Week 40

Hey everyone!

I guess the biggest news I've got is that we got transfer calls today! Elder Schellenberg and I are both staying and getting a new missionary. He's a visa waiter so he might not be around for long but it'll be fun to have another guy around for a while.

The work's going well; we're still finding a lot new people, but not much to report as of now! I'll keep you updated as people continue to progress.

Shout out to my cousin Emily for getting engaged a few weeks ago, I'm not sure if you ever get the chance to read my emails or not but I'm super excited for you and Taft! I honestly can't believe that I'm old enough to have cousins that I grew up with getting married!

I've been getting into family history a lot recently. We're only allowed to take an hour a week to do it besides P-day, but I'm grateful that I've even got that time! It's incredible to be able to feel such a strong connection with my ancestors as I look at a computer screen and learn more about them. I encourage everyone to take some time this week to find and learn about your ancestors. I promise that you'll be blessed and feel closer to your Heavenly Father as you do so!

Have a great week everybody! 

Elder Hart

p.s. Sorry I'm kinda lacking on pictures this week, but here's a North Dakota sunset, a pumpkin I drew just cause it's Halloween I guess (you can probably just ignore that one 😂), and a little kitten I met today!... sorry, I take lots of pictures with animals. I just like animals a lot. I'll get some more variety next week.

Week 39... maybe. I don't know but at this point I'm not checking

Hey everyone!

Wow, I've literally been sitting here for five minutes ever since I typed 'hey everyone'... that's how much I've got to say 😂 I feel like so much happens to me during the week but it's all kind of boring stuff that nobody actually wants to read about so I'm sorry if these emails are the worst thing anybody's ever had to read haha.

This week has been pretty good, I just really don't have too much to say about it. Our teaching pool has been increasing again, we met a guy named Michael who was on date in Minot and a couple named Brian and Lacy who were kind of raised in the church but never baptized. We're being blessed for sure, we've seen a lot of little miracles this week.

The members in Williston are awesome, I still can't believe how much they take care of us here 😂 definitely way more than anywhere else in the mission. I love so many of the people here!

Honestly that's kinda it for this week, sorry for the shorter email! Hopefully this next week is more eventful.

Have a good week everybody!

Elder Hart

1/4. Oh yeah I forgot that we went to a little Brazilian party this last week with some members /who served in Brazil. That brought back some good/not so good memories. 
5. Williston State College

6/7. DOGS!

Week 38

Hey everyone!

This week's been real long, but I think we were able to get a lot done. Since our entire teaching pool all of a sudden bailed on us this last month or so, pretty much all our efforts have gone into finding. We've been trying to do lots of work with members, so we made a bunch of cookies and brought them over to their houses. Thanks Grandma Hart for teaching me how to make the best cookies of all time, they thought they were pretty dang good ;) so we've gotten some pretty solid referrals from them. Nothing has happened yet but we've got hope!

It's been getting super cold up here the past couple weeks, so that's been fun! It's supposed to get back into the 60's this week but after that I don't know if it's gonna get above 40 for a long, long time... 😬 

The weather is really the only reason I'd never live here though, the people are awesome and Williston is a great city! Sorry for a shorter email this week, there just wasn't too much that happened! 

I've been reading D&C 138 this week at President Ballard's suggestion. I've been able to learn a lot and I've felt the Spirit so strongly as I've done it. We received a lot of different challenges from our prophet and apostles this past weekend, probably the easiest of which is the one that I've done, but I still feel like I've been blessed so much for doing such a small thing that I was asked to do. I know that if we're willing to follow President Ballard's challenge and those of President Nelson and our other leaders, we'll find that we're compensated far beyond the time and effort that we're sacrificing.

Have a good week everybody!

Elder Hart

GIFT Meals:

Week 37

Hey everyone!!

I hope everybody had the chance to watch general conference this last weekend! I never looked forward to conference weekend until my mission, but now that I finally understand what it means to have a living prophet on the Earth and how special it is to hear from him, I honestly love general conference so much. I definitely get a lot more out of it if I'm actually paying attention and not asleep on the couch haha. If you didn't get around to watching it last weekend, you've definitely gotta go look it up online and watch the sessions, it was probably the best conference I've ever seen! I'm excited to see how two-hour church and the new home study program work out for the first month or two, I think it'll take some getting used to but I think it'll be a really great change in the end.

Honestly this week hasn't been too great as far as missionary work goes. We've seen one or two little miracles along the way, which is great, but most of the people we were teaching have kind of stopped progressing and we've had to move on, so we've been back to doing a lot of finding. No solid investigators yet, but we've got some awesome potentials that could definitely go somewhere during this next week. We've just gotta stay dedicated and I'm sure great things will happen! The agency of other people is always kind of frustrating, especially when we're working so hard to make good things happen in their lives, but I just keep reminding myself that our job is to find the elect and it can take a lot of sorting through to be able to find those who are prepared.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Hart

Week 36

Hey everyone!

Sorry for writing so late, I totally forgot about writing a group email today! 

It hasn't been the busiest week all in all, but it's been a good one! The biggest thing that's happened was Hyrum's baptism last Saturday. It's always an awesome experience to have a baptism, especially up here where they're so few and far between. We've been working with him for a long time so it was great to finally be able to see him get into the water! He asked me to confirm him on Sunday, which was definitely a pretty flattering thing. He has a lot of friends and family in the ward that he could've had do it instead and I was really grateful for the opportunity. We're super happy for him!

Other than the baptism, nothing huge has happened this week, but we've seen lots of little miracles along the way. People have been put into our path and we've been given words to say in order to help others come closer to Christ, and even though we'll probably never see a lot of those people again, I'm just grateful for the knowledge that we were able to give them some small taste of what life in the gospel is really like... maybe one day some of them will look back on it and decide they want to know more.

This has been a pretty short email, but I'd better get it sent off! For my little spiritual thought this week, I want to issue everyone a little challenge: think of somebody this week. Just one person. Someone who's been struggling with something, whether it be their testimony or family or work or something completely different. Member or non-member, it doesn't really matter. And then think of some way you can help them. It could be as small as a text message or sharing a quick scripture, just something to brighten their day and let them know you're there. The brethren have been stressing member missionary work a lot lately, and I'm sure that's only going to continue in this next general conference! Let's all try to make an extra effort this week to share this gospel message with others!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Hart

GIFT Meals: