Mother; sorry I wasn't clear! There is us and another set of Elders here in Shumen, that is all. Four total. It is great! I have been rationing my birthday candy (probably too much), but I really have been enjoying it--I keep it on the foot of my bed. I'll get through it all eventually! We will watch Conference this coming Saturday and Sunday (once all of the translations are uploaded), and it will be all in Bulgarian, so we'll how much I get. Apostles and Prophets use big words! However, the Spirit will surely be the same. We will just watch it as a group in the Building, off of a flashdrive with the files downloaded onto it. I love you so much Mom, know that you are wonderful!
Dad, I absolutely agree about the studying in the morning--it never seems to be enough even now! Truly, the greatest happiness comes from serving the Lord, no matter the sacrifice. What a blessing it is to be a missionary!
Paige; your hair! It looks very nice. The gas station is a very scary place sometimes--at first, it is just getting all the mechanics of it figured out, but before long, the numbers on the meter are the scariest part (especially in the "Burb"!). I love you so much, keep being a wonderful example.
Ronnie; how goes your life, my little Brother? Keep being a goofball, but find those times to be serious as well. The trick is knowing when to be which! I love you so much, know that I think the world of you, eat lots of Spaghetti!
Lizzie, you look like you are having a great time in those pictures! Keep being wonderful, always remember that I love you and that you are a daughter of God. (And score a few goals for me! Go Orange Bees!).
Just a few thoughts this week. First, it is strange and good to be back with Elder Raisor--we truly have both changed since we were in the MTC together (funny what a few months can do), but we still have the bond that we developed there. He is a great guy.
Jenny is really starting to look ready for baptism--it is so wonderful to see the Lord answer her prayers as she seeks the truth. It seems that every lesson she says "How did you know to talk about that? I prayed for an answer to that last night!" She truly is an amazing woman with an intense desire to follow the Savior, and it is truly humbling to see how the Lord works through us, the thick-headed 19 year-olds that we are, to help one of His daughters learn the truth of His relationship with her. Every time we meet with her, I feel blessed to have the opportunity know her.
This week, especially with General Conference coming (or having already come I guess), I want to bear my testimony of the absolute vitality of having a testimony of a living prophet on the Earth in these latter days. For whatever reason, it seems as if all of the people in Shumen who have a desire to argue with us about doctrine picked this week to appear--as we talked with them, and asked them to consider the Evidence of the Book of Mormon for themselves, it so greatly strengthened my testimony of the necessity of having a living prophet. There are so many ways to interpret scripture, there are countless ways to reason and to suppose and to conjecture and to analogize and to literalize (are those actually English words? Not sure) religious topics, to accuse and to defame and to blame. The Lord is not the author of confusion. He speaks with one voice, to the Salvation of his beloved children. How blessed we are to have the priesthood authority here on the Earth again, to be able to receive that direction! I invite you all to ponder that as you watch (or re-watch, I guess!) General Conference.
I love you all so much, enjoy the pictures!
With a smile!
Elder Hardy
No time for captions, but I hope you like them! Thanks for all your wonderful pictures!
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