All Experiences That Make Us Grow!

Monday, September 16, 2013.

Que Tal Familia!

Thank you so much for the wonderful email, as always!

I really enjoyed all the stories, whether they be good or bad. All experiences that make us grow!

BETHANY I WISH I COULD HAVE SEEN SOME VOLLEYBALL! I am going to the stake center to play volleyball with the whole zone after emailing, so I’m super excited for that! But I’m sorry about your bag, that is no fun at all. You are a good sport about it, I’m proud. Carson starting piano...good luck my friend!  A piece of advice, practice because you want to get better, not because you have to practice. Just think, in five years you could serenade people with your skills! Chad keep up the good work. Aubrey, already understanding French, baby genius over here? Good work Aubs, I hope school is very fun for you!

Well here’s just a little bit about my week. Let’s see...

We had a karaoke night with the ward, it was pretty hilarious for sure. I didn’t get to sing, but that’s alright, I would have made a fool of myself anyways!

We are baptizing Felix this Friday, and I am so excited. He is the most prepared man I have ever met, I love him so much! He is so excited to be baptized too, I just love it! We taught him the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity yesterday, and he was just so good about everything! It’s amazing to see, I can’t even express how excited I am for him.

We have had lots of amazing visits this week. One was with a Dominican family...there were 8 people there, all adults. We taught them the restoration, and the spirit was super strong. Literally there was one point when I could feel just a wave hit the room, the spirit was working hard. We invited them all to be baptized, but they didn’t say yes...yet. They want to learn more. They are all so great!

We also are teaching a 23 year old guy named Jon David. He doesn’t live in the best circumstances, his piso is where all of the young people go to smoke drugs and do other things..so he is struggling. But super strong Christian, lots of faith, has a young daughter. We gave him a blessing one day, and it was so amazing. He changed at that moment, and I was so happy for him. We also went to teach him one day, and by the end of the lesson, everyone in the whole piso was listening. Like three others girls and boys, and we all prayed in a circle together. It was a fun experience!

I have so many things that happen daily that are so normal to me, that I just like forget to write them down! But I don’t know exactly what else to write! Pray for Felix that all will go well!

I love you all so much, and I hope that things will get better, in any way that they need to. Remember to count your blessings!

Love, Elder Hardy.

PS There are lizards in Spain!

 

 

 

There are lizards in Spain!

 



 

Funny he sent a picture of this! 

Great time, worked hard. That's How You Do It!

Monday, September 9, 2013.

 

Buenos Dias Mi Maravillosa Familia!

 

YOU ALL MAKE ME SO HAPPY. Ahhhh  I love seeing all these pictures and seeing how happy everyone looks. You are all so ridiculously good looking, makes me a little jealous! I literally take pictures of the computer screen so I can take the pictures home to look at. Anyways, about your week! 

 

Sounds like life in the real world is starting to get busy for all hey? Everyone at school, running around from place to place, trying to fit in work and fun within it all. Sometimes we got lost in the craziness of life, and forget to remember why we are here. TO ENJOY IT. TO BE HAPPY. TO GROW, AND TO LEARN. That is literally why we are here. So no stress everyone, alright? ¨Just take a chill pill¨ -Elder Hardy.

 

Okay so my week this week! I had a great week, with all sort of experiences! I’ll try to share a little bit of each type of experience. On Tuesday and Wednesday I was chosen to help train one of the new 44 missionaries! So I got to take Elder Wilson out to Barcelona, and show him the ropes a little bit, how missionary work is done. He told me after how grateful he was for me as a temporary companion, because before he was struggling emotionally a bit, but I helped him out. We had a great time, and we worked hard. That’s how you do it! 

 

I also got to help register everyone, so I personally talked with all the new ones, and met them a little! So I loved that opportunity, maybe I’ll get to do the same with joss!

