Birthday!

Holla!

This is my last P-day in the MTC!!!!! We're leaving the MTC on Monday at 8:00am. We're definitely the lucky ones because we get to sleep until 6:30 like usual, eat breakfast at the normal time, and possibly have a little time to do last minute packing or just relax. No getting up at 4 am for me. :) Charlie's not so lucky...she has to leave at 6:00. The elders in our district are leaving at 5:00 in the morning on Monday. It has been really weird this week to be doing everything for the last time. We had our last TRC yesterday, and we taught Pablo for the last time on Tuesday. Then tomorrow we'll be teaching a new investigator for the first and last time. It's kind of strange to think that in less than a week I'll be teaching people who really don't know anything about the gospel or our church or how much God loves them. I can't wait to share this with others!! Hopefully they'll be able to understand at least some of my Spanish...

Anyway, now for some business for everyone. Since we're leaving Monday morning and don't get mail on Saturdays or Sundays (including no Dear Elders) please don't send me anything after noon tomorrow. I won't get it, and then you'll feel bad when I don't respond to you. You can continue to send me letters through Dear Elder, you just need to switch it from MTC to my mission, California San Fernando. Please just always send my letters to the mission home because then even if it takes longer for me to get them I don't have to worry about them getting lost in the process or being sent to the wrong address. When I know where I'll be living for the next 6 weeks I'll let you know in case you want to send snail mail straight to me. For now, our mission home address (which you don't have to include on Dear Elders) is:

Hermana Marin Hardy

California San Fernando Mission

23504 Lyons Ave Ste 107

Santa Clarita, CA 91321

Now for a few stories (and yes some of them are old-ish):

3/12

During lunch one day Hermana Clifton and I were talking to Elder Webb. I'm not sure how the topic came up, but somehow it came up how many children we want to have. Now Hermana Clifton has a standard answer for this so she just popped right in with, "22 boys and 2 girls." This didn't seem to phase Elder Webb who said, "Me to!" and then continued for just a second while Hermana Clifton and I stared at him. Finally he figured out what he'd said and we all had a good laugh about it.

3/13

The story from this day is actually from a lot earlier, but I thought about it on this day. We all had male companions for the first five or so minutes of our missions. When mom and dad dropped us off at the curb an elder took each of our suitcases and walked us up to the main building where we got our tags and everything. Ever since I realized that I've noticed more things in relation to this idea. Hermana Hall and I talked about it and she told how she was super uncomfortable when she realized it as she was being dropped off. Her first thought was, "I shouldn't be alone with him! He's an Elder! ... and I'm a Sister!" I also remembered what Charlie and my escorts were like. Charlie's was kind and talkative which was good, but mine seemed just as uncomfortable as Hermana Hall said she was. I remember that he didn't talk to me almost at all, walked really fast (which was good because I was anxious to get going) and seemed slightly uncomfortable the whole time. The elders in our district hosted this Wednesday (yesterday) so I made sure to tell them not to act awkard with the sisters coming in because they would need a friendly face from the first missionary the talked to in the MTC. They're all good Elder's and I'm sure they did a great job!

3/14

On this day we were in class with Hermana Banfield, and she had us take a little break to get water and walk around a little bit. When we came back everyone was already sitting down so I went to slide into my seat and sit down, and I completely missed my seat and ended up sitting hard on the ground!! It was absolutely hillarious, and I just started laughing at myself. Luckily I was wearing a longer skirt so I didn't have to worry about the modesty part, just my dignity.Hermana Banfield was so worried about me, but I was able to reassure her pretty well that I was okay. Another funny part of this story is Elder Barkdull. He sits in the desk next to me, and after I finally stopped laughing he told me about his dillema. He appologized for not catching me and said that his first instinct was to catch me but then he remembered that he was an elder and I was a sister and he wasn't supposed to touch me, and by the time he figured out his internal dillema I was already on the ground. That reminds me of an experience in gym one day (I don't remember what day) where one of the elders from our second youngest district went running off the court to try to catch a of target volleyball and didn't see the sister standing there. He bowled into her, and instinctively caught her around the waist to keep her from falling over. There was a bit of a panic as everyone freaked out about the contact but at the same time wanted to praise him for not knocking her over. It was really funny.

Anyway, I'm literally out of time so I've got to go. I love you all!!!

Love,

Hermana Marin Hardy