Elder Hardman began the week still attached to his little friend but on Thursday he bid farewell and they parted ways. He has been doing well since then! It is hard to top this news but I will try.
We had the opportunity to help set up another meeting with a State Park Ranger and a couple of Elders. They live in an area where service seems hard to come by. We have found that even though all the calls have been made and the service arranged they seem to like us to come the first time. We were happy to because one of the Elders is Elder Johnson, the same Elder Johnson that had the concussion. He has been out of our area for a while so it was fun to see him. The Park Ranger seems pleased to have their help and the Elders were already thinking of investigators they would like to take along to do this service. We picked up trash around a little pond, it was a beautiful day and it was nice to be outside. It was also great that the JustServe specialist in the ward came along to meet the Ranger so that she can support the Elders in their service. Pretty amazing to see that type of support! Elder Johnson found money but I found “The Lost Sheep” (a plastic sheep ring) I tried to convince him that my find was priceless! He was happier with his dollar bills.
Thursday night was the Food Bank of Northern Nevada Top 16 ceremony. JustServe qualified to be one of the top 16 in service hours. We were asked to attend the ceremony. They had a nice Mashed Potato Bar and desserts. You could take a tour of the facility and then they had a program. They have a nice banner with the names of the organizations that are on the top 16. They read off the number of hours that each group contributed. JustServe had 791.5 hours. The top group had 997 hours so JustServe was third on the list, not bad. Zulilly has a warehouse by the Food Bank, they were the top contributors. We met their “head guy”, he is LDS. Mainly it was a fun night for us because the individuals that also help (not tied to an organization) are our friends from the Mobile Harvests. Our friend Joyce had as many service hours by herself as JustService did. We have met some wonderful friends helping at the Food Bank. The individual that had the highest number of hours was asked to speak. He said that people ask him why he does it (spends so much time volunteering for the Food Bank) They wouldn’t believe that he just likes doing it, so he decided he was a “selfish altruist”- he does it because it makes him feel good. We had several come and tell us how much fun they have working with the young missionaries. One man asked if we couldn’t grant a special request that the Sisters not wear a dress during the winter. I didn’t tell him that I wore a dress all winter when I went and I was fine. It’s nice to hear that they are looking out for the missionaries. It was a nice evening.
A single lady (a member) adopted a teenage girl from the Congo last year. We went to that girl’s baptism last May. Saturday we went to her sisters’ baptisms. This same lady has adopted all of these girls and they took the missionary discussions and joined the church. That has been fun but the amazing thing was seeing the Lord’s hand in this. One of the Elders that was teaching these girls went home so there was an emergency transfer into the area. Elder Vargas is from Mexico, serving a Spanish-speaking mission here but he was transferred in until the next transfer. He was asked to give a talk on the Holy Ghost. Elder Vargas stood and gave the talk in French, so the girls would understand what he was saying. He had taken French in High School and his mother speaks French. We felt the Spirit and the Gift of Tongues in the room. Our Spanish Elder (who also speaks really well in English) was giving a talk in French. These young missionaries are miracles! We constantly feel uplifted by their examples and their faith. Elder Nielson was asked by some leaders of other faiths how we keep our young people in the church, let alone send them out on their own to serve missions when they are only 18-20 years old. Elder Nielson laughed and said, “Because it’s true, what other answer can there be?”
The Gospel’s true and we love you!
Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman
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