Week 6

June 22, 2015

Hello Everyone! Hope you have had a wonderful week and enjoyed the summer!

This week has been another great week and i am 2/3 done with being here at the MTC!! Time is flying and i can only imagine it is going to go even faster once i am in the field!

Chinese has been coming easier as i learn to really work hard and rely on the Lord. One day my companions and i thought it would be funny to try and ONLY SPEAK CHINESE FOR THE WHOLE DAY. It was hard and obviously there were a few english words here and there but for the most part we spoke in only chinese! it was hardddd (try planning a lesson in chinese) haha but i really came to see that i know wayyy more chinese than i thought i did! We started to loose it by the end of the night but it was definitely a fun memory and something that we'll do again! The lord will bless us if we work really hard.

Okay so wayyyy cool story of the week! On saturdays we do TRC which is where we get to meet with members of the church and teach them a lesson! Its a really cool opportunity to talk with members of the church in chinese and get to know them better! This last week we went and were informed that one of the girls we would be teaching was not a member of the church but came with her older cousin who was a member. We got so excited! a REAL investigator! It was an amazing experience! She was a 15 year old girl from Taiwan- and so adorable :) We taught her about Gods love and how he has given us prayer and the scriptures to help us with any trial that comes our way. We bore testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel and how it really can bring us pure joy through the comfort of the Holy Ghost. Afterwards our teacher went in and talked to her to get feedback and she said that she could really feel the spirit from us and that even though we weren't fluent in chinese she understood us and could tell how much we cared about the message that we were sharing.

Her cousin emailed us this and sent a picture!

"Hey Sisters,

Thanks for teaching my little cousin her first lesson!! She loves you guys and is genuinely interested in learning more. :) - Hope you all have a wonderful time in Taiwan, and let me know if you have any questions or just want another friend to email/write! :)

Just wanted to let you all know that I really felt the Spirit when you were teaching, especially when all of you bore your testimonies and testified of the Holy Ghost. Way to teach simply and clearly.

Love you sisters!"


It really was such an amazing experience that got me so excited for taiwan!

Remember to always open your mouth and share the gospel because everyone needs it- everyone!

Heavenly Father loves you and is mindful of all of our needs!! He will provide a way for us to get through any hard trial that has come our way!


Blessed with the cutest of companions!!! Love them both so much :)

Last pic is me sleeping with my dictionary on the day we only spoke Chinese haha we had to carry them around with us everywhere!

Week 5

June 15, 2015

I have had an incredibly spiritual week and would like to share them with you:

1. We have an investigator Su Di Xiong who is an atheist with a wife who is a member of the church (hes really just one of the teachers). Anyways we have really been having a hard time getting him to believe in god and feel the holy ghost. But recently at one of our lessons he told us that he had felt the holy ghost testify to him through some scriptures and how they showed him how when he was happy he was feeling the holy ghost- which is totally true! Sometimes we think that just because we arent having these huge spiritual experiences we arent being able to recognize the holy ghost, but when we are happy THAT IS THE HOLY GHOST. he is so real and i know that we all need to strive to pray tp have the holy ghost with us at all times

2. okay so for sacrament meeting we were talking about enduring to the end and my branch president gave a great talk and i loved all the stories and analogies he used, but at the end he began to bare his testimony and this overwhelming feeling came over me and a thought came to my mind- " Your testimony is so important" I realized than that although he gave a great talk it was in the end when he bore his testimony that i reallllly felt the spirit- its the same with the people i teach. my testimony truly is what will allow others to feel the spirit and then build off my testimony and create there own. it was such a cool experience, but it got even cooler as i was writing in my journal that night i wrote something down that seemed so familiar, i was talking about how people in taiwan will accept my testimony and grow from it when i realized i was writing down a line from my patriarchal blessing... it was crazy. i whipped out and as i began to read i was overwhelmed with happiness and began to cry. i know the lord has a plan for me and that i am on the path he would want me to be on right now.

3. lastly i would just like to over state the IMPORTANCE OF THE BOOK OF MORMON. i have grown a love for that book so deep that i feel famished if i dont read and study from it daily. the words are true and will bring us a tremendous amount of blessings in our life if we feast upon it daily. i was reading alma 17 ( which is all about missionary work, the sons of mosiah) and every scripture opened my eyes and i grew a better understanding of my purpose here as a missionary. read that book, love it and cherish it with all your heart.

I love this gospel. I love my Heavenly Father and know that only through Jesus Christ can we all be saved! Have a great week, family and never give up!

Week 4

June 8, 2015

Ni Hao! 

