Sunday Was a Great Day

Hi everybody!

Thank you all for the wonderful e-mails and letters. I got the little snacks Summer sent and Mormon Doctrine as well :) I was so happy to get my own copy! I am emailing early this week cuz we only have 2 computers and we decided we would email early and the other Elders wold email later.

We had a short week because of Zone Conference. We flew from Skagway in a small plane, not a bush plane, just a very small airplane. I loved it, right when the turbulence hits, it rocks me right to sleep every time :) we went their with the Skagway Elders, so there was 6 of us total. I don't think I mentioned this, but we stayed in the sisters apartment. The first and probably last Elders, as Pres. Beesley says, that will stay in the sisters apartment. How many missionaries can say that? They were super nice about letting us stay there and eating whatever we wanted. You could definitely tell that Elders had been thro there once we left :) I did leave them a thank you note on a little heart sticky note, however. So at least we were somewhat considerate in that aspect.

Sunday was such a great day. We had 3 investigators at church and Bro. Andre, a father of a less active family we have been working with a lot this transfer, came to church as well! I was so excited I could barely sit still! I am hoping we will have some baptisms next transfer, we have a lot of people who could be baptized. I, personally, do not consider myself having any baptisms right now, the one I had beginning of my mission I pretty much walked into, so I do not really count that one. After I left Chester Valley, they had a baptism and were teaching their neighbor, which Elder Ashby and I talked to I think 2 days before I left. I was very happy to hear about that and the success they are having in that area.

It is hard to think that I only have 6 more weeks here in Whitehorse. I have already been here 4 1/2 months. It will be so hard for me to leave this area, I love the people here so much, I do not think I will ever get enough of the people or Whitehorse itself! I hope to have a really successful transfer and bring souls to Christ. There is nothing I want more, than to give them the greatest gift they can experience and have them receive everlasting joy. It is so rewarding to be a part of these persons lives and help them out. Everyone in the branch is so unique in their own way and we are really starting to connect with the people here. They are getting more anxious to be engaged in missionary work. Every time we call a member to see if they can come to a lesson, they almost always say yes. When they cannot make it, it is usually due to things already planned or work.

I was looking back on some journal entries, and one I wrote really stood out to me. It was not all that long ago, on the 21st of this month. Near the end of it, I was talking about Alaska a little bit. "Every time I hear the word Alaska, or picture it on a map, my heart starts to pound. The spirit swells within me. That is always another confirmation the church is true!". And it is. I love Alaska so much. I never thought I would be sent here, but now that I am actually here, I cannot picture myself going anywhere else. I love this mission, I love Alaska and I love the gospel. Thank you all for your support and your continued dedication.

Love,
Elder Hartman1

Amazed

So this will be a little bit more of a detailed e-mail than last week.

This last week was really good. The missionary work in Whitehorse is picking up, slowly, but surely. We are plowing the fields and planting the seeds. We have 2 lessons set up with new investigators we found. I love finding people to teach, it is challenging, but so rewarding when you receive the fruit of your labor. We had a Zone Conference recently, and interviews as well, which I was promised to have 1 more transfer here in Whitehorse, I was so happy! Elder Walker of the 70 is taking a mission tour of Alaska and he came and spoke to us. It was so great to see this man, who has dedicated the last 9 years of his life to the Lord, come and speak to us and share some of his experiences he had while on his mission and during his current call in the church. His call involves the temples, whenever there is a new temple announced, built, or about to be dedicated, he is involved in the whole process. It strengthens my testimony whenever I hear others bear theirs. The spirit was so strong in the room when he was telling us about setting his son apart as a missionary. He was the Stake President when his son came back from his mission, so he was interviewing him to set him apart. "It was a very tender moment" he described "my son, near the end of the interview, looked at me and said 'dad, I just want you to know I worked hard. I gave it my best'". He was so proud of his son when he said that. I loved how I felt after he told that story. I am proud because if I were to see dad right now, I would be able to tell him "dad, I am working hard and I am doing my best as a missionary". There is a lot I can improve on, I constantly try to better myself everyday. 

Every time I try to improve myself, I always feel reassurance from Heavenly Father that he is proud of me for what I am doing and trying to do His will. In our last sacrament meeting, we sung "I Stand All Amazed". I love that hymn. To think that someone, who was perfect in every aspect, would willingly suffer for me, freely, it is truly wonderful that "he would care for me, enough to die for me". It truly is wonderful to think about. I love this gospel. I love our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He is my brother and my best friend. Thank you all for your support, I love you very much :)

"No one was sent on this earth to fail"
"If you are focused on worldly possessions, everything will always fall short. You will never have enough. If you are focused on the gospel, you will have ALL of the blessings. Heavenly Father makes sure of that".

