December 16, 2013

I'm not really dreaming of a white Christmas anymore. I just look outside. It has been very very cold, and very very snowy. The snow here is beautiful because it is so cold that it doesn't melt at all. On Friday it was -30 degrees Celsius plus wind chill. That is so cold that we can't go tracting. It is dangerous to be outside for too long. We still do work, but with members and less actives. Contacting won't likely pick up again until April when it starts to melt. 

Carol is getting baptized on Friday!! YAY!! Other than that not too much is knew. Thanks so much for the costco membership. I will definitely appreciate that. In fact we will be going to shop there again today. It is the best thing ever.

Now for snowy pictures!!

Me before the snow on Saturday:                          Me after the snow on Saturday:

Inside our apartment window.

Ahh Quebec. That sais "It is very hot"

I thought Ronnie might find that machine cool. It was for pouring cement from far away

The end for now. Have a good week. Oh and next monday we will have picked a time for the skyping.

December 9, 2013

Hey all you people out there!!

Welcome to round two of snowing and very very cold! This thursday is supposed to have a high of -11. The snow is falling at a crazy pace. The air is so humid that it sticks to everything. I got boots from the mission office, but I need to buy  a sweater or two today at...

COSTCO!!!! Elder Wilbur asked his mom for a membership and got it!! YAY!! Costco is the best place ever! We are going for the first time today! We are going to buy more food for like no money!! Yay!

On a sadder note, Jimmy will not be getting baptized any time soon. We found out last week that he isn't even close to off cigarettes. He can't even get to one a day. He had a great talk with the Bishop this Wednsday, and is still determined to go through with it. It will take a lot of time though. Carol is doing incredible though. She hasn't smoked for two weeks now and her date is the 20th of December. She looks like she is going to make it. She has had the program planned out for a year now, and finally will get to use it. She is such an example of strength and determination. Her whole family is so against it all that she hasn't told her kids that she is getting baptized. She really is a miracle.

Yes we get to skype for Christmas. There are several members who have offered their facilities, so that will not be a problem. I CAN"T BELIEVE JORDAN IS WORKING ON HER PAPERS!! She is going to get home close to the same time as me since...

THIS TRANSFER MARKS MY 1/4 MARK!! GAHHHHH!!!! WHERE IS IT ALL GOING!?!?! I have been gone for six months already? I can't believe it. I will be coming back in may  of 2015 so actually it is a little more than a quarter way but there are 16 transfers out in the field and this is my fourth. I almost feel cheated by how fast it is.

As for Christmas in Quebec, for most people it is nothing but an excuse to get drunk. It really isn't that big here. I am shocked by it. Most people here are anti-religion. If anything people get more angry the closer we get to Christmas. This is okay since Elder Wilbur and I are really trying to not have to knock. We do if we have to, but we are always looking for something more effective to do, like pass-byes and less active work. We know that the Johova's Witnesses will be knocking on Christmas, but we are not allowed to on the 25th. those TJ (french abbreviation) are a big hinderence in contacting since everyone thinks we are them. As for Christmas I love chocolate and cookies. Also I could really use a sweater (not a Christmas sweater) so I don't freeze to death. Other than that seeing you guys is all I will need. It is incredible the stuff people leave behind. Don't try to send me a bunch of non-food items. I will have to be brutal with suitcase space and it will be left in appartments. Elder Murphy's mom sent him a really nice excercise tube (the stretchy things) set and he had to just leave it behind. It is really fancy. The other thing is a Costco membership would be cool, but not every area has one so i don't know if it will be worth it.

Anyway that is all for this week. thanks everyone. I love you guys! 

December 2, 2013

 Hello all!!

My new companion is Elder Wilbur. He is from the same place as Elder Murphy (Anahiem, but Elder Murphy is from Irving which is very close) and came in on the same transfer. He is a lot more chill that Elder Murphy and is really the perfect second companion. He still works hard and follows the rules, but he knows how to relax when it is time to relax. So far we are getting along swimmingly. 

As for the work in Sherbrooke, we found out yesterday that Jimmy thought that quitting smoking meant reducing his smoking, so he is going to take a little longer to get baptized. Carol on the other hand has actually quit smoking and is looking very good for the 20th of December (her birthday. She missed it last year and insisted on waiting a year to get baptized.) Her conversion is very impressive, and she showed us for the first time the books she has been writing. She has written thousands of pages on various gospel topics, including a book with one chapter for each gospel principles lesson. That woman studies hard. Me and Elder Wilbur have only knocked one door so far, but we got a new investigator from it. That is what I call an effective use of time.

One effect of losing Elder Murphy is that my confidence is growing. Not only can I know begin to apply what he taught me, but Elder Wilbur doesn't know the area yet, so I have been leading out everything so far. In the next couple days that will change, but it has been a big boost to be leading lessons, and realizing that I can do it.  The thought of being the senior companion is not quite as frightening as it was before.

