Sunday, November 1, 2009

October 25, 2009

Hey!
How is my family doing? Glad to hear everyone survived Jakes birthday. Tell him happy birthday for me now. Cant believe he is 4, thats nuts. Ok, larry go means lets go. Dialect is strange, but we are picking it up ok. Well this week has been pretty good. Rosy didnt come to church, so we got to teach her and find out what is going on and just move the date back for a while, dont know when. But we started teaching a members wife who has a date for the 31 of october. He served a mission and is a counselor in the branch, brother Roberts. He is way nice, been off his mission for a little bit, married a nonmember and she has been coming to church for a year. Just recently she has started showing signs of interest. Before she didnt want the missionaries coming over at all, but now we are pretty good friends. She has really opened up too us. Last night we taught the plan of salvation, and she said with a very sincere voice when we were talking about the celestial kingdom, "I hope I go there." She had some doubts last week, but last night she was really open and it seems like a go. She is just afraid of change, she was hardcore pentacostal before, but they are excited to eventually get married in the temple. We also set a date with a lady yesterday, Andree, she is very sincere as well. we werent able to get a member to come out with us the day before, so we pushed it back a day, then the next day we couldnt get one either. So when we showed up, we told her we couldnt come in because we didnt have a man again, and she said its ok, I got a man to come over. She really wanted to hear our message. Her friend was actaully ruining the lesson, but she was way sweet, he was arguing something, and then she just said, "No if I know this book is true then I leave the lutherin church and join the true church." I was way excited, she understood. So her date if for the 21 of november.
hey they moved zone conference to the 5 of november, so you actually need to send it like the 29th of october, but dont worry about the eccos, just find some nice comfortable brown shoes. Anything is better than what they have here.
I havent got Island fever because even a tiny island seems really big when you are on foot. We cant cover a hundred square miles, so the island still seems huge. but next pday the Normans are taking us on an island tour, so that will be fun. get to see some beautiful beaches. Usually on pday the elders here have just slept for 4 hours. But last week we bought a basketball, so we are going to start playing that, and mixed with cricket it will keep us busy. We have also heard about a zip line that goes through the rain forest so we are going to ask president if we can do that.
That is great you are keeping the quad in service, that and snowboarding and wakeboarding are the only worldy things that I miss. I course I miss my family, that goes with out saying.
I can not believe I have been out a year. It is very strange, I feel very experienced so I feel like the mission is my whole life and there was no life before. So in that sense it feels long, but is seems like yesterday that i was in the MTC saying good bye to you. I only have 8 more transfers, THAT IS NOTHING! I cant believe it. I hear the second year goes by faster. It is kind of scary.
I did know someone named camaron cox. I wasnt friends with him, but i just knew him. So maybe it is the same one, but he aint my buddy or anything. That is a bummer lance got his nice bike stolen. I wont have to buy a bike in puerto rico because they ahve so many left over from Elders who have finished.
Hey well you have a great week, I love you so much and miss you. Keep the faith in the Lord and everything will work out.



Love Elder Hardy

October 14, 2009

Dear fam,
Wow, big week huh? Lots of events going on. Dad, that is sweet you are the 1st counselor! I cant believe that papa bear is the Bishop. It will be weird to not call him that. Maybe I can get away with calling him Papa Bishop? Scott carson huh? You tell him hes a stud.
Bishop Wilkonson, I dont ever think I can call you anything different, you were such a help to me growing up. You came right into the calling right once I needed you the most. Thanks for always being a support to me, and being a great example. I dont know anyone else that can tell you more about the displays in the visitor center at the temple than the actual voice recorded tour. You helped so many youth, you served well, I love you. Love Elder Hardy.
Papa Bear (Bishop Despain) that is going to take some time to get used too, but thank you so much for your service in young mens, everyone loved you. Now you can take it to a ward level. You are the man for the job. Love Elder Hardy.
Well no I am not dissapointed too much about missing the Mercury, Somehow I think i will get through. It might be a little hard to sleep tonight, but I will get through.
Cant belive Allison brought back baby chicks, she always has a suprise to bring home. Well at least it aint for too long. Mr. Davis and Mr Louzek huh? They are some real cool guys, I wish more teachers were like them. School doesnt always need to be serious. I was actaully talking about Mr Davis yesterday, about how he dressed up and sang at some assembly, it was pretty funny.
Dont be too scared, those were three extremely old men, they had to of been pushing 80 years old. I dont think they were actaully going to rob us. But everyone is pretty cool with us here, we dont have too many problems. Sometimes people yell stuff at us but we dont study them. Plus we dont carry around cash, only our cards. So if they do rob us they get nothing. Well Rosy was sick last week, so got to move the baptism to the 25, but all is good, more time to prepare her. Alright im getting kicked off, but I love you all very much.