Week four is now checked off the list and week five is quickly approaching. I really can not believe that i have been here for this long. 

This week was pretty similar to all the previous ones but i am learning more and more everyday about how to really become the best mission (and overall person) i can be. Ive really come to realize how much i need to rely on the lord with all of my might, mind, strength, and most importantly my HEART. I have to give myself completely over to the Lord and rely on him to get me through the tougher parts of life. Being in the MTC really brings out all of your weakness and there are many times where i may feel inadequate, but i know that if i humble myself that the Lord can strengthen me (Ether 12:27). I have really grown to love the scriptures as well and know for a fact that they are the words of God and if we hold tight to the words in those books, especially the Book of Mormon, they will guide and lead us to eternal joy. 

Elder D. Todd Chrisofferson came and spoke to us at devotional on Tuesday night and he did a Q and A with common missionary questions. One that i really liked was about what to do when we feel discouraged? His answer was simple and honest: JUST KEEP GOING. Life is going to be tough but we just have to keep going, relying on the lord and trusting in him and believing that it will get better. Life will not be hard forever. (and neither will a mission) 

Funny story of the week: we always sing here (since no music) and on Thursdays my companions and i service is to clean the bathrooms! We like to sing when we clean and next thing i know we were singing Mulan. After a little of singing a girl comes and informs us that "umm our classroom is right there, and we can hear you. you can keep singing but just know we can hear you..." and then she walked out. We just busted up laughing hahaha.

Food here is starting to get pretty rough but they have a salad bar and i have come up with some pretty great salad creations. If things dont work in the business world when i get back i may have a future in  being salad chief (if thats even a thing?!)

I love my companions more and more everyday and am so grateful for them. I also love my teachers more than anything and wish you could all get to know them.

Chinese is obviously hard but i am pushing on and bore my testimony in church this Sunday which was a really cool experience, i know way more than i think!

The lord loves all of his children and i hope that when tough days approach and you feel as though nothing is going right just know that your Heavenly Father loves you unconditionally. 

Week Three

June 1, 2015

Hello All!!

I am approaching my fourth week here at the MTC and it really doesn't seem like real life! Time flies here. 

Chinese is starting to get more and more difficult and I find myself getting discouraged at times and feeling like i haven't made much progress. My Branch president gave me some words of comfort as he shared a story. He said that he was on a pretty hard hike up a mountain and he would feel as though he was getting closer to the top and then would see that there was another ridge he had to cross, and another, and so on and so fourth. He thought that he would never make it to the top. As he was getting discouraged he decided to take a break and he looked down. Below he said he saw what looked like a tiny little match box car, which really was his car. He then realized how far he had actually gotten. He related this to learning Chinese and how we may feel like we still have so much more that we need to learn and get discouraged but we have to take a moment and look at how much we have already progressed and learned. I think this is similar with life, we have to realize that perfection wont come in a day, or even a year, but that we can be progressing every single day as we try our hardest. Learning this language is a real test of my faith but i know that one day (out in the mission field) ill make it to the top of the mountain. 

Elder Holland came and spoke to us at the Tuesday night devotional (I know, so cool!!) It was amazing to be so close to an Apostle of God (we sat 4 rows away AHH). He talked a lot about missionary work and how as a missionary we always at least convert one person, and that is ourselves. He went into depth about the creation of Preach My Gospel and wow is it amazing. I have grown to love that book and it is definitely one of out best friends as missionaries. He then went on about being an obedient missionary and the importance of obedience in our everyday lives. We must be obedient to God and all of his commandments. His last topic had to do with opening our mouths. He shared Ephesians 6: 11-19. The sword of the spirit is our one offensive weapon that we have, everything else is a protection- he said that as missionaries our number one offensive tool that we have, is our voices! We have to open our mouths, we cannot be afraid. "Missions are measured by words" He then shared the sweetest testimony about Joseph Smith as he knelt down to pray in the sacred grove. He said that the devil would have taken Joseph's life if he could, but he cant, so the next best thing he could do was "bind his tongue" which caused Joseph to not speak. But despite that Joseph cried out to the Lord. As missionaries Satan will do everything in his power to bind our tongues, but we cant let him. Even outside of the mission there are many a times where we could have been better missionaries and opened our mouths but they were bound. Moral of the story is to never be afraid to open your mouth, even if you feel as Enoch and are not good at speaking, the lord will never leave your side and help you. 

