The Adventures of My Life

Bueno, what’s been going on everyone?  I got some sweet e-mails this week, it was fun reading some of them…some of them even came from a different country (Taiwan!).  Parents and Julie in Taiwan…that’s crazy!  Well, hope they are having a great time and that they are safe.  Let’s see..how was my week??  It went pretty good.  Tuesday was pretty crazy.  We helped out one of our members in his kitchen in the morning.  He has been redoing his kitchen for a while and we have gone over weekly to take out walls and drywall and other miscellanious task.  This week, we were painting.  It was pretty interesting what happened.  He pulled out the paint contanair and starting stirring, got all of the other tools and told us to go for it.  So, we started painting the walls, especifically I was working on the window.  The kitchen isn’t that big and the paint was very strong.  Well, we were painting for a good 10 minutes, and I started feeling a little dizzy.  Luckily, Elder Christensen realized it when he felt the same, but we didn’t even think about what we needed to do before we started….OPEN A WINDOW!!  So, he went over there and opened the window and our member was like, “oh good idea, we need to get some air in here”.  There was already a fan going in the room but it was blowing at us…so the fumes were just staying where we were.  After that, we took a little break of 5 minutes, and I was very chipper and would laugh at anything.  I had recieved a “high” from the paint fumes.  After our break, we went back in to finish the job and it even got worse.  Well, it was very fun while it lasted, I felt like I was in 7th heavan for a while, I was happy, felt like I didn’t have a care in the world!!  But, I would say, 2 hours after is when my “hangover” set in.  I seriously felt like I had been hit by a ton of bricks and I had no energy at all and a pretty bad headache.  Miracously, we still went out to work but it wasn’t the most effective tracking.  Recently, we have been searching for Hispanics through the really bad ghetto.  There are very suspicious looking black people, and mixed in with them are some hispanics.  Most of them think we are “Da Palice”.  Wilson has some bad ghetto, but alot of the people are nice, just the younger ones who walk around all day with all of their gangster cloths are the ones we stay away from…oh Wilson…

Our investigators are doing alright.  Humberto and Anamaria just need to get married, and Humberto would get baptized right away.  The only thing with him is that he can’t read also.  So, we are trying to teach him to read, but he won’t practice that much…he says it’s really hard.  Because he can’t read, he’s not able to really gain a testimony.  He already knows that it is true, but he justs needs to be able to learn on his own.  Also, I don’t know if I told you all about Jose and Mayra Lopez before, but Jose is a cool dude we found a few weeks ago that actually got baptized in Mexico when he was really young but stopped going after a few months.  He now goes to the catholic church, but he wants to know more about ours.  Also, his wife Marya, is the sister of Carolina, who recently got baptized.  She too is catholic and is scared to changed.  But we are teaching them in this time.  Also, we have started teaching a woman named Rosalva, from El Salvador.  Her thing right now is that she thinks all churches are good, and she has already been baptized.  We watched “the Restoration” with her this last Saturday, but her TV kept on doing weird things.  For example, it kept turning on and off and the volumn keep going up and down without us touching it..she thought it was the electrical outlet, but told us it hadn’t done in that much before.  We got to start working pretty good for a while…until the first vision came around…the most important part!!  The volumn completely dropped down to 0.  So, we had to improvise a little bit.

This week, I also had my first interview with President Wallis…he’s pretty chill.  Him and his wife are so funny.  It’s going to be fun with him.  The weather has been hot and it’s going to be even hotter this next week…high’s in the high 90’s, with the heat index going over 105…it’s going to be hot!!  Things are going well, we’re trying to work hard in spite of the weather, it should only be bad for about another month and a half.  Well, I hope everyone is enjoying their own week, especially those in Taiwan!!

Con Amor,
Elder Hardy

Well, it was a pretty sweet week, we….got….a….BAPTISM!!!   YEAH!!  Anyways, it was pretty crazy how everything worked out in the end after everything fell apart.  First off, I have to give a background on this lady, her name is Carolina.  She was found in January of 2005, and had been investigated the church ever since.  She had become one of those internal investigators, who missionaries set tons of baptismal dates, but it never happens.  In fact, when I got here, she had one, but it feel throw.  They had never even gotten to the baptismal interview before.  Well, a few weeks ago, we were on AP exchanges and Elder Christensen and the AP Elder Jackson went over and tought the 3rd lesson.  She asked when she could get baptized and they set another date for the 19th (the day Elder Jackson was touring Wilson with his family, because he was going home…and also another Elder that helped teach Carolina, Elder Martin, was leaving).  So, we started to make preparations for that.  During this whole period, Elder Christensen and I were kind of going crazy trying to make sure everything would work out all right, cause we knew her history.  So, we tried to stop by everyday, call, going through some extreme measures to make sure she was at the baptism and interview.  On the day of her interview, she was seeing her kids at the social services building (she lost them for a stupid reason and social services is dumb), and we even tried to translate for her to make sure she got to her interview, but the social services lady was way mean and rude to me.  But, she eventually made it to her interview, although a little late but she did it.  So, that was the Friday before the baptism.  Well, the next few days, we tried making daily contact, leaving notes on the door, calling her but it was impossible to contact her.  The only time we saw her was at church.  Even, the night before the baptism, we could not get a hold of her, we stopped by, called…everything!

