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

Beans & Rice

Hello Family!!

Let me tell you about the Hurricanes Danny and Erika.

It was a storm alright... OF SUN!!! It was SOO hot!! It hardly rained where we are. It's a bit of a controversy because they said it was going to be a huge deal. But it wasn't for our part of the island. I do feel bad for the DR, they were hit really hard.

One night, I can't remember which, it started to rain a bit and the zone leaders called everyone to tell them to go inside. We had to go home 2 hours earlier than usual and it was hardly raining and I just about went crazy sitting inside. 

The next day was the best!! It was super cloudy but it didn't rain at all and we were thankfully able to work all day. I was happy because it wasn't hot.

This week for Pday!! Well we just went shopping. We live RIGHT next to the mall. We went to eat in the food court and when I started to eat my food I looked down and realized that I bought rice, beans, meat, chips, guacamole, and sour cream.

I don't know why I bought rice and beans on Pday!! I am going insane haha. But it was really good. Better than Burger King I say! that was the only other option.

We also saw a whole bunch of members today in the food court and they teased me because of the food I had and because it looked like a big plate. Which I thought was funny because what I had on my plate wasn't even half of what they give me to eat in their houses hahahahaha!!!! I love them so much. Really, the members here make Guayama Zion! They are our family.

We go on splits every week because we have five sets of sisters that we work with in a 6 week transfer. We don't do them the first week of transfer so that leaves us with one a week. 

Somthing humorous... I met three nuns this week! I guess it wasn't humorous but it was a fun experience!! Hna. Gallardo wanted to talk to them and we wanted to ask them questions about what they do but we were both too shy to talk to them but while we walked past we thought of a dumb question about the street name or whatever and then we started talking. They were really nice!! It turns out that these nuns are in social work with families. We helped them carry some boxes into the big catholic church. It was fun! They were really cool to talk to. One of them ran away from home to the convent at 17 and has been in the ministry for over 50 years.

My favorite teaching experience this week:

We had a miracle where we went to visit a 10 year old recent convert who knows more about the Gospel than I did before I came haha. She is doing alright, just some infection in her leg from a mosquito and they are operating today. 

But her cousin (thirty years old) was there to look after her while her mom was out. We read in the Bom with the little girl and she rocked it and understood and analyzed everything really well. The cousin is not a member but shared with us and in the end she told us that she feels that the Book of Mormon is true. 

We started explaining a bit of L1 and the little girl explained the first vision like I don't know what haha. Perfect future missionary. Anyways, we have a return appointment tomorrow and I am so excited to teach her! She's already accepted that the Book of Mormon is true and is willing to study it. YAY!!! 

She also shared with us a neat experience of how she is a cancer survivor. She had to have a bone transplant in her arm and she was number 1200 to receive one. The Holy Ghost came to her in a dream and touched her left hip and told her that is where they needed to take the bone for her transplant. The doctor didn't believe her when she told him but he did the analysis for that hip and found the bone matter that was compatible for her arm. Miracle! She is really prepared to accept the Gospel and has a lot of faith.

Something also funny: while we were in the middle of finishing 1 Nefi 7 and before starting chapter 8 two catholic missionary type people came in. They were going around visiting people and inviting them to believe and have faith in God. 

It was really funny because we accepted them with a lot of warmth and they were both staring at my name tag, really confused, and saw that all of us had a book of Mormon in our hands. Very nice people as well. But I'm telling you this 11 year old has more faith and knowledge than they realized. She is going to be fine.

Another hard but uplifting experience was with our other RC who is in the hospital. But she is 83 years old and has been there about a month. The thing is she doesn't like the food and refuses to eat so Hna. Gallardo and I went and figured out how to convince her to eat her dinner. She ate more than half of it in the end!! 

