The Eagle Has Landed!

Tuesday, 11 August 2015

Dear Parents of Elder Hardy,

We are so pleased to welcome your son to the Trinidad Port of Spain Mission! He arrived safely in Trinidad & Tobago on 10 Aug 2015.  On Tuesday, he and several other new missionaries from the MTC were given a tour and brief training in the mission office, were interviewed by President Egbert, and then received instructions from the assistants to the president. We spent the remainder of the evening with him in the mission home for a welcome dinner and a spirit-filled devotional. We have loved getting to know him and we love him already. He is a bright and thoughtful young man, and is clearly excited to go to work teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday and today, each new missionary is either flying or driving to their assigned area. Elder Hardy has been assigned to labor in Paramaribo, Suriname North Zone. There is a growing population of members there, and the missionaries enjoy much success working closely with them. His new companion is Elder Cooper, an experienced faithful missionary who will guide your son through a 12-week training program.

Elder Hardy's faithful studies in the Book of Mormon, Preach My Gospel and the 12-week training program will prepare him to be an inspired teacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Please encourage your son as he begins this challenging but extremely rewarding work. His gospel study and diligent obedience will help him teach effectively by the Spirit and to grow in his own testimony and conversion, which will be a foundation for his mission and also for the rest of his life.

Your son is encouraged to email his immediate family and his mission president every week on Monday, our preparation day.

We look forward to getting to know him and working with him in the great work of salvation in the Trinidad Port of Spain Mission. Thank you for sharing him with us!

Sincerely,

President and Sister Egbert      

Elder Hardy Phone Home

6am wake-up call from our handsome guy - totally worth it! It was so wonderful speaking with him and hearing his voice. He's off to Trinidad for 2 days of training then fly to his first area of service in Suriname. He spoke a few words in Dutch and sounded so good! He said he always knew he was going to serve a mission and had a bunch of little reasons why, but after some time in the MTC one day it hit him that he had one BIG reason and that was because of me, his mother, and my conversion story. You always hope your children listen to you when sharing personal stories, but you never really think they are actually listening. Cam also said his District President told him he is well liked by all and nobody ever has a bad thing say about Elder Hardy, (except when he was sick and coughing for two weeks straight and he had to barter Mountain Dew for ear plugs for his companions). Haha So proud of him and he sounds so grown up and mature in just 7 short weeks. God Speed!

P.S. I forgot to mention that his 10 minute calling card lasted 30 minutes! Whoop! Blessings all around today.

I got a second call from Cameron during his layover in Houston. However that call was only like six minutes before he had to board. He said it's so exciting when people ask him why he's all dressed up and he says "I'm a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints".  I love having a missionary! I asked him to say something in dutch and he said without skipping a beat "I love you mom". Man this kid has my heart!

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Our last day with our teachers Sister Larson and Brother Vizante, Sister Larson was our first teacher and it was hard saying goodbye to her. Brother Vizante is a Romanian teacher but because of the lack of Romanians around, he taught us gospel mostly but he was a really cool guy!

Map of where they will be going.

Letter to Mom, Praying in Dutch and should I change my last name to VANDEVENTER?

I love you a ton mom and I miss you a lot but the best part about learning Dutch is that I feel like I'm getting back to the family heritage. Thank you for sending me that family history info from your cousin in Florida. I will have to send them a postcard from Suriname once I figure out the mail system. I'm excited to finally get on my mission regardless of how unprepared I feel! Today I did an endowment and in the Celestial room I said my prayer in Dutch, it was an awesome feeling, everything I wanted to say I had just pop in my head. My grammar wasn't the best but the words were there. It's starting to sink in that this is going to be quite the journey, my favorite teacher, Brother Norton, one of the biggest studs I've ever met, went to Suriname as well. On his last day for the last half hour, he showed us pictures of his mission in Suriname, it was really cool and is lot prettier than I thought. He also showed a picture of a man with a cigarette in his mouth and a birdcage in his other hand. In Suriname, every Sunday at around 10 am on the buses, people bet on songbird vs songbird, they put the two cages together and have them sing against each other. As they begin to "duke it out" someone keeps track of how they're doing, by the end of it someone decides who won based on the songs against each other, it was pretty funny to hear about.

The pictures you sent me made me laugh and miss them all! The cousins are so cute and I wish I could be there for it! Jeremy and Courtney have grown since we last saw them. Seeing the picture of the Cribbs makes me wonder how they're doing and missing them too! Also, how's Chambray? Seeing the boys helping Uncle David made me laugh quite a bit and it was cool to see them! I was looking at the picture of them at the waterpark and one of the two sisters in my district, Sister Jorgenson, asked, pointing at Cole, if that was one of my brothers. I told her yes and I said, "You can really see where he gets it, huh?" We had some laughs over that, the sisters are really cool. When we first got here 3 of the missionaries in our district were in relationships, Elder Lewis, Sister Ashcraft and Sister Jorgenson; Now Sister Jorgenson got a "Dear Jane" and her mom sent her a get better kit, it even came with a pinata with her ex's face on it! Elder Lewis broke off with his because he figured it was better not worry about it on the mission and Sister Ashcraft is ending because she dated the guy for two weeks before he left, he talks about marriage a lot and he said "I love you" over email to her! We did a pros and cons list of him but she already made up her mind, we all agreed with her but it was just fun to do and it made her laugh a lot! I'm excited to finally leave the MTC but part of me is going to miss it. On Monday we had to help the Senior Missionaries as they arrived here, it was pouring rain and it was pretty awesome! My companions and two other Dutch Elders and myself volunteered for the job of leading them from their cars into the building, we had umbrella's and would run over to help them. Mostly my shoulders and my hair got wet but it was fine, my toes got a little wet but it wasn't anything bad, to think that where I'm going it's like this all the time! Sometimes I entertain the thought of changing my last name to "Vandeventer" or "Van Hardy" I like the first one more though! Just a thought! I miss all of you so much! I also got to see an apostle last night, President Nelson of the 12! It was broadcasted to all the other MTC's and we were in the stands singing in the choir, the director is really cool, he got here near the end of my 5th week but at least he came! I got a newspaper the other day and in the sports section it said that the Red Sox weren't doing that hot, give Sean my condolences!

Love you lots,

Elder Hardy