A plea from Elder TJ for all to read the talk from Elder Holland and the importance of serving a mission

Elder Jeffery R. Holland talk "We Are All Enlisted"
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/we-are-all-enlisted?lang=eng

Please read quote from President Spencer W. Kimball

Every Young Man Should Serve a Mission

“The question is frequently asked: Should every young man fill a mission? And the answer has been given by the Lord. It is ‘Yes.’ Every young man should fill a mission. …

What are some common excuses for not going on a mission?

Elder William R. Bradford of the Seventy addressed this subject

“Some of you say in your minds, ‘Oh well, you just don’t understand my case. My situation is different. I plan to be a great lawyer, or doctor, or athlete, or some other great person. Surely neither you nor the Lord would expect me to leave my studies at such an important time. A mission would interfere with my future plans.’

“Others are thinking, ‘Yes, I know about missions, but if you had a girlfriend like mine, you’d never leave her. What will happen to her while I’m gone?’

“Yet others of you are thinking, ‘Missions cost so much. I just got this job. I just purchased a car and a stereo. It’s just the time of life when I’m starting to get things together for myself. I can’t drop all that now. I just can’t afford it.’

“Then there are also those who are thinking, ‘My situation disqualifies me. I have fallen into transgression and am not participating in the Church. I had always planned on being a missionary, but I slipped and now I don’t live the standards required of a missionary’ ”

If I could speak separately to each of you young men, … I would say with all the power of speech I could generate, ‘Just who do you think you are? What right do you have to match your wisdom with that of God, who through His prophets has issued a firm decree, a solemn mandate, that the restored gospel must be declared to all the world by the voice of His disciples? This means you!’ (in Conference Report, Oct. 1981, p. 71; orEnsign, Nov. 1981, p. 50).

This weeks letter from Elder TJ Hardy

Hey! What's up my family? Hope your past week was awesome and productive! Thanks for the e-mails and update on you guys! I really enjoyed it. As you know I got my HUGE Care Package this past Monday and loved it! Elder Sondrup really enjoyed his and was surprised. Thanks again for doing that for him. Best Parents in the World! No doubt.

I want you to know how much I love my mission and my Savior Jesus Christ. We are all disciples of Him. I am so grateful and in debt to Him and my Father in Heaven for giving me this opportunity to serve them. I hope I can do a job well done. The people of Idaho are truly blessing my life. I am so honored to serve them. Every morning when I put on my name tag it take a whole new meaning especially since time is going soooo fast. There is nothing else I'd rather be doing at this point in my life. I am so grateful for the experiences I am able to have. The power of the the Priesthood, prayer, and the Atonement are real! I have come to know the truth’s  of this Gospel. I thought I knew I knew what the Gospel was before I left but I feel that I have gained sooo much more knowledge. A mission is the best thing a young man can do. We are all missionaries. Share the Gospel with anyone and everyone. I know this Gospel is true and is our Savior’s Gospel. How awesome it is that we have a modern day prophet to lead and guide us in these days. (Amos 3:7) there will always be a prophet. I know it. As we come upon a new week I hope that we can all improve on the things we need to and come that much closer with the Savior and feel of His love for each of us. Remember you are never alone. (Footprints in the Sand) Onward and Upward. Always remember that YOU can have YOUR OWN Sacred Grove Experience. Never forget the love that Heavenly Father has for you.

My week went a little something like......

Tuesday (25th)-- Temple Tuesday! As you know the Boise Temple is getting ready to be dedicated and on Temple Tuesday to invite members, investigators to invite to the open house. We knock every door we come in contact with and 1) to share the Gospel and 2) to win the competition in our zone to see who is able to teach the most temple lessons. So we thought we'd get a little more clever and make our numbers impossible to compete with so we called two young men from two of the wards and had them come out with us! Smart huh? No rules say we can't haha :) I went with a kid named Stephen Hurd - he's 18 and preparing  for his mission in about a year. I had him do a few doors to get him in the swing of missionary life - I made sure I knew the family of course. He did a good job. Last week we got 13 lessons. This week we got....25 and shooting for 35 next Tuesday. We kicked some tail! Had some really awesome lessons with families and most of them are doing really well about inviting there friends to the Temple and going to take them! Makes our job that much easier. The members here are good and missionary minded for the most part. That all our day consisted of is knocking lots of doors and sharing a message about the Temple and the success that can come out of it and the Spirit will do the rest. In the evening we went to the Hunter Ward Bishops house and asked if we could do anything for him, the ward and if he'd like us to visit anyone - he had a few people for us so we will be contacting those people this week. The Open House of the Boise Temple is going to be such a neat opportunity for the people to come and see. When the Twin Falls Temple had there open house they had over 800 referrals! If you think about it Twin is about 50,000 people {maybe} and Boise being about 250,000 people (ish) just think of what can happen! Success is going to come left and right! I'm pumped. We get to take our investigators to it so that will be even cooler! Hopefully this will be a "kick in the butt" our investigators need to get them into the Waters of Baptism. Praying for that.

Wednesday (26th)-- Today plans got changed this morning. Life as a missionary - always got to be ready for change! So I got up today and grabbed the phone then headed downstairs to eat and then headed up and got ready. When I got out of the shower there was missed call from Sister Phonasa - we are teaching her nonmember husband. I called her back seeing what she needed and she was wondering if we could come do some service for her (pull weeds) so i was like heck yeah we can do that! So after studies and lunch we headed over and as Elder Sondrup was pulling weeds I talked to her about what we can do to get her husband progressing and have him receive a testimony of our Saviors Gospel. She was a great help. We know he has felt the spirit a few lessons ago with him (back w/ Elder Bennett) he mentioned he has some reservations and wouldn't tell us what they were. I asked Sister Phonasa to find out what those reservations are and let us know so we can pray/fast about what we can to do for him. She was less-active for many year but this past year or so she got active and recently went to the temple. And now she is going to be a host at the Boise Temple Open House. 

Once we finished pulling weeds there youngest son who is 3 (Braylen) is way into Super Hero's so I played Super Hero's with him for a little bit and he had a great time! He was spiderman and I was superman haha. Cute kid he's super funny! After service and super heros with Braylen we went home and showered and then HIT THE PAVEMENT to find some people to teach! No luck since everyone was just getting home from school but after dinner we'll get 'em! :) We went and taught an investigator about repentance, and baptism. After Kaleb's lesson I went and got a haircut and then went over to Bill Kirk's house he has recently became activated and his wife is not a member. We watched the Testaments with them. Jenna (wife) was sick so she didn't sit in but his son did. They both really enjoyed the movie and had never seen it before. The Spirit was there for sure! I know they felt it. Bill is a rockstar. Cameron his son is going to ask Jesus what is favorite Football team is. Hahaha! How that came about was Cameron asked if we will get to meet Jesus and Heavenly Father.