But the next morning…just after I woke up, at 6:30 am, the phone rings…I pick it up and it’s her.  She then goes on to tell me that she is on her way to work…and that she is going to visit some cousins afterwards….I asked her if she was going to be able to make it to the baptism and she said no.  I was shocked, I didn’t know what to say, and she just told me to call back.  Well, I had to call the mission home, where Elder Jackson was, and tell him she called and after that, everything went crazy.  Our one single purpose that day was to find Carolina before the baptism.  So, we called everyone that had contact with her, we even thought about driving out to where she works…way out in the tobbaco fields….but we couldn’t contact her.  Well, when we got back from District Meeting, we sat around for a while, debating on what we should do.  We basically had two options, 1) To forget about, go to work, find some new people or 2)Spent the whole afternoon making the program and feeling up the font.  Well, we made it a matter of prayer…first, as a companionship and later individual.  After the companion prayer, we separated and went to different rooms.  I remember the impression I got was that we should go through with everything first, but afterwards I felt that we shouldn’t do it.  I felt stronger about the first thoughts.  And later to find out, the same thing happened to Elder Christensen.  So, we decided to still make the program and fill the font.  We made a trip to the library, made the program, and later went off to the church.  At about 6 o’clock, Elder Jackson and his family had arrived, also our Branch President.  Still, there was no word from Carolina.  It felt like it was a worthless cause.  Then, at 6:30 (baptism was going to start at 7:00), the phone rings at the church house…Elder Christensen answered….and it was Carolina!  She said she was coming and that she was just waiting for her ride!  Well, all three of us start celebrated…more a sigh of relief.  But…the ride wasn’t over yet.  In turns out, somehow word had leaked out that the baptismal was canceled, so some people who we had already asked to participate weren’t going to be there…namely the speaker on the Holy Ghost and the person who was going to conduct.  So, Angel Lopez who was doing the talk on baptismal, volunteered to also do the Holy Ghost and guess who got stuck conducting…me!!  It was a pretty sweet expierence, I never would have imagined myself conducting a baptismal…it wasn’t that hard.  So, after that everything worked out perfectly, the service was sweet, and Carolina, the impossible baptism, finally got baptized.  I guess one of the members was in contact with her the whole day, and she said she was doubting and didn’t think she was going to do it, but at the last second, she had a change of mind.  It definately was a miracle.  This experience really strengthened my testimony on the power of Faith and Prayer.  If we wouldn’t have done all of the preparations, and everything we could have done and put it in the Lord’s hands, I don’t think that it would have worked out.

Well, it will be one story I will never forget, one of the great succeses I have experienced out here.  We have another couple potential investigators, we are still trying to find more hispanics!  Well, I know that the church is true and that if we do all if can do with the best intentions, that it will be given to us what we stand in need of.

Con Amor,
Elder Hardy

Well, I’ll try to keep this letter short because my companion is without a computer and he needs to do email…Anyways, it was a good week, in fact the last of the transfer.  And no we did not recieve calls saying that we were being transferred, so we both are going to be staying in Wilson for another 6 weeks, it will be almost 6 months for Elder Christensen.  But the exciting thing is that we have a baptism coming up this Wednesday with a woman named Carolina.  It will be an end to a long chapter of missionary work with this woman.  They have been visiting and teaching her since January of last year, she has had lots of baptismal dates and I was just lucky enough with Elder Christensen to seal the deal..which is pretty sweet.  We also just found her sister and her husand (who was baptized in Mexico).  Well, we have also knocked all of the trailor parks and hispanic parts of wilson (those that have the definate appearance of hispanics), so right now we are just walking the streets, trying to find more…It should be a fun 6 weeks I say.

Well, I’m doing fine…sounds like everyone is suffering the heat also in Utah, it should be 100 degrees here tommorow…but the heat is different here…so sticky and sweating all the time…good thing I don’t use bikes!!  Haha…well, I probably should head off, but I hope everyone has a good week!!!

Con Amor,
Elder Hardy

I guess it has been a pretty interesting week.  We saw President Wallis for the first time at zone conference in Kinston.  At first, it was very wierd, but we warmed up and they are going to be great.  Sister Wallis is really cool, reminds me of mom, even though she likes the Ohio State buckeyes and also BYU.  She was born in Denver and grew up in Chicago, met President Wallis at BYU and later moved to Cincinati.  President Wallis is awesome too, he has tons of experience in the church, knows a bunch of general authorities and apostles being stake president and patriarch.  He was born and raised in Vernal, UT and actually, I asked him later if he knew any Hardy’s and he told me he remember a teacher named Norwood Hardy at his high school, who was one of his favorite teachers.  Recognizing the name, I told him it was the brother of Grandpa Hardy…I think at least.  So, that is kind of cool.  Also, they had a son a while ago who served in the San Bernadino California Mission..so maybe Christ knows him??  President Wallis and his wife are kind of older and it happens they weren’t even planning on going on a mission, but they had an interview with Richard G. Scott and they were called in March to be told they had been selected to come to North Carolina.

