What You Should Know

My dear friends,

I didn't want you to be surprised or find out through someone else, so here is what you should know. You will no longer find me in New York. You will no longer find me in Utah. I am in Texas. 

On March 18, 2015 I entered the Provo MTC as excited as could be, having done everything I could to be prepared. I had waited and hoped for this moment! And it was fantastic. At the MTC I was the only missionary learning Haitian Creole. With my prior French knowledge, pre-MTC study, and praying for the gift of tongues, I quickly accelerated in the language. With just me and the teacher we moved swiftly and I left the MTC 2 weeks early for New York.

Now comes the hard part. In the MTC I had learned that God trusted me much more than I trusted myself, to learn the language by myself and then leave early. In New York I had to learn that God's plan for my life is much different than the plan I had made for myself. We know that "[his] ways are higher than [our] ways, and [his] thoughts than [our] thoughts" Isaiah 55:9. I know that his plan will be better for me in the long run, but oh boy can it be painful sometimes. What you should know is while in New York I developed anxiety and depression. It broke me. I gave every last piece I had to try and make it just one more simple task at a time. On Saturday July 18, 2015 I returned home to Salt Lake City and a loving family. The next morning I was honorably released for my medical conditions. The next Saturday I moved with my family to Houston, Texas. 

*Anxiety and Depression are real illnesses. Like diabetes, like a broken leg, like cancer, they need to be treated and taken care of. I am not crazy, I have not "lost my mind". In fact I had to learn to accept and remember that I have 'emotional pneumonia'. It's gonna take some time and treatment and real work to be okay again, but I'll get there. Please if you've had a stigma attached to mental illnesses take this as an opportunity to melt it away.

I do not know what God's plan is for me now, nor do I know where it will lead me. I do know that I was supposed to go on a mission, and I figured out it was his plan for it to be shorter than I expected. I thank all of you for your notes, letters, emails, thoughts, and prayers while I was on my mission. Each made a great impact at a fragile time. If you have any questions, please please just ask me whether than wondering. I love you all ❤️

Amanda Hardman

Long Sleeves in June?

June 29, 2015

It has been raining a lot the past few days making things really cold for June, especially for the end of June! I was wearing a cardigan and my rain coat with the heat on in the car. Pretty funky! The weather says it’s a lot more like summer in Utah with some really hot days, hope you have some sprinkler and popsicle fun

This week we met Falicia, a referral from the elders. Her stepdad ordered a Bible and she was interested in learning more about our church. When we went her parents answered the door and were rude and wanted us to stop bothering them, but then Falicia came around the corner and saved the day with a “wait no be nice, I’m interested!” We have taught her twice now and she wanted to come to church but was sick. She wants to be baptized a Christian and is trying to figure out which church. She learns slow and doesn’t ask many questions, but really wants to learn. She agreed to a baptismal date on the first lesson!

We got an update to our area book app and with it came in all the old media referrals! So we have 50 referrals to go through and figure out who they are as well as contacting our current referrals. One of the old ones that came through again was this cute sweet old lady. She lived in this little shed turned into a cottage behind a house. When I knocked on the door we heard this grouchy “I don’t want any of it” then I asked if it was Ann and she totally changed and came to the door with a lampshade in her hand, so I asked if we could help her. She said “Can you help me? Oh yes! Come in”. Turns out she had been trying to put together a light fixture for 3 hours and was so frustrated and angry and was about to take it back or throw it out. So I took a look at it, tried a couple ways, then figured it out and put it together for her the rest of the time we were there no matter where the conversation went, she kept bringing it back to how much a miracle that was in her life and that God had brought us there to help her when she about to give up. She was adorable and so funny

The zone leaders almost burned down our apartment building! They left a pot of beans going on the stove for all of prime time (aka 6-9) and had taken down their smoke detector. Soo when they opened their door smoke came flying out everywhere, covering the hall, it was bad! The firemen and police came and brought huge fans to blow out the smoke. The hall isn’t bad anymore, but their apartment still smells a lot, and sometimes them from their clothes.