Thursday (27th)-- Got up and did the usual morning stuff. Had studies and lunch then headed to the church to do a missionary survey and track our progress and weekly plan. We do the Missionary Survey's only when an authority is coming to tour the mission. We are having an authority coming October 25th and 26th. Who you ask?? To that I would say Good Question. Haha I'm not sure yet. :) I'll let you know! After we did the Survey we did some weekly planning for the upcoming week and talked about the area and people we are working with and discussed how we can better help them. It was probably the longest weekly planning session we've had ever in this transfer haha it was a good one though. We are hoping for big things this week. When we finished with the planning stuff we rode our bikes down to the Maverick by our house and I got a F'real shake and jerky  just like the good ole days of St. G. Then we got picked up for dinner and then headed to the Sundance Ward's Ward Mission Correlation. Had a good talk with them. We did that for the evening. We got a few referrals from them also.

Friday (28th)-- Had the weekly District Meeting and lunch. Today our training was on tracting. It was a good training and learned some helpful tips! We'll be tracting this upcoming week to put these tips to the test. For lunch the district went to Los Betos but I really don't like it and I think it tastes like garbage so Iwent across the parking lot and got some real Mexican Food I got Del Taco! Once we got back from Lunch we headed over to see the Chiropractor as we do most Friday's and he give us free adjustments. I have gotten really close with him over the past 2 months. I hope I serve in his area. We went to dinner and then had Hunter Ward Splits and Brother Pettersson came out with us and we went to Aaron and Angela Sandoval's. We talked and taught about the importance of church attendance and committed them to come to church. They were iffy about it so on the spot I said these exact words, "I want a commitment tonight before I leave and now would be great." They accepted right away. (See Sunday to see if the came through or not) The lesson went really well. There is a missionary farewell for one of the people in their ward boundaries that they know well so that is going to be a good reason for them to go.

Saturday (29th)-- Today we got up and did some service for Ella our elderly lady friend. We mowed and trimmed her lawn and got it looking nice then headed around our area to see what the yard sales had this week since last week I got a Titlists Golf Set for 3 bucks ha ha! We headed home and got cleaned up after the yard work and rode our bikes over to the church to do our weekly progress reports for each of the wards we cover. After that we found a young man to take us around to deliver them to the auxiliaries and then went to dinner and after dinner went and contacted the referrals we received this week and had some visits with them. Most of them were nice but not too interested. Said we're welcome to come over anytime but also let us know that they weren't interested in pursuing the missionary lessons. Those are the rejections I like haha nice rejections make it all better. On the way home tonight I had my first bike wipeout of the mission.  I thought I'd try riding the curbs all the way home and I was doing good but on one of the curbs I lost my balance and down I went aka *kaboom* haha. I slid and rolled onto some grass. Luckily nothing got torn or ripped and the only thing I had was grass stains - a lot of them but nothing was damaged. :) That's all that matter right? ;) not going to lie it was super funny. It was dark so no one could see me so which made the situation better haha.

Sunday (30th)-- Today we spent our time at the Hunter Ward (9am) then Meridian 2nd (11am) and Sundance (1pm). The Homecoming was in the Hunter Ward for Austin Staley. He helped us out quite a bit. He'll be a stellar missionary. He's going to the West Indies Dutch Speaking! Made me reflect and look at how great Idaho and English speaking sounds. He did a great job speaking about he Atonement. Guess what?..... The Sandoval's were..... not at home! They came to church. :) Man it was the first time in over a year that we all finally got them to church and wait there's more! They stayed for the whole 3 hours! Members were so good to them too. They said they had a great time. It was so great to see them and keep their commitments. The ward members were like praising us. It was funny. I was like it's not us it was the Spirit working within them. We didn't do anything. 

Had splits w/ the Meridian 2nd Ward and I took a priest out with me and we taught a lesson about the importance of building a foundation and why we need to. We taught a member family (Nawahini's) and talked to them about their investigator friend named AJ. We're meeting with him Tuesday @ 7pm. I taught him once about the Restoration w/ the Nawahini's. I'll probably send Elder Sondrup over to teach AJ this time since I went last time. I think I have enough faith in him ;) haha just kidding he'll do well. After we did that we all went to dinner (all = me, the Priest, and Elder Sondrup). After that Taylor Paskett (Priest kid) dropped us off and we got on our bikes and went over to say bye to Austin or Elder Staley I should say. They invited us in and we had some food with them like snack food. I was super full already and then to have that but I ate it anyway and I thought I was going to burst! We then said bye to Elder Austin Staley as he heads to the MTC. Then we went to see a potential investigator that Elder Bennett found while he was with his previous companion. His name is Paul. We knock and this guy answers so I ask if he was Paul he wasn't and then went and got him. So Paul come to the door and he is HUGE! Like Paul Bunyon and the Ox huge haha. He asked us a question of "Who was the first woman on the earth?" We responded "Eve" He was like "no!" I then said "What? Who was?" He said "I don't know I want to know because no one knows and there is different records of a woman before Eve." We told him we'd check into it and get back to him. So now this brings me to a question for you... "Who was the first lady?" Apparently it's not Eve haha.

Monday (1st)-- Another month down 14 down 10 to go! Where is the time going?! Today we played frisbee, then football, then lunch, then we went to a nearby church and played basketball. After basketball we headed to a place called JumpTime and some missionaries jumped on the tramps I opted not to it's $8 an hour to jump on a tramp - to me that's a waste. I've been before but it's not worth $8. The Elders that jumped had fun though so that's cool for them. Me and some others Elders just chilled for an hour on there soft couches and talked. After JumpTime we went home and showered up and then I called Mama and Papa Nawahini and asked them if we could come over and e-mail home and they said "you don't have to ask Elder Hardy just come" Haha they are so so so so AWESOME!!! I love them so much! They are going to feed us too. It's now 9 pm haha and i am wrapping my e-mail up and then going to go eat. Mama Nawahini just came in and AJ (investigator) just walked through the door and AJ was talking to Elder Soudrup and she came and asked me if only I would come tomorrow on splits to teach him. Haha so I was like sure I can do that. She said AJ feel more comfortable with me then my comp. I think it's awesome! Because at first it was just the Nawahini's now it's just them and me. Progression is being made! AJ is such a cool guy!! He's in the military and way down to earth.

I hope you enjoyed this e-mail

Have a great week! I love you and miss you tons!

-Elder T. Hardy

** 3 Nephi 5:13 **

Latest letter from Elder TJ

Latest letter frome Elder TJ

Hello hello my awesome family it's yours truly Elder Tyler Jack Hardy writing you a letter on my P-day and also the day of transfers. Another month and transfer has come to a close and we're moving on! Let's get down to business and defeat Satan! The 6 weeks with Elder Bennett were good- he’s a great missionary. He was pretty (way) sick about leaving and not excited but he'll do well up in Twin Falls and he's in a car area so I'm jealous about that! Haha oh well..... anyways. Hope your week went well and I also hope you guys enjoy this e-mail.

