New Companion Elder Kata!

Dear Family,

Well hello everybody! Surprise that I am writing to you today, I thought
that I would be writing on Tuesday but apparently not. Mother thank you so
much for sending me that message through the mission office about Uncle
Kit. That gave me so much relief you don't even know.

My new companion's name is Elder Kata from Tonga. He came directly from
Tonga learning English and Spanish. He received his call in Spanish and
speaks it great, and he speaks English great as well. He's super awesome I
love him so much. He is a great companion and a hard worker. We are
working hard together and will continue to do so.

I will try to get that package out today Mother so that I can send it to
you and Daddy. Sorry it's taking me so long. Have you put the money into
my bank account so that I can send it home? I need more money in my bank
account please. Thank you! I have a couple of things that I want to order
from store.lds.org that cost 5 bucks a piece. Please and thank you!

Elder Machado came back to Florida today to get his bike and everything.
It was so good seeing him again. He has the address to the house and your
phone number Mother and will be coming to visit you soon.

Well family just know that I am doing great and enjoying life. Please each
of you take care driving in the snow. I love you all so much! Be careful
in all things.

Love,
Your Son, Brother, and Uncle
Elder Hardman

A Good WEEK

Well Hello my Family!

How is everybody doing? It sounds like everybody is doing good and I'm
glad to hear that. How is Carson feeling? Poor little guy. I hope all is
going well with him. I am doing great. It has been a great past couple of
days. I have learned so much this week. The weather has been getting
warmer, but it has stayed nice, around 75-77 degrees this week. It has
been really nice. However, I love the snow. I miss the snow. I'm glad
that you finally got some lol.

I'm sorry, I think I forgot to tell you last week that this week is
transfers so I wasn't going to e-mail until today. I don't remember if I
told you all or not, if I didn't, I'm sorry. So I am staying here in
Lauderhill East...YES!!! I'm so excited I love this ward so much. But,
Elder Perrotti is leaving. I don't know where he is going yet, but I'll
let you know next week. I may not write until Tuesday next week either
because of Martin Luther King Day, I don't know though. So we'll see.
Just know that if I don't, I'm ok.

Alright Pa, I'm officially jealous that you made ham and beans this week.
You have no idea how good that sounds to me right now lol. Wow when you
said that I was like, "oh wow I haven't thought about those for a while."
I can almost taste them. You get feeling better from your vericose vein to
Pa alright? Y'all come back now ya hear?

I will hopefully be sending you that package this week. If you could
please put some money on to my back account I would greatly appreciate
that. Thank you! I love you!

Oh man I really hope that everything goes well with Uncle Kit. Please let
me know how it goes and what they are going to do. I will continue to pray
for him and that all will go well. I'm glad that he is reading The Book of
Mormon and is at peace. The Book of Mormon brings so much peace in to our
lives. I'm so greatful for it. It really touches me that he wants to
share that with Grandma. Tell Grandma to pray before she reads, then read,
then pray again after she reads and she will feel the Spirit of God touch
her heart. As she reads, tell her to look and ponder and see how that
helps her strengthen her Faith in Jesus Christ. Tell her to apply the
teachings into her life. (1 Nephi 19:23-24)

I'm so glad and happy that you are working in the primary again! Little
kids are such a strength to me. There are some so cute kids here in this
ward and every time that I see them I just feel happy and peaceful. We all
need to become like little children. They're so excited to learn. They
feel the truth and know it when they hear it. I love little kids.

Well family I am going to be sending home some more pictures right now so I
need to go so that I can do that in time. I love you all so very much and
know that I am ok and doing great. I'm excited for Dallas to be coming
home this coming week. Take care all of you, and be careful driving in the
snow. I love you so much.

Love,
Your Son, Brother, and Uncle
Elder Hardman

"44"

I held a RACCOON!!

Elder Perrotti on a COLD NIGHT!!

This is ME!!

http://mormon.org/me/795V/

HAPPY NEW YEARS

Happy New Years!

You all want to know what I did on new years eve? We had to be in the
apartment by 8:00 pm, an hour or so earlier than normal, we planned for the
next day, I drank a bottle of white grape sparkling cider, brushed my
teeth, said a prayer, and went to bed. It felt great! I woke up the next
morning thinking, "I feel like a new man." (name that movie). It was so
nice to be able to sleep a little bit more. There were fireworks going off
aparently, but I didn't hear a single one. I was out like a light. I
didn't complain one little bit.

