12 WEEEEEEKS in the vineyard

Hola everyone! Another transfer down! We had workday Monday yesterday so today is my pday! I will be staying here in Peoria to finnish off sister Fairbanks training! We are having way too much fun together. This weeks highlights: My mom sent my ukelele and it's been so much fun to have that here with me and we took it to the hospital to sing and minister to the mother of Zino. (our favorite African convert.) It was such a special tender visit and brought me right back to when my sisters and I would take the ukelele to the hospital and old folks home back home to sing to all our friends there. Sister Fairbanks knows how to make literally anything out of balloons so she's been teaching me! I'm getting pretty good not going to lie. Every night we have a balloon sword fight in our apartment. And today I made a bow and arrow that actually shoots. Yeah, cool I know. We did a family history both at Peoria Station to try and get people to FIND THEIR COUSINS! We got to do groundwork at the temple for service this week! My job was to trim the trees and the whole time I felt like I was literally living Jacob chapter 5.... and hen I realized I AM LIVING THAT CHAPTER! WE ALL ARE!! The Lord has called Labourers to work in his vineyard for this the LAST TIME and if we labour diligently then we will have joy with Him in the fruit of our labours! My favorite line is when the lord says "It grieveth me that I should loose this tree." And "what more could I have done for my vineyard?" It seriously makes our Savior so sad to lose even a single one if his little trees, to the point where it says that the Lord of he Vineyard WEPT. As a missionary I have that same mindset for all the many people we are teaching here. And I'm constantly asking myself, what more can I do in HIS vineyard? And guess what? We are not in it alone... it says in that chapter "And the Lord of the Vineyard laboured with them." President talked to us all this week about the JOY of HARD work. As we keep at something that is hard, we get better at it. And when we are good at something we tend to enjoy doing it. So it is with missionary work. I can honestly say I find so much JOY in work that is HARD. We are teaching over 30 people and keep finding more and more every week. (We found 6 this week! We just gotta start getting people to keep their commitments and progress towards baptism.... it's tough! There is so much work to do in this area! And it is AWESOME! I wish I had time to tell you all about each and every person that is part of my life here. I've never loved people so much. Little update on the Hindi family they are doing great! We gave them a tour of the church this week and they love having us over and treat us like family. But teaching them thought the language barrier is so very tough. If any of you know anyone who speaks Hindi let me know! We are praying so hard for something, anything! We know that the Lord will prepare a way, he always does! And it's so comforting to know that the spirit is the real teacher, because we literally cannot teach this family ourselves. Anyways I could go on about the miracles we saw this week, but I want to call my momma! Haha this new rule to call home thing is thee best ever. You can ask her if you want to hear more, shes got all the goods! Peace and blessings to all! I love you! Sister Hardy