February 23, 2015

Bob

So Sunday was super weird but in an awesome way. We had this guy from China who calls himself Bob just wander into our Sacrament meeting. He had just moved in to a condo right next to the church and decided to go check it out Sunday morning at exactly the time the meeting started. He was pumped because it was in English and not french (if he'd waited two more hours he would have been disappointed) though Mandarin is definitely his first language. He really enjoyed the meetings and the members with only a little prodding from us did a great job of making him feel welcomed. We set up an appointment with him for tomorrow night and invited the Chinese Elders so we can pass him off to them. Pretty cool.

Speaking of church C... hasn't missed a Sunday in like 5 weeks. She is doing awesome. She came to a baptism in another unit and came away talking about how excited she is for her own baptism. She stayed at the after-baptism party refreshments thing way longer than we even did. We had to leave right away because a member had Invited us to dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant to say goodbye to Elder Bareno (he goes home next week. We had a pretty good time (Even if I don't look it for some reason in these pictures): 

 Things are going well over here. The zone is doing awesome except the Chinese district who is still struggling. We pray a lot for them and we're doing an extra split with one of the teams this week. Tomorrow is Zone Conference and guess what? It's a lot of work. Actually it's kind of fun being involved in this stuff though it eats into our proselyting time. We have so many people to visit and it takes all our concentration just to keep them all on the wagon. It's really not a bad problem for missionaries though. I'm happy I'm having fun (in the right way) and I have no complaints. I wish I could take out the last 1.66 years and restart my 2 years right now. 

I'm glad Ronnie is doing so well with his blossoming acting career. I can't wait to hear him sing as that is something he developed while I've been gone. Paige is going to Prom!!!! That's nuts! I'm really impressed that the young man already is wearing a tuxedo in the picture. He seems like a nice young dude. Lizzie I'm so sorry you had to live through that. The poor little guy will be happy now in the spirit world. 

I love you so much! I'm amazed that I'm privileged enough to be part of this amazing family. Never stop being awesome and never stop serving the Lord. The Savior won't come until the world is ready so let's preach the Gospel and get her ready!

Elder Hardy

February 16, 2015

another day another Pineapple

This time the subject has absolutely nothing to do with anything. 

We had a super week this week! We saw some crazy miracles happen with less-actives and referrals. We taught 15 less-active and recent convert lessons (an unbelievable number) and received 6 referrals from them. It was crazy. One lady just started listing off apartment numbers in her building one after another after we asked her who she knew who might be interested. Each time she said: that's all of them. Then she would pause and then say another one. The spirit was really working with her.

Also the french sisters passed off to us a young father and his 9 year old daughter who are super cool. The dad grew up Catholic but never practiced. Now he's looking for a safe environment for his daughter and wants to rekindle the faith he had as a child.  We should see them tonight after we see C... (who's doing awesome by the way). 

Some crazy stuff with the car this morning means we're running behind so this letter will have to be short. But i'll send some extra pictures.

I love you all! I have such a testimony of the Spirit! His presence makes all the difference.

Elder Hardy

February 9, 2015

Just Stop It!

This week I would like to highlight the relationship between members and missionaries. The reason for this is that we had a rather difficult situation come up when we got a call from the assistants on Friday.  

Mom editing here to save the privacy of some of the missionaries and members involved...

The point of this story is that we need to trust our missionaries. If there is a huge problem threatening someone's salvation, do something, but if you just don't like their behavior talk to them. Don't go spreading rumors (everyone on the island of Montreal seems to have heard about the meeting already) and trying to get Elders in trouble! Now we have to keep a close eye on the Elders and make sure they don't get bitter or feel judged. Trust the Elders, and let the mission leaders deal with any possible problems!

There that's my angry rant for this week.

In other news last Monday night we met with C and she accepted a baptismal date for the 21st of March! We are super excited and she seems so as well.  She came to church again yesterday and we're hoping to be able to meet and teach her family through her. 

On Saturday we had a meeting with all the ward mission leaders in the Stake and gave them training. President taught them about the progress record and how it is all we need as far as ward council agendas are concerned and how that document should belong to the ward councils, not the missionaries. We gave a training as well about what key indicators are and why the wards should care about them. We also shared our mission's standard of excellence. It was really an uplifting and awesome meeting and at the end the Stake President spoke on how his vision is perfectly unified with President Patrick's vision, and established how he would follow up on the things taught and discussed. It was cool to see the priesthood keys perfectly aligned and opening a stream of inspiration that we are going to do our best to keep open at the ward level.

That's about it. I love you all! I know our Savior lives, and we are engaged in His work.

Elder Hardy

February 2, 2015

What a week!

This week has been crazy, especially the end of it. On Wednesday we did splits with the Kirkland Elders and I spent the day in Lasalle with an Elder who's been out 12 weeks. Dang I've been out over a year longer than him! Thursday we realized about dinner time that Elder B had kept the Kirkland phone by accident and they had been trying to contact us all day. They got lost coming to pick it up, and the whole evening was destroyed for both teams. On Friday we had 6 lessons scheduled, and only one happened. 

Saturday was the worst though. We had agreed to help a member move into our area at 12:30. He had already loaded the truck that morning with the help of some other Elders, and we arrived ready to just help him unload. The truck was packed to the brim with stuff, and the other Elders had to take off. That left only 4 people, counting my companion and I, to unload the truck. We drove off to pick up some other Elders and then we were able to get it done in about 2 hours. Then we discovered that he still had "a few little things" back at the old place. We went back over to the other side of the city (with a detour to pick up a washer and dryer that was a logistical disaster thanks to a stubborn door that wouldn't open all the way). We got back to his place and proceeded to completely refill the huge U-Haul with stuff (this guy's new apartment is tiny by the way) and get stuck in rush-hour traffic heading back (yup it took that long) going back to the new place. Then we had to go give the car to the Chinese Elders so they could get to a lesson. We finished at 7:30 and headed to the ward party that had started at 6. We missed the bus and had to wait a half an hour (it was -18 plus a strong wind all that day) in the cold for the bus to come again. When we got to the party all the food was eaten (we hadn't eaten yet) and the kids were playing the new Super Smash Brothers in the corner and I had to resist going over to watch the entire time. We had to wait for the Chinese Elders to come get us after their lesson and their lesson went for several hours. They ended the lesson at 9:40. They got lost coming back to the church and picked poor starving us up at 10:10. We then had to drive them home (a long drive) and then grab some McDonalds so as to not die during fast Sunday. We didn't even nightly plan and we still got to bed around 11:30 and had to get up early on Sunday for a stake meeting at 7:00. That was a rough 24 hours.

On the brighter side our investigator C came to church on Sunday! We're planning to give her a baptismal date later today. We're still super busy and super happy (except Saturday we weren't very happy).

I know that the Lord is in this work, for it is his work.

Love 

Elder Hardy

Pictures of our visit to the St. Joseph Cathedral in Montreal

With Elder G

Some old friends!

At a Dinner Appointment