Merry Christmas from Suriname!

Hey guys! This week was Christmas (as you all know) and one thing is for sure, mission Christmas is a pretty awesome Christmas! We opened presents with all of our lights up so it was cool to be able to do that! We also went to another Christmas party at Sister Marlena's the day of Christmas and it was really fun. I got to Skype my parents it was funny how they remarking at how much I've grown up and how tan I've got, sometimes I forgot what shade I originally was when I came out here! It was really fun being able to have a Missionary Christmas party because we played Werewolf and also had a white-elephant gift exchange. At a Winkel I found this cool looking Unicorn/Pegasus combo in a piece of glass so I put it in. The funny part besides that was as I was buying it the owner was about to put it in a bag for me when I stopped him and handed him some wrapping paper I had with me! He shrugged his shoulders and began to wrap it for me! That made the gift all the better. So this week one of the new missionaries, Sister Parker, had to give a talk in Sacrament meeting, I found it particularly funny because I've been in this branch for 5 months and I haven't had to give a talk yet! Saying this I'll probably have to give a talk soon...but no matter! I got an Ocarina and I learned how to play hymns on it! At first I was trying to play using ear only but then I stopped and realized how dumb I was, I realized that I could read music and then it got a lot easier! I'm really glad that I got to Skype my parents, Cole's voice has dropped, my mom is back in school and all my stuff has been divvied up amongst my brothers but other than that, it's about the same! Cole was very hyper during the call, my parents kept getting annoyed at him and Caden kept making funny faces at me, I love my family! Sorry I can't send pictures right now, I'll send two next week!

From the Dutch Elder in South America,

Elder Hardy 

Cam and his "MTC sister" Zuster Jorgensen.

Missionary White Elephant Christmas exchange

Elder Hardy & Elder Lewis

6 month mark, Burn a tie! It's tradition.

Opening up his loot from family! 

Cam loves this guy! He's preparing to serve a mission.

Merry Christmas from Suriname to Las Vegas!

Kerstmas Feestje

Hey boys and girls! This week we had a branch Christmas party or as they like to say, "Kerstmas Feestje" It was pretty fun, they had the Elders all sing together and then they had the Sisters all sing or the "Vrouwlijke Elders" it was pretty fun! I got a selfie with Sister Pelswijk who was dressed up as Santa! Today the missionaries in Suriname are having a Christmas party at the church, I'm excited! This week with Elder Lewis and I getting used to the area, we've been doing a lot of traveling or biking to be precise. On Saturday we did a ton of biking, we traveled from the church in Tamenga to Geyersvlijt to Paramaribo Church to Munder then back to Geyersvlijt. The only time it didn't rain on us was on the way to Tamenga! I know these are a lot of words that I don't have explanations for but the short sweet part is that these places are not close to each other! We basically traveled from one corner of our map to the other corner! Good thing I biked to school everyday! We've been having a lot of cool experiences teaching others, the other day we went contacting and these two women were very interested in the Book of Mormon. We called a couple days ago to set up an appointment and the daughter was already reading! Funny story; in Suriname boys and girls do catcalls, so Elder Cooper and I were biking in the city when we a car honked twice at us (it usually means they know us an want to say hi) so Elder Cooper gave a thumbs up and I waved, turns out she was blowing us a kiss...oh well! Being on mission makes Christmas very interesting, I find myself less distracted by the more shopping oriented part of Christmas and more about the real reason it started! That's right, Jesus Christ! I encourage all of you this Christmas season thinking about the wonderful gift that he gave us; the Atonement! That's all folks, I wish you a wonderful and Merry Christmas, happy holidays!

Veel Lobi,

Elder Hardy 

Elder Hardy & Sister Pelswijk

Elders singing at the Church Christmas party

 Sister Missionaries

Branch sisters singing

First Transfer - Heading to Munder in Paramaribo

Hey guys and gals! 

This week was transfer calls. So I learned that I'm staying in Suriname but I'm heading to Munder in Paramaribo and I'll be with Elder Lewis, my companion from the MTC! We have new Elders and Sisters coming to Suriname so my current area, Paramaribo North is being changed a bit to accommodate for sister missionaries. Since I'm in Munder I'll still have parts of my old area! We have these areas called "red zones" which are places where Sisters don't go and where Elders avoid at night, so we get all the red zones from my old area! So I get my old stomping grounds, mostly geyersvlijt! Which is where a lot of our members and a couple of our investigators are! Elder Cooper is getting transferred to Comowijne, he's opening up a new group (a meeting place for members in that area) so that's really cool! I'm excited to see what the future has in store for Elder Lewis and I! With Christmas coming up it's important to remember where the first part of the holiday season comes from...well...Christ! Last night we headed to the church in Tamenga to watch the First Presidency's Christmas devotional in Dutch since that's all that was available! It was really cool though, a couple of months ago I couldn't even understand much of what was said but this time (pride check) I could understand most of it! It's nice to know how the Lord provides a way, even to some of his youngest! 

Didn't get to upload many photos the cyber's computer was eating my card and reading ERROR, so I better wait to try again next week. 

Lobi,
Elder Hardy

Elder Hardy & Elder Cooper

I received a few Christmas packages this week and this was in the package from Aunt Dawn! 

Fawaka!

Fawaka!

Hey guys, it's been another beautiful week out here in 'Nam! Lately the rain has been starting up again so now we have to double layer our Het Boeken van Mormon we have on the back of my bike. Today we went to the park and had a sports day, it was pretty fun playing with most of the missionaries but two companionships are sick and one Elder had to get his feet checked out because of an in-grown toe nail. My favorite part of the week was how we had a contacting blitz. A contacting blitz is when all the missionaries go to the city and we go out and well...contact! It was pretty fun, we were at what was referred to by the missionaries as the "Bigi winkel" I was with two other companionships so we managed in different places along this area. Elder Ort and I went down the street and were on a corner for part of the time and man are Europeans stereotypically mean! But it's okay, whenever someone would yell at me I would make it hard by smiling at them, baby face for the win! Tomorrow is zone meeting so that means President Egbert will be here tomorrow! It's a weird idea about how my mission president is literally in a different country then me, most of the time. Well that's about it folks, Elder Cooper got an Ensign about this past general conference so that was really cool to read, if you haven't read/seen General Conference, I recommend you do!

Lobi!

Elder Hardy

Hi Mom!

Chocolate bar

Artwork in the park

Kerstmis is in De Buurt!

Fawaka Dudes and Dudettes! This week was filled with a lot of rain and just a lot of water in general. For example, there is currently a leak in our roof...But it's all good! Just got to wear flip flops and make sure nothing important is on the ground! Hopefully our land lord can fix it soon!
This week Elder Cooper got his Christmas package so we were messing around a bit with the stuff we got from his mom! <--- attached at bottom.
This week was pretty cool because it's been nice seeing Evelyn being able to do member things! We were teaching her a couple of days ago and we asked her how she felt at her baptism, she replied that it was such a wonderful experience, she was saying how it felt like magic with the way she felt! When we told her how it was the spirit that did that part so was just so happy! It was pretty cool talking with her about it. Every time I talk with a new convert to the church about how they felt at their baptism it's always such a wonderful thing to hear about, the comfort and joy they receive makes every day I've been soaked worth it!

Mi lobi jullie!

Elder Hardy

The Mirage Hotel has really gone downhill since I saw it last. haha

The caption he sent his brother "why moms are needed everywhere" - EWWWW!