December 15, 2014

Sister pass-offs and bone cancer

Yea so the title is a reference to the two things that took up most of our week this week. To start off Elder Pesqueira and I got lost on the island of Montreal after transfers, but eventually we found the highway. The problem was the raging blizzard going on and filling the street beneath our non-winter tires with slush and snow. When we got home Zone Leaders sent out the message that no one was to leave their apartment due to extreme weather conditions. That killed all the stuff we were going to do.

Now on to the subject of the e-mail. Last night we finally managed to visit the investigator with a baptismal date that the sisters had been teaching in our area. They had told us that they felt he needed Elders. First thing he said when we brought up his baptismal date was that he had never actually agreed to it...awkward. 

As for bone cancer I've been dealing with one of Joliette's investigators who really wants to be baptized, but his stage 4 bone cancer has called his physical capability to be immersed into question. He likely only has a few weeks to live anyway, so he'll likely just prepare a letter expressing his desire to have his work done after his death so that his family can't get in the way. I'm going to give him an interview some time in the next few weeks, but the ward has determined that he isn't able medically to do the ordinance (ironically this is exactly how sprinkling came to be as a form of baptism). I felt really mature though because I had to approach the ward's bishop (it's not my ward) and discuss the situation with him.

Also with transfers they expanded my district to 6 teams, none of them zone leaders and 4 of the teams are Elders. This gives me 5 nightly phone calls plus the zone leaders every week and 6 splits plus the zone leaders every 6 weeks. President called me himself and asked if the district was too big for me. I said no. I feel bad for Elder Pesqueira though. He had to do splits on his first day, and we just don't have a ton of open proselyting time these first two weeks or so due to the myriad things I need to take care of (there's a huge list but I'll spare you the details). My stress is really high, but honestly I'm having a lot of fun.

On Saturday we passed a family of formers and they were pumped to see us. They told us to come back the next day at any time. We tried a couple of times but they were never home (they're Haitien so that's not really abnormal. Culturally they just never keep schedules). The last time we tried as we were leaving we saw their neighbor throwing out his recycling. I had already felt very strongly on other pass byes that that house had investigators in it, so we talked to the guy. He was really cool wanted to receive us. We gave him a card and he told us to come by any time after Christmas break. Now we have two potential families on the street. I love it when that happens.

Elder Pesqueira is cool. He sings and plays the Ukulele so we plan to use that to our advantage. He is Mexican in origin (though born in Utah) and speaks Spanish, which is perfect. He's also started to teach me Spanish so I can one-up Dylan...I mean talk to the Hispanics who make up nearly half the ward.

To answer your other questions: Yes I got the Christmas package. Elder Pyron went through the gifts and read the scriptures before I did. He's a funny guy. We have a few less-active individuals we visit, but only one family. The reason most of the people here are less-active is because their families disintegrated. It's really sad actually. The youth are pretty strong, but really young. There is like 1 Laurel and 1 Priest, but plenty of 12-15 year olds of both genders. 

I just got your note about Ronnie! That's so exciting!! I always knew he was an ugly duck! Those younger kids are really showing us up! First Paige and now Ronnie! 

My fingers are tired, so I'll stop for now. I love you all so much! Just recently I finished the Book of Mormon for the third time on my mission (second in English). I once again took Moroni's challenge, and once again received an answer. The Book is True, and because it is, we will be together forever as a family.

Peace and Blessings! (as Sister Willis says)

Elder Hardy

December 8, 2014

A farewell to arms, and Elder Spencer

So to summarize, I am not being transferred, but Elder Spencer is leaving me. He is going to be district leader in Dows Lake!!!! I came from that ward to become his companion, and he's so awesome I sent him back to take care of all my friends! He's going to be awesome, even though I'll miss him a lot. He was definitely one of my top 7 companions so far (lol). In his stead I'll be receiving Elder Pesquiera. Don't know him really at all. I am good buddies with his trainer, but him I know not. I guess I am going to get to know him. I'm excited because he speaks Spanish. That is incredibly useful in this ward. 

