The Adventures of My Life

*Dad, said you received no email for last week…here it is..don’t know how you didn’t get it*

Ho Ho Ho….the holidays have begun! For some reason…as a missionary…and I guess with most everyone, Christmas is the favorite holiday. It has even expanded that Christmas is just not celebrated for 1 day but for the whole month of December, even starting sometimes before Thanksgiving! But I love Christmas just because usually it is a very happy time with family, with the people you love and a time to reflect and help other people. Before the mission, it was primeraly a time to receive lots of sweet stuff…but, last Christmas, as a missionary, I learned you don’t have to get lots of stuff to enjoy Christmas…mainly by changing the focus to Christ. Anyways, I’m excited for that and we also had a decent good week.

On Monday, we set up all of the Christmas stuff in the apartment (mainly just the tree and some lights) and we also had dinner with the sweetest members…the Owens, who do everything for us (and she also cooks way good). Tuesday, we taught 8 lessons, 4 of them with Brother Owens, doing medias. On Wednesday, we had exchanges with the Burlington Elders….and I went to Burlington. Well, since the other Spanish Elders had the car and I can’t ride a bike, the other Elder I was with just sat around in the apartment complaining and making phone calls. It kind of sucked…oh well, it’s not my area. Anyways, back in Henderson, Alfreda didn’t show up for the baptismal interview (kind of saw it coming), she was baby-sitting some kids. She is a kind, sweet lady and wants to be baptized but I don’t think she really realizes the importance of it. It will be postponed for a few more weeks. Also, in the evening, Elder Ferons went over to the Garcias and they told him they wanted to be baptized before New Years. So, we have 2 on the 16th (Cleo Lee and Anastacia) and the 2 more before the end of the year, the Garcia Parents. It should be a very good month.

On Thursday, we had our ZDM in Durham. It was my first time ever in Durham…didn’t see much..just from the highway. I saw a little bit of the Duke campus and also where the Durham Bulls play (a minor league baseball team). But the meeting was good and I had a really good interview with President Wallis. Henderson is just going so sweet right now, I love it. We also had a good day and taught the Lopez Family..(the Dad, Juan, is not a member). We really taught a sweet lesson about baptism, but Juan wouldn’t budge, saying he hasn’t recieved an answer yet…ahhh. Anyways, we are having tons of success with part-member families…even on the english side…Saturday, we taught Lenny, the husband of Sister Riggans. He told us he would read and pray and he had never really accepted the missionaries over before. So, we are excited about him.

Let’s see…what else…on Saturday, we helped Bob (the member who buys us tons of things), we moved his brothers stuff out of his house (his brother had tons of antiques and junk and everything stuffed into a little portion of the house). We also spent Sunday with Bob, visiting a referel we recieved in the John Umstead Hospital in Butner (where?). He was named Edwin Duque, actually was from Ecuador, and was in the physciatric ward. I guess he almost got baptized in the Charlotte mission and then had to go to the hospital because he had been diagnosed with Borderline personality and before was diagnosed Bi-Polar. But, he was a really cool kid and I’m glad I had the chance to go. With Bob also, we had a sweet meal and also made a bondfire in his backyard before going to the Christmas devotional, which I enjoyed very much.

It got really rainy and cold last night and today it is hovering in the mid 40’s. It has really been nice lately for November and December, but I think it is going to stay cold this time..(although the it is supposed to be 50 or 60 in the next few days). Well, I am doing well, this afternoon the Owens are going to be getting us a “real” christmas tree..so, it’s going to be great.

Ok. I hope everyone enjoys the holiday season and gets everything they want (I want an Ipod for christmas, but I am waiting until June to buy one, cause they will be a lot fancier and better…hahahaha!!)

Con Amor,
Elder Hardy

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

Well, I have good news and bad news.  The bad news is that I just found out I lost all of my pictures in my memory card that I had sent home….and the good news is that I am being transferred (I guess that could be considered as bad news also).  I really don’t know what to think right now, just the fact I am going to miss this place and some of the sweet pictures I just lost.  I someone got another cold…I am not happy about that…I am not feeling too good right now, but I feel better than I did last night.

We did a lot of things this past week.  I was kind of bummed because e-mail wasn’t working last week, but it seems not too much has been happening lately.  But, on Tuesday, we had a “Spanish Council” in Raleight with all of the spanish missionaries in the mission.  That was sweet, I got to see a ton of old friends and relish about the good times that we had together.  Also, from the meeting, I got a new strong resolve to do missionary work.  I am ready for the next area…wherever it is.  It has also been a little tough…because all of the missionaries that I knew in the MTC for my first time…or all of the missionaries that went into the MTC on Nov. 17th, 2004…they are all going home on Wednesday (2 days).  So, it made me a little homesick thinking about that…but I am all right.  I was actually thinking to myself that this is when my mission really counts…I will find the purpose of all of this in the next 7 months…technically the time I should have finished my time as a missionary.  Needless to say, that I am really excited, and that whatever happens, I will try my best.  Members and other missionaries have already started making comments about how much time I have left, but I am sure it is only going to get worse.  Being with 3 others who have the same time or less hasn’t helped.  But I will be with a young missionary in the next transfer, so I know that I will be able to more focused on what I have to do.

Our investigators are doing fine…we set a baptismal date for Sergio for December 9th…I think that he will be ready…but time will only tell.

I have said goodbye to most of the members here…it has been a good time, I feel that I am leaving the area better than I left it…so I have done my part.  I still need to pack alot of stuff and I don’t have a ton of time, so I think I will let all of ya go and I will update ya’all next week.

