I am Starting to Learn some Good Tricks.

Monday, December 30^th, 2013.

 

MMCBBCA!

 

Hey there ya crazies! I'm just going to start off my email by telling you all how grateful I was to be able to see you all and talk to you all. Seeing everyone together at home seriously made me the happiest guy alive, and furthermore, to see how you were still your same crazy selves made me even happier. Especially you Aubrey, I loved your silly faces you made in the computer screen.

Super fun experience to go to the temple together, that sure sounded special. There is no sacrifice too hard that we can make, in order to enjoy the blessings of the temple. Im reading doctrine and coventants right now, and loving it when it talks about the temple. I really miss going there with you mom and dad, those were incredible experiences.

Hey I'm happy you enjoyed my email last week. I will try my best to make this email just as good as last week, but I make no promises ;)

So on Christmas Eve, we went to the Piñeros to eat! They always feed us sooo much, you don't even understand. I feel literally sick leaving there sometimes. They are so good to us. Then after, we played some rummy kub with them, a really fun game with numbers and such. On the holidays, we are allowed spending extra time with members, so we really made the most of our time with them. Then we headed back to Manacor, and ran to the church for English class. Only one man came, because it was Christmas Eve. His name is Daniel. He is an older spanish man, about 60, and has a pretty rough story! He has no job, and lives here alone. His family lives over in Spain on the mainland, but he hasn't talked or seen them in 13 years. He even has grandchildren, but has never seen them. All that he has told us is that his family doesn't love him, doesnt want him anymore. It breaks my heart really, to imagine being in his situation. So on his Christmas Eve, I hope we were able to brighten up his day, and make him feel a little less alone. Then we got invited to dinner by Katalina...WITH ALL OF HER EXTENDED FAMILY. One thing you have to understand is that Mallorquines are normally people who are pretty closed off...so this was huge. We went there, and totally just hit it off. Ate their traditional food, talked to them about who we are, and shared Christmas eve! It was incredible guys, we truly are winning the hearts of these people here! So that was my Christmas eve.

Christmas Day was super super windy and rainy. But in the morning we decided to go search out the homeless and give them cookies and cards.

So we searched out the shelter, but no one was there. We then saw a group of about 5 of them that we see alot, and went over to chat and give them some treats! It was a good experience, but the problem is that everyone thinks we are rich....and they just ask for money for drugs and alcohol. Soooo we had to leave quickly...I wish they were a little more appreciative, but hey. I then opened up my AMAZING gifts and letters, that made me so happy. You all are wonderful. Thank you so much for all that you did, especially that tree, I love it. Then I went to talk to you all at the Hernandez house, that was absolutely the highlight. I wish I could have chatted for hours, I'm so sorry! But it was great. Then we stayed over there and ate a bit and just chatted! It was a good Christmas!

We had a district meeting this past week that I really liked! It was all about Christ-like attributes. We talked a whole lot about them, and it just made me realize that I have sooooo much room that I need to improve. I am going to focus more on charity and love. In preach my gospel, it basically says that charity and love will help lead us to develop tons more attributes, naturally, and its so true. If we love others, naturally we will be kind to them. Patient with them. It just all makes sense.

We have been trying to teach a young family, D and M, she had her 2nd baby about a month ago. Anyways, they are super hard to teach because they live with all their family, and they love watching really weird TV shows when we come over, and they don't like turning it off. Its complicated. haha. But this last time we resorted to just singing for them, trying to help them feel the spirit a bit. It was tender to hear the very old grandma say to us when we finished, "can you sing one more?" Best thing ever.

Hey great news! I GOT MY LOST NAMETAG BACK. Turns out that it fell in the car of one of our investigators, and he found it! He joked about wearing it around everywhere, funny guy. His name is Darwin, and he tries so hard to learn English. We go to teach him one hour of the gospel, then a bit of English too. We have invited him to be baptized, but he says poco a poco. Little by little. So we will keep working. On our way back from visiting him, we took the train. We contacted the lady sitting across from us, and what normally happens on the train is that everything gets silent when we start talking, because everyone wants to hear what these two tall strange white guys with nametags have to say! So as we were talking, we began to explain who we are and such, and why we are here. It really impresses people in Spain when we explain that we don't get paid, but we PAID to do this. It's beyond their comprehension sometimes, not even kidding. Then we blow their minds more by saying we teach English, FREE. At this point, we had the whole train on the edge of their seats! So for the finale, I decided to acknowledge the fact that everyone was "secretly" listening to us, and I said "DE HECHO, TODAS LAS PERSONAS EN ESTE TREN DEBEN VENIR PARA APRENDER INGLÉS!" which means, "In fact, everyone in this train should come to learn English!" I looked around at all the people, smiled, and they all just smiled back and started nodding their heads in agreement. It was the best.

