hApPy AnNiVeRsArY...Ty & Dani...

hApPy AnNiVeRsArY...Ty & Dani...

tyson and dani met when they were babies...well actually 16 years old.  dani was backyard neighbors with my brother troy and sister in law emily.  they always told tyson that they had thee cutest girl for him to meet.  one weekend they brought her down to meet tyson.  fast forward to tyson getting off of his mission.  he told me that he had been writing dani and that he was heading down to utah to visit with her and that was the beginning of their love story...we are so blessed as a family that tyson married dani and that she is part of our family.  the bonus is that they make the cutest kids...hazyl joy and hattie j.  happy anniversary ty and dani <3

tate's message...

 i wanna give a shout out to my brother and sister in law who are celebrating their anniversary this week! thank you for everything you guys do for me and for always supporting me and being good examples! you guys are the best and deserve nothing but the best during this week so enjoy it. i love you guys a lot and love hazyl and hattie as well! they are growing too fast so tell them to stop cuz its gettin on my nerves. i feel like i'm missing tons but i know  i will have plenty of time with them after! but really thanks for everything! love you

Hey family. Another week gone. Crazy. Monday was a very relaxed day as we got up cleaned around the house a little bit and then me and Dixon went to an Internet cafe to pass numbers for the week as well as write our families and friends.  But then after that we went to go eat at a really good pizza place. I would have taken pictures but it was gone before I realized pictures would have been cool. We then went to the office and picked up some mail.and then went back to the house and just relaxed for an hour. I got letters from mat west, the Bickley family, and gma and gpa kunz. Thanks to all you guys who took the time to write me. Means the world. We had two lessons Monday night. One with a very very inactive family. We watched the Mormon message "look to the light"  We invited them to pray as a family and ask god to help them forgive and have a united family and they said no. We didn't know what to say. I had never had such a spiritual lesson and then just have it end like that. But I realized that a lot of the time things don't end the way we want them too. As much as I wanted to see that family pray and just forgive each other right then. I realized everything has it's time and place. And it's ALL in gods hands. All we have to do is put in our effort and let him guide us and he will do the rest

Tuesday was a really hard day for me. We did everything possible to find someone to teach and it didn't happen. Those days are always hard and tiring cuz it seems like you are walking in the street more than teaching or helping people

 Wednesday was a little better. We started with district meeting as usual and then for lunch me and elder Dixon went to our favorite empanada place. We got back to the house and immediately had to leave to work. It started off slow again and not very many people were letting us in but then we visited some recent converts and then an investigator. So we ended up being in some houses Wednesday so it was a little better and we ended at the ward Halloween party. The members are really stepping up and inviting friends and everything so we are excited cuz we met a really cool family there. We will be visiting them this next week to teach them. The past few days have been pretty cold actually. Kinda like bit tho because it's a nice break from the oven we usually have to work in haha. Oh and I took some pictures of me and some jovenes at the party so be looking for those.

Thursday was just a day full of nothing  in the morning we did a lot of computer work and then in the afternoon we were in a car all day driving around with bishop Godoy (served with Troy in talca) fumigating the houses for bugs. We had to go with him to all the houses of the zone and we left at four and didn't get back til 7. Driving in the car all day made me really tired . I hadn't been in a car for that long in like a year. When we finally got back we got invited to a family home evening at a house. The same house as Monday night.  we are really trying to get to the mom and gain her confidence so any chance we get we go. Except this time the whole family was there. They are my favorite family in this sector. Really fun to go over and the three daughters are really cool and always ask us questions. That's where we ended the night.

 Friday was another testing day for me. In the morning we didn't get much of a study cuz bishop Godoy came by to fumigate our house so then we had to go to the church and plan a little bit because we couldn't be in the house. I don't like when I don't get a good study in which is weird cuz I never really liked to study before the mission. But then we had lunch and then another pretty long day. A lot of time in the street and not getting much done. I can't tell if it's just a test of our faith or if it is because we are doing something wrong. Only time will tell and I trust god that he will help us. We ended the night with soccer and a meeting with our ward mission leader. I didn't play tho cuz I was just really tired and didn't feel like it. I have been really tired this week. Probably due to the heat.