Yes we'll be spending Christmas with a family that we know, or at least I do. I feel bad for missionaries being transferred this transfer, they only have like two weeks to get to know people. My district is getting a new team (giving me 6 calls on sunday nights and 7 splits to do a transfer) and they aren't going to know anyone at all. Luckily one of them is hispanic so they won't have THAT hard of a time.

As far as the camera cord goes, yes I could use another one unfortunately. I probably left the cord here in the FHC and it got absorbed into their piles of extra cords. 

I only served with Sister Norris for one transfer yes. It's so frightening to me that my sisters are going home!!! That's bad news when the sisters from your transfer go home! We had zone conference a few weeks ago and Sister Rios bore her testimony (she's from my transfer) and it really touched me. She has been a missionary longer than she's been a non-missionary member of the Church. The strength of her testimony and the advantage it gave her over other recent converts to have served a mission just increased my desire to accomplish my biggest dream on a mission: to help someone join the church who then goes on a mission. I haven't been blessed with an overwhelming number of baptisms on my mission (yet), but I crave that solid knowledge that I changed not just the lives of people I met, but the lives of those around them. I suppose that I shouldn't assume I haven't made a difference, but it is still a dream of mine.

I love you all so much!!!

Elder Hardy

Me and Elder Spencer at the ward Christmas party:    

The Dream Team

me being epic

Me Elder Spencer and Elder Dawagne a long time ago  

me being stealthy

The Terrebonne teams

December 1, 2014

A lost cord, a Haitian family, six month program, and Thanksgiving somewhere else

There I just summarized this last week. That's all I guess.............................................

Lol just kidding. We had an up-and-down week this week, but it ended well. On Tuesday I was sick and spent the day in bed, and Wednesday I was still sick but we went to zone Conference anyway. Zone Conference was powerful and uplifting. Pretty much the entire time President Patrick just taught us doctrine. He spent several hours teaching us about the visit of the angel Moroni to Joseph Smith. He delved quite deeply into the scriptures and prophecies and showed how many of them are being fulfilled as we speak. I was very uplifted and, despite the fatigue and headache I received revelation on several people we are working with. Then on Thursday we did splits, Friday we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to arrange for the social media blitz for Saturday, and Saturday was when the miracle with the Haitian family happened in complete despite of all appearances that our day had horribly failed. Sunday was lovely because we taught all day after church (and ate).

Now on to the subject of the e-mail: I can't find my camera cord, so I am not capable of posting the many wonderful pictures I am taking. Sorry. That takes care of the first one. Second, we started teaching a really cool Haitian family that Elder F (ZL) and I knocked into a while ago. We were able to visit the wife and four children (all pre-teenish age) and they are pretty excited about the Book of Mormon. The wife is going to talk to the husband and invite him to be there next time (he was at work). We are pretty excited to have been given this opportunity by the Lord. More like this responsibility. 

As for the six month program, I have begun to increase my exercising efforts in an attempt to be ready for that yet-distant moment of return. I'm certainly not thinking about that yet, but I figured that six months was more effective than six weeks.

As for for thanksgiving, I did a split with the Mascouch Elders on that day, so I got to spend Thanksgiving with some family I've never met. It was a huge Hispanic family and they invited plenty of (member unfortunately) friends. Not only were they a tad sad that both their Elders weren't there, but they talked in Spanish the entire time and we just sat there and ate (no mashed potatoes or stuffing, only rice and turkey and different rice). I planned the split, so it's my fault, but I missed the dinner with the family I know.

That's about all. Just lots of chugging along. A little nervous about being transferred next week, but trying not to think about it. I love you all lots! Your Thanksgiving sounded super awesome! Tackle football, why not a nice little game of checkers? (lol). 

I love you all! I know that the Lord is at the head of his church. He is not behind the scenes, lurking in the shadows. He is at the forefront, making bare his arm in every aspect of our lives. 

