The Adventures of My Life

Hola…what is everything up to today?  Working…going to school I bet.  Well, I’m here in the Wilson County Library, writing another e-mail.  It’s fun, I always look forward to P-day to recieve e-mails.  I got a few cool ones today, hearing from some people.  Anyways, we had a good week.  As I stated in the last letter, we had a record 4 people at church.   I can honestly say, we broke that record this week with….6 investigators!!  It was sweet…I’ll give the story for each one:

Guadalupe Mendez: She is a part-member, the aunt of Michel (our recent concert).  This is her 3rd time at church, 2nd in a row.  We are kind of teaching her right now (through messages shared with the whole family), but we are going to start focusing more on her, and at the same time, not focus too much on her to scare her away.  But she is really humble and she knows it’s the right thing to come to church.  We always visit them on Tuesdays, but since it is Haloween, we cannot be out past 7, we will visit them this Wednesday

Berto Valdivia: He is also a part-member…is the partner of Anamaria…only problem is that they are not married and are living together.  As I have stated in previous e-mails, he would be baptized if they could just get the IDs to get married.  He’s been coming to church for a while now.  Marraige is the only thing impeding him…we’ll probably stop by to visit them later this week.  But, it’s crazy to teach them…they have a 10 year old boy, a 6 year old girl, a 3 year old boy who never stops and a new-born baby who cries alot.

Sergio Guadalupe:  He is a old investigator, who showed up at church last week (see previous weeks email).  We got up with him this week, taught him and he came back to church, I went with Angel Lopez to pick him up, and we missed the sacrament..but oh well…it’s his 3rd time.  He had a baptismal date before…actually when I arrived here to Wilson (but then he got baptized in another church first).  So…I would like to set another baptismal date again soon.  We’ll see how it goes.  We have an appointment with him on Halloween…

Genova Diaz:  We have been visiting her and her mom (Sumara) for a few weeks now.  They are from Honduras, and their friendshippers are doing everything right (Another Honduranian family, Family Garcia).  They have invited them to activities, to church, to dinner, family home evening and give them rides.  In fact, we have a family home evening with them today.  They are probably the two closest to baptism.  Although Sumara hasn’t been to church yet because she works every other Sunday.  But Genova went for the first time yesterday and it appeared that she like it.

Rafael and Yareli Ortiz:  Now, this was probably the surprise of the day.  Back in July, Elder Christensen and I contacted Rafael outside, and we started going by their house.  Rafael was always super cool but he wasn’t progressing, so we dropped him.  A little later, I took Elder Guerrero over, and we started working with them again.  Yareli, who previously always left, started listening, and they started to enjoy it.  Rafael came to church a few weeks ago, and yesterday…both of them came to church.  We invited them the day before and Yareli even invited us to eat some food she had made!!  Although, I added too many jalapenos, it was really good.  Rafael is so cool, he is a soccer maniac, he has got me hooked to Cruz Azul (soccer team in Mexico).  We visit them Saturdays, and he is always watching the game…it’s hard to tell him to turn it off.

So, there you have it, our 6 investigators in church.  We now have 5 investigators who are progressing towards baptism.  I haven’t seen this many investigators at church, not even in Raleigh.  I just wish we had the member support of Raleigh, we would be able to baptize like crazy.  To see what is going on with Sumara and Genova with their friendshippers is special, because they are progressing super fast.  The other investigators really don’t have friendshippers, because of the lack of members.  But, hey…that’s why we are here..to create more members!

Anyways, sadly but truly, these next 3 weeks in Wilson will probably be my last.  We had our interviews with President Wallis and they will probably be a change made just because I have been here for a while.  But, who knows, this all works by revelation..right?  It’s been frustrating at times in Wilson for lack of things to do…but with the people we are working with…I might be able to stick it out for another 6 weeks…but I don’t think I will.

We are going to the temple this next Friday and we already have a sweet week planned.  I hope everyone has a good week and keep up the good work….

!Hasta la proxima semana!
Elder Hardy

Alrighty, everything is going pretty good, with the one exception of the weather, which has been getting a little cooler lately.  A lot of leaves from the trees are falling and the color of the trees are all changing…I think the good autumn weather has passed on and we are entering into the cold part.  I remember my first winter here in NC…it was nasty cold sometimes.  The weather pattern is weird…when it’s hot, it’s really hot and then the next day it’s freezing cold.  For that reason, my body has a hard time ajusting and sometimes I get colds here.  For example, I was reading in my journal this morning, the entry from one year ago…and I was writing about how sick I was.  Last year, I got a very nasty cold, which lasted for 2 weeks and a cough that lasted for more.  Luckily, I haven’t been struck with something like that this time around, but I have had a few ’bouts with sickness lately.  For example…on Saturday, I went running outside in the morning at 6:30.  It was a little chilly, so I put on a sweater.  Well, it warmed up pretty fast during the day, and that extreme of temperature was hard on my body and I ended up getting a little sick over the weekend.  But the work goes on, and we ended up having some really good lessons.  I am feeling a lot better today, and hopefully I have better luck with all of this sickness that is going around here.

