November 25, 2018

  

Matthew has had his first "transfer day" in the field.  It's crazy because on transfer weeks their Pday gets moved to Tuesday....so all of Monday we were wondering if that was why we hadn't heard from him.  Anyway he found out that he gets to stay in they Hylebos Ward for at least another 6 weeks, but his companion was changed.  His new companion is Elder Hodgson.  He would get to meet him on Wednesday, so we haven't heard much about him yet other than he's been serving about as long as Elder Worthington.

Here's what we heard from Matt's email:

"So fun thing, and I know you were probably freaking out yesterday. On the week of Transfers Pday become that Tuesday, why? I have no clue. I feel like it makes Monday a less productive day, because everyone is packing and saying goodbye instead of really being out spreading the gospel. I am staying in Hylebos, but unfortunately Elder Worthington is being transferred. So I will meet my new companion sometime today, once I know who he is I'll let you know. So for the meals, yeah no more member dinners during the week, starting December 1st, hopefully that means that they raise the amount of money that we get per month, but all the missionaries seem pretty doubtful of that. I guess that means I'll be choking down Ramen for the next 2 years. As for the car, as of this moment I don't know if I'm keeping it or not, Elder Worthington is the driver, and I haven't gotten my driving privileges yet, so I'll let you know what's going on with that. However our Zone Leaders ruined their car a couple days ago so we have been without one for a minute anyway.. and unfortunately it has made me really hate life... I had a really bad day biking around Sunday and so I just hope that the car stays.  As for prayers this week.. I think if you just keep me in mind, as well as Elder Worthington then that'll be good, as well as the rain, there have really only been 2 days that I've had to deal with the rain so it's working haha. Only new thing going on this week is transfers.  Other than that, it's been a slow week. Most of our friends are out of town and the ones that aren't are really busy. As for decorations, I don't know if they're allowed or not, I think they are? It is encouraged to make the apartment feel homey so that you don't get homesick. We have a fireplace in our apartment so I plan on keeping it feeling homey that way. Anyway I'm sorry that you didn't get to hear from me yesterday. I love you and I miss you!

Elder Harding"

On his pdays we are allowed to use Google Hangouts to send short messages back and forth.  Dave was able to "talk" with Matt and learned about him playing basketball each morning, found out more about his church building, and his favorite places in the community.  He also shared about helping visit an elderly lady in the area.  He also told us that for Thanksgiving they had been invited to a member's home who planned to make them a Hawaiian Thanksgiving meal.  He was excited to get to eat with them.  

We are happy he is staying in the Hylebos ward because the Angelos are there and they take really good care of him.  In fact I got a text from her Saturday night with a picture of Matt with his new companion.  I really wish he could just stay in Hylebos forever because about the ONLY pictures I get of the kid are from Sister Angelo :)

The Angelos have been so wonderful.  I have sent his next package to them (it should arrive tomorrow) and he will be at their house on Christmas for our facetime/skype call.  I am so appreciative of them watching out for him while he is in their ward.

November 18, 2018

Tomorrow is the 2 month mark for Matthew.  He will also experience his first "transfers" this week; though we expect him to stay where he is at least the next 6 weeks as they usually have newbies stay with their trainers for 12 weeks.  These next 6 weeks will bring Thanksgiving and Christmas - and our first mission skype call.

This week Matthew writes:

"Zone conference was good, however it was long.. it last about 7 hours and was in a neighboring city. It basically took up the entire day. I will try to take pictures sometime this week, however there isn't ever really a good time to, we are just driving from appointment to appointment basically and if we aren't doing that we are knocking doors, so I haven't really had the opportunity to take pictures. The scripture I really enjoyed this week was in Matthew 7:21-27, I liked this scripture because I've been studying the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus just basically says it straight how judgement is going to be. This week you can just keep praying for the rain and the car. We may lose it this coming Tuesday or at the end of the year, so if you could keep that in mind that's great. If I'm 100% honest I have no idea how Thanksgiving is supposed to go. I believe that when it's closer I will know, but until then i believe it'll be like every other day. So budgeting groceries isn't that hard now. One of our less active members is moving and they basically gave us their kitchen. We have a lot of spices and ingredients now so all we really have to buy throughout the month is like milk and bread, oh and steak, apparently I started a trend. On every Thursday a few of us elders gather in an apartment and cook up some steak and hangout for a little bit. All of my clothes and shoes are working fine, I lost a couple buttons over the last couple weeks but at zone conference we had mending so all of it is good again. My shoes are actually broken in really well and my feet don't really hurt after walking all day, however I think that Walmart played a role in that. I have worn my boots and I love them. They are really comfy and warm.

