January 26, 2015

Much ado

Hello all! Things are pretty good here in Lasalle! Me and Elder Bareno have been so busy we just run around all day like chickens with our heads cut off. We have to take care of a lot of missionaries and be the go between for them and President Patrick. The trick is that the A.P's are always with President receiving instruction from him. The district leaders are constantly with their teams assessing needs and giving instruction. We're just stuck in between the two making sure everything gets communicated clearly. It's actually kind of fun.

Lasalle is a really awesome ward. I spent my first Sunday there on splits with members because Elder Bareno had to go to a funeral on west island. A lot of members were at the funeral as well (which took 4 hours) so I didn't meet all that many members, but the ones I met were cool. Lasalle is a very populous place, but it's also only mediocre as far as the public transport goes. We share a car with one of the Mandarin teams, but we have it most of the time. I have taken the metros a few times already though. It's a completely different experience in Montreal. We were averaging about 6 lessons a week in Terrebonne. This week we taught 20. That's actually really incredible even for the island though. Practically every team in the zone has someone with a baptismal date, and those who don't (like us) have people that are really close. I'm so excited to have the opportunity to serve here! The Lord has truly blessed me in this my last (probably) area. 

Also I've been thinking about if I should extend my mission an additional 6 weeks. I'm right up against the deadline (I got my trunky-call on Thursday) for extending and need to decide within the next few weeks. I've been praying and feel like I shouldn't extend, but I want to know how you guys feel about it. I want to do what's right, but I don't want to extend just to put off coming home and getting a job and stuff.

I know that this is the Lord's work! My testimony of the truth grows daily! With man this work is impossible, but with God, nothing is impossible.

I love you so much!!

Elder Hardy

Elder Pesqueira and I on our last day

Me and part of the

 old district

My new companion

Elder Bareno

January 19, 2015

I guess I did something wrong

So I guess I did something wrong in Terrebonne, because President Patrick is making me a Zone Leader. I'm super sad to leave Terrebonne. I'll miss the people here and the memories I made. I'm going to Lasalle, which is one of the English wards on the Island of Montreal. My companion will be Elder Bareno, who's on his last transfer. I feel like we'll have fun together. I'm not at all upset about going to Lasalle, but goodbyes are always difficult. Zone leader is just like "meh." At the beginning of my mission I was all pumped and excited at the prospect of serving in leadership positions, but now I understand that they really aren't glorious, they're just additional opportunities to serve. I feel better because it's not as bad as Elder Brown. He was in my district these last few transfers. He was trained, he trained a new Elder, and now he's the new Assistant to the President. 

I did receive the two packages. The new razor is much appreciated thank you! Also the new bag is really nice. As for visiting the mission after I'm all for it! I haven't served in any really far away areas so it would be sick to pass through and see my areas! 

As for the missionary plaque thing, my favorite scripture right now is Nehemiah 9:17, though mainly just the last part of the verse. If that one is too weird then I really like 2Nephi 2:6.

I want to thank you all for the prayers and the fast in my behalf. This last week has been amazing for me. I could genuinely feel that there were people praying for me and wanting me to succeed. I started to improve the same day I sent that e-mail. Elder Pesqueira was an awesome support during the little crisis moment I had, and now I'm doing much much better.

I started this e-mail at 11:30 then had interviews in Montreal with President and now I'm back. Within that space of time I had my ecclesiastical endorsement interview. It's funny because President had already approved my endorsement before the interview. I'm in the clear for a bit now.

Wow it was Dad's birthday on Wednesday! I had seen it on my awesome calender, but forgot to write about it last week. I remember during the white water rafting after the 50 mile hike high adventure we went on when I fell in during the roughest section of rapids and got caught in a maelstrom. I went around and around and finally went under. I came back up and swam to the boat and Dad pulled me back in. He was laughing his head off. I didn't appreciate that at the time, but now it's hilarious. I love you Dad! You're such an amazing example of faith and obedience! I appreciate the 20 years of Christlike service and sacrifice you've made and continue to make. I love you so much!