Quick funny story! So we always go and play kick-ball in the morning as Chinese zones and on Thursday when we got out there all of the Cambodian speaking missionaries wanted to play as well. So they decided that we should do Chinese vs Cambodia. Oh gosh... it was honestly the funniest thing EVER! They got really into it and were incredibly serious about the game and we were just there to have fun. It was quite the sight to see as they would "trash talk" us and we would just walk on by. We would get so pumped up and cheer each other on as a team it was just the greatest time. Definitely a great MTC story to be shared. I really am sooo lucky to have such an amazing zone (and the other Chinese zone) here. We all work hard together but have a blast doing it and enjoy our time outside of class together as well. We are all really close and i am sad that a district of sisters that i adore leaves tomorrow, but they are going to Taichung so i cant wait to see them! 

I can feel my Saviors love everyday here as i continue to grow and struggle. Its truly amazing to be a representative of Jesus Christ and wear his name on my badge everyday.

Sister Hardy! 

Week Two

May 25, 2015

Hello All!!

Week 2 here at the MTC and i am still loving it! 

I have to best disrtrict/ zone ever and we have all grown so much closer to eachother! We seriosuly laugh all the time about the silliest things. We just start to get really crazy towards the end of the night because we have been studying and learning chinese since 6:30 am - all the silly things help keep me sane and makes the harder time worth it!

A funny sto to share: so we were asking our investigator about her family (and usually when we ask her questions we have noooo clueee what she says in response) She was talking about her big family and everything and then at the end she said something about her mom and dad and then put her hands together and split them apart. I took that as her saying her parents were divorced. Right when i was going to move on my companion says "Ohhh Fei Cheng Hao!!" AKA ohh very very good!! hahahahaha i looked over at her and gave her the look like "noooo" and she was just confused. we moved on and then i explained to her afterwards what happened. us three ended up busting up laughing bout the whole thing. she basically said very good to her parents being divorced. LOL

Our "investigator" (usually just teachers pretending to be them) excepted the invitation to be baptized this week and it was the BEST FEELING EVER. seriosuly just pure joy. this gospel changes people and has the power to give people purpose and comfort in their lifes. I know that through Jesus Christ we can all return to our Heavenly Father and sharing this message of hope with everyone gives me the happiest feeling. 

My chinese is improving! and i said a prayer infront of people on sunday at church for the first time (in chinese). The language is an incredibly hard aspect of being here but it has taught me to be patient with my self and rely soley on the lord to help me get through it. Itll take some time to learn the language and be able to master it and i just have to continually remind myself of that! 

The spirit continues to amaze me and touch my life. the Book of Mormon now means so much more to me and i encourage everyone to read it. it truly will help us grow closer to christ! We listened to the song "Come Come Ye Saints" at devotional last night and the spirit was so strong i started to tear up. Please go listen to that song, close your eyes, and just let it all sink in.

All is well friends, all is well :)

Love,

Sister Hardy (Hong Jie Mei)

Week One

May 18, 2015

Hello all!!!!

I cant believe that i am sending out my first email to everyone! Know that i am alive and doing so well here in the MTC! (sorry all my pics are at the top i cant figure out how to fix that ahaha)

I LOVE IT HERE. so please dont be too worried. im doing great! the moment i got here the spirit has been so strong in my life and i have seriously already grown so much- i feel like a new and better person. i love my companions! one is sister pugsley shes the best! (shes the girl that i was hoping i would get with who is from BYU) so when i saw we were companions i felt so #blessed. she is going to Leeds England speaking chinese. i have another companion- sister oakeson! she is so sweet and has the best laugh ever. she has never taken chinese and i am so impressed with how fast she is learning and growing (shes going to taichung with me)! we all get along so well. our district and zone are the bomb.com. seriously we are all so close and its only been a few days. its funny because since we are here for 9 weeks the older sisters (ones who have been here longer) really take us under their wing and guide us around where if you were english and only here for a little bit everyone is always new. all of the chinese speaking missionaries have this awesome bond and we do everything together! Its a blast. Chinese is going well and i have learned SO MUCH! I can already pray in chinese and bare my testimony! we have already taught an investigator twice ALL IN CHINESE and are teaching her again tonight. its pretty hard to communicate but i know that if i rely on the lord i can do anything! i have already grown such a love for her and hope that she accepts our invitation to read the Book of Mormon tonight :) its funny because our lesson plans really just look like a script where we have written down the pinyin of everything we want to say haha. luckily she is incredibly nice and doesn't hold our terrible chinese against us. one of the older sisters told me "we don't have to know what to say or what to teach, we just have to invite the spirit" honestly its so true. we may not know this language but we do know how to bring the spirit to others. 

There is so much to say and not enough time to say it but just know that i am so well. being a missionary is going to be wonderful and i look forward to the next 18 months. the food isn't good but im over it. its definitely hard work (ive never worked harder) but its the lords work. and its not supposed to be easy. everyone here is incredibly nice and they sorta feel like older wise siblings that are there to help always. 