So how is everybody doing? It sounds like everybody is doing good and I'm
glad to hear that, except for maybe my poor puppy dog. Aw poor little
buddy that story makes me laugh too but it makes me sad too. I don't have
a clue what happened that made him fall and end up down there. Poor little
buddy.

Thank you so much for my birthday! I loved it! I had a really good
birthday. In the morning I opened my package, then we studied, then we
went and did some service for a ward member. I got cut up so bad doing
that service. She had a plant that was super shart that we had to do alot
of digging around and taking out some plants. It was still fun though.
Then, as you know, Sister Martinez came to visit me and brought my a ton of
good food. She brought me Baliadas, Fritanga, and Croquetas. All spanish
food and it was SO good. I wasn't surprised to see her because she text me
in the morning wishing me happy birthday and wanting to bring me something
for my birthday. I was surprised that she remembered my birthday
though. I'm glad that she e-mailed you and asked you too. They are a
great family and I love them very much. Thank you very much for sending me
that letter that she sent to you. It was just a nice day of work. Also
later that night we went to the chapel for a meeting and one of the ward
members, the Calevoso family, gave me a new pair of pants and a pie for my
birthday. They are so sweet and I love them so much. They are such a
great family and they truly mean a lot to me.

Elder Chinchilla is a missionary that I lived with for 2 transfers down
when I was in Hialeah. That's how he knows Sister Martinez as well. He's
a great and funny missionary from Costa Rica that I love a lot.
Landon Hancuff going to Alabama! That's so cool! Man I am so excited for
him, he is going to absolutely love serving! Is his call in English or
Spanish? I'm so happy too that Eric Kinikini is preparing to go on a
mission as well! I'm so happy to hear that Afui is doing so good. I would
like to hear from him. I wrote him a letter a long time ago, but didn't
get any response. I'm hoping that I sent it to the right mission and the
right address. Will you please give Sister Kinikini my address so that she
can give it to Afui so that he can write me please? Thank you so much!

So things are going really good here in the mission and here in the area
for Elder Perrotti and I. We have been finding some great people to be
teaching and are working very hard to help them come unto Christ. We have
learned alot this week. Everything is settling down more and I am doing
better. I have felt better since talking about it.

GO UTES!!! That's super cool that they were the only PAC 12 team to win
their bowl game! I was starting to wonder when their game was and
everything.

So the weather right now is a little cold and I am loving it. I made my
little can of snow the other day, and man do I miss snow. It was so cool
to see "snow" again. Haha it was a fun time. That little can even came
with a little white shovel! It was the coolest thing. I've got a picture
of it that I'll send home.

Well family know that I am doing well and I am so very greatful for your
support. Thank you for everything that you do for me. I love you all so
much, and take care this week in everything that you do.

Love,
Your Son, Brother, and Uncle
Elder Hardman

Snow on my Birthday!!

Elder Perrotti & Elder Hardman eating Churrasco

The District

BIG 21...*i'll be home next birthday*

Well Hello My family!

How is everybody doing? It sounds like everybody is doing good when I
talked to you all. It was so good to hear from all of you, and I am so
happy that I was able to. It was a fun Christmas Day, especially being
able to talk to you. That was so much fun using SKYPE! It was really nice
being able to see your faces and actually talk to you. It wasn't hard or
anything, it was super good to be able to see your faces. Thank you Mother
and Father for doing those 3-way calls too so that I could talk to all of
my siblings. That meant a lot.

Yeah I too cannot believe that I am going to be 21 years old tomorrow.
It's also weird to think that it's my birthday again in the mission field.
I look back saying..."It feels like it was just a year ago I was doing
this." Haha just joking you Mother. But really I can't believe that I can
look back a year ago and say, I was in the mission field a year ago on my
birthday. I still remember who I was with and what we did. I was with
Elder Sepulveda in West Palm Beach and it was Preparation Day and when we
left the apartment at night, Elder Sepulveda took me to a Chinese
Restaurant and we met a member there with his son who was not a member. We
also went to the Vilorio's house and they had a cake for me. Wow crazy
that I can remember that lol.

It was fun yesterday going fishing. We didn't catch anything but hey, my
worst day of fishing beats my best day at work (except for missionary work
I think but you all know what I mean). We then went and taught a lesson
and then went for another Brazilian barbecue for Elder Machado because he
is leaving. I talked to him and he said that he can come and visit you
guys and that he is going to. I'll give him our address today before he
leaves tonight. I'm going to miss him a lot. It's really super weird to
see a missionary leaving and going home and finishing his mission. It's
giving me a chance to reflect back on my mission and think about it and
what I need to continue to do.

