"Sister missionaries baked me a cake"

October 12, 2015

Hola!!!

This week was pretty crazy and fun! So to start, we were supposed to fly to Santa Cruz to have a conference with President and the other zone leaders but the airport was closed so we joined in with skype, like a conference call, haha, but it was a terrible connection. We did the best we could and I think we understood most of it. So the point of the conference is we have to go back and teach what we learned to our zone. At the end of the conference call, the President told us, “Oh by the way, I'm going to be in Trinidad tomorrow!” And so he sat in during our reunion de zona as we taught what he talked about in the conference that we had on a bad Skype connection! Haha! To out surprise, it went really well! Monday the sister missionaries baked me a cake for my birthday and that made me pretty happy! I have a lot of pictures to send but I'm at an internet shop that has viruses so I am not going to connect my camera. So next week! It’s been super cold here and everyone is shocked. They say this never happens. Haha, I’m dying because my warm clothes are in Santa Cruz! I had to barrow a jacket from our branch mission leader! Oh, we have a branch mission leader now! He is awesome! He is recently married and his wife is a convert. We are super close with their family.

Elder Harding

"Conference was powerful"

October 5, 2015

Hola! 

So my birthday was pretty cool with conference this weekend! We watched it in the stake center and we got it in English!! We had a fat greengo party and everyone brought something to eat to share, it was awesome! I have pics but I forgot my camera today.... Conference was powerful. I liked the talk about mothers a lot, haha! It made me think of you mom, and how grateful I am for how you raised me and took care of me. After that talk, Elder Knotts and I looked at each other and said, “Crap, I miss my mom!” at the same time! Haha, I miss you mom. 

We had a lot of investigators come to almost all the sessions!! Which is almost impossible,butit was great! Haha! We have some really good investigators. And to answer the question for dad and Kevin, we had about 50 in the priesthood session. It was a good turn out. It’s amazing, this week passed by so fast! I don’t have my notes from this last week so I can’t remember what I wanted to write haha, sorry. I’ll do better next week!!

Elder Harding

"He was Mr Bolivia!"

These are old planes that crashed in Trinidad. They just pull them out of the way and leave them here in this airplane graveyard. They are on air force property and we got permission to explore them from the mechanics who let us through. 

September 28, 2015

Hola!!! 

This week had its ups and downs but mostly ups. It was a good week. The downs were I got sick because someone gave us bad water. I went to the clinic and my tests came out clean but I took the medicine they gave me anyway and I'm all good now! I have to go back and take more tests to make sure I am still in the clear. Then, after I started feeling better, my companion fell ill, he had the same thing! Hahaha! It was a rough week but we are good now! 

I'm pretty stoked about a new investigator I have. We contacted him in this rich neighborhood and we got talking and this dude is freaking jacked!! He's huge!! Then, I found out he was Mr. Bolivia!!! Haha! So he and I got to talking about the gym and all that good stuff. Haha, it was awesome! I was so happy to talk about working out and all that with him. We passed by his house again and he was leaving with his family to go to the park. He is also always working and then spends time at the gym. But he was super happy to see us and talk with us more so we will be passing by every Sunday because it is his only day free. We also have another really good family and they are all ready for baptism! But..... we are waiting for the fetchin lawyers.... one dropped the family and the other one wants more money and the family doesn't have the money... The lady investigator needs to get a divorce from her old husband who she doesn’t have any connection with anymore and doesn’t have kids with him so it should be a quick divorce but we need to find a better lawyer for her. 

So this was my week. it was pretty solid. And outside of the teaching, we are always running around because we are doing stuff for the zone! Haha! It’s crazy to be zone leader!

Elder Harding

The difference between a city and a country missionary's badge.

"I am now in Trinidad"

Leaving Guayaramerin on combios.

We are building sofas for service.

This is the first Ford F150 I've seen since I've been here!

September 14, 2015

Hola!

So this week was interesting. Yes, I finally had combios after 9 months in my first area! I am now in Trinidad as the zone leader! I’m pretty nervous to be the zone leader... but oh well, I will just have to work hard! This week I haven’t worked too much because I have been running around doing things for the zone. I am so lost here in Trinidad, haha! I don’t know where anything is! I had the opportunity to meet my branch and I bore my testimony on Sunday. The branch is big and strong and we have good leaders who help us work so I’m excited to get to work with them more! My companion is Elder Velasquez. He is from Argentina! haha! He is a cool guy he is super goofy which is good because i don't like serious haha! 

Elder Harding

"Everything is coming along so perfect"

September 7, 2015

Hola!!

This week was a great week!!!! We have a new investigator and her name is Keila and she is progressing super fast. We have had 3 visits with her and we have finished lessons 1, 2 and 3! She has come to church 2 times!! She has a baptism date set for the 26th and is ready!! She wants to learn as much as possible so we are visiting her everyday! We are preparing her for the combios in case we are not here. Our goal is to finish everything for the next missionaries who come to this area after combios. They won’t need to do anything before her baptism, she is honestly ready!! She is super out going and loves to joke around and she already knows the Book of Mormon. When we ask her to open to a scripture, she opens right to it! It’s just amazing how everything is coming along so perfect. That scares us a little hahah. But she has been prepared and is ready!! Also, I've been with Elder Sanchez this past week who is finishing his mission tomorrow. He is from Costa Rica. He is super cool and super funny! I’ll miss him so much when he leaves.. I have learned so much from him!! 

Elder Harding

"President Zambrano came to visit"

Elder Harding with President Zambrano

August 31, 2015

Elder Harding

Hola!!! 

Entonces this week was a different week but a good one! President Zambrano came to visit! We had a meeting and holy crap, I learned a ton from him!! It is always good when he comes because we don’t really ever get to talk to him face to face because we are way far away from Santa Cruz where our mission home is. We all were able to have interviews with him and lets just say I don't think ill be leaving my area anytime soon! haha! He asked everyone at lunch how much time they had here in Guayaramerin and everyone is saying 2 months, 3 months or 4 months. Then he came to me and asked, “And Elder Harding?” and I said, “Well I only have 8 months... hahaha” and then he laughed and said the record for the last 5 years is 10 months in 2 areas. He said I might break the record, haha! So I don't know what will happen on the next transfer…we will see!

We have a new super good investigator! She was a reference from a member. This woman is super interested and I'm super excited to teach her Wednesday! 

We also found out the hard way about a bug here that makes a loud noise that hurts your ears. It looks like a cross between a fly and a cockroach.  If you get near it, it pees on you... My companion got peed on like a good 6 times this week! We learned that when we hear it, to not stop and look but to RUN!!! haha! My companion HATES all types of bugs so it was pretty funny that he was to one to get it!

Elder Harding

"Fernando is finally Baptized!"

August 24, 2015

Hola!! 

This week had its ups and downs for sure! To start off, we had some sick service projects this week! First we went out in los compos to work like all the local men do here.  We went to cut down trees with our machetes!! It was a lot of fun! we had to use long sleeves and long pants because of all the bugs and spiders. I think it is how my companion got dengue fever. It’s a disease you get from mosquitos and he is pretty sick. We've been to many, many hospitals and used a butt load of money of taxis... haha! He is alright now, doing much better. The other service project we did was harvesting yuca. Yuca is the root portion of a plant like a potato and I think I even like yuca more than potatoes! So this guy said he just wanted to cook for us and we went way out in the compos to eat haha! He has a sick little camp thing. It was like an outdoor house, like a dream camp to me! This turned out to be a good week. Fernando is finally baptized!!! He did it!!! It was a beautiful baptism with lots of support from the branch!!! it was a fun week!

Elder Harding