The Adventures of My Life

Wow, it’s been one crazy week…and a good one for that. On to the first order of business, and most important…The Baptism scheduled for yesterday took place and I had the priviledge of performing the baptism, my first. It was pretty awesome, our newest member went through a lot of trials to get to that point, including getting married 2 days earlier and it was special to be a part of it. It’s amazing how us 2 Elders have had so much impact on their lifes…And it seems like we hardly didn’t do anything at all, just taught them the gospel. But as it says in the Book of Mormon “The Preaching of the word has a greater impact on the lifes of the people then anything else”. I see that working with some of the people we’ve been working with. But, what really adds on to the significance of the baptism for me personal was what happened one year ago. Now this is something I didn’t notice until a few days before the baptism. Yesterday was December 18th, 2005. Exactly one year earlier, December 18th, 2004, was the day I officially came home from the MTC. I remember that day…ultimately I made the decision that whatever was going to be thrown at me, I would return to the mission field. From that point on, there was no doubt in my mind I wasn’t coming back..just a matter of time. And now 1 year later, to the exact date, I perform my first baptism. This wasn’t a coincidence, I know it was a tender mercy from a Loving Heavenly Father who really does have a specific plan and great love for each of us. Although sometimes we don’t know why we have to experience certain things, but I do know from personal experience, that all of our trials, challenges and pains, if handled correctly and with the gospel of Christ, all lead to growth and more happiness in our lives. We wouldn’t be able to grow spiritually if we never had any opposition. So, whenever something is going wrong and times are rough, always remember there is a greater purpose, just trust in God and accept his will in your life and you will see that his hand has been in your life and that he lifted you up during your period of need. We only cannot recognize it if our eyes our blinded and we forget to do the little things like praying and reading scriptures. So, I continue to urge each one of you to do those little things, and I promise as a servant of the Lord, he will bless your life immensly with happiness and joy and an ability to overcome weakness and challenges.

Okay, on to the rest of my week. There are a few big changes taking place in this area. And one of them is I won’t be going anywhere, staying right here in Cary, North Carolina. Elder Staheli has been called to be the District Leader and the other really big news is that the mission is taking the other two Elders out of our branch, so it will just be and Elder Staheli. The change completely doubled our area to work, plus we are going to be able to work more with the members of the whole branch. So, my “new” area includes Cary, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquey and Garner…(not like anyone knows these cities anyways!). That means we are going to have a ton of work to do plus we are going to recieve the investigators of the other missionaries, some of which are pretty close to being baptized. As for our area, now that Sandy is baptized, we don’t have hardly any “progressing” investigators (1). One of the remarkable stories of the week is one of the husbands of the families we have been teaching is on fire! He hasn’t been doing anything, but we watched a church movie with the family and now in less than a week, he has read 50 pages in the Book of Mormon and he is pumped up about it!! He was related us the story of Nefi and his brothers going to get the plates and he was telling us every detail! It was cool. This next transfer is going to rock for us, we are going to baptize the world! Haha, also we just introduced a new program for Member Missionary Work, called “Todo Miembro un Misionero” (every member a missionary). I think I might have already mentioned it in my past letter but basically it’s just a program that the Raleigh Elders used to get all of their baptisms from the members. Elder Laulu told me that actually on the English side of the work, they only get baptisms from the members…so it’s a pretty important aspect of the work, i guess.

Well, I heard that Central won the Football State Championship!! Sweet!! I am very surprised to hear that, why didn’t anyone tell me?? (Brian and Crystal…this falls on you!!) Thanks Matt for telling me that…any other big news that people are neglected to tell me? As for me and my world, things are going great. We have recieved tons of presents from the ward for christmas…including socks, more socks and a fruit basket. I believe we recieved 9 pairs of socks…so I think I’ll be good on socks for the next 100 years. See..what else..thanks everyone for the e-mails, mails and all of the support. I’ll be sending a package home today with a few little treats but I don’t think, in fact it won’t reach there before Christmas. It’s not much, they didn’t have anything in the Mexican Tienda that you couldn’t get in Utah, so hopefully I’ll find a bigger one in of my other areas, as for now, enjoy and I’ll be talking to some of you this next Sunday!!

Feliz Navidad!
Elder Hardy

Feliz Navidad!! We are starting to catch the Christmas spirit even as missionaries! Actually, we just found a huge tree hidden in the depths of our apartment and have started to assemble it..even if it might be a little late. But, Missionaries celebrate holidays too! It’s been a good week, we had our Christmas Zone Conference in Raleigh and that was cool. We sang carols and ate some good food, recieved the letters from families and some recieved packages. The 2nd part of Conference, we sang like 9 Christmas hymns, all arranged in some order, we all had to stand up and were directed by Sister Mabey, mission president’s wife. It was hilarious, seemed like she was directing the Tabernacle Choir, she was really getting into it. Also, on a side note, I found out what President Mabey did before he became the Mission President. He built up large companies and sold them for tons of $$$. His first one was the first HBO company in Utah or something and he sold that for millions. He’s built up like 4 or 5 other companies and sold them for tons. He is a multi-millionaire. I guess he really is a expert businessman, this mission is run like a business. Since the last mission president, this mission has improved so much and done a 180. I guess for the last year, we lead the Eastern States in baptisms…which is pretty impressive, with all of the other prominent churches down here. Anyways, I had fun at the zone conference and enjoyed readying everyone’s letters, although they were written a month ago, so must of it wasn’t really new. But, they were awesome.