Love,
Elder Hartman

Chess Champion

Hello family,

So, I do not have a whole lot of time to e-mail this week. We are leaving for Skagway at 2, for Zone conference. I am so excited!! :) Pretty much, we picked up 2 new investigators this week. We have a lesson set up with them on Wednesday and Saturday. Things are looking good here in Whitehorse, we are slowly but surely progressing. Oh, and I also beat a member at chess who is way super good the other day. We were over at their houz to do service, and it has been a goal of mine to beat him, so I challenged him after and I won! So happy :) anyways. I will let you know how Zone conference goes next week. Again, sorry about the short e-mail. Spent a little too much time golfing ;) hahaha, love you all! Thank you again for your support!! :)

Elder Hartman 1

Dogs in Onesies

Hi again everybody!

Sounds like things are going just swell back in the blessed land of the States. I miss the states, I miss having a decent postal service, people who drive a little bit faster (the speed limit here is SOOOOOOOOO slow...) and grocery prices at decent amounts. I got the package from Summer that mom and dad had her send. Thank you very much for that! I really appreciate it!

A funny experience we had this week. We were tracting on the outskirts of town, just visiting some houses that are pretty far away that I am sure missionaries in the past have not visited. We were coming up to one and we see this dog in a pajama onesie. It had the butt flap and everything!  It was the koolest dog I have ever seen! I could not stand up cuz I was laughing so hard. I was sure to compliment the people on the outfit. Apparently the dog was their guard dog...I will send a picture and you tell me if it looks much like a guard dog, personally, I am not too threatened by a dog wearing pajamas, but that is just me tho :)

We went on splits last week. I went with Elder Johnson, our DL. It was really fun, the only downfall is that NO ONE was home that we planned to see, that was awkward. It is pretty difficult to find people. The hours from 1-4 are so hard to work during cuz that is when everyone is working. A lot of people have 2 full time jobs up here.

So, we are going to be receiving our District Callings soon. I am going to be the District: Complimentor, Activities Coordinator, Health Advisor (my personal favorite) and Scrapbook Committee Chairman. I know, the last one is a little odd, especially for me, but we are planning on making a District scrapbook while we are here. Don't have high expectations, I know NOTHING about scrapbook, but I can learn :) We gave ourselves the name "Whitehorse Warriors" pretty awesome name, I know. We came up with a scripture for us too, 2 Cor. 12:10, a bomb scripture if you ask me. It was between that and Alma 48:13, which I thought we should of had, but one of the Elders in our District thought it was too violent....for reputations sake, he will remain nameless :) not that it really matter anyways.

Oh my, so the other Elders stay at the family history center at the church for certain hours during the week. One of the days, they couldn't make it cuz they had something come up, so we went there for them. This lady came to do some history work too. She was very nice. Unfortunately, for the next 3 hours, all we could smell was cat urine. Man, that was just excruciating..

We started p90x today! I was so happy! The Thompsons are letting us come over in the mornings and do it. We get there at 6 and start, so not as early as Elder Meteer and I were doing it, thank goodness! Elder Bowes does not really like getting up in the mornings, so it is a trial for him to get up, but it is worth it!

I was thinking of a quote by President Monson. I read it in on the recent ensigns.
"Friends move away, children grow up, loved ones pass on. It's so easy to take others for granted, until that day when they're gone from our lives and we are left with feelings of 'what if' and 'if only'.
Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey and share our love with friends and family. One day, each of us will run out of tomorrows. Let us not put off what is  most important".

It is true, how the people who make the biggest impact on our lives and have the best influence, are often the ones we tend to forget first and take for granted. There is that famous quote "you never know what you have 'till its gone". It is true, a lot of us do not realize what we do have. I always try to thank Heavenly Father for the wonderful, loving family that I am blessed with. Who have set the best examples for me and have always lent me a helping hand. For being patient with me and never ceasing to love me. I will always try to be grateful for what I do have and recognize it when I have it. I love you all, thank you again.

Love,
Elder Hartman1

I Have the Best Family Ever!