We had an amazing 4 investigators at church and a total of 48 people were in sacrament meeting!!  I believe that is a high for me, (discounting ward conference, when all of the leaders of the stake were present), it was a very good showup.  Included in those investigators were Julio (part-member, really hasn’t been progressing), Berto (him and his wife have yet to get baptized, or he would already be a member), Guadalupe (aunt of Michel, only member of the family not-baptized) and also a former investigator, Sergio, who I hadn’t seen for a long time, decided to show up.  It was kind of a hectic Sunday…which is good, because the Sunday’s that aren’t hectic means that noone came to church.  We have quite a few people we are working with, as I mentioned in my last letter, with the majority of them being families.  Rafael Ortiz and his wife didn’t make it to church this last week, but we had a great lesson with them this Saturday.  We taught them most of the 2nd and it seems like they really liked it, but the only obstacle that we just found out is that they are not married…ahh!!  Last night, we also had a good lesson with Sumara and Genova.  They are a family from Honduras that we contacted on the street a few weeks ago.  We just taught them the Restaration with a member, Bro. Garcia, who also is from Honduras.  Well, he called them and invited them to dinner at their house and we went also.  Now, that is what I call a member who know’s how to friendship!!  It was good, they already have a good friendship with members from the church.

Well, I hope I didn’t bore any of you with all of my missionary talk.  But things are going alright here in Wilson, although it can be very repetative at times.  But, I should only have 4 weeks left, and I’m sure they will go by superfast, because this week, we have ZDM/interviews with President Wallis, week after is the temple trip in Apex (yeah, I get to go back to my old stomping grounds!!), the week after that is Zone Conference in Kinston, and the week after that Spanish Missionary Council in Raleigh (yeah, I get to go back!) and after that is..BOOM…transfer weekend.  It should be a fun roller coaster ride with everything that is going on, also with our investigators and the holiday season coming up…and the cold.

Wow, I recieved a package from the family this last week and it was very exciting.  Although, chocolate has now become my enemy, not my friend, I enjoy it every now and then.  The other food will come in handy probably, and the jerky was the best part (I love jerkey, but it is so expensive!!).  Speaking of that, I have really learned how to shop, something I never really knew before.  At the beginning of my mission, it was kind of hard, cause I had no idea what I needed.  I used to buy lots of junkfood and spent around 20-25 dollars a week.  Now, I can buy everything I need, healthy food, for around 5-10 dollars.  It really has made a difference in the way I eat now and trying to stay away from fast food.

Well, I hope this letter was good, although I might have dragged on about some times…oh well.  I hope everyone has a good week…and…..GOO TIGRES!!!

Con Amor,
Elder Hardy

Well, here I am…again…another Monday morning doing e-mail.  Weeks seem to go by pretty fast.  Even the months are starting to pile up a little bit.  Yesterday was the oficial 16-month mark for those who are going home with me (Technically, mine isn’t until the 27th of this month).  So, we celebrated a little bit, went out to Golden Corral (the only thing fun to do here in Wilson is to buy things and go out to eat).  So, it was fun.  Later that evening (it was a Saturday), we went to our appointment that we had with a guy named Rafael Ortiz and his wife.  Elder Christensen and I had originally found him and contacted him by his truck, I think at the middle/end of July.  We taught him every once and a while, but he really didn’t progress, so we kind of dropped him.  With Elder Guerrero, we went over a few times because we didn’t have anything else to do and we seemed to “strike the match” again.  This time, his wife was more willing to listen (previously, she had always left), and particuraly this night, we watched “Together Forever” with them.  It seemed to spark there interest a little more and they said they would be at church in the morning.  Well, we were sitting in our class at about 10:20 when Rafael and his 2-year old son came walking in, aiding by another member (supposidly, he was in the parking lot, about to leave, but a member saw him and helped).  So, it was pretty cool.  Although his 2-year old was a big distraction, I think he liked churched…so’ll we’ll be sure to keep up with them.  His wife couldn’t make it cause she had something else she had to do.

