Letter #16

“It’s like herding cats!” These are the last words of advice from Sister Chesnut before our big transfer day. She was right! Really it was a very special day. We went to help with lunch at the mission office. Sister Beutler always serves amazing meals. She insists we have a huge bowl of fruit at every meal. It is fun to watch it disappear. The new missionaries arrive at different times throughout the morning. We had three Sisters that went to the Mexico MTC so they arrived later than the rest. The first thing we do is feed them. Altogether we have 17 new missionaries. Then the Assistants, the Office staff and President Chesnut start their training, have interviews, they write a letter home, they have pictures…. It is a busy day for these new missionaries. The Sisters coming from Mexico had already talked with a woman on the plane, gave out a Book of Mormon and had this family meet President and Sister Chesnut in the airport. These young missionaries are remarkable. While the Office is busy with the new missionaries we were trying to figure things out with the departing missionaries. They are given a lot of instructions beforehand but there are lots of things they are trying to remember and take care of. One of the Sisters had come from Elko (4 ½ hours away). She remembered (after she got here) that she had left her I.D. under the seat of the car in Elko. There was a lot of wondering how to take care of the situation and they decided that Sister Baclayon would drive to Winnemucca and another member would get the license and drive to Winnemucca, that way they each drove 4 ½ hours, but that’s better than 9 hours. That was the big drama of the day. I guess it could have been worse with 21 missionaries going home. Elder Hardman packed and repacked the trailer three times. The departing missionaries took a group picture and then they were shuttled to the Temple for a session. While all of this is going on we also have transfers happening and the Missionaries coming and going love to see each other and want to visit and want to say good-bye and want to hug, and wonder what they forgot in their apartment and are nervous about the transfer. This is where the herding cats come in. I walked back and forth with one fretful Sister three times. We finally had the Sisters that were picking her up come and grab her and put her in the car so they could leave. After this we went to help at the Mission Home. Sister Beutler planned a fancy barbeque, with marinated chicken and brats, funeral potatoes, rolls, fruit salad, corn and spinach salad. There were three kinds of dessert. Elder Hardman did the grilling. I have gotten to be a great fruit chopper. Sister Chesnut showed us the pile of mattresses that would be laid out for them to sleep on that night. We had been asked to sing with the senior couples and we were nervous about taking part in this but there are good singers in our group so Elder Hardman and I sang quietly with the group. They held the testimony meeting out by the fire pit, it was a lovely evening. I’m pretty sure that heaven feels the same as hearing 20 departing missionaries bare their testimonies. It is a sweet experience. We didn’t get home until late that night but we knew the missionaries would be up at 3am to go to the airport and so we didn’t feel too bad for ourselves.

The rest of the week was hot! (temperature-wise) We have all of the names in our notebooks so we are getting excited to close a book out. We thought it would be easy but I guess we didn’t knock on wood or something because we have had little success. One night we realized we only had one “Welcome to the Ward” bag left so we said we would have to go home when we gave that out. We met a lot of grumpy people that night who wouldn’t even accept our bag. One guy told us that he had been married to his wife for 20 something years and it was the first time he’d heard anything about her being a member of the “Mormon” church. The wife came outside and told us she had been forced to get baptized at 14 by someone who never should have been able to hold the priesthood. She obviously had never told her husband any of this. She told us she was her own higher power now, thanked us and sent us on our way. One man told us with gritted teeth that he had told “we people” that he isn’t interested. Maybe the heat is making them all angry. We decided that the downtown area would be the easiest to close out but even that didn’t happen. We have been several times to what we refer to as the “bee house” because when you knock on the door wasps come out of the siding but we can’t find any “body” home. Elder Hardman doesn’t like that house! Brother Johnson did tell us today that our numbers are down to 568. President Chesnut asked us if we are ready for another ward yet. I guess we are getting to that point. I hope the next ward doesn’t have 918 people on their roll.

Since we have had more go home than have come out we have had to combine some areas of the mission. Our Elder in the Keystone Ward has been combined with the Summit Ridge Elders. One of the Elders in that ward will go home before the next transfer to start college so they are in a threesome trying to cover two wards. They have been calling us to do splits. I don’t think they love having to call us. I’m pretty sure the one that goes with us drew the short stick but it is fun for us. We were asked by one lady if we were married and if the Elder was our son. We did get to help with a lesson tonight.

The best part of the week has been the return of the MoDs. We almost cried when they started again. We went around with a treat on Thursday to meet the new missionaries in our zone and the MoDs started again that night. Our zone is back on track. These young missionaries are resilient. We will miss the missionaries that have been transferred.

We were called by some Spanish-speaking Sisters in another Zone that wanted to hear about service opportunities in their area. Elder Hardman told them we would take them to lunch. We met with Sister Martinez and Sister Nelsen (one of the new Sisters from the Mexico MTC) and they were so excited to hear about chances to give service. We later found out that Sister Martinez has only been in the mission field a week longer than we have been. She is already a trainer! We continue to be in awe of these amazing missionaries!

We also love and think of our family at home. We know your lives are busy and we pray for you.

The gospel’s true and we love you!

Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman

Transfer Day pictures:
21 departing missionaries.
What transfer day looks like.
Sister Beutler’s amazing lunch.