I don't remember the reference right now but I love the scripture where Christ says:

"Wherever two or three of you are gathered in my name, there will I be also."

Elder Hardy

November 24, 2014

Warning, this letter is a TOTAL missionary letter.

Mom I think you are starting to absorb my sense of humour. That was hilarious (yes I think I'm hilarious). To assuage your concerns, we got about 3 inches of snow, and now it's like 10 degrees Celsius and raining so all the snow vanished pretty fast. A few days ago there was freezing rain and that was fun to drive in. No close calls yet though.

As for Christmas, not sure. My clothes should suffice until I get back at this point. pictures for sure, I love receiving pictures. I'm going to have a huge collection for my wife when she starts scrap booking (lol). Not really in need of anything else. Just love and maybe some cookies. Actually a cheap side bag would be nice. The backpack is really hard to get on and off while wearing a winter coat.

This week was a good week overall for us and for the district as a whole. We're doing a great job raising our vision, and each week has gotten better since we started. For us we are doing a good job managing to get lessons, especially with members, but our investigators are kind of weak. We're doing our best to bring the spirit, but a number of them just let us back because they like us or because we are really persistent. we're still trying to find the ones who are prepared.

Yesterday we were doing just that, passing by formers and parking a ways away so we could walk a bit and talk to people and knock. Our appointments had cancelled and we were on plan B. None of the formers were home, and no one we had talked to was interested. After one pass by we got back in the car and decided to find a gas-station so we could both use the restroom. I wandered around for a while, not sure why I didn't use the GPS. We got lost in the maze that is Saint-Francois and ended up on some random street We'd never been on before. We stopped to figure out where we were, and I got the distinct impression "I'm on this street for a reason." I knew there was somebody here, but not which house. I pulled the car up the street, staring at the houses. Suddenly I stopped and said to Elder S..: "We're going to knock this house." We got out and knocked on the door, and waited, and waited, and waited. Finally the window by the front door opened and a middle-aged woman poked here head out to see who it was. We contacted her and she was really cool. She gave us print-outs of her favourite picture of Christ and we gave here a Book of Mormon in exchange. She was thrilled to receive it (she was ready to buy it) and we left her with a card. We didn't push for a return appointment or anything. We then got back in the car. We both felt that we had finished what we needed to do in Saint-Francois and left to go eat dinner. It was really a testimony builder to me. Earlier, in my frustration at our lack of success, I had prayed silently and asked God to guide us to those who are ready. He answered that prayer. I'm going to do that again!

I love you all so much! Can't wait to see your faces on Christmas!

Love, Elder Hardy

p.s. forgot the cord today. Sorry no pictures :(

November 17, 2014

A good week, though not as good as Joliette's

The subject of the e-mail is a joke referencing how the whole district is geeking out right now because Joliette was blessed with 8 new investigators (that is over 8 times the mission average for one team in one week). We had a good week ourselves though.

President Patrick has begun a new idea in the mission called "raise your vision." The idea has been to raise our vision (of course) of what we can accomplish here in Quebec. President is just tired of (and I'm guilty of this) missionaries using Quebec as an excuse for stagnant numbers and low baptisms. He's pushing us to push ourselves. The way he wants to accomplish this is through a better use of goals. If we raise our vision of what we CAN achieve, we will set goals accordingly. Then we need to go out and work to achieve those goals. If we do so we WILL achieve what we audaciously dreamed to be possible in Quebec. I'm really excited about this idea. It is so clear to me and I can feel that this is the time to turn on the jets! We've spent the last year and a half re-centering our vision on why and how we do missionary work, now it's time to raise it. With permission, I've set district goals for the remainder of the transfer (they're quite audacious) and been focusing calls and trainings on working hard to achieve worthy goals. The result has been a genuine improvement in just one week, and the prospect of steady improvement as our vision keeps rising.