Love, Elder Hardy

p.s. Pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Soccer on Saturday

Elder Pesqueria

January 12, 2015

Gray colored sky

Besides being a joke about how confused I was when mom started referring to me as Tanner, the subject of the e-mail is a pretty accurate description of Quebec right now. When it's not snowing hard it's either snowing lightly or threatening to snow. That's life though.

On Saturday our investigator E... called us because his landlord was kicking him out because he was a month late on rent. We talked to the Bishop and determined the best thing for him to do was to call the police (it's illegal to kick people out of their residence during winter in Quebec) but he refused to do so because he doesn't trust the police and he feels it isn't right to make his landlord keep him there. He doesn't have his own phone and was leaving in a short period of time so we didn't know what else we could do. Then we found out he hadn't eaten in a week (because he has no money because he can't work) so we ran and bought some really basic groceries and brought them to him along with any extra winter gear we had in the apartment. I ended up giving him my gloves as well. He has our number and will find a way to call us when he either has a place to stay or needs more food (or both). The Bishop gave us a talking to yesterday though because he doesn't want us providing the food in that circumstance. Next time it'll have to be members I guess.

We have a meeting in Montreal on Wednesday so I should get the packages then. Can't wait to be able to send you all pictures again!

Remember that I love you all very much!

Elder Hardy

January 5, 2015

Suddenly we were alone...

So I was driving back down from a split in Joliette on Saturday when we get a text from our dear roomates the Mascouch Elders informing us that they were being flushed and their area was closing in an emergency transfer. They leave tomorrow morning. We're all in shock. They're area has been dead this whole transfer due to the fact that a new team came in and took over the area with all their investigators, so it wasn't a surprise that it closed, but we thought it would at least last until the next transfer in two weeks. This will be my first experience in a two-man apartment. We'll see if I go insane. Probably not, Elder P. It's really sad for Elder N though. He's just reaching his 12 transfer mark and he has had 6 areas and no baptisms. He's a super awesome Elder who works incredibly hard and is exactly obedient. I wish him all the best in his new area.

In other news we found two new investigators this week. The Laval Elders had contacted a guy a while ago on the street; he lives in the sister's area but in a sketchy place so they sent us. It took us a long time to fix an appointment (it actually was Elder Noel who contacted the guy. Laval was his last area). We went over there and his friend was there. We taught the Restoration and it went really well. Both felt the spirit really strongly. The friend, M, was super impressed with what we missionaries do, and was pumped to read the Book of Mormon. E, the original contact, is a classic Haitian bible-toting Christian and at first we were unsure about his openness, but he was touched by the account of the first vision and is determined to "find out himself if this is true." I think he thought that we didn't want that, but we assured him that that was our whole goal. We have an appointment to go back on Wednesday, and we are super excited for them.

Sounds like T-man's having a wild time there in Bulgaria! It was cool how he said the people are very open over there. I imagined any mission in Europe being super slow and difficult, but it sounds like Bulgaria is a bit more humble than Western Europe. I hope he kills it out there (mission slang for find, teach, and baptise).

I really liked your story mom. I liked the words you used in your prayer. It was an example to me of keeping your priorities straight. You understood that if the Lord wanted to take away your wallet, it wasn't the end of the world. There are much more important things you wanted the Lord to bless you with. That being said you still asked him to show you a tender mercy and show you where the wallet is. I feel that is the most powerful way to show faith. At first we trust the Lord to answer our prayers and bless us according to our desires. When our faith matures and begins to look more like a tree (to refer to Alma's example) we start to trust the Lord regardless of whether or not he gives us what we ask. When we have faith like that, the Lord begins to trust US in return by honouring our requests. Thank you Mother for being such a huge example to me of unwavering faith. A seventy that came to our mission a little while ago said we need to develop faith sufficient that the Lord will trust us with the people he is preparing. That is the faith I'm trying to develop. Sometimes I mess up and spend my Christmas money on Pokemon cards (yea I know, but they were in FRENCH! I couldn't resist), but overall This is the happiest and most effective I've ever been on my mission. 

