July 4th! Our three month mark and we hear that they will be having fireworks displays all over the valley for us tonight! It is so thoughtful of Reno to plan these things for us.
It was a busy week. We went to a lesson with the Sisters, we had District Meeting, we were the responsible adults for P-day so they could go to the Institute, we did the luncheon for the Beutlers for MLC on Friday and we started teaching in ESL. (isn’t in order but I think I covered everything!)
P-day at the Institute was fun. They have pool, ping pong, bean bags toss, air-hockey and games at the Institute. No wonder kids like to hang-out there. The missionaries pretty much were alone there for the afternoon. We are learning who is good at what. You see a different side when they get together on P- day.
Tuesday they combined interviews with the Mission President with regular District Meeting. They had been asked to prepare a 2 minute talk on repentance to give the President during their interview. They were called out during their meeting so they were all distracted during this time. We keep thinking that we have things figured out but then they do something we haven’t experienced before and we catch a new glimpse of missionary life. We didn’t have an interview, which meant I didn’t have to prepare a talk! Yay!
We were asked to go to a fun lesson this week. The Sierra Highland Sisters were pulling weeds for someone and the neighbor next door came over and told them he was a member. He went in his house and brought out his priesthood ordination paper and a 1920 copy of the Book of Mormon. He hadn’t been to church in 60 years. They asked if he would like them to come and teach him and he said, “Yes”. It was fun to be part of that lesson. He joined the church as a boy living in Idaho and a neighbor lady would pick him up and take him to church. Doing service pays off in so many ways.
Speaking of service, we met with the new director of the Mobile Harvest program (food pantries). She is a cute lady. We met her on our first service opportunity with the food pantry. She was in charge of the site we were working and she had brought her grandmothers to help. She is now in charge of all volunteers. She has 2800 volunteers to coordinate every month! She so appreciates and loves working with the young missionaries. She is thoughtful of their time and their constraints. She asked if it made them uncomfortable to give out coffee. She will be great to work with. We also were given our ESL clients. We are working with two women, one is from Mexico and one is from Peru. They both have a desire to learn English and were fun to work with. I need to thank Sister Fuhriman for her Spanish class she taught in the ward a few years ago and Mr. Valajos (my high school Spanish teacher). I was able to understand pretty much everything they said. We had a good time together. I have to keep them on task though because they start to argue about how things are pronounced, in Spanish and English! We will meet with them twice a week for an hour.
We knocked many doors this week and did lots of paperwork so that we would be able to play with the kids this weekend. Lori and the children drove to Tahoe on Friday. We were able to spend the day with them on Saturday. We hiked down to Emerald Bay, toured the “castle” that is down there, watched the kids play in the water and hiked out. Lake Tahoe is very crowded over the 4 th of July! We went just 2 weeks ago and it was so cold that there was hardly anyone there. They came and toured the apartment and had dinner with us on Sunday. We also fed the Elders because their dinner appointment had fallen through. After dinner we took them to see the Reno Temple and then they drove back to Tahoe. We will spend most of the 4 th with them. It is wonderful to have them here but it also is hard. I may hide in their car on the way home. I had a lady ask me today at church what I missed most. She told me her daughter missed getting a drink out of the tap, she had to drink bottled water. It’s no contest, I miss family the most!
We hope you all have a great 4th of July and enjoy celebrating our three month mark! Those fireworks are for us!
The gospel’s true and we love you!
Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman
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