Happy Thanksgiving
y que el senor les bendiga
Elder Hardy

Michael reports no letter this week.  His normal email site is down.

Here we are..in November of 2006.  It’s crazy how time flies.  Just in a few weeks, I’ll be down to 7 months…plus I’ll be transfered to a new area.  Yup…the transfer date is Nov. 21st.  I just have about 2 more weeks of Wilson…thank goodness.  It has been a good area, but seriously, there are not many things to do…it drives me crazy, cause I want to be busy all the time but there is just no possible way.  Anyways, it was a good week.  The highlight of it all was our temple trip to Apex.  Well, Tuesday night was Halloween also.  But, we had to be back in the apartment by 7 o’clock (mission rule).  I guess we couldn’t trick or treat    as mormon missionaries.  Oh well, it was a good day.  Friday was a crazy day…as we had to get up a little early to be out the door at 7 in the morning to be at the temple on time.  Brother Woodard took us all to Apex…and it was a very very interesting ride.  I had to sit in the front seat both the ride up and the ride back.  Brother Woodard talked alot, he is a DJ, and he loves talking.  I was pretty much worn out after the trip, but the temple was a great experience.  It took us about 3 hours to return home (usually a 1 hour trip), because DJ Brother JAW (the DJ name of Brother Woodard), ran a few errands in Raleigh.  It was depressing, seeing my two old areas again (Cary and Raleigh), because they looked so much better than Wilson.  All the buildings, all the cars, all the trees..all the normal people.

Sergio was the only one that came to church this last week.  He is progressing quite well.  We’re going to see if we can set a baptismal date for him.  The only problem is that he might be in it for the wrong reasons (financial help from the church), so we are going to play it safe.  Our other sweet investigators, Rafael and Yareli, could not make it to church, because Yareli just had her baby a few days ago.  It made me think alot about Crystal…cause the baby is going to come fast.  When I first met Yareli, I couldn’t even tell she was pregnant…and it seems like I just met them yesterday.  Time just flies!

Do I always talk about the same things in my e-mails??  I hope not, I really hope you all enjoy the in-depth view into the world of Elder Hardy.  I really do enjoy doing missionary work, although it can be repetative at times..especially here in Wilson.  But, it’s fun being a missionary, I would recommend it to anyone.  I have really learned how to be independent, but at the same time work with a partner to accomplish things (sounds a lot like marriage..haha).  Really, I have gained a new perspective on the church and how lucky we are to be members of the true church.  It’s unreal and sometimes depressing how many people do not want to listen and participate of the blessings. This really is the true church and the way to return to our Heavenly Father.  Sometimes, people do not realize that or just do not want to realize it.  That is one of the most frustrating parts of being a missionary.

So, back to transfers…only in 2 weeks…I kind of got 2 possible choices..Burlington or Chapel Hill.  Burlington has more members but Chapel Hill is a sweet area.  We all think that I’ll end up in Chapel Hill.

Well, have a good week everyone,
Elder Hardy

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

Here is another update from Elder Hardy… Things are going well here in Wilson, although, I started sneezing alot yesterday and my throat started hurting last night, and right now, I pretty much feel  miserable with a cold.  I have been trying to counter it with all of the cold remedies that I have, but the cold appears to be winning…at least for this moment.  Let’s see…everything looks ready for the baptism for Michelle Mendez this next Sunday.  We just finished teaching her the lessons yesterday after church, and she is going to be having the baptismal interview on Wednesday.  Looking back, this is the quickest baptism I have had from the start of the lessons.  We started teaching her on Sept. 5th and she will be baptized on Oct. 1st in between the 2 sessions of General Conference.  So, that is about 3 and 1/2 weeks.  The previous record was 4 weeks with Karen in Cary.  But, in reality, I have had nothing to do with it…it’s just they were both ready and willing to keep commitments.  It’s pretty cool.  The baptism and temple day are definately the best part of being a missionary.  Although I have not seen anyone I baptized get sealed yet..I’m hoping Sandy and Santiago there in Cary are still working towards that.

Well, I feel a little..light headed right now…so I hope my e-mail doesn’t sound wierd, but I am enjoying the time with Elder Guerrero.  It definately is hard right now…it wasn’t meant to be easy.  But, we pass by the same people, it seems like every day.  There isn’t much change here.  I believe an apostole once said that Missionary work can sometimes seem like an endless routine, and that is true here in Wilson, but we have fun and we seem to achieve success.  This next week, transfers are coming, so I should find out if I am leaving Wilson or staying for another 7 weeks.  I think it’s a 50-50 right now, I really have no clue what is going to happen.  But, that’s all I can say for now.

Well, I don’t have much to say this week, other than I am really looking forward to General Conference.  I have heard that President Hinckley did not look very good at the Relief Society broadcast, so I was wondering how much time our beloved Prophet has left.  I am looking forward to hearing from him again and also the other apostoles…General Conference is like Christmas for us missionaries.  Those are the only real holidays..GC and Christmas.   Speaking of holidays, I can not believe Halloween is coming up soon and that in 2 days, I will have been in North Carolina for 1 year.  Crazy.  Last Halloween, I was super sick from a bad cold.  It seems I am always getting sick with the weather changes.  It’s starting to cool down a little bit, to the 70’s and it appears that the leaves are starting to fall off of the trees again…it’s already fall.

Anyways, hope everyone has a good week at school, work and play!!

Elder Hardy