December 27, 2010

!Feliz Navidad y un Gran Araña¡
(Merry Christmas and a Big Spider)!

Ha ha I'll explain the giant spider later.

I was so excited to talk to you all on Christmas. It was the best Christmas present. And I was so grateful that I could say hi to Grandpa and Grandma Weiler, Rob and Jeff. Maybe that was the reason that I wasn’t able to call you earlier like we planned.

That is awesome that you used my Christmas present money to help someone out in our ward. There are more blessings in that than any amount of Christmas presents.

I am glad Christmas lunch went well with everyone. Ha ha I think the pictures of Uncle Rob and Grant playing that game are hilarious. Thanks for the photos they are the best. I showed them to the Chapines (Guatemalans) and they thought they were pretty cool too.

I bet Grandpa Hardy loves his big light up U, I feel like I need one, all the Chele missionaries that I have met so far have been Y fans. I’m sure the Hardy Christmas program was awesome. I wish I could have heard Emily and Hannah’s duet.

Questions you asked:

How was your Christmas Day?

My Christmas day was just fine. The highlight was when I got to call you and hear everyone’s voices again. In the morning before that I opened my Christmas stocking and ate all the chocolate. Oh P.S. that is one thing that I guess I haven’t really had here that can be sent in a package.

Elder Mejia gave me a gift too. He is a pretty good artist and drew me this salvaje (slang term for tight, awesome, really cool) photo of a missionary (the placa says E. Hardy) with a sword in his hand. It was really nice.

What did they do for the Christmas Program at Church?

Well, for church the next day it was pretty much a normal day at church. Actually the asistencia (attendance) was pretty low which put a downer on the day. But we have a couple more weeks in this change to fix that.

Oh, but later that day we had a cita (appointment) with this lady who is evangelica. Haha it was great. So I didn’t know much about evangelicos before the mission. But I sure do now. They have a bad reputation amongst the missionaries as being exceptionally hard to talk to.

But she (Hermana Esperanza) was actually pretty nice. I went in thinking that she might want to try and bible bash with us but she listened to our message and wanted to learn a little more about what we believe.

Her only desafio (challenge) is accepting the Book of Mormon. Ha ha the best part was close to the end when she said that we are really good people and have really strong faith and that we are 90% there, the other 10% is that we believe in the Book of Mormon.

Ha ha that put a smile on my face and Elder Coj bore his testimony that we do have the 100%. At the very end I bore my testimony, and after that she agreed to come to Church next Sunday... if we come to hers.

Who plays the hymns for church?

Ja ja ja, who plays the hymns for church. Well we do, with our voices. How it always works is whoever is directing sings the first line so we all remember how it goes and then we all sing. I think we might have an electrical piano in the President’s office but unfortunately, I never completed Emily´s lessons, so we sing A cappella.

Can you sing the songs in Spanish?

Well, I suppose that depends. Jaja I can sing them, but I don’t know if it sounds good.

What was your most spiritual experience during the Christmas Season?

That is a tough question. I don’t really have a grand spiritual miracle to tell, but the most spiritual experiences were every time I shared my testimony and it really brought the spirit.

The most recent experience was with the Evangelica Hermana Esperanza. She was being pretty resistive after we had talked about the Libro de Mormon, but when I bore my testimony I actually felt like the whole attitude in the room changed. I remember looking at her and seeing her whole countenance change.

Even when I bore my testimony about the Book of Mormon she listened. And how she does not know the BOM. I read it and prayed about it and know that it is true.

What is your plan for New Year's?

The plan for New Year´s is to blow up a Muñeco (large dummy doll). We are helping Beto make some, his plan is to make a whole family, a Dad, Mom, Kid, and Baby. Today we went with Beto to stuff bags full of leaves to stuff them with. (We went to a river to find the leaves, that is why I sent the picture of me on the water fall.) Hopefully we will be allowed to stay up to watch them blow up.

OH! The story about the spider! So we hiked forever in the wilderness to get to this river where there are lots of dead leaves (for the Muñecos) and a waterfall also. Once we got there we ran around for a while, Beto and his family tried to catch the fish in the river with a tent they brought to wash.

I was walking along the side and passed a rock cove and almost brushed against this Giant spider web. I kinda freaked out and jumped to the side. But not as much as when I looked at the web to find the bugger responsible for it and saw this thing (look at the picture). (I almost fell into the river).

So I took a bunch of pictures, I hope you can see it. It is a creepy looking one and looks kinda like those pictures of banana spiders I looked up from Nicaragua before the mission.

But the best part is when I called Beto over to look at it. He was all excited when I told him I found a giant crazy spider and ran over. But when he got there he was disappointed and said it wasn’t that big of a deal. Sheesh.

Thank you for the pictures and the spiritual thought. When I looked at the picture of Christmas Eve dinner I felt like it was missing somebody but I know that there is no greater opportunity or blessing for me right now than going on a mission.

I also know that my family is being blessed as well. Most importantly is that other families are receiving the opportunity to hear the Gospel and receive the blessings from coming to Jesus Christ.

¡Espero que tengan un prospero año nuevo! (That’s the phrase here)

Hope you have a Happy New Year!

I love you,

Elder Hardy