Tuesday (28th)-- We were doing service last night for some members and we got a phone call asking if Elder Guzman's companion could come with us since they had a meeting and Elder Guzman is back in St. G so we said sure so this morning they dropped him off his name is Elder Streeter he's from North Carolina but not a fan of the Tar Heels ( poor kid ) he like Clemson Tigers. So to start of the day we headed to our appointment at Preacher Greg's he's a Jehovah Witness and is a real fire ball. We were there for 3 hours just talking and he was arguing for a little bit. Didn't get us anywhere but I'll tell you what.... those guys have some really really different thoughts and beliefs. He believes when we die that's all of our memories are lost so I asked him this question: "So when we die all of our knowledge is lost right?" "He says, "Yes." I said, "So all of our knowledge of the Gospel, God, and the Bible is gone? Well, honestly that doesn't make any sense." He brushed it off and changed subjects. He also thought that we count our Baptisms for the Dead as our congregation members! We were like um no... Definitely don't count the dead people as "active" members. He also stated that they pass our more magazines than anyone else so we said well that seems a little prideful. Great job for passing them out but let's not be prideful about it. I felt like saying and how many of those magazines could you find in the garbage LOL. I have learned know matter other peoples beliefs I need to be respectful and love them for who they are as children of our Father in Heaven.

So after the 3 hour appointment with Preacher Greg we went home and ate some lunch then went to Dr. Moorehouse who is a Chiropractor who gives us free adjustments whenever we need/want them - he's super chill. After we got adjusted we had a lesson cancel on us so we did some contacting around the area for the afternoon and then went to dinner with the Jones Family. He’s the 1st counselor in the Bishopric for the Hunter Ward. Has a cute daughter - just sayin... :) Haha. While we were there they brought out there dog shock collar because if you hold hands around the table and two people touch each tip of the collar everyone can feel it until someone breaks the chain, it was way cool and fun. I did it on my arm and it felt way weird. After dinner we shared a message about Christ and how he continues blessed our lives as we live the gospel. The Jones have their niece living with them because her dad is overseas and she really wants to get baptized. We're just waiting for the dad to say go ahead and take the lessons. So once they get a hold of him we'll teach and baptize her. After the message we went and did weekly splits with the Hunter Ward and I went with Brother Petterrson and we went and contacted a new move in and it was so awkward! It was way bad. We tried teaching her but in the background there were 2 people making out and playing basketball with some hard core rap going on too. The spirit was not there. We tried but she talked so quiet we just couldn't hear anything. Her name is Michelle Warmouth - from Idaho Falls, she just got kicked out of her house and has been a member her whole life (18years old) but doesn't know if it's for her anymore so she's living with some of her friends of different faiths and exploring all the different religions to see what ones she likes. She said her parents weren't good example of the Mormon religion. Hopefully we can get her in a members house and start sharing our message to bring her back in the fold. After talking to her it reminded me how grateful I am for the knowledge I have of the Restoration and how it has blessed my life and how easy to understand and pray and ask and we will all get an answer (James 1:5). 

Wednesday (29th)-- Got up and had District Meeting and Interview with President Cannon. I sure love our mission president, he is such a stud. We then had the meeting over at a Senior Couple's house (McMullin's) their house is huge gotta be at least 7,000 sq. feet. At District Meeting we learned about the importance of working through members and ward and stake leaders. While we were getting trained we each got pulled out by President Cannon to get our individual interview (PPI’s)  done. I had a great interview with pres. Caught up on the work and talked about the area. He told me to be ready for additional leadership responsibilities really soon so idk what that means - we'll see! That went until about 3pm. Once we got back to our house to drop off things we didn't need we went to do some contacting and contacted an investigator named Kaleb Rich - he's 9 years old and really wants to be baptized soon so we set an appointment up for Sept. 10th. Went and tried to visit some more people but had no luck. Went to dinner with the Chrystlers - he's the Elder Quorum President we were there for a long time just talking about life and the work it was a great visit.  Once we wrapped dinner and the lesson up we headed to the Kirk's and if you remember the Kirk's are a Part Member Family he's the member she's not. Sometimes she sits in on the lesson and sometimes she doesn't this time she did so we talked about the Restoration and Book of Mormon. She is really opening up. She mentioned that "Religion scares me." Brother McMullin (Ward Mission Leader) did a great job explaining how to not be afraid. The lesson went well. We all bore our testimonies about the Restoration and how it has helped us in our lives.

Thursday (30th)-- Another Meeting......... This one is Zone....Meeting. Zone Meeting. It's similar to Zone Conference but this is where the Zone Leaders get up and train us for 3 hours and there is no President Cannon. After the zone meeting Elder Bailey and myself exchanged and President Cannon let me go to Marcus' Littlewoods game since he was in town playing Boise. Marcus was able to get us 4 free tickets which was great. I took lots of pictures so you can see them when I send the SD Card home. I wasn't able to talk to Marcus because we had to get going so that was a big time bummer but at least I got to watch him play for a while. I took video of the game as well when Marcus was up to bat.  The next morning with Elder Bailey was pretty sure he was leaving the area this transfer so we went around and said goodbye to some of his close friends he has made in Meridian

Friday (31st)-- This morning we got up and hung out for a while then at 12:30 we went to Costa Vida ( which I hear they have in St. George now?? Is the correct? Where? ) Went and ate some lunch then the 4 of us hopped on our bikes and headed out to work for the day and then we went to dinner at Brother Petterrson's house - no one signed up because today is...the...1st....Boise....State....Game..... Go figure no one signed up everyone is going to be watching it and so after dinner and our short little message so we didn't take their whole night and they could watch the BSU game we headed to the church to do some area book planning and organizing it a little bit better while we were there we got transfer calls and found out that Elder Bennett with take his talents to Twin Falls South and I would my new companion is Elder Soundrup from Arizona and has been out around 10 months. When Elder Bennett got the transfer phone call from the AP’s he was not happy he stormed out of the church and walked around for a little bit then he was ok after a bit and we went home. I got tons of calls from other missionaries wondering what's happening to me and I did the same by calling people including letting people know what happened in our area. You never know who is getting transferred from your district or zone so we call our buddies to see if their staying or going.

Saturday (1st)-- Elder Bennett is still frustrated and sad about the transfer news, I think he really liked this area and we enjoyed each other as companions. I kind of felt bad but it's how missionary life goes. So today we went and mowed our weekly lawn for Ella. I edged as usual. I like edging a lot as long as I don't get hit with it..... hahaha! Good ole walk down memory lane from dad taking out my back with the weed eater and G&G Hardy’s. After we mowed her lawn we ate some lunch I made myself some mac and cheese and then hopped in the shower and got smelling nice and looking as fresh as I could. Then off to Star (my first area which is about 15 miles away) for Ryan, Whitney and Abby Sorensen's BAPTISM!!! Woo Hoo! It finally happened. It was going to happen in time but if you remember their grandparents and other family/friends live super far away so they decided to wait till Abby turned 8 and do them all at once. I was asked to talk on Baptism and I thought it went well. They all got confirmed that same day also. The baptism was simply amazing! Brought back many memories of teaching them about the Restored Gospel and how interested and curious they were and we as missionaries having knowledge and testimonies to be able to help them understand. What a neat neat neat family!!! Love them! Also, at the baptism I saw many familiar faces from my first area and that was a ton of fun! One of my good missionary friends Elder Dudley talked on the Holy Ghost - he did a great job! He's a stud. been out for 18 almost 19 months. After their baptism I had to run over to Caldwell to Cassie Vitale and Katie Dixon's baptism! I was late... opps. They forgave me. So the baptisms were great. Cassie is living with her uncle that is the Young Men's president and he had his son getting baptized too so we had 3 baptisms in Caldwell. So in 1 day we had 4 convert baptisms and 2 member of record baptism. Katie asked me to baptize her which was pretty special to me. Once I got in the water to baptize Katie - my mind went completely BLANK! I forgot how to hold her and dunk her haha it was pretty embarrassing so the Bishop walked me through it. Idk what happened it was strange! But I got it down and baptized her and it was a neat experience for me. My first person that I actually baptized all of my other baptisms were done by family or ward members. When we got done with that we were getting ready to walk out to the other Elder’s car to get some items and I noticed a family that we got super close to while in Star and they were having there reception so we got excited and ran over and said hi and they were like stick around! So we stuck around for an hour or so and had a great time. They have both been married but ended up in a bad situation - not their fault it was their ex-spouses. After that visit we headed back and the 4 of us Elders went to Chili's and ate some dinner and had someone come to our table and paid for our meal :) yahoo! Elder VanZlinge and I are going to go backto Caldwell this next  p-day and visit and hang out in Caldwell for the day and live it up again! I miss Caldwell a ton! Brother Hawkes the people we lived while in Caldwell was just made the Ward Mission Leader and he will be great. 

