September 29, 2014

Putting pens into our noses

I had to change the subject of this e-mail because the old title looked like it had a bad word when I glanced at it quickly.

Anyway the subject is reference to how well me and Elder S get along, with each other and with our roomates. I`ll put a picture at the end.

This week has been fun. Starting to figure things out. Mom asked if there had been other missionaries recently, yes if 12 weeks ago is recently. The area was only closed for two transfers. However the areas are different so it wasn`t simple to separate who teaches who with the sisters. The ward is cool as well. It`s about 1 third hispanic and has some very strong members. The bishop is barely 2 months into his calling and has a lot of energy. The ward mission leader, Frere H, is amazing. The man is so devoted to missionary work. He went to a meeting with Elder Carleson of the Seventy in Montreal where Elder Carlson demonstrated how to do member missionary work by role-playing contacting someone of the metro to talk about family-history and inviting them to an FHC (p.s. this meeting was intended primarily for investigators and less-actives!!). Brother H was so inspired that the next day he did the same thing to the mechanic working on his car. The guy had already done his genealogy and Brother H didn`t know where to go after that, but later thought of some ideas and recorded them in his ``missionary experience journal.`` Needless to say he has a lot of enthusiasm. He and the bishop are both brand new and pumped to get the ward involved in hastening the work. Me and Elder S feel that we were put here now to be part of the equation that causes Terrebonne to take off. Ward council has already given us names and we are already working on contacting them. 

Life is grand here. I`m feeling better that I have my whole mission. People keep complimenting my french (I guess I didn`t lose it) and my confidence is at an all-time high (and I mean in my life). Terrebonne will be the ``Golden Era`` of my mission. I can just feel it.

I love you all! My testimony is strengthened every day as I feel the spirit! Elder H came back to work on the apartment again today and he told us his conversion story. It was awesome and his testimony flooded the room with the spirit (and this was in a missionary apartment). I know the Savior loves us. There is no good gift he does not want to give us. All we need is the faith to ask him!

-Elder Hardy

p.s. Jeff, there's tons of nice young YSA girls in Ottawa that need a husband.

I realized I don't have the picture of us with pens in our noses, so I'll just sent a picture of me and my companion being serious.

September 22, 2014

super late

So we are running super late so I'll have to keep this letter shorter.

We're way behind because when we arrived in Terrebonne we were told that the apartment was damaged and we were going to spend our next few p-days fixing it. Today a senior Elder came from Montreal to help us and we scrubbed all the wax and stains off the kitchen floor with comet and then re-waxed it. Then we spent a while trying to replace one of the doorframes and doors that were destroyed by an angry Tahitian Elder a few months ago. We got the door on but not the trim. We still need to replace the other door, finish the first one, and paint most of the apartment. Should be fun enough. Next week we'll be prepared and have the e-mails done before he arrives, or at least leave ourselves enough time afterwards.

Other than that things are going well. We're opening the area and so we still have no idea what we're doing. That will change with time however. Elder S and I get along well. He's funny and relaxed, though very obedient (which rocks). It's funny because every time he sits in anything remotely comfy for more than five minutes he starts to fall asleep. We've spent the last few days mostly sorting paperwork and making plans and goals so he's nodded off a few times (I say this to be funny. It isn't so bad that it's a problem).

Also we have to share a car with our roommates and Elder D just had a very painful surgery so there are two consequences: they can't bike while we can, and we thus can't reach half our area two-thirds of the time. Whatever, we'll make it work. If President thinks we can handle it, then we can handle it. Otherwise one of Sherbrooke's two cars would be ours! 

I'm doing well. A little stressed, but not as stressed as it sounds like Jordan is. I managed to dodge the training bug, I'm the only senior companion in the district who isn't starting or finishing training. Almost the only one in the zone as well. 

I now that the Lord directs this work! I know it because I have lived it, and I know that God always keeps his promises. Whatever sins beset us, whatever lies and mistakes we have made, the Atonement of Jesus Christ can heal us if we let him. I know this because it has, is, and will continue forever to work for me.

I love you all! I'm sure interesting things happened this week (I didn't have time to more than skim the letter sorry).

Elder Hardy

P.s. Thanks for transferring the money. I needed it :)

September 15, 2014

Wow Paige is Peter Pan!!!!! I knew she was a little rascal! Hopefully she doesn't have to kiss Wendy or anything (that's a joke). Also Lizzie's team sounds like a machine! Hope the other girls don't cry too much (or their parents get too angry). Also totally don't recognize 99% of the non-family names that are mentioned in your letters. Shows how long I've been gone from the old home ward/stake.

So the big news is that I'm being transferred to Terrebonne (you can look it up. Then you'll know more about it than I do lol). It's apparently a suburb of Montreal just east of the river. It's completely french (yes!) and we should have a car (double yes!). My companion will be Elder S (never met him) and I'm senior by a few transfers. Also we're opening a new area there (there's already sisters there). Should be fun! I dodged a bullet too: neither district leader nor training like half the mission (actually more than half the mission).

The sad part is that I have to leave. I love the people here (and they all just came back) and will miss them. We hadn't had a dinner appointment this entire transfer until now. Tomorrow we have two. That's YSA life I guess lol (YSA has hooked me on text-speak sorry). Also there is definitely no Wendy's in Terrebonne so I'm sad about that. Elder Y owes me money so he's going to buy me my last baconator today for dinner.

