Monday, October 6, 2014

Hey everyone!
   I had a wonderful week, how was yours? :) Thank you for the wonderful letters from Mom, Owen, and Becca this week and the wonderful emails and pictures today. I loved hearing about your week! Sounds so fun. Our family is basically my favorite. I haven't been able to read most of my emails yet, but I will and then I'll respond soon. Mom, Dad, and Beth, you've got letters coming your way this week. Your turn. :)
   Our area is doing really well. We are still working really hard to find people to teach, and the Lord has been blessing us with so many opportunities. We are working with several people and they are all doing pretty well. J. is a new investigator whose wife was a member of the church. She passed away a few years ago and he is open and receptive to learning. He said he wants to know if this is true. We're excited to teach him and to help him on this quest of coming to know for himself. Haha, he told us last night that he knew the man who started Knotts. (Random fact for the day.) I went on exchanges this week with Sister Cox. We were here in Pismo Beach and while we were tracting (Right next to the ocean - that picture I sent was taken on the street where we had been tracting earlier in the day. We just had to go back during dinner to take a picture.) Anyways, we found a man named K. who seems very willing to believe that this is true as well. We have a return appointment this week. A ton of people we've been working with came to the ward's Tri-tip sandwich party! It was such a cool hour. One of those moments when there are so many people that you should talk to that you don't know where to go first or when you need to go talk to someone else. You just want to visit and strengthen everyone. Not a bad problem. ;)  Overall the area is doing really well, still developing since we just split the area, but still doing really well.
   Conference is amazing! I love conference so much and my testimony about the power and the answers that come from conference was strengthened so much 2 years ago and continues to grow every time. I just love general conference and I am so grateful for having it. Elder Jorg Klebingat and President Uchtdorf's talks stood out to me a lot personally. So much stood out to me about just strengthening my personal testimony and seeking and acting on personal revelation. I also loved the tips on how to grow in "Spiritual Self-confidence". I need that, and all of those tips are things that I know I can do. I've got this! We have a wonderful prophet that I love so much. I will follow the words of the prophets. :) I've been singing Praise to the Man and We Thank Thee Oh God For a Prophet all day. I'm excited to apply what I have learned and to read them all again soon. Speaking of which, can I pretty please have another little conference transcript book? That was an amazing tool for me in the last 6 months. I carried it with me everywhere and used it often. :) I love the words of our prophets and apostles. What were your favorites?
   We had great service miracles this week.Last week we knocked on the door of a woman named C. She wasn't interested at the time, but accepted a card with our number on it for service. On Monday we were surprised by a call from her. She wanted us to come and help her clean her windows and house. We were able to go and do service for her. She wanted to feed us and talk with us. She is so sweet. We invited her to the ward's Tri-tip party this week and she wanted to come. She came to the activity to tell us thank you again and it turns out that two of her best friends are in our ward! She was so excited to see them. We were also able to do service for several more people this week. We helped clean a house after a skunk attack, we scrubbed walls and cupboards, we continued painting that fence, and we even picked some oranges and avocados. Fun stuff. We did 9 hours of service this week! It was awesome! Lot's of time wearing pants. ;)  I love the new emphasis on service. Service truly does lift both the one serving and the one being served.
   Exciting things coming up this week too. We have interviews with the President in Santa Maria on Thursday morning and guess what?! We get to watch the movie Meet the Mormons as a zone of missionaries on Thursday! Exciting! It's going to be great. We're excited to see it, and grateful for the opportunity.
   I hope that you're all doing amazingly. Have a wonderful week. I love you!
Love, Melanie
(Sister Hardman)
P.S.-I'm so excited to hear "I like beards" live...as soon as I get home. ;)


This is me above part of Pismo Beach. :)



Between sessions of General Conference at the church. (Watching Conference with our District was fun.) I love these sisters. These are my roommates. We're the four sisters in the Pismo Beach ward.


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