Sunday (2nd)-- Headed to the Hunter Ward Correlation meeting for the missionary work in the ward and no one showed up besides us and the WML Brother Pettersson. So we just talked about a few people and split. After correlation we went to the Hunter Ward and then went to Meridian 2nd ward correlation and talked more about their area and how it's not doing too well and we're in the rebuilding stage of things but hopefully we should get rolling soon with all the work were doing. After that we got a ride over to the Stake Center and went to the Settler's Bridge Ward and then went back to the other church building and attended the Sundance ward then headed to an early dinner at the Vails at 2:30pm. After dinner we went back to the house dropped our suits off and got our bikes and started the good-byes to the families that Elder Bennett got close to and ended the night doing that. When we got home Elder Bennett thought he could pack in 10 minutes I said heck no you can’t! So we e a deal and I said I bet you can't get ready before 12 - you'll be up after midnight and he said no way I bet I'm done by 11pm - the time is 10:16 so he went and started while I called in our weekly numbers and talked to Elder Bailey for a while since he is getting transferred - needless to say it was 12:30 and I said alright man I'm going to bed. He said okay maybe I didn't think I'd take this long hahaha! I won:) 

Monday(3rd)-- Well today is p-day but most importantly it's my 13 MONTH MARK!!!!! This morning Elder Bennett finished packing while I got nice and smelling fresh and moved the room around to my liking. Dropped Elder Bennett him off at the mission office at 9:30 and then came back to Elder Bailey and Elder Miles' house and chilled with them until my new comp Elder Sundrop got here at 3:30 pm. Tonight for our dinner appointment we went to a Ward/Culdasac get together and then went out and did some work until 9:0 pm and now it’s time to start getting to know another missionary.

Well my week has been good. Should have some baptisms coming up if people will keep the commitments we leave with them. The work will now pick up more since summer is over during the weekdays but will now slow down on the weekends due to BSU starting their football season. I am loving my mission so much! I am having the times of my life for sure. Preach My Gospel page 121 (Elder Ballard Quote) Sums it all up. I love meeting new and old people and sharing what I know to be true about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I wouldn't have it any other way. I love the Gospel and am so happy I have this opportunity to share it with the people in Idaho. I love you so much and miss you guys so much and hope you have a great week and enjoy your day off from work today since it’s Labor Day. 

Have a great week! Love you!

Never forget we can ALL have our OWN Sacred Grove Experiences. 

Love you tons,

Elder T. Hardy :) 

Elder Bennett comp from St. George and Elder TJ (Meridian 2nd)

Elder VanZalinge and Elder TJ (comps in Caldwell Idaho)

Teaching the Alpaca's, We live with Bro & Sis Hawkes and they raise Alpaca's

Dad and Mom Hawkes (we lived with them in Caldwell)

Look mom, I'm wearing my helmet like a good boy

Life without a car

My other missionary outfitt, "Super Missionary"

This is so my. Gotta love my ketchup!!! Who else puts ketchup on fish LOL

My side of the room and yes I'm still clean and make my bed everyday

Stephanie Lee's baptism

Andre Sewell baptism with Elder Adam in Wendell Idaho

Aime Davis baptism in Wendell Idaho

We parked our car as close as we could to the Spanish Elders so they could not get out. Silly Elders 

This is about 50 feet from my house with 200 cows. Gotta love the daily smell YUK

My new wheels

I must be from the city, I milk cows with gloves on. I'm sure my dad is thinking his son has lost it LOL

Brother Wood;s brick driveway we helped him make from a burned down house (UGLY)

Our adopted cat that we named Cosmo while living in Wendell Idaho

Elder Hardy & Elder Bennett both from St.George

Letter from Elder TJ Hardy August 21, 2012

Hey Hey! Another week has come and gone! Can you believe it? I find it hard to think that I'm on the downward slope of my mission; it has truly been the best year ever! No complaints even in the down times – it makes me stronger and shapes me as a missionary/person. This week was a little slower because people are trying to get the last week of summer fun in before school starts up again this next week, We had some killer lessons and talk about some serious discernment. Well this week has been good let me tell ya about it!

Tuesday (14th)-- Today we went to Preacher Greg Coans first thing in the morning and had a casual visit with him. Then we got in the Bible a little bit - He started to bash a little bit so I made a promise to myself that I would never bible bash so we changed the conversation. After the lesson we headed to the mission nurses house and helped her and her husband move the furniture into their new house with Elder Bailey and Elder Miles. We were there for most of the day - they also made us lunch and a big one too! We had steak, potatoes, and salad, with chocolate cake for dessert. It was good. After we got done with that we headed back to the house got our bikes and then went to dinner at a Scout Pack Meeting at the Park near our house then we went around and made some visits. We met an investigator named Chainy Roads and he is great! I really think we can have some great success with him! He used to live in Star a few years ago so we were able to talk about people we knew and turns out we know a lot of the same people and we're great friends with them. His wife is a very active member of our church - she's in the Young Women's I believe. 

Wednesday (15th)-- Today I got up and got ready, I studied Matthew 1-13 and had a great time studying it and learning all the things our Savior did my Matthew is really marked up! I could definitely feel the Spirit while I was reading. Went out contacting and had a few good conversations. Went and got free snow cones down at the Maverick gas station where the Elders get them for free. I got a large tigers blood gotta love tiger blood snow cones. After that we went and did some more contacting in that area and then we went to dinner with the Former Elder Quorum President - The Allen Family. They are super cool. We were there for like 2 hours just talking about missions and it was a ton of fun!! He had some great stories. Then we went and saw a part member family name the Kirk’s as we do every Wednesday and we talked about life after death. He’s a little nervous since his kids and wife isn't baptized that they might not be able to live together so we addressed that and that God is our loving Heavenly Father and that He is the only one that can make those calls and just exercise our faith.  

Thursday (16th)-- Today we got did our morning usual then headed to the church to do our weekly planning! That took a long time today because we were both out of it and couldn't keep our attention! It took forever and then we had a hard time finding members, investigators home to teach. Then we had dinner tonight with the Testa Family - we all got talking about the Gospel in general. After that we took some letters/notes around to some families that Elder Bennett likes and that helps builds member trust. 

