Highs and Lows

Hola a todos!! 

This week has honestly been one of the longer weeks I've had here on the mission with lots of ups and downs, but we still saw so many miracles! Coming to the end of the week it was so easy to focus on all the the canceled lessons and disappointed hopes that we saw this week, but as I have sat and reflected on the week I now see all the the beautiful miracles God gave us this week and I am so grateful   Being a missionary is not always easy, but I am so grateful to be here serving and witnessing these miracles every day!

Highlights:

- On Monday afternoon my companion and I headed down to Madrid for MLC and it was so fun! I got to see some of my favorite people ever and we had a great discussion about plans for the mission especially with our transition to our new mission President  

- On Wednesday and Friday we met with our cute friend Maria and she is just amazing!! We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and the gospel of Jesus Christ and as we talked about baptism I felt prompted to ask her if she wanted to be baptized and she said yes!! We are so excited to keep helping her as she progresses towards this goal! I love her 

- On thursday I got to do exchanges with Hermana Teixara and she is the cutest ever!! She is from Brazil and it was so fun to learn about her culture a bit and get to serve with her!!

- We went and visited the cutest members named Itxaso and Rene! She is from Bilbao and he's from Paraguay and they have 2 cute little boys! I loved hearing their story and they showed us all the pictures from their wedding and it was so cute!!

- We had a lesson with our friend Denis that night and we taught about the Plan of Salvation! He had some questions about the 3 kingdoms of glory and why we didn't believe in heaven and hell like it sounds in the Bible and the member we had in the lesson with us was able to testify about how we focus on be obedient because of our love for God instead of our fear of punishment and it was so powerful! At the end of the lesson Denis said, "wow that's the best view I've ever heard on what comes after this life!" It was awesome and so spiritual!

- We went and visited the cutest less active member named Paola and her family and she shared with us that she wants to get to the temple to be able to be sealed as a family! We were able to have a lesson about the temple and invite her to start coming back to church and prepare for the temple and she said she wants to come back to church and it was so sweet!

- On Saturday we had the cutest picnic with Leire to celebrate her birthday and it was so fun! We ate pizza and brownies and she taught us how to paint and sketch! It was soo fun and she was so happy which made it all worth it!! I love her soo much 

- On Sunday we were in church and a member points to her 2 friends and whispers to me this is their first time, go talk to them! Those words are such a miracle for a missionary to hear and they  were so cute! Their names are Angela and Sandra and are interested in meeting to learn more!

- We visited a sweet less active member named Edith from Nigeria and she reminded me so much of my bestie Vivian in Pamplona! She has the most beautiful testimony and is praying so hard to get a new job so she can come back to church! She also has a son who is interested in coming with her and having us visit to teach more! 

Miracle: On Wednesday we went to the cute recent convert Briggitte's house with her husband and another hermana who lives with them and we had a lesson in their home with our friend Jaz and it was so spiritual!! We taught about the Plan of Salvation and they all shared their testimonies and it was so spiritual!! All of their testimonies were so powerful and as we were leaving the lesson Jaz turns to us and says, "what do I have to do to prepare to be baptized??" We were so excited and we are going to help her prepare for baptism!

Spiritual Thought:

This week I was struggling a bit with feeling like even though we were putting in so much work, none of our efforts were bearing the fruits we wanted. But on Sunday I was reading in the Book of Mormon and I read a verse that called me to repentance and gave me so much peace! It says, 

"But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage."

- Mosiah 7:33

This verse reminded but that at the end of the day if I truly put my trust in the Lord and serve Him with everything I have, He will work out the rest and I don't have live in the bondage of my self doubt or frustration or fear! He has the power to do all and I just need to trust in Him!!

I love you all so much! Please feel free to reach out any time  

Hermana Hardy 

ehardy@missionary.org 

Pictures:

- MLC 

- Vitoria zone 

- Maria 

- Jaz, Luzmy, Briggitte, and Carlos 

- Hermana Teixara 

- Monica 

- Birthday picnic