I had to promise her raisins in every bite with the potatoes carrots and meat. The prize was the apple juice! She can't eat salt because of her kidneys and dialysis, but she refuses to eat food without salt. But she likes sweet things like raisins and she is always thirsty but can only take some liquids. She really enjoyed the apple juice. But there were a whole bunch of us there cheering her on as Hna. Gallardo fed her. 

Yesterday almost all our RCs were in the hospital! One little girl (with her family there with her), the older woman, and then a family of RC were there to visit all of them!! It was a party in the hospital. I thought it was really neat that the family of RC came to visit all of the others. This ward is amazing.

I am glad Hannah enjoyed her Birthday!!! I can't believe she is already in Company at 14! Way to go Hannah!! I always said that she would be better than me haha:) She truly is our little rockstar! Get ready broadway!

I have my very first MLC this week. I am excited to see what it is like! (Mission Leader Council). From what I heard it is a very strong, spiritual meeting.

Well family, I love you so much!!

I hope you all have a WONDERFUL week! Take care!

xoxo Hermana Hardy

Happy Pioneer Day!!!

Hello Family!!!



We went to the Waterfalls today!!! It was so beautiful. Lots of fun. I will definitely bring the family here when we come back to visit so we can go swimming! Make sure you show the pictures to Grandma!

 

 

I am not sure if they really celebrate the 24th but we do have an activity and an amazing speaker from another ward is coming to speak to us. As far as I understand he is the Puerto Rican John Bytheway!

 

 

A few weeks ago in Zone Meeting our STLs told us that we needed to start inviting contacts in the street to be baptized! At first I was slightly incredulous and I had a bad attitude about it for about 20 minutes but I decided that since our leaders are inviting us to do it then Heavenly Father wants us to do it! So we started and it isn't too bad. 

 

I thought it would be really awkward and that we wouldn't know what to say but the very first time I just went for it and the Spirit helped me start a conversation about baptism, the restoration, and the invitation. The first one said she would have to find out more. The rest are so so. One problem is that often our contacts have to be really quick and there is no time to invite them before they run off. But I am determined to continue!

So we found a new part of our area and contacted a lot of people there and found some families! Then we took out a map and figured out it's not our side of San Sebastian-- Whoops! But the other sisters are happy and I am excited for them! They got a lot of references that week. 

The music in this ward.. haha. Well I play the piano every week and their piano is actually a keyboard and it is so quiet that no one can hear it while they are singing except those who sit closer. So I will not be doing a solo here because there is not really a point if no one can hear it. 

 

 

THIS week. Haha, so the pedal to the keyboard got messed up and when I went to play the intermediate hymn the pedal wouldn't work while I pressed on it, but when I let go all the notes would stay together like a normal pedal. So I had to reverse the way I play with the pedal and it was very complicated but I got used to it very quick. When the phrase needed a break I would step on the pedal and off really quick so the notes wouldn't run together so. Very interesting. Then at the end it was okay.

 

 

Last week we had an FHE and dinner with the Stake President and his family. I tried to do the egg in the bottle thing that worked in a lesson the week before but it didn't work as well this time... haha, it took the egg ten minutes to be sucked in! SO we did the latas endure to the end lesson which I will explain when I get home so you don't know what it is when I give you the puzzle.

 

 

Why is running 17 miles so normal for you?! That's crazy! You run more than I walk! Transfers are the 11th of August.  I received the shoes! They are so wonderful, thank you so much!  I tried chicken liver this week. Never again! :D  I can't wait to get Jonny's and Hannah's letters this week. Make sure you write them! haha :)

Have a wonderful week! We watched 17 miracles for our missionary activity this last week. It is such a strong powerful movie! I love it so much and every time I think about our pioneers I feel the Spirit very strongly. I am so grateful for them!

 

xoxo Hermana Hardy

Gifts from the Sea

I will share an experience from today that has been developing for a couple of months:

 

 

So my reasons for serving a mission have changed several times since I have started my mission. To be honest I never really liked it when people ask me why I am serving a mission because I feel like there is no right way to explain what I really feel and because we are all in the process of answering that question...