Friday (17th)-- This morning we headed to the church and had our weekly District Meeting and had district lunch. We got trained on Christ-Like attributes - went well. For lunch we went to 5 Guys and a member paid for all of us. He went up to the cash register and dropped a $100 bill on the table and said this is for them. Talk about a blessing! It was neat. Once we got done with DM and lunch we headed to our house and got on our bikes and went and visited some investigators we went to the Tuiolasanga's and we visited with them and then we headed with the dad to drop his son off at his work. We then went to dinner with a family that has 3 boys from ages 17-21 and they lost their dad a few years ago. After that visit we headed to do some service for some potential investigators but they didn't answer. We then headed to Ella's house one of our investigators to do some yard work. While we were mowing the lawn she asked if I needed dust pan since she doesn't have a blower so I have to sweep it off the side walk with a broom - takes FOREVER! So she comes up to me and asks if I need a dust pan and I said sure that'd be great and brings out a big snow shovel! Hahaha! That was way funny; she can't pick things up when she walks because she shuffle her feet while she walks. It was so so so hard not to laugh when I saw her bring me this “dust pan” and it was really a huge snow shovel and I’m from Southern Utah and have never used a snow shovel in my life LOL. I'll have to record a video of me using it next time so you will understand  more of what I'm talking about!

Saturday (18th)-- This morning we went to the School across the street from our house to help the Hunter Ward with some service that involved cleaning the school and pulling weeds, etc... After that we got ready for the day and then did our studies then we had lunch and then went to the church to do our weekly progress records and then went and delivered them to the Ward mission leaders and bishops and stake president. After that we headed to dinner, after dinner we went and visited some members to see if they were working with anyone and if we could help them at all. Got a call from Michelle Adams saying she bought us groceries and that they had ice cream cake that they wanted us to come over and have with them so we did. She bought us a TON of groceries and this really really helps out with the money situation. 

Sunday (19th)-- Went to the Hunter Ward at 9am then to Settler's Bridge at 11am after sacrament we went with 2 priests to a members house to assist them with shut-ins then headed back to the last ward of the day we finished up there. Then went on splits from 3-4 with the Meridian 2nd ward and then went to a lesson with an investigator named Chin Ponasa. The lesson plan was to talk about enduring to the end but it came to what were his hold ups with the church and not getting baptized because he's doing everything he should. He opened up and said he wants to be “all in” but has some reservation but he wouldn't tell us what they were. So I expressed the importance of reading and prayer and asked if he was reading and praying by himself and the answer was no. I was EXTREMELY shocked at the fact that other previous elders had never committed him to read and pray by himself. As we know this is key to all conversions. So as I mentioned earlier everyone thinks he's ready but in reality he's not that close but can be if he commits to read and pray and listens to the spirit.  It was a great lesson with some inspired questions.

After dinner we went to an investigators house Jeff Moebuis and helped him move some furniture so that the carpet cleaners could come and clean his carpets in the morning early. We also taught them about building a strong testimony and he is a fire fighter so we related the gospel to fire fighting. Our analogy was that a fire (the Spirit) is small at first but if we do the right things the fire (spirit) begins to grow within ourselves and when we don't build up our foundation our fire gets smaller. He really liked that and was impressed that we could relate it back to his job.

Monday P-Day (20th)-- Wow I just typed in the "20th" and realized that another month is almost done! Holy cow I seriously can't believe how fast time is going! Today we went to our church and played volleyball with a good 20+ missionaries and had a great time! :) Then we went to lunch at Subway - I was able to use my Subway cards that you guys sent up at Christmas. After lunch we went to Big Al's Bowling Center (brand new) and 17 of us went bowling it was ton of fun!! After bowling we played some arcade games we played air hockey 4 ways! It's an actual table with 4 players set out - everyone against everyone. The arcade is huge!! Then we headed to Wal-Mart where I got a few hygiene products ( soap, and shaving cream ) now I can be smelling nice ;) now doing e-mails and heading back home and will visit some people tonight and have some dinner. 

It's been a good week but with summer coming to a close and school starting up we should have even more success. In the splits with Meridian 2nd ward we were able to find 4 potential investigators that we will be dropping by this week to see if we can't get them to let us share the gospel with them! :). I'm glad you guys enjoyed the SD card and had fun watching it. I'll send this one a lot sooner than 8 months before. You did have a lot to watch though I bet that was fun! :) Well I got to head out now. Have a great week.

