January 27, 2019

This week Matthew had the opportunity to go to the Seattle Temple.  He said it was good to get to go.  At least he did send a couple of pictures from that trip.  Kind of a trade off...we get pictures but less email.

He's still pretty homesick this week, so we sent up a package of some puzzles and games that might help keep his mind/hands busy when they have downtime.  I'm hoping that it's primarily the January blahs and soon it will start warming up and the sun will come out and he'll feel better.

From his short email this week he says:

Scripture is Alma 18:18 (This is when Ammon is first starting to talk to King Lamoni and can discern his thoughts.  King Lamoni then asks Ammon if he is the Great Spirti, who knows all things.)

Pray for me to overcome my homesickness

Love you mom,

Elder Harding

They are teaching several people right now, so we are also remembering them in our prayers so that they might feel the spirit and follow the promptings to learn more.

It was good to see his pictures this week.  I hope the trip to the temple helped him to feel peace and refocus so he will have a good week.  Hard to believe he's been in Federal Way nearly 4 months now!

January 20, 2019

Elder Harding has been serving 17 weeks...just over 4 months.  He told us this week that he had some homesickness, so we are hoping that this week he has been busier so that the homesickness doesn't get him down.  We are sending lots of love and prayers his way.

Matthew definitely prefers to communicate through Google Hangouts more than he likes to write a formal email.  So instead of getting an email from him, I've compromised and told him as long as he sends me his scripture for the week and some pictures I'll be happy.

Here's his scriptures for the week:
     Matthew 6:19-21
     Nephi 13:19-21

Life in the mission field:

   He says they are out meeting people a lot.  He says they haven't had anyone be mean to them in a long time so that is good.  He tells us his breakfast consists a lot of coke and pancakes (to that as his mom I say YUCK! and seriously child!).

   He sent a couple of pictures this week.  One of where they were playing football (it looks a lot warmer in Washington than in Utah right now) and one of just driving down the street.

January 13, 2019

Here's parts from Matthew's email home this week:

"Sorry for the late answer to your email, but here are my answers for the week. Firstly the scripture that stood out to me was 3 Nephi chapter 27, it really affirms President Nelson's remarks about the name of the church. Something that you can pray for this week is for the people we are teaching to keep their commitments, we have 5 people on date to be baptized. So just praying that they can keep that commitment and make the changes in their lives to make that covenant with God. We are "teaching" a lot of people right now ( I believe around 60 or so) but a lot of the time the lessons fall through and they don't happen, so people we are like actually teaching is like around 5. Lessons go really simply actually, preach my gospel plays it out exactly how we teach and if you ever look up "the district" it is pretty accurate as well. Anyway I love you and I hope everyone is doing well! 

Elder Harding"

We also found this picture in his shared Google photos this week:

The boys were super excited about this picture.  If you look really closely at the door you can see the Ghostbusters logo. 

The boys have convinced themselves that this is the REAL and ORIGINAL Ecto-1 EctoMobile ;)

There was also this little gem of a card house...not sure the story behind it, but maybe we can ask him about it tomorrow :)

January 6, 2019

Matthew has survived his 2nd 6 weeks...this week was transfer week - he has stayed in Federal Way (Hylebos Ward) and has the same companion Elder Hodgson.

I think he has discovered that using Google Chat with use each PDay is easier than taking the time to send a real email :(  So this week I asked him some of the questions from my email while we were chatting so I would have something to share here.

He said New Year's Eve he was asleep by 10:30PM...so not like him if he had been home, but good to know he is on a good schedule. 

His scripture for the week is 3 Nephi 1:12-14.  This scripture is about the time right before Jesus was born.  It is what was happening in the Americas at the time of his birth in Bethlehem.

While he was "chatting" with us, he also was "chatting" with Ashley and Amber.  They sometimes get more out of him then we do...and low and behold they got some pictures!  Here are some they got him to send:

Amber actually got him to take and send a selfie.  So here is our missionary :)

This is his breakfast he said (I'm hoping it was more of a lunch).  It is a clam chowder type soup.

He went to this restaurant.  It is called Salty's.  The rest of the pictures are from there.  The last one is the sunset looking out over the ocean.  It is gorgeous!

We didn't get much from him this week as far as email information goes, but I'm so glad the girls were able to get him to take and send some pictures.  Now to get him to work on the perfect combination of email info and pictures :)  Then he will have a happy mom.