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"