One last day to share about, yesterday. Super great day! At church was the primary presentation. Best sacrament meeting ever, no matter where you are in the world. I even got to go up and sing "I hope they call me on a mission" with all the kids! We had 5 investigators come to church, most we have had yet! Last night, we decided to knock a bulding. With not much success, we had one last door to knock. I decided to try two tricks that I remembered. 1. Just Smile. 2. Mention something you like in their house and ask about it. IT WORKS. I put on my best smile, and an atheist woman answered. She started smiling too as I shook her hand, and we just started up talking. She wouldn't budge on her beliefs, but that is okay. I then saw a painting I loved, so I asked where it was from! She then explained some story of the history of Spain. We left that house leaving her feeling happy, and with a small seed planted. I am starting to learn some good tricks!

Well, that was my week. I hope I explained things correctly, I try to go pretty fast. I love you all so much, and hope you have great remainder of the holidays. Don't get sick, alright?

Love, Elder Hardy

 

Music is Powerful.

Monday, December 23^rd, 2013.

What´s Crackalackin ya´ll?!

Well pretty crazy that I will be talking to you all in just 2 days!
Can you believe that?! I am really so excited. Haha sorry I'm slightly
distracted right now, there is this little Arabic boy trying to play
with me right now here in the locutorio. Anyways, I am so excited to
see you all and talk with you! I think we will be doing it in a
members home, so all will work great! They are from Columbia, and he
speaks a bit of English and Japanese too!

Fun to hear about all of the happenings this week. Grandma´s funeral
sounded beautiful, and that many great things were said about her. I
am sad I haven't seen her for a long time, but grateful for the
memories I do have of visiting her together as a family. I hope that
Grandpa is doing okay without her for a slight moment.

Mom also thank you for your spiritual thoughts! I always print off all
of your emails to read later, and I appreciate the time you put into
writing uplifting messages for me! I love them and they really do
strengthen me.

Aubrey's Christmas concert must have been fun, I bet she was the cutest
out of the whole bunch! They do the same thing here I believe, a small
concierto de la navidad before the Christmas break! I wish I was there
to see it Aubrey!

Oh man before I forget. I GOT YOUR AMAZING PACKAGE! With the Christmas
tree with all of my favorite ornaments, how genius are you all?! That
seriously made me so happy, literally nothing made me happier than
seeing that. Thank you also for those letters in it, I am excited to
read them on Christmas day! Love you all!

Well I have my list here of things I want to tell you all!

Last preparation day, guess what happened?!  THE UNDERCOVER POLICE
KNOCKED ON OUR DOOR AT NIGHT. They were looking for Elder _, the
Elder that was in _ at the time. Poor guy, he had to fly back to
the island to get questioned by the police. I believe all is fine
there, just a lame attempt by Satan I think.

This week we had amazing intercambios, or exchanges. I went to Inca
with Elder Soumarrett from Chile, and we had a great time! They
basically don't have anyone to teach, so we ended up contacting almost
the whole time! We taught 4 lessons in one night, all to random people
on the street. It was a huge miracle that we had that many people
listen to us long enough to teach them a lesson, and really helped me
build my skills as a missionary. Elder Soumarrett is an incredible
missionary, and he gave me some great compliments. He was impressed by
my humility, and I loved hearing that from him.

Our English class is thriving! We have tons of people who come. Lots
of them are young kids from Morocco, which can be a little tough, but
we are seeing so much success from people coming. I build some great
relationships there, and really am able to have fun and express
myself. I love teaching, that's for sure! There is one man who comes,
from Columbia, who is actually a brain surgeon. I told him I wanted to
be a doctor, and all of a sudden he was offering me all of these
things. I had to tell him quickly that I couldn't focus on a career
while on the mission ahaha.

M, the 17 year old girl, is doing great! We have had some powerful
experiences with her, and have built a wonderful friendship also, with
her and the family. We have talked about her baby, and she is excited
for it! She asked us a question the other day about babies who die
early, and what happens to them! I believe we referred to D and C 137
or something, and taught her that they would be saved, that really
they were already prepared enough spirits to simply come to earth to
recieve their bodies. She loved that. Then another day as a nice
surprise, we sat beside her accidentally on a train. The lord puts
people in our path. Fact.

