Letter #3

We are just about to experience our first transfer day. It seems to build up for a week. Last Monday (on P-day) our Zone had a really fun Zone activity. We all got together in the afternoon at the church. The Zone Leaders planned several fun activities. The mission game is 9-square but someone built a large PVC court that the Elders set up. You stand in your square and they toss the ball over the top. You have to hit the ball if it comes in your square up over the top of the PVC and it can’t go out of the court. You can either hit it up and over to (at) another person in their square or you are “out” and everyone rotates, trying to get to the middle square. The ball is a little wonky so it is interesting to see where it goes. If you go in next to Elder Katsilas (who is very tall) you can stay in a long time because he will hit the ball long before it gets to your square. At least that is how I played the game. It moves quickly and even the senior missionaries can get involved. Then the Zone Leaders made teams and we played Jeopardy. They had a “minute to win it” type category, a primary song type category, a Pictionary type category and more. It was a lot of fun but our team came in dead last. No one is going to want to be on our team. Tuesday at District meeting they wanted to make sure we had a picture taken. I wasn’t really understanding the feeling until they explained that after this week they will be split up. We have a great Elder who is also going home. We have only known them a short time but it’s hard to imagine that some of them won’t be here after this week. I’ve also been asked to help with meals this week. There is Transfer Day lunch and a going home dinner. It will be fun to see how this all works.

In the meantime we are making progress on our list. There are 8 steps we have to complete before a record can be returned to the church. #1. We have to try to contact them at their last known address. #2. We send a letter and see if the post office can forward it. #3. We call any phone number we may have. #4. We send an email if we have that address. #5. We contact known family members. #6. We contact known friends. #7. We contact previous ward leaders. #8. We stalk (oops)… We check online social networks. If all of the above indicate they are not in the ward we can send their records back to the church. Out of the 80 names we have started with we have contacted about 70 of them. Each name is an experience. The student names have gone quickly. We knock on a door and a half-naked student (they study so hard here that their clothes fall off) answers and tells you no one by the name lives there and they have been there over a year. Our funniest student one this week was asking at the door for a Landon and the cute girl said, “This is an all girls’ Sorority”. That young man was dreaming when he gave his address!! The people in homes are harder to track down, it takes several visits to get someone home. Most of them let us know, “Thanks but no thanks” but at least we know they actually exist. Only one man has screamed at us. I wouldn’t let Elder Hardman go into the yard with the two mean pit bulls and “Beware of Dog” sign on the fence. He is determined to go back and talk to a neighbor though. The saddest ones are the downtown names from the motels. The motel managers try to help but there are so many that are just GONE. Some of these are young people in their 20’s. One manager told us our name may or may not have died. We did have one experience that was different. There was a high rise motel right downtown. The receptionist told us we could go up and knock on the door. It was on the 15th floor. We waited and waited for the elevator and were about to leave when a nice man told us that one side was broken but the other side just takes a long time. We finally get on the elevator and it sounds horrible, creaking and moaning all the way to the 15 th floor. We get out and can hear arguing-sure enough from the door we have to knock on. So we knock and it goes silent and we hear so sweetly, “Who is it?” We give our spill and they open the door and thank us for the sack, shut the door and start fighting again. I giggled all the way down in that ridiculous elevator! We have had 2 families we thought might come to church but they haven’t so far. It’s an eye-opening experience! Only 820 more names to go!

Saturday was Spring Cleaning at the church. We helped clean inside and outside. We were working outside with a cute young Mother who was a hard worker. English isn’t her first language but she laughed at things we said. Then the Elders pull up and we find out that she is their baptism for later that day. The baptism was sweet. They had a man that spoke French give the Baptism talk. This young woman is from the Congo. We didn’t need to go on a foreign mission, they speak French in Reno!

I think this sums up our week. We were so sad to miss Kelton’s baptism and Lindy’s 1 st birthday. I don’t think I will get used to the feeling of knowing everyone is together having a special event. We miss you all especially right then. We have loved seeing the pictures. Thank you!

The church is true and we love you!

Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman

-no bumper sticker this week but I found out that CTR stands for “Called to Reno”, all this time I thought it was something else! : )