Week 90

Hey guys! 

Super sorry I forgot to write an email this week! It was pretty successful, we found like 4 new people and put someone on date, so that's always exciting. We also had zone conference, which is always a great experience.

I think we're gonna be going to Bismarck on Halloween for MLC but I'm not 100% sure. If not it'll probably be a pretty slow day since we're not allowed to proselyte after 6. Honestly those are kinda all the highlights from the week, sorry this one is so short! I'll make sure I write my email earlier next week.

Elder Hart

This is the only picture I got this week 😬 just our last minute Halloween costumes that we threw together half an hour before our ward party 😂

Week 89

Hey guys!

So I just went to my gallery to look at the pictures I took this week so that I could remember the things we did... and I realized that I didn't take ANY pictures! And so then I thought about it more and I realized that pretty much nothing exciting happened at all this week.

This is normally the part where I give an update on how the work is going, but there really isn't much work happening in our area right now. We did find a guy named Henry that is interested in what we have to teach, but we can only talk with him once in a while over the phone and we're not sure if it's going to go anywhere yet. Other than that, we kinda struck out this week. We spent a lot of time trying to find new people, but we haven't had much luck yet. Not that we're discouraged about it or anything, I'm sure a lot of progress will be made this week, but I just don't really have much to talk about today 😂

My companion got his visa this week! That means he'll for sure be heading out by the end of the transfer, which makes me a little sad. He's a really good kid and a really easy companion to deal with. But I'm excited for him to go to Ecuador and have all the crazy South American experiences that I got to have for a while. It definitely opens your eyes up to what a blessing it is to live in this country!

Anyway, that's about it! Sorry for the lack of pictures!

Elder Hart

Week 88

Hey guys!

We had a great week, we were able to stay pretty busy and I think we got a lot done. Elder Nielsen is my companion, I don't remember if I mentioned that last week or not. He's a great kid. He's a little shy but he has a lot of desire to do the right thing and I know he'll learn fast. He reminds me a lot of the way I used to be; just super timid and reserved and worried about what others think. But if I was able to overcome those things than so can he, and I'm sure he'll grow quick.

We went to the temple with Keith and Jeremy on Saturday! It was great to see them have that experience. They both felt the Spirit really strongly and they're getting really into doing their family history. It's awesome to see recent converts progress!

Carl also got baptized on Saturday night! It's been a looooong journey for him, and it was a really special privilege to be serving here when he finally made the decision to be baptized. His friend came all the way up from Idaho to perform the ordinance, and we were really nervous that the snow storm would stop him and his wife from getting here. But the Lord always provides a way and everything worked out really well.

We had zone p-day in Bismarck today, and that was pretty fun. Not much to say about that I guess, but I just thought I'd let y'all know that it happened ;) 😂
Those are the main highlights from the week! I know it's a shorter one but I won't bore you with all the other random details. Things are going super well though!

Have a great week,

Elder Hart

1. Kayla stole my tag so I got a picture with her before I stole it back
2. We helped a family shake all the apples down from their tree before the storm hit 😂
3. Carl's baptism!
4. Us with Keith and Jeremy at the temple

Week 87

Hey guys!

This has been such a wild week! We had transfers last Wednesday, and transfer day is always really weird and really busy. Elder Hansen was pretty bummed to leave after just one transfer, but I was pretty excited to get a new missionary who's really excited about missionary work. My new companion is Elder Nielsen. He's a visa waiter for Ecuador, so he learned Spanish in the MTC, and crazy story -- my older brother was his MTC teacher! Haha so it's pretty cool to just pick up his training right where Tanner left off. We also had Elder Cockle with us for a few days. He's just about to go home, and President Howell let him choose where he wanted to spend his last week in the field. He served here two years ago, so he was able to help us get in with some members that we don't know very well.

Another super crazy thing happened on Tuesday. So we were teaching a guy named Grant Ausk a couple months ago when I got here. He's the husband of a less-activeish member and he was thinking about getting baptized for a while, but then he and his wife moved to Colorado. Before he left, he asked my old companion Elder Bagley if he would come back to Dickinson to baptize him if Grant was ever passing through town. Elder Bagley said he would, but none of us really thought that would ever happen. Well last Tuesday, Brother Dalton got a call from Sister Ausk, who told him that they were coming up through Dickinson this weekend and that Elder Bagley was going to be coming up from Idaho to baptize Grant. We hadn't heard anything at all about that, so Brother Dalton called Elder Bagley and asked if he knew about it. Elder Bagley had absolutely no idea that anything was going on, but he said he could make it up here if it was possible for the baptism to happen. So we spent all of Tuesday night making calls to the bishopric and the mission president, and somehow we all of a sudden had a baptism planned for Sunday after conference! For the super limited time we had to plan it, everything actually ended up going really well. Quite a few ward members showed up and even a couple of the Ausks' nonmember friends. It was really cool to see Elder Bagley again too!

We had a great time watching general conference these last few days. I can't believe how much you can learn from all the talks when you're actually paying attention haha. I'm proud to report that I officially made it through every general conference of my mission without falling asleep a single time! Hopefully that trend continues after I get home ;) I tried something this last time that I've never done, but I've always heard of other people doing it. I had a couple questions and trials that I was hoping to receive answers and guidance to, so I prayed this past couple days that I'd be able to find the things I was looking for in the talks. I was figuring that I'd find some roundabout answer in something one of the Apostles said or some subtle allusion to one of the things I was thinking about, but I couldn't believe how directly both of the questions I had were answered! That's definitely a practice I'll continue as I watch general conference in the future.

I hope you guys have a great week!

Elder Hart

1. Our district last transfer
2. It's official, I want a chinchilla
3. Grant's baptism!
4. So me and Elder Cockle accidentally wore the exact same outfit a couple days ago 😂