One thing that I discovered this week that I LOVE is the churches
addiction recovery program. We don't have one here, but we have
listened to it online at lds.org. It is incredible and inspiring! It
really gives hope to people with any type of addictions, and I really
challenge you all to listen to some of it!  Especially if any of you
have a personal addiction, I recommend it.

So in this Christmas season we are getting so blessed. I am receiving
letters from lots of friends and family, and its just the best. I have
all of the gifts put under my wonderful Christmas tree! The piñero
family surprised us this week with a GIANT gift, a huge box of food
and goodies for each of us. It is insane. I wont have to shop for two
weeks. They are so good, the most incredible family ever. They do so
much for this branch, and as the President, he shows a great example
of service.

Hey mom, the members LOVE your caramels. I have shared some of them with
every member family that we go to, and they just DIE. Hahaha I have
had people ask for the recipe, so if you feel like spending more time
on the computer (sorry), I'm sure the members in Manacor would love you
for it. Just know that your cooking is well appreciated over here.

Yesterday we had some incredible experiences. First in church, one of
the speakers said something that I loved and really made me ponder. He
was talking about the birth of Christ, and all the events that went
along with it. One thing that he talked about, was the angels who were
singing. He mentioned that he likes to imagine that those concourses
of angels could have been those spirits in heaven, rejoicing the birth
of the Savior...they could have been us! We could have been there,
singing joys that night! We don't remember it now, but just something
fun to think about.

Also, last night we had an incredible experience. We were walking back
from an appointment with an old man named Miguel, and we were walking
through this great big plaza with lots of people! There were 5 teens
sitting on this bench that began to say, "mira, testigos", which means,
"look, Jehovah's Witnesses".  This happens TONS here....and my way to
react is to walk up to them and say "no we aren't JW´s, we are from the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints". So we did that, and got talking.

This group was a little rougher around the edges, all smoking and swearing, and they
also were having obvious same-sex relations with each other, but we
kept on talking with them. They eventually asked us if we sang, and we
said yes. We then sang for them in the middle of this plaza "silent
night". The whole plaza just got silent as we started singing. We sang
the last verse in English, and as we finished and looked up, we
realized everyone was watching and listening. It was incredible. Music
is powerful, and I'm grateful for the fact that I was brave enough to
sing that in public like we did.

Well I will talk to you all soon, so I don't want to tell any more
details! I love you all so much, and I hope you can enjoy this
Christmas season. I love you so much, and will SEE you soon!

Love, Elder Hardy

 

Shrimp and Salmon Pizza is Dangerous!

Monday, December 16^th, 2013.

 

Dear Family of People With the Last Name Hardy,

 

So nice to hear from you this week! Just so you know, I'm feeling suppeerrr sick right now, so if my email is a little bit lame, that's my excuse ;)   I puked all night last night, because of some nasty pizza I ate. Hahah pizza is dangerous, especially shrimp and salmon. Bluuuuggghhh.

Yes I do have to puke, but I'm holding out. So blah, just a little gross. 

Holy, I loved loved loved hearing about everything that you all did this week! Doing the 12 days of Christmas for those elders, I can't even imagine just how happy that probably makes them. Little things like that as missionaries means the world! So nice work, and really good ideas, you sure are spoiling them!

About Grandma, it is really impressive to live as long as she did! 97!  Always a little sad to have a loved one pass on, but such a blessing to know that we will see her again. I will keep Grandpa in my prayers, that he will be comforted until it is his time to follow her.

Well this week has been incredible, as always. I really dont think I will have have a week on my mission where there isn't something fun to tell about, as long as I am doing what I am suppposed to do! One fun thing is that we had zone conference! Really great lesson about the role of the Book of Mormon, and powerful practices teaching it! I got to teach my "son" Elder Wilson, the one I took out in Barcelona a few months ago! Great guy. Then we had a Christmas devotional, where I have an incredible witness from the spirit of Jesus Christ. Hard to explain in words, but I was the last one to read from the Christmas program, where it talks about who Jesus Christ is. Out of the blue, I just got hit by the spirit, and started crying as I was reading about Jesus. The room was just silent, and the spirit was so strong. There isn't really a way to describe how it felt. Then we watched the baptism slideshow which was fun to see all the pictures! Maybe it's on the mission facebook site?

