March 19, 2012

Happy Spring!!!

Hey Mom, I don´t know if I have ever told you but thanks for all the thought you put in sending me an email every week. Even the cool photos made out of text are really cool. Where do you find those? 

Ha ha well no, I did not see any of the fresh water sharks. I guess I didn’t get close enough to the water. I was going to send you photos today... but I actually lent my camera to some recent converts... but I am sure it will come back. Ha ha. 

Elder Nick Sessions? No, no nos invitaron a los cambios porque... 

just realized I was writing in Spanish. 

No I haven’t met him yet, but we have a conference activity in Granada this Wednesday and I will see him there. It is with the whole mission. 

Elder Gochnour already came back? No way. Sounds like he had a good mission. 

This week we continued to work hard. But the good news is that we took a good time in our weekly planning figuring out how we could work better. Not harder, because we already have that down, but work more effectively to be able to find the people and families that God has waiting for us. We made several plans and goals, lots having to do with Member Missionary Work. 

Last week they also changed the Ward Bishopric. The new Bishop and one of the counselors are returned missionaries and they are all pilas. We met with them yesterday in the house of the Bishop to start off with a good page for the relationship between the missionaries and the ward leaders. 

We had some plans and ideas and we are going to present them to the ward council next Sunday. We went to the Bishop first so he has a head start and will be able to support us. One of the plans is from the mission. It is the "Missionary Journal." 

Bishop Arevalo is going to pick 10 of the most pilas families in our ward and we are going to give each one a really cool pamphlet/journal that they have to fill out. The idea is that they pick a family that they know who are not members and they are going to help them throughout the year. The goal is that each family baptizes a family each year. 

We had an interesting Stake Conference this Sunday, it was actually with all of Central America. We listened to President Packer, and President Clayton of the Seventy and a few more in a conference from Salt Lake City to all Central America by satellite. They had some very good consejos for the members. 

We found three new, positive families this week. One, the husband has been a member for 12 years (since he was 16) but hadn’t talked to the missionaries in two years, and his wife is Catholic. We watched “Together Forever” with them and the Dad was a little emotional. He came yesterday to church and we want to help him and his wife so that they can go to the temple. 

For PDay today, we left the house and 11:00 am after studies and went to get our hair cut. The Doctor stopped us before leaving the house and wanted to talk to us. She said that the electric bill has gone up a lot ever since we started to iron our own shirts in the house. So we decided we are going to look for a sister to do the laundry for us. 

Then we left the house. I bought a bag of freshly sliced mango in the park on the way to the barbershop (so I could have something to snack on as we waited). After cutting our hair, we went to eat lunch at our lunch appointment. And we put an appointment to meet with Stephany (a daughter of the family where we eat) and a friend of hers that she wanted to introduce to the missionaries for tomorrow at 4 pm. 

And we came here to write. Ha ha. After, my companion wants to buy some shorts for the activity this Wednesday and I am going to buy a couple of white shirts. 

No baptisms this week. But the goal for April is Two Families. 

Hannah asked if we have Spring here in Nicaragua? Ha ha it is always Spring in Nicaragua!!! Well, that’s not true. But I would say the closest to Spring is right after the dry season. When it starts to rain again is when the ground explodes with plants and it is very green. I will take a photo of a cool flower! 

Ah man, you gave me a bad bracket dad! Thanks for the journal entries. Love you. 

Thanks for the spiritual thought and awesome idea about the Patriarchal Blessing mom. I am going to do it tomorrow in my personal study. Sounds like the activity is going to be awesome mom! I Love you. 

Wait, I thought you already left school Alexis. What are you schooling? Who is this new guy again? Love you. 

Good luck in the last night of Concert Emily!!! I luh you. 

Sound like you are doing Great Hannah! I Love you. 

I want you all to remember the goal that you guys made! ... I hope you guys are already half way through the Book of Mormon as a family! 

I love you all, 

Elder Hardy 

ps I love you