Is This Really Winter?
Is everyone ready for another week of news from Elder Hardy?? Or does anyone really read this anyways? At least I got a confirmation from Dad…Anyways, hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! ~Well, I do have a few things to write about this week. First off, the change of the weather turning into a full-blown North Carolina winter. Today, it’s actually pretty nice. Hovering above 60 degrees, a little fog in the air, overall a nice day. But a few days last week were horrible, only reaching in the mid-40’s during the day the day and high 20’s and low 30’s in the evening…it was quite chilly. I had my trenchcoat, sweater, and suit coat on. So, I guess it’s supposed to be like this until at least February, which crashed my thoughts of this being a tropical paradise. Oh well, I guess I’ll just wait for the 110+ weather to come around. Oh and our roommate, Elder Laulu from Samoa, pulled a mean trick on us last week. Before it was time to turn out the lights for the night, he switched on the air conditioner during a cold night and then proceeded to wrap himself up in coats so he wouldn’t get cold. Oooh, it got so cold during night…Elder Staheli got up around 3 to see what the problem was and he said the temperature was around 45-50 degrees. So, it took all morning for it to heat up again…We weren’t too pleased with our Samoan friend!! We’ve got to think of a way to get him back!!
Okay, I guess I’ll rehearse to you what happened on my celebration of Thanksgiving. After morning study, or rather during our study, we went and played in the “Turkey Bowl” with some members. Basically what it is, and I’ve never heard of it, are members or friends that get together in the morning of Thanksgiving and play football together. So, we went over to the fields by the 9th grade center and played football for 2 hours with quite a few members…It was two-hand touch, as missionaries, we’re not allowed to tackle! Well, for a period of 2 hours, me and mis amigos forgot we were missionaries. It was awesome, I caught 3 touchdowns, some nice tackles (open-field 2 hand touch), and one interception returned almost the whole way for a touchdown. It really reminded me of my high school days and i decided I miss playing. I just felt I was on top of the world again 
Well, also I felt the pains the next few days in my body, which reminded me that I’m also not as in shape as I used to be, but me and Elder Staheli have actually started to run a little bit in the morning, and I’ve lost some pounds already out here, down to the 205-210 range. But it looks like Dad is going to overtake me soon here…
Ok, onto the activities of Thanksgiving. We went over to our Branch President’s house to have Thanksgiving dinner and seriously spent from like 12:30 to 6:30 over at his house. When we got there, we just sat around, played guitar and piano and talked. We also practiced our song that we are going to sing (us 4 spanish missionaries) at our Jose Smith/Navidad celebration. That should be interested, I am singing the base part. So we sat around for 3 hours, until all the food was almost complete. On the menu for Thanksgiving with the Caldarons, who are quite american-ized: Turkey, Ham from “Boston Market”, Mashed Potatoes, Diced Potatoes, Gravy, Bread, Green Beans, Corn, Salad, Sparking Grape Juice and I think that’s about it. It was difficult to use good table manners and not dive into the food…and it was interesting to see how american-zed they have tried to get it…but it still doesn’t beat what our family does! And another interesting thing was the dessert. Right after we finished, Ahorita, they gave us dessert. There was a store bought Apple Pie that another family brought over, an unfinished store bought Pumpkin Spice pie (which was good nonetheless), Brownies, Cookies and Ice Cream and no whipped cream. Definantely different from what I was used to…20 pies, all homemade, cream galor. I definately didn’t eat nearly as much as in the past. Oh well, we stayed there for a little while, until Elder Staheli finally told them that we need to get home because someone else invited us to go eat! So, we went over to Dora’s trailor and had a more hispanic style Thanksgiving. I guess they started eating in the evening, at the normal dinner time and they had an amazing 2 turkeys and Rice to go along with it and some orange soda. Now, that’s more like it! Well, i guess I have rambolled on long enough about my day! Now..i would like to now more about yours? What did you do…Go to Vegas!!! Looosers!!
Missionary Wise, it was actually kind of a rough week, we had a bunch of appointments fall through and we didn’t get as much done as we wanted. The highlight of the week was having 3 investigators at church!! Virginia, a lady we’ve been teaching for a while, finally had the chance to go and I think she had a good time. Hopefully we get her baptized soon, she is almost ready. We also had a former investigator just show up after not being at church for 2 and a half months and not being contacted. It was a dude I didn’t even know and supposidly, he got kicked out of his house and dissapeared. But he showed up to church and even brought a friend!! How crazy is that!! It seems like the non-members are doing more missionary work than the members. One of our former investigators, Virginia’s brother actually made an appointment with a guy he knows and he’s going to come with us to visit him! We got a referal from a non-member and he’s coming with us!! That’s freakin sweet, I wish more members would be like that dude. Also, we recieved some disapointing news, two of our best investigators are moving to Mexico in the next week. We found her about a month ago knocking doors and she has been our slogin for tracking lately, “to find the next Johanna among all of these apartments”. They were great, we got their address in Mexico (Their 2 kids under 18 live there), and we’ll be sending the elders to go see them. It’s hard to see them go..oh well..that’s the missionary life. Well, I think that’s about I have for all of you this week..if again, anyone reads. I look forward to hearing from anyone this week! Have a great Holiday Season!!
Elder Hardy