That is the cool thing right now, is that we are teaching mostly families.  Although, we don’t have many investigators, the ones we do have are families.  Berto and Anamaria (Anamaria is already member) just need to get their ID, and then they can get married and Berto can be baptized.  We are also teaching a guy named Librado and his wife Maricela.  They have like 4-5 kids, hopefully we can win them over also.  But Librado coaches football on Sundays, that is the only problem, but he is reading and he likes our messege.  Then there is Sumara, who has a 17-year old daughter with a little girl and a younger daughter.  She is seperated from her husband and they are from Honduras.  Another family.  Then we got a referel from a member family, they are another family, Efrain and Rosa, who have 3 little boys.  Rosa said she wanted to go to church yesterday, but she was a little sick.  But, everything is going pretty good, we are working with some pretty cool people right now.  Rafael is a huge soccer fan, he is the reason I started rooting for Cruz Azul (a soccer team from Mexico).  He has gotten me pumped about soccer when I return home.

We are already in October and it has gotten a little colder.  It’s hard for me to run outside in the morning, just because it’s sooo cold.  I am not looking forward to another North Carolina winter, but so goes the life.  We had a great week, taught 20 times (I haven’t taught that many lessons in a long time…maybe since my Raleigh days).  Hopefully, we will get some baptismal dates here soon.  We also have lots of dinners with members this week…it might be the most I have ever had in a week here in Wilson.  I am looking forward to it!

Also one note…I was told by Matt Rowe, that the Tigers are going to the World Series!!!   IS THIS TRUE!!!  Is this the same Tigers team that was the worst team of the 90’s?  If it is true, my love for the Tigers has rekindled.  Someone needs to record the action so I can be able to witness it also.  But I don’t want the same result that happened last year with my Astros being swept.  GOOO TIGERS!!!

Con Amor,
Elder Hardy

Ok, we have made it into the first week of the transfer.  But, basically we are started another 6-week transfer (because it is a 7-week long transfer cause we just finished a 5-week transfer).  So far, everything is going alright.  But, the new Zone Leader (we live with zone leaders) isn’t the most enjoyable person.  Elder Blakley, who was here before, is already suffering alot, he really is hating life right now.  It’s kind of bad…Elder Anderson (who just left to Wilmington) and Elder Blakley got along perfectly, it was a perfect companionship.  Now, the new person comes and Elder Blakley can’t stand him and it’s hard for us too.  He is very “fake” and that is why he is zone leader right now.  Anyways, I guess I shouldn’t be dwelling on that too much.

Well, it was a good week, Elder Guerrero and I got some things done.  Recently, we are starting to work with Berto and Anamaria more, because it looks like they will be getting their IDs soon, so that they can get married.  Berto is what they call a “Dry Mormon”, because he goes to church, knows it is true, but just can not get baptized because something is impeding him.  In this case, he isn’t married to but living with Anamaria, a recent convert.  So, we have been working with them a little bit more lately and we are hoping and they can get their ID’s and that Berto can get baptized before the end of this next transfer.  Not much else is happening here in Wilson, we are just knocking the same places for a 2nd time and then walking down the streets, looking, searching and hoping for hispanics.  There are actually quite a few hispanics here, but most of them are Males without their families whose life is work and drink.  That makes it a little tought sometimes and I am getting a little tired of the “typical Mexican guy”.  But, we continue working, hopefully we can find someone special.

Wow, yesterday we had our monthly dinner with the Buckins family (all 4 of us missionaries go to eat with them)  They usually cook 4 chickens, around 12 pounds of fried chicken….it is so much food.  And we are expected to eat all of it, or “we might not be invited back”.  This is the 4th time I’ve been over there…the first time was the worst…i felt horrible after eating so much fried chicken…it was past the point of enjoying.  The 2nd and 3rd time, I came away pretty good, satisfied and full.  This last time (yesterday) was a little worse, but I paid the consecuances today in the morning.  I actually woke up at around 3 in the morning and I really couldn’t fall asleep that well.  Oh well, I guess I won’t eat for the next three days to balance out things…(Just kidding!)

Well, today is the “cumpleanos” of Elder Guerrero.  He is turning 21 years old like me.  We will have a good P-day and later tonight also as we are eating with some awesome members.    Elder Guerrero really has turned into a great friend.  I will have served with him for 4 and a half months after this transfer.  I only served with my trainer Elder Staheli for that same amount of time.  But, I have really enjoyed my time with Guerrero, he is a great and funny kid.  I wish he would change his mind about moving back to Chicago, where his family lives.  He needs to move to Utah!

Well, don’t really have more things to talk about, only that I am surviving, that we have been blessed here in Wilson, that the mission is still awesome.

Hope everyone has a good week.

Con Amor,
Elder Hardy