 

Well, a couple months ago we were walking in an urbanization and I am not sure what I was thinking about (I wasn't discouraged... but we weren't see a lot of success with people) but the thought came to my mind that maybe my mission here in Puerto Rico is not the most important thing I will ever do in my life. It really took me off guard. It made me think A LOT and change my perspective and my reasons for why I am here in Puerto Rico. It also made me think of what is the most important thing I will do in my life. So I made a list of my purpose here as a missionary, why I am here.

 

Also a couple months ago President Boucher told us in a talk that while baptizing is very important, the most important thing is that we as missionaries develop to become more like Christ. That also caused me to think a lot.

 

Then today we had a zone activity (that went REALLY long, that's why I'm writing so late) and it was neat. We went to some cool caves in Arecibo, saw the ocean, gorgeous! They gave us some personal study time and invited us to focus in our purpose as missionaries and why each of us is here. So that gave me time to develop my thoughts even more and to write them out a bit more.

 

So... Now we come to Sister Hardy's Personal Reasons/ Personal Purpose as a Missionary:

1. To invite others to come unto Christ.
2. To become more like Christ.
3. To prepare myself for my role as a wife and mother (my true purpose in life).

 

To be honest I made this list a couple months ago and while I was looking at it again today, studying more, comparing with my Patriarchal Blessing, it came together even more. The thought came to my mind "This mission is preparation for my life's mission" and I had the wonderful experience of feeling the Holy Ghost testify to me that this was true.

 

Now how does being a missionary prepare me for the rest of my life? Lots of ways! I explored a few today.

 

In Preach My Gospel, chapter 1, there are a lot of quotes from prophets in the latter days about missionary work. I think none of them actually mentioned anything about full time missionary work... they were more on member missionaries, lifetime missionaries. One by Brigham Young spoke a lot about living the Gospel principles so I can teach the Gospel principles and help others. I think that living and teaching the Gospel are one of the most important things a mother can do for her children. (Like how my mama has lived and taught all of us)

 

Well, one of the ways that my mission is preparing me is to prepare me to understand the necessity of the Gospel, to live the Gospel and focus in the Gospel, and to prepare me to teach the Gospel (in the PR of course... but more importantly to my future children).

To be honest every missionary is different. And there are a lot more reasons and purposes and even sub reasons and sub purposes that we can't see or recognize. Everyone has their own reasons for coming on a mission (and everyone's reason changes while they are on the mission) and I realize that my purpose as a missionary may not be the same as others'. Furthermore I think it is more important to realize that Heavenly Father has His own reasons and purposes for each and every one of us.

 

But this is mine! And I will own it to the best of my ability.

 

Maybe there is more to Heavenly Father's purpose for me that I can't see. For now, I feel like I am on the right track.

 

So, that's my motivation. There are people here for me to serve and to teach. There are also more spirits that I will teach in the future. So for all of them present and future I will work my hardest to give them my best and prepare with all I can to do that.

 

Thank you so much for your wonderful example to me, Mama! I am so grateful for you and for everything you have taught me. You are the best and I owe everything to you and to Dad. I have been so blessed to have been able to be born in your home, with parents that would live and teach me the Gospel so that I would have the opportunity to develop my own testimony. To be honest I have never doubted that the church is true. I feel that is a gift of testimony that my Heavenly Father has given me and also the firm, strong testimonies of my parents that built that foundation for me. Our family is rare. The world doesn't have a lot of families like ours, where the parents are united. Even in the church it can be rare to see a family where all of the children are actively living the Gospel and not straying from the path. I've never realized how spoiled I've been to have this family and to have her for forever! So it's our purpose to stay strong and to help other families do the same.

There are a lot more ways that I can see (and can't see) the mission preparing me. I was only able to share a few but please know that I am so grateful for this opportunity and for the many blessings I have received and the many miracles I have seen.

