Ponderizing

Hello Family!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

xoxo Hermana Hardy

Power Of The Atonement

Hello Familia!

Women's Conference was awesome, right??! I loved it. Pres. Uchtdorf's was my favorite. I will admit that it was a little bit different watching in Spanish because I couldn't hear Pres. Uchtdorf's voice but I imagined it anyways, haha!

Next week I will be able to watch all of conference in English! We have satelite in our ward building so we will be watching it here in Guayama!

Who from our ward went to the hospital??!

The weather in my new area... well it's still really dry! The mountains are a bit greener than when I came but it hasn't rained in a really long time. Every once in a while it rains at night. But let me tell you, this week has been the hottest week of my life! Summer is supposed to be over already but it's been extra extra hot. Also, our air conditioning broke this last week. None of us has been able to sleep! It's just too hot. I am also a little bit roasty toasty and sunburned... not bad, but everyone makes a big deal about it when they see me. I think I had at least three contacts Saturday that told me that I shouldn't be outside haha.

Someone that I taught about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I will be teaching it this week with one of our investigators. I think the biggest miracle I saw from teaching about Christ and His Atonement and Gospel was definitely Ana from Toa Baja. 

I remember that when we were going through the questions for the baptismal interview we asked her the third question about repentance and if she felt that she had repented of her past transgressions and she told us that for a long time she couldn't let go of the hurt feelings she has against people that had hurt her family. She said that she was trying to overcome that still and when we started to teach her the Restored Gospel she was able to let go and have her heart healed by the Atonement. 

She was so so so happy that she had finally been able to let it go. She felt so good inside and ready to be baptized. I think that is one of my most favorite experiences in my mission- listening to my friend Ana sharing how the Atonement had worked in her life and the healing it brought.

Yesterday in church we had ward council at 8:00. Then Sacrament meeting at 9:00. I played the piano. Learned a new hymn too! the members say that I was making a funny face and cringing at the end of each verse because for some reason it sounded funny and they weren't singing with me and I wasn't sure if I was playing or counting wrong or they were! I am embarrased! I am going to work on my poker face. Then we had Gospel Principles. None of our investigators came this week! Which was too bad. Then Relief Society. We were able to reactivate someone yesterday too, so that was awesome!

Funny story of the week:

We were helping a member clean her new house before she moved in... I was sweeping and Hna. Gallardo was cleaning the bathroom and she called me in saying that she didn't know how to use the bidet in order to use it.... Well of course I've never used a bidet but I assumed that it was really simple and easy to figure it out. 

So I walked in acting like I knew what I was doing and I turned it on a little bit but the fountain thingy in the middle wasn't working, so I turned the knob and the water started spraying like it's supposed to but it was really low................ So I leaned over and turned the hot water knob all the way and BAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The water came up SUPER hard and sprayed me in the face!!!!! Right in my left eye!!!! 

Hna. Gallardo and I started shouting because the water was coming up almost to the height of my head and there was water all over and we didn't know what to do and we were just so shocked. Hna. Gallardo turned the water off and the member ran in to see what happened and she died laughing with us. She is 20 years old so she wasn't judging. But yeah. That's the last time I act like I know how to use a bidet, hahaha. That was humiliating! I had no idea that it would spray so high....

Hannah: Last week you asked if I want you to write me. Yes please! I would like for you to write me when you have the time! xoxo

Well I think that's about it. This week was something else. We found some new people too, so that's good!

Have a wonderful week! I love you all so much! I should be able to get mail next week! Tell Jonny!

xoxo 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