Feb 18 2014

Feliz Dia,

 

Valentines Day was this week, and it was by far the best holiday that I've had as a missionary. Nothing is better than love to start of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then Monday was also a holiday (presidents day?) which is why we're emailing on Tuesday instead of Monday.

 

Last Monday was really fun. We were at the tennis courts as a district/zone, and a bunch of us decided to play flag football instead. Hna Barnes and I had some extra fabric that we found in our apartment in the car so we cut it up to make flag and then everyone just tucks it into their waistband. It was a little sad later that day though because we had to give up one of our investigators named T. She is super sweet, and actually sees us as friends, but she's really more comfortable speaking and reading English so we said that we would send the English elders to talk with her.

 

Tuesday was district meeting, which was AMAZING!!!! (as usual) Then we got to spend most of the day contacting because all of our appointments fell through. Correlation was chistoso (funny:not an exact translation) as always, but we got a lot done, and it's always fun to be able to see the missionaries in our district.

 

Wednesday we had an exchange with the Burbank hermanas, and Hna Blacker came here to me. We also had a lot of contacting time, but we did teach an impromptu lesson to one of our investigators named Clara. It was so fun for me to be able to work with Hna Blacker again and see how much she's progressed since our last exchange during her 3rd week in the mission. She really is just a good missionary, and her Spanish is AMAZING!!!

 

Thursday we finished exchange and then had all sorts of crazy things happen. We ended up having to go to the office to pick up a temporary car while ours get's fixed (someone keyed our back bumper...), and then we went over to the NoHo 4to hermanas to do some roleplays with them before heading back to our area for cena and an appointment. However, that's when we realized that we had left the door opener for our parking lot in the car in Santa Clarita! We did had our dinner, taught our lesson, and then drove all the way back to Santa Clarita... All in all a crazy day. :)

 

Friday we finally had some more time to work in our area, and we found three new investigators. The best part is that they all live in the same apartment building. It's always a miracle for us when we find several different Hispanic families in the same building, and it was even more of a miracle that three of them (well, three individuals) were willing to listen to us!

 

Saturday we again had almost no time in our area. We helped the Zone Leaders with a finding activity in their area and did splits again with the Burbank hermanas. It was such a cool experience for me for two reasons. 1) Hna Watts and I found 3 new investigators for the Elders, a brother and his two sisters who were super cool, and so prepared! 2) Hna Watts told me that Hna Blacker had really been impacted by our exchange! I am so grateful that God allowed me to see the impact that I'd had on someone. So often we never know who we impact, and I am always grateful when he lets me see that. We also did a finding activity with the Van Nuys bike hermanas, and I was SO HAPPY because I got to go on bike with Hna Hudsen for 2 hours! I miss being on bike so much!

 

Sunday was also a good day. Church was good, and even though all of our citas fell through it was great to have the finding time and we were able to find 3 more new investigators.

 

Monday we again got together with our zone, this time for a giant water balloon fight. We were celebrating beating our goal for new investigators last month. It was SO much fun, but I didn't take any pictures (sorry mom). We all got wet, and the water balloons ran out fairly quickly so we played soccer afterwards to dry off.

 

Today has been a good day so far, but I really just want to share an experience that I had this morning in (and after) district meeting that I really think has changed the rest of my mission. District meeting was awesome! and then thanks to the things we talked about there I spent some time during lunch studying why I came on a mission. I always say that I came because God told me to and I want to do what he wants me to. Our district leader talked about the why behind missionary work, and that made me think about why God wanted me to come on a mission. I read through the beginning of Ch1 in PMG and found a few kind of generic answers, but then the true answer of why I came on a mission came to me as I remembered my farewell talk. In my talk I explained that I was going on a mission because I knew how much God loved me and how much he loved others and I wanted to share that love with everyone. As I thought about this I realized that having that purpose is why I have never worried about numbers or baptism. I know that baptism and activity in the church (following the gospel of Jesus Christ) is the best way to feel God's love, but that depends on their agency and not my work. I am just here to share with them how much God loves them. It was incredible to me to feel the Spirit, and relief, and change in perspective that came as I remembered that simple principle. I don't know when I lost that, but I am SO grateful that I have remembered it again. I can already see the change that it makes in how I feel as we go out to work and talk with everyone.

 

I am so grateful for this time that I have to be a missionary. I am grateful for all the things that I am learning and for the opportunity to become more and more personally converted. Thank you for all of your love and support.

 

Love,

 

Hna Marin Hardy

 

Picture #1 My hair is getting SO long. ... And I get a little silly at night when I'm tired...

Picture #2 (DISCLAIMER: This is totally not allowed and does not happen!!!) Elder Robison (my district leader) and me. He started the joke about doing exchanges with me, and Hna Barnes and I thought he was sounding a little down on the phone Friday night when he called to talk to us, so to make him laugh I packed up as if for an exchange and brought my bag with me to the district finding activity the next day. I even brought my helmet since he's on bike. :) Oh the things we do to play jokes on each other.

Picture #3 Hna Barnes and Elder Robison... I guess I did something wrong. ;)