If you love the thrill of roller-coaster rides, serve a mission! I have never felt so many ups and downs in my life! We have had a better week this week but it still leaves you with more emotions than you know what to do with.
We have an FHE once a month at the mission home with the President and his wife and the other senior couples. This past Monday was that night. It is nice to meet together. We tried having the meal outside but in true Reno weather style our food was blowing around the table and landing in other people’s laps so we took the party indoors. President Chesnut shares the many miracles that are happening in the mission and your heart feels full with his report. He told how an Elder was recently transferred to a companion that has diabetes. This Elder started having weird symptoms and his companions recognized them as diabetes and took him to an emergency room. The doctors told them that one more day and he would have been in a coma. He shared many more miracles going on in the mission. Considering the fact that he had just had two missionaries that had to return immediately, it was sweet to hear of the tender mercies that are happening every day in the mission. (UP)
We have had a lot of illness going on in our zone. Our zone leaders have even asked us to pray for the missionaries in the zone. We watch these young missionaries struggle against so many “pitfalls”. We are coming to realize how much a “certain” letter from home will affect them. They all try so hard to be the best missionary they can be but it seems like sometimes the cards are stacked against them. Our amazing Zone Leader has been fighting a mystery illness for quite some time and they made the decision to send him home (it is a few months early) He was crushed. He personally called Elder Hardman to tell us good-bye. We love this Elder. We would laugh because everything he said was, “Awesome” “Super Cool” or “Amazing”. He is the reason we would receive our nightly Miracle of the Day (MoD) reports that we love. He has been so kind to us and we have enjoyed watching him be a spiritual giant but his illness had robbed him of the light in his eyes. It was hard to tell him good-bye but we know he served a valiant, honorable mission and we pray that they will quickly find out what is wrong with him now that he is home. (DOWN)
We participated in an episode of “Hoarders” or “Clean House” this week. (without the camera or cleaning crew, of course) We had a family in the ward that was moving and asked for help. The Sister has been so sweet to me so I knew we needed to go help. The ward was asked to come at 8am on Thursday to help them load the truck. We arrived at 9am, no ward members, no truck. We asked what we could do (we could see that nothing had been packed or taken down). They said in unison, “Clean the bathroom” and they left to go pick up the truck. I plowed my way toward the bathroom and almost couldn’t make myself go in. They had showered and the floor, and everything on the floor, was wet. The toilet hadn’t been flushed in some time. There was “stuff” everywhere. I put on my rubber gloves and dug in. I finally got a broom and dust pan and started shoveling the yuck into the trash, ugh! I packed some stuff into a box but couldn’t bring myself to put the wet towels in there too. I tried to wipe the floors but it had so much shampoo (or whatever) on it that it was a soapy mess. Elder Hardman was trying to tackle the alcove where their little boy slept. You would move things and the bugs would just scurry away! We worked for 2 ½ hours and they finally came back with the truck and we tried to help them put some things in the truck but we didn’t make much of a dent. Then they told us they had a storage unit, the basement and the garage that they needed to move too. (Remember, nothing had been packed!) We know that they moved though so they must have worked it all out. We now know why we had to get so many shots! (Loopdey Loops)
We were able to help with a Mobile Pantry this week. It was a last minute assignment and they needed two more people. This was held in Sun Valley. We think of Sun Valley as a wealthy place but here it is probably the poorest place in the Reno/Sparks area. We had Spanish-speaking Elders come. They are so cute to watch them interact with these good people. The Food Bank adores these young missionaries. The director was so sweet when we met with her. She was telling us about a certain Elder that she loves working with. She said, “I just want to hug him! But I know I can’t do that!” : ) We are enjoying working with our two ladies with ESL. These are such hard-working people. They get up at 4:30 am and work hard all day. Elder Hardman likes to talk with the husband each time. After a long day on Friday husband left to go and do yard work at 5pm. It is such a contrast to the entitlement we see in the downtown motel area. These two women are very different but are working so hard to learn English. They express their appreciation each time and they always work on their homework. The one lady insists the “old guy” at her job practices with her. She was funny telling us the story in her broken English, how she told him he had to help her. We are having fun doing this. (Curves and Twists)
Finally, we received the report today that we are at 609 names. Brother Johnson is determined to get below the 600 mark. Over 300 names have been moved out, not bad. Our notebook are still full though. There are still weird things that happen. We receive a “New Move-In” list also that we go to welcome to the ward. We had one this week where the man at the door told us he wasn’t interested and we told him that we just wanted to know if DeAnn Thomas lived there. He got more upset and told us that was his Mom and she had died three years ago, on that same day. You feel pretty dumb when something like that happens. (Death Drop)
We took a fun drive yesterday evening. Quincy, California is part of the mission so we decided to see what is there. It was a beautiful drive. You quickly climb into pine trees and cooler weather with picturesque valleys and ranches. The Church’s girl’s camp site is by Quincy and we know why now, it is beautiful and worth the drive. There are so many diverse places in this mission. We don’t know how the Mission President keeps track of it all! The Quincy zone reports the highest amount of service hours every month. I guess they don’t get many opportunities to teach and so they do a lot of service. It isn’t a big city but they have a Stake center in Quincy. We figure we will never be transferred so it is up to us to see the different parts of the mission. We liked Quincy! (Coming out of a spin)
Anyway, we are still sitting in our seats with the belt securely fastened and the bar pulled down and are determined to enjoy the ride!
The Gospel’s true and we love you!
Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman
p.s. Bumper Sticker:
The were right!
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