Also on Friday we invited G.. to be baptized. The effect was magical. He didn't say yes, he said I need to know first. Now he is actually investigating and not just having us over to chat. The lesson was really powerful. The spirit really has opened his heart and prepared him to really start on the path to conversion and eternal life.

I have a message for little Zach Hardy: I love Pokemon too!!!!! But not as much as I love you!!!!

The play looks like it went super well! Don't worry Paige, I'm certain you'll have plenty more moments to shine in the next few years at least.

Also I almost forgot: the stake is doing a one day "media split" on November 29th. We'll be bringing along different tech-savvy members with us all day and they will document our daily activities and posting them on Facebook and other social media. The idea is to flood the internet with posts relating to missionary life. You can follow this event by using the hash-tags #missionnairesmtl and #terrebonneelders (ask a young person what those are). You will see my beautiful face!

Also Christmas is coming! Brace yourselves! I am pumped to get to call you guys and see your faces!

Lots of Love!

Elder Hardy

The window this morning (dang, I look as tired as I feel):

Me and Elder Spencer in our car:

Me and a river still during splits with Elder Noel:

November 10, 2014

Paige is adorable

Wow those pictures of Paige are just adorable! I'm sure she did amazing!! Lizzie looks so cute too in her little wings.

Well Lizzie is my last hope to have another sensible musician in the family. Oh well, I tried (jokes). In reality my singing ability has greatly improved on my mission because it's the only instrument I really have out here. Maybe I'll go out for choir and band when I get back to BYU. Good thing that's a million years away...

Speaking of singing this weekend was Stake Conference and our ward did the music for the Saturday session. We did a super awesome, but way too hard for the choir in question, rendition of "Au Grande Prophete" (Praise to the Man). The tenors were great, but we were too loud because we were the only section that knew the part. The song ended on an F above middle C for the tenors so I decided to blow the top off of the Stake Center. Luckily I was the only one who could really hit the note, so it sounded good I think. 

To respond to your question about service, we are looking for community service opportunities, but mostly just keeping our eyes peeled for unplanned opportunities. A good example of how it works was last Wednesday we were doing pass-byes in the afternoon in Saint-Francois. This normally isn't a good use of time, but we felt that it was the right thing to do. No one was home at any pass-byes and no one on the street had been interested, then we pulled up on a certain street to pass-bye a former. The former had been dropped due to a complete lack of progression, and normally we wouldn't have passed by him without calling in his case, but for some reason we had gone to his street. We sat in the car for a bit without saying anything when we got to the street. After a few minutes Elder S asked why we were still sitting there. We had no idea. We got out of the car and saw a man raking his leaves who hadn't been there when we pulled up. We grabbed our bags and literally ran to ask if he needed help. He accepted and randomly had an extra rake. I grabbed the rake and started raking with him while Elder S started bagging the leaves. It took about 25 minutes to finish and the whole time we talked about his life, his family, his home in Haiti (all in French I'll have you know). At the end we asked if he'd be interested in hearing our message and he accepted gladly. We haven't managed to teach him quite yet, but soon my friends, soon. It was such a huge testimony to me of the power of service. I could have walked up to him and just contacted him and left. I would have fulfilled my purpose technically, but we're here to serve man (lol) and the spirit had led us to this man not to be like "Hey, Hey you! Join our church!"  He sent us literally in response to his prayers for help, and used our service to open his heart to learn about the restored gospel.

That was a long story. I can't help but tell it as excitingly as I can.

As for being in charge, it's going good. I'm trying to figure out how to be nice to the Sisters without being TOO nice and friendly like their last district leader. As for phone calls, they still make my stomach drop, but It has been a long time since that feeling stopped being enough of an obstacle to keep me from doing them. 

I know that the gospel we live is the true gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that he will come again to the earth, and the joy we will feel at his coming will surpass all the emotions we can experience in our mortal lives. I love you all so much! Never forget who we are. We are God's converted disciples. We are all he has with regards to ground troops. Its up to us to go get the dirty work done so the spirit can testify and convert.

Love!