Love you and miss you so much! CTR

-Elder TJ Hardy 

Latest happenings from Elder TJ Hardy in Wendell Idaho

Hey Hey! What's goin' on? Anything new and exciting - saw the pictures of Casey's new haircut it looks great tell her I like it a lot. This week has been a great week for the Lord’s work and this is what we were able to accomplish. 33 Total Lessons Taught 1 With a Baptism Date 4 Committed to Baptism 3 Attending Church 7 Progressing Investigators 5 Referrals Received 1 Referral Contacted 1 New Investigator As you can see our numbers were through the roof it was awesome! We had some powerhouse lessons and this upcoming week we will be inviting 4 more to be baptized before the transfer ends (June 11th) I'll let you know how that goes. Talking about lessons taught we usually average about 13-16 per week but this week we went nuts and are earning and building trust along the way. Tuesday (May 1st)-- As we do each Tuesday we went to Hagerman to work the area. We went to Brother Woods to do some service. We moved things around in his yard, dug a hole to fix a pipe, and pull weeds out of his garden once we finished with that he took us down to the Gator Farm they have in Hagerman I had no clue they (Idaho) had Gators but they really do! Not as big as the ones we seen in Florida but they were decent size. After we got back from the Gator Farm we headed to the church to get in our church clothes and start proselyting went to an investigator that is way solid (Ron Hold) but we didn't catch him for his lesson. He should be another baptism in the future. After stopping by Ron's we headed to a Recent Convert named Anne Easton she was baptized last September and is rock solid in the Gospel!! We go over there each week and share a message to uplift them and to build their faith and just to check up on them. They are thinking about going to the temple once Anne has passed the 1 year after her baptism date. Mike her husband has been a Less- Active Member but he is becoming active and is pretty sure he wants to be with Anne forever. Haha he wasn't sure at first it was kind of funny and sad at the same time but he is ready and they are just preparing for the temple right now. So on every first Tuesday of the month a family named the Jenkins have us over for dinner - they LOVE the missionaries and I've been able to become very close to them in my 5 months in the area. She is an excommunicated member of the church and he is a less-active member. She has been working very hard to get re-baptized and come Saturday it will all pay off - she's getting baptized!! And.... (yes, there's more!) Housten (her husband) has quit smoking and has become worthy to receive the Aaronic Priesthood and is going to baptize her!! How awesome is that! They asked me to speak on the Holy Ghost on Saturday at her baptism. Stoked!! :) After dinner at the Jenkins we went and taught DJ Schwone about the Plan of Salvation He’s a good kid but he isn't keep the commitments to read and pray about what we teach. So we haven't asked him to be baptized yet if he starts keeping commitments we will but for now we won't. Wednesday (2nd)-- Today we had District Meeting in Buhl - we usually do D.M's on Friday but one of the sisters in the Zone is training and the training meeting was on that day for D.M so we switched just for this week. So that took most of the morning/afternoon. Once we got back to Wendell we were supposed to have a lesson with a Less-Active member named Krysta Sanders (30's) I'm pretty sure I told you about her last week (drugs, pregnant, abuse, etc...) So that was at 3pm and 3:30 rolls around and no sign from her so I sent her a message via text asking if we were still meeting and some things had come up and she had to cancel so I set it up for Friday at 10:30am. After we left Krysta’s we went to contact a referral from the Wendell 1st Bishop and when you get the directions of where a person lives in Idaho it is like this: “Do you know where the Littles's live? Umm.. i think so.. Go about a half miles maybe a quarter and you'll pass a white house that is pretty big, it's not that house you'll take a left at the corner of the house then go about another half mile and it will be there on the left. Then they will describe the house and what it looks like. It's way hard to find houses around here”! I just want to say can I just have the address? I didn't follow a single thing you just said and we cover a huge area! Haha :) So we got directions like that and were driving around for like an hour knocking on random doors to see if it was it and none of them were haha so we went to the Ward Mission Leaders house to see if he could give us "real directions meaning the address!" and he did the same thing but we finally found it after another half hour of driving around. It was a less-active member named Brock Laudert he and his wife have expressed a desire to get back in the church and he told me that he wants to gain a testimony for himself so I said well is what we will and can do if you'd like is we can treat you like an investigator and take you both through the lessons and help you gain a testimony that way and he said that sounds great! So we set up a time to come back for tomorrow and he called later that night and said that tomorrow won't work so we are going over this upcoming week. After Brock and all the time we spent looking for his house it was time for dinner so we went there and had a good dinner. After dinner we had a lesson with a 15 year old kid named Bryant Salsadar - he is a good kid, we taught him lesson 1 which is the Restoration of the Church the lesson went pretty well he is pretty knowledgeable about what we were teaching and he has expressed how he wants to be baptized so with that understanding I asked him and he was about to say yes but then his dad walked in and it got really awkward and he passed the question up so we think he hasn't talked with his parents about being baptized we'll see what happens. After Bryant lesson we headed to Gooding for an appointment with 2 investigators named Barbra and Darell Glosbey/Glasbey (one of those) but they were really busy so we didn't want to slow them up from farming on their farm so we set an appointment up for Sunday at the Bishops house for 7:30pm then left - they showed us around their farm before we left. Little background on Barbra and Darell they are an older couple probably mid 60's and have studied the Bible deeply and are pretty familiar with it, they believe the Sabbath should be on Saturday like it was in the past, they also believe that prophets are no longer on the earth .. so we left them 3 Nephi 11 to read and ponder about - I’ll tell you their thoughts when we teach them on Sunday. Thursday (3rd)-- Today marks the 9 months of service!! Whoo! :) Time is flyin' by and I'm really enjoyin' myself and what I'm doing - nothing else better at this point in my life. This morning we had a lesson at 10:30 with 2 new investigators named Mario and Ronda Camales and they are great people looking for the true church. They were referred by some investigators that we taught in the past. We went over there and taught lesson 1 and the lesson went pretty well they were receptive and said it all makes sense and believe it all. They said it would make sense to have a prophet on the earth today since the world is so chaotic and they said they will read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and what we taught them today. After their lesson we went to the church and updated the Area Book and teaching records. At 4pm we had a lesson with a young man (16) named Andres Sewell he really wants to get baptized he has attended seminary for the past 2 years and believes it all so we taught him lesson 1 and asked him to be baptized he said yes and we are shooting for May 26th he is a rock star. He was wondering if we could baptize him this weekend haha but we said well we'd love to but we have some things to teach you before baptism. Then we had dinner with the Perron family then went on Splits I went with the Gooding 1st Ward High Priest Group Leader and Elder Adam went with Brother Scott the Gooding 2nd Ward Mission Leader. I went and saw a few people and found that a few people have moved. Then we taught Amie Davis about building a solid foundation and that Satan can't have any power over her (Helaman 5:12) it went well she had a non-member friend that lives in the Gooding 2nd Ward and she might be interested down the road but not now - Amie is doing a great job of being a good example. After Amie we went and saw Housten Pattersen he was the kid that when I came to Wendell he was ready to be baptized he is doing good but just won't come to church and he lives with his grandparents but they won't come to church either to me I think they why did you baptize him if you personally won't come to church or take him - bugs me a lot! I told them how important it is and why church is necessary they said they'd come - I’ll believe it when I see it. They say that every week - really frustrating but oh well it’s their choice, dang agency ;) haha. To finish off the night we went and saw a former investigator named Gloria Ridley and I taught her about faith and why it is important to keep building your faith and gave an analogy of a seed and a muscle and if you work your muscle or water the seed it will grow but when you don't work out or water the seed it gets smaller like faith. Then I asked if she'd be willing to take the lessons from me and my companion and she agreed and said we can come back anytime. Nice lady hopefully we can help her! Friday (4th)-- Got up did the usually studies, etc... Then we got a text from Krysta saying she was sick and up all night throwing up so she had to cancel - understandable. Since she cancelled we were already out of the house (10am) so we went and tried visiting some other people but had no luck with that so 2pm came around and it was time to go to Gooding to help Brother Scott with some service projects! We mowed lawns, trimmed bushes, and all that fancy fun stuff and I've got to say it feels good to mow a lawn again I actually miss it! Haha believe it or not! We helped Brother Scott from 2-4 and then we had to head back to Wendell, got showered and headed to dinner with an investigator. Then we visited a member family, the mom and 2 kids got baptized about a year ago and the dad is coming along he will take some time he likes his beer here and there and also his smokes but he said he wants to put them down it's just hard. Saturday (5th)-- Headed to Gooding to do the weekly Progress Records and then we had a lesson with Andres we taught him lesson 3 which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, and the Holy Ghost, and Endure to the End) The lesson went really well. Elder Adam and I have great unity with our lessons. Andres is what we consider a golden opportunity! After Andres we had about an hour to spare before dinner at Bishop Nelson's (Gooding 3rd) so we went and delivered the progress record to the Bishops and Ward Mission Leaders then it was time for dinner! Had dinner at 5pm then had to fly back to Wendell to make Sister Jenkins baptism at 6pm! We made it (yes, mom and dad going to speed limit...okay, I was going a little over) :) haha. So we got there and the baptism was done oh but before the baptism Housten (husband) received the Priesthood and baptized her. Sunday (6th)-- Today we were in Gooding for church so we attended Gooding 1st, 2nd and 3rd Wards. Then we went around and saw some people. We saw Allen Halling he is an investigator that will be baptized as soon as he stops smoking he is getting better each day! It will take time but he will be baptized in the future. At 4pm we were supposed to teach Andres but he went home sick so we were unable to teach him today and he is going to see his mom in D.C this upcoming week. So we won't be able to teach him for a while but when he does get back we'll get things rollin' again! After Allen we went and saw our good friend Bob Marlof (72 years old) we see him each week sometimes twice a week he's a funny old man, he reminds me of Grandpa Stoddard when he is yelling at the TV and just saying funny things :) As we were there we got a call from a member in the Gooding 1st Ward saying they had a few groceries for us so we left and went and got those and a couple means A LOT to them I guess because they gave us 7 boxes of cereal, 5 things of juice, and a box of those little chips and Oreo’s. It was great and will really help us for not having to buy food. The members are good to us I'm very grateful for them! Once we picked up the groceries we headed to dinner at the Reeve's they are one of my favorite families!! They are way funny and we always have a good time over there and also she's a good cook. She (the mom) looks like Sandra Bullock! No joke. After dinner and all the funny things that went on their oh back up they are Denver Bronco Fans and as you know I'm a Raider fan that is a subject that always comes up in a friendly way haha :) After dinner we went to our lesson with Barbra and Darrell at Bishop Nelson's house and we taught the Plan of Salvation and the lesson went amazing! Elder Adam and I read each other minds while teaching and the members were able to feed off of our fire and the lesson was awesome! :) We committed them to baptism they accepted! We honestly didn't think we would get anywhere with them but we got a long ways last night it was great! They say is all makes perfect sense. Monday (7th aka Today)-- We are e-mailing and I've got to wrap it up now cause it's 1:30pm and basketball started 30 minutes ago and I love me some basketball!!! Later tonight we are also playing basketball with some of the friends I’ve made in Wendell and Gooding. Also, we'll do the usual: shop, haircuts, etc... and just have a fu, great, and safe p-day! Gotta play as hard as I can to take me through another week :) Have a great week dad, mom and Casey! I love you so much and am so grateful for all the things you do for me! I am so grateful I am on a mission I couldn't think of being anywhere else. Sharing my testimony of this wonderful Gospel and Savior Jesus Christ has blessed me so much for now and for the future. I am really looking forward to see what the rest of my mission brings and what the Lord has in store for me. I love this Gospel so much! -Elder Tyler Hardy :)

