July 22, 2013

Rees left the MTC on July 23! He called us at 5:30 this morning and it was wonderful to hear his voice! He is now actually in Montreal and getting settled in. We can't wait to get his next letter and hear all about his new home! 

July 22, 2013

Hey guys! Sorry this is so early. We got up really early so that we could do our laundry and pack. The process of leaving here is sometimes a hassle, but not too bad. I haven't mailed the things yet, but I will today. This place is so busy that it can be difficult to find time to mail a package. I am proud of Ronnie for his work, and proud of Paige and Tanner for their trekking. I'm super glad that Jordan is getting more involved. Tell her to remember that nobody is really qualified to convert people. All the Lord needs from us is faith and a smile (and a willingness to work, but that leads into a discussion on what faith is). Some of the missionaries in my district are far less talented and capable than her, but they will all make wonderful missionaries. I still believe that she can be at least in the MTC before winter comes this year.

I want to tell you about Sister Rios, a missionary in our district. She is 21, shorter than Jordan I think, and often times struggles. She is called to Spanish and French because she listed herself as already knowing Spanish. However, she anticipated receiving further instruction in Spanish, and it isn't really fluent. Now she is stuck struggling to pick up French while worrying that the Spanish she has is slipping away. Despite all this her attitude has remained incredible. She is happy to be here, and confident that her French will come, and her Spanish improve. What makes her faith all the more impressive is that she has only been a member for a year and a half. She joined the church all alone in her family. She gave up tea, coffee, partying on Sundays, and many other things to be a member. When she gets back she will have spent half her time as a Mormon out in the field. Jordan, if sister Rios can serve, so can you. Don't ever feel that you are inadequate in ability or gospel knowledge.

My letter is going to be short today because I am going to be talking to you guys tomorrow morning. I expect everyone to be awake, even Jordan and Paige. I will be calling from Salt Lake because our layover in Detroit is very short. I AM SO PUMPED TO GO!!! My biggest worries now are a). Introducing myself to my first ward in French, or b). Spending the first three months of my mission in an English area, and c). being required to train after my third transfer, in a French area, after having been trained in an English area. Those prospects make me a little nervous, but otherwise I am excited. The MTC is good because it weans you off of your old habits and recreations. Now I am more used to scripture study being important, always striving to keep the spirit with me, and having lessons be the most exciting thing that can possibly happen.

I have faith that mine will be a good and successful mission. I cannot wait to serve the people in Canada. I cannot wait to talk to you all tomorrow morning. Did you guys manage to find "Character of Christ?" Elder Critchfield's Dad managed to find it online somewhere, but not on LDS.org. Also, did you do the little thingy I suggested with 2 Nephi 2? That chapter is one of my favorites and really helped me gain an appreciation for Le Livre de Mormon.

Your eldest son and brother,

Elder Hardy (by the way have I mentioned that our name means "bold" in French?)

Wow, just realized that I have a whole half an hour left to write. I guess I'll keep writing. I don't know what I should talk about. I am trying to be good at writing in my journal. Most of my entries are a few lines basically saying that the day was fine, but yesterday I managed to write two pages. I accomplished this by using my journal to take notes on the farewell devotional that we went to. The devotionals are wonderful. Last week's Sunday speaker was a former President of the Spokane mission. He told stories referencing several places in Spokane that I knew.

I would type in French, but these darn laundry room computers can't do the accents. Suffice it to say that I have mastered the present tense, Past Composed, imperfect, future, conditional, passive voice, and am working on mastering the present subjunctive. A bigger obstacle than the grammar is the vocab. I know a ton of gospel vocab, but very little practical vocab. I'm certain that I will learn very fast in Quebec, but I sometimes wish that i knew now.

Elder Madsen and Elder Starr arrived this Wednesday. I was able to host Kyle Madsen, and spend time talking to both of them. It was crazy to see Kyle Starr. I never imagined that we'd be in the MTC at the same time.

I have decided that my motto for my mission will be the scripture in Joshua that reads "Be ye therefore strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with the withersoever thou goest."

Now I am out of time. I love you guys. I can't wait to hear your voices tomorrow.

