May 27, 2009

Hey Fam,
How does it go? Well I opened my other email, but i couldnt open the emails, so hopefully i will be able to read them next week. Just send your emails to this new account, I dont know whats up with the other one.
That is super funny it rained on Graduation again. Oh the good old days in high school. Speaking of high school, all the girls in the ward sent me a bunch of notes and pictures. I thought it was pretty funny. Tell them all thank you so much, and that they boosted my day. Especially thank sister Grover, I'm sure she was in charge of that, she is the coolest.
Well a little bit about Arroyo, is that alot of the older houses are built on huge stilts. It is pretty cool, because you always have a nice shaded patio underneath your house. Some of them are crazy, we saw one that was built next to a hill/cliff. When you drive up to the house it is ground level in the front, but in the back they cutt out of the hill, so the house was just on 30 foot stilts. I hope you can picture that, it was stecthy to the max. I didnt even want to go inside, luckily they werent home.
There also arent any parrots here. I dont get it, but there are absolutely no parrots on the part of the island. This side is like a different world than the north side. Even the season of the fruits. When I was in Guaynabo it was mango season and it was dying down when I left, but when I came here mango season was jsut starting up. I thought that mangos just grew year round, but a member told me the other day that the north and south are on different schedules.
Well that sweet mountain lake was pretty cool. It was beautiful. Of course we couldnt go in, but we explored around, and jsut acted like we were like boys in scouts again. We had a lot of fun.
Hey, so that memory card you sent me is full, so i am going to buy another one today at walmart. Also, I gotta spend 20 bucks on a Book of Mormon, because mine got soaked because of the rain, and was all gross and ripping. And in Zone Conference they talked about how the appearance of our scriptures reflects how we feel about them.
Last week was a rough week for the work. We didnt teach too many people, and we didnt really find anyone. But we tried to think of what we could do better yesterday, and we figured that we just need to have more faith in the Lord, and let the light of Christ shine through. We have to be stoked about this work, weather it be talking to people who are prepared and want to be baptized, or getting doors slammed in our face. We are missionaries of the Lord, and we just need to recognize who we are. There is no one else that is able to teach someone to be baptized as a convert. Members can go out with missionaries, but we are the only ones called authorized to do this work. We also decided to shorten our lessons, and make them more simple. That really seemed to work yesterday. We taught a bunch of people and set up a bunch of return appointments.
Keep trying to help those missionaries understand the importance of members. Members roles arent to go out and find the people, but to make them feel welcomed into the Church. Think about walking into a place where everyone has different beliefs than you were raised up believing, and where you dont know anyone. That is super scary, I would never enter into a church if I didnt know anyone. The roll of members is to fellowship. To invite them over for dinner, to invite them to sit by you in Church, and make them feel loved. Also in teaching to relate how the gospel has blessed your life. With out members this work is super hard. Also when was the last time you guys gave a reference to the missionaries? A bunch of your neighbors arent members, become friends with one family on the street, invite them over for dinner, and gradually introduce them to the gospel. Once people see we arent a bunch of locos, they become interested in our church, they realize that we really arent that different, but that we believe that God has called a prophet for us in these days, and has given us more of his guidance.
Well I love you all so much. Realize how important missionary work is, and that it is not only for missionaries. I really do have a testimony in Christ, I know that there is life after this, this is just a test, and we will live with the consequences for the rest of Eternity. Go into the world and let the light of Christ shine. Never be afraid to tell someone when they are wrong on moral standards, tell them how it is and be bold 2 nephi 7.


Love Elder Jared Hardy