Ava's Mission

For the first time I don't even have words to describe the joy of this week. "I cannot say the smallest part which I feel." -ALMA 26:16 So I am just going to leave it at this. Will got baptized. There was such a sacred special spirit in that room of under 10 of us and everyone who joined through zoom. Like he said when he bore his own testimony, he is "going to do big things for God in Christ's name." There is nothing quite like the beginnings of an Eternal Family. This is why we do what we do. We also moved again this week after deep cleaning the apartment we just moved into 2 weeks ago. Now we live with the Rowlands, the coolest members in the world and for the first time since I put this tag on my feet don't hang off the edge of the bed. God does not cease to be good and nothing can compare to the joy this week held. It just keeps on getting better. - Sister Hardy

Best week of my life. And next week will be better. The climax was our lesson with Will Landes and his wife Andrea. Will referred himself the first week we got into quarantine. The only time I've ever met him in real life was when we dropped a copy of the Book of Mormon off at his door and waved from 6 feet away. He has been on quite the journey and is the most dedicated seeker of truth I have ever taught. He has been praying and working through this whole virus to get an answer. We had our usual Wednesday night video call lesson with Will, Andrea, Bishop and sister Shapiro and as always, Will's questions lead right into what we felt we needed to teach him. We talked a lot about baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost and I testified my heart out and totally cried when telling Him about the Priesthood and Eternal Families. It is CRAZY the amount of love you can have for a family you've only ever talked to over a screen. Promising blessings is by far my favorite thing to do...

That means "crazy" in Fijian. Because that's what thus week was. CRAZY. Monday night we had a last minute mission wide transfer news broadcast. WILD. President Collins likes to keep things so hype and have everyone on their toes all the time. We got the first of the reassigned missionaries Tuesday morning and after a blessed most sacred best 2 weeks of our missions, sister Weed and I got split up to train 2 of the new missionaries in the APM way. My new companion sister Harris is so awesome. She is a Cattle farmer from Southern Idaho and I feel like I am living in an old western movie because of the way she talks and all the things she says. Going to Fiji was her first time Off the farm and she's the greatest mix of middle of nowhere farm girl and Fijian Islander. She's hilarious. I am learning a lot of new words and things about farms and animals from her. It's been really humbling and cool for me to see and feel how needed all these missionaries who are bein...

Another pday come way too fast. This week I wanted to share a thought. And some pictures of course. Last weeks soul sisters turned into this weeks sweaty sisters. I grew up with basketball coaches always telling me to pivot and teaching me that important technique so that I could better read my opponents, fulfill my role in the post, and make the moves I would need to make in order to score (without traveling of course). It started with the ultimate coach, my Dad. Then the skill was taught and worked on with coach McMurray in Champs, Coach Heggie on that first team, and all the way through high school to Senior year with Coach Shell (Shelley Quinton). I'm grateful for every school and spring league coach, both of my team and of opposing teams, who took time out of their lives to help me develop and learn skills that are still blessing me today and will continue to for the rest of my life. The other day in MLC (a missionary meeting) I was taught again how important it is to pivot,...