago that I tend to look at the ground while I walk around so I made it a goal to start waving at all of the cars that drive by us so that I don't look down. So we started to smile and wave at every car. Then we started counting how many people wave back at us and I reported the numbers to President just for fun and he loved it. He calls it the Waving Campaign and always asks about it now and thinks it's great. My original goal was just to meet someone one day that recognized us as the girls who waved at them. Well now about the whole town knows us and people start to honk and wave at us before we even start waving at them! People also honk and wave at the other sisters because they think they are us, hehehehe. So that's pretty cool. We have been bad at counting lately but I think our record one day was over 60- pretty awesome.

I hope you all have an awesome Halloween- send me pictures of the pumpkins!!

I can't believe Hannah has a triple turn on the left side- get out!! haha, that is awesome! Hannah, you should write me a letter and let me know what all your rehearsal schedules are like and what dance at school is like, and about your friends and EVERYTHING! write as much as you like please!

I have coconuts and the elders are going to tell me how to carve a ring out of a coconut! I am excited!

I don't know what else to say! There is so much and I am just so happy here and I still feel like it's July haha.

I want to give everyone a BIG hug and tell them that I love them. I am so grateful for everything that you have taught me.

I love you all!!

 

 

Hermana Hardy

Tender Mercies

Hello Family!

 

 

I cannot describe how amazing Conference was! The sunday morning session was totally all about prophets and authority and that was amazing for our investigator to listen to that! I loved how they had so many speakers who were able to speak in their native languages. I think that is so special. I liked Jorg Klebingat's talk a LOT. I have lots of other favorites. A lot of talks reminded me of things in my patriarchal blessing. There was some cool revelation for after my mission as well as during it. I also liked all the ones that spoke about light and truth. Absolute truth is found in God. Also, Elder Martinez who spoke in Spanish? He is totally from Puerto Rico. AND, he came to speak to us in the MTC (he spoke about obedience and I have lots of notes about it) and I was able to meet him and his wife and shake their hands!

 

We live with the other sisters in our district 2 streets away from the Plaza. It is a pretty nice place and we like it. We all sleep in one room (2 regular beds and 1 bunkbed) then my closet and study room is in another room. I'll send pictures next week! There is a huge catholic church right in the middle of the plaza. There are lots of stores all around and parking is crazy. As we move out from there it is more like regular neighborhoods. Cabo Rojo is a mix of crazy busy and lazy roads upish a mountain.

 

I eat a lot of bananas and mangos and aguacate. I need to eat the aguacate with other foods or else my mouth will start to itch but it is so amazing here!

 

 

Right now we really only have 2 or 3 investigators that are progressing. One is the man I told you about before with the 5 year old daughter (we went to her b-day party). He's a tough one but we had an amazing lesson yesterday in between sessions of General Conference. He was able to listen to Elder Bednar's talk. Wahoo! I made BINGO for his daughter. She only ate 5 jelly beans and then threw up. She felt fine afterwards though. I think it needed to happen so that he could see all of the missionaries (our entire district watched in English with him) take care of his daughter (we all sprang into action to clean up and make sure she was okay) I think he appreciated that a lot. We are certain that the way to open up his heart to the message of the Gospel is through his daughter because he loves her so much!

We are teaching a woman named Glory who is very special. She doesn't want to commit to a church though. However she does think that it's amazing and beautiful that families can be sealed together so we are teaching her L2 next and then maybe we can get into baptism. Hopefully after we baptize her she will be able to get to her husband. They have a very good relationship, he just has his own way of practicing religion.

Another woman is very special and religious. She accepted the entire plan of salvation easy. She won't however accept that the person who baptized her before didn't have the authority and she refuses to be baptized again because there is ''önly one baptism''. I tried to explain that one baptism means baptism is only valid with the one authority. She still thinks that she only needs to be baptized once though. We will continue to teach her.

Another woman and her friend fell off the grid the past few weeks but they came to the afternoon session yesterday! Wahoo! Hopefully we can start teaching them again.

We have some more but that's about it. The majority of lessons we have is with less actives. which is good, but we are technically supposed to focus on finding and teaching and baptizing and we need to find a happy balance.

