New Home
Well, I am sitting here in a new library with a new companion, in a new area….and the place is…..HENDERSON, NC……I am follow-up training Elder Ferons from Chula Vista, CA. He has about 2 transfers out here in the field and he got trained pretty well, he is a great missionary. But, I had been thinking for the longest time that I was going to Burlington or Chapel Hill. I always had ruled out Henderson, cause it was too small. But, last monday, found out I wasn’t doing to Burlington (cause someone was going to be training), so it really was between Chapel Hill and Henderson. So, tuesday, we headed out to transfer meeting with Brother Waters. It was terribly cold and rainy outside…a miserable day to have transfers. There were quite a group being transferred (a big turn-around is happening in the mission). We arrived there exactly as the meeting was getting started. President Wallis started with the leadership changes (some of them surprising, some no), and then he started to announce the other changes. When he announced that Elder Felger was going to Chapel Hill, I pretty much knew I was going to Henderson, which was confirmed just a minute later. I immediately looked back at Elder Scribner (who served in Henderson) and also Elder Yenchik (who just was here) and they told me that it was a sweet place…so I was really excited.
Well, I have concluded that they were right, Henderson really is a great place, and I am super excited to be here. There are only 2 of us missionaries here and we cover the English branch and the Spanish group…so I get to teach in both languages now! It’s been hard, but I’m getting better. At the transfer meeting, I met Bob, who was taking us back up to Henderson. Now, Bob, is one of those members who is a legend…Elder Guerrero told me about him, that he buys food and everything for the missionaries, and always takes them out to eat. He is a super cool guy, probably in his late 50’s..but he’s been around missionaries his whole life and since he is divorced, we are like his sons. So, we rode up to Henderson in the cold rain, but in his big RV (Henderson is about 1 and a half hours north of Raleigh..15 miles south of the Virginia/NC line). He dropped us off at the apartment…which is a huge 4-man apartment. Elder Yenchik also left tons of food, so i hardly have to buy anything. But, that evening we stopped by a few spanish investigators that we have…The Lopez Family…and we taught a sweet 2nd lesson (plan of salvation)…we commited them to go to church, but they didn’t show up. We also visited one of the Spanish families, the Resendiz family…they are a really awesome family. Our usual attendence on the Spanish side is 15-20 people…hopefully, we can make a branch here soon…that would be awesome. On the english side…probably about 50-60 go to church every week…and they are all great people.
Well, on Wednesday, I met Brother Owens…or as we call him “Elder” Owens. He is retired, has lots of time and has nothing else to do except help us out. He picked us up and we headed out to the middle of nowhere to Roxboro, NC to have our district meeting with the Elders from Burlington. It went good, Elder Bourgous is the DL…I have been in the same district as him for the last 9 months…it’ll be a year soon with him. So, afterwards, Brother Owens took us to visit some people and deliver media (stuff that people order from the church). This is the first area that I have been in that we deal with media and we have about 4-5 pages full. It is another part of missionary work that I haven’t done. In fact, we just received 5 more people this morning. But, sometimes we do have success. Like with Cleo Lee…who really was a golden contact. She is a awesome, humorous black lady in her 50’s who called in to order a video. She let the missionaries in right away and started coming to church. Her grandson was just baptized this last week and she has a baptismal date for Dec. 16th (would have already been baptized earlier, but just has one obstacle). We also had a baptismal date for Dec. 2 for another very sweet black lady named Alfreda Towns. But, we are going to puch that back, cause she didn’t come to church and I don’t think she is ready to be an active member yet. So, after the visits, we went to eat with Brother Owens and his wife and they are suuuper cool. We basically spent the whole day with Brother Owens doing missionary work and then ate dinner with them. Sister Owens is like the meal coordinater and she MAGNIFIES her calling. I love it.
Well, Thursday was a special day…THANKSGIVING!! Everything went well. We tried to play football in the morning at 9 o’clock (the turkey bowl). So, we went there to the church and met Brother Bently and his father (who were the only ones to show up). We played in the cold weather and slipped quite a few times in the wet muddy field. We had a good time. Brother Bently loves college football, so I got to talk to him a little bit. Afterwards, we went back to the apartment to clean up, and Brother Bently picked us up to go eat at his house. We stayed at his house from 12 to 8 (most time I have ever stayed at a member’s house, beating last years record). We had a great time and they made tons of food. Sister Bently is from Utah, born in Payson and lived by UVSC in Orem…already asked her if she knew the Powell’s, but she doesn’t. We made lots of food with them…man, did they put us to work. But, it all paid off in the end…we had fried turkey, potatoes, green bean stuff, yams, rolls, stuffing, everything. Later we played a card game and ate some pie…it was all so good. But then I remembered how long it’s been since I’ve had a thanskgiving at home…many years!
Ok, well, Friday and Saturday also went by alright. We set another baptismal date (makes 3) with a lady named Anastacia Munoz. Her son just got baptized and now she wants to support him and be baptized also. It was only the first time that Elder Ferons had taught her…so it was sweet setting a baptismal date the first time we taught her. The date is also the 16th of December. We are excited about her. On Sunday, I got to meet the branch, they are all such wonderful people. The Spanish and English combined for sacrament meeting and I had the priviledge to translate in the back (it went very well). We had 3 investigators at church, Cleo Lee and also the Garcias (part member, parents are members). And with the Garcias, we are so going to set a baptismal date with them soon. The work is going great here in Henderson, I am excited.
It feels so good to be out of Wilson, I feel so energized again and we have so much support from the branch and the members and specifically Bob and Brother and Sister Owens. I truly feel happy and I will do my best to work hard in my Mission “Overtime”. All of the other people I met at the MTC the first time, are already in their houses..but I still have the luck of being out here, doing missionary work!
Con Amor,
Elder Hardy