Weakly email!

Hey everyone!

Sorry I don't have too much time this week but it's been really crazy! The internet connection was down at the cyber we usually go to, so here I am! This week has been really crazy working both Uitkijk and Koewarasan but we've been making it work, kinda. I'm pumped for us to receive some new missionaries, it's always fun have fresh meat! I'm mostly excited for the chance to learn from them and to help them learn a lot. I know that I learned a lot from my first couple of months here and I hope that I can help someone else do the same!

I attached some photos of Steve and Jolande who I've been working with since I've gotten here in Uitkijk and it's official, they're getting married in two weeks! I also attached a picture of a new resident in my shoe, luckily he didn't leave any packages so it wasn't a problem tossing him outside!

Sorry to cut it short but I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Lobi,

Elder Hardy 

Steve and Jolande

Elder Carpenter

MTC Family

Time for another report

Good afternoon everyone!

Time for another report.

Captains log, "The Admiral has sent me further stationing orders, he has told me to hold position and await further commands. The jungle creatures seem to be taunting us; they've already eaten one of my best soldiers, I'm starting to doubt that the Admiral will ever send reinforcements."

We got transfer calls and I'm still in Uitkijk! Wooh! Because of the lack of missionaries for now, I'm going to be in Uitkijk and Koewaransang so it'll certainly be quite an adventure. They're the two biggest and most jungle-like areas but we have some missionaries coming in about a week and a half so it won't be for too long and then I'll probably be training a new missionary!

This week we had Zone Conference with President Egbert, we talked a lot about Charity and updating our record and making sure that we're writing everything down! (Mostly spiritual experiences) It was pretty fun, it's always a good time learning from President Egbert. Elder Lewis is going to Bonaire so this would be the last time our entire MTC district would be together, so we took some pictures! I attached one at the bottom.

This week was very crazy as well, 8 people got baptized! Elder Jennings and I had to do baptismal interviews for the family Sabiyo and we did all 6 of them Saturday night! I had never done a baptismal interview before that night and by the end, I had 3 under my belt. Fun night, one of the kids, Priscilla, was nice and funny. At the end I told her she had passed and she got very excited when I told her how I would be at the baptism as well. Little kids are so funny.

Well sorry I don't more this week but that's all for now!

Elder Hardy, signing out!

Lobi,

Elder Hardy

MTC district

SNOWSTORM IN SURINAME! 8 baptisms this past Saturday. Sets the record for the mission this year for most baptized at one time in one area!

"Elder Hardy, ik heb noch acht meer dagen, ik kan zonder schoenen leven"

Good day everyone! It's been another wonderful and exciting week in the crazy jungle paradise of Suriname! I'm doing well, so don't fret.

This week I was in Trinidad and it was certainly interesting. I got hit by a car! A car drove by as I was walking around with my companion for the day but it just nicked my elbow. It felt really weird and we just started laughing kind of awkwardly. The car stopped but after checking out my elbow, I waved him to keep going and he honked (car language) "thanks" and kept going.

Luckily I was only there for a day and a half this time but it worked out. Trinidad was cool but I'm glad to be back here in Suriname. Whenever I tried talking with people in Trinidad, Dutch came out first and then I changed to English. I could've sworn I heard people say a few Dutch words but I might just be imagining.

Today we went to a fort called Nieuw Amsterdam! It was really fun, I took some funny pictures and I hope you enjoy them! I got a picture with me hanging out of a cannon, (always wanted to do that) I got a picture with my two companions from the MTC and I got a picture of Elder Carpenter after we fell in some mud. The title of the email is a quote from him but written in Dutch.

This week is Zone Conference so I'm excited to see what message President Egbert has for us. I'm always excited for it because it really gives me a spiritual rejuvenation which makes the next 6-12 weeks more easy!

Anyways, I hope I didn't write too much so I'm going to call it here. I wish you all een mooie week and een fijne daag verder!

Lobi!

Elder Hardy

Elder Trio from the MTC reunited for a fun excursion to Nieuw Amsterdam

Elder Carpenter fell in the mud. "Elder Hardy, ik heb noch acht meer dagen, ik kan zonder schoenen leven"

Mi go nanga Trinidad (or) Ik moet naar Trinidad gaan!

Hey everyone it's Elder Hardy (yes, yet again) I am emailing to let you all know that I'm still alive. I haven't been attacked by monkeys, (recently) surrounded by bandits, (this transfer) given free reign of a car (still waiting) and I also haven't crashed my bike yet! (probably jinxing it)

This week has been really good, we've had some difficult times, but in the end I like to think that everything happens for a reason. Usually I come to the conclusion that it's meant to make me more durable and flexible. This week was pretty cool, we were able to help Brother Tapoh finish with moving the rest of the wood that we brought him, it's pretty surprising how much wood there actually was. I'm really glad we did it because even though he works a lot, whenever we see him he looks genuinely happy to see us!

My bike is on the fritz again but we'll be getting something called a "kettings trekker" or a chain puller. The reason why, is because my chain keeps falling off but it should be resolved soon, for the time being I'll just have to get really fast at putting it back on!

A funny story this week: we road our bikes up to Koewarasan so the zone leaders could pick us up and take me to the dentist. As we were waiting, the little neighbor girl was interested as to why we were sitting there. She was probably the nicest person I've met in Suriname! She was really adorable, she asked what our names were so the conversation when like this, "Wat is U naam? "Ik ben Elder Hardy" "Dat is heel mooi" I didn't think I'd have someone tell me my name was pretty before haha. She ran in circles, sang for us and eventually tried giving me here little doll; I also kept giving here some stickers I had and at the end I just gave her all of them! She then came back and a blew a little kiss at us! I made a video of her singing so hopefully my mom can post that some where!

Thanks for your support!

-Elder Hardy