I Love Unicorns...and the Gospel

Hello everyone,

Things here are wonderful, everything is going swell :) I got a package from Dani that had a Charlie the Unicorn shirt in it. I am totally wearing that with pride around my new companion :)

This week was a really good week. I will start with missionary work then inform you on transfers :). We finally contacted this family we have been trying to contact for the last few weeks. We went there with Bro. Nunez, and taught them the first lesson. I think they are from Somalia? I could be way wrong, but now I understand how Africa is ready for the Gospel. At first, the wife was pretty quiet and the husband was the main one talking pretty much. At the end of the lesson, when we introduced the Book of Mormon, the wife was super enthusiastic, asking tons of questions about it and everything. It was such a great lesson! It was nice to get a taste of what mom and dad, Stephen, and Brad are experiencing, these people are most definitely ready for the Gospel! We also started to visit a member family and teach their kids. The parents are both members, the dad used to be less active, and the mom just recently got baptized. The dad wants us to help the kids realize how important the church is and try and make it their first priority. It was so much fun teaching them, we showed them the video, "Moments that Matter Most", on LDS.org (one of my favorite videos), President Uchtdorf gave a talk on it and it is an amazing video, love it! I told the kids a quote from Howard W. Hunter, I believe was who said it, that I got in a package a little bit ago from mom and dad I think (thank you!!) that says "if our lives are centered on Jesus Christ and his restored Gospel, nothing can ever go permanently wrong". Then we explained how, if we put the Lord first, everything else has a way of falling into place, and it really does!! We are faced with so many choices everyday and if we try our best to follow the Savior's example and do what he would do, we NEVER regret the choice we make. I came up with a little quote I love to say to missionarys, investigators, comps, whoever. "Do you want temporary satisfaction, or everlasting joy?" if we let Satan tempt us and if we give him power, then we make the choice of being temporarily satisfied, we are happy for a little bit, but after wards, we pay the price. It is also vice versa, if we allow the Savior to work in our lives, we may temporarily regret the choice, but when the blessings follow after wards, we receive a fullness of joy :). This Gospel ROCKS!!!!! I absolutely LOVE IT!!

As with transfers, my new comp that I am getting is Elder Bowes, his first name is Taylor, so I can already tell he is an outstanding missionary :) The other set of Elder's I do not really know, one of them is training out here! That is pretty crazy. Oh I am actually going to be the Senior companion now! I am anxious to be the one that plans out everything, I hope he likes to tract, cuz I really enjoy tracting and finding people and giving everyone a chance to hear the message we share :). They will arrive here on Wednesday night, Elder Meteer leaves that morning. I wish him safe travels, he is a fantastic missionary and helped me in so many ways. I was really blessed to serve with him and he is a invaluable asset to this mission :) Thank you all again for everything you do and all of your support. I love you all!

-Alma 37:6
It is the smallest things that make the biggest difference (my quote too, don't steal it!!)

Love,
Elder Hartman1 

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

Obedience

Once again everyone, ola

It is so weird how the longer you are out on your mission, the faster time seems to go by, I cannot believe it is already August!! Yikes, depressing thought. I got, I believe, 2 letters this week, one from Bekah and the other from Kaitie, thank you ever so much for writing me, I really appreciate all of the support!

So, the mission President came up and visited the area with the AP's. I was a little nervous at first, not towards President Beesley coming, but the AP's, cuz they were going to be staying with us. It turned out to be really fun! You know those bouncy balls you sent me in the package last week? Well, we had a huge bouncy ball war and threw them at each other in the apartment, great fun, great fun indeed :). So, they are going to be splitting the area, a little depressing at first, but after some thought towards it, I realized that it was the best decision. It will be easier for us to focus on a more condensed area, and plus, we will be saving TONS of kilometers (hopefully). I am a little nervous for the new Elders they are going to be bringing up here (they will be bringing up a new set of Elders and my new companion as well, so 3 new missionaries total). I will give you a list of reasons why I am a little discouraged at the thought:

1. They do not know the area at all, therefore I will be getting a lot of calls on how to get what place, and I am not good with directions at all! (You know me with details...)
2. Obedience has been an issue here in the past and I hope that the other companionship will be obedient and not fall into apostasy, I hope not to chastise!!!
3. Hopefully my new companion is kool and relaxed and likes to tract, cuz I wanna do a lot of tracting these next 2 transfers.
4. My biggest worry is that my new comp will be a little more on the fluffy side (fat) and will not want to do p90x...

