aNd hE iS mY bRotHeR...

aNd hE iS mY bRotHeR.. when tate was born tyson was 6yrs. old.  we lived in a small house with just three bedrooms and so that meant that tyson and tate had to share a room.  they shared that room until tyson was a senior and we moved to our current home.  when tyson left on his mission tate was a scrawny almost seventh grader with curly blonde hair.  when tyson returned tate was a tall skinny freshman with longer blonder curlier hair.  i remember the talk that tate gave at church when tyson got home from his mission. he talked about how excited he was to finally be able to wear tyson's shoes.  he went on to say that there were still some pretty big shoes left to fill and those were the shoes of being a missionary.  now tate is on a mission and has stepped into the shoes of being a missionary.  the rolls are reversed and now tyson is wearing tate's shoes from his closet...

 
this week i want to wish my brother a happy birthday....i want to say thanks for the example he always was for me in my life....when we were younger we shared a room. i don't know if he realized it but i watched every move he made. we had a huge age difference but he truly was an example to me. if i was scared in the night he would always wake up and tell me that he was there and it was okay, i always wanted to be around him and his friends and he always had patience with me and let me watch him and his friends play halo all night. when he left on his mission i bawled like a baby at the mtc. when he got back he was one of my biggest fans and best friends to this day, i want to say thank you for the person you are in my life. the perfect example of how to be a good brother, son, friend, and father. you truly do mean the world to me and i want to wish you a happy birthday. you're getting old dude!!!  but that's okay because so am i!! love you man

me and the sister missionaries as well as a member in our ward..

OKAY SO this week went by really fast....it was a really good week and a good week with all our investigators....we are teaching a family of five and i will try and get a picture of them for next week! so stay tuned....every time they pray i literally want to cry....they say the most humbling things in their prayers about us and how they hope we never stop coming because they love that their family can be together and listen about Christ....its literally so humbling...this family truly will get blessings through the gospel... also this week we ate lasagna! and it reminded me of home  so much!!! it was pretty good...not as good as moms.

                      us walking in chile eating wild blackberries!!  livin the life 

well here is the excerpt from the message we got from president.... On top of that, President MacArthur writes, “A new mission will be created in Chile. It will be called the Chile Santiago South Mission and will be formed from parts of the Santiago West, Rancagua, Chile Concepción, and Chile Concepción South Missions…they have not told us more than that. I recommend that we keep working every moment for Brother Gomez and this Saturday they are going to tell us more about the changes in the limits of every mission. These changes will not be made until the new President comes. Everything will go well and I will let you know the very minute that I know something more. I love you a lot. President MacArthur

me and elder canche doing our thing

this is the message we got from president and this is all we know of as of now....lets just say in four months i might not be in the same mission or i could be in the same mission  a lot of things could happen....but for now this is all i know....it will be crazy....i literally could have a new mission totally....or maybe stay in the same one.... we will just see what happens....i'm hoping to stay in the same one... more farmland in the one i am in now and i like that... but yeah  its pretty crazy how the lord is hastening his work....so stay tuned for that as well...  i'm kinda nervous!  we literally walk dirt roads and eat blackberries that grow wild on the road all day. its amazing out here.... but one thing i have been noticing a lot lately in my mission is that god works miracles in my life daily....maybe little....maybe small...but sometimes we take these miracles for granted and give ourselves the credit when really it was our Heavenly Father....i would challenge all of us to look at every detail in our lives and think about whether we made it happen....or whether god made it happen.... i guarantee that god gives us a lot more than we give him credit....i heard a quote once.... the details of our life....are the molecules of eternity....we should always remember that god truly does give us miracles daily in our lives and to always thank him for those..

i love you guys and have a good week   elder harding! 

trials can make us stronger

trials can make us stronger...we all have trials...some big...some small.  it is what we take from these trials and learn from them that makes us the person that we are today.  bad things happen to good people that leads us to question...to wonder why? it is not our place to question but to go on with faith.  when we rise above our trials we are better stronger and wiser.

