First P-Day

First P-Day:

In preparation for the first P-Day, we sent at package to Elder Harding full of "P" items.  Pretzels, popcorn, peanuts, and pez candy. He thought it was cheesy, but I'm sure enjoyed the snacks.



From somewhere inside this building came the first email home.

Excerpts from email 9/25/18:

Hello!

I am doing really good today, yesterday was not the best but at the end of the day we were in 3 Nephi 11 and it really helped me get out of the ditch that I was in. My companion is Elder Clarke and he is a pretty cool guy from Cedar City. The other two elders in our room are Elder Morgan and Elder Smout. Elder Morgan is from Idaho Falls. Elder Smout is from Scottsdale, Arizona. We all are going to the Washington, Seattle mission and we all pretty bummed about Seattle being taken out of the mission area. We are a part of a district of 11. There is another 4 Elders in our district that are going to the Utah, Layton mission and there are very cool people from Texas. Elder Wells and Elder Jonses are the District Leaders and Elder Steinhour and Elder Hidalgo are the Zone Leaders. We have a Trio of Sisters who are headed to New Hampshire and one of them is headed to the Oregon, Portland mission. Sisters Callahan and Vanwagoner are going to New Hampshire and Sister Newson is going to the Oregon, Portland mission. The sisters are very nice and fun to have class with. We all have gotten pretty close in our district, we eat our meals together and spend what free time we have with each other. We are all leaving in the 3 week mark, so either Oct 9th or Oct 10th. It has been a very humbling experience so far and I have felt the spirit more here then I have felt it before. 

On another note, we have been assigned a investigator(TRC) to teach the gospel to. We had our first lesson yesterday and I felt that it went well. He is from Southern California. He doesn't have much of a religious background but he knows about the concept of God and Christ. We read with him the first vision and how Satan came out of hiding to try and stop this boy from praying. We also looked at 1 Nephi and got him intrigued by mentioning that Christ came to the Americas. We meet with him again tomorrow and then meet with someone new on Thursday. 

Fun fact, the chocolate milk is BYU Creamery' s which is amazing. They have Coke but it's caffeine free... if you would like to smuggle me in a small 8 pack of the 9oz vanilla cokes I would love you VERY MUCH! Other than that the food is pretty good. 

I really enjoy my teachers Brother Coutu is a nice guy and has a serious side which is nice, because Sister Everett is kind and very empathetic. The lessons in class have been very educational and overall helpful. I've been able to feel the spirit during class different than seminary. So all in all the training is going good. I'm happy that I'm here and the Lord has reassured me that I should be here and am doing the right thing. I miss you and everyone else, don't give Amber my phone.

Love, Elder Harding

Thanks to another mom I've connected with we got a couple of pictures of their district today.   (Her son is in the middle front on the lower picture). 

In his emails we learned that the area of his mission was changed.  He sent a picture of the close-up area showing that the actual city of Seattle is no longer in his mission boundaries.  Guess this for sure means we'll have to plan a visit after his mission back to Seattle to see the sites.


Picture: Map of new Washington, Seattle mission area.  I love how he tagged this picture, "When you find out that Seattle actually isn't in your mission area anymore..."