Rees

July 15, 2013

Hello again.

I have one more Monday until I leave. We leave next Tuesday. We have to be loaded and ready by 3:30 a.m. I am allowed to make a phone call from the airport, but will likely only have time for it at around 5:30 Provo time. Sorry but it's all I can manage. Thanks for sending the phone card, I was going to buy one today, but this works just as well.

Reno!!?? That's awesome. I am sure that he'll have a great experience. Eric is even more reserved than me about spiritual things, but I know that his testimony is very strong. He, like me, will be able to draw on the things that his mother taught him and find courage and faith.

I wish I could be there for Dakota's play. It sounds like a marvelous missionary experience and opportunity to raise money. With regards to your questions, all of the missionaries going to Montreal will be traveling in one huge group. My companion somehow ended up as the group leader, and he is somewhat nervous because he has never flown without his parents before. No I am not sad to leave the MTC. It was a great experience here, but I am eager to test my faith in the field, and to begin sharing the gospel with real investigators. On Thursday I started reading "Jesus the Christ." I'm just about finished. It is the most incredible book I have ever read (sans the Book of Mormon).

The Language training is going well. It could go even faster I believe if Speak Your Language was emphasized more, and the computer program TALL was abolished. The biggest struggle is becoming comfortable with using the tenses and grammar in speech. Not even the most diligent missionary can keep his eyes open for an entire hour of TALL, even with a recording on LDS.org of Elder Holland speaking in the background. 

As is implied by my earlier statements, we have our travel plans. It should take us most of the day, but not the abysmal 26 hour nightmare the missionaries bound to France have to endure. Our investigators are doing okay. We've struggled with commitments since we keep running out of time before we can introduce the commitment logically. All we have managed to do is get them to come to church. We asked them both to be baptized within the first two lessons, but both declined pending further witness.

I have no minor miracles or profound personal revelation to share this week. Only a testimony that, as a servant of the Lord, as long as I remain worthy, the spirit will bear witness of my testimony, and justify my words in the hearts of those I teach. 

I saw Dylan for the last time yesterday. He left for Texas early this morning. I got a couple of pictures with him, and the sisters in the district told me that I had to give him a hug; so I did. Speaking of pictures I have been taking them, but can't send them until I get into the field. The protections on the computers here are such that only SD card adapters work. The card on my camera does not come out, so I have to wait for later to send them via USB cord.

I hope Paige and Tanner enjoy their trek and Ronnie and Dad enjoy scout camp. I can't say that I envy them though. One of the joys of a mission is a two year exemption from any obligation to camp. I hope they will be all be home next Tuesday so that I can talk to them. I'm sorry if Tanner's letter hasn't arrived yet. My life got busy and I couldn't send it until Friday morning. Next up is Paige. I'll try to send the letter more quickly this time. Did Jordan get my letter? How is Jordan? There is no mention of her in the e-mail.

I met the older Colvin son on Sunday. He got in on Monday and is headed to Sweden I think. Oh yeah, I am wearing my back-up glasses because I put my glasses on my bed, forgot they were there, then literally jumped into my bed. It looks like the lenses just came out and the frame bent a bit. I am mailing them back along with a nice stitched thingy that Grandma sent me. I don't really have room in my luggage for it, so I'll enjoy it when I get home. 

Thanks so much for the food!! I was starving. Naturally the package arrived within hours of me deciding to try and eat healthier, but I guess my commitment will have to wait till this bounteous food is gone. Speaking of food, I really want a Baconator. Oh well. Apparently the food in Montreal is exceptionally good, and I am excited about that. 

Speaking of things learned of Montreal, apparently Montreal and the area of southern Quebec is one of, if not the most diverse place in the world. One of our teachers served in our mission and said they taught people who spoke: French, English, Spanish, Mandarin, Creole, Hungarian, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Thai, Cantonese, Finnish, Arabic, and that we could expect to find others. In the city itself the mission apartments are stocked with material in dozens of languages. Obviously French is the most common, and many who speak other languages also know French, but he told us a story about trying to teach a very curious investigator who only spoke Hungarian. One of the other teachers who served there was assigned to learn French, but also picked up Spanish while he was out, and came back able to speak Spanish well enough to hold a conversation. The amazing thing is that that teacher spent almost half of his mission in the English portion of the mission and still came back with two new languages.