I just felt like expressing a portion of my gratitude on the subject line ;)

A man, this week was really good! I got a letter from Olex!!!! We have started writing each other once a week :) LOVE it!! :) I can hear his voice when I read his letters, we just reminisce a lot and just tell each other awesome stories :) mainly him cuz he always has a story to tell :) I also got Summers list of characteristics that my wife has to have. I really liked it!! It was a great list! So I think we can all agree that my wife has to for sure be a Yellow core at least, can we all agree on that? I know that we have quite the opinionated family, but I think we can start with that :) I also got the email where mom and dad were talking to Brad. I laughed when he said how he was probably getting more baptisms then us hahaha, but hey, in my defense, we do not get investigators that fall in our lap and whenever we go tracting, we NEVER pick up 15 new ones either, but he is living in poverty and I am not, so props to him for that :)

This week was really good! Did not have as much tracting hours as I would have liked, but that is just fine. I absolutely love tracting!! It is so much fun to talk to people and teach them at the door about the gospel. No mean to boast, but I can tell that Elder Bowes and I are getting better at it. I have seen a lot of improvement and we are getting so many potential investigators! I do not think that I will be fortunate to see this area have a lot of success yet, but I think pretty soon, it is going to blow up! We are just toiling the ground and planting the seeds right now. I have started writing in my journal every day now! I would usually write in it on occasion, but now I realize that I would have regretted that years from now, it is always fun to have something to look back on too :) Our district is awesome, last tuesday, after district meeting, we recorded Elder Johnson rapping and me playing the guitar, it was so much fun, our district is awesome! He is way good at coming up with lyrics on the spot and a super hard worker too! He has set a great example for me and helps me strive to work harder too :)

Man, so we were helping a lady move the other night. No offense to them, but they were totally unprepared to move. They procrastinated at were rushing it. They only had us Elders to help them move. We got there at 8, did not leave until 11. I know, we were out way past curfew, but they really needed the help. It was just very aggravating at times cuz the lady was being a little controlling at times, and you know how I do NOT like being controlled at all. It was just another experience to learn patience. I will send pictures of the truck after we had finished packing. It looked like they were transporting an elephant or something haha :)

Ok, so story time. On Friday, we were having a fast for some of the Elders in our mission who are opening up a new area. Well, the same day we were going on a bus trip for the old folks home in Copper Ridge (we usually go on fridays for service). The bus trip was lunch at a place called "Earls". We were fasting for breakfast and lunch, and we are pretty hungry, but we know we can go for one more meal. Well, when we get to the restaurant, the girl greeting us was not really dressed modestly. Very tight, revealing clothing, really short skirt, very fair daughter of God pretty much. We sit down, and I notice that every waitress in the restaurant is dressed like that! They have the girls dress like that for bigger tips. Elder Bowes and I had no idea about this place. We tell them we cannot order anything because we are on a special fast and they were understanding about that. Throughout the whole dinner, the people at our table are describing what is in their food and keep on offering us some, even tho we told them we can't. So the lunch involved a delicious meal that we could not partake of, while having tons of Bathshebas walking around. We were literally in a world of temptation in there! I pretty much just stared at the ceiling the whole time. I counted how many wine bottles they had on the wall, to keep me entertained. They had 107, a lot from the 1990s too actually.

I love each and everyone of you! I have been pretty bad with not responding to a lot of your e-mails, but I do read them and I will put forth a better effort to respond. Thank you for supporting me! I love you!! Oh and Briar happy birthday!!!! Sorry, I am awful with birthday wishing! :( haha

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also - 3 Nephi 13:21

 

Love, Elder Hartman 1

Scars

Well hello once again everybody. I hope everything is crackalakin' in your
humble abodes :)

I am so jealous of mom and dad seeing Brad in Madagascar and having a
vacation during their mission.....so lucky! But hey, in your defense, you
have both paid your dues, so I think you have both earned it, so I will just
put my foot where my mouth is! Hahaha ;)

So I figured out why my pants keep on ripping at the seam in between my
legs....I have stretch marks on my inner thighs! Chub chub here is either
gettin yolked a little too fast, or just putting on his winter coat early ;)
either way, I was very surprised when I discovered that. I took my 3 pairs
of pants (ya that is right, I ripped 3 pairs of pants) to a lady in our ward
who is a master seamstress and she gladly sewed them all up, bless her
heart. I am trying to exercise in the morning, I am on and off with that. I
just love the peace and quiet in the morning, I don't know why. I know, I am
a weird person, but I just like sitting there and pondering, it is a very
peaceful time of day :) but I will make an effort to get back into shape for
sure!

This week was a hard week. One thing I can assure you, is that we are
working hard. It is just a little disappointing right now, cuz our numbers,
if you were to see them, would show that we are not working hard. We have
had low numbers the last 2 weeks. We are focusing on finding. We did only
about 10 hours of tracting this last week, but I think we need to do more,
hopefully we will average about 2-3 hours a day. I do know that no effort is
ever wasted on a mission. I always try to remember that when we tract all
day and literally have no success. We do, however, leave pamphlets at almost
every door we stop at. A lot of the time, they just say "we are not
interested, but we will take the pamphlet", which is just a nicer way of
getting rid of us faster. I hope that if I do not see a lot of success
personally, that the next set of Elders will be fortunate to. I think that
we are just planting a lot of seeds right now. 