It was fun meeting with President and Sister Beesley tho, I really like them and enjoy being around them. I know he is the right Mission President for me. Serving a mission is, hands down, the best decision I have made at this point in my life! Now I know why Dad is so big on young men serving missions! Why would you NOT want to serve a mission?? You literally only gain from it, in no way do you lose anything at all. I absolutely love this mission and am so grateful the Lord provided me with this opportunity to come out and help spread the gospel and testify of Jesus the Christ. I love this gospel with all my heart and always strive to be more Christlike in my everyday life. I absolutely LOVE reading from the scriptures, oh my goodness is it great! I also really enjoy reading from "Mormon Doctrine" by Bruce R. McKonkie, such a great book, one that has helped me immensely in my studies and has answered so many questions I had. Hopefully the new Elders plan on being obedient! Gotta start praying and having hope! I love each and everyone of you. Thank you so much for your support.

The meaning of life is to discover your gift. The purpose of life is to give your gift away.
Love, Elder Hartman1

I Love My Mission

Hello once again everybody,

Wow, it literally seems like I just wrote home, like a few minutes ago....it is so weird how time just walks right on by. I got 3 packages this week!! I know I am super spoiled, I admit it, but what's new?? Ha ha, but 2 of them were from Summer, one was one of the packages from mom and dad and the other was from her. The 3rd was from Carol! I was so happy when I saw that! She made me a unicorn pillow cover with rainbows!!!! I was on cloud 9 the rest of the day. I instantly put it on when we got home. I will take a pic and send it when I can. Thank you very much for your support, it means a lot.

This week was really good! We went on a hike Saturday morning up Grey Mountain as a ward activity. I have to tell you, it was GORGEOUS!!! Oh my gosh!!!!! It is so amazing how Heavenly Father knows how much I love the wind and love views of lush green forests and fields....I am in the PERFECT place for it!!! I stood on the edge of a cliff for probably about 5 minutes just taking in the peace and quiet and feeling the wind rush around me.....one moment I will never forget! We are going to try and do an activity like that every Saturday now because everyone had so much fun, plus it would be a great way to fellowship investigators and less actives as well :) Anshil, who was baptized recently, came and loved it! I was so glad he had a good experience out of it. After we were done and riding down the mountain in the cars, he asked "do you do this every Saturday?", that was awesome to hear :)

We finally got a hold of a less active we have been trying to contact for a long time the other day. They were going strong, but then just went cold and fell away, a pretty common thing on this mission unfortunately. We just started talking, normal conversation and then she said that she wants to come back to church, but she is scared no one will accept her and everyone will turn away. We kept on promising that that is not the case at all! I read her Matthew 11:28-30, a "tender mercy" scripture I like to call it (which I have a TON of, I love those scriptures!!) if you ever need comfort, read that scripture, it helps so much and has blessed me immensely!

I want to tell all of you how much I love my mission. These last 7 months have been the best months of my life!!! Although I have had some incredibly hard times and have had a lot of trials, after I had gone thro it, I always thank Heavenly Father for putting that trial in my path so I can grow from it. It has been so hard to press on at times and there has been some times where my testimony has been tried. I love this work, with all the conviction and sincerity in my heart. I love it because I get to be a part of something great! That has always been something I have wanted to do, be a part of something that matters, that is important. Be a part of something that will change the world. I have so many things to be grateful for, I have the best friends in the world, who are all out serving missions and have been nothing but uplifting for me! Seriously, I never realized how blessed I was with my friends, we never worried about bad influence when we were with each other (for the most part ;) kidding) none of us ever had a problem with drugs or alcohol or any of that stuff, we were only positive influences. Then my family who is supporting me so much and been the best family anyone could ask for. Thank you so much for always helping me thro struggles in life and being so positive with me. I cannot begin to thank you enough for everything you have done for me. You all continue to support me as I am out here and say how grateful you are for me. It means the world to me, thank you so much. I love each and everyone of you immensely!! I love my mission and I am so glad to be a part of this marvelous work!! Like Ammon (my favorite person from the Book of Mormon) glories in God in Alma 26, I join him in thanking Heavenly Father. Thank you everyone for everything you have done, your service was not in vain :)

People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

Love,
Elder Hartman1

Keeping a Promise

Hello hello again EVERYONE!

