Don't Eat the Cashews

Everyone, hello, this is your favorite Elder speaking :)

I keep on trying to come up with new, funny ways to start my letters, but I can never think of anything funny that I haven't already used. First off, congratulations Thai Thai on your baptism!! I loved the pictures!! That is so exciting what you just did. You are now a part of the biggest/coolest family in the world!! Also, happy birthday to: Matt, who was on the 22nd of last month, Thailee, who was on the 28th, and Berkley, who was on the 29th! Sorry, I was going to give a shout out in my last e-mail, but I forgot and got sidetracked, a thousand apologies for my inconsideration :'(. I cannot believe mom and dad get to go on a vacation during their mission.....that is SO not fair! Oh well, I am sure they have earned it anyways, so I will try my best not to be bitter ;)
Here is a place we went to eat with a family from the branch. This sandwich is HUGE and so good!

A lot has/will be happening this week. We still do not know for sure if we are getting another set of Elders up here due to housing issues (we are having trouble making sure the place we have selected for them is good to go). We know how we are going to split the area. Luckily, I will actually not be losing anyone we are teaching right now with the way we are splitting it, I was so relieved with that. Oh and yes Terra, it is a branch up here, we are trying to push to make it a ward, so hopefully the other set of Elders will be able to help with that :) Transfers are next week, we are going to get our call on Saturday nights now for transfers, so we can say goodbye to people we are teaching on Sunday, then prepare to leave on Monday, then Tuesday go to wherever we are getting transferred. I, personally, like that a lot and hope it goes over well. I am nervous to see who my next companion is, as I am sure you are all well aware of at this point :). I know he will be the one that I need at this point in time on my mission. I know that every companion we get, we get for a reason so we can learn lessons about ourselves from each other.
A picture of the view from a walk we took the other day.

So, I discovered that my body does NOT react well to cashews. The other night, one of our investigators moms is visiting from India, so we decided to stop by and introduce ourselves and get to know her better. Well, she brought some sweets from India, one of them was milk mixed with cashews and sugar. I figured no harm could come from it and I wanted to try it. Well, I ate it, and I got that tingly feeling in my mouth, the one where you eat something your body is not used to. Later that night, it got worse, and I had this pain right in the center of my stomach. I started to make frequent bathroom trips, and then started throwing up pretty good for about 2 hours. It was not a pleasant experience. I weighed myself after wards to see how much weight I lost. I lost 7 lbs!!! I should get sick more often! hahahaha kidding, ;)

I decided that my most favorite sound in the world is the sound of cracking my scriptures open. I absolutely LOVE that sound. I love marking my scriptures so much and learning new things from them. I love how personal this gospel is. We experience extremely personal trials, and also experience personal blessings as well. It is so weird how the scriptures can relate to us at our current circumstance in life. That is how I know that book is true, there is no other book on this earth that could do that, unless it was from God and true. I am grateful for this opportunity to be out here on a mission. I love it with all my heart, and will try to use the time I have in the best way I can. Thank you all again for your support and everything you do. I love you!

-Alma 41:14-15 (what goes around, comes around)
Love,
Elder Hartman1