We got back in contact with Miranda for the first real time since she moved to Texas! She was a volunteer at a camp for disabled youth for a couple weeks and we could not get even a phone call in. But she’s at her house now so hopefully we can get her in contact with the missionaries there.
That’s about all for this week, I hope yours have been good!
I love you all so much! Mwen manke ou aussi.
Avèk lanmou,
Sister Amanda Hardman
Sorry no pictures this week

Fin Mwa Twa! (End of Month 3)

June 22, 2015

The weather of New York this week: super super humid making you think it’s much hotter than the 86 degrees it is, switching into random rainstorms.

This week I learned to really really appreciate the clean habits mom and dad taught me and how clean of a house and family I grew up in. Explanation story: we worked on cleaning a members kitchen this week for two hours. The dishes overflowed the sink and covered the countertop, there was rotting food under the dishes, the stove had grime covering every inch, you could smell the dirt. We were washing dishes the entire two hours and barely finished them. It killed me every time I went to put a dish that was finally clean away, because it was going into a super dirty unorganized cupboard or drawer. And this was one of the better rooms of the house. Lesson learned: care about the way your house looks and having a clean kitchen especially! Teach your kids little habits to help with the house and make them responsible. I’m so grateful to know how to keep a house and kitchen clean and sanitary!

The puppy story! (last week’s picture) We were knocking and there was a man cleaning a new oven he got on his driveway. He was chill and talking to us and sort of interested. It was his puppy
He went to buy his kids ice cream from the truck in the middle of talking to him, so we sat down and the puppy wandered over to us. So I played with it cause it was adorable!

I made noisy casserole for dinner this week and had leftovers throughout the week, it was nice to have a meal that felt like home

A girl named Emily who lives in the ward and is home for the summer from BYU came to a lesson with us this week! It was such a great experience actually having a member present, I wish we could get more members to come with us.

We had zone training meeting this week and it was great! We did a lot to prepare for the mission getting Facebook back and switching from President Calderwood to President Reynolds. We had a cereal break in the middle, I’ll send a picture of it. That night an inactive member named Judy and her son prepared dinner for us and it was a feast! It was all really nice and everything had a second option in case we didn’t like it. They are both super nice but don’t remember much about the church, Judy hasn’t been to church since she was 16 except to get her son blessed. Her mother however is super active and she called her worried about what to feed us. Then oh then she told us to make sure we didn’t forget the groceries she bought for us. I was expecting like just a nice little bag, but no! She pulled out four ginormous bags! So much food! We shared half of it with a single mom in our ward who has three boys and the rest we are cooking and using with all the missionaries living in our apartment building.

This week we met twice with Stephanie, the 12 year old daughter of a member of our ward who joined the church about 2008. Her mother has never pushed anything about the church, wanting her to decide for herself. As we stopped by trying to see her mother, we started talking more to Stephanie. We are now teaching her and she has committed to be baptized and is working towards July 12th I think I mentioned her last week, she is great!

Two Haitian experiences this week! Sister Layton said “I like your hat” to a girl in the street and she didn’t understand because sheonly speaks French and Creole. I then went for it, talking in all Creole, getting her information, a little about her, and setting up a return appointment! Number two, the Elders have been meeting with two Haitian women but can’t go in the house because there is no man. Soo yesterday they had me go meet with them and talked to them for awhiletrying to figure out what they’ve learned from the elders.

With Father’s Day yesterday away from home it reminded me more to thank my Heavenly Father for everything he does for me as well as my earthly father. We all share the most wonderful Father we could ever ask for, even the all powerful all loving God. Remember to show him your love and gratitude as well
Mwen renmen tout ou!
Avèk lanmou,
Sister Amanda Hardman

Another Week in Bayshore, Now Feeling Hot Like Summer

It is very green here! This is what the parkways look like.