Tender mercy this week. Well I will tell you about my favorite one. Monday in the cave we were having our zone meeting. It was a bit hard to follow all in Spanish and I just started thinking about how much I really wanted to hug dad. I miss your hugs so much dad. As soon as I had that thought I could feel the Spirit place his hand on my left shoulder. It was so specific down to the timing and the placement and I knew that the Holy Ghost was reminding me that He was there. I would then pay attention to the meeting until I thought about dad again and I had the same impression on my shoulder. This happened a couple times and I am so grateful for the Holy Ghost and the comfort that He gave me. He reminded me that even though I don't have dad right here I have his prayers and my Heavenly Father here to watch over me as well. I love you so much dad, thank you so much for everything you have taught me and have done for me. Thank you so much for the strength your teachings give me every day here in Puerto Rico.

About my watch: It was crazy raining on us and there is water still in it (after 2 weeks) I will try to find another one or a new battery.

Be careful biking mama! Do you and dad have new bikes for your marathon stuff? Send my love to the McBrides and the Lloyd family. Thanks for serving everyone you come in contact with mama. You are such an amazing example.

Hannah, you make me laugh! Be careful not to hit your heels on the floor. I know it's how you walk as a soldier but don't be too rough! Who teaches your rehearsals? I am glad you aren't stressed. Keep up the good work! Remember it is ALWAYS best to do your homework as SOON as you get home from school. Even if something isn't due until the next week. This will solve lots of problems and you won't lose any sleep. I know you're tired when you get home but if you put your mind to it you will be able to rest after you finish:)

I love you all so much! Please stay safe and enjoy the changing of the leaves! Everything is green and hot here.

 

 

Hermana Hardy

Testimonio de Jesucristo

Hello Family!
 

I am very sorry to hear that Perry is gone. It doesn't really feel very real right now.

I have some very random questions to ask first:

What is a bird dog from the exercises mom sent me? Where is the transmission and power steering levels in a 2011 Toyota Corolla because it's not in the owner's manual :)

YES we eat with members! Fortunately our weekly Sunday appointment Hermana Rivera always makes sure that she gives me the right amount instead of too much which is very thoughtful of her. Sometimes it's really hard to finish all the food people give us because they pile so much on and it is literally quite painful to my tummy to finish all of it. Sometimes Hermana Gawrych helps finish or if the Elders are with us they will finish. I am eating very healthy here when I fix my own food. Really all we eat with members is rice beans and chicken.

 

I am very grateful for the members though. This last Sunday we had a member who has decided that we have to eat too much rice and beans so she made us mashed potatoes and meatloaf and corn! Wahoo! It was the best meal I've had yet :) It reminded me so much of home. Of course we had puerto rican things too at that meal, we had avocado (aguacate). The aguacate here is unreal mama, you need to try it one day. It is so amazing and I think my body is used to it because it doesn't make my mouth itch as much anymore!

Honestly our P-days have been way different for the past 3 weeks so I will answer that question in a few months.

We walk a couple miles each day depending. There is one part of our area that is 2 hours walking so we haven't gone there yet. Sometimes we will get rides. There are places we have to get rides to but it's hard to find them sometimes.

Voy a compartir mi testimonio para ustedes en español. Yo se que Jesucristo es nuestro salvador y redentor. Yo se que El es mi redentor y salvador personalmente. Tambièn yo se que el Libro de Mormòn es verdadero porque lo he leido y orado a saber que es verdadero. Dios me contestò con el Espìritu Santo y sentimientos de paz y amor en mi corazon. Yo sè que el Evangelio de Jesucristo es muy sencillo. Dios tiene un plan para todos sus hijos y solo tenemos que guardar los mandamientos y seguir el ejemplo de Jesucristo. Es dificìl a veces a entender el amor de Dios y como podemos usar el Expiaciòn pero yo sè que todo es posible a travès el Espìritu Santo. Solo tenemos que escuchar a los sentimientos de paz que nos da. Me encanta mi familia y sus testimonios. Estoy muy agradecidas por ustedes y su amor para mi. Yo sè que el Evangelio de Jesucristo es la vìa para nosotros a regresar a Dios. Digo estas cosas en el nombre de Jesucristo Amen.

Women's Conference was AMAZING! I have thoughts and thoughts about it. I loved how Pres. Uchtdorf said that just because we are Children of God and we have a divine heritage doesn't mean we have a free pass to eternal life. We have to work for it!! Also, will you send me all the words to my favorite things? It's stuck in my head a lot and I can't remember some lines in one of the verses!

