Letter #7

This week we went to jail, oops I guess I need to add “the”. This week we went to the jail. We were asked by the Office Sister if we could go and see a lady that is in jail. The Sister Missionaries have taught her four lessons and they feel close to her. I guess the lady got drunk and wrecked her car by driving into something. The Sisters couldn’t go visit her so we were asked. The Office Sister told us it was an intimidating thing to go visit someone in the jail and gave us all sorts of warnings but it wasn’t a big deal at all. They now have it setup like Skype. You take your I.D. in and after they clear you, you sit in front of a screen and the person in jail talks to you from somewhere in the jail on a phone but you see each other on the screen. This lady was just embarrassed that we saw her in jail. I hope we let her know that we were there because we care about her and the Sisters care about her. It was a new experience. They have a nice building and a really cool OLD police car in the front lobby. Steve and Jason would love it! They may have to visit the jail when they come. We feel very comfortable in jail now!

We also went with some of our zone to the Kiwanis bike shop this week to do service. Elder Hardman and 4 other Elders worked on bikes. I and 4 other Sisters sewed and stuffed dolls. I think the Elders enjoyed it more than the Sisters did. The Elders all said that they wanted to go every week for a few hours. They teach them how to fix the bikes and they have all of the equipment and the missionaries can go when they want without scheduling it or letting anyone down. We have been in the middle of some of the zones not getting the message that they had a food pantry assignment and everyone is upset that they let them down and were short-handed. This service doesn’t have that draw back and it is inside which will be great in the wintertime. We feel really good about this service opportunity and the Kiwanis people are very grateful for the help. I took some material home to sew dolls at home in the evenings. I think they have willing hands to turn and stuff and whip-stitch them shut but no one wants to sew the body. I have a lot of little doll bodies in our apartment now. They asked the Sisters if they wanted to drop a supply off at the hospital and they were excited about doing that so we need to work out the logistics. This week we will take another zone to work with a park ranger in a local park. We think we have it figured out which zones need more opportunities to serve each week. Elder Hardman has sat with a map figuring out where each zone serves and what opportunities are in their particular zone. Some zones have regular assignments which fill their hours each and every week, other areas are struggling. Hopefully we are helping to facilitate all of this. We laughed at an email we received from a Sister we are working with to a non-member volunteer coordinator trying to explain who we are and why they are communicating with us. This is how she explained us, “Full-time missionaries, like the young people, but married and grown-up!”

We will also be helping with lunch on Friday for MLC. Sister Beutler scared me by telling me that she thinks I will have to take her “job” when they leave. I don’t want her job! She makes amazing meals and is so organized and it is a HUGE job! I hope we get another senior couple here before I have to do the meals!

We think we will go and see Virginia City tomorrow for p-day. We are going to have a picnic with the Beutlers in the evening. The Zone Leaders wanted us to come to their p-day tomorrow because they wanted to go play at the Institute but because it is a holiday they need a responsible adult (don’t know if we qualify) there. We were trying to make it work but they decided to do something else so we can go ahead with our plans. We have decided that Holidays are hard! We have a hard time knowing that you are doing things without us! I guess summer is officially here!

I like going to church now and having the membership clerk update the count-down. They are now down to 784! That’s a lot of door knocking but it’s better than making the meals!

The Gospel’s true and we love you!

Love
Elder and Sister Hardman

My sign for the week is a picture I took of the gas station down the street. I love honesty!