That's doente man!

Olá família e amigos! Another week has passed on the island and I am beginning to experience what is commonly known as "Island fever." Induced by spending long periods of time out of close proximity with other missionaries, on an isolated island in an area where you already feel you have knocked every door in town one can begin seeing symptoms such as: finding lame jokes hilarious, crying while watching cheesy church movies on the tiny mission issued DVD player, buying a lot of junk food, and having an entire conversation through gifs as a district. To be honest, it's been a blast! To all who know me, you know I don't really mind isolation, and my companion and I get along really well and we work well too! We did face some real illness this week which slowed us down a bit just because our bodies were tired, but we worked as hard as we could and we definitely saw some miracles! 

It was Sister Noble's birthday this week! I wanted to make it special because she seemed sad to be far away and to not be with the people she loved in her last area. I hid notes for her around the house and made a nice breakfast, then later that day we met up with our district for ice-cream! I am not the best at planning things, but she said she had a fun day. Now we are the same age! At least for a little while 😄

Funny story! On Tuesday it was raining buckets, but we are missionaries so that wasn't stopping us from doing the work of the Lord. We get our raincoats and rain boots and our one tiny bright pink umbrella (neither of us brought one because of the whole one suitcase deal) and we went forth! We were soaked in seconds. I felt like there was a river inside my boots. Instead of keeping the water out, they were keeping the water in! And the bottom half of my dress was flopping against my legs like a wet mop or a fish or something. Anyway. We wanted to visit a cute old couple who hasn't been to church in a while so we knock on their door and she opens the door gasping and hollering and waves us in. It was only then we realized how wet we really were! We stood there in her front hall dripping. I felt so bad! We couldn't sit down either because our dresses were too wet and we were getting their floor all wet too! They were bustling around us giving us sandals so we could take off our shoes and giving us towels to dry our faces and yelling at us that we shouldn't have left our house and we needed to go back right away to change. We left quickly because we couldn't do much for them dripping in their hallways, so we left. We didn't go home though. We had an appointment at the Chapel! So we went there and we had a few minutes so I started trying to dry my socks and skirt out in the bathroom with the hand dryer. But there wasn't time. Gustavo came, also soaked, and we ended up sitting, the three of us, barefoot (to not get the floor wet and muddy) in the chapel talking about the Gospel! It must have been a sight to see! To top it all off he had brought his saxophone and after our lesson he played for us! He is so good! He seemed pretty disappointed though, and I was too, that I couldn't remember the words or even the tune of some of my favorite jazz classics to sing along as he played. Yet another example of the phenomenon known as "mission veil" where we forget everything from before we became a missionary. It was an eventful day!

On Thursday and Friday we went out with the Carters in the afternoon and got to visit some less active members which was really nice! I really like the Carters, they are good, dedicated, people. It is so easy to see the love that they have for the people here. The members here are really gonna miss them when they go. They are like everyone's grandparents. We visited the mother of one of our members with them too. He is a really cool recent convert who is working on his mission papers, but his mom has a question that is really holding her back from learning more about the gospel. She suffers from some serious health issues and what she wants to know is why. We visited her with the Carters whom she loves! (she kept hugging Sister Carter and calling her her mom). She didn't seem very happy to see us though. But she was nice. We start talking and then the inevitable question comes up. Why do bad things happen to good people. Well we had studied this, being warned that she always asked the missionaries this question, and we felt prepared. But we soon discovered that she was not truly seeking an answer. We were giving her answers, many! And giving her ideas on how to face her challenges with faith and courage through Christ. But she wasn't listening. She wanted a sign. She wanted God to take away her pain, that was the only answer she would accept, and her son actually had the perfect answer for that. If God were to take away her pain, she would know he was real, but God wants us to have faith. We sat there for a while talking in circles as she dipped and dodged and rolled her eyes and flat out glared at us. In the end we get up to leave, because the conversation wasn't going anywhere and she starts doing a little dance laughing in Elder Carters face saying "you didn't answer my question, you didnt answer my question!" It made me sad. Because we had answered her question. We had listened and had done our best to follow the spirit and the spirit was surely there, but she was running away. I could see how much pain she was in. She was suffering a lot. And Christ is the only one who could help her through it, He knows perfectly how she feels because He felt it all, He loves her perfectly, and He even has the power to cure her, but she is not willing to trust Him. I cannot and will not compare any of my trials with those she is facing, but I could relate when she said there are days in which she doesn't want to keep going if she is just going to suffer. I have had times where I felt like that too. But when I decided to use my pain as an opportunity to understand Christ, everything became better. Yes, some days are still hard, but Christ is holding my hand, picking me up when I fall. I loved this woman from the moment I saw her and it made my heart ache knowing how she could find relief and comfort, and seeing her run away. Christs atonement is infinite and eternal. He knows 100% how we feel, what we suffer, our guilt, our sadness, our sins, our pain, our agony. All of it. He knows us individually. His grace is eternal too. There is no person His grace does not touch. "for it is by grace that we are saved after all we can do." we do what we can. Some days that will be getting out of bed at least for a little while, and others it will be much much more. But we do what we can with honesty of heart and with faith, Jesus picks up the slack. I am so grateful for Him. I am so grateful I can repent and be better. I have been reflecting the last few days on whether I have really changed on my mission. Have I let my mission change me? And I think I have changed. I am still me, and it is hard, especially for me I think, to see those changes. But I know I am different. And I like it. I still have some time left to change even more here on the mission, but change never ends! We have a lifetime of change and getting better ahead of us! And if we do all we can, we can continue to progress in the eternities as well!! How cool is that!

I love you all! Though I'm not sure who reads these, and if you manage to read the whole thing, way to go! I hope you have a beautiful week! 

Love 

Sis Hardy

Last week we went to a pretty overlook and some waterfalls and I didn't send those pictures. Here are a few. We took a lot!