This week I have a challenge for the family. I want the family to read 2 Nephi chapter 2 together, and pick out every individual principle of the gospel that Lehi teaches. Then divide out from those principles all that were lost or badly misinterpreted during the Great Apostasy. My hope is that you will gain an increased understanding of the value of the Book of Mormon. Within this one chapter (which is one of the best chapters in scripture) many of the misconceptions and confusions of the Apostasy are dispelled, and the truth taught simply as if to a child (for they are in fact directed at Jacob, who could not have been much older than Ronnie at the time).

Another thing about the Book of Mormon that I have come to realize is the omnipresence of Christ. Every book testifies of Christ. Even the Book of Omni contains the powerful testimony of Amalicki of the truth of Christ's divinity.

I'm glad to have heard from you guys. I'm cutting a little short in order to write to Dylan as well. 

Till next week,

Elder Hardy

July 8, 2013

Hello everyone.

To start off I have something for everyone to do. See if you can find somwhere on the internet The MTC Christmas devotional talk given by Elder Bednar called "Character of Christ." This talk is the most incredible thing I have ever heard. I don't know what year it was given, but it is recent. In it Elder Bednar explains how it was Christ's character that made the Atonement possible. His words are directed at the missionaries, but are applicable to everyone.

I appologize for getting a little preachy last week, you guys are the only people I can preach to in English right now and the MTC trains you to always be thinking about teaching and preaching. The letter I wrote for Jordan I mailed on Tuesday, so it should be arriving very soon.

4th of July here was weird. We all gathered in the gymnasium for a special devotional where we heard two talks. After that they showed the movie "17 Miracles" for some reason. After the movie it was 10 pm, and we were allowed to stand outside and watch the "Stadium of Fire" show, or at least the fireworks that made it high enough to see from the MTC.

Now for the questions:

1. For now my companion and I have a goal to read the entire PMG manual in both english and French before we leave. After that we will probably study based on what we feel we need to work on. We learned on Saturday that straying from PMG in our lessons is not a good idea. We decided to try something a little different, and the lesson didn't go well. We butted heads a little afterwards, and we found ourselves not talking to eachother. This lead to one of the biggest spiritual experiences I have had so far. I said a prayer in my heart while the class was going on and I asked the Lord what I could do to fix our relationship. The Lord answered my prayer. The spirit spoke to me in a still small voice in my mind that I should humble myself, that I was in the wrong, and that I should apologize to my companion. After the lesson I did exactly that, and the happiness and relief from our renewed relationship was incredible.

2. Yes. We had Janis Kat Perry, who wrote just about every song in the primary hymnbook, came and sang her songs with us and talked about what they meant and how they were meant to lead us to Christ. The first speaker that I listened to here was Elder Gay of the seventy (who I have mentioned) and he told us a story about his mission in Spain where he and his zone were prompted to break the laws of Spain and erect street signs. They did, and they went from one or two lessons a month, to several baptisms a month. I mention this because the next week another seventy spoke to us (I can't remember his name) and bodly declared that the spirit would NEVER prompt us to break a rule. This little seeming contradiciton was a source of considerable humor for everyone.

3. Elder Patrick and the other Mission Presidents only get one week of training here, but the entirety of the Quorum of the Twelve and first Presidency were there, so it was pretty good training.

4. Every Wednsday a new batch of missionaries arrive. We are still trying to find out how to be hosts because we all want to do it. The new missionaries are fun to talk to because they always think we are like 21 or 22 years old, and are stunned when they find out that we are their age.

5. There are no transfers in the MTC. The Tahitian missionaries on our floor of the residence have had the same companion for eleven weeks (they leave next week, they had to learn French and Tahitian).

6. I kind of already shared my big one. The talk by Elder Bednar was also a great experience, but I want you guys to see it for your selves.

7. Just food. Dinner for us is at 4:00, so by 9:30 we are starving. The others in my district have tons of food from home so they share, but it would be nice to have my own.