 

One funny story...when I was with Elder Wilson, I contacted these 3 girls sitting in front of a shop. They were all about my age, which was a little sketchy. Let’s just say that the contact went downhill, and by the end they were all just calling me guapo and ordering me to ¨deme besos¨ which means kiss me. Sooooo we had to leave haha. There’s your bad story of the week.

 

We are still working hard with our investigators. Felix is receiving amazing blessings, and I’m so happy for him. He is the most faithful man I have ever met in my life! We also found 7 new investigators this week, a family of five last night, and two the day before. I’m so excited to teach them. One of the two, his name is John David from Dominican. He is 23, and has a girlfriend or wife, and a 4 year old kid. He told us that he has had dreams about Christ, and how he has seen him in his dreams, descending from the heavens in white robes. Pretty amazing!

 

Well that’s about it for today! Any questions, ask me! I love you all so much, you mean the world to me.

 

Love, Elder Hardy

My Heart Just Hurts For Some People.

Hola Todos! 

 

Well it has been another quick week over here on the other side of the world...I think the sun must move faster in the eastern hemisphere or something? ;) Haha no, but it has gone by quick. 4 months already, crazy.

 

Well there is soooooooo much in this email, that I don’t even know what to respond to! It's hard to organize thoughts and reply to everyone! But here we go. You guys seem to be doing so great back at home, all of you. You guys have been promised blessings back at home, both in the scriptures, and directly to me by President Pace. I can tell you are doing so great, so remember to count those blessings.

 

Dang I just want to reply to everything but I literally can't.  Like seminary starting, school starting,  Sunday, all this fun stuff I want to talk about! I guess just one of those sacrifices! But one thing, Aubrey and her leopard pants literally made me laugh so hard. Such a little fasionista little Aubs! I love you so much.

 

Okay well my week here in Barcelona. 

 

I went to the Sagrada Familia last Preparation Day. It is beautiful. And huge. I will send you pictures! 

 

We are now teaching a man named Felix from Nigeria. My heart just hurts for some people. Let’s just say that I think nearly 25% of the population here live on the streets...and it hurts me to see. But I love talking to them, they are great people. Anyways, Felix is from Nigeria, and he escaped here after running away from a bomb that went off in a church in Nigeria. He lost his mom during the bomb, so he doesn’t know where she is, or if she is alive. And his dad died a few months earlier from that type of bomb set off. But he opened up to us about this the very first lesson, and it was so hard to listen to. I just imagined if that was me. It would hurt me so deep if something ever happened like that to one of you guys...SO STAY SAFE. But he now has a baptismal date, and we are gonna help him out. I’m going to give him a white shirt, cause he literally has nothing. He doesn’t know what to do. 

 

We have a few more investigators with baptismal dates, so we are continuing to work hard with them. I love everyone we visit with; they are all so wonderful and nice. One family in particular really likes to feed us...haha the dad from Argentina is such a good cook...mmmm :)

 

A few nights ago we were walking around a little later at night, and we contacted a family on the street. They are from Romania, and around here they are known as Gypsies..if you’ve ever heard of them. But I made great little friends out of their three little kids, we ended up like running and skipping and jumping and just doing fun crazy stuff together...the whole time they were trying to steal my stuff, and take my wallet and such...so instead I just gave them a book of Mormon and a pamphlet of Jesus Christ. They loved it.

 

Well that is the main part of my week. Today we visited an Egyptian Museum, which was fun.  Its Elder Escobars birthday today, so we tried to have some fun! Then we went shopping and sightseeing and such. I’ll send you lots of pictures! CARSON I BOUGHT A BARCELONA JERSEY.  I took a picture, I know you like soccer, so I thought you would like it! 

 

Hey we started a Book or Mormon challenge as a mission. Started today. Finish by December 1st. So I’m in it with you guys. Let’s do this! I love you all so much. Each and every one of you. I will continue to pray for you all, even if you don’t need it ;) Keep growing, keep learning, and remember that it’s through our trials that we learn, not through our good times. So chin up!

 

Love, Elder Hardy