Adeus

I'm leaving Barreiro! 😭 And this time it's for real. I don't know why, but this time it was so much harder to say goodbye! We ended strong though. None of our friends had come to church the whole transfer and then this Sunday three of them came! And they loved it! We studied the talk "the immediate goodness of God" in relief society and our our friends Lais and Olivia loved it! They both made comments during the class too! Olivia doesn't speak portuguese, so I was translating for her during the class and then translated her comment into portuguese. It was the first time I had tried translating in the moment like that, and by a miracle from heaven, she was able to keep up with what was going on, comment, and have an uplifting experience. Lais quickly made friends with some members and was really touched by the class. She said that here, she felt like she would have a support system. Her comment in the class was how we had shown up in her life right as she was hitting a truly rough patch and our message had brought her a lot of hope. She is really excited for her baptism, and we are too! I am very sad that I won't be here for it. I told Lais I was being transferred, and she started to cry. I am so grateful God gave me the opportunity to meet her and help her. She has shown me what trusting in God looks like, even when you don't understand everything. Her ex boyfriend came to church with her and he really liked it too and wants to learn more! I am sad to be leaving at this time. A transfer of work, and wow, the fruits that have come are incredible! There was actually a lot of sadness from members when I told them I was leaving too, which I wasn't expecting. It was nice to see that the work I have done here to love and serve the people made at least a little impact. Sometimes as a missionary the rejection we face every day can be discouraging, and we can feel like our work is being wasted, it was now, telling them I was leaving that helped me see that it wasn't for nothing. I made wonderful friends here in Barreiro, family. And I am leaving it better than I found it, or maybe I am leaving a better missionary and person that when I came.

Anyway! I am going to an area called Leiria, apparently it is really beatuful and has a castle and a river right in the middle of the city! I will be serving with Sister Crowder, she is my mission sister! My trainer sister Hoffman trained her too! She is super cute and sweet and a wonderful missionary! She served in Barreiro for 6 months so we are going to know all the same people! I am very excited!

OK, quick story from this week lol. So we learned that Sister Stalder was going to have to do SEF (getting her portuguese residency card) this week and they gave us travel plans and everything. The plans they gave us were to get there Tuesday at 9:30 and the appointment would be the next day. We were really confused why they wanted us to be there a full day early, but we decided there was probably a reason, so we showed up a 9:30 am on Tuesday. But here is the thing. Portuguese uses military time. So 9:30pm is 21h30. On the call they said 9:30, so to us that is in the morning. BUT in Brazil they do time like in America, and the guy who called is Brazilian so he didn't use military time. But he was trying to tell us to get there at 9:30pm but never said "at night" or anything! So it was a big communication that led to us looking kinda silly showing up a full day early, and no one being there at the office. We only live an hour and a half away so we just went back to Barreiro once everything got figured out and came back again at 9:30 PM. It was pretty funny. Then the next day they didn't have room in the car for the companions of the people doing SEF, so I stayed behind at the office with another sister and we did some busy work of throwing things away and looking through files. We had fun talking though and it was nice to have a day to take a little mental break. And it truly was all day. Usually SEF takes a solid 2 hour and a majority of that time is going to and from the place and waiting for your turn. But they left and were gone for more than two hours and came back and still hadnt done it! The next available appointment was at 2 in the afternoon, so they waited a while and helped us with some of the work we were doing and then left again! When they finally were done there was a lot of chatting and stuff going on, President and sister Fillmore were there so I got to talk to sister Fillmore for a while and even had a brief interview with Presidente fillmore! We finally got home at 6pm. Just in time to study a little and go to dinner with a member.

I just want to bare a brief testimony right now of my testimony in revelation and God's plan. God's plan is not always our plan, but if we have faith in him and the revelation received by our leaders, we will know that where we are headed will be what is best for our growth and development. I don't know about you, but that knowledge takes a big weight off my shoulders. Stuff may be unknown and scary, maybe we are being asked to do something we feel ubcapable of doing, but God will provide a way and we can trust that we will come out the other end. 

I love you all, thank you for your love and support! 

Sister Hardy

Saying goodbye to some friends, 9 month pictures so late that I am actually closer to 10 months now. I have some "pregnant pictures" too, but those were a little too embarrassing lol!