 

So that is my testimony. That the Church is true. That our families will be together forever. That Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us. And I am so excited to learn more about what He has in plan for us. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

xoxo Hermana Hardy

Invitation to Baptism

Hello Familia!

 

 

For your first question, the investigator we invited to be baptized last week didn't come to church and then didn't answer her phone so we couldn't visit her :(

 

BUT THEN! Our other investigator Gloria did accept the invitation to be baptized! For December 6th! Wahoo! She is so excited about it too. She told us that she wants a certificate to go along with it.

 

The funny and awkward part is though... Well when we invite people to be baptized we invite them, and then we say "We will be having a baptismal service on this day (date) will you prepare to be baptized this day?' Well, she said yes to the day and then asked who else was being baptized that day and assumed that there were a couple of other people....

 

 

So she kept on asking about that again on Sunday and we explained that there might not be other people prepared for that day and she said she didn't want to be baptized alone (she doesn't want people to go to trouble for her alone). Then we told her that lots of people are baptized alone and then she seemed much better about that!

It was just funny because she would say, "How many other people are being baptized??' and ahehehehehehe.... *you're the only one progressing... cough cough* :D

 

We wave to EVERYONE! People love us now, it feels like a parade. One night we actually did have people clap at us from inside their car... that was new! It is fun to see people's facial expressions when they see us.

 

So most of the time I eat an eggo or oatmeal or cereal with a banana every morning. Lunch varies, we eat a lot of salad and Tuesdays a woman brings us all food and we can usually make that last for 2-3+ days because she brings so much. Lots and lots of rice. Some beans. Meat (usually chicken). We very rarely cook and when we do it is usually noodles for me:) We bake cake a lot. And cookies, to share with people we visit. We eat at a member's house every Sunday for lunch, and at other people's houses during the week (maybe once or twice a week.)

The other day I tried tostones for the first time, tostones de pana to be exact. Just fried squished pieces of the pana fruit. Super starchy fruit, so it is like an extra thick potato chip. Around Christmas they have pasteles and I have tried them once and not the very tastiest thing I've had.

This week I ate the gizzard and liver of a chicken. Also, I had fried eggplant. I'd rather not talk about it, but it took us the longest time to find someone to tell us what they were in English (because the words for gizzard and liver were not in our dictionaries) I also found out that there is a delicacy that is essentially the intestinal part of a chicken and they keep the blood and everything when they cook it. I am not excited to try that...

My favorite place to eat is with Hna. Acosta. Her food is sooooo good (Her lasagna is to die for) and she tries to not cook us rice and beans because she understands how much we eat it.

My other favorite place to eat is Taco Maker (wednesday night is 1/2 off night)

Usually we do not take our dinner hour but we do on Wednesdays, haha. (or if someone feeds us dinner we count that as dinner hour)

Our favorite snack in between visits are limbers! People make them in their home and sell them out their front door. They are like popsicles in a little plastic cup with all sorts of different flavors. I will take a picture and send it to you. Lots of people offer us food when we visit though so we get a lot of snacks during the day usually.

 

My favorite thing about Puerto Rico?? It is so beautiful here!!!

What would I like for Christmas? mmm, I don't know! I definitely left my warm up rice bag at home that Grandma made for me because I thought I wouldn't need it... and now I wish I did!

I cannot think of anything else because I think what I will miss most is the Christmas tree with the family, snow, watching Christmas movies and Nutcracker music and Molly Mouse! I also miss Fall smells.

 

Today for P-day we had a nature hike and went into a cave and saw the beach and some old ruins. We went to Playa Baye. Do not worry, I did not get in :) but it was lots of fun! I will send pictures.

 

 

Jonny asked if I have dreamed in Spanish. I don't think so. But for a few weeks in the MTC I would dream of myself saying something in English like "God is our loving Heavenly Father." And then I would actually wake up halfway and translate it into Spanish, "Dios es nuestro Padre Celestial" I didn't sleep for the longest time because of that, translating in my sleep haha.