I am on my way to the post office to pick up my package from Lexie right after this!

I will get some pictures of the every day stuff :) We have around 60 people in church on a good day. We have to walk 30 minutes to get to our ward building, but sometimes we get rides on Sundays. To get there walking we have to go through el camino de perros which is realy sketchy and dank and nasty so we try not to walk through there at night (It even has bones from the meat that the dogs eat).

 

I'm also a bit more scared of dogs now. Our Mutual is Friday night after our English class. The Puerto Ricans NEVER stop talking. I have more thought on that and no time to write, but I need to be more bold in lessons because it's a time waster. I can understand sisters from Honduras and Peru and such. Puerto Ricans are so difficult to understand though. WAY too fast.

The flashlight story woman is nice. She is Catholic and isn't necesarily receptive but invited us back. We taught her part of lesson 2 last time because her husband died recently. We will see her again this week. Our guy from the birthday party came to church and we had a lesson with him after. He is a tough one. His daughter went to Primary with us. I am playing piano for their program in November. She hated singing time... Also she only really speaks English and that's hard for her and the Primary.

WAHOO SOLOIST HANNAH!!! That is so neat. I know that the plan of Salvation has a purpose for Perry as well. I am sorry that I can't be home with all of you, I know it's really hard. Take Spanish next year!!!

Funny traditions? Well the people are afraid of rain and of lightning and thunder. Which is weird because it's been raining a lot recently. Last Friday we had to cancel the English class because there was a storm and every one freaks out. A member drove us home and the Bishop told us that we had to stay inside for the rest of the night. That storm was pretty bad so we listened to the Bishop. But other than that the rain is fine. I don't know why they freak out!

Yesterday I was able to buy a pillow! I am really excited about that. The library was closed Monday because of the fiesta patronales that was in the plaza next to our apartment. We didnt'go at all because there were lots of drunk people. But they did light off fireworks and cannons. It's been going on for 5 days. But now it's over. Monday morning at 5 am they were lighting off cannons!! It was going on ALL night long. Ridiculous but all well. I also used the birthday money from Grandpa and Grandma Hardy to buy a yoga mat! I am so excited because the ground kinda bruises my back when I do my excercises but not any more!

I am afraid I have some things to ask for...
 

Could you send me my book of music arrangements? or a few of them. My favorite one has I know that my redeemer lives in the first page. I am also almost out of Epiduo and gummy vitamins. AAAND my watch stopped working! It wasn't water proof I guess and we were rained on a lot one day and it stopped :( I'm sad. I'm not sure where to go to buy a new one though. We are in the Pueblo and maybe once in a while we can go to Walmart in Mayaguez but not often. It's hard to find people to give us rides too.

Dad: maybe you could type and send your journal entries to me in the mail? If you use my Cabo Rojo address it is very reliable because it's the U.S. Postal system.

This past P-day we totally went to some national forest with our Mayaguez Zone for a hike and to visit a cave! I love you all so much. Take care!

Hermana Hardy

Let Your Light So Shine

Hola Familia!

My companion's name is Ambree Gawrych and she is from Sandy. She did swim team in High school and she helps motivate me to work out in the morning. She is so sweet and we have a lot in common. She has been out for a year this October and I am her first baby.

My birthday was so wonderful. Thank you to everyone! Oh and please thank the Chapman's for me. They sent me the most beautiful cards for me to share. Thank you so much for the presents and especially for all the cards! I have the cutest outfits now! Everyone thinks that my favorite color is blue because all of my skirts but two are blue, haha, I didn't realize that until I got here.

 

Last P-day we went to a place called Alfarro. It is a light house and I will try to send pictures. We also had ward council on my birthday and that was a lot of fun but I didn't really know exactly what was going on. I did however understand when they asked how old I was and I said twenty (then the elders told everyone that it was my birthday) and I did understand them saying that I looked like I was 14. haha.
 

 

 

 

So there are 3 elders and 4 sisters total in my district. We are an all gringo district which is really unusual. OH! So we have 2 Elder Borens and one of them is Christy Cunningham's nephew, he went to East. Small world right? So where we are covers 2 wards: Cabo Rojo 1 and 2. I am in the first one, the other sisters are in 2, and the Elders are covering both. We are part of the Mayaguez Stake. There are 5-6 stakes in Puerto Rico. I don't know how many we have in our zone.