 Saturday was freakin hot haha. We had English classes in the morning and then were jam packed in the afternoon with lessons. We also found out that one of our investigators, Joyce, that moved away, was found once again miraculously by some sister missionaries who just happened to pass by her house when she was outside. Gods hand? Or coincidence? So I thought that was really cool. Shows our work with her wasn't lost. We ended the night at a birthday dinner for one of our favorite families in the ward. Right now we are trying to help the son go on a mission and I think he will choose to go. It's been a cool experience talking to him about what he wants to do with his life

 Sunday was even hotter no joke. Hah. But it was a decent day. We didn't have a lot of time to work because lunch went late and then we had to plan for next week so we got out for just a couple hours and that was it. We did have a really good family home evening with one of my favorite famines actually so that ended our night in a good note.

I realized a lot this week that a lot of the time we will do our best and give it our all and still come up short. But thanks to our savior and his atonement we don't have to feel like failures. Our weaknesses can become strengths and we can push on. Hard week for me and my comp but there is only one direction to go. Forward. Love you guys. Today we are taking our zone to go give blood for a sister in our ward who has leukemia. Should be a good experience.Love you  guys

good DAYS make the HARD ones WORTH it...

good DAYS make the HARD ones WORTH it...  we all have hard days...they come and they go.  when we are experiencing them they seem as if they will never end.  as our family moves on with life and we get into our routines we are busy with life.  just when we least expect it a song on the radio...a thought that enters our mind...a missed opportunity...the ache of missing a loved one...wishing we could just talk one more time...make for hard moments.  we lost travis just over six months ago.  it is amazing to me how often he is thought about in each of our day to day lives.  sunday was a hard day for many of us... as most sundays are.  i think because it is a day that is different than most and we have more time to think.  it is a day of worship and remembrance.  we remember the good things and the things that make us smile and laugh.  this past sunday as tyson was taking his sweet family to bern idaho to visit the place that travis is buried he came upon this sign...i want to believe that travis knew we needed to laugh...knew that we needed to know that he is always near.  he was always joking and teasing and apparently that hasn't changed and i want to believe he thought this was very funny...

tate's message...

Wednesday was one of the longest days I have had in a while. We had district meeting which went really well and then I did divisions with elder dale. This new missionary who is really cool and we have a lot in common so it was fun to talk to him about baseball and all that. But man did we have a rough day. All the lessons fell through so we were pretty much in the street all day. But it was a good learning day. The good days are the ones that make the hard days worth it. So just gotta hope for better days to come.

 Monday turned out to be a really chill day actually. After I talked to you guys we went and bought food for the week and them went home because we were going to meet up with elder Lamartine (my old comp from buin) at our house to say goodbye to him. His visa to Venezuela got here so he has to go to the mission he was really called to now. It was sad to say bye but he was also excited so that's good. Then we had to go clean the old house so that the mission can hand it back over to the owner. Actually had something funny happen. A mom and a teenage kid came in and started talking to us and asking about the how much it cost and all this stuff but at first we weren't really understanding them. Then we realized they were speaking English hahaha they used to live in Canada. Sooo we felt stupid ha. Then we just ended the night helping some of the young men from our ward do some seminary makeup work. Like that stuff I used to have to do haha.  So I tried helping them see how important it was. Then we just went home and planned and went to bed.

Tuesday was another long Santiago trip day. She burnt my toe with some acid. We ate Taco Bell. And then slept on the way home ha. Then when we got back we  updated the member directory for like an hour. And then we left to go visit some people. We saw a few little miracles where god put some people in our way so we were grateful for that. Amazing when you think every day about the little things god does for us. 

Thursday was another hard day in the street all day . We walked a ton and just when it seemed like it wasn't getting any better we had a really good lesson with a couple we are working with. They came to church and loved it. We asked them how they felt about our visits and everything and they told us that they are just talking it slow because if they make this decision, it's a life commitment. So we were really happy and at least we know where they stand now and they know where we do too. We also talked to them about temples. They asked how people get married in our church so we took advantage of teaching them the principle of an eternal family. It was really cool to see them get excited at the thought of it. 

Friday turned out to be a decent day!  In the morning we had to go email my doctor, Alejandra, (yes we are on a first name basis) about my toe. I will be going up in a week to see her again but it's getting better so no worries there. We ate lunch and then ran to centro to meet up with some other elders and give them some stuff. And then it was off to work. We spent about an hour updating the members list and looking for less actives and then we had a couple lessons before heading to soccer. Yes I still just play goalie. But we had tons of people come so it is starting to be a good finding opportunity for us. And the branch is really starting to work with us so that is cool to see as well. Hopefully you all are stepping up a little more to help in missionary work too.