I know that the work that the Hardy clan is sacrificing so much to contribute to is the work of the Lord. He witnesses it to me a hundred tiny ways every day. God is with us, so who is there to fear?

I love you all!

Elder Hardy

December 29, 2014

Christmas...

Well Christmas round-2 in the mission is over. What a surreal experience. Christmas was good though. After talking to the famalamily we had an awesome dinner with the De La Cruz family. We still have piles of meat left to eat from that meal. It was bad week for missionary work though. No one wanted to receive the missionaries during the holidays. We spent most of the time calling people and having them not pick up the phone. I've been sick the last few days and slept all of the 26th in a failed attempt to get better, so now I'm just dealing with it. Also we're pretty much out of kilometers for the month so we can't really go anywhere unless it's absolutely necessary.

That all being said I'm still doing well. Yesterday we had a really great lesson with a fellow named Ed. He was a pass-off from the Sisters. We suspected that he would lose interest the moment the Sisters weren't the ones coming to his house, but our suspicions were unfounded. He's really cool and really searching for something to help him in his life. He wants to "break the stereotype about black men!" I was tempted to tell him that being a Mormon is very non-stereotypical for a "former thug," as he puts it, but I didn't. We're really happy about him and have high hopes to see him really progress going forward. 

In other news, nothing else new has happened since our lovely conversation on Thursday. I went on Splits with Elder Noel on Saturday and we spent the whole time talking about how neither of us knows what we're going to do with our lives (he's six weeks younger than me in the mission). Then we passed by a former who pulled us into an argument about how we worship Joseph Smith because we "talk about him too much after he's dead." It was weird. 

That's about it this week. Thanks for sending the camera! I guess I'm lucky T-man cares about the quality of his camera. Also I'll probably get those two packages at the same time. No one is going to Montreal until the middle of January, and that's only if someone gets transferred (it's possible no one moves).

Sorry I don't have any pictures to send you this week. I couldn't even send them to you. I love you all though! As they say here in Quebec: Lâche pas la patate!

Elder Hardy

December 22, 2014

aCORDding to my calculations

Bonjour La famille! Joyeux Noel!

I'll start with the bad news. We went to teach a less-active who smokes a lot and my winter coat got all stinky. I threw it in the washing machine to get rid of the smell, and failed to realize until it had passed through the washer and the drier that I had left my pass-along cards in there along with.......................my camera. Now the blasted thing won't turn on. I think I backed up a lot of the pictures on to the little flash-drive I bought, but I'm not sure how much I lost. In any case I only have one picture to send because I forgot to bring the flash drive.

On a brighter (but not brightest) note I know what time we're skyping. Due to the abundance of invitations we have to keep on the 25th (don't know how we're going to manage to eat it all) we will be doing our calls in the morning. It is with great apprehension that I ask if 11 a.m my time (I think like 8 a.m. your time) is too early? It's Christmas so I know you'll be up, I just don't want to interrupt the magic of Christmas morning. Please let me know if this does not work.

As far as this week went, it was pretty good. I've mentioned before a Haitian family that we found; well we started to teach them. They're pretty cool and all 4 kids are interested (the youngest is 9). They are excited to read the B.O.M. We invited them to baptism, but they don't yet understand why they would need to be baptized again. We're working on that. Needless to say we're pretty excited about them.

No I didn't open the presents, and neither did Elder Pyron. The rest of the apartment is sad though because none of their Christmas packages got here on time, so they'll be opening their packages likely in January.

Not a lot else. Super excited to hear that T-man is headed to Bulgaria at last. It will be funny if he's been on his mission longer than his trainer (that happens sometimes with visa waiters).

I love you all so much! This Christmas I'll be thinking of you! Then I'll get back focused on missionary life.

Love

Elder Hardy

A picture of the district (or about half of it) caroling:

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