My new address is:

Calle Maximo Gomez 36A
Cabo Rojo PR 00623
Puerto Rico

Church services are wonderful. I don't really understand too much but I get the gist of the lessons. This week I played piano for Primary Singing time and I played in Sacrament meeting as well. I sight read about every song I played and it went pretty well.

 

Well the people we are teaching. We visit a lot of menos activos. It's really hard to get everyone to church because no one has a car. We met a new family this week and the wife just had her baby a month and a half ago! We taught her the first lesson and it went very well and we are going to return this week when her husband is home so we can teach him too. We are feeling optimistic for them.

 

The thing about Puerto Rico is that people do not like to make appointments for visiting with them and that makes it really hard to have lessons sometimes.

 

Also, they talk a lot. I know we need to listen to them to show our love and get to know them but it's hard to teach lessons because they don't really let up sometimes. That's been hard for me.

 

We have a recent convert named Olga who is 79 years old. She is great and so excited about church. Last night she took us to one of her friends to teach and she totally forgot where the apartment was so that was a bit fun. We found it eventually :)

Saturday we were looking for a contact's house when a car drove by and a man shouted out the window "Hey, are you Mormons??'" Wee said yes and then he invited us to his daughter's birthday party down the road. It was on the long walk from our pueblo to Monte Grande and we thought we'd stop by just to pass out some cards and say hi.

 

They were all so excited that we actually showed up and the little girl turned 5 and she was so cute and sassy. Her dad had a lot of questions about the church and fortunately it was all in English because he is one of those philosophical types that over thinks things a bit. We spoke to him a lot and in the end he said that this was the first time he had actually learned anything from missionaries.

 

Hopefully we can teach him again. It turns out his dad was baptized years ago and we met him too and he was great to talk to cause he loves missionaries. All of the older people at this party were veterans from the Marines so they only spoke English to us because they were most comfortable speaking English.

Good news! Our fridge is fixed! our landlord sent some workers to fix it so now our milk will not go bad :) our showers are hot.

 

A great story: After one bad storm the power went out while we were out and about at night. We could see just fine for the most part but then I felt an impression that I should use my flashlight. I started using it then a woman called us from off the street because she was sitting in the dark and she could see my light. We were able to make an appointment to visit her again. It was great because she contacted us!! Because I had my light on.

 

Lexie and Geoff! I will look out for your package :) I will probably get it at our next zone meeting! I can't wait to receive Jonny's snapchat:) your card was really cool too Jonny. Those were the right shorts! Here all women great each other by kissing on the cheek. As missionaries we only shake hands with the men of course. It is always buenos dias or tardes or buenas noches.

 

Way to hike Mt. Olympus! That is amazing. The thing about Puerto Rico is that it is perpetual summer here. The leaves don't change colors at all. I can't believe it's the end of September because it is still so hot.

That's cool about Rob teaching you all how to invest. I might need to work for a couple months when I get back so I can have money to invest haha :)

I will try to speak Spanish more and more! My companion makes me practice but sometimes we forget because I am her first English speaking companion.

WE TOTALLY had an investigator come to church with her kids. She enjoyed it and said that she is going to come back! Her husband told us that he won't go because he worships in his own way... yeah, we'll work on him. They are the type of people who think all churches are good for the most part so we need to teach him that there is only one church that is true.

For p-day today we helped clean the house of a woman in Cabo Rojo 2 who has been in the hospital. It was great!

I am so excited for you Hannah! I know that you can totally have a 4.0, do your best and I know you will totally do it because you are so smart :)

I love you family! Stay safe and have fun! Please enjoy autumn. It is my favorite time of here and I am sad that I will not get to see the leaves change colors. Also, the smells :) Stay safe and rock school and remember that you guys are my favorite. Mom, I really hope you edit my emails haha, it's hard to tell because this computer puts red lines on all the English words.

xoxo
 

Hermana Hardy

Attack of the Chickens

Hola Familia!!

 

Okay, so proselyting. I cannot describe the things that I saw and I am just so grateful to have a wonderful family and we are so spoiled in our big home and big and clean streets.