June 16, 2015

With transfers with have two new elders in our district. Elder Bennet (one of the zone leaders from last transfer) is now an assistant to the president, we now have Elder Ashby instead. He is a red-head Creole speaker who was here in Bayshore earlier in his mission. Funny coincidence, he’s actually the one who welcomed me for all of the Haitian Creole speakers when I introduced myself on the mission Facebook page! He speaks creole frequently, it’s good to hear it more and try to practice. Elder Thelemaque (our district leader) was also transferred. Now we have Elder Sainteran who is Haitian but has been  living in the Dominican Republic for the past 5 years and
started his mission there. He’s cool and is really trying to learn more English.

We don’t have any solid investigators so we have been trying to find people for a lot of our time this week…aka lots of knocking and lookups! Last week you wouldn’t have believed it was June because it was cold and windy, but this week it definitely felt like summer! Oh man it was so hot and humid when we were knocking, buutt I remembered to wear sunscreen so no sunburns and then today it’s raining like crazy! we met a whole bunch of Spanish speakers when knocking, it’s amazing how many of them from South American countries met with missionaries and went to church in their countries.

We helped Sister Rivas with her yard again, this week we were weeding. And oh my goodness I have never weeded with sooo many bugs all over before! It was gross. But we cleaned it up a lot, so that’s good! There are a few members we are trying to help get to the temple or back to it and are just held back by tithing. I’m so glad to have been brought up paying tithing and knowing the importance and blessings of it. With how expensive it is to live in New York it is very hard for those who never did or stopped paying tithing to start it again because they are scared if they will have enough. Truly it is a test  of faith, to rely and trust in God over the things of the world.

Two less actives we’re working with came to church! And one less active family that we’re working with the daughter, Stephanie. The mom and older sister were baptized a few years ago but she was not. She’s a super cool mature 12 year old that grew up sometimes going to church, has fond memories of when the elders would come over to teach them, and believes everything she remembers from what they taught and from at church. She wants to get baptized, but it’s hard to have a real lesson with her because her mom is rarely home. We’re hoping to get her mom and sister involved to strengthen their testimony and understanding too.

That sums the week up! I love each of you so much and am grateful to have your influence in my life making me who I am at this point, and your support while I’m here.
Mwen renmen tou ou! Fanmi mwen pi bon pase tou!
With great love,
Sister Amanda Hardman

End of Transfer 1 in New York

June 9, 2015

Transfer two starts tomorrow and I will be staying here in Bayshore with Sister Layton finishing my training like normal! Since i got here she’s been telling me about how sometimes training gets split between two areas or companions and that it might happen to me, but I’m glad that I’ve just got the normal

 Happenings of this week: we went to a Baptist bible study on Monday night with an investigator. It was actually pretty good! He was talking about the “cycle of sin” in the book of Judges and it was cool for me to relate to the pride cycle throughout the Book of Mormon. We learn from it in both books of scripture, just another point that shows how they can be used together to learn more. Tuesday and Saturday we ran to the church and back totaling at 3 miles, which should’ve been a lot easier than they were haha. We had to say goodbye to Miranda on Wednesday we helped her pack, she had sooo much  stuff !!

A funny selfie shot

Selfie before Miranda moved

 

We packed 3 big boxes and 3 suitcases! We also talked on the phone with her and the elders who are over her ward in Texas. It sounds like she’ll be in good hands, but it’s still sad and hard to see her go so quickly.

On Thursday we spent a couple hours raking a Sister’s yard in our ward. She hasn’t been to church since February, but she came to sacrament meeting this Sunday! This week was a good one for getting fed haha Sister Rivas got us KFC after we raked and that night Kami (another sister in our ward) fed us pizza before we  helped her pack up some things to move. We also got dinner Friday night with a part member family and dinner on Sunday with the Palmers (senior couple in the ward) for the end of transfers. On Friday we had an appointment with a new investigator, who didn’t show, but there was a house inspector there waiting for her too who when we started talking to her happened to be a Jehovah’s Witness pioneer! (That’s their missionaries, they go around in their area in between normal life). That got to be a really interesting situation with both ways
trying to share their beliefs respectfully. We did a pretty good job keeping it from bible bashing but still explaining our views. It’s good to understand how they see it a little better now though! That night we went knocking and found a promising 18 year old girl who isn’t religious because she wasn’t brought up that way, but she wants to be with her future family and is super open minded towards it! Super excited about her Saturday we volunteered at a “Global Family Reunion” at flushing meadows park In queens which was cool but low turn out so there wasn’t much for us to do. We got lunch at a Spanish restaurant there in queens with the Hermanas and Jessica, it was good!