Well, it has been a pretty good week, the weather has cooled down a little bit, which I am extremly grateful for.  But, it is going to be getting hot once again.  The assistants came on exchanges with us and we got so much done in two days, taught 17 lessons and for the week, we taught 30 lessons!!!  It is the most I’ve taught in a week, it was a very good week.  We also had a couple of people at church, Humberto (a part-member), and also Carolina, who has a new baptismal date for the 19th of this month.  So, I am pretty stocked…Wilson seems to be speeding up a little bit and I already have a month under my belt with transfers coming up this next week.  I think Elder Christensen will be staying here, but I am worried because the District Leader here is getting transferred….we’ll see what happens.

So, how is everyone doing??  I enjoyed receiving the e-mail from Chris regarding his desire for more pinball machines.  And I guess Mom, Dad and Julie are getting ready for Taiwan..(LUCKY).  I like reading the articles in the church news about Taiwan, I hope a picture of dad shows up in one of the following issues as the Best Missionary who served in Taiwan.  He should win an award or something.  Anyways, thanks for the support everyone, if anyone ever needs anything…just e-mail or write me!

Con Amor
Elder Hardy

Hey all, I guess everyone is in Wyoming right now…hope you all are having a fun time.  I enjoyed the email that Julie sent me this week (Thank you Julie!, you’re the best!).  Well, I’ve passed my 1 year mark in the mission this past week, didn’t do much celebrating or anything, it just passed by pretty fast and also the AP’s were on exchanges with the ZL’s that live with us.  It’s crazy that I already have a year under my belt, who would imagine, huh?  It’s been a good first year, but I’m looking forward to a even better 2nd year.

So, President Mabey left this last Saturday and President and Sister Wallis have officially taken over.  I haven’t had the chance to personally meet (as I would have if I was in Raleigh), but I heard they were pretty cool and that the work here would just keep moving forward.  President Wallis is from Cincinati, OH, born in Vernal, UT and is 65 years old.  Sister Wallis was born in Denver, CO.  President has been a Stake President and Partiarch and has had some other callings.  Seems like he has tons of experience.  I am looking forward to meeting with him and serving with him…I’ll be with him for about a year, as I was with the Mabeys for about 9 months.  So, I’ll know him better than I did President Mabey.  And if any of you would like to go to President Mabey’s homecoming, I have the information.  It is going to be July 16th, somewhere in Sandy…you all should go…they are really cool.  But it should be a good change, in spite of all of the fears of a new President.

I also just found out that one of the investigators in Raleigh, Ester, finally got baptized.  It was awesome and also at the same time bittersweet, because we worked sooo hard with her to set a baptismal date, I called her alot and visited her quite often.  And also knowing that technically I should be in Raleigh and should have seen her baptized depresses me a little bit.  But, I know that is how the mission is and I know I am supposed to be here in Wilson and not in Raleigh.  Oh well, I’m sure I’ll be able to see all the people again (at least that is what President Mabey said, because I didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to anyone!). 

Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting here in Wilson and I took the chance to bear my testimony and also was picked on to say the opening prayer.  I bore my testimony on the power of the atonement and how it can be aplied to every aspect of our lives.  It was good.  Since we don’t have alot of members here in Wilson, the missionaries are counted on a lot to fill duties in the church…we give talks every 3 weeks and also expected to contribute heavily in Sunday School and Priesthood.  And also, if one plays the piano, but neither I or Elder Christensen know how to, so they just play the cheesy himns CD.  Man, I wish I would have learned how to play…I have taught myself a little bit, but I need to be taught from someone that knows.  Oh well…another regret from my “pre-mission” life. 

It has been sooo hot.  The week before, it was raining a whole lot, a couple times, close to a tropical strom.  But this last week…HOT.  It only gets about mid-90’s, but the air, the humidity.  I start sweating the moment I step out of the car.  And tracking has gotten really hard, especially when the sun is shinning against a white trailer…the sweat starts blurring my eyes and I can’t look up…it’s bad.  One day was really bad and all of our appointments were falling through left and right, so we starting tracking a little bit.  We actually met this guy named Jose and he let us in and we taught him a really good 1st lesson.  He has a 9 month old boy and he seemed pretty receptive and he invited us back.  It was pretty special, because nothing was going for us and then we found him…definately makes it worth it.  Also, proves to me yet again that sometimes it feels like we are wasting time, but there are people out there that would accept the gospel, we just need to find them.  We are working hard trying to get some things going in Wilson.

Has anyone been watching the World Cup…I heard it’s getting crazy lately…Brasil lost (haha Gordon!), Argetina lost, Ecuador (dangit!) and Mexico also (man!)…but Portugal is still in (YEESSSS) and France, Italy and Germany.  I want Portugal to win…I bet that would be crazy for some of the missionaries I know serving there.  It would also be cool for me because I have a Portugal soccer jersey and also a big flag…go Portugal!!  Well, anyways enough of my soccer rant…I just love soccer so much now..I’m going to buy all of the spanish soccer channels and watch soccer all the time when I get home!  VIVA FUTBOL!

Elder Hardy