Elder Harding"

So, no pictures this week...but hopefully we will get some soon.  If not I may need to try and bribe his companion (my sister suggested that) to see if he will take some of Matthew for us.  

November 11, 2018

Here's what we hear from Elder Harding this week:

"We still have the car, and it sounds like we will have it until the end of the year.  So far it hasn't actually got too cold yet, so I think that I'm good on long John's."

They had an extra day of worry that they wouldn't get their MSF reloaded on time.  But his email says:

"MSF was reloaded, it apparently comes on the second to last business day of the month, also the members in this ward are so awesome. We got like 3 big bags of groceries this last week. The ward is actually really nice, they are similar to a Utah ward.  

As for praying for dry weather, yeah I think it's working. It hasn't really rained that hard since the day I biked so keep it up :)! This week all I can think of is to keep me and the missionaries in mind during your prayers and also the friends we are teaching. 

The scripture that I have found a lot of comfort in this week is Matthew 17:20. I like that it says that with faith, like true faith, you can do anything."

During our back and forth chat last week I also learned that Matthew made a bet with his zone leader (Elder Bowman) when playing basketball this week that I think he has learned a lesson from.  He bet Elder Bowman that he couldn't make 2 shots in a row from full court...well he made them and I guess now Matthew gets to buy Elder Bowman a new white shirt.  

He did send us some pictures of his apartment this week, so we finally get to see where he is staying, but still not pictures of him from him!  Luckily, the area he is in has some AWESOME members who take photos at events and share them on their Facebook page.  This picture was taken at the zone conference.  I am very thankful for those that take pictures of these missionaries and share them.  It is great to see that Elder's face and quirky smile. 

November 4, 2018

This was our first "holiday" with Matthew in Washington.  Last week we send him a package that he should have gotten late Monday, October 29th.  We also sent him a picture of the boys at our  ward Halloween trunk-or-treat, and we got a small snapshot of what I think is one from the ward he's serving in.

Here's what we hear from him this past week:

Hey Mom! So I think I get to stay with Elder Worthington for a full 12 weeks, most commonly that's what they do because they don't want to transfer to a new companion in the middle of the field training. The weather is ok, it has started to rain and I was on exchanges the other day, so me and my temporary companion couldn't drive, which meant that we got to bike.. it was raining that morning.. It's been off and on since then, however the constant is like this spit kind of rain where you can't really feel it or see it, but it's there. That kind is the worse because then you are just wet by walking from one door to the next. You can pray the MSF reloads, because if it doesn't then me and Elder Worthington will be having ramen all the month of Novmeber. Other than that, maybe pray for some clear days from the rain, I don't mind the clouds, but being wet from the waist down just isn't very fun. My scripture for this week will probably be Mark 5, I read the entire chapter and it really is a good example of faith. So when sharing things on  Facebook, and to answer your question about if we are given a topic or not, we aren't. I search through the mormon messages on the gospel library app until I find one that really stands out to me and might help someone I know from home. Halloween will be just a normal day for us, we had the ward Trunk-orTreat this last Friday and I got to meet a few more members. Other than that we have a member dinner planned for the night of Halloween so that'll be fun. I hope that the basement reno has been going alright. The back of the basement is nearly unrecognizable now, and I hope you have a floor plan drawn out that you can show me! I'm a little disappointed to be gone from home while your all working on it, home renos were one of my favorite things we did, you'll have to tell me more about Amber and the car... hopefully it's still in one piece by the time I'm back so that I don't have to drive her everywhere.
Love you.

Elder Harding

Hopefully this week he received out Halloween package, and we can convince him to send us some more pictures.  He is very stubborn about this whole picture thing ;)