Way to go Hannah for making Jemima (I knew you would) and Jonny on passing his huge test!! Wahoo!!

I love you lots!

Hermana Hardy

Preparing For Baptism

Hello Family!

 

What a week! I can't remember what happened. I was a bit sick this last week, I don't know what it was- a weird sort of pure exhaustion and headache. Super strange and apparently one of the Elders was feeling that way the week before. Who knows! But I pushed through and I have my regular energy back so we are good! I am grateful that we get to go to bed at 10:30.

I haven't seen the music yet but I will keep my eyes out! What day did you send it? Tomorrow is some holiday for the schools so I don't know if the post office will be open or not. Maybe I'll get it today though! Our Ward Mission Leader keeps on talking about having me play some solo soon and it sounded like he wanted me to be playing Christmas arrangements the entire ward Christmas party. Heh.

I think my favorite lesson this week was with our investigator Sylvia. We found her contacting, visited her the week after for Lesson 1, and then this week we were able to teach her lesson 2. The thing is that she lives in Boqueron (the one that's 2 hours away walking) and she couldn't meet on our Boqueron day! So she totally came to the pueblo to pick us up and took us to her home to have a lesson. (we think she would have driven us home and fed us too but we had another lesson and ride with a less active that fell through... so we ended up walking the cien back home until we were able to find a member to pick us up haha)

Well we taught her Lesson 2 and she is SOO prepared and she even said yes when I invited her to be baptized! I was shaking and I had no idea what to do. She did say that she will be baptized when she is ready and she feels like the date I offered her is too soon, but she seemed so certain anyways when she said yes. I really kinda struggled with my Spanish and fluidity in that lesson though. Hna Gawrych just let me work it out myself and fortunately the message got through and she understood it and desires eternal life now.

Also, we had a lesson last night with a part active family and Hna. Gawrych thinks that the woman shed a tear when I told her that Heavenly Father loves her. That makes me happy, that she could feel the Spirit when told about that love He has for her.

I also learned this week that only 1% of the people in Puerto Rico are prepared to receive the Gospel and it is my responsibility that everyone has the opportunity to accept or reject our message because Heavenly Father knows that there are people who will never accept it but they need to have the opportunity to. That makes my heart sad. But it also makes me more motivated to speak to everyone and find that 1%.

Remember the one Birthday party investigator and his 5 year-old daughter? Unfortunately he texted the elders that he couldn't meet with him anymore because his family keeps on telling him that we are only trying to recruit people and he believes them. Ironically, he started studying with us saying that he will never be baptized he just wanted to learn everything. I personally think that he received an answer of the truth and his family noticed the change in him and he has chosen to not follow it. The elders invited him to read Elder Bednar's talk from this last conference.

We have District Meeting every week at the Rebecca (a park). Then we go home and eat food that Hna. Sepulveda makes us! yum yum:) We meet together, share experiences, read from PMG, share ideas and all of that. One week we got to listen to "Words to Live By" by Hyrum Smith. (well, we need to finish it later). Could you guys print it out and send it to me? I love it! He is also a great speaker and is wonderful to listen to. It's an AWESOME talk.

Our P-day adventures are pretty simple. Last week we went to a new panaderia for lunch and they had SOO many desserts and tasty things and wonderful sandwiches. yum. I will admit that I have gained 5 pounds because being sick I couldn't move in the mornings to exercise. This week will be much better though. I have already lost 3 of those pounds.

It rains about every Monday, it's pretty reliable. It RAINED SO MUCH LAST WEEK! I was actually COLD during the night and in the early morning. Apparently it's really weird for it to rain in the middle of the night. Now it is back to normal hotness at night.

