"Je gaat naar huis? Maar je ziet zoals een baby eruit!"

Goede morgen iedereen!

This week has been an interesting week, today's my last full day in Suriname so that means packing. I hate packing, I'm not very good at it and it's even more stressful when you have to fly! But I digress, this week was fantastic. We worked really hard and we were able to find a ton of people that were interested in hearing more about our message!

The experience that was the coolest this week was also one of the hardest. A few days ago my head was pounding against my skull and it hurt just to get a drink from the fridge, after trying to tough it out and hope for the best, I eventually gave into greater wisdom (my companion) and called Sister Egbert for some health advice. She recommended things like certain medicine and what not so I did those before heading out. I loaded my proselyting bag with copies of the Book of Mormon since we were going to give them out and I put it on expecting pain from the weight but it felt very odd. It felt light and I couldn't exactly figure out why it felt like that. As we biked I let my mind wander and I remembered a scripture I read that morning in Mosiah 24:13-14

14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.

As soon as I thought about it, I knew that's why everything seemed more bearable, the rest of the day was a lot easier after thinking about it and I feel a lot better now!

We also had a really cool experience contacting, we knocked at this one house and this woman came out, we asked her where she was from and she said she was from the Netherlands. Oh, cool. We kept going, she mentioned how she had been baptized in a Christian church, we asked her which one and she replied that it was our church! Her family were non-members so when they saw us they sent her out as a bit of a "surprise" for her. She let us in, in her own words, "To give them a surprise instead!" Her husband was Christian and we were able to have a really good conversation about prayer. The woman, Sister Stolker, hadn't been to church for sometime because of some problems she was having but she told us that she still knew the Restoration of the gospel was true and that the Book of Mormon was the word of God. She and her husband were amazed at how, they being on vacation, we would just so happen to stop by. Little miracles are always my favorite.

Sunday was different, mostly because I had to say goodbye to people and take pictures, I'm not a big fan of the whole "Goodbye" thing but it's just how it is. In church, we had a class about how important the family is, we read about a prophet who shared that his family had helped strengthened his testimony through family home evening. Family home evening is essentially a night where the entire family comes together and spends time with each other to draw closer and talk more about the gospel. I thought it interesting the impact it had on his life since he started when he was a child and did it as an adult too.

Well, this will be my last time emailing as a missionary. It was certainly a blast serving the Lord for two years, I can't think of anything else I would've rather done with the time in-between. Thank you for all the support and love and I wish you all the best. I'll be seeing most of you pretty soon, if not this week, hopefully the next!

Lobi,

Elder Hardy

Title Translation: "You're going home? But you look like a baby!"

"Wie moet bidden?" "Ik! Dan zal ik hem kiezen om onze te sluiten." *Hij wijzent op zijn broer*

Fawaka?

Good day everyone! This week has been pretty good. I'm not sure why I've been feeling so tired recently, maybe it's just that I'm almost done with my mission or what but other than that I'm doing great!

My favorite part of the week was Zone Conference, we talked about temples and about the ordinances inside and a lot of history behind it, it was awesome! Because it was our last Zone Conference, Elder Lewis, Elder Christianson, Sister Vernes and I, all gave our departing devotionals. I got asked to go first. It was so strange being on the other side for once, I'm used to seeing missionaries up there but it was something different entirely to be the one up there. I talked a lot about how much I've changed while I've been here and I talked about how grateful I was that I'd been allowed to be here. I shared a scripture out of the Book of Mormon that I felt I needed to share, it was Alma 36:27-28

27 And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me.

28 And I know that he will raise me up at the last day, to dwell with him in glory; yea, and I will praise him forever, for he has brought our fathers out of Egypt, and he has swallowed up the Egyptians in the Red Sea; and he led them by his power into the promised land; yea, and he has delivered them out of bondage and captivity from time to time.

As I read the verses and shared my testimony, I couldn't help but get emotional. My goal at one point became not to get my tears on my scriptures! As I was standing there though, I just felt so good about everything I'd done to that point, I love my mission. A big part of me wants to just stay out here but I know my parents would kill me haha!

This week, we were biking home and Elder White knocked a side mirror off of a parked car. We talked with the guy and everything worked well in the end, he has a new side mirror now!

I also had an interview with President Egbert, we opened it with a prayer and the power shut off and before I finished the prayer, it came back on! He then said, "That prayer had a lot of power!" I thought it was funny. 

We also got soaked a ton but I'm grateful!

Have a wonderful week.

Lobi!

Elder Hardy

Title Translation:

"Who should pray?" "I! Then I will choose him close to us." * He turns to his brother *

Mission Buddies

MTC Buddies

It's a Small World..... I found out last week that the Doctor I work for knows, a fairly new sister out in the field, Sister Hendricks. Their families used to be in the same ward back in Maryland. Kinda fun that our kids happen to be serving near the same area. Also, my hubby's aunt & family lives in Potomac, Maryland and I'm pretty sure they would know each other as well. Fun for these kids to have small connections like this especially being so far from home.  It truly is a small world. 

"Ik houd niet van 'Frozen' in het Nederlands."

Fawaka!

Hello everyone! This week was just fantastic as well. It was quite a bit different because we had to fly to Trinidad for a meeting but it was amazing! For MLC (missionary leadership conference) we talked about how our individual zones were doing; typically these reports are kind of boring but this time they gave us the topic to focus on finding, teaching and baptizing.  The difference it had on us was very prevalent. When it was time for Elder Lewis and I to go up, we started to talk and I just felt a wave come over me. We started to talk and it turned into testifying about the experiences that we as a zone have all seen in the past few weeks. It was a wonderful experience, it was made even better in that everyone felt the difference from last time.

We wrapped up MLC with President Egbert closing us with a prayer, we all knelt down and as he prayed for us, we all kept feeling as if there were angels in the room, I resisted the temptation to look but I certainly felt it.

The next day, we were sitting in the mission home while we were waiting for our flight. We got kind of bored so we decided to sing and play the piano (Elder Hunt played it). It was really cool because we don't typically sing in English so it was really cool being able to sing the words and allowing them to have a deeper meaning. I love Dutch hymns but English is awesome.

Something funny, we were biking home one day when we realized that Elder White's tire had a slow leak. We had to keep jumping on and off the bikes to fill up his tire. We stopped at a fruit stand to buy some bananas, biked a bit further and then stopped to pump up his tire. A homeless man walked across the street to help us. He started to pump up Elder White's tire and then asked for some bananas, I thought it was kind of funny (we gave him some bananas).

We also got a new branch mission leader this week. A branch mission leader is essentially someone from the branch who helps the missionaries do missionary work! Before President Linger ordained him, he explained a little bit about what he'd have to do and he explained that we do all the hard work. He also said, "Ze zijn je zware bois." Bois is boys in sranan tongo.

Well, that was my week and I hope you have a fabulous rest of yours, thanks for reading!

Lobi,

Elder Hardy

Attached: Elder White and I in the rain (that time we actually grabbed our coats), the Ritfeld boys and their family from last week, missionary lunch and the banana happening.

Title Translation: "I do not like 'Frozen' in Dutch."