 Saturday turned out to be a really cool day. We had a decent day all the way up until the night and then things just got really cool. We had a lesson with one of the families I have talked about a little bit. There is three boys and the parents. The dad is the only member and they are awesome. They are just a classic family who has their heads on straight. They just barely sold their car to give their son eye surgery. Just all around good people. I love them already and want to help them. I know the gospel is what they need. I feel like a lot of people might have a good life already and they just don't realiZe that they could have even more. That god has even more blessings for them. That is what is so cool about being out here. Is helping people see that there is more to this life than just "good"... That there is "amazing". All we have to do is look to god.

Sunday turned out to be a really good day. The couple we are teaching came to church again and are getting some friends so they seem to like it and we are really happy for them. We then did our weekly planning and then had a couple lessons fall through until we ended the night helping our best friend in the branch named pato see the benefits of going on a mission. I hope he chooses to. It's something I wouldn't trade for the world. Well i love you family. More than you know. Until next week.

Love,

Elder Harding 

hApPy BiRtHdAy tO mY sIsTeR...

hApPy BiRtHdAy tO mY sIsTeR...

tate and taryn have always been very close...the best of friends...the best of pals...the best of the big sister and little brother duo ever.  they played together all of the time.  taryn even talked tate into playing barbies and polly pockets once in a while.  tate never seemed to mind that he had a cute big sister...his friends never seemed to mind either.  when tate was a freshmen and taryn was a senior... taryn had 15 of her friends walk into tate's classroom and give him a kiss on the cheek for his birthday.

 hmmm...tate never seemed to mind that either.  although tate was the little brother he was also the protector as they got older and taryn loved knowing that he had her back.  they are not only brother and sister but best buddies.

tate's message...

i want to wish my sister a happy birthday!!! Thanks for always putting up with me. I know i'm annoying but I know You love it . Maybe sometimes I embarrassed you or teased you but that's what little brothers are for. Thanks for always being a good example to me and for always loving me and showing me how to be nice to everyone.

 Thank you for always being so hardworking and diligent. You really are the best sister that I could have asked for. I really did look up to you and what you stood for all these years. Also you married my best friend and coach so that was cool too :).  I hope you have an amazing bday!!!! And yes I will still go with you to the laundry room whenever you want so that you don't have to go alone and be scared... love your favorite little brother. Tate John Harding.

Hey family. So this Monday started off really good. We had a good Pday and  we ended the day with a couple lessons and a family home evening. In the family home evening we talked about a scripture that talks about how god created things spiritually before he created them physically. I applied that to how in our lives we need to first be okay spiritually and our relationship with god needs to be good before we worry about our physical or temporal situation. First we need to fix our lives spiritually. And blessings come after. It will do us no good to worry about the worldly things first. We won't take them with us to the next life. But we had a good time at this house and made cookies and the member (who is practically our mom) made us dinner. It was a good night and I think we should take advantage of the time we have as a family together and set aside one night during the week to do something together. I miss that a lot. 

Tuesday I headed up to Santiago for my doctors appointment and it went okay. We are going to try some home remedies before we do anything big like another surgery so no worries there. We got back and had some good lessons and found an awesome family so I'm really excited. but man was it freaking hot. Hoping to get a good tan this summer knowing that I tan so easily. 

Wednesday we started the day with another run through the Chilean countryside and then we had district meeting. We talked a little bit about our attitudes. Long story short if we have a bad attitude we will have bad results. If we have a good attitude we will have good results. Pretty simple right. So I'm trying to be a lot more positive about everything. I find that I'm happier too. We ate lunch and then headed out into the infernal pit to work. Ended up walking around for 3 hours but we found some good people. So it was all worth it. Then we ended the night with a family home evening with the branch president and his wife and a less active lady. It went really well. We watched a Mormon message about love and it was a really good lesson. Soooo love one another.

 Thursday was a loooong day and really hot as well. But turned out to be a good day. We had a couple lessons fall but then it started to pick up and we found a family so we are really excited to start working with them. They are really young and the husband is a member but the kids and wife aren't. I hope we can help them. We ended the night by visiting fanny and Luis,  some of our investigators. They were really busy so we didn't get much of a lesson. By the time we all say down it was time for us to go. So that kinda sucked but we are trying haha.

 Friday was a pretty slow day as we kinda just had a lot of little things to do but it ended on a pretty good note. We are working with one family to help them get to the temple to get sealed. We taught them the law of tithing and it was a really cool lesson. Afterwards we had a ward activity for a kid who is leaving on the mission. It went really well and we had a bunch of people show up to play soccer also. Hopefully we can see some good progress from these activities we do every week haha.