Love Elder Hardy

October 7, 2009

How ya mean?
You dont understand what wah ah gon mean. Tall! Ya crazy mon! Haha, no you will not find a meaning for it in any spanish translation. That is dialect. The people speak dialect, not really English. But it means whats going on. So how is my family doing? I hope yall enjoyed conference. I loved it. I liked Saturday a lot more than Sunday, but it was all good. It was all very simple, and every one talked about the love of God or who God is. Elder Bednar was one of my favorite talks too. Every FHE is a paint stroke. I also loved Elder Holland. "No evil man would write the Book of Mormon, and no good man would say he received it from God if he didnt."
President Dewsnup flew in last night to do some interviews. It isnt very often that he comes here, so he has a lot of interviews to do. But this morning he met with Flor and Rosy to meet them. And he didnt exactly tell us, but he said that Rosy seems ready, but Flor might take some time. They have to take care of some things first. So im pretty sure that Rossy will be baptized the 18. Later today president is coming over to our apartment to do an inspection and talk with us. We have taking a couple of dinner breaks to clean the apartment this week. It looks pretty good, but I hope it is good enough for them. he was a General in the army you know. But yes it is an apartment. It is really just a big house, but it has four different apartments. They dont make apartment buildings like how we are used too. But it is very nice. We have a nice open area in the front with the kitchen and a couch. Then in the back is our room and bathroom. You will see when I send you my memory card with the old apartment tour. We live about 15 mintues of walking from the Harbor, thats where all the cruise ships come in, but I dont know how far from an actual beach.
No I wasnt able to tell Jason woody because I dont have his information. But if you ever see him, let him know. Maybe I can write Mckenna to tell him. I haven't written anybody for a while.
You dont have to send the general conference talks, because we get the Ensign every month. Entonce no se precupe. And we can order the bible from the mission office, but I dont know if I want one right now. I got my set all marked up already.
Wow Granpas birthday huh? Make sure to give them a special birthday shout out from me. I cant send them a letter for another month. Oh yea, and I left all my letters in a box in puerto rico because I didnt have weight in my bags, and I thought I had their address in my book, but I dont, so what is it? Also could you tell me when everyones birthdays are? I have a horrible memory. Even everyone in our family. Thanks.
Elder Harvey is from Logan Utah. he is great, we really get along. We have been in the mission for the exact amount of time. He is from my group.
Missionaries usually stay in Antigua for 6 months, but it just depends where they need us. I would be willing to stay for that long, I love it.
Ok, the craziest thing I saw this week, give me a minute. Well we were walking down this road behins this guy, then he looked behind, saw us, then spotted up on the wall and just started peeing. People are crazy here. They just walk around in their underwear in the middle of the street, men and woman. I dont understand it, but its just a different culture. The funniest thing, hmm, I should really write these things down as they happen, I will start doing that. But one funny thing that happened this week was we were walking down a pretty busy road, and this car just stopped and rolled down his window, causing traffic to stop. and said, "hey you jehovas witnesses?" We said "no, but we are from the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints, Have you ever haerd of that church?" Then he said, "Never heard of it in my life!" and drove off angry. It was pretty random, and we just started laughing. Oh yea, yesterday we were walking in the road, and three old men where behind us walking, then one of them said, "hey der be two of dem and tree of us, we should rob dem boy!" Then another one said, "Tall boy, we dont rob people!" Haha, here we are in the street, broad daylight, and these old men are considering robbing us, and just talking about it with no secretness. I guess they thought we dont understand Dialect or something. But it was extremely funny. It is also pretty funny to see dem goofy tourists coming into town. Right now most of them are from England, so they are just extremely sunburned. And if they aint, if they just flew in, then they are so white they almost glow. It is always weird for us to see white people.
Well anyways, I will write down some stuff during the week to share with you. I hope you are doing great. Mom, have an awesome trip. I want you all to know that I love you very much, and I am very thankful for our family. You guys tried so hard to teach me what was right when I was younger, stroke by stroke until now look at me, I am a beautiful work of art! haha. But really, I love you and am grateful.