Well that’s the week in a nutshell! I love love love each of you!
Avèk lanmou,
Sè Amanda Hardman
p.s. Oh and with staying in Bayshore feel free to send mail to my real apartment address again for the next 6 weeks!

Another Week Gone

 

Amanda and companion with Miranda at temple for baptisms

Miranda and Amanda across the street from the temple in Manhattan

June 1. 2015
Aaannnddd there went another week! I can’t decide if these are going
fast or slow, it depends on the moment hahah.

This week as we were leaving a front porch lesson with a hopeful investigator a solar salesman came up and we talked to him instead of him talking to the family haha. He was 24 so it was easier to be
ourselves with sharing rather than robotic phrases. It was fun and he thought we were crazy because we were too happy and doing better than him at talking to people on the streets about our things. We also go to every house with a vivint security sign because we know they’ve met at least a couple Mormons when they got it installed. We’ve really been trying to do better at working with members so we started trying a new approach this week. We have gone to 3 families houses so far and
just sat down for 15 minutes to see how we can serve them, who they think we should reach out to in the ward, and how they are doing with their personal missionary work. Also this week we have ended up stuck at 3 different old ladies houses for a lloonngg time. They all had crazy beliefs and wouldn’t let us share more than a sentence at a time haha.

Oh man and then one morning we were going out the back little sort of
fire escape metal stairs as always to start our morning run and it had
rained the night before. All of a sudden I went whoosh bam bam bonk! I
luckily caught myself on the railing just before my head would’ve hit
too. Haha I have a nasty big bruise on my lower back now, it’s
interesting working with.

Saturday we were once again at the temple, this time with Miranda for
her first time!  We drove to the mission office (Rego Park) and then took the subway in.
It was soo hot! And then we took one of the wrong trains and were on the wrong side of Central Park…..but in the end we made it! It took a long time in the baptistery, but it’s okay because there was a really cool experience. There was a ward group there from New Jersey and they had
brought win them a man who couldn’t walk. He was once a professional football player in the super bowl, but had a stroke and lost all movement on his left side. It was really hard on him and it looked so painful because the whole side was swollen and super dry. He found the church recently and wanted to be able to perform his uncle’s baptism at the temple. It took 3 people to get him up the stairs and 3 people in the font to help him during the baptism but he was able to do it and he looked so happy because of it we got Belgian waffles after at a cart in Lincoln Center. They were yummy, but not quite as good as off the streets of Belgium. On the way back in the subway there were
two people with a whole bunch of buckets, then they started drumming and going crazy with all sorts of rhythms, it was super cool!! It was also super loud and echoey which made me sad because I had to plug my ears. I already had a headache from the heat and the noise was turning it into a migraine there was also construction on some of the lines and traffic on the freeway so it took a long time to get back. That night we had 2 interviews/discussions with a researcher from the missionary department. The first was about language study and the second was about some pamphlets they’re thinking about introducing. I hope they do finish the pamphlets because they were nice! My head
continued to worsen though…I borrowed sunglasses on the car ride and made it through a lesson with an inactive recent convert…and then died in the car. First full blown migraine in months.

I love you all so much, thank you for your support!
Avèk lanmou,
Sè Hardman

A Week of Meetings

Sister Hardman and her companion at M&M World the week before.