 

A couple of other fun stories for you all! One night on the train, for some reason on the train compartment we were on, it was just us two and like 15 girls our age...super random. So we gathered all the courage we could, and went up to talk to all of them and invite them to English class! It went great, they all loved it, and even started talking to us about religion! I think one of them might have even stole my missionary tag...because it was gone when i  got off of the train.... :(

 

One more crazy contacting story...that same night, we were walking along the road next to a Muslim man. Normally I dont contact them, but this time I did. Turns out the he is the Islamic leader of this whole city...almost half of the city is Muslim here....so imagine that, huge huge contact that I made! We made a great impressioin on him, and even gave him a card!

Well that was some of my week. I am so excited to open the gifts you sent, I really am enjoying the Christmas cookies and caramels, people are begging me to bring some of my mom's homemade caramels to them, so I may just share a few ;)

 

Love you all so much, I hope that this week is wonderful for you all! 

Love, Elder Hardy

 

My First Besos and Prime Suspects!

Monday, December 9^th, 2013.

Eh There Fellow Lumberjacks!

 

How goes it up there in the cold north eh? Haha crazy crazy crazy to see the pictures of the snow, and to hear how cold it was! That is seriously insane, I can't even imagine! I hope everyone enjoyed some hot chocolate and cuddling up by the fire!

 

Super fun to see the pictures too, I love how you bring those signs for people to take pictures with! That's so fun! Say hi to all of them for me if you could! Everyone looks so old! You are all looking so old though, seriously. I definitely got the bad looks of the family, you all look incredible! HANNAH IS GOING TO HONG KONG?! WOW. That is insane, she is going to do so good there, I already know it. Everyone is going to love her there hey? Wow, congrats Hannah, it will be such an amazing experience for you!

I got my coat now, and some members bought me gloves as an early Christmas present, so don't worry about me being cold here, I'm set!

 

Thank you so much though! I opened the package, and that was so fun to see my stocking and tons of little wrapped up presents! I drew a tree and put all the presents under, it feels like Christmas for me hahaa.

SO cute to hear about Aubrey getting my letter. Made me just beam with smiles imagining her taking off her little boots, and sitting herself down on the stairs reading the letter. I hope that she liked it, and that she will enjoy the Spanish pokemon cards too! Love you Aubs!

Sorry to hear about your friend mom, but I'm glad that it was a good service! Its really a blessing to have the knowledge that when the casket is closed, it's not the last time we will see them. Also I know what you mean, wanting to be better. Makes you rethink everything, and just have a quick refocus on the picture of life. I wish her family the best!

Okay first things first...the reason why I'm so late emailing you. This week has been crazy. Ready for this? Me and Elder W have been interrogated by the police, because we are prime suspects for a stabbing in Inca. I am not lying. We had to go to the police station over in inca twice this week. This morning was the second time. The church had to hire a lawyer for us, and he came to help while they questioned us. Basically what happened was two large tall blonde men with suit jackets and bags, stabbed two other men from Morocco, over in Inca, about 2 weeks ago. We have been stopped by the police and tagged as suspects! hahahaha So picture this...7 months ago not knowing Spanish, but this morning answering perfectly to an hour long interragation by the civil guard. I'm pretty happy about it. But hey, there is nothing to worry about, everything is good, and no, we didn't commit the crime. ;)

We had a fun meeting as a zone this week! The zone leaders dressed up as Santa Claus, and talked about having a white Christmas.  Unfortunately there won't be snow, but we want everyone to be dressed in white for baptism this Christmas season! So pray for us!

 

We have one new baptismal date for the 21st! Her name is P, the sister of one of the people in the ward! She is so incredible. We have only known her for about a week, but already have taught her the first three full lessons! She has read so much already from the Book of Mormon, and taken down notes and questions while doing it! She is such a great example to me for how to study. She asks amazing questions, and really just feels the spirit so strong, there hasn't been one lesson without her crying her eyes out! She has had a tough life full of addiction, and has told us she wants to change, and never fall again. We are so happy for her, and going to do all we can to help her accept Christ for this Christmas.

Want to hear a funny story? So we were on this bus to head to a little town, and there was this 15 or so year old kid, obviosuly thought he was the bees knees as he walked on the bus with all of his friends. He looked at me, and saw I was a missionary! As he sat down, he was just looking at me, so I looked at him back too! He then said in Spanish,¨"Do you like your glasses?" and then started laughing, trying to make fun of me, assuming I didn't speak Spanish. BUT YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THE LOOK ON HIS FACE WHEN I BEGAN TALKING TO HIM IN SPANISH.  Priceless, I'm telling ya.

