decisions...

decisions...we make them every day...some small...some big...some life changing...some not.  the decisions that we make in our lives are ours to make.  some decisions take days, weeks or months to make.  some decisions are made on the spot with out much thought.  with every decision that we make there are consequences that follow.  some consequences are immediate while others take time.  the consequences of decisions that we make help us to grow.  we learn from our choices.  some of the decisions we make must be made with faith.  it is the decisions that we make with prayer and faith that will make us the person we are today.  the following is tate's experience...

                                               
                                                                    the call

i was thinking the other day about the decisions in our lives....and i realized that i made the best decision of my life to serve this mission... i remember the time when i was thinking of playing baseball instead and other things as well...but i remember the day i told myself...i am going to serve a mission first....then i got a call from my dream school. yeah it might seem corny...but i know the lord was waiting for me to choose to serve before he blessed me...he was waiting for me to make the decision to serve him for two years so that i can use my talents that he gave me for four years playing. i am so grateful for the decisions we have to make in our lives...they truly define who we are and who we will become...

                                                    
                                                                    baseball

soooooooooooo holy bradford is gettin baptized...tell the kid i love him for me!!

                                                            
                     tate, bradford, tanner, cory

SO THIS week was pretty nutz... we were all a little bit sick...lets just say we couldn,t keep a lot of food in us hahah we think we ate something bad or something ...but anyways... tuesday was really cool we had a special training with the president and that was awesome to have a whole day of learning with him...then wednesday we had an amazing experience...we couldn't find a single person to teach....so we decided to pray in the middle of the street....the next house we contacted let us in and told us they have been waiting for the elders to come back...it had been 5 years since they had been taught the lessons and they were missing it...they used to have baptism dates and everything! holy power of prayer! i was grateful for the lords help on that one! also something pretty insane went down yesterday....we were resting in our house after sacrament because we weren't feeling that well...when all of a sudden we looked out the window to see smoke everywhere! there was a huge fire in the town center so our adrenaline went sky rocketing and so we decided to go help...we got there and it was insane... we helped over 5 stores take every single thing of merchandise out of their stores so it wouldn't burn....then when we left our adrenaline went down and we all felt horrible again  even worse...elder page was throwing up and it just wasn't pretty...

i love all of you guys and hope you know i am doing fine... just a couple questions..

which accounts is my money in, checking or credit? 

as well as who misses me the most? hahah jk

love you guys...talk to you next week!! 

Elder Harding

a MisSiOnArY jUsT KnOwS...

a MisSiOnArY jUsT KnOwS..  on saturday greg and i headed to wingers for a late lunch.  we walked in and were seated and immediately i noticed two missionaries across the room at another table.  before i could tell greg my plan to pay for their meal...he looked at me as if knowing what i was going to say.  greg nodded at me and told me that he knew what i was thinking and yes he would pay for their meal.  i guess he knows me too well!  we ordered our meal and were just getting ready to tell our waiter that we would pay for the two missionaries lunches when in walked three more missionaries...the look on greg's face was priceless and i could see the numbers racing through his head.  hahaha he was a good sport and we enjoyed our lunch and ended up paying for five missionaries to eat lunch.  as we were getting ready to leave one of the missionaries came over and touched my arm to get my attention.  he said thank you for our meal.  i looked at him and asked him how he knew...he looked back at me and said that he was a missionary and a missionary just knows.  i told them that i had a missionary in chile and that hopefully someone would buy his lunch one day and then i told them to be sure to tell their moms that they loved them.

                                                        lunch at wingers

okay so here starts the real letter...as you can see i am pretty happy today. i am not really sure why. but that is a good thing right? anyways this week was super hard. i love both my companions but the two gringos in the house, me and elder page, are trying to help elder flores. he is really bad on getting out of the house on time so we will see how that goes. but okay so this week with my investigators it started horrible. i went to one of my investigators houses, andres is his name, and he came out with a book of mormon in hand and a pamphlet. i was thinking wow he is ready to learn...only to find out that his spouse doesn't want him to learn anymore...i was devastated...i have never been that sad over an investigator before...i truly did love that 60 yr old man who had a love for the book of mormon...so that pretty much ruined my day  but other than that my other investigators are okay. i have one named rosa who is doing awesome and i love teaching her...she will get baptized the 16th of february. so pray for me to be able to help her ...also its just super stressful right now in my sector because we are a trio and have a lot of stuff to do and its  hard but its really good for me and i have learned a ton!! so my spanish is going really well. obviously not perfect or fluent yet but for only having 5 months in the mission i am doing amazing ...i love it...being able to speak two languages is the coolest...

                                           tate eating out with the missionaries
so mom i got a letter from (kelsey belnap) and her family for christmas.... so tell them hi and thank you...also something funny is my comp that is bolivian likes rice more than me....and that is saying something... he eats rice for breakfast lunch and dinner...no joke...but really funny too...

