I think one of the highlights of my week was when Sister Knowlton and I went to visit a woman and her son last Monday night. We knocked quite a few times and no one answered, which is odd because they are always home. Anyways, BOTH Sister Knowlton and I felt that we should knock on their neighbor's door. So we did! After knocking a couple times, an old man with long grey hair and a beard answers the door.
Sister Knowlton: "HI!"
Old man: "What do you want? I was asleep."
Sister Knowlton and me: "Oh, sorry!!"
Old man (frustrated): "What do you want?"
Sister Knowlton: "Oh well, we're just in the neighborhood sharing a message about Jesus Christ and--"
Old man: "And you're both fools."
SLAM.
Yes. He slammed the door in our faces. We're going to tell the Elders to knock of his door and baptize him because HE IS getting baptized. I know this sounds weird, but it was awesome. The Lord was able to work through both of us to feel that we needed to knock on that door--specifically that door. How cool is that?!
Something else that was quite eventful was that Sister Knowlton and I have had THREE MEN hug us! One of them was our High Priest group leader! What the what?! I didn't know what to think after it happened. (My thoughts: Umm...what just happened? Do I need to tell the Mission President about this? AHHHH!) One of the men that hugged us said to me and Sister Knowlton, "We all believe in the same God, but mine just happens to be a Republican." Oh goodness. This man also is 91 years old. What a guy!
You may be wondering about Joe. What happened? Is he getting baptized? etc. Well, he LOVED church. LOVED LOVED it. So did Jessi. Anyways, we met with him this past week and his ex-wife was there (which was interesting). She told us that basically our perceptions are askew and told us about how she works with the angels in her sleep. I don't really know what that means, but anyways our lesson left him very confused. Yesterday he came to church and I asked if we could set up an appointment to meet with him later that night. Well. He told us that he wasn't going to meet with us anymore. Yep. He dropped us. I feel like I just got dumped. Hardcore. We love Joe and Jessi so much and Joe is sooo prepared! He always read from the Book of Mormon and loved having gospel conversations with us. I love them so much and when he told us that I wanted to go home and eat ice cream and cry. Yes. I think that his ex-wife got to him. He told us that he made this decision on his own--basically saying, "It's not you. It's not her. It's me." This will take some time to get over, but alas, the work must continue.
Anyways, we met with this one woman, Melissa, and her son, Leo. And wowza. Melissa is wonderful. She told us that she attends several church services each weekend because she can't get enough. HOW AWESOME IS THAT? Most people attend one service and think that is too long. She said she is really interested in just learning more about God because she knows that learning more will help her. Dannnnnng. Love her. And Leo is adorable and sometimes answers our questions in Spanish.
Another exciting thing that happened this week was our three lessons with Michelle. So we invited her to pray and ask God if she should be baptized, and she did! She told us that while she was praying Monday night, we asked God to show her somewhere in the scriptures that would help her to know if she should get baptized and she also asked God to help her with her anger. Well, after she finished her prayer, she took the Book of Mormon in her hands and the book opened on 3 Nephi 11. She started at verse 24 and read until verse 32. Holy cow. For those of you that aren't familiar with the Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 11 is the chapter when Christ comes to the Americas! In this chapter, Christ tells the people to be baptized and not only that but not to have anger towards other! Bam. The Lord answers prayers.
So Michelle is getting baptized in two weeks on August 10th and we have seen such a difference in her. She is soooo incredible. She is a completely different person than two weeks ago. I can feel the Spirit in her words. I can feel how thankful she is for the gospel. She is solid. Man. God is so good. Through being out here I have been able to see miracles. Real miracles. God loves His children. He loves them so much.
Also, Michelle has a dog she is getting rid of and asked us if we could help her out with that. Sooo.....Sister Knowlton and I decided to ask the woman that we live with (Sister Peel) about it. Sister Knowlton and I strolled into her office and asked, "Sister Peel, can we get a dog?" And no joke, Sister Peel told us that she is considering it! Isn't that hilarious?! I may or may not have prayed that Sister Peel would like Michelle's dog....
Yesterday, Sister Knowlton and I gave talks in church. We were worried that our talks wouldn't be long enough and when we said that to the third speaker (Brother Light--who is our ward mission leader) he told us that he can monologue quite easily. But he also said, "If sacrament meeting ends early, we'll be heroes!" Which is so true. I love when talks are short and sweet. However, sacrament meeting ended right on time....and Brother Light has to talk in a few weeks because Sister Knowlton and I took up all the time. So I guess Sister Knowlton and I pretty good at monologue-ing.
I am loving it out here! Sister Knowlton is hilarious. Half the things she says make me laugh so hard. We've been listening to Kalai (who is AMAZING!!!), and he sings a bunch of cool arrangements of hymns. Look up "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and "Poor Wayfarin' Stranger." You will not be disappointed. Anyways, but our Zone leader who let us borrow the Kalai CD told us, "I'm only telling you this because you're my homegirls, but I've got a mad crush on Abish from the Book of Mormon." HILARIOUS. Seriously, the missionaries in this mission are incredible. We have also been listening to EFY, too.....soo Mom and Dad, you are more than welcome to send some Mo-tab cds out here if you feel so inclined. (You know if I'm listening to EFY music, I'm desperate).
I love you all!! So much! I pray for you and thank God for you in my life!
Love,
Sister Hardy
The only worthwhile picture I took this week was of my lunch yesterday. Thanks to Rosemary Steele for giving me this idea! (Yes, this is a PB and chocolate chip sandwich!)
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