Health! Thanks for the wonderful letter and pictures--everyone looks to be doing well (Ezra is a large man!); it sounds like you are living missionary style (out of a suitcase) due to all the traveling, but it sounds like a lot of fun as well. Say hello to all our relationals for me!
Dad, tithing settlement is going on in our ward as well, and seeing the Bishop run to and fro reminded me of you. I am gaining more and more of an appreciation and a respect for the role of a Bishop as I serve more closely alongside one now (Missionaries get treated like adults...it is sort of a weird feeling considering my last calling was in the Priest's Quorm. What is even weirder is working with Priests that are not even a year younger than I am. Strange). Know that I love and respect you and am so grateful for the example that you have set for me.
Mom, I am glad you are becoming friends with the Visa Lady--it makes me smile to think of you two chatting it up on the phone about the workings (or lack thereof) of a far-distant Eastern European government. I am so glad as well that you get to see all your Sisters--Salt Lake wont know what hit them! I love you so much, Mother Dearest, and will pray for you in your calling--talk about a switch! From exuberant Sunbeams to ruminating on the conclusions to be drawn from the ins and outs of King Solomon's reign. I love it. Isn't our church funny? (Also, I love Jorg's talk as well--you should have heard all the missionaries afterwards: "Jorg laid it down!", "Jorg told it straight!". Funny stuff).
Paige, keep the faith--though you guys may be a bit young and inexperienced, you can still do great things. Say hello to Sierra and Mr. Sox for me, will you? I love you bunches!
Ronnie, maybe I've just been conditioned for the last few months, but you and Abe look like missionary companions! Keep it in your sights, and start preparing now. PMG! PMG!
Lizzie, make sure and take care of Grandma and Grandpa for me--let them know that I love them, alright? I love you oodles as well!
The title is a stretch ("Missionary shuffle" just doesn't fit the same way "Cupid shuffle" does), but I'll work on it. I am getting transferred tomorrow! No big change (I am still in the same district, meet at the same building, and with a missionary I already know, just in a new proselyting area). It is a little bit strange (I have only been here for one transfer), but I am excited. I am sad to leave this area, right when I felt that we were starting to build a little traction, but I know that the people will be taken care of, and the work will progress regardless. The Lord takes care of his sheep. I will miss the ward members, and the love I have felt here, but such is the life of a missionary (or so I am told--I am still wet behind the ears). I will be serving in the Louisville Ward, with Elder Christensen, our fearless district leader, and we are in car.
Speaking of cars, you don't have to worry about my safe driving for two reasons: one, I never drive because to this point it hasn't been considered worth the effort to approve me to drive, and trainees almost never drive anyway, and two, after a cold snap, the Colorado sun returned and melted all the snow in short order. The weather is funny here.
This week has been a good week, and a tough week. More accurately, it has been a good week BECAUSE it was a tough week (funny how that works, isn't it?). At the beginning of the week, we had high hopes; we had a very full week of lessons scheduled, two with Jake, our baptismal hopeful, and a zone meeting with a guest speaker to boot. We were stoked. All went according to plan until Wednesday, when it all started to fall apart--every morning our phone would buzz, and we would watch our appointments fall through, one by one. We would show up to a lesson and have everything set...but no investigator. After the sixth or seventh cancellation, things started to get tense, and we really began to find out who we were as missionaries. It was a powerful faith building experience, and a poignant lesson on many fronts. The Lord does answer prayers, the spirit is a powerful force, and the Lord never ceases to shower us with tender mercies. This much I am coming to know. I am also coming to learn more fully the incredible power of faith, and how often we overestimate how much we actually posses. Faith is to have no idea what to do, no idea what to say, or where to go, but to trust enough to work your way to Plan W because you believe with all your heart the Lord blesses the diligent worker, those who do their best to serve him. Faith is to read a passage of scripture, then change your behavior because you believe the words of an ancient prophet who you have never met nor never heard, but trust to be inspired of God. Faith is to wake up and suit up and not give up, because you know you are doing the Lord's work, and you know He knows it too.
Faith is power. I need to be better as harnessing it, but one does one's best.
Faith is power. I need to be better as harnessing it, but one does one's best.
I love you Family, I am grateful for your example in my life. Please, come to know that this is true for yourself. Read the Book of Mormon, and pray about it, then pay attention to how you feel. It will change your life in a wonderful way. Scout's honor!
With love and a grin,
Elder Hardy
(Sorry no pictures! A crazy week--I will send some next week, promise).
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