 

Hmmm...two more things! One, on January 16th I believe, we have heard there will be a crraaazzzzzyyyyyy holiday. Everyone in the town of Manacor dresses up as demons during the night, and party and dance and drink and get naked in the streets! Apparently people have told us to stay inside our piso after 6 pm, and to not look out the window. Crazy hey? I love the culture here in Spain, there is never a dull moment.

Last thing! So this week marks a special time in my mission....my first besos. (Besos mean kisses, it's a cultural thing to greet everyone with kisses here on both cheeks, but as missionaries we don't do that obviously). Anyways, one night we went to a new investigtors house to teach a lesson. Half way through, his 20 or so year old daughter walked through the door, and came right up to me and just gave me besos...I was sitting in a chair and couldn't even avoid it without looking like a crazy man. To make it worse, when she walked up to Elder W, he said "Sorry, we don't do that as missionaries". I looked sooooo silly. ahhahahahahaha

 

Anyways, I love you all so much. I hope you like my email, even though it might be a little crazy. But have a great warm week, and know that your island missionary loves each and every one of you!

Love, Elder Hardy

I Feel a Certain Peace Here.

Monday, December 2^nd, 2013.

 

Merry December 2nd!

 

Hola tios! Here I am at the computer typing another electronic mail for you all! Before I forget, let me address a few necessary things.

Mom, your questions! No I haven't bought anything on my visa, I'm careful with my money ;) Also yes my suitcase is at the mission office, but the zone leaders are bringing me my coat this week, woohooo!  Also I bought a sweater, but not shoes yet. Shoes are one thing I might want, and maybe gloves and a toque.

 I will tell C that. She really is incredible, her whole family.  I have an amazing story for you all about them. First to set some background. Mallorquines normally are pretty reserved people who like to preserve their culture, understandably. So when we get to teach them, its a blessing. AND, this family of C, C, and X are super special. They have investigated the church a bit before, but where held back because of her old husband. She is a person of big influence here! Anyways, she invited us over, and we taught them the restoration.  The spirit was so strong, its impossible to explain. As I gave the first vision, she started to cry. I asked her after to explain her feelings, and she said "It's impossible to explain, something that I feel inside. But it's weird, this only happens with the Mormons". Huge testimony builder that we are the only true church, that can carry the true spirit to testify to the hearts of others. We then also helped them set up for their first real Christmas. That was so fun.

Super fun that you have set up for Christmas, I love that tradition we have of our ornaments, I will miss that this year. BUT I GOT YOUR PACKAGE. So I will draw a picture of a tree and put it under that to open on Christmas, Bishop also sent me one, so I am excited, Santa treated me well this year :) Thank you so much for sending me one, but its SO EXPENSIVE, You don't need to send such a big thing! Sheesh.

 

I loved your pictures of surfing, that water is so blue! You two look fabulous. It almost looks like the Mediterranean! This preparation day we went to Porto Cristo! If you all ever came to Spain, I'd want to take you on this adventure we had. We went and saw un faro (lighthouse) at the edge of some cliffs, saw the beach, went into some caves, it was just incredible. I was so happy all day, searching and looking at nature. I love doing that kind of stuff, calms me down.

 

We had a fun American thanksgiving dinner with the whole zone in Palma! Ate chicken and such, and listened to another Canadian elder tell a story about getting tasered by a Canadian cop! hahahahaha so funny. It got out that I am a "YouTube star" as they called it, and everyone flipped out. Its a good thing I'm in Spain where no one recognizes me, funny how that video blew up!

 

English class is definitely always a highlight for the week, We have tons of fun there, and it helps with my Spanish too! The best is when the kids ask me what swag means, and I have to try to act it out for them to explain it to them. Haha we always play a game at the end of class, and the game "Do you like your neighbor" has been a HIT! All the adults get so into it. Where you sit in a circle, and say an article of clothing, and anyone who has that gets up and has to sit in a chair so they aren't stuck in the middle! Haha so fun to play with them, we always get good laughs.

We had a miracle yesterday happen. A woman named P came to English class on Thursday, and as she entered she said "I feel a certain peace here". She then came to church yesterday, we taught her about the Holy Ghost, and without even mentioning it, she told US that she wants to get baptized, Miracle fell from the sky really. She is a sister of a member in the ward, so this is just perfect. 

Well that's all I really have about this week. I really want to send you all something for Christmas, but I have no idea how expensive packages are to send. I hope I can though, if not I will need to write letters! Thank you so much for everything you do for me. I love you all so much!

Love, Elder Hardy

 

 

 

 Elder Hardy on Preparation Day at Porto Cristo!

 Is this the Lion King Rock maybe?