Amanda at the Manhattan temple with her companion and others

Amanda and companion with Linsdey at Manhattan temple

Amanda and other sisters at the Mets game

Amanda and sisters and elders at Mets game

May 25, 2015

Well this week was super full of meetings and driving! Because of that there was much less time spent out talking to people, and when we were we had very little success. When we go knocking it’s interesting how many people say it’s wonderful what we’re doing, or great to see young people so dedicated to their faith, but will not let us share a message. There’s also a lot of people who tell us to be careful but won’t listen. This week I also realized that I haven’t told you about the ice cream trucks here. They are super excessively everywhere all the time! Apparently they start when the snow is cleared and go all year until there’s too much snow again. They are out and going all day, early morning to late night. The songs get annoying, and then just plain creepy at night. I haven’t tried any yet because Sister Layton is pretty sure she’s lactose intolerant and doesn’t eat sweets.
 
On Thursday we had a trainer-trainee meeting with the other new missionaries at the mission office. President and his assistants gave good messages and workshops on studies, we had pizza, and then we heard from the senior couple missionaries about the things they are in charge of (mail, cars, housing, health, records, etc). Apparently the mail in the city areas is very unreliable, it depends on the mail mans mood as to whether it will be forwarded or sent back or never delivered. On the island is fine, but there may be some addresses later in my mission that I don’t give you because it’ll be more reliable to just the mission office. That night we went over to Miranda’s with Jessica to help her start her family history. The four of us also had lunch together after church yesterday in Jessica’s apartment.

On Saturday we went to the temple! Lindsey from our ward went back to the temple to do baptisms for the first time in 7 years and invited us to come with her. She is going back to do an endowment session for the first time again next week at the same time that we’re taking Miranda for the first time. We also helped an older lady in our ward who is half blind go back for the first time for a few years. We started weeding her garden during the middle of the week too.

We are at the Mets game today! There’s a lot of missionaries here from all over the mission.

Avèk lanmou,
Sè Amanda Hardman

2 Months are Gone!

May 19, 2015 

Amanda and her companion with Miranda on her baptism day

Amanda with Brother and Sister Calderwood

Amanda and her companion with Sister Calderwood

Miranda and Amanda and companion

Amanda and Sister Vandertoolen on splits

Pretty purple flowers just outside our church building

Amanda at the color wall in the Times Square M&M store

Amanda with Frozen character

Well there went 2 months! It seems like I just barely started, but at the same time so much has happened. Also, this week is weird sorry!
Zone conference was awesome today, the spirit was strong and we learned a lot. It was nice to have a last personal contact with President and Sister Calderwood as they prepare to leave at the first of July. I say today because I’m writing this Monday night haha we have to leave early tomorrow to make it to Sister Layton’s doctor appointments in Manhatten and then will be there pretty much until prime time :/ don’t know if we’ll have time for laundry or groceries!
Oh well haha it will be fun and exciting I am planning to write a bigger email as I wait during her appointments, but I’m not sure how everything will pan out.
Big things of this week:
I went on an exchange with Sister Vandertoolen, one of the Sister Training Leaders. I went to her area which is a YSA branch! It was fun and awesome to work with her.
The baptismal font almost overflowed! Haha I had to hike up my dress and stand in there holding the drain up while we waited for the elders to figure out how to turn it off.
Miranda got baptized! She overslept and we were freaking for an hour and a half and went to get her right after sacrament.
 Thank you for your emails!
We met a cute nice lady on the subway today! It was a more empty car and she was in the corner with her baby so we went by her to try to strike up a conversation. After finding out her girl’s name and how old she is we found out she’s from Utah and is a member hahah! She then decided that it’d be really cute to take a picture and send it to our parents.  She’s really nice and was meeting up with her husband who’s out here for work.
Sister Layton had an appointment today at 11:30 and 2:30 so we had two and a half hours in between to enjoy our pday. We walked through Central Park and then headed to Times Square. We went to m&m world, I took a picture where Kristin and I did years ago. We took pictures in a photo booth there picture in Times Square, saw where we stayed on our trip out here, went to sbarro for lunch. We went to the Disney store, where there was a giant stuffed Sven and they had the escalators decorated like Tangled. We also went to the giant Toys R Us where they had minions!!! Including a big statue and little plush ones (which I bought one of they also had a giant T. rex that moved around and made noise. It reminded me both of Evan, it was for a Jurrasic Park area, and Lesley because they have the dinosaurs back at the zoo. It was fun and also really weird to be there as a missionary.

I love you all!
Love,
Sister Amanda Hardman

Dinosaur at Times Square Toys R Us

Amanda with Minions

Amanda in Times Square

         

Happy Mother's Day!!

Hello hello again dear family!!

 It was ssooo good to see and hear from you yesterday! I loved it :) :) I was so happy to see all of you together and hear your voices, now it'll have to hold me through till December. To answer your first question from skyping, I'd say the highlight so far of my mission has been teaching Miranda (who's getting baptized on Sunday!!), when people actually let us share a brief message on their doorstep, and running to different parts of the bay whether to a pier or canal or beach each morning.

I didn't know what to tell you about last week and I felt bad it was so short, so I made myself a list of things last night :) On Saturday we helped set up for a fundraiser walk for the cystic fibrosis foundation. They had people dressed up as Darth Vadar and a storm trooper come haha :) At the end they had ttttooonnnsss of bagels and muffins and apples leftover, and they gave them all to us! It's crazy!  We're sharing them between all the missionaries at the loft (our apartment building's name) and we'll definitely end up throwing a bunch away too.

The past two weeks I've been reading from Our Search For Happiness for a small part of each personal study. It's by Elder Ballard and is a explanatory introduction to the church for nonmembers. It's really helpful for me seeing everything in a new light through his eyes and more ways to explain things better. I'm really enjoying it!

Some things about my area and probably Long Island in general. There are bunnies and squirrels everywhere!! I'll try to remember to take a picture next time, but I see them way more than any birds. It is very rare for there to be just one immediate family living in a house here.  More likely for parts of an extended family to be together or each room of a house to be rented out. There are a few areas we've been in where the houses look more like Utah and it's just one family, but we don't have any investigators there, and it's really hard to catch them at home. Like people say there are a LOT of sketchy and very scary things that happen here and in the city. We hear about them happening to investigators and their families. Thankfully though, Heavenly Father protects us and we are never in the areas when things are happening and haven't seen anything too bad. They have a place called Blaze pizza here and I went there the 2nd time this week. It's pretty cool, it's like a subway for pizza! You put on your toppings then they stick in like a stone-fire oven and cooks in 3 minutes.

So Miranda! She is the coolest sweetest girl. She definitely doesn't fit in with New York. Along with that she's pretty quiet and shy unless you talk directly to her and ask questions so the youth have been awkward to her, which is sad. She has such a strong testimony and is so ready and excited to be a member of the church and "get baptism" as she would say :) shes trying to transfer to a school in Texas and is going there this summer, so she probably won't stick around in the ward..but she will definitely stick around in the church wherever she's at. She takes the train to church here and already asked for our help to find the church in Texas. I'm so excited for :) depending when she goes to Texas we may be able to take her to the temple too, she definitely wants to go soon!

We also are working with Mary, who is a miracle! She had been "dropped" and never given the Book of Mormon she ordered because she was sick for awhile. But she really wants to learn and give it a chance, and boy is she doing that! She grew up Catholic but wasn't super fond of the way they ran things and made her feel. We gave her the Restoration pamphlet and her Book of Mormon, when we came back the next week she had read the pamphlet and through 1 Nephi 13. That never happens here!! She understood and believed all of the pamphlet was either true or made sense and could be true. She felt peace and like she was really learning for herself in a new way as she read the Book of Mormon. She is truly searching for the truth in her life! She really wants to come see what our church services are like, but has had a hard time so far because of her work schedule. That will be a problem for her, but I'm excited to see where this will go with her.