The big event for the next week is the wedding of our part member family Garcia and the combined ward dinner on the same day. Then, the wife is getting baptized on Sunday after church!!! She’s doing great recovering from smoking, just quit this past week, so we’re still crossing our fingers and praying alot. This might be my first baptism…so we’ll have to wait and see what happens. The story of this family was a miracle, we were about to drop them because they were not progressing at all, but we made the simple invitation to be baptized and it’s been rolling ever since…been at church every week, coming to activities, it’s been awesome. Other then her, our investigator pool has been a little weak, it’s been kind of stressful because we are not getting a lot of help from the members and referals. And in the Raleigh branch, they are getting 2-3 baptisms per week, and we haven’t had one since September. But we have a new member plan, that was implemented by the Raleigh branch. We just recently went on exchanges with those Spanish Elders and they told us what we need to do. I spent the night up in Raleigh with Elder Butler, who speaks almost perfect Spanish. That was fun being somewhere else than Cary.

Well, this transfer is coming to a close, almost 2 transfers out here in the field. The possibility of being transfered somewhere else is there, but I’m hoping I get to spend a little more time in Cary. But if I do get transfered, I want to go to the “real” South, trailor parks and southerners who talk real funny. I also would enjoy having a hispanic companion, that would help me tons in my Spanish. Not that I’m not learning alot from Elder Staheli, we just don’t have much time to speak Spanish because of the English Elders in the apartment, but we usually try whenever we’re not around them.

I’ve been having lots of cool experiences, I’m really grateful for the time I have out here. It’s really helped build my testimony, putting all the principles of the gospel into action. I’ve realized by serving others, the Lord justs returns more and more blessings upon the person who serves. So, I really agree with Mom’s idea about the service/helping others this holiday season. I know the more service you do for others, the more happy you’ll become. Really, it’s not about recieving, it’s about giving…President Monson gave an excellent talk on that during the Christmas Devotional. I hope you all realize the importance of serving others, and I would like to make a challenge to each of you to continually look for ways to serve each other, family, friends and just random people. And I know the Lord will bless. Well, that’s my Christmas message for this week…next week should even be better…parties, marraiges, baptisms, maybe a transfer and best of all..packages (from family?? hint..hint)!! Haha, well…Happy Shopping and Service everyone!

Thanks for the support, love and prayers,
Elder Hardy

Wow, finally got onto a computer, had a wait 30 minutes because all of them were full, but I was fully entertained when this crazy guy came up to me and started talking to me…I got his address and stuff, so I’ll be sending the English missionaries over there…haha. Well…another crazy week has passed by here in Cary. And the fact that it is already December and in a few weeks, Christmas, is a crazy thought. Seems like I just got here and I’m already almost done with 2 transfers. The big event that is going on this week is the Christmas Zone Conference on Wednesday. I guess this is the big Christmas event for missionaries where we get the “mission yearbook” plus all letters and things from family…which I saw awhile ago that Dad was trying to orgazine. Hopefully, none of you failed in your duties and if you did..you still have until the 25th! But if anyone wants anything specific from the South for Christmas, I will see what I can do. But in reality, I can’t shop for many people, I don’t have the time or the money right now…but you would like something, just e-mail.

The big news this week is that one of the part-member families we have been working with is finally getting married!! Therefor, allowing the wife to get baptized. The wedding is scheduled for the 16th of Dec. and then the baptism for the 18th. I think I’ve talked about Sandy in a previous letter, she has a strong desire to get baptized but still has a few problems to overcome. We will get those taken care of hopefully. Other than that, we taught a lot this week but have had a hard time getting in contact with some of our investigators. Man…I guess everyone was right…this missionary work is kind of hard…hehe. But, I really do love it here in Cary, although sometimes we have trouble with the mission leader and some other leaders. Our teacher in the new investigator class only teaches from the bible and last week the subject was baptism, and he started talking about the dimension of the baptismal font in the temple, how it matched completely with what the bible said. We had a few investigators in the class who we haven’t been able to contact this week. Maybe another reason was the talk in sacrament meeting about patriartical blessings by the stake patriarch. It lasted 30 minutes with the translation. Really, I realized it’s true what other missionaries say about how scary it is taking investigators to church…you really want to protect them and sometimes the members may scare them off..hehe.

We had a pretty good “tracking moment” the other day. We were knocking some doors at this one apartment complex. On the top level, we started talking to this one guy who had a little boy, probably about 2 years old. The kid decided to go out and run around the floor a little bit as we continued. But all of a sudden we are this sound of water hitting the ground, all 3 of heads turned at the buy, who was taking a leak, facing towards us! He didn’t have a diaper on, as it was shooting out of his pants!! To the amazement of all 3 us, when he was finished, just kept on running, being rebellious. The reaction of the guy was sweet though as he said, “Porque….” (why). Then we finished quick, and they wen’t back into the apartment without cleaning it up. The place is going to stink!

Only two more weeks until this transfer is finished and I don’t know what my future looks from there. Usually, Spanish Elders stay with their trainer 2-3 transfers. In the mission president interview with Elder Staheli, President Mabey told him “You are just warming up in Cary”, maybe a sign that he’s going to stay there a little longer, which means I might be the first one to go…which makes me sad because I really have enjoyed this area. Nonetheless, my Spanish is getting better always, I understand the people a whole lot better. It’s really an up and down feeling, one time I started talking to a guy during a door approach and he said he doesn’t speak English because he didn’t realize I was talking to him in Spanish!! Yup…Spanish rocks though…I look forward to talking to Gordon is Spanish..hehe. Yeah, anyways, I should know what the whole situation with the Christmas call is soon…because it’s coming up pretty soon now!!

Well, that’s my week in a nutshell, Happy Holidays everyone!

Elder Hardy