Well family this is going to be short because I've got something that I
need to do here on the computer. Just know that I am safe and well and
well taken care of. I thank you all so very much and love you each all so
very much individually. Please take care and have a great week, and be
careful in all things that you do especially driving in the snow.

Love,
Your Son, Brother, and Uncle
Elder Hardman

Sister Martinez *JD's Mission MOM* drove up to wish this cute Elder a Happy Birthday..it was a surprise for him! We sure do Love Sister Martinez for loving him! This is a letter she sent Momma Karon with the Pictures.

Its was my pleasure sister Hardman. He was very happy see us again. He is very special for me, as I told you. His area is almost 35 minutes from Hialeah.
He look so happy, really I never saw him sad or angry, he is smiling all the time or doing jokes, huging his companions, he is really funny !! I was talking with his companion about him, and he said that your son is very nice, funny and... and...and he can't found the exactly word for describe your son, and then he said: he is so sweet, with a little emotion.
You know sister hardman, here in the 2 wards that your son served, ALL the members love him, all !! you are so blessed with a son that have a special touch to love others. When we have talking to him, my cell phone rang and I saw that was Elder Chinchilla (missionaries father) then I pass my phone to Elder hardman, and they was laughing and talk and talk suddenly your son stop to talk and just was listening, Elder Chinchilla was singing for him the Happy Birthday song. Your son was emotional and say aawww tanks Elder Chinchilla. I felt great that my sons missionaries call me and show me their love but I felt more great that he called me in the right time to talk with Elder Hardman, he says; it was a great gift too.
I told him that we went to celebrate his birthday, because the next birthday he will be at his house with his family and he look me and says; yes, is true, but I will miss you a lot.
He is so sweet.

Love,

Sister Martinez

Merry Christmas *next one I'll be home*

Well hello my family!

Merry Christmas everybody! How is everybody doing on this beautiful
sunny, but cool morning? Oh wait, that's here in Florida, lol, just
kidding. It sounds like everybody is doing great, and I am so happy to
hear that! Is everybody just stoked for Christmas?! I am! I haven't
gotten my packages yet, but that's because they are holding them in the
mission office until mission conference this coming Thursday, so I will
pick them up then. I'm super excited to get them!
I will be calling home on Sunday between 2-5 pm my time. so 12-3 your
time. We're not really sure when or how yet either. We haven't found a
member who has SKYPE yet, but we are working on it so we'll see. I wrote
down your number Dad for SKYPE so, we'll see. Either way, I'll be calling
home. Sorry that I can't tell you more for sure or exact when or how, but
at least you got that right. lol.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG D!!! I'm really sorry brother that I didn't get you a
card or anything. I feel super bad.

It sounds like the Hardman Christmas party was super fun. I'm glad that
you all got together and did that. That would have been super cool to see
the nativity acted out by all of you. I saw one get acted out this last
Friday when we had our ward Christmas party here. It was a super good
party. And guess what? Yeah, we had to sing. The five of us prepared a
couple of musical numbers and we sang it. We sang, "Cantan Santos Angeles"
(Sorry I don't remember what it's called in English, and "Hark! The Herald
Angels Sing" in Spanish as well. It was kind of fun. Then this week at
Mission Conference, we have to sing again. I don't know why they keep on
insisting for me to embarass myself, but hey what do you do? LoL. Who
knows, maybe I'll end up in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir one day.
Ha...right! I'm glad that Mom and Dad got to go and see that concert. I'm
sure that it was beautiful. I am loving and appreciating The Mormon
Tabernacle Choir more and more each and every day. That's all that we can
listen to, but I have loved it.

Well family honestly, I don't have too much to write about this week,
especially since we are going to be talking together on this Sunday. Take
care each and every one of you individually though, and I love you so
much. Be careful in everything and driving in the snow.

Love,
Your Son, Brother, and Uncle
Elder Hardman

SKYPE for Christmas

Hello my family!

How is everybody doing? It sounds like everybody is doing good and that
everything is going well, and I am glad to hear that. So this week has
been a really good week. More details later on. The weather here is
sunny, a little cloudy and sprinkly today, but it is good. Does it look
like Christmas? For me, no. But, I can still feel Christmas coming. I do
miss the cold though. I miss the snow lol. All is good though here in
Sunny South Florida.