 this is tate's message on trials...

  huge lesson i learned this week is that COMPARED TO GOD WE ARE NOTHING....BUT FOR GOD WE ARE EVERYTHING. I learned that we need to be willing to live by his will. give thanks to him for our blessings. thank him for our trials that make us stronger. everything is from god and everything is for a reason. i am grateful for the things that have happened in my life that make me even stronger today! those trials and challenges in my life are  what made me who i am today...and i owe it all to god and his plan for us 

Hey family!! and friends!! this week flown by again and it kinda makes me sad....oh and before i forget tyson you can wear my shoes i don't have a problem with it...as long as dad plans on reimbursing me :) this week started off kinda frustrating....but a cool thing that we did this week is that we did divisions with the zone leaders...which if you remember my zone leader is my trainer haha so i got to work with him for a day again....that was way fun....i miss that kid! one of my best friends ...but we had a really good week.

 we have seven people with a baptismal date for march 16th. 5 of them are a family who lost their dad a few years back and have been struggling ever since...amazing to be able to teach them that through the plan of salvation they can live with their dad again and forever! we showed up at their house and the girl came out and said WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU GUYS!! haha i got chills.

 all five of them were sitting their listening and loving every second of the lesson. i am grateful for god for preparing them to hear our message...amazing experience for me. also this week we had my first two baptisms!!! woo!!! haha coolest feeling ever to be down in the water with them and help them make this covenant with god!  get better mom and tell everyone hi and i love them! i am doing fine!! 

love you guys!! elder harding

tate's dad

tate's dad...

                                                      

being tate's dad came easy...for greg it is a pleasure.  being a dad for greg meant setting boundaries...high expectations...high goals...holding tate accountable...and following rules. he focused on the positives. there were not many of the following... you are grounded...spankings...sent to your rooms or privileges being taking away. although there may have been a few...what did your mother say? situations.  greg was a night owl and so this allowed for him to be up when the tate got home late.  he would take this opportunity to visit...give advice...hear the gossip...and listen.  greg enjoyed having tate's friends around... he called them by their names...ferd, tan the main, big, watt, the wolf pack, and any others he could slip in.  he would throw in a song lyric just to be cool when he got  the chance. because really he is cool.  greg loved watching tate play ball and loved to share a story about tate to who ever would listen.  tate's senior year he got to travel with tate as he played baseball on a travel team.  this was one of his most treasured memories.  one day i told tate and greg that i felt bad that i was not able to go with them...they both chuckled and told me that it was okay because really i wasn't invited...it was just a guy thing. the following are tate's thoughts on his dad...

   i just kinda wanted to kinda say thanks to dad as it is close to his birthday! i'm sure we are all grateful for dad and the sacrifices he makes for our family. we all know he would be willing to do whatever it takes to make our family happy. maybe it would take a little talking him into it or a little bribing or a little of moms help behind the curtains but for some reason he always comes through. i am thankful for a dad who was the perfect example of how to work hard all of your life, who was the most honest man i have ever met, who supported us more than any other person in every single event in our lives and loved to tell other people about his kids. dad i hope you have the best birthday every because i know without you...we would all not be the same people we are today! i know i look back and always remember you being there for me every step of the way! pushing me to do my best and to be the best i could because you saw what i could become. lets just say we have the best dad in the world family. because it is 100% true. no doubt in my mind that heavenly father is happy with the work you have done in your house with your family. i love you dad and i am pretty sure on behalf of everyone WE LOVE YOU MORE THAN YOU KNOW! have a good birthday! 

OKAY so this week started off really fun just because i got elder canche my new comp and i was kinda showing him around and all that stuff so it was a really fun week but very stressfull as well just cuz we are both district leaders and it is a lot of work and responsibility. he is a really funny kid and we will be working really hard together. i have been hearing that i could be training this next change so i guess we will see...missionaries always talk tho so i guess we will see. so this week an elder in my zone arrived who is a cousin of the ferros in pocatello. not sure which ferros but he went to rocky mountain high school and he knows all those kids from boise that i played with so that was fun

Soo some cool things we did this week was make jam with my investigator! haha so that reminded me of grandma judy!! haha ....but other than that it was just a regular week! went by so freaking fast and i cant believe it! i love you all and hope you are well!! talk to you next week!  

