Wednesday, December 30, 2009

December 30, 2009

It was so good to see and talk to you guys on christmas. I am definitely going to try and use another webcam for mothers day. Yes you guys look different, well more like Allison, Daniel, Hailey, and Jake. haileys got short hair and braces, and jake just looks different, maybe the goofball bowl hair cut. Cut that kids hair ya check.

Other than that Christmas was good. We got saved, we did have 4 dinner appointments, but it got reduced to only 2. We would have died! I was already really full. One of our investigators, Jessica, wasnt feeling well so she didnt cook, so we just talked with her for a while. We ate a lot of food over at the Williams house though. They are the ones whose daughters just moved in from Guayana. We ate a lot and played some card games over there. We taught them how to play "BS", they really love that game. The daughters names are Sue and Niso. Last night Sue told us that she received her answer about the Book of Mormon. She was praying a lot, and was just sitting there, then she just felt this huge desire to read the Book of Mormon, she said that she couldnt put it down, and she felt really good. They are some really good girls, they really do want to learn, they take notes in our lessons, and actually remember what we teach them. They will be baptized on the 17, maybe the 10 if they feel ready.

Shawna's baptism went through!!! I was so happy. We met at the church, had two speakers on baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost, then we cruised over to the beach. The water was very refreshing, not cold at all, but perfect. Me, Shawna, Elder Harvey and Elder Norman (Witnesses), all walked out together. We had to fight some waves, I have some funny pictures of us getting nailed by them. We stopped at one spot and were about to do it, then a big set came in and hit us, so we had to go out a little further beyond the break. Haha, and when I finished saying the prayer the tide started going out, I got a little scared it would all leave and we would have to wait for the tide to come back, but luckily there was enough water. When Shawna came up she had a huge smile on her face and said, "That felt good, Can we do it again!" Then after we sang a song on the beach and said a prayer and that was that. I had a lot of sand in my pockets. I kept a little bit of it and I will send it back when I get to Puerto Rico as a little memory of my first beach baptism.
On Sunday Elder Harvey confirmed her and she is officially a member. We also had Sue and Niso in church, and Jessica actually drove them to church. It is nice when investigators work together. And then we were sitting there after the sacrament, and I felt a tap on my shoulder, I looked up and it was Richard! We were teaching him a couple of weeks ago, he came to church, and really wasnt sure if God exists. We had pretty much dropped him, so I was very happy/surprised when he showed up. We taught him and his girlfriend yesterday and set baptismal dates with them for the 13 of February. Richard has a lot of changes to make, so he wants some time. But he is doing really well, he has been reading every night, and says that he believes in God now. I am extremely happy.
Last week we played some Cricket with some branch members, and we are playing today as well. We are going to have a lot of people today though, we talked to all the young men in the branch and a couple guys from elders quorum. I pretty much got the hang of it last week. The batting was a little awkward at first because you stand right in front of the wicket (The thing they try to hit with the ball) so you have to hit balls that are coming right at you. The bowling was a little harder to pick up, you have to look it up on line, it is hard. I dont have too much control yet, but I manage.
Well it was so good to see you guys last week, I love you very much and miss you.

Love Elder Hardy

Sunday, December 27, 2009

December 16, 2009

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Hey everybody. Just sitting here in St Kitts doing my email, because our flight doesnt leave til tonight and we dont have time to have P Day tomorrow. Well Zone conference was amazing. We learned a good bit about the importance of baptism and about the Savior's baptism. Someone from St Kitts gave president a banjo (Dont know how to spell) for Christmas that they made. It was an authentic banjo which was reall cool. President was just like a little kid on Christmas, he spent the next 15 minutes tuning it while people tried to talk to him. Then we sang a bunch of Christmas songs while he played. It was really cool. Then we had out talent show, and then we had dinner at the Marriot Hotel! It was so nice. I have never been in such a nice Hotel. We had the Italian Buffett, Which was not the usual buffett at all. They have all different kinds of meats (Shrimp, fish, oyster, squid, beef, chicken, etc) you tell them what you want and the sauces and they cook it right there in front of you. It was SOO GOOD! Some of the best Itlaian I have ever had. And there was also a huge mound of dessert and chocolate which was very good as well. We all measured ourselves before we left, and when we came back the average weight gain was 5 pounds. We ate a lot. And president just kept egging us on to go eat more. It was a really fun night.
Alright well gots to get going, I love you all, thank you so much for the package, everything is looking good. Have a very merry christmas, I look forward to talking to you all, I miss you very much.
Elder Hardy

December 13, 2009

Hey family,
Life is good here. We have some solid investigators so it always makes things nice. Shawna is still progressing for the 26 of december and I feel that she will, if she is not yet already, be ready by then. Yesterday was Hero Day, so all the stores were closed so we couldnt email. We also went with some members and the Normans son is in town, on a SWEET hike. It was crazy beautiful. I am definitely taking yall there when we come here. There was a little army fort at the top of this little finger that jets out in the ocean. It is probably 50 yards wide and goes a for a ways. You guys will see pictures, it had a some great sights. Next week is zone conference, so i am looking forward to that. We are going to have a talent show so I barowed a guitar from a member here to practice for it. Me and Elder Harvey are going to sing O Holy night. I still get nervous singing in front of a bunch of people. This is only my second time. But is feels so good to play the guitar again. Yea I hope you guys liked the pants story, it was pretty funny. At the time I was just left in shock, but even later that day I was laughing about it.
Love Elder Hardy

November 26, 2009

Funny story from the other day. We were walking down a street on the way to an appointment, when I heard what sounded like just a lot of noise. Like maybe a lot of cars or somethings,I dont know what. But we were walking talking down this empty street in this neighborhood, and there were no cars. So we kept walking and it kept getting louder. After a minute I looked up at the sky, didnt see any rain or anything, I looked to the side, house, other side, house, then I looked at Elder Harvey, and then we looked behind us and this huge wall of water was following us. It was pooring rain behind us, and it was slowly creeping up on us. So the we started running to look for shelter, we passed a guy working on his car and I yelled out to him to find shelter, but it was too late, we was swallowed up in the rain. We finally reached a nice porch to stand under and let the storm pass by. It was pretty funny, I thought you guys might like the story as well.

Elder Hardy