Thank you so much for the package with decorations and ties! It was super
cool and I'm excited to get everything put up and done. It will be cool to
see the whole thing put up. Speaking of packages, the razor heads that I
need are Gillette fusion Proglide. Thank you for making sure of that!
Also, one other thing if it's at all possible. A new white tie for
baptisms would be great. I accidentally wrote on mine with a pen and can't
get it off. Thank you so very much!

The mission is progressing a lot. As you know, the First Presidency felt
inspired to extend our mission boundaries, therefore we gained some
missionaries that we currently serving in the Orlando Florida mission.
That's where my two companions came from. It has been really fun to have
them bring the stuff that they knew from their mission and bring it here to
combine them. It has been a very good change and has helped us all grow so
very much. It's been kind of fun learning Portugese. I can understand
mostly all of it so far, but I need to learn how to actually speak it. I
feel like I'm at the beginning of my mission again lol. But having said
that, I'm so happy to be learning a third language. I think that that is
such a cool blessing given to me. I look forward to learning it more and
actually speaking it now.

So it's fun living with all of these Elders. As you know there are 5 of
us. We are working hard to keep the apartment clean. I think that you all
would be so proud of me and my cleaning abilities now. I sometimes amaze
myself lol. But yeah there are challenges living with all of us, but it is
good. It helps us grow so much and we learn a lot from each other. We
learn about the Gospel, and also life lessons as well.

As far as sending anything in specific for my companions, I can't really
think of anything. They are both doing really good, and Elder Machado goes
home 3 days after Christmas on my birthday, so I don't think there's really
anything, but I'll let you know if there is. On that, is there anything in
specific that any of you want so that I can send it to you? Please let me
know, I'm willing to get what I can so don't be shy.

For the Christmas call we can use SKYPE if you would like to. I'm going to
talk to one of the members that we are having a Family Home Evening with
tonight with one of our investigators if he has it and if I can use it on
Christmas day. Let me know if that's what you want to do and have a way to
do it, and if not I'll just call Dad's phone. What time I will be calling,
I don't know. I only have 30-35 minutes this year though. I don't really
know why so short, but rules are rules and you do it and follow them
because your leaders told you and know what's best.

That's super cool that you got to go the The Forgotten Carols this last
week! I love that play. Of course I remember a lot about it, I've seen it
quite a few times and love it each and every time.

I want to share with you a couple of experiences that we had this week:
We were Harvesting mainly looking for Portugese people, but then we
knocked on the door of a Spanish man named Carlos. He let us right in
without any hesitation or guff. We explained to him our purpose in being
therea dn we knelt down and gave the blessing. He had explained before the
blessing that he is divorced and has a little 9 year old girl who was with
her Mom at that time. After the blessing we asked him how he felt and he
said that sometimes one feels alone and that that blessing helped him feel
better. We then explained how God knows him and loves him and knew that he
felt a little weak at that time and a little alone, so that is why he sent
us to him. We then went back yesterday to visit him and taught him. He
accepted the Restoration fairly well. It was a great experience for us.

Also, another really amazing experience that we had was we were coming to
the end of the night and not knowing where to go. We then looked and found
a person on the ward list that we weren't sure who she was, whether she was
active or not, and she lived close to where we were so we decided to go and
find her house. We got to her house and knocked on the door, and the
people said that we had the wrong house, so she probably moved. We then
gave them the Harvesting approach and asked to come in, and they said yes.
They gathered the whole family around. My companions and I thought that it
was going to be an awkward blessing at first, but then during the blessing
we felt the Spirit come in very strong. We asked them how they felt after
the blessing, and they said very calm and tranquil and good. As we were
leaving, the lady who was laying on the couch told us, "I really wasn't
feeling good when you guys came, I had just gotten home from work and I was
tired and not feeling good to the point where I don't think I could have
gotten up. I thought to myself, these guys just woke me up. But now, I
feel great." She said all of this with a smile on her face and laughing of
happiness standing and happy. The blessing healed her by helping her
feel the Spirit. It was such a great experience. We walked out with such
big grins on our faces, because it was a good time. We felt very close to
them.

Well family I love you all so very much individually. Please all of you
take care, and be careful in all things that you are doing this week in
your busy schedules and in all of your travelings.

Love,
Your Son, Brother, and Uncle
Elder Hardman