Letter #6

I think we are floating after having two wonderful, spiritual days of instruction. You feel like you are lifted up to a different height. We had District Meeting on Tuesday and they gave us the instructions they had received on Friday at the MLC (Mission Leadership Conference) We all met together (usually the two districts split) and had training from the District Leaders, the Sister Training Leaders and the Zone Leaders. Have we said before how impressive these missionaries are? They amaze us all the time. It is such a contrast from the silly, fun missionaries we met with on Monday for a BBQ and car waxing activity. They have to have their cars clean and waxed for Zone Conference on Wednesday so they got together to wax each other’s cars. They offered to wax our car but we declined. They are enthusiastic but not particular! They had made assignments for the BBQ but plates and utensils were forgotten. : ) We watched them be rowdy and watched one Elder get smacked in the face with a soccer ball. They act their age on P-day and the very next day they are spiritual giants! It was a great training but I am going to bring a can opener and hide it in the kitchen. We eat lunch together after the meeting and someone always brings something that needs to be opened with a can opener, no can opener in the kitchen! So an Elder gets the horrible, large knife out of the drawer and cuts the lid off the can, aaaaah! I don’t think I can witness this another week!

We met with President and Sister Chesnut and President Perry (Annie’s friend) to discuss “Just Serve” and the missionaries. We received much clearer instructions about how much time the missionaries have to give service. We feel like we are ready to move forward on helping the missionaries with opportunities to serve the community. We will work directly with President Perry on this. We left this meeting to go to Costco and purchase food for the lunch we are in charge of tomorrow for Zone Conference. We have an assignment from the Bishop to visit two sisters and we tried to do that but no luck. We came home and made Rice Krispie Squares for tomorrow. We now know why Sister Beutler makes Rice Krispie squares for everything. They are easy and cheap and feed a lot of people.

Wednesday was another new experience for us. We showed up at the church and the parking lot was full of cars with their hoods up. It was a funny sight! I guess they have to check their fluids and do a bunch of other stuff on a list before they can go in to the meeting. We sat in for the training from the A.P.s but left to prepare food during the training from the nurse and the car senior missionaries. We chopped and sliced for quite a while and then Elder Hardman left to pick up the pizzas. We ordered 7 pizzas but should have had more. We had a big green salad, watermelon, grapes, pizza and Rice Krispie squares for dessert. We fed 50 people, two zones. We are now hoping this isn’t a regular assignment. The afternoon was a great training on the Book of Mormon. Brother Dickerson came and gave instruction on using it in their teaching. President Chesnut also gave training and then he asked the missionaries that will be going home next to bare their testimonies to start off the testimony meeting. It is a sweet experience to hear their testimonies. We also were able to go with some sisters to teach a family that afternoon. It is great to teach a family and see them learning together. We loved that experience.

Thursday was our “Just Serve” day. We met with President Perry, Sister Wilson and Sister Bartholomew for a big powwow. Elder Hardman has done an amazing job contacting all the Zone Leaders and putting together a chart to see who is doing what and who needs to do more. After this meeting we met with the Volunteer Chairman for the Washoe County Parks system. She is a nice lady who helped us understand what the missionaries can do to give service in their parks (cleanup, trails, etc…) We are learning that there is no shortage of needs.

Thursday night there was a Relief Society homemaking activity where we made a tote bag. It is weird to go somewhere alone but it was a great activity and I was able to talk to a lot of the sisters there. I was feeling good about it all until I walked into the apartment and the table was covered with bloody paper towels and I couldn’t see Elder Hardman! He had an experience with a sharp knife and as he said, “Did a dumb” and tried to cut his finger off. Now he is going to have to go with me to activities, they did have a nursery at the church. He probably should have had a stitch or two but we got it to stop bleeding and patched him up.

Friday was winter here! It was rainy, snowy and cold. We tried to knock doors, we tried to get a hold of our assignments, we tried calling people and nothing was working so we went to the Temple. In the Temple they were thanking Heavenly Father for the moisture and were praying for more so we have decided to not gripe about the weather.

Saturday was still stormy but we have better luck on Saturdays for finding people home. We did a LOT of door knocking, all day! We did have our fun for the week. Our Bishop received a call from the church about a man in prison in California that is reading and learning about the gospel and he asked that someone go to visit his wife with some church materials. Of course she lives in a downtown motel. We had tried to find someone home all week. We had met a girl (daughter?) at the door once that told us the lady would be there Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We knocked on the door and she opened it, took one look at us and SLAMMED the door shut! It rattled the building! I guess she doesn’t feel the same way as her husband. We feel good about ourselves for having our first legitimate door slam! Assignment #1: fail! Assignment #2: fail! We have never been able to find the other Sister at home. Maybe the Bishop won’t give us more assignments.

It has been a full week! We have enjoyed being asked to go to lessons with the Sisters. We hope they
continue to ask. We keep coaxing the Tahoe Sisters to invite us to a lesson! Our progress report: We
started with 918 members of record and have whittled it down to 846. Still have a lot to do!

The Gospel’s true and we love you!

Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman

Sign for the week: If you just can’t stand it, kneel.

Our Zone

Mother's Day Gifts

Zone Conference