I hope that everything back in real world is going great! This week me and my companion ship set goals for what we want to be like when we leave the MTC and they have already helped us be better missionaries! with that being said i encourage everyone to set goals! but setting the goals is only one part of goal planning. after you make goals you have to have a plan to achieve them and then hold yourself accountable for them! its hard to have growth without goals and i know you will blessed if you set them! 

I love you all and am incredibly grateful for aff the support that i have! 

Wo Ai Nimen!

-Sister Hardy

PS i am so sorry if you emailed me individually and i wasn't able to respond! i have very limited time! i love the emails though and will try to respond soon! 

PSS funny story: we wake up at 6:30 every morning so i have my watch alarm go off every morning at that time. this morning i checked my watch and it was 6:30! i hadnt heard my alarm yet though so i was confused. i woke up the sisters and we started getting ready, when i looked down and realized that it was still 6:30... haha my watch had been showing me the time that i had set for my alarm, not the time of the day! it was 4:30 am hahaha we all had a good laugh and then went back to sleep! 

PSS look up the video Characters of Christ by David A. Bednar. IT IS AWESOME and will be the best hour you've spent your time on all day.

Good weeks, Bad weeks

College has taught me this little thing about good weeks, and bad weeks. 

For starters I don't know what I did to deserve such a great "BYU freshman college experience." Its been everything I hoped for and so much more. People. Parties. Weekend trips. Friends. Mountains. Family. Hard work. The list goes on and on... I mean really this year has been the best of my life thus far (yes, I know I am only 19 and have so much more life to live, but right now just let me enjoy it and be happy). But that doesn't mean that every week was perfect. 

This last week it really hit me how great everything is. On Wednesday I went to the temple with Sarah, hiked Bridal Falls, and went to the movies to go see Cinderella. Yesterday I went 80s dancing with all the homies. Today I am going to the temple again with my friends and then going out to dinner. Tomorrow I am going to the Festival of Colors. My fam gets here Monday. Luke gets baptized Monday night. And then I go through the temple on Tuesday. Whewww. I don't share all this to "brag" or anything but to show that even though the weeks leading up to this week were pretty terrible (physical science is kicking my butt), this week was great. Honestly I was sitting here in the library (oops i should be working on my paper haha) thinking about how wonderful this week has been and how great these upcoming days are going to be and it hit me, last week SUCKED. Like just ask my mom, it was the worst (grateful that she lets me call her and complain lol). I just pondered on that thought for a moment and came to the conclusion that if theres one thing I've learned college its that; 

THERE IS ALWAYS A NEW DAY, NEW WEEK, NEW MONTH - AND THINGS CANT BE TERRIBLE FOREVER. 

I firmly believe in that. I mean the week before this was honestly the worst week of the semester. I had two tests that I had to do good on, multiple papers, and not enough time. I thought that it was the end of the world and there was no way i was going to make it out alive. But guess what. I did. And now here I am feeling so great about life acting like last week didn't even happen. Haha its pretty funny actually because this happens to me allll theee timeee. I feel hopelessly lost in school work with no light at the end of the tunnel one day and jumping off the walls laughing with my friends the next. Maybe its just me being slightly bipolar and dramatic about life but i don't know, i think thats kind of just what college is like. Moral of the story though: you will have some bad weeks, and i'm not talking about just stressful weeks, i'm talking about the weeks where you literally feel like you cant get out of bed because you are dreading the day ahead of you, being faced with teachers who stink, feeling like you're all alone, and just wanting to give up already or skip ahead to the future, but then you have good weeks, where everything goes your way, you feel on top of school and have so many plans for the weekend you have to decide what you want to do first. But then a bad week comes along and we fall right back into the rut that we were in before. WHY?? Why do we do this after we just had the best week of our lives? Why do we have to have bad weeks? Im still figuring it out but I've decided to go into bad weeks with the outlook that it will end and there is a good week right behind it, and better yet go into the week thinking it'll be a good one. Attitude changes everything. Even if it is a bad week your'e just going to make it worse by complaining and dreading everyday. Instead try to think of the positives and pull out the little good parts to every week. And also that without the bad weeks we would have no good weeks. In order to feel happiness we have to have experienced sorrow. 

2 Nephi 2:23 reads; For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility. 

Basically, even though it stinks sometimes, we have to have bad weeks. So lets embrace the bad weeks and face them head on, knowing that they will only make the good weeks sweeter. 

PS: 47 days till my mission 

XOXO

Jess