Thank you, as always, for the wonderful, wonderful letters! This week was a great, wonderful, marvelous week. On Tuesday we had Mission Council, which was an incredible experience. There is so much prayer, discussion, council and study that goes into the training presented at Zone Conferences and Zone Trainings--I felt a little out of my leauge, but it was still a great experience. On top of that, Elder Magoffin and I had a chance to work with President Wilstead this week, and also do interviews. I am so grateful for an inspired Mission President who holds the priesthood keys, and is truly called to lead the work here in Bulgaria. He gave me some great coucil. I truly love him. Also this week one of our investigators commited to be baptized on the 20th of June, so we are incredibly excited--he is a wonderful, humble, hard-working man, with a true desire to follow Christ. He works from 5:15 to 7:30, 7 days a week (he owns a little store near the Church building), but he still finds the time somehow to make it to Church, and to meet with us (we meet in his store). We love him dearly, and are so excited for him. This Chruch is the true Church of Christ! This week has been anything but a regular one, but I will do my best to give you a "blow-by-blow" a little later.
Mother: Elder Nelson does not speak Bulgarian, but some Russian I believe. It truly was a wonderful experience--yesterday during fast and testimony meeting, it was a huge blessing to hear all of the members bear testimony of the different things that they learned from his visit. I love these members--they are so wonderful. It sounds like the Garden is really taking off! Cherries are in season here right now, and they are everywhere, for very cheap. This is really a beautiful earth that we live on. I love you Mother, thank you for who you are.
Father, thank you for your letter! I love Elder Bednar's talk "Pray Always," where he talks about just that very thing--how we can make our prayers to be better missionaries truly prayers of faith, and not just well-intended but unfounded hope. He is truly a great speaker. When I think of you kneeling in prayer as a family, it brings me such great joy and peace--thank you, thank you. Thank you for teaching us to pray, thank you for teaching us to read the scriptures. The Spirit is the only true and unchanging guide in our life--we just have to do our part to have him with us. I love you, Father!
Rees, in Bulgarian, you officially are a стройтел! Good work. I love you!
Paige, don't worry to much--as long as you feel that you are progressing, that you are developing those skills in the ways that are the most appropriate for you, you are doing the right thing. Pray about it, ask for conformation, ask for direction, and I know that you will feel our Loving Father's hand. He even cares about little things like that, little sister. You are beautiful (no jokes!), and I love you bunches!
Ronnie, don't feel down on yourself--you always have next year! I love you, read Preach My Gospel, and the scriptures. This week we were talking to a guy on the street, and he said that he worked at a skate shop, so I told the story about you breaking your arm on a long-board--he said it happens a lot even here in Bulgaria. Rejoice--you are part of an international club! I love you, have a great week.
Lizzie, you look so grown up, I nearly had a heart attack. You are a beautiful daughter of God. Keep singing, keep being wonderful, and always remember who you are. I love you so much, have a great week!
Alright, a blow-by-blow. Every day is usually pretty different, but there are usually some common themes. We wake up, and either go out right away, or (if we have too many appointments), get ready for the day. I usually eat cornflakes. Wherever we go, we talk to as many people we can on the street, on the bus, or on the Metro--for that reason we usually plan extra time to travel places. Often times we end up missing our stop on the bus, or our station on the Metro because we are talking to someone, which makes travel even longer, but it is wonderful. Becuase the weather is so nice, lots of people are out in the parks, and love to meet outside, so if we set up a lesson with someone, it usually is outside on a park bench at this time of year. In general, people are pretty loose about their schedules here, so we usually some time waiting for appointments that don't show up, but we make do. All in all, it is usually run to appointment (talking to everyone), try to meet with someone, run to another appointment, run home to grab a very fast lunch and call potential investigators, run to a lesson...lots of running around. I love it, I love it, I love it. Don't know if that helped, but I don't really have anymore time!
I love you all so much, I know that this Gospel is true!
With love,
Elder Hardy
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