My splits companion's name was Hermana Sanchez. She is from the DR and she speaks English very well. It was great because she would speak to me in Spanish and make me practice but she could also describe things to me in English. She has one week left in the field so hopefully I will have her again when we go proselyting again tomorrow! We were out from 1:30-8:00. We were set up with our companions and then we walked a bit until we got to the busiest road I've seen yet and we took a taxi van thing for about 10 minutes or so.

 

Let me tell you about this van. It has three rows of seats in the back and you can fit about 20 people in there by squishing everyone in without seat belts and then you hang on for dear life. It started to rain while we were in the van and when we were dropped off. We were by an intersection and Hna Sanchez grabbed my hand and started running through the crosswalk and I know there were lights but people don't really follow them here so that was an interesting and life flashing before my eyes experience.

 

Then it started POURING!!!! And we walked and walked and walked. Until we arrived at our area. The apartment for the sisters was nice but we were proselyting in the slums. The streets were skinny, rocky, dirty, and there were all sorts of animals running around. My companion would literally hold my hand anytime we didn't have a "sidewalk" to use so I wouldn't get hit by a car. She also wouldn't tell me what the men were yelling at me. I am not going to try to explain what the living areas were like but they were very humble.

Our first appointment fell through, but we were in a little alley way and I was almost attacked by a chicken and it was the skinniest chicken I've ever seen. There were a lot of chickens in the streets too.

 

Our next lesson was with a young man (maybe 15-16) and his father or grandfather. They were both so receptive and sweet. I was able to share James 1:5 with them (we were teaching the Restoration) and I bore my testimony to them. AND THEN Hna Sanchez had me explain the pamphlet that we were giving them for next time and I think I did an okay job because she nodded and said good job.

 

 

The super tall guy is Elder Parker and he is 6'9". Hermana Johnson is the other girl and she is the only person I am taller than! Wahoo! She is super sweet:)

 

We taught another family, a woman with her mother and grandmother and it was about the Plan of Salvation and the mother just kept on nodding and saying that it made sense that we lived with Heavenly Father and that He has a plan for us. I shared Jeremiah 1:7 with them!! I tried to bear testimony but a little boy was being super loud and so I think they understood what I said and they were surprised to hear that I had only been there 4 weeks because they think I am speaking pretty well!

 

Another family we taught was from Haiti! They are learning Spanish too and the husband spoke better than his wife. We taught her how to pray in Spanish and it was an AMAZING experience. I also bore my testimony about prayer and I can honestly say that I used words in Spanish that I have not learned yet and I know that the Holy Ghost definitely had my back. That was my most spiritual experience this week. Their children were super cute as well!! The little girl kept on wanting to shake my hand:)

Also, I was able to try some fruit! Do you guys remember the fruit that we bought at Harmon's and Jonny was super excited because he had them in Nicaragua? Those were spiky though right? Well I had some fruit like that only the outside was smooth and green, and the fruit was really sweet and there was a huge seed that you can't eat. I THINK it is called limonosa or something with an L.

 

I also tried manzana de oro. Hna Sanchez said it in English first and I thought she said goat apple. But then she said it in Spanish and it's gold apple. It was hard to eat because it had spines coming from the middle that you have to chew around but it was amazing!! Also, my clothes never really dried completely but I was never uncomfortable so that was nice. I wish I brought more light cotton blouses that are durable. 

 

 

Okay. Fun stories with these pictures. The other day our water jug thingies were all dried up. So I was bringing a new jug (you know, the big ones that they have for offices) down the stairs and down the hall because there were no Elders for Hna. Jennings and I to ask. THEN a whole bunch of elders walked into the hall and one of the native speakers flipped out because I was carrying a huge jug of water by myself and they were all shocked that a little sister would be doing that herself. They told me in Spanish that the only water I'm allowed to carry is my water bottle. It was pretty funny. So they took it from me and laughed for a good ten minutes about it and that's why there's a picture of me and Elder Mongaña showing off our muscles.

 

I am so excited to start proselyting in Puerto Rico. I fly out this Tuesday!

Way to run 12 miles!! Good luck on the 14th! That sounds miserable but I am so proud of you Mom and Dad! Tell Mike and Anne congratulations for me! I am sorry I missed your dance concert and birthday Hannah, but I know you did amazing!