                                        the missionaries outside the church

one thing that really hit me hard this week is the law of consecration... i know that if we give everything we have to the lord and trust in him...he will make our lives ten times more than we could have made them. also this week i have really had to be patient! patience is a hard thing to have out here...but i hope we can all learn to be a little more patient in everything we do.. because the Lord promises us when we are patient in our sufferings and trials...he will lift us up...sometimes the lord puts us down...so he can lift us up...

                       more missionaries

 well i love you guys and that is all i got for this week. i can't believe how fast this has gone already...i love you and hope you know i am doing good. don't worry about me...peace out BEEZYS!!!!!!!!!!  love you guys!!!! 

elder harding.......the favorite son

pUt Me iN cOaCh...

pUt Me iN cOaCh...when tate was 3 years old we signed him up to play his first team sport.  i remember taking him  to his first soccer practice.  i sat there watching this tall skinny little boy with long legs... long arms...and big feet trying to run up and down the soccer field...while kicking a ball.  i came home that night and told greg...i think we should sign tate up for piano lessons because i am not sure he will ever be an athlete.  tate quickly prove me wrong although his career in soccer was short lived.  tate played for many different coaches under many different circumstances.  he loved being on a team.  he loved working hard.  he loved getting better. he looked up to these coaches...he valued what they taught him...he respected them.  these coaches became not only his mentors but his friends and of course someone he trusted.  every parent hopes for people that impact their children for the good.  there is a saying..it takes a village to raise a child.  i am thankful for these coaches that taught tate to work hard...do his best...get up after defeat...to perform under pressure...to be a leader...to be better than he was the day before...but mostly because of their example to tate.  these coaches have prepared him for his mission whether they know it or not.  he just happens to be wearing a different kind of jersey...a shirt, tie and name badge.  he just happens to be playing for a different team...the missionaries.  he just happens to have a different coach...Heavenly Father.

so the message i want to share this week is about examples....all of us are examples to someone...at some point or another there is someone who is watching or someone who is interested in what we are doing. i have thought about this a lot the past couple days as elder lowery left who was a really good trainer and example to me...but i just hope everyone knows that someone is always watching...and knowing that...are we doing what we should be doing?... i am so grateful for all the examples in my life....my dad, grandpas, mom, grandmas, aunts, brother and brother in law,sister, uncles, coaches, friends...everyone...i would not be the person i am today with out all of you there supporting me and helping me

KAY so i cant believe another week has gone by...makes me really sad actually...but here we go... so this week was really freaking rough. we struggled. we seriously did like over 200 contacts and only 6 people came out ...hardest week so far...umm so i guess something that actually did happen this week was that elder lowrey left ;( he got changed to a different sector on a special change.) they called him saturday and he left the next day. i was super sad...he was like my best friend. but now we are a trio with the other elders i live with and it  will be a good experience for me...hard but will be fun and good. elder flores de bolivia and elder page de utah. super cool kids. some cool things that happened this week tho are that we met a family from canada living here  and so we got to teach them in english...freaking wierd!  my english is just terrible now. but it is so freaking hot here lately...its an infernal pit haha...but i love it and i love it here more and more every day...i am finally gettin the hang of it and starting to get settled in the mission life more. 

i miss everyone and everything but i know this will help me more than sitting at home. this is literally the best decision i have every made in my life.i love you guys...i hope you have a good week and i am doing well! love all of you and hope you know i am working hard and trying to make you proud hah...love you guys

elder harding 

fOrGiVeNeSs...

fOrGiVeNeSs... unless we extend forgiveness to others, our lives may be poisoned by anger and hard feelings. past hurts can magnify as they accumulate, and once-loving relationships can become damaged almost beyond repair. forgiving someone that has hurt or offended  is probably one of the hardest things to do. we all have had experiences when this has happened to us.    there was a man named malcolm tent who began putting a rock in his pocket every time someone did something to anger or annoy him. the rock served to remind him of the incident and make sure he didn’t forget to stay angry at the person responsible.

malcolm’s collection of reminder rocks soon spilled out of his pockets and throughout his house. the rocks, symbols of his negative feelings toward others, came to dominate his entire life.

  tate shares the following thoughts on forgiving others...

the thing that i kinda took away a lot this week was about forgiving others.... i think back at how many times i got mad at someone, or how many times i could have been nicer to someone, or how many times i took offense to something so little...when all i could have done was realized that it is not worth it.. i challenge all of us including me to when you have hard feelings towards someone, or someone has wronged you or you feel hurt....FIND A WAY TO SERVE THEM! even if they have offended you. i promise you that if you always look for a way to serve the people you need to forgive or just serve anyone...you will find love in there somewhere...service can be anything...as little as saying hi to someone in the store or having a conversation with someone about their life...anything can make a difference in someones day!

                                    tate's zone...he is the tall white boy in the back

okay so here we go...gosh i feel like i was just writing you!!  so this week in the mission me and elder lowrey started fasting every three days!  you might think i am crazy but i honestly like it ...its hard but when you actually fast for a reason you feel so good after...we are fasting to find a family with members in the family in every single organization in the church to baptize... sounds hard huh? but i have faith we will find them...

                                                              just a little itty bitty spider

 also this week we had three people start to cry when we taught them....one was when we taught the plan of salvation...she just started crying because she had some family issues earlier in her life...another was a inactive lady who just wanted to change and we happened to randomly, once again, contact her house after passing like twenty houses before ...and the others dad is in the hospital and we were able to show him the plan of salvation pamphlet and help him out...super cool experiences...also one of the other gringo elders in my house left he is now with elder archuletta haha tight huh!? anyways...another cool thing is they told me i could be training by march...hollay crazy...sounds so soon but really they are going to need it because of how many missionaries are coming in ...so i am actually really excited about that!

 as well as we met a drunk guy who told us he was the guy who killed osama bin laden hahah and another guy who claimed to see aliens on a hill in chile and has a video and pictures to back it up...pretty interesting week .

 love you guys!!! 

Elder Harding!