8. It sounds like we are allowed to make a phone call at the airport. Sorry I just realized I keep saying "we" This is because we are taught to alwasy refer to ourselves and our companions as one.

It's Tanner's turn to get a letter. I'll try to mail it sooner this time, so he won't be waiting still next Monday. I was able to talk to Dylan for a few minutes yesterday at dinner. I am hoping to talk to him again before he leaves next Monday. I have found Austin Braun many times, and found my roomate Ben Perry a couple of times. Be shure to tell me when Eric gets his call.

Speaking of leaving, I leave in two weeks! The time here at the MTC has been great, but I sometimes feel like Jacob; my time here has passed as it were to me a dream. I am called to wander in a strange land of Moose and hockey and bring a change into peolpes lives, and bring them the kind of joy that they have always searched for, but couldn't find. I have begun to gain a testimony of the scripture Amos 8: 11-12. There is truly a famine on the earth, not a famine of bread or of water, but a famine of the word of God. As in the days of Joseph of Egypt, we have great abundance stored up in Zion, and we must invite others to come and by bread without money.

I'm sorry, I started to get preachy again. Time for French.........aaaaannnddd I just deleted the little button to change the language on the keyboard somehow. I refuse to write in French without the accents, so sorry. I'm not too shure about what to write now. I have........wait I just found the language thingy again. French time.

Je vous aime, ma famille. Je retournerai àpres les deux ans de mon mission. Si vous gardez les commandaments de Dieu, et si vous me donnez beaucoup des nouriture (I think that is how that is spelled), vous auriez beaucoup des bénnedictions de Dieu. Avons mon mission, je n'ai pas compris le nature de cet ouvre, mais je commence que mieux connaître le nature de Jésus-Christ, et le grand significance de cette église. Ma temps a fini: Je termine avec mon temoignage. Je sais que Jésus-Chirs est notre Sauveur est redempteur. Je sais que Joseph Smith est un prophéte de Dieu, et il a revélé le Livre de Mormon. Je sais que le Livre de Mormon est vrai. Christ vie. Je l'aime, et il m'aime, et il aime tout le monde. Je dis ces choses au nom de Jésus-Christ, Amen.

Pictures!

Dropping him off! Look at that smile!!!

Random Elder who greeted him. Where has that smile been all his life? ;)

The district of Montreal Elders.

I love to see the temple!

Working hard?

Or hardly working?? 

(Just kidding we know he is working really hard!)

The Elders!

Companions!

Posing for the Sisters! 

July 1, 2013

Here's the letter we got today! He sounds so wonderful!

Wow this might be a long letter.

1. sure go ahead and post my letters to the blog. Future letters might have have sensitive stuff, but I'll leave that to your discretion.

2. I got the package today. Thanks a ton. I was having to re-wear athletic socks.

3. Most districts have two teachers, but we have had three because Seour Dix is switching to a different role. Brother Allen replaced her. He is awesome and a big help. Our other teacher is Brother Portwood, though we call him Christophe since that is the name that we knew him by for the first week (he was playing an investigator). Time in class is split between gospel and language study. Also each companionship teaches each teacher two lessons a week entirely in French, they are playing one of their past investigators and we get to try and progress them.

4. Yes, many. The spirit here is constant (so long as you are willing to follow the rules. Some Elders don't). The biggest experience was during the first Sunday devotional. It was given by Elder Gay of the Seventy. During his talk I felt the Spirit extremely strong. I felt an overwhelming sense of peace and I suddenly knew beyond a doubt that I would learn the language. I also felt impressed that if a situation ever arose on my mission where we were to preach on the street, I am to volunteer to speak. Many other experiences have happened to me so far, but that is the main one.

5. The Language is going (sorry the laundry room computers can't do accents) super chouet. That means awesomely groovy. The majority of the learning actually happens during language study and meals, which is when everyone tries to PVL (Parle Votre Lang). One of the Elders in our district, Elder Hulet, took the A.P French test after five years of study, and so he knows quite a bit. He is the local authority when there isn't a teacher around.