We got new phones the other day. Samsung Galaxies. Wow, these
phones are waaaaaaaaaay to nice for missionaries to have, at least in my
opinion. Touch screen and everything. I am sure all of my buddies who are
foreign are thinking that we are spoiled, which we are, living wise, I
cannot complain about that. We struggle with finding people, but are good
living wise, while a lot of other missionaries have vice versa. I think Brad
mentioned that to mom and dad. Do not worry, my hat is tipped to the Elders
who literally walk thro slums and are in major poverty, it is a big
affliction you have to face, but one that the Lord is aware of that you are
in :) I love my mission. I love all of the afflictions I go thro because
they are what make me a man. Last night as we got back, I looked at my right
hand, cuz that is the one I usually knock on doors with, and it is beat up
and has some scratches. I don't know why, but I was happy to have that scar.
It showed that I worked hard that day. "I earned my scar". That is what I
think us as missionaries have to do. We experience trials and afflictions
for our personal benefit. Jesus Christ earned his scars, in his hands and in
his feet, symbolizing all of the afflictions that he went thro. That is what
went thro my mind as I looked at my bruised hand. For that day, I had earned
my scar and I can show everyone that I worked :) It was interesting
comparing my situation to the new Elder who is out here. His suit is new and
all of his journals and planners look very nice. Although I have only been
out for 8 months, which is not all that long I know, I looked at some of my
stuff and it is starting to show some use and get some tears here and there.
I love "earning my scars" so I have proof of the work I did :) Thank you
again everyone for your support, the Lord is aware of your effort and I know
without a doubt that you will be blessed for it :)

Love,

Elder Hartman

Tracting

Hey hey hey hey once again evvvvvverybody :)

 

I got the package that Summer sent with the healthy snacks, thank you so much! They are all almost gone actually hahaha :) sorry, I am really hungry! About my medicine mom, I will be fine till the end of the month, I have a whole other bottle, so I will be good till the next one comes, don't worry :)

 

My new comp is way awesome! He is from Roxboro, North Carolina. Way sweet, we get along really well :) The other companionship is Elder Johnson, who is from Arizona, and Elder Record, who is from Spanish Fork Utah, he is being trained out here, I am so jealous of him for that reason....they live about 5-10 minutes away from us, we don't really see them that much while we are working cuz now we are more focused in our areas, which is way nice. This area is really special. To have 2 companionships in one branch says something about it. Elder Johnson was saying that we are in history in the making here, I agree. I hope this area just explodes!

 

Well, I found out one thing about myself. I love to tract and talk to people while tracting. We tracted everyday, for the last few days, and averaged about 2 1/2-3 hours of tracting, I plan on doing more. I absolutely love tracting and talking to people. Whenever we are tracting, I usually end up talking to the person at the door for about 10 minutes! Someone was passing thro Whitehorse, and he served in the California, Riverside mission and did a lot of tracting. I asked him if he had any advice to share about tracting, cuz I wanted to improve with it, he said "just be yourself. Don't be intimidated by the person you are talking to". I took that advice and I used it and it worked! It is funny, a few times we actually did not end up sharing the gospel, just talking to the person. We asked if we could come back another time or get a number, most said no. Was our effort wasted? Of course not, no effort on a mission is ever wasted! It is just so much fun talking to people and getting to know them. I kind of observe the person at the door to try and find something to talk about. At one house, the girl answered and we gave her the whole shbeal (I don't know how to spell it) and she said she did not have time to talk about that. I noticed she was wearing a belt buckle with a gymnist girl doing a pose, so I asked "are you a gymnist?" she said yes and from that, we had a wonderful 10 minute conversation. I know NOTHING about gymnastics, so how we managed to talk to her for that long was pretty impressive! We asked if we could come back when there was a better time, and she said she works a lot, so she can't really say, so just try and if she is home, great! We went from "I don't really have time for this" to "ya, if I am home, we can chat" even tho it was not all that promising, it was still progress eh?? So awesome :) I plan on tracting everyday for a long time, cuz President Beesley wants our areas tracted out! I noticed something about myself. I know this sounds weird, but I am a relaxed, hard worker. Does that make sense? I know it sounds weird, but I discovered that about me. If I run at my own pace, I love working, absolutely love it!! I do not like idling in the least, especially on a mission! I am so grateful this mission has taught me to value work. I think in the gospel principles booklet, it talks about work the best. It helped me alter my view towards it. I like working to earn something. I love to work, to earn rest :) I love this gospel. I love all of you very much. Thank you again for your support!

 

"The most effective way to preach the gospel is through example" - Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words" - Saint Francis of Assisi

 

Love,

Elder Hartman1