I have seen miracles here in Sherbrooke, and I have seen my testimony grow so much in these past four months or so that I can hardly believe it. I know that the gospel is true. I have a testimony of Bishops. I have had the privelege of being there when Bishop Desjourdy (who looks like a cross between Dad and Brother Braun) recieves revelation for the ward. He truly holds the keys to advance the work. I am proud that my own father is worthy to hold this responsability. 

Questions:

1.  What is your new companion's name?  Where is he from?  Has he served in Sherbrooke before?

            Elder Wilbur, California, no

2.  Did anyone cook you American boys a Thanksgiving Dinner?

            Yes, brother Skene from Anahiem cooked us an American thanksgiving.

3.  Have you had a chance to sing or play the piano yet on your mission?

            The last Sunday before Elder Murphy and Ruby left we sang silent night in French

4.  Tell us about something that you learned this week in your personal study...

            Haven't had much personel study time this last week. We had too many morning appointments.

5.  Does your car have good tires?

            Yes. We had to buy them and it was a mess that took two hours.

6.  Does your new companion like to cook?

            Not really. We do about 50/50 of the cooking. Mostly rice and sausage still

7.  How is the language coming?  Are you dreaming in French?

            Fluency eludes me yet, but I can talk to people without too much struggle. Also I have started to use certain phrases that are shorter in French without thinking. Only one dream though, about Elder Murphy making a grammer error in front of a bunch of people.

8.  Have you had a neat teaching experience this week that you want to tell us about?

            We had a lesson with Carol where she basically told us about how nervous she is, and I was able to use the scriptures to help respond to her fears.

9.  Are you remembering how much your family loves you and how proud we are of you?

            Yea. I try not to dwell on you guys too much, because it gets painful if it goes on too long.

10.  Is there anything you need that we can do for you?

            I need you guys to pray for Jimmy and Carol. Carol is doing better than Jimmy, but they both need our prayers.

p.s: Dad the quote is "Forget yourself and go to Work"

Now a picture or two: Me and Elder Wilbur

Me on splits with Elder Ellis, the new Zone Leader.

November 25, 2014

Hello All!!!

So I am staying in Sherbrooke for at least one more transfer, but Elder Murphy is headed off to Rimousky. I'll let you guys look up where that is and compare it to Sherbrooke and Montreal. He is pretty bummed because we have built such strong friendships here in the ward. We spent yesterday visiting members and saying bye, and we have 3 dinner appointments today as well. My new companion will be Elder Wilbur, who is also from southern California (he knew Elder Murphy before the mission). The problem is that Elder Wilbur has been blacklisted, meaning he can't drive. This means I am the driver starting Tuesday when he gets here. Yeah

It's sad because this transfer has at least two baptisms planned, with another one that could easily happen. I am very thrilled to be staying, but I wish that Elder Murphy could stay too, but It just isn't in the Lord's plan I guess.

That is just about all the news I have this week. I'm going to send pictures now.

I love you guys!! 

ps, Elder Murphy lives not far from that Ruby's and went there all the time.

Me, Elder Murphy, Scott James (the less active) and John

Here is me and Muhammed, the super awesome ex-muslim from Iran who is searching for the truth while studying for his PhD in computer science. He is cool.

November 18, 2013

Salut tout le monde!!

No news yet on transfers. That will be this saturday, then the transfer itself will be next Tuesday. I am pretty sure that I will at least be changing companions, and probably areas. I am looking foreward to some change of scenery and faces, but I will miss all the people here so much. The Yan Bergeron family (the Bergeron's are a local clan, the patriarch and most of the family came active again about a year ago, but Yan never went inactive. He served his mission in New Jersy but managed to not learn english) that invites us over to dinner every week (Sister Bergeron knows i don't like salad dressing, so she gives me a dry portion before putting in the dressing). I will miss Jimmy and Carol, and Gabrielle and Jeremy, and Aubert the French speaking convert version of Tanner. He is going on his mission soon and could very well be in the MTC around the same time as Tanner (by soon I mean in the late spring or Summer). 

This week we worked, and taught, and found, and talked with people. I am still having a hard time with the difficulty of the work, but my companion is a great help still, and The Lord is an even bigger help. I am still on an emotional roller coaster, with a lot of very high highs, and very low lows. I am really trying to open myself up to others, but so far it has left me very up and down. I have faith that this is just because I have gone so long with all my emotions and thoughts pent up, and it will take some time to adjust. My only options are to change or fail, and I have already decided that failure is not an option. Often when I am feeling the most down it is this knowledge that I have already decided to succeed that helps me pick myself up again. 

Enough about me. You asked a few questions! We get mail every time we meet as a zone. We have a zone meeting on Thursday in Longueil so I will get my package then. For Christmas I was thinking that I could really use some more developed pictures of you guys. All I have is one family photo, and that really isn't enough. I also want Jordan's mission call. That would be the best present ever. And maybe some brownies or something. And the new Pokemon game. That was a joke. I'm kidding guys, stop freaking out and stuff. Can't I be funny on my mission? 