Love your son, Elder Hardy

September 28, 2009

Hey!
Good afternoon. How are we doing this afternoon? Life is great, the mission in great. No where else I would rather be. And mom, if you are going to send something, I wont get it until November 9 when zone conference is. President brings all our stuff from the office. So if you send it now it will be waiting in the office for a month. So just send it November 1, that will still be plenty of time. Also if you want to start hunting around for some ugly polyester ties for Christmas, feel free to start looking. Uglier the better. Other than that I am pretty good. Dont worry about sending too much to me. Oh and I found a reasonable price on a memory card too. So I will just ship mine out in November to yall.
Well Odetta didnt come to church. We called here in the morning, and she said she was coming and never showed up. So we have to drop our date with her, and try to get her some desire before we start talking about baptism again. But we are teaching some really cool Dominican ladies. Dont know if I mentioned them the last week, but their names are Flor and Rosy, they are mother and daughter. But Rosy, the daughter, had been going to church for a while in the dominican republic before she came here a month ago. But they came to church, and have dates for the 18 of october. I am really excited for them. It was weird to translate in sacrament, I've never done that before. And then we taught their gospel priciples class out on the balcony. and then they went to relief society, Flor can understand a lot of English, but rosy speaks nothing.
Lately we have been teaching a lot of Dominicans. yesterday we pretty much spoke spanish the whole day. I feel like I was supposed to learn Spanish so that I could come here and teach all the dominicans and start up a spanish branch. God knows what he is doing.
That is really cool that Briley is walking. Are they showing her my picture and teaching her to say my name, so she will know who I am when i get back, and just scream my name all day. "Nate,Nate, Nate... Hi"
I can't believe Nick went and spoke infront of everyone, thats gotta take some guts. When is that kid going to be baptized already? Hasnt he been emailing Chris and Carter. Oh yea, I do believe chris has been out 15 months, because I have been out for over 11. CRAZY!
Ok, yes I did pay my speeding ticker before I left Puerto Rico. It was sweet too, therer was a member working at the DMV, so she jsut pulled me over to a booth, looked at my ticket, and cut the price in half. That was very nice!
So I had a pretty crazy morning today. I had to renew my visa, so we woke up at 4:30, and we walked into town, we got in line at 5:15 and there was already 50 people in line. They dont mess around with that stuff. And the Office didnt even open until 9 o'clock!!! So we had to stand there for 4 hours in the sun until it opened. Then the immigration officers were trying to get everyone organized into lines, and the people werent taking any part of that. I thought there was going to be a riot. Everyone was pushing and shoving and trying to cut in line. So heres me, trapped inbetween 300 crazy black people, and they are all just yelling and pushing. All I could do was laugh. And I didnt even end up getting in, but at least I got a ticket with an appointment on it in 2 weeks. Somethings are just a little crazier down here. It was a good lesson of patience. I passed the first time, hopefully I can pass again in 2 weeks.
So last sunday we were eating at a members house, the roberts. They are a newly married couple, and he served a mission like 4 years ago in the west indies. So we are looking through his photo albums, listening to him talk about his mission, then bam! Jason Woody was in one of the pictures! I just started trpping. I had forgotten he had even served down here. So they thought that was funny that I was jsut freaking out. But yea, the world is very small. Jason used to be the AP in the west indies mission, so brother roberts was in a picture with him.
Hey, I dont think there would be a better way to celebrate chistmas than take a cruise. I think its a great idea! Haha, but is is all up to you. As long as we see Puerto Rico and Antigua, it dont matter to me.
Well I love you family, keep reading the scriptures! That is our guidance that God has given to us. We are reading the same words that our ancestors had in ancient Jerusalem and the Americas. Peace, Love, and Guidance.



Love Elder Hardy

September 23, 2009

Hey!
Afternoon! Life is awesome. Today a member that is almost 20 and about to go on a mission came and picked us up this morning. We cruised over to the North side of the Island and played a little cricket with him. It was really fun. We just praticed batting and Bowling. it was pretty natural for me, he was impressed. But he lives in a really nice house, their family have some SUV's, they even have carpet in their home. I havent seen carpet for 11 months. As I stood there I juut thought how rich they were, and then I started thinking about our house, and how they arent that different. I realized how rich and blessed our family is. It kind of just hit me today. Alot of people here just live in one room shacks, so I am very grateful to God for what we have.
Yea Alex jsut finished, isnt that crazy? He said he is going to try and stop by the house and say hello to yall. Time goes by very fast no?
The talent show was very fun, one girl played the pan (steel drums) and I was very impressed. It is just a big pan with a bunch of bumps, and when you hit them they make different notes. Her's had 16 different notes and no marks to tell the difference. Me and Elder Harvey did pretty well. The young women did a full out Rap music video, so it was really bad, a lot of people were upset. "Applebottom jeans, boots with the fur."
Right now they are renting a building, we meet upstairs for our church. but they are finishing the other church building. So that should be done in the next month or so, (Island time it might be 5 months)
Well the work is good, we set a baptismal date last week with a lady named Odetta, she seems very interested. She missed church last week because of a family event, but she said she wont miss church for anything this week. We are also teaching some Domincan ladies, mother and daughter, and they are coming to church this week. they are very excited to read and go to church. Learning Spanish pays off no matter where you are at in the world.
Hey you guys have a great week, just always keep the words of john wooden in your hearts, and the scriptures, and you cant go wrong.


Love your son, Elder Hardy