Letter from Elder TJ

February 27, 2012

Hello family this is what we done this past week. Hope you enjoy

Tuesday (21st) – We drove to Hagerman as we do each and dropped off our adopted cat that we had for a week who we named Cosmo and then went to Brother Woods and helped him finish his brick driveway from some brick from someone’s house that burned down. I took pictures and videos so when I send the next SD Card home you can see.

After Bro. Woods we went around to visit some of the Less-Active, Recent Converts, and then investigators. We went to a less-active guy named John Mactozuma 21 years old just had a baby with his girlfriend and is trying to move her in with him. Nice guy for sure but hopefully we can help him remember the Law of Chastity. He wasn't home so we headed over to Dinner at the Jensen’s.

After dinner and about puking we headed over to an investigators house by the name of Ron Hold he is an older man about mid-60's-ish but he wasn't home we haven't been able to catch him in 2 weeks which is kinda a bummer but we'll get him! Just gotta exercise our faith and reflect on Ether 12:6. He has a lot of potential, the times I've met him the only thing on the outside that needs to change is he is a smoker but I know he can stop with the Lord's help. After trying Ron we headed over to a Less-Active family named the Thornquests they are probably in their mid-30's nice people but been less active for a while now. We got a hold of them but they are getting baptized into a community Christian church so I told them congratulations and we wish them the best they said we can still come by anytime but they aren't looking to become active again. Too bad but maybe down the road they will want to be re-activated - never know.

After the Thornquests we hopped in my Bat-mobile aka 2010 Toyota Corolla & went to a Recent Convert Anne Easton as we go to her house each week. This week we taught her about Joseph Smith because she has been doing a lot of reading on him and we also talked about going to the Temple because they have a desire to go. One our way home we stopped by a house that has 2 investigators named Erin and Katie Hiens. Erin is the mom; Katie is a senior in High School. As we got home we got a call from the Bishop in the Gooding 2nd Ward (Bishop Patton) and he told us that there is a man in this 50's that has been diagnosed with liver cancer and wants a blessing it was 9:30pm so we had to be in for the night so we got his number and gave him a call we are going over tomorrow at 5.

Wednesday (22nd) -- In the morning we studied and prepared for the day and then we went around and visited some people. At 5pm we went over to Gooding and gave the man a blessing. Elder Rabaut anointed and I sealed the blessing. It was a good opportunity because they were all non-members- hopefully something will come out of it. What a blessing the church is to all people: young, old, sick, healthy, etc... After we gave him a blessing we headed back to Wendell to have dinner at the Gines' he is the High Counselor over Missionary Work (great and very missionary focused- VERY) had dinner and I shared a spiritual thought with them. After that we headed to a Recent Convert's house actually a family of 4 but 3 got baptized the dad didn't because he is on parole right now and isn't at the house. They got baptized a few months ago maybe like 9 or 10... a year? Not exactly sure but it has been fairly recent. I talked to them about "With God nothing is impossible." - Luke 1:37 and I had a nice little discussion with them while Elder Rabaut played with the dog
After the Roadcaps we headed to a Recent Convert by the name of Vicki Perez she was baptized about a year ago and got in an argument with the Bishop and hasn't been back since and is still upset - she is Hispanic so we invited her to go to the Spanish Branch where she won't see or run into the Bishop, she said she'll see. I don't know why people hold on to grudges for so long. Live in the present! Hakuna Mattau She said we can come over anytime so we will be going by soon probably tomorrow or Friday. Then we headed over to an investigators house that I have not met or seen since I've been here can't seem to catch her at all her name is Chastity Murdock. She lives with her boyfriend but wants to get married but he isn't sure yet. They have had 3-4 kids together might as well get married in my opinion haha. We stopped by and caught her and set an appointment for Monday at 7pm.Then we headed over to a investigators house named Cynthia Scott- I have never met her I've talked to her on the phone via text and call but never person so our goal was to go there and to set an appointment up with her- we did just that. Tuesday at 11am (today) we were going to go help her clean her garage and then share a message. We then went to get the bishops signature on Bob's baptism record and he gave us a referral by the name of Crystal Hardy!! Might be family, she is a Recent Convert of about 5 months in Washington State and has a daughter that needs to be baptized. So we went go contact her I thought he said house number 220 A but it didn’t' exist so Elder Rabaut was ready to go home but I got this prompting that we need to knock on another door so we did and this lady answers so I took it as a tracking approach and said Hi I'm Elder Hardy and this is Elder Rabaut we are the Missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, etc.... she said, "I could teach you the Gospel!" I was shocked and blown away, my companion was in shock as well and I think he might of wet himself. So I said after I got stabilized of course and said oh really? That is very neat what do you know about the Gospel? Her response was....... "I'm LDS." Haha! I was RELIEVED!! I thought I had ran into a Jehovah Witness but come to find out she has a Non-Member husband that has decided to take the lessons from us so we got her info because it was getting late and it wasn't a good time on either end and we are going to call her tonight and see when we can go over!