Elder Hardy 

November 3, 2014

Time has wings. Good thing I have a 12 gauge.

Time goes so fast! Now even the weeks feel really short! I feel like I was just here writing to you this morning! Part of the acceleration problem is that we got a car and now we aren't ever trapped outside our area with nothing to do. We've really cranked up how hard we are working, and we're seeing the blessings. Me and Elder Spencer decided we were tired of just waiting passively and hoping we get lessons. This week we went out and looked for them. Then all our scheduled appointments fell through so the end result was still only a few lessons, but at least we tried! This week the new less-actives and investigators we picked up should combine with our normal crowd and then continue to augment! Things are getting a little more exciting here in Terrebonne!

District Leader is an interesting challenge. My mind has two levels of focus to maintain now: my area, and the district as a whole. I've been praying and have already felt the Lord strengthen me in this assignment. I can testify to the reality of revelation, because I've received it about where the district's focus should be. Also, so many phone calls!

Wow Mom that's sad to hear the response that came to the thought of even stepping foot in the chapel. Satan is powerful isn't he. He doesn't just create apathy towards the truth, he convinces people to fear it. Funny thing is if the roles were reversed they'd likely get all offended that you wouldn't go in to their chapel. Good thing that doesn't bother us because we understand that Christ's Atonement makes all fear illogical (except the fear of God of course).

I have such a testimony of the truthfulness of the restoration. You all know I spend a lot of time thinking, and every line of thought I start on the subject of religion leads back to the restoration being the only logical thing that God would do. I think that having the gift of the Holy Ghost counts as being biased towards the truth though. Logic aside though, even if some korihor-like philosophy professor was to come along and tear my reasoning to shreds (unlikely) he could never take from me the spiritual witnesses I have of the  truth. Christ lives, and he will come again. I know it. He is the Savior of my soul, and the redeemer of any who are humble enough to accept that he chose a 14-year-old boy to receive his truth and not them.

I love you all so much!

Elder Hardy

Me and Elder Spencer waiting for our ride to go do service    

Me and Elder Dawagne saying goodbye at transfers    

Elder Anderson and I on my first split as a district leader    

October 27, 2014

I'm in charge now!!!

If anything has come close to shaking my faith on my mission (a joke) it is the fact that the Lord would trust me with a district. Yet he did. With the departure of Elder Dawagne to be a zone leader in Quebec city the "matrix of leadership and lots of phone calls" fell to me. I feel like now I am finally ready to contribute to this mission in a leadership role. We'll see how it goes.

This week was slow. Lots of conflicts with the car kept us from doing as much as we wanted to. That guy that I knocked on his back door wasn't home when we came for the appointment even though I had called and confirmed the night before. Poor guy doesn't realize what he's running from.

Elder Spencer is getting lots of love from the ward due to his piano abilities (we've been using a recording in sacrament meeting), so we'll actually have a chance to visit some members this week (and get fed). It's hard to visit members because they all just claim to be too busy. Then when they do decide they have time they insist on it being a dinner and all want us on Wednesdays. I'm complaining a little but really the members are great here. They're really a no-complaining get-stuff-done kind of group. It will be fun when we really get them moving on missionary work.

In the mean time while the Ward-Mission-Machine warms up me and Elder Spencer have been praying and feel we need to incorporate more personal finding into our schedule in order to keep the work rolling. Plus a few new faces at church could really help get people excited.

This new plan is being aided by the fact that we'll be receiving our own car tomorrow. It's all thanks to Elder Castrejon (was our zone leader until this new transfer). He pulled in some favors and used some of his massive influence with the A.Ps (I think one was his MTC companion, or they just like him) to show the mission office how much we need one. Thank you former companion!

Anyway that's about all for this week. Most of our appointments fell through so we spent much of our time trying to figure out how to get more. Next week should be more exciting I hope. 

I love you all!

Elder Hardy

 

Me blowing leaves

Elder Dawagne making a simple selfie more interesting.    

Me and Elder Dawagne on our last split together: