Sister Paige Hardy

HAPPY EASTER! how incredibly grateful I am for my Savior! Because of His we will live again, because of Him we can live with our heavenly father again, because of His we can live today and tomorrow and everyday of our lives in peace and love and joy, knowing that we are redeemed by Jesus Christ and as we draw near to Him, the miracle of his sacrifice and triumph will become ever more real, precious, and beautiful to us. I loved having the chance to celebrate Him, we should celebrate him every day, but there was a special spirit in the air as everyone took the day to remember He who gave us all.   Anyone remember the verse in Ether 12, "you recieve no witness until after the trial of your faith." This is a true statement! There were some trials this week, and then God gave us a witness! First things first, anyone want to hear about the Wednesday we had? The day starts off pretty normal. We study and plan and then head out for the day. We reach the bottom of the...

This week was a doozy! Divisions with our STLs, Zone conference, and an unexpected guest! For divisions I stayed here in Barreiro with Sister Moraes, and we had a great time! She went from one division to another without a break and was exhausted and what did we have planned? Knocking doors for 3 hours! She is an incredible missionary and didn't complain once as we walked and walked and knocked and knocked. We slammed through a list of less actives and a list of potentials, scheduled an appointment or two, gave an incredible woman a book of Mormon, and had a lot of fun talking! She is a really obedient hard working missionary, I was grateful to get to spend a day with her! The next morning we got up extra early and got all done up for zone conference! Neither of us knew how to get there, so we had a fun little adventure and managed to still get there about an hour early, so we had breakfast at a cute little Cafe! Ham and cheese sandwiches are a pretty common breakfast her...

Olá friends and family! What's cooking? If it's not feijoada I suggest you get started because the work is worth it! In all seriousness, I was worried about the food on a mission, but the only problem I'm having is the amount. I am going to be the size of truck when I come home lol. SO GOOD! Also coxinhas? Best thing ever. Our branch is the best branch in the mission at feeding the missionaries. We have meals almost every day and sometimes more than once a day and they put enough food in front of us to feed an army! And for a lot of them, if you don't eat more than a human naturally can they get mad that you don't like their food... Lol. Most people are pretty patient with me though, being tiny sometimes has its perks! Ok, BIG NEWS! Carlos was baptized! His journey was kind-of what I expected missionary work to be like, and what it will probably never be like again. He was so incredibly prepared. We taught him, he had no problems what so ever with the ...

Oh. My. Gosh. Conference was incredible!!!! The week leading up to conference was the longest week ever and all of us missionaries could hardly wait! It felt like the days leading up to Christmas when I was 7 years old! We all expected some more big changes, but I think that God wants us to get settled and improve with the adjustments that have already been made. Ministering was a big focus I noticed, that is something I am planning on really focusing on when I get home. Our Sunday we hardly left the chapel because we couldn't watch the second session because we needed to be at home (the second session starts at 9 here!) so Sunday we caught up on the previous session and had lunch with a bunch of members! I still need to finish the yesterday afternoon session! This was a good week. Honestly everything that happened is a fog after conference. We taught some of our friends, we taught a lesson over video chat which was really cool! we ate some delicious food with some me...

I thought about starting this email off with some kind of April fools joke but I changed my mind. Missionary work is not a joke. Though it is super fun!! Having a companion that doesn't speak the same language as me has been really cool! I have already noticed changes in my ability to speak and to understand. I can always understand my colega and that is a wonderful blessing. It is really fun though because she really wants to learn English so at night we speak only English. Thus the title of the email. This is one of the first phrases she learned and she told me a story of a time she started talking to a man and he started talking back to her but not in Portuguese. He talked for a while and she didn't understand anything, so when he stopped she asked him if he spoke English and he just walked away. Her companion later told her that the man had been speaking English the whole time! She is so patient and good tempered, we laugh together as I try to speak Portuguese...