November 7, 2011

Where in the world is Elder Hardy?.....

JINOTEPE!!! WHAAHOOO!

Ha ha yeah they sacked me out of Bluefields earlier, I was pretty bummed to find out I wasn’t going to be spending Christmas there. But now I am going to spend Christmas in a place where it even feels a little colder!!! I am in the area Las Villas 2 in the Zone Jinotepe. What happened was they took me out of Bluefields to come to Jinotepe and be... the District Leader! (oh no) haha.

Ok, my new area like I said is in Las Villas II in Jinotepe (near the pacific coast of Nicaragua). It is nice and cool here, I think it is a little bit higher up than the Caribbean coast. My new companion is Elder Peña. He is from Guatemala and is a really good teacher. He has the confidence of all our investigators and this change is going to be great with him. Just pray to help us find and teach lots of great new families here ok?

How was Día de Todos los Santos and Día de los Muerto? Ha ha normal. I knew there were a couple of celebrations. But well, they seem to have ALOT of days that they are off work and school for little holidays. I am jealous of all their school breaks.

The craziest thing that happened was last night (6 of November = elections) All of the missionaries in my district had to call in to report to me about how was their area and if there were a lot of fights and stuff. Here in Jinotepe it was tranquilo. When everyone found out who won here, they got a little excited and we could hear everyone out on the streets honking horns and yelling and stuff. But we didn’t have any problems.

Our door approach? Aha, well I think the biggest point is that I am really trying not to have to same routine. Because you might fall into a little bit of robot style. Each time should be a little different depending on the person/family.

But it usually starts with "Buenas" and ends with "¿cuando podemos pasar ésta semana para placticar más acerca de (nuestro mensaje)? (When can we come more this week to talk about our message?) Ha ha what works best is to talk about them, and get to know them, then you can share the message of the Restoration, applying it to the specific spiritual needs of the person.

Well, Testimony Meeting this last Sunday was good, my first time in Church here. But I will be honest it was a little quiet. After the counselor conducting bore his testimony and sat down there was a big pause, long enough that I went up and gave the first testimony. (I usually try to give all the time I can to the members to bear their testimonies and wait until there is a big pause) But after that they started going up.

One that really touched my heart was when a less active Dad went up and confessed that he and his family have been inactive for a while but they finally came to church again and he talked about his testimony in Jesus Christ and in the Restoration and how now they are going to strive to always stay active etc. It might have been the one that others didn’t take for much, he did it kind of weird and forgot how to end and ended up saying "thank you, good night" (sacrament meeting is a 10:30 am) But I made sure to say thank you to him after so he didn’t feel dumb.

Hannah's Question: Can you bring me home a green poison tree frog?

Ha ha ha I will see what I can do. But if it is poisonous how am I going to catch it?

Wow that is great to hear that Kepu is going on the mission to Tonga ha ha tell him congratulations from me.

And that is great to hear that Marsh Poulson the fourth is going on the mish. And to Alaska brrr... I’m guessing that is pretty much the complete opposite climate of mission. Good Luck!

Hey! That is great that you guys could see Jesse Theurer and the familia again! That would be sooo cool if I could train this December and maybe get his missionary from his ward.

Thank you for making the pumpkin Emily!!!

Hey I got to go ok, but thank you for the updates. I will send more photos next time.

Love,

Elder Hardy

Ps I Love you