Another week has gone by! I now have to get my journal and read back to remember things that happened this week. The new assignment we were trained for this week is that we are going to be teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) We went to Carson City on Tuesday to receive training with the young missionaries. They have had the program with the missionaries before but it was over a year ago. Our first assignment has been to track down the books and materials for the program. We have found 9 sets of books, out of 21. Hmmm. It seems to be our calling to go looking for lost things! Anyway, the director is an 85 year old woman that says everyone has the right to be literate. She has amazing energy. She loves the Sister Missionaries and tries to coax them to come and pray with her and visit with her at her office. She explained that we are not to talk about religion or read to the students from our Bible (Book of Mormon) but being the students’ friend is okay. She is working on getting permission at a school for Elder Hardman and I to teach a larger group of people, scary. We haven’t heard back yet on the details. The program is free for anyone with any language but I guess they will mostly speak Spanish. This should be interesting. I guess we may learn a little Spanish along the way. Our experience this week in Spanish is that we know the difference between Coyote (the animal we saw on our morning walk) and Chayote (the Mexican squash we tried). Just kidding, we already know the difference between an animal and a vegetable!
It has been hot this week and so we are knocking doors in the morning and in the evening and doing our paperwork during the middle of the day. Saturday we did knock doors during the really hot part of the day but the thermostat in the car kept saying it was 71 degrees. It sure didn’t feel like 71 degrees so we checked our phone, upper 80’s to 91! Yep that is what it felt like. We drink a lot of water. We also found these “Mighty Mugs” at Walmart that are stainless steel. They keep our water cold all day. It is a great find! Now I need to find a way to keep my skirts down. Someone should tell Sister Missionaries that the wind blows like crazy in Nevada and that an A-line skirt might be a problem. I have to pay constant attention and hold my skirt down.
We have done a lot of door knocking this week but being summertime we rarely find anyone home the first time around. We see the same doors over and over. It is starting to feel like we have knocked every door in Reno. If you wonder why I look for bumper stickers, it is because I spend most of the day in the passenger side seat. I need something to do while looking for addresses. Sadly, I think I am running out of fun bumper stickers.
We went to a wonderful fireside tonight. They have a fireside called, “Why I believe”. They ask recent converts to bare their testimonies and tell their story. We came away uplifted by the things that were shared. These recent converts are amazingly brave. They have all been told that they will be asked to speak in Church now so “they have to get used to it”. I have been a member a long time and I am not used to it! They also had one of our missionaries tell his story. Funny, you don’t think of these missionaries as converts. This Elder joined the church just a few years before his mission. It was a great meeting. They invite investigators to come with their missionaries. It was fun to see the lady that we went to teach with the Elders. She is getting ready to be baptized this week. The Spirit was so strong in the room. One man told how he got on Mormon.org to look for answers and formed a relationship with the Senior Couple that answered his questions. It is interesting to see how the internet has had such an influence in missionary work. Even Missionaries need a reminder of why this work is important and we felt that tonight.
We also get to do funny things. We were asked to go and sit with the Sister Missionaries in their apartment while the plumber came. They aren’t allowed to be in the apartment alone with him. So here we are sitting in an apartment that has very little furniture with two girls (all of us in Sunday clothes) but when the plumber started to tell Elder Hardman what the problem was, one of the girls pops up to sign the papers and talk about the plumbing. I’ll bet he went home with a good story that night!
One of the people we were trying to get a hold of was finally in his front yard cleaning out his motor home. We asked where they had been and they told us Pyramid Lake and that we should go see it. So we did. We took a drive Saturday evening to see Pyramid Lake. It is much bigger than I imagined and the water is a beautiful turquoise color. There are no trees around but it looks like nice sandy beaches. We didn’t see where camping is though so I guess we will have to check out the other side of the lake another time. It is nice to go on little trips and see the area. The missionaries all wistfully talk about wanting to see Lake Tahoe, they aren’t allowed to, so we have to be careful and not tell them that we have gone. (several times) That is our little secret.
Well, the gospel’s true and we love you! Keep those pictures posting, we love to see everyone!
Love you lots and lots!
Elder and Sister Hardman
The sign for the week was on a different church but still applies;
Come as you are, Change inside
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