Mercies, Miracles & Gratitude

Hello Family!
 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA!!! I love you so much! I hope you have a wonderful time and that your marathon goes well!

I am feeling much much better today. I am exhausted and a little bit bruised but to be honest I am not nearly as injured as I would have thought I would be for being hit by a car (which means that I have been blessed very, very much). We have been given permission to use the car if we really need to. For the most part we have had members drive us to appointments. We have had almost all member presents this weekend!

I have to admit something.... several weeks ago I DID say to my companion that I would rather be hit by a car than to be bitten by a dog... Sooooo I had it coming.

I would like to say that even after being hit by a car I would still rather deal with that than be bitten by a dog.

Thursday we kinda chilled out at the apartment for the day. We took our time doing weekly planning, wrote letters, cards to members for Thanksgiving, we cleaned the apartment (I kinda helped a little bit but not much) because Hna. Boucher came to let me call Mama and to do an apartment inspection.

Friday we visited people (member present and then with a less active and then English class). It was exhausting. Saturday we rested a bit more but still had 2 member presents (Hna Broyles went with Hna. Gawrych to the one in the early morning because I was not walking or moving very well that morning).

Sunday, of course I went to church! I received all sorts of attention by people who have never spoken to me before (usually they all talk to Hna. Gawrych) and I had no idea what was going on but I am pretty good at saying I got hit by a car in spanish now. We had a total of 4 lessons today and I am tired. The members are very sweet and they all thought that my leg is broken (some STILL think that it is broken because someone spread that rumor around). NADA ROTO! I'm really good at saying that too.

So for the accident part!
 

 

We were on the side of the road contacting a man in front of a chain link fence, he even said we could return and teach his family and Hermana Gawrych was writing our number and I was looking at the man thinking that I didn't do very bad at contacting him (very prideful of me so yeah).

 

 

When completely out of nowhere I am hit and I just remember looking at the ground and seeing grass as I rotate around towards my right shoulder and being hit again (I realized it was the side view mirror later) and then I was facing towards the road and I saw the mirror roll away into the grass and then I was down against the fence looking at my leg.

 

 

My left shoe flew off my foot. I never actually saw the car as far as I can remember, just grass. I knew what had happened though right away and I screamed a bit and a man that had been sitting on the porch with our contact ran out right away and he was holding my hand and a woman who saw it all happen was standing in front of me and they were helping my companion call 911 and it hurt. Then a huge group of teenage boys came running around and after a while they left as more people came.
 

 

(Please see pictures for reference and explanation for how I was hit)

All I knew is that there were lots of people around me shouting in Spanish and I only understood a little bit. However I did see a white car drive past and stop and I saw a woman get out and I thought it was a member but I wasn't sure as she got closer and then her face was in front of mine and it was Hna. Franqui!!

 

I cannot describe how relieved I was to see her and she was just saying that I was going to be okay and she would take care of everything. She speaks a lot of English too so that was very nice. There are no members in the area we were in (30 minutes away from town driving) and I know that Heavenly Father planned for her to be driving by at that exact time to take care of me.

 

[On the phone, Emily also told me one of the EMTs and one of the police were members of the Church as well. She was well ministered to and the Elders were knocking themselves out to give her blessings :) ]

Her daughter Alanis was there too (9 years old) and her husband just got back from the states and he helped my companion a lot too. So I rode in an ambulance for the first time, went to the ER. There were 13 people there for me not including my companion and me. Apparently more members had shown up where the accident was and I didn't see them there but they showed up at the hospital (Metropolitan hospital of Cabo Rojo or something for Jonny haha:)) and the elders came and brought me a blanket and East High sweatshirt (they have a lot of nerve haha) and socks because it was freezing and I was shaking and everything.
 

In the end, nothing is broken, I am just scraped up and bruised but the bruising isn't too bad at all and my leg is the worst of it and even that is healing up very quickly. Everyone in Puerto Rico knows and even random people in the U.S. that the members know and called (hahaha). The nurse showed up right before they wrapped my leg up after they took x-rays. I never hit my head! My neck is sore from whiplash so my headache is sometimes worse than my leg when we are out visiting for a long time but I am still smiling!

We don't really know anything about who it was and all the members are really upset about that but I am fine, the person must be freaked out of their mind! Hopefully they are okay.

Miracles! Lots and lots of them! I had so many people who just so happened to be driving by after it all happened and so many people were there at the hospital with me. Hno. Franqui just kept on saying to me ""Look! There are so many people here for you, you two are never alone" That was a wonderful comfort to me.

 

We have had strangers call us to ask us how we are doing and one woman invited us to Thanksgiving!! Awesome, right? We have had the members help us with just about everything. My favorite part was speaking to Mama on the phone and tell her that I am okay. The missionary work is moving forward despite and because of what has happened:)

So for Thanksgiving we have two appointments- one at 12:00 and the other at 5:00 (we were invited to more but we had to decline). There are lots of people willing to drive us to those appointments.

Well, I do not know that more to say! I know that Heavenly Father has protected me and that He has a purpose in everything. I am excited to see what else will happen as a result! The past few days have been ridiculous and crazy but I have never felt so loved. The people here are so kind (even if they are dramatic) and they have the biggest hearts. I am hoping to accomplish even more the next few weeks with their help.

I love you all SOOOO MUCH! Happy Thanksgiving! Remember to be grateful everyday because that is more important than being grateful once a year:)

Love 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