HI!
I got Sister Hardy's letter today.
Thanks for forwarding those. I love reading what she writes. Also sorry about
being late one day. Our p-day got moved to Tuesday for this week because we had
zone conference for 6 hours yesterday. YAY!
But seriously it was awesome.
President Patrick taught us about how the restoration connects to the Gospel of
Jesus Christ (you've all read PMG so I expect you know the 5 principles of the
gospel. Seriously every member in the church should study those 5 lessons
frequently. Understanding them is crucial). He showed how the major events of
the restoration correlated with the five principles of the Gospel. The first
vision restored the ability to have true faith in Jesus Christ by providing a
special witness of him. The appearance of the angel Moroni came when Joseph was
praying for forgiveness. John the Baptist restored the Aaronic Priesthood when
Joseph and Oliver were praying to know the proper method of baptism. Peter
James and John later appeared (we have no record of why Joseph and Oliver were
praying this time) and restored the Melchisedek Priesthood, which gave them the
authority to give the gift of the Holy Ghost. Finally, Elijah appeared to
Joseph Smith in the Kirkland temple while he and (was it Hyrum?) were praying,
and restored the authority to make further covenants with God, and perform the
sealing ordinance, the most important step in enduring to the end.
The point behind all this was to help
show us how we as missionaries are not here to baptize people, we are here to
help and invite people to live the gospel, since that is how one is saved. When
teaching and inviting, especially to baptism, making sure the investigator sees
it from this angle provides great power and clarity to the invitation. What's
more, a person CAN'T and SHOULDN'T get baptized until he has faith in Jesus
Christ (the real one, not the one who is also the father and the spirit and
also just an comprehensible blob filling the universe) repents and abandons his
sins, and is prepared to keep the covenant that baptism is. I really learned a
lot from that zone conference, and was greatly uplifted and edified.
In other news Naol has moved his
baptismal date to the 21st of June so he can attend the other baptism which
will be on the 14th (someone in the home ward). He's nervous about the
proceedings of the service and wants to see one first (we assured him he
doesn't have to talk in front of everyone if he doesn't want to). Other than
that things are going well. Yesterday I received a phone call from the Elders
in Sherbrooke informing me that Josee (don't know if I ever mentioned her. Me
and Elder Murphy found her on a bench after an investigator dropped us) is
getting baptized in July! That made my day!
Also Mom, I don't think I'm going to
end up buying a camera. Don't have time to go shopping. My p-days are really
tight. Go ahead and take back that money you put on my card. I'll just just get
by with the perfectly functional camera I have.
Love you all!
Elder Hardy
pic # 1: A picture me and Elder Castrejon took on the phone, texted to a member, he e-mailed it to me, and now I'm sending it to you. Guard it well for it is the best picture I've ever taken. We have no idea how it turned out so good:
Pic #2: a cool monument
pic # 3: Me and my beloved companion
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