The food is pretty interesting here. I've had to be careful about eating somethings because they have so much onions and peppers but I am doing alright. I have been eating a lot of bananas lately. My living quarters here are now HUGE to me since going out in the field. They are also way way bigger than BYU dorms so that's nice too! Everything fits in nicely, our closets are small but it's not like I have a lot of clothes you know? I have never heard of Swiss Days before Lexie! It sounds cute.

Jonny, the thing about flies and bacteria is gross but that makes a lot of sense. There are always flies around here. There are also mosquitos but it takes 12 days to find out if you have Chikungungya so keep your fingers crossed. If you need motivation to work out then just think about me exercising at 6:30 in the morning!!!

 

FAMILY: If anyone could email me some ideas for short workouts (20-25 minutes) and a couple variations that would be great so I don't get bored with my workouts. Jonny, treadmills are awful. Try yoga. I have taught some Sister yoga classes here. It's pretty fun.

 

Emailing is interesting because the missionaries before our time go WAY over so I have to wait a while and then we go from 3-4 but dinner is at 5 so they let us stay in and finish. It's a bit sketchy. There are 54 missionaries here right now and we have 20 computers with 2 districts at a time. Right now all of the computers are taken but there are only 8 people per district. There are people who have been here for three hours.

 

I don't know what my email conditions will be like in Puerto Rico Jonny, but since we always right big sections for each other then you can do a separate email if you want! Puerto Rico also uses the US postal system so bring on the letters!! You can try sending letters from "different boys" but I don't think anyone will believe that I have that many guys writing to me. But thanks for the offer hahahaha.

I am so glad you had an awesome birthday Hannah! We are playing Lego Hobbit again in a few years kay? I am so proud of you and I am not surprised that you are dancing and singing well above your age. I am making sure to smile lots. I probably smile and laugh WAY too much because my district is HILARIOUS. We need to tone it down a bit. Sometimes they laugh at my jokes too but whatever. Alexis, I told your Benji (sp?) joke to the sisters we share a room with and I got some pity laughs!! Wahoo!

I love you ALL so much! I think about you everyday. It is a DR custom for women to kiss on the cheek before hugging and I told one of the sister teachers that that's what I do with my Mama! So she says that whenever I need a hug and kiss from my mama that I can go to her:)

Keep on rocking it familia. Enjoy school. Enjoy our countless blessings and keep the people of both the DR and Puerto Rico in your prayers.

Love you!

 

 

Hermana Hardy

CCM de la República Dominicana

Mi Familia!!

CCM de la República Dominicana

I am doing great! My first day at the CCM (Centro de Capacitación Misional = MTC) started at 12:00 am because that's when we arrived here from the airport. My flights went very well, the most stressful part was on the flight from Miami to Santo Domingo because they made us fill out all these papers for customs and they were all in Spanish. yeah :).

Mi Compañera is Hermana Jennings. She is from Arizona and she graduated last year from Northern Arizona with a degree in Psychology. She is going to the Santiago DR mission. We get along AMAZING because we are very similar in a lot of ways. She is so nice and I love her. My very first REAL day we had orientation and food and a demonstration in teaching and such.

My first impressions were a bit funny because we went to bed at 2:30 and woke up at 6:30. But the orange juice isn't orange juice. It's too sweet! I also couldn't understand anyone. For lunch everyday we have a LOT of rice with some beans and some meat. Like, a LOT of rice. But I absolutely love the rice and beans now so I am pretty content. The food can be kinda weird sometimes but for the most part it is pretty good. 

Thank you so much for the secret letters you hid in my purse! They are perfect. I read Hannah's letter the very first day and it was so perfect for what I needed. Our baby girl is the smartest most spiritual person I know! Thank you so much Hannah and thank you everyone!

Have you sent a package? I haven't seen it yet. I am not sure if I need to go look for it or if they will tell me that they have it but I will go check!!!!! I may need earplugs.... yeah.

I am so sad that I missed your birthday Dad! Happy Half a Century!! I promise to work extra hard! Thanks for the quote and scriptures Mama, you always give the best lessons!

I am not marrying the guy I was talking to at the airport Alexis and Geoff. And Jonny. But he is in my District! So are you fixing the Gough yard yeah? I thought it looked fine but that sounds like so much fun! I haven't seen any spiders yet thank you very much. I will do my best to memorize the LdeM in 28 hours.

I DO however have to speak Spanish 16 hours a day in order to become functional while in the CCM. It is super hard but there are very sweet native speakers here who help us.

Jonny they feed us very well and they give us WAY too much food so I am trying to work out more during gym time. Sometimes I will instruct yoga for my district Hermanas, haha.

The climate isn't too bad! I am getting used to the thick air and my skin is loving it. My hair however is not the most beautiful thing on earth. I LOVE the structure but they tell us we need to make our own goals for the language and study on our own time but the schedule is already packed with other things so speaking for 16 hours straight has me a bit lost but I am trying my best.

My District is great! They are all just like me. Nerdy! We all understand our LofZelda jokes. which is great for me, I feel like I belong! But we are a pretty rowdy group when we get off on tangents and distractions. Other times we are very spiritual and we are all pretty close. I am glad you have a new pillow! Mine is great. I am glad I brought an extra blanket though. All of my teachers are from the DR and they told us that they don't speak English but they really do. They just want us to speak Spanish all the time. I loved your letter!

Mom: Tell Cory Evans that I met Elder Vellinga on the flights down here. He is now my District Leader, so it's a small world after all!

HANNAH!! I am having a GREAT time! Thank you so much for your letter, it was perfect:) I do have friends, they are in my district and I have others from other districts. There are only 62 people here in the CCM. So it is very small and nice. I hope you are enjoying dance camp!! Tell everyone I love them! Miss you so much lovies!

I learned something to tell you. It it turns out that the whole Phineas and Ferb thing IS BASED ON A TRUE STORY! There is a man who had a traumatic head injury and would dream/imagine that his brothers were doing crazy things (like building a rollercoaster) and so that is who Candace represents. Weird right? One of my instructors explained that to us in Spanish, so I think I got it right :D

OKAY EVERYONE: On Sunday we get pizza for dinner. All of the natives were putting salsa picante and ketchup ALL over their pizza. One of my friends from Mexico convinced me (in Spanish) to try it. I am the first "White Chick" to ever try this in the history of the CCM apparently. It was actually pretty good!! Promise me that you will all try it!

So last night, my District had a very spiritual experience. Yesterday was a pretty tough day for me and I wasn't feeling super motivated to complete my goals and so on. Our District Elders have been offering to give us blessings whenever we Hermanas need them so I finally decided to ask for a blessing and it was so perfect for what I needed. The other hermanas received blessings too.

It built my testimony of the power of the priesthood and I cannot wait to teach the people of Puerto Rico. It's been really difficult teaching. We have an "investigator" Victor, and we teach him almost every night so Hermana Jennings and I need to plan a lot for our lessons with him and sometimes the questions he asks and the things he needs help with leave us a bit lost and I totally repeat myself in Spanish a lot but we are doing better every time!!

I am able to play the piano a lot. I played for Sacrament meeting, for our District, and for lots of things. The best part is that a lot of the songs I play are songs that I have never learned before. So I will have about 5 minutes to learn one before playing for everyone but I know the Lord is blessing me with the ability to sight read pretty well. Which is amazing because I used to be not VERY good at sight reading and learning super fast while others are singing. So that is pretty amazing.

Templo de Santo Domingo

Today I get to spend the ENTIRE morning in the Temple!! I am so excited, I have been waiting for this the entire week!

Also, I can see the temple and the ocean from my window in my room:)!!!!

XOXO and Lovies!

Hermana Hardy

Dominican Republic MTC

Hola Mi Familia!

I am writing a quick email to tell you that I have arrived in the DR safe and sound with all of my luggage. It is beautiful and very different. My favorite part is finally having my name tag! The flights went very well and I am very happy. :) My P-Day is on Thursdays but I will not be able to write you until NEXT Thursday. So please don't be alarmed when I do not contact you until then! I am so excited and I cannot believe that I am actually here. I love all of you! It is time for me to go eat.

Love,

Hermana Hardy

MTC President and Sister Freestone

 Compañera Hermana Jennings

(Is that Elder Nice Guy in the blue tie??)

Officially Hermana Hardy

It is official!!!

Hermana Emily Hardy

 

 

Ready to serve!!!

We assigned Hannah to be Hermana Hardy's Compañera for the evening. Hannah took this assignment very seriously :)