As for the exercise we have a scheduled hour of gym time on Tuesdays through Fridays, and an hour for personal exercise on Saturdays after our service assignment (we clean one of the residence halls). Our district mostly plays volleyball during gym time and we are all improving with every game. I have learned to serve overhand. Our district is very close, which isn't true of all of them. The Elders are pretty much always together, and usually the sisters are there too.

I look forward to when Jordan will be joining me in the mission field this fall. This is a fact of which I have no doubt. The MTC is a life changing experience. Surely no place has existed that can claim such a spirit as the School of the Prophets. No greater ambition can be had in this church, aside from personal salvation, than that of sharing the gospel with those who need it. I can testify that the Lord has promised blessings to those who are willing to wear his badge and help him to bless others. A person who is trying to figure our where to go in their life can do no better than go on a mission.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!! I am sorry that I am not there to celebrate with you, but as Elder Gay said in the aforementioned speech, "While your parents may miss you, I promise you that they would much rather you be here than back home." Tell Ronnie that he should be more careful on those death machines.

I got all of your personal letters that you sent me. I just don't have time to respond to each one all at once, so I will respond to one person each p-day. Today I am going to hand write a letter to Jordan, then next P-day Tanner, then Paige, then Ronnie, then Lizzie, Then Mom, and then Dad, then repeat. I keep the letters you guys send in the springs above my bed, (I have a bottom bunk) and will surely be taking them with me when I get into the field.

I still have a lot of time so I'll tell some stories. First is the short and weird story of how Soeur Dix met her husband. When she started teaching in the MTC right after she got back from her mission in Switzerland she got a district to be the teacher of. Because she is a nice and wonderful person, she got along very well with the missionaries she taught. About two years after she got back she got asked on a date by a very familiar young man. He was one of the missionaries she had taught French to. He had gone to Montreal on his mission, come back, and looked her up. At first the idea weirded her out, but eventually she decided she didn't care and that she loved him. The End.

I want to tell you about Christophe. We had been at the MTC for all of one day when Soeur Dix announced that on Friday we would begin teaching a real investigator from France. She showed us a brief video biography he had sent in (which we couldn't understand) and told us we would be teaching for at least twenty minutes, and that Christophe spoke absolutely no English. This routine is normal for everyone who is learning a language, and our zone leaders spoiled it by telling us that our investigator was actually another teacher. They did not tell us however, for the first few days. We taught Christophe that Friday, Saturday, the next Monday, Wednsday, Thursday, and Friday. The next day he walked into our class and began talking to us in English. It was extremely difficult, but it was a good experience. Now Brother Portwood is playing a guy named Frederick and it's really weird because he looks exactly the same.

Teaching with the Spirit is the number one subject here. I'm learning that the language becomes far less of a barrier if the spirit is present. During our last lesson with Frederick we were talking about the nature of God (it was our first lesson with him) and he made a comment about having a lot of questions and suddenly I had the impression to tell him the Joseph Smith story. This went way off our plan, and my poor companion (who speaks pretty good but has a hard time understanding when others speak sometimes) was left very confused. I had already memorized the first vision in French, and so I was able to give the basic background of the first vision in cave-man French, recite the scripture to him from memory, and connect The prophet's story to his confusion. The spirit was very strong, and it was a testimony to me that the Lord is more than capable of doing his own work, and all he requires of us is faith.

I'm starting to run out of time now. I hope that everyone continues to do well. I kind of need to move my laundry and finish planning my lesson for Frederick. To Mom and Dad, enjoy your anniversary and don't worry about me too much. To Jordan, expect a letter in the next few days. To Tanner, the answer to your question is yes, I am ready to serve a mission. To Paige, Good luck in High School next year. To Ronnie, remember that it is never to early to begin studying for a mission. A missionary who comes to the MTC with a detailed knowledge and love of Preach my Gospel is at a great advantage. To Lizzie, love your siblings. Your fate is to watch them leave one by one. Do not waste a minute of your time with them in contention.