 Saturday in the morning we had English classes haha it's always funny to hear them speak English and then I realized that's what I sound like in Spanish to them and it didn't seem that funny anymore. Hahaha :) we ended up having a pretty decent day  mostly looking for less active members again. 

Sunday went incredibly well for us. We had six investigators in church and it was literally a miracle. We are now starting to see people make steps of faith and it is the coolest thing ever. One concept i learned in church was "just because we are faithful at this time in our life, doesn't mean we always will be" we have to keep at it. Keep doing the little acts of obedience and all the little seminary answers. I liked that a lot considering I didn't do them very much before the mission haha. But they really do help. I know that now. 

 love u guys. 

Elder Tate John Harding 

tHe BiRtHdAy BoY...

tHe BiRtHdAy BoY...on October 18th 1993 a little boy was born into our family.  we decided on tate john as his name.  named after greg's grandpa john schmid, my grandpa john wells and tate's uncle travis john kunz.  from the beginning he was this blonde haired little boy that always had a smile on his face.  he had a big brother and a big sister and many aunts and uncles who were so excited to have him as part of our family.  the time has flown and it seems impossible that this week this same chubby little boy will be turning twenty years old.  he has outgrown his chubbiness and the need  to wear pants with elastic around the waist to a tall and lanky missionary that needs a belt to keep his pants on.  he is the baby of the family and  we love him and are proud of him.

tate's message...

i want to thank everyone for the birthday wishes and even though i may not reply to all your mail or emails just know i love you and thanks for supporting me through another year of my life. i may be getting old...but i am still the favorite... crazy to think that i will be home in less than a year. but i am grateful for these two years i have been given to grow and learn about life. thank you for everything...i will throw a big bday party the next year when i am home...eat some cake for me! love you all.

Sooooooo hey. This week definitely was a different week here in chile "rancargwa" (Hazyl) :). Monday started off pretty chill because we had our Pday and then we just got home and did our weekly planning session because we couldn't do it Sunday due to conference. And then we went and bought elder Lamartine some ice cream because it was his last day living with us so we just kinda hung out and had a good time with him.

Tuesday was changes and really exhausting having to make sure everyone got to where they needed to be. But it turned out to be fine. We had an amazing lesson with our investigators fanny and Luis and we really hope to help their family through this gospel. They are a really young couple who are about to have their second kid. They are like our best friends so sometimes it's hard to teach them because they like to talk to us a lot. But we are getting better with them.

Wednesday we had zone conference and we talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and I also had to give a talk about what motivates a less active member. I did ok I think haha. I did manage to say amen in English accent instead of Spanish accent though  pretty funny but not very many people caught it so it's all good. "It just slipped out" like Tare used to say haha nick if you don't get that one I can explain later.

Thursday we finally moved.!!! It took all morning and a little in the afternoon but it was so worth it. Our house is huge now and way more relaxing.  Friday we spent a couple hours in the morning cleaning and then we actually saw a miracle. A while back I told you a story abut running into a lady that was hanging out of her window and we almost didn't go back to talk to her but then we did and it was a miracle family whose son had just committed suicide and were going through a hard time. Well we actually lost them for about 2 months and then we ran into them again while walking on a random street and she said I don't normally drive this way but for some reason today I did. God keeps putting her in our way so we must have some sort of work to do.

Friday night we played soccer. Once again I played goalie :( it's just there way of saying "Tate you suck at this game so go stand over there and get hit with the ball"  Saturday we played again because we have an investigator who loves playing so it turned out pretty good and then Saturday night was a stake activity and then I also ran by the office and got my package!!!! I was so stoked. I loved everything. Especially the pics and letters so thanks. You guys don't know how much I love and miss you

 Also something crazy happened Saturday night. At about four in the morning I thought I heard someone yelling hello from outside our house. But I figured it was just a dream so I tried to go back to bed. But then I heard someone knocking on the front door so I woke everyone up and we listened to someone walk around our house  then they knock on our door to our bedroom where we sleep and ask if we are renting the house out. We said no and he left and locked the door somehow on his way out. We watched a man get in his car with his family and drive away. We were freaking out!!!

 Then ten minutes later after we all peed our pants they showed up again with the cops and turns out it was the owner of the house. The real estate lady didn't tell the owners that we were renting and had moved in  so they drove by and thought someone had broken in. this all happened at 4 in the morning. Weirdest thing to happen to me yet . Crazy to think I will turn twenty in less then a week. I'm old. But still the favorite just so everyone knows. Sunday was way chill but very hot. It's starting to get really rally hot up in here. Like sweating 24/7. So that's always fun. That is my week in a nutshell. 