I am so proud of you for rocking the Triathalon! RIGHT ON! You both look so healthy and fit and skinny! Wahoo! But Grandma says that you guys are doing the marathon over Thanksgiving in St. George. I am excited for you! but I am also sad because I know that Thanksgiving won't be the same in the Hardy home this year. We already have a dinner appointment for Turkey day (with the one woman that loves me!). It's funny because she invited us weeks ago and keeps on reminding us and saying "don't make any other dinner appointments!!!" She threatened the elders about that too, haha.

I don't really know if I am doing better in the language, I can't tell because I suppose that change comes really gradually. My district leader says that I am doing so much better than the usual new missionary so I hope that's true! I know that I am a lot better at smiling and being happy and positive than I was before starting my mission. That makes me happy and I want to be like this after too!

Good luck with tryouts tomorrow Hannah! You will do amazing as always! Pinky luck kiss kiss

I LOVE YOU!!!

 

XOXOXO Hermana Hardy

Halloween

Familia!

Today for P-day we woke up, exercised (I just stretched and used a tennis ball on my muscles), cleaned, we're doing laundry, trying to find a ride to go grocery shopping and we are planning on making cookies for tonight to take to a lesson and help a girl pass them out to neighbors for a service thing. It's a pretty laid back day this week. Last week we did souvenir shopping so I might be sending a package to you guys for Christmas:)

They do Dia de los Muertes here but that's in Spring time. For Halloween I don't think it's as big as in the States but people use it for sketchy business like drinking and celebrating dark stuff. We have to go home early for Halloween. There is a cool house we passed by that keeps on adding decorations for halloween! Haha, it's hilarious. The first time we saw it there was just their big Christus on a fountain/waterfall thing, then the next time the pool at the bottom was red and there was a zombie laying in it. Every week we pass by the zombie moves further out of the pool and now their entire house is decorated and there is a haunted house in their yard. It's pretty sick.

I think the best use of a scripture this week was James 2:17-18 about how faith without works is dead with a woman who is less active. She totally understood it and accepted it and even continued on with her testimony about it. It was awesome because some people just don't get it when we teach them, or they just don't try. She did and she was very sweet about it. She didn't come to church but we will keep on visiting her.

To find new investigators we contact on the street, we ask for referrals (hard to get those), and we try to ask members (who are shy about it) and we try to talk to everyone we can.

Gospel Principle this week. Well, the importance of having the Spirit in conversion and in lessons to help teach. Our one inv. (we have to give him to the Elders but we will still see him sundays) even understands that now! Yesterday we had a short lesson with a 14 year old girl who was very sweet and we gave her a short overview about the Restoration pamphlet which we gave her to read. I could feel the spirit there as I told her that Heavenly Father loves her and she can pray about anything she needs help with and how there was a 14 year old boy that had lots of questions and God answered his prayers. That was pretty awesome. She even prayed at the end! Wahoo!!! I can't wait to see her next time.

Transfers are this Tuesday and we found out last night that our ENTIRE zone is staying the same, just an Elder in our district is getting a new companion to train (our elders have been in a trio this transfer). Next transfers are December 2, and they'll probably take Hna. Gawrych away from me then because she's been here a long time and my training will be finished. These past 6 weeks went by A LOT faster than they did in the MTC, which is insane because those 6 weeks went by pretty fast too. Í'm coming up on 3 months which is weird.

I am jealous of your hike! that looks BEAUTIFUL! Lexie go ahead and wear my dress! way to get all A's Hannah, remember that even though you are busy reading a chapter in the Book of Mormon EVERYDAY will help you so much. Make sure you make time to read it and make it a priority. Some chapters are long so you can split them in two. I am 1/3 through the BoM in Spanish! I love reading it, I notice different things in spanish, pretty cool. Make a goal and a calendar and it will be easier for you. I hope Jonny gets furniture soon :)

I am out of gummy vitamins and that's all I can think of! oh, and epiduo is almost gone. I am going to miss the ward party, we are just having a big service party the day after Halloween!

This email is short because I am sending pictures!!

Hermana Hardy