Well just another week here in Whitehorse, Canada eh? I am starting to say that a lot more now in my everyday language, it is weird, but it works and it is part of the culture too! :) As far as mail goes, I received a letter from Becky and Aaron....I think....sorry, you know how my memory is :) I have not received any packages yet, but I am pretty sure I will today, hopefully!

We started p90x with a member today, wow I am out of shape!! I currently weigh 170 even, freakin chub chub right here!! It was hard, but I absolutely loved it! I remember when p90x was not all that difficult cuz I could do a decent amount of reps for everything, but now, I gotta work back up to it! President Beesley (I call him the bees knees in my weeklys :)) is visiting the area the 30-31. I have no idea how mom and dad heard about that!! Got the black market working for you or something :) anyways, he is visiting to see what he wants to do with the area, whether he wants to split it and bring another companionship in, or keep it how it is and have a companionship and a senior couple. I personally, reeeeeeally hope that the area stays how it is cuz I love it so much here. As I am sure you have seen from some of the pics, it is absolutely breathtaking and I am so fortunate to be serving here! I am glad I still have about 4 months left here, very comforting thought :). I will let you know how that goes when it happens. 

So we were eating dinner at a members home, the Petersons, and last time we were their, the girls wanted to give me a makeover, but we were going to meet with a less active later that night, so I told them next time we eat dinner there, they can give me a makeover. Oh and this was the same family that I ripped my pants at too, something funny always happens at this houz :). Anyways, we went over for dinner again yesterday and after I was done eating, one of the little girls runs up to me and says "remember what you promised?" as my heart sank a little bit, I uttered a quiet "yes", now I am a man that likes to follow thro on his promises, I usually don't promise someone something unless I know I can fulfill it. Anyways, that is what they spent the next little bit doing, giving me a makeover. They had the time of their lives, I will include some pics so you can see, I think the dark lipstick compliments my cheekbones personally :) 

 

Other than that, not much else to report on. I love you all and thank you so much for your support! And thank you for consistently e-mailing me and updating me with what goes on at home! Although I do not reply that often, I always read them and I LOVE hearing about it! Thank you again!

"The only thing you take with you when your gone is what you leave behind"
-Elder Sexy1 (Hartman1)

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!

"The New Mission Prez is awesome..."

Hello everyone,

The Canada Post Strike ended last week, so that was wonderful news. A member told us at church the other day that some other areas are still going on strikes, so we will see how that affects our mail, ugh. I got a package the other day, but we are going to the post office to pick it up today. I am not sure who it is from, but I will let you know when I find out.

We flew to Juneau and met the new mission president. He was awesome, he showed us pics and videos of him flying jets, it was really kool looking. His wife was way nice too, she is way good at sudoku-however you spell that-and showed me some good techniques for it (I recently have started doing sudoku to try and help me focus more, and I just feel smarter after I solve one :). They are both really interesting, his wife did not know what he did for a job for a long time because he could not talk about it, it was all confidential. He has a lot of stories that I am looking forward to hearing as I serve with him for the next 18 months. He was nice to assure us that he won't lead the mission with a military attitude. That was so nice for me to hear.

We got permission to go to Skagway for the 4th of July and got to see the parade and everything, that was really kool to see. They had some floats and cars and stuff and then a bunch of activities. The egg toss was fun to watch, we did the tug-o-war and lost that due to our anchor who decided to switch his grip in the middle of the competition, which we were all rather upset about. But it was really fun. We rode these bikes around which were really fun.

I was glad to be back in my homeland for the 4th.

Sorry, I did not have a lot of time to send a good email this week because we could not email yesterday cuz we were gone all day and we have district meeting soon too, so thats why I could not give a lot of detail this last week. I will make up for it next week! (hopefully) But before I go here is a picture I took when we got lost trying to find a memebers cabin. Pretty kool view, eh?


Thank you very much everyone for you support, I love you all :)

Love,
Elder Hartman1