Elder harding 

what a mom knows....

what a mom knows.... as my kids were growing up and once they reached a certain age i soon came to the conclusion that i could not protect them or shelter them from every little thing.  as a mom i want to think that my children were and are perfect but logically i know this is not the case.

                       tate and elder page in santiago

  i am sure there are many things that they did when they were with friends that i don't know about.  i always told them as they left to ...REMEMBER WHO THEY WERE AND TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT and if they got in trouble or put in jail for some mischief to not call me :).  as for tyson...   i am not sure what i thought was happening maybe a good game of  kick the can?    taryn was so worried about getting in trouble i am not sure there are any crazy stories about her.  she did text me one night around 2:00 in the morning and told me that she and her friends were sneaking out.  i responded back that technically this did not count as sneaking out because she was telling me before hand.  what a silly girl!

                                                      tate, elder page and elder
                                    flores getting a ride in the 
                                     back of a meat truck

on the other hand mischief  seemed to find tate or maybe it was tate seemed to find mischief.  i am sure there are many events that he is saving to tell me about after his mission.  i think the one incident that stands out in my mind the most is...POOP IN A BAG ON FIRE incident. although this episode with seven of his friends now has some humor in it i am sure that at the time i did not find any!   this brings me to this saturday....  greg and i attended the baptism of one of tate's friends (one of the poop gang).  as i sat in the chapel and looked around at  the many people that were there to support bradford.  i was happy to see  almost all of the parents who's boys were involved in the POOP IN A BAG ON FIRE incident.  out of eight boys that were involved 5 are on missions...1 has his call and is waiting to leave...1 is preparing to go...and 1 had just gotten baptized.  the ELITE EIGHT as they became known...not bad boys not bad at all!

                           
                                                        Bradford's at his baptism

this is tate's message to bradford...message for... bradford! FERD!!! dude i want you to know that i am so proud of you...i love you man and am so glad you made the decision to get baptized...it truly is an amazing blessing for us to have this knowledge in our lives that the church of Jesus Christ is on the earth today! i love you man and can't wait to see you when i get back. i hope you know you will always be one of my best friends man! you are my brother and am so happy for you. oh and light some poop on fire for me please in honor of the elite 8. love you man.

                                       a family home evening to
                                       say good bye to elder florez


okay so this week my investigator that will get baptized finally quit smoking!!! Heavenly Father blessed me on this one ...and she also told me that she wants her daughter to get baptized with her!! how cool is that! so on the 16th of feb i will have my first two baptisms....i'm excited! but she is amazing and the funny part about it is that I LEARN SOMETHING FROM HER every time i teach her. which sounds weird but its so true! i learn more from her daily...she is an awesome example to me! . but this week was just another really hard week being in the trio.....but i have some really cool news about me and elder canche... i am really excited to be able to teach other missionaries because i know in the end i will end up learning more about myself! everyone keeps telling me i will be training by next change and i hope so...i think it wouldl be so freaking fun.  i finally got some christmas cards from grandma kunz, and from the bickleys! tell them both thanks and that i miss them and love them all! also we ran out of gas for our hot water in the house so we took cold showers all this week hahahaha no one wanted to pay for a new gas tank so we just suffered for a while hahahahah its actually not too bad! ty can explain the gas tank thing cuz he had to do it in mexico too! ....but this next change should be way good. we should  have some really good success  and elder canche and i have already become amazing friends. he is such a little ball of chunk hahahah wait til you see a picture!! hahahahha i love it! 

 i am really starting to get a hold of the language and i am doing amazing....i love you and thank you for your prayers...i can feel them helping me every single day! love you guys....

tate's new address:

Eduardo Melero 883
Region Lib. Bernardo O' higgins
Rancagua Chile
Casilla 2-c

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