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