Thursday (23rd) -- To start off the Morning as we do each 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month we went to help at Bishop's Storehouse. That takes up the morning once we got back we had lunch and then headed to Gooding to do our weekly planning. After planning we had our usual Thursday lesson with Amie Davis and Frank Lucas we taught them about the Millennium- that was sure deep!! But it went well and they understand it all well. After their lesson we went to visit our new investigators the Payes but they were sick- to bad. So we went to dinner after trying a few more people but had no luck.Dinner was at the Church the people that were going to have us over had a party for the scouts at the church all night so they had us go over there and eat. Right before dinner started the phone rang and it was Amie so I picked up and did the usual phone intro she told me that she had gotten into a big fight with her mom and got kicked out of the house for good and that she wasn't sure she wants to get baptized or not so through a phone call of an hour I smoothed it out of what I could and calmed her down and she is planning on the baptism for March 20, her interview in this Thursday at 6:30. That was a scary and crazy situation to be in! Luckily I was able to listen to the Spirit and know what to say and how to say it. Gotta love the Holy Ghost. He is definitely a constant companion as long as you're doing the right things. After dinner it was about 8pm and our 2 lessons cancelled on us so we headed home and called it a day. Man I'm drained after that phone call! Haha

Friday (24th) -- Interview with President Cannon!! I always love these! Always a great time to sit down and talk with him one on one about the mission life. He is a great and the best mission president in my eyes haha. We had district meeting as well but while that is going he takes us out one by one and interviews us and just talks to us like a dad does to you. Not the same but it will do for the next 17 months ha. I am so pumped to get things done now I'm on fire!! Ready to baptize every single person in my area! After interviews we went and contacted Crystal Hardy came to find out she spells her last name "Hardi" so we talked with her and set an appointment up for Wednesday at 5pm. She told us that her daughter wants to be baptized and then her daughter came in the room and agreed that she wants to join the church. So we got a new investigator!

After that we went to dinner with a family named the Briggs they have a son that just returned home from Lima Peru on his mission when I got to Wendell he wasn't home yet. The dad is super good at Foosball like SUPER GOOD which the other elders didn't tell me so being me and liking a challenge I challenged him and he trounced me!! 10-1 I scored the 1st shot and then he went on a 10-0 run and trashed me it was awesome!!! Haha he said he played all the time as a kid and plays pretty often now. Elder Rabaut got it on camera I'll try and get it from him. After dinner we headed to Vicki Perez' house again but she wasn't home. Then we went to see our Recent Convert Bob Schwendiman but he wasn't home either he was over at the school selling candy during the game from a stand so we ran over there and hung with him for a while then headed home.

Saturday (25th)—Put together and delivered our weekly progress records to each of the Ward Mission Leaders and Bishops then we went to Brother Koyles house After we talked about the progression of our investigators I came to find out he plays the fiddle, and guitar and a few other instruments so I asked him to play and he did so for the next 45 minutes. It was awesome! He is really good- he taught himself on each instrument. After that we headed to our dinner appointment with Bishop Nelson - Gooding 3rd Bishop and had dinner and then he was telling us how he only lost one arm wrestling match while serving his mission and still hasn’t lost one since, so again I saw a challenge and took it haha he is about 6'5 and 250-260 lbs. haha considering me weighing in at 5'8 and 127 lbs. haha I'm sure you can guess who won- very fast. Hey it was fun and building member trust and now every time he thinks of Elder Hardy he'll think of the little goof that challenged him to arm wrestle. Haha Gotta love the mission! Never a dull moment with Elder Hardy around HAHA! After dinner we went to Housten Patterson our most recent convert to see how he was doing I taught them a lesson and my companion again played with the kids. After Housten we headed home it was almost 9:15 and we had to be back to Wendell at 9:30pm going the speed limit of course we made it home a little after 9:30.

Sunday (26th) -- This Sunday we were in Wendell so we went to Wendell 1st Ward at 9 am and then Wendell 2nd from 11 to 2. Then we headed home to get some lunch and we hung out for a little bit then headed to Gooding so we could teach! Had dinner at a family named the Miller's they have a son on a mission I forgot where he is but has been out about 5 months. It was a pretty good dinner but not as good as my mom’s. After dinner we had our usual Sunday lesson with Amie and Frank with Brother Koyle and Sister Koyle came along tonight she's a neat lady reminds me a lot of mom! We taught about gaining a testimony and how you need to come to church, read your scriptures, and say your prayers daily because Satan can work on you in so many ways. Amie is doing better and is still going for her baptism. I invited and committed Frank to pray about being baptized he said he will. After that lesson we had our last lesson of the night cancel on us. So we studied for the upcoming week and then headed home.

Monday (27th) -- P-DAY!!!! Always bound to be a great day!! Today we went and did our e-mail around 11:30 then headed to Great Clips to get Elder Prado's haircut while they did that Elder Rabaut and I ran to the D.I. because he likes to get a lot of books and "send home". Then we headed to the church to play "Nerf wars" that is where you get pipe and those soft Nerf darts and shoot each other we set up tables all around for protection and run to different places. It's a lot of fun I dominated and was always the last one out and it usually was me vs about 5 others Elders. My knees kill from sliding haha it was worth it. After Nerf wars we headed to Wal-Mart so we could by a few things then headed home. I purchased “The Book of Mormon CD's” for an investigator who can’t read and ordered them from LDS.ORG. They came today so we ran those over to him then called it a day.

Well I think I will wrap my letter up right here. I love you guys very much. The Lord has truly blessed us as a family. The Gospel is true, Jesus is the Christ. Joseph Smith saw our Heavenly Father and Savior in the sacred grove. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and has all the answer to life's test and challenges and good times. A scripture that I really like is D&C 9:7-9 if you are ever in doubt turn to this I hope it will help. Stay close to each other and this Gospel and its teachings. It will bring you the peace, joy, and happiness that the Savior promises.

A quote that I like a lot about the Savior is this: “He knows the way...because He is the way.”

Scripture of the week: James 1:5 – because of this scripture and one boy’s faith and the whole world was changed.

That is a long e-mail lots of great things happened this week especially in the middle of the week! I hope you enjoyed this e-mail! I love you so much mom, dad and Casey and appreciate all the many things you do for me!! Thanks again for the UNC hat, I wore it yesterday (P-Day) Have a great day! Love you! Talk to you soon. 7 months on the 3rd can you believe it?!! :)

Love you soooooo much,

The one and only "Elder TJ Hardy"

Email to the Hardy family from President Cannon

Brother and Sister Hardy,

Thank you for your very kind note. We are delighted to have Elder Hardy in the Idaho Boise Mission. He is an excellent missionary and is doing an exceptional job. You can be very righteously proud of the wonderful work and service he is providing. He is an excellent missionary and this new assignment will certainly allow for some personal growth. He is covering a huge area.

Thank you for allowing your son to serve with us. I do know how much he loves and looks up to his marvelous parents.

All the best,

President Cannon

Excerpts from Elder TJ's letter

This past week since I have been transferred I have seen myself grow a lot and I have discovered the missionary that I really am: I truly enjoy being obedient, faithful, don’t like to waste time, and study my brains out! I have prayed a ton I feel so in tune with the spirit and feel like a great missionary. I enjoy working 12+ hour’s days. I love missionary work! I want to find teach and baptize many! My studies have been awesome, it’s been a real test for me to see the kind of missionary I am and it's been fun and good for me to reflect on the things I have done.

Love Elder Hardy