Elder Tanner Hardy: Just keep (not) Swimming!

Family Mine!

Thank you for the wonderful letter! It is always so great to hear about all of your great escapades! The brave firemen of Spokane Washington will definitely be mentioned in my prayers tonight! I am glad to hear that you are all alive and safe, and that everything is all in order. What a scary experience.

This week has been really quite good--we had a leadership training this week, and Elder Dahneke and I's training went well, despite the fact that we had only been together a week. He really is a good, thorough, deep thinker. I enjoy working with him. We trained about how to give a good companion exchange--they really are important opportunities to learn and to grow. The rest of the meeting was really wonderful--there really are some great, inspired missionaries in this mission. Elder Slinker (the dairy farmer from Kentucky) gave a great training about being fearless, and talking to everyone. He really is a great example of it as well. All in all a great meeting and a great week.

Mother; it is a branch here, but there are only one or two primary children, but there are twin 14 year old girls who really are just rays of sunshine. We have one or two couples from England who have retired here to Varna, but other than that, they are all Bulgarians--we have visitors from time to time from all sorts of countries, but they are just here on Vacation. We had a family from Japan here yesterday. In terms of Preparation Day, we usually are pretty busy running around from place to place--we try to talk to everyone we can, so it usually takes time to get places. We go to Kaufland, then to an internet hall near the church, then we will usually spend the rest of the time cleaning or planning for the week--we have had to give some training recently, so we usually work on those if we have any leftover time from preparation day. Sometimes we have appointments if people cannot meet other times, and if we don't have any training to plan for or anything, we might go to a park and throw the football (we did that in Sofia once). We are asked not to meet in groups of missionaries at any time, and there are only 4 of us in the city anyway, so it works out. They are usually pretty busy, but good--it feels nice to be organized for the coming week.

Father; it blows my mind that Seth is already leaving! He will be a great missionary. Will you send me his Email address? Thank you so much for all that you have done in teaching us how to exercise our Priesthood, Father. It really is a great and important responsibility, and one that I have seen accentuated as I have served as a missionary. There is power in righteousness, there is power in service. Thank you for your great example. Now go get some sleep!

Paige; you are quite fashionable! I am sure that you dance like a star. Being just a dancer definitely gave me more respect for those who really are good dancers--it takes some serious skill and strength! Are you keeping a record of your talks? I hope I can read them sometime! I love you, keep being wonderful.

Ronnie; that does look like a great group of friends! I hope you enjoy being taller than Nathan--not sure that it will last! How is the deacon's quorum doing? I hope that you have the chance to serve together, to help others. I promise that it will bring you joy, that is will bring you closer together, and it might even be fun. I love you little brother!

Lizzie; little Areya sure has a great "Aunt" to look up to! I love you, keep choosing the right, keeping being an example of joy and happiness for those around you. It will bring you peace, and the same to those who come in contact with. I love you so much!

Many miracles this week, but one especially great one. We had just finished what turned out to be a less-than-successful English Discussion due to some interesting opinions that flared up, and were headed to an appointment in a taxi, with a member with us. When we got to the place where we were supposed to meet our man, he was nowhere to be found, and when we called him, he just said he wasn't feeling well, and we could meet another time. It was around 8:00, so we decided to start street teaching home, and the member decided that he would tag along with us. Nothing was going well, nobody was stopping, when we got the impression to stop street teaching and start tracting--the first enterance we tried was locked, but to our great joy, a nice baba came out and unlocked the door for us, as she was going out to throw away some trash. Long story short, the last door that we had time for, they (a nice, young couple) opened up, told us to wait 5 minutes, invited us in, and we had a great first lesson (with the member present!), and even a return appointment. It was a great blessing. The Lord truly does bless us when we keep going, and just don't give up! There really are few inadequacies that cannot be overcome by consistency and love. Charity really is the vine from which springs so many other qualities--if we love someone, we are patient with them, if we love someone, we are kind to them, if we love someone, we don't give up on them. I know that as we develop true Charity for those around us, we will more quickly become like our Savior, and be an instrument in his hands to do his work. There is no greater joy!

I love you all so much, have a great week!

Smiles,

Elder Hardy