The other person I wanted to tell you more about this week is Jessica!
She lives directly beneath us and was baptized 7 months ago. She is our go to girl and a friend to all the missionaries. She goes out teaching and knocking with us all the time. She is our source to the full internet when we have a question and need help. (For example: train schedule, how to tell if a fruit is ripe, latest world news-Nepal earthquake) She buys us food and is the closest we get to having dinner appointments. She makes us laugh and helps us not drive each other too crazy. Jessica is awesome!! I felt like with how great she is and close we are that you needed to know more about her :)

Also a little bit about my companion Sister Layton. She is from centerville and went to SUU for a year. She laughs all the time, about everything. She works very hard and keeps us very busy. She starting going deaf when she was 5 and got a cochlear implant when she was 11. She can't hear you unless you're close by and still has a hard time understanding what people say sometimes. Music doesn't sound good to her because it all gets jumbled together, but let's me play my iPod in the car all day as we drive because she knows it helps me. She gets full super fast and so doesn't get it when I go for more food or don't have leftovers. She's really nice and tries her best but we're both working on patience with each other.

I love each of you so so much!! Thank you for your love and support <3

Avèk lanmou,
Sè Hardman

Guess what I'm doin right now?! Pday activity as a district....juicing apples we got on Saturday!

First Week With Just 2

Well this week was transfers so it's down to just Sister Layton and I! It's kinda weird and I miss Sister Ewell's funny remarks all the time. She got transferred out to the Hamptons (far rich end of Long Island) and we're sure she's doing great. Transfer meeting was really cool. There were 3 or 4 musical numbers from missionaries throughout the mission and one by the leaving missionaries. We sang called to serve in English and Spanish and said our purpose in every language in the mission. Then Sister and President Calderwood addressed us. Sister Calderwood talked about how short our time is here and how important planning every minute of time is so we can be efficient and good disciples and missionaries of Christ. President Calderwood talked about 3 principles for life. 1. Learn to rely on God. Say "Thy Will Be Done" and MEAN it. Don't try to counsel him as to how your life should go, but take counsel from him for how to follow his perfect plan for you. 2. The little things matter. If you take care of all the little things the big things will fall into place. 3. Don't underestimate the importance of your attitude. Either way it will be a self fulfilling prophecy. Then we heard aaallll the transfers for all over the mission. It was cool!
This transfer we're trying to focus on not wasting time with people who aren't progressing, so we can spend the needed time to find those that have been prepared and will listen and then work with them. 3 of the days this week were filled with cancelled appointments, tracting, and look ups to no avail. The other two were mostly that as well, bbbuuutttt with a miracle or two thrown in of super cool new investigators! There were two lessons this week that went like I imagined they might before I came out, it was awesome :) just hoping and praying now that they will continue to desire to understand, and that they will keep commitments. It's really hard to get people to church here because many of them don't have cars. And the members that live around them are less active. And I don't even know the members that are active. We don't ever have dinner appointments or really anything with the members besides church and then were with our investigators that came. Please be helpful to the missionaries! Be a member they could call up to come to a lesson or get someone to church, it may not be as much of a problem at home but still try.
Saturday morning we did service out on Fire Island. It was supposed to be a beach clean up, but here wasn't much to clean up so Sister Layton and I helped repaint lifeguard chair/stands. Haha I got a big splotch of white paint on my jeans...guess I'll remember that the rest of my mission! It's finally getting warm here :) now the flowers and trees are blooming! They weren't when I got here, it was pretty sad driving down the highways with just brown on either side.
Also at transfers, Hermana Zambito from the MTC and that I was talking to through Facebook before is in the Brentwood district! So she lives just below us here in the Loft with her comp who is new to the area too. It's pretty fun having them around!
Sunday is Mother's Day!!!! I get to see and talk to you!! :D
I love you all soo much and hope you're doing well!
Avèk lanmou,
Sè Amanda Hardman

This 2nd week went quick! - April 27, 2015

Well this week really went by fast!

On Tuesday and Wednesday we deep cleaned our apartment for the end of the transfer. Wednesday we did service at a park in Islip, for earth day they had a big project going on cleaning it up. We were breaking up a bunch of hard old dirt and mixing in compost so that they could plant in it later that day, then we also raked a bunch of old leaves out of the forest edge, pulled out dead branches and logs, and picked up nasty trash hidden under the leaves. Throughout the week a LOT of people cancelled appointments, weren't home, never responded, and/or didn't have time to talk to us..but that's the life of a missionary!