That is just about it. I think I will send some pictuers now.

Elder Hardy

Mornings are pretty intense here in Quebec.

Me in partial winter apparel. I still need a sweater, a scarf, boots, and gloves.

November 11, 2013

WHAATT!!! NO PICTURES!?!? BUT I TOOK PICTURES FOR YOU GUYS!! 

Just kidding, about the being angry part. I'm so glad that Paige was able to have that experience. When we can sense the absence of the spirit we know that we had the spirit with us to begin with. Of course we know that obiedience can't not bring the spirit, but a little reminder of how great it is with the spirit is healthy now and then, as long as we aren't searching for them.

I have experienced the same thing out here several times. This Thursday we knocked into this chubby white guy who let us in, led us to his dining room, which was covered in fake plants and aquariums. He told us how the room is his "working area" where he talks directly with god. He told us we didn't accept Budhissm because we were 'young spirits' who had just started the reincarnation process. He is apparently an old spirit, and will only need one or two more lives to achieve perfection. The spirit was not in that room at all, and no amount of testifying could get it to enter that room. It wasn't evil, just so off from the nature of God that we just left as fast as we could. The man refused to listen to us anyway, he just wanted to talk.

We decided to delay Jimmy's baptism. He just needs more time to prepare and work on quitting cigarettes. He took it very well actually. We could tell the Spirit had been telling him that he wasn't ready. It will be at least three or four weeks more, which is after transfers but it can't be helped.

I have had a very hard week. On Tuesday I was on splits with another Elder, and some guy got extremely angry when we refused to leave an appartment building. He wasn't the propréteur, more of a vigilanty enforcer of his own rules. He pretended to call the police on us first, then when we clearly weren't scared of that (I've talked to the police here before. We are allowed to knock as long as we don't force our way into the appartments and someone buzzes us in) he resorted to physical force. We almost called the police ourselves. He pushed Elder Freeze into the wall pretty hard. We mostly just laughed at him though. What a night that was.

Not too much other news. Dropped some investigators, found some new ones. The work goes on. Elder Murphy's brother in the Dominican Republic told him he has around 25 to 30 lessons a week. We have around 10-15. Whatever, the cultural way to cook things here is to deep-fry them so... we win!

I have some pictures of me and Jimmy, so here they are:

Here is all three of us. I just noticed that he has the same clock as Grandma!

Me in the building that we were soon to be forcefully ejected from. That is it for this week! love you guys!

November 4, 2013

Hello everyone.

I had a rough beginning to the week, what with finding out that my BYU roommate is home from his mission, and I was really down for a couple of days. But my companion talked to me about it a lot and helped me realize that I was phsycing myself out and that I just needed to focus on the positive. I have been doing that and I had a great rest of the week. Jimmy's baptism is scheduled for the 16th of November, and we are visiting him almost every day to help him prepair. Yesterday we realized he didn't understand Joseph Smith's story or why we read the Book of Mormon. He has been reading, but not praying about it. We talked about it, and had him pray at the end and ask if the Book is true. The spirit entered the room so powerfully. He told us after the prayer that he felt something tingling in his chest and we told him it was the Spirit. We committed him to do that every night from now until the baptism.

Also yesterday we had about nine investigators at church between the three teams, plus one miracle less active whose husband won't let her go but she snuck out. It was a crazy Sunday.

As for other stuff, sharing the car is fun. -2 degrees celcius is a lot colder here than in Spokane. I purchased a hat and coat, but not yet boots and gloves. That isn't necessary untill it really gets cold, so I'm still looking around. The good news is that I found a great coat for only $100, half the price of the other coats. It is too cold for biking however, which is good.

I likely only have two more Mondays here in Sherbrooke after today. It is insane how fast these three transfers have gone! I have gotten to the point that I can communicate okay in french, an have really seen improvements in my ability to teach and contact. Elder Murphy has been the best trainer I could have hoped for. He's a spiritual giant with a 100% focus on missionary work. He is teaching me how to work hard, and how to care about the work more than any stupid distractions. I actually got mad and almost lost my temper at another Elder at zone training meeting when he started showing me the pictures of The Doctor (from Doctor Who, a show I started watching in college) that he keeps in his scriptures. If he wants to occupy his mind with stuff like that on his mission fine, but I don't want to think about it, so don't put it in front of my face. I definitely have seen a change in my attitude thanks to Elder Murphy's help, and of course the Lord's as well.

That is about all for this week. I know that the church is true. Anything else doesn't make sense.

Elder Hardy

Picture time!!! Coat and hat:

The crazy grain breakfast stuff that is so healthy it apparently can help fight addictions.  Our investigator also gave us a box. It is hard because he keeps buying us stuff, even when we try to tell him not to.