Being a missionary = JOY

Hola mis amigos!! 

We had another great week here in Logroño filled with miracles and awesome friends! I am consistently amazed by people's desire to follow God and put Him first! We had lots of visits with members, recent converts, and lessons with friends which makes for a great week! It's also so fun training and seeing my companion grow and experience things for the first time!

Highlights:

- This week we met with our friend Esper by videocall and we invited the cutest member Margarita to join us. They ended up hitting it off in the call and afterwards Margarita told us that Esper asked her to come to our next lesson that week and she told us she would come whenever and wherever it was! So on Friday morning when we met with Esper again, Margarita made the 40 minute bus ride to meet us in a park and join us in the lesson! Her testimony was perfect and exactly what Esper needed and we were so grateful!

- We met with a woman named Gladys in a park this week who I thought was an active member because she had agreed to help us in lessons earlier that week but as she shared her story with us it turns out she had been inactive for a little while. She had the most beautiful conversion story and it just broke my heart to hear her share that she just feels far from God and like she would just be taking up space if she went to church now. I felt the Spirit tell me so strongly to tell her that it doesn't matter how far she feels like she has gone, she is never to far to come back into the arms of her Savior. Tears started streaming down her face and she just looked at me and said "thank you". We hugged and then parted ways and I knew that God had put us in her path that day because He loves her so much and I was grateful to be able to feel just a part of that love in that moment.

- We had a few more lessons with our friend Luis this week and he is awesome! He has such a desire to learn and grow spiritually and is excited to read in the Book of Mormon and understand more! He also came to church again this Sunday and is just so faithful! 

- We met with Fai and Tomas a few times this week and they are awesome! Tomas was amazed when he made the connection that we are in that same church that Joseph Smith restored with the correct keys! They are both just so faithful and show such real intent which is so inspiring!

- We went to visit a member named Luciana and her family on Thursday night and we had a cute lesson with them and another family they had invited. Then her husband Cesar made the most delicious homemade pizzas I've ever tasted and it was awesome!!

- On Sunday we had finished church and we were saying goodbye to the members before heading home to make ourselves lunch when an hermana said, "Hermanas! Do you want to come eat lunch with us?" They are a Spaniard family of all return missionaries which isn't super common and it was so cool to hear their stories and experiences!

Miracle: 

This week we met with our friend Nelly in the park and we tried to invite a member named Sucy who is her friend, but she told us she couldn't because of work. However, when we got to the park Nelly said, "has Sucy got here yet?" It turns out Nelly had asked Sucy to come and she had ended up having work off and came! We had a great lesson with the both of them and we were so happy she came without us even asking!

Spiritual Thought: 

As we have been teaching the Restoration to our friends, I have been so amazed by their ability to understand and appreciate the importance and need of the restoration of the truth! I am so grateful we have the restored church on the Earth today and the Book of Mormon that fills in the holes of our understanding of God's plan and the gospel of Jesus Christ! I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet that God chose to restore His church and I am so grateful to be a part of spreading this great news 

I love you all so much! Have great week and please write to me!

Hermana Hardy 

ehardy@missionary.org 

Pictures: 

- Nelly and Sucy 

- Whiteboarding to get people to English class!

- Esper and Margarita 

- missionaries of Logroño 

- English class!!