Week 18 Tylenol leads to testimony

This past week was the end of my first transfer in Thornton and it was awesome! We reached our goals with lessons and we had an amazing Stake Conference with Elder Teh, from the Quorum of the Seventy, and Elder Stanfill, from the second quorum of the Seventy, I think. Anyways, it was great! The Denver North stake was split into two stakes--Denver North and Brighton. The work is hastening--you can read more about that later in this letter.

We have had a great week of blessings. On Monday, a woman in the ward gave me her daughter's mission coat (her daughter served in ice cold Russia)! So I didn't have to buy a winter coat! YESSS. It was a huge blessing!

Then on Tuesday, these two people that we volunteer for (Lynn and Nancy) took the six of us missionaries to this pizza place in town! It was so kind of them to buy us lunch! We then went and saw several people that day. We met with this one family in the ward and the little boy, Nathan, always talks about how he is going to be a missionary some day! So cute!

On Wednesday, we went and saw Maryanne and it was awesome! A sister in our ward came with us and we taught the Restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon to read. It was awesome!

Later in the week, we called to see how she was doing and she told us about how some people from her church stopped by. She said that she told those women about all the things that the sisters in the Relief Society did for her. The ward here really came together to help Maryanne and her family.

Then we went and saw a former investigator, Steve, and talked to him. Yep. He was a Bible basher, so that was interesting. Bible bashing isn't as scary as everyone makes it out to be. I really hope I don't eat my words later. But anyways, he was very cordial and asked some good questions. Needless to say, we are meeting with him in a couple weeks :-).

On Friday, we were sure it was Gavino's baptism and I was so excited to see him get baptized! Well, when we got there, he wasn't there and we found out that his baptism was cancelled. I was heart broken! But then!!! I saw Gavino at Stake Conference on Saturday night and he sat right next to me!!! It was amazing! When he saw me, he said, "My angel!" He has always called Sister Knowlton and I his angels! So cute! We asked when he was going to be getting baptized and he said, "Soon! Very soon!" He had missed his baptism interview, so that's why his baptism was cancelled. We are hoping for this week though to see him enter the waters of baptism!

OH! And then on Sunday, Michelle's dad (who has been very Anti-Mormon at times) was at Stake Conference! In a suit and tie! He looked great! Mike even sang in the stake choir, so he sat up on the stand the entire time! How awesome is that?! When we talked to the Elders in his ward, one of the missionaries said, "He is going to just fall in the font one of these days!" He really is!! He has been taking the discussions now, so we will see what happens. (Back story, Mike has always been super sweet to me and Sister Knowlton whenever we see him. He has always told us to make ourselves at home, but he hasn't been so open to hearing the discussions! But that has changed! :-))

Going back to Stake Conference. So one of the Elders in our Zone was sick, so we were standing outside of the mens room waiting for him because we were going to see if we could give him some Tylenol. Well, as we are waiting, Elder Teh comes out of the bathroom. I shake his hand--a little bit bewildered--and I introduce myself and my companion. Later, he says in his cute Filipino accent, "Be prepared to participate in our discussion." And so I said, "Okay. I'll prepare Sister Holladay."

At the very end of the conference, Elder Teh gets up and says, "This stake conference wouldn't be complete without hearing a testimony from one of the Sister missionaries." Then he looks down at me from the pulpit and smiles. "Sister Hardy, right?" Yep. Very nerve-wrecking.

I want you all to know that I love you and more importantly Jesus loves you.

With love,

Sister Hardy

The first picture is of the gorgeous Colorado sky at sunset! Wowzers!

The second picture is our district after we celebrated Elder Burton's and Elder Mahina's birthdays. Yep. Of course, Sister Holladay and I were the only ones trying to be serious.
The third picture is a little blurry and not everyone is looking. This is a common thing with the Elders in our zone:-)