Tate. 

tHe cHaLlEnGe...

tHe cHaLlEnGe...our family likes a challenge...we like to compete or watch others compete.  most of our free time is spent competing in sports...watching sports...refereeing sports...talking about sports.   the challenge that tate has proposed to us as a family is a little different than what we are used to.  this challenge will make us come out of our comfort zone.  this challenge will bless the lives of others.  

tate's message...

  I have two challenges 

1. Reread or watch ALL the talks again. 

2. Everyone in our family give out a Book of Mormon to somebody before Christmas.

conference was incredible. I know that what they said was true and the only thing left to do is go and apply those things in our life. Its our decision now if we want the blessings or not. I know I want the blessings for our family. The blessings of conference don't come until after when we really show that we learned something and didn't just hear it.

 this last Monday we went to a little town called coya. It is way up in the mountains but it is a mining town with a nice little resort and golf course up there so that was really relaxing and a cool little trip I will never forget. That Monday night we had two lessons with two less active families. I was grateful to be able to tell them about the blessings of the temple that I have seen in my family. There really is no other place more peaceful on this earth and no other place that can make us happier.

 last week  my comp had a drunk guy kick him one day  hahahahah super funny and weird experience. The guy thought he could talk in English but he was just mumbling so we told him we couldn't understand and he kinda got mad. Good thing we were able to get out of there.

 Tuesday was a meeting in the mission home for some of the leaders of the mission. We ate Hawaiian haystacks. Remember when Ty got home from his mission and said that we never ate those before his mission hahahahah mom got so mad. I always took Ty's side on that one just to be funny.

Wednesday I did divisions in grAneros where that nestle factory is and it went really well. The following morning we got some  news that we are changing houses. And the house we are going to is HUGE.  it will be cool but it sucked that I had to pack and then unpack again.  they called us after we had already packed everything and told us we wouldn't be moving until Monday so we had to unpack a few things to make it throughout the weekend. 

 It will be weird leaving the house that I have lived in for a while now... but it should also be really fun.  so changes came Saturday and I will be staying with elder Dixon here in villa teniente for 6 more weeks. I kinda hope I stay with him for a little longer too so that we are together for Christmas. That would be way fun.

i love you guys!

Love,

Tate John Harding

rUnNiNg...

rUnNiNg...tate and running...hmmm well lets just say that those two words are not said in the same sentence very often.  tate has always been ALL legs.  when he first started to play sports it seemed like it took him forever to get those long skinny legs to cooperate with him.

 it almost looked as if he was pulling a tractor behind him.  as he got older he seemed to figure out how to run with a little bit of speed.  this does not mean that the boy enjoyed running.  i remember taryn asking tate to run with her in the summer.  he would look at her as if she spoke another language.  summer was for baseball and not for running...was his usual reply.

tate's message...

before the run

                                                       
                                                                 after the run


this is a picture of me just looking dead tired. That's the cause of our first morning run . We took off running down  old country farm roads and didn't realize how far we had actually gone. The way back was HELL. Haha but it's good that I'm getting a little bit in shape by running.

Sooooooo this week started off pretty good. Tuesday me and elder Dixon had to run up to Santiago for a doctors appointment and all went well I just have to use a cream on my toe for this week and then I will will be set to go. After that Wednesday we went to a little place called graneros for district meeting. There is a Nestlé factory there so it just smells like freaking chocolate all day. I wouldn't mind living there.

                                                         fruit anyone?

Thursday we weren't in our sector at all because we had to go to a pueblo called san fransisco to do 4 baptismal interviews. Only 1 passed. Ha ha but the other ones will get baptized in the next coming weeks. I did divisions with a Mexican so we talked a little bit about Guadalajara.  He isn't from there. But he knew a little about it so I asked him some stuff.

the bus ride 

 But this week my thoughts will be kinda short. Next week is general conference and we have the opportunity to listen to a ton of amazing men and women. Take the time to prepare for these two days and go into the conference wanting to learn something.

 It is two weekends out of the year that we get to do this so take advantage of it. I remember my first conference in the mission someone told me that if we don't know what the prophet and apostles have to say in this time and age, then we don't believe them. Take the time to listen and apply these messages to your life. don't think anything else is more important. And be grateful you get to sit at your house and watch it :) hahah!!

bird poop

 I promise that blessings will come from watching every session and trying to live what they teach.

 I love you guys. I'm doing well! Next week is also changes so it should be interesting to see what happens. If I stay or go.

Love 

Tate john Harding