The only possibly good thing about me leaving is that I made a grave mistake with our investigator. We had been discussing her concerns about the trinity and "poly-theism" (TTTHHHPPPBBBTTT!!!) and I waxed a bit too bold in denouncing the doctrine and the creeds that created it. I think I offended her (she's a very devote Catholic) when I said that it was "the doctrine of man clumsily imposed on God's scripture by the apostate shell of what was once God's church." Hopefully my leaving will help repair an otherwise-good relationship with the missionaries and the Church.

I learned a valuable lesson from that experience about respect and the line between bold (been working on being more bold) and being aggressive. I can confidently promise that I will never do that again.

Got to go know. I forgot to write President last week, so I had better actually write to him this week.

Love you all! 

Elder Hardy #1

p.s. my messenger bag broke (the strap) so I might need a bag of some kind. I'm going to try tape, then check the mission office's thrift store. I'll let you know if I need help :)

September 8, 2014

WAKE ME UP,  WHEN SEPTEMBER STARTS!

Hello family and friends and various other readers!

This was the first week of September and this place is hoppin'! "Frosh week," which I guess means freshman week, was this week and there were crazy parties everywhere. We're in the Chinese apartment, which is right by campus and is in a building full of students, so there have been a few parties above us. We haven't seen the start of the school year in terms of more investigators yet for two reasons: lots of lessons due to us being 3 areas, and not having any idea where to go to talk to people. We can't go on campus because it's illegal and we don't want to burn any bridges (it's happened in this area before), and the spot we always went to is under construction. We'll figure it out though :)

Was a good week for lessons as well. Taught quite a few people and are seeing some progress. Focused on juggling all the balls we got tossed. On Wednesday Elder Y will get his new companion, Elder M from france, and Elder L and I will go back to a duo. It will be sad to separate, and to not visit the Chinese people anymore, but we'll still see them around. On the other hand I'm tired of basically camping in another apartment and I miss my awesome bed. This Saturday is transfer calls as well so I might not get to sleep in it much longer.

Not a ton of writing this week, I've been a bit out of it. On Monday I decided I wanted to start working out again so I did 80 reps on the bench-press and the next few days I could barely move my arms. By the time it wore off on Friday I had a bad cold. Not my healthiest week, though it hasn't hindered my teaching I haven't had a lot of energy overall. Taking the vitamine C you sent me and hoping to feel better soon.

I know that the Savior is real, He loves us and His Atonement can help us. When we were baptized we covenanted to never forget that EVER! It's hard to remember him always but that's what the spirit is for.

I love you all!

Elder Hardy

September 1, 2014

A picture-less letter about helping people move

Hello family, friends, bitter enemies, distant acquaintances, and Ronnie!

As usual I will start with the subject of the e-mail. For some reason like the entire city signs leases that all end between August 29th and September 1st. We've worked one move on Saturday, have already done one this morning, had to send other missionaries to handle another at the same time, and have one this afternoon. The good news is that all around us are students moving in for the new school year (starts tomorrow). Things should really start to pick up even more in the next few weeks.

I received a huge compliment from Jeanne, one of our newer investigators, who told me I should consider a career in teaching. I was flattered but I think it was just because I did all the talking in that particular lesson. 

Also before I forget for the like 7th week in a row (at one point I dreamed I'd told you but really I hadn't) I have become the unofficial piano player for the priesthood class because no one else can play at all. The result is me playing the right-hand of a hymn every Sunday. You were right Mom. I should have stuck with it. Now I'm desperately trying to get down "Choose the Right" with both hands. I just don't have the time or means to practice.

As for the picture-less part of this letter, I didn't bring my bag to the first move, so I don't have my camera. It will just have to wait for next week. Not that I took a ton of pictures.

Recently I read through and studied the book of Job for the first time. The majority of it was boring and nearly impossible to understand (thank goodness for chapter headings) but hidden within the pages and pages of circular exposition on the insignificance of man was some pretty incredible versus said by Job. What I gathered from the book was an incredible sense of Job's faith, honesty, and integrity. Job KNEW he hadn't done anything wrong. He knew he hadn't done anything to merit what happened to him, but it never once made him doubt the Lord's love for him. He was honest with himself and his "friends" in that he never lied and admitted to sinning just to appease them. He had a testimony of the Savior's plan for him, and his integrity towards this testimony never faltered. He said at one point "though he kill me, yet I shall trust him." He also said "I know that my redeemer liveth, and shall stand upon the earth at the latter day."

To be in his situation and to be able to say that is something to aspire to. Job knew of the Mercy and Gospel of Jesus Christ. He lived according to its teachings, and knew the promised blessings that accompany it, and nothing could tear him from it. He saw it as it really is: the pearl of great price. He was willing to watch everything else be taken from him, knowing that, because of his fidelity to the Gospel, "though the skin worms eat my body, yet in the flesh shall I see God."

I love all of you so much. I can't believe how fast time is flying! It's already September again! Enjoy this time with 3 missionaries. Me and the other two have a three-way e-mail thingy that we're doing. Super fun.

Elder Hardy