Oh one more thing. I sang a solo in sacrament meeting yesterday. Sister Norris accompanied me in singing "Sovien-toi" which is not in the English hymnbook and is the most beautiful Hymn I have ever heard. I'm out of time now. Bye

Elder Hardy

June 24, 2013

So I now have permission from Elder Hardy to just post his letters! I will start with the second one we received on June 24, 2013.

Hello peoples. I'll start by answering the questions. My p-days start even earlier than normal days, because we like to leave for the temple at 6 and get into a less crowded session. Normally temple attendance is regular, but the temple will be closed after this week for the remainder of my stay for cleaning. After that we have breakfast, then time to take care of anything we need to do, like shining shoes or taking a shower (that's a joke). At 12:45 we start our laundry and it takes several hours because finding two open machines is virtually impossible. P-day ends at 6 and we go to class and study for the rest of the day. You didn't see me in the broadcast because I wasn't in the choir. Like I said, only those who got here the week before me could be in it. Lots of people just cheated, but we decided not to. The broadcast was still amazing, and my seats were pretty good. If you go to the LDS website the cover picture for the broadcast has sister Norris in it along side two of the other sisters in our district. They are right on the divide between Elders and Sisters towards the top of the picture (they didn't cheat, a few sisters were allowed to be an exception and they were among them).
As for our zone, everyone is leaving today except us, so we will be alone for a day or so. On Wednesday we are getting a full refill, leaving our district as the oldest in the zone. Elders Mena and Critchfield are the zone leaders now (they're in our district) and my companion Elder Artica is district leader. Our days are spent largely in two giant blocks of class instruction, which also includes teaching teachers playing the role of one of their investigators on their missions. It is all in French and starting this afternoon we cannot have notes. Our first lesson happened our first Friday and was entirely in French. Our district is also part of an experiment to see if it is possible to learn French even faster so the stay can be shortened. We will be staying 6 weeks still, but if we do well then others might only stay 3 or 4. I hope that aunt Sarah recovers well, and I'm glad the trip went well. I got you guys's hand written card, and Ronnie the password to my ipod is: get your own ipod.
Another thing about the broadcast is that the stake President from the story about Tampa, Florida is President Patrick, my mission President. We met him on Saturday, and he seems like a truly wonderful person. He and his wife have 8 kids, so our family seemed rather small in comparison.
With regards to my needs I could really use a nail clipper and (you were right Mom) another short sleeve shirt.Otherwise I am fine. I got the cookies, and all the Elders that are leaving gave us all their food so we have tons. I hope everyone is doing all right. I'm really anxious to get out to the real mission and start teaching, but I need more French first.
That's all I've got. Bonne Journee!

Wow I just found an open computer so I still have a few minutes of e-mail time left so I'll keep writing. I understand what you guys meant when you said the food was abundant, but it really isn't that good. I'm still in better shape than my companion, who nearly throws up if the rice is undercooked. His problem is that he has never lived away from home before, so he is used to his mother's Peruvian cooking, and so he has no stomach for true cafeteria food. I'm eating fine, I don't think my weight has really changed. We have quite a bit of junk food, but we also get quite a bit of exercise walking around so it sort of balances out. I'm sitting here waiting for my laundry to dry. The machines are questionable. They are the kind of model that requires you to pour your detergent directly on your clothes. People often come way before their scheduled time, so it can be hard for those of us who come at the correct time to find machines.

I don't think I mentioned the one last thing I'm missing. I could really use another pair or two of athletic socks. I only have four and I have at least one oppertunity to dress in sneakers every day except Sunday.

 I think that covered everything. Good bye for real now.

June 17, 2013

We finally got our first news from Rees! He hand wrote us a letter and we got an email! His P-Day is on Monday's for those who want to read it and he is doing really well. His companion's name is Elder Artica and he says they work well together.  He sounds like he is working hard and really feeling the spirit. He joined the choir and is working hard on learning french! He ended the letter with his testimony in the French he has. 

"Je sais que Le Livre de Mormon est vrai, et Jesus-Christ est notre Sauveur et le sauveur de tout la terre. Je sais que Joseph Smith est un prophet, et Thomas Monson est un prophet viviant dujour. Au nom de Jesus-Christ Amen."   -Elder Rees Hardy