Everyone Has a Gift

Hello hello again everybody,

Mail is starting to be pretty consistent again, I got a package from mom and dad and then I think Summer and Travis put in their weekly letters too, thank you for that. I loved the video post cards to! It was so weird to see the Gunn fam and how much they are all changing! I can't believe it! But thank you for all of the e-mails, greatly appreciated :)

I also got a hair cut. I think I sport it pretty well. What do you think?

Man, so we just barely got back from a pilates session.....WOW! I am out of shape, so hard! If you want a good workout session, take up pilates and you will get a nice chizzled bod like mine ;). Speaking of me being out of shape, (wow, that's weird how I talk about how nice my body is, then start talking about how out of shape my body is) the other day, we were eating dinner at a members house and after we ate, we started playing with their kids (they have 5 girls, the oldest is 12 and the youngest is, I believe 4 or 5) and we were rolling hula hoops on the ground and trying to jump through them without hitting them or tipping them over. Well, the hoop was rolling towards me, so I hurry and squat down to jump through it, and on my way down I hear this "RIP!". I hurry and jump through it, stand up quickly, make sure no one is looking, then check the lower end of my body on my backside, the muscle is known as the gluteus maximus, or the butt for those who are not familiar with the proper muscle terms :) and find a nice rip about 3-4 inches in length on my booty. My butt has gotten a little bit bigger, I actually have noticed it too, maybe I'll send a picture of it one of these days so you can see :). Anyways, enough about my butt :) haha.

Speaking of fat. Tell me this is not the fattest dog ever! It weighs like 40 - 50 lbs!

This week has been really good, really fun, just good ol' missionary work pretty much. I am sorry, I am still trying to work on my memory and recall things better. Oh! So we have F.H.E every Thursday with this family in our ward and this last Thursday it was our turn to teach and I wanted to teach on talents and gifts so I told Elder Meteer I would just spearhead it and he could give his input whenever he wanted, and of course, he being White had absolutely no problem with that! So I focused on gifts and talents and went around the room and had everyone share a gift or something they excelled at. It was so fun to hear about the many different talents everyone had and to hear everyone complimenting each other on things they were good at, a lot of positive energy in the room for sure. After we discussed that for a little bit, I then had Brother Nunez (the father of the families home we were at) read D&C 46:11-12 which basically say that everyone has a gift from God, well spiritual gift because that is what that section is focusing on, but the whole point I wanted to make was that EVERYONE HAS A GIFT/TALENT THAT HEAVENLY FATHER GAVE TO THEM. I kept on reinforcing and reiterating that throughout the lesson. I told them that our purpose here on this Earth is to help Heavenly Father's children and use our gifts for their benefit. I used the example of how dad uses his gift of communicating with people and counsels couples who are in a tough spot in their marriage (hopefully I will not have to visit him in the near future ;)), and how he is using his gift for the benefit of someone else. Anyways, I feel I am going on a ton. But overall, it was such a great lesson, I even got the mom to cry, and she does not cry very much, she runs the family and you don't cross her! The Spirit was so strong in that room and I loved every second of it. I like it when you can see someone truly feel the spirit, it is the most rewarding thing to see. I quoted out of Corinthians 13:13 "And now abideth faith, hope, and charity, these three, but the greatest of these three is charity. It is true, it makes the biggest difference when you do a little act of random kindness-an ARK-for someone else. The littlest act can make the biggest difference.

Thank you again everyone for continuing for supporting me! I love you all.
Love, Elder Hartman1 

P.S. I forgot to mention, we helped a member baptize his son and we were at the font ALL DAY cuz the water heater doesn't really work right, so we had to boil water in all these pots and stuff and keep bringing it to the font to get it at the right temp.

 I got way bored while sitting in the room waiting for the water to boil, so I entertained myself a little bit :)

 Dear Mom & Dad -

Thank you so much for the letter dad, you really have no idea how much that letter helped pick me up and keep moving. My problem is not in homesickness or longing to go home or any of that stuff, I am just fine being away from home (no offense at all, I LOVE being home with you guys trust me) but my problem is just I guess discouragement. I get discouraged easily sometimes, but I learn that it is only thro resistance we become stronger, how else would we grow anyways?? Thank you so much for always being positive and being the perfect dad for me, really, if I had any other father here on this earth, I would be so bored and miserable! Don't worry mom, I have not forgotten about you at all, I know how you like to be recognized and I do realize that I have often overlooked a lot of wonderful things you have done for me. You have always been so wonderful about picking up after me and being so lenient with me on certain issues. Thank you for being the perfect parents. I am SO jealous for all of the missionaries over there that get to meet you....but I do know that it is right where you need to be right now. I love meeting new senior couples, they have so much wisdom and knowledge about everything!! Elder Meteer and I memorized D&C 121:34-46. It is A LOT to memorize, but I love memorizing scriptures and learning more about this gospel. I was reading the book "Mormon Doctrine" by Bruce R. Mckonkie, I loved it, I find learning more about this church is so contagious! It is wonderful. Anyways, thank you so much again for everything. I love you so much and am so grateful you are out serving with me, in completely different areas, but under the same purpose.
Love,
Elder Hartman1

Tell me that is not an awesome field! I decided I want to live near a field when I get married, just gorgeous!! A field totally fits my personality, nice, calm, quiet, peaceful, and beautiful too!

 Have a great week!