Thursday felt like we were inside forever between studies and weekly planning. I had a mini exchange with the STL's for dinner that night, it was nice to have a change. That night we took a Book of Mormon to a lady that Jessica had met and talked to on the train. Aaanndd..she's Haitian!!! Definitely the highlight of my week. She is really nice and talked to me in creole, not crazy fast like the few I've met when contacting, but so I could understand, and I used creole with her the whole time once I knew. She lives close to us and is married with a little girl so I really hope she continues to be interested. Friday and Saturday we went knocking as a district in the same areas. Also on Friday we met a new girl, she is a foreign exchange student from China and has been working with the Chinese speaking sisters in Flushing from our area. She loves the church and is so ready and excited to be baptized. She is seriously so cool! We're helping her finish getting ready and she is coming to our ward now. Saturday there was a meeting for the new trainers so we drove out to the mission office in Queens and back (about an hour and a half each way). Sister Layton says it was really good and wishes they had told her all of it before I came.

Sunday was a multi stake conference broadcast from Salt Lake for the North-east corner section area of the U.S. Elder Anderson and Hales spoke as well as the 2nd counselor in the general relief society presidency. It was cool! We share a building with the Spanish ward so announcements were translated and we sang at the same time in 2 languages. We had dinner with a senior couple in our ward for the end of transfers and she made orange jello with mandarin oranges and carrots which reminded me of moms jello :) starting tomorrow it will be just me and Sis Layton and Sis Ewell will be out of Bayshore for the first time in her mission. Not sure what else to tell you about, sooo ask me questions and I'd be happy to answer!

Ohh!! We drove to a park nearby this morning and ran down the trail to the beach! If you look close, behind to the left of my head is a lighthouse, the light was even still on :) it is on what's called Fire Island. It was a gorgeous sky too!! Pplluuss it was a trail run, my favorite :)

Mwen renmen tou ou anpil!

Avèk lanmou,

Sè Hardman

 

First Week in Bayshore, NY -- April 20, 2015

I didn't email last week cause I was traveling, but it was mostly getting ready to leave the MTC, making sure I had done everything and then goodbyes. It was weird and hard not to be able to hug my teachers goodbye, they were like friends to me too cause it was just me and them in class forever each day. BYU men's chorus did our devotional last sunday. I loved hearing a beautiful choir sound again, and it reminded me of my semester at BYU.

When I got to New York my companions picked me up at the airport.

Their names are Sister Layton (my trainer, called ASL) and Sister Ewell (switching areas at transfers next week). We are in an area called Bayshore, it's on the island about halfway across on the very south end. Here they call any of the NYC boroughs the "city" (queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island) and everything else the "island". I am being trained English, but there are some Haitians in some of the town/cities in our area. There's us and two sets of elders in our area, district, and ward. My district leader is Haitian, and two of the other elders were called Creole speaking so I can practice with them. We all live in the same apartment building, as well as 2 Hermanas (Spanish ward but Bayshore area too).

My first day we went "fearlessing" or contacting on the streets of Jamaica, Queens with the 2 other Creole sisters then went to the President's house. We went out to dinner at a seafood place and they did a little intro to the mission for me. We've been really busy and it's made me feel overwhelmed and exhausted. I thought I had adjusted to life on a mission at the MTC but it's turns out there's a whole ton more I have to figure out, get used to, and learn.

There's about 50 members in the ward. There's a whole bunch of recent converts and less actives were trying to help. In the morning we run down to one of the piers and see the ocean. It is super crazy rainy today!! The power was going in and out this morning and it's really windy.

I have met sooo many people and done so much I don't even know what else to tell you about. We use our iPads all the time for our area book and planner, it's really helpful to have that with us. We're trying to clean up our area book because for awhile nobody was good at putting what they did in.

I will be here for the next 3 months aka 2 transfers for sure as I am trained. My address is

94 4th Ave #309

Bayshore, NY 11706

Sè Amanda Hardman