A Complex Set of Events
Well, it has been quite a while since I have been able to get an e-mail out. As you all know, we have just passed the Holiday Season. And we had a little bad luck in regard to doing e-mails. You see, We do e-mails on Monday in the Public/School Library. And the last two Mondays have been right after 2 major holidays (Christmas and New Year’s Day), making the Monday a working holiday and those closing off all of the public buildings. So, all I’ve been stuck with is snail mail, showing how tough it was for the pioneers of missionary work (Chris and Gordon). But, we had a good holiday season, starting with a baptism on the 18th and ending with a baptism this last Saturday (to be explained latter in the letter).Well, I guess I’ll begin where I left off talking to the family on the phone on Christmas. And for those of you who I wasn’t able to talk with…I hope you heard how I was doing. It was a great Christmas, for the Eve before, we spent with the Guerra Family and had some good tomales and hispanic cookin’. It was a full-blown fiesta. The Hispanics generally celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve and Christmas day is more of a laid-back, relaxing type of day. Oh, there was good food, nice spicy chicken, tomales, beans, rice…I think I’m really getting spoiled and I’ve started to really really like spicy food. Don’t be surprised if I start buying my own hot sauce when I get home, the really lethal kind, because nothing else will satisfy my mouth! Christmas day, we spent with some English members, for lunch at the Despain Family, who are originally from Wyoming, so that really felt just like home. Me and Elder Staheli actually prepared the sweet potatoes and oh they were good! I am trying to develop myself into a cook, which is hard for some of you all to believe I bet! But, all I’ve got to say is that real true mexican food is celestial, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to eat over at the mexican restaurants in Payson with the same enthusiasm level as before. The only thing they can work on a little bit is their dessert, which usually is pretty american-ized, like ice cream and pumpkin pie.
The week after Christmas passed pretty well, I think it was a pretty normal week, it seemed like a long time ago. We just continued with our normal adventures, don’t really have that much that I can remember. New Year’s Eve was an interesting experience. The mission car had to be parked by 7 in the evening, I guess to avoid danger from driving on the streets. We visited some members and went to a member party, we were the only ones there because it was so early. But later in the evening, there were some 20-25 members and I heard they didn’t get home until 2 or 3 in the evening…Man, they know how to party. Also, we had a ward party a day earlier in the church and they had loud hispanic music and there was a lot of sweet dancing.
Well, I guess I will move onto this last week…I’d have to say, one of the more crazy weeks. The first part of the week, we found out one of our members was going to be “re-baptized”, yes I repeat, “re-baptized”. What happened is somehow her record was lost when they moved to the United States a few years ago. I mean, she’s already been baptized and recieved the Holy Ghost for 10 years since she was baptized at 8 years old. I guess for this situation, if you can get a written letter from person who baptized you or was a witness, they can re-make a record. But, if you can’t, you have to be “re-baptized” in order to gain membership into the church again, which seems to me a little wierd. I mean, I think Heavenly Father knows if someone has been baptized or not? All i can think is there must be a lot of paper work in heaven. Anyways, they tried to find the Bishop who baptized her but they found out that he died and they couldn’t find the witness. So, they scheduled a “Re-Baptism” for Saturday. Originally, we were only going to give a talk, but I think that the members in the branch didn’t quite feel comfortable re-baptizing and re-affirming her as a member because…she was already a member! So, they pushed the responsibilities upon our shoulders. They wanted me to baptize her and Elder Staheli to confirm her. So, the day of the baptism arrived and we were on exchanges with the Spanish Assistants to the President. The baptism was going to start at 7, so we planned to meet together at the house at 6 and head over there. Elder Barnett (Elder I was with) and I got back at around 5:55. And not ten minutes later, recieved a phone call from the Branch President which went something like this, “Elder Hardy, the whole branch is waiting, where are you?? The baptism was supposed to start at 6.” It totally caught me off-guard, because we were saying all along it was going to start at 7. So, I quickly changed and left the house and I believe we arrived at the church around 6:20. And to help all of you get a sense of how awkward this really was…I had never had a regular conversion with this girl, only greeted her a few times. So, I was about to baptized someone I didn’t even know and in reality didn’t even know her full-name if it wasn’t for the program. So, we proceeded on with the baptism…which had to be done twice! I guess her head didn’t go down all the way. She was baptized twice at her re-baptism! So wierd….We then proceded to go back and I realized I had forgotten a couple articles of clothing, my tie and a clean white shirt. Therefore I proceded into the room with a white tie and a half wet shirt. That is where the big surprise hit me. Elder Staheli had still not arrived for some reason and Brother Guerra said this, “After the talk on the Holy Ghost, Elder Staheli will confirm her, but if he has not arrived, Elder Hardy will do it” I had never done that in English before let alone Spanish! So, I pulled out my handbook and tried to study as much as a could. Well, Elder Staheli didn’t make it in time, so I re-gave her the Holy Ghost in my terminally ill Spanish. I therefore re-baptized and re-confirmed a member of the